Showing results by author "John Steele" in All Categories

In Rip-Off!, 13 of today’s best and most honored writers of speculative fiction face a challenge even they would be hard-pressed to conceive: Pick your favorite opening line from a classic piece of fiction (or even non-fiction) - then use it as the first sentence of an entirely original short story.

Throughout time, from ancient Rome to modern Britain, the great empires built and maintained their domination through force of arms and political power. But not the United States. America has dominated the world in a new, peaceful, and pervasive way - through the continued creation of staggering wealth. In this authoritative, engrossing history, John Steele Gordon captures as never before the true source of our nation's global influence: wealth and the capacity to create more of it.

Belfast, 1993: Jackie Shaw is a young tearaway running with paramilitaries in Belfast. He treads a fine line keeping psychotic hard-man Rab Simpson in check while sleeping with gang leader Billy Tyrie's beautiful wife on the side. When a bomb claims nine lives, he is given the role of getaway driver in a planned reprisal killing, a key role in a major operation. But Jackie may not be who he seems....

Seven Skins - two words scrawled above a hit-list. Six names - targets for assassination by bomb, bullet or blade. Three killers - two vicious professionals and an idealistic young terrorist. Two Security Service officers - confused and at each other’s throats. One lost girl - abused and on the run. And Jackie Shaw - outnumbered, disavowed and ready to tear an entire city apart.

John Steele left his family and home at the tender age of 16 to join the Royal Navy. In a select branch of only 200, he subsequently qualified as the youngest clearance diver at that time. He then moved on to a life as a commercial oilfield diver, and for 22 years worked in the unforgiving depths of the North Sea and Persian Gulf. In 2004 a new industry was opening up. After an intense reeducation he secured a job with one of the largest private security companies working with the reconstruction of Iraq.

This collection of unabridged, unforgettable tales, written by some of science fiction's most esteemed authors, pays homage to one of the genre's most cherished story types. Whether time travel stories leap forward in time or slip into the past, they remain popular with fans.