This is the journal of Private Kenji Yoshida of the U.S. Marine Corps. It details his experiences in the field with the Oz virus and in particular the initial outbreak at the small outback town of Woomera - the beginnings of what is now known as the Secret Apocalypse.It is a story of survival, sacrifice and discovery. It is a story of a boy in love with a girl.This is the journal of Private Kenji Yoshida of the U.S. Marine Corps. It details his experiences in the field with the Oz virus and in particular the initial outbreak at the small outback town of Woomera - the beginnings of what is now known as the Secret Apocalypse.It also details his relationship with Rebecca Robinson, the only known survivor of the Oz virus.The journal was recovered from deep within hostile territory by an advanced recon team. It is classified 'Above Top Secret'.It is a story of survival, sacrifice and discovery. It is a story of a boy in love with a girl.It is the story of a man’s journey into hell.The Lost Journal of Private Kenji Yoshida is set in the weeks leading up to the events that take place in The Secret Apocalypse. It is approximately 30,000 words in length.

With ridiculous gadgets, interplanetary warfare, lunatic friends, and the most dangerous job in the Multiverse, being a "Space Cowboy" has its ups and downs. Hunting down rogues from every dimension might pay the bills, but nothing lasts forever. What can be done when you're just a contracted screw-up? One person can't save the universe anyway...right?With ridiculous gadgets, interplanetary warfare, lunatic friends, and the most dangerous job in the Multiverse, being a "Space Cowboy" has its ups and downs. Hunting down rogues from every dimension might pay the bills, but nothing lasts forever. What can be done when you're just a contracted screw-up? This is only the beginning of a crazy series of events. One person can't save the universe anyway...right?

A violent novel filled with insidious twists, Kingdom Come follows the exploits of Richard Pearson, a rebellious, unemployed advertising executive, whose father is gunned down by a deranged mental patient in a vast shopping mall outside Heathrow Airport. When the prime suspect is released without charge, Richard’s suspicions are aroused. Investigating the mystery, Richard uncovers at the Metro-Centre mall a neo-fascist world whose charismatic spokesperson is whipping up the masses into a state of unsustainable frenzy. Riots frequently terrorize the complex, immigrant communities are attacked by hooligans, and sports events mushroom into jingoistic political rallies. In this gripping, dystopian tour de force, J.G. Ballard holds up a mirror to suburban mind rot, revealing the darker forces at work beneath the gloss of consumerism and flag-waving patriotism.

The revered New York Times bestselling author traces the development of technology from the Industrial Age to the Digital Age to explore the single component crucial to advancement—precision—in a superb history that is both an homage and a warning for our future. The rise of manufacturing could not have happened without an attention to precision. At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in eighteenth-century England, standards of measurement were established, giving way to the development of machine tools—machines that make machines. Eventually, the application of precision tools and methods resulted in the creation and mass production of items from guns and glass to mirrors, lenses, and cameras—and eventually gave way to further breakthroughs, including gene splicing, microchips, and the Hadron Collider. Simon Winchester takes us back to origins of the Industrial Age, to England where he introduces the scientific minds that helped usher in modern production: John Wilkinson, Henry Maudslay, Joseph Bramah, Jesse Ramsden, and Joseph Whitworth. It was Thomas Jefferson who later exported their discoveries to the fledgling United States, setting the nation on its course to become a manufacturing titan. Winchester moves forward through time, to today’s cutting-edge developments occurring around the world, from America to Western Europe to Asia. As he introduces the minds and methods that have changed the modern world, Winchester explores fundamental questions. Why is precision important? What are the different tools we use to measure it? Who has invented and perfected it? Has the pursuit of the ultra-precise in so many facets of human life blinded us to other things of equal value, such as an appreciation for the age-old traditions of craftsmanship, art, and high culture? Are we missing something that reflects the world as it is, rather than the world as we think we would wish it to be? And can the precise and the natural co-exist in society?

A mind-opening collection of short science fiction from one of the genre’s most revered Grand Masters. Legendary author Robert A. Heinlein proclaimed, “To read science fiction is to read Simak. A reader who does not like Simak stories does not like science fiction at all.” The remarkably talented Clifford D. Simak was able to ground his vast imagination in reality, and then introduce readers to fantastical worlds and concepts they could instantly and completely dig into, comprehend, and enjoy. In the title story, a man’s newfound ability to walk in the past allows him to dwell among dinosaurs, saber-toothed tigers . . . and something even more timeless. In “Construction Shack,” the first manned expedition to Pluto reveals that no matter how advanced aliens may be, even they don’t always get everything right. And in “Univac 2200,” the thin line between humans creating technology and humans becoming technology is about to be crossed—and there may be no going back. Each story includes an introduction by David W. Wixon, literary executor of the Clifford D. Simak estate and editor of this ebook.

Just a few hundred genes separate humans from chimpanzees. Imagine someone altering the chimp genome, splicing in human genes to increase the size of the cranium, reduce the amount of body hair, enable speech. What sort of creature would result? Sims takes place in the very near future, when the science of genetics is fulfilling its vaunted potential. It's a world where genetically transmitted diseases are being eliminated. A world where dangerous or boring manual labor is gradually being transferred to "sims," genetically altered chimps who occupy a gray zone between simian and human. The chief innovator in this world is SimGen, which owns the patent on the sim genome and has begun leasing the creatures worldwide. But SimGen is not quite what it seems. It has secrets . . . secrets beyond patents and proprietary processes . . . secrets it will go to any lengths to protect. Sims explores this brave new world as it is turned upside down and torn apart when lawyer Patrick Sullivan decides to try to unionize the sims. Right now, as you read these words, some company somewhere in the world is toying with the chimp genome. That is not fiction, it is fact. Sims is a science thriller that will come true. One way or another.

A disappearing watch. A thief in the night. Whispers around every corner... Then a mist rolls into town and refuses to dissipate. Alva Viola Taverner has lived in her small town all of her life, working as a car tech while saving for her little sister to go to university. But everything is about to change as the veil between our world and the world of the faeries weakens and falls.A disappearing watch. A thief in the night. Whispers around every corner... Then a mist rolls into town and refuses to dissipate. Alva Viola Taverner has lived in her small town all of her life, working as a car tech while saving for her little sister to go to university. But everything is about to change as the veil between our world and the world of the faeries weakens and falls. Suddenly, even the smallest bump in the night can prove the deadliest. **This is the first installment of a serialized novelWHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING:"The first great serialized novel of 2015" - Black Gate Magazine "Nigh’s first installment bodes simultaneously fantastic and terrifying for the balance of the novel." - The Page of Reviews "There’s a soothing, almost seductive quality to Marie’s writing that lulls you into a sense of ordinariness, only to slam you with a new and rapidly changing reality that leaves you as breathless and reeling as the characters…over and over and over." - Linda Poitevin, author of the Grigori Legacy "Bilodeau has embraced a storytelling method made popular by Charles Dickens, Armistead Maupin and Stephen King but she’s given it new life and an incredible sense of urgency. " - Jamieson Wolf, bestselling author

Paul is a monk, which is better than a warrior on the planet Tarot, where religions are wielded like swords.

Annabelle is cybernetically augmented, and proud of it. There are those in society though, that believe such augmentations are anathema, and prey on the likes of Annabelle.Human is the sixth episode in the Braeden Wolf Short Story Collection.The first in the LiBREttO series of short stories by Crystin MorganEvery Friday afternoon four friends – Leah, Belle, Geeta and Effie – meet at the local hangout for women with impeccable nails, waiting-list handbags and banker husbands: Café Jamilla. They gossip, they giggle, they bitch, they lust after rainbow-coloured patisseries. And they drink coffee. But when Effie breaks the news that her boyfriend Rhys has asked her to marry him, the sight of her sparkling emerald engagement ring reminds Belle of an extraordinary tale she heard one booze-fuelled night some years ago. A tale of a third wife. A tale of an affair, a guilty conscience, a disappearance, a suspected murder and a desperate plan that couldn’t possibly work. Could it? A tale that’s ripe for a Hollywood treatment, the four women agree. With George Clooney playing the male lead, naturally.

Tim didn't exactly lie to me when he offered to help me achieve my impossible ambition. If I hadn't been dazzled by my dream, I'd have realized what I could be letting myself in for. He gave me a simple job that wasn't so simple. Herding cats is simple! All I ever wanted was to get to space! His simple job put me number 1 on the list of people earth wanted annihilated.Tim didn't exactly lie to me when he offered to help me achieve my impossible ambition. If I hadn't been dazzled by my dream, I'd have realized what I could be letting myself in for. He gave me a simple job that wasn't so simple. After all herding cats is simple! I never wanted to be a dictator. I never wanted to be the commander of a rag tag military defense force. I never wanted to be forced into a position where I could be considered a hero. All I ever wanted was to get to space! He didn't tell me that he'd help make me number one on the list of people that earth wanted annihilated.

July, 2021. For the better half of a century, the quiet village of Kentsburg, Mississippi has languished in the rural south, largely unknown to the outside world. When the electricity is knocked out following a series of mysterious flashing lights in the fields, several teens go to investigate. What they encounter are deadly machines that seem intended to keep them prisoners of the town.July, 2021. When the small town of Kentsburg, Mississippi finds itself cut off from the rest of the outside world following a terrible thunderstorm one evening, no one thinks much of it, although several teens can recall seeing flashing red lights on the horizon just before the power went out. The next morning, even stranger things begin to happen.Nobody's car will start, clocks are frozen, and all cell phones are mysteriously dead. Then come the circular drones that some farmers have started digging up in their fields--heavy devices which house a plethora of deadly weapons to kill anyone who interferes with them.In the days following the aftermath of what many refer to as "The Shock", an unlikely young antihero named Markus Huxley rises, eventually declaring himself de facto leader of a place henceforth known as "Burntown". Influenced only by his haunted past and an unusual penchant for fire, the future of those who remain in Kentsburg under his reign seems uncertain.With the town's older residents dying off, the younger teens soon turn to drugs and alcohol in order to cope. And so the parties rage on, even as the world has seen fit to end in fire...

Evilution is comprised of The Sacred Protocol, Divine Extinction and The Ice Wars of Dominia. The first is an alternate history, scifi thriller. Two pivotal events in history lead to the collapse of the internet. It becomes a race against time to prevent global implications of meltdown. Divine Extinction takes the story on. The threat of extinction is back, then total war looms in book three.Set in the urban area of Tokyo in the near future, the story revolves around Touka Kimizuki and her twin brother, Yuuto. Both of them are just like a typical 16-year old high schooler. But they're actually recruited by Public Security Intelligence Agency (PSIA) to become a secret agent due to their ability to kill skilled assassins while they were still in the middle school.Together with their father who is the Head of Special Activities Division in PSIA and his squad, they receive a mission to ensure the safety of the last remaining researcher for Transhuman Development Project, Dr. Nobuhiko Hayama. He's their only hope to unfold the mystery behind the other researchers' deaths.Little they know that their first encounter with Dr. Hayama leads to something they least expect. And this is just the beginning.

When his brother falls for a pretty face and unwittingly lets a threat on board, it is up to Konstantin to stop the hacker before it is too late. There's just one problem—Konstantin is the ship, with his brain hardwired to its systems. By attacking the ship's computer, the hacker is attacking him, and in order to gain complete control, she just might have to shut him down for good.Dorian Evergreen de Bernard Viallet est un nouveau recueil de nouvelles de l’auteur et le titre éponyme du premier texte de l’ouvrage.Neuf autres nouvelles le suivent. On y retrouve à chaque fois l’humour de Bernard Viallet et son esprit malicieux qui ne se laisse pas faire par le monde moderne et le critique efficacement dans une dérision jubilatoire.L’anticipation et le fantastique sont souvent représentés dans ces textes, aussi bien dans Dorian Evergreen dont le nom, on le devine, dévoile un clin d’œil au célèbre portrait de Dorian Gray d’Oscar Wilde, que dans les Thanatophores ou SOS MACHOS, qui évoquent respectivement le contrôle des naissances et l’euthanasie.Bernard Viallet se moque allègrement des contradictions de notre époque et nous entraîne à rire avec lui de celles-ci.Ces nouvelles, toujours très bien écrites, se dévorent copieusement. Elles se révèlent également éclectiques, lorsque l’auteur nous conte les aventures d’une vieille péripatéticienne en fin de carrière enlevée par un ancien client amoureux sous les yeux de son antique proxénète, où lorsqu’il dépeint l’univers glauque de deux « pointeurs » violeurs et assassins d’enfants pas du tout pénitents.Certains de ces écrits sont consultables sur le site de l’auteur.On ne peut que recommander la lecture de ces nouvelles très fraîches, à l’humour bien placé, qui affirment encore un peu plus le talent de leur auteur.

David Peatross is a man who has seen the best and worst that life has to offer. But when a jealous lover pushes him to his breaking point, he goes on the run. Tired of being hunted, he discovers a way to fight back, and is able to defeat those who would see him dead, but at the cost of himself. This is a short story in "The Chronicles of John Alkali".David Peatross is a man who has seen the best and worst that life has to offer. But when a jealous lover pushes him to his breaking point, he goes on the run. Tired of being hunted, he discovers a way to fight back, and is able to defeat those who would see him dead, but at the cost of himself.This is a short story in "The Chronicles of John Alkali".

With his disarmingly simple style and complex imagination, Ray Bradbury has seized the minds of American readers for decades.This collection showcases thirty-two of Bradbury's most famous tales in which he lays bare the depths of the human soul. The thrilling title story, A Sound of Thunder, tells of a hunter sent on safari -- sixty million years in the past. But all it takes is one wrong step in the prehistoric jungle to stamp out the life of a delicate and harmless butterfly -- and possibly something else much closer to home ...