End of Order documents the final hours of the EDF battle carrier Legacy and her crew as a force of disenfranchised Earth expatriates calling themselves the Vandals wage a final assault to implement their Final Solution on the planet Legacy has sworn to protect.End of Order documents the final hours of the battle carrier Legacy and her crew as a force of disenfranchised Earth expatriates calling themselves the Vandals wage a final assault to implement their Final Solution on the planet Legacy has sworn to protect.

"Conversion Rites and Wrongs" won the author the "Best Director" award when performed in Sydney's "Crash Test Drama" in 2012. It is a short play for a man and a woman, in which they discuss the pros and cons of converting to Islam. It is meanty to be comedic, not didactic. There are no fees for performance as long as the author is correctly attributed.In this deeply sardonic debut collection of short stories, Jarod Powell masterfully intertwines the bitter traumas and sweet victories of humanity with a hypnotic style, subversive wit, and a powerful, concrete narrative. A hopelessly dysfunctional family holds a formal debate and fights through the cliché, an agoraphobic teenager finds the gumption to enter the world he observes in a single moment of guttural rage, a homeless man harasses a stranger with his visions of the San Fernando Valley as The Garden of Eden, and in the title story, a high school turns into a Biblical village square when a drug overdose turns a nobody into a mythical being.

An emotional and dangerous journey across Europe as the characters reach to discover their destinies. Colby Linden, burdened with a troubled past, is in search of atonement. Beautiful, seductive Valentina Gussev a woman he knew well, offers him an opportunity. But there is much he does not know about his mission to return a Queen to Sachovia.Sachovia is an Eastern European state newly emerging from its communist past and a recent destructive civil war. A populist call goes up to re-instate the old Monarchy. This does not please the parliamentary opposition and plots are put in place to ensure that a monarchy will never emerge again. Since the assassination of her elder brother, there is only one remaining link to the old monarchy – Natasha Kashinka. She is a child, an orphan and has no desire to leave France, the land of her birth to be taken to a war ravaged country she does not know. But forces greater than she can resist have taken hold of her future. In London, Colby Linden once a high flying close protection officer for Equis Security, has been sidelined after a botched rescue attempt involving the tragic death of a young boy. The boy's death still weighs heavily on Colby's shoulders and he has sunk to a position of obscurity in the depths of Equis security. When an opportunity to redeem himself by covertly escorting young Natasha to Sachovia, he finds himself uncertain that he still has what it takes.Valentina Gussev, an agent of the Sachovian Security Bureau, uses the past she shared with Colby to convince him to accept the commission. They set out together aboard her ketch – The Midnight Falcon to the tiny Greek island of Ikinos where Natasha has been kept secure in the care of young Katrina and Captain Kowalski. The old feelings between Valentina and Colby emerge again but something in Valentina's behaviour suggests that all is not well. The three of them sail to the Croatian city of Dubrovnik and from there, keeping a low profile Colby and Natasha travel north by motorcycle to Trieste where further instructions await them.Valentina returns to Ikinos to tidy up lose ends and finds that Katrina has been abandoned by Kowalski. They leave Ikinos together and it is revealed that Valentina is a double agent working towards the demise of Natasha. Her motivation which has come close to destroying her is blackmail. She believes that her brother Sascha is being held captive on pain of death unless she abandons her conscience and cooperates with the anti-monarchists. The unimaginable happens when Natasha is kidnapped from under Colby's nose in Italy. A ransom is demanded of Boris Koch the Prime Minister of Sachovia for her return. He believes that Valentina is still loyal to his cause and instructs her to sail her ketch to a rendezvous where Natasha will be recovered in exchange for the ransom. It is revealed that Captain Kowalski is one of the kidnappers.Valentina confesses to Colby what she has done, the ultimate betrayal of the ones she loves. Colby is left bewildered and outraged.Before Natasha is safely recovered it seems that she and Kowalski are shot dead. Valentina calls Boris Koch and tells him that Natasha is dead. She admits her guilt to him. Boris, driven by vengeance, sends an Assassin after Valentina. Unrest is fermenting again in Sachovia and it looks as if another civil war is about to break out.Valentina convinces Colby to meet Natasha and take her to London until she can make permanent arrangements for the child's welfare.Katrina finds refuge on the Channel Island of Guernsey in a cottage owned by Valentina. She meets a boy and a romance develops. Valentina sails her boat to Guernsey but the assassin is on her tail. After an encounter the assassin is left dead and the Midnight Falcon sunk.Sachovia finally collapses into war again and Boris Koch faces his end with dignity, his hopes dashed.Valentina sinks into a depression which is lifted when she is finally reunited with Natasha and Colby. There is forgiveness and the hope of a happy future for the three of them on Guernsey.

Two CIA agents work alongside a covert U.S. strike team near the Afghanistan/ Pakistan border. They are playing an intricate political game with their adversaries; pitting them against one another while remaining invisible themselves. It's a high stakes life-or-death tactic that they believe they control. Is it possible that they're just pawns in someone else’s game?Wilson Greene waits for his freedom while monsters growl within the walls. Deep, unnatural darkness shrouds the prison since the Brotherhood murdered his penitentiary prophet Luke Turner. Wilson sits in that darkness and waits for the blades his prophet promised would be plunged into him. He smiles in the dark though his guards and cellmates plan his murder. For his prophet's tattoos snake upon his skin, dark runes shifting in the shadows and promising that the death soon to be delivered is but a temporary sleep before he awakes a free man. The teeth of Wilson's bracelet rattle. Luke Turner has harvested all of Wilson's faith, and that prisoner with the ink shifting beneath his skin has no reason to suspect those tattoos mark him for a terrible warden waiting beyond those prison walls.

Pascal is a French doctor who is working in a refugee camp at the Thai-Burmese border. He is respected for his compassionate and adventurist spirit. Since childhood, he experiences premonitory visions and time travel but an accident reveals the true nature of his remarkable gift, a secret he must eventually confront and expose.Based on the Resident Evil video game series by Capcom. Jill Valentine and the rest of the surviving S.T.A.R.S. team members return to Raccoon City after their harrowing ordeal at the Arklay mansion, only to find that they cannot reveal the truth about what happened. No one would ever believe them, but the death of so many of their coworkers draws them into a scandal that rocks the entire city. Umbrella has finally come to investigate the Arklay lab, and they discover the outbreak. They begin damage control, bringing in BCF soldiers to prepare for the inevitable outbreak in Raccoon City itself. A black ops commando code-named Hunk is sent to evacuate the Raccoon City lab, where he meets William Birkin and sets in motion a devastating chain of events. Meanwhile, a mysterious secret agent named Ada Wong arrives in Raccoon City as well. And Albert Wesker, still alive and manipulating things behind the scenes, remains in Raccoon City to clean up some loose ends before the T-virus infection reaches the city. Using a new variant of the Progenitor, he creates a new creature called the Nemesis ...

“Sitting on a small rock, watching the river of my emotions; afraid to drown, afraid to miss out, I just sit and watch.”These are poems that came to me and urged me to move my pen. Sometimes in the middle of sleep they would come, and they would not relent, till I gave them their due …… “Expression”!-- Vivek MehtaThe Poems---------1] Beauty Is Found Everywhere!2] The Pleasures Of Uncertainty3] Life At The Hilltop4] The Gist5] One And The Same6] Pursuing The Gods7] Alchemy8] Gratitude9] Unperturbed, Undisturbed10] The Oils Of Diversity11] A Different Wakefulness12] Resurrection13] A New World 14] If God Asked Me?15] A Day From My Life16] The Dust From The Gold17] A Night Full Of Questions18] Had I Not Stepped Out19] Dear Diary20] Strange It Is 21] You Gotta Go Slow Sometimes

This is a short story of the League Files from the Keeper Library. Scott thought that he was helping out his small town by changing history for the better. This may seem like a good idea to you and me but the Keeper League knows better. What should have been a routine observation of a dormant Keeper becomes an introduction to the Keeper world for Scott.This is a short story of the League Files from the Keeper Library.Scott thought that he was helping out his small town by changing history for the better. This may seem like a good idea to you and me but the Keeper League knows better. What should have been a routine observation of a dormant Keeper for Emily, becomes an introduction to the Keeper world for Scott.

