THE INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “This story is my latest obsession.” —USA Today bestselling author, Devney Perry The gods love to play with us mere mortals. And every hundred years, we let them... I have never been favored by the gods. Far from it, thanks to Zeus. Living as a cursed office clerk for the Order of Thieves, I just keep my head down and hope the capricious beings who rule from Olympus won't notice me. Not an easy feat, given San Francisco is Zeus' patron city, but I make do. I survive. Until the night I tangle with a different god. The worst god. Hades. For the first time ever, the ruthless, mercurial King of the Underworld has entered the Crucible—the deadly contest the gods hold to determine a new ruler to sit on the throne of Olympus. But instead of fighting their own battles, the gods name mortals to compete in their stead. So why in the Underworld did Hades choose me—a sarcastic nobody with a curse on her shoulders—as his champion? And why does my heart trip every time he says I’m his? I don’t know if I’m a pawn, bait, or something else entirely to this dangerously tempting god. How can I, when he has more secrets than stars in the sky? Because Hades is playing by his own rules...and Death will win at any cost.

Two significant events, or the recent beginnings of ideas about play-

Being a hero bothers Jason Derry. It's easy to get maladjusted when your mom's a suburban housewife and your dad's the Supreme Being. It can be a real drag slaying monsters and retrieving golden fleeces from fire-spitting dragons, and then having to tidy your room before you can watch Star Trek. But it's not the relentless tedium of imperishable glory that finally brings Jason to the end of his rope; it's something so funny that it's got to be taken seriously. Deadly seriously.

What do the gods do when they're bored? Because they're always bored, and humans are the perfect players in their games.Aphrodite owns love; she hasn't lost a competition on her turf in over three millennia. Apollo is on a mission to win. He's counting on it to finally get the one woman he's never been able to have. The two gods will choose their human players, and if Dita can't get them together before the clock runs out, Apollo will get his way. And Dita couldn't have that.Lex and Dean are perfect for each other, they just don't know it yet. Dean is a perpetual bachelor, and a brooding, beautiful rock star. Lex is always with a man, but she'll never fully give herself up. Dita has her work cut out for her, but if she can't make it work, no one can.The gods have their own drama. Apollo killed Dita's mortal love - they've got beef that's been dragging on for thousands of years. Ares, the douchebag, is forever trying to pick a fight, and trying to get Dita into bed. And Persephone, Dita's best friend, is the one person who Dita shares everything with.Follow the gods as they fight, laugh, cry, lose love, gain power, and make a mess with humans.

Episodes from the lives of Galileo, Fermat, Pascal, and others illustrate this fascinating account of the roots of mathematics. Features thought-provoking references to classics, archaeology, biography, poetry. 1962 edition.

Games of the Gods, The Mythological Greek Ancient Gods, employ The Youth Video Gamers to fight The Diabolic and Sinister Zoombies, Deadly Spiritual Demons that have burst out of transport waves of the Earth’s Atmospheric Spheres to corrupt the minds of humans. The youthful Video Gamers use their incredible skills, controlling their Joy Stick to a Live War-time Video Battle with Gaming Applications. The Greek Gods, through their Portals on Earth, employ youth throughout the world to FIGHT and KILL their Enemies. Humans were given the ability by the Gods to expertly control the Video Games from implants into their DNA made untold ages ago from The Fox-47, which was placed in the Gene Cell Genome, knowing one day the Gods would return to save Mother Earth. The War of the Galaxy/Gamers begins. Games of the Gods is the second novel in the Gene Factor trilogy. When the implants in the Human Genome, the FOX-47 genetic cell factor that was placed into Man’s DNA awakens, the Gods return into their Portals on Earth to direct the youth who will fight through Video War Technology to kill the enemy. Following the first novel, The Gene Factor; this second book explores the ancient mystery – that Mankind was visited by Alien Gods millions of years ago – and those Gods implanted into the Genome of the DNA the skills to fight Deadly Forces that would be needed one day on Earth. That Day Has Arrived in the novel Games of the Gods.

