Anvil of Stars


Book Description

A Ship of the Law travels the infinite enormity of space, carrying 82 young people: fighters, strategists, scientists; the Children. They work with sophisticated non-human technologies that need new thinking to comprehend them. They are cut off forever from the people they left behind. Denied information, they live within a complex system that is both obedient and beyond their control. They are frightened. And they are making war against entities whose technologies are so advanced, so vast, as to dwarf them. Against something whose psychology is ultimately, unknowably alien.




The Forge of God


Book Description

This doomsday masterpiece from the author of Eon and Hull Zero Three was a finalist for the Hugo and Nebula awards. On July 26, Arthur Gordon learns that Europa, the sixth moon of Jupiter, has disappeared. Not hiding, not turned black, but gone. On September 28th, Edward Shaw finds an error in the geological records of Death Valley. A cinder cone was left off the map. Could it be new? Or, stranger yet, could it be artificial? The answer may be lying beside it—a dying Guest who brings devastating news for Edward and for Planet Earth. As more unexplained phenomena spring up around the globe—a granite mountain appearing in Australia, sounds emanating from the earth’s core, flashes of light among the asteroids—it becomes clear to some that the end is approaching, and there is nothing we can do. In The Forge of God, award-winning author Greg Bear describes the final days of the world on both a massive, scientific scale and in the everyday, emotional context of individual human lives. Facing the destruction of all they know, some people turn to God, others to their families, and a few turn to saviors promising escape from a planet being torn apart. Will they make it in time? And who gets left behind to experience the last moments of beauty and chaos on earth? Nominated for the Nebula, Hugo, and Locus Awards, The Forge of God is an engrossing read, breathtaking in its scope and in its detail.




The Power of Illusion


Book Description

A new collection of stories by the master of humorous science fiction adventure, including: The full-length novel, The Day the Machines Stopped¾and what happens, not just to civilization, but to humanity and its chances of survival when all the machines stop working at once? A man is captured by aliens who are investigating the Earth as a possible target for colonization. The aliens have science and technology far in advance of humans¾but, unfortunately for them, they have never developed the human art of bluffing. For the first time in book form, Anvil's stories of Richard Verner, who is called in to solve apparently insoluble problems, such as explaining why experimental missiles keep failing for no apparent reason, or locating a kidnapped judge, or even solving an inexplicable murder that's interrupting his vacation. And much more, in a generous volume of sardonically humorous science fiction. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).




The Trouble With Humans


Book Description

Humans¾there's no understanding them, And no dealing with them either. Or even their planet. Pity the poor aliens, whose shape-changing ability should let them take over the planet Earth before the humans even know they're there-if it weren't for all that omnipresent pollution. Or consider another set of invaders, from a planet where the weather is always mild and the changing of the seasons is hardly noticeable. They land in force and their weapons are more powerful than those of the primitive humans-but they've never before had to deal with below-zero temperatures, flash floods or tornados-not to mention volcanoes. Then there were the aliens who noticed how belligerent humans were, and gave them the "gift" of TV-like devices which would show anything anywhere on Earth, which was sure to lead to war. Imagine how surprised the aliens were when the humans took the gadgets apart, improved them, and started spying on everything the aliens were up to, all over the galaxy. Humans don't make sense, they don't fight fair, and they're making aliens throughout interstellar space think seriously about pulling up stakes and moving to another galaxy! At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).




Backyard Starship


Book Description

When Van Tudor returns to his childhood home, he inherits more than the family farm. His grandfather used to tell him fantastic stories of spacemen and monsters, princesses and galactic knights. Little did Van realize, the old man's tales were more than fiction. They were real. Hidden beneath the old barn, Van's legacy is waiting: a starship, not of this world. With his combat AI, an android bird named Perry, Van takes his first steps into the wider galaxy. He soon finds that space is far busier and more dangerous than he could have ever conceived. Destiny is calling. His grandfather's legacy awaits. Embark on the adventure of a lifetime with USA Today Bestselling Author J.N. Chaney and Terry Maggert in this brand new science fiction series. If you're a fan of found spaceships and galactic quests for glory, this might just be the story you've been waiting for.




