Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future is a "future history" science fiction novel written in 1930 by the British author Olaf Stapledon. A work of unprecedented scale in the genre, it describes the history of humanity from the present onwards across two billion years and eighteen distinct human species, of which our own is the first and most primitive. Stapledon's conception of history is based on the Hegelian Dialectic, following a repetitive cycle with many varied civilizations rising from and descending back into savagery over millions of years, but it is also one of progress, as the later civilizations rise to far greater heights than the first. The book anticipates the science of genetic engineering, and is an early example of the fictional supermind; a consciousness composed of many telepathically-linked individuals. A controversial part of the book depicts humans, in the far-off future, escaping the dying Earth and settling on Venus - in the process totally exterminating its native inhabitants, an intelligent marine species. Stapledon's book has been interpreted by some as condoning such interplanetary genocide as a justified act if necessary for racial survival, though a number of Stapledon's partisans denied that such was his intention, arguing instead that Stapledon was merely showing that although mankind had advanced in a number of ways in the future, at bottom it still possessed the same capacity for savagery as it has always had. Views: 395
Alfred Kropp was just trying to survive high school when his guardian uncle gets him roped into a suspicious get-rich-quick scheme that changes his life forever: stealing Excalibur, the legendary sword of King Arthur. But after Alfred unwittingly delivers the sword into the hands of a man with enormously evil intentions, he sets off on an unlikely quest to try to right his wrong and save the world from imminent destruction. This gripping, fast-paced, hilarious novel is both a thrilling adventure story and an engaging account of one boy's coming of age. Views: 395
Anne Fadiman is—by her own admission—the sort of person who learned about sex from her father's copy of Fanny Hill, whose husband buys her 19 pounds of dusty books for her birthday, and who once found herself poring over her roommate's 1974 Toyota Corolla manual because it was the only written material in the apartment that she had not read at least twice.
This witty collection of essays recounts a lifelong love affair with books and language. For Fadiman, as for many passionate readers, the books she loves have become chapters in her own life story. Writing with remarkable grace, she revives the tradition of the well-crafted personal essay, moving easily from anecdotes about Coleridge and Orwell to tales of her own pathologically literary family. As someone who played at blocks with her father's 22-volume set of Trollope ("My Ancestral Castles") and who only really considered herself married when she and her husband had merged collections ("Marrying Libraries"), she is exquisitely well equipped to expand upon the art of inscriptions, the perverse pleasures of compulsive proof-reading, the allure of long words, and the satisfactions of reading out loud. There is even a foray into pure literary gluttony—Charles Lamb liked buttered muffin crumbs between the leaves, and Fadiman knows of more than one reader who literally consumes page corners. Perfectly balanced between humor and erudition, Ex Libris establishes Fadiman as one of our finest contemporary essayists. Views: 394
Mississippi, 1951: The last place any sane man wants to visit is Thebes State Penal Farm. Of the few who make the journey there, even fewer return.