This comprehensive, indexed volume includes short, one-page listings of pertinent facts about a particular movement, its founder, how it claims to work, scientific evaluations done, and its potential dangers. Some topics covered are angels, visualization, shamanism, hypnosis, new age medicine and martial arts.

The problems of games and play, a basic ontological category of thought and action, have long occupied culture historians like Huizinga and Caillois as well as mainstream modern philosophers from Heidegger to Gadamer. The present volume traces the concept of the ludic in its generative as well as in its violent and destructive potential, and relates the traditional concepts developed in particular by Romantic aesthetics in drama and poetry to those developed in modern times in literary genres by Bakhtin with the emphasis on the tropes of the performing body. The great variety of theoretical frameworks is grounded in and connected to empirical data on ritual processes and mythic structures across a wide spectrum of ethnographic evidence. The collected essays connect notions of the ludic as framed performance (proposed by Bateson and Goffman) with the ludic as "free play" with the potential to possess the player, crossing disciplinary boundaries and discourses from theatre-studies to anthropology. Forms of ritual processes, of mythic games and of cultural reflexivity, together with intriguing and universal tropes of myth and literature such as the figures of the trickster and the fool, are treated in cross-cultural perspectives. These include Indian, Greek and Germanic mythologies, Indian ritual dance and prophetic theatre plays in Ancient Israel, Bushmen syncretic religious services, the diverse forms of self-reflexive play among Brazilian Kayapo Indians, and the plays and games among the inmates of concentration camps. The volume should appeal to students of anthropology, of theatre and cultural studies, as well as to culture historians and philosophers concerned with the interface between ritual and play, or player and audience, and the larger issue of the rules of games and the freedom of the hermeneutic interpretation of text through performances.

The Matrix meets Inception… The entire Maze trilogy drops into rabbit holes of alternate realities. How do we know we’re awake? And why are we asleep? BOOK 1. Grey Grimm straps on the punch. His mother, Sunny Grimm, finds his body in the bedroom. His mind is in the Maze. She’ll do anything to save him. And find those who are responsible. BOOK 2. Freddy Bills is the detective who worked the Grey Grimm case. Now retired, clues from the case have returned. Someone is leading him to find something or someone. He doesn’t know what he’s looking for. Or why. BOOK 3. When one of the creators of the Maze vanishes, panic grips the others. What Micah believed was impossible is now a reality. The Maze is unstable. But clues will lead him to discover the beginning of a very long journey. And the ending is just the beginning. REVIEWS FOR GREY GRIMM “I’m a huge fan of Philip K. Dick… this feels like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.” –Jonica, Amazon Reviewer “Absolutely loved it.” –Fredrox, Amazon Reviewer “Spectacular.” –W. Nickels, Amazon Reviewer “Twists and twists and twists.” -- Amazon Reviewer “Fantastic book – amazing world building…” Informed reader, Amazon Reviewer “well-written, intelligent and makes you think.”-- Amazon Reviewer “Highly recommended for any sci-fi fan.” -- Amazon Reviewer “Excellent psychological thriller that plays with your mind.” –J Phillips, Amazon Reviewer “Keeps the action and the twists coming!” -- Amazon Reviewer “Thrill ride.” –Riann F., Amazon Reviewer

Often dismissed as "not serious", the notion of play has nevertheless been at the centre of classical theories of religion and ritual (Huizinga, Caillois, Turner, Staal, etc.). What can be retained of those theories for the contemporary study of religions? Can a study of "play" or "game" bring new perspectives for the study of religions? The book deals with the history of games and their relation to religions, the links between divination and games, the relations between sport and ritual, the pedagogical functions of games in religious education, and the interaction between games, media and religions. Richly illustrated, the book contributes to the study of religions, to ritual, game and media studies, and addresses an academic as well as a general public. Philippe Bornet, Dr. Phil., born in 1977, is Lecturer in the Study of Religion at the Faculty of Lettres of the University of Lausanne, with focus on the history of interrelations between India and Europe. Maya Burger is Professor of Indian Studies and History of Religions at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lausanne, Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations.