Download or read book A Fistful of Rubles written by Juliet Johnson and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-09-05 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After the breakup of the USSR, it briefly appeared as though Russia's emerging commercial banks might act as engines of growth for a new capitalist economy. However, despite more than a decade of "reforms," Russia's financial system collapsed in 1998. Why had ambitious efforts to decentralize and liberalize the banking industry failed? In A Fistful of Rubles, Juliet Johnson offers the first comprehensive look at how Russia's banks, once expected to revitalize the nation's economy, instead became one of the largest obstacles to its recovery.Drawing on interviews with Russian bankers, policymakers, and entrepreneurs, Johnson traces the evolution of the banking system from 1987 through the aftermath of the 1998 crash. She describes how dysfunctional institutional procedures left over from the Soviet period hindered the subsequent development of sound financial practices. Johnson argues that these legacies, along with misguided, Western-inspired liberalization policies, led to the creation of parasitic banks for which success depended on political connections rather than on investment strategies. Johnson demonstrates that banking reform efforts ultimately did more harm than good, because Russian officials and their international advisers failed to build the corresponding economic, legal, and political institutions upon which modern market behavior depends.

Download or read book The Golden Horde written by Chris Kennedy and published by Seventh Seal Press. This book was released on 2024-04-04 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The slaughter is on! Across the galaxy, Human mercenaries are being ambushed, and an ever-increasing number of companies aren’t returning from their contracts. Someone even appears to be plotting the demise of the premier Four Horsemen companies, and disaster for the other three companies has only been averted by the narrowest of margins. Sansar Enkh, the president of The Golden Horde, knows her company is likely to be next, but has no idea who is behind the attacks, or when they will strike her beloved Horde. Acting on a prophesy from her dying mother, she knows her only chance is to take the company off-world to draw out the phantom enemy. The Horde is being scouted and an attack is imminent. As the Revelations Cycle draws to a close, will Sansar be able to figure out who is behind the attacks in time to save Earth’s mercenary companies from the horrific fate waiting from them? The fourth horseman is in play, and time is running out to save the Earth and everyone on it!

Download or read book A Fistful of Credits written by Terry Mixon and published by Seventh Seal Press. This book was released on 2017-06-30 with total page 495 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fourteen outstanding authors. Fourteen extraordinary stories. One bestselling universe.It's the Twenty-Second Century. The galaxy has opened up to humanity as a hyperactive beehive of stargates and new technologies, and we suddenly find ourselves in a vast playground of different races, environments, and cultures. There's just one catch: we are pretty much at the bottom of the food chain.Enter the Four Horsemen universe, where only a willingness to fight and die for money separates Humans from the majority of the other races. Enter a galaxy not only of mercenaries, but also of Peacemakers, bounty hunters, and even a strung out junkie in the way of a hired assassin.Edited by bestselling authors and universe creators Mark Wandrey and Chris Kennedy, "A Fistful of Credits" includes all-new stories in the Four Horsemen universe by a variety of bestselling authors--and some you may not have heard of...yet. The fourteen authors take on various aspects of the universe, giving you additional insight into a galaxy that isn't at war...but definitely isn't at peace. There's only one thing for sure--anything's possible for a fistful of credits!Inside you'll find:Foreword by Dr. Charles E. Gannon"The Last Alpha" by Mark Wandrey"Breach of Contract" by Terry Mixon"Paint the Sky" by Jason Cordova"Surf and Turf" by Jon R. Osborne"Stand on It" by Kevin Ikenberry"Lost and Found" by Jon Del Arroz"Gilded Cage" by Kacey Ezell"Legends" by Christopher Woods"With the Eagles" by Doug Dandridge"Dead or Alive" by Paul Corcoran"Hide and Seek" by Christopher Nuttall"Information Overload" by Charity Ayres"Enough" by Chris Kennedy"CASPer's Ghost" by Brad R. Torgersen

Download or read book A Fist Full of Credits written by Craig Hamilton and published by . This book was released on 2021-08-06 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While bringing in his latest fugitive, Hal's payday is interrupted by the blue boxes that herald Earth's introduction to the System - a galaxy spanning wave of structured mystical energy that...

Download or read book Neurotec and Other Tales written by Marcus Bolt and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A Time to Die written by Mark Wandrey and published by Chris Kennedy Publishing. This book was released on 2018-06-11 with total page 463 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: They came from the night sky, lighting the heavens like the promise of salvation. But they didn't bring deliverance…they brought something far, far worse. Something that turns people into mindless, cannibalistic monsters. And it's spreading. A reporter follows her story of unspeakable horror south of the border and finds it's worse than she imagined. A wounded fighter pilot finally gets his chance to return to duty but is faced with a mission that could cost him his wings, or his country its chance. A billionaire with dreams of space finds a crashed alien spacecraft unlike anything mankind has ever seen. A brilliant geneticist conducting outlawed research comes face to face with the nightmare consuming the world faster than anyone can comprehend…or stop in time. The government can't contain it. The military can't fight it. This is A Time To Die.

Download or read book Dreadnought written by Diane Carey and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2000-09-22 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise™ match wits with fanatics within the Federation itself as they attempt to stop the commander of a new super-weapon, a dreadnought, from provoking a war with the Klingons. Star Empire is the Federation's most powerful new weapon—a dreadnought, first in a class of super-starships— capable of outgunning a dozen Klingon cruisers, or subduing a galaxy. On the eve of her maiden voyage, Star Empire is stolen by terrorists who demand a rendezvous with the Starship Enterprise™—and with Lieutenant Piper, stationed aboard Kirk's ship on her first training cruise. Now Piper must discover why her friends from Starfleet are among the terrorists...and why they insist the ship was stolen not to attack the Federation—but to save it!

Download or read book Starcraft War Stories written by Blizzard Entertainment and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-07-21 with total page 630 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the Swarm boils in chaotic uncertainty, Arcturus Mengsk has seized this opportunity to bolster his Dominion forces. He has gathered a seasoned team of scientists—the best terran minds in the Koprulu sector—to unravel the secrets of the savage zerg and the enigmatic protoss. Because in this brutal corner of the galaxy, the human race is going to need every chance it can get. Collected here for the first time is Blizzard Entertainment’s revolutionary Project Blackstone transmedia campaign. It is a compilation of tightly woven short stories, journals, emails, chats, and tweets from the research staff of a top-secret government facility dedicated to shedding light on the mysteries of this sector. More than a simple anthology, this volume is a target-rich environment of weapons data, exotic alien science, and faceted backstory—the lore foundations of the StarCraft universe. © 2014 Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Download or read book Ennio Morricone written by Alessandro De Rosa and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-01 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Master composer Ennio Morricone's scores go hand-in-hand with the idea of the Western film. Often considered the world's greatest living film composer, and most widely known for his innovative scores to The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and the other Sergio Leone's movies, The Mission, Cinema Paradiso and more recently, The Hateful Eight, Morricone has spent the past 60 years reinventing the sound of cinema. In Ennio Morricone: In His Own Words, composers Ennio Morricone and Alessandro De Rosa present a years-long discussion of life, music, and the marvelous and unpredictable ways that the two come into contact with and influence each other. The result is what Morricone himself defines: "beyond a shadow of a doubt the best book ever written about me, the most authentic, the most detailed and well curated. The truest." Opening for the first time the door of his creative laboratory, Morricone offers an exhaustive and rich account of his life, from his early years of study to genre-defining collaborations with the most important Italian and international directors, including Leone, Bertolucci, Pasolini, Argento, Tornatore, Malick, Carpenter, Stone, Nichols, De Palma, Beatty, Levinson, Almodóvar, Polanski, and Tarantino. In the process, Morricone unveils the curious relationship that links music and images in cinema, as well as the creative urgency at the foundation of his experimentations with "absolute music". Throughout these conversations with De Rosa, Morricone dispenses invaluable insights not only on composing but also on the broader process of adaptation and what it means to be human. As he reminds us, "Coming into contact with memories doesn't only entail the melancholy of something that slips away with time, but also looking forward, understanding who I am now. And who knows what else may still happen."

Download or read book Hammer Complete written by Howard Maxford and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2019-11-08 with total page 993 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Think you know everything there is to know about Hammer Films, the fabled "Studio that Dripped Blood?" The lowdown on all the imperishable classics of horror, like The Curse of Frankenstein, Horror of Dracula and The Devil Rides Out? What about the company's less blood-curdling back catalog? What about the musicals, comedies and travelogues, the fantasies and historical epics--not to mention the pirate adventures? This lavishly illustrated encyclopedia covers every Hammer film and television production in thorough detail, including budgets, shooting schedules, publicity and more, along with all the actors, supporting players, writers, directors, producers, composers and technicians. Packed with quotes, behind-the-scenes anecdotes, credit lists and production specifics, this all-inclusive reference work is the last word on this cherished cinematic institution.

Download or read book Empty Rooms Missing written by Thirteen O'Clock Press and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2017-07-21 with total page 165 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: EMPTY ROOMS What is it about empty rooms, what lingering presence is sensed when you walk in, what dark secrets do the silent walls hold... Thirteen authors have come up with innovative and dark stories on this theme, guaranteed to stay in your mind. MISSING What's missing, who's missing, how did they/it go missing... another themed collection from talented Thirteen authors who have delved into the depths of their dark imaginations and produced a range of stories to haunt your sleep.

