Pak Jun Do is the haunted son of a lost mother - a singer "stolen" to Pyongyang - and an influential father who runs a work camp for orphans. Superiors in the state soon recognize the boy's loyalty and keen instincts. Considering himself "a humble citizen of the greatest nation in the world," Jun Do rises in the ranks. He becomes a professional kidnapper who must navigate the shifting rules, arbitrary violence, and baffling demands of his Korean...

"In six masterly stories, Johnson delves deep into love and loss, natural disasters, the influence of technology, and how the political shapes the personal. "George Orwell Was a Friend of Mine" follows a former warden of a Stasi prison in East Germany who vehemently denies his past, even as pieces of it are delivered in packages to his door. "Nirvana," portrays a programmer whose wife has a rare disease finding solace in a digital simulacrum of the...

The son of an influential father who runs an orphan work camp, Pak Jun Do rises to prominence using instinctive talents and eventually becomes a professional kidnapper and romantic rival to Kim Jong Il.

Heroes will rise. Myth and legend will come to life. Stuck in a life of indentured servitude, Marek dreams of becoming a wizard. When she meets a beautiful priestess, Teela, Marek escapes her master and assembles a team of adventurers in an epic journey to help Teela save her sister from a vicious ogre.

When her most loyal friend is taken hostage by Peregus Malister, the cruel master of the Thieves Guild, Marek must embark on a corrupt mission to serve the Thieves Guild with her team of would-be heroes. But when the mission leads them into the clutches of Szorlok, their greatest enemy, Marek must sacrifice her ambitions, and perhaps her own soul, to stop Szorlok from obtaining the Darkspore.