Showing results for "The Rule" in Science Fiction

Ajax Demos finds himself lost in society. Graduating shortly after artificial intelligence is allowed to enter the workforce, he can’t get his career off the ground. He clings to what he believes a responsible adult should pursue, but it just isn’t in the cards. As his last hope for a steady paycheck disappears new opportunities open. Ajax gets a chance to play a brand new Immersive Reality game. Things aren't as they seem. Mega Corps hover over what appears to be a simple game. Two unlikely women hiding their real identities join his party....

Living in New Zealand, Jack Gee thought he was safe. The isolated country had always provided a sense of security. When a virus begins to spread across the globe, he is on a hiking trip in the mountains, blissfully unaware. A message from his wife Dee alerts him to the viral threat that turns humans into apex predators with one purpose - to kill. The country collapses as Jack races to get home, and when he finally does make it out of the mountains he finds his peaceful life has been shattered. Banding with other survivors, they must quickly learn how to survive in this new world.

Have you ever been sick of being the low man on the totem pole? A trio of mercs feel your pain. Chill, Ivan, and Kortez have been slaving away as mercenaries for years. But enough is enough, and they are done putting up with being an afterthought. Striking out alone is a risk, but mercenary work is not exactly in short supply. In the depths of a mine-riddled world, the Swarm is stirring. Chitinous hordes boil up from the depths, claiming lives and resources.

Kira Forrest is a survivor. She's risen above the pain of her beginnings to become a war hero only to leave it all behind in the pursuit of a simple life. Now a salvager, she makes a living sifting through the wreckage of dead alien ships from a war that nearly brought humanity to its knees. After her ship takes damage, she's forced to re-route to a space station where her past and present collide with dangerous consequences. Kira's existence holds the key to a faltering peace treaty with the Tuann - a technologically advanced alien race who dislikes and distrusts all humans.

Meghan, Pointy, and the kids have conquered Challenges, gathered allies, and bought themselves a little breathing room. Pointy thinks she has a way to contact the artificial intelligence controlling the contest. She wants to convince it to give her information. Maybe she can get it to tweak the rules! If she can, it could be critical to humanity's survival. …But how will the aliens running the contest react?

In the tradition of Colson Whitehead's Zone One, a visionary debut novel about shelter, escape, family, violence, and dumpster diving. It's the story of a restless group of young squatters. They've run away from their families and their pasts, questing after knowledge of their most wild selves, roaming the half-empty suburbs of America, occupying the homes of the foreclosed or vacationing, never staying in one place long enough to attract attention while shoplifting beer at the local Speedy Stop.

Rule of Capture has descriptive copy which is not yet available from the Publisher...

Five days ago, Tyler and two strangers battled roving gangs and survived a perilous journey home to Montana after an electromagnetic pulse crippled the country. His brother, Corey fought off inmates to save the community of Whitefish from being destroyed. Now, as the town falls apart in the aftermath, the survivors must deal with conflict, looters, and defend their family from local danger.

One month after a crippling attack on the power grid, the country is still in darkness. As a new wave of violence sweeps the nation, the Ford family are soon drawn into a battle for survival with an unknown menace. Tasked with stopping the threat to protect the small town of Whitefish, Montana, Corey soon discovers a traitor is among them. Unsure of who to trust, tempers flare and accusations threaten to tear the remaining survivors apart.

Jack Gee, hiking the New Zealand mountains, is blissfully unaware of the Hemorrhage virus sweeping the world. A desperate message from his wife, Dee, alerts him, and he must return to Hamilton. On the way, he is captured by flesh-eating Variants and taken to their meat locker. To escape, he will need to draw on all his experience as an outdoorsman, but first, he must find the will to survive. Surrounded by Variants, Dee is trapped in her Hamilton basement with a group of survivors. With Jack missing, and dwindling food supplies, she must leave the basement, her only defense a katana.

Gary Karkofsky is an ordinary guy with an ordinary life living in an extraordinary world. Supervillains, heroes, and monsters are a common part of the world he inhabits. Yet, after the death of his hometown's resident superhero, he gains the amazing gift of the late champion's magical cloak. Deciding he prefers to be rich rather than good, Gary embarks on a career as Merciless: The Supervillain Without Mercy. But is he evil enough to be a villain in America's most crime-ridden city?

This collection of unabridged readings chronicles the lives of people striving to survive as aliens rule Earth. In James Van Pelt's "How Music Begins", a junior-high school band director struggles to keep the band members' spirits up after they've been shanghaied, by unknown and unseen aliens, and confined to a dormitory and practice auditorium.

The enemies they are about to be pitted against make their endeavors so far look like a cake walk. Killer bugs and government conspiracies are old hat. Armies of mutants spreading like a plague, a host of life-snuffing cyborgs that won’t stop “cleaning,” and fierce competition between the various factions. Let’s just say that when this is over, the DEMC are going to need some serious R&R…assuming they make it through this in one piece. Survival was never a given, but the DEMC have just the give-‘em-hell attitude needed to see this job through.

While the DEMC haven’t gone native, they’re finding that their particular brand of varied vector violence is appreciated in the Bast Station populace. Deck by deck, meter by meter, they are leading the efforts at reclamation. Remarkably, they’ve found the rough-and-ready inhabitants of the station rallying around them. That’s before other mercenaries come to Coil Cove, drawn by the DEMC’s success. The more the merrier, right? Except these newcomers threaten to throw the hard-won balance into chaos.

Our trio of madcap mercenaries have brought peace to Mugh-9, but it turns out that peace is bad for business. What is a merc to do but head out into the galaxy and find some work? There’s always someone in need of a steady hand, a strong arm, and a propensity toward violence, right? Our trio hit the jackpot when they are approached by a representative from a crumbling regime.

What holds a community, a civilization, or a world together? Shared values? Mutual interests? Perhaps something less definable, like an ineffable source of unity? Or is it blood and terror, and primal drives that force the pack to close in and bare their fangs? Such questions may be more suited to philosophers, but the DEMC and its mercenaries are the ones who will be doling out the answers.

Dianne "Rockmonster" Keaton has come a long way from being a cadet. She fought in the Trixone war, and then joined the reconstituted 266 Squadron. She's happy. She has her demons, but what pilot doesn't? But overall, she's content being where she is. Sooner or later though, you get called to step up. Especially in the Imperium. What is going on in the galaxy beyond Kelewan? Someone has to go and find out. It's time for Rockmonster Rules.

Kevin was a young man enjoying his college life when a car jumped the curb and crippled his body. Unable to support himself and dependent on others to meet his needs, Kevin was slipping into depression when his best friend convinced him to play a new game called Genesis Online. The concept was simple: a revolutionary artificial intelligence controlled the game world and adapted it to the actions of the players. Even the developers didn't know what course the game could take as it evolved.

The first in a steamy science fiction adventure series featuring a Brazilian tarot card reader and a Russian crime lord. Year 2950. Humanity has survived devastating climate shifts and four world wars, coming out stronger and smarter than ever. Advanced technology is available to all, and...

On maneuvers, the USS Michaelson's sister ship, the USS Maury, is wracked by devastating explosions that destroy its engineering section. Lieutenant Paul Sinclair is overjoyed when his girlfriend, Lieutenant Jen Shen, is found alive--until she faces court-martial for the disaster on the Maury. Paul must find out what really caused the explosions. But the more he learns, the more he faces the terrible possibility that the woman he loves may be guilty of sabotage and murder.