The Second Horseman

To save the world, Brandon Vale's going to steal $250 million Brandon Vale is a career thief---the best there is. Or at least he was before he was thrown in prison for a jewel heist gone bad. And even more embarrassing, he had nothing to do with it. His time inside is going fairly quietly until the night he's broken out against his will by Richard Scanlon, the now-retired FBI agent who framed him in the first place. Scanlon, who still has ties to the United States intelligence community, has discovered that a Ukrainian crime organization is auctioning twelve nuclear warheads to the highest bidder, but he can't convince the government that the sale isn't a hoax. The only way he can get his hands on the $200 million necessary to take the warheads off the market is to do something that goes against everything he stands for: steal it. The choice Brandon is given is simple: help Scanlon and hope to live through it, or turn himself in and face the repercussions of his "escape." Suddenly, Brandon finds himself with only weeks to plan a Las Vegas heist that that he's been dreaming about for years, but has always thought was probably impossible. And to make matters worse, Scanlon insists on choosing his team personally. Led by the relentlessly intelligent and undeniably beautiful Catherine Juarez, not a single one of the former government operatives he picks has so much as shoplifted a pack of gum in their lives. As the day of the heist approaches, Brandon's carefully constructed plans begin to break down and he suspects that the elaborate double-cross he's devised to save himself could cost millions of lives. He finally has to ask himself just how far he's willing to be dragged into a game that he can only lose. With The Second Horseman, the heart-stopping, all-too-real novel, Kyle Mills proves once again that he is one of the freshest and most original thriller writers working today.

The final book of the Bible, Revelation prophesies the ultimate judgement of mankind in a series of allegorical visions, grisly images and numerological predictions. According to these, empires will fall, the "Beast" will be destroyed and Christ will rule a new Jerusalem. With an introduction by Will Self.

The Second Horseman of the Apocalypse has come to take peace from the earth and make men slay each other: A resurgent Russian Federation is about to begin a quest for world domination. Europe is in chaos. Long-standing alliances are shattering, and betrayal is the new paradigm. The United States is on the brink of civil war because of the actions of Zoe Wilson. Zoe, once a Marine Corps sniper, works as a mercenary for a secret organization bent upon fundamentally changing the country. Her mission: murder innocent black Muslims. Caught up in the turmoil are Bret Manley, the new lieutenant governor of Connecticut; EJ, his wife; and Mai Faca, Bret’s former wife and tong assassin. They’ve formed an alliance to end the murders and bring the perpetrators to justice. What they discover astounds them. Bret gets another surprise when he learns of Mai’s love for EJ and of EJ’s acceptance of her advances. The women ask Bret to be a part of their lovemaking. He visualizes several negative outcomes if he agrees to their proposal. Yet . . . Anticipating the unraveling of American society and the anarchy that will follow, the three musketeers, as the trio calls themselves, develop a doomsday plan, one that will allow them to survive until a better America emerges from its rubble.

"Accurst be he that first invented war," wrote Christopher Marlowe--a declaration that most of us would take as a literary, not literal, construction. But in this sweeping overview of the rise of civilization, Robert O'Connell finds that war is indeed an invention--an institution that arose due to very specific historical circumstances, an institution that now verges on extinction. In Ride of the Second Horseman, O'Connell probes the distant human past to show how and why war arose. He begins with a definition that distinguishes between war and mere feuding: war involves group rather than individual issues, political or economic goals, and direction by some governmental structure, carried out with the intention of lasting results. With this definition, he finds that ants are the only other creatures that conduct it--battling other colonies for territory and slaves. But ants, unlike humans, are driven by their genes; in humans, changes in our culture and subsistence patterns, not our genetic hardware, brought the rise of organized warfare. O'Connell draws on anthropology and archeology to locate the rise of war sometime after the human transition from nomadic hunting and gathering to agriculture, when society split between farmers and pastoralists. Around 5500 BC, these pastoralists initiated the birth of war with raids on Middle Eastern agricultural settlements. The farmers responded by ringing their villages with walls, setting off a process of further social development, intensified combat, and ultimately the rise of complex urban societies dependent upon warfare to help stabilize what amounted to highly volatile population structures, beset by frequent bouts of famine and epidemic disease. In times of overpopulation, the armies either conquered new lands or self-destructed, leaving fewer mouths to feed. In times of underpopulation, slaves were taken to provide labor. O'Connell explores the histories of the civilizations of ancient Sumeria, Egypt, Assyria, China, and the New World, showing how war came to each and how it adapted to varying circumstances. On the other hand, societies based on trade employed war much more selectively and pragmatically. Thus, Minoan Crete, long protected from marauding pastoralists, developed a wealthy mercantile society marked by unmilitaristic attitudes, equality between men and women, and a relative absence of class distinctions. In Assyria, by contrast, war came to be an end in itself, in a culture dominated by male warriors. Despite the violence in the world today, O'Connell finds reason for hope. The industrial revolution broke the old patterns of subsistence: war no longer serves the demographic purpose it once did. Fascinating and provocative, Ride of the Second Horseman offers a far-reaching tour of human history that suggests the age-old cycle of war may now be near its end.

In times of underpopulation, slaves weretaken to provide labor. O'Connell explores the histories of the civilizations of ancient Sumeria, Egypt, Assyria, China, and the New World, showing how war came to each and how it adapted to varying circumstances. On the other hand, societies based on trade employed war much more selectively andpragmatically. Thus, Minoan Crete, long protected from marauding pastoralists, developed a wealthy mercantile society marked by unmilitaristic attitudes, equality between men and women, and a relative absence of class distinctions. In Assyria, by contrast, war came to be an end in itself, in aculture dominated by male warriors. Despite the violence in the world today, O'Connell finds reason for hope. The industrial revolution broke the old patterns of subsistence: war no longer serves the demographic purpose it once did.

As the second horsemen brings war and destruction, he meets a young woman who he believes is destined to be his wife, but unfortunately for him she does everything she can to sabotage his plans.

*A brand new companion to the Last Kingdom series, Uhtred’s Feast, is available to pre-order now* The second book in the epic and bestselling series that has gripped millions. A hero will be forged from this broken land. As seen on Netflix and BBC around the world.

The epic tale of an Argentine landowner’s family fighting on opposite sides during World War I became a worldwide best-selling novel when first published in 1916. Fanatical nationalism tragically triumphs over common sense and family ties, causing horrific destruction and death in a war the likes of which the world had never seen. More than a story about long-ago events, this historical novel is a piercing meditation on modern warfare and a profound warning about the dangers of isolationist nationalism. This first new translation in decades offers a fresh look at a disastrous global tragedy that is eerily relevant to current events in the 21st century. The 1921 American silent film had a huge cultural impact and became the year’s top-grossing film. It turned actor Rudolph Valentino into a superstar and inspired a tango craze and gaucho pants fashion fad.