With Germany and France locked in a deadly battle against the United States, massive dogfights occur in the skies, and the U.S. Navy struggles for survival in waters alive with U-boats. 250,000 first printing. BOMC Feat Alt.

With Germany and France locked in a deadly battle against the United States, massive dogfights occur in the skies, and the U.S. Navy struggles for survival in waters alive with U-boats.

The USS Memphis, a dilapidated submarine that that should have been mothballed decades ago, has been given one last mission by the newly elected president. The task: To sneak illegally into Russia's coastal waters and recon the leaking nuclear fuel containers hidden on the floor of the Arctic Ocean. More than just an environmental nightmare, this radioactive burial ground houses enough nuclear capability to destroy most of America's major cities.
The Memphis's commander, Lowell Hardy, had been looking forward to flag rank and pleasant duty upon the sub's decommissioning. Now he is trapped in an inconceivably dangerous and illegal mission which could easily end his career, if not his life and the lives of his crew. But it's the crew who feel Hardy's tension as he tyrannizes everyone on board to ensure they'll be ready for anything:
Jerry Mitchell: a former naval pilot with political connections, he is a novice submariner, unprepared for his demanding job as a weapons officer. Central to the Memphis's mission, Mitchell may be its greatest liability . . . or its ultimate salvation.
Dr. Joanna Patterson: The senior civilian scientist, appointed by and reporting to the president, she is a world-class expert on nuclear fuel contamination—and every bit as demanding as Hardy. Patterson and her partner, Dr. Emily Davis, soon find themselves battling flaring tempers, faulty machinery, lethal radioactivity, and the raging arctic seas.
The submariners: Seething with rage at their Captain Bligh-like commander and the equally domineering Joanna Patterson, they are also at war with Jerry Mitchell, and one another. Like the captain, they feel they deserve better, not this antiquated relic, not this hostile scientist, not this novice weapons officer, and definitely not this disastrously dangerous mission.
Nor is the mission what it seems. Lurking beneath the frigid, black, radioactive waters is a secret far more deadly than anything naval command could imagine—a secret so menacing the Russian Fleet is hell-bent on destroying the Memphis and all who sail in her.

(20041015)

U.S. Army colonel Peter Thorn, former Delta Force squadron commander and counterterrorist expert, harbors two passions. One, he loves to lead the troops. Unfortunately, for the past six months he's been logging more time behind a desk than behind enemy lines. So, when he hears of an opportunity to investigate a plane crash in Russia, Thorn jumps at a chance to once again see some field action, as well as to rekindle his second passion: a partnership with FBI special agent Helen Gray.

Gray and Thorn have led cases together before, although this time they've both been instructed by the U.S. government to take secondary roles to the Russian task force investigating the crash site. By nature, Thorn and Gray can't sit on the sidelines for long, and within a few days they have found inconsistencies in the case. Deciding to investigate further, they manage to attract the attention of the Russian police, a German ex-Stasi, and the U.S. government, all of whom, for their own reasons, want the pair off the case.

But the twosome agree that the case can't be closed. If their hunch is correct, it appears that someone has stolen a Russian nuclear warhead. By going undercover, the two have a chance to avert a potential catastrophe, although it means directly disobeying government orders. As a result, they must finish the investigation alone. Colonel Thorn will soon find himself in situations that draw on his years of training in armed combat (as well as skills honed playing flight simulation computer games!).

Though Day of Wrath does have its clichéd moments and awkward dialogue, the book is made interesting by Bond's knowledge of nuclear warfare and intelligence strategy. Anyone with a head for military hardware and a penchant for post-Cold War intrigue will enjoy this technothriller. —Kris Law

What it a foreign nation launched a war against the United States within its own borders?

America's largest cities are in flames. Its majestic landmarks are in ruins. Electronic sabotage cripples its communications systems. Race battles against race in a civil conflagration. The first waves of a meticulously orchestrated international terrorist campaign have achieved a stunning, terrifying success.

As grim national leaders hunker down with advisors, as the finest living minds in strategic intelligence link up to search out and destroy the source of the savagery, as armies both with and without uniforms mobilize to win the ultimate unconventional war, two men — once friends, now adversaries to the death — race to a decisive confrontation.

An epic suspense thriller as only Larry Bond could create, The Enemy Within penetrates the world of domestic counterterrorism and is a warning cry that cannot be ignored.

This thundering geopolitical thriller dares reveal the military hardware, global upheavals, and raw combat that a second Korean War would unleash.

As the forces of white supremacy make their last stand against South Africa's black majority, America mobilizes Operation Brave Fortune to prevent global chaos. Reprint.

What if a foreign rogue nation launched a war against the United States within its own borders? America's largest cities are in flames. Its majestic landmarks are in ruins. Electronic sabotage cripples its far-flung communications systems. Race battles against race in a raging civil conflagration. The first waves of a meticulously orchestrated international terrorist campaign have achieved a stunning and terrifying success. As grim national leaders hunker down with advisors, as the finest living minds in strategic intelligence together with state-of-the-art computers link up to search out and destroy the source of the savagery, as armies both with and without uniforms mobilize to win the ultimate unconventional war, two men - once friends, now adversaries to the death - race to a decisive confrontation. On one side is General Amir Taleh, an implacable foe of the United States, a nimble survivor of the brutal cross-currents of Iran's internal politics, and a shrewd fighter who believes that killing for revenge is pointless but killing for a higher purpose is justified. Opposing him are two American operatives who become tactical allies as well as unexpected lovers: Colonel Peter Thorn, the Delta Force veteran who has faced down the masters of terror on foreign soil and now feels powerless to defeat them at home; and Special Agent Helen Gray, as beautiful as she is a formidable player in the old-boy network of special operations. Together, they must find a way to defeat Taleh and his forces before the West awakens to its greatest nightmare of all.

Will the emerging global information infrastructure (GII) create a revolution in communication equivalent to that wrought by Gutenberg, or will the result be simply the evolutionary adaptation of existing behavior and institutions to new media? Will the GII improve access to information for all? Will it replace libraries and publishers? How can computers and information systems be made easier to use? What are the trade-offs between tailoring information systems to user communities and standardizing them to interconnect with systems designed for other communities, cultures, and languages? This book takes a close look at these and other questions of technology, behavior, and policy surrounding the GII. Topics covered include the design and use of digital libraries; behavioral and institutional aspects of electronic publishing; the evolving role of libraries; the life cycle of creating, using, and seeking information; and the adoption and adaptation of information technologies. The book takes a human-centered perspective, focusing on how well the GII fits into the daily lives of the people it is supposed to benefit. Taking a unique holistic approach to information access, the book draws on research and practice in computer science, communications, library and information science, information policy, business, economics, law, political science, sociology, history, education, and archival and museum studies. It explores both domestic and international issues. The author's own empirical research is complemented by extensive literature reviews and analyses.

Journalist Mark Bowden delivers a strikingly detailed account of the 1993 nightmare operation in Mogadishu that left 18 American soldiers dead and many more wounded. This early foreign-policy disaster for the Clinton administration led to the resignation of Secretary of Defense Les Aspin and a total troop withdrawal from Somalia. Bowden does not spend much time considering the context; instead he provides a moment-by-moment chronicle of what happened in the air and on the ground. His gritty narrative tells of how Rangers and elite Delta Force troops embarked on a mission to capture a pair of high-ranking deputies to warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid only to find themselves surrounded in a hostile African city. Their high-tech MH-60 Black Hawk helicopters had been shot down and a number of other miscues left them trapped through the night. Bowden describes Mogadishu as a place of Mad Max-like anarchy—implying strongly that there was never any peace for the supposed peacekeepers to keep. He makes full use of the defense bureaucracy's extensive paper trail—which includes official reports, investigations, and even radio transcripts—to describe the combat with great accuracy, right down to the actual dialogue. He supplements this with hundreds of his own interviews, turning Black Hawk Down into a completely authentic nonfiction novel, a lively page-turner that will make readers feel like they're standing beside the embattled troops. This will quickly be realized as a modern military classic. —John J. Miller

Journalist Mark Bowden delivers a strikingly detailed account of the 1993 nightmare operation in Mogadishu that left 18 American soldiers dead and many more wounded. This early foreign-policy disaster for the Clinton administration led to the resignation of Secretary of Defense Les Aspin and a total troop withdrawal from Somalia. Bowden does not spend much time considering the context; instead he provides a moment-by-moment chronicle of what happened in the air and on the ground. His gritty narrative tells of how Rangers and elite Delta Force troops embarked on a mission to capture a pair of high-ranking deputies to warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid only to find themselves surrounded in a hostile African city. Their high-tech MH-60 Black Hawk helicopters had been shot down and a number of other miscues left them trapped through the night. Bowden describes Mogadishu as a place of Mad Max-like anarchy—implying strongly that there was never any peace for the supposed peacekeepers to keep. He makes full use of the defense bureaucracy's extensive paper trail—which includes official reports, investigations, and even radio transcripts—to describe the combat with great accuracy, right down to the actual dialogue. He supplements this with hundreds of his own interviews, turning Black Hawk Down into a completely authentic nonfiction novel, a lively page-turner that will make readers feel like they're standing beside the embattled troops. This will quickly be realized as a modern military classic. —John J. Miller

From "Rocket Summer" to "The Million-Year Picnic," Ray Bradbury's stories of the colonization of Mars form an eerie mesh of past and future. Written in the 1940s, the chronicles drip with nostalgic atmosphere—shady porches with tinkling pitchers of lemonade, grandfather clocks, chintz-covered sofas. But longing for this comfortable past proves dangerous in every way to Bradbury's characters—the golden-eyed Martians as well as the humans. Starting in the far-flung future of 1999, expedition after expedition leaves Earth to investigate Mars. The Martians guard their mysteries well, but they are decimated by the diseases that arrive with the rockets. Colonists appear, most with ideas no more lofty than starting a hot-dog stand, and with no respect for the culture they've displaced.

Bradbury's quiet exploration of a future that looks so much like the past is sprinkled with lighter material. In "The Silent Towns," the last man on Mars hears the phone ring and ends up on a comical blind date. But in most of these stories, Bradbury holds up a mirror to humanity that reflects a shameful treatment of "the other," yielding, time after time, a harvest of loneliness and isolation. Yet the collection ends with hope for renewal, as a colonist family turns away from the demise of the Earth towards a new future on Mars. Bradbury is a master fantasist and The Martian Chronicles are an unforgettable work of art. —Blaise Selby

Become a master of the lateral logic puzzle. The clues to solving each puzzle can be found within it, but to figure them out you need to break free from conventional thinking and toss aside core assumptions. Ninety entertainingly illustrated puzzles, from murder mysteries to treasure hunts, will challenge your thinking skills. There are clues for each puzzle if you need them, and of course you can peek at the answer if you really get stumped. 96 pages, 25 b/w illus., 5 3/8 x 8 1/4.

Sunset has been the recognized authority among western gardeners for more than 100 years! Our completely revised edition of the popular Western Garden Book includes more than 2,000 new plant entries, all new four-color plant illustrations, improved climate zone information for the Western states and new maps for Alaska, Hawaii, and southwest Canada. The book is brimming with full-color photos and practical tips for successful Western gardening from Sunset gardening editors. This title also features information on the latest gardening tools and gear.