Search

Although humankind today can peer far deeper into the universe than ever before, we still find ourselves surrounded by the unknown and perhaps the unknowable. All great science fiction has used the human imagination to explore that realm beyond the known, just as theistic religions have done since long before the genre existed. As Hugo Award-winning author Robert Charles Wilson argues in Owning the Unknown, the genre's freewheeling speculation and systematic world-building make it it a unique lens for understanding, examining, and assessing the truth claims of religions in general and Christianity in particular. Drawing on his personal experience, his work as a science fiction writer, and his deep knowledge of the classics of the genre, he makes the case for what he calls intuitive atheism—an atheism drawn from everyday personal knowledge that doesn't depend on familiarity with the scholarly debate about theology and metaphysics, any more than a robust personal Christianity does. And as he reminds us, the secrets that remain hidden beyond the borders of the known universe—should we ever discover them—will probably not resemble anything currently found in our most prized philosophies, our most sacred texts, or our most imaginative science fiction.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1970.

Modernism in music still arouses passions and is riven by controversies. Taking root in the early decades of the twentieth century, it achieved ideological dominance for almost three decades following the Second World War, before becoming the object of widespread critique in the last two decades of the century, both from critics and composers of a postmodern persuasion and from prominent scholars associated with the ‘new musicology'. Yet these critiques have failed to dampen its ongoing resilience. The picture of modernism has considerably broadened and diversified, and has remained a pivotal focus of debate well into the twenty-first century. This Research Companion does not seek to limit what musical modernism might be. At the same time, it resists any dilution of the term that would see its indiscriminate application to practically any and all music of a certain period.In addition to addressing issues already well established in modernist studies such as aesthetics, history, institutions, place, diaspora, cosmopolitanism, production and performance, communication technologies and the interface with postmodernism, this volume also explores topics that are less established; among them: modernism and affect, modernism and comedy, modernism versus the ‘contemporary', and the crucial distinction between modernism in popular culture and a ‘popular modernism', a modernism of the people. In doing so, this text seeks to define modernism in music by probing its margins as much as by restating its supposed essence.

Premiul John W. Campbell Memorial Monumente enigmatice apar pe neașteptate în lume, profețind o istorie militară a viitorului. „Una dintre cele mai impresionante realizări science-fiction ale anului“ – New York Times

The Hugo Award–winning author of Spin, praised as “a hell of a storyteller” by Stephen King, gives time travel his own mind-bending twist... Two events made September 1st a memorable day for Jesse Cullum. First, he lost a pair of Oakley sunglasses. Second, he saved the life of President Ulysses S. Grant.In the near future of Robert Charles Wilson's Last Year, the technology exists to open doorways into the past—but not our past, not exactly. Each “past” is effectively an alternate world, identical to ours but only up to the date on which we access it. And a given “past” can only be reached once. After a passageway is open, it's the only road to that particular past; once closed, it can't be reopened.A passageway has been opened to a version of late 19th-century Ohio. It's been in operation for most of a decade, but it's no secret, on either side of time. A small city has grown up around it to entertain visitors from our time, and many locals earn a good living catering to them. But like all such operations, it has a shelf life; as the “natives” become more sophisticated, their version of the “past” grows less attractive as a destination.Jesse Cullum is a native. And he knows the passageway will be closing soon. He's fallen in love with a woman from our time, and he means to follow her back—no matter whose secrets he has to expose in order to do it.“Wilson's prose is beautifully constructed in this intelligent and gripping novel.” —Chicago Review of Books

National bestselling author Charles Wilson delivers a cutting-edge thriller based on real-life experiments at improving human intelligence currently underway in both government and private circles. Imagine a computer chip no bigger than the tip of a pencil. This chip, if implanted in a human brain, could give someone encyclopedic knowledge, lightning-fast reflexes and superior learning skills. In a remote military hospital in Montana, an experiment is being performed: implant the chip into the brains of five volunteers. These volunteers, four men and one woman, are all serving life sentences in prison. The experiment works...but the five criminals escape. One young doctor is pulled into the intrigue by the baffling murder of his medical school mentor. Can this one doctor stop the conspiracy of five powerful opponents...whose driving desire is absolute and total control?

