"Daemon" by Daniel Suarez

Already an underground sensation, a high-tech thriller for the wireless age that explores the unthinkable consequences of a computer program running without human control—a daemon—designed to dismantle society and bring about a new world order

Technology controls almost everything in our modern-day world, from remote entry on our cars to access to our homes, from the flight controls of our airplanes to the movements of the entire world economy. Thousands of autonomous computer programs, or daemons, make our networked world possible, running constantly in the background of our lives, trafficking e-mail, transferring money, and monitoring power grids. For the most part, daemons are benign, but the same can't always be said for the people who design them.

Matthew Sobol was a legendary computer game designer—the architect behind half-a-dozen popular online games. His premature death depressed both gamers and his company's stock price. But Sobol's fans aren't the only ones to note his passing. When his obituary is posted online, a previously dormant daemon activates, initiating a chain of events intended to unravel the fabric of our hyper-efficient, interconnected world. With Sobol's secrets buried along with him, and as new layers of his daemon are unleashed at every turn, it's up to an unlikely alliance to decipher his intricate plans and wrest the world from the grasp of a nameless, faceless enemy—or learn to live in a society in which we are no longer in control. . . .

Computer technology expert Daniel Suarez blends haunting high-tech realism with gripping suspense in an authentic, complex thriller in the tradition of Michael Crichton, Neal Stephenson, and William Gibson.

"The Atrocity Archives" by Charles Stross

Charles Stross takes a departure from his epic science fiction to craft this cross between Len Deighton—style espionage and H.P. Lovecraftian horror.

Bob Howard is a computer-hacker desk jockey, who has more than enough trouble keeping up with the endless paperwork he has to do on a daily basis. He should never be called on to do anything remotely heroic.

But somehow, he is.

"The Andromeda Strain" by Michael Crichton

The United States government is given a warning by the pre-eminent biophysicists in the country: current sterilization procedures applied to returning space probes may be inadequate to guarantee uncontaminated re-entry to the atmosphere. Two years later, seventeen satellites are sent into the outer fringes of space to collect organisms and dust for study. One of them falls to earth, landing in a desolate area of Arizona. Twelve miles from the landing site, in the town of Piedmont, a shocking discovery is made: the streets are littered with the dead bodies of the town's inhabitants, as if they dropped dead in their tracks.

"The Alien Factor" by Stan Lee

The year is 1942. The German war machine rolls across Europe, crushing everything in its path. America has only recently entered the war, and the price paid by its allies is already high. The war could drag on for years, could go either way...until the day a strange metallic craft crashes behind enemy lines, bringing with it secrets of world-shattering consequence. The Nazis are quick to capture the spacecraft and its unearthly occupants, anxious to make use of interstellar devices that could allow them to accomplish their goal of annihilating their enemies.

Realizing what might happen should the Nazis master the alien technology and subjugate its owners, the Allies send in a suicide squad -- a group snidely referred to as "Logan's Losers" -- to rescue the aliens and their secrets...or destroy them before the enemy can.

Logan's mission is complicated, however, when Russia learns of the aliens and sends its own agent into the heart of Occupied France.

A rogue Russian warrior...a traitor among Logan's invasion force...aliens who may be friend or foe...all driven to a fortress controlled by an implacable enemy.

Stan Lee's debut hardcover resonates with the pulse-pounding plotting of the mind behind Sgt. Fury, and dozens of other heroes!

"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain

Of all the contenders for the title of The Great American Novel, none has a better claim than The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Intended at first as a simple story of a boy's adventures in the Mississippi Valley - a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - the book grew and matured under Twain's hand into a work of immeasurable richness and complexity. More than a century after its publication, the critical debate over the symbolic significance of Huck's and Jim's voyage is still fresh, and it remains a major work that can be enjoyed at many levels: as an incomparable adventure story and as a classic of American humor.

"The Ace of Skulls" by Chris Wooding

All good things come to an end. And this is it: the last stand of the Ketty Jay and her intrepid crew.

They've been shot down, set up, double-crossed and ripped off. They've stolen priceless treasures, destroyed a ten-thousand-year-old Azryx city and sort-of-accidentally blew up the son of the Archduke. Now they've gone and started a civil war. This time, they're really in trouble.

As Vardia descends into chaos, Captain Frey is doing his best to keep his crew out of it. He's got his mind on other things, not least the fate of Trinica Dracken. But wars have a way of dragging people in, and sooner or later they're going to have to pick a side. It's a choice they'll be staking their lives on. Cities fall and daemons rise. Old secrets are uncovered and new threats revealed.

