Computer Science Thriller

Conn Maxwell returns from Terra to his poverty-stricken home planet of Poictesme, “The Junkyard Planet”, with news of the possible location of Merlin, a military super-computer rumored to have been abandoned there after the last war. The inhabitants hope to find Merlin, which they think will be their ticket to wealth and prosperity. But is Merlin real or just an old rumor? And if they find it, will it save them - or tear them apart?

After a bloody battle with mutant Zapheads, Rachel Wheeler's life hangs in the balance as the world falls apart around her. To save Rachel, a small group of survivors must find a missing baby, a hyperintelligent Zaphead with mysterious healing powers. The remaining Zapheads have reverted to mindless, violent savages who want to wipe out the human race. Only Rachel holds the key to understanding them and ending the devastating war.

On a Californian campus in the 21st century, Professor Enzo Yakuda is on the verge of retirement. Although he is a Zen Buddhist, a lifetime’s thought and study have not led to inner calm but to an obsession that begins to haunt him and take over his life. Yakuda believes he can prove the self-repair function of Computer One, the international civil computer network, will cause an inevitable confrontation with humanity. His nightmare is that in raising the alarm, he may cause the annihilation of the human race.

Five years after a devastating solar storm wipes out civilization and spawns a strange race of mutants, Rachel Wheeler and her misfit family must choose whether to hide away or fight to join other survivors. As their food supply dwindles inside their bunker, radiation from abandoned nuclear plants is altering the world around them. Not only are the mutants building their own cities and weapons, the remaining dregs of the US military are massing for an attack.

As the dwindling human race desperately fights to survive, they’re forced to adapt to the mutant technology and the new race that threatens them with extinction. But the hostile environment poses other threats as well - strange creatures and giant predators roam the wilderness, fueled by the mysterious radiation leaking from the advanced cities.

In a post-apocalyptic world, Rachel Wheeler is caught between who she is and who she's becoming. A bizarre mutation has her humanity hanging by a thread, especially when the Zaphead inside her wants to kill her friends and lover. As the mutant Zapheads form a social order and shape a new world in the wake of catastrophic solar storms, the few remaining humans band together in a struggle for survival.

Jupiter stared at the mirror, which reflected a 12-year-old girl inside of a computer monitor; oh, heavens, the girl was her! Lightning crashes through the window and lights up the camera mounted on the computer. Gnomes escape through the camera hole and attack Jupiter with paper clips, ballpoint pens, and other office supplies. The computer gnomes want revenge because middle schooler, famous hacker, genius Jupiter blamed gnomes for eating her missing homework. Using magic, the gnomes shrink Jupiter into a tiny, digital girl.