New technology brings people together—and leads to war—in this “intriguing and seriously innovative” novel by the Hugo Award–winning author of Spin (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).In the near future, social media's ability to sort people into groups has been supercharged by new analytic technologies. Using genetics, brain-mapping, and behavioral psychology, anyone can be assessed for inclusion in The Affinities. And to join one of the Affinities is to change your life. It's not that your fellow members are just like you—they're the people with whom you can best cooperate in all areas of life.Adrift both professionally and personally, young Adam Fisk takes the suite of tests and finds that he's a match for the Affinity known as Tau. It's utopian—at first. All his problems seem to sort themselves out as he becomes part of a global network of people dedicated to helping one another—to helping him.But as the different Affinities discover their strength, they begin to chip away at the power of governments, of global corporations, of all the institutions of the old world. Then, with dreadful inevitability, the different Affinities begin to go to war...

Kids love fast food. And the fast food industry definitely loves kids. It couldn't survive without them. Did you know that the biggest toy company in the world is McDonald's? It's true. In fact, one out of every three toys given to a child in the United States each year is from a fast food restaurant. Not only has fast food reached into the toy industry, it's moving into our schools. One out of every five public schools in the United States now serves brand name fast food. But do kids know what they're eating? Where do fast food hamburgers come from? And what makes those fries taste so good? When Eric Schlosser's best-selling book, Fast Food Nation, was published for adults in 2001, many called for his groundbreaking insight to be shared with young people. Now Schlosser, along with co-writer Charles Wilson, has investigated the subject further, uncovering new facts children need to know. In Chew On This, they share with kids the fascinating and sometimes frightening truth about what lurks between those sesame seed buns, what a chicken ‘nugget'really is, and how the fast food industry has been feeding off children for generations.

In an alternate world, peace comes at a terrifying cost—as aliens kill to maintain their secret—in this novel by the Hugo Award–winning author of Spin.Cassie Klyne, nineteen years old, lives in the United States in the year 2015—but it's not our United States, and it's not our 2015. Cassie's world has been at peace since the Great Armistice of 1918. There was no World War II, no Great Depression. Poverty is declining, prosperity is increasing everywhere; social instability is rare. But Cassie knows the world isn't what it seems.Her parents were part of a group who gradually discovered the awful truth: that for decades—back to the dawn of radio communications—human progress has been molded, made more peaceful and benign, by an extraterrestrial entity. That by interfering with our communications, this entity has tweaked history in massive and subtle ways. That humanity is, for purposes unknown, being farmed.Cassie's parents were killed for this knowledge, along with most of the other members of their group. Since then, the survivors have scattered and gone into hiding. Cassie and her younger brother Thomas now live with her aunt Nerissa, who shares these dangerous secrets. Others live nearby. For eight years they have attempted to lead unexceptional lives in order to escape detection. The tactic has worked.Until now. Because the killers are back. And they're not human.

Historical explanations need to keep step with the march of research if they are not to degenerate into empty cliches. It has long been a commonplace of 17th century history that the Anglo-Dutch Wars were the product of'commercial rivalry'. This essay, first published twenty years ago, attempted to analyse and redefine this overworked traditional concept so as to explain more precisely how it led to naval wars between the Dutch and the English. Two idees fixes of contemporary English thought seemed especially significant; one was the persistent consciousness of English inferiority and backwardness in economic affairs when compared with the Dutch; the other, compounding this, was the equally persistent conviction that strategically, England seemed well placed to wreck the Dutch maritime economy and bring the Republic to her knees in a naval war. These obsessive beliefs combined naturally with the specific influences and motives of powerful political and commercial lobbies to stoke the fires of aggression. Failing over several decades to make any visible progress by more or less peaceful policies, they turned, first, to economic warfare by means of propaganda and pseudo-legal claims to maritime sovereignty; finally (in 1652) to all-out eco­ nomic and naval warfare.

