Search results for ""Orbit""
Flatiron Books Acts of Violet
Nearly a decade ago, iconic magician Violet Volk performed her greatest trick yet: vanishing mid-act. Though she hasn't been seen since, her hold on the public hasn't wavered. While Violet sought out the spotlight, her sister Sasha, ever the responsible one, took over their mother's salon and built a quiet life for her daughter, Quinn. But Sasha can never seem to escape her sister's orbit or her memories of their unresolved, tumultuous relationship. Then there's Cameron Frank, determined to finally get his big break hosting a podcast devoted to all things Violet-though keeping his job hinges on an exclusive interview with Sasha, the last person who wants to talk to him. As the ten-year anniversary approaches, the podcast picks up steam, and Cameron's pursuit of Sasha becomes increasingly intrusive. He isn't the only one wondering what secrets she might be keeping: Quinn, loyal to the aunt she always idolized, is doing her own investigating. Meanwhile, Sasha begins to experience an unsettling series of sleepwalking episodes and coincidences, which all lead back to Violet. Pushed to her emotional limits, Sasha must finally confront the most painful truths about her sister, and herself, even at the risk of losing everything. Alternating between Sasha's narration and Cameron's podcast transcripts, interspersed with documents that offer a tantalizing peek at Violet herself, Acts of Violet is an utterly original, propulsive story of fame, deception, and forgiveness that will make you believe in magic.
£14.70
Penguin Books Ltd In the Shadow of the Gods: The Emperor in World History
From the acclaimed Wolfson Prize-winning author, a dazzling history of the world's emperors For millennia much of the world was ruled by emperors: a handful of individuals claimed no limit to the lands they could rule over and no limit to their authority. They operated beyond normal human constraint and indeed often claimed a superhuman or divine authority. In practice they ran the gamut from being some of the most remarkable men who ever lived, to being some of the worst and least remarkable. Dominic Lieven's marvellous new book, In the Shadow of the Gods, is the first to grapple seriously with this extraordinary phenomenon. Across the world peoples, willingly or unwillingly, fell into orbit around figures who reshaped or destroyed entire societies, imposed religions and invaded rivals. Lieven describes the anatomy of imperial monarchy and the principles by which it functioned. He compares the great emperors of antiquity, the caliphs and the warrior-emperors of the steppe before he turns to the Habsburg, Russian, Ottoman, Mughal and Chinese emperors, packing the book with extraordinary stories, astute observations and a sense of both delight and horror at these individuals' antics. The entire breadth of extreme human behaviour is here - from warlords to patrons of the arts, from political genius to feeble incapacity and pathological violence. As one of the great experts both on empires and on Russian history, Lieven is brilliantly qualified to write a book that brings to life a system of rule that dominated most of human history, as well as some of history's grandest and most dismaying figures.
£14.99
Three Rooms Press Maintenant 12: A Journal of Contemporary Dada Writing and Art
MAINTENANT 12: A Journal of Contemporary Dada Writing and Art serves up the controversial theme, “WE ARE ALL A ‘LIKE’.” With the rise in social media use—and abuse—the concept of “like” has reached whole new levels. There’s the idea of an individual’s reaction to events, people, images, etc. as a reduction to “Like” or “Dislike” without need for deeper consideration. Then there is the status factor: that something which is “Liked” by the largest number of people is of value. In fact, in the social media orbit, it is seemingly beneficial to offer strong, sharp, simplistic opinions—instead of nuanced, deeper, shaded considerations—simply because they provoke the greatest likelihood of widespread attention. How will this reduction of thought shape the future of interpersonal relations, intellectual advancement, and politics? As we teeter on the brink of nuclear war, the concepts of Dada brilliantly encompass the urgency of present times with both clarity and purposeful confusion. The MAINTENANT series, established in 2005, gathers the work of renowned and emerging dada artists and writers from around the world. The series has been archived in leading international institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Art–New York, the BelVUE Museum–Brussels, and more. Renowned contributors have included artists Mark Kostabi, Raymond Pettibon, Giovanni Fontana, Jean-Jacques Lebel, and Kazunori Murakami. Writers have included Allen Ginsberg, Gerard Malanga, Charles Plymell, Jerome Rothenberg, and more, with a strong contingent of punk musician-artist-writers including Grant Hart, Mike Watt, and Exene Cervenka.
£14.99
American Society of Overseas Research Reflections of Empire: Archaeological and Ethnographic Perspectives on the Pottery of the Ottoman Levant and Beyond, AASOR 64
Includes 58 b/w figures. Ottoman archaeology has progressed significantly in the last ten years from a study of the "Dark Ages" to a multi-faceted investigation into the history and societies of the longest-lived Muslim empire of the Early Modern era. What have been missing from the scholarship of the period, however, are the nuts and bolts of Ottoman ceramics from a regional perspective: technical studies that identify and define assemblages and produce typologies and chronologies of specific wares that go beyond the site-specific studies dominant in current scholarship. This monograph addresses this gap in the literature by pulling together technical studies on pottery from the eastern frontiers of the Ottoman Empire: Cyprus, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and Jordan. The geographical focus of the book recognizes the cultural, historical, and economic interconnections that made this region a distinctive orbit in the Ottoman sphere and that represent both the commonalities and diversities among the provinces that constituted the "Middle East" of the Ottoman world. The monograph presents previously unpublished Ottoman pottery from largely archaeological (and specifically stratified) contexts and assesses their potential for understanding the larger cultural history of the Ottoman's eastern frontier. The individual authors are leading ceramics specialists in the region and have each worked on multiple projects in different countries. Rather than merely a collection of individual studies, the monograph is comparative and synthesizes our current knowledge of Ottoman ceramics in a way that is useful technically to field archaeologists and on a theoretical level to scholars of Ottoman social history.
£20.27
Titan Books Ltd Zoey Punches the Future in the Dick
New York Times bestselling author David Wong's Zoey Punches the Future in the Dick is the latest and greatest sci-fi thriler in the Zoey Ashe Series. Nightmarish villains with superhuman enhancements. An all-seeing social network that tracks your every move. Mysterious, smooth-talking power players who lurk behind the scenes. A young woman suddenly in charge of the most decadent city in the world. And her very smelly cat. Zoey Ashe is like a fish so far out of water that it has achieved orbit. She finds herself struggling to establish rule over a sprawling empire while Tabula Ra$a's rogue's gallery of larger-than-life crime bosses and corrupt plutocrats smell weakness. Tensions brew across the city. A steamer trunk-sized box arrives at Zoey's door, and she and her bodyguard Wu are shocked to find that it contains a disemboweled corpse, and even more shocked when that corpse, controlled by an unknown party, rises from the box and goes on a rampage through the house. After being subdued, it speaks in an electronic voice, accusing Zoey of being its murderer. Soon, it makes the same claim to the public at large, along with the promise of a cash reward for proof that Zoey and the Suits are behind the crime. Now Zoey is having doubts of her own: Is she 100% sure that someone on her team didn't do this? She also doesn't even have a complete list of what businesses she owns, or what exact laws her organization is still breaking. So what does she really know?
£8.99
Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press Eccentric Orbits: The Iridium Story - How a Single Man Saved the World's Largest Satellite Constellation From Fiery Destruction
In the early 1990s, Motorola, the legendary American company, made a huge gamble on a revolutionary satellite telephone system called Iridium. Light-years ahead of anything previously put into space, and built on technology developed for Ronald Reagan's 'Star Wars,' Iridium's constellation of sixty-six satellites in six evenly spaced orbital planes meant that at least one satellite was always overhead. Iridium was a mind-boggling technical accomplishment, surely the future of communication. The only problem was that Iridium was also a commercial disaster. Only months after launching service, it was $11 billion in debt, burning through $100 million a month and bringing in almost no revenue. Bankruptcy was inevitable - the largest to that point in American history. It looked like Iridium would go down as just a 'science experiment.'That is, until Dan Colussy got a wild idea. Colussy, a former CEO of Pan Am, heard about Motorola's plans to 'de-orbit' the system and decided he would buy Iridium and somehow turn around one of the biggest blunders in the history of business.Eccentric Orbits masterfully traces the birth of Iridium and Colussy's tireless efforts to stop it from being destroyed, from meetings with his motley investor group, to the Clinton White House, to the Pentagon, to the hunt for customers in special ops, shipping, aviation, mining, search and rescue. Impeccably researched and wonderfully told, Eccentric Orbits is a rollicking, unforgettable tale of technological achievement, business failure, the military-industrial complex and one of the greatest deals of all time.
£16.99
Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH Two-Dimensional Transition-Metal Dichalcogenides: Phase Engineering and Applications in Electronics and Optoelectronics
Two-Dimensional Transition-Metal Dichalcogenides Comprehensive resource covering rapid scientific and technological development of polymorphic two-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenides (2D-TMDs) over a range of disciplines and applications Two-Dimensional Transition-Metal Dichalcogenides: Phase Engineering and Applications in Electronics and Optoelectronics provides a discussion on the history of phase engineering in 2D-TMDs as well as an in-depth treatment on the structural and electronic properties of 2D-TMDs in their respective polymorphic structures. The text addresses different forms of in-situ synthesis, phase transformation, and characterization methods for 2D-TMD materials and provides a comprehensive treatment of both the theoretical and experimental studies that have been conducted on 2D-TMDs in their respective phases. Two-Dimensional Transition-Metal Dichalcogenides includes further information on: Thermoelectric, fundamental spin-orbit structures, Weyl semi-metallic, and superconductive and related ferromagnetic properties that 2D-TMD materials possess Existing and prospective applications of 2D-TMDs in the field of electronics and optoelectronics as well as clean energy, catalysis, and memristors Magnetism and spin structures of polymorphic 2D-TMDs and further considerations on the challenges confronting the utilization of TMD-based systems Recent progress of mechanical exfoliation and the application in the study of 2D materials and other modern opportunities for progress in the field Two-Dimensional Transition-Metal Dichalcogenides provides in-depth review introducing the electronic properties of two-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenides with updates to the phase engineering transition strategies and a diverse range of arising applications, making it an essential resource for scientists, chemists, physicists, and engineers across a wide range of disciplines.
£125.00
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Socrates On Trial
Named by Rowan Williams as one of his Books of the Year (2021) in the New Statesman. Socrates On Trial tells of Socrates’s return to a modern city that is plagued by prejudice, privilege and populism. On resuming his questioning in the agora he is arrested, interrogated by his prosecutors, questioned by his Judge, and confessed to by his inquisitor. On a Festival Day, he explores a new model for the just city --a city based not on mastery but on learning --before offering a new apology to the court that will, once again, decide his fate. This new/old Socrates offers the city a renewed vision of justice by reconceptualizing the meaning and significance of thinking and education. From the force of Socratic questioning, he unfolds a different logic of truth, freedom, and justice. His conversations exert a gravitational force that draws key cultural elements of the city -- property, wealth, money, family, essence, gendered and racialized identities, production, distribution and consumption -- into its educational orbit. At stake here is the vulnerability of modern democracy to authoritarian leaders and their sponsors. Influenced by sophisticated propaganda people’s frustration with democracy is channeled into visceral anger on the one hand, and into disillusioned scepticism and cynicism on the other. Belief in truth and education collapses in exhaustion and fatigue, caught in the headlights of seemingly irresolvable and petrifying rational paradoxes that block all paths to social justice. Socrates On Trial, describing the return of Socrates to the modern city, heralds a new education for such a city.
£22.99
Orion Publishing Co Keith Haring
Keith Haring was a revolutionary artist, who transformed the art world during his short but impactful life. Brought to life by Simon Doonan, Creative Director for Barneys New York, this new pocket-sized biography tells his inspirational story.Revolutionary and renegade, Keith Haring was an artist for the people, creating an instantly recognisable repertoire of symbols - barking dogs, space-ships, crawling babies, clambering faceless people - which became synonymous with the volatile culture of 1980s. Like a careening, preening pinball, Keith Haring playfully slammed into all aspects of this decade - hip-hop, new-wave, graffiti, funk, art, style, gay culture - and brought them together.Haring's fanatical drive propelled him into the orbit of the most interesting people of his time: Jean Michel Basquiat envied him; Warhol, William Boroughs and Grace Jones collaborated with him. Madonna and he shared the same tastes in men. Famous at 25, dead from AIDS at 31, Keith Haring is remembered as a Pied Piper, an unpretentious communicator who appeared happiest when mentoring a gang of kids, arming them with brushes and attacking the nearest wall.A series of brief biographies of the great artists, Lives of the Artists takes as its inspiration Giorgio Vasari's five-hundred-year-old masterwork, updating it with modern takes on the lives of key artists past and present. Focusing on the life of the artist rather than examining their work, each book also includes key images illustrating the artist's life. Hardbound, but pocket-sized, the books each sport a specially-commissioned portrait of their subject on the half-jacket.
£12.99
University of Nebraska Press Apollo Pilot: The Memoir of Astronaut Donn Eisele
In October 1968 Donn Eisele flew with fellow astronauts Walt Cunningham and Wally Schirra into Earth orbit in Apollo 7. The first manned mission in the Apollo program and the first manned flight after a fire during a launch pad test killed three astronauts in early 1967, Apollo 7 helped restart NASA’s manned-spaceflight program. Known to many as a goofy, lighthearted prankster, Eisele worked his way from the U.S. Naval Academy to test pilot school and then into the select ranks of America’s prestigious astronaut corps. He was originally on the crew of Apollo 1 before being replaced due to injury. After that crew died in a horrific fire, Eisele was on the crew selected to return Americans to space. Despite the success of Apollo 7, Eisele never flew in space again, as divorce and a testy crew commander led to the three astronauts being labeled as troublemakers. Unbeknownst to everyone, after his retirement as a technical assistant for manned spaceflight at NASA’s Langley Research Center in 1972, Eisele wrote in detail about his years in the air force and his time in the Apollo program. Long after his death, Francis French discovered Eisele’s unpublished memoir, and Susie Eisele Black (Donn’s widow) allowed French access to her late husband’s NASA files and personal effects. Readers can now experience an Apollo story they assumed would never be written as well as the story behind its discovery. Purchase the audio edition.
£23.39
Seagull Books London Ltd Phantom Africa
One of the towering classics of twentieth century French literature, Phantom Africa is a singular and ultimately unclassifiable work: a book composed of one man's compulsive and constantly mutating daily travel journal--by turns melodramatic, self-deprecating, ecstatic, and morose--as well as an exhaustively detailed account of the first French state-sponsored anthropological expedition to visit sub-Saharan Africa. In 1930, Michel Leiris was an aspiring poet drifting away from the orbit of the Surrealist movement in Paris when the anthropologist Marcel Griaule invited him on an ethnographic journey that traversed the African continent from 1931 to 1933. Leiris, while maintaining the official records of the Mission, also kept a diary where he noted not only a given day's activities and events but also his impressions, his states of mind, his anxieties, his dreams, and even his erotic fantasies. Upon returning to France, rather than compiling a more conventional report or ethnographic study, Leiris decided simply to publish his diary. The result is an extraordinary book: a day-by-day record of one European writer's experiences in an Africa inexorably shaded by his own exotic delusions and expectations, on the one hand, and an unparalleled depiction of the paradoxes and hypocrisies of conducting anthropological field research at the height of the colonial era on the other. First published in English by Seagull Books in 2017, Phantom Africa is an invaluable document. Now available in paperback, this important book bears witness to the full range of social and political forces reshaping the African continent in the period between the World Wars.
£35.12
Transworld Publishers Ltd Sirens
‘Brooding, blistering. Sirens is a remarkable literary thriller, perfect for fans of Ian Rankin and James Lee Burke’ AJ Finn, author of The Woman in the WindowWATERSTONES THRILLER OF THE MONTHI stopped going to work. I went missing. We still live in a world where you can disappear if you want to. Or even if you don't.Detective Aidan Waits is in trouble After a career-ending mistake, he’s forced into a nightmare undercover operation that his superiors don’t expect him to survive.Isabelle Rossiter has run away againWhen the teenage daughter of a prominent MP joins Zain Carver, the enigmatic criminal who Waits is investigating, everything changes.A single mother, missing for a decadeCarver is a mesmerising figure who lures young women into his orbit – young women who have a bad habit of disappearing. Soon Waits is cut loose by the police, stalked by an unseen killer and dangerously attracted to the wrong woman.How can he save the girl, when he can’t even save himself?*Reader reviews: 'It is an utterly brilliant debut novel; dark, gritty, menacing and meaningful.' *****'Compulsive reading, so well written that even the gruesome cruelty and sense of helplessness in a dark world seemed right.'***** 'Knox is always one-step ahead, deceiving the reader and creating a sexy, stylish world always with danger around every corner.' ******The bestselling debut from the winner of the Sky Arts Writer of the Year Award, the next big name in crime fiction - Joseph Knox.
£9.99
Workman Publishing Jackie & Me
This "absolutely irresistible" historical romance imagines the courtship between Jacqueline Bouvier and the future American president she loved (People).?In 1951, former debutante Jacqueline Bouvier is hard at work as the Inquiring Camera Girl for a Washington newspaper. Her mission in life is "not to be a housewife," but when she meets the charismatic congressman Jack Kennedy at a Georgetown party, her resolution begins to falter. Soon the two are flirting over secret phone calls, cocktails, and dinner dates, and as Jackie is drawn deeper into the Kennedy orbit, and as Jack himself grows increasingly elusive and absent, she begins to question what life at his side would mean. For answers, she turns to his best friend and confidant, Lem Billings, a closeted gay man who has made the Kennedy family his own, and who has been instructed by them to seal the deal with Jack's new girl. But as he gets to know her, a deep and touching friendship emerges, leaving him with painfully divided alliances and a troubling dilemma: Is this the marriage she deserves?Narrated by an older Lem as he looks back at his own role in a complicated alliance, this is a courtship story full of longing and of suspense, of what-ifs and possible wrong turns. It is a surprising look at Jackie before she was that Jackie. And in best-selling author Louis Bayard's witty and deeply empathetic telling, Jackie & Me is a page-turning story of friendship, love, sacrifice, and betrayal- and a fresh take on two iconic American figures.
£21.99
Penguin Books Ltd Don't You Have Time to Think?
Don't You Have Time to Think? collects the witty, eccentric and moving letters letters of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard P. Feynman. Richard Feynman was no ordinary genius. Brilliant, free-spirited and irreverent, he upset those in authority, gave captivating lectures, wrote equations on napkins in strip joints and touched countless lives everywhere. He also wrote hundreds of letters to friends, family, critics, colleagues and devoted fans around the world. Now these letters have been brought together for the first time. From down-to-earth advice to eager students to discussions of time travel and the atom bomb, and from blunt rebuttals to journalists to poignant exchanges with his first wife as she lay dying, they will introduce you to a unique person whose wisdom and lust for life inspired all those who came into his orbit. 'Nobel-winning physicist, expert bongo-player, safe-cracker and all-round genius, Feynman was, as this wonderful and inspiring collection records, also a champion letter-writer ... Witty, deadpan, warm ... some are unbearably poignant' Guardian 'Plain-speaking ... touching' Daily Telegraph 'He sparked excitement not just about science but also about the power of creativity, passion, curiosity' The New York Times Richard P. Feynman (1918-1988) was one of this century's most brilliant theoretical physicists and original thinkers. Feynman's other books, also available in Penguin, include QED, Six Easy Pieces, Six Not-so-Easy Pieces, Don't You Have Time to Think, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, What Do You Care What Other People Think? and The Meaning of it All.
£14.99
Springer-Verlag New York Inc. Groups, Matrices, and Vector Spaces: A Group Theoretic Approach to Linear Algebra
This unique text provides a geometric approach to group theory and linear algebra, bringing to light the interesting ways in which these subjects interact. Requiring few prerequisites beyond understanding the notion of a proof, the text aims to give students a strong foundation in both geometry and algebra. Starting with preliminaries (relations, elementary combinatorics, and induction), the book then proceeds to the core topics: the elements of the theory of groups and fields (Lagrange's Theorem, cosets, the complex numbers and the prime fields), matrix theory and matrix groups, determinants, vector spaces, linear mappings, eigentheory and diagonalization, Jordan decomposition and normal form, normal matrices, and quadratic forms. The final two chapters consist of a more intensive look at group theory, emphasizing orbit stabilizer methods, and an introduction to linear algebraic groups, which enriches the notion of a matrix group. Applications involving symmetry groups, determinants, linear coding theory and cryptography are interwoven throughout. Each section ends with ample practice problems assisting the reader to better understand the material. Some of the applications are illustrated in the chapter appendices. The author's unique melding of topics evolved from a two semester course that he taught at the University of British Columbia consisting of an undergraduate honors course on abstract linear algebra and a similar course on the theory of groups. The combined content from both makes this rare text ideal for a year-long course, covering more material than most linear algebra texts. It is also optimal for independent study and as a supplementary text for various professional applications. Advanced undergraduate or graduate students in mathematics, physics, computer science and engineering will find this book both useful and enjoyable.
£64.99
Penguin Books Ltd The Great Gatsby
A beautiful new edition of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel The Great Gatsby to coincide with the release of Baz Luhrmann's film.'There was music from my neighbour's house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.'Everybody who is anybody is seen at the glittering parties held in millionaire Jay Gatsby's mansion in West Egg, east of New York. The riotous throng congregates in his sumptuous garden, coolly debating Gatsby's origins and mysterious past. None of the frivolous socialites understands him and among various rumours is the conviction that 'he killed a man'. A detached onlooker, Gatsby is oblivious to the speculation he creates, but always seems to be watching and waiting, though no one knows what for.As writer Nick Carraway is drawn into this decadent orbit, Gatsby's destructive dreams and passions are revealed, leading to disturbing and tragic consequences.'Not only a page turner and heartbreaker, it's one of the most quintessentially American novels ever written' TimeF. Scott Fitzgerald was born in St Paul, Minnesota in 1896. He studied at Princeton University before joining the army in 1917. In 1920 he married Zelda Sayre. Their traumatic relationship and subsequent breakdowns became a major influence on his writing. Among his publications were five novels, This Side of Paradise, The Great Gatsby, The Beautiful and the Damned, Tender is the Night and The Last Tycoon (his last and unfinished work); six volumes of short stories and The Crack-Up, a selection of autobiographical pieces. F. Scott Fitzgerald died suddenly in 1940.
£9.04
Little, Brown Book Group Abaddon's Gate: Book 3 of the Expanse (now a Prime Original series)
A special edition hardcover that celebrates the third book in the NYT bestselling and Hugo award-winning Expanse series. Abaddon's Gate opens the door to the ruins of an alien gate network, and the crew of the Rocinante may hold the key to unlocking its secrets. Now a Prime Original series. This special edition hardcover includes: A striking new coverStained edges and illustrated endpapersA reversible cover that features the full, uncropped artwork of the original cover artA new introduction from the authors.HUGO AWARD WINNER FOR BEST SERIESFor generations, the solar system -- Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt -- was humanity's great frontier. Until now. The alien artifact working through its program under the clouds of Venus has appeared in Uranus's orbit, where it has built a massive gate that leads to a starless dark.Jim Holden and the crew of the Rocinante are part of a vast flotilla of scientific and military ships going out to examine the artifact. But behind the scenes, a complex plot is unfolding, with the destruction of Holden at its core. As the emissaries of the human race try to find whether the gate is an opportunity or a threat, the greatest danger is the one they brought with them.Abaddon's Gate is a breakneck science fiction adventure following the critically acclaimed Caliban's War.The ExpanseLeviathan WakesCaliban's WarAbaddon's GateCibola BurnNemesis GamesBabylon's AshesPersepolis RisingTiamat's WrathLeviathan FallsMemory's LegionThe Expanse Short FictionDriveThe Butcher of Anderson StationGods of RiskThe ChurnThe Vital AbyssStrange DogsAuberonThe Sins of Our Fathers
£27.00
Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press Eccentric Orbits: The Iridium Story
In the early 1990s, Motorola, the legendary American radio and telecom company, made a huge gamble on a revolutionary satellite telephone system called Iridium. Light-years ahead of anything previously put into space, built on technology for Ronald Reagan’s Star Wars,” Iridium was a mind-boggling technical accomplishment that sent waves of panic through phone companies around the world, because, surely, Iridium was the future of communication. Only months after launching service, bankruptcy was inevitablethe largest to that point in American history. It looked like Iridium would go down as just a science experiment.”That is, until Dan Colussy got a wild idea. Colussy, a retired former President of Pan Am, heard about Motorola’s plans to de-orbit” the system and decided he would try to buy Iridium. Somehow, the little guy figured he could turn around one of the biggest blunders in the history of business.Eccentric Orbits masterfully traces the development of satellite technology, the birth of Iridium, and Colussy’s tireless efforts to stop it from being destroyed, despite having doors slammed in his face by all of Wall Street. Piecing together funding from a motley group of investors that included a mysterious Arab prince and friends of Jesse Jackson, he eventually made his case before the most powerful people at the Clinton White House, the Pentagon, the FCC, intelligence services, and a consortium of thirty banks, pleading for the only phone that works at the ends of earth. Eccentric Orbits is a rollicking, unforgettable tale of innovation, failure, the military-industrial complex, and one of the greatest deals of all time.
£14.99
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC A War Transformed: WWI on the Doggerland Front: A Wargame
The Great War meets the horrors of forgotten folklore in this occult skirmish wargame. 1916: A World Transformed. As the Great War raged, the Moon fell from its orbit. Seas shifted, uncovering new lands and revealing what tide and time had concealed. Long known as a potent occult power, the Moon’s descent also heralded the terrifying resurgence of magic. Long-forgotten gods and spirits began to stir in hidden groves and caverns and old traditions found new strength. Soon, stone circles echoed once more with the chanting of ancient rituals and menhirs were again bedecked with wildflowers and presented with offerings of honey and blood. 1918: A War Transformed. Rival nations battle on new fronts, seeking dominance with weapons of spell, song, and sacrifice. Thrust to the surface, Doggerland, the ancient bridge between Britain and Europe, becomes a crucial battleground in the conflict. In this alien landscape, raiding parties pick through the ribs of wrecks and the ruins of lost villages, war machines festooned with totems and fetishes roll over the brittle bones of long-dead giants, and cavalry charge across plains made verdant by the vegetation returning to this new land with unnatural speed. A War Transformed is a skirmish wargame set in a world where World War I was utterly changed by forces far beyond human comprehension. Players command small forces of infantry, cavalry, artillery, and other… stranger… troops on the Doggerland Front. Fast-paced gameplay and a tense initiative bidding system are combined with authentic folk traditions and occult philosophies of the era – it is a game of rifle and relic, of bayonet and belief, of machine gun and magic.
£22.50
Oxford University Press Colliding Worlds: How Cosmic Encounters Shaped Planets and Life
Simone Marchi presents the emerging story of how cosmic collisions shaped both the solar system and our own planet, from the creation of the Moon to influencing the evolution of life on Earth. The Earth emerged out of the upheaval and chaos of massive collisions in the infancy of the Solar System, more than four billion years ago. The largest of these events sent into orbit a spray of molten rocks out of which the Moon coalesced. As in ancient mythological tales, this giant catastrophe marks the birth of our planet as we know it. Space exploration has shown that signs of ancient collisions are widespread in the Solar System, from the barren and once-habitable Mars to the rugged asteroids. On Earth these signs are more subtle, but still cataclysmic, such as the massive asteroid strike which likely sparked the demise of the dinosaurs and many other forms of life some 66 million years ago. Signatures of even more dramatic catastrophes are concealed in ancient rocks. These events wreaked havoc on our planet's surface, influencing global climate and topography, while also enriching the Earth with gold and other rare elements. And recently, modern science is finding that they could even have contributed to developing the conditions conducive to life. In Colliding Worlds, Simone Marchi explores the key role that collisions in space have played in the formation and evolution of our solar system, the development of planets, and possibly even the origin of life on Earth. Analysing our latest understanding of the surfaces of Mars and Venus, gleaned from recent space missions, Marchi presents the dramatic story of cosmic collisions and their legacies.
£21.49
Penguin Books Ltd Diary of an Apprentice Astronaut
The inspiring memoir of the superstar astronaut and TikTok sensation - now on her biggest space mission yet'Today I woke up on Earth. And I will fall asleep in space'In space the sun rises and sets 16 times a day. You fly over every sea, every mountain and desert, every city and every port. The most ordinary things -- eating, sleeping, brushing your teeth or cutting your hair -- have to be relearned, until they become familiar again. This is the story of Samantha Cristoforetti's incredible journey to becoming an astronaut, and her journey beyond Earth.Her voyage as an apprentice astronaut began when she was in her early thirties: five years of intense training around the world, from Houston to Japan to the legendary Star City in Russia. Countless hours spent in centrifuges, spaceship simulators and under water for spacewalk practice. Then, one day, a rocket was waiting for her on the launch pad. And after eight minutes of wild ascent, she was on orbit, crunched up with her two crewmates in a tiny spaceship that took them to the International Space Station.With honesty and warmth, Cristoforetti chronicles the two hundred days she spent on the ISS, the joys and challenges of being in an extraordinary place, from the sublime sight of seeing Earth for the first time to more unusual concerns, such as mastering the art of floating. How do you find your bearings when there is no up and down? What is it like to run in weightlessness? And how do you cook in space?This is an enthralling, inspiring and surprisingly down-to-earth story about what it really takes to pursue your dreams.
£12.99
Little, Brown Book Group Executive Intent
Will the most powerful defense system in history be used to safeguard America-or to force universal domination? The U.S. has unleashed Thor's Hammer, a missile-launching satellite that can strike anywhere on the planet in seconds. But when President Joseph Gardner elects to employ the still-untested weapon against terrorists firing missiles at Indian cities, the Hammer misses its mark, killing thousands of Pakistani civilians. In retaliation, Pakistan and its neighbors grant China a strategic naval advantage over America through access to Middle Eastern ports. China responds swiftly and brutally, attacking and occupying Somalia, then setting up missile pads to target U.S. naval ships across vital sea-lanes. While in Earth's orbit, Chinese and Russian spacecraft surround an American space station with one clear message: back down or watch as your navy is crippled. With a president battling for his political life in D.C., retired Air Force Lieutenant General Patrick McLanahan and Kai Raydon, commander of the U.S. Space Defense Force, race to defuse the crisis-as every second brings the world closer to a full-scale war of superpowers on Earth . . . and miles above it.Praise for Dale Brown:'Dale Brown is the best military adventure writer in the country' - Clive Cussler'Dan Brown is a superb storyteller' - Washington Post'Dale Brown is one of the best' - Houston Chronicle'When a former pilot turns his hand to thrillers you can take their authenticity for granted. His writing is exceptional and the dialogue, plots and characters are first-class... far too good to be missed' - Sunday Mirror"A master at mixing technology and action, Brown puts readers right into the middle of the Inferno"- Larry Bond
£11.69
Prometheus Books The Laser That's Changing the World: The Amazing Stories behind Lidar from 3D Mapping to Self-Driving Cars
Tells the story of a laser technology that will have a big impact on society and the brilliant innovators responsible for its development Lidar--a technology evolved from radar, but using laser light rather than microwaves--has found an astounding range of applications, none more prominent than its crucial role in enabling self-driving cars. This accessible introduction to a fascinating and increasingly vital technology focuses on the engaging human stories of lidar's innovators as they advance and adapt it to better understand air, water, ice and Earth - not to mention mapping Mars and Mercury, spotting incoming nuclear warheads, and avoiding pedestrians and cyclists on city streets. Award-winning science writer Todd Neff invites readers behind the scenes to meet some of the great innovators who have explored and expanded the uses of this amazing technology: people like MIT scientist Louis Smullin, whose lidar bounced light off the moon soon after the laser's invention; Allan Carswell, who plumbed the shallows of Lake Erie en route to developing the aerial lidar now essential for coastal mapping and hurricane damage assessment; Red Whittaker, the field robotics pioneer who was putting lidar on his autonomous contraptions as early as the 1980s; and David Hall, whose laser sombrero on a Toyota Tundra gave birth to modern automotive lidar. These are just some of the stories Neff tells before looking ahead to a future that could bring lidar to unpiloted air taxis, to the contaminated pipes of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex, and to satellites capable of pinpointing greenhouse gas sources from orbit. As the author makes clear, the sky is no limit with lidar, which promises to make our world safer, healthier, and vastly more interesting.
£14.99
Z2 comics Chasin' The Bird: A Charlie Parker Graphic Novel
The graphic novel tells the story of Bird's time in L.A. starting in December 1945, where Bird and Dizzy Gillespie brought frenetic sounds of bebop from the East Coast jazz underground to the West Coast for a two-month residency at Billy Berg's Hollywood jazz club. This marked the beginning of a tumultuous two year-stint for Bird bumming around L.A., showing up at jam sessions, crashing on people's couches, causing havoc in public places, and recording some of his most groundbreaking tracks, "A Night in Tunisia" and "Ornithology," as well as "Relaxin' At Camarillo," inspired by the end of his time in SoCal at the Camarillo State Hospital. The novel explores Bird's relationship with the characters and events he encountered during his time in L.A. including recording some of his signature songs with Dial Record founder Ross Russell, a brief but influential stay at the home of famed jazz photographer William Claxton, a party for the ages at the ranch home of artist Jirayr Zorthian, and others who found themselves in the orbit of the jazz genius. Chasin' the Bird is named for Charlie Parker's 1947 standard, and adapts one of the sunnier, but darker chapters in the life of Bird, beautifully told by Dave Chisholm The book will include an exclusive flexi disc record featuring a recording from Parker's time in Los Angeles. The deluxe limited edition will include a vinyl 45 with two tracks to be announced ahead of release. In conjunction with the graphic novel, Verve Records/UMe are currently working on a new album spanning Bird's L.A. period that will be released in September as well.
£17.09
Regnery Publishing Inc Apollo 1: The Tragedy That Put Us on the Moon
On January 27, 1967, astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee climbed into a new spacecraft perched atop a large Saturn rocket at Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a routine dress rehearsal of their upcoming launch into orbit, then less than a month away. All three astronauts were experienced pilots and had dreams of one day walking on the moon. But little did they know, nor did anyone else, that once they entered the spacecraft that cold winter day they would never leave it alive. The Apollo program would be perilously close to failure before it ever got off the ground. But rather than dooming the space program, this tragedy caused the spacecraft to be completely overhauled, creating a stellar flying machine to achieve the program’s primary goal: putting man on the moon. Apollo 1 is a candid portrayal of the astronauts, the disaster that killed them, and its aftermath. In it, readers will learn: How the Apollo 1 spacecraft was doomed from the start, with miles of uninsulated wiring and tons of flammable materials in a pure oxygen atmosphere, along with a hatch that wouldn’t open How, due to political pressure, the government contract to build the Apollo 1 craft went to a bidder with an inferior plan How public opinion polls were beginning to turn against the space program before the tragedy and got much worse after Apollo 1 is about America fulfilling its destiny of man setting foot on the moon. It’s also about the three American heroes who lost their lives in the tragedy, but whose lives were not lost in vain.
