The Games

Thisstunning first novel from Nebula Award and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Awardfinalist Ted Kosmatka is a riveting tale of science cut loose from ethics. Setin an amoral future where genetically engineered monstrosities fight each otherto the death in an Olympic event, The Games envisions a harrowing worldthat may arrive sooner than you think.

SilasWilliams is the brilliant geneticist in charge of preparing the U.S. entry intothe Olympic Gladiator competition, an internationally sanctioned bloodsportwith only one rule: no human DNA is permitted in the design of the entrants.Silas lives and breathes genetics; his designs have led the United States tothe gold in every previous event. But the other countries are catching up. Now,desperate for an edge in the upcoming Games, Silas's boss engages anexperimental supercomputer to design the genetic code for a gladiator thatcannot be beaten.

Theresult is a highly specialized killing machine, its genome never before seen onearth. Not even Silas, with all his genius and experience, can understand thehorror he had a hand in making. And no one, he fears, can anticipate theconsequences of entrusting the act of creation to a computer's cold logic.

NowSilas races to understand what the computer has wrought, aided by a beautifulxenobiologist, Vidonia João. Yet as the fast-growing gladiator demonstratespreternatural strength, speed, and-most disquietingly-intelligence, Silas andVidonia find their scientific curiosity giving way to a most unexpectedemotion: sheer terror.

TedKosmatka was born and raised in northwest Indiana andspent more than a decade working in various laboratories there before moving tothe Pacific Northwest. His short fiction has been nominated for both the NebulaAward and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award. He now works in the videogameindustry where he's a full-time writer at Valve, home of Half-Life, Portal andDota 2.