An impossible quest for a legendary item. I love questing for loot. And the more difficult the quest, the greater the reward. So when I'm offered a chance to retrieve the ultimate treasure of all, I signed up. Yet no one warned me the task would be impossible. Against overwhelming odds I'm also expected to defeat an ancient evil - one with the power of a god. But you know what? Some loot is worth risking it all. **This book is also in the discounted bundle: Shadow For Hire Books 1-4 Shadow For Hire Series: Book 1 - Shadow Gambit Book 2 - Shadow Hunting Book 3 - Shadow Wars Book 4 - Shadow Blade litrpg, fantasy, gamelit, rpg, cyberpunk, female mc, female protagonist, series, action, adventure, video games, mmo, role playing games, vr, virtual reality

She’s been a pawn for too long. It’s time to take control of the game… The first female magic user to reach adulthood in England for centuries, Seraphina Winyard is viewed as a freakish chattel by some…and by others as a danger that must be erased from history. Held captive and humiliated like a performing animal, she cannot dream of a future, and has no hope in the present. Until she escapes. When her former guardian is murdered, suspicion falls on Seraphina. Aided by the brilliant surgeon Hugh Miles, she must discover how to wield her power to find the true murderer before her leash is replaced by a noose. With her life at stake, Sera has to hurry. The deeper she digs, the more she discovers she is a pawn in someone else’s game. A game of magic and lies that intends to resurrect an ancient evil. A game that will shake England to its core and threaten everyone she loves… A historical fantasy adventure that blends magic and supernatural mystery set in an alternate eighteenth-century England. Perfect for fans of Charlie N Holmberg, Gail Carriger, and CJ Archer.

Knight, the sheriff of a local magical government known as "the Gambit," is called to recover a mutilated body, tainted with magic and dumped at a popular haunt. When the corpse is identified as a close associate of the Gambit, it threatens the safety of the community he protects, and those he cares about most. As the fragile peace amongst the city's magic-wielding factions disintegrates, Knight must track down a cadre of murderers before his friends are picked off, one by one- with each death used to strengthen the spells cast against the Gambit. (Keywords: Urban Fantasy, Dark Urban Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Fantasy Urban, Fantasy Witch, Horror Fantasy, Horror Pulps, Film Noir, Urban Fantasy Thriller, Fantasy Thriller, Fantasy Pulp.)

How performances of tactical imperceptibility—or “stealth”—have become a key political practice in digital culture as a means of escaping surveillance and tracking technologies. In The Aesthetics of Stealth, Toni Pape proposes the first aesthetic and cultural theory of stealth, a mode of political action. The primary goal of stealth is to act efficiently while remaining imperceptible. Pape begins with the observation that the desire for stealth is a sociocultural response to digital media culture, due to digital technologies’ unprecedented ability to track individual behavior. He argues that stealth operates as a cross-media aesthetic that can be observed in video games, television, and video art alike, particularly in so-called stealth video games, a genre that requires players to accomplish missions without being detected by in-game enemies. Drawing on theories of perception, digital aesthetics, and video game studies, Pape proposes an analytical map of different modes of stealth such as “sneaking stealth,” “social stealth,” or “magical stealth.” The author’s findings are brought into dialogue with research in the fields of software studies, surveillance studies, and political theory to establish the political importance of stealth. While stealth is a resistance to pervasive sensing and tracking, Pape also shows that the principles of stealth politics are closely connected to urgent concerns like (cyber)warfare and other digital practices of targeting and surveillance that operate to entrench cultural values like heteronormativity and white supremacy.

Netflix’s most watched limited series to date! The thrilling novel of one young woman’s journey through the worlds of chess and drug addiction.​ When eight-year-old Beth Harmon’s parents are killed in an automobile accident, she’s placed in an orphanage in Mount Sterling, Kentucky. Plain and shy, Beth learns to play chess from the janitor in the basement and discovers she is a prodigy. Though penniless, she is desperate to learn more—and steals a chess magazine and enough money to enter a tournament. Beth also steals some of her foster mother’s tranquilizers to which she is becoming addicted. At thirteen, Beth wins the chess tournament. By the age of sixteen she is competing in the US Open Championship and, like Fast Eddie in The Hustler, she hates to lose. By eighteen she is the US champion—and Russia awaits . . . Fast-paced and elegantly written, The Queen’s Gambit is a thriller masquerading as a chess novel—one that’s sure to keep you on the edge of your seat. “The Queen’s Gambit is sheer entertainment. It is a book I reread every few years—for the pure pleasure and skill of it.” —Michael Ondaatje, Man Booker Prize–winning author of The English Patient

Alaric Moebius and Basil Fox are two lovable scoundrels looking to make a quick fortune. In the employment of the mysterious – and other-worldly -- “Collector,” they find themselves on a globe-trotting adventure through the gambling dens of Monaco, the ruins of a U-boat bunker in Germany, the skyscrapers of Japan, the waters off the Falkland Islands, and a mysterious Nazi facility deep under the South Pole, all in search of secret powerful weapons smuggled away after WWII. All the while battling mercenaries, ninjas, pirates, undead assassins, and Nazi robots. A rip-roaring tale of action and rollercoaster thrills! Created by Ryan Schifrin and co-written by the legendary Larry Hama (G.I. Joe, Wolverine)! “A delightful romp mixing pulpish delight with bold, eye-catching graphics and instantly likable characters. Old school fun for the 21st century!” - GUILLERMO DEL TORO (Director/Producer, Pacific Rim, Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth) “Think Artemus Gordon and James West, or Fritz Lieber’s Fafhrd and Gray Mouser. Now tweak the setting and have a blast.” - R.A. SALVATORE (New York Times best-selling author, Forgotten Realms, The DemonWars Saga)