In this uneven sequel to Ballantyne's Recursion, humans can live on as digital clones or "personality constructs" of themselves, leading multiple lives in the numerous matrices of 23rd-century cyberspace and enjoying equal rights with their physical compatriots. Like the first series entry, this novel interweaves several story lines concerning the dubious existence of an omnipotent artificial intelligence known as the Watcher, who controls the Environmental Agency, the organization in charge of all aspects of the digital and physical worlds. With the help of a geisha-garbed agent (and her numerous digital clones), a woman seeks asylum from a cyberspace killer determined to repeatedly torture and murder her digital incarnations. Meanwhile, on a remote planet in the physical world, a social worker investigates a series of artificial intelligence suicides that may hold apocalyptic implications. Though Ballantyne writes with engaging authority about high-concept technological novelties, the three protagonists often come across as self-parodies, spouting clumsy and predictable exposition that grinds the tale to a halt during what would otherwise have been memorable climaxes. This is a shame, because the inventive plot, which interweaves such staples of the genre as dilemmas of free will, memory and identity, contains enough mind-bending twists and double-crosses to satisfy most cyberpunk fans. After rescue from a trap set at work, Helen is displaced in time. She is now a personality construct, or PC. Her caseworker, Judy, tells her that PCs have the same rights as atomic humans but that for the past 70 years, Helen has been running illegally on the Private Network for the pleasure of customers playing powergames. Helen vows to help Judy hunt down the head of the Private Network. Meanwhile, Justinian, a therapist for troubled PCs, is assigned to an extragalactic world where a several AIs have committed suicide for no apparent reason. It's a strange world of Schroedinger boxes, which become fixed in location only when someone looks at them, and unbreakable black velvet bands, which appear out of nowhere and shrink away to nothing. As Helen and Judy discover Private Network secrets, and Justinian slowly unravels the ever-stranger AI suicides mystery, their stories converge upon a terrifying conspiracy to hide the truth of an outer universe. Ballantyne's pacing and world-building skills make this all engaging and a bit creepy. Regina Schroeder

Weather Warden Joanne Baldwin and her new husband, the Djinn David, are running from a malevolent hurricane bent on destroying her. Joined by an army of fellow Wardens and Djinn onboard a hijacked luxury liner, Joanne has lured the storm into furious pursuit. But even their combined magic may not be enough to stop it — nor the power-mad ex-Weather Warden controlling it

Après vingt ans de règne sur la Martinique - périlleuses batailles, exaltants triomphes , la toujours resplendissante Marie du Parquet aspire à la paix, à quelque nouvel amour peut-être... Espoirs déçus! En cette année 1670, les Anglais de nouveau menacent et Marie, une fois encore, fait appel à Le Fort, l'ex-pirate devenu flibustier du roi, l'intrépide, le fidèle entre tous. Et Le Fort prend la barre de la La Très Sainte Trinité. Voguant à ses côtés, son ami La Chapelle, sur le Prince Henry IV. Le combat naval sera sanglant et La Chapelle reviendra: seul au port. Pour lui, pour toute la Martinique bientôt l'invincible capitaine est mort. Non... Sur l'île de Saint-Christophe, Le Fort est prisonnier des Anglais. Jeté dans une misérable cellule atrocement blessé. Et pourtant sûr de sa revanche!

The internationally celebrated author of The Debt to Pleasure returns with this major, breakout novel – scathing and subversive, sharply witty and brilliantly observed as it follows the lives and fortunes of a group of people in London that becomes connected in unforeseen ways. Pepys Road: an ordinary street in the capital. Today, through each letterbox along this ordinary street drops a card with a simple message: We Want What You Have. At forty, Roger Yount is blessed with an expensively groomed wife, two small sons and a powerful job in the city. Freddy Kano, teenage football sensation, has left a two-room shack in Senegal to follow his dream. Traffic warden Quentina has exchanged the violence of the police in Zimbabwe for the violence of the enraged middle classes. Elsewhere in the Capital, Zbigniew has come from Warsaw to indulge the super-rich in their interior decoration whims. These are just some of the unforgettable characters in Lanchester's unputdownable masterpiece novel of contemporary urban life

