The end of the world sucks. The end of the world alone is worse. So when Dr. Lisette Chen discovers her staff have uploaded their consciousnesses into the massive MMO, Viridian Gate Online, she reluctantly takes a chance and logs in. Her goal? Discover why her colleagues abandoned her when she needed them the most. In a blink, she finds herself in a fantastical world where her healing skills--both as a doctor and a Priestess of Gaia--are sorely needed. A group of dark priests is spreading a digital plague that threatens NPCs and Travelers alike, and somehow it is all connected to her old coworkers. Lisette is the only one who can unravel the mystery before time runs out on humanity's new safe haven. Lisette's already lost one world, and she sure as hell isn't going to lose another. From James A. Hunter--author of Viridian Gate Online, Rogue Dungeon, and Bibliomancer--and debut author E.C. Godhand, comes an epic new entry into the Expanded Universe of Viridian Gate Online that you won't want to put down!

He's a part-time Imperial hero, full-time thief. Lucky for him, she's not that kind of Inquisitor. Illusionist and novice spy Alan Campbell just got out of one relationship only to have another woman walk into his life: the Lady Camilla Favonius of the Imperial Inquisition. He's close to broke and left without orders. She wears plate armor in the field and around her heart. Is the lady just what the Plague Doctor ordered, or will his efforts to get a job and woo her only leave him jaded...or dead? From the city of Harrowick to the perilous depths of the Grass Sea, Alan will have to fight a corrupt syndicate, earn his place in the Thieves' Union, and face down monsters and the risen dead if he wants a happy ending. All the while, in the real world, Robert Osmark is as close to losing his company as he's ever been, and both Sandra and Jeff will have to pick sides once the battle lines are drawn. Brazen thievery, Death caught off-balance, the Dawn Elves' dirty secret, and unexpected love in Inquisitor's Foil, the third book of the Illusionist series. From James A. Hunter-author of Viridian Gate Online, Rogue Dungeon, War God's Mantle, and the Yancy Lazarus Series-and D.J. Bodden, author of The Black Year Series, comes an epic new entry into the Expanded Universe of Viridian Gate Online that you won't want to put down!

The author of the Yancy Lazarus series introduces a golem forged from the ashes of WWII in “a dark tale of vengeance and redemption” (Domino Finn, author of the Black Magic Outlaw series). Levi Adams is a soft-spoken, middle-aged Mennonite man—at least he tries to be when he’s not murdering people. Levi’s a golem, a Mudman, crafted from the muck, mire, and corpses of a World War II concentration camp and saddled with a divine commission to dole out judgment on those who shed innocent blood. But now, after seventy years as a cold-blooded murder machine, he’s turned to AA meetings and church services to help change his grisly nature. Until he runs across a wounded girl, Sally Ryder, during one of his “hunting expeditions.” Someone is attempting to revive a pre-Babylonian murder god, and the road to rebirth is paved with dead bodies. Lots and lots of them. Now, Levi must protect Sally—the key to an unspeakable resurrection—and defeat a Nazi mage from his murky past, one who holds a terrible secret about the Mudman’s unorthodox birth. It’s a secret Levi would pay anything to uncover: maybe even Sally’s life. If Levi isn’t careful, he may end up turning into the monster he always imagined himself to be. “A timeless tale of striving against evil . . . Highly recommended if you like paranormal thrillers, psychological thrillers and books such as Jeff Lindsey’s Dexter Morgan series, Thomas Harris’ Hannibal Lecter books, the TV show Supernatural.” —Port Jericho “A mash of styles and creative ideas, blending religious mythology from Jewish and Christian beliefs alongside Nazi atrocities and supernatural ghouls.” —TheBookBeard’s Blog

Priest or not, Liset is a healer, and she's here to save their ass, not kiss it. After rescuing a holy relic from Darklings, Liset the Blessed learns no good deed goes unpunished. The Temple of Areste has given her a day and a half to make a choice: be excommunicated for turning in the quest item or excommunicated for stealing it. Either way, she risks losing her hard-earned class as a Priestess of Gaia, and with it, her ability to heal the people of Viridian Gate Online. But the world has other plans, and her temple is the least of her worries. Between the return of the Darklings, an ancient Hvitalfarian evil, and a brewing civil war in Rowanheath, there's plenty of need for a healer. As a former physician, she has more tools at her disposal to heal people than magic. Even if she must go to war with her own temple, she won't let her faith be ripped away without a fight. Not when so many people depend on her.

If the destruction of Earth and extinction of humanity were imminent, how far would you go to survive? Would you kill your body to save your mind? Jack Mitchel is willing to risk everything to survive the apocalypse-including his essential humanity. An EMT in 2042 San Diego, Jack knows he won't survive the impact of the massive asteroid hurtling towards Earth. After all, he's not one of the handful of lucky lottery winners scheduled for rescue. But he did luck into a NexGenVR capsule, which means Jack can risk a one-way trip to the virtual reality world of Viridan Gate Online, a completely immersive online multiplayer fantasy role-playing game, or RPG. The transition to Viridian Gate Online (V.G.O.) is irreversible, and will kill Jack's corporeal form. And once players transition fully into the world of V.G.O., the risks aren't over-from cutthroat fellow players to greedy developers eager to replicate the wealth discrepancies of Earth in virtual reality, V.G.O. is just as dangerous as the 'real world' was. If Jack can't game the system, he's going to be trading in a quick death for a long, brutal one... LitRPG books combine tropes and themes from role-playing games with sci-fi and fantasy elements to tell a unique story that's exciting and super-relevant to today's world. Jack's adventures in a cutthroat virtual reality fantasy world will grip fans of Ready Player One and The Stormlight Archive alike. With over 200,000 copies sold, this is one series you don't want to miss!

Here, Elkins argues that alchemists and painters have similar relationships to the substances they work with. Both try to transform the substance, while seeking to transform their own experience.

Second in the Rifters Trilogy, Hugo Award-winning author Peter Watts' Maelstrom is a terrifying explosion of cyberpunk noir. This is the way the world ends: A nuclear strike on a deep sea vent. The target was an ancient microbe—voracious enough to drive the whole biosphere to extinction—and a handful of amphibious humans called rifters who'd inadvertently released it from three billion years of solitary confinement. The resulting tsunami killed millions. It's not as through there was a choice: saving the world excuses almost any degree of collateral damage. Unless, of course, you miss the target. Now North America's west coast lies in ruins. Millions of refugees rally around a mythical figure mysteriously risen from the deep sea. A world already wobbling towards collapse barely notices the spread of one more blight along its shores. And buried in the seething fast-forward jungle that use to be called Internet, something vast and inhuman reaches out to a woman with empty white eyes and machinery in her chest. A woman driven by rage, and incubating Armageddon. Her name is Lenie Clarke. She's a rifter. She's not nearly as dead as everyone thinks. And the whole damn world is collateral damage as far as she's concerned. . . . At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.