When an old acquaintance offers Aprestine a deal, one that could help her turn the tide in the approaching war between the city of Ezeth and the rest of the realm, she can’t help but accept. But that acceptance comes at a cost, one that she might not be willing to pay… Not if she loses her life in the process.Aprestine is losing her magic. On the run from the magic catchers that continuously chase her, she only has one option: to get hold of the black jewel that is being held inside the great castle of Ezeth. Getting hold of the jewel is going to be a problem in itself, a problem that she can’t solve on her own. When an old acquaintance offers her a deal, one that could help her turn the tide in the approaching war between Ezeth and the rest of the realm, she can’t help but accept. But that acceptance comes at a cost, one that she might not be willing to pay… Not if she loses her life in the process.

Paragon.EXE is the prequel novella to the Absolute Knowledge trilogy. Fueled by the Cold War, the development of the technology that led to the Absolute Knowledge project began with very different objectives than are present in the year 2146, over two hundred years in the future from the start of the Omniscient project.Paragon.EXE is the prequel novella to the Absolute Knowledge trilogy. Fueled by the Cold War, the development of the technology that led to the Absolute Knowledge project began with very different objectives than are present in the year 2146, over two hundred years in the future from the start of the Omniscient project. Created as a project to aid leadership in the case of catastrophe, the Omniscient project was morphed by corruption and the pursuit of the unknown. These changes were hidden through time only to resurface when the stakes were much higher. Paragon.EXE takes place in the 1960s and 2020s and follows the chilling development of the Absolute Knowledge project from its cryptic roots.

A collection of short stories for kids featuring elves, gnomes, fairies, leprechauns, dinosaurs, superheroes, and other supernatural themes. These are fantasy tales grounded in reality.This is a collection of six short stories for children. The stories contain ghosts, a creepy old house, dinosaurs, superheroes, elves, fairies, a gnome, and a leprechaun but at it's heart, they are about the child protagonists and the lessons they learn or the changes they bring out. The stories are about the children and what they learn and the change that they can inspire..

Foreva’ alone.For “Eva” alone.The only way to love ... is to conquer your fear of it.FROGS OF THE DARK RIVER.This is one of a series of character interviews from The Flame Before Us. This interview is with Hekanefer, formerly a Mitsriy scribe attached to a military unit stationed in Gedjet and part of the army responsible for defending the province. He is now living in Shalem. If you like the interview and extract, The Flame Before Us is available as a full-length novel.The Flame Before Us:Conflict and commitment in the shadow of a city's downfallThe raiding ships have come before, but this time it is different. This time the attackers are coming to stay. The great kings and their vassals collapse as the newcomers advance.Walk with refugees, migrants, and defenders of the land alike, as they struggle to create a different way of life beside the ruins of the old. Can alliance, commitment and love survive the turmoil?

Twenty Four WeeksEpisode 16 Part 2- "Twenty Seven"Wade gives some unusual advice… Judd and Quinn talk about her confusing time… Judd learns the meaning of friendship…“Okay.” She steels herself. “I was having sex with two men. With you it was kind of an obligation. I mean I loved you, don’t ever doubt that. But the sex with Wade was the sex I was having without obligation...Twenty Four WeeksEpisode 16 Part 2- "Twenty Seven"Wade gives some unusual advice… Judd and Quinn talk about her confusing time… Judd learns the meaning of friendship…“Okay.” She steels herself. “I was having sex with two men. With you it was kind of an obligation. I mean I loved you, don’t ever doubt that. But the sex with Wade was the sex I was having without obligation and that was kind of better. This makes me sound like a horrible person!”Still reeling from the shock of discovering his wife's infidelity, Judd Altman learns that he has lost his father and will be one himself. His soon to be ex-wife, Quinn, is pregnant with his child.After almost losing the baby, Wade (Judd's old boss and Quinn's lover) realizes the truth about himself and his relationship with Quinn and leaves her. Judd, in the face of Quinn's situation, forgives her, but cannot reconcile their marriage.With nothing but a stolen Porsche, Judd drives to Maine with limitless possibilities. A man with nothing has nothing to lose, and a man with nothing to lose can do anything.Twenty Four Weeks begins with Judd's time of reflection in Maine and his eventual decision to return to New York City, to take back the life that has been so cruelly taken from him. Sometimes humorous, this bitter-sweet tale is full of hope, love and forgiveness.With characters and back story based on the novel "This is Where I Leave You" by Jonathan Tropper, Twenty Four Weeks is set after the events of the movie of the same name.

**In this gripping page-turner, an ex-agent on the run from her former employers must take one more case to clear her name and save her life.** She used to work for the U.S. government, but very few people ever knew that. An expert in her field, she was one of the darkest secrets of an agency so clandestine it doesn't even have a name. And when they decided she was a liability, they came for her without warning. Now she rarely stays in the same place or uses the same name for long. They've killed the only other person she trusted, but something she knows still poses a threat. They want her dead, and soon. When her former handler offers her a way out, she realizes it's her only chance to erase the giant target on her back. But it means taking one last job for her ex-employers. To her horror, the information she acquires only makes her situation more dangerous. Resolving to meet the threat head-on, she prepares for the toughest fight of her life but finds herself falling for a man who can only complicate her likelihood of survival. As she sees her choices being rapidly whittled down, she must apply her unique talents in ways she never dreamed of. In this tautly plotted novel, Meyer creates a fierce and fascinating new heroine with a very specialized skill set. And she shows once again why she's one of the world's bestselling authors.

From W. Bruce Cameron, the author of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling novel A Dog's Purpose, which is now a major motion picture! While nursing a broken heart, Josh Michaels is outraged when a neighbor abandons his very pregnant dog, Lucy, at Josh's Colorado home. But Josh can't resist Lucy's soulful brown eyes, and though he's never had a dog before, he's determined to do the best he can for Lucy—and her soon-to-arrive, bound-to-be-adorable puppies. Soon in over his head, Josh calls the local animal shelter for help, and meets Kerri, a beautiful woman with a quick wit and a fierce love for animals. As Kerri teaches Josh how to care for Lucy's tiny puppies and gets them ready to be adopted through the shelter's "Dogs of Christmas" program, Josh surprises himself by falling for her. But he's fallen even harder for his new furry family, which has brought incredible joy into Josh's life. He barely has time to sit down, between chasing after adventurous Sophie and brave Oliver, but when he does, his lap is quickly filled by the affectionate Lola. And Rufus and Cody's strong bond makes Josh wonder about his own relationships with his family. With Christmas and the adoption date looming, Josh finds himself wondering if he can separate himself from his beloved puppies. At odds with Kerri, Josh isn't willing to lose her, but doesn't know how to set things right. Can a surprise litter of Christmas puppies really change one man's life? W. Bruce Cameron's The Dogs of Christmas is a charming and heartwarming holiday tale that explores the power of love, trust, and a basket full of puppies.

Luke Riley is lost. His mother's recent death has set Luke and his family adrift. Even though his father, twin brothers, and their three Bloodhounds are search and rescue volunteers, they have been unable to rescue themselves and become a family again. The summer after sixth grade looms in Luke's mind as a long, lonely three months where the only thing he can look forward to is watching The Weather Channel. Luke is fascinated with the weather, but since his mother's death in a storm, he is also terrified. Even the promised 13th birthday present of a Bloodhound puppy fails to lift Luke's spirits. He would rather have a different breed - a petite Papillon, but his father insists he get a Bloodhound. When Luke decides to get the Bloodhound from Willajean, a dog breeder who owns Storm Watcher Kennel, he works out a deal to help at her kennel in exchange for the expensive dog. Thrilled to have a summer with a purpose, Luke befriends Willajean's daughter, Megan and together they plan how Luke can get a Papillon puppy instead of a Bloodhound. But nothing seems to work as they struggle with stubborn fathers, summer storms, unhelpful siblings, and hidden guilt. Can one little white dog really save both families? For ages 9 to 14

