A flash of energy ripples at light speed across a mile of southwestern desert. It alerts watchers who have waited for it over half a century, and the race is on to possess the secret to the most powerful force ever created. Vernon Washburn is a retired assassin, now seeking a return to normal life, but success with his lifetime dream is suddenly being torn from his hands, his life is threatened, and the bad guys are making a world dominating move that he alone can stop. Now, two years into living his dream, he is forced back into action. His task; obtain four artifacts he and his Special Forces HALO team brought home from Bosnia. It's a simple enough mission, but the team members are murdered before he can obtain their items. Even while Washburn hunts the artifacts, he is being hunted by two men; an arch enemy who wants the artifacts and an Interpol detective. The action begins in a Bosnian forest, travels in time and place to Midwestern Minneapolis, and finally to the European Alps. To succeed and stay alive, Washburn must resort to the assassin mentality and combine it with the talents of a magician, or die trying. Sleight of hand and sleight of mind intertwine in an action thriller that blurs the lines between magic and science, good and evil, reality and illusion.
Tom Crone's classic text has been thoroughly revised by an impressive team of legal experts. It provides an essential source of reference for the key legal issues encountered by those who work in the media such as journalists, editors and producers, as well as media lawyers. Topics covered include: Protection of Reputation Copyright and Rights Clearance New Media Breach of Confidence and Privacy The Data Protection Act 1998 Reporting Restrictions, Contempt of Court and Protection of Journalistic Sources The Freedom of Information Act 2000 and Official Secrets Professional Regulatory Bodies and Advertising The Human Rights Act 1998 The Law in Scotland and the United States of America Comprehensive supplementary reference material is also provided, including a glossary of legal terms, addresses, telephone numbers and web sites of professional bodies, and specimen agreements including interview agreements and moral rights waivers. With contributions from: Terence Bergin, Marietta Cauchi, Jane Colston, Mark Cranwell, Charles de Fleurieu, Simon Dowson-Collins, David Green, Peter Grundberg, Rebecca Handler, Joanna Ludlam, Rosalind McInnes, Hugh Tomlinson and John Wadham.
This book is not a biography. I consider them to often times have too much dull material in them. Instead, this is a compilation of dozens and dozens of interesting, even spell binding events in my life, so much so, that readers tell me there isn't a dull paragraph in the 221 pages of my book! In addition to being very readable, I actually believe that any thoughtful person who reads this and wants to, can easily learn how to become physically stronger, mentally more serene and courageous, and even adept at becoming more spiritually oriented." So I say to you, "Read and enjoy!
They are America's front lines--serving proudly in forward areas around the world. Representing the very best from the Army and Air Force, the Airborne Task Force is an unstoppable combination of manpower and firepower. Now, Tom Clancy examines this elite branch of our nation's armed forces. With pinpoint accuracy and a style more compelling than any fiction, the acclaimed author of Executive Orders delivers an fascinating account of the Airborne juggernaut--the people, the technology, and Airborne's mission in an ever-changing world...*Two Tom Clancy "mini-novels"--real world scenarios involving the airborne task force*Airborne's weapons of the 21st century, including the Javelin anti-tank missile, the fiber-optically guided N-LOS fire support system, and the Joint Strike Fighter*18 weeks: Life in an Airborne Alert Brigade*Exclusive photographs, illustrations, and diagramsPLUS: An in-depth interview with the incoming commander of the 18th Airborne Corps, General John Keen
The kidnapping of a Catholic priest by a group of African militiamen, who order all Catholic missionaries out of Botswanna, sends the Op-Center, with their own military team, Striker, out of commission, into the middle of a dangerous civil war in Africa as they discover a plot by outside forces to destabilize the local government.
