What is perfection? Is perfection a state of mind? Is perfection a work of art? Or is perfection evolution? If you saw perfection, if you were to really witness it, could you turn your back on it?*Updated version - additional changes to follow*This novel explores the extent to which humanity is capable of harnessing its own destiny and the price to be paid for discovering ascension.What is perfection? Is perfection a state of mind? Is perfection a work of art? Or is perfection evolution? If you saw perfection, if you were to really witness it, could you turn your back on it?Newly updated with subsequent updates to follow.In a time not far from now George will discover what it really means to hold perfection. The dying Earth that is his home can no longer support the citizens that it had so patiently endured. The colonies of man lie plagued by a mysteries artefact and George will find that only he can offer the cure. On a journey that spans from the wastelands of Africa to the deserted remnants of the paradise of Ascension he will face a race against time to preserve what is left of humanity, and he will soon find that history often repeats itself. In a world free from moral distinctions George will find that it is the people closest to you that harbour the darkest secrets. What lies within the murky depths of Ascension is a secret too great to be revealed.

In one night a man learns the the depth of his anger.Triple Vision is the perfect title for this collection. The author sees life through the eyes of a philosopher, a painter, a poet. As a widely read student of philosophy she knows that, before finding answers to life's mysteries, the seeker must figure out the right questions. As a painter she finds beauty all around her and as a poet she wields language as artfully as she does her paintbrushes. Her stories are rich in exquisite imagery and deep with multi layers of meaning. The lens of her mind's eye is microscopic, telescopic and kalaidescopic and these stories will challenge you intellectually, stimulate you emotionally and delight all your senses.

After the fall of America, a prize fighter joins a small rebel squad to exact revenge.America has fallen. In its place: The United Society of Reason. After his mother is gunned down by USR Agents, prize fighter Ryan Kaspar, with the aid of his leftover trainer, joins a small rebel squad to exact revenge. John Paxton, ageing ex-Marine and leftover, leads the unit. He lives by the phrase "any means necessary" as his unit fights back in the hopes of inspiring the populace. They are hunted by the hot shot, up and coming Agent William Sullivan, who must battle his own inner demons in pursuit of justice. Filled with explosive action, political satire, and a hint of romance, REBELS & LIES is a thrill ride you don't want to miss!

‘Thrilling, intense. Readers of The Girl on the Train and Gone Girl will love Shalini Boland.’ Red Adept ‘Don’t take my baby.’ Kirstie Rawlings is jolted awake by a child crying. Racing upstairs to check on her new-born, she is plunged into every parents’ worst nightmare. She hears an unknown voice in the baby monitor, saying: ‘Let’s take the child – and go.’ Is someone trying to steal her little girl? In the bedroom, her daughter is safe asleep in her cot. Is the voice coming from a nearby house? But there aren’t any other babies living on her quiet country road… The police don't believe her. And neither does her husband. Kirstie knows something isn’t right. She thought she could trust her neighbours, now she isn’t sure. As she unravels the secrets of the people living on her street, Kirstie’s perfect life begins to fall apart. Because someone is hiding a terrible lie. And they will do anything to stop Kirstie uncovering the truth. But is the danger closer to home than she thinks?

Ten adventures started by a midnight excursion in New York, which move along in a lively, easy manner, with many ingenious and clever features.

Rule #1—Never go out after dark. Rule #2—Always carry a weapon. Rule #3—No matter what, never EVER get bit.The Highers run The Colony and accept nothing less than perfection. One slip up can mean death. Kayla has always worked hard to follow the rules and strive for perfection. But during a moment of weakness, she lets her imperfections show. Her punishment is worse than death.When the disease spread through the world, people had no choice but to go into hiding. The Colony is hidden deep underground, far away from the vampires—humans that were transformed by the disease. The vampires are hideous, starving, and they will kill any human they come across. Seventeen-year-old Kayla is a Bellator, a warrior that protects The Colony. In order to survive, there are three rules she must follow:Rule #1—Never go out after dark. Rule #2—Always carry a weapon. Rule #3—No matter what, never EVER get bit. But what happens when the rules Kayla has always lived by can no longer apply? The Highers run The Colony and accept nothing less than perfection. One slip up can mean death. Kayla has always worked hard to follow the rules and strive for perfection. But during a moment of weakness, she lets her imperfections show. Her punishment is worse than death. She is chosen for The Gathering and is thrown out into a world full of starving vampires. No one has ever survived The Gathering, at least that’s what Kayla’s been told. But when she runs into a group who insist they were once part of The Gathering, Kayla discovers the Highers have been keeping secrets. Secrets that could lead to a cure

In one horrifying night young Trevor will battle for his own immortal soul. Three nightmares, three warnings, one outcome. Animalize starts his journey into the world behind the veil. A world of demons, werewolves, and a small town in South Carolina with a rising body count. Who can reverse the curse from the past hungry for blood and souls?The town of Epson South Carolina had its pluses, like the crystal clear lake enjoyed by all, and its minuses such as its rising mutilated body count.It was the start of another summer and other than a few pranksters with a little too much time on their hands everything was quiet, until a herd of cattle was found torn to bloody pieces that is. A monster resurrected from Epson's dark forgotten past has clawed it's way from the depths of Hell to annihilate everyone and everything.Sheriff Frank Marshall may have discovered the origin of the beast, but can he tell anyone before coming face to face with it?Wendy Kinsington has unlocked the secrets of Epson's past, but can she do anything about the present?When the creature turns out to be one of there own they may have to give more than any of them are prepared to sacrifice. Do they kill a child to save the town; to save themselves?

