A Mandate of Sword and Railgun


Book Description

Fringe Space... It is where mighty pirate clans, powerful cartels and viciously territorial empires have set up shop. Humanity's fledgling star state, the Terran Minarchy, colonized a number of "leftover" planets in this expanse. The Humans, their allies, and client races have ventured forth, braved deadly space anomalies and settled there. They terraformed barren wastelands, brought water to the deserts, and transformed even the dead asteroids into tiny copies of Earth. However, their boldness and hard work were rewarded with relentless, unprovoked attacks. Terran settlers were denied the peace and prosperity they sought, and were instead rewarded with slavery and death. Forced to replace their tractors for battle tanks, these farmers now aim to harvest another type of crop - the invaders themselves!




Strategic assessment 2020


Book Description




Snow Crash


Book Description

THE 30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION WITH NEW, NEVER-BEFORE-PUBLISHED MATERIAL After the Internet, what came next? Enter the Metaverse - cyberspace home to avatars and software daemons, where anything and just about everything goes. Newly available on the Street - the Metaverse's main drag - is Snow Crash. A cyberdrug that reduces avatars in the digital world to dust, but also infects users in real life, leaving them in a vegetative state. This is bad news for Hiro, a freelance hacker and the Metaverse's best swordfighter, and mouthy skateboard courier Y. T.. Together, investigating the Infocalypse, they trace back the roots of language itself to an ancient Sumerian priesthood and find they must race to stop a shadowy virtual villain hell-bent on world domination. In this special edition of the remarkably prescient modern classic, Neal Stephenson explores linguistics, computer science, politics and philosophy in the form of a break-neck adventure into the fast-approaching yet eerily recognizable future. 'Fast-forward free-style mall mythology for the twenty-first century' William Gibson 'Brilliantly realized' New York Times Book Review 'Like a Pynchon novel with the brakes removed' Washington Post 'A remarkably prescient vision of today's tech landscape' Vanity Fair




First Lensman


Book Description

The enemy spacefleet arrowed toward the armored mountain-nerve center of the Galactic Patrol. The Patrol battle cruisers swerved to meet them, and a miles-long cone of pure energy ravened out at the invaders, destroying whatever it touched. But the moment before the force beam struck, thousands of tiny objects dropped from the enemy fleet and, faster than light, flashed straight at their target-each one an atom bomb powerful enough to destroy Patrol Headquarters by itself! The Galactic Patrol-and civilization itself-had seconds to live. Unless a miracle happened.... **




Asia-Pacific Rebalance 2025


Book Description

In 2015, Congress tasked the Department of Defense to commission an independent assessment of U.S. military strategy and force posture in the Asia-Pacific, as well as that of U.S. allies and partners, over the next decade. This CSIS study fulfills that congressional requirement. The authors assess U.S. progress to date and recommend initiatives necessary to protect U.S. interests in the Pacific Command area of responsibility through 2025. Four lines of effort are highlighted: (1) Washington needs to continue aligning Asia strategy within the U.S. government and with allies and partners; (2) U.S. leaders should accelerate efforts to strengthen ally and partner capability, capacity, resilience, and interoperability; (3) the United States should sustain and expand U.S. military presence in the Asia-Pacific region; and (4) the United States should accelerate development of innovative capabilities and concepts for U.S. forces.




Chinese Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile (ASBM) Development


Book Description

China’s anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM), the DF-21D, has reached the equivalent of Initial Operational Capability. Although it probably has been deployed in small numbers, additional challenges and tests remain. This study examines the ASBM’s capability and history, showing how the DF-21D meets multiple priorities in Chinese defense modernization and in the national security bureaucracy, as well its implications for the United States. The ASBM’s physical threat to U.S. Navy ships will be determined by the development of associated systems and organizations, which currently limit data fusion and coordination in the complex task of identifying a U.S. aircraft carrier in the open ocean. Still, the ASBM poses a direct threat to the foundations of U.S. power project in Asia and will undermine the U.S. position, unless efforts to counter its political-military effects are taken.




Rifts Conversion Book


Book Description




Designated Targets


Book Description

The nightmare of the Transition has given way to a world in chaos. The battlelines of World War II are being redrawn in dangerous and unpredictable ways, leaving the Allied forces scrambling for control and the Axis forces with undreamt-of power.But the military crisis is only the beginning. An awareness of how their future unfolds is sweeping the world, and the people of 1942 are split between clamouring for change and the freedoms their descendants enjoy, and resisting it to protect the values of their society.Then Japan invades Australia, foreign agents begin a campaign of terror in the USA, and Germany prepares for an all-out attack on Britain. The twenty-first-century forces must resort to the most extreme measures yet...




Rifts Mercenaries


Book Description




Fire Warrior


Book Description

Ruling over the alien warriors of the Tau empire are the enigmatic Ethereals. When a powerful Ethereal crashes behind Imperial battle lines, it falls to one young Fire Warrior to sacrifice his life for the greater good. Original.