My first thanks must go to the Electors to Ford's Lectureship in English History in the University of Oxford, who honoured me with the invitation to discharge that formidable responsibility in 1969, generously interpreting the statute so as to allow me to deal with a subject which contained nearly as much Netherlands as it did English history. To Hugh Trevor-Roper, Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Oxford, and his fellow­ Electors, I am grateful for much encouragement, guidance and hospitality. The colleagues and pupils upon whom I have from time to time inflicted discussion of problems arising from my subject are far too numerous to be thanked individually. Two must nevertheless be singled out. Vivian Fisher of Jesus College, Cambridge, very kindly read the completed manuscript, and I have benefited by a number of characteristically penetrating comments and suggestions which he made. Geoffrey Parker, Fellow of Christ's College, generously allowed me to make use of his unique knowledge of the Spanish, French and Italian archives to check and supplement my own information. I am deeply grateful to both. Finally, it will be evident that quite apart from my own researches these lectures owe a heavy debt to many scholars, Dutch, Belgian, American and British especially, who have worked in this or related fields of inquiry. I am not less indebted to those from whose interpretations I have ventured to differ than to those with whom I have found myself in agreement.

Winner of the Philip K. Dick Award: A Michigan town is transported into an alternate-world theocracy in this “intelligent, compelling work of fiction” (Publishers Weekly).In a top-secret government installation near the small town of Two Rivers, Michigan, scientists are investigating a mysterious object discovered several years earlier. Late one evening, the local residents observe strange lights coming from the laboratory. The next morning, they awake to find their town literally cut off from the rest of the world... and thrust into a new one.Soon the town is discovered by the bewildered leaders of this new world—at which point, the people of Two Rivers realize that they've arrived in a rigid theocracy. The authorities, known as the Bureau de la Covenance Religieuse, have ordered Linneth Stone, a young ethnologist, to analyze the arrivals and report her findings to the Lieutenant in charge.What Linneth finds will challenge the philosophical basis of her society—and lead inexorably to a struggle for power centering on the mysterious object that Two Rivers'government scientists were studying when the town slipped between worlds... “A study in culture shock as simple people find their values and their future irrevocably redefined... a graceful storyteller.” —Library Journal“Blends science, religion, philosophy and alternate history.” —Publishers Weekly“Mr. Wilson is adept at drawing fully rounded characters in a few paragraphs... The true nature of the disaster that has befallen Two Rivers becomes clear only at the end of the book, in a denouement as poignant as it is unexpected.” —The New York Times Book Review“Probably the finest science-fiction author now writing.” —Stephen King

In an altered America where machines no longer work and magic holds sway, former lawyer-turned-visionary leader Cal Griffin guides his small band on a quest toward the Source of the Change -- following a trail he hopes will reunite him with his abducted sister, Christina, transformed into one of the powerful, enigmatic beings called'flares.'Armed with little more than compassion and a determination to heal the world, Cal, the warrior Colleen Brooks, Russian physician Doc Lysenko, and bipolar street wizard Herman'Goldie'Goldman encounter old foes and new friends in a landscape of unimaginable beauties and magnificent horrors -- forced to confront the frightful secrets of an emissary from a dread region and to trust in a brilliant triumvirate of grad students who could get things running again... at a terrible cost—as the final moves in humankind's ultimate nightmare are played out in the depths of the Ghostlands.

From Robert Charles Wilson, the Hugo Award-winning author of Spin, comes Julian Comstock, an exuberant adventure in a post-climate-change America.In the reign of President Deklan Comstock, a reborn United States is struggling back to prosperity. Over a century after the Efflorescence of Oil, after the Fall of the Cities, after the False Tribulation, after the days of the Pious Presidents, the sixty stars and thirteen stripes wave from the plains of Athabaska to the national capital in New York. In Colorado Springs, the Dominion sees to the nation's spiritual needs. In Labrador, the Army wages war on the Dutch. America, unified, is rising once again.Then out of Labrador come tales of the war hero'Captain Commongold.'The masses follow his adventures in the popular press. The Army adores him. The President is...troubled. Especially when the dashing Captain turns out to be his nephew Julian, son of the President's late brother Bryce—a popular general who challenged the President's power, and paid the ultimate price.As Julian ascends to the pinnacle of power, his admiration for the works of the Secular Ancients sets him at fatal odds with the Dominion. Treachery and intrigue will dog him as he closes in on the accomplishment of his lifelong ambition: to make a film about the life of Charles Darwin.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

“The style is rich, lucid, and literate... Hideous creatures mass and threaten in an ending reminiscent of Stephen King... remarkable indeed.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)A Hugo Award FinalistIn 1912, history was changed by the Miracle, when the old world of Europe was replaced by Darwinia, a strange land of nightmarish jungle and antediluvian monsters. To some, the Miracle is an act of divine retribution; to others, it is an opportunity to carve out a new empire.Leaving an America now ruled by religious fundamentalism, young Guilford Law travels to Darwinia on a mission of discovery that will take him further than he can possibly imagine... to a shattering revelation about mankind's destiny in the universe. “In the best tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jules Verne, and H. G. Wells... A page-turner.” —The Globe and Mail“A remarkable book, worthy of the highest honors of our field. Don't miss it.” —Locus

In the hard years of the Depression, young Travis lives with his uncle and aunt. Upstairs lives the mysterious Anna. Anna says she's going to be'changing,'and she needs Travis's help...for purposes she won't explain. Robert Charles Wilson's A Hidden Place is a science fiction tale of passion, terror, and hope, opening out to a great, dark, and unsuspected universe.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

This well-written book covers both practical aspects of investigation and the theoretical underpinnings. Starting with ideas for team building, the volume offers concrete guidance about the most effective structures available to teams.... This volume will be of interest to those wishing to start a team and also to existing team members who want assistance with optimizing team development. --Virginia Child Protection Newsletter'Highly recommended.'--Family Violence & Sexual Assault Bulletin Book Club As child abuse investigation and intervention evolved throughout the past decade, it has become clear that no single discipline or agency can meet the needs of abused children and their families. This practical, timely, and accessibly written book focuses on how to develop, operate, and maintain effective investigative teams. It examines how law enforcement officers, child protection workers, prosecutors, medical professionals, and mental health clinicians can form coordinated investigative teams for fact finding, child protection, and criminal prosecution. The authors devote a series of chapters to investigative interviewing, investigative protocol, preparing for the child interview, the child interview process, corroborating interviews, and interviewing the suspect. Other chapters include discussion on building teams, and the roles and responsibilities of the team members (child protective services, law enforcement, prosecutors, mental health representative, and child welfare agency counsel). The book concludes with two important chapters on the team decision-making process and decision making in complex environments. A must read for all professionals and those in training who are, or will be, involved in child sexual abuse investigations.

Exotic Plant Pests and North American Agriculture examines the threat posed by exotic pests introduced to North American agriculture. It considers the impact of introduced pests on humans, and it highlights the need for intensified research efforts and international cooperation to prevent further introductions. Organized into 17 chapters plus an epilogue, this volume begins with a historical overview of pest introductions, including insects and mites, and possible introductions in the future. It then discusses the impact of introduced weeds in North America; ecology and genetics of exotic species; how to detect and stop pest introductions; and research on exotic insects, plant pathogens, and weeds. The reader is also introduced to the use of exotic natural enemies for biological control of exotic pests, prediction of potential epidemics caused by exotic pests, insurance against exotic plant pathogens, and international cooperation on controlling exotic pests. Scientists, plant pathologists, ecologists, and those working in academics, government research laboratories, and regulatory agencies will benefit from reading this book.