This is the fifth book in Wilson's Adversary Cycle, updated by the author and available for the first time in trade paperback, and released in preparation for the grand climax of the Repairman Jack cycle. Poised and waiting for the moment he can unleash an ancient wave of horror that will extinguish humanity, the son of clone Jim Hanley, Jonah, poses as a graduate student in a small southern town to hide his venomous vampiric identity.
In the bitterly cold winter of 1943, the Italian countryside is torn apart by violence as partisans wage a guerilla war against the occupying German army and their local fascist allies. In the midst of this conflict, a ragtag group of fascist supporters captures a woman in the late stages of pregnancy. Suspecting her of being in league with the partisans, they hastily put her on “trial” by improvising a war tribunal one night in the choir stalls of the abandoned monastery that serves as their hide-out. This sham court convicts the woman and sentences her to die—but not until her child has been born. When a young seminarian visits the monastery and tries to dissuade the fascist band from executing their sentence, the absurd tragedy of the woman’s fate is cast in stark relief. The child’s birth approaches, an unnerving anticipation unfolds, and tension mounts ominously among the characters and within their individual psyches. Based on a number of incidents that took place in Abruzzo during the war, Laudomia Bonanni’s compact and tragic novel explores the overwhelming conflicts between ideology and community, justice and vengeance. The story is embedded in the cruel reality of Italian fascism, but its themes of revenge, sacrifice, and violence emerge as universal, delivered in prose that is at once lyrical and brutal. In her native Italy, Bonanni, a writer of journalism and critical prose as well as fiction, is hailed as one of the strongest proponents of post-war realism, and this is the first of her novels to be made available to Anglophone readers. Translators Susan Stewart and Sara Teardo render Bonanni’s singular style—both sparse and emotive, frank and poetic—into readable, evocative English.
Ancient Warrior-Vampire-Queen's Bitch... Akio accepted his Queen's charge to stay behind and protect humanity from the Forsaken scourge. She never said it would be easy. An isolated police report about an island overtaken by feral, red-eyed creatures savaging humans spurs Akio to investigate. The local police are good at their job, but they're not well-equipped to handle things that go bump in the night. Especially not the ones terrorizing this once-peaceful island paradise. While dealing with the incursion, Akio discovers new information. The situation is escalating-and all evidence points to enemies from his past. A dangerous science he'd thought was destroyed. The Forsaken are rising to take their place as the alpha predators. Now, it's a race against overwhelming odds as Akio unravels long-laid complex plans and takes the fight to those who threaten the last bastion of civilization on post-apocalyptic Earth. Can he stop this evil before it enslaves humanity? Or will the Forsaken succeed in taking over the world? Go up and click 'READ FOR FREE' or 'BUY NOW' and find out if Akio, Yuko and Eve accomplish this task for their Queen, or die trying.
“An utterly satisfying adventure . . . In Kylara Vatta, Moon has created another tough and complex heroine.”—Scifi Though the exciting military career she hoped for never materialized, Ky Vatta still sees plenty of combat. An unknown adversary has launched a full-throttle offensive against Vatta Transport Ltd., Ky’s father’s interstellar shipping empire—killing most of Ky’s family. Fighting for her very survival, Ky is determined to avenge her family’s deaths. Teaming up with a band of stranded mercenaries, her black-sheep cousin Stella, and Stella’s roguish ex-lover, Ky struggles to penetrate the tangled web of political intrigue that surrounds the attacks. Amid suspicion and deception, she is prepared to take whatever measures are necessary to ensure that Vatta stays in business. What she’s not prepared for is the shocking truth behind the terror— and a confrontation with murderous treachery. . . . Praise for Marque and Reprisal “The intrigue-filled plot lends a marque of distinction.”—Entertainment Weekly “Excellent plotting and characters support the utterly realistic action sequences: swift, jolting, [and] merciless.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “A gripping, action-packed book.”—Omaha World-Herald
Book 4 of The Mindstream Chronicles Gatekeeper and Minister of Truth Jora Lanseri has defeated the otherworldy monster sent to kill her, despite Dominee Ibsa’s refusal to help. Jora must journey to the neighboring city of Renn to recover the stolen godheart and bring Ibsa back to face justice for betraying Queen Rivva. But when Jora returns to the capital, she finds powerful forces have converged with one goal in mind—to force the Gatekeeper to do their bidding.