A brand new SUV, a set of keys and a petty thief. Tower can't resist temptation when he illegally claims his dream vehicle and drives off into the night, only to get carjacked. The nightmare continues when he and the carjacker are followed by the police, and Tower has to decide which of the two he's more afraid of . . .Uncharted Frontier returns with our February-March 2014 issue! This is an Open Themed issue, so you will find creative works of all kinds within these pages. Richard Lawrence continues his incredible Merlin Saga!First time appearances by: Maurice R. Beaulieu III with his story, The Last Library in the WorldChristopher Barnes with his poem, Fun Not FairHolly Day with her story, Sam The RatJames Field with his story, Sluggish Bullet

Part 3 of the Last Enemy, where the world order unravels following the ill-managed prohibition of Telomerax in the public domain, that sparks revolts and conflict on a worldwide scale. The team of Louis Picard endures bitter losses, fighting to avoid the collapse of mankind triggered by the environmental disasters of war.“The last enemy to be destroyed shall be death”, wrote St. Paul in his letters. But what if someone has already managed to defeat it? Thirty-four years have gone by since an ingenious biochemist, named Louis Picard, invented the ultimate anti-aging drug in 1981, that is known as Telomerax. Louis was obliged to form a selected group of technology entrepreneurs, finance mavens, and secret service professionals to help strategically spread knowledge of the drug. The discovery of Telomerax carried obvious dangers with it, eventually leading to the collapse of society and the near-extinction of mankind, in the ruthless war that broke out. Survivors set out to design a new society, specially designed for the half-gods that individuals were becoming. An action-packed and thrilling apocalyptic novel, “The Last Enemy”, brings to light many issues that we face today, from the clash between the power of the state and the right of citizens, to respecting our limits and controlling the human drive to push ourselves beyond those very limits.

Life is way too short to sit around worrying and wondering what might have been. Sometimes you've just got to take control. This is a story of a man who did just that.Long, long ago, deep in the Burmese jungle—on the long eastern shore of what was to be called Lake Indawgyi but which was then named for Ei-vu, the spirit of long, sweet water—there lived two tribes:The Mera, and the Lasi.Their lands, as large as any among the scattered jungle peoples of their time, with the long lake as their western borders, also bordered each other, Lasi’s to Mera’s north and Mera’s to Lasi’s south.The Lasi and the Mera, for as far back as legend could reach, had always been mortal enemies, and so they remained.When Ea-pe created Thanai, the first man, this first man founded the Mera tribe. When Ea-pe created E-u, the first woman, she joined Thanai as his Mera bride and wife. This is what all Mera children were taught by their Yaj-Hate and his helpers.The Lasi children, on the other hand, were taught that all Lasi stem from Thanai and E-u who were the very first Lasis and who would ever be the father and mother of their tribe. This was so because Ea-pe himself was Lasi. So preached the Lasi Yaj-Hate and his helpers.The Mera children were also taught, over and over, that anyone who said that Thanai and E-u were not of the Mari tribe, or that they were not the founders of the Mari tribe—always referring to the Lasi, though not saying so openly—were evil and in the grim power of Bilu, the hungry ghost who cast no shadow and who ate children. It was a long-established and well-known fact among the Mera that all Lasi were under Bilu’s spell, and that many Lasi children were eaten by Bilu each year.Yes, so the Mera children were taught, and they were taught to be grateful that they were born Mera children and not Lasi children, or they might be dead and eaten by now.Were the Lasi to lay down their weapons and acknowledge the Mera as their betters, and were they to pay tribute to Mera’s excellence and superiority in all endeavors, then, perhaps, Bilu would stop eating Lasi children, but not before then.This is what the Mera children were taught.The Lasi children, however, all knew that all Meras were really nothing but Ngoyamas disguised as humans, cannibal demons that wished for nothing more than a sumptuous meal of Lasi child. And if they did not behave, the Meras would sneak into their village at night and carry them away for dinner.And so, back and forth, generation after generation, went the tribal teaching of their children.These children, whether Mera or Lasi, unless bitten and killed by vipers or other poisonous creatures, eventually grew up, all with both fear and hatred in their hearts, along with an unease at living so close to such evil enemies.And all male children, once grown—unless selected as Yaj-Hate helper, a great honor—took up weapons and protected their borders and maimed and killed their enemy as needed, and all female children grew up to have children of their own to whom they passed on these eternal lessons about the Lasi or the Mera.There was another tale, one whispered among those whose will to fight had begun to fade, a tale frowned upon by the Yaj-Hates of both tribes, a tale that told that when Ea-pe created the world and all beings in it, Thanai and E-u were neither Lasi nor Mera, but of another tribe so ancient that no one can remember its name. But these were just ramblings of the too-old-to-fight. Or so said the both the Lasi and the Mera Yaj-Hates. Don’t listen to these fools. They know nothing. And they will soon walk the path, anyway.

