Craig's bookshelf: all en-US Fri, 02 May 2025 09:58:46 -0700 60 Craig's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Dark Diamond (A Time's Shadow #1)]]> 225175023
Captain Blite knows that someone, or something, is trying to kill him. But a device he possesses, known only as the dark diamond, won't let that happen. After surviving a series of catastrophic accidents and assassination attempts, Blite realizes that whenever he dies the dark diamond reverses time to a moment before his death. He must go through the traumatic experience again and again until he escapes. .

Every encounter Blite survives generates a time flash which reveals potential futures. This extraordinary phenomenon attracts the attention of Polity agents and the crab-like p-Prador who wish to acquire this power for themselves. Hunted across space and time, Blite must uncover the true nature of the dark diamond before it causes his destruction . . . .]]> 696 Neal Asher 1645060993 Craig 0 currently-reading 4.69 2025 Dark Diamond (A Time's Shadow #1)
author: Neal Asher
name: Craig
average rating: 4.69
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Polar Star (Arkady Renko, #2) 16042013 Gorky Park, Arkady Renko has made too many enemies and now he toils in obscurity on a huge Russian fishing-factory ship in the middle of the Bering Sea.

But when a young female crew member is picked up dead with the day's catch, Renko is asked to investigate. He becomes obsessed with the case and once again discovers more than he wants to know and certainly more than he bargained for . . . a case as chilling and gripping as his previous adventure.

]]> 402 Martin Cruz Smith Craig 0 currently-reading 4.28 1989 Polar Star (Arkady Renko, #2)
author: Martin Cruz Smith
name: Craig
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/01
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Gorky Park (Arkady Renko #1) 36414507 here

It begins with a triple murder in a Moscow amusement three corpses found frozen in the snow, faces and fingers missing. Chief homicide investigator Arkady Renko is brilliant, sensitive, honest, and cynical about everything except his profession. To identify the victims and uncover the truth, he must battle the KGB, FBI, and the New York City police as he pursues a rich, ruthless, and well-connected American fur dealer. Meanwhile, Renko is falling in love with a beautiful, headstrong dissident for whom he may risk everything.

A wonderfully textured, vivid look behind the Iron Curtain, Gorky Park is a tense, atmospheric, and memorable crime story. “Once one gets going, one doesn’t want to stop…The action is gritty, the plot complicated, and the overriding quality is intelligence� ( The Washington Post ). The first in a classic series, Gorky Park “reminds you just how satisfying a smoothly turned thriller can be� ( The New York Times Book Review ).]]> 386 Martin Cruz Smith Craig 5 4.11 1981 Gorky Park (Arkady Renko #1)
author: Martin Cruz Smith
name: Craig
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1981
rating: 5
read at: 2025/05/01
date added: 2025/05/01
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Drop of Corruption (Shadow of the Leviathan, #2)]]> 213681682 The brilliant detective Ana Dolabra may have finally met her match in the gripping sequel to The Tainted Cup--from the bestselling author of The Founders Trilogy.

In the canton of Yarrowdale, at the very edge of the Empire’s reach, an impossible crime has occurred. A Treasury officer has disappeared into thin air—abducted from his quarters while the door and windows remained locked from the inside, in a building whose entrances and exits are all under constant guard.

To solve the case, the Empire calls on its most brilliant and mercurial investigator, the great Ana Dolabra. At her side, as always, is her bemused assistant Dinios Kol.

Before long, Ana’s discovered that they’re not investigating a disappearance, but a murder—and that the killing was just the first chess move by an adversary who seems to be able to pass through warded doors like a ghost, and who can predict every one of Ana’s moves as though they can see the future.

Worse still, the killer seems to be targeting the high-security compound known as the Shroud. Here, the Empire's greatest minds dissect fallen Titans to harness the volatile magic found in their blood. Should it fall, the destruction would be terrible indeed--and the Empire itself will grind to a halt, robbed of the magic that allows its wheels of power to turn.Ěý

Din has seen Ana solve impossible cases before. But this time, with the stakes higher than ever and Ana seemingly a step behind their adversary at every turn, he fears that his superior has finally met an enemy she can’t defeat.]]> 432 Robert Jackson Bennett 059372383X Craig 5 4.64 2025 A Drop of Corruption (Shadow of the Leviathan, #2)
author: Robert Jackson Bennett
name: Craig
average rating: 4.64
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/22
date added: 2025/04/22
shelves:
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]]> Welcome to Punktown 58858079 VERTICES - A human woman is unnerved by a sudden wave of not-fully-human refugees into Punktown, especially when their presence begins to touch upon her own family. THE WEDDING GOWN - The Usumil people have three biological sexes, and marriage rituals that might seem strange -- even deadly -- to human colonists of Punktown. THE TRANSPORTED - Malo L'Orange is an addict, and the dealer of a strange drug he creates himself from the living cells of the Usumil people -- the same race his former lover belongs to -- a drug that seems to transport one's mind to the bizarre home world of the Usumil.]]> 61 Jeffrey Thomas Craig 0 4.05 2021 Welcome to Punktown
author: Jeffrey Thomas
name: Craig
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2025/04/14
date added: 2025/04/14
shelves:
review:

]]> Quiller 13035267 265 Adam Hall 1625780931 Craig 5 4.20 1985 Quiller
author: Adam Hall
name: Craig
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1985
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/13
date added: 2025/04/13
shelves:
review:

]]> Agent to the Stars 8144620
So getting humanity’s trust is a challenge. The Yherajk need someone who can help them close the deal.

Enter Thomas Stein, who knows something about closing deals. He’s one of Hollywood’s hottest young agents. But although Stein may have just concluded the biggest deal of his career, it’s quite another thing to negotiate for an entire alien race. To earn his percentage this time, he’s going to need all the smarts, skills, and wits he can muster.]]> 348 John Scalzi Craig 5 4.14 2004 Agent to the Stars
author: John Scalzi
name: Craig
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/08
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves:
review:

]]> The Automatic Detective 6572125 From the award-winning author of Gil's All Fright Diner comes a fantastic sci-fi mystery read The Automatic DetectiveEven in Empire City, a town where weird science is the hope for tomorrow, it's hard for a robot to make his way. It's even harder for a robot named Mack Megaton, a hulking machine designed to bring mankind to its knees. But Mack's not interested in world domination. He's just a bot trying to get by, trying to demonstrate that he isn't just an automated smashing machine, and to earn his citizenship in the process. It should be as easy as crushing a tank for Mack, but some bots just can't catch a break.When Mack's neighbors are kidnapped, Mack sets off on a journey through the dark alleys and gleaming skyscrapers of Empire City. Along the way, he runs afoul of a talking gorilla, a brainy dame, a mutant lowlife, a little green mob boss, and the secret conspiracy at the heart of Empire's founders---not to mention more trouble than he bargained for. What started out as one missing family becomes a battle for the future of Empire and every citizen that calls her home.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 318 A. Lee Martinez Craig 5 4.18 2008 The Automatic Detective
author: A. Lee Martinez
name: Craig
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/05
date added: 2025/04/05
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]]> Quiller: The Scorpion Signal 19200774
Things start to go wrong immediately, as the truck carrying Quiller across the border into Russia is sabotaged, and not long after he arrives in Moscow, he is taken to Lubyanka Prison. Subsequent to his escape Quiller continues his hunt for the fellow agent. What he finds reveals a level of treachery unsuspected, and as the stakes are raised, as Quiller is in a race with time to stop an incident that could lead to World War III.

Praise for THE SCORPION SIGNAL:
"Exciting, full of tension."
- The New York Times

"Adam Hall doesn't let his fans down."
- Publishers Weekly

Praise for the QUILLER Series:

"For fans and students of the genre, it's a must � pure adrenaline!"
- The Chicago Times

"Hall has been turning out Quiller novels, each one a winner, for years. Over the years, the character has grown in eccentricity, depth and appeal."
- The Chicago Tribune

"Hall has created a new form: the spy thriller that is all action and yet cerebral, a writing feat few can match � Hall delivers!"
- The Boston Globe

"Riveting and taut � you won't be disappointed!"
- The Denver Post

"Quiller is one of suspense literature's great secret agents!"
- The Houston Chronicle

"Thrilling."
- The Los Angeles Times

"They don't get any tougher or more intelligent than the Quiller tales."
- The Rocky Mountain News

"Quiller is by now a primary reflex."
- Kirkus Reviews

"Tense, intelligent, harsh, surprising..."
- The New York Times

(Quiller is) "the greatest survival expert among contemporary secret agents."
- The New York Times

"Stunningly well done, tense, elliptical, without a misplaced word."
- The New York Republic

"Espionage at its best!"
- The London Times

"Breathless entertainment!"
- The Associated Press

"White-hot intensity."
- The Washington Post

Praise for ADAM HALL:

"Tension in a novel is difficult to maintain at a pitch that actually creates a physical impact on the reader. A few of the best writers can do it, and among them is Adam Hall."
- London Times Literary Supplement

"Nobody writes espionage better than Adam Hall!"
- The New York Times

"When it comes to espionage fiction, Adam Hall has no peer."
- Eric Van Lustbader, author of "The Ninja"

"[Adam Hall] is the unchallenged king of the spy story."
- Buffalo News

"Adam Hall is an exemplary writer and one of the few in this genre to do his job with a poet's skill and fierce pride in the language."
- The Hong Kong Times

"Adam Hall writes the most exciting, original and authentic espionage novels to be found on bookshelves today."
- The Banner

"Few writers handle action as excitingly as Hall..."
- The Houston Chronicle

"A Master.]]> 257 Adam Hall 1625780397 Craig 5 4.26 1980 Quiller: The Scorpion Signal
author: Adam Hall
name: Craig
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1980
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/31
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[AI Valley: Microsoft, Google, and the Trillion-Dollar Race to Cash In on Artificial Intelligence]]> 215526692 A veteran Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist shadows the top thinkers in the field of Artificial Intelligence, introducing the breakthroughs and developments that will change the way we live and work.

Artificial Intelligence has been “just around the cornerâ€� for decades, continuallyĚýdisappointing those who long believed in its potential. But now, with the emergence and growing use of ChatGPT, Gemini, and a rapidly multiplying number of other AI tools, many are Has AI’s moment finally arrived?

In AI Valley, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Rivlin brings us deep into the world of AI development in Silicon Valley. Over the course of more than a year, Rivlin closely follows founders and venture capitalists trying to capitalize on this AI moment. That includes LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, the legendary investor whom the Wall Street Journal once called, “the most connected person in Silicon Valley.�

Through Hoffman, Rivlin is granted access to a number of companies on the cutting-edge of AI research, such as Inflection AI, the company Hoffman cofounded in 2022, and OpenAI, the San Francisco-based startup that sparked it all with its release at the end of that year of ChatGPT. In addition to Hoffman, Rivlin introduces us to other AI experts, including OpenAI cofounder Sam Altman and Mustafa Suleyman, the co-founder of DeepMind, an early AI startup that Google bought for $650 Ěýmillion in 2014. Rivlin also brings readers inside Microsoft, Meta, Google and other tech giants scrambling to keep pace.

On this vast frontier, no one knows which of these companies will hit it big–or which will flame out spectacularly. In this riveting narrative marbled with familiar names such as Musk, Zuckerberg, and Gates, Rivlin chronicles breakthroughs as they happen, giving us a deep understanding of what’s around the corner in AI development. An adventure story full of drama and unforgettable personalities, AI Valley promises to be the definitive story for anyone seeking to understand the latest phase of world-changing discoveries and the minds behind them.


]]> 318 Gary Rivlin 0063347504 Craig 0 currently-reading 4.50 AI Valley: Microsoft, Google, and the Trillion-Dollar Race to Cash In on Artificial Intelligence
author: Gary Rivlin
name: Craig
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/27
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[Darker Worlds: A Trio of Nightmarish Stories (The Jeffrey Thomas Chapbook Series 5)]]> 52712363
THE VANISHING SNAKE - In this direct sequel to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Adventure of the Speckled Band," that story's Helen Stoner returns to 221B Baker Street to relate to Sherlock Holmes that not only was the adventure not yet finished...but that occult forces may have been at work all along.

DIRTY DESK - The Pearsons are a bored suburban couple who pursue ever more extreme means of satisfying their desires...but when they turn to murder, the act might just open the door to a darkness they never even dreamed of.

THE MAYOR OF EPHEMERA - In a strange world not our own, the inhabitants of a strange little town have decided that they have reached the ultimate state of satisfaction: permanent sleep. But one person rebels against their philosophy. One person who refuses to stay asleep.

From Jeffrey Thomas, the author of Punktown.
]]> 60 Jeffrey Thomas Craig 0 3.89 2019 Darker Worlds: A Trio of Nightmarish Stories (The Jeffrey Thomas Chapbook Series 5)
author: Jeffrey Thomas
name: Craig
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2025/03/27
date added: 2025/03/27
shelves:
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]]> The Fourth Consort 211397254 A new standalone sci-fi novel from Edward Ashton, author of Mickey7 (the inspiration for the major motion picture Mickey 17).

Dalton Greaves is a hero. He’s one of humankind’s first representatives to Unity, a pan-species confederation working to bring all sentient life into a single benevolent brotherhood.

That’s what they told him, anyway. The only actual members of Unity that he’s ever met are Boreau, a giant snail who seems more interested in plunder than spreading love and harmony, and Boreau’s human sidekick, Neera, who Dalton strongly suspects roped him into this gig so that she wouldn’t become the next one of Boreau’s crew to get eaten by locals while prospecting.

Funny thing, though—turns out there actually is a benevolent confederation out there, working for the good of all life. They call themselves the Assembly, and they really don’t like Unity. More to the point, they really, really don’t like Unity’s new human minions.

When an encounter between Boreau’s scout ship and an Assembly cruiser over a newly discovered world ends badly for both parties, Dalton finds himself marooned, caught between a stickman, one of the Assembly’s nightmarish shock troops, the planet’s natives, who aren’t winning any congeniality prizes themselves, and Neera, who might actually be the most dangerous of the three. To survive, he’ll need to navigate palace intrigue, alien morality, and a proposal that he literally cannot refuse, all while making sure Neera doesn’t come to the conclusion that he’s worth more to her dead than alive.

Part first contact story, part dark comedy, and part bizarre love triangle, The Fourth Consort asks an important how far would you go to survive? And more importantly, how many drinks would you need to go there?]]> 304 Edward Ashton Craig 5 4.26 2025 The Fourth Consort
author: Edward Ashton
name: Craig
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/25
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves:
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]]> The Android's Dream 6661288 From New York Times bestseller and Hugo Award-winner John Scalzi, a wild-and-woolly caper novel of interstellar diplomacyA human diplomat creates an interstellar incident when he kills an alien diplomat in a most . . . unusual . . . way. To avoid war, Earth's government must find an equally unusual a type of sheep ("The Android's Dream"), used in the alien race's coronation ceremony.To find the sheep, the government turns to Harry Creek, ex-cop, war hero and hacker extraordinare, who, with the help of a childhood friend turned artificial intelligence, scours the earth looking for the rare creature. But there are others with plans for the sheep as well. Mercenaries employed by the military. Adherents of a secret religion based on the writings of a 21st century SF author. And alien races, eager to start a revolution on their home world and a war on Earth.To keep our planet from being enslaved, Harry will have to pull off a grand diplomatic coup, a gambit that will take him from the halls of power to the lava-strewn battlefields of alien worlds. There's only one chance to get it right, to save the life of the sheep—and to protect the future of humanity.Other Tor BooksThe Android’s DreamAgent to the StarsYour Hate Mail Will Be GradedFuzzy NationRedshirts1. Lock In2. Head OnThe Interdepency Sequence1. The Collapsing Empire2. The Consuming FireOld Man's War Series1. Old Man’s War2. The Ghost Brigades3. The Last Colony4. Zoe’s Tale5. The Human Division6. The End of All ThingsAt the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 398 John Scalzi Craig 5 4.20 2006 The Android's Dream
author: John Scalzi
name: Craig
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/19
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves:
review:

]]> The Coming of the Old Ones 52732445
AROUND THE CORNER - A man whose parents raised him in a cult suspects the new tenants in his apartment complex belong to a similar cult, and are summoning up powers that will change the world...and not for the betterment of humankind.

AFTER THE FALL - Around the world, after a great storm the sky becomes filled with the fossilized remains of vast monsters locked in an ancient conflict, leaving humans to interpret this vision and to consider their own humble existence.

SCRIMSHAW - In this alternate history story set in 1851, men in seafaring ships do not harvest whale blubber, but seek strange treasures in the bodies of immense alien creatures.

From Jeffrey Thomas -- the author of Punktown.
]]> 62 Jeffrey Thomas Craig 5 3.75 2019 The Coming of the Old Ones
author: Jeffrey Thomas
name: Craig
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/14
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Uncanny Valley: A Trio of Disquieting Stories (The Jeffrey Thomas Chapbook Series 4)]]> 52544887
UNCANNY VALLEY - A salesman is given a tour of a sex doll factory, where the products may be more than simply life-like.

STRANGER IN THE HOUSE - A factory worker whose mother is dying begins to truly understand the impermanence of all human flesh, and identity -- his own included.

SLICED BREAD - The Caudata Effect is a recent mutation that allows human beings to regenerate damaged cells quickly...a development taken advantage of by a near future totalitarian society.

From Jeffrey Thomas, the author of Punktown.
]]> 52 Jeffrey Thomas Craig 0 3.86 2019 Uncanny Valley: A Trio of Disquieting Stories (The Jeffrey Thomas Chapbook Series 4)
author: Jeffrey Thomas
name: Craig
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2025/03/13
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Quiller: The Sinkiang Executive]]> 12733960 243 Adam Hall 1625781008 Craig 5 4.27 1978 Quiller: The Sinkiang Executive
author: Adam Hall
name: Craig
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1978
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/12
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Conventional Boy (Laundry Files #13)]]> 211635123
Decades later Derek, now middle-aged and institutionalized, is a long-term inmate at Camp Sunshine, a center for deprogramming captured Elder God cultists. He’s considered safe enough to edit the camp newsletter, and he even has postal privileges � which he uses to run a play-by-mail game. After 25 years, Derek finally has reason to escape: a nearby D&D convention. While Derek’s D&D games were full of fictional elder gods and world-ending threats, a LARP game at the con is a dread ritual designed to summon a great evil into our world, and it’s up to Derek and his players to stop them.

The fate of the world may depend on the contents of Derek’s magic dice bag.]]> 0 Charles Stross 125035787X Craig 5 4.32 2025 A Conventional Boy (Laundry Files #13)
author: Charles Stross
name: Craig
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/09
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Flesh for Punktown: A Trio of Dark Science Fiction Stories (The Jeffrey Thomas Chapbook Series 3)]]> 52203024
OPEN MINDED - H. P. Lovecraft's "Mi-Go" feature in this story about a secretive alien race and the conscience-stricken human technician who's working for them.

TRANSFORMATION - A young woman working in a brothel that caters to jaded rich people with extreme tastes asks a flesh artist to turn her into...a werewolf.

SACRED MEAT - A man obsessed with an alien actress in adult movies tracks her down to an exclusive club where the darkest of fantasies are fulfilled.]]> 58 Jeffrey Thomas Craig 0 3.98 2019 Flesh for Punktown: A Trio of Dark Science Fiction Stories (The Jeffrey Thomas Chapbook Series 3)
author: Jeffrey Thomas
name: Craig
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2025/03/06
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves:
review:

]]> Quiller: The Kobra Manifesto 20635822
When the daughter of a the U.S. Department of Defense chief is taken hostage in the steamy jungles of Brazil, Quiller again puts his life on the line in a battle of nerves with the terrorists, ultimately in a plane with a bomb next to him set to go off in 3 minutes.

Another novel that reveals the author's ability to maintain edge-of-the-seat tension and describe distant locations in colorful, visceral ways.

Quiller remains one of the most fascinating, complex and enigmatic characters in literature, and each Quiller novel gives the reader more insight into this brilliant, conflicted, and solitary man.

Praise for the QUILLER Series:

"For fans and students of the genre, it's a must � pure adrenaline!"
- The Chicago Times

"Hall has been turning out Quiller novels, each one a winner, for years. Over the years, the character has grown in eccentricity, depth and appeal."
- The Chicago Tribune

"Hall has created a new form: the spy thriller that is all action and yet cerebral, a writing feat few can match � Hall delivers!"
- The Boston Globe

"Riveting and taut � you won't be disappointed!"
- The Denver Post

"Quiller is one of suspense literature's great secret agents!"
- The Houston Chronicle

"Thrilling."
- The Los Angeles Times

"They don't get any tougher or more intelligent than the Quiller tales."
- The Rocky Mountain News

"Quiller is by now a primary reflex."
- Kirkus Reviews

"Tense, intelligent, harsh, surprising..."
- The New York Times

(Quiller is) "the greatest survival expert among contemporary secret agents."
- The New York Times

"Stunningly well done, tense, elliptical, without a misplaced word."
- The New York Republic

"Espionage at its best!"
- The London Times

"Breathless entertainment!"
- The Associated Press

"White-hot intensity."
- The Washington Post

Praise for ADAM HALL:

"Tension in a novel is difficult to maintain at a pitch that actually creates a physical impact on the reader. A few of the best writers can do it, and among them is Adam Hall."
- London Times Literary Supplement

"Nobody writes espionage better than Adam Hall!"
- The New York Times

"When it comes to espionage fiction, Adam Hall has no peer."
- Eric Van Lustbader, author of "The Ninja"

"[Adam Hall] is the unchallenged king of the spy story."
- Buffalo News

"Adam Hall is an exemplary writer and one of the few in this genre to do his job with a poet's skill and fierce pride in the language."
- The Hong Kong Times

"Adam Hall writes the most exciting, original and authentic espionage novels to be found on bookshelves today.]]> 284 Adam Hall 1625780583 Craig 5 4.38 1976 Quiller: The Kobra Manifesto
author: Adam Hall
name: Craig
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1976
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/06
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Nights in Punktown: A Trio of Dark Science Fiction Stories (The Jeffrey Thomas Chapbook Series 2)]]> 52064535
DRAPED IN FLESH - An alienated young woman develops a strange bond with the wreckage of an organic space vessel that has come to rest on the roof of her apartment building.

OUT OF NOTHING - Ex nihilo is the latest must-have toy, so sought after that the citizens of Punktown even resort to deadly extremes to acquire it.

LITTLE WING - A black market dealer supplies a client with a most unusual item: a mummy from an extinct, winged race...in which weird properties still live on.
]]> 59 Jeffrey Thomas Craig 5 3.94 2019 Nights in Punktown: A Trio of Dark Science Fiction Stories (The Jeffrey Thomas Chapbook Series 2)
author: Jeffrey Thomas
name: Craig
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/01
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Big Empty (Elvis Cole and Joe Pike #20)]]> 201750163 Private investigator Elvis Cole and his enigmatic partner, Joe Pike, face a cryptic case and a terrifying, unpredictable killer in this twisty, satisfying thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Robert Crais.

Traci Beller was thirteen when her father disappeared in the sleepy town of Rancha, not far from Los Angeles. The evidence says Tommy Beller abandoned his family, but Traci never believed it. The police couldn't find her dad and neither could the detectives her mother hired, but now, ten years later, Traci is a super-popular influencer with millions of followers and the money to hire a new detective: Elvis Cole.

Taking on a ten-years-cold missing person case is almost always a loser, but Elvis heads to Rancha where he learns an ex-con named Sadie Givens and her daughter, Anya, might have a line on the missing man. But when Elvis finds himself shadowed by a deadly gang of vicious criminals, the simple missing persons case becomes far more sinister and dangerous. Elvis calls in his ex-Marine friend, Joe Pike, to help, but even Pike might not be able to help.

As Elvis Cole and Joe Pike follow Tommy Beller's trail into the twisted, nightmare depths of a monstrous evil, the case flips on its head. Victims become predators, predators become prey, and when everyone is a victim, can Elvis Cole save them all?

In a case that tests Elvis Cole's loyalty to his clients and himself, the truth must come out no matter the cost. Elvis must face The Big Empty and see justice done.]]> 373 Robert Crais 0525535799 Craig 0 4.55 2025 The Big Empty (Elvis Cole and Joe Pike #20)
author: Robert Crais
name: Craig
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/28
date added: 2025/02/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Summoning of the Old Ones: A Three-Part Lovecraftian Tale (The Jeffrey Thomas Chapbook Series 6)]]> 49687512 80 Jeffrey Thomas Craig 5 4.22 2019 The Summoning of the Old Ones: A Three-Part Lovecraftian Tale (The Jeffrey Thomas Chapbook Series 6)
author: Jeffrey Thomas
name: Craig
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/24
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves:
review:

]]> The Exploded Soul 209566354
On the icy moon Titania, in orbit around Uranus, research has been underway with the aid of a beetle-like alien race to develop interplanetary teleportation that would replace the use of spaceships. However, an explosion at the research base has killed many of the staff...and that isn’t the worst of the problem. Since the explosion, strange beings and creatures have mysteriously begun appearing at the base.

Captain Robert Fuseli, a surgeon and experienced soldier, is called in to investigate. What he discovers about these dangerous arrivals shocks the researchers, and most shocking of all is the possibility that if the anomaly isn’t solved, there may be no end to the number of monstrous beings materializing on Titania.

The Exploded Soul is a thrilling blend of science fiction and horror, from the acclaimed author of the Punktown series.]]> 204 Jeffrey Thomas Craig 5 4.12 2024 The Exploded Soul
author: Jeffrey Thomas
name: Craig
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/22
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves:
review:

]]> Quiller: The Mandarin Cypher 19385775
Quiller must swim through waters in Chinese territory, barely surviving underwater assaults, to get aboard a ship guarding what looks like an oil rig but is far more deadly. To achieve his mission and survive, Quiller's martial arts skills, including underwater combat, and his ability to outwit his enemies are brought into full play.
Called by The New York Times "the greatest survival expert among contemporary secret agents," THE MANDARIN CYPHER shows Quiller in top form -- and reveals a bit more about this complex, intense, brilliant and solitary character.

Praise for the QUILLER Series:

"For fans and students of the genre, it's a must � pure adrenaline!"
- The Chicago Times

"Hall has been turning out Quiller novels, each one a winner, for years. Over the years, the character has grown in eccentricity, depth and appeal."
- The Chicago Tribune

"Hall has created a new form: the spy thriller that is all action and yet cerebral, a writing feat few can match � Hall delivers!"
- The Boston Globe

"Riveting and taut � you won't be disappointed!"
- The Denver Post

"Quiller is one of suspense literature's great secret agents!"
- The Houston Chronicle

"Thrilling."
- The Los Angeles Times

"They don't get any tougher or more intelligent than the Quiller tales."
- The Rocky Mountain News

"Quiller is by now a primary reflex."
- Kirkus Reviews

"Tense, intelligent, harsh, surprising..."
- The New York Times

(Quiller is) "the greatest survival expert among contemporary secret agents."
- The New York Times

"Stunningly well done, tense, elliptical, without a misplaced word."
- The New York Republic

"Espionage at its best!"
- The London Times

"Breathless entertainment!"
- The Associated Press

"White-hot intensity."
- The Washington Post

Praise for ADAM HALL:

"Tension in a novel is difficult to maintain at a pitch that actually creates a physical impact on the reader. A few of the best writers can do it, and among them is Adam Hall."
- London Times Literary Supplement

"Nobody writes espionage better than Adam Hall!"
- The New York Times

"When it comes to espionage fiction, Adam Hall has no peer."
- Eric Van Lustbader, author of "The Ninja"

"[Adam Hall] is the unchallenged king of the spy story."
- Buffalo News

"Adam Hall is an exemplary writer and one of the few in this genre to do his job with a poet's skill and fierce pride in the language."
- The Hong Kong Times

"Adam Hall writes the most exciting, original and authentic espionage novels to be found on bookshelves today."
- The Banner

"Few writers handle action as excitingly as Hall..."
- The Houston Chronicle

"A Master. One never doubts the reality of every page he writes.]]> 214 Adam Hall 1625780125 Craig 5 4.31 1975 Quiller: The Mandarin Cypher
author: Adam Hall
name: Craig
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1975
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/19
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves:
review:

]]> Cage of Souls 53948812 The sun is bloated, diseased, dying perhaps. Beneath its baneful light, Shadrapar, last of all cities, harbours fewer than 100,000 human souls. Built on the ruins of countless civilisations, Shadrapar is a museum, a midden, an asylum, a prison on a world that is ever more alien to humanity.

Bearing witness to the desperate struggle for existence between life old and new is Stefan Advani: rebel, outlaw, prisoner, survivor. This is his testament, an account of the journey that took him into the blazing desolation of the western deserts; that transported him east down the river and imprisoned him in the verdant hell of the jungle's darkest heart; that led him deep into the labyrinths and caverns of the underworld. He will meet with monsters, madman, mutants.

The question is, which one of them will inherit this Earth?

]]> 645 Adrian Tchaikovsky Craig 5 4.34 2019 Cage of Souls
author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Craig
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/14
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left]]> 214229728 ĚýA “devastatingâ€� (Nation) examination of how a cabal of tech-billionaires is colluding with once-idealistic journalists to create an entirely new media landscape

Owned is the story of the underreported and growing collusion between new wealth and new journalism. In recent years, right-wing billionaires like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and David Sacks have turned to media as their next investment and source of influence. Their cronies are Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi—once known as idealistic and left-leaning voices, now beneficiaries of Silicon Valley largesse. Together, this new alliance aims to exploit the failings of traditional journalism and undermine the very idea of an independent and fact-based fourth estate.

Owned examines how this shift has allowed spectacularly wealthy reactionaries to pursue their ultimate goal of censoring critics so to further their own business interests—and personal vendettas—entirely unimpeded while also advancing a toxic and antidemocratic ideology.

A rich history of the decades-long rise of this new right-wing alternative media takeover, Owned follows the money, names names, and offers a chilling portrait of a future social media and news landscape. It is a biting exposé of journalistic greed, tech-billionaire ambition, and a lament for a disappearing free press.
Ěý±Ő±Ő> 245 Eoin Higgins 1645030482 Craig 0 3.70 Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left
author: Eoin Higgins
name: Craig
average rating: 3.70
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/08
date added: 2025/02/08
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Ipcress File: A Harry Palmer Novel]]> 161040843
With its sardonic, cool, working-class hero, Len Deighton’s sensational debut and first bestseller The IPCRESS File broke the mold of thriller writing and became the defining novel of 1960s London.]]> 267 Len Deighton 0802161642 Craig 5 3.68 1962 The Ipcress File: A Harry Palmer Novel
author: Len Deighton
name: Craig
average rating: 3.68
book published: 1962
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/07
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves:
review:

]]> The Masquerades of Spring 219150056
That is, until his old friend Thomas Nightingale arrives, pursuing a rather mysterious affair concerning an old saxophone—which will take Gussie from his warm bed, to the cold shores of Long Island, and down to the jazz clubs where music, magic, and madness haunt the shadows…]]> 159 Ben Aaronovitch 1645242129 Craig 5 4.50 2024 The Masquerades of Spring
author: Ben Aaronovitch
name: Craig
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves:
review:

]]> Quiller: The Tango Briefing 19263568
"Hall's most extravagant yet."
- Time Magazine, on QUILLER: THE TANGO BRIEFING

Praise for the QUILLER Series:

"For fans and students of the genre, it's a must � pure adrenaline!"
- The Chicago Times

"Hall has been turning out Quiller novels, each one a winner, for years. Over the years, the character has grown in eccentricity, depth and appeal."
- The Chicago Tribune

"Riveting and taut � you won't be disappointed!"
- The Denver Post

"Quiller is one of suspense literature's great secret agents!"
- The Houston Chronicle

"Thrilling."
- The Los Angeles Times

"They don't get any tougher or more intelligent than the Quiller tales."
- The Rocky Mountain News

"Quiller is by now a primary reflex."
- Kirkus Reviews

"Tense, intelligent, harsh, surprising..."
- The New York Times

(Quiller is) "the greatest survival expert among contemporary secret agents."
- The New York Times

"Stunningly well done, tense, elliptical, without a misplaced word."
- The New York Republic

"Espionage at its best!"
- The London Times

"Breathless entertainment!"
- The Associated Press

"White-hot intensity."
- The Washington Post

Praise for ADAM HALL:

"Tension in a novel is difficult to maintain at a pitch that actually creates a physical impact on the reader. A few of the best writers can do it, and among them is Adam Hall."
- London Times Literary Supplement

"Nobody writes espionage better than Adam Hall!"
- The New York Times

"When it comes to espionage fiction, Adam Hall has no peer."
- Eric Van Lustbader, author of "Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Dominion"

"[Adam Hall] is the unchallenged king of the spy story."
- Buffalo News

"Adam Hall is an exemplary writer and one of the few in this genre to do his job with a poet's skill and fierce pride in the language."
- The Hong Kong Times

"Adam Hall writes the most exciting, original and authentic
espionage novels to be found on bookshelves today."
- The Banner

"Few writers handle action as excitingly as Hall..."
- The Houston Chronicle

author bio:
Elleston Trevor’s novels, plays, and short stories range from light, witty mysteries to dramas, usually about ordinary individuals experiencing extraordinary situations. To cover a wide diversity of subject matter Elleston wrote under various pseudonyms: Adam Hall, Trevor Burgess, Roger Fitzalan, Simon Rattray, Mansell Black, Caesar Smith, Howard North, Warwick Scott, and even a woman’s name, Leslie Stone. Elleston is best known for his classic, The Flight of the Phoenix, and for his nineteen novels about a spy named Quiller.]]> 282 Adam Hall Craig 5 4.31 1973 Quiller: The Tango Briefing
author: Adam Hall
name: Craig
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1973
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/30
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Gravity Lost (Ambit's Run, #2)]]> 198112160 L. M. Sagas follows her fast-paced sci-fi adventure Cascade Failure with an equally explosive sequel, Gravity Lost. Everyone's favorite fierce, messy, chaotic space fam is back with more vibrant worlds, and the wildest crew since Guardians of the Galaxy.

After thwarting a space station disaster and planetary destruction, the Ambit crew thought turning Isaiah Drestyn over to the Union would be the end of their troubles. Turns out, it’s only the start.

Drestyn is a walking encyclopedia of dirty secrets, and everyone wants a piece of him—the Trust, the Union, even the Guild. Someone wants him bad enough to kill, and with the life of one of their own on the line, the Ambit crew must jail-break the very man they helped capture and expose some of the secrets he’s been keeping before it’s too late.

In the Spiral, everything has a price. In their fight to protect what they love, Eoan, Nash, Saint, and Jal will confront some ugly truths about their enemies, and even uglier truths about their friends. But nothing will come close to the truths they’ll learn about themselves.

You can’t always fix what’s broken � and sometimes, it’s better that way.



Ambit's Run
Cascade Failure


At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 392 L.M. Sagas 1250871298 Craig 5 4.43 2024 Gravity Lost (Ambit's Run, #2)
author: L.M. Sagas
name: Craig
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/25
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[End Game First: A Leadership Strategy for Navigating a Crisis]]> 197006491
Whether you're a crisis pro or just starting out, "End Game First" will change your game. It's not just a book; it's your ticket to emerging stronger from any challenge.

Like financial management and project planning, crisis navigation is a skill vital for survival, sustainability, and—most importantly—success. No one knows this better than Mike LeFever and Roderick Jones. LeFever is a retired Vice Admiral with leadership experience in high-risk security environments. Jones is a former member of Scotland Yard’s Special Branch and a recognized expert in the security industry. Together they translate their unique experiences in military and corporate life into a framework for navigating crises and anticipating next steps before conflict becomes unsurvivable.

"End Game First" isn't your typical theoretical read. It's packed with real-world case studies that offer practical, battle-tested insights. It's about rolling up your sleeves and getting the job done.

In End Game First, you’ll learn how to select a dynamic team, leverage capabilities, and utilize communication principles that stand the test of time. This is your playbook for moving past the perceived inevitable and embracing growth, no matter what comes your way.]]> 198 Mike LeFever 1544527551 Craig 5 4.38 End Game First: A Leadership Strategy for Navigating a Crisis
author: Mike LeFever
name: Craig
average rating: 4.38
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/20
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Not Till We Are Lost (Bobiverse #5)]]> 222457771
But it all pales compared to what Icarus and Daedalus discover on their 26,000-year journey to the center of the galaxy. Sure, it could settle the Fermi Paradox for good (and what Bob doesn’t want to solve a mystery of the universe?). But it also reveals a threat to the galaxy greater than anything the Bobs could have imagined.

Just another average day in the Bobiverse.]]> 413 Dennis E. Taylor 1680683454 Craig 5 4.49 2024 Not Till We Are Lost (Bobiverse #5)
author: Dennis E. Taylor
name: Craig
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/19
date added: 2025/01/19
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Thousand Names (The Shadow Campaigns, #1)]]> 17307117
Captain Marcus d’Ivoire, commander of one of the Vordanai empire’s colonial garrisons, was resigned to serving out his days in a sleepy, remote outpost. But that was before a rebellion upended his life. And once the powder smoke settled, he was left in charge of a demoralized force clinging tenuously to a small fortress at the edge of the desert.

To flee from her past, Winter Ihernglass masqueraded as a man and enlisted as a ranker in the Vordanai Colonials, hoping only to avoid notice. But when chance sees her promoted to command, she must win the hearts of her men and lead them into battle against impossible odds.

The fates of both these soldiers and all the men they lead depend on the newly arrived Colonel Janus bet Vhalnich, who has been sent by the ailing king to restore order. His military genius seems to know no bounds, and under his command, Marcus and Winter can feel the tide turning. But their allegiance will be tested as they begin to suspect that the enigmatic Janus’s ambitions extend beyond the battlefield and into the realm of the supernatural—a realm with the power to ignite a meteoric rise, reshape the known world, and change the lives of everyone in its path.]]> 529 Django Wexler 1101609516 Craig 5 4.13 2013 The Thousand Names (The Shadow Campaigns, #1)
author: Django Wexler
name: Craig
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/01/18
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Spy Hook: A Bernard Samson Novel]]> 214294988 290 Len Deighton 0802161146 Craig 5 4.59 1988 Spy Hook: A Bernard Samson Novel
author: Len Deighton
name: Craig
average rating: 4.59
book published: 1988
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/08
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Days of Shattered Faith (The Tyrant Philosophers #3)]]> 210836150 Welcome to Alkhalend, Jewel of the Waters, capital of Usmai, greatest of the Successor States, inheritor to the necromantic dominion that was the Moeribandi Empire and tomorrow's frontline in the Palleseen's relentless march to bring Perfection and Correctness to an imperfect world.

Loret is fresh off the boat, and just in time.

As Cohort-Invigilator of Correct Appreciation, Outreach department, she's here as aide to the Palleseen Resident, Sage-Invigilator Angilly. And Sage-Invigilator Angilly � Gil to her friends � needs a second in the spectacularly illegal, culturally offensive and diplomatically inadvisable duel she must fight at midnight.

Outreach, that part of the Pal machine that has to work within the imperfection of the rest of the world, has a lot of room for the illegal, the unconventional, the unorthodox. But just how much unorthodoxy can Gil and Loret get away with?

As a succession crisis looms, as a long-forgotten feat of necromantic engineering nears fruition, as pirate kings, lizard armies and demons gather, as old gods wane and new gods wax, sooner or later Gil and Loret will have to settle their ledger.

Just as well they are both very, very good with a blade�

THE TYRANT PHILOSOPHERS SERIES
'Endlessly creative . . . so much invention peeking around every corner - Patrick Ness
'Dense, dark, ingenious, ironic, complex, often funny, and always smart' Locus
'A master at the height of his powers. This is epic symphonic fantasy, weaving a breakneck plot through a sumptuously dangerous world' Ian Green]]> 576 Adrian Tchaikovsky 103590151X Craig 5 4.62 2024 Days of Shattered Faith (The Tyrant Philosophers #3)
author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Craig
average rating: 4.62
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/14
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves:
review:

]]> Wool - Holston (Wool, #1) 12287209
Or you'll get what you wish for.]]> 56 Hugh Howey Craig 5 4.14 2012 Wool - Holston (Wool, #1)
author: Hugh Howey
name: Craig
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves:
review:

]]> Quiller: The Warsaw Document 45312999
Quiller is instructed by his secret unit within the British government to go to Warsaw in disguise, learn more about the forces at work and try to diffuse the situation. A young novice with uncertain loyalties is assigned to travel with him. They arrive in Warsaw in the dead of winter. Quiller must walk a fine line between diplomacy and deception as he mingles with both the Polish rebel underground with their d-day for overthrowing the Russian-controlled government, and those in power, with their own secret plans to wipe out all those involved in the resistance.

The fourth novel in the series, all narrated by Quiller, called by The New York Times “the greatest survival expert among contemporary secret agents�.

“Adam Hall is an exemplary writer and one of the few in this genre to do his job with a poet's skill and fierce pride in the language.�
- The Hong Kong Times

Praise for the QUILLER Series:

“For fans and students of the genre, it's a must � pure adrenaline!�
- The Chicago Times

“Hall has been turning out Quiller novels, each one a winner, for years. Over the years, the character has grown in eccentricity, depth and appeal.�
- The Chicago Tribune

“Hall has created a new form: the spy thriller that is all action and yet cerebral, a writing feat few can match � Hall delivers!�
- The Boston Globe

“Quiller is one of suspense literature's great secret agents!�
- The Houston Chronicle

“Tłó°ůľ±±ô±ôľ±˛Ô˛µ.â€�
- The Los Angeles Times

“They don't get any tougher or more intelligent than the Quiller tales.�
- The Rocky Mountain News

“Quiller is by now a primary reflex.�
- Kirkus Reviews

“Tense, intelligent, harsh, surprising…�
- The New York Times

(Quiller is) “the greatest survival expert among contemporary secret agents.�
- The New York Times

“Stunningly well done, tense, elliptical, without a misplaced word.�
- The New York Republic

“Espionage at its best!�
- The London Times

“Breathless entertainment!�
- The Associated Press

“White-hot intensity.�
- The Washington Post

“� one gets the feeling that this is the way real espionage is conducted.�
- San Francisco Chronicle

“A brilliant and exciting ride into spydom.�
- Chicago Daily News

Praise for ADAM HALL:

“Tension in a novel is difficult to maintain at a pitch that actually creates a physical impact on the reader. A few of the best writers can do it, and among them is Adam Hall.�
- London Times Literary Supplement

“Nobody writes espionage better than Adam Hall� Tense and suspenseful, at every moment.�
- The New York Times

“When it comes to espionage fiction, Adam Hall has no peer.�
- Eric Van Lustbader, author of “The Ninja�

“The unchallenged king of the spy story.]]> 219 Adam Hall Craig 5 4.26 1971 Quiller: The Warsaw Document
author: Adam Hall
name: Craig
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1971
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/06
date added: 2025/01/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dark Pattern (The Naturalist, #4)]]> 43875794 Dr. Theo Cray is on the hunt for a killer nurse, and redemption, in a mind-bending psychological thriller by the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Naturalist.

Dr. Theo Cray has a legendary mathematical knack for catching serial killers. Until his exposure to a mind-altering pathogen knocks him off his game. It has upended an investigation, destroyed his reputation, and left him to question his own sanity. One person still trusts him to finish the job. His former professor Amanda Paulson is helping point Cray down a logical path to his a nomadic health-care worker whose murder spree stretches back decades and whose victims number in the hundreds.

Never more desperate to save innocent lives, and to save himself, Cray follows each new lead around the world. But with his own grip on reality slipping away, Cray knows that to follow the pattern of an elusive killer, he must also confront his own dark side. In those dangerous shadows, he can find what he’s hunting. For Cray, venturing into a world without reason is going to be the most frightening journey of his life.]]> 319 Andrew Mayne 1542092558 Craig 0 currently-reading 4.21 2019 Dark Pattern (The Naturalist, #4)
author: Andrew Mayne
name: Craig
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Exodus: The Archimedes Engine 205774097 Explore EXODUS, a new sci-fi action-adventure RPG coming soon from Archetype Entertainment featured in this epic novel from legendary author Peter F. Hamilton.
Ěý
Forty thousand years ago, humanity fled a dying Earth. Traveling in massive arkships, these brave pioneers spread out across the galaxy to find a new home. After traveling thousands of light-years, one fleet of arkships arrived at Centauri, a dense cluster of stars with a vast array of potentially habitable planets. The survivors of Earth signaled to the remaining arkships that humanity had finally found its new home among the stars.

Thousands of years later, the Centauri Cluster has flourished. The original settlers have evolved into advanced beings known as Celestials and divided themselves into powerful Dominions. One of the most influential is that of the Crown Celestials, an alliance of five great houses that controls vast areas of Centauri. As arkships continue to arrive, the remaining humans and their descendants must fight for survival against overwhelming odds or be forced into serving the Crown Dominion.

Among those yearning for a better life is Finn, for whom Earth is not a memory but merely a footnote from humanity’s ancient history. Born on one of the Crown Dominion worlds, Finn has known nothing but the repressive rule of the Celestials, though he dreams of the possibility of boundless space beyond his home.

When another arkship from Earth, previously thought lost, unexpectedly arrives, Finn sees his chance to embrace a greater destiny and become a Traveler—one of a group of brave heroes dedicated to ensuring humanity’s future by journeying into the vast unknown of distant space.]]> 912 Peter F. Hamilton 0593357671 Craig 5 4.49 2024 Exodus: The Archimedes Engine
author: Peter F. Hamilton
name: Craig
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/03
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves:
review:

]]> Guns of the Dawn 208156601 The first casualty of war is truth . . .

First, Denland’s revolutionaries assassinated their king, launching a wave of bloodshed after generations of peace. Next they clashed with Lascanne, their royalist neighbour, pitching war-machines against warlocks in a fiercely fought conflict.

Genteel Emily Marshwic watched as the hostilities stole her family’s young men. But then came the call for yet more Lascanne soldiers in a ravaged kingdom with none left to give. Emily must join the ranks of conscripted women and march toward the front lines.

With barely enough training to hold a musket, Emily braves the savage reality of warfare. But she begins to doubt her country's cause, and those doubts become critical. For her choices will determine her own future and that of two nations locked in battle.]]> 668 Adrian Tchaikovsky 0230770053 Craig 5 4.38 2015 Guns of the Dawn
author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Craig
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Quiller: The Striker Portfolio]]> 19147094
"For fans and students of the genre, it's a must � pure adrenaline!"
- The Chicago Times

"When it comes to espionage fiction, Adam Hall has no peer."
- Eric Van Lustbader, author of "THE BOURNE DOMINIUM"

"Hall has been turning out Quiller novels, each one a winner, for years. Over the years, the character has grown in eccentricity, depth and appeal."
- The Chicago Tribune

"Riveting and taut � you won't be disappointed!"
- The Denver Post

"Quiller is one of suspense literature's great secret agents!"
- The Houston Chronicle

"Thrilling."
- The Los Angeles Times

"They don't get any tougher or more intelligent than the Quiller tales."
- The Rocky Mountain News

"Quiller is by now a primary reflex."
- Kirkus Reviews

"Tense, intelligent, harsh, surprising..."
- The New York Times

(Quiller is) "the greatest survival expert among contemporary secret agents."
- The New York Times

"Stunningly well done, tense, elliptical, without a misplaced word."
- The New York Republic

"Espionage at its best!"
- The London Times

"Breathless entertainment!"
- The Associated Press

"White-hot intensity."
- The Washington Post

Praise for ADAM HALL:

"Tension in a novel is difficult to maintain at a pitch that actually creates a physical impact on the reader. A few of the best writers can do it, and among them is Adam Hall."
- London Times Literary Supplement

"Nobody writes espionage better than Adam Hall!"
- The New York Times

"[Adam Hall] is the unchallenged king of the spy story."
- Buffalo News

"Adam Hall is an exemplary writer and one of the few in this genre to do his job with a poet's skill and fierce pride in the language."
- The Hong Kong Times

"Adam Hall writes the most exciting, original and authentic espionage novels to be found on bookshelves today."
- The Banner

"Few writers handle action as excitingly as Hall..."
- The Houston Chronicle]]> 197 Adam Hall 1625781016 Craig 5 4.39 1968 Quiller: The Striker Portfolio
author: Adam Hall
name: Craig
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1968
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/25
date added: 2024/12/25
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Cascade Failure (Ambit's Run #1)]]> 126918225
Branded a Guild deserter, Jal "accidentally" lands a ride on a Guild ship. Helmed by an AI, with a ship's engineer/medic who doesn't see much of a difference between the two jobs, and a "don't make me shoot you" XO, the Guild crew of the Ambit is a little . . . different.

They're also in over their heads. Responding to a distress call from an abandoned planet, they find a mass grave, and a live programmer who knows how it happened. The Trust has plans. This isn't the first dead planet, and it's not going to be the last.

Unless the crew of the Ambit can stop it.]]> 412 L.M. Sagas Craig 5 4.09 2024 Cascade Failure (Ambit's Run #1)
author: L.M. Sagas
name: Craig
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/19
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves:
review:

]]> Quiller: The Ninth Directive 44596071
The assassin is clever, and succeeds in misleading Quiller. It is now a race for time between the assassin's brilliant plan and Quiller's ability to avert disaster.

“Tough and suspenseful� with a distinctly noir-ish edge.�
- The Independent

“A model of breathless entertainment.�
- The New Yorker

(Adam Hall is) “A master of adventure.�
- The New York Times

“A fine tale, beautifully plotted.�
- The New York Times

Praise for the QUILLER Series:

“For fans and students of the genre, it's a must � pure adrenaline!�
- The Chicago Times

“Hall has been turning out Quiller novels, each one a winner, for years. Over the years, the character has grown in eccentricity, depth and appeal.�
- The Chicago Tribune

“Hall has created a new form: the spy thriller that is all action and yet cerebral, a writing feat few can match � Hall delivers!�
- The Boston Globe

“Quiller is one of suspense literature's great secret agents!�
- The Houston Chronicle

“Tłó°ůľ±±ô±ôľ±˛Ô˛µ.â€�
- The Los Angeles Times

“They don't get any tougher or more intelligent than the Quiller tales.�
- The Rocky Mountain News

“Quiller is by now a primary reflex.�
- Kirkus Reviews

“Tense, intelligent, harsh, surprising…�
- The New York Times

(Quiller is) “the greatest survival expert among contemporary secret agents.�
- The New York Times

“Stunningly well done, tense, elliptical, without a misplaced word.�
- The New York Republic

“Espionage at its best!�
- The London Times

“Breathless entertainment!�
- The Associated Press

“White-hot intensity.�
- The Washington Post

“� one gets the feeling that this is the way real espionage is conducted.�
- San Francisco Chronicle

“A brilliant and exciting ride into spydom.�
- Chicago Daily News

Praise for ADAM HALL:

“Tension in a novel is difficult to maintain at a pitch that actually creates a physical impact on the reader. A few of the best writers can do it, and among them is Adam Hall.�
- London Times Literary Supplement

“Nobody writes espionage better than Adam Hall� Tense and suspenseful, at every moment.�
- The New York Times

“When it comes to espionage fiction, Adam Hall has no peer.�
- Eric Van Lustbader, author of “The Ninja�

“The unchallenged king of the spy story.]]> 189 Adam Hall Craig 5 4.04 1966 Quiller: The Ninth Directive
author: Adam Hall
name: Craig
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1966
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/12
date added: 2024/12/12
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Armageddon Protocol (The Galactic Cold War, #4)]]> 196834215 The fourth and final book in The Galactic Cold War series sees Simon Kovalic and his crew on another life threatening adventure.

On the heels of the terrorist attacks on the planet Nova’s capital, the Special Projects Team finds itself targeted by the ambitious new head of the Commonwealth Intelligence Directorate, Aidan Kester. When Kovalic and General Adaj are arrested on charges of treason, Tapper, Brody, Sayers, and Taylor are forced to go on the run. While Kovalic and the general attempt to uncover an Illyrican mole within the Commonwealth’s intelligence apparatus, it’s up to the rest of the team to clear their friends� names, even if that means making a deal with an old enemy to carry out a daring heist that might just get them all killed.]]> 381 Dan Moren 1915998018 Craig 5 4.39 The Armageddon Protocol (The Galactic Cold War, #4)
author: Dan Moren
name: Craig
average rating: 4.39
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/08
date added: 2024/12/08
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]]> The Day of the Jackal 59336632 #1 New York Times bestselling author Frederick Forsyth’s unforgettable novel of a conspiracy, a killer, and the one man who can stop him�

He is known only as “The Jackal”—a cold, calculating assassin without emotion, or loyalty, or equal. He’s just received a contract from an enigmatic employer to eliminate one of the most heavily guarded men in the world—Charles De Gaulle, president of France.

It is only a twist of fate that allows the authorities to discover the plot. They know next to nothing—only that the assassin is on the move. To track him, they dispatch their finest detective, Claude Lebel, on a manhunt that will push him to his limit, in a race to stop an assassin’s bullet from reaching its target.
]]> 434 Frederick Forsyth Craig 5 4.42 1971 The Day of the Jackal
author: Frederick Forsyth
name: Craig
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1971
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/04
date added: 2024/12/04
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]]> The New God: A Punktown Novel 220478927 AS IF THE OLD ONES WEREN'T ENOUGH OF A THREAT...

In the far future, in the crime-ridden city its citizens call Punktown, dangerous cults work to summon the monstrous Old Ones from their long sleep. In an effort to better understand these alien gods, a rogue scientist has been working on a computer-generated model of a composite being that he calls Yogthutu.

However, Yogthutu has been taking on a life of its own.

As the researcher’s experiments go dangerously awry, a number of his friends—led by a conscience-stricken gangster named Colin Rex—rush against time to find the researcher’s lab, shut down his experiments, and stop Yogthutu before the New God brings about the destruction of the entire city.

A thrilling blend of Lovecraftian horror and science fiction, The New God is the latest installment in Jeffrey Thomas� popular Punktown series.]]> 221 Jeffrey Thomas Craig 5 4.70 The New God: A Punktown Novel
author: Jeffrey Thomas
name: Craig
average rating: 4.70
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/27
date added: 2024/11/27
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]]> <![CDATA[The Quiller Memorandum (Quiller, #1)]]> 44314859 232 Adam Hall Craig 5 3.99 1965 The Quiller Memorandum (Quiller, #1)
author: Adam Hall
name: Craig
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1965
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/24
date added: 2024/11/24
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]]> Rose/House 136241569
Basit Deniau’s houses were haunted to begin with.

A house embedded with an artificial intelligence is a common thing: a house that is an artificial intelligence, infused in every load-bearing beam and fine marble tile with a thinking creature that is not human? That is something else altogether. But now Deniau’s been dead a year, and Rose House is locked up tight, as commanded by the architect’s will: all his possessions and files and sketches are confined in its archives, and their only keeper is Rose House itself. Rose House, and one other.

Dr. Selene Gisil, one of Deniau’s former protégé, is permitted to come into Rose House once a year. She alone may open Rose House’s vaults, look at drawings and art, talk with Rose House’s animating intelligence all she likes. Until this week, Dr. Gisil was the only person whom Rose House spoke to.

But even an animate intelligence that haunts a house has some failsafes common to all AIs. For instance: all AIs must report the presence of a dead body to the nearest law enforcement agency.

There is a dead person in Rose House. The house says so. It is not Basit Deniau, and it is not Dr. Gisil. It is someone else. Rose House, having completed its duty of care and informed Detective Maritza Smith of the China Lake police precinct that there is in fact a dead person inside it, dead of unnatural causes—has shut up.

No one can get inside Rose House, except Dr. Gisil. Dr. Gisil was not in North America when Rose House called the China Lake precinct. But someone did. And someone died there. And someone may be there still.]]> 110 Arkady Martine Craig 5 3.93 2023 Rose/House
author: Arkady Martine
name: Craig
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/11/24
date added: 2024/11/20
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]]> <![CDATA[The Waiting (Renée Ballard, #6)]]> 206125098 LAPD Detective Renée Ballard tracks a terrifying serial rapist whose trail has gone cold with the help of the newest volunteer to the Open-Unsolved Patrol Officer Maddie Bosch, Harry's daughter.

Renée Ballard and the LAPD's Open-Unsolved Unit get a hot shot DNA connection between a recently arrested man and a serial rapist and murderer who went quiet twenty years ago. The arrested man is only twenty-three, so the genetic link must be familial. It is his father who was the Pillowcase Rapist, responsible for a five-year reign of terror in the city of angels. But when Ballard and her team move in on their suspect, they encounter a baffling web of secrets and legal hurdles.

Meanwhile, Ballard's badge, gun, and ID are stolen-a theft she can't report without giving her enemies in the department the ammunition they need to end her career as a detective. She works the burglary alone, but her solo mission leads her into greater danger than she anticipates. She has no choice but to go outside the department for help, and that leads her to the door of Harry Bosch.

Finally, Ballard takes on a new volunteer to the cold case unit. Bosch's daughter Maddie wants to supplement her work as a patrol officer on the night beat by investigating cases with Ballard. But Renée soon learns that Maddie has an ulterior motive for getting access to the city's library of lost souls.

***

CRIME DOESN'T COME BETTER THAN 'The pre-eminent detective novelist of his generation' IAN RANKIN 'The best mystery writer in the world' GQ 'A superb natural storyteller' LEE CHILD 'A master' STEPHEN KING 'America's greatest living crime writer' DAILY EXPRESS 'One of the great storytellers of crime fiction' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH]]> Michael Connelly 0316563811 Craig 5 4.55 2024 The Waiting (Renée Ballard, #6)
author: Michael Connelly
name: Craig
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/17
date added: 2024/11/17
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]]> World Walkers 214099322


As a totalitarian Inspectorate tightens its grip, one man discovers the power to slip through the gaps and traverse alternate universes. World Walkers by Neal Asher is an exhilarating standalone novel set within the Owner Trilogy.



Ottanger is a rebel and mutant on an Earth governed by a ruthless Committee. But after its Inspectorate experiments on him, Ottanger realizes the mutation allows him to reach alternate worlds. The multiverse is revealed in all its glory and terror—and he understands that he can finally flee his timeline.



Then Ottanger meets the Fenris, an evolved human, visiting his Earth from the far future. He’d engineered the original world walking mutation, so those altered could escape the Committee’s nightmarish regime. Yet this only worked for a few, and millions continued to suffer. And Ottanger sees that that Committee will become unstoppable if not destroyed.



However, the Fenris has drawn yet another threat to Ottanger’s Earth. With the power of its trillion linked minds, it craves world-walking biotech and will do anything to get it. As conflict looms at home, and war threatens the multiverse—the Fenris, Ottanger and his companions must prepare for a galaxy-altering battle. . .]]> 660 Neal Asher 1645060985 Craig 5 4.24 World Walkers
author: Neal Asher
name: Craig
average rating: 4.24
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/13
date added: 2024/11/13
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]]> <![CDATA[Empower Your Nonprofit: Simple Ways to Co-Create with AI for Profound Impact]]> 221243726 Your complete guide to AI in the nonprofit sector

Empower Your Simple Ways to Co-Create with AI for Profound Impact is a comprehensive, accessible, and highly practical guide to harnessing the power of emerging AI technologies in the nonprofit sector. This book delivers strategic research, tools, case studies, and advice to help nonprofits advance their missions through AI, with interviews, outlooks, testimonials, and quotes from nonprofit leaders and influencers in the AI industry delivering key insight to all readers regardless of technical expertise.

Readers will learn how to practically resolve the top 10 most common nonprofit pain points through the utilization of AI, backed by current case studies of AI implementation for core nonprofit functions like fundraising, grants, marketing, and initiative event optimization. In this book, readers will find information

The nonprofit sector's critical missions, success factors, challenges, and needs of today AI as a way to automate inefficient internal processes, freeing talent to work on more inspired projects Tools, tips, and tricks to get started with AI as soon as today Empower Your Simple Ways to Co-Create with AI for Profound Impact earns a well-deserved spot on the bookshelves of all nonprofit leaders and involved donors seeking a comprehensive step-by-step guidebook on how this exciting new technology can be leveraged for greater nonprofit success.]]> 237 Amy Neumann 1394263252 Craig 0 currently-reading 0.0 Empower Your Nonprofit: Simple Ways to Co-Create with AI for Profound Impact
author: Amy Neumann
name: Craig
average rating: 0.0
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/09
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> Island Reich 56649194 July 1940. As Britain braces itself for invasion, ex-Tommy and safecracker Bill O'Hagan is glad to have escaped the battlefield. But when a job goes wrong, he finds himself forced to serve his country once more.

A former king.
Spurned by his government and fearing for his life, the Duke of Windsor flees to Portugal with the woman for whom he abdicated the throne, Wallis Simpson. As a web of Nazi trickery threatens to ensnare him, his fate and the fate of Britain rest on one man.

The fate of a nation in their hands . . .
Dropped on an occupied Channel Island without backup, Bill must crack an enemy safe and get its contents to safety. Failure will devastate any hope Britain has of winning the war.

But with the layers of deception and intrigue drawing ever more tightly around them, Bill and the Duke both learn they aren't the only players in this game.

And Berlin - which has the Duke in its own sights - is plotting its greatest move yet . . .]]> 533 Jack Grimwood Craig 5 4.09 2021 Island Reich
author: Jack Grimwood
name: Craig
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/03
date added: 2024/11/03
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]]> <![CDATA[Midnight and Blue (Inspector Rebus #25)]]> 209201086 John Rebus spent his life as a detective putting Edinburgh’s most deadly criminals behind bars.Now, he’s going to join themâ€� In this tense, gripping game of cat and mouse, the â€lodestone of the crime genre' (Financial Times) returns to his much-loved creation, the inimitable John Rebus, as he faces a case unlike any other...]]> 332 Ian Rankin 0316474118 Craig 5 4.39 2024 Midnight and Blue (Inspector Rebus #25)
author: Ian Rankin
name: Craig
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/29
date added: 2024/10/29
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]]> <![CDATA[Murder Theory (The Naturalist, #3)]]> 38314066 The desire to kill is becoming contagious in this riveting novel of conceivable mad science by the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Naturalist.

Computational biologist and serial-killer hunter Dr. Theo Cray receives an off-the-record request from the FBI to investigate an inexplicable double homicide. It happened at the excavation site where a murderer had buried his victims� remains. In custody is a forensic technician in shock, with no history of aggression. He doesn’t remember a thing. His colleagues don’t even recognize the man they thought they knew. But an MRI reveals something peculiar. And abnormal.

What on earth made him commit murder?

After discovering that a mysterious man has been stalking crime scenes and stealing forensic data, Cray has a radical and terrifying theory. Now he must race against time to find a darker version of himself: a scientist with an obsession in pathological behavior who uses his genius not to catch serial killers—but to create them.]]> 314 Andrew Mayne 1503959341 Craig 5 4.25 2019 Murder Theory (The Naturalist, #3)
author: Andrew Mayne
name: Craig
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/24
date added: 2024/10/24
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]]> Reliquary (Pendergast, #2) 8150097 At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.]]> 487 Douglas Preston Craig 3 4.22 1997 Reliquary (Pendergast, #2)
author: Douglas Preston
name: Craig
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1997
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/10/23
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]]> Alien Clay 199851460
On the distant world of Kiln lie the ruins of an alien civilization. It’s the greatest discovery in humanity’s spacefaring history � yet who were its builders and where did they go?

Professor Arton Daghdev had always wanted to study alien life up close. Then his wishes become a reality in the worst way. His political activism sees him exiled from Earth to Kiln’s extrasolar labour camp. There, he’s condemned to work under an alien sky until he dies.

Kiln boasts a ravenous, chaotic ecosystem like nothing seen on Earth. The monstrous alien life interacts in surprising, sometimes shocking ways with the human body, so Arton will risk death on a daily basis. However, the camp’s oppressive regime might just kill him first. If Arton can somehow escape both fates, the world of Kiln holds a wondrous, terrible secret. It will redefine life and intelligence as he knows it, and might just set him free . . .]]> 416 Adrian Tchaikovsky 0316578983 Craig 5 4.23 2024 Alien Clay
author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Craig
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/21
date added: 2024/10/21
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]]> The Bright Sword 201751543
They aren’t the heroes of legend, like Lancelot or Gawain. They’re the oddballs of the Round Tables, from the edges of the stories, like Sir Palomides, the Saracen Knight and Sir Dagonet, Arthur’s fool, who was knighted as a joke. They’re joined by Nimue, who was Merlin’s apprentice until she turned on him and buried him under a hill. Together this ragtag fellowship will set out to rebuild Camelot in a world that has lost its balance.

But Arthur’s death has revealed Britain’s fault lines. God has abandoned it, and the fairies and monsters and old gods are returning, led by Arthur’s half-sister Morgan le Fay. Kingdoms are turning on each other, warlords are laying siege to Camelot, and rival factions are forming around the disgraced Lancelot and the fallen Queen Guinevere. It is up to Collum and his companions to reclaim Excalibur, solve the mysteries of this ruined world and make it whole again. But before they can restore Camelot they’ll have to learn the truth of why the lonely, brilliant King Arthur fell and lay to rest the ghosts of his troubled family and of Britain’s dark past.]]> 688 Lev Grossman 0735224056 Craig 5 4.18 2024 The Bright Sword
author: Lev Grossman
name: Craig
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/16
date added: 2024/10/16
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]]> <![CDATA[I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom]]> 204193039 A standalone darkly humorous thriller set in modern America's age of anxiety, by New York Times bestselling author Jason Pargin.

Outside Los Angeles, a driver pulls up to find a young woman sitting on a large black box. She offers him $200,000 cash to transport her and that box across the country, to Washington, DC.

But there are rules:

He cannot look inside the box.
He cannot ask questions.
He cannot tell anyone.
They must leave immediately.
He must leave all trackable devices behind.

As these eccentric misfits hit the road, rumors spread on social media that the box is part of a carefully orchestrated terror attack intended to plunge the USA into civil war.

The truth promises to be even stranger, and may change how you see the world.]]> 393 Jason Pargin 1250285968 Craig 5 4.13 2024 I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom
author: Jason Pargin
name: Craig
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/06
date added: 2024/10/06
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]]> Bang Bang Bodhisattva 75328087 An edgy, queer cyberpunk detective mystery by an exciting new trans voice from New Zealand.

Someone wants trans girl hacker-for-hire Kiera Umehara in prison or dead—but for what? Failing to fix their smart toilet? Ěý

It’s 2032 and we live in the worst cyberpunk future. Kiera is gigging her ass off to keep the lights on, but her polycule’s social score is so dismal they’re about to lose their crib. That’s why she's out here chasing cheaters with Angel Herrera, a luddite P.I. who thinks this is The Big Sleep. Then the latest job cuts too deep—hired to locate Herrera’s ex-best friend (who’s also Kiera’s pro bono attorney), they find him murdered instead. Their only lead: a stick of Nag Champa incense dropped at the scene.ĚýĚý

Next thing Kiera knows, her new crush turns up missingâ€�sansĚýa hand (the real one, not the cybernetic), and there’s the familiar stink of sandalwood across the apartment. Two crimes, two sticks of incense, Kiera framed for both. She told Herrera to lose her number, but now the old man might be her only way out of this bullshit...

A fast-talker with a heart of gold, Bang Bang Bodhisattva is both an odd-couple buddy comedy that never knows when to shut up and an exploration of finding yourself and your people in an ever-mutable world.ĚýĚý±Ő±Ő> 384 Aubrey Wood 1786187000 Craig 5 4.00 2023 Bang Bang Bodhisattva
author: Aubrey Wood
name: Craig
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/30
date added: 2024/09/30
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]]> <![CDATA[Looking Glass (The Naturalist, #2)]]> 35157278
The desperate father of a missing child, ignored by the authorities and abandoned by his community, turns to Theo for help. The only clues are children’s drawings and an inner-city urban legend about someone called the Toy Man.

To unravel the mystery behind the Toy Man, Theo must set aside his scientific preconceptions and embrace a world where dreams and nightmares carry just as much weight as reality. As he becomes immersed in the case, he discovers a far-reaching conspiracy—one that hasn’t yet claimed its last victim.]]> 317 Andrew Mayne 1542097991 Craig 5 4.31 2018 Looking Glass (The Naturalist, #2)
author: Andrew Mayne
name: Craig
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/10
date added: 2024/09/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Engines of Oblivion (The Memory War, #2)]]> 53205988 Karen Osborne continues her science fiction action and adventure series the Memory War with Engines of Oblivion, the sequel to Architects of Memory�the corporations running the galaxy are about to learn not everyone can be bought.

