Download or read book Childhood s End written by Arthur C. Clarke and published by RosettaBooks. This book was released on 2012-11-30 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the Retro Hugo Award–nominated novel that inspired the Syfy miniseries, alien invaders bring peace to Earth—at a grave price: “A first-rate tour de force” (The New York Times). In the near future, enormous silver spaceships appear without warning over mankind’s largest cities. They belong to the Overlords, an alien race far superior to humanity in technological development. Their purpose is to dominate Earth. Their demands, however, are surprisingly benevolent: end war, poverty, and cruelty. Their presence, rather than signaling the end of humanity, ushers in a golden age . . . or so it seems. Without conflict, human culture and progress stagnate. As the years pass, it becomes clear that the Overlords have a hidden agenda for the evolution of the human race that may not be as benevolent as it seems. “Frighteningly logical, believable, and grimly prophetic . . . Clarke is a master.” —Los Angeles Times

Download or read book Little Failure written by Gary Shteyngart and published by Random House. This book was released on 2014-01-07 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY MICHIKO KAKUTANI, THE NEW YORK TIMES • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY TIME NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY MORE THAN 45 PUBLICATIONS, INCLUDING The New York Times Book Review • The Washington Post • NPR • The New Yorker • San Francisco Chronicle • The Economist • The Atlantic • Newsday • Salon • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • The Guardian • Esquire (UK) • GQ (UK) After three acclaimed novels, Gary Shteyngart turns to memoir in a candid, witty, deeply poignant account of his life so far. Shteyngart shares his American immigrant experience, moving back and forth through time and memory with self-deprecating humor, moving insights, and literary bravado. The result is a resonant story of family and belonging that feels epic and intimate and distinctly his own. Born Igor Shteyngart in Leningrad during the twilight of the Soviet Union, the curious, diminutive, asthmatic boy grew up with a persistent sense of yearning—for food, for acceptance, for words—desires that would follow him into adulthood. At five, Igor wrote his first novel, Lenin and His Magical Goose, and his grandmother paid him a slice of cheese for every page. In the late 1970s, world events changed Igor’s life. Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev made a deal: exchange grain for the safe passage of Soviet Jews to America—a country Igor viewed as the enemy. Along the way, Igor became Gary so that he would suffer one or two fewer beatings from other kids. Coming to the United States from the Soviet Union was equivalent to stumbling off a monochromatic cliff and landing in a pool of pure Technicolor. Shteyngart’s loving but mismatched parents dreamed that he would become a lawyer or at least a “conscientious toiler” on Wall Street, something their distracted son was simply not cut out to do. Fusing English and Russian, his mother created the term Failurchka—Little Failure—which she applied to her son. With love. Mostly. As a result, Shteyngart operated on a theory that he would fail at everything he tried. At being a writer, at being a boyfriend, and, most important, at being a worthwhile human being. Swinging between a Soviet home life and American aspirations, Shteyngart found himself living in two contradictory worlds, all the while wishing that he could find a real home in one. And somebody to love him. And somebody to lend him sixty-nine cents for a McDonald’s hamburger. Provocative, hilarious, and inventive, Little Failure reveals a deeper vein of emotion in Gary Shteyngart’s prose. It is a memoir of an immigrant family coming to America, as told by a lifelong misfit who forged from his imagination an essential literary voice and, against all odds, a place in the world. Praise for Little Failure “Hilarious and moving . . . The army of readers who love Gary Shteyngart is about to get bigger.”—The New York Times Book Review “A memoir for the ages . . . brilliant and unflinching.”—Mary Karr “Dazzling . . . a rich, nuanced memoir . . . It’s an immigrant story, a coming-of-age story, a becoming-a-writer story, and a becoming-a-mensch story, and in all these ways it is, unambivalently, a success.”—Meg Wolitzer, NPR “Literary gold . . . bruisingly funny.”—Vogue “A giant success.”—Entertainment Weekly

Download or read book Project Hail Mary written by Andy Weir and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2021-05-04 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of The Martian, a lone astronaut must save the earth from disaster in this “propulsive” (Entertainment Weekly), cinematic thriller full of suspense, humor, and fascinating science—in development as a major motion picture starring Ryan Gosling. HUGO AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF THE YEAR’S BEST BOOKS: Bill Gates, GatesNotes, New York Public Library, Parade, Newsweek, Polygon, Shelf Awareness, She Reads, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal • “An epic story of redemption, discovery and cool speculative sci-fi.”—USA Today “If you loved The Martian, you’ll go crazy for Weir’s latest.”—The Washington Post Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species. And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone. Or does he? An irresistible interstellar adventure as only Andy Weir could deliver, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian—while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.

Download or read book Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind written by Courtlandt Dixon Barnes Bryan and published by Penguin (Non-Classics). This book was released on 1996 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Reporter's Notebook on Alien Abduction, UFOS, and the Conference at MIT Alien abduction is hardly the usual topic for a scientific conference, yet in 1992 just such a conference was held at MIT. Respected journalist C D B Bryan had serious doubts about UFO encounters , but decided to attend with an open mind. This startling and thought-provoking book is the result. Fascinating - compelling, terrifying, haunting, yet entirely rational' - The Baltimore Sun'

Download or read book Outbreak written by Hilary Evans and published by Anomalist Books, LLC. This book was released on 2009 with total page 785 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From fads, crazes, and manias to collective delusions, scares, panics, and mass hysterias, history is replete with examples of remarkable social behavior. Many are fueled by fear and uncertainty; others are driven by hope and expectation. For others still, the causes are more obscure. This massive collection of extraordinary social behaviors spans more than two millennia, and attempts to place many of the episodes within their greater historical and cultural context. Perhaps the most well known example of unusual collective behavior occurred in 1938, when a million or more Americans were frightened or panicked after listening to a realistic radio drama about a Martian invasion of New Jersey, based on an adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel "War of the Worlds." Less known but equally remarkable scares based on Wells' book occurred in Chile in 1944 (when Army units were mobilized), in Ecuador in 1949 (when riots broke out, leaving more than a dozen dead), as well as in Buffalo in 1968, Rhode Island in 1974, and Europe in 1988 and 1998. The modern civilized world is by no means immune to such peculiar episodes. In the late 20th century, scores of people in the U.S. and Europe were wrongly incarcerated following claims of Satanic ritual abuse by authorities untutored in False Memory Syndrome. This episode recalls the European witch terror of the late Middle Ages, when innocent people were tortured and executed for consorting with the Devil based on the flimsiest of evidence. OUTBREAK! THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF EXTRAORDINARY SOCIAL BEHAVIOR is an authoritative reference on a broad range of topics: collective behavior, deviance, social and perceptual psychology, sociology, history, folklore, religious studies, political science, social anthropology, gender studies, critical thinking, and mental health. Never before have so many sources been brought together on the mesmerizing topic of collective behavior.

Download or read book Aliens written by Jim Al-Khalili and published by Picador USA. This book was released on 2017-05-09 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in Great Britain by Profile Books Ltd, 2016.

Download or read book The Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters written by Ronald Story and published by NAL. This book was released on 2001 with total page 708 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With contributions by a host of experts on all things alien, this compendium of UFOria is a comprehensive A-to-Z encyclopedia containing over 800 entries. 300 drawings & photos.

Download or read book Conquerors Heritage written by Timothy Zahn and published by Spectra. This book was released on 2012-06-06 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Conquerors' Pride, Timothy Zahn, Hugo Award-winning author of the New York Times bestselling Star Wars(r) trilogy, unfurled an epic tale of drama and courage as the interstallar Commonwealth faced savage invasion by alien starships of unknown origin. Now he probes deeply into the world of the invaders themselves in one of the most powerful evocations of an alien society ever created. The Zhirrzh have won a temporary respite in their war with the barbarians. But the Human captive Pheylan Cavanaugh has escaped, and for that Thrr-gilag, the young Searcher, finds himself disgraced, his bond-engagement to a female of a rival clan imperilled. Soon he becomes a target of hidden and powerful forces seeking to remake Zhirrzh society in their own merciless image. His only hope is to prove that the overclan authorities are wrong: that it was not the Humans who started the war. But time is short. The forces of the Zhirrzh are overextended and face swift retaliation. The Zhirrzh have learned to conquer death itself -- but even that awesome power will be no match for the devastating might of the Human Conqueror armadas. Thrr-gilag soon comes to realize that his people face a two-fold threat: destruction by Human technology. . . or destruction from within.

Download or read book The Greater Community written by Marshall Vian Summers and published by Society for the New Message. This book was released on 2017-08-21 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Moon s Galactic History written by Constance Victoria Briggs and published by SCB Distributors. This book was released on 2022-10-28 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Moon’s Galactic History: A Look at the Moon’s Extraterrestrial Past and Its Connection to Earth, follows the past and present research about the Moon’s strange, enigmatic history, with a focus on an extraterrestrial presence. The book examines such questions as, “Are there Moon inhabitants?” “Are the UFOs seen today connected to the Moon?” “Is there a city on the Moon?” and more. Additionally, Briggs discusses thing observed on the Moon, including anomalous strange lights, unidentified flying objects, odd constructions, artifacts, symbols and more. This book examines new thoughts and ideas from researchers and what their ideas are today about the extraterrestrial, Moon-Earth connection, and what it means for us. With all the information on unidentified flying objects in the news today, it is time to have an updated book with current research that investigates both the past and present material on the Moon. Did you know that: Several of the NASA astronauts reported seeing UFOs while traveling to the Moon?; the Moon might be hollow?; Apollo 10 astronauts heard strange “space music” when traveling on the far side of the Moon?; mysterious anomalous activity has been seen on the Moon for centuries?; there are said to be ruins of structures on the Moon?; and more.

Download or read book Alien Day written by Rick Wilber and published by Tor Books. This book was released on 2021-06-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An original, engaging, wonderfully complex alien world. Very highly recommended.” —Julie E. Czerneda, author of the Web Shifter’s Library series Set on a near-future Earth and on the alien homeworld of S’hudon, Rick Wilber's Alien Day explores murderous sibling rivalries, old-school mercantile colonialism, ambition, greed, and the saving strength that can emerge from reluctant heroes called to do the right thing despite the odds. Will Peter Holman rescue his sister Kait, or will she be the one to rescue him? Will Chloe Cary revive her acting career with the help of the princeling Treble, or will the insurgents take both their lives? Will Whistle or Twoclicks wind up in charge of Earth, and how will the Mother, who runs all of S’hudon, choose between them? And the most important question of all: who are the Old Ones that left all that technology behind for the S’hudonni . . . and what if they come back? “His Intricate and ingenious storytelling will pull you in, and then the humanity and vulnerability of his characters will break your heart.” —Alan Smale, Sidewise award-winning author of the Clash of Eagles trilogy At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Download or read book Climate Gamble written by Rauli Partanen and published by . This book was released on 2017-03-09 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the updated and improved 2017 edition of Climate Gamble. "Climate Gamble - Is Anti-Nuclear Activism Endangering Our Future?" is a thought-provoking, short and easy to read book on one of the biggest problems of our time, climate change, and one of its most misunderstood and misrepresented solution, nuclear power. From the back cover: Humankind has won many great victories in the fight against climate change. However, these victories are rarely acknowledged or reported. Is this because they were won with nuclear power? Preventing dangerous climate change requires world energy production to be almost completely free from fossil fuels by 2050. At the same time, energy consumption keeps growing, as the population increases and those mired in poverty try to create better lives for themselves. With almost 87 percent of our energy produced with fossil fuels, the challenge is unprecedented in both its scale and urgency. International organizations agree that meeting this challenge will require the use of all the tools at our disposal: Renewable energy, more energy conservation and better efficiency, carbon capture and storage - and nuclear power. At the same time, the global environment and energy discussion is largely dominated by a vocal opinion that climate challenge and global poverty should be conquered with nothing else than renewables, energy conservation and energy efficiency. This book explains how this opinion is largely based on very selective reading of relevant studies and reports, wishful thinking about the powers of technological miracles, and even straight-out falsification of statistics and misrepresentation of facts. Does the anti-nuclear movement really help to give people objective, relevant information they need to make up their minds about zero-carbon energy production, the scale of the challenge, and in particular the up- and downsides of nuclear power? Or are they just spreading fear and uncertainty, while making a huge gamble with the climate, potentially endangering both human civilization and the Earth's ecosystems?

Download or read book Rare Earth written by Peter D. Ward and published by Springer. This book was released on 2007-05-08 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What determines whether complex life will arise on a planet, or even any life at all? Questions such as these are investigated in this groundbreaking book. In doing so, the authors synthesize information from astronomy, biology, and paleontology, and apply it to what we know about the rise of life on Earth and to what could possibly happen elsewhere in the universe. Everyone who has been thrilled by the recent discoveries of extrasolar planets and the indications of life on Mars and the Jovian moon Europa will be fascinated by Rare Earth, and its implications for those who look to the heavens for companionship.

Download or read book Distant Planet SF Boxed Set Illustrated Edition written by Ray Bradbury and published by e-artnow. This book was released on 2021-04-07 with total page 1757 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover the golden age of science fiction with some of the best stories of intergalactic wars, space adventures and alien contact:_x000D_ Ray Bradbury:_x000D_ Jonah of the Jove-Run _x000D_ Zero Hour _x000D_ Rocket Summer _x000D_ Lorelei of the Red Mist _x000D_ The Creatures That Time Forgot _x000D_ Asleep in Armageddon _x000D_ Defense Mech _x000D_ Lazarus Come Forth _x000D_ Morgue Ship _x000D_ The Monster Maker _x000D_ A Little Journey _x000D_ Leigh Brackett:_x000D_ Black Amazon of Mars _x000D_ Child of the Sun _x000D_ Citadel of Lost Ships _x000D_ Enchantress of Venus _x000D_ Last Call From Sector 9G _x000D_ Outpost on Io _x000D_ Queen of the Martian Catacombs _x000D_ Shannach _x000D_ Terror Out of Space _x000D_ The Beast-Jewel of Mars _x000D_ The Blue Behemoth _x000D_ The Dragon-Queen of Jupiter _x000D_ The Jewel of Bas _x000D_ The Stellar Legion _x000D_ The Vanishing Venusians _x000D_ Thralls of the Endless Night _x000D_ Poul Anderson:_x000D_ Captive of the Centaurianess _x000D_ Lord of a Thousand Sun _x000D_ Out of the Iron Womb _x000D_ Sargasso of Lost Starships _x000D_ Star Ship _x000D_ Swordsman of Lost Terra _x000D_ The Virgin of Valkarion _x000D_ Tiger by the Tail _x000D_ Witch of the Demon Seas _x000D_ Jerome Bixby:_x000D_ Cargo to Callisto _x000D_ Tubemonkey _x000D_ The Crowded Colony _x000D_ Vengeance on Mars _x000D_ Clifford D. Simak:_x000D_ Message From Mars _x000D_ Mr. Meek Plays Polo _x000D_ Mr. Meek—Musketeer _x000D_ The Shipshape Miracle _x000D_ Damon Knight_x000D_ The Star Beast _x000D_ Doorway to Kal-Jmar _x000D_ The Third Little Green Man _x000D_ The Avenger _x000D_ Frederik Pohl:_x000D_ Asteroid of the Damned _x000D_ Conspiracy on Callisto _x000D_ Double-Cross _x000D_ Let the Ants Try _x000D_ Gardner F. Fox:_x000D_ When Kohonnes Screamed _x000D_ The Warlock of Sharrador_x000D_ Werwile of the Crystal Crypt_x000D_ Sword of the Seven Suns_x000D_ Vassals of the Lode-Star_x000D_ Engines of the Gods by Gardner_x000D_ Tonight the Stars Revolt!_x000D_ The Last Monster_x000D_ Man nth_x000D_ The Man the Sun-Gods Made

Download or read book The Island Stallion Races written by Walter Farley and published by Yearling. This book was released on 2011-09-28 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than anything, Steve Duncan dreams of racing his huge, wild stallion, Flame. The horse is untrained, but incredibly fast and Steve just wants to show him off. When two strangers show up and offer to make Steve’s dream a reality, Steve cannot believe his luck. But soon he realizes that a professional racetrack is no place for an unbroken stallion.

Download or read book Aliens for Breakfast written by Stephanie Spinner and published by Random House Books for Young Readers. This book was released on 2011-09-28 with total page 66 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's been ten years since Richard Bickerstaff sat down to breakfast and an alien climbed out of his cereal bowl! Join Richard and Aric, a tiny, wisecracking creature from the planet Ganoob, as they battle to save the world from evil aliens in Aliens for Breakfast, Aliens for Lunch, and Aliens for Dinner. We're reissuing the trilogy with brand-new covers sporting a space age 10th Anniversary logo. Now a new generation of readers can experience the fun and adventure that won these books rave reviews and loyal fans!

Download or read book Big Planet written by Jack Vance and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2011-11-14 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Big Planet is Jack Vance's first major sf novel, and in the words of the Encyclopedia of SF, "provided an sf model for the planetary romance which has been of significant use for forty years". The huge world of the title is home to a range of colourfully detailed and imaginative human societies, which Vance explores with the zest and humour which are hallmarks of his work. All Jack Vance titles in the SFGateway use the author's preferred texts, as restored for the Vance Integral Edition (VIE), an extensive project masterminded by an international online community of Vance's admirers. In general, we also use the VIE titles, and have adopted the arrangement of short story collections to eliminate overlaps. Big Planet was cut almost in half for its first publication, but sadly the excised pages are lost.