Who would have believed a job interview would result in being whisked away from earth, against their will, to a medieval world embroiled in chaos across dimensions, ruled secretly by an elite council who, in their omnipotence, had not considered there could be unforeseen consequences? Their plan was simply to rule the totality of Alluvia. The Certamen of Straterra, a continuum of organized and controlled conflicts regulated through a complex set of rules, commonly referred to as the game was intended to cause and maintain balance not empower an evil that would care more about conquest than rules, more about power than the welfare of any other being, or would challenge their authority and assume control with ruthless efficiency. Greyson and Miry, each considered a pawn in the game, were selected and imprisoned separately with the extraordinary expectation of each giving birth to three representatives drawn from their lineage who have the innate characteristics necessary to stand as a picket against an evil that had not been defeated in 250 rotations of the game. And so the journey begins in the land of Alluvia. A mysterious and chaotic world of multiple dimensions and considerable diversity in populations, Flora and Fauna. Embrace the journey through this world of dwarves and dragons, shapeshifters and shaman, ogres and elves, humans and halflings, mage born and seers. A journey that delves deep into the nuances of life, love, hurt, and hate...the despair of war and the joy of brief respites from the chaos. Be warned, those who choose to enter this world will not emerge unaffected...the folk you meet will seep into your heart and never quite let you go...

Shades of Darkness continues the journey of Birthings while evil establishes a foothold and the entirety of Alluvia begins to sense its presence.

This national bestseller chronicles one man’s 650–mile trek on foot from San Diego to San Francisco—sure to appeal to readers of naturalist works like Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire, Paul Thoreau’s On the Plain of Snakes, and Mark Kenyon’s That Wild Country. In 1769, an expedition led by Gaspar de Portolá sketched a route that would become, in part, the famous El Camino Real. It laid the foundation for the Golden State we know today, a place that remains as mythical and captivating as any in the world. Despite having grown up in California, Nick Neely realized how little he knew about its history. So he set off to learn it bodily, with just a backpack and a tent, trekking through stretches of California both lonely and urban. For twelve weeks, following the journal of expedition missionary Father Juan Crespí, Neely kept pace with the ghosts of the Portolá expedition—nearly 250 years later. Weaving natural and human history, Alta California relives Neely’s adventure, while telling a story of Native cultures and the Spanish missions that soon devastated them, and exploring the evolution of California and its landscape. The result is a collage of historical and contemporary California, of lyricism and pedestrian serendipity, and of the biggest issues facing California today—water, agriculture, oil and gas, immigration, and development—all of it one step at a time. “Rich in little–known history . . . Up the Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo county coasts, then inland into the Salinas Valley to Monterey Bay. Somewhere along here, the owl moons and woodpeckers do something you might not have thought possible in 2019: they make you fall, or refall, in love with California, ungrudgingly, wildfires and insane housing prices and all . . . What a journey, you think. What a state." —San Francisco Chronicle

Death Grip chronicles a top climber's near-fatal struggle with anxiety and depression, and his nightmarish journey through the dangerous world of prescription drugs. Matt Samet lived to climb, and craved the challenge, risk, and exhilaration of conquering sheer rock faces around the United States and internationally. But Samet's depression, compounded by the extreme diet and fitness practices of climbers, led him to seek professional help. He entered the murky, inescapable world of psychiatric medicine, where he developed a dangerous addiction to prescribed medications—primarily "benzos," or benzodiazepines—that landed him in institutions and nearly killed him. With dramatic storytelling, persuasive research data, and searing honesty, Matt Samet reveals the hidden epidemic of benzo addiction, which some have suggested can be harder to quit than heroin. Millions of adults and teenagers are prescribed these drugs, but few understand how addictive they are—and how dangerous long-term usage can be, even when prescribed by doctors. After a difficult struggle with addiction, Samet slowly makes his way to a life in recovery through perseverance and a deep love of rock climbing. Conveying both the exhilaration of climbing in the wilderness and the utter madness of addiction, Death Grip is a powerful and revelatory memoir.

Who would have believed a job interview would result in being whisked away from earth, against their will, to a medieval world embroiled in chaos across dimensions, ruled secretly by an elite council who, in their omnipotence, had not considered there could be unforeseen consequences? Their plan was simply to rule the totality of Alluvia. The Certamen of Straterra, a continuum of organized and controlled conflicts regulated through a complex set of rules, commonly referred to as the game was intended to cause and maintain balance not empower an evil that would care more about conquest than rules, more about power than the welfare of any other being, or would challenge their authority and assume control with ruthless efficiency. Greyson and Miry, each considered a pawn in the game, were selected and imprisoned separately with the extraordinary expectation of each giving birth to three representatives drawn from their lineage who have the innate characteristics necessary to stand as a picket against an evil that had not been defeated in 250 rotations of the game. And so the journey begins in the land of Alluvia. A mysterious and chaotic world of multiple dimensions and considerable diversity in populations, Flora and Fauna. Embrace the journey through this world of dwarves and dragons, shapeshifters and shaman, ogres and elves, humans and halflings, mage born and seers. A journey that delves deep into the nuances of life, love, hurt, and hate...the despair of war and the joy of brief respites from the chaos. Be warned, those who choose to enter this world will not emerge unaffected...the folk you meet will seep into your heart and never quite let you go...

Climate and anthropogenic changes impact the conditions of erosion and sediment transport in rivers. Rainfall variability and, in many places, the increase of rainfall intensity have a direct impact on rainfall erosivity. Increasing changes in demography have led to the acceleration of land cover changes in natural areas, as well as in cultivated areas, and, sometimes, in degraded areas and desertified landscapes. These anthropogenized landscapes are more sensitive to erosion. On the other hand, the increase in the number of dams in watersheds traps a great portion of sediment fluxes, which do not reach the sea in the same amount, nor at the same quality, with consequences on coastal geomorphodynamics. This book is dedicated to studies on sediment fluxes from continental areas to coastal areas, as well as observation, modeling, and impact analysis at different scales from watershed slopes to the outputs of large river basins. This book is concentrated on a number of keywords: “erosion” and “sediment transport”, “model” and “practice”, and “change”. The keywords are briefly discussed with respect to the relevant literature. The contributions in this book address observations and models based on laboratory and field data, allowing researchers to make use of such resources in practice under changing conditions.

While many books examine specific wars, few study the history of war worldwide and from an evolutionary perspective. A Global History of War is one of the first works to focus not on the impact of war on civilizations, but rather on how civilizations impact the art and execution of war. World-renowned scholar Gérard Chaliand concentrates on the peoples and cultures who have determined how war is conducted and reveals the lasting historical consequences of combat, offering a unique picture of the major geopolitical and civilizational clashes that have rocked our common history and made us who we are today. Chaliand’s questions provoke a new understanding of the development of armed conflict. How did the foremost non-European empires rise and fall? What critical role did the nomads of the Eurasian steppes and their descendants play? Chaliand illuminates the military cultures and martial traditions of the great Eurasian empires, including Turkey, China, Iran, and Mongolia. Based on fifteen years of research, this book provides a novel military and strategic perspective on the crises and conflicts that have shaped the current world order.