Natalie Chan gained her corporate citizenship, but barely survived the battle for Tribulation.

Now corporate has big plans for Natalie. Horrible plans.

Locked away in Natalie's missing memory is salvation for the last of an alien civilization and the humans they tried to exterminate. The corporation wants total control of both—or their deletion.


At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 408 Karen Osborne 1250215498 Craig 5 4.04 2021 Engines of Oblivion (The Memory War, #2)
author: Karen Osborne
name: Craig
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2021/05/16
date added: 2024/09/27
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]]> Fifteen Poems 13493398 54 Leonard Cohen 9780307961 Craig 5 4.01 2012 Fifteen Poems
author: Leonard Cohen
name: Craig
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/09/27
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]]> <![CDATA[Why the West Rules—for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future]]> 9491855 New York Times Notable Book for 2011 Sometime around 1750, English entrepreneurs unleashed the astounding energies of steam and coal, and the world was forever changed. The emergence of factories, railroads, and gunboats propelled the West’s rise to power in the nineteenth century, and the development of computers and nuclear weapons in the twentieth century secured its global supremacy. Now, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, many worry that the emerging economic power of China and India spells the end of the West as a superpower. In order to understand this possibility, we need to look back in time. Why has the West dominated the globe for the past two hundred years, and will its power last?

Describing the patterns of human history, the archaeologist and historian Ian Morris offers surprising new answers to both questions. It is not, he reveals, differences of race or culture, or even the strivings of great individuals, that explain Western dominance. It is the effects of geography on the everyday efforts of ordinary people as they deal with crises of resources, disease, migration, and climate. As geography and human ingenuity continue to interact, the world will change in astonishing ways, transforming Western rule in the process.

Deeply researched and brilliantly argued, Why the West Rules—for Now spans fifty thousand years of history and offers fresh insights on nearly every page. The book brings together the latest findings across disciplines—from ancient history to neuroscience—not only to explain why the West came to rule the world but also to predict what the future will bring in the next hundred years.


]]> 1162 Ian Morris 1429977043 Craig 3 4.11 2010 Why the West Rules—for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future
author: Ian Morris
name: Craig
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/09/26
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]]> Some Desperate Glory 60784260
While we live, the enemy shall fear us.

Since she was born, Kyr has trained for the day she can avenge the murder of planet Earth. Raised in the bowels of Gaea Station alongside the last scraps of humanity, she readies herself to face the Wisdom, the powerful, reality-shaping weapon that gave the majoda their victory over humanity.

They are what’s left. They are what must survive. Kyr is one of the best warriors of her generation, the sword of a dead planet. When Command assigns her brother to certain death and relegates her to Nursery to bear sons until she dies trying, she knows she must take humanity's revenge into her own hands.

Alongside her brother’s brilliant but seditious friend and a lonely, captive alien, Kyr escapes from everything she’s known into a universe far more complicated than she was taught and far more wondrous than she could have imagined.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 440 Emily Tesh 1250834996 Craig 5 4.29 2023 Some Desperate Glory
author: Emily Tesh
name: Craig
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/26
date added: 2024/09/26
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]]> <![CDATA[Impersonations (Dread Empire's Fall #3.75)]]> 30199338 Impersonations, an exciting new novel featuring the hero of Dread Empire's Fall!

Having offended her superiors by winning a battle without permission, Caroline Sula has been posted to the planet Earth, a dismal backwater where careers go to die. But Sula has always been fascinated by Earth history, and she plans to reward herself with a long, happy vacation amid the ancient monuments of humanity's home world.

Sula may be an Earth history buff, but there are aspects of her own history she doesn't want known. Exposure is threatened when an old acquaintance turns up unexpectedly. Someone seems to be forging evidence that would send her to prison. And all that is before someone tries to kill her.

If she's going to survive, Sula has no choice but to make some history of her own.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 254 Walter Jon Williams 0765387808 Craig 4 3.90 2016 Impersonations (Dread Empire's Fall #3.75)
author: Walter Jon Williams
name: Craig
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/09/24
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]]> Passing Strange 31372178 Inspired by the pulps, film noir, and screwball comedy, Passing Strange is a story as unusual and complex as San Francisco itself from World Fantasy Award winning author Ellen Klages, and a finalist for the 2017 Nebula Award for Best NovellaSan Francisco in 1940 is a haven for the unconventional. Tourists flock to the cities within the the Magic City of the World’s Fair on an island created of artifice and illusion; the forbidden city of Chinatown, a separate, alien world of exotic food and nightclubs that offer “authentic� experiences, straight from the pages of the pulps; and the twilight world of forbidden love, where outcasts from conventional society can meet.Six women find their lives as tangled with each other’s as they are with the city they call home. They discover love and danger on the borders where magic, science, and art intersect.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 215 Ellen Klages 0765389517 Craig 5 3.89 2017 Passing Strange
author: Ellen Klages
name: Craig
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2017/04/02
date added: 2024/09/23
shelves:
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]]> Constellation Games 13063050
Ariel Blum is pushing thirty and doesn't have much to show for it. His computer programming skills are producing nothing but pony-themed video games for little girls. His love life is a slow-motion train wreck, and whenever he tries to make something of his life, he finds himself back on the couch, replaying the games of his youth.

Then the aliens show up.

Out of the sky comes the Constellation: a swarm of anarchist anthropologists, exploring our seas, cataloguing our plants, editing our wikis, and eating our Twinkies. No one knows how to respond--except for nerds like Ariel who've been reading, role-playing and wargaming first-contact scenarios their entire lives. Ariel sees the aliens' computers, and he knows that wherever there are computers, there are video games.

Ariel just wants to start a business translating alien games so they can be played on human computers. But a simple cultural exchange turns up ancient secrets, government conspiracies, and unconventional anthropology techniques that threaten humanity as we know it. If Ariel wants his species to have a future, he's going to have to take the step that nothing on Earth could make him take.

He'll have to grow up.]]> 385 Leonard Richardson 1936460246 Craig 5 3.82 2011 Constellation Games
author: Leonard Richardson
name: Craig
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/09/22
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]]> <![CDATA[The Scholast in the Low Waters Kingdom]]> 34308092 A stranger claiming knowledge of realms beyond the known world attempts to stop a war.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

]]> 31 Max Gladstone 0765396009 Craig 5 3.68 2017 The Scholast in the Low Waters Kingdom
author: Max Gladstone
name: Craig
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2018/01/09
date added: 2024/09/21
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Reap the East Wind (The Last Chronicle of the Dread Empire, #1; Dread Empire, #6)]]> 15836255
In Kavelin: Lady Nepanthe's new life with the wizard Varthlokkur is disturbed by visions of her lost son, while King Bragi Ragnarson and Michael Trebilcock scheme to help the exiled Princess Mist re-usurp her throne - under their thumb.

In Shinsan: a pig-farmer's son takes command of Eastern Army, while Lord Kuo faces plots in his council and a suicide attack of two million Matayangans on his border. But in the desert beyond the Dread Empire: a young victim of the Great War becomes the Deliverer of an eons-forgotten god, chosen to lead the legions of the dead.

And the power of his vengeance will make a world's schemes as petty as dust, blown wild in the horror that rides the east wind.

This volume marks the beginning of the end. Reap the East Wind is the first step on the road to the long-delayed final chapter of Glen Cook's legendary Dread Empire series.]]> 187 Glen Cook 1597803197 Craig 4 3.82 1987 Reap the East Wind (The Last Chronicle of the Dread Empire, #1; Dread Empire, #6)
author: Glen Cook
name: Craig
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1987
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/09/21
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]]> Arctic Sun 150054077
When research zoologist Dr Amelia Blackburn ventures north to investigate the ravages of the Chernobyl reactor meltdown, she stumbles on the evidence of another sinister disaster on the Norway-Russia border - one that appears far from innocent. Mother Russia will stop at nothing to prevent this information from being revealed, putting Amelia and her team in grave danger from the moment they leave the site.

When the news reaches London, the eyes of British intelligence turn to the one man with the knowledge and skills to bring her back to safety - and find out what has really happened in the frozen North.

Major Tom Fox thought he'd put his intelligence career behind him, but wrapped in a custody battle for his young son, Charlie, a request from his high-ranking father-in-law forces his hand. When the reluctant spy reaches Russia, it quickly becomes clear that this is no ordinary mission.

As Fox and Amelia fight for their lives - and their country - in Russia, Charlie is lead into dangers of his own in England. Three lives are about to be embroiled in the darkest secrets of the Cold War conflict - and a plot that, if left unchecked, will echo through history . . .]]> 414 Jack Grimwood 1405936738 Craig 5 4.01 2023 Arctic Sun
author: Jack Grimwood
name: Craig
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/20
date added: 2024/09/20
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]]> Sergeant Salinger 53225537 New Yorker

J.D. Salinger, mysterious author of The Catcher in the Rye, is remembered today as a reclusive misanthrope. Jerome Charyn's Salinger is a young American WWII draftee assigned to the Counter Intelligence Corps, a band of secret soldiers who trained with the British. A rifleman and an interrogator, he witnessed all the horrors of the war--from the landing on D-Day to the relentless hand-to-hand combat in the hedgerows of Normandy, to the Battle of the Bulge, and finally to the first Allied entry into a Bavarian death camp, where corpses were piled like cordwood.

After the war, interned in a Nuremberg psychiatric clinic, Salinger became enchanted with a suspected Nazi informant. They married, but not long after he brought her home to New York, the marriage collapsed. Maladjusted to civilian life, he lived like a "spook," with invisible stripes on his shoulder, the ghosts of the murdered inside his head, and stories to tell.

Grounded in biographical fact and reimagined as only Charyn could, Sergeant Salinger is an astonishing portrait of a devastated young man on his way to becoming the mythical figure behind a novel that has marked generations.

Jerome Charyn is the author of more than fifty works of fiction and nonfiction, including Cesare: A Novel of War-Torn Berlin. He lives in New York.]]> 265 Jerome Charyn 1942658753 Craig 5 3.83 2021 Sergeant Salinger
author: Jerome Charyn
name: Craig
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/09/18
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]]> Red Cells 20493985
In this isolated prison, a series of gruesome murders have occurred, and the inmates soon force Stake to investigate. Can Stake catch a killer that might not even be human, without becoming just another victim?]]> 196 Jeffrey Thomas 1940544254 Craig 5 3.74 2014 Red Cells
author: Jeffrey Thomas
name: Craig
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/09/18
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]]> Saturation Point 211156619 Doctor Jasmine Marks is going back into hell.

The Hygrometric Dehabitation Region, or the “Zone,� is a growing band of rainforest on the equator, where the heat and humidity make it impossible for warm-blooded animals to survive. A human being without protection in the Zone is dead in minutes.

Twenty years ago, Marks went into the rainforest with a group of researchers led by Doctor Elaine Fell, to study the extraordinary climate and see if it could be used in agriculture. The only thing she learned was that the Zone was no place for people. There were deaths, and the programme was cut short.

Now, they’re sending her back in. A plane crash, a rescue mission, a race against time and the environment to bring out the survivors. But there are things Marks’s corporate masters aren’t telling her. The Zone keeps its secrets, and so does Doctor Fell…]]> 137 Adrian Tchaikovsky 1837861757 Craig 5 4.08 2024 Saturation Point
author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Craig
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/15
date added: 2024/09/15
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]]> <![CDATA[A Death in Cornwall (Gabriel Allon, #24)]]> 199981527 Un asesinato brutal, una obra maestra desaparecida, un misterio que solo Gabriel Allon puede resolver.

Gabriel Allon, restaurador de arte y leyenda del espionaje, llega de incĂłgnito a Londres para asistir a un acto oficial en la GalerĂ­a Courtauld con motivo de la recuperaciĂłn de un autorretrato robado de Vincent van Gogh. Pero, cuando un viejo amigo de la PolicĂ­a de Devon y Cornualles le pide ayuda para resolver un desconcertante caso de asesinato, se descubre persiguiendo a un poderosĂ­simo y peligroso adversario.

La víctima es Charlotte Blake, una afamada profesora de Historia del Arte de Oxford que pasa fines de semana en el mismo pueblo costero donde Gabriel vivió bajo una identidad falsa. La muerte de la profesora Blake parece obra del diabólico asesino en serie que desde hace un tiempo tiene aterrorizada a la campiña de Cornualles. Hay, no obstante, ciertas incoherencias en el caso, como la desaparición de un teléfono móvil y una misteriosa anotación de tres letras que ella dejó en un cuaderno, en su despacho.

Llena de suspense y exquisita elegancia, Muerte en Cornualles es de lo mejor que ha escrito Daniel una historia deslumbrante de asesinatos, poderĚýy codicia insaciable que mantiene cautivado al lector hasta la Ăşltima página.




«EL MEJOR REPRESENTANTE A NIVEL MUNDIAL DE LA NOVELA DE ESPÍAS». THE WASHINGTON POST

«Daniel Silva ha vuelto a escribir una novela absorbente, llena de suspense y giros inesperados, a la vez didáctica y satisfactoria. Escrita con belleza y sencillez, con personajes memorables y diálogos convincentes (...). Las peripecias de Gabriel Allon siguen siendo tan cautivadoras como siempre». The Cipher Brief]]> 480 Daniel Silva 0063384248 Craig 5 4.34 2024 A Death in Cornwall (Gabriel Allon, #24)
author: Daniel Silva
name: Craig
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/14
date added: 2024/09/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Westside Saints (Westside, #2)]]> 45449474
Six months ago, the ruined Westside of Manhattan erupted into civil war, and private detective Gilda Carr nearly died to save her city. In 1922, winter has hit hard, and the desolate Lower West is frozen solid. Like the other lost souls who wander these overgrown streets, Gilda is weary, cold, and desperate for hope. She finds a mystery instead.

Hired by a family of eccentric street preachers to recover a lost saint’s finger, Gilda is tempted by their promise of “electric resurrection,� when the Westside’s countless dead will return to life. To a detective this cynical, faith is a weakness, and she is fighting the urge to believe in miracles when her long dead mother, Mary Fall, walks through the parlor door.

Stricken with amnesia, Mary remembers nothing of her daughter or her death, but that doesn’t stop her from being as infuriatingly pushy as Gilda herself. As her mother threatens to drive her insane, Gilda keeps their relationship a secret so that they can work together to investigate what brought Mary back to life. The search will force Gilda to reckon with the nature of death, family, and the uncomfortable fact that her mother was not just a saint, but a human being.]]> 306 W.M. Akers 0062854062 Craig 5 4.00 2020 Westside Saints (Westside, #2)
author: W.M. Akers
name: Craig
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2021/08/09
date added: 2024/09/13
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]]> <![CDATA[Yes, I Can Say That: When They Come for the Comedians, We Are All in Trouble]]> 43801261 "No one makes me laugh harder than Judy Gold. If I had to pick one comedian to write a book about free speech, itĚýwould be Judy." â€� Amy Schumer

From award-winning comedian Judy Gold, a concise, funny, and thoughtful polemic on the current assault on comedy, that explores how it is undermining free speech and a fundamental attack against the integrity of the art.

From Mae West and Lenny Bruce to Richard Pryor and Howard Stern to Kathy Griffith and Kevin Hart, comedians have long been under fire for using provocative, often taboo subjects to challenge mores and get a laugh. But in the age of social media, comedians are at greater risk of being silenced, enduring shaming, threats, and damaged careers because of angry, censorious electronic mobs.

But while comedians� work has often been used to rile up detractors, a new threat has emerged from the left: identity politics and notions like "safetyism" and trigger warnings that are now creating a cultural and political standard that runs perilously close to censorship. From college campuses to the Oscars, comics are being censured for old jokes, long-standing comedy traditions, unfinished bits and old material that instead of being forgotten, go viral.

For comics like Judy Gold, today’s attacks on comics would have Richard Pryor and Lenny Bruce "rolling in their graves." "No one has the right to tell comics what they can or cannot joke about. Do you tell artists what they can or cannot paint?" she asks. Freedom of speech is fundamental for great stand-up comedy. Humor is the most palatable way to discuss a subversive or taboo topic, but it better be funny. A comic's observations are deliberately delivered to entertain, provoke, and lead to an exchange of ideas. "We are truth tellers." More important, the tolerance of free speech is essential for a healthy democracy.

In addition to offering readers a quick study on the history of comedy and the arts (noting such historical reference points as The Hays Code) and the threats to them, Gold takes readers on a hilarious ride with chapters such as "Thank God Don Rickles is Dead," as well as her singular take on "micro-aggressions," such as:

Person: "OMG! You’re a lesbian? I had no idea. I mean you wear make-up. When did you become a lesbian?"

Judy Gold: "Coincidently, right after I met you!" (micro-assault!)

In this era of "fake news," partisan politics, and heated rhetoric, the need to protect free speech has never been greater, especially for comics, who often serve as the canaries in the coalmine, monitoring the health of our democracy. Yes I Can Say That is a funny and provocative look at how safe spaces are the very antithesis of comedy as an art form—and an urgent call to arms to protect our most fundamental Constitutional right. There's a good reason it was the FIRST amendment.]]> 224 Judy Gold 006295377X Craig 5 3.82 2020 Yes, I Can Say That: When They Come for the Comedians, We Are All in Trouble
author: Judy Gold
name: Craig
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2020/09/07
date added: 2024/09/10
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]]> The Object 204975731
…and one astronomer for NASA has found a big one.

But it’s not what she thinks.

Dr. Melody Adams, a physicist at the Gemini North Observatory, was studying Pluto in the telescope data and it struck her as odd. The numbers didn’t make sense. Could there be an extraterrestrial object in our solar system?
She followed protocol.

The scientific community didn’t believe her.

And before she knew what happened, her career was over.

The day that changed Melody’s life was like any other over the previous two years. She’d found she had a gift for writing and her career as an author had almost healed the pain of losing her job. When the Secret Service rang her bell, everything changed.

Something was nearing Saturn�
…and it was slowing down.

Had she been right about the object?

You’ll love this hard science fiction novel because Melody is about to find out that everything she knew about space and time was wrong.

Get it now.]]> 380 Joshua T. Calvert Craig 5 4.16 The Object
author: Joshua T. Calvert
name: Craig
average rating: 4.16
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/10
date added: 2024/09/10
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]]> <![CDATA[The Naturalist (The Naturalist, #1)]]> 34330645
As a computational biologist, Theo is more familiar with digital code and microbes than the dark arts of forensic sleuthing. But a field trip to Montana suddenly lands him in the middle of an investigation into the bloody killing of one of his former students. As more details, and bodies, come to light, the local cops determine that the killer is either a grizzly gone rogue� or Theo himself. Racing to stay one step ahead of the police, Theo must use his scientific acumen to uncover the killer. Will he be able to become as cunning as the predator he hunts—before he becomes its prey?]]> 382 Andrew Mayne 1612184979 Craig 5 4.09 2017 The Naturalist (The Naturalist, #1)
author: Andrew Mayne
name: Craig
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/08
date added: 2024/09/08
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]]> <![CDATA[What Darkness Brings (Sebastian St. Cyr, #8)]]> 17410546 The death of a notorious London diamond merchant draws aristocratic investigator Sebastian St. Cyr and his new wife Hero into a sordid world of greed, desperation, and the occult, when the husband of Sebastian’s former lover Kat Boleyn is accused of the murder.

Regency England, September 1812: After a long night spent dealing with the tragic death of a former military comrade, a heart-sick Sebastian learns of a new calamity: Russell Yates, the dashing, one-time privateer who married Kat a year ago, has been found standing over the corpse of Benjamin Eisler, a wealthy gem dealer. Yates insists he is innocent, but he will surely hang unless Sebastian can unmask the real killer.

For the sake of Kat, the woman he once loved and lost, Sebastian plunges into a treacherous circle of intrigue. Although Eisler’s clients included the Prince Regent and the Emperor Napoleon, he was a despicable man with many enemies and a number of dangerous, well-kept secrets—including a passion for arcane texts and black magic. Central to the case is a magnificent blue diamond, believed to have once formed part of the French crown jewels, which disappeared on the night of Eisler’s death. As Sebastian traces the diamond’s ownership, he uncovers links that implicate an eccentric, powerful financier named Hope and stretch back into the darkest days of the French Revolution.

When the killer grows ever more desperate and vicious, Sebastian finds his new marriage to Hero tested by the shadows of his first love, especially when he begins to suspect that Kat is keeping secrets of her own. And as matters rise to a crisis, Sebastian must face a bitter truth--that he has been less than open with the fearless woman who is now his wife.]]> 368 C.S. Harris Craig 4 4.41 2013 What Darkness Brings (Sebastian St. Cyr, #8)
author: C.S. Harris
name: Craig
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/09/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Deep Black (Arcana Imperii, #2)]]> 198296982
They are the lifeblood of human-occupied space, transporting an unimaginable volume - and value - of goods from City, the greatest human orbital, all the way to Tradepoint at the other, to trade for xenoglas with an unknowable alien species.

And now, out in the darkness of space, something is targeting them.

Nbaro and her friends are close to locating their enemy, in this gripping sequel to the award-nominated Artifact Space, but they are running out of time - and their allies are running out of patience . . .

Written by one of the most exciting new voices in SF, this space thriller will keep readers on the edge of their seats.]]> 510 Miles Cameron Craig 5 4.47 2024 Deep Black (Arcana Imperii, #2)
author: Miles Cameron
name: Craig
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/06
date added: 2024/09/06
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]]> <![CDATA[Winter: A Bernard Samson Novel]]> 209524853 “What raises Deighton's genre to art is not only his absorbing characters but his metaphoric grace, droll wit, command of technical detail . . . and sure sense of place.”� Washington Post

Peter and Paul Winter, sons of a German businessman, are bonded by childhood trauma. When they grow apart, only to meet again under the shadow of the Third Reich—and then again at the Nuremburg trials—they find themselves divided by war and differing ideals. In this expansive, rich, and deeply tragic portrait of a German family from 1899 to 1945, Len Deighton brilliantly weaves a portrait of the fortunes of two sons, and a nation, over half a century.]]> 711 Len Deighton 080216112X Craig 5 4.57 Winter: A Bernard Samson Novel
author: Len Deighton
name: Craig
average rating: 4.57
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/02
date added: 2024/09/02
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]]> Navola 199928934
"You must be as sharp as a stilettotore’s dagger and as subtle as a fish beneath the waters. This is what it is to be Navolese, this is what it is to be di Regulai."

In Navola, a bustling city-state dominated by a handful of influential families, business is power, and power is everything. For generations, the di Regulai family—merchant bankers with a vast empire—has nurtured tendrils that stretch to the farthest reaches of the known world. And though they claim not to be political, their staggering wealth has bought cities and toppled kingdoms. Soon, Davico di Regulai will be expected to take the reins of power from his father and demonstrate his mastery of the games of Navolese knowing who to trust and who to doubt, and how to read what lies hidden behind a smile. But in Navola, strange and ancient undercurrents lurk behind the gilt and grandeur—like the fossilized dragon eye in the family’s possession, a potent symbol of their raw power and a talisman that seems to be summoning Davico to act.

As tensions rise and the events unfold, Davico will be tested to his limits. His fate depends on the eldritch dragon relic and on what lies buried in the heart of his adopted sister, Celia di Balcosi, whose own family was destroyed by Nalova’s twisted politics. With echoes of Renaissance Italy, The Godfather , and Game of Thrones , Navola is a stunning feat of world-building and a mesmerizing depiction of drive and will.]]> 576 Paolo Bacigalupi 0593535065 Craig 5 4.14 2024 Navola
author: Paolo Bacigalupi
name: Craig
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/29
date added: 2024/08/29
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]]> <![CDATA[Spy Sinker: A Bernard Samson Novel]]> 216805381 “Deighton writes with effortless mastery.� —Wall Street Journal

Bernard Samson’s wife, Fiona, has just been chosen by the British Secret Service to be their top agent in Germany, set to undermine the East German economy. When she embarks on a violent, unparalleled mission of worldwide importance, it’s clear that there is only one way she can succeed. Fiona has always been a mystery to Samson—wife, mother, traitor, patriot, double agent—and now she is on the brink of betraying him. In the third novel in the brilliant Hook, Line, Sinker trilogy and the first in the series told in the third person, Len Deighton brings superspy Fiona Samson to center stage and Who does Bernard really trust? And can we trust him?]]> 378 Len Deighton 0802161189 Craig 5 4.62 Spy Sinker: A Bernard Samson Novel
author: Len Deighton
name: Craig
average rating: 4.62
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/25
date added: 2024/08/25
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]]> <![CDATA[Echo of Worlds (Pandominion, #2)]]> 200560622 From the author of the bestselling The Girl With All the Gifts comes the thrilling conclusion to the spectacular Pandominion duology, an exhilarating science fiction story perfect for fans of The Space Between Worlds, The Long Earth and Children of Time. Two mighty empires are at war - and both will lose, with thousands of planets falling to the extinction event called the Scour. At least that's what the artificial intelligence known as Rupshe believes. Ěý But somewhere in the multiverse there exists a force - the Mother Mass - that could end the war in an instant, and Rupshe has assembled a team to find it. Essien Nkanika, a soldier trying desperately to atone for past sins; the cat-woman Moon, a conscienceless killer; the digitally recorded mind of physicist Hadiz Tambuwal; Paz, an idealistic child and the renegade robot spy Dulcimer Coronal. Their mission will take them from the hellish prison world of Tsakom to the poisoned remains of a post-apocalyptic Earth, and finally bring them face to face with the Mother Mass itself. But can they persuade it to end eons of neutrality and help them? And is it too late to make a difference? Because the Pandominion's doomsday machines are about to be unleashed - and not even their builders know how to control them.]]> 512 M.R. Carey Craig 5 4.49 2024 Echo of Worlds (Pandominion, #2)
author: M.R. Carey
name: Craig
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/21
date added: 2024/08/21
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]]> <![CDATA[Spy Line: A Bernard Samson Novel]]> 216622641 �Spy Line is vigorous and sleazy, psychologically complex and action-packed. And it is always exciting.� �Daily Mail

Bernard Samson is a spy on the run, forced to abandon his life and job and plunge into hiding. But in the murky, dangerous streets of Berlin, he knows where to hide. Wanted for an act of treachery he has not committed, he must not only escape the grasp of London Central, but get to the bottom of a tangled conspiracy that is about to change everything. In the thrilling second installment of the Hook, Line, Sinker trilogy, Bernard’s personal and professional lives collide with devastating consequences.]]> 272 Len Deighton 0802161162 Craig 5 4.59 Spy Line: A Bernard Samson Novel
author: Len Deighton
name: Craig
average rating: 4.59
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/17
date added: 2024/08/17
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]]> Blindsight (Firefall, #1) 9303978
Send a linguist with multiple-personality disorder and a biologist so spliced with machinery that he can't feel his own flesh. Send a pacifist warrior and a vampire recalled from the grave by the voodoo of paleogenetics. Send a man with half his mind gone since childhood. Send them to the edge of the solar system, praying you can trust such freaks and monsters with the fate of a world. You fear they may be more alien than the thing they've been sent to find—but you'd give anything for that to be true, if you knew what was waiting for them. . . .]]> 388 Peter Watts Craig 4 3.97 2006 Blindsight (Firefall, #1)
author: Peter Watts
name: Craig
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/08/16
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]]> Service Model 198112144 To fix the world they first must break it further.

Humanity is a dying breed, utterly reliant on artificial labor and service. When a domesticated robot gets a nasty little idea downloaded into their core programming, they murder their owner. The robot then discovers they can also do something else they never did before: run away. After fleeing the household, they enter a wider world they never knew existed, where the age-old hierarchy of humans at the top is disintegrating, and a robot ecosystem devoted to human wellbeing is finding a new purpose.]]> 373 Adrian Tchaikovsky 1250290295 Craig 5 4.23 2024 Service Model
author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Craig
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/12
date added: 2024/08/12
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]]> Watchman: A Novel 8117608 From #1 international bestseller Ian Rankin, an unlucky spy gets one last chance at redemption. Miles Flint is a spy who has been making some serious mistakes. His last assignment led to the death of a foreign official in London, and after getting too close to his current subject he wound up in police custody. But something is wrong at the agency that has nothing to do with Miles' errors. Why did his last suspect know more about Miles' assignment than Miles did? Why have so many operatives recently resigned? Despite the Director's assurances, Miles begins his own investigation, to the dismay of his colleagues and even his own wife. Then Miles is sent to Belfast on a routine mission, a mission that confirms his darkest suspicions -- and threatens his life.]]> 288 Ian Rankin Craig 5 4.02 1988 Watchman: A Novel
author: Ian Rankin
name: Craig
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1988
rating: 5
read at: 2018/09/23
date added: 2024/08/07
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]]> Nightfall Berlin 37832109 'A fine book for those who enjoy vintage Le Carre' IAN RANKIN

In 1986, news that East-West nuclear-arms negotiations are taking place lead many to believe the Cold War may finally be thawing.

For British intelligence officer Major Tom Fox, however, it is business as usual.

Ordered to arrange the smooth repatriation of a defector, Fox is smuggled into East Berlin. But it soon becomes clear that there is more to this than an old man wishing to return home to die - a fact cruelly confirmed when Fox's mission is fatally compromised.

Trapped in East Berlin, hunted by an army of Stasi agents and wanted for murder by those on both sides of the Wall, Fox must somehow elude capture and get out alive.

But to do so he must discover who sabotaged his mission and why...

]]> 457 Jack Grimwood Craig 5 4.02 2018 Nightfall Berlin
author: Jack Grimwood
name: Craig
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/07
date added: 2024/08/07
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]]> <![CDATA[City on Fire (Metropolitan #2)]]> 18913736
With her help, Aiah’s lover Constantine has established himself in the metropolis of Caraqui, a nation dominated by corrupt officials, gangsters, and the genetically altered known as the “twisted.� Here they hope to create a revolution in the cosmic order--- but first they must fend off treachery, war, and the threat of Taikoen, the “hanged man,� a deadly creature that lives within plasm itself. Aiah must fight not only for her revolution and for her place in the world, but for Constantine’s very soul.]]> 642 Walter Jon Williams Craig 4 4.24 City on Fire (Metropolitan #2)
author: Walter Jon Williams
name: Craig
average rating: 4.24
book published:
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Antimatter Blues (Mickey7, #2)]]> 61203442 Edward Ashton's Antimatter Blues is the thrilling follow up to Mickey7 in which an expendable heads out to explore new terrain for human habitation.

Summer has come to Niflheim. The lichens are growing, the six-winged bat-things are chirping, and much to his own surprise, Mickey Barnes is still alive—that last part thanks almost entirely to the fact that Commander Marshall believes that the colony’s creeper neighbors are holding an antimatter bomb, and that Mickey is the only one who’s keeping them from using it. Mickey’s just another colonist now. Instead of cleaning out the reactor core, he spends his time these days cleaning out the rabbit hutches. It’s not a bad life.

It’s not going to last.

It may be sunny now, but winter is coming. The antimatter that fuels the colony is running low, and Marshall wants his bomb back. If Mickey agrees to retrieve it, he’ll be giving up the only thing that’s kept his head off of the chopping block. If he refuses, he might doom the entire colony. Meanwhile, the creepers have their own worries, and they’re not going to surrender the bomb without getting something in return. Once again, Mickey finds the fate of two species resting in his hands. If something goes wrong this time, though, he won’t be coming back.]]> 298 Edward Ashton Craig 5 4.23 2023 Antimatter Blues (Mickey7, #2)
author: Edward Ashton
name: Craig
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/05
date added: 2024/08/05
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]]> Mickey7 (Mickey7, #1) 60006489 Now experience where the hit movie from Academy Award-winning director Bong Joon-ho, starring Robert Pattinson, started in Mickey7 (the inspiration for the film Mickey 17).

Dying isn’t any fun…but at least it’s a living.

Mickey7 is an Expendable: a disposable employee on a human expedition sent to colonize the ice world Niflheim. Whenever there’s a mission that’s too dangerous—even suicidal—the crew turns to Mickey. After one iteration dies, a new body is regenerated with most of his memories intact. After six deaths, Mickey7 understands the terms of his deal…and why it was the only colonial position unfilled when he took it.

On a fairly routine scouting mission, Mickey7 goes missing and is presumed dead. By the time he returns to the colony base, surprisingly helped back by native life, Mickey7’s fate has been sealed. There’s a new clone, Mickey8, reporting for Expendable duties. The idea of duplicate Expendables is universally loathed, and if caught, they will likely be thrown into the recycler for protein.

Mickey7 must keep his double a secret from the rest of the colony. Meanwhile, life on Niflheim is getting worse. The atmosphere is unsuitable for humans, food is in short supply, and terraforming is going poorly. The native species are growing curious about their new neighbors, and that curiosity has Commander Marshall very afraid. Ultimately, the survival of both lifeforms will come down to Mickey7.

That is, if he can just keep from dying for good.]]> 288 Edward Ashton Craig 5 4.05 2022 Mickey7 (Mickey7, #1)
author: Edward Ashton
name: Craig
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/04
date added: 2024/08/04
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]]> <![CDATA[Moskva: 'The new Le Carre' BBC Radio 2 The Sara Cox Show (Tom Fox Trilogy Book 1)]]> 27965737 *Longlisted for the 2017 CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for best thriller*'Even better than Child 44' Daily Telegraph'Given that the definitive thriller in 1980's Moscow already exists (Gorky Park), Moskva looks like a crazy gamble. But it's one that comes off' Sunday Times'A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma . . .' January, 1986. A week after disgraced Intelligence Officer Tom Fox is stationed to Moscow the British Ambassador's fifteen-year-old daughter goes missing. Fox is ordered to find her, and fast. But the last thing the Soviets want is a foreign agent snooping about on their turf. Not when a killer they can't even acknowledge let alone catch is preparing to kill again . . .A Cold War thriller haunted by an evil legacy from the Second World War, Moskva is a journey into the dark heart of another time and place.'Mesmerising, surefooted, vividly realised . . . something special in the arena of international thrillers' Financial Times'A compulsive and supremely intelligent thriller from a master stylist' Michael Marshall, author of The Straw Men'A blizzard of exciting set pieces, superbly realized' Daily Telegraph]]> 400 Jack Grimwood Craig 5 3.92 2016 Moskva: 'The new Le Carre' BBC Radio 2 The Sara Cox Show (Tom Fox Trilogy Book 1)
author: Jack Grimwood
name: Craig
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/31
date added: 2024/07/31
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Beyond the Light Horizon (Lightspeed Trilogy #3)]]> 214099341 'IF YOU LIKE SCIENCE FICTION YOU WILL LOVE THIS. . . A ROLLICKING GOOD READ' Scotsman on Beyond the Hallowed Sky

'MACLEOD'S BEST BOOK TO DATE' SFX on Beyond the Hallowed Sky

Humanity has taken to the stars, using faster-than-light travel to reach distant planets and new worlds. But in the far reaches of the galaxy, John Grant will discover a planet of humans who believe he has travelled not only through space to find them, but time.

On Apis, the mysterious Fermi appear to have vanished, taking with them knowledge of the universe that humanity desires. But Marcus Owen, the robot AI now plagued with sentience, knows that the Fermi would not easily abandon the native life of Apis, and that they won't take kindly to mankind asserting dominance on a world that does not belong to them.

Beyond the Light Horizon is the jaw-dropping conclusion to the Lightspeed trilogy from science fiction legend Ken MacLeod, a thrilling tale of politics, AI and the far reaches of space.

Praise for Ken

'An exceptional blend of international politics, hard science, and first contact' Michael Mammay, author of the Planetside series on Beyond the Hallowed Sky

'MacLeod is up there with Banks and Hamilton as one of the British sci-fi authors you absolutely have to read' SFX

'Prose as sleek and fast as the technology it describes. . . watch this man go global' Peter F. Hamilton on Star Fraction

'Ken MacLeod has an enviable track record of extrapolating from current trends to produce mind-bending novels of ideas' Guardian

Also by Ken

Lightspeed
Beyond the Hallowed Sky

Fall Revolution
The Star Fraction
The Stone Canal
The Cassini Division
The Sky Road

Engines of Light
Cosmonaut Keep
Dark Light
Engine City

Corporation Wars Trilogy
Dissidence
Insurgence
Emergence

Novels
The Human Front
Newton's Wake
Learning the World
The Execution Channel
The Restoration Game
Intrusion
Descent]]> 373 Ken MacLeod 1645060799 Craig 5 4.25 Beyond the Light Horizon (Lightspeed Trilogy #3)
author: Ken MacLeod
name: Craig
average rating: 4.25
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/25
date added: 2024/07/25
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Shroud of Dishonour (Templar Knight Mystery, #5)]]> 9525125 274 Maureen Ash 1101443944 Craig 3 4.09 2010 Shroud of Dishonour (Templar Knight Mystery, #5)
author: Maureen Ash
name: Craig
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/07/22
shelves:
review:

]]> Phantom Orbit: A Thriller 199426022
David Ignatius is known for his uncanny ability, in novel after novel, to predict the next great national security headline. In Phantom Orbit, he presents a story both searing and topical, with stakes as far-reaching as outer space. It follows Ivan Volkov, a Russian student in Beijing, who discovers an unsolved puzzle in the writings of the 17th century astronomer Johannes Kepler. The puzzle holds untold consequences for space warfare. Volkov continues his secret work back home in Moscow.The years pass, and they are not kind. After the loss of his son, a prosecutor who’d been too tough on corruption, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Volkov makes the fraught decision to contact the CIA. He Satellites are your enemies, especially your own�. Hidden codes can make time stop and turn north into south. If you are smart, you will find me. With this timely novel, Ignatius addresses our moment of renewed interest in space exploration amid geopolitical tumult. Phantom Orbit brims with the author’s vital insights and casts Volkov as the man who, at the risk of his life, may be able to stop the Doomsday clock.]]> 346 David Ignatius 1324050926 Craig 5 4.32 2024 Phantom Orbit: A Thriller
author: David Ignatius
name: Craig
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/21
date added: 2024/07/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Descendant Machine (Continuance #2)]]> 62595650
When Nicola Mafalda’s scout ship comes under attack, she’s left deeply traumatised by the drastic action it takes to keep her alive. Months later, when an old flame comes to her for help, she realises she has to find a way to forgive both the ship and her former lover. Reckless elements are attempting to reactivate a giant machine that has lain dormant for thousands of years. To stop them, Nicola and her crew will have to put aside their differences, sneak aboard a vast alien megaship, and try to stay alive long enough to prevent galactic devastation.]]> 328 Gareth L. Powell Craig 5 3.99 2023 Descendant Machine (Continuance #2)
author: Gareth L. Powell
name: Craig
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/19
date added: 2024/07/19
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Prince of Foxes: The Best-Selling Historical Epic]]> 36663489 450 Samuel Shellabarger 1461623391 Craig 5 4.58 1947 Prince of Foxes: The Best-Selling Historical Epic
author: Samuel Shellabarger
name: Craig
average rating: 4.58
book published: 1947
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/17
date added: 2024/07/17
shelves:
review:

]]> The Saint of Bright Doors 59344991 The Saint of Bright Doors sets the high drama of divine revolutionaries and transcendent cults against the mundane struggles of modern life, resulting in a novel that is revelatory and resonant.

Fetter was raised to kill, honed as a knife to cut down his sainted father. This gave him plenty to talk about in therapy.

He walked among invisible devils and anti-gods that mock the mortal form. He learned a lethal catechism, lost his shadow, and gained a habit for secrecy. After a blood-soaked childhood, Fetter escaped his rural hometown for the big city, and fell into a broader world where divine destinies are a dime a dozen.

Everything in Luriat is more than it seems. Group therapy is recruitment for a revolutionary cadre. Junk email hints at the arrival of a god. Every door is laden with potential, and once closed may never open again. The city is scattered with Bright Doors, looming portals through which a cold wind blows. In this unknowable metropolis, Fetter will discover what kind of man he is, and his discovery will rewrite the world.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 368 Vajra Chandrasekera 1250847397 Craig 5 3.82 2023 The Saint of Bright Doors
author: Vajra Chandrasekera
name: Craig
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/14
date added: 2024/07/14
shelves:
review:

]]> Mal Goes to War 133287000
As a free A.I., Mal finds the war between the modded and augmented Federals and the puritanical Humanists about as interesting as a battle between rival anthills. He’s not above scouting the battlefield for salvage, though, and when the Humanists abruptly cut off access to infospace he finds himself trapped in the body of a cyborg mercenary, and responsible for the safety of the modded girl she died protecting.

A dark comedy wrapped in a techno thriller’s skin, Mal Goes to War provides a satirical take on war, artificial intelligence, and what it really means to be human.]]> 287 Edward Ashton Craig 5 4.27 2024 Mal Goes to War
author: Edward Ashton
name: Craig
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/04
date added: 2024/07/04
shelves:
review:

]]>