Internationally bestselling husband and wife Jonathan and Faye Kellerman team up for a powerful one-two punch with Capital Crimes, a gripping pair of original crime thrillers. MY SISTER'S KEEPER: BERKELEY Some of progressive state representative Davida Grayson's views have made her unpopular. Although her foes are numerous no one suspects that any buttons Davida might push could evoke deadly force. But now Davida lies brutally murdered in her office, and Berkeley homicide detectives Will Barnes and Amanda Isis must unravel Davida's complex, before the killer pulls off a repeat performance. MUSIC CITY BREAKDOWN: NASHVILLE Baker Southerby, the son of musicians, was a child prodigy performer. But something Baker won't talk about leads him to quit the honky-tonk circuit, become a Nashville cop, and never look back. His partner, Lamar Van Gundy, is a would-be studio bassist from up North who never quite made the cut in Music City, so instead earned himself a detective's badge. Now both men are members of Nashville PD's elite Murder Squad, with a solid record for solves. But when they catch a homicide that's high-profile even for a city where musical celebrity is routine, their skills are tested: Jack Jeffries, a rock legend who cast aside personal demons and emerged from retirement to perform at a charity benefit, has been discovered in a ditch near the Cumberland River, his throat slashed

Someone is out to kill the nation's high-level politicos in this electrifying new thriller in the bestselling Will Lee series. Will Lee, the courageous and uncompromising senator from Georgia, is back – now as President of the United States, in this fifth book of the New York Times bestselling series. When a prominent conservative politician is killed inside his lakeside cabin, authorities have no suspect in sight. Then two more seemingly isolated deaths-achieved by very different means-are feared to be linked to the same murderer. With the help of his CIA director wife, Kate Rule Lee, Will is thrust in the middle of the deadly game to catch the most clever and professional of killers before he can strike again. From a quiet D.C. suburb to the corridors of power to a deserted island hideaway in Maine, Will, Kate, and the FBI track their man and set a trap with extreme caution and care-and await the most dangerous kind of quarry, a killer with a cause to die for

Is the first lady trying to overthrow the president? Award-winning writer Kathleen Antrim's fictional response to this shocking premise is at the heart of her chillingly convincing political thriller, CAPITAL OFFENSE. Combining hot fiction with today's headlines, her debut novel is the gripping tale of Carolyn Alden Lane, who sacrifices her career and personal happiness in order to guide her husband's rise through the political ranks to the highest office in the land. The pay-off?

A portrait of Delhi and its new elites — and a story of global capitalism unbound. Commonwealth Prize–winning author Rana Dasgupta examines one of the most important trends of our time: the growth of the global elite. Since the economic liberalization of 1991, wealth has poured into India, and especially into Delhi. Capital bears witness to the extraordinary transmogrification of India’s capital city, charting its emergence from a rural backwater to the center of the new Indian middle class. No other city on earth better embodies the breakneck, radically disruptive nature of the global economy’s growth over the past twenty years. India has not become a new America, though. It more closely resembles post–Soviet Russia with its culture of tremendous excess and undercurrents of gangsterism. But more than anything else, India’s capital, Delhi, is an avatar for capitalism unbound. Capital is an intimate portrait of this very distinct place as well as a parable for where we are all headed. In the style of V. S. Naipaul’s now classic personal journeys, Dasgupta travels through Delhi to meet with extraordinary characters who mostly hail from what Indians call the new Indian middle class, but they are the elites, by any measure. We first meet Rakesh, a young man from a north Indian merchant family whose business has increased in value by billions of dollars in recent years. As Dasgupta interviews him by his mammoth glass home perched beside pools built for a Delhi sultan centuries before, the nightly party of the new Indian middle class begins. To return home, Dasgupta must cross the city, where crowds of Delhi’s workers, migrants from the countryside, sleep on pavements. The contrast is astonishing. In a series of extraordinary meetings that reveals the attitudes, lives, hopes, and dreams of this new class, Dasgupta meets with a fashion designer, a tech entrepreneur, a young CEO, a woman who has devoted her life to helping Delhi’s forgotten poor — and many others. Together they comprise a generation on the cusp, like that of fin-de-siècle Paris, and who they are says a tremendous amount about what the world will look like in the twenty-first century

