Book picks similar to
Used Aliens by M. Sid Kelly


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Zombies & Calculus


Colin Conrad Adams - 2014
    As the zombie virus spreads and civilization crumbles, Williams uses calculus to help his small band of survivors defeat the hordes of the undead. Along the way, readers learn how to avoid being eaten by taking advantage of the fact that zombies always point their tangent vector toward their target, and how to use exponential growth to determine the rate at which the virus is spreading. Williams also covers topics such as logistic growth, gravitational acceleration, predator-prey models, pursuit problems, the physics of combat, and more. With the aid of his story, you too can survive the zombie onslaught.Featuring easy-to-use appendixes that explain the mathematics necessary to enjoy the book, "Zombies and Calculus" is suitable for recent converts to calculus as well as more advanced readers familiar with multivariable calculus.

God's Loophole


Dan Rix - 2014
    He’s talking about things Gabe doesn’t understand—venture capitalists, prototypes, million dollar IPOs; he’s stumbled on something big and he needs people he can trust. He needs Gabe.Nicknamed “the bubble”, Jeremy’s invention isolates users from reality and lets them directly experience quantum effects. Inside the bubble, humans can even manipulate individual atoms. For the computer industry, it’s a dream come true.Except the bubble may have side effects.After being inside the bubble for only a few minutes, Gabe feels a strange desire to go inside again. He has nightmares and wakes up vomiting in the middle of the night with no idea who he is. Even more troubling, the bubble seems to eat through every kind of radiation shielding known to man…whether it’s plugged in or not.Now, ever since that first time in the bubble, Gabe has been harboring a terrifying secret—a power, whose addictive pull he finds harder and harder to resist with each passing day: he’s developed the ability to move objects with his mind.

But The Stars


Peter Cawdron - 2020
    How do you fight an enemy that distorts everything you see? What do you do when you can't trust your own senses, let alone anyone around you?

How I Stole Johnny Depp's Alien Girlfriend


Gary Ghislain - 2011
    When his dad's new patient Zelda tells him shes from outer space and on a quest to take Johnny Depp back to her planet, he knows he should run away screaming. But with one look from her mean, green eyes, David's hooked, and soon he's leaping across rooftops, running from police, and stealing cars just to stay by her side. He might not be a typical hero, but David's going to get the girl even if it takes him to the ends of the earthor beyond.

The Theta Timeline


Chris Dietzel - 2014
    The men and women who refuse to accept a tyrannical government. And an unreliable means of time travel in which most people don’t survive. Welcome to the nightmarish future of The Theta Timeline. Freedom was not stolen overnight, but gradually chipped away through a campaign of war and terror. People were told new laws and restrictions were for their own good. But the reality was a monstrous regime bent on controlling its subjects. Now, there is only one way to stop the Tyranny: go back in time and prevent it from ever starting. At times eloquent, funny, satirical, and infuriating, The Theta Timeline is not only Dietzel's most powerful book, it is as important as any dystopian vision created to date.

A Subtle Agency


Graeme Rodaughan - 2016
    Whoever acquires mastery of the reality shifting powers of the Metaframe will become the new gods of the universe."Imagine if you could change the rules of the game, what rules would you choose?"Witness to a brutal murder, eighteen year old Anton Slayne is inducted by the mysterious Mr Wu into the secret society of vampire hunters, the Order of Thoth. He soon discovers that vicious local gangsters, determined Boston police detectives, and relentless Shadowstone operatives pale into insignificance as he is drawn into the machinations of the enigmatic vampire general, Chloe Armitage.Heir to a legacy of extraordinary powers, Anton joins a team of hunters, but that is no guarantee of survival against the most powerful vampires in the world, especially when they're equipped with the latest available technology and super weapons."When mastery over your soul is at stake, survival is the least of your problems.""Like Underworld on speed, it's got all the adrenaline and action-packing shots of entertainment you could want, wrapped up in a no-nonsense narrative." - Adam Smith, Cultured VulturesBe prepared to be blown away by a high-octane, dark fantasy, action adventure thriller, that would be at home in a summer movie blockbuster.Join the heroes of the Metaframe War, buy A Subtle Agency now.

Reincarnation Blues


Michael Poore - 2017
    Neil Gaiman meets Kurt Vonnegut in this darkly whimsical, hilariously profound, and wildly imaginative comedy of the secrets of life and love. Transporting us from ancient India to outer space to Renaissance Italy to the present day, is a journey through time, space, and the human heart.

Star Kingdom Boxset


Lindsay Buroker - 2019
    The king cannot be trusted, the galaxy is on the brink of war, and a notorious mercenary is destroying everything—and everyone—in his path on his quest for vengeance. The Star Kingdom is in dire need of heroes. What it gets is a band of misfits and underdogs: • A washed-up bounty hunter struggling to make ends meet. • A genetically engineered cat woman on the run from her makers. • A robotics professor who gets space sick before leaving orbit. • A brilliant scientist who’s better at punching people than talking to them. As unlikely as it seems, this motley crew is the best hope for bringing peace to the galaxy. But they have troubles of their own, and they’ll have to fly fast to avoid being hunted down and killed. A romping science fiction adventure for fans of Star Wars and Firefly, this space opera bundle includes: 1. Shockwave 2. Ship of Ruin 3. Hero Code Pick up a copy and start enjoying the Star Kingdom series today!

Willful Child


Steven Erikson - 2014
    Willful Child. Its ongoing mission: to seek out strange new worlds on which to plant the Terran flag, to subjugate and if necessary obliterate new life life-forms, to boldly blow the...And so we join the not-terribly-bright but exceedingly cock-sure Captain Hadrian Sawback - a kind of James T Kirk crossed with 'American Dad' - and his motley crew on board the Starship Willful Child for a series of devil-may-care, near-calamitous and downright chaotic adventures through 'the infinite vastness of interstellar space'...The bestselling author of the acclaimed Malazan Book of the Fallen sequence has taken his life-long passion for 'Star Trek' and transformed it into a smart, inventive and hugely entertaining spoof on the whole mankind-exploring-space-for-the-good-of-all-species-but-trashing-stuff-with-a-lot-of-hi-tech-kit-along-the-way type over-blown adventure. The result is this smart. inventive, occasionally wildly OTT and often very funny novel that deftly parodies the genre while also paying fond homage to it.

Terra


Gretchen Powell - 2012
    A young girl struggling to survive. A lost boy with a powerful secret.A discovery that will change everything.In the distant wake of a plague that has decimated the Earth's population, humanity is split in two: The rich and powerful live in skycities that float overhead, while those who remain on the ground have gathered in settlements strewn across a dying planet. Eighteen-year-old Terra Rhodon is a terrestrial--a denizen of the barren groundworld--who makes her living as a scav. Long abandoned by her father, her caregivers gone, Terra supports herself and her younger brother, Mica, by scouring the earth for discarded scraps and metals to recycle for profit. One day, while on a routine scavenging run, she discovers something that shocks her home settlement of Genesis X-16. When the value of her discovery is revealed, Terra's world is turned upside down.Terra suddenly finds herself asking questions no one will answer. Her search for the truth leads her to Adam--a beguiling skydweller unlike any she has ever met. But Adam has secrets and a quest of his own, and with him by her side, the world Terra thought she knew begins to unravel. Soon her discoveries unearth a terrifying conspiracy that has the potential to shatter everything--a revelation that will test the bonds of loyalty, family, and love.

The Gender Experiment


L.J. Sellers - 2016
    After discovering they were born at the same clinic two decades earlier, she investigates further and uncovers a startling list. With the realization that more gender-fluid people are targeted for elimination, Taylor kicks her investigation into high gear. But the researchers who conducted the experiment aren’t about to let anything interfere with their plans. Soon Taylor is in deep trouble and needs the help of FBI Special Agent Bailey. As Bailey scrambles to track down leads, events spin out of control and she finds herself blocked at every step by powerful military forces. With the clock ticking on Phase 2 of the experiment, can Bailey and Taylor uncover the truth in time to save the other subjects?

Freelancer


Jake Lingwall - 2015
    In a world where 3D printers, drones, and computers connect directly to the brain, Kari finds keeping her expert programing skills secret while trying to finish high school almost impossible. With the threat of the second Civil War looming, Kari must decide how far she will go to keep herself, her family, and her friends out of harm’s way, even when her choices might have consequences she's not ready to face.

The Lightcap


Dan Marshall - 2013
    Most citizens in the Region adopted Mind Drive technology quickly, welcoming it as a more efficient way to interact with everything from computers to coffee machines. Now Adaptech wants to use its own employees to beta test a new product, an extension of Mind Drive tech known as the Lightcap.After Adam Redmon is promoted to lead the group of programmers tasked with testing this new device, his strange dreams begin to blur into reality. When a member of his team abruptly disappears, Adam uncovers evidence showing his employers didn’t fully disclose the Lightcap’s functions and side effects. What he learns puts him directly in the crosshairs of the most powerful people in the Region, people who will stop at nothing to keep their secret safe.

Starship Relic


Darcy Troy Paulin - 2020
    Secret histories. And squids. In space.Max is completing a survey in the barren, frozen north of planet Grailliyn, when he makes a startling discovery. There's a high-tech pod buried beneath the ice, and inside the pod is a young woman. She speaks his language, but with a strange accent.The two are barely past awkward introductions when they are attacked. Max and his new friend are forced to flee. The worst part? They don't even know who is trying to kill them, or why.Now, with assassins on their tail, the duo must find a way off the planet without blowing their cover. And then, if they can do that without getting eaten by space monsters, they might just find out the truth about their world.Starship Relic is book one of the Lost Colony Uprising Trilogy, a sci-fi space opera adventure with spaceships, alien contact, deep conspiracies, wise-cracking characters, and lots of pew-pew (space battle action).Content rating: All ages, teen and up. Minimal language.

The Lie: When DNA Reveals the Family Secret


Heather Dawn Gray - 2019
    Jahana continues to struggle with her grief a year after her mother's death. She wishes she knew her maternal relatives, but her mother refused to talk about them. To help her move on, Jahana's husband buys her a DNA kit. When the results come in, she discovers more than she bargained for. Her DNA reveals a family secret she would like to ignore, but can't. The Lie is too big.