“Letters of marque” might suggest privateers of the Elizabethan era or the American Revolution. But such conventions are duly covered in the US Constitution, and the private military instruments they sanction are very much at work today in the form of mercenaries and military contractors. A history of such practices up to the present day, Marque and Reprisal by Kenneth B. Moss offers unique insight into the role of private actors in military conflicts and the reason they are increasingly deployed in our day. Along with an overview of mercenaries and privateers, Marque and Reprisal provides a comprehensive history of the “marque and reprisal” clause in the US Constitution, reminding us that it is not as arcane as it seems and arguing that it is not a license for all forms of undeclared war. Within this historical context Moss explains why governments and states have sought control over warfare and actors—and why private actors have reappeared in force in recent conflicts. He also looks ahead to the likelihood that cyberwar will become an important venue for “private warfare.” Moss wonders if international law will be up to the challenges of private military actors in the digital realm. Is international law, in fact, equipped to meet the challenges increasingly presented in our day by such extramilitary activity? A government makes no more serious decision than whether to resort to military force and war; and when doing so, Moss suggests, it should ensure that such actions are accountable, not on the sly, and not decided in the marketplace. Marque and Reprisal should inform future deliberations and decisions on that count.
On an island in Massachusetts, a woman professor investigates the deaths of her father and of her husband, which police claim were accidents. In the process she befriends a nice young woman, unaware it was she who murdered them. By the author of Sacrifice.
“Marvelously compelling . . . consummate military-adventure science fiction.”—SciFi In the aftermath of the cold-blooded assassinations that killed her parents and shattered the Vatta interstellar shipping empire, Kylara Vatta sets out to avenge the killings and salvage the family business. Ky soon discovers a conspiracy of terrifying scope, breathtaking audacity, and utter ruthlessness. The only hope against such powerful evil is for all the space merchants to band together. Unfortunately, because she commands a ship that once belonged to a notorious pirate, Ky is met with suspicion, if not outright hostility . . . even from her own cousin. Before she can take the fight to the enemy, Kylara must survive a deadly minefield of deception and betrayal. Praise for Engaging the Enemy “A fast-paced space adventure, with a heroine that will captivate readers.”—Omaha World-Herald “Excels in character development as well as in its fast-paced action sequences and intricate plotting.”—Library Journal “You’ll have fun with this one, for Moon keeps things moving.”—Analog
Belligerent Reprisals examines the historical developments in the law and practice relating to recourse to belligerent reprisals, as a (primitive) means of law enforcement in the hands of a party to an armed conflict, victim of a violation of the law of war at the hands of its enemy. As a legal concept, the notion means that the victim in turn violates a rule of the same body of the law of war, with the purpose of thus inducing the enemy to terminate its unlawful conduct. However, the enemy may in its turn denounce the so-called reprisal as an unlawful act of war and retaliate against it, thus setting in motion the ill-famed spiral of negative reciprocity. While early lawmakers refrained from taking up the issue, prohibitions of reprisals could be achieved in conventions adopted in 1929 and 1949 on the protection of the power of the enemy. In contrast, reprisals (or retaliatory conduct announced under that title without meeting the requisite conditions) were common practice in the conduct of hostilities, with civilians in non-occupied territory as the main victims. With major governments disinclined to give up this tool, the ban on reprisals against civilian populations ultimately accepted in the Protocols of 1977 Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 could only be hard-fought, and it remains contested to this day. First published in 1971, Belligerent Reprisals has become a classic work on this complex topic. The analysis of lawmaking and state practice it contains is as valid today as it was in the late 1970’s, and elucidates the dilemmas inherent in the notion of belligerent reprisal, as a means of law enforcement that can go terribly wrong.
