Poseidon's Arrow

Cussler, Clive

Cussler, Dirk

Genre: action, adventure

Series: Dirk Pitt

This is book 22 in the series

It is the greatest advance in American defense technology in decades — an attack submarine capable of incredible underwater speeds. Nothing else in any other nation’s naval arsenal even comes close. There is only one problem: A key element of the prototype is missing — and the man who developed it is dead.

At the same time, ships have started vanishing mid-ocean, usually never to be found again, but when they are, sometimes bodies are found aboard . . . burned to a crisp.What is going on? And what does it have to do with an Italian submarine that itself disappeared in 1943, lost at sea? Or was she?

It is up to NUMA director Dirk Pitt and his team, aided by a beautiful NCIS agent and by Pitt’s children, marine engineer Dirk and oceanographer Summer, to go on a desperate international chase to find the truth, from Washington to Mexico, Idaho to Panama. What they discover at the end of it is a much, much greater threat than even they imagined.

If they don’t succeed in their mission, the world as they know it might end up a very different place — and not a pleasant one.

If you like this book, Your Next Read suggests you try

Daniel X: Demons and Druids

Patterson, James
Sadler, Adam

Genre: science fiction, action

Series: Daniel X


Daniel X's hunt to eliminate each and every intergalactic criminal on Earth is always relentless, but this time, it's getting personal. Number Three on the List of Alien Outlaws takes the form of raging, soul—possessing fire. And fire transports Daniel back to the most traumatic event of his life—the death of his parents.

In the face of his "kryptonite", Daniel struggles with his extraordinary powers like never before, and more than ever is at stake: his best friends are in grave peril. The only way to save them is to travel back—through a hole in time—to the demon's arrival during the Dark Ages.

If you like this book, Your Next Read suggests you try

Blowback

Thor, Brad

Genre: spy, action

Series: Scot Harvath


This is book four of the series (but you do not have to read them in order).


Scot Harvath's counterterrorism career has just crashed and burned -- thanks in part to a ruthless senator with her sights set on the White House. But when the war on terror takes a chilling turn, the president has no choice but to secretly bring Harvath back inside. Deep beneath an Alpine glacier, an ancient weapon designed to decimate the Roman Empire has been unearthed -- and a shadowy organization intends to use it for America's downfall. Racing across Europe, Harvath must secure the ultimate instrument of destruction before it brings the United States and the rest of the world to its knees.

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Ender's Game

Card, Orson Scott

Genre: science fiction, action

Series: The Ender Quintet

In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut—young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.

Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.

Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.

A movie was made of this book.  It was O.K, but this is one of those cases where the book is better than the movie.

Death Wave

Coonts, Stephen
Keith, William H. 

Genre: action, spy

Series: Deep Black


In Central Asia, a dangerous shipment has vanished. Twelve nuclear warheads—with a combined power greater than the Hiroshima bomb—have been stolen by a deadly new alliance of international terrorists. Their plan: Use man-made weapons to trigger a devastating natural catastrophe—the largest tsunami the world has ever seen…

Enter Deep Black: a secret unit of the NSA led by former Marine sniper Charlie Dean. With his hand-picked team of special ops, Dean follows the terrorists’ trail to the Canary Islands. But time is running out. In hours, the warheads will be detonated and a thousand-foot wave will rise. In it’s path of destruction lies every city on America’s eastern coast.


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Uninvited

Jordan, Sophie

Genre: action

Series: Uninvited

This is book #1 in the two book series.

The Scarlet Letter meets Minority Report in bestselling author Sophie Jordan's chilling new novel about a teenage girl who is ostracized when her genetic test proves she's destined to become a murderer.

When Davy Hamilton's tests come back positive for Homicidal Tendency Syndrome (HTS)-aka the kill gene-she loses everything. Her boyfriend ditches her, her parents are scared of her, and she can forget about her bright future at Juilliard. Davy doesn't feel any different, but genes don't lie. One day she will kill someone.

Only Sean, a fellow HTS carrier, can relate to her new life. Davy wants to trust him; maybe he's not as dangerous as he seems. Or maybe Davy is just as deadly.

If you like this book, Your Next Read suggests you try Panic and others.

Panic

Oliver, Lauren

Genre: action



Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a dead-end town of 12,000 people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do.

Heather never thought she would compete in Panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors, where the stakes are high and the payoff is even higher. She’d never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought.

Dodge has never been afraid of Panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game, he’s sure of it. But what he doesn't know is that he’s not the only one with a secret. Everyone has something to play for.

For Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them—and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need the most.

If you like this book, Your Next Read suggests you try

The Good Guy

Koontz, Dean

The Good Guy

Genre: action



Timothy Carrier is an ordinary guy who enjoys a beer after work. But tonight is no ordinary night. Instead, Tim will face a terrifying decision: Help or run. For the jittery stranger sitting beside him at the bar has mistaken Tim for someone else--and passes him a manila envelope stuffed with cash and the photo of a pretty woman. "Ten thousand. The rest when she's gone."

Now everything Tim thinks he knows--even about himself--will be challenged. For Tim Carrier is the one man who can save an innocent life and stop a killer as relentless as evil incarnate. But first he must discover resources within himself that will transform his idea of who he is and what it takes to be the good guy.

Velocity

Koontz, Dean

Velocity

Genre: action


Bill Wile is an easygoing, hardworking guy who leads a quiet, ordinary life. But that is about to change. One evening, after his usual eight-hour bartending shift, he finds a typewritten note under the windshield wiper of his car. If you don’t take this note to the police and get them involved, I will kill a lovely blond schoolteacher. If you do take this note to the police, I will instead kill an elderly woman active in charity work. You have four hours to decide. The choice is yours.

It seems like a sick joke, and Bill’s friend on the police force, Lanny Olson, thinks so too. His advice to Bill is to go home and forget about it. Besides, what could they do even if they took the note seriously? No crime has actually been committed. But less than twenty-four hours later, a young blond schoolteacher is found murdered, and it’s Bill’s fault: he didn’t convince the police to get involved. Now he’s got another note, another deadline, another ultimatum…and two new lives hanging in the balance.

Suddenly Bill’s average, seemingly innocuous life takes on the dimensions and speed of an accelerating nightmare. Because the notes are coming faster, the deadlines growing tighter, and the killer becoming bolder and crueler with every communication—until Bill is isolated with the terrifying knowledge that he alone has the power of life and death over a psychopath’s innocent victims. Until the struggle between good and evil is intensely personal. Until the most chilling words of all are: The choice is yours.

A Wanted Man

Child, Lee

A Wanted Man

Genre: action

Series: Reacher

This is book 11? in the series (but they each read as separate novels)


Four people in a car, hoping to make Chicago by morning. One man driving, another telling stories that don’t add up. A woman in the back, silent and worried. And a hitchhiker with a broken nose. An hour behind them, the FBI descends on an old pumping station where a man was stabbed to death—the knife work professional, the killers nowhere to be seen.

All Jack Reacher wanted was a ride to Virginia. All he did was stick out his thumb. But he soon discovers he has hitched more than a ride. He has tied himself to a massive conspiracy, in which nothing is what it seems, and nobody is telling the truth.

Stormbreaker

Horowitz, Anthony

Stormbreaker

Genre: action, spy

Series: Alex Rider

This is book 1 of the series.

The plane was facing down the runway. Its propelers were at full speed. Alex wrenched the gear into first, released the hand brake, and the gunner forward, shooting over the drive and onto the grass, heading for the airship. At the same time therewas a chatter of machiene gun fire. He yanked down on the steiring wheel and twisted away as his wing mirror exploded and a spray of bullets slammed into the winshield and door. The two cars he had seen coming up behind him. Each of them had a guard in the backseat, leaning out of the window, firing at him. And they were geting closer.

Sahara

Cussler, Clive

Sahara

Genre: action, adventure

Series: Dirk Pitt


This is book 11 in the series (but they do not have to be read in order)


While searching for a treasure on the Nile River, Dirk Pitt thwarts the attempted assassination of a beautiful U.N. scientist investigating a disease that is driving thousands of North Africans into madness, cannibalism, and death. The suspected cause of the epidemic is vast, unprecedented pollution that threatens to extinguish all life in the world's seas. Racing to save the world from catastrophe, Pitt and his team comb the desert for clues...only to find a gold mine manned by slaves--one that uncovers the truth behind two enduring mysteries: the fate of a Civil War ironclad and its secret connection with Lincoln's assassination, and the last flight of a long-lost female pilot. Now, amidst the shifting sands of the Sahara, Dirk Pitt will make a desperate stand--in a battle the world cannot afford to lose!

The Hunt for the Red October

Clancy, Tom

The Hunt for the Red October

Genre: spy, adventure

Series: Jack Ryan


This is book 1 in the series.


Somewhere under the Atlantic, a Soviet sub commander has just made a fateful decision: the Red October is heading west. The Americans want her. The Russians want her back. And the most incredible chase in history is on....

Ark Angel

Horowitz, Anthony

Ark Angel

Genre: spy, action

Series: Alex Rider


This is book 6 in the series



The sniper's bullet nearly killed him. But Alex Rider managed to survive...just in time for more trouble to come his way.

When kidnappers attempt to snatch a fellow patient from the exclusive hospital where Alex is recovering, he knows he has to stop them. But the boy he saves is no ordinary patient: He is the son of Nikolai Drevin, one of the richest men in the world. The eccentric billionaire has been targeted by Force Three, a group of eco-terrorists who claim his project Ark Angel, the first luxury hotel in outer space, is a danger to the environment.

Alex returns to MI6 and soon discovers that Force Three will stop at nothing to destroy Ark Angel, even if it means sending four hundred tons of molten glass and steel hurtling down to Earth and killing millions of innocent people...unless Alex can stop them.

Stormbreaker

Horowitz, Anthony
Johnston, Antony

Stormbreaker: the Graphic Novel

Genre: comic book, action

Series: Alex Rider


This is book one in the series.


RECRUITED!

They told him his uncle Ian died in a car accident. But fourteen-year-old Alex Rider knows that's a lie, and the bullet holes in his uncle's windshield confirm his suspicions. But nothing prepares him for the news that the uncle he always thought he knew was really a spy for MI6-Britain's top-secret intelligence agency. Recruited to find his uncle's killers and complete Ian's final mission, Alex suddenly finds himself caught in a deadly game of can and mouse, with no way out.

The House of the Scorpion

Farmer, Nancy

The House of the Scorpion

Genre: action, science fiction

Matteo Alacran was not born; he was harvested. His DNA came from El Patron, lord of a country called Opium – a strip of poppy fields laying between the United States and what was once called Mexico. Matt’s first cell split and divided inside a Petri dish. Then he was placed in the womb of a cow, where he continued the miraculous journey from embryo to fetus to baby. He is a boy now, but most consider him a monster – except El Patron. El Patron loves Matt as he loves himself because Matt is himself.

As Matt struggles to understand his existence, a sinister cast of characters threatens him, including El Patron’s power hungry family. Escape is the only chance Matt has to survive, but a dangerous army of bodyguards surrounds him. Unfortunately, escape from the Alacran Estate is no guarantee of freedom because Matt is marked by his difference in ways he doesn’t even suspect.

Left Behind

LaHaye, Tim

Jenkins, Jerry B.

Left Behind

Genre: religious, action

Series: Left Behind

This is book 1 in the series

What if the last book of the bible, Revelation, is not only real, but literal.  This book takes a look at what the end of times may look like.

An airborne Boeing 747 is headed to London when, without any warning, passengers mysteriously disappear from their seats. Terror and chaos slowly spread not only through the plane but also worldwide as unusual events continue to unfold. For those who have been left behind, the apocalypse has just begun.

The Magician's Nephew

Lewis, C. S.

The Magician's Nephew

Genre: fantasy, adventure

Series: Chronicles of Narnia


This is book 1 of the series.



Narnia. . .where the woods are thick and cool, where Talking Beasts are called to life. . .a new world where the adventure begins. Digory and Polly meet and become friends one cold, wet summer in London. Their lives burst into adventure when Digory's Uncle Andrew, who thinks he is a magician, sends them hurtling to. . .somewhere else. They find their way to Narnia, newborn from the Lion's song, and encounter the evil sorceress Jadis, before they finally return home.

Digory and Polly discover a secret passage that links their houses and are tricked into vanishing out of this world and into the World of Charn, where they wake up the evil Queen Jadis. There, they witness the creation of the Land of Narnia as it is sung into being by the Great Lion, Aslan.

Code Orange

Cooney, Caroline B.

Code Orange

Genre: action


Walking around New York City is what Mitty Blake does best. He loves the city, and even after 9/11 he's always felt safe. Mitty is a carefree guy - he doesn't worry about terrorists or blackouts or grades or anything. He'd much rather watch the game or hang out listening to his iPod than do research on infectious diseases just to get a good grade.

Mitty does feel a little pressure to hand something in. So he considers it good luck when he finds some old medical books in his family's weekend house. But when he discovers an envelope containing two scabs in one of the books, the report is no longer about the grade - it's about life and death. His own.

Variola major is a virus. It has no personality, no blood for circulating, no brain for thinking. It has one task - to take over the cells of other creatures and spread. And it has the potential to kill everyone in New York City.

This edge-of-your-seat thriller by best-selling author Caroline B. Cooney will leave you breathless.

Divide and Conquer

Clancy, Tom
Rovin, Jeff


Divide and Conquer


Genre: spy, action


Series: Op-Center


Shadowy elements within the State Department secretly cause tensions to flare between Iran and the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan. They hope to start a shooting war to increase their own power and profit. At the same time, the conspirators decide to up the ante - by deposing the president of the United States. In a treacherous scheme, they convince the president that he is mentally unstable, and a silent coup d'etat is within their reach. Now, Paul Hood and the members of Op-Center must race against the clock to prevent the outbreak of war, save the honor of the president - and expose the traitors.