The Agent

A New York Times bestseller! The real-life "Jerry Maguire," superagent Leigh Steinberg shares his personal stories on the rise, fall, and redemption of his game-changing career in the high-stakes world of professional sports Leigh Steinberg is renowned as one of the greatest sports agents in history, representing such All-Pro clients as Troy Aikman, Bruce Smith, and Ben Roethlisberger. Over one particular seven-year stretch, Steinberg represented the top NFL Draft pick an unheard of six times. Director Cameron Crowe credits Steinberg as a primary inspiration for the titular character in Jerry Maguire, even hiring Steinberg as a consultant on the film. Lightyears ahead of his contemporaries, he expanded his players' reach into entertainment. Already the bestselling author of a business book on negotiation, the original superagent is now taking readers behind the closed doors of professional sports, recounting priceless stories, like how he negotiated a $26.5 million package for Steve Young—the biggest ever at the time—and how he passed on the chance to represent Peyton Manning. Beginning with his early days as a student leader at Berkeley, Steinberg details his illustrious rise into pro sports fame, his decades of industry dominance, and how he overcame a series of high-profile struggles to regain his sobriety and launch his comeback. This riveting story takes readers inside the inner circle of top-notch agents and players through the visionary career of Leigh Steinberg, the pre-eminent superagent of our time.

Two space adventure novels in the popular Liaden Universe® series in one Omni-trade edition: Agent of Change: Once a brilliant First-in-Scout, Val Con yosPhelium was _recruitedÓ by the shadowy Liaden Department of Interior and brainwashed into an Agent of Change¾a ruthless covert operative who kills without remorse. Val Con has been playing a deep game, far from the orderly life of clan and kin. Fleeing his latest mission, he saves the life of ex-mercenary Miri Robertson, a Terran on the run from interplanetary assassins. Thrown together by circumstances, Val Con and Miri struggle to elude their enemies and stay alive without killing each other-or surrendering to the unexpected passion that flares between them. Which name _ or face _ will the agent choose when the game gets tough and an escape for only one of them seems possible? Carpe Diem: On the run from interplanetary assassins and a ruthless interstellar crime cartel, covert operative Val Con yos'Phelium and former mercenary sergeant Miri Robertson formed an alliance of necessity and wound up stranded on a planet with no rescue in sight. Their on-world problems were looking manageable after they assumed new identities as musicians, that is until a local war forced them to reveal their alien combat skills _ and doubt their own growing partnership of trust and love. By then the relentless hound of an agent on Val Con's trail was closing in with the very weapon Val Con and Miri most feared, and the game got very rough indeed. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). _I rarely rave on and on about stories, but I am devoted to Lee and Miller novels and stories.Ó ¾Anne McCaffrey

Amish men and women seeking their happily-ever-after Courting Ruth by Emma Miller Ruth Yoder believes it's God's will that she remain single and help care for her younger sisters. But when a handsome young man comes to Kent County, Ruth starts to rethink her future. Eli Lapp is not yet part of the church, but Ruth's gentle ways make him yearn to settle down. Can Eli convince Ruth that their lives should be entwined? The Agent's Secret Past by Debby Giusti Eight years ago, a drifter destroyed Becca Miller's ties to her Amish community—and murdered her family. Now she's convinced that the killer is after her. Special Agent Colby Voss agrees to help her investigate. Yet the closer they get to the truth, the closer the killer gets to silencing her permanently.

Nineteen Eighty-Four meets Tron, via The Office, in this boldly dystopian novel The agents don’t know what they’re agents of, but they’re very busy agenting, which means watching endless data feeds in their cubicles, cubicles that are piled one on top of another in a massive tower in which the agents both live and work. Empty floors serve as battlefields where different guilds of agents fight for territory. It seems that defenestration is the only way out, the ‘ballet of suicides.’ It is here we meet Théodore, who has amputated his own toes and must maintain a 30-degree angle to keep his balance. And Solveig, who is pregnant, though agents don’t usually have sex, as well as the artist Lazslo and self-mutilating Clara. And then there’s Hick, the new agent, who seems strangely happy and occupies a cubicle that is strategically very important. The battle for key territory is heating up, and the agents aren’t sure which of them will make it out alive. If, indeed, that’s what any of them want… The author of the acclaimed The Laws of the Skies turns his hand from literary horror to futuristic dystopianism in this unforgettable marriage between The Office, Nineteen Eighty-Four, and Tron. “Unflinching in its savagery, the nightmarish poetry of this modern Lord of the Flies is undeniable.” —Publishers Weekly starred review on The Laws of the Skies “A haunting book, if you can keep reading.” —LitHub on The Laws of the Skies “The Law of the Skies is not an easy book to digest . . . but I found it exhilarating to read a novel that’s this unflinching, this nihilistic, and also this deeply profound.” —Locus Magazine

Isabella Rose is on the run, hunted by the very people she had been hired to work for. Trained killer Isabella and former handler Michael Pope are forced into hiding in India and, when a mysterious informer passes them clues on the whereabouts of Pope's family, the prey see an opportunity to become the predators. Chased from the poverty of Mumbai's slums into the sights of a sniper's rifle amongst the lavish wealth of Shanghai, Isabella and Pope hunt fleeting shadows in a race against time. And they can't afford to lose. The Agent is the third part in a continuing story involving Isabella Rose that also includes The Angel and The Asset.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Practical Applications of Scalable Multi-Agent Systems, PAAMS 2017, held in Porto, Portugal, in June 2017. The 11 revised full papers, 11 short papers, and 17 Demo papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 63 submissions. The papers report on the application and validation of agent-based models, methods, and technologies in a number of key application areas, including day life and real world, energy and networks, human and trust, markets and bids, models and tools, negotiation and conversation, scalability and resources.

In agent-based modeling the focus is very much on agent-based simulation, as simulation is a very important tool for agent-based modeling. We also use agent-based simulation in this book with a stress on the mathematical foundation of agent-based modeling. We introduce two original mathematical frameworks, a theory of SLD (Social Learning Dynamics) and an axiomatic theory of economic exchange (Exchange Algebra) among agents. Exchange algebra gives bottom-up reconstruction of SNA (System of National Accountings). SLD provides the concept of indirect control of socio-economic systems to manage structural change and its stability. We also compare agent-based simulation with gaming simulation and investigate the epistemological foundation of agent-based modeling.

Victoria Clifford is the top real estate agent in affluent Marin County, California. She's also leading a couple of secret lives. The biggest one is the elegant, high-stakes con she's about to pull off for the sixth time. It's the perfect crime, executed with the help of her irresistibly charming brother and her aunt, a highbrow psychic to Fortune 500 executives. But this time, major slipups have Victoria questioning if she's losing her touch. It seems her brother's persuasive powers, too, aren't what they used to be. What's more, her aunt is threatening to quit her part in the scheme. It looks like the gig may be up. Or maybe not.