Most Popular Books by Mike A. Lancaster

Kyle Straker volunteered to be hypnotized at the annual community talent show, expecting the same old lame amateur acts. But when he wakes up, his world will never be the same. Televisions and computers no longer work, but a strange language streams across their screens. Everyone''s behaving oddly. It''s as if Kyle doesn''t exit. Is this nightmare a result of the hypnosis? Will Kyle wake up with a snap of fingers to roars of laughter? Or is this something much more sinister? Narrated on a set of found cassette tapes at an unspecified point in the future, Human.4 is an absolutely chilling look at technology gone too far.

Thousands of years in the future, the divide between humanity and technology has become nearly unrecognizable. Each thought, each action is logged, coded, backed up. Data is as easily exchanged through the fiber-optic-like cables that extend from fingertips as it might be through ordinary conversation. It''s a brave new world: A world that the Straker Tapes say is a result of many human "upgrades." But no one is sure whether the Straker Tapes are a work of fiction or an eerie peek into an unimaginable past. Nearly sixteen-year-old Peter Vincent has been raised to believe that everything that the backward Strakerites cling to is insane—an utter waste of time and potential. Since his father is David Vincent, genius inventor of the artificial bees that saved the world''s crops and prevented massive famine, how could Peter believe anything else? But when Peter meets Alpha, a Strakerite his own age, suddenly the theories about society-upgrades don''t sound quite so crazy, especially when she shows him evidence that another upgrade is imminent. And worse, there may be a conspiracy by the leaders of the establishment to cover it up. A conspiracy spearheaded by Peter''s own father. Gripping and full of unexpected twists, The Future We Left Behind takes the unsettling questions raised in Human.4 and flips them entirely. What if we knew that the very way we live was about to be changed in an instant, and we could stop it? And what if everything we are sure we know is entirely wrong?

“There’s something in that sound. Something bad. Something dangerous.” Fifteen-year-old Ani Lee is a skilled hacker researching a strange .wav file that she’s downloaded when it behaves as no file ever should. Joe Dyson is a seventeen-year-old American transplant recruited into a secret teen division of the British intelligence service who’s looking into the disappearance of a friend caught up in an underground music scene that might be more than it appears. When Ani and Joe’s investigations intertwine, they discover that the .wav file and the music are linked—someone’s embedding the file into tracks to create a mind-controlled teen army. But who’s behind it? And why? And how do you stop a sound? An exhilarating sci-fi techno-thriller that blends music, mind control, and conspiracy perfect for fans of Little Brother, Brain Jack, and Proxy. Sky Pony Press, with our Good Books, Racehorse and Arcade imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of books for young readers—picture books for small children, chapter books, books for middle grade readers, and novels for young adults. Our list includes bestsellers for children who love to play Minecraft; stories told with LEGO bricks; books that teach lessons about tolerance, patience, and the environment, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

After preventing conservative MP Victor Palgrave from engineering a human mind-controlled teenage army, Joe Dyson and Ani Lee, operatives for a secret youth division of British Intelligence, have probably earned a rest. But there’s no time to be lax with bizarre new developments popping up across the UK and the world. While busting a group that’s pressing teen runaways into slave labor building tech, Joe discovers a computer component not yet out on the market, linked to a very popular, but highly secretive gaming company based in California. Meanwhile, skilled hacker Ani works her way into a vigilante hacking ring intent on using viral social media to bring the truth to the world and bring world governments to their knees. They’re method: rewriting reality, virtually, so that the world never knows the difference. As Ani''s and Joe’s missions draw closer together, they realize that they have been corralled into a real-life video game—one where the levels are constantly being rewritten, and the stakes are constantly shifting. What happens when AI evolves to the point where it has a mind of its own? When the computer threatens to turn on its master? Joe, Ani, and the world are about to find out.

Tout a changé. Pour toujours. Lors du spectacle annuel de sa ville, Kyle se soumet, avec Lily et deux adultes, à une séance d''hypnose. Lorsqu''ils sortent de leur transe, c''est la ville entière qu''ils trouvent pétrifiée. Il n''y a plus ni signal radio, ni télévision, ni internet. Et sur les écrans d''ordinateur, un message aux caractères illisibles. Qu''est-il arrivé aux habitants de la ville ? Et que leur est-il arrivé, à eux quatre ?

Lors du traditionnel spectacle de leur petite ville, Kyle se soumet, avec Lilly et deux adultes à une séance d’hypnose. Lorsqu’ils sortent de leur transe, c’est le public entier qui est pétrifié. Le phénomène a gagné toute la ville: il n’y a ni signal radio, ni télévision, ni internet... Peu à peu, les habitants se remettent en mouvement et Kyle et Lilly, soulagés, retournent à leurs familles respectives. Mais lorsque Kyle raconte ce qu’il a vécu, ses parents le croient sujet à des hallucinations. Diagnostic du médecin: Kyle est «0.4», il doit disparaître. Voyant sa vie menacée, Kyle retrouve Lilly pour s’enfuir. Ensemble, ils cherchent à comprendre : qu’est-il arrivé aux habitants de la ville? Que signifie « 0.4 »?