Bøger af Drew Rogers

When Kirkwood High School's integrated basketball team faced Raytown South's all white team in the 1972 Missouri Class L state basketball championship game there was more at stake than just a game. This is the true story of how the game drew Kirkwood's white and black players together enabling them to overcome society's mores and their disparate backgrounds to fashion a perfect 31-0 record going into the state final.In this gripping memoir, Drew Rogers, Kirkwood's All State center recounts growing up in the sixties when race riots and the Civil Rights movement dominated society and a group of athletes bonded together for the sake of the game. Rogers describes the simplicity of the game, a common thread that united this team and held it together in the face of "The Game", and its promoters who sought to politicize and commercialize events for the sake of money.His recount of those times is both humorous and sobering as he draws his readers in with childhood anecdotes, societal movements and dramatic game descriptions culminating in a state tournament showdown; city versus county, black versus white - an outcome determined by the final shot in a game described by onlookers as the greatest game in Missouri high school basketball history.Rogers' story is a candid look at change in the sixties and a moving introspective on racism and how the game contributed to change.

In the near future, following years of anarchy and insurrection, with society craving law and order, an autocrat arises. That it is a machine is a sign of the times. Panoptes draws praise for its non-partisan efficiency and apolitical decisions. But when it begins extrapolating profiles, predicting crimes and executing innocent people, horror sets in. Gabriel Ross is the world's greatest salesman, successful because he identifies what an individual wants and provides it - at great profit. He created Panoptes, sold it to the NSA and then hid, prospering while the world suffers under Panoptes' inescapable surveillance. Unprincipled but well-intentioned, Gabriel appears to have violated his own credo of crafting transactions where everyone benefits. While Panoptes controls people, Gabriel manipulates them, from his childhood pyramid schemes to adult business betrayals. Even though combat sport is outlawed, Gabriel creates a clandestine cage-fighting syndicate attended by the world's richest bettors. It serves as a magnet, drawing interest from both the NSA and the Russian mafia, each of which wants him dead. While they pursue him, he aligns people like dominoes, setting in motion his own redemptive end game. The fate of society hangs in the balance. An ex-NSA agent, a mixed martial arts fighter and a Russian mob boss stand among the carefully aligned dominoes that Gabriel plans to topple. "Panoptes" is a fast-paced futuristic thriller intertwining several classic conflicts, not the least of which is influence versus control.