When the smoke clears, who will be left standing?

"The Ask and The Answer" by Patrick Ness

We were in the square, in the square where I'd run, holding her, carrying her, telling her to stay alive, stay alive till we got safe, till we got to Haven so I could save her - But there weren't no safety, no safety at all, there was just him and his men...

Fleeing before a relentless army, Todd has carried a desperately wounded Viola right into the hands of their worst enemy, Mayor Prentiss. Immediately separated from Viola and imprisoned, Todd is forced to learn the ways of the Mayor's new order. But what secrets are hiding just outside of town? And where is Viola? Is she even still alive? And who are the mysterious Answer? And then, one day, the bombs begin to explode...

"The Ask and the Answer" is a tense, shocking and deeply moving novel of resistance under the most extreme pressure. This is the second title in the "Chaos Walking" trilogy

"The Ancients" by Nick Marsh

The war is over. But the fight for the world is only beginning.

The bloody civil war that ruined the country is lost, and Dazlar, last of the Royal Guards, returns weary and alone to the village of his birth, hoping for peace at last.
The war was only the first move, however, in a terrible plot now launched by the new ruler of the land. Lord Protector Cranmer has discovered a frightening truth at the heart of the world, and means to exploit it for his own dark purposes.
The gruesome discovery that Dazlar makes during his fateful homecoming will place him at the very centre of Cranmer’s plans, and the reluctant knight will be called upon to fight once more, alongside a strange girl from another world.
But this time the stakes are much higher than mere territory and rulership.
This time, the battle is for existence itself.

"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" by Mark Twain

From the famous episodes of the whitewashed fence and the ordeal in the cave to the trial of Injun Joe, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is redolent of life in the Mississippi River towns in which Twain spent his own youth. A somber undercurrent flows through the high humor and unabashed nostalgia of the novel, however, for beneath the innocence of childhood lie the inequities of adult reality—base emotions and superstitions, murder and revenge, starvation and slavery. In his introduction, noted Twain scholar John Seelye considers Twain’s impact on American letters and discusses the balance between humorous escapades and serious concern that is found in much of Twain’s writing.

"The Adventures of Augustus Fuller" by James Rickon

The Adventures of Augustus Fuller, classic action adventure fiction from the pen of James Rickon, contains the three stories:

Casus Belli

The arrival of a misdirected cryptic letter plunges Augustus Fuller, gentleman, into the dangerous intrigues of the anarchist underworld of Edwardian London. With Scotland Yard baffled and reliant on him for information, will Fuller be able to unmask the identity of the anarchist mastermind and discover their plans? Or will his high stakes game end in nothing less than Fuller’s demise in the cruellest of manner?

The Aldbury Devil

Fear stalks the snow laden landscape of East Kent as the tormented mind of an old man haunts the residents of Aldbury Hall. Can Fuller uncover what lies behind a spate of disturbing killings on the estate? Or will the nightmare stepping out of the cold winter’s night claim his life too?

The Terror Weapons

With tensions across Europe rising in the hot summer heat of 1905, the British public is held in rapture by newspaper headlines of mysterious explosions lighting up the night skies above cities across the country. Are these nothing more than natural phenomena or does the recovery of a burnt corpse at Portsmouth point to a more insidious and calculating menace at work?

"Dark Space" by Jasper T. Scott

HUMANITY IS DEFEATED
Ten years ago the Sythians invaded the galaxy with one goal: to wipe out the human race.

THEY ARE HIDING
Now the survivors are hiding in the last human sector of the galaxy: Dark Space—once a place of exile for criminals, now the last refuge of mankind.

THEY ARE ISOLATED
The once galaxy-spanning Imperium of Star Systems is left guarding the gate which is the only way in or out of Dark Space—but not everyone is satisfied with their governance.

AND THEY ARE KILLING EACH OTHER
Freelancer and ex-convict Ethan Ortane is on the run. He owes crime lord Alec Brondi 10,000 sols, and his ship is badly damaged. When Brondi catches up with him, he makes an offer Ethan can’t refuse. Ethan must infiltrate and sabotage the Valiant, the Imperial Star Systems Fleet carrier which stands guarding the entrance of Dark Space, and then his debt will be cleared. While Ethan is still undecided about what he will do, he realizes that the Imperium has been lying and putting all of Dark Space at risk. Now Brondi’s plan is starting to look like a necessary evil, but before Ethan can act on it, he discovers that the real plan was much more sinister than what he was told, and he will be lucky to escape the Valiant alive. . . .(

"The Dark Lord of Derkholm" by Diana Wynne Jones

Everyone - wizards, soldiers, farmers, elves, dragons, kings and queens alike - is fed up with Mr Chesney's Pilgrim Parties: groups of tourists from the world next door who descend en masse every year to take the Grand Tour. What they expect are all the trappings of a grand fantasy adventure, including the Evil Enchantress, Wizard Guides, the Dark Lord, Winged Minions, and all. And every year different people are chosen to play these parts. But now they've had enough: Mr Chesney may be backed by a very powerful demon, but the Oracles have spoken. Now it's up to the Wizard Derk and his son Blade, this year's Dark Lord and Wizard Guide, not to mention Blade's griffin brothers and sisters, to save the world from Mr Chesney's depredations.

"Dark Eden" by Chris Beckett

On the alien, sunless planet they call Eden, the 532 members of the Family shelter beneath the light and warmth of the Forest’s lantern trees. Beyond the Forest lie the mountains of the Snowy Dark and a cold so bitter and a night so profound that no man has ever crossed it. 

The Oldest among the Family recount legends of a world where light came from the sky, where men and women made boats that could cross the stars. These ships brought us here, the Oldest say—and the Family must only wait for the travelers to return. 

But young John Redlantern will break the laws of Eden, shatter the Family and change history. He will abandon the old ways, venture into the Dark…and discover the truth about their world.

Already remarkably acclaimed in the UK, Dark Eden is science fiction as literature; part parable, part powerful coming-of-age story, set in a truly original alien world of dark, sinister beauty--rendered in prose that is at once strikingly simple and stunningly inventive.

"Dark Creations: Gabriel Rising" by Jennifer and Christopher Martucci

Melissa Martin was not prepared for what she experienced when a new student walked into her English class, how she felt the first time they spoke; she did not believe in love at first sight. At seventeen years old, she envisioned love but never dreamed it possible.

That was before she met Gabriel James.

Gabriel was different from other boys. With otherworldly attractiveness, gallantry, charm, and intelligence, Gabriel was everything boys her age were not. As her relationship with Gabriel grew, she realized his kindness and generosity matched his extraordinary physical appearance. Melissa found her feelings for him growing stronger with their every encounter.

But Gabriel had a secret, a dark secret.

Gabriel was no ordinary teenage boy. His exceptional attributes were not random inheritances from his ancestry. His origins were far different.

Gabriel James was not born of man and woman. His DNA was hand-picked and refined by Dr. Franklin Terzini and grown in a clandestine facility in the Russian Far East. Dr. Terzini created Gabriel to be the future of the human species, a perfected version. The crucial difference between Gabriel and the rest of humanity, however, was his inability to experience emotions. His lack of emotion was not by accident, but by design. Dr. Terzini believed that humankind would best be served without sentimentality, that feelings were the root of every ill within society. 

Gabriel supposed Terzini’s theory to be true; until he met Melissa.

Despite Terzini’s intention, Melissa Martin awakens feelings within Gabriel, offers him life beyond his maker’s confines. Gabriel realizes emotionality is not what is wrong with the world, but what gives life meaning. He realizes he must risk everything to be with her, to conceal his relationship with her from Terzini.

Elsewhere, in a far corner of the Earth, Dr. Franklin Terzini’s earliest creation spirals out of control, no longer contented by his meditative state, propelled by an insatiable bloodlust. A creature more powerful and hideous than any that roam the planet, his first creation journeys to the United States leaving a trail of victims in his wake, as hatred for Gabriel fuels his voyage.

Dr. Terzini’s discovery of Gabriel’s feelings and his connection with Melissa, along with the arrival of his first creation, threatens to destroy more than Gabriel’s relationship. Gabriel desperately struggles to protect her from the unrelenting forces conspiring against them. He must guard her against his maker and shield her from the wrath of mankind’s darkest creation.

"Dancing In The Fountain: How To Enjoy Living Abroad" by Karen McCann

Living abroad is an opportunity to reinvent yourself that rarely exists outside the witness protection program. You get to hit the reset button on your life. Karen McCann's tale of moving from Cleveland, Ohio, to Seville, Spain, is "a delightfully well-written true-life adventure story . . . McCann's writing is inviting, immediately charming, and constantly entertaining," says Chris Brady (A Month of Italy). 

