Discover ancient civilizations that have disappeared beneath the ocean's surface and explore how the science of submergence adds to our knowledge of human history. The traces of much of human history – and that which preceded it – lie beneath the ocean surface; broken up, dispersed, often buried and always mysterious. This is fertile ground for speculation, even myth-making, but also a topic on which geologists and climatologists have increasingly focused in recent decades. We now know enough to tell the true story of some of the continents and islands that have disappeared throughout Earth's history, to explain how and why such things happened, and to unravel the effects of submergence on the rise and fall of human civilizations. In Worlds in Shadow Patrick Nunn sifts the facts from the fiction, using the most up-to-date research to work out which submerged places may have actually existed versus those that probably only exist in myth. He looks at the descriptions of recently drowned lands that have been well documented, those that are plausible, and those that almost certainly didn't exist. Going even further back, Patrick examines the presence of more ancient lands, submerged beneath the waves in a time that even the longest-reaching folk memory can't touch. Such places may have played important roles in human evolution, but can only be reconstructed through careful geological detective work. Exploring how lands become submerged, whether from sea-level changes, tectonic changes, gravity collapse, giant waves or volcanoes, helps us determine why, when and where land may disappear in the future, and what might be done to prevent it.

The Bronte siblings—Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne—find escape from their constrained lives via their rich imaginations. The glittering world of Verdopolis and the romantic and melancholy world of Gondal literally come to life under their pens, offering the sort of romance and intrigue missing from their isolated parsonage home. But at what price? As Branwell begins to descend into madness and the sisters feel their real lives slipping away, they must weigh the cost of their powerful imaginations, even as the characters they have created—the brooding Rogue and dashing Duke of Zamorna—refuse to let them go. Gorgeously written and based on the Brontes’ juvenilia, Worlds of Ink and Shadow brings to life one of history’s most celebrated literary families in a thrilling, suspenseful fantasy.

The Shadow World presents the behind-the-scenes tale of the global arms trade, exposing in forensic detail the deadly collusion that too often exists among senior politicians, weapons manufacturers, felonious arms dealers, and the military--a situation that compromises our security and undermines our democracy. Now a major PBS documentary "An authoritative guide to the business of war. Chilling, heartbreaking, and enraging."--Arundhati Roy Andrew Feinstein reveals the cover-ups behind a range of weapons deals, from the largest in history--between the British and Saudi governments---to the guns-for-diamonds deals in Africa and the current $60 billion U.S. weapons contract with Saudi Arabia. Based on pathbreaking reporting and unprecedented access to top-secret information, The Shadow World takes us into a clandestine realm that is as vitally important as it is shocking.

THE SECRET WAR AGAINST AMERICA America is at war and the stakes are huge. The fight is not just in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is a global contest between the United States, radical Islam, a resurgent Russia, and a virulent New Left that is coming to power in Latin America and stalking the corridors of power around the world, including the United States. These three enemies of America are separate but they cooperate--and in his stunning new book, Shadow World, Robert Chandler shows how. In Shadow World you'll learn: * Why "post-Communist" Russia is not really "post-Communist" at all, but represents an insidious new strategic threat to the United States * How "cultural communism" has rejuvenated the radical Left's prospects around the world * Why American-style democracy is losing out to Castro and Hugo Chavez-style communism in Latin America * How radical Islam has allied itself to the New Left--and why this makes radical Islam even more dangerous than before Shadow World reveals, in a way no other book has done, the new strategic realities of the post-Cold War, post-9/11 world. Provocative, insightful, thorough, it is essential reading for those who want to see the 21st century as America's century, and not the century of her enemies.

It can feel like we're swimming in a sea of corruption. It's unclear who exactly is in charge and what role they play. The same influential people seem to reappear time after time in different professional guises, pressing their own agendas in one venue after another. According to award-winning public policy scholar and anthropologist Janine Wedel, these are the powerful ''shadow elite,'' the main players in a vexing new system of power and influence. In this groundbreaking book, Wedel charts how this shadow elite, loyal only to their own, challenge both governments' rules of accountability and business codes of competition to accomplish their own goals. From the Harvard economists who helped privatize post-Soviet Russia and the neoconservatives who have helped privatize American foreign policy (culminating with the debacle that is Iraq) to the many private players who daily make public decisions without public input, these manipulators both grace the front pages and operate behind the scenes. Wherever they maneuver, they flout once-sacrosanct boundaries between state and private. Profoundly original, Shadow Elite gives us the tools we need to recognize these powerful yet elusive players and comprehend the new system. Nothing less than our ability for self-government and our freedom are at stake.

McEvoy is a truth-seeker. He has moments when he sees through the surface sheen of the world to a deeper reality, and moments when his sense of self dissolves. The Scotsman is restless, a wanderer. He flings himself into new relationships, even as he flees family secrets. In Shadow World, we see through McEvoy's eyes as he grows from boisterous youth to a man defined equally by darkness and light. We meet his demons and his lovers. His adventure unfolds like beads on a string, with each episode separate yet connected. His journey takes him from the Arizona desert to the wilds of Patagonia, from the Silk Road in China to the lush countryside of Ireland, ending in a twilight zone near the Arctic Circle. Shadow World is a first novel by noted popular science writer Chris Impey. Shadow World inhabits the boundary between narrative fiction and science fiction. It explores the tension between artifacts and natural forms, between reality and illusion, between the science that is and the science that might be. The novel is filled with intriguing characters. We meet a death camp survivor for whom music is everything, a relentless archeologist who is rewriting the story of human civilization, a mercurial sculptor who has a personality that mirrors her art, identical twins who inhabit parallel worlds of science and religion, a brilliant but raunchy astrophysicist, and an enigmatic philosopher who seems to know McEvoy better than he knows himself. By the end of his twenty-year odyssey, McEvoy has gained a startling insight into his reality, and perhaps ours as well.

In the first book in the epic Lamb among the Stars series, author Chris Walley weaves the worlds of science and the spirit, technology and supernatural into something unique in science fiction. Twelve thousand years into the future, the human race has spread across the galaxy to hundreds of terraformed worlds. The effects of the Fall have been diminished by the Great Intervention, and peace and contentment reign under the gentle rule of the Assembly. But suddenly, almost imperceptibly, things begin to change. On the remotest planet of Farholme, Forester Merral D’Avanos hears one simple . . . lie. Slowly a handful of men and women begin to realize that evil has returned and must be fought. What will this mean for a people to whom war and evil are ancient history? Thus begins the epic that has been described as “If C. S. Lewis and Tolkien had written Star Wars.” The Shadow and Night was previously published in two volumes: The Shadow at Evening and The Power of the Night.

"Williams's debut novel is hard SF at its best." —Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of “Quantum Night” “Eternal Shadow reads like a Michael Crichton sci-fi thriller…” 4.5/5 Stars. —San Francisco Review “Fans of the hard science fiction of Andy Weir (The Martian) and Isaac Asimov… will have their eyes glued to the pages.” 4.9/5 Stars. —IndieReader “When apocalyptic disaster looms, humanity turns to science and technology in this well-crafted tale.” —Kirkus Review “…A thoughtful, intelligent portrait of humanity’s first contact with extraterrestrial life.” —Foreward Reviews What would you do if the world was going to end in ten years? For Jennifer Epstein, a by-the-books senior researcher at SETI, there is only one answer: prevent the apocalypse from happening. Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus were destroyed by an alien threat. The deck was stacked against humanity before the cards came out of the box. But Jennifer isn’t alone. She has Samantha Monroe, her excitable but brilliant colleague. From South Africa, CEO Muzikayise Khulu of Khulu Global supplies his vast resources to the ultimate race for survival. The three find themselves in an unlikely alliance while political brinkmanship, doomsday cults, and untested technologies form ever-growing obstacles. Will humanity unite to face the greatest challenge of their time, or will it destroy itself before the alien ship arrives?

In almost every country of the developing world, the most active builders are squatters, creating complex local economies with high rises, shopping strips, banks, and self-government. As they invent new social structures, Neuwirth argues, squatters are at the forefront of the worldwide movement to develop new visions of what constitutes property and community. Visit Robert Neuwirth's blog at: http://squatterci ty.blogspot.com

For three years, Miranda Grey-Solomon has kept her role as Vampire Queen of the South separate from her Grammy-winning music career. But now, her dual lives are starting to collide, threatening everything Miranda and David, her Prime, have worked for. The entire Signet Council has descended upon Austin for its ten-year summit, bringing with it Prime James Hart of the Northeast, a sworn enemy come to take his revenge on those who defied him. But Miranda and David receive an unexpected offer of help from David's sire, an ancient and powerful vampire with knowledge that may be their salvation--or their doom.