The Legacy of Heorot by Larry Niven5/11/2023 ![]() ![]() He briefly attended the California Institute of Technology and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics (with a minor in psychology) from Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas, in 1962. In fact, much of his writing since the 1970s has been in collaboration, particularly with Pournelle, Steven Barnes, Brenda Cooper, or Edward M. He co-authored a number of novels with Jerry Pournelle. Niven created an alien species, the Kzin, which were featured in a series of twelve collection books, the Man-Kzin Wars. ![]() His fantasy includes The Magic Goes Away series, which utilizes an exhaustible resource, called Mana, to make the magic a non-renewable resource. Niven also often includes elements of detective fiction and adventure stories. The creation of thoroughly worked-out alien species, which are very different from humans both physically and mentally, is recognized as one of Niven's main strengths. His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics. Laurence van Cott Niven's best known work is Ringworld(Ringworld, #1) (1970), which received the Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. ![]()
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Stolen lives 20 years in a desert jail5/11/2023 ![]() "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.Īt the age of 5, Malika Oufkir, eldest daughter of General Oufkir, was adopted by King Muhammad V of Morocco and sent to live in the palace as part of the royal court. ![]() Recaptured after five days, Malika was finally able to leave Morocco and begin a new life in exile in 1996.Ī heartrending account in the face of extreme deprivation and the courage with which one family faced its fate, Stolen Lives is an unforgettable story of one woman's journey to freedom. After fifteen years, the last ten of which they spent locked up in solitary cells, the Oufkir children managed to dig a tunnel with their bare hands and make an audacious escape. and her mother were immediately imprisoned in a desert penal colony. Malika, her five younger brothers and sisters. ![]() Then, on August 16, 1972, her father was arrested and executed after an attempt to assassinate the king. Adopted by the king at the age of five, Malika spent most of her childhood and adolescence in the seclusion of the court harem, one of the most eligible heiresses in the kingdom, surrounded by luxury and extraordinary privilege. Born in 1953, Malika Oufkir was the eldest daughter of General Oufkir, the King of Morocco's closest aide. ![]() A gripping memoir that reads like a political thriller-the story of Malika Oufkir's turbulent and remarkable life. ![]() A monk and robot book5/11/2023 ![]() ![]() Today I am thinking of Allalae, god of small comforts, from the Monk & Robot books by Becky Chambers. They offer comforts large and small, the rituals we tuck our bodies into. Its been centuries since the robots of Panga. Each fictional religion provides a window into what religion and spirituality are for- which is first and foremost for the well-being of the practitioner. A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Book 1 Monk & Robot) by Becky Chambers (Hardcover). But they each offfer something to their reader-an opportunity to explore something of lesser “real” consequence than the beliefs that burden us here. Sometimes, as in the case of Octavia Butler’s Earthseed, they are invented in knowing juxtaposition to a religion of our world sometimes they are entirely fanciful. These are religions & practices invented, often by a single mind, to express something. ![]() I mean religions invented by fiction authors for their characters to inhabit and practice. 1 : A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot 1) (Hardcover) : 20. I don’t mean “fictional religions” in the sense of religious fiction you’d find at a Christian bookstore and I don’t mean the “all religions are fictions, bro” atheist hot take, either. This is book number 2 in the Monk & Robot series. ![]() ![]() Fiction, the old adage goes, is a lie that tells the truth-and there’s a lot of truth to be found in fictional religions. When your faith of origin is also the origin of a grievous wound, there’s an odd solace to be found in knowingly made up things. I’ve been thinking a lot about fictional religions the last few months. ![]() Lagoon nnedi okorafor characters5/11/2023 ![]() ![]() By narrating human being through something other than the framework of an imposed colonialism, Afrofuturism can imagine an end to the alienation District 9 depicts as largely inevitable. ![]() Afrofuturism, in contrast, imagines a future that breaks from colonially inherited racism by emphasizing traditional and indigenous African cultures. While Afropessimism offers incisive critiques of historic and contemporary racism, the future it imagines is either a repetition of the past or a violent revolution. Through a close reading of Neill Blomkamp's Afropessimist film District 9 (2009) and Nnedi Okorafor's Afrofuturist novel Lagoon (2014), written in response to the film, this article analyzes these projects' futures. In the contemporary crisis of race relations two schools of thought pursue the project of Black liberation: Afrofuturism and Afropessimism. ![]() Tanya huff quarters5/11/2023 ![]() ![]() The two siblings have always been a team, but the strain of sharing a single body may prove too much for them as they track down the man who has absconded with Bannon's body. When their target somehow steals Bannon's body, his soul must take up residence in Vree's body, or risk dispersal and death. but their latest assignment is waiting for them, with a trap that they have no hope of escaping. Summary: Vree and Bannon are the two best assassins the Sixth Army has to offer. Overall, a bit choppy but compelling, and I am looking forward to the sequel. And the actual villain was both totally sympathetic and completely repulsive, which also worked out nicely. The semi-incestuous attraction started out really creepy and turned sort of fascinating, which I did not expect, and made the whole love triangle work way better for me than it should have. And the "bad guy" is sort of muddy - his plan is awfully weak and he goes from appalling to sort of the hero way too quickly to be believable. ![]() I didn't totally love both the main sibling characters - she's a little too perfect and he's a narcissistic asshole whose sole redeeming quality is that he's pretty. This actually helped a lot, because the sort of idealized original setting doesn't have a ton of inherent conflict - the Empire was a great place to look at the magic system from an outsider's point of view and introduce some morally gray characters. ![]() While set in the same world as Sing the Four Quarters, it isn't a direct sequel. ![]() Shattered Pack by Aileen Erin5/11/2023 ![]() ![]() Meredith is thrust into a deadly game of pack politics, one a fey beast has happily joined. But when she gets there, she finds that it's not just an angry pack that stands in the way between her and her Full Moon Ceremony with Donovan. She's faced down much worse the past few months. Cosette just warned her that the Irish pack isn't so happy about Donovan's choice in mates.īut Meredith's never let a few angry wolves stop her, and she's not about to start now. The news that his second in command has been found brutally murdered has Donovan packing his bags for Ireland, but the last thing Meredith wants to do is go with him. In the middle of the night, Donovan gets a call telling him that his pack has gone to pieces. Now that she's no longer cursed and the evil Luciana Alvarez has been taken care of, she thinks life will finally settle down. Meredith Molloney never thought she'd find a mate, let alone someone like Donovan Murry-one of the most powerful Alpha werewolves alive. From USA Today Bestselling Author Aileen Erin ![]() The story of civilization book set5/10/2023 ![]() Children will watch the seeds of Christendom being planted in the soil of Europe thanks to colossal figures like Sts. Volume II: The Medieval World continues the journey, picking up where Volume I left off just after the conversion of Emperor Constantine. Within each chapter, children will encounter short stories that place them directly in the shoes of historical figures, both famous and ordinary, as they live through legendary battles and invasions, philosophical debates, the construction of architectural wonders, the discovery of new inventions and sciences, and the exploration of the world. ![]() The Story of Civilizationreflects a new emphasis in presenting the history of the world as a thrilling and compelling narrative. ![]() Author Phillip Campbell uses his historical expertise and storytelling ability together in tandem to present the content in a fresh and thrilling way. In The Story of Civilization, the ancient stories that have shaped humanity come alive like never before. Children should not just read about history they should live it. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() But soon the horrors overtaking Europe will become inescapable and the Kurcs will be flung to the far corners of the world, each desperately trying to navigate his or her own path to safety.Īs one sibling is forced into exile, another attempts to flee the continent, while others struggle to escape certain death, either by working grueling hours on empty stomachs in the factories of the ghetto or by hiding as gentiles in plain sight. The talk around the family Seder table is of new babies and budding romance, not of the increasing hardships threatening Jews in their hometown of Radom, Poland. ![]() It is the spring of 1939 and three generations of the Kurc family are doing their best to live normal lives, even as the shadow of war grows closer. Inspired by the incredible true story of one Jewish family separated at the start of World War II, determined to survive - and to reunite - We Were the Lucky Ones is a tribute to the triumph of hope and love against all odds. The New York Times best seller with more than one million copies sold worldwide. ![]() After the fall rhodes5/10/2023 ![]() ![]() He remains close to Obama, and rarely ventures the slightest criticism of his boss, mention of whom tends to be cringeworthily hagiographical.Īfter the Fall, Rhodes’s new auto-ethnographic memoir, is at once a chronicle of his post–White House travels and a deeply personal reckoning with the end of the American century. These days, Rhodes lives in Southern California, and cohosts the tellingly titled podcast Pod Save the World, part of a successful media company founded in 2017 by a trio of fellow Obama speechwriters and “strategic communications” cadres. Though he was formally a strategic communications adviser, Rhodes enjoyed a much wider political brief in practice, which included leading the administration’s negotiations with Cuba. Rhodes then spent eight years in the White House as Obama’s deputy national security advisor, a period chronicled in his 2018 memoir, The World as It Is (memorably nominated by Perry Anderson as an archetypal “spin-doctorate of the equerry”). Soon after, he became speechwriter for the vice chair of the 9/11 commission, and later found his way onto Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. ![]() ![]() Review of After the Fall: Being American in the World We’ve Made, by Ben Rhodes (Penguin Random House, 2021).īen Rhodes graduated from New York University in 2002 with a master’s degree in creative writing, before moving to Washington, DC, “to be part of the nation’s response” to 9/11. ![]() Ryan holiday conspiracy5/10/2023 ![]() ![]() And if that leaves you wondering who would do such a thing, then it’s time to take a closer look at the blog and its authors.īut although Thiel might have felt like it was a personal attack on him, the truth is that this was pretty standard behavior for Denton and his team of bloggers. The fact that the article acknowledges that serves only to damn its author because it means that they knew the risks Thiel might face if exposed and they deliberately outed him anyway. ![]() At worst, it's prejudice with a handy alibi.” So, even if you don’t consider the fact that Thiel is a fiercely private person by nature, he clearly had a lot of professional reasons to keep his sexuality a secret as well. At best, it's a wrongheaded sense of caution. They instinctively prefer entrepreneurs who remind them of themselves. And as the article itself states, “the clubby ranks of VCs are mostly straight, white and male. ![]() And although this would be a traumatizing moment in the life of anyone who’s gay, for Peter, it constituted an additional, unique tragedy. Because one morning, in 2007, Peter woke up to see a blog post published by Gawker Media - a blog post that was entitled, “Peter Thiel is Totally Gay, People.” In that moment, Peter’s most personal secret had been outed not just to a family member or an acquaintance but to the entire internet. ![]() |