A Classic Father-Daughter Love Story by Colonel Tom Kelly. Selected Childhood chapters from; Dealer’s Choice, Better on A Rising Tide, A Year Outside, The Boat, & A Few Loose Chapters. “Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale, her infinite variety.” -William Shakespeare
Time and again, Tom Clancy's novels have been praised not only for their big-scale drama and propulsive narrative drive, but for their cutting-edge prescience in predicting future events. In THE BEAR AND THE DRAGON, the future is very near at hand indeed. Newly elected in his own right, Jack Ryan has found that being President has gotten no easier. Domestic pitfalls await him at every turn, there's a revolution in Liberia, the Asian economy is going down the tubes, and now, in Moscow, someone may have tried to take out the chairman of the SVR - the former KGB - with a rocket - propelled grenade. Things are unstable enough in Russia without high-level assassination, but even more disturbing may be the identities of the potential assassins. Were they political enemies, the Russian Mafia, disaffected former KGB? Or, Ryan wonders, is something far more dangerous at work here? Ryan is right. For even wile he dispatches his most trusted eyes and ears, including black ops specialist John Clark, to find out the truth of the matter, forces in China are moving ahead with a plan of truly audacious proportions. If they succeed, the world as we know it will never look the same. If they fail...the consequences will be unspeakable. Blending the exceptional realism and authenticity that are his hallmarks with intricate plotting, razor-sharp suspense and a remarkable cast of characters, this is Clancy at his best - and ther is none better.
Twenty never-before-published short stories span the worlds of science fiction and fantasy, inviting readers of both genres to lose themselves in tales sometimes humorous, sometimes terrifying, and always engrossing. Sword & Laser hosts Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt hand-picked their favorite stories, plucked directly from the brains of the S&L audience. From living space ships to hapless thieves getting more than they bargained for, this collection has something for every genre reader.
The story of Kurt Vonnegut and Slaughterhouse-Five, an enduring masterpiece on trauma and memory Kurt Vonnegut was twenty years old when he enlisted in the United States Army. Less than two years later, he was captured by the Germans in the single deadliest US engagement of the war, the Battle of the Bulge. He was taken to a POW camp, then transferred to a work camp near Dresden, and held in a slaughterhouse called Schlachthof Fünf where he survived the horrific firebombing that killed thousands and destroyed the city. To the millions of fans of Vonnegut’s great novel Slaughterhouse-Five, these details are familiar. They’re told by the book’s author/narrator, and experienced by his enduring character Billy Pilgrim, a war veteran who “has come unstuck in time.” Writing during the tumultuous days of the Vietnam conflict, with the novel, Vonnegut had, after more than two decades of struggle, taken trauma and created a work of art, one that still resonates today. In The Writer’s Crusade, author Tom Roston examines the connection between Vonnegut’s life and Slaughterhouse-Five. Did Vonnegut suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder? Did Billy Pilgrim? Roston probes Vonnegut’s work, his personal history, and discarded drafts of the novel, as well as original interviews with the writer’s family, friends, scholars, psychologists, and other novelists including Karl Marlantes, Kevin Powers, and Tim O’Brien. The Writer’s Crusade is a literary and biographical journey that asks fundamental questions about trauma, creativity, and the power of storytelling.
This is the second volume in the Tom Clancy Military Library, taking a look inside an armoured cavalry regiment - the technology, the strategies and the people. Clancy gives descriptions of tanks, helicopters and artillery and describes the technology behind the US army. He captures military life - from the drama of combat to the daily routine - and reveals the roles and missions that have in recent years distinguished the fighting forces.
Dial M for Murdoch uncovers the inner workings of one of the most powerful companies in the world: how it came to exert a poisonous, secretive influence on public life in Britain, how it used its huge power to bully, intimidate and cover up, and how its exposure has changed the way we look at our politicians, our police service and our press. Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers had been hacking phones and casually destroying people’s lives for years, but it was only after a trivial report about Prince William’s knee in 2005 that detectives stumbled on a criminal conspiracy. A five-year cover-up then concealed and muddied the truth. Dial M for Murdoch gives the first connected account of the extraordinary lengths to which the Murdochs’ News Corporation went to “put the problem in a box” (in James Murdoch’s words), how its efforts to maintain and extend its power were aided by its political and police friends, and how it was finally exposed. The book details the smears and threats against politicians, journalists and lawyers. It reveals the existence of brave insiders who pointed those pursuing the investigation towards pieces of secret information that cracked open the case. By contrast, many of the main players in the book are unsavory, but by the end of it you have a clear idea of what they did. Seeing the story whole, as it is presented here for the first time, allows the character of the organisation which it portrays to emerge unmistakably. You will hardly believe it.