From the award-winning author of Possession comes an ingenious novel about love and literary sleuthing: a dazzling fiction woven out of one man’s search for fact. Here is the story of Phineas G. Nanson, a disenchanted graduate student who decides to escape the world of postmodern literary theory and immerse himself in the messiness of “real life” by writing a biography of a great biographer. In a series of adventures that are by turns intellectual and comic, scientific and sensual, Phineas tracks his subject to the deserts of Africa and the maelstrom of the Arctic. Along the way he comes to rely on two women, one of whom may be the guide he needs out of the dizzying labyrinth of his research and back into his own life. A tantalizing yarn of detection and desire, The Biographer’s Tale is a provocative look at “truth” in biography and our perennial quest for certainty. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Suze is a mediator -- a liaison between the living and the dead. In other words, she sees dead people. And they won't leave her alone until she helps them resolve their unfinished business with the living. But Jesse, the hot ghost haunting her bedroom, doesn't seem to need her help. Which is a relief, because Suze has just moved to sunny California and plans to start fresh, with trips to the mall instead of the cemetery, and surfing instead of spectral visitations. But the very first day at her new school, Suze realizes it's not that easy. There's a ghost with revenge on her mind ... and Suze happens to be in the way.

Born on an illegal immigrant ship off the coast of Palestine, Marshall Pearl is immediately orphaned and soon brought to America, where he grows up amidst fascinating and idiosyncratic privilege that is, however, not nearly as influential in regard to his formation as the pull of his origins though they are unknown to him. A cross between Fielding´s Tom Jones and the story of Moses, Refiner´s Fire is a great and colorful adventure that ends in a crucible of battle, suffering, and death, from which Marshall Pearl rises purely by the grace of God. Addressing the holy and the profane, but never heavy handedly, it is not so much a meditation on the fate of the Jews after the Holocaust, the rise of Israel, and the spirit of America, as it is an elegy and a song in which the powers of life and regeneration are shown to gorgeous effect.

Nan Powell is a free-spirited, sixty-five-year-old widow who's not above skinny-dipping in her neighbors' pools when they're away and who dearly loves her Nantucket home. But when she discovers that the money she thought would last forever is dwindling, she realizes she must make drastic changes to save her beloved house. So Nan takes out an ad: Rooms to rent for the summer in a beautiful old Nantucket home with water views and direct access to the beach. Slowly people start moving in to the house, filling it with noise, laughter, and with tears. As the house comes alive again, Nan finds her family and friends expanding. Her son comes home for the summer, and then an unexpected visitor turns all their lives upside down. As she did so masterfully in her numerous NY Times bestselling novels, including Second Chance, Jane Green once again proves herself one of the preeminent writers of contemporary women's fiction.

AN ANCHOR PAPERBACK ORIGINAL From the Nobel Prize laureate and author of the acclaimed Cairo Trilogy, a beguiling and artfully compact novel set in Sadat's Egypt. "[Mahfouz] is not only a Hugo and a Dickens, but also a Galsworthy, Zola and a Jules Romain."--Edward Said The time is 1981, Anwar al-Sadat is president, and Egypt is lurching into the modern world. Set against this backdrop, The Day the Leader Was Killed relates the tale of a middle-class Cairene family. Rich with irony and infused with political undertones, the story is narrated alternately by the pious and mischievous family patriarch Muhtashimi Zayed, his hapless grandson Elwan, and Elwan's headstrong and beautiful fiancee Randa.  The novel reaches its climax with the assassination of Sadat on October 6, 1981, an event around which the fictional plot is skillfully woven. The Day the Leader Was Killed brings us the essence of Mahfouz's genius and is further proof that he has, in the words of the Nobel citation, "formed an Arabic narrative art that applies to all mankind." From the Trade Paperback edition.

Chess Story, also known as The Royal Game, is the Austrian master Stefan Zweig’s final achievement, completed in Brazilian exile and sent off to his American publisher only days before his suicide in 1942. It is the only story in which Zweig looks at Nazism, and he does so with characteristic emphasis on the psychological. Travelers by ship from New York to Buenos Aires find that on board with them is the world champion of chess, an arrogant and unfriendly man. They come together to try their skills against him and are soundly defeated. Then a mysterious passenger steps forward to advise them and their fortunes change. How he came to possess his extraordinary grasp of the game of chess and at what cost lie at the heart of Zweig’s story. This new translation of Chess Story brings out the work’s unusual mixture of high suspense and poignant reflection.