Books with author Benjamin May

After years spent studying alien life in the seas of Europa, Dr. Kiara Lacroix has become one of Earth’s foremost exobiology experts. Her research brings her to the attention of the Global Space Federation, which has a top-secret mission for her: an advanced alien civilization has been discovered in the depths of an icy planet five light-years from Earth, and Kiara is expected to join the crew making first contact.Kiara has her hesitations, but as usual her scientific curiosity gets the better of her. She and her crew will be using experimental technology which establishes long-distance contact via a dream-reality beamed through a wormhole: the spacetime sequence. It’s even riskier than it sounds.Of course, Kiara’s not the only one with hesitations about the GSF’s actions. And some of those people have the resources—and the access to GSF’s classified mission information—to do something about them.A Spacetime Tale is high-concept hard science fiction at its finest.Cover Art by Jeff Brown

The first full account of the government-sanctioned genocide of California Indians under United States rule Between 1846 and 1873, California’s Indian population plunged from perhaps 150,000 to 30,000. Benjamin Madley is the first historian to uncover the full extent of the slaughter, the involvement of state and federal officials, the taxpayer dollars that supported the violence, indigenous resistance, who did the killing, and why the killings ended. This deeply researched book is a comprehensive and chilling history of an American genocide. Madley describes pre-contact California and precursors to the genocide before explaining how the Gold Rush stirred vigilante violence against California Indians. He narrates the rise of a state-sanctioned killing machine and the broad societal, judicial, and political support for genocide. Many participated: vigilantes, volunteer state militiamen, U.S. Army soldiers, U.S. congressmen, California governors, and others. The state and federal governments spent at least $1,700,000 on campaigns against California Indians. Besides evaluating government officials’ culpability, Madley considers why the slaughter constituted genocide and how other possible genocides within and beyond the Americas might be investigated using the methods presented in this groundbreaking book.

Between 1846 and 1873, California’s Indian population plunged from perhaps 150,000 to 30,000. Benjamin Madley is the first historian to uncover the full extent of the slaughter, the involvement of state and federal officials, the taxpayer dollars that supported the violence, indigenous resistance, who did the killing, and why the killings ended. This deeply researched book is a comprehensive and chilling history of an American genocide. Madley describes pre-contact California and precursors to the genocide before explaining how the Gold Rush stirred vigilante violence against California Indians. He narrates the rise of a state-sanctioned killing machine and the broad societal, judicial, and political support for genocide. Many participated: vigilantes, volunteer state militiamen, U.S. Army soldiers, U.S. congressmen, California governors, and others. The state and federal governments spent at least $1,700,000 on campaigns against California Indians. Besides evaluating government officials’ culpability, Madley considers why the slaughter constituted genocide and how other possible genocides within and beyond the Americas might be investigated using the methods presented in this groundbreaking book.

The first full account of the government-sanctioned genocide of California Indians under United States rule Between 1846 and 1873, California’s Indian population plunged from perhaps 150,000 to 30,000. Benjamin Madley is the first historian to uncover the full extent of the slaughter, the involvement of state and federal officials, the taxpayer dollars that supported the violence, indigenous resistance, who did the killing, and why the killings ended. This deeply researched book is a comprehensive and chilling history of an American genocide. Madley describes pre-contact California and precursors to the genocide before explaining how the Gold Rush stirred vigilante violence against California Indians. He narrates the rise of a state-sanctioned killing machine and the broad societal, judicial, and political support for genocide. Many participated: vigilantes, volunteer state militiamen, U.S. Army soldiers, U.S. congressmen, California governors, and others. The state and federal governments spent at least $1,700,000 on campaigns against California Indians. Besides evaluating government officials’ culpability, Madley considers why the slaughter constituted genocide and how other possible genocides within and beyond the Americas might be investigated using the methods presented in this groundbreaking book.

Our greatest instrument in pursuit of our pleasure and relief of our pain, our greatest monument to ourselves and in our service, will be our development of a type of AI. AI would represent the pinnacle of our technology. It is science as art; a technology so unique and powerful that it could have only been created by Gods.It is the ultimate conceit. The fruition of our belief that our existence is special and that our lives have purpose, chief among them the creation of beings, sentient or not, who imitate their creators to the extent that anyone to whom our existence is alien could not distinguish creator from created, maker from made, and therefore, they could not distinguish original intelligence from artificial intelligence. Now there is only intelligence.Bodies. Any idiot can make a body. Hell, the first man and woman who made a body did so without even realizing that they were making one. How hard is that? Any idiot can destroy a body. Just squeeze the trigger, push the button, plant the bomb, close the switch, throw death, frag out, swing the blade, loose the arrow, give the command, turn a blind eye. Bury, honor and remember the dead. Comfort the dying. One last request, “Tell my family I love them.” Will do. Relax. Let nature do the rest. God and Heaven await you. Thanks for trying.Muscle memory. Training until mind and body are one. Repetition ad infinitum until I become bored of it and believe I no longer need it only to pay the price of my own complacency. I hope that price isn’t too high so I can learn from my mistake. A perishable skill if not practiced beyond perfection. Perfection never possible so practiced to numbness. I no longer think about it but react to it. Process becomes reason. Anticipate. Break his decision cycle. Get inside of his decision loop. Now he reacts to my movement. My move. His move. My feint. His move. My countermove. His death. My life.Bodies we destroy all the time and for every one destroyed it seems two more are born. If I tire of this game and want to exit the loop I can destroy all who gave birth to him or I can convince him to play another game, this game of ours, and accept him as a player in this world. To capture the mind would transform the science of war into the art of war. Then, at that point, they no longer have the motivation or will to fight except on behalf of those things we think are worth fighting for. Players in a game. Pieces on a board. Game over.What game shall you play?

After years spent studying alien life in the seas of Europa, Dr. Kiara Lacroix has become one of Earth’s foremost exobiology experts. Her research brings her to the attention of the Global Space Federation, which has a top-secret mission for her: an advanced alien civilization has been discovered in the depths of an icy planet five light-years from Earth, and Kiara is expected to join the crew making first contact.Kiara has her hesitations, but as usual her scientific curiosity gets the better of her. She and her crew will be using experimental technology which establishes long-distance contact via a dream-reality beamed through a wormhole: the spacetime sequence. It’s even riskier than it sounds.Of course, Kiara’s not the only one with hesitations about the GSF’s actions. And some of those people have the resources—and the access to GSF’s classified mission information—to do something about them.A Spacetime Tale is high-concept hard science fiction at its finest.Cover art by Jeff Brown

**Winner of the 2013 SCBWI Crystal Kite Award**David Matthews is having a rough time. Being a teenager is bad enough, but when he picks up and moves to Japan for a year, with barely any knowledge of the language or social behaviors of Japanese teenagers, things go from bad to worse.Until one day, David attends a temple ceremony and finds himself possessed by a Japanese god.Suddenly, he can understand and speak Japanese. He has unbelievable new powers, including the ability to shift into a tiger, and a powerful sword he can materialize at will from its sheath—his body. But nothing comes for free, and these changes bring David face-to-face with the most terrifying creatures of Japanese legend—vengeful okami, demonic oni and terrifying ghostly yurei.Trained by his host family, famous sword-makers and the keepers of an ancient secret entrusted to their family by the first Emperor of Japan, David must fight desperately to save his host sister from a hoard of Japanese monsters. Evil has returned to Japan, and David must overcome his own insecurities if he is to save her and become a True Samurai—the protector of Japan.

Incarceration is a redemptive story about the power of change and how an ex-offender refused to become another statistic once he had paid his debt to society. Award Winning & Best Selling Author J.M. Benjamin, once considered a threat to the community, gives you an up-close and personal account of growing up on the west end part of Plainfield New Jersey. J.M. revisits his past and introduces you to life as he once knew it as a youth. He vividly takes you on an emotional journey that ultimately lead him down a path of destruction. He bares it all and discloses how; his parents, community, peers and education were contributors to many of his poor choices and decision making and how his childhood went from promising and bright to a dark and gloomy one. J.M. offers hope and inspiration, successfully demonstrating how their is in fact life after incarceration, to the one million + incarcerated, ex-offenders and those who are affected by their loved ones situation. He speaks about how he turned a negative situation into a positive opportunity and how embracing a power greater than himself, having a praying mother, support system and discovering a hidden talent was all the ammunition he needed when given a second chance, after giving the system a total of over a dozen years of his life. Now a poster child for change, J.M. conveys a powerful message to all that, it's never too late!

The evil of Japanese legend is real, and has once again reawakened. As an exchange student, David Matthews expected an interesting time in Japan, but after being possessed by a Japanese kami he’s had a far closer introduction to the secrets of Japan’s past than he bargained for.Accepted as the first Jitsugen Samurai in many years, the young teen must work with the Matsumotos and Imperial Family to protect Japan from the Akuma Clan, a mysterious group focused on returning Japan to the age of chaos. Yet can he trust all who know his secret?With David’s sister captured by the Akuma Clan, David is torn between his duty to his family, and the needs of Japan. The award winning Samurai Awakening series returns with Betrayal.