An Asimov Companion


Book Description

A prolific author, Isaac Asimov is most admired for his science fiction, including his collection of short stories I, Robot and his Robot, Empire and Foundation series novels. While each of these narratives takes place in a different fictional universe, Asimov asserted at the end of his career that he had, with his last Robot and Foundation novels, unified them into one coherent metaseries. This reference work identifies and describes all of the characters, locales, artifacts, concepts and institutions in Asimov's metaseries. Mimicking the style of The Encyclopedia Galactica, the fictional compendium of all human knowledge that features prominently in the Foundation series, this encyclopedia is an invaluable companion to Asimov's science fiction oeuvre.




The Voice of the Negro


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Chateau Cascade


Book Description

Idealistic and full of hope, Jak Barnswallow grows weary of wasting his youth on his father's farm. He wants to make a difference in the world. He wants to be a hero. Welcome to Genesis, a continent on the brink of a genocidal war. Two powerful nations stand at each others' throats, both with rigid ideologies that demand the annihilation of the other. In the middle stands beautiful Chateau Cascade, the castle on the waterfall. Young Jak dreams of the Chateau and of becoming one of its glorious Cascadian Knights, the keepers of this world's peace. Times are changing for Jak and for Genesis. When he is thrust into the midst of a conflict that looms large over the entire world, he must decide for himself what kind of man he truly wants to be. Unlikely and decidedly unideal companions join him on this dangerous adventure, teaching him that sometimes a hero is not what you might expect or want it to be. Above his struggle, the mysterious Lady Acelia, queen of the Chateau, watches, waits, and machinates. All will serve as pawns in her schemes.




The Fornax Drive


Book Description

Meet the inventor of light-speed travel, Fornax Nehrengel. Smart, brave, a reluctant hero. Caught up in an intense, light-speed adventure that zooms from the moon to Mars and back again. With him is an undercover Secret Service agent, a crusty old economics professor, a nefarious brother and a hot-blooded young woman. And chasing them? A power-hungry elite intent on stealing from him what could be mankind's most important invention since the internal combustion engine. ====================================================================== The year 2425: His boots heavy with mud, Fornax Nehrengel marched zombie-like through the bleak and raw dawn. He wore the face of exhaustion, wincing as each step brought forth a fresh dose of pain from the untreated blister oozing puss from between his toes. His dark skin and hair were grimy; his legs and arms sore. From deep within his belly an unheated breakfast of gruel protested its confinement. Indifference deadened his spirit and his eyelids drooped with fatigue. The black scowl etched on his face said it all. Fear. Exhaustion. Pain. Through chapped and broken lips Fornax Nehrengel silently cursed his plight. He was not a brave man. Indeed, he found it curiously ironic that he should be fighting to defend a flag he paid scant allegiance to or risking his life to support cherished ideals he barely endorsed. Fornax resented being here and desertion was on his mind! ====================================================================== And so it began. Humanity's first push into space has been a disaster, this despite some noteworthy successes at the outset. Indeed, mankind's initial attempt at colonization has been a total bust, accomplishing nothing more than making the moon a convenient dumping ground for our nuclear wastes. Offering promise for the future course of space-travel, however, Fornax Nehrengel has identified a means for harnessing this otherwise useless radioactive sludge in a battery, a battery so advanced that crossing the solar system soon becomes a trip measured in hours rather than in months or years. On a par with the internal combustion engine or the microchip in its potential impact on human civilization, this breakthrough immediately attracts the attention of a power-hungry elite. Now Fornax must run for his life as the future of space progress hangs in the balance!




Prelude to Foundation


Book Description

The first of two prequel novels in Isaac Asimov’s classic science-fiction masterpiece, the Foundation series THE EPIC SAGA THAT INSPIRED THE APPLE TV+ SERIES FOUNDATION It is the year 12,020 G.E. and Emperor Cleon I sits uneasily on the Imperial throne of Trantor. Here in the great multidomed capital of the Galactic Empire, forty billion people have created a civilization of unimaginable technological and cultural complexity. Yet Cleon knows there are those who would see him fall—those whom he would destroy if only he could read the future. Hari Seldon has come to Trantor to deliver his paper on psychohistory, his remarkable theory of prediction. Little does the young Outworld mathematician know that he has already sealed his fate and the fate of humanity. For Hari possesses the prophetic power that makes him the most wanted man in the Empire . . . the man who holds the key to the future—an apocalyptic power to be known forever after as the Foundation.




Amazing


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LIFE


Book Description

LIFE Magazine is the treasured photographic magazine that chronicled the 20th Century. It now lives on at LIFE.com, the largest, most amazing collection of professional photography on the internet. Users can browse, search and view photos of today’s people and events. They have free access to share, print and post images for personal use.




LIFE


Book Description

LIFE Magazine is the treasured photographic magazine that chronicled the 20th Century. It now lives on at LIFE.com, the largest, most amazing collection of professional photography on the internet. Users can browse, search and view photos of today’s people and events. They have free access to share, print and post images for personal use.




Political Rationale and International Consequences of the War in Libya


Book Description

Political Rationale and International Consequences of the War in Libya focuses on the international intervention in Libya in 2011, and tries to answer two broad questions; (1) What was the political rationale for the various actors to proceed as they did in the lead-up and conduct of the military intervention in Libya?, (2) What are the consequences of the UN-authorized military intervention in Libya? R2P was the public raison d'être of the war, and an important legitimizing factor of the intervention. Still, the humanitarian situation was a necessary, but not in and by itself an adequate precondition for intervention. A number of factors coalesced to enable the intervention. While the humanitarian situation triggered the intervention, in reality a variety of national interests governed the approach by the various international actors, and more often than not, these motives were not rooted in the particular circumstances in Libya. The book offers a combination of unique perspectives. While the perspectives of the US, France, and the UK on the Libyan Crisis/War have been well documented, the Arabic and Scandinavian political and military dynamics have been much less so. While the perspectives of NATO, the UN, and R2P have been debated, the view from the Arab League and African Union (AU) have been less in focus. The volume redresses that imbalance and offers the most broad-ranging analysis yet of a key moment in recent international relations.




The United States and the Andean Republics


Book Description

Monograph on the role of USA in the present and historical political development of the Andean region - treats the rise of 'corporativism', ie. The protection of traditional culture and social structure from negative outside capitalistic influences, in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, and discusses the effects of race and religion, Marxism, elites, and the CIAP on the formation of political ideology. Maps and references.