£19.80
Faber & Faber From Manchester with Love: The Life and Opinions of Tony Wilson
THE TIMES & UNCUT MUSIC BOOK OF THE YEARCritically-acclaimed and bestselling author Paul Morley's long-awaited biography of Factory Records co-founder and Manchester icon Tony Wilson.A BOOK OF THE YEARSUNDAY TIMES, NEW STATESMAN, MOJO, LOUDER THAN WAR'Compelling . . . befitting its extraordinary subject.'BRIAN ENO'Bracing and often surprisingly tender . . . the perfect monument.'SUNDAY TIMES'Via Morley's magical prose Tony Wilson comes back to life . . . inspiring.'RICHARD RUSSELLTony Wilson was a man who became synonymous with his beloved city. As the co-founder of the legendary Factory Records and the Haçienda, he appointed himself a custodian of Manchester's legacy of innovation and change, becoming a cultural pioneer for the North. To Paul Morley, he was this and much more: bullshitting hustler, flashy showman, inventive broadcaster, self-deprecating chancer, publicity seeker, loyal friend. It was Morley to whom Wilson left a daunting final request: to write this book.From Manchester with Love is the biography of a man who changed the world around him through sheerforce of personality. In the cultural theatre of Manchester, Tony Wilson broke in and took centre stage.'An immersive experience . . . very moving indeed.'MIRANDA SAWYER, OBSERVER'Not just a "biog" but the story of a city's history and culture and a unique and disappearing figure.'STUART MACONIE, NEW STATESMAN'Morley's biography is as illuminating on Wilson's strange ability to hold others in his orbit, even after his death, as it is on the story of his life.'THE SPECTATOR'The man/myth Wilson died aged 57 in 2006, but here he burns on fantastically bright.'UNCUT
£12.99
Springer-Verlag Berlin and Heidelberg GmbH & Co. KG Space Weather: Physics and Effects
The editors present a state-of-the-art overview on the Physics of Space Weather and its effects on technological and biological systems on the ground and in space. It opens with a general introduction on the subject, followed by a historical review on the major developments in the field of solar terrestrial relationships leading to its development into the up-to-date field of space weather. Specific emphasis is placed on the technological effects that have impacted society in the past century at times of major solar activity. Chapter 2 summarizes key milestones, starting from the base of solar observations with classic telescopes up to recent space observations and new mission developments with EUV and X-ray telescopes (e.g., STEREO), yielding an unprecedented view of the sun-earth system. Chapter 3 provides a scientific summary of the present understanding of the physics of the sun-earth system based on the latest results from spacecraft designed to observe the Sun, the interplanetary medium and geospace. Chapter 4 describes how the plasma and magnetic field structure of the earth's magnetosphere is impacted by the variation of the solar and interplanetary conditions, providing the necessary science and technology background for missions in low and near earth's orbit. Chapter 5 elaborates the physics of the layer of the earth's upper atmosphere that is the cause of disruptions in radio-wave communications and GPS (Global Positioning System) errors, which is of crucial importance for projects like Galileo. In Chapters 6-10, the impacts of technology used up to now in space, on earth and on life are reviewed.
£299.99
Orion Publishing Co Pushing Ice
First contact with extraordinary aliens, glittering technologies that could destroy the universe in a nanosecond, huge sweeping space operas: Alastair Reynolds is back!Some centuries from now, the exploration and exploitation of the Solar System is in full swing. On the cold edge of the system, Bella Lind, captain of the huge commercial spacecraft Rockhopper IV, helps fuel this new gold rush by attaching mass-driver motors to organic-rich water-ice comets to move them back to the inner worlds. Her crew are tough, blue-collar miners, engineers and demolition experts.Around Saturn, something inexplicable happens: one of the moons leaves its orbit and accelerates out of the Solar System. The icy mantle peels away to reveal that it was never a moon in the first place, just a parked spacecraft, millions of years old, that has now decided to move on.Rockhopper IV, trapped in the pull, is hurled across time and space into the deep, distant future, arriving in a vast, alien-constructed chamber. And the crew are not alone, for each chamber contains an alien culture dragged into this cosmic menagerie at the end of time.The crew of the Rockhopper IV know a lot about blowing up comets, but not much about first contact with ultra-advanced aliens. They have two things to worry about: can they (and their new alien allies) negotiate their way through each harrying contact? And can they assimilate the avalanche of knowledge about their own future - including all the glittering, dangerous technologies that are now theirs for the taking - without destroying themselves in the process?
£10.99
Oxford University Press Inc Where Great Powers Meet: America & China in Southeast Asia
After the end of the Cold War, it seemed as if Southeast Asia would remain a geopolitically stable region within the American-led order for the foreseeable future. In the last two decades, however, the re-emergence of China as a major great power has called into question the geopolitical future of the region and raised the specter of renewed great power competition. As the eminent China scholar David Shambaugh explains in Where Great Powers Meet, the United States and China are engaged in a broad-gauged and global competition for power. While this competition ranges across the entire world, it is centered in Asia. In this book, Shambaugh focuses on the critical sub-region of Southeast Asia. The United States and China constantly vie for position and influence across this enormously significant area--and the outcome of this contest will do much to determine whether Asia leaves the American orbit after seven decades and falls into a new Chinese sphere of influence. Just as importantly, to the extent that there is a global "power transition" occurring from the US to China, the fate of Southeast Asia will be a good indicator. Presently, both powers bring important assets to bear in their competition. The United States continues to possess a depth and breadth of security ties, soft power, and direct investment across the region that empirically outweigh China's. For its part, China has more diplomatic influence, much greater trade, and geographic proximity. In assessing the likelihood of a regional power transition, Shambaugh examines how ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and its member states maneuver and the degree to which they align with one or the other power.
£19.60
Atlantic Books We Play Ourselves
'As funny as it's intellectual, this page-turner about crashing and burning is spot-on about ambition, infatuation, theatre, film, ethics, teens, and everything else.' Emma Donoghue, author of Room 'Witty...Earnest...Laugh-out-loud...Pitch-perfect' New York TimesIn the pursuit of fame, how do you know when you've gone too far?When Cass - a thirty-something, promising, queer playwright - receives a prestigious award, it seems as though her career is finally taking off. That is until she finds herself at the centre of a searing public shaming, which relegates her from rising star in New York to a nobody on her best friend's sofa in L.A. As she comes to terms with the extent of her failure, she is forced to question who she is without the thing that has always defined her: her art. So she fills the days by stalking her playwright nemesis, of whom she is excruciatingly envious, and getting pulled into the orbit of the charismatic but manipulative filmmaker next door. As Cass becomes increasingly involved with her neighbour and the group of pugilistic teenage girls she's documenting, Cass begins to dream of a comeback. But when the film spins dangerously out of control, Cass is once again forced to reckon with her ambition, and her rage.We Play Ourselves is a darkly funny novel about the cost of making art, and the art of making enemies. 'Funny, sharp, modern - this is an excellent debut novel. Its bold, edgy, strange heroine has adventures and misadventures, screws up again and again, but somehow won my love. I couldn't put this book down.' Weike Wang, PEN/Hemingway-award winning author of Chemistry
£13.49
Faber & Faber From Manchester with Love: The Life and Opinions of Tony Wilson
THE TIMES & UNCUT MUSIC BOOK OF THE YEARCritically-acclaimed and bestselling author Paul Morley's long-awaited biography of Factory Records co-founder and Manchester icon Tony Wilson.A BOOK OF THE YEARSUNDAY TIMES, NEW STATESMAN, MOJO, LOUDER THAN WAR'Compelling . . . befitting its extraordinary subject.'BRIAN ENO'Bracing and often surprisingly tender . . . the perfect monument.'SUNDAY TIMES'Via Morley's magical prose Tony Wilson comes back to life . . . inspiring.'RICHARD RUSSELLTony Wilson was a man who became synonymous with his beloved city. As the co-founder of the legendary Factory Records and the Haçienda, he appointed himself a custodian of Manchester's legacy of innovation and change, becoming a cultural pioneer for the North. To Paul Morley, he was this and much more: bullshitting hustler, flashy showman, inventive broadcaster, self-deprecating chancer, publicity seeker, loyal friend. It was Morley to whom Wilson left a daunting final request: to write this book.From Manchester with Love is the biography of a man who changed the world around him through sheerforce of personality. In the cultural theatre of Manchester, Tony Wilson broke in and took centre stage.'An immersive experience . . . very moving indeed.'MIRANDA SAWYER, OBSERVER'Not just a "biog" but the story of a city's history and culture and a unique and disappearing figure.'STUART MACONIE, NEW STATESMAN'Morley's biography is as illuminating on Wilson's strange ability to hold others in his orbit, even after his death, as it is on the story of his life.'THE SPECTATOR'The man/myth Wilson died aged 57 in 2006, but here he burns on fantastically bright.'UNCUT
£18.00
Vintage Publishing Rusty Brown
