Kundala is Miina's world, created by that Goddess with the help of the dragons. But Miina is missing, and her people have been enslaved by the alien V'ornn. Now a savior has come, the Dar Sala-at, a messiah promised by prophecy yet unlike anyone's expectations: within the body of a beautiful young woman is the mind and spirit of a unique Kundalan female who is joined in mystical partnership with the mind and spirit of Annon Ashera, a V'ornn male, the last survivor of a noble family. Together the two adolescents have matured and merged into a new joint identity. Now their common destiny, and Kundala's, is in their own hands.In Lustbader's richly imagined saga The Pearl, magic and science clash on an epic scale. As in the Midkemia novels of Raymond Feist, the juxtaposition shows that neither is inherently good or evil. It is the people using magic or science who give them meaning, and Lustbader has created people you will never forget: Riane, the Dar-Sala-at; Eleana, the woman she loves twice over; Kurgan, the V'ornn usurper who raped Eleana and sired her child; Marethyn Stogggul, Kurgan's defiant sister, an artist who joins the Kundalan resistance; Marethyn's lover, chief trader Sornnn SaTrryn, who secretly helps the resistance as well; and the fabulous Krystren, the Sarakkon woman from the mysterious southern continent, who comes north on a secret mission and will change the lives of everyone she meets. All the while, the evil Sauromicians threaten the world as they seek to use banestones to bind a dragon.With each new volume, The Pearl has bloomed and ramified like a gorgeous flowering vine. The Mistress of the Pearl is the best yet, and those who have read the previous books will find new sources of excitement and enlightenment, but this is also a great place to begin catching up with the series, as the Pearl shines ever brighter. Kundala is Miina's world, created by that Goddess with the help of the dragons. But Miina is missing, and her people have been enslaved by the alien V'ornn. Now a savior has come, the Dar Sala-at, a messiah promised by prophecy yet unlike anyone's expectations: within the body of a beautiful young woman is the mind and spirit of a unique Kundalan female who is joined in mystical partnership with the mind and spirit of Annon Ashera, a V'ornn male, the last survivor of a noble family. Together the two adolescents have matured and merged into a new joint identity. Now their common destiny, and Kundala's, is in their own hands.In Lustbader's richly imagined saga The Pearl, magic and science clash on an epic scale. As in the Midkemia novels of Raymond Feist, the juxtaposition shows that neither is inherently good or evil. It is the people using magic or science who give them meaning, and Lustbader has created people you will never forget: Riane, the Dar-Sala-at;...

Evan Ryder returns to uncover an international conspiracy against American democracy in a white-knuckle new thriller by New York Times bestselling author, Eric Van Lustbader.Evan Ryder was once a field agent for a black-ops arm of the Department of Defense. Now she works for Parachute, a cutting-edge quantum-computing firm whose private espionage network exceeds any government spy agency. But her mission remains the same: seek out and destroy Omega, a fanatical global cult intent on destroying democracy. The fight against Omega has already cost Evan dearly but she will not stop until she has torn out the conspiracy by its roots, no matter the risk.In Omega Rules, the assassination of a Parachute agent in Vienna sets Evan on a dangerous, world-wide hunt for answers and on a collision course with forces so powerful they may be beyond her abilities to annihilate. Once again Lustbader delivers a prescient exploration of the political and ideological...

Russian meddling, American fragmentation, and global politics collide in this action-packed, international thriller from New York Times bestselling author, Eric Van Lustbader.In THE NEMESIS MANIFESTO, Eric Van Lustbader, the master of the smart thriller,* delivers an epic and harrowing adventure of the predatory forces that are threatening the very fabric of democracy and in the process kicks off a compelling new series with a singular new hero for our time.Evan Ryder is a lone wolf, a field agent for a black-ops arm of the DOD, who has survived unspeakable tragedy and dedicated her life to protecting her country. When her fellow agents begin to be systematically eliminated, Evan must unravel the thread that ties them all together ... before it is her turn to be the target.The kill-list belongs to a mysterious cabal known only as Nemesis, a hostile entity hell-bent on tearing the United States apart. As Evan tracks them from Washington D.C. to...