Interstellar Patrol


Book Description

A FEW GOOD CON MEN.... The starship crew was stuck on a planet where the well-meaning schemes of ivory tower social engineers had created a nightmare of battling gangs. So they pretended to be the "Royal Legions" from a distant star kingdom in hot pursuit of an unspeakably evil and nearly all-powerful villain who was hiding somewhere on the planet. Things went even better than they had hoped, and the planet was rapidly becoming civilized . . . and then the real Royal Flagship showed up. They thought they were doomed, but instead the new arrivals (who also weren't quite what they claimed to be) thought the crew had shown just the sort of initiative and ingenuity that the Interstellar Patrol was looking for. So they were inducted into the Patrol. And that was just the beginning. . . . At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). "I am delighted that someone is making Christopher Anvil's work available once again. Especially the Interstellar Patrol stories. I've always loved Anvil's . . . peculiar sense of humor." ¾David Weber "[Anvil is] insistently readable!" ¾The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction




New Edge of the Anvil


Book Description

The tenet of this book is provide a tool for artists/blacksmiths and metalworkers. It tells how to work metal: heating it, cutting it, upsetting it, drawing it out, twisting it, forge welding it and shaping and assembling it. It tells about metallurgy and tool making, metal finishes and corrosion, sources of information and supplies, charts and guidelines for many tasks. It explains the process of design, how to use the computer in metal design, how to set up a business and how to manage it. Providing an inspiration for all blacksmiths are portfolios of the wrought iron work of Martin Rose and Samuel Yellin, two of America's premier metalworkers of the past. To further inspire and to show the new focus of blacksmithing in the metal arts, six contemporary metalworkers show a series of demonstration pieces of their iron work. This 256 page book is bound with an improved binding system (Otabind) that allows the pages to lay flat.




Pandora's Legions


Book Description

Complacently expanding for centuries without major obstacles, the benevolent Centran Empire comes across Earth. In spite of the Centran superiority in technology, the conquest is a nightmare. As a result, a Centran leader has an idea--since humans are so good at fighting, why not send teams of them to planets proving difficult for the Centran Empire?




Over the Anvil We Stretch


Book Description

Over The Anvil We Stretch contains swampy, powerful poems that are as exciting as the pocket knife you got for your birthday, the three legged frog on the lawn and the jar of marbles your mother kept in the kitchen. Mojgani's poems are the sound of the river and the stars burning above. He manages to capture the axe in the stump with blood still on the handle. Anis Mojgani has drawn a map of the country in the shape of his wild surreal poems. These are memories of a life, captured through the blue green filter of the bayou. Mojgani's latest poems are tinged with the sound of crickets spying on us in the darkness. They move forward honestly, brutally and sweetly. The reader will be led into briar patches as well as the moonlight just on the other side. Anvil is a book of poetic truth, packed with humor and insight. It is a juggling act of the epic and the intimate. I read it and it echoes. Shut up so I can hear more. -David Gordon Green, filmmaker, All the Real Girls and The Pineapple Express Anis Mojgani, Andrea Gibson, and other young poets of their talent are the future of American poetry and frankly, that fills me with joy! --Thomas Lux, Guggenheim Fellow & recipient of the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for his book Split Horizons He’s probably the best poetry slammer alive. The intellect, optimism and humility with which he speaks feel like proof of the relevance of “spoken word” as a genre. He processes the world in slices of beauty, frustration and sympathy... -Willamette Week Newspaper




Anvil!


Book Description

In the early seventies, when Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath ruled the world, Steve “Lips” Kudlow and Robb Reiner, two young Jewish boys from the northern suburbs of Toronto, vowed to rock together forever. A decade later, their band Anvil released one of the heaviest records in music history, Metal on Metal, which influenced a whole musical generation, including the world-dominating bands Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax. Yet while these bands went on to sell millions of records, Anvil slipped straight into obscurity. Was it too much sex and drugs and not enough rock ‘n’ roll? Was it the menagerie of pets that accompanied them on tour? Their uncanny knack for setting themselves on fire whenever a record company executive was watching? Now, almost thirty years later, like a real-life Spinal Tap, these unlikely musical heroes are still rocking, and still chasing their dream. Written in their own words, Anvil: The Story of Anvil charts the rise, fall, and eventual triumph of two men whose indestructible friendship, talent, and determination took them on a unique journey in the world of rock. A bittersweet and frequently hilarious hymn to the human spirit, played loud in power chords, it is a story of true brotherly love, living the dream, and never giving up. Praise for the film documentary Anvil: The Story of Anvil: