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The Quantum Price: Ethan Price Book One
Malcolm Murdock - 2019
They used him to kill.
Now they’ve lost control.
When a man wakes up face-down in the middle of a garbage dump, he naturally has a few questions.Why is he in a hand-tailored suit with a bullet hole in his back? Why are there homicidal robots trying to kill him? Why can’t he remember his own name?
And how did he get so good at killing?
But the more he learns, the less he likes—and the more he starts to think this will end very, very badly. With a faceless organization hunting him, bloody flashbacks haunting him, and an intriguing new companion helping him, the clock is ticking on whether he can escape his past before it devours him.Will he recover his memories before it’s too late, or be forced to become a pawn for the forces hunting him down?Perfect for fans of The Bourne Identity and James Prescott, The Quantum Price is the thrilling first book in the brand-new Ethan Price series. If you like your technothrillers with a side of cyberpunk, scroll up and grab your copy today!
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars
Christopher Paolini - 2020
Now she's awakened a nightmare. During a routine survey mission on an uncolonized planet, Kira finds an alien relic. At first she's delighted, but elation turns to terror when the ancient dust around her begins to move.As war erupts among the stars, Kira is launched into a galaxy-spanning odyssey of discovery and transformation. First contact isn't at all what she imagined, and events push her to the very limits of what it means to be human. While Kira faces her own horrors, Earth and its colonies stand upon the brink of annihilation. Now, Kira might be humanity's greatest and final hope...
Blood & Iron
Harry Turtledove - 2001
Then, after a generation of relative peace, The Great War exploded worldwide. As the conflict engulfed Europe, the C.S.A. backed the Allies, while the U.S. found its own ally in Imperial Germany. The Confederate States, France, and England all fell. Russia self-destructed, and the Japanese, seeing that the cause was lost, retired to fight another day.The Great War has ended, and an uneasy peace reigns around most of the world. But nowhere is the peace more fragile than on the continent of North America, where bitter enemies share a single landmass and two long, bloody borders.In the North, proud Canadian nationalists try to resist the colonial power of the United States. In the South, the once-mighty Confederate States have been pounded into poverty and merciless inflation. U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt refuses to return to pre-war borders. The scars of the past will not soon be healed. The time is right for madmen, demagogues, and terrorists.At this crucial moment in history, with Socialists rising to power in the U.S. under the leadership of presidential candidate Upton Sinclair, a dangerous fanatic is on the rise in the Confederacy, preaching a message of hate. And in Canada another man--a simple farmer--has a nefarious plan: to assassinate the greatest U.S. war hero, General George Armstrong Custer.With tension on the seas high, and an army of Marxist Negroes lurking in the swamplands of the Deep South, more than enough people are eager to return the world to war. Harry Turtledove sends his sprawling cast of men and women--wielding their own faiths, persuasions, and private demons--into the troubled times between the wars.From the Hardcover edition.
The Sixth Winter
John Gribbin - 1979
He saw the ice Dancer and lived. The town of Hays died. And still they didn't believe Dr. William Stovin's warnings. For very many years climatologists had been predicting a change in the world's climate but they always believed that the process would take centuries. Now there was a reason to believe differently. Stovin had staked his career and credibility on trying to persuade the U.S. National Science Council to act, but 15,000 years of warmth had lulled mankind into thinking that climatic history was over. Already it was too late. The new Ice Age had begun. One by one the great northern cities - Chicago, Oslo, Montreal, Moscow, Leningrad - came under siege. Some fell and were evacuated, sending their young, old and sick to crowded areas further south. Crops and animals were destroyed. Governments drew lines of catastrophe across their national maps. Doomsday prophets were in full cry. Technological man was overwhelmed. The world had changed. Some time in the year future the next Ice Age will be triggered off. It could happen in a thousand years' time, or in a century from now. Or it could, quite literally, happen next winter. This book is fiction only because the events described have not yet happened. But it is not science fiction because all the science in the book is fact. When the year arrives that we see the sixth winter resembling 1792 within the space of a decade or so, then the Ice Age will be with us in a matter of weeks - and it will develop very much as described here.
The River Horses
Allen M. Steele - 2007
Taking place between the events of Coyote Rising and Coyote Frontier, it follows three individuals -- Marie Montero and Lars Thompson, veterans of the recent revolution against Earth, and Manuel Castro, a posthuman Savant who was once the colony world's lieutenant governor -- as they set on a journey to explore Coyote's uncharted regions."Steele's intimate stand-alone novella of the fronrtier planet of Coyote chronicles the redemptive journey of two colony exiles, adding a brilliant brushstroke to the already vast6 and vivid canvas of the Coyote saga ,,, With a sophistication reminiscent of some of the genre's greatest visionaries, Steele has created a must-read for anyone who enjoys thought-provoking SF..." -- Publisher's Weekly
Master Walk
Sharon Lee - 2003
He faces pirates, politics, police, and plots. All he has to do is survive. . .In Master Walk, award-winning science fiction authors Sharon Lee and Steve Miller bring a new YA universe to life. Introducing The Advocacy, a rough-and-tumble civilization that has a mix of sentient races and a lot to learn."Sharon Lee and Steve Miller are so good, it's scary." -- S. L. Viehl, author of the StarDoc series"Nobody else in the field combines space opera and comedy of manners with the same deftness and brio as these two." -- Debra Doyle, co-author of the Mageworlds novels". . .classic space adventure. . .is full of action. . . The world building is outstanding. . ." -- Booklist
Hunter's Run
George R.R. Martin - 2007
Human colonists serve as world-building crash-test dummies, dropped onto empty planets deemed too dangerous or inconvenient for other races, to pave over whatever marvels and threats evolution had put there. Like so many others, Ramon Espejo ran from the poverty and hopelessness of the Third World to the promise of a new world, joining a host of like-minded workers and dreamers aboard one of the great starships of the mysterious, repulsive Enye. But the life he found on the far-off planet of Sao Paulo was no better than the one he had abandoned.Tough, volatile, and angry, a luckless prospector hoping for that one rich strike that will make him wealthy, Ramon is content only when on his own out in the bush, far from the dirty, loud, bustling hive of humanity that he detests with sociopathic fervor. Then one night his rage and too much alcohol get the better of him, resulting in sudden bloodshed and a high-profile murder.Ramon is forced to flee into the wilderness for however long it will take for the furor to die down. Here, mercifully, almost happily alone, Ramon is once again free. But while searching for his long-elusive lode, he stumbles upon something completely unexpected: a highly advanced alien race in hiding; fugitives like himself on a world not their own.Suddenly in possession of a powerful, dangerous secret, Ramon must battle for his freedom from alien captors and also against the hostile and unpredictable planet. And so the chase begins. Police, fugitive aliens, and a human murderer weave a web of shifting alliances as Ramon enters the greatest manhunt the alien world of Sao Paulo has ever known. If he is to survive, Ramon must overcome inscrutable aliens and deadly predators, but his greatest enemy is himself. With every move in the desperate game, he struggles to outwit his enemies and solve the mystery of a murder he himself committed. A rip-roaring adventure tale and character study of a fascinating and twisted mind, "Hunter's Run" showcases three masters of the form at their best.
Clade
James Bradley - 2015
Back in Sydney his partner Ellie waits for the results of her latest round of IVF treatment.That result, when it comes, will change both their lives and propel them into a future neither could have predicted. In a collapsing England Adam will battle to survive an apocalyptic storm. Against a backdrop of growing civil unrest at home, Ellie will discover a strange affinity with beekeeping. In the aftermath of a pandemic, a young man finds solace in building virtual recreations of the dead. And new connections will be formed from the most unlikely beginnings.Clade is the story of one family in a radically changing world, a place of loss and wonder where the extraordinary mingles with the everyday. Haunting, lyrical and unexpectedly hopeful, it is the work of a writer in command of the major themes of our time.
Hired Killer
Michael Anderle - 2020
"In your case, though, I will be your FBI handler, taking care of you and getting you anything that you need to get the job done."
Special Agent Niki Banks paused, narrowing her eyes at Taylor. "What?" Banks asked. "No lewd remarks about that? Something about handling, or how I'm going to take care of you?""Nah, I thought you would do a better job of it than I ever could," Taylor replied. "Besides, I'm only after empty relationships that have no meaning, where we both go away happy, so there's no need for any handling like that. From you, anyways.""So, what does that make me?"Taylor paused to take a bite from his food, which consisted of some bacon and syrup-covered waffles. "A toxic attitude with delusions of awesomeness in high heels and a need to feel dominant all wrapped up in an attractive gift package that smells like a body that's been left out to rot in the Zoo for a week."Banks' eyebrows shot up. "Excuse you?"Another bite of his food from his plate was taken before he continued. "I'm sorry, do you need me to make it more specific? Here, try this one then. You look like Eva Longoria, except more brawn than brains, probably can't spell Latina and obviously you don't care about showers. Which is okay; the government only wants you for your brawn anyway." Banks narrowed her eyes. "Yeah, I smell like the three cretins you needed me to get rid of for you. Between the stench of fear and gasoline, I guess that does make for a pretty foul smell."Taylor shrugged. "I showered at least."Banks scowled at him. "You're a jackass.""Correction," Taylor said with a grin. "I'm a jackass that can kill - what did you call them? Cryptids. A jackass that can kill Cryptids that's living here in the US, no less. "Oh, great," Banks grumbled. "And here I am, stuck with a Jason Momoa wannabe Cro-Magnon Neanderthal with slightly better dental hygiene and a god-complex." She sighed. "I don't get paid enough for this shit."His name is Taylor McFadden, survivor of 83 trips into the ZOO. Now, he's retired, and yet his country needs his skills to save people in the country he calls home.Can he build a company, put down roots and still bring the pain when the FBI calls?When they tag him as The Cryptid Assassin, they weren't wrong. For monsters that go bump in the night, he is death incarnate.
Go up and click 'Read for Free' or 'Buy Now' and learn how one messed up soldier is America's greatest asset in the ongoing war against the Alien Goop.
NOTE: There is cussing in the book. In fact, there is a LOT of cussing in this book. There are consenting adults having sex (mostly behind closed doors) and a cynical ex-soldier just wanting to build a business in Sin City.
Not that Sin City... Las Vegas!
The Wrong Stars
Tim Pratt - 2017
or awaken an ancient evil and destroy all life in the galaxy.The shady crew of the White Raven run freight and salvage at the fringes of our solar system. They discover the wreck of a centuries-old exploration vessel floating light years away from its intended destination and revive its sole occupant, who wakes with news of First Alien Contact. When the crew break it to her that humanity has alien allies already, she reveals that these are very different extra-terrestrials... and the gifts they bestowed on her could kill all humanity, or take it out to the most distant stars. File Under: Science Fiction
Beacon 23
Hugh Howey - 2015
It is a lonely job, and a thankless one for the most part. Until something goes wrong. Until a ship is in distress. In the 23rd century, this job has moved into outer space. A network of beacons allows ships to travel across the Milky Way at many times the speed of light. These beacons are built to be robust. They never break down. They never fail. At least, they aren't supposed to.