The ghettos of Rio de Janeiro are crawling with street kids. They have nothing, and are forced into lives of crime in order to get enough to eat. Their life expectancies are short, not least because the Brazilian authorities allow paramilitaries to shoot them like rats. But it's with the street kids of Rio that the cadets must become embedded. Some of these kids have been recruited by the cartels. The cartels are causing untold misery, both in Brazil and on the streets of the UK. The cadets must befriend the cartel kids in the hope that they will lead them into the heart of the drug lords' empire. But when you head into the lion's den, you must expect to be bitten. The cartel chiefs are the most ruthless people in the world, and they do not take kindly to the infiltration of their secret, violent world . . .

From the bestselling author of STRIKE BACK, Chris Ryan returns with a new action-packed series. Tough enough? Smart enough? Max will require all his skills just to stay alive as a Special Forces Cadet... A top-secret government programme needs a crack team of undercover military operators. They must have awesome levels of determination, endurance and fitness. They must be able to think on their feet. The recruits undergo the most rigorous and testing selection process the modern military can devise. And in order to operate in circumstances where adult forces would be compromised, the recruits must be under sixteen. Only a few are tough enough and smart enough to make it . . . And once out in the field, they will require all their skills just to stay alive. Which is what happens when Max Silver, Abby Asher, Lukas Channing and Sami Hakim are sent into an armed siege in an inner-city school . . .

From the bestselling author of STRIKE BACK, Chris Ryan returns with the second in his new action-packed series. Tough enough? Smart enough? Jack will require all his skills just to stay alive as a Special Forces Cadet . . . In this second book, the cadets are sent to North Korea. A British agent investigating the rogue state's nuclear capabilities has gone missing. The secretive nature of life in Pyongyang means that unfamiliar adults would be attract suspicion and fall under immediate surveillance. So the cadets form part of a young pioneers tour to the North Korean capital. Once there, they must use their skills and training to find out more about the missing agent. In the course of their investigations, they forget the one rule every undercover operator must obey: trust nobody. When a local teenager they befriend betrays his suspicions to the North Korean secret police, the young cadets must use all their skill to escape the authorities and the country. But can they locate the British agent at the same time?

Darius, son of an escaped Iranian scientist, is a pupil at an exclusive Swiss school, but his father's former bosses want him back and have no regard for the boy's LIFE or his FREEDOM. The Special Forces Cadets are sent to PROTECT Darius. When the assassins launch a DEADLY ATTACK, their only escape is into the mountains. Pursued by their enemies, can the cadets triumph and SURVIVE the deadly natural HAZARDS of the alpine winter?

An SAS team has been captured by a war lord who forces children to become soldiers. The Special Forces Cadets are parachuted into the Congo rainforest to help the team escape. But the operation starts to go wrong right away. Can the SPECIAL FORCES CADETS trust each other? And the jungle is home to creatures even more deadly than desperate children with guns . . .

From the bestselling author of STRIKE BACK, Chris Ryan returns with a new action-packed series. Tough enough? Smart enough? Max will require all his skills just to stay alive as a Special Forces Cadet... The Falkland Islands, South Atlantic Ocean. Intelligence has been received that Argentina is plotting to invade, but is it reliable? The Special Forces Cadets are sent in to investigate, disguised as nature watchers, but when they split up to conduct essential research, two of them are captured and imprisoned. Their lives are in grave danger, but with the main operation at a crucial stage, the others are under orders to leave their friends to their fate. Can the cadets prevent a war and make it out alive?

Tamora Pierce meets George R. R. Martin in this smart, political, medieval fantasy-thriller. There is a new king on the throne of Tildor. Currents of political unrest sweep the country as two warring crime families seek power, angling to exploit the young Crown's inexperience. At the Academy of Tildor, the training ground for elite soldiers, Cadet Renee de Winter struggles to keep up with her male peers. But when her mentor, a notorious commander recalled from active duty to teach at the Academy, is kidnapped to fight in illegal gladiator games, Renee and her best friend Alec find themselves thrust into a world rife with crime, sorting through a maze of political intrigue, and struggling to resolve what they want, what is legal, and what is right.

Discusses the Allied invasion of Normandy, with extensive details about the planning stage, called Operation Overlord, as well as the fighting on Utah and Omaha Beaches.

As Brandon Sanderson’s #1 bestselling Skyward series celebrates its third volume, Cytonic, travel back in time to the origin of Cytonics in the novella Defending Elysium. Centuries before Spensa looked skyward from the planet Detritus—back on Old Earth before it was lost—Jason Write faced a crucial question: was humanity ready to join galactic society? When faster-than-light communications were discovered by a small telephone company in 2071, alien species such as the Tenasi and Varvax overheard them and came to visit Earth. Because the Phone Company controls all communications with the aliens, their operatives like Jason operate above the law. Now, on the space platform Evensong, one of the Phone Company’s scientists has gone missing before surfacing in a hospital with amnesia, and Jason is sent to investigate. Right as he arrives, the body of a murdered Varvax ambassador is discovered, sure to cause a galactic incident. Coln Abrams of the United Intelligence Bureau seizes the opportunity to investigate Jason as he deals with the crisis. This could be the UIB’s chance to discover the Phone Company’s secrets—how does FTL communication work, and what is Jason hiding? Winner of Spain’s UPC Award for Science Fiction in 2007.