The critically acclaimed author of Article 5 and Metaltown brings her trademark action, romance, and frightening prescience to this tale of high seas adventure.For too long our people have suffered, plagued by overcrowding, disease, and lack of work. We have only just survived for too long. Now we must take the next step and thrive.Pacifica.A new beginning. Blue skies. Green grass. Clear ocean water. An island paradise like the ones that existed before the Melt.A lucky five hundred lottery winners will be the first to go, the first to leave their polluted, dilapidated homes behind and start a new life. It sounds perfect. Like a dream.The only problem? Marin Carey spent her childhood on those seas and knows there's no island paradise out there. She's corsario royalty, a pirate like her father and his father before him, and she knows a con when she sees one. So where are the First Five Hundred really going?

Eighteen-year-old Darcy lives on the island of America Pacifica -- one of the last places on earth that is still habitable, after North America has succumbed to a second ice age. Education, food, and basic means of survival are the province of a chosen few, while the majority of the island residents must struggle to stay alive. The rich live in "Manhattanville" mansions made from the last pieces of wood and stone, while the poor cower in the shantytown slums of "Hell City" and "Little Los Angeles," places built out of heaped up trash that is slowly crumbling into the sea. The island is ruled by a mysterious dictator named Tyson, whose regime is plagued by charges of corruption and conspiracy. But to Darcy, America Pacifica is simply home -- the only one she's ever known. In spite of their poverty she lives contentedly with her mother, who works as a pearl diver. It's only when her mother doesn't come home one night that Darcy begins to learn about her past as a former "Mainlander," and her mother's role in the flight from frozen California to America Pacifica. Darcy embarks on a quest to find her mother, navigating the dark underbelly of the island, learning along the way the disturbing truth of Pacifica's early history, the far-reaching influence of its egomaniacal leader, and the possible plot to murder some of the island's first inhabitants -- including her mother.

Predominantly built as a "bedroom" community for the San Francisco Bay Area, Pacifica's rich and diverse heritage stretches back to the Spanish explorers of the 17th century. Captured here in over 200 vintage images is a tribute to this coastal community and the settlers and pioneers who made it what it is today. From the early 1900s story of the Ocean Shore Railroad to the recent battles over the California red-legged frog, Pacifica has often been shaped by outside forces. Like few other cities, it is primarily the result of a mixture of people and location; blue-collar families from the 1950s discovered Pacifica's oceanside charm, and helped create it. In the 21st century, the wealthy from the Peninsula and Silicon Valley are rediscovering the same charms, choosing Pacifica over the hustle and bustle of the rest of the Bay Area. This book of photographs, culled from the collection of the Pacifica Historical Society, the files of the Pacifica Tribune, and contributions of local residents, offers a glimpse of the history of one of California's "best kept secrets."

Pacifica and its coast, once envisioned as a string of resorts, casinos, and vacation cottages in place of artichoke fields, was overlooked after the failure of the Ocean Shore Railroad in 1920. Demand for reasonably priced housing revived the boom, and Pacifica was incorporated in 1957.

Pacifica is an artificial island designed to feed the starving millions of the world. For a holographic artist in love with a woman who abandoned him, it is a chance to win her back. For eco-terrorists, it is a dream gone horribly wrong. From the bestselling authors of "The Dawn of Amber, Master of Hawks" and "The Spellstone of Shaltus."

Investigates allegedly subversive activities of Pacifica Foundation owned radio stations.

In the public radio landscape, the Pacifica stations stand out as inn0ovators of diverse and controversial broadcasting. Pacifica's fifty years of struggle against social and political conformity began with a group of young men and women who hoped to change the world with a credo of non-violence. Pacifica Radio traces the cultural and political currents that shaped the first listener-supported radio station, KPFA FM in Berkeley, and accompanied Pacifica's gradual expansion into a 5 station network. In this expanded paperback edition, Lasar provides a postscript ("A Crisis of Containment") that examines the external pressures and organizational problems within the Pacifica Foundation that led, in early 1999, to the police shutdown of network station KPFA. Lasar, an admittedly pro-KPFA partisan in the conflict, gives a first-person account, calling it "the worst crisis in the history of community radio." Yet Pacifica Radio is about more than just the network's recent troubles. It is the story of visionary Lewis Hill and the small band of pacifists who in 1946, set out to build institutions that would promote dialogue between individuals and nations. KPFA took to the air in 1949 with stunningly unconventional programs that challenged the dreary cultural consensus of the Cold War. No one in the Bay Area, or anywhere else, had heard anything like it on the airwaves. The first edition of Pacifica Radio, which made the San Francisco Chronicle's non-fiction bestseller list, was praised as "fascinating reading" by In These Times, "Lasar has an eye for paradox, irony and contradiction," wrote the Santa Rose Press Democrat, "but he is first and foremost an able and astute historian."

Pacifica has the nickname "Scenic Pacifica" because of its beautiful ocean vistas and lovely hillside views. Twelve miles south of San Francisco, the city of Pacifica grew rapidly, although not to the size that some had predicted. A haven for young families, Pacifica fostered strong leaders among housewives, environmental activists, and businesspeople. The strength of Pacifica, other than its natural beauty, has always been its people. The schools, service clubs, and athletic fields produced local celebrities, but the proximity to San Francisco helped forge more widely known legends. This combination of personalities helped make it possible to identify a broad spectrum of legendary locals, from a woman who was the first mayor of Pacifica to a successful comedian who earned national attention on Saturday Night Live and in the movies.