Just who are those kings, queens, knights, and pages in the Tarot deck? Generally considered the most difficult part of the Tarot to interpret, they actually represent different characters or personalities that are aspects of ourselves. They also serve as teachers or projections of our own unacknowledged qualities. wo esteemed Tarot scholars unmask the court cards with details not found in any other book. Discover your significator and your nemesis. Compare the differences among the cards in well-known decks. Match the court cards with the zodiac signs, the Myers-Briggs personality types, and the Jungian archetypes. Learn a variety of spreads that reveal childhood issues, career destiny, and a storytelling spread to spark the creative writing process.
Dave White, a young man growing up in Oklahoma in the early 1960s, feels hopelessly trapped by his life. He knows that if he doesnt leave, his heart will break. Dave knows he cant deny his dreams of a better life for a minute longer, so when a vague shadow of opportunity arises, he grabs it. Finally, he gets his chance to spread his wings and fly away with the wind. Dave follows his heart to the wheat harvest, but what he finds isnt exactly the stuff of dreams. Each year, thousands of men, women, and children from every crossroads, whistle-stop, town, and city go to the wheat harvest. Like these others, Dave finds twenty-four-hour days, working in the never-changing, sun-blistered fields. He finds a world of prejudice, pain, and sudden death. In this world, once a person is ten miles from home, no one cares if that person lives or dies. In seeking their dreams, Dave and the other workers find themselves challenged by a harsh reality. But in spite of these hardships, Dave also discovers true friendship and even love in these fields.
Fugu. Dog. Cobra. Bees. Spleen. A 600,000 SCU chili pepper. All considered foods by millions of people around the world. And all objects of great fascination to Tom Parker Bowles, a food journalist who grew up eating his mother's considerably safer roast chicken, shepherd's pie and mushy peas. Intrigued by the food phobias of two friends, Parker Bowles became inspired to examine the cultural divides that make some foods verboten or "dangerous" in the culture he grew up with while being seen as lip-smacking delicacies in others. So began a year-long odyssey through Asia, Europe and America in search of the world's most thrilling, terrifying and odd foods. Parker Bowles is always witty and sometimes downright hilarious in recounting his quest for envelope-pushing meals, ranging from the potentially lethal to the outright disgusting to the merely gluttonous—and he proves in this book that an open mouth and an open mind are the only passports a man needs to truly discover the world.
Twenty-eight terrific interviews with some of the sharpest and most talkative stars and movie makers of the classic (and c-r-a-z-y!) SF and horror films of the past: Richard Matheson, Janet Leigh, Acquanetta, Hazel Court, Kim Hunter and others reminisce at length and with great good humor about their days on the sets of Psycho, Planet of the Apes, Superman; the Poe, Hammer and Lewton films, and exploitation greats like Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.
An epic family drama, shot through with dark humour, The Last Days of a Reluctant Tyrant tells the tragic story of a family disintegrating, having lost its moral values. Arina is an ambitious woman. As a servant girl she marries into the degenerative family she works for; her ruthless energy saves it from bankruptcy and she expands the family estate into an 'empire'. As matriarch she rules with an iron hand, her avarice insatiable, until she questions what it is all for. She slackens her hold and loses her power to the hypocrisy and relentless grasping of her 'chosen son'. Inspired by The Golovlyov Family by Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, The Last Days of a Reluctant Tyrant is a haunting new work from leading Irish dramatist Tom Murphy, who has worked closely with the Abbey Theatre throughout his career. The play premiered at the Abbey Theatre, Ireland, on 3 June 2009.
The thrilling conclusion to Tom Doyle's military science fiction epic. After a bloody wedding-night brawl with assassins in Tokyo, the craftspeople are on the move to India, where a descendant of legendary heroes has the occult mission they've been waiting for. All comes to a head in a valley hidden high in the mountains of Kashmir, where the Sanctuary of this world will face an undying threat from another. It's Armageddon in Shangri-La, and the end of the world as the craftspeople know it.
A grand narrative history of the re-emergence of Europe following the collapse of the Roman Empire. At the approach of the first millennium, the Christians of Europe did not seem likely candidates for future greatness. Weak, fractured, and hemmed in by hostile nations, they saw no future beyond the widely anticipated Second Coming of Christ. But when the world did not end, the peoples of Western Europe suddenly found themselves with no choice but to begin the heroic task of building a Jerusalem on earth. In The Forge of Christendom, Tom Holland masterfully describes this remarkable new age, a time of caliphs and Viking sea kings, the spread of castles and the invention of knighthood. It was one of the most significant departure points in history: the emergence of Western Europe as a distinctive and expansionist power.
Science fiction, fantasy and horror movies have spawned more sequels and remakes than any other film genre. Following Volume I, which covered 400 films made 1931-1995, Volume II analyzes 334 releases from 1996 through 2016. The traditional cinematic monsters are represented--Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, a new Mummy. A new wave of popular series inspired by comics and video games, as well as The Lord of the Rings trilogy, could never have been credibly produced without the advances in special effects technology. Audiences follow the exploits of superheroes like Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man and Thor, and such heroines as the vampire Selene, zombie killer Alice, dystopian rebels Katniss Everdeen and Imperator Furiosa, and Soviet spy turned American agent Black Widow. The continuing depredations of Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers are described. Pre-1996 movies that have since been remade are included. Entries features cast and credits, detailed synopsis, critics' reviews, and original analysis.
The Wars of Religion embroiled France in decades of faction, violence, and peacemaking in the late sixteenth century. When historians interpret these events they inevitably depend on sources of information gathered by contemporaries, none more valuable than the diaries and collection of Pierre de L'Estoile (1546-1611), who lived through the civil wars in Paris and shaped how they have been remembered ever since. Taking him out of the footnotes, and demonstrating his significance in the culture of the late Renaissance, this is the first life of L'Estoile in any language. It examines how he negotiated and commemorated the conflicts that divided France as he assembled an extraordinary collection of the relics of the troubles, a collection that he called "the storehouse of my curiosities." The story of his life and times is the history of the civil wars in the making. Focusing on a crucial individual for understanding Reformation Europe, this study challenges historians' assumptions about the widespread impact of confessional conflict in the sixteenth century. L'Estoile's prudent, non-confessional responses to the events he lived through and recorded were common among his milieu of Gallican Catholics. His life-writing and engagement with contemporary news, books, and pictures reveals how individuals used different genres and media to destabilize rather than fix confessional identities. Bringing together the great variety of topics in society and culture that attracted L'Estoile's curiosity, this volume rethinks his world in the Wars of Religion.
This volume is a study of how the poetry of Chaucer continued to give pleasure in the eighteenth century despite the immense linguistic, literary, and cultural shifts that had occurred in the intervening centuries. It explores translations and imitations of Chaucer's work by Dryden, Pope, and other poets (including Samuel Cobb, John Dart, Christopher Smart, Jane Brereton, William Wordsworth, and Leigh Hunt) from the early eighteenth to the early nineteenth centuries, as well as investigating the beginnings of modern Chaucer editing and biography. It pays particular attention to critical responses to Chaucer by Dryden and the brothers Warton, and includes a chapter on the oblique presence of Chaucer in Samuel Johnson's Dictionary. It explores the ways in which Chaucer's poetry (including several works now known not to be by him) was described, refashioned, reimagined, and understood several centuries after its initial appearance. It also documents the way that views of Chaucer's own character were inferred from his work. The book combines detailed discussion of particular critical and poetic texts, many of them unfamiliar to modern readers, with larger suggestions about the ways in which poetry of the past is received in the future.
The acclaimed author of Rubicon and other superb works of popular history now produces a thrillingly panoramic (and incredibly timely) account of the rise of Islam. No less significant than the collapse of the Roman Republic or the Persian invasion of Greece, the evolution of the Arab empire is one of the supreme narratives of ancient history, a story dazzlingly rich in drama, character, and achievement. Just like the Romans, the Arabs came from nowhere to carve out a stupefyingly vast dominion—except that they achieved their conquests not over the course of centuries as the Romans did but in a matter of decades. Just like the Greeks during the Persian wars, they overcame seemingly insuperable odds to emerge triumphant against the greatest empire of the day—not by standing on the defensive, however, but by hurling themselves against all who lay in their path.
In the clear, vigorous, and candid prose that is his trade mark, Kent recalls his role in the crises and triumphs of the Pearson government: the "Sixty Days of Decision," Walter Gordon's first budget, the flag debate, Medicare, the elventh-hour negotiations with Jean Lesage that averted a constitutional rupture over the Canada Pension Plan, and, after 1965, Pearson's increasing exhaustion and disenchantment. From the Pearson years, the book moves to the Trudeau impact on Ottawa, the regional development program, and the disagreement on economic policy that led Kent to leave Ottawa in 1971.
Collects Star Wars: Dark Empire (1991) #1-6; Star Wars: Dark Empire II (1994) #1-6; Star Wars: Empire's End (1995) #1-2; Star Wars Handbook (1998) #1, 3; material from Star Wars Tales (1999) #8, 11, 16-17. The Dark Empire trilogy! Six years after the Battle of Endor, the heroes of the Rebellion work to unite the galaxy. But a new Empire has risen from the chaos to strike back at the former Rebel Alliance, reclaiming its capital of Coruscant and building massive new World Devastators to ravage entire planets. And Jabba the Hutt’s ruthless heirs have placed a monumental price on the heads of Princess Leia and Han Solo! Together with Lando Calrissian, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and C-3PO, Han and Leia must fight to protect the future of their children — but the greatest threat may come from the last of the Jedi: Luke Skywalker!
BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Tom Piccirilli's The Last Kind Words. This lyrical tale of evil, loss, and redemption is a stunning addition to the Southern gothic tradition of Flannery O’Connor and Harry Crews. A Choir of Ill Children is the startling story of Kingdom Come, a decaying, swamp backwater that draws the lost, ill-fated, and damned. Since his mother’s disappearance and his father’s suicide, Thomas has cared for his three brothers—conjoined triplets with separate bodies but one shared brain—and the town’s only industry, the Mill. Because of his family’s prominence, Thomas is feared and respected by the superstitious swamp folk. Granny witches cast hexes while Thomas’s childhood sweetheart drifts through his life like a vengeful ghost and his best friend, a reverend suffering from the power of tongues, is overcome with this curse as he tries to warn of impending menace. All Thomas learns is that “the carnival is coming.” Torn by responsibility and rage, Thomas must face his tormented past as well as the mysterious forces surging toward the town he loves and despises.
Brigit I'd like it to be perfect . . . Beautiful . . . The statue . . . Unbeatable? . . . I'd like it to be what I feel . . . And I don't know what that is. Set in the 1950s, Brigit, a prequel to Murphy's critically-acclaimed Bailegangaire (1985), tells the story of Mommo and Séamus, grandparents living on the breadline, who are raising three grandchildren: Mary, Dolly and Tom, when Séamus is offered a job to carve a statue of St Brigit. Brigit premiered in September 2014, in a production by Druid Theatre Company, Galway, Ireland. Bailegangaire 'One of the finest and most inventive pieces of Irish dramatic writing ever - the power of its language soaring beyond the loftiest aspirations of Synge and its insights on the human spirit cutting deeper than O'Casey's' - Sunday Independent A Thief of a Christmas 'Grand opera . . . both timeless and contemporary' - Fintan O'Toole
William Faden's map of Norfolk, published in 1797, was one of a large number of surveys of English counties produced in the second half of the eighteenth century. This book, with accompanying DVD, presents a new digital version of the map, and explains how this can be interrogated to produce a wealth of new historical information. It discusses the making of the Norfolk map, and Faden's own career, within the wider context of the eighteenth-century "cartographic revolution". It explores what the map, and others like it, can tell us about contemporary social and economic geography. But it also shows how, carefully examined, the map can also inform us about the development of the Norfolk landscape in much more remote periods of time. The book includes a digital version of the map, on DVD. Andrew Macnair is Research Fellow at the School of History in the University of East Anglia; Tom Williamson is Professor of History and Head of the Landscape Group at the University of East Anglia.
The New York Times Bestseller With inside access and reporting, Sports Illustrated senior baseball writer and FOX Sports analyst Tom Verducci reveals how Theo Epstein and Joe Maddon built, led, and inspired the Chicago Cubs team that broke the longest championship drought in sports, chronicling their epic journey to become World Series champions. It took 108 years, but it really happened. The Chicago Cubs are once again World Series champions. How did a team composed of unknown, young players and supposedly washed-up veterans come together to break the Curse of the Billy Goat? Tom Verducci, twice named National Sportswriter of the Year and co-writer of The Yankee Years with Joe Torre, will have full access to team president Theo Epstein, manager Joe Maddon, and the players to tell the story of the Cubs' transformation from perennial underachievers to the best team in baseball. Beginning with Epstein's first year with the team in 2011, Verducci will show how Epstein went beyond "Moneyball" thinking to turn around the franchise. Leading the organization with a manual called "The Cubs Way," he focused on the mental side of the game as much as the physical, emphasizing chemistry as well as statistics. To accomplish his goal, Epstein needed manager Joe Maddon, an eccentric innovator, as his counterweight on the Cubs' bench. A man who encourages themed road trips and late-arrival game days to loosen up his team, Maddon mixed New Age thinking with Old School leadership to help his players find their edge. The Cubs Way takes readers behind the scenes, chronicling how key players like Rizzo, Russell, Lester, and Arrieta were deftly brought into the organization by Epstein and coached by Maddon to outperform expectations. Together, Epstein and Maddon proved that clubhouse culture is as important as on-base-percentage, and that intangible components like personality, vibe, and positive energy are necessary for a team to perform to their fullest potential. Verducci chronicles the playoff run that culminated in an instant classic Game Seven. He takes a broader look at the history of baseball in Chicago and the almost supernatural element to the team's repeated loses that kept fans suffering, but also served to strengthen their loyalty. The Cubs Way is a celebration of an iconic team and its journey to a World Championship that fans and readers will cherish for years to come.
The war in Faerie is over, and David Sullivan's Cherokee friend, Calvin McIntosh, has returned to Georgia. But the young brave has unknowingly left the portal to Galunlati open...and Spearfinger has entered his world. A Stoneskin with powers over rocks and earth, who feeds on mortal flesh, Spearfinger has brought her Otherworldly terror into the realm of humanity. And now Calvin, with his newly awakened magic skills, must confront the insatiable fiend...and destroy the evil that would devour mankind!
In each of these six tales, a mysterious bottle falls into the hands of a heroine with results that can only be described as pure magic. Contributors include Jane Feather, Patricia Coughlin, Sharon and Tom Curtis, Elizabeth Elliott, Patricia Potter and Suzanne Robinson. New release feature on BDD Online's Women's Fiction Forum (http: //www.bdd.com/romance).
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