George P Burdell

Juliet Bianchi has evolved from a lowly scrap cutter to a fully-loaded, combat-ready dark side operator. Known as "Lucky," she takes high-risk jobs for high-tech upgrades (you know, like weaponry, super reflexes, mind reading, etc.) that make her nearly invulnerable. Juliet is looking forward to some downtime to recover, recoup, and reunite with her mates from the space salvage trawler Kowashi. But after a while, she gets that old itch she can never quite seem to scratch: to infiltrate, and hopefully subvert, the all-powerful WBD megacorporation that created the AI that changed her life.

Once a scrap-wrangling nobody from Phoenix, Arizona, Juliet Bianchi's life was forever changed when fate handed her a hyper-advanced AI chip that launched her into the arena of high-powered, high-stakes operators. To her surprise—and everyone else's—she had a natural talent for cybernetic-enhanced mayhem and mercenary work. Now, that work will take Juliet where she's always wanted to go: off world. Unfortunately, the reason is that her faithful friend Honey and a child prodigy she was caring for have been kidnapped.

In the year 2107, the world has both made astounding leaps forward and reduced humanity to its most basic existence. While the megacorps and those who rule them enjoy lives of extraordinary comfort and ease, most people barely scrape by, doing whatever they can to keep going. Juliet Bianchi is one of the latter. She works cutting metal in a scrapyard and doesn't have much to show for it except for a small group of equally bereft, fiercely loyal friends. Still, she maintains a bright disposition, possessing more hope and optimism than anyone would expect her to—and she's going to need it.

Brilliant and engagingly written, Why Nations Fail answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine?