The stars were closed to Max Jones. To get into space you either needed connections, a membership in the arcane Guild, or a whole lot more money than Max, the son of a widowed, poor mother, was ever going to have. What Max does have going for him are his uncle's prized astrogation manuals—books on star navigation that Max literally commits to memory word for word, equation for equation. When Max's mother decides to remarry a bullying oaf, Max takes to the road, only to discover that his Uncle Chet's manuals, and Max's near complete memorization of them, is a ticket to the stars. But serving on a spaceship is no easy task. Duty is everything, and a mistake can mean you and all aboard are lost forever. Max loves every minute of his new life, and he steadily grows in the trust of his superior officers, and seems to be on course for a command track position. But then disaster strikes, and it's going to take every trick Max ever learned from his tough life and his uncle's manuals to save himself and the ship from a doom beyond extinction itself.
The stars were closed to Max Jones. To get into space you either needed connections, a membership in the arcane Guild, or a whole lot more money than Max, the son of a widowed, poor mother, was ever going to have. What Max does have going for him are his uncle's prized astrogation manuals—books on star navigation that Max literally commits to memory word for word, equation for equation. When Max's mother decides to remarry a bullying oaf, Max takes to the road, only to discover that his Uncle Chet's manuals, and Max's near complete memorization of them, is a ticket to the stars. But serving on a spaceship is no easy task. Duty is everything, and a mistake can mean you and all aboard are lost forever. Max loves every minute of his new life, and he steadily grows in the trust of his superior officers, and seems to be on course for a command track position. But then disaster strikes, and it's going to take every trick Max ever learned from his tough life and his uncle's manuals to save himself and the ship from a doom beyond extinction itself.
The stars were closed to Max Jones. To get into space you either needed connections, a membership in the arcane Guild, or a whole lot more money than Max, the son of a widowed, poor mother, was ever going to have. What Max does have going for him are his uncle's prized astrogation manuals—books on star navigation that Max literally commits to memory word for word, equation for equation. When Max's mother decides to remarry a bullying oaf, Max takes to the road, only to discover that his Uncle Chet's manuals, and Max's near complete memorization of them, is a ticket to the stars. But serving on a spaceship is no easy task. Duty is everything, and a mistake can mean you and all aboard are lost forever. Max loves every minute of his new life, and he steadily grows in the trust of his superior officers, and seems to be on course for a command track position. But then disaster strikes, and it's going to take every trick Max ever learned from his tough life and his uncle's manuals to save himself and the ship from a doom beyond extinction itself.
When the six-year-old daughter of a billionaire nanotech magnate is kidnapped, ueber-consultant Jonathan Knox and counterterrorism agent Marianna Bonaventure must team up with an experimental artificial intelligence to rescue her, never suspecting the little girl is the key to a plot that could destroy the NSA’s most advanced cryptanalysis capability — and go on to kill every man, woman, and child in the United States.
When the six-year-old daughter of a billionaire nanotech magnate is kidnapped, ueber-consultant Jonathan Knox and counterterrorism agent Marianna Bonaventure must team up with an experimental artificial intelligence to rescue her, never suspecting the little girl is the key to a plot that could destroy the NSA’s most advanced cryptanalysis capability — and go on to kill every man, woman, and child in the United States.
A MAVERICK ASTROPHYSICIST
Jack Adler thinks he’s fingered the culprit: a submicroscopic black hole, smaller than an atom, heavier than a mountain, older than the stars. What’s more, that fantastic object is still down there, deep inside the Earth, burrowing through the mantle in an ever-decaying orbit that will end only when it has devoured the entire planet.
A ROOKIE SECRET AGENT
Marianna Bonaventure is tracking three missing scientists suspected of involvement in weapons of mass destruction research. The trail leads to Rusalka, the luxurious floating corporate headquarters of billionaire Russian industrialist Arkady Grishin. Determined to prove herself, Marianna creates an elaborate ruse in order to infiltrate the megayacht — a dangerous gambit that requires the coerced cooperation of a rather special civilian . . .
AN UNCANNY CONSULTANT
Jonathan Knox is one of the country’s most sought-after analysts; his knack for intuiting hidden relationships among seemingly disparate events serves his Fortune-50 clients well. But when Marianna compels the reluctant Knox to join her undercover mission, he must grapple with puzzles of a whole different order of magnitude.
Against violent and cunning opposition, the three of them unearth a scheme to capture the submicroscopic black hole that caused the Tunguska Event and use its awesome power to transform the world — or end it altogether.
A MAVERICK ASTROPHYSICIST
Jack Adler thinks he’s fingered the culprit: a submicroscopic black hole, smaller than an atom, heavier than a mountain, older than the stars. What’s more, that fantastic object is still down there, deep inside the Earth, burrowing through the mantle in an ever-decaying orbit that will end only when it has devoured the entire planet.
A ROOKIE SECRET AGENT
Marianna Bonaventure is tracking three missing scientists suspected of involvement in weapons of mass destruction research. The trail leads to Rusalka, the luxurious floating corporate headquarters of billionaire Russian industrialist Arkady Grishin. Determined to prove herself, Marianna creates an elaborate ruse in order to infiltrate the megayacht — a dangerous gambit that requires the coerced cooperation of a rather special civilian . . .
AN UNCANNY CONSULTANT
Jonathan Knox is one of the country’s most sought-after analysts; his knack for intuiting hidden relationships among seemingly disparate events serves his Fortune-50 clients well. But when Marianna compels the reluctant Knox to join her undercover mission, he must grapple with puzzles of a whole different order of magnitude.
Against violent and cunning opposition, the three of them unearth a scheme to capture the submicroscopic black hole that caused the Tunguska Event and use its awesome power to transform the world — or end it altogether.