Finding allies and enemies among terrorist groups and elite mercenaries, gun-runners and the only kind of government possible on a frontier short on rules and long on riches, Jon and Lobo fight to a climax with a corporate army that can't afford to leave any witnesses. Exotic settings, fast action, real tech, mechanically-enhanced animals-and a beautiful woman who's as deadly as a cobra!

One Jump Ahead: the first novel in the Jon & Lobo series

The job looks simple enough: Jon Moore, the nanotech-enhanced, world-weary, soldier of fortune, agrees to help a con man, a friend from a part of his past he’d rather forget, protect a very special young boy. The deal doesn’t stay simple, as each move Jon and Lobo make results in more danger and more enemies. The situation grows even more complicated when a beautiful woman with an unclear agenda joins them in their quest.

The best con man Jon’s ever known, a ruthless gang boss, a heavily armed group of religious fanatics, and an interstellar government out to clean up a dangerous frontier world rush together toward an explosive climax—and Jon and Lobo are caught in the middle.

They're willing to do anything to save the life of the boy—

But there may not be anything even they can do!

Slanted Jack: the second novel in the Jon & Lobo series.

His kindnesses frequently didn't work out well. This one really didn't work out well.  It hurled Jon and Lobo, the intelligent assault vehicle and Jon's only friend, down an accelerating, ever more dangerous spiral involving:

·         Private armies and government covert ops teams

·         A courtesan who always seems a step ahead of him

·         Rival superpowers that define Good in terms of their own advantage and Ethics as whatever doesn't get in the way of their Good

·         And a brilliant, amoral scientist to whom human beings are just more experimental animals--and who might be Lobo’s creator.

            Jon and Lobo take the reader on a headlong rush through armed enemies and untrustworthy allies and encounter what just might be the worst danger their partnership will face: the truth.

Unsurprisingly, Intersections is a superior anthology and an excellent resource for new and intermediate SF/F writers. The fiction is so strong that anyone uninterested in the art of crafting prose may skip the commentary without being shortchanged. (Just don't skip Appendix I, the incisive and hilarious "Turkey City Lexicon: A Primer for SF Workshops.")

The 1994 participants were Richard Butner, Carol Emshwiller, Karen Joy Fowler, Robert Frazier, Gregory Frost, Alexander Jablokov, James Patrick Kelly, John Kessel, Nancy Kress, Jonathan Lethem, Maureen F. McHugh, Michaela Roessner, Bruce Sterling, and Mark L. Van Name. With a lineup that strong, choosing the best stories has more to do with reader taste than writer ability; the works described here were selected to suggest the anthology's range and diversity. Bruce Sterling's Hugo Award-winning "Bicycle Repairman" displays his trademark brilliant high-tech extrapolation in the clash between an obsessed treadhead and a federal agent. "The Marianas Islands" is prose goddess Karen Joy Fowler's subtle, stunning portrait of a WWII widow and '60s activist grandmother whose father-in-law may have invented the submarine. Alexander Jablokov's "The Fury at Colonus" rewrites Greek myth as a modern, hard-boiled, satirical, and very strange sort of police procedural. In "The Miracle of Ivar Avenue," John Kessel pays tribute to a classic Hollywood director in a painfully sharp time-travel tale. In short, this is one of the best original literary-SF/F anthologies of the '90s. --Cynthia Ward

Unsurprisingly, Intersections is a superior anthology and an excellent resource for new and intermediate SF/F writers. The fiction is so strong that anyone uninterested in the art of crafting prose may skip the commentary without being shortchanged. (Just don't skip Appendix I, the incisive and hilarious "Turkey City Lexicon: A Primer for SF Workshops.")

The 1994 participants were Richard Butner, Carol Emshwiller, Karen Joy Fowler, Robert Frazier, Gregory Frost, Alexander Jablokov, James Patrick Kelly, John Kessel, Nancy Kress, Jonathan Lethem, Maureen F. McHugh, Michaela Roessner, Bruce Sterling, and Mark L. Van Name. With a lineup that strong, choosing the best stories has more to do with reader taste than writer ability; the works described here were selected to suggest the anthology's range and diversity. Bruce Sterling's Hugo Award-winning "Bicycle Repairman" displays his trademark brilliant high-tech extrapolation in the clash between an obsessed treadhead and a federal agent. "The Marianas Islands" is prose goddess Karen Joy Fowler's subtle, stunning portrait of a WWII widow and '60s activist grandmother whose father-in-law may have invented the submarine. Alexander Jablokov's "The Fury at Colonus" rewrites Greek myth as a modern, hard-boiled, satirical, and very strange sort of police procedural. In "The Miracle of Ivar Avenue," John Kessel pays tribute to a classic Hollywood director in a painfully sharp time-travel tale. In short, this is one of the best original literary-SF/F anthologies of the '90s. --Cynthia Ward

      Jon's commitment hurtles him and Lobo, the hyper-intelligent assault vehicle who is his only real friend, into confrontations with the horrors the children have experienced and with a dark chapter from his past.  The mission grows ever more complicated as they deal with:

·         An assault on a rebel fortress deep in the jungle

·         A government whose full agenda is never clear

·         A woman Jon once loved and who still loves him--but who will sacrifice anything for her cause

·         The best con man they've ever known

·         And, toughest of all, their own demons, as we learn for the first time what happened after his home planet's government yanked Jon's sister out of his life

      Jon and Lobo rush straight into the darkness at the heart of humanity to save a group of child soldiers—and then face an even tougher challenge:

      When we've trained our children to kill, what do we do with them when the fighting is over?

The authors are top industry experts on PC performance, the founders and leaders of the Ziff-Davis Benchmark Operation, the group that created these benchmarks. Their years of experience in PC performance show in the detailed, concrete advice available throughout the book, as well as in the clear explanations of vital technical concepts. If you want the most performance from your PC, don't miss this book.

      One Jump Ahead: Jon Moore wanted only to relax on the pristine planet of Macken--but Macken was the secret battleground of two megacorporations, both determined to control the local jump gate and the riches of an undeveloped world. Finding allies and enemies among terrorist groups and elite mercenaries, gun-runners and the only kind of government possible on a frontier short on rules and long on riches, Jon and Lobo fight to a climax with a corporate army that can't afford to leave any witnesses. Exotic settings, fast action, real tech, mechanically-enhanced animals—and a beautiful woman who's as deadly as a cobra!

Slanted Jack: The job looked simple enough:  Jon agreed to help a con man, a friend from a part of his past he'd rather forget, protect a very special young boy.  But the deal didn't stay simple, as each move Jon and Lobo made resulted in more danger and more enemies. The best con man Jon's ever known, a ruthless gang boss, a heavily armed group of religious fanatics, a beautiful woman with a mysterious agenda, and an interstellar government out to clean up a dangerous frontier world rush together toward an explosive climax—and Jon and Lobo are caught in the middle.

Plus new introductions by the author, making this a package that every Jon & Lobo fan will want to buy.