Systems Science

In this concluding volume of Neal Stephenson’s epic work, “Half-Cocked Jack” Shaftoe must escape the noose of Jack Ketch; the rivalry between Newton and Leibniz comes to a head; and Daniel Waterhouse pursues his dream to build the Logic Mill

The World is Dead. The Hunt Has Begun. It started as a calculated attack—terrorist squads infected with a deadly virus unleashed on the U.S. and Europe. But no one predicted what came next. The virus mutated, spreading like wildfire, consuming entire nations. Millions died. The unlucky ones came back. Mindless. Rabid. Driven by a single, relentless instinct—to hunt and kill the few who remain. Hunter, a battle-hardened Iraq War veteran, was ready to leave violence behind. But when civilization collapses overnight, he finds himself back in the fight of his life. Teaming up with a band of...

The Incursion Event has been announced, and sapient races from across the multiverse are invading the newly integrated planet Earth. These beings have decades, centuries or even millennia of experience living within The System and wield powers far beyond the mutated Beasts and mana-spawned Monsters Drew and his friends have faced in the past.

Quinn can barely handle her own life. When the Library of Everywhere discovers her compatible magical signature, suddenly, she is the sole existing potential librarian. Now, it's not only the weight of her world on her shoulders—Quinn must connect with the library system before the universe itself disintegrates. Once she's settled, it should be quiet, peaceful work—just as soon as she battles a few engorged bookworms, repairs hundreds of years of damage, and figures out why there's been no librarian for the last several centuries.

Marc is all too aware that the end of the acclimatization year the System has provided to Earth is quickly drawing to a close and that others will be allowed onto the planet to start claiming areas shortly. Zeus has promised that his series of quests will get Marc, at least, to the maximum level reachable in that first year, but Marc is nervous that it isn't going to happen.

After the discovery that the encampment outside of his Safe Zone is full of friendlies, Marc and his group finally have a chance to try to grow stronger again. The addition of an administrator for the Safe Zone as well as someone to coordinate its defenses finally allows Marc to feel like he can go out and do other things.

Whatever the level of contact, the American judicial system affects peoples' lives. What courts and judges do matters. This book provides a very short, but complete introduction to the institutions and people, the rules and processes, that make up the American judicial system. This Very Short Introduction explains the "where," "when," and "who" of American courts. It also makes clear the "how" and "why" behind the law as it affects everyday people. It is, in a word, a starting place to understanding the third branch of American government at both the state and federal levels.

A leading expert in epigenetics - how genes switch on and off - provides a revolutionary, holistic, and personalized approach to better health by improving how your genes behave to prevent and reverse common ailments, chronic illnesses, and life-threatening diseases, including cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disorders, anxiety, depression, digestive issues, obesity, cancer, diabetes, and more.

Ever since he became gifted with the high-tech Werewolf System, Gary Dem's life has gone completely barking mad—but in a good way. He's risen from a nobody street scrapper to forming his own fighting gang, the Howlers, now dominating the low-tier burg of Slough. He's got respect, money, and some serious bite. Life is good. Just not good enough for Gary.

At a time when Steve Jobs was only a teenager and Mark Zuckerberg wasn't even born, a group of visionary engineers and designers - some of them only high school students - in the late 1960s and 1970s created a computer system called PLATO, which was not only years but light-years ahead in experimenting with how people would learn, engage, communicate, and play through connected computers.

When the System came to Earth, technology failed, monsters appeared, and billions died as humans were inducted into the game-like physics the System enforced. Unfortunately for the System, not all humans were on Earth. Some scattered postbiological individuals decided to push it back, and embarked on a decade-long crusade to eliminate the System from Earth.

Not long ago, Gary was just another punk teenager living in a ramshackle house in a bad part of a ramshackle town. To survive, he worked as a gofer for a brutal street gang—until a simple job went bad, and he ended up paired with a Werewolf System that enhanced his strength, stamina, and attitude. But as Gary soon learned, this gift could also be a curse, costing anyone who got too close their life. Now, he’s trying to figure out how to use his system to make things better for those around him.

No more cute koala bears, bouncy kangaroos, or fuzzy wallabies. Now, everything is mutated and aggressive? Who made the spiders so big? The world's most dangerous continent just got a lot more dangerous, and no one, not even the alien Galactics who arrive, are ready for it.

The issues of poverty, inequality, racial injustice, and climate change have never been more pressing or paralyzing. Current approaches to social change, which rely on linear thinking and traditional power dynamics to "solve" social problems, are not helping. In fact, they may only be entrenching the status quo. This book draws on stories of committed social changemakers to uncover a set of principles and practices for social change that dramatically depart from the industrial approach. Simple yet profound, these stories distill timely lessons for leaders, scholars, and policymakers.

As a software developer from Texas, Tom thought he understood broken code. But when mysterious obelisks transform Earth into a glitch-riddled dungeon crawler, he discovers that debugging the apocalypse won't be as easy as turning it off and back on again. Their lifeline? Vending machines turned into miniature storefronts. These mechanical saviors dispensed everything from swords to shampoo—until they started dispensing death.

In just seven days, the world will crumble. The System's Descent will usher in a new era of chaos: wild animals mutating, monstrous creatures emerging, and the cessation of modern technology. Humanity will be left defenseless. Drew Wright knows none of this. At least not until he is rudely ripped from his bed and thrust into a white room to undergo a taser-happy ‘Tutorial’. Turns out, he is one of a thousand randomly selected people to be forewarned of the approaching apocalypse. Now, he faces the delightful task of convincing his wife and mother of the devastation hurtling towards them.

Powell and Silverglate shine a light on the defects of the federal criminal-justice system: overzealous prosecutors, perjury traps, negligent judges, perverse limits on self-defense, vague and overabundant criminal statutes, insufficient requirements for criminal intent, and no accountability for prosecutors. Most important, they provide a much-needed blueprint for reforming the Department of Justice and the criminal-justice system, including actions an average citizen can take to help restore justice.

Warren is kicking butt in the games... and his cancer is kicking his butt, right back! In order for humanity to survive, they need Warren. Now, it's time for the team to risk it all to help him heal. There's more tower to conquer, alien planets to explore, and giant squid thingies to kill...

We all know that life in prison ain't grand, but the utter horror of it springs from the pages of this autobiography, written by a one-time death-row inmate. Billy Wayne Sinclair is now serving a reduced 90-year sentence for murdering a Baton Rouge convenience store owner in a robbery gone wrong more than three decades ago. His story of an adult life spent in one of Louisiana's harshest prisons is amazing, not only because he has survived with his soul intact, but because it provides such a raw look at the inner workings of a system bent on revenge, not rehabilitation.

The murder is tragic, but the death of a sibling at the hands of a monster is something you never quite get over. Along with the gut-wrenching feeling of loss came the overwhelming sense of shame. Everyone had been counting on us to kill the first known vampire in three generations, and we let all of them down. Now the weight of our failure hung heavy around my neck like a yoke. Only one thing would remove the taint of failure from our family name, and that was the one thing keeping me going. Vengeance. If you ever wondered what happened to D’avin after Drake left him cradling his dead ...