The Custodians, and Other Stories PDF Download

Author: Richard Cowper
Publisher: Orion
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Author: Stanislaw Lem
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262366657
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 341

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Twelve stories by science fiction master Stanisław Lem, nine of them never before published in English. Of these twelve short stories by science fiction master Stanisław Lem, only three have previously appeared in English, making this the first "new" book of fiction by Lem since the late 1980s. The stories display the full range of Lem's intense curiosity about scientific ideas as well as his sardonic approach to human nature, presenting as multifarious a collection of mad scientists as any reader could wish for. Many of these stories feature artificial intelligences or artificial life forms, long a Lem preoccupation; some feature quite insane theories of cosmology or evolution. All are thought provoking and scathingly funny. Written from 1956 to 1993, the stories are arranged in chronological order. In the title story, "The Truth," a scientist in an insane asylum theorizes that the sun is alive; "The Journal" appears to be an account by an omnipotent being describing the creation of infinite universes--until, in a classic Lem twist, it turns out to be no such thing; in "An Enigma," beings debate whether offspring can be created without advanced degrees and design templates. Other stories feature a computer that can predict the future by 137 seconds, matter-destroying spores, a hunt in which the prey is a robot, and an electronic brain eager to go on the lam. These stories are peak Lem, exploring ideas and themes that resonate throughout his writing.

Author: Richard Cowper
Publisher: Gateway
ISBN: 0575108185
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 143

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Tom Jones is naïve, impressionable and very, very willing. His chief talent is conversing with dolphins in the Aquatic Mammals Division of HMS Profundis, a gargantuan submarine destined to roam the ocean depths for a century following the nuclear holocaust. Years pass and mad captain succeeds mad captain. Eventually the ship falls under the command of one Admiral Prood, a kind, understanding man who finally comes to a startling conclusion. He is God the Father. The Almighty Himself. And all he needs now is a son to sit at his right hand. Enter the innocent Tom Jones.

Author: A. S. Byatt
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 030781954X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Collected in a single volume for the first time—an unforgettable book of short stories from the Booker Prize-winning author of Possession that explores the fragile ties between generations, the dizzying abyss of loss, and the elaborate memories we construct against it. In this book of short fictions, A.S. Byatt compels us to inhabit other lives and returns us to our own with new knowledge, compassion, and a sense of wonder. "Byatt's stories display all her talents as a novelist, but spiced with an additional friskiness." —Evening Standard

Author: Drayton Alan
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781539525660
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Kale Butterly's dream of being a starship officer seems dead when he fails the entry exam for the Coalition Officer's Space Academy. So he devises a fool-proof backup plan-get a custodian job on a starship, meet lots of officers, and impress and amaze them until they recommend him for the program. He only needs one recommendation, but Kale underestimates the exceptional level of fools his fool-proof plan is up against. In this action-packed science fiction parody, Drayton Alan weaves the comic story of the unsung heroes who keep the starship COSMOS squeegeed clean. This quirky group of custodians, robot techs, and interior decorators find themselves fighting ignorance and aliens, with nothing more than high tech shop vacs and all-purpose spray cleaner. Can the custodians save the starship? Will Kale become a Ship's Officer, as he's always dreamed? Can humans, robots, and a sassy race of squidmen live peacefully within the same galaxy? Find out the hilarious answer in Custodians of the Cosmos. Destined to be a Number Two Bestseller!

Author: Gregory H. Maddox
Publisher: Ohio University Press
ISBN: 0821440055
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
Farming and pastoral societies inhabit ever-changing environments. This relationship between environment and rural culture, politics and economy in Tanzania is the subject of this volume which will be valuable in reopening debates on Tanzanian history. In his conclusion, Isaria N. Kimambo, a founding father of Tanzanian history, reflects on the efforts of successive historians to strike a balance between external causes of change and local initiative in their interpretations of Tanzanian history. He shows that nationalist and Marxist historians of Tanzanian history, understandably preoccupied through the first quarter-century of the country’s post-colonial history with the impact of imperialism and capitalism on East Africa, tended to overlook the initiatives taken by rural societies to transform themselves. Yet there is good reason for historians to think about the causes of change and innovation in the rural communities of Tanzania, because farming and pastoral people have constantly changed as they adjusted to shifting environmental conditions.

Author: James S. Ettema
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 9780231106757
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Through in-depth interviews with award-winning investigative reporters and detailed analyses of the stories that brought them professional acclaim, the authors explain how journalists resolve, practically if not conceptually, the paradox of a press that is committed to exposing wrongdoing and is at the same time adamant about its disinterest in questions of right and wrong.

Author: Tarleton Gillespie
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 030023502X
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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A revealing and gripping investigation into how social media platforms police what we post online—and the large societal impact of these decisions Most users want their Twitter feed, Facebook page, and YouTube comments to be free of harassment and porn. Whether faced with “fake news” or livestreamed violence, “content moderators”—who censor or promote user†‘posted content—have never been more important. This is especially true when the tools that social media platforms use to curb trolling, ban hate speech, and censor pornography can also silence the speech you need to hear. In this revealing and nuanced exploration, award†‘winning sociologist and cultural observer Tarleton Gillespie provides an overview of current social media practices and explains the underlying rationales for how, when, and why these policies are enforced. In doing so, Gillespie highlights that content moderation receives too little public scrutiny even as it is shapes social norms and creates consequences for public discourse, cultural production, and the fabric of society. Based on interviews with content moderators, creators, and consumers, this accessible, timely book is a must†‘read for anyone who’s ever clicked “like” or “retweet.”

Author: James H. Schmitz
Publisher: Baen Publishing Enterprises
ISBN: 1618243128
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 750

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Espionage and Intrigue in the Far Reaches of the Galaxy from the Creator of Telzey Amberdon and Trigger Argee The Galaxy was not a nice neighborhood, and most would have laid bets that the Vegan Confederacy was too small and weak to survive, let along prosper. But prosper it did, to the bewilderment of observers, who didn't know about the Vegans' secret weapon. Once, the Galactic Empire had spanned the stars and when it crumbled and fell, star systems were isolated, some barely surviving, many becoming tyrannical feifdoms, others turning to piracy, and all of them often at war with each other. The Confederacy didn't have huge space armadas, and millions of troops to protect itself and re-civilize its neighbors, but it did have the Zone agents. Few outside the top echelons of the Confederacy even knew that they existed, and even fewer had an inkling of how the agents time and again could appear on the spot just when a push in the right place could stop a war, topple a despot, or thwart an invasion of unfriendly aliens. Their numbers were pitifully few, and they had to patrol vast stretches of space. They were helped by their ships, bristling with hidden armament and piloted by robot brains of high intelligence. But their main weapon was that the minds of their opponents were open books to them. Not all of the Agents of Vega were human, but they were the most powerful telepaths the Galaxy had ever known . . . At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). "Take my advice and buy TWO copies of this book! You'll want to lend it to friends and (trust me on this: I have years of experience to back up the observation) once people get their hands on a Schmitz book, they don't let go!" - Janet Kagan, Hugo-Winner and author of Uhura's Song "Wonderfully fresh imagination." -The Horn Book

Author: Joseph Conrad
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
Typhoon is a short novel by Joseph Conrad, begun in 1899 and serialized in Pall Mall Magazine in January-March 1902. Its first book publication was in New York by Putnam in 1902; it was also published in Britain in Typhoon and Other Stories by Heinemann in 1903.