Apocalypse Zero


Book Description

Kakugo finds himself in a bloody battle with Tsumiko, his own sweetheart. Unable to fight back, Kakugo is captured and mutated into a TacticalFiend himself! Kakugo's next opponent is the mighty Bolt, a soldier who fights in a Fortified Armored Shell of his own named Shin. How will will Kakugo stand up to this new armor, which is not only invulnerable, but also extra shiny?




Portal Zero (Apocalypse Gate Book 1)


Book Description

Where were you when the lights went out and the monsters came? In the near future, a government experiment out of control opens gateways to other worlds and dimensions all over planet Earth, plunging everyday people into a nightmare of grim survival against the horrific and bizarre... Portal Zero. The beginning of the end. - In Colorado Springs, CO, young family-man Arthur can't find his wife and young sons when all electronics and vehicles in the city are disabled. But the EMP is the least of his worries. When the city quickly turns to looting and anarchy, he sees much darker dangers in the shadows with glowing blue eyes... - In Geneva, Switzerland, Chad is a naive cameraman working for a news network filming the opening of Portal Zero, mankind's first experiment with 'Dimension Drive'--an attempt at inter-space travel. Barely out of his internship, Chad is forced to survive the terrifying creatures that emerge from the gateway when everything goes wrong. When the slaughter in the deep-underground lab begins, how will he survive, trapped and isolated from the surface? - Meanwhile, in Zion National Park, UT, Megan is a fit and self-made woman on vacation with her boyfriend when a mysterious thunderclap kills all of the electronics in the park. When a strange, golden obelisk appears in the middle of the park, a mysterious and unseen force begins transforming the tourists around her. - Harvey is an alcoholic, disgraced police officer in Las Vegas, NV, recently imprisoned after failing at his spree of vigilante justice on the unpunished. But when the city's power fails and the precinct over his cell is breached by an army of nightmares, it seems that Hell itself is invading the city of sin, and the Strip is burning. - Kayleen is a young college student and art major at PSU in Portland, OR. She doesn't really care about much more than Veganism and the boy she secretly has a crush on. But when a weird, alien environment follows an EMP-induced city-wide blackout one night while she's at an off-campus party, what will Kayleen find out about her values when everyone's focus turns to survival? - Tommy and Jody are two young children in Flagstaff, AZ, living with their mom and dad and enjoying a stable childhood, when a town-wide power outage becomes a call for concern when it's not fixed by the next morning. When the family hears the police fighting against invading monsters in the business district nearby, and they are all forced to evacuate their home because of a spreading wildfire, the children have no idea that their lives are about to change forever... In a year much sooner than you think, while scientists and politicians argue about global warming and lack of resources, the United Nations has reorganized itself into the UEA, the first serious attempt at a world government. "Dimension Drive" is being developed for wormhole-based space travel in Europe by the UEA to expand human civilization into the stars. But the UEA development team responsible for Dim Drive has no idea that they're about to lose control of the portal they're trying to harness because of a massive, unforeseen EMP, ushering in the end of the world as we know it. In America, one of the last superpowers holding out against joining the United Earth Alliance, several individuals across the country are going about their lives, unaware that UEA scientists are quietly conducting the first real test of their new Dimension Drive technology that will change everything... Do you love guns, tactical realism, and monsters? Are you a fan of cosmic horror and dark fantasy / sci-fi? Love the Mist and Cabin in the Woods? Lovecraft? Doom? Stranger Things? EMP and Prepper Survival? This story is full of terror, suspense, and bad language. If you can dig it, strap in for a ride to Hell! Read Portal Zero, Book One of the Apocalypse Gate Series now!




Manga: The Complete Guide


Book Description

• Reviews of more than 900 manga series • Ratings from 0 to 4 stars • Guidelines for age-appropriateness • Number of series volumes • Background info on series and artists THE ONE-STOP RESOURCE FOR CHOOSING BETWEEN THE BEST AND THE REST! Whether you’re new to the world of manga-style graphic novels or a longtime reader on the lookout for the next hot series, here’s a comprehensive guide to the wide, wonderful world of Japanese comics! • Incisive, full-length reviews of stories and artwork • Titles rated from zero to four stars–skip the clunkers, but don’t miss the hidden gems • Guidelines for age-appropriateness–from strictly mature to kid-friendly • Profiles of the biggest names in manga, including CLAMP, Osamu Tezuka, Rumiko Takahashi, and many others • The facts on the many kinds of manga–know your shôjo from your shônen • An overview of the manga industry and its history • A detailed bibliography and a glossary of manga terms LOOK NO FURTHER, YOU’VE FOUND YOUR IDEAL MANGA COMPANION!




Apocalypse and Heroism in Popular Culture


Book Description

Stories of world-ending catastrophe have featured prominently in film and television. Zombie apocalypses, climate disasters, alien invasions, global pandemics and dystopian world orders fill our screens--typically with a singular figure or tenacious group tasked with saving or salvaging the world. Why are stories of End Times crisis so popular with audiences? And why is the hero so often a white man who overcomes personal struggles and major obstacles to lead humanity toward a restored future? This book examines the familiar trope of the hero and the recasting of contemporary anxieties in films like The Walking Dead, Snowpiercer and Mad Max: Fury Road. Some have familiar roots in Western cultural traditions yet many question popular assumptions about heroes and heroism to tell new and fascinating stories about race, gender and society and the power of individuals to change the world.




Writing Beyond the End Times? / Écrire au-delà de la fin des temps ?


Book Description

This collection of essays examines how the sense of crisis that occasionally seems to overwhelm us directs and transforms Canadian and Quebec writings in English and French, and conversely, how literature and criticism set out to counterbalance the social, economic, and ideological insecurities we live in. Ce recueil de textes étudie les manières dont le sentiment de crise qui peut parfois sembler nous submerger, oriente et transforme les écrits canadiens et québécois d’expressions anglaise et française, et inversement, comment la littérature et la critique s’efforcent de contrebalancer les insécurités sociales, économiques et idéologiques dans lesquelles nous vivons. Contributors: David Boucher, Marie Carrière, Nicole Côté, Piet Defraeye, Nicoletta Dolce, Danielle Dumontet, Ana María Fraile-Marcos, Marion Kühn, Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink, Carmen Mata Barreiro, Ursula Mathis-Moser, Dunja M. Mohr, Émilie Notard, Daniel Poitras, Véronique Porra, Srilata Ravi, Marion Christina Rohrleitner




Anime and Philosophy


Book Description

Anime and Philosophy focuses on some of the most-loved, most-intriguing anime films and series, as well as lesser-known works, to find what lies at their core. Astro Boy, Dragon Ball Z, Ghost in the Shell, and Spirited Away are just a few of the films analyzed in this book. In these stories about monsters, robots, children, and spirits who grapple with the important questions in life we find insight crucial to our times: lessons on morality, justice, and heroism, as well as meditations on identity, the soul, and the meaning -- or meaninglessness -- of life. Anime has become a worldwide phenomenon, reaching across genres, mediums, and cultures. For those wondering why so many people love anime or for die-hard fans who want to know more, Anime and Philosophy provides a deeper appreciation of the art and storytelling of this distinctive Japanese culture.




Apocalypse of Truth


Book Description

We inhabit a time of crisis—totalitarianism, environmental collapse, and the unquestioned rule of neoliberal capitalism. Philosopher Jean Vioulac is invested in and worried by all of this, but his main concern lies with how these phenomena all represent a crisis within—and a threat to—thinking itself. In his first book to be translated into English, Vioulac radicalizes Heidegger’s understanding of truth as disclosure through the notion of truth as apocalypse. This “apocalypse of truth” works as an unveiling that reveals both the finitude and mystery of truth, allowing a full confrontation with truth-as-absence. Engaging with Heidegger, Marx, and St. Paul, as well as contemporary figures including Giorgio Agamben, Alain Badiou, and Slavoj Žižek, Vioulac’s book presents a subtle, masterful exposition of his analysis before culminating in a powerful vision of “the abyss of the deity.” Here, Vioulac articulates a portrait of Christianity as a religion of mourning, waiting for a god who has already passed by, a form of ever-present eschatology whose end has always already taken place. With a preface by Jean-Luc Marion, Apocalypse of Truth presents a major contemporary French thinker to English-speaking audiences for the first time.




Post-Apocalyptic Environmentalism


Book Description

This book analyses how the environmental movement has developed three overarching narratives that co-exist and compete within it. The first is the narrative of green progress, which has been prominent from the start in environmentalist thought and which is today expressed in the idea of sustainable development and in eco-modernism. The second is the apocalyptic narrative, which urges us to act in order to avert a future catastrophe and which rose to prominence with Rachel Carson and other classics of post-war environmentalism and experienced a renaissance with the climate activism of the 2000s. The third is the postapocalyptic narrative according to which catastrophe is already an unavoidable fact. The centrepiece of the book is its discussion of the postapocalyptic narrative, which has become influential in the recent decade, especially in the wake of the disillusionment following the failed climate summit in Copenhagen 2009. Climate change, resource exhaustion, pollution and species extinction signal that catastrophes have already become realities here and now for an enormous number of people and other lifeforms. The book probes the possibilities and limitations of the environmental movement in grappling with these issues and turning them into relevant action.




Apocalyptic Discourse in Contemporary Culture


Book Description

This interdisciplinary collection of essays focuses on critical and theoretical responses to the apocalypse of the late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century cultural production. Examining the ways in which apocalyptic discourses have had an impact on how we read the world’s globalised space, the traumatic burden of history, and the mutual relationship between language and eschatological belief, fifteen original essays by a group of internationally established and emerging critics reflect on the apocalypse, its past tradition, pervasive present and future legacy. The collection seeks to offer a new reading of the apocalypse, understood as a complex – and, frequently, paradoxical – paradigm of (contemporary) Western culture. The majority of published collections on the subject have been published prior to the year 2000 and, in their majority of cases, locate the apocalypse in the future and envision it as something imminent. This collection offers a post-millennial perspective that perceives "the end" as immanent and, simultaneously, rooted in the past tradition.




Palgrave Handbook of Critical Posthumanism


Book Description

Palgrave Handbook of Critical Posthumanism is a major reference work on the paradigm emerging from the challenges to humanism, humanity, and the human posed by the erosion of the traditional demarcations between the human and nonhuman. This handbook surveys and speculates on the ways in which the posthumanist paradigm emerged, transformed, and might further develop across the humanities. With its focus on the posthuman as a figure, on posthumanism as a social discourse, and on posthumanisation as an on-going historical and ontological process, the volume highlights the relationship between the humanities and sciences. The essays engage with posthumanism in connection with subfields like the environmental humanities, health humanities, animal studies, and disability studies. The book also traces the historical representations and understanding of posthumanism across time. Additionally, the contributions address genre and forms such as autobiography, games, art, film, museums, and topics such as climate change, speciesism, anthropocentrism, and biopolitics to name a few. This handbook considers posthumanism’s impact across disciplines and areas of study.