Systems Science

Marc and his party are seeking the sarcophagus that they were sent on a quest to find, only to discover that it is now protected by far more than just the Guardian they'd been told would await them. When they return to Any Port, Marc discovers that Bastet's obsession with Beggar has reached new heights, forcing Beggar and Marc into taking action to foil Bastet's plan to kidnap the raccoon.

Like many doctors and nutrition experts, bestselling author Dr. Steven Gundry has long endorsed the ketogenic diet—a style of eating that heavily restricts carbohydrate intake to make the body burn fat for fuel. Because ketosis offers a variety of health benefits, including weight loss, reduced risk of illness, and enhanced energy, Dr. Gundry believed his patients’ efforts to adhere to the challenging regimen was worthwhile. That is, until his research uncovered a shocking truth: We’ve gotten keto all wrong.

When Stink learns that Pluto has flunked the Planet Test for being too shrimpy, he has no choice but to take a stand for the sake of little planets (and little people) everywhere. Will our humble hero, Stink Moody, be smart enough to defeat a panel of big-shot scientists and class know-it-all Riley Rottenberger? For the answer to this burning question, tune in - and prepare to have your universe rocked!

In System Consolidation, Knox faces his greatest ordeal yet. The Titan System stands as a testament to order, drawing the gaze of friends and foes alike. To counter the looming threat of the Dark Titan, Knox and his allies are thrust into the Tower Challenge, seeking a mythical item crucial for victory. But their path is marred by treachery as nobles desperate to hold onto power scheme against them.

In no more than the blink of an eye, a naïve optimism about technology’s liberating potential has given way to a dystopian obsession with biased algorithms, surveillance capitalism, and job-displacing robots. System Error exposes the root of our current predicament - how big tech’s relentless focus on optimization is driving a future that reinforces discrimination, erodes privacy, displaces workers, and pollutes the information we get- and outlines steps we can take to change course, renew our democracy, and save ourselves.

In a Post-Apocalyptic world of Magic and Machinery, Jack Knight is an orphan who finds himself caught between a life-altering decision. Join the military and fight the demon hordes or sell his soul to the Corpos. Both options having minimal appeal to a shut-in like Jack. Thanks to the high cost of living, and his sister’s medical expenses, Jack has never given much thought to what he’d want to do with life, always living paycheck to paycheck, scrounging just enough to keep the lights on and his sister safe. However, an Angel presents him with a third option.

Arriving in the capital, John finds a world just as unfair to its citizens as it was to humanity. Now, the retired Adventurer has to choose if he’ll return to battling for those who are unable to fight themselves or if he’ll pursue the System Quest quietly and peacefully. Either way, people are going to get hurt. Includes three books in the System Apocalypse, a post-apocalyptic series that combines modern day life, aliens, science fiction and fantasy elements along with game mechanics. Does not include harems.

I, Q is a wild and witty voyage through the secret soul of creation as only the enigmatic Q can tell it! Co-written and read by John de Lancie, who portrayed Q on television for more than a decade!

Captain Picard has never encountered an opponent more powerful than Q, a being from another continuum who is dangerous, obnoxious, mysterious, and seemingly all-powerful. But now, Trelane has tapped in to an awesome power source that makes him more powerful than the entire continuum. Q warns that Trelane has become unspeakably dangerous - this time the stakes are all of creation. Read by John de Lancie.

When it comes to choosing, using, and maintaining a database, understanding its internals is essential. But with so many distributed databases and tools available today, it's often difficult to understand what each one offers. With this practical guide, Alex Petrov guides developers through the concepts behind modern database and storage engine internals.

Who are the children of foster care? What, as a country, do we owe them? Cris Beam, a foster mother herself, spent five years immersed in the world of foster care looking into these questions and tracing firsthand stories. The result is To the End of June, an unforgettable portrait that takes us deep inside the lives of foster children in their search for a stable, loving family. Beam shows us the intricacies of growing up in the system - the back-and-forth with agencies, the rootless shuffling between homes, the emotionally charged tug between foster and birth parents.

In The Ten Year War, veteran journalist Jonathan Cohn offers the compelling story of the defining political battle of our time, one that will shape political conversations for decades. At the heart of the book is the decades-old argument over what’s wrong with American health care and how to fix it. But the battle over health care was always about more than policy. The Ten Year War offers a deeper examination of how our governing institutions, the media and the two parties have evolved, and the dysfunction those changes have left in their wake.

Living busily on Planet Earth, we rarely remember that we actually inhabit only a miniscule part of the universe. In The Planets and the Solar System, Jen Green paints the wider picture, and takes us on a journey across billions of kilometers in our galaxy, from our Sun to near and distant planets. Some, like Mercury, have a molten core surrounded with crust and spins quickly; Jupiter, on the other hand, is a big ball of gas.

Are you ready to take control of chronic inflammation, reclaim your health, and embrace an energy-filled life? This empowering 2-book compilation combines science-backed insights with practical solutions to guide you toward lasting wellness.

Patriarch Jay Luckrun is one of the strongest dungeon crawlers in all of the Multiverse, but he's still not strong enough to overcome the greatest powers of the System. The [System Master] and the leaders of the great four pantheons. While making preparations for the soon-to-come war, Jay and his familiar Kleo touch on the ancient powers of the Precursor System, a type of system that existed before the current Multiverse System. There's more to it than what is known, more that involves Jay's path as one without fate.

Intended to create life from nothingness, the Genesis Wave had the potential to become a weapon of awe-inspiring destructiveness, capable of rearranging matter and life energy on a planetary scale. After cataclysmic close calls, Starfleet wisely decided to destroy all data and records on Project Genesis, hoping to bury its deadly secrets forever...but now it is back with a vengeance...Read by Tim Russ, Tuvok on Voyager!

Many believe the child welfare system protects children from abuse. But as Torn Apart uncovers, this system is designed to punish Black families. Drawing on decades of research, legal scholar and sociologist Dorothy Roberts reveals that the child welfare system is better understood as a “family policing system” that collaborates with law enforcement and prisons to oppress Black communities. Child protection investigations ensnare a majority of Black children, putting their families under intense state surveillance and regulation.

The second brightest object in the sky, after the moon is Venus. It's also the only planet named after a woman. Learn more about bright, beautiful Venus, named for the Roman goddess of love and beauty.

From the man who was in the very middle of this perfect economic storm, On the Brink is Paulson's fast-paced retelling of the key decisions that had to be made with lightning speed. Paulson puts the listener in the room for all the intense moments as he addressed urgent market conditions, weighed critical decisions, and debated policy and economic considerations with of all the notable players.

After the end of the Enterprise™'s five-year mission, Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. McCoy struggle to establish new lives apart from one another and the starship. The newly promoted Admiral Kirk is placed in charge of a specially created Starfleet division and attempts to defuse a critical hostage situation; Mr. Spock, who, in the midst of a teaching assignment on Vulcan, finds the one thing he least expected; and Dr. McCoy, whose unerring instinct for trouble lands him smack in the middle of an incident that could trigger an interstellar bloodbath.