But when an old friend disappears inside Thebes, ex-Marine and Arkansas State Police Sgt. Earl Swagger takes a personal interest in the case. As he infiltrates the prison, what he experiences defies his wildest nightmares -- a savage world where death is the only salvation. As tough as he is, Swagger barely escapes with his life -- and his mind -- intact. But he's not going to stay away for long. Recruiting six of the hardest, deadliest gunmen ever known, bloody vengeance is soon at hand. Because Earl Swagger is going back to Thebes. Views: 393
From the bestselling author of There Are No Children Here, a richly textured, heartrending portrait of love and death in Chicago's most turbulent neighborhoods.The numbers are staggering: over the past twenty years in Chicago, 14,033 people have been killed and another roughly 60,000 wounded by gunfire. What does that do to the spirit of individuals and community? Drawing on his decades of experience, Alex Kotlowitz set out to chronicle one summer in the city, writing of individuals who have emerged from the violence and whose stories capture the capacity—and the breaking point—of the human heart and soul. The result is a spellbinding collection of deeply intimate profiles that upend what we think we know about gun violence in America. Among others, we meet a man who as a teenager killed a rival gang member, and twenty years later is still trying to come to terms with what he's done; a devoted school social worker struggling with... Views: 392
This story is of the trials a young foundling goes through to find her family.The story describes the problems a young foundling has to face and the trials and undeserved punishments she suffers before she gains acceptance by her family and comrades. Views: 391
Sometimes, it just doesn't pay to be generous... I head for the Rejovak Mountains in Wildemoone, my posse in tow, to help out Ginty, a friend of Ember and Herne's. The Dwarven King Erikson's gone a little bit haywire in the head, and Ginty is trying to escape before the king decides to execute him. A Hedge Dragon novella. For readers who love my Otherworld Series, love my Wild Hunt Series, and who love snarky, smartassed heroines who can beat the hell out of their enemies, who are loyal to their family-of-choice, and who love hard, once love crashes into them. Views: 391
The fourth book in the thrilling Donovan sci-fi series returns to a treacherous alien planet where corporate threats and dangerous creatures imperil the lives of the colonists.Where does one put a messianic cult of practicing cannibals? That becomes the question when Ashanti appears in Donovan's skies. She was designed for no more than four years in space. It's taken ten. The crew has sealed the transportees onto a single deck—and over the years, the few survivors down there have become monsters. Lead by the messiah, Batuhan, they call themselves the Unreconciled.Supervisor Kalico Aguila settles them at remote Tyson Station. With the discovery of a wasting disease among the Unreconciled, it's up to Kalico, Dya Simonov, and Mark Talbot to try and deal with the epidemic. Only Batuhan has plans of his own—and Kalico and her people are to be the main course. Talina Perez has brokered an uneasy truce with the quetzal molecules that float in her... Views: 390
True fear is a gift.
Unwarranted fear is a curse.
Learn how to tell the difference.
A date won't take "no" for an answer. The new nanny gives a mother an uneasy feeling. A stranger in a deserted parking lot offers unsolicited help. The threat of violence surrounds us every day. But we can protect ourselves, by learning to trust—and act on—our gut instincts.
In this empowering book, Gavin de Becker, the man Oprah Winfrey calls the nation's leading expert on violent behavior, shows you how to spot even subtle signs of danger—before it's too late. Shattering the myth that most violent acts are unpredictable, de Becker, whose clients include top Hollywood stars and government agencies, offers specific ways to protect yourself and those you love, including how to act when approached by a stranger, when you should fear someone close to you, what to do if you are being stalked, how to uncover the source of anonymous threats or phone calls, the biggest mistake you can make with a threatening person, and more. Learn to spot the danger signals others miss. It might just save your life. Views: 389
Stories Varied delve into the possibilities of woman’s life in the man’s world. While 'Ilaa’s Ire' takes one back to woman’s life and times in the Vedic age, ‘201’ Qualms depicts her predicament when torn between trust and duty. If “?” addresses woman’s marital stress in an alien land, 'Cupid’s Clue' is about her acting on a rebound in the native place. Even as 'Autumn Love' enables a woman to discover the void late in life, 'A Touchy Affair' renders her amenable to her man’s other woman well in time.Just as 'Love’s How’s That' inflames her old flame, 'A Hearty Turn' brings the female lesbian leanings to the fore. As 'Love Jihad' bridges lovers’ religious divide with a secular plank, 'Tenth Nook' creates a marital gulf on the material plane. If 'Eleventh Hour' is about woman’s lust for love, 'Twelfth Tale' underscores her quest for power.Book excerpt from 'Autumn Love' for a feel of its literary style -‘Is it a point of no return?’ she thought involuntarily
moving to the edge of the chair.
Reading his ‘have you forgotten about the castration?’
message, she sank into the chair thinking, ‘is it a lighthearted joke or as a
loaded message?’, and for a clue, began to recall the events of the year passed
by.
‘Oh, how my life had turned on its head when I turned
fifty?’ she thought in wonderment. ‘That’s when I immunized my heart against
attractions and insulated my life from vacillations! So I believed, didn’t I?
But when he enamored my heart to give a flirty spin to my life, didn’t it dawn
upon me that I had only sterilized it for a ritual regimen, and no more. Oh,
how his first glance pierced my heart to stir my life that very instant!’
Returning from a temple when she found him alone in the
drawing room, she felt as if god had sent his angle to receive her in her own
abode. The moment their eyes met, it was as if they began their joint search
for a love ground to share, which they had to abandon as her husband entered
the scene from behind the curtain.
He was a friend of her husband’s childhood pal settled in
the States. Having spent the best part of his life there, he came back with his
wife for good, leaving their two children, who were US citizens. That was six
months back and they had since settled in Hyderabad, where, incidentally, both
her married daughters stayed. As he happened to be in their town alone, to
explore some business opportunities there, that evening, he came to call on her
husband at their common-friend’s behest. Introductions over, as her husband
wanted her to prepare some coffee for them; she went into the kitchen with a
heavy heart.
‘While my missing his sight had understandably irked me,
didn’t the thought that he too would miss my sight inexplicably hurt me?’ she
began reminiscing about that dream encounter. ‘But then, how the smell of the
boiling decoction lifted my spirits for it portended serving him some steamy
coffee with my own hands. When he said he never tasted anything better, how I
hoped he would leave some dregs for my palate to share his satisfaction. What a
disappointment it was seeing him empty the cup and how exhilarated I was when
he said he had broken his life-long habit of leaving the dregs. Then, as he was
preparing to leave, how depressed I was, but how relieved I was when my husband
invited him to visit us again!’
She got up from the chair and as if to walk down the memory
lane, she walked up to the compound gate. Views: 388
The first volume in Hunter S. Thompson’s bestselling Gonzo Papers offers brilliant commentary and outrageous humor, in his signature style.
Originally published in 1979, the first volume of the bestselling “Gonzo Papers” is now back in print. The Great Shark Hunt is Dr. Hunter S. Thompson’s largest and, arguably, most important work, covering Nixon to napalm, Las Vegas to Watergate, Carter to cocaine. These essays offer brilliant commentary and outrageous humor, in signature Thompson style.
Ranging in date from the National Observer days to the era of Rolling Stone, The Great Shark Hunt offers myriad, highly charged entries, including the first Hunter S. Thompson piece to be dubbed “gonzo”—“The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved,” which appeared in Scanlan's Monthly in 1970. From this essay a new journalistic movement sprang which would change the shape of American letters. Thompson's razor-sharp insight and crystal clarity capture the crazy, hypocritical, degenerate, and redeeming aspects of the explosive and colorful ‘60s and ‘70s. Views: 388
Robert Gu is a recovering Alzheimer's patient. The world that he remembers was much as we know it today. Now, as he regains his faculties through a cure developed during the years of his near-fatal decline, he discovers that the world has changed and so has his place in it. He was a world-renowned poet. Now he is seventy-five years old, though by a medical miracle he looks much younger, and he’s starting over, for the first time unsure of his poetic gifts. Living with his son’s family, he has no choice but to learn how to cope with a new information age in which the virtual and the real are a seamless continuum, layers of reality built on digital views seen by a single person or millions, depending on your choice. But the consensus reality of the digital world is available only if, like his thirteen-year-old granddaughter Miri, you know how to wear your wireless access—through nodes designed into smart clothes—and to see the digital context—through smart contact lenses.
With knowledge comes risk. When Robert begins to re-train at Fairmont High, learning with other older people what is second nature to Miri and other teens at school, he unwittingly becomes part of a wide-ranging conspiracy to use technology as a tool for world domination.
In a world where every computer chip has Homeland Security built-in, this conspiracy is something that baffles even the most sophisticated security analysts, including Robert’s son and daughter-in law, two top people in the U.S. military. And even Miri, in her attempts to protect her grandfather, may be entangled in the plot.
As Robert becomes more deeply involved in conspiracy, he is shocked to learn of a radical change planned for the UCSD Geisel Library; all the books there, and worldwide, would cease to physically exist. He and his fellow re-trainees feel compelled to join protests against the change. With forces around the world converging on San Diego, both the conspiracy and the protest climax in a spectacular moment as unique and satisfying as it is unexpected. Views: 387