Discover the long-awaited new book from the author of Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth and Building Stories. 'The week after I finished the last page of Jimmy Corrigan I immediately started a new long story based on characters who had originated as parodies, but whom now I wanted to humanize... amidst a setting of memories of my Omaha childhood and Nebraska upbringing.' (Chris Ware, Monograph)Now, twenty years later, Ware is publishing Rusty Brown in book form. It is, he says, 'a fully interactive, full-colour articulation of the time-space interrelationships of six complete consciousnesses on a single Midwestern American day and the tiny piece of human grit about which they involuntarily orbit.' The six characters are Rusty Brown himself, a shy schoolkid obsessed with superheroes, his father 'Woody' Brown, an eccentric teacher at Rusty's school, Chalky White, another schoolboy, Alison White, Chalky's sister, Jason Lint, an older boy who bullies Rusty and Chalky and fancies Alison, and the boys' teacher, Joanne Cole. Ware tells each of their stories in minute detail (or as he puts it, 'From childhood to old age, no frozen plotline is left unthawed'), producing another masterwork of the comics form that is at once achingly beautiful, heartbreakingly sad and painfully funny.'A treasure trove of invention... With its awe-inspiring exploration of regret and ageing, anxiety and ennui... Rusty Brown is a human document of rare richness' Guardian 'Chris Ware is one of the great writers of our generation...I spent 20 minutes reading the cover of Rusty Brown. Buy it. Buy all his work. Make your life larger.' Mark Haddon, Observer
£22.50
Little, Brown Book Group The Six: The Untold Story of America's First Women in Space
The remarkable true story of America's first women astronauts'Lifts the curtain on the moment when Neil Armstrong's "one small step for man" expanded to encompass the talent, ambition and perseverance of America's first female astronauts' MARGOT LEE SHETTERLY, bestselling author of Hidden Figures'Strap yourself in for a thrilling ride with genuine American heroes - six women who proved you don't need the right plumbing to have the right stuff!' LYNN SHERR, author of Sally Ride: America's First Woman in Space When NASA sent astronauts to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s the agency excluded women from the corps, arguing that only military test pilots - a group then made up exclusively of men - had the right stuff. It was an era in which women were steered away from jobs in science and deemed too fragile for space flight. Eventually, though, NASA relented and opened the application process to everyone, regardless of race or gender. From a 1977 candidate pool of 8,000 six elite women were selected - Sally Ride, Judy Resnik, Anna Fisher, Kathy Sullivan, Shannon Lucid, and Rhea Seddon. In The Six, acclaimed journalist Loren Grush shows these brilliant and courageous women enduring claustrophobic - and sometimes deeply sexist - media attention, undergoing rigorous survival training, and preparing for years to take multi-million-dollar payloads into orbit. Together, the Six helped build the tools that made the space program run. One of the group, Judy Resnik, sacrificed her life when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded at 46,000 feet. Everyone knows of Sally Ride's history-making first space ride, but each of the Six would make their mark.
£22.50
University of Nebraska Press Son of Apollo: The Adventures of a Boy Whose Father Went to the Moon
Christopher A. Roosa grew up the eldest son of Apollo 14 astronaut and command module pilot Stuart A. Roosa. As a child of the space program, Christopher had a ringside seat at the dinner table of one of twenty-four Americans who had either entered lunar orbit or landed on the moon. The first book written by an offspring of an Apollo astronaut to focus on growing up in that era, Son of Apollo tells the inside story of the life of his father, a man who had a remarkable career despite always believing his air force career was “off-track,” from his initial application to the service to his removal from the prime crew of Apollo 13 and his subsequent assignment to Apollo 14. During the Apollo 13 mission and recovery, Stuart played an integral role in developing the procedures to return the crew to Earth safely. The focus—and the pressure—of the entire Apollo program then shifted to the Apollo 14 mission. If the Apollo program was to continue, Stuart and the Apollo 14 crew would need to get safely to the moon, land, and return. In writing about his father’s career, Christopher Roosa also shows us a familial side of the Apollo experience, from the daily struggles of growing up in the shadow of a father who was necessarily away in training most of the year to the expectations involved in being an astronaut’s son. Roosa’s story shows the Apollo era was the result not only of thousands of scientists and engineers working steadfastly toward achieving an assassinated president’s national goal but also the families who supported them and lived the missions in their own way. For more information about the book visit roosa.com
£23.39
Big Finish Productions Ltd Blake's 7 Series 5 Restoration Part Two
Four new brand-new full-cast Blake's 7 adventures set during the TV series' third season, following directly on from events in Restoration Part One. The battle-damaged Liberator is a doomed ship, and Avon must resort to desperate measures to effect repairs. Meanwhile, the new President has ambitious plans to restore the Federation and extend his ruthless control of thousands of worlds. 5.5 The New Age by Mark Wright. The dying Liberator arrives in orbit of Eldoran, a world Avon believes could offer respite from their current trials. All that stands in the way is a primitive society, a charismatic leader and the fracture lines threatening to destroy the crew from within. 5.6 Happy Ever After by Steve Lyons. The people of Zareen have seen the future. Their queen will be married to a handsome stranger, and they will enjoy a blissful life together. So, how can Tarrant possibly refuse...? 5.7 Siren by Sophia McDougall. In the wreckage of a ruined world, Dayna and Cally encounter Mida and Veskar, who must escape the attention of those who once ruled them. Although defeated, the System still seeks to take control. 5.8 Hyperion by Trevor Baxendale. Avon must convince the mysterious Selene to reveal the secret of Yyperion and save the Liberator – but the Federation is closing in on the crew, and what Selene knows could change everything...CAST: Paul Darrow (Kerr Avon), Michael Keating (Vila Restal), Jan Chappell (Cally), Steven Pacey (Del Tarrant), Yasmin Bannerman (Dayna Mellanby), Alistair Lock (Zen/Orac), Catherine Bailey (Mida), Heather Bleasdale (Illyne), Sophie Bleasdale (Alta Nine), Lisa Bond (Queen Janylle), Phillipe Bosher (Veskar), Cliff Chapman (Tyrric), Evie Dawnay (Selene Shan),Richard Keith (Remek), Dawn Murphy (Karna), Vincenzo Nicoli (Sherna), Carolyn Pickles (Vulkris), Richard Reed (Krent), Ruth Sillers (Alta Ten).
£31.50
Transworld Publishers Ltd The Fine Art of Uncanny Prediction
From the author of the BBC 2 Between the Covers hit, The Fine Art of Invisible Detection'The world's greatest storyteller' Guardian'One of the finest crime writers of any generation' Daily Mail'Our finest practitioner of the double-cross plotting' Mick Herron______________________________________Umiko Wada never set out to be a private detective, let alone become the one-woman operation behind the Kodaka Detective Agency. But so it has turned out, thanks to the death of her former boss, Kazuto Kodaka, in mysterious circumstances.Keen to avoid a similar fate, Wada chooses the cases she takes very carefully. A businessman who wants her to track down his estranged son offers what appears to be a straightforward assignment. Soon she finds herself pulled into a labyrinthine conspiracy with links to a twenty-seven-year-old investigation by her late employer and to the chaos and trauma of the dying days of the Second World War.As Wada uncovers a dizzying web of connections between then and now, it becomes clear that someone has gone to extraordinary lengths to keep the past buried. Soon those she loves most will be sucked into the orbit of one of the most powerful men in Tokyo. And he will do whatever it takes to hold on to his power...The Fine Art of Uncanny Prediction is another tour de force from the cunning mind of master storyteller Robert Goddard. Spanning seventy years, it takes the reader on a head-spinning journey of twist and counter-twist which keep you guessing until the final pages.__________________________________Readers love the Umiko Wada series:***** 'Guaranteed and satisfying escapism'***** 'Twists and turns right up to the last page'***** 'Edge-of-the-seat stuff'***** 'Fresh and inventive'***** 'The master of twists and suspense ... sublime'***** 'Scintillating and wickedly twisty'
£9.04
Transworld Publishers Ltd The Great Wall
China's Great Wall north of Beijing is one of the world's most famous sights. Millions every year climb the line of stone snaking over mountains. We all feel we know the Wall. But we are wrong. It is too big, too varied, too complex to be captured by a few images or a day-trip.Myths surround it. Many believe that the stone barrier marches across all China, that it has been in existence for over 2,000 years, and that it is the only man-made structure visible from the Moon. In fact, most of it is made of earth, and much of it is not there at all. It cannot even be seen from earth orbit, let alone the Moon. Estimates of its length vary from 1,500 to 5,000 miles. Even its name is deceptive - it is not an it, a single entity, but many walls (hence the uncertain length), built at different times. Yet behind the confusion are great simplicities. The many walls are united by two ideas - self-protection and unity - which go back to the First Emperor, who founded the nation in 221 BC. For 2,000 years, the Wall marked the border between China and nomadic peoples to the north and west. Mutual hostility inspired centuries of attacks, counter-attacks and Wall-building, until the northward spread of China in the 20th century made the Wall redundant.For this riveting account, John Man travelled the Wall from the far western deserts to the Pacific, exploring the grandest sections and many 'wild' ones. He is the first writer to describe two unknown walls in Mongolia. He covers two millennia of history, from the country's first unification to the present day, when the Great Wall, built and rebuilt over centuries of war, has become a symbol of tranquillity.
£10.99
Mathematical Society of Japan Cauchy Problem For Noneffectively Hyperbolic Operators
At a double characteristic point of a differential operator with real characteristics, the linearization of the Hamilton vector field of the principal symbol is called the Hamilton map and according to either the Hamilton map has non-zero real eigenvalues or not, the operator is said to be effectively hyperbolic or noneffectively hyperbolic.For noneffectively hyperbolic operators, it was proved in the late of 1970s that for the Cauchy problem to be C∞ well posed the subprincipal symbol has to be real and bounded, in modulus, by the sum of modulus of pure imaginary eigenvalues of the Hamilton map.It has been recognized that what is crucial to the C∞ well-posedness is not only the Hamilton map but also the behavior of orbits of the Hamilton flow near the double characteristic manifold and the Hamilton map itself is not enough to determine completely the behavior of orbits of the flow. Strikingly enough, if there is an orbit of the Hamilton flow which lands tangentially on the double characteristic manifold then the Cauchy problem is not C∞ well posed even though the Levi condition is satisfied, only well posed in much smaller function spaces, the Gevrey class of order 1 ≤ s < 5 and not well posed in the Gevrey class of order s > 5.In this lecture, we provide a general picture of the Cauchy problem for noneffectively hyperbolic operators, from the view point that the Hamilton map and the geometry of orbits of the Hamilton flow completely characterizes the well/not well-posedness of the Cauchy problem, exposing well/not well-posed results of the Cauchy problem with detailed proofs.Published by Mathematical Society of Japan and distributed by World Scientific Publishing Co. for all markets
£23.00
Black Dog Press Morgan Howell at 45RPM
Morgan Howell paints classic 7" singles and takes into account every crease, every tear, every imperfection-producing a one-off, truly unique artwork, almost identical to the owner's original copy, but blown up, supersize, to 70 by 70 cm, and three-dimensional, with the spindle in the centre, as if the record is ready to play. This completely original approach has resulted in Howell attracting a cult following amongst art collectors and musicians alike-with paintings commissioned by the likes of Neil Diamond, Jude Law, Edgar Wright, and The Stone Roses' Ian Brown, and major music labels selecting the artist's work for display in their headquarters, indeed, Howell's painting of David Bowie's The Jean Genie is displayed at the Sony Music Building in London, and Yesterday by The Beatles has been shown at the Capitol Building in L.A. Morgan Howell at 45 RPM, published by Black Dog Press, beautifully documents 95 of Howell's creations, from 'Tutti Frutti' by Little Richard to 'Heart of Glass' by Blondie, to 'Gimme Shelter' by The Rolling Stones, to 'Waterloo Sunset' by The Kinks. The artworks are shown in full, alongside evocative commentaries from fans of Howell's work, including The Smiths' Johnny Marr, Spandau Ballet's Gary Kemp, comedian Al Murray, journalist Tony Parsons, actress Kay Mellor, Happy Mondays' Shaun Ryder, producer William Orbit and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. The book features Forewords by Sir Peter Blake and Andrew Marr, plus an in-depth interview with Morgan Howell, exploring his process as an artist and why, for him, music and art are intrinsically linked. With a format perfectly designed to fit on record shelves, this book is a must for vinyl junkies, music heads and art lovers everywhere.
£35.96
Princeton University Press Chinese Cosmopolitanism: The History and Philosophy of an Idea
A provocative defense of a forgotten Chinese approach to identity and differenceHistorically, the Western encounter with difference has been catastrophic: the extermination and displacement of aboriginal populations, the transatlantic slave trade, and colonialism. China, however, took a different historical path. In Chinese Cosmopolitanism, Shuchen Xiang argues that the Chinese cultural tradition was, from its formative beginnings and throughout its imperial history, a cosmopolitan melting pot that synthesized the different cultures that came into its orbit. Unlike the West, which cast its collisions with different cultures in Manichean terms of the ontologically irreconcilable difference between civilization and barbarism, China was a dynamic identity created out of difference. The reasons for this, Xiang argues, are philosophical: Chinese philosophy has the conceptual resources for providing alternative ways to understand pluralism.Xiang explains that “Chinese” identity is not what the West understands as a racial identity; it is not a group of people related by common descent or heredity but rather a hybrid of coalescing cultures. To use the Western discourse of race to frame the Chinese view of non-Chinese, she argues, is a category error. Xiang shows that China was both internally cosmopolitan, embracing distinct peoples into a common identity, and externally cosmopolitan, having knowledge of faraway lands without an ideological need to subjugate them. Contrasting the Chinese understanding of efficacy—described as “harmony”—with the Western understanding of order, she argues that the Chinese sought to gain influence over others by having them spontaneously accept the virtue of one’s position. These ideas from Chinese philosophy, she contends, offer a new way to understand today’s multipolar world and can make a valuable contribution to contemporary discussions in the critical philosophy of race.
£27.00
Discovery Walking Guides Ltd Walk! La Palma
Revised and updated 4th edition of Walk! La Palma including the latest Tour & Trail Mapping. Walk! La Palma includes 37 fully detailed walking route itineraries. Each walking route itinerary includes:- - walking route summary - ratings for Effort, Time, Distance, Ascents/Descents, Refreshments and Vertigo risk - fully detailed walk description, including frequent timings to aid navigation and check your progress - GPS Waypoints at every key point on every route where there is good gps reception - full colour 1:40,000 scale map of the route - short walk and stroll alternatives There are some easy routes. There are some challenging routes for fit experts. With author/researchers Charles Davis' and Jan Kostura's excellent walk descriptions you'll know which routes are for you - and all of them are a true adventure. The steepest island in the world, the deepest crater, the clearest skies: volcanoes you can climb without being shot into orbit; a subtropical forest minus the slimy things slinking up your trouser leg; black beaches, blue seas, high mountains, vegetation that is literally flamboyant, everything linked by 1080 kilometres of waymarked paths; and all virtually untouched by tourism. If this sounds divine or like some lost paradise, you're not the first to think so, previous commentators have identified La Palma as the prototype for both the Elysian Fields and Atlantis! The fanciful stuff aside, the island is a walker's idyll, utterly tranquil, verdant and almost unspoiled. GPS Waypoint files (in gpx file format) for Walk! La Palma are available as a free zip file download on Discovery Walking Guides website. Synopsis 37 detailed walking route itineraries. Each route includes:- walking route summary; ratings for Effort, Time, Distance, Ascents/Descents, Refreshments and Vertigo risk; and more. It also provides background information along with details of accommodation, buses, official walking routes, mountain biking, museums, and information offices.
£12.99
Oxford University Press Gravity: A Very Short Introduction
Gravity is one of the four fundamental interactions that exist in nature. It also has the distinction of being the oldest, weakest, and most difficult force to quantize. Understanding gravity is not only essential for understanding the motion of objects on Earth, but also the motion of all celestial objects, and even the expansion of the Universe itself. It was the study of gravity that led Einstein to his profound realisations about the nature of space and time. Gravity is not only universal, it is also essential for understanding the behaviour of the Universe, and all astrophysical bodies within it. In this Very Short Introduction Timothy Clifton looks at the development of our understanding of gravity since the early observations of Kepler and Newtonian theory. He discusses Einstein's theory of gravity, which now supplants Newton's, showing how it allows us to understand why the frequency of light changes as it passes through a gravitational field, why GPS satellites need their clocks corrected as they orbit the Earth, and why the orbits of distant neutron stars speed up. Today, almost 100 years after Einstein published his theory of gravity, we have even detected the waves of gravitational radiation that he predicted. Clifton concludes by considering the testing and application of general relativity in astrophysics and cosmology, and looks at dark energy and efforts such as string theory to combine gravity with quantum mechanics. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
£9.04
Humanoids, Inc Project ARKA: Into the Dark Unknown
In the year 2182, citizens of a dying Earth flee to a distant promised land in a massive colony ship, the Arka III. They do not reach their intended destination…In the not-too-distant future, the Earth has been destroyed, its orbit withering and its citizens desperate to escape to the stars. The solution? The Arka project, massive vessels bound for the distant planet of Leonis. When the passengers of Arka III awaken from their long intergalactic journey, they realize they’re not on Leonis. Not only that, their journey has taken much longer than the planned two hundred years, and has landed them in a starless, seemingly endless void. Eric Rives, the ship’s second-in-command, and his partner Jia Tang are sent on an exploratory mission to investigate the dark labyrinth that surrounds them…but what they find is beyond belief. Young French space opera novelist Romain Benassaya adapts his own 2018 novel, Pyramides, available now for the first time in English featuring lushly illustrative art by Joan Urgell. Praise for Romain Benassaya (translated from French) "...in line with the great novels of the genre such as Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke, or Hyperion by Dan Simmons." - Le Tourne Page "The author lets us imagine a much larger universe, which we could populate at will. A true science fiction phenomenon." - SyFantasy.fr "...damn I love this universe! It's full of mystery, full of promise too, and I can't help but see in the author a form of reincarnation of a modern Arthur C. Clarke..." Lorkhan and the Bad Kind "What a frantic storytelling. Twists, cliffhangers, a steady pace. Worthy of a great cinematographic series. The novel places the human at the heart of the plot. Charismatic characters quite mistreated, credible extraterrestrials, surprising genetically modified creatures. Everything is there. In supercolor!" - fan review, Babelio.com
£17.99
Elsevier Health Sciences Taylor and Hoyt's Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus
Providing foundational knowledge and expert guidance on the complete spectrum of childhood eye disorders and strabismus, Taylor and Hoyt's Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, 6th Edition, remains the #1 reference of choice for practicing and trainee pediatric ophthalmologists. Edited by global leaders in the field, Drs. Christopher J. Lyons and Scott R. Lambert, this newly revised volume offers authoritative coverage of all the pediatric ophthalmic conditions you're likely to encounter in practice, including the latest clinical advances in etiology, diagnosis, and medical and surgical management. Comprehensive updates, as well as new chapters, images, and video clips, make this well-regarded title the most current and complete reference available in this evolving field. Offers state-of-the-art coverage of key areas such as OCT and current imaging techniques for the eye, orbit and visual pathways; anti-VEGF treatment for retinopathy of prematurity; pediatric cataracts; childhood glaucoma; and minimally invasive strabismus surgery. Contains five new chapters covering Imaging the Child's Eye, Aniridia Syndromes, Mitochondrial Disorders, Neurofibromatosis Type 1 and 2, and Myasthenia Gravis. Includes a unique "practical problems" section designed to help you handle difficult patient situations and a "how to" perform strabismus surgery chapter with extensive step-by-step illustrations for complete visual guidance. Features more than 1,800 high-quality images and illustrations, including 600 new to this edition, that provide visual guidance in diagnosis and management. Provides access to more than 50 narrated instructional video clips (nine are new!) depicting multiple diagnostic and surgical techniques, including the insertion of prosthetic eyes, lensectomy, pediatric cataract extraction, complications during strabismus surgery, goniotomy, the removal of conjunctival tumors, and more. Enhanced eBook version included with purchase. Your enhanced eBook allows you to access all of the text, figures, and references from the book on a variety of devices.
£258.29
Springer International Publishing AG Introduction to Geometric Control
This text is an enhanced, English version of the Russian edition, published in early 2021 and is appropriate for an introductory course in geometric control theory. The concise presentation provides an accessible treatment of the subject for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in theoretical and applied mathematics, as well as to experts in classic control theory for whom geometric methods may be introduced. Theory is accompanied by characteristic examples such as stopping a train, motion of mobile robot, Euler elasticae, Dido's problem, and rolling of the sphere on the plane. Quick foundations to some recent topics of interest like control on Lie groups and sub-Riemannian geometry are included. Prerequisites include only a basic knowledge of calculus, linear algebra, and ODEs; preliminary knowledge of control theory is not assumed. The applications problems-oriented approach discusses core subjects and encourages the reader to solve related challenges independently. Highly-motivated readers can acquire working knowledge of geometric control techniques and progress to studying control problems and more comprehensive books on their own. Selected sections provide exercises to assist in deeper understanding of the material.Controllability and optimal control problems are considered for nonlinear nonholonomic systems on smooth manifolds, in particular, on Lie groups. For the controllability problem, the following questions are considered: controllability of linear systems, local controllability of nonlinear systems, Nagano–Sussmann Orbit theorem, Rashevskii–Chow theorem, Krener's theorem. For the optimal control problem, Filippov's theorem is stated, invariant formulation of Pontryagin maximum principle on manifolds is given, second-order optimality conditions are discussed, and the sub-Riemannian problem is studied in detail. Pontryagin maximum principle is proved for sub-Riemannian problems, solution to the sub-Riemannian problems on the Heisenberg group, the group of motions of the plane, and the Engel group is described.
£54.99
Transworld Publishers Ltd The Fine Art of Uncanny Prediction
From the author of the BBC 2 Between the Covers hit, The Fine Art of Invisible Detection'The world's greatest storyteller' Guardian'One of the finest crime writers of any generation' Daily Mail'Our finest practitioner of the double-cross plotting' Mick Herron______________________________________Umiko Wada never set out to be a private detective, let alone become the one-woman operation behind the Kodaka Detective Agency. But so it has turned out, thanks to the death of her former boss, Kazuto Kodaka, in mysterious circumstances.Keen to avoid a similar fate, Wada chooses the cases she takes very carefully. A businessman who wants her to track down his estranged son offers what appears to be a straightforward assignment. Soon she finds herself pulled into a labyrinthine conspiracy with links to a twenty-seven-year-old investigation by her late employer and to the chaos and trauma of the dying days of the Second World War.As Wada uncovers a dizzying web of connections between then and now, it becomes clear that someone has gone to extraordinary lengths to keep the past buried. Soon those she loves most will be sucked into the orbit of one of the most powerful men in Tokyo. And he will do whatever it takes to hold on to his power...The Fine Art of Uncanny Prediction is another tour de force from the cunning mind of master storyteller Robert Goddard. Spanning seventy years, it takes the reader on a head-spinning journey of twist and counter-twist which keep you guessing until the final pages.__________________________________Readers love the Umiko Wada series:***** 'Guaranteed and satisfying escapism'***** 'Twists and turns right up to the last page'***** 'Edge-of-the-seat stuff'***** 'Fresh and inventive'***** 'The master of twists and suspense ... sublime'***** 'Scintillating and wickedly twisty'
£14.99
Princeton University Press Titan Unveiled: Saturn's Mysterious Moon Explored
For twenty-five years following the Voyager mission, scientists speculated about Saturn's largest moon, a mysterious orb clouded in orange haze. Finally, in 2005, the Cassini-Huygens probe successfully parachuted down through Titan's atmosphere, all the while transmitting images and data. In the early 1980s, when the two Voyager spacecraft skimmed past Titan, Saturn's largest moon, they transmitted back enticing images of a mysterious world concealed in a seemingly impenetrable orange haze. Titan Unveiled is one of the first general interest books to reveal the startling new discoveries that have been made since the arrival of the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan. Ralph Lorenz and Jacqueline Mitton take readers behind the scenes of this mission. Launched in 1997, Cassini entered orbit around Saturn in summer 2004. Its formidable payload included the Huygens probe, which successfully parachuted down through Titan's atmosphere in early 2005, all the while transmitting images and data--and scientists were startled by what they saw. One of those researchers was Lorenz, who gives an insider's account of the scientific community's first close encounter with an alien landscape of liquid methane seas and turbulent orange skies. Amid the challenges and frayed nerves, new discoveries are made, including methane monsoons, equatorial sand seas, and Titan's polar hood. Lorenz and Mitton describe Titan as a world strikingly like Earth and tell how Titan may hold clues to the origins of life on our own planet and possibly to its presence on others. Generously illustrated with many stunning images, Titan Unveiled is essential reading for anyone interested in space exploration, planetary science, or astronomy. A new afterword brings readers up to date on Cassini's ongoing exploration of Titan, describing the many new discoveries made since 2006.
£18.99
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Secretly Yours: A Novel
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERFrom Tessa Bailey—#1 New York Times bestselling author, TikTok favorite, and "the Michelangelo of dirty talk" (Entertainment Weekly)—comes a spicy small town rom-com about a grumpy professor and the bubbly neighbor he clashes with at every turn...Hallie Welch fell hard for Julian Vos at fourteen, after they almost kissed in the dark vineyards of his family’s winery. Now the prodigal hottie has returned to Napa Valley, and when Hallie is hired to revamp the gardens on the Vos estate, she wonders if she'll finally get that smooch. But the starchy professor isn’t the teenager she remembers and their polar opposite personalities clash spectacularly.One wine-fueled girls’ night later, Hallie can’t shake the sense that she did something reckless—and then she remembers the drunken secret admirer letter she left for Julian. Oh shit.On sabbatical from his ivy league job, Julian plans to write a novel. But having Hallie gardening right outside his window is the ultimate distraction. She’s eccentric, chronically late, often literally covered in dirt—and so unbelievably beautiful, he can’t focus on anything else. Until he finds an anonymous letter sent by a woman from his past.Even as Julian wonders about this admirer, he’s sucked further into Hallie’s orbit. Like the flowers she plants all over town, Hallie is a burst of color in Julian’s grayscale life. For a man who irons his socks and runs on tight schedules, her sunny chaotic energy makes zero sense. But there’s something so familiar about her... and her very presence is turning his world upside down."Tessa Bailey is the queen of rom-coms. Long may she reign!" — Julie Murphy, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Merry Little Meet Cute
£9.99