Brad Norton, a young barrister at the Sydney Bar, watches helplessly as a lying cop sends his client to prison. He gets a chance for revenge when defending a client accused of murder. To save his client, he must expose the dirty cop and finger the true killer in the middle of the trial. That will require a glittering display of forensic cunning. Is he up to the job? He will soon find out.Claws and whiskers! A spirit of uncertainty and unrest has settled upon the Cougar village. Cheshire Cougar, the brave and noble Marquis of Cougars, has been brought back from the Battle of Eastern Pass on a travois. The leader of the Cougar clan has lost his ability to smell out those enslaved to the dragon and the Council is scared. Just as the residents of the forest valley are adjusting to the return of the Marquis of Cougars, Cheshire turns the social world upside down by appointing Nurse Leana Longclaw to be his assistant and second in command. Will Cheshire be able to battle his inner demons? Will Leana be able to face her fears? Or will an accidental trip to the human realm make them lose the battle to confession?

Five feet two inches of slick repartee, near-purple hair, and poetic imagination, twenty-year-old Rune hasn't been in Manhattan for very long. But she's crafty enough to have found a squatter's paradise in an empty TriBeCa loft, and a video store job that feeds her passion for old movies. It's a passion she shares with her favorite customer, Mr. Kelly, a lonely old man who rents the same video over and over. The flick is a noir classic based on a real-life unsolved bank heist and a million missing dollars. It's called **Manhattan Is My Beat**. That's the tape Rune is picking up from Mr. Kelly's shabby apartment when she finds him shot to death. The police suspect a robbery gone wrong, but Rune is certain the key to solving the murder is hidden somewhere in the hazy, black-and-white frames of Mr. Kelly's beloved movie. But as Rune hits the mean streets of New York to find answers, she gets caught up in a dangerous adventure more chilling than anything Hollywood could dream up. As her story draws to its terrifying conclusion, Rune's final close-up may include the killer of a co-star. *From the Paperback edition.*

Steve Berry's first ever eBook exclusive short story finds an adventurer in a strange and forbidding land, in search of a long lost treasure, and very much in harm's way. As a favor to enigmatic billionaire Henrik Thorvaldsen, Cassiopeia Vitt treks into Bulgaria's Rila mountains in search of a buried stash of exceedingly rare artifacts from a bygone civilization: the ancient tomb of a Thracian king. But when her presence is discovered by a shadowy group of Russians secretly mining the area, she needs a way out. Who to trust becomes the question, and her life depends on choosing the right option. Includes a sneak-preview of the Cotton Malone thrillers The Emperor's Tomb and The Columbus Affair.

From a bestselling Italian author comes a sharply observed new mystery set in the seedy underworld of 1970s Milan Giorgio Faletti's first thriller, I Kill, took Europe by storm, selling over five million copies. The Corriere della Sera, Italy's leading newspaper, crowned him "the greatest Italian writer." In 2010, with the explosive publication of A Pimp's Notes, Faletti won international celebrity as a writer of world-class, tightly wound, psychologically nuanced thrillers. It's 1978. Italy has just been shocked by the kidnapping of the politician Aldo Moro by the left-leaning terrorist group the Red Brigades. In Milan, the upper class continues to amuse itself in luxury restaurants, underground clubs, and cabarets. This is Bravo's milieu. Enigmatic and cynical, Bravo makes his living catering to the tastes, fantasies, and fetishes of the wealthy and depraved. When the mysterious Carla enters his life, what begins as a clandestine romance quickly becomes a nightmare that will transform Bravo into a man wanted by the police, by organized crime, and even by the Red Brigades. As the web around him tightens, Bravo will be forced to confront the violence of the times in which he lives as well as his own connections to the political and criminal networks that control contemporary Italy.

A mysterious wooden box leads Albert on an extraordinary and terrifying adventure into a strange labyrinth deep beneath the city streets.When Albert Cross finds a mysterious wooden box waiting for him in the driver’s seat of his locked car, he has no idea that it will lead him on an extraordinary and terrifying adventure. With the help of his lab partner, Brandy, he begins unraveling the puzzle of the box, but each clue they solve leads only to more questions as they piece together a map of the complex, subterranean system that lies beneath Briar Hills, Missouri…and the strange and deadly labyrinth hidden deep within. Will they be able to discover the meaning behind the box? Or will the endless darkness and the things that lurk unseen within these walls swallow them forever?52,000 words. Adult Content. Dark Adventure, Suspense, Mystery.