In Max Barry''s twisted, hilarious and terrifying vision of the near future, the world is run by giant corporations and employees take the last names of the companies they work for. It''s a globalised, ultra-capitalist free market paradise!Hack Nike is a lowly merchandising officer who''s not very good at negotiating his salary. So when John Nike and John Nike, executives from the promised land of Marketing, offer him a contract, he signs without reading it. Unfortunately, Hack''s new contract involves shooting teenagers to build up street cred for Nike''s new line of $2,500 trainers. Hack goes to the police - but they assume that he''s asking for a subcontracting deal and lease the assassination to the more experienced NRA.Enter Jennifer Government, a tough-talking agent with a barcode tattoo under her eye and a personal problem with John Nike (the boss of the other John Nike). And a gun. Hack is about to find out what it really means to mess with market forces.

Sticks and stones break bones. Words kill.

They recruited Emily from the streets. They said it was because she''s good with words.

They''ll live to regret it.

Wil survived something he shouldn''t have. But he doesn''t remember it.

Now they''re after him and he doesn''t know why.

There''s a word, they say. It shouldn''t have got out. But it did.

And they want it back...

Find out why in one of the most mind-bending, page-turning, thrilling novels you''ll ever read.

*Winner of the Aurealis Award for science fiction and GoodReads Choice Awards finalist for best science fiction*

''Compelling and innovative... Barry takes a story that has been done countless times before and makes it seem original'' - Daily MailShe is the ultimate weapon. She once served us. Now she''s got her own plans. Once we approached the aliens in peace... and they annihilated us. Now mankind has developed the ultimate killing machine, the Providence class of spaceship. With the ships'' frightening speed, frightening intelligence and frightening weaponry, it''s now the salamanders'' turn to be annihilated... in their millions. The mismatched quartet of Talia, Gilly, Jolene and Anders are the crew on one of these destroyers. But with the ship''s computers designed to outperform human decision-making in practically all areas, they are virtual bystanders. The Providence will take them to where the enemy are and she will dictate the strategy in any battle.The crew''s only job role is to publicise their glorious war to a sceptical Earth. Social media and video clips are THEIR weapons in an endless charm offensive. THEIR chief enemy is not the space reptiles but each other, and boredom. But then everything changes. A message comes from base: the Providence is going into the Violet Zone, where there are no beacons and no communications with Earth. It is the heart of the enemy empire - and now the crew are left to wonder whether this is a mission of ultimate destruction or, more sinisterly, of ultimate self-destruction...PROVIDENCE is a dazzling, inventive, and thought-provoking new novel from the author of Lexicon.

From the critically acclaimed author of Jennifer Government and Lexicon comes mind-bending speculative psychological suspense about a serial killer pursuing his victim across time and space, and the woman who is determined to stop him, even if it upends her own reality."I love you. In every world."Young real estate agent Madison May is shocked when a client at an open house says these words to her. The man, a stranger, seems to know far too much about her, and professes his love - shortly before he murders her.Felicity Staples hates reporting on murders. As a journalist for a mid-size New York City paper, she knows she must take on the assignment to research Madison May''s shocking murder, but the crime seems random and the suspect is in the wind. That is, until Felicity spots the killer on the subway, right before he vanishes.Soon, Felicity senses her entire universe has shifted. No one remembers Madison May, or Felicity''s encounter with the mysterious man. And her cat is missing. Felicity realizes that in her pursuit of Madison''s killer, she followed him into a different dimension - one where everything about her existence is slightly altered. At first, she is determined to return to the reality she knows, but when Madison May - in this world, a struggling actress - is murdered again, Felicity decides she must find the killer - and learns that she is not the only one hunting him.Traveling through different realities, Felicity uncovers the opportunity - and danger - of living more than one life.

In Max Barry''s twisted, hilarious and terrifying vision of the near future, the world is run by giant corporations and employees take the last names of the companies they work for. It''s a globalised, ultra-capitalist free market paradise!Hack Nike is a lowly merchandising officer who''s not very good at negotiating his salary. So when John Nike and John Nike, executives from the promised land of Marketing, offer him a contract, he signs without reading it. Unfortunately, Hack''s new contract involves shooting teenagers to build up street cred for Nike''s new line of $2,500 trainers. Hack goes to the police - but they assume that he''s asking for a subcontracting deal and lease the assassination to the more experienced NRA.Enter Jennifer Government, a tough-talking agent with a barcode tattoo under her eye and a personal problem with John Nike (the boss of the other John Nike). And a gun. Hack is about to find out what it really means to mess with market forces.

Sticks and stones break bones. Words kill.

They recruited Emily from the streets. They said it was because she''s good with words.

They''ll live to regret it.

Wil survived something he shouldn''t have. But he doesn''t remember it.

Now they''re after him and he doesn''t know why.

There''s a word, they say. It shouldn''t have got out. But it did.

And they want it back...

Find out why in one of the most mind-bending, page-turning, thrilling novels you''ll ever read.

*Winner of the Aurealis Award for science fiction and GoodReads Choice Awards finalist for best science fiction*

''Compelling and innovative... Barry takes a story that has been done countless times before and makes it seem original'' - Daily MailShe is the ultimate weapon. She once served us. Now she''s got her own plans. Once we approached the aliens in peace... and they annihilated us. Now mankind has developed the ultimate killing machine, the Providence class of spaceship. With the ships'' frightening speed, frightening intelligence and frightening weaponry, it''s now the salamanders'' turn to be annihilated... in their millions. The mismatched quartet of Talia, Gilly, Jolene and Anders are the crew on one of these destroyers. But with the ship''s computers designed to outperform human decision-making in practically all areas, they are virtual bystanders. The Providence will take them to where the enemy are and she will dictate the strategy in any battle.The crew''s only job role is to publicise their glorious war to a sceptical Earth. Social media and video clips are THEIR weapons in an endless charm offensive. THEIR chief enemy is not the space reptiles but each other, and boredom. But then everything changes. A message comes from base: the Providence is going into the Violet Zone, where there are no beacons and no communications with Earth. It is the heart of the enemy empire - and now the crew are left to wonder whether this is a mission of ultimate destruction or, more sinisterly, of ultimate self-destruction...PROVIDENCE is a dazzling, inventive, and thought-provoking new novel from the author of Lexicon.

From the critically acclaimed author of Jennifer Government and Lexicon comes mind-bending speculative psychological suspense about a serial killer pursuing his victim across time and space, and the woman who is determined to stop him, even if it upends her own reality."I love you. In every world."Young real estate agent Madison May is shocked when a client at an open house says these words to her. The man, a stranger, seems to know far too much about her, and professes his love - shortly before he murders her.Felicity Staples hates reporting on murders. As a journalist for a mid-size New York City paper, she knows she must take on the assignment to research Madison May''s shocking murder, but the crime seems random and the suspect is in the wind. That is, until Felicity spots the killer on the subway, right before he vanishes.Soon, Felicity senses her entire universe has shifted. No one remembers Madison May, or Felicity''s encounter with the mysterious man. And her cat is missing. Felicity realizes that in her pursuit of Madison''s killer, she followed him into a different dimension - one where everything about her existence is slightly altered. At first, she is determined to return to the reality she knows, but when Madison May - in this world, a struggling actress - is murdered again, Felicity decides she must find the killer - and learns that she is not the only one hunting him.Traveling through different realities, Felicity uncovers the opportunity - and danger - of living more than one life.