Ascendant Unrest

Ascendant Unrest
Author: Matthew S. Cox
Publisher: Division Zero Press
Total Pages: 420
Release: 2018-08-31
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1949174441

Two weeks after Maya tried to save the world, little has changed. Little, except for a nine-year-old’s building fear that her ex-mother’s revenge waits around every corner. When her face appeared on every still-working video monitor along the Eastern Seaboard, streaming her plea and her evidence all over the planet, she thought they’d won. Alas, her fairy tale dream died. The Authority didn’t become noble overnight. Her ex-mother didn’t face punishment for her crimes. The lack of any retribution, or even any effort on the part of the Brigade to hide her, only fans the flames of her worry. To make matters worse, her best friend Sarah is hiding a painful secret. Maya’s fears come to fruition in the middle of the night. In a hail of gunfire, she and Sarah flee into the dangerous streets of the Habitation District, rife with dosers, street gangs, corrupt Authority officers, chased by an unknown enemy worse than Ascendant. They don’t want to kidnap her―they want her dead.

Heir Ascendant

Heir Ascendant
Author: Matthew S. Cox
Publisher: Division Zero Press
Total Pages: 489
Release: 2020-02-21
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1949174425

In the aftermath of World War Three, the most famous face in the world belongs to a nine year old girl. Maya Oman is the daughter of the woman who controls what’s left of civilization, the CEO of Ascendant Pharmaceuticals Corporation. Her smile is as ubiquitous as air, selling everything from vital medicine to vanity drugs with risky side effects. Lifelike android clones reside in over a dozen homes, shielding her from the violent resentment of a population straining under her mother’s boot heel. Ascendant’s power comes from Xenodril, a drug capable of reversing the effects of Fade, a disease some claim came from aliens or from the governments that predate the war. Only Ascendant sells it, and at a price only Citizens can afford. The rest are left to die. Maya’s earliest memories are of living alone in a penthouse apartment, desperate for the attention of a mother who never visits. Forbidden to go out except to record advertising video, her only friend has been the ‘net. When she is taken for ransom by a group of mercenaries with nothing left to lose, she discovers her life may not be what she thought it was—or wants.

World Protests

World Protests
Author: Isabel Ortiz
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2021-11-03
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3030885135

This is an open access book. The start of the 21st century has seen the world shaken by protests, from the Arab Spring to the Yellow Vests, from the Occupy movement to the social uprisings in Latin America. There are periods in history when large numbers of people have rebelled against the way things are, demanding change, such as in 1848, 1917, and 1968. Today we are living in another time of outrage and discontent, a time that has already produced some of the largest protests in world history. This book analyzes almost three thousand protests that occurred between 2006 and 2020 in 101 countries covering over 93 per cent of the world population. The study focuses on the major demands driving world protests, such as those for real democracy, jobs, public services, social protection, civil rights, global justice, and those against austerity and corruption. It also analyzes who was demonstrating in each protest; what protest methods they used; who the protestors opposed; what was achieved; whether protests were repressed; and trends such as inequality and the rise of women’s and radical right protests. The book concludes that the demands of protestors in most of the protests surveyed are in full accordance with human rights and internationally agreed-upon UN development goals. The book calls for policy-makers to listen and act on these demands.

The Cursed Codex

The Cursed Codex
Author: Matthew S. Cox
Publisher: Division Zero Press
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2020-02-09
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1949174220

Fantasy roleplayers often get deep into their games, but thirteen-year-old Keith Croft is about to take it to a new level. He’s been invisible for seven years, smart but not working hard, athletic enough, but too lazy to excel. His parents are sorta cool, but only two weeks into his eighth-grade year, his friends are all busy with sports or projects and can’t hang out. On the way home one day, he stops at a neighbor’s yard sale and discovers a book for Crypts & Creepers that the lonely old woman says belonged to her granddaughter who disappeared without a trace. Days after he convinces his friends to try this bizarre game that doesn’t require electronics, strange noises in his closet wake him. His increasing inability to focus on anything other than a girl who vanished before he was born―and his obsession with her NPC ranger―drives him to dig deeper into the past, searching for what really happened to her. By the time Keith realizes the Gamemaster’s Codex holds something darker than rules within its pages, the curse that claimed the soul of a girl in 1987 has its claws in his group as well. Keith vows his friends will escape―even if he can’t.

Araphel

Araphel
Author: Matthew S. Cox
Publisher: Division Zero Press
Total Pages: 437
Release: 2020-02-27
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1949174387

Sometimes, the best thing a girl has to look forward to is killing someone. When she learned the truth behind her father’s death, Risa Black thought she’d given up on revenge. After an unknown enemy takes the life of someone dear to her, revenge is all that keeps her going. While hunting for the assassins, she uncovers a web of espionage and deceit that destroys her sense of everything she knew. Her idealism tarnished, her drive to free Mars from Earth gives way to something more personal: the need to protect a child. It soon becomes clear she’s in over her head. Consumed by the sorrow of loss, she accepts a mission from the Martian Liberation Front, not caring it’s a one-way ticket. Desperate to uncover the truth hidden behind all the lies, she hopes to find answers in a place that should not exist: Araphel. The home of the angel Raziel.

Gemini Ascendant Secrets

Gemini Ascendant Secrets
Author: Saket Shah
Publisher: Saket Shah
Total Pages: 145
Release: 2020-01-05
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN:

There are times when people just can’t identify with the attributes of their Sun or Moon sign. In fact, they may feel that they are an antithesis of their zodiac sign. You may also have observed it. Your Leo friend may not seek attention, may be because he or she has a Capricorn ascendant. Your Sagittarius friend is very possessive, may be because he or she has a Scorpio Ascendant. It is easy to understand why some people do not correspond to their Sun or Moon signs once you know about what is the rising sign or Ascendant in a horoscope. Ascendant is the degree of the zodiac sign that was highest on the Easter horizon at the time and place of birth. When seen from Earth, the sky seems to move, so the entire zodiac can be observed in a span of 24 hours day which means the rising sign changes on the Eastern horizon every 2 hours because there are 12 zodiac signs. People tend to associate their physical, emotional and spiritual attributes more with rising sign at times.

The Art of Moral Protest

The Art of Moral Protest
Author: James M. Jasper
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 533
Release: 2008-04-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0226394964

In The Art of Moral Protest, James Jasper integrates diverse examples of protest—from nineteenth-century boycotts to recent movements—into a distinctive new understanding of how social movements work. Jasper highlights their creativity, not only in forging new morals but in adopting courses of action and inventing organizational forms. "A provocative perspective on the cultural implications of political and social protest."—Library Journal