Dancing in the Fountain takes its title from one blazing hot night when the author and her husband found themselves sitting on the edge of a big stone fountain. Dabbling their feet in the cool water, pretty soon they were wading, then dancing in the fountain. It's technically legal to do this on hot nights in Seville, but an old man passing by growled, "Hey you two, is that any way to behave? You wouldn't do that back where you come from." And that's the whole point. Living overseas, you get to try things you'd never do back home.

“Dancing in the Fountain is perhaps the best book about travel that I have ever read,” writes Guy Thatcher, author of Journey of Days. "It is full of wry humor and it is laugh-out-loud funny."

"Damon" by Teresa Gabelman

Damon DeMasters is a vampire warrior who has taken an oath to protect his own kind as well as humans. As a social worker, Nicole Callahan fights for the right of every child placed in her care. Damon has been ordered to train Nicole and her colleagues against the dangers they now face. Even as sparks fly, Nicole and Damon depend on each other to protect the children of both races.

"Damocles" by S. G. Reading

When Earth is rocked by evidence that extraterrestrials may have seeded human DNA throughout the universe, a one-way expedition into deep space is mounted to uncover the truth. What linguist Meg Dupris and her crewmates aboard the Earth ship Damocles discover on Didet—a planet bathed in the near-eternal daylight of seven suns—is a humanoid race with a different language, a different look, and a surprisingly similar society.

But here, it’s the “Earthers” who are the extraterrestrial invaders, and it’s up to Meg—a woman haunted by tragedy and obsessed with the power of communication—to find the key to establishing trust between the natives and the newcomers. In Loul Pell, a young Dideto male thrust into the forefront of the historic event, Meg finds an unexpected kindred spirit, and undertakes an extraordinary journey of discovery, friendship, and life-altering knowledge.

Told from both sides of a monumental encounter, Damocles is a compelling novel about man’s first contact with an extraterrestrial race.

"Damian's Oracle" by Lizzy Ford

Inspired by Slavic mythology, Damien’s Oracle is the entree into the ongoing battle between good and evil over the fate of humanity. The White God, Damian, and his Guardians protect the world from the Black God and his monsters while rescuing Naturals – humans with extraordinary paranormal gifts - from the Black God, who would kill or convert them. 

Caught in the middle is cool-headed Sofia, a Natural whose gift will tip the scales in the war. Sofia begins her transformation from human into oracle, the first in thousands of years. Damian rescues her from the Black God in time to complete a ceremony that will bind her to him for eternity. Sofia struggles with her new world and her role as an oracle and Damian’s mate while haunted by a mysterious man from Damian’s past who’s supposed to be dead. Unbeknownst to her, her link to the dead man may be all that saves Damian, his Guardians, and the fate of humanity.

While he wants nothing more than for the petite beauty to take her place at his side like the oracles of legend did his White God forefathers, Damian can’t quite rationalize having to win her over instead of command her. Further complicating his life is the sobering realization that there are spies in his organization who are helping the Black God take out his Guardians. Damian must help Sofia reach her potential fast, especially when a threat from his past returns.

"Daemon" by Daniel Suarez

Already an underground sensation, a high-tech thriller for the wireless age that explores the unthinkable consequences of a computer program running without human control—a daemon—designed to dismantle society and bring about a new world order

Technology controls almost everything in our modern-day world, from remote entry on our cars to access to our homes, from the flight controls of our airplanes to the movements of the entire world economy. Thousands of autonomous computer programs, or daemons, make our networked world possible, running constantly in the background of our lives, trafficking e-mail, transferring money, and monitoring power grids. For the most part, daemons are benign, but the same can't always be said for the people who design them.

Matthew Sobol was a legendary computer game designer—the architect behind half-a-dozen popular online games. His premature death depressed both gamers and his company's stock price. But Sobol's fans aren't the only ones to note his passing. When his obituary is posted online, a previously dormant daemon activates, initiating a chain of events intended to unravel the fabric of our hyper-efficient, interconnected world. With Sobol's secrets buried along with him, and as new layers of his daemon are unleashed at every turn, it's up to an unlikely alliance to decipher his intricate plans and wrest the world from the grasp of a nameless, faceless enemy—or learn to live in a society in which we are no longer in control. . . .

Computer technology expert Daniel Suarez blends haunting high-tech realism with gripping suspense in an authentic, complex thriller in the tradition of Michael Crichton, Neal Stephenson, and William Gibson.