Hard Reality

In AD 2600, the human race is finally beginning to realize its full potential. Hundreds of colonized planets scattered across the galaxy host a multitude of prosperous and wildly diverse cultures. Genetic engineering has pushed evolution far beyond nature's boundaries, defeating disease and producing extraordinary spaceborn creatures. Huge fleets of sentient trader starships thrive on the wealth created by the industrialization of entire star systems, and throughout inhabited space the Confederation Navy keeps the peace.

Neal Stephenson is a blazing new force on the sci-fi scene. With the groundbreaking cyberpunk novel Snow Crash, he has "vaulted onto the literary stage." It weaves virtual reality, Sumerian myth, and just about everything in between with a cool, hip cybersensibility - in short, it is the gigathriller of the information age.

If we live long enough, life will knock us around. Relationships will fail. Loved ones will die. Injury, illness and disease will all take their toll. Our suffering might seem unbearable at these times, but there is hope. The Reality Slap is a compassionate, wise and extremely practical guide to handling the anxiety, grief and suffering that inevitably follow such major life blows.

Biohacker Olivia Park is obsessed with an emerging mystery within Oz, the online portal created by alien technology. What she finds is a primitive xenobot, Eno, who takes her on a mind-bending trip through time that begins as the Berlin Wall is falling, and takes her back to the origins of the modern internet and the fall of a digital Atlantis created by her father, Wesley Park, and entrepreneur William Ackerson.

Widely known in the criminal underworld as the 'Black Widow', Linda Calvey spent the first half of her life running with the UK's top gangsters, robbing banks and rubbing shoulders with the Kray twins. That is, until, in 1990, her lover Robbie Cook was murdered at point-blank, and she found herself falsely convicted. Linda was sent away for decades, and would go on to become Britain's longest-serving female prisoner. This is her story of life inside, and how she learnt to survive the many years she spent behind bars.

Neal Stephenson, "the hottest science fiction writer in America", takes science fiction to dazzling new levels. The Diamond Age is a stunning tale; set in 21st-century Shanghai, it is the story of what happens what a state-of-the-art interactive device falls into the hands of a street urchin named Nell. Her life, and the entire future of humanity, is about to be decoded and reprogrammed.

Otherland. In many ways it is humankind's most stunning achievement: a private, multidimensional universe built over two generations by the greatest minds of the twenty-first century. But this most exclusive of places is also one of the world's best kept secrets, created and controlled by an organization made up of the world's most powerful and ruthless individuals, a private cartel known - to those who know of their existence at all - as The Grail Brotherhood.

This is not your typical Zen book. Brad Warner, a young punk who grew up to be a Zen master, spares no one. This bold new approach to the "Why?" of Zen Buddhism is as strongly grounded in the tradition of Zen as it is utterly revolutionary. Warner's voice is hilarious, and he calls on the wisdom of everyone from punk and pop culture icons to the Buddha himself to make sure his points come through loud and clear.

Poem about wage slavery. Read it on break at work. Get inspired. Work for yourself! Rebel against your boss and master!

He is a cyber dweller. A gamer who's grown up in the web of virtual illusion woven from hundreds of phantom worlds. His biggest dream is to dump the real world for good. His desperate hunger for new experiences forces him to take a risk and become one of the first proud owners of a neuronet implant. The new gadget becomes part of him, but soon it's not enough. If only he could finally burn all his bridges and make a step beyond the real world....

The gateway to new worlds has opened… but some doors should never be unlocked. After vanishing during a high-risk mission on an uncharted world, Colonel Brice Messman and his team must find their way back through the keyholes—mysterious portals capable of bridging dimensions. Meanwhile, Dr. Allen Messman relentlessly searches for his brother, knowing that every delay could leave Brice’s team stranded in the unknown forever. Each keyhole opens to an unpredictable world, where dangers hide in strange landscapes and new threats lie in wait. With allies growing uncertain and time running ...

The war lasted fifty-seven seconds. The fallout will last forever. Drone pilot Kaelen Vance is a ghost, haunted by memories of a family he never had and a grief he can't explain. The official story is that a brief, conventional conflict shattered his mind. But the jagged cracks in reality he calls "bleeds"—flickering visions of a world gone terribly wrong—tell him the truth is far more terrifying. When a wary operative, Ana Staskova, confirms his paranoia, Kaelen is torn from his broken life and thrown into a desperate race for the truth. The real war wasn't fought with bombs, but with ...

Break Free from the Confidence Illusion You’ve tried affirmations, power poses, and “fake it till you make it”—but instead of real confidence, you end up exhausted, anxious, and doubting yourself more than ever. Welcome to The Confidence Trap—the hidden cycle that keeps millions stuck in endless self-improvement without ever finding authentic self-assurance. In this groundbreaking book, John K. Bell reveals why traditional confidence advice so often backfires and introduces a radically different approach based on the principles of Reality Transurfing. Instead of forcing yourself ...

War Factory is the second novel in the Transformation series, a no-holds-barred adventure set in Neal Asher's popular Polity universe. One seeks judgement, another faces damnation and one man will have his revenge . . . Thorvald Spear is losing his mind as he drowns in dark memories that aren't...

Black to Reality is the fourth in the acclaimed Black series of noir detective fiction featuring Artemus Black, the world's losingest Hollywood Private Investigator. In this installment, he is saved from financial calamity when he takes a case that requires him to work undercover on a reality television show, posing as an over-the-hill rocker trying for one last shot at success.

Dark Intelligence is the first novel in the Transformation series, a no-holds-barred adventure set in Neal Asher's popular Polity universe. One man will transcend death to seek vengeance. One woman will transform herself to gain power. And no one will emerge unscathed . . . Thorvald Spear wakes...

Prador Moon is one of Neal Asher’s most explosive excursions into the Polity universe. It’s also an action-packed prequel to the dramatic events in Neal Asher's Spatterjay novels. It takes one encounter to turn peace into war . . . The worlds of the Polity stretch from Earth Central into the...

"ALICE CROWLEY'S EROTIC STORIES ALWAYS HAVE SURPRISE ENDINGS!" ~ Hwk "I LOVED THE IMAGINATION OF THIS AUTHOR!" ~ Satisfied Kindle Reader "ALICE CROWLEY IS ONE OF OUR GREATEST LIVING WRITERS!" ~ G. Taylor Irene is a tech worker in Seattle who has just busted her husband hard in the act of infidelity. She turns to her best friend, Laura, for a shoulder to cry on, only there is much more afoot here than a simple affair. Now Irene is embroiled in a high-stakes conspiracy with a cult of mutant worshippers and a handsome psychotherapist who is hell-bent on exposing them. The fabric of reality is ...

Death is burning with deadly heat and fumes towards them. They stand on the edge of a tall skyscraper's roof, a raging fire roaring towards them. There is no escape. They take each other’s hands and kiss for the last time before they choose to leap to their deaths together. Twist! They are rescued. An older dog, blind in one eye, limps across a lonely street, thinking it is safe. Suddenly a roaring engine is heard; a drunken driver crashes around a corner and weaves out of control for the helpless dog. Twist! The dog is saved. Neither the dog nor the young couple knows what just happened....

Infinity Engine is the third and final novel in the Transformation series, by bestselling science fiction author Neal Asher, following Dark Intelligence and War Factory. A man battles for his life, two AIs vie for supremacy and a civilization hangs in the balance . . . Several forces now pursue...