"Capitães da Areia" é um romance de autoria do escritor brasileiro Jorge Amado, publicado em 1937. O livro retrata a vida de um grupo de menores abandonados, chamados de "Capitães da Areia", ambientado na cidade de Salvador dos anos 1930

William Bernhardt's bestselling novels explore politics, power, ambition, crime, and the law. Now he scales new heights of suspense as, in one harrowing day, lawyer and former senator Ben Kincaid enters the eye of an international storm, a crisis with consequences beyond calculation. Kincaid is in a meeting with the president in the Oval Office when Washington suddenly explodes into chaos. Facing an imminent threat to the White House, Kincaid is whisked, along with the president and his advisors, to the underground PEOC – Presidential Emergency Operations Center – built to withstand a nuclear blast, but vulnerable to another kind of attack. Inside the bunker, defense specialists realize that a malevolent foreign dictator has hacked into the U.S. nuclear defense system and now has a finger on the trigger of America's most dangerous weapons. The dictator's message is clear: Heed his demands or suffer unfathomable destruction. Forced to make critical, split-second decisions, the president seems to be falling apart under the pressure. The vice president wants to strip him of his powers – a move that could have a disastrous impact on national defense. But even during this time of upheaval, in order for the president to be removed, there must be a trial. With the clock winding down, Kincaid has precious little time to defend the president. While Kincaid faces the trial of his life, legendary CIA agent Seamus McKay races through the clogged streets of Washington, searching for a hidden command center – guarded by murderous fanatics – that now controls U.S. ballistic missiles. Two sides of one unforgettable story, McKay and Kincaid home in on their targets. One uses a gun – and any weapon he can get his hands on; the other employs his intuition and the law. And in William Bernhardt's spectacular thriller, as both move closer and closer to uncovering a world-shattering plot, the ultimate act of betrayal is launched from the heart of America's capitol itself

William Bernhardt's bestselling novels featuring Oklahoma defense attorney Ben Kincaid capture the bare-knuckles reality of high-stakes criminal defense, as lofty ideals of justice clash with power, corruption, and wealth. In Capitol Murder, Bernhardt's hard-charging hero takes on his most shocking, headline-making case yet. Kincaid's legal success has earned him a dubious reward: a journey through the looking glass into the Beltway. Here, in the heart of the nation's capital, a powerful U.S. senator has been caught first in a sordid sex scandal, then in a case of murder. Senate aide Veronica Cooper was found in a secret Senate office beneath the Capitol building, on Senator Todd Glancy's favorite couch, blood pouring from the knife wound in her throat. The young woman's death comes on the heels of the release of a sordid videotape depicting her and Senator Glancy in compromising positions. With the senator's reputation in tatters, the evidence against him-as a sexual predator and possibly a killer-mounts. By the time a nationally televised murder trial begins, Kincaid and his team know they're facing the challenge of a lifetime. According to public opinion, and even in Kincaid's most private thoughts, Glancy is one more politician who cannot admit his own culpability. But while a dramatic trial unfolds in the courtroom-loaded with pitfalls, traps, and an astounding betrayal-another trial is taking place on the mean streets of D.C., as Kincaid's investigator pursues a young woman who was a friend of Veronica Cooper's, plunging Kincaid into a bizarre world of Goths, sadomasochists, and a community of self-proclaimed vampires. Somewhere in this violent underworld lies the secret behind Veronica Cooper's demise… and the crux of Senator Glancy's innocence or guilt. In a case that pits Kincaid and his freewheeling partner Christina McCall against the brutal machinery of Washington politics, the answers they seek are hidden in a murderous maze of lies and hidden motives. And in William Bernhardt's best novel yet, getting to the truth is an unparalleled experience in pure, satisfying suspense

In his thrilling novels of suspense, William Bernhardt takes us into the fault lines of the criminal justice system, where one mistake, a twist of fate, or an explosive secret can mean the difference between justice and its cataclysmic undoing. In Capital Offense, attorney Ben Kincaid stands amid the chaos of a violent collision between vengeance and death-and it’s up to him to discover where the truth lies. Professor Dennis Thomas arrives at the law office of Ben Kincaid with a bizarre request: Thomas wants to know if Kincaid can help him beat a murder charge-of a killing yet to happen. The professor’s intended victim: a Tulsa cop who had refused to authorize a search for Thomas’s missing wife. For seven days, Joslyn Thomas had lain in the twisted wreckage of her car, dying a horrifically slow death in an isolated ravine. Now, insane with grief, Thomas wants to kill Detective Christopher Sentz. Kincaid warns him not to, but that very same day someone fires seven bullets into the police officer. Suddenly Kincaid’s conversation with Thomas is privileged and Thomas is begging Kincaid to defend him. Thomas claims he didn’t shoot Sentz-even though he’d wanted to. Something about the bookish, addled Dennis Thomas tugs on Kincaid’s conscience, and against all advice, he decides to represent this troubled man in the center of a media and political firestorm. But the trial doesn’t go Kincaid’s way, and a verdict of capital murder is bearing down on Dennis Thomas. That’s when Kincaid’s personal private detective, Loving, starts prying loose pieces of a shocking secret. Working in the shadows of the law, using every trick that works, Loving risks his life to construct an entirely new narrative about Detective Sentz, Joslyn Thomas, and madness in another guise: the kind that every citizen should fear, and no one will recognize-until it is too late

In a sparsely populated area north of Los Angeles, the police are summoned to a medical emergency. They arrive to find a man sprawled on the sidewalk with no indications of injury, or of life. What happens next sets off a deadly chain of events that takes the FBI on a desperate cross-country investigation. In Capitol Punishment, Special Agents "Frankie" Aguirre and Art Jefferson are in pursuit of a white supremacist — John Barrish — who has in his arsenal a nerve agent so lethal that the smallest amounts can cause mass death. Barrish has struck before — in the St. Anthony's shooting, when four black children were killed in cold blood on their way to church. Now he is bolder, and his plan for destruction goes far beyond simple homicide. Barrish plans to strike a blow to the heart of the American government in Washington, D.C

Ben Kincaid is now a U.S. senator, but he barely has time to settle into his office before he has another murder to solve. Thaddeus Roush, Supreme Court nominee, has just revealed he is gay, and when the body of a woman is discovered during Roush's press conference--and Roush's partner is implicated in her death--Ben comes to the man's defense. Bernhardt has his formula down pat by now (the first Kincaid novel,Primary Justice, appeared in 1992), and those familiar with the series won't encounter many surprises. This one will feel either tired or comfortable, depending on whether readers think of Kincaid as an old friend

Most people have a vision of what thay consider success—but the real thing may be very different from their preconceived notions!

Эту книгу будет интересно почитать как любителям политики и истории, так и любителям классического детектива. Написанная в динамичном остросюжетном стиле, она вдвойне интересна тем, что в основе ее лежат совершенно реальные события, произошедшие в России в начале ХХ века, накануне падения Российской империи. Григорий Распутин – кто он? Кто стал его убийцей? За что и как именно он был убит? В чем состоит природа чудес и мистических явлений, сопровождавших его убийство? Перед вами первая и на сегодняшний день единственная попытка выдвинуть логически и документально обоснованную версию, отвечающую на эти вопросы. В книге собраны фотодокументы и документы, вынесенные на периферию комментариев, на основе которых каждый из читателей, если не согласится с мнением автора, может составлять собственное мнение и выдвигать свою версию. Иными словами, книга приглашает вас думать и размышлять, опираясь на рациональные методы криминалистического расследования, говоря языком проверенных документов и подтвержденных фактов. И вместе с автором распутать дело, которое до сих пор называют таинственным, непостижимым и невероятным

Working in secrecy at the Anger Institute, Cap and his six fellow adventurers monitor the planet watching for the next madman bent on world conquest. This time, a crazed scientist unleashes the ultimate terror: billions of microscopic robots programmed for destruction. As Captain Richard Anger races to find a cure for the silver-liquid death, he pilots his sea-going superjet to a mysterious island of strange metallic mountains and steel-clad shores. There he and his hard-fighting companions--Rock, Leila, Tex, and Sun Ra--must use their wits and their weapons of super-science to stop the insane genius Dandridge before he tears the earth apart

Captain Blood is the much-loved story of a physician and gentleman turned pirate. Peter Blood, wrongfully accused and sentenced to death, narrowly escapes his fate and finds himself in the company of buccaneers. Embarking on his new life with remarkable skill and bravery, Blood becomes the 'Robin Hood' of the Spanish seas. This is swashbuckling adventure at its best

One of the brightest stars of romantic fiction, the incomparable New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens flings wide the gates of the Bastion Club – an elite society of unmarried London gentlemen dedicated to determining their own matrimonial futures. Here, in one volume, are two of the author's most captivating and sensuous novels: a "prequel" that brilliantly sets the stage for the popular series and an early Bastion delight. Captain Jack's Woman Rebellious Kathryn "Kit" Cranmer finds adventure at the head of a rag-tag band of smugglers. But her dashing, ruthless rival, the notorious Captain Jack, rules the night – and becoming this bold man of mystery's woman will carry Kit to new heights of excitement beyond anything she's ever dreamed. A Gentleman's Honor Anthony Blake, Viscount Torrington, believes Alicia Carrington when the frightened young beauty swears she's innocent in the murder of the villain who was blackmailing her. But it is more than honor that compels the handsome nobleman to protect her, and to do everything in his seductive power to make Alicia his

Careening was a very necessary operation for the old pirate. On his superior speed he depended both for overhauling the trader and escaping the man-of-war. But it was impossible to retain his sailing qualities unless he periodically–once a year, at the least–cleared his vessel’s bottom from the long, trailing plants and crusting barnacles which gather so rapidly in the tropical seas. For this purpose he lightened his vessel, thrust her into some narrow inlet where she would be left high and dry at low water, fastened blocks and tackles to her masts to pull her over on to her bilge, and then scraped her thoroughly from rudder-post to cutwater

Amanda Grange continues her series of much-loved Jane Austen retellings with "Captain Wentworth's Diary". It is 1806, and the Napoleonic wars are ravaging Europe. Frederick Wentworth, a brilliant young man with a flourishing career in the navy, is spending his shore leave in Somerset, where he meets and falls in love with Anne Elliot. The two become engaged, but Anne's godmother persuades Anne to change her mind, leaving Wentworth to go back to sea a bitter and disappointed man. Eight years pass, and peace is declared. Wentworth is no longer a young man with his way to make in the world, but a seasoned captain with a fortune at his disposal. He is ready to marry anyone with a little beauty who pays a few compliments to the navy - or so he says - until he sees Anne. Anne's bloom has faded, yet she has the same sensibilities and superior mind she had eight years earlier, and before he knows it, he is falling in love with her all over again. Can there be a happy outcome for them this time around, or have they lost their chance of love forever?

Following the explosive events of "Star Trek: Nemesis" the Romulan Empire is in disarray. When the Vulcan Ambassador Spock is publicly assassinated at a Romulan Peace Rally it falls to James T. Kirk to uncover the truth about the death of his beloved friend

Book Four of the Codex Alera. After two years of bitter conflict with the hordes of invading Canim, Tavi of Calderon, now Captain of the First Aleran Legion, realizes that a peril far greater than the Canim exists-the terrifying Vord, who drove the savage Canim from their homeland. Now, Tavi must find a way to overcome the centuries-old animosities between Aleran and Cane if an alliance is to be forged against their mutual enemy. And he must lead his legion in defiance of the law, against friend and foe-before the hammerstroke of the Vord descends on them all

There are crises enough for James T. Kirk to contend with: a Romulan-Reman civil war, Ambassador Spock assassinated and closer to home, a violent rebellion against him by his son. Then comes a call when he least expects it: one last time, the Federation is asking for his help

Harvey Cheyne, spoiled millionaire’s son, tumbles overboard from a luxury liner–only to be rescued by the crew of a Gloucester schooner. Thus begins the boy’s second voyage into the rugged rites and ways of sailors. Like all Kipling’s masterworks, Captains Courageous is an interweaving of art and moral purpose. Angus Wilson has said that it shows “delicacy of craft and violence of feeling, exactitude and wile impressionism, subtlety and true innocence.” A popular favourite since its first publication, the novel remains a classic story of youthful initiation–and a lively tribute to the author’s famous code of bravery, loyalty, an honour among men

Colter Shaw is a career “reward-seeker,” making his living traveling the country and locating missing persons, collecting reward money in return. So it is not unusual when a wealthy entrepreneur hires him to track down his wife, an enigmatic artist who vanished one month before. As Shaw begins to investigate, he suspects that she was fleeing a bad marriage, and he follows her trail to an artists’ retreat in Indiana. The case takes one surprising turn after another, and soon Shaw begins to wonder if this mysterious woman is more of a captor than a captive

Tales of Erotic Romance An omnibus of novels An anthology of four sensuous historical romances includes Susan Johnson's "Bound and Determined," Thea Devine's "Dark Desires," "A Lady's Pleasure" by Robin Schone, and Bertrice Small's "Ecstasy," about an enslaved prince who falls under the spell of the seductive queen who owns him

The irresistible call of adventure brings lovely Christina Wakefield to the alluring Arabian desert. But fate imprisons her after she encounters Sheik Abu, the strikingly handsome though arrogant adventurer, whom she had known in England as Philip Caxton. Once Christina had rejected Philip's fervent offer of marriage. But now she is to be his slave -- desperate for the freedoms denied her...yet weakened by her heart's blazing desire to willingly explore her virile captor's most sensuous cravings

Caleb is a man with a singular interest in revenge. Kidnapped as a young boy and sold into slavery by a power-hungry mobster, he has thought of nothing but vengeance. For twelve years he has immersed himself in the world of pleasure slaves searching for the one man he holds ultimately responsible. Finally, the architect of his suffering has emerged with a new identity, but not a new nature. If Caleb is to get close enough to strike, he must become the very thing he abhors and kidnap a beautiful girl to train her to be all that he once was. Eighteen-year-old Olivia Ruiz has just woken up in a strange place. Blindfolded and bound, there is only a calm male voice to welcome her. His name is Caleb, though he demands to be called Master. Olivia is young, beautiful, naïve and willful to a fault. She has a dark sensuality that cannot be hidden or denied, though she tries to accomplish both. Although she is frightened by the strong, sadistic, and arrogant man who holds her prisoner, what keeps Olivia awake in the dark is her unwelcome attraction to him. WARNING: This book contains very disturbing situations, dubious consent, strong language, and graphic violence

Spoiled, rich young Elinor Brinton was no longer on Earth. She had been kidnapped from her New York apartment and carried across space to Gor by akien slavers. Then the ship was wrecked and she was stranded on the strange world of Counter-Earth, where women were only property, to be beaten ans subjugated at the will of the men who were their Masters. Life to her became a never-ending nightmare. In the great luxury of Ko-ro-ba, she was trained in the provocative skills of a pleasure slave. In the Norhtern Forests of Gor, she was captured by the fierce outlaw Panther Girls. And finally came Rask of Treve to teach her what all woman should learn!

Steely-eyed Lord Noah Kincade is accustomed to having the upper hand – but everything changes when his wealth and social standing are cut out from under him. With only two vessels left from his family's shipping empire, Noah seeks to recoup his fortune with a voyage to the American colonies, where there are men who will pay generously for his cargo. What he doesn't count on is one stunning hellion of a woman. Cecelia Demorest hates aristocrats, particularly the insufferable Brits who frequent her Boston home. Her father may be a loyal subject, but Cecilia is wholly American, and her thoughts are consumed with the current unrest. The last thing she wants is to run into her father's newest associate – until she does. Now Cecilia can't stop thinking about Noah Kincade's penetrating gaze…and how she'd like to get the best of him in every way

For historical fiction readers, a tantalizing new novel from New York Times bestselling author Alison Weir about the passionate and notorious French queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Renowned for her highly acclaimed and bestselling British histories, Alison Weir has in recent years made a major impact on the fiction scene with her novels about Queen Elizabeth and Lady Jane Grey. In this latest offering, she imagines the world of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the beautiful twelfth-century woman who was Queen of France until she abandoned her royal husband for the younger man who would become King of England. In a relationship based on lust and a mutual desire for great power, Henry II and Eleanor took over the English throne in 1154, thus beginning one of the most influential reigns and tumultuous royal marriages in all of history. In this novel, Weir uses her extensive knowledge to paint a most vivid portrait of this fascinating woman