Melinda Snodgrass has written multiple novels and screenplays, and is best known for her work on Star Trek: The Next Generation. She has also worked on numerous other shows, including The Profilers, Sliders and Seaquest DSV. She coedits the Wild Cards series with George R.R. Martin. Melinda is the author of The Edge series, which is published by Tor Books in the US and Titan Books in the UK. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The stories in High Ground are set in ordinary places, in the streets and suburbs and dancehalls of Dublin, the small towns and fields of the midlands, the big houses of the beleaguered Anglo-Irish in the aftermath of their ascendancy, the whole changing country propelled in a generation from the nineteenth into the late twentieth century.

Alicia Mountain’s urgent and astonishing debut collection maps a new queer landscape through terrain alive and sensual, defiant and inviting. With a voice that beckons while it howls, Mountain nimbly traverses lyric, confessional, and narrative modes, leaving groundbreaking tracks for us to follow. High Ground Coward offers fists full of soil, leftovers for breakfast, road trip as ritual, twins of lovers and twins of ourselves. This world blooms with hunger-inducing detail, its speakers asking us to consider what it will take to satisfy our own appetites while simultaneously trying to nourish one another. “Ferocious, even the softest part,” Mountain shows us “a way to fall in love with wanting,” leaving us “ravenous, but gradually.” Bearing witness to identity formation in solitude and communion, High Ground Coward is an almanac of emotional and relational seasons. Mountain’s speakers question the meaning of inheritance, illness, violence, mythology, and family architecture. Whether Mountain is at work revealing the divinity of doubt, the entanglement of devotion, or the dominion that place holds over us, High Ground Coward heralds a thrilling poetic debut. From “Scavenger” We three eat food and are in love. This is the easy way to say there are stores beneath the floor. Potatoes and shallots, hard-necked garlic streaked purple, jars beside jars, themselves each staving globes of suction. Preservation, a guardian hunger. In the evening I whisper to the boiled beet, like a naked organ in my flushed hand: You are ground blood, you are new born, you have never been nothing— thawfruit seedflower greenstart rootbulb handpull shedscrub mouthsweet and again.

Stanley Stevens brings new ecological and historical perspectives to his study of a subsistence society in ever-increasing contact with the outside world. The Sherpas of the Mount Everest region, famous for their mountaineering exploits, have frequently been depicted as victims of the world`s highest-altitude tourist boom. But have the Sherpas and their homeland been transformed by tourism? He is the first to analyze the complex interaction of local environmental knowledge, cultural beliefs, and socio-economic and political conditions in changing sherpas subsistence strategies, land use practices, and local resources management institutions. Claiming the High ground is must reading for all those interested peoples and concerned about the conservation of the earth`s high places.

"Halfway between Frederick Forsyth's Dogs of War and Ayn Rand's Fountainhead. The gold mine in the jungle, the mercenaries, and the child soldiers keep you turning the pages. A morality tale with modern twists." -John Mackey (Founder, Whole Foods Market and author of Conscious Capitalism) The greatest gold discovery in history draws a young Charles Knight to West Africa, where he unearths deception, violence, and romance. Xander Winn-a Dutchman on his own mission-mentors Charles on his voyage into the world of speculation and African politics. But a psychopathic rebel leader, the purveyors of a six-billion-dollar fraud, a team of mercenaries bent on early retirement, and the US government all get in his way. Everyone wants him dead. But Charles plans to strike it rich. ADVANCE PRAISE FOR SPECULATOR "Speculator uses the cover of a thrilling tale of international intrigue to provide an economic and moral defense of the much-maligned speculator and an economic and moral condemnation of those who profit via force and fraud. Doug Casey and John Hunt have provided an invaluable service to those looking for unique ways to spread the ideas of liberty." -Dr. Ron Paul "Speculator may prove to be the first in a new genre of fiction. Give this book to all your friends and enemies." -John Hart (Author of Redemption Road) "Adventure... intrigue... philosophy... politics... you'll find it all in this fast-paced novel from Doug Casey and John Hunt. Most important, you'll find thoughts - the kind of thoughts that will make you think too." -Bill Bonner (Author of Empire of Debt and Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets) "Speculator will keep you thinking long past the conclusion and for years to come."-Robert Ringer (Author of Looking Out for #1 and Winning Through Intimidation) "Speculator is a roller-coaster lesson on the arcane world of gold-mine investing. An African revolution, massive fraud with massive profits and losses-the novel is such fun you don't notice how much you are learning. But, mostly, it is a good read with a unique protagonist." -Wendy McElroy (Author of Liberty for Women) "Move over John Galt and Humphrey Bogart, Speculator has created an old-fashioned hero with contemporary style and sex appeal. Expert cicerones lead us through the dark world of African mining and international finance. It is a riveting tale, perfect for a day at the beach or a long-winter's-night read. Pure gold." -Richard Harteis (Author of Marathon and Publishing Director of Poets-Choice.com) "Passionately pointed and provocative."-David Brin (Author of Earth and The Postman) "Speculator combines the fast-paced action of a Dirk Pitt adventure story with the cerebral message of an Ayn Rand novel. The authors' knowledge of how markets, mining, and governments work is impressive, yet the book reads like a day at the beach. Crisp, intelligent, and witty, this new adventure series might even out-Rand Rand." -Jo Ann Skousen (Professor of English Literature, Chapman University)

SFC Jared Monti was not the only hero in the battle on Hill 2610. There were 15 other brave American soldiers in the patrol who refused to back down despite the overwhelming odds against them. Jared undoubtedly would have said, "Write about them. There's no need to mention me." At the very least, he would have approved of having this book dedicated to his comrades-in-arms: SSG Chris Cunningham, SSG Patrick Lybert, SGT John Hawes, SPC John Garner, SSG Chris Grzecki, SPC Sean Smith, SPC Franklin Woods, SPC Brian Gonterman, SPC Max Noble, PFC Brian Bradbury, PFC Derek James, SPC Matthew Chambers, SPC Shawn Heistand, SPC Daniel Linnihan, and SSG Josh Renken. As John Hawes says, "Jared would have been proud to have this book dedicated to 'his boys.' He would have wanted it known that we fought together as a team." "It would be a challenge to find a group of soldiers who better represent the legacy of the 10th Mountain Division than the soldiers who fought so bravely on top of that rocky mountain near Gowardesh, Afghanistan," proclaims 10th Mountain Division Commander Major General Stephen J. Townsend. "Although badly outnumbered and separated from their unit, those soldiers refused to accept defeat."

Famed international man and #1 bestselling author Doug Casey-in collaboration with John Hunt-releases DRUG LORD, Book 2 of the High Ground Novels. Charles Knight returns to the United States after seven years traveling the world. He embarks on two concurrent professions: one as a major investor in a small pharmaceutical company, and the other as the head of a black market drug-smuggling and -distribution operation. Charles has to sort through the legal and illegal, moral and immoral, and right and wrong as he navigates the War on Drugs and the crony pharmaceutical industry. Meet Tristana Dubocher-CEO of Charles's company (Visioryme Pharmaceuticals)-and her sniveling husband, Donald, an FDA minion. Meet Seth Fowler of the DEA, whose criminality is exceeded only by his quest for power. Get to know Rainbow, a teenage girl living on the street who runs drugs for the Alphabet Men. Their careers in the drug world are forever altered when they meet Charles. Most importantly, meet Naked Emperor, a street drug that doesn't cloud minds, but clears them. Naked Emperor prevents people from being able to lie to themselves. Anyone dependent on deception knows that this new drug will turn the world against them. Mobs of politicians, environmentalists, academics, tele-evangelists, jihadists, journalists, central bankers, Deep State actors, and crony parasites join forces to wipe Naked Emperor off the face of the planet. They all want him dead. But Charles Knight intends to start a revolution.

This volume brings the remote and little known island of Rapa firmly to the forefront of Polynesian archaeology. Thirteen authors contribute 14 chapters, covering not only the basic archaeology of coastal sites, rock shelters, and fortifications, but faunal remains, agricultural development, and marine exploitation. The results, presented within a chronology framed by Bayesian analysis, are set against a background of ethnohistory and ethnology. Highly unusual in tropical Polynesian archaeology are descriptions of artefacts of perishable material. Taking the High Ground provides important insights into how a group of Polynesian settlers adapted to an isolated and in some ways restrictive environment.

Charles Knight is released from an especially unpleasant stay in prison, only to rejoin a society overwhelmed by looting, riots, arson, viral panic, mob-think and economic decay . . . with a presidential election in the balance. The cronies are in charge, abetted by their media lackeys and political puppets. They'll do anything to get what they want. How can Charles stop the deadly crimes committed by those who control the law, print the money, and confuse the minds of the people? Crimes that push millions into poverty, servitude and ignorance. Will a highly unorthodox presidential candidate and a cryptocurrency network that turns the surveillance state on its head be enough to expose and defeat them? Or do some people just need to be killed? The cronies are moving fast. Charles Knight needs to move faster.

The High Ground is the story of Private Ty Nichols' 365-day tour of duty in Vietnam, told with the honesty of a youthful infantryman simply trying to make it to the next day. Ty spends time with all the players, including the draftees who could have cared less, the lifers who were determined to stop Communism dead in its tracks, the enemy, and the freedom loving civilians of South Vietnam. It's all here. The fighting, dying, massage parlors, whorehouses, the racism, the homophobia, the conflicts between officers and enlisted men, the heroes and the cowards, the fear and the chaos, and the friendships that made it all bearable. The lessons Ty learns are costly, but he leaves knowing that there are heroes amongst us; that finding the love of your life will happen when you least expect it; that there will always be another war because there will always be men and there causes; and, that life, just like war, is all about finding a way to take the high ground.