The Bourne Deception picks up where The Bourne Sanction left off. Jason Bourne's nemesis Arkadin is still hot on his trail and the two continue their struggle, reversing roles of hunter and hunted. When Bourne is ambushed and badly wounded, he fakes his death and goes into hiding. In safety, he takes on a new identity, and begins a mission to find out who tried to assassinate him. Jason begins to question who he really is, how much of him is tied up in the Bourne identity, and what he would become if that was suddenly taken away from him. Meanwhile, an American passenger airliner is shot down over Egypt by what seems to be an Iranian missile. A massive global investigative team is assembled to get at the truth of the situation before it can all escalate into an international scandal.Jason Bourne's search for the man who shot him intersects with the search for the people or the group that brought down the airliner, which leads Bourne into one of the most deadly and challenging situations in his entire life.With the threat of a new world war brewing, Bourne finds himself in a race against time to uncover the truth and find the person behind his assault, all the while being stalked by his unknown nemesis.

#1 New York Times–Bestselling Author: A bladesman battles in the face of apocalypse in this novel of magic and mayhem in the "thoroughly enjoyable" series (SF Site). Raised beneath the surface of the earth, Ronin escaped the subterranean city of Freehold to make his mark upon the world. After wandering the icy wastelands and coming to the port city of Sha'angh'sei, he has taken to the sea to seek a mythical island whose secrets could save mankind. Backed by a disfigured first mate, an adventure-hungry navigator, and a mysterious telepath, Ronin rides the storm-tossed waters, hoping to escape the chaos that civilization has become. But at the end of this journey, mayhem awaits. Four bloodthirsty monsters known as the Makkon are convening to raise an army of death and call their sinister master back from beyond the grave. To turn this bloody tide, Ronin will have to ascend to a new identity. The Bladesman of Freehold has vanquished many...

The New York Times–bestselling novel in which a martial artist's past returns to haunt him—in the shape of a ninjaRaised in Japan by a British father and a Chinese mother, young Nicholas Linnear felt at home only in the dojo, where he gave himself over to mastering ninjutsu—the ancient art of the ninja. Over years of training, he ascended to the highest ranks imaginable until a confrontation over the very meaning of ninjutsuchanged his approach to martial arts forever, sending him on a journey that would take him across the globe.After years of success in the advertising business, Linnear quits his job abruptly when he feels himself yearning for the life he led in Japan. Searching for direction, he meets a striking beauty named Justine and is beginning to fall in love when something chilling draws him back into his past: the corpse of a coworker, murdered by a Japanese throwing star. There is a ninja loose in New York City, and as the body count rises, it...

The New York Times–bestselling novel in which Nicholas Linnear becomes the target of an international conspiracyWhen his best friend dies under suspicious circumstances, martial arts expert Nicholas Linnear vows revenge. But although he may look American, a childhood spent in the dojos of Japan taught Linnear that vengeance must never be hurried. He takes a job for the billionaire industrialist who ordered the murder, planning to befriend his target during a trip to Tokyo. But even for a modern-day ninja, there is such thing as too close for comfort.In Tokyo, Linnear finds far more to worry about than the intricacies of Japanese business. He is being pursued by a miko: a female assassin, part ninja and part sorceress, whose beauty is matched only by her skill in combat. Drawn into a tangle of corporate intrigue, international espionage, and hedonistic sex, Linnear will have to put revenge on hold if he is to leave Japan alive.

From New York Times bestselling author Eric Lustbader, the suspense mastermind behind the smash bestsellers featuring Robert Ludlum’s™ Jason Bourne, comes a blockbuster thriller of one man’s debt of honor—and his ultimate destiny.Years ago, Nicholas Linnear, a.k.a. “the Ninja,” made a promise to his father: If a man named Mikio Okami ever sought his help, he would respond without question, no matter the cost. Now the time has come to fulfill his pledge. Okami is the Kaisho—the boss of bosses of the Yakuza, the Japanese underworld—and in his Venice headquarters, he realizes that he has been marked for death. But the identity of the assassin and the inexorable compulsion that drives him are shrouded in mysticism and madness. Honor bound to protect Okami, Linnear is prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice: a descent into a chasm of knowledge so potent, of dangers so unfathomable, that even if he survives, he will emerge...

The electrifying follow-up to the Jack McClure thriller  First Daughter  from the New York Times bestselling author of  The Bourne Sanction  and The Bourne Deception Jack McClure, Special Advisor and closest friend to the new President of the United States, interprets the world very differently from the rest of us. It’s his greatest liability, and his greatest asset. An American senator, supposedly on a political trip to the Ukraine, turns up dead on the island of Capri. When the President asks him to find out how and why, Jack sets out from Moscow across Eastern Europe, following a perilous trail of diplomats, criminals, and corrupt politicians. Thrust into the midst of a global jigsaw puzzle, Jack’s unique dyslexic mind allows him to put together the pieces that others can’t even see. Still unreconciled to the recent death of his daughter and the dissolution of his marriage, Jack takes on a personal mission along with his official one: keeping safe from harm his two unlikely, unexpected, and incompatible companions—Annika Dementieva, a rogue Russian FSB agent, and Alli Carson, the President’s daughter. As he struggles to keep both young women safe and unearth the answers he seeks, hunted by everyone from the Russian mafia to the Ukrainian police to his own NSA, Jack learns just how far up the American and Russian political ladders corruption and treachery has reached. In the vein of Eric Van Lustbader’s latest bestselling Jason Bourne novels, Lustbader takes us on an international adventure in this powerful page-turner that will keep you reading through the night. From Publishers Weekly Bestseller Lustbader's wordy sequel to First Daughter takes dyslexic Jack McClure, former ATF agent and now adviser to recently elected U.S. president Edward Carson, to Moscow, where Carson is negotiating an important treaty with Russian president Yukin. When minority whip Sen. Lloyd Berns dies in a mysterious hit-and-run accident on Capri, the president asks Jack to investigate. Accompanied by Annika, a beautiful Federal Security Bureau agent who's part of a complicated Russian trap, and Alli, Carson's 22-year-old daughter whom Jack saved from a bad guy in the previous book, Jack travels to Ukraine, where Berns was supposed to be on a fact-finding tour. In Kiev, Jack finds a secret agency called Trinadtsat, a shadowy group of Russian oligarchs, and plenty of trouble, including a retired American general out to have him killed. Lustbader fritters away many pages with Jack's navel-gazing, time that could have been better spent in gunfights and derring-do.  From Booklist Lustbader’s second in the Jack McClure series is a definite step up from its predecessor (First Daughter, 2008). After saving the daughter of the president of the U.S., McClure now has a role as a special advisor to the president. When he’s asked by his new boss to investigate the mysterious death of a U.S. senator on a diplomatic mission to Ukraine, McClure can’t say no. His comrades on the investigation include a rogue Russian agent and the president’s daughter. Meanwhile, stateside, both McClure’s home life and new job are in danger of falling apart. In the previous book, McClure never emerged as more than a stock action hero, but this time he shows signs of multidimensionality. The story line seems oddly out of sequence in a couple of places, but the main plot will hold readers’ attention. Lustbader’s last several books have found the formerly best-selling author spinning his wheels, but this time he shows some renewed spark.

Jason Bourne is one of the most popular and compelling characters in modern fiction. Originally created by bestselling author Robert Ludlum, now New York Times bestselling writer Eric Van Lustbader carries on Ludlum's legacy with a new novel about the rogue secret agent who has lost his memory . . . Jason Bourne has been pursued by powerful governments—and escaped. Hunted by the most skilled assassins in the world—and outsmarted them. Targeted by terrorists—and defeated their plans for global chaos. But now, Bourne wants only one thing: retribution.THE BOURNE RETRIBUTIONBourne's friend Eli Yadin, head of Mossad, learns that Ouyang Jidan, a senior member of China's Politburo, and a major Mexican drug lord may have been trafficking in something far more deadly than drugs. Yadin needs Bourne to investigate. Bourne agrees, but only because he has a personal agenda: Ouyang Jidan is the man who...