Showing results for "bertauski"

In the early 1800s, Nicholas, Jessica, and Jon Santa attempt the first human trek to the North Pole and stumble upon an ancient race of people left over from the Ice Age. They are short, fat, and hairy. They slide across the ice on scaly soles and carve their homes in the ice that floats on the Arctic Ocean. The elven are adapted to life in the extreme cold. They are as wise as they are ancient. Their scientific advancements have yielded great inventions - time-stopping devices and gravitational spheres that build living snowmen and genetically-modified reindeer that leap great distances.

Get a triple dose of holiday sci-fi magic with all three novels, and discover how elven live on the North Pole, how reindeer fly, and what makes a snowman live. The Christmas stories you never heard as a kid.

The entire Socket Greeny trilogy ( Discovery, Training, and Legend) follows a white-haired teenager that discovers he's part of an evolved human race, how he trains to understand his true self, and the legendary conclusion of his true nature.

This is Ryder’s last stop. It’s a half million acre ranch and home to 40 teenagers. It’s also home to a famous and eccentric philanthropist with a peculiar obsession with the North Pole. His name is Billy “Big Game” Sinterklaas. But shortly after Ryder arrives, secret messages begin leading him to what’s really happening. Billy Big Game believes that Santa Claus is real. This is the year he proves it. He says there’s one Christmas story no one has ever heard, the legend of the biggest and baddest reindeer of them all, the one who leads the sleigh and protects the herd.

Biomites are artificial stem cells that can replace any cell in your body. No more kidney failure, no severed spines or blood disease. No cancer. Pharmaceuticals become obsolete. With each dose of biomites, we become stronger, we become smarter and prettier. We become better. At what point are we no longer human? Jamie wants to be a halfskin. But Jamie's body is already 49.9% biomites. The rest is clay - her God-given organic cells. Any more biomites and she becomes a halfskin. And halfskins are shutdown.

The Drayton Chronicles is a collection of novellas chronicling the evolution of a vampire. In "Drayton, The Taker:" Blake Barnes commits suicide by freezing on Mt. Hood. As his life fades, he assumes Death has come to him in the form of a young man. In his last moments, he asks Death to find his family, to tell them he's sorry. Drayton honors this last request as he absorbs Blake Barnes' waning essence. He travels to the Lowcountry of South Carolina to find his family. But saying sorry is not always as easy as the words imply.

The Christmas adventures continue. The second volume of the holiday tales you never heard growing up! This bundle features Humbug; The Miser; and Ronin.

Christmas is hot. When Kandi’s dad gets a mysterious call, they fly to a tropical island where the buildings are enormous and the rooms empty. Kandi meets a boy living all alone in one of the empty resorts. When he goes missing, she enlists the help of the technological wonders that haunt the island to find him. What she uncovers is a much deeper mystery that will affect more than just Christmas. The world doesn’t know it yet, but Santa Claus is missing.

Jacob Marley is dead. His business partner, Eb Scrooge, is left to run Avocado, Inc., an innovative technology business, all alone. An introverted shut-in locked away in a Colorado mansion, he changes the company’s mission statement. Only his servant droids keep him company. Until the gifts arrive. Each Christmas, a messenger forces Eb to look at his life in hopes he will change. But change does not happen in a single night. And only Eb can make it happen. But who is sending the messengers?

Sunny Grimm finds a strap around her son's head with an embossed symbol between his eyes. This is the mark of awareness leaping, where players launch into alternate realities and anything goes. Investors make millions. Critics, however, refuse to call it a game. They argue that reality confusion will end humanity. Labels aside, there are many who play. And many who lose. Sunny Grimm goes on a mad search for her son and the people responsible for allowing him to play. The only way she will find him is to not lose herself in the search. The Maze is more than a game.

Drayton can’t leave the Lowcountry. He once believed he was a vampire when he terrorized villages and slaughtered for blood. Now he absorbs essence from the dying’s final breath and rarely stays in one place. He has been in the Lowcountry far too long. Everything is about to change. After witnessing an elderly man’s death, Drayton vows to protect his wife. He assumes the job of her gardener in Charleston’s historic district. But when a young woman named Amber enters the garden, he soon questions who he is protecting. And from whom.

Reed dreams of a girl that tells him to resist Foreverland. He doesn't remember her name, but knows he once loved her. He'll have to endure great suffering and trust his dream. And trust he's not insane. Danny Boy, the new arrival, meets Reed's dream girl inside Foreverland. She's stuck in the fantasy land that no kid can resist. Where every heart's desire is satisfied. Why should anyone care how Foreverland works?

The Annihilation of Foreverland: When kids awaken on an island, they're told there was an accident. Before they can go home, they will visit Foreverland, an alternate reality that will heal their minds. Foreverland Is Dead: Six teenage girls wake with no memories. One of them is in a brick mansion. The others are in a cabin, their heads shaved. Slashes mark the cabin wall like someone has been counting. Hundreds of them. Ashes of Foreverland: Tyler Ballard was in prison when his son created a dreamworld called Foreverland....

Life hasn't been kind to Oliver Toye. As if juvenile diabetes wasn't enough, he's forced to live with his tyrannical grandmother at the foot of the Rocky Mountains in a snow-bound house. He spends his days doing chores and his nights listening to the forest rumble.

Work comes first for 16-year-old Socket Greeny's mother ever since his father died 11 years ago. Now, in this tech-driven futuristic society, he's zoned on energy drinks and living in virtual worlds. He doesn't know what his mom does for a living, but the bills get paid and the refrigerator is full, so why bother with details? His only real-world thrill is fighting. He doesn't always win, but that's not the point. Breaking skin is a reality rush. But worlds change. Socket starts hearing other people's thoughts. He thinks he's hallucinating, even when time seems to stop. But when his mom arrives at school, he knows it's for real.

Biomites are artificial stem cells that can replace any cell in your body. No more kidney failure, severed spines, blood disease or cancer. Pharmaceuticals become obsolete. With each dose of biomites, we become stronger, we become smarter, prettier... and better. At what point are we no longer human? Nix Richards nearly died in a car accident when he was young. Biomites saved his life. Ten years later, he's not so lucky. The Halfskin Laws decree a human composed of 50% biomites is no longer human.

Jamie wants to be a halfskin. Her life has become dull and pointless. If she had more biomites, the synthetic stems cells that promise hope and healing, she could take control of her life. But Jamie's body is already 49.9% biomites. The rest is clay-her God-given organic cells. Anymore biomites and she becomes a halfskin. And halfskins are shutdown. But there is a way. Black market biomites, called nixes, can't be detected by the government.

Tyler Ballard was in prison when his son created a dreamworld called Foreverland, a place so boundless and spellbinding that no one ever wanted to leave. Or did. Now his son is dead, his wife is comatose, and Tyler is still imprisoned. But he planned it that way. The final piece of his vision falls into place when Alessandra Diosa investigates the crimes of Foreverland.

A year has passed since the Paladin Nation was exposed to the public. Their mission is still to protect humanity from whatever may threaten them. Previously, it was the human duplications, but now that they've been extinguished their biggest challenge is dealing with the complications of public image.

Book 3 in the Socket trilogy. The Paladin Nation is rebuilding. Socket Greeny is leading them into a new era of compassion and understanding. But when Pike returns, Socket discovers nothing is what he expected, that his life has been planned from the beginning. He is faced with ultimate betrayal. In the end, he won't be asked to save the world. It'll be the entire universe.