Download or read book Sergio Leone written by Christian Uva and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-01-10 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spectacle, myth, fable - these words instantly leap to mind when considering director Sergio Leone's celebrated films. His popularization of the Spaghetti Western genre, through works like A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), continues to have a profound impact on filmmakers worldwide. In this exciting new study, Italian film scholar Christian Uva explores a side of Leone's works rarely before discussed: the political. Grappling with the contradictions between Leone's politically critical cinematic eye and his aversion to ideological classification, Sergio Leone: Cinema as Political Fable makes sense of how the director's internal political tensions shaped the radical themes of his Western fables. Looking at Leone and his films through a number of lenses, the book examines the elements of Italian history and identity interwoven in the director's stories, provides cultural context for a career spanning from Italy's fascist regime to Leone's death in 1989, and discusses the influences that formed Leone's directorial identity. Uva focuses in particular on the postmodernist theory behind Leone's works, revealing the critical basis of his stylistic and narrative innovations and newly analyzing the most iconic sequences from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1967), Duck, You Sucker (1971), and Once Upon a Time in America (1984). An admirably thorough take on the man and his works, Sergio Leone: Cinema as Political Fable provides fresh perspective on a director long-established in cinema canon.

Download or read book A Fistful of Fig Newtons written by Jean Shepherd and published by Crown. This book was released on 1987-11-17 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the wild and wacky world of favorite funnyman Jean Shepherd, a dozen truer-than-life tales of tailgating on the Jersey Tumpike, infuriating infants, and other everyday catastrophes, defeats, and humiliations that are the familiar fate of Americans everywhere. Jean Shepherd was one of America’s favorite humorists, his most notable achievement being the creation of the indefatigable Ralphie Parker and his quest for a BB gun in the holiday classic A Christmas Story. But he was so much more, a comic Garrison Keillor–like figure whose unique voice transcended the airwaves and affected a whole generation of nostalgic Americans. A Fistful of Fig Newtons is classic Jean Shepherd—sidesplittingly funny and sardonically irreverent. It is a brilliant comic assessment of American life—all of them delivered in Jean Shepherd’s witty, classy, unforgettable style.

Download or read book Tatooine Ghost Star Wars Legends written by Troy Denning and published by Random House Worlds. This book was released on 2003-12-30 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SPECIAL BONUS INSIDE—the exclusive story "A Forest Apart," previously available in e-book format only! Han and Leia struggle to keep the Empire at bay as stunning revelations from the past threaten to eclipse the future of the New Republic. . . . The deaths of Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine by no means spelled the end of the Empire. In the aftermath, the New Republic has faced a constant struggle to survive. Now a new threat looms: a masterpiece of Alderaanian art—lost after the planet’s destruction—has resurfaced on the black market. It conceals a vital secret—the code used to communicate with New Republic agents undercover within the Empire. Discovery by Imperial forces would spell disaster. The only option is recovery—and Han, Leia, Chewbacca, and C-3PO have been dispatched to Tatooine to infiltrate the auction. When a dispute at the auction erupts into violence, the painting vanishes in the chaos. Han and Leia are thrust into a desperate race to reclaim it. As they battle against marauding TIE fighters, encroaching stormtroopers, and Tatooine’s savage Tusken Raiders, Leia’s emotional struggle over the specter of her infamous father culminates in the discovery of an extraordinary link to the past. And as long-buried secrets at last emerge, she faces a moment of reckoning that will forever alter her destiny . . . and that of the New Republic.

Download or read book Wayfarer written by Lili St. Crow and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-03-06 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times bestselling author Lili St. Crow thrilled legions of fans with her dark paranormal series Strange Angels. Now she has created a stirringly romantic, deliciously spooky update of Cinderella, the alluring second volume in her trilogy Tales of Beauty and Madness. The Charmer's Ball. Midnight. And one glass slipper... Newly orphaned, increasingly isolated from her friends, and terrified of her violent stepmother, Ellen Sinder still believes she’ll be okay. She has a plan for surviving and getting through high school, which includes keeping her head down and saving any credits she can earn or steal. But when a train arrives from over the Waste beyond New Haven, carrying a golden boy and a new stepsister, all of Ellie’s plans begin to unravel, one by one. Just when all hope is lost, Ellie meets an odd old woman with a warm hearth and a heavenly garden. Auntie’s kindness is intoxicating, and Ellie finally has a home again. Yet when the clock strikes twelve on the night of the annual Charmer’s Ball, Ellie realizes that no charm is strong enough to make her past disappear... In a city where Twisted minotaurs and shifty fey live alongside diplomats and charmers, a teenage girl can disappear through the cracks into safety--or into something much more dangerous. So what happens when the only safety you can find wants to consume you as well? Lili St. Crow is the author of the Strange Angels series for young adults and the Dante Valentine series, among others, for adults. She is also the author of Nameless, a companion book to Wayfarer. She lives in Vancouver, Washington with her family. Visit lilistcrow.com to find out more.

Download or read book Film International written by and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 640 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Resurgence written by and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: