Showing results for "Das System" in Science Fiction

All Systems Red is the tense first science fiction adventure novella in Martha Wells' series The Murderbot Diaries. For fans of Westworld, Ex Machina, Ann Leckie's Imperial Raadch series, or Iain M. Banks' Culture novels. The main character is a deadly security droid that has bucked its restrictive programming and is balanced between contemplative self-discovery and an idle instinct to kill all humans.

Fight, survive, adapt, and rely only on yourself. That is Derek’s creed and what's got him through the System Integration on Earth. Everything changed when the System came. Cute bunnies and beautiful butterflies became savage killing machines. Then the Invaders arrived with a single goal: to obtain ownership of this new habitable planet. War has raged ever since. None of this mattered much to Derek, aside from making living a little more perilous.

Quinn can barely handle her own life. When the Library of Everywhere discovers her compatible magical signature, suddenly, she is the sole existing potential librarian. Now, it's not only the weight of her world on her shoulders—Quinn must connect with the library system before the universe itself disintegrates. Once she's settled, it should be quiet, peaceful work—just as soon as she battles a few engorged bookworms, repairs hundreds of years of damage, and figures out why there's been no librarian for the last several centuries.

Corporate flameout Ned Altimer dreams of leaving his world behind. So, when Earthblood Online splashes onto the VRMMO scene, he dives in and never looks back. His advantages are twofold: exclusive access to the game’s three-day Head Start period, and a ridiculously handsome talking axe named Frank who has knowledge of the game’s deepest secrets...if the magnificent Frank ever feels like sharing them.

Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there's an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can't have the planet, they're sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free workforce is a decent runner-up prize. But there's something wrong with Murderbot; it isn't running within normal operational parameters.

The Worldbranch Throne has been claimed, but the Lunar Empress now looms over EBO. Her arrival heralds the start of a new era: a strange continent, powerful loot drops, and a catch-up event that drastically empowers those who have fallen behind the leveling curve.

The world ends in a slew of blue notification boxes, bringing with it a game-like existence including monsters and Classes. Now, John has to make his way from Kluane National Park in the Yukon to Whitehorse through monster infested forests. But, that's not enough; because he'll need to help rebuild civilization itself around the System, aliens and monsters. And, as always, humanity will be its own greatest enemy.

In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern. On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid—a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.”

Jay Luckrun has many interests: street dancing, anime, action movies, comedy, and dashing across rooftops to the point where his bullies nicknamed him Rooftop Weirdo. After struggling to confront his untouchable high school crush at her seventeenth birthday party, Jay adds another interest to his list—Dungeon Crawling in the face of the apocalypse. Jay meets a divine creature who chooses him to become a Champion. Someone with a leveling System, stats, skills, access to other dimensions containing dungeons filled with supernatural loot, and magical powers that’ll alter reality as they know it.

Ominous obelisks land on Earth with a single message: Join the games to give humanity a fighting chance to survive... Or roll over and die. Too bad for them, Warren isn't the rolling-over type. Cancer may be kicking Warren's a$$, but he's not about to let aliens destroy his home and everything he loves (which is mostly just his dog, Buck). Besides, what does he have to lose? Better to die with sword in hand, bleeding out from a head wound than in some hospital bed...

The train station harbors danger. Each day, one portal opens, leading to daunting trials and battles of life and death commanded by masked facilitators. Asher is forced to rely on his instincts and his weapon. He must navigate this treacherous world, both solo and with teams, and contend with other players, each harboring their own motives and ambitions. Confronted with unimaginable challenges, every day unveils a new hurdle, and each victory is bitterly earned. In this world intent on crushing him, Asher must fight to survive.

What if humanity’s next stage of evolution wasn’t discovered…But engineered? Elliot Voss spent decades pursuing a singular vision. Until he found a way to rewrite the rules of life itself.

In the future: A united Earth, to deal with the problem of population control, divides its population into classes of citizen and non-gratis. To be born a non-gratis means a life of little freedoms and the constant possibility of being assigned to work on a colony. Lacking citizenship, every aspect of their life is controlled from where they live down to marriage and childbearing regulations. The only possible escape from life as a non-gratis is to qualify for one of the limited slots available for entrance into the military.

Jeb Trapper tried to kill himself. The gun jammed. Two months later, the vet is now participating in underground trials of ecstasy to treat his PTSD. Everything seems to be going great until Jeb is teleported into a tutorial, along with everyone else on Earth. Now, he has to choose the level of difficulty. There's just one problem: He's high as a kite, and nothing seems impossible.

After a successful auction, the young Prince Edgar requested Derek’s help on an issue that concerned the safety of the entire Kingdom of Cydaria. A new, level 250 raid dungeon appeared, and Edgar needed the kingdom’s elite to help clear it before the unstable dungeon overflowed, or even worse, broke. Leaving his shop in the trusting hands of Malorie, and with everyone’s insistence that he go, Derek agreed to the prince’s request and joined him and the others on the raid. However, the dungeon wasn’t what anyone was expecting, and when they went inside, they found that it was a trial dungeon.

Wrench is a Fixer. Someone born to maintain, fix, and correct any and every issue that could go wrong in the habitat he lives in. Someone who makes sure he and his fellow humans can remain on display and entertain their owners as any good human pet would. At least, that’s what he was born to be. He’s taken a different route and joined a resistance faction to help free humanity to become more than just pets to an alien race.

After saving Manhattan from the alien Salvage System, Forge Warrior Chris Mason faces an impossible choice: become the Forerunners' champion or watch Earth fall. But first, he must tame the fiercest warriors in the galaxy—the Rax'Kull. And he'll have to do it without his powers. Transported to Zhark'Thul, an alien world of deadly creatures and bizarre landscapes, Chris discovers his salvaging abilities no longer function. Stripped back to level one, he and his team must survive the insect-like Rax'Kull who mark them as prey.

Wrench is a Fixer. Someone born to maintain, fix, and correct any and every issue that could arise in the Habitat he lives in. To make sure he and his fellow humans can remain on display and entertain their owners as any good human pet would. At least, that's what he was born to be. Now, after getting a second chance along with a superpower that lets him alter anything and everything in regards to his own body, he's trying to fix his life.

Melvin Murphy is your average everyday teen... until he finds the System. Melvin has normal problems. High School. Tests. Trying to find a girlfriend (and failing... miserably). But one day he awakens with access to a System that governs all magic. In his attempt to summon a teacher to show him the ropes, he botches the ritual and accidentally summons a magic-wielding girl named Kalliphae. Sure, she's powerful and deadly. A femme fatale who's more intimidating than even the most popular girls at school.

Hal Mason's still going to find surviving the System Apocalypse challenging. While bringing in his latest fugitive, Hal's payday is interrupted by the translucent blue boxes that herald Earth's introduction to the System - a galaxy spanning wave of structured mystical energy that destroys all electronics and bestows game-like abilities upon mankind. With society breaking down and mutating wildlife rampaging through the city of Pittsburgh, those who remain will sacrifice anything for a chance at earning their next Level.