This volume includes all of the writer's earliest short and medium-length fiction (including some previously unpublished stories) covering the years 1952-1955. These fascinating stories include "Beyond Lies the Wub, " "The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford, " "The Variable Man, " and twenty-two others. Stories In This VolumeStabilityRoogThe Little MovementBeyond Lies the WubThe GunThe SkullThe DefendersMr. SpaceshipPiper in the WoodsThe InfinitesThe Preserving MachineExpendableThe Variable ManThe Indefatigable FrogThe Crystal CryptThe Short Happy Life of the Brown OxfordThe BuilderMeddlerPaycheckThe Great COut in the GardenThe King of the ElvesColonyPrize ShipNanny Views: 16
It is the smell of death ...The Oxnan hotel stank with the stale odor of cheap whiskey, cheap two-bit racketeers, cheap unwashed women. But behind the rotting front, behind the peeling-plastered walls, a big time syndicate did its filthy business. The payoff was in the millions.Edna Loomis—and there was nothing cheap about her—set out to get it all. Her method was simple ... she used the weapon of her flesh. But she made one mistake. His name was Peone, of the drugged eyes and the slender knife. Edna Loomis was beautiful, ambitious woman. Peone was a coked-up killer! Views: 16
As the prestigious world of professional golf prepares for the Masters Golf Tournament at Georgia 's elite Augusta National Golf Club, a cunning killer waits in the shadows to unleash his own lethal game. Views: 16
A fresh and acclaimed account of the Spanish Civil War by the bestselling author of Stalingrad and The Fall Of Berlin 1945To mark the 70th anniversary of the Spanish Civil War's outbreak, Antony Beevor has written a completely updated and revised account of one of the most bitter and hard-fought wars of the twentieth century. With new material gleaned from the Russian archives and numerous other sources, this brisk and accessible book (Spain's #1 bestseller for twelve weeks), provides a balanced and penetrating perspective, explaining the tensions that led to this terrible overture to World War II and affording new insights into the war—its causes, course, and consequences. Views: 15
The Most Human Human is a provocative, exuberant, and profound exploration of the ways in which computers are reshaping our ideas of what it means to be human. Its starting point is the annual Turing Test, which pits artificial intelligence programs against people to determine if computers can "think." Named for computer pioneer Alan Turing, the Turing Test convenes a panel of judges who pose questions--ranging anywhere from celebrity gossip to moral conundrums--to hidden contestants in an attempt to discern which is human and which is a computer. The machine that most often fools the panel wins the Most Human Computer Award. But there is also a prize, bizarre and intriguing, for the Most Human Human. In 2008, the top AI program came short of passing the Turing Test by just one astonishing vote. In 2009, Brian Christian was chosen to participate, and he set out to make sure Homo sapiens would prevail. The author's quest to be... Views: 15
A Christmas Eve blind date becomes a battle to save covert agents and stop a cybercriminal.Reference librarian Karin Arthur decides Murali Nanda is handsome, intelligent, and passionate about Christian causes she also loves. But she's only known him through his online research projects. Turmoil descends when Karin and Murali plunge into a plot to torture and murder espionage operatives and disseminate a computer infection that could bring vital intelligence agencies to their knees.A courtship beyond whirlwind and a desperate race to stop a cyberkiller leaves Karin reeling and feeling she has no choice but to accept the protection of this virtual stranger — whom she knew only in the safe, virtual world of her research work. Can Murali protect her and solve the mystery? Can she help him do what no one else has accomplished — root out the spreading threat that could lead to cyber destruction? Views: 15
Is a book the same book-or a reader the same reader-the second time around? The seventeen authors in this witty and poignant collection of essays all agree on the answer: Never. The editor of Rereadings is Anne Fadiman, and readers of her bestselling book Ex Libris (FSG, 1998) will find this volume especially satisfying. Her chosen authors include Sven Birkerts, Allegra Goodman, Vivian Gornick, Patricia Hampl, Phillip Lopate, and Luc Sante; the objects of their literary affections range from Pride and Prejudice to Sue Barton, Student Nurse. Each has selected a book or a story or a poem--or even, in one case, the lyrics on the back of the Sgt. Pepper album--that made a deep impression in his or her youth, and reread it to see how it has changed in the interim. (Of course, what has really changed is the reader.) These essays are not conventional literary criticism; they are about relationships. The relationship between reader and book... Views: 15
Knowing his father?™s profoundest wish, that his son should succeed him as Rector of Stillwater, Stephen Desmonde tried to be worthy. But the siren call of art was too overwhelming; he felt driven as though by demons to pursue his vision of the world?™s beauty. He must put on canvas the truth as he saw it, whatever the cost might be, whether it was the blank misunderstanding of his family or the ridicule of the public. Few artists could have survived the scandal and mockery he had to endure in the sensational trial that stirred all England. Indeed, Stephen Desmonde himself could not have survived without the tender and understanding love of the unforgettable Jenny Dill, the uneducated but strangely wise little Cockney girl whose devotion kept him going when all else failed. It was Jenny who restored his confidence in himself and his vision, and in her love he found the serenity and peace that marked his greatest creations. Crusader?™s... Views: 15
