Evolution Fiction

A philosopher dons a wet suit and journeys into the depths of consciousness. Peter Godfrey-Smith is a leading philosopher of science. He is also a scuba diver whose underwater videos of warring octopuses have attracted wide notice. In this audiobook he brings his parallel careers together to tell a bold new story of how nature became aware of itself.

Evolution is one of the most important processes in life. It not only explains the detailed history of life on earth, but its scope also extends into many aspects of our own contemporary behavior - who we are and how we got to be here, our psychology, our cultures - and greatly impacts modern advancements in medicine and conservation biology. Perhaps its most important claim for science is its ability to provide an overarching framework that integrates the many life sciences into a single unified whole. Yet, evolution has been, and continues to be, regarded with suspicion by many.

More than 30 years after his landmark book Evolution: A Theory in Crisis (1985), biologist Michael Denton revisits his thesis about the inability of Darwinian evolution to explain the history of life. From the origin of life to the origin of human language, the great divisions in the natural order are still as profound as ever, and still unsupported by the series of adaptive transitional forms predicted by Darwin. Denton makes a provocative new argument about the pervasiveness of nonadaptive order throughout biology, order that cannot be explained by the Darwinian mechanism.

Over the past 20 years, paleontologists have made tremendous fossil discoveries, including fossils that mark the growth of whales, manatees, and seals from land mammals and the origins of elephants, horses, and rhinos. Today there exists an amazing diversity of fossil humans, suggesting we walked upright long before we acquired large brains, and new evidence from molecules that enable scientists to decipher the tree of life as never before.

Does it even matter anymore, after finally being captured by the Fystr? Not to Shaun it doesn’t. His immediate concern is staying alive to exact some kind of revenge.

The first all-new collection of poems since 2011’s Snowflake/different streets - and following the critically acclaimed Afterglow (a dog memoir), as well as the volume of selected poems, I Must Be Living Twice - here, in Evolution, we find the eminent, exuberant writer at the forefront of American literature, upending genre in a new vernacular that enacts - like nobody else - the way we speak (inside and out) today. Evolution, with its channeling of Quakers, Fresca, and cell phones, radiates vital insight, purpose, and risk.

The artificial intelligence, Maitreya, first came into being 150,000 years ago. Over the millennia, it has spread Terran-based life, humanity, and its avatars throughout an empty galaxy, creating the New Integral Society. Now, a supernova threatens one of Maitreya's experimental worlds, Solandaria - the only such world that harbors the Sonoran desert toad and its powerful 5-MeO-DMT containing venom, the most profound entheogen ever discovered. Things are not what they seem, however, for someone is interfering with Maitreya's experiment, violating the rules of the NIS.

If you ran into Stephen Tobolowsky on the street, you would not be mistaken: Yes, you’ve seen him before. A childhood dentist? A former geometry teacher? Your local florist? Tobolowsky is a character actor, one of the most prolific screen and stage presences of our time, having appeared in productions that range from Deadwood to Glee, from Mississippi Burning to Groundhog Day. But Stephen Tobolowsky, it turns out, is not just an actor; he is also a dazzlingly talented storyteller and writer.

Bruno Littlemore is quite unlike any chimpanzee in the world. Precocious, self-conscious and preternaturally gifted, young Bruno, born and raised in a habitat at the local zoo, falls under the care of a university primatologist named Lydia Littlemore. Learning of Bruno's ability to speak, Lydia takes Bruno into her home to oversee his education and nurture his passion for painting. But for all of his gifts, the chimpanzee has a rough time caging his more primal urges.

Viruses are the world's most abundant life form, and now, when humanity is in the midst of a close encounter with their immense power, perhaps the most feared. But do we understand viruses? Possibly the most enigmatic of living things, they are sometimes not considered a life form at all. Everything about them is extreme, including the reactions they evoke. However, for every truism about viruses, the opposite is also often true.

A lie is a prison without bars. A captive of the enemy, Candace is forced to confront mistakes and regrets from both sides of the battlefield, including her own. Nothing is simple, and lines in the sand that were once clear have become blurred and indistinguishable. Even the unlikely love she found teeters on the edge of uncertainty. The truth is not always what it seems, and can be a prison of its own. Alone, she must decide where she stands. Alone, she must decide who to trust. When the smoke clears, what's left might not be much...but it might be enough.

A one-eyed old man, with a gray cloak and a wide-brimmed hat leaning on a staff. A wanderer who appears when least expected, bringing triumph or doom. The god of prophecy, poetry and fate. A shape changer. A sorcerer. The god Odin cuts a dramatic figure in Norse mythology and is still a part of the popular imagination. He is the inspiration for figures like J.R.R. Tolkien's Gandalf the Grey, and he still appears in modern literature as varied as Marvel Comics and Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods.

When Cmdr. Eric Stoner, executive officer of the Terran Republic Navy battle cruiser Tobruk, is suddenly reassigned to the Reserve Fleet, in order to make room for the promotion of a genetically enhanced officer, he suspects that something is wrong. He quickly discovers that Homo sapiens is in danger of being replaced by Homo superior, a stronger, more intelligent and more aggressive version of Humanity.

Enter the extraordinary world of Crown Prince Ian, the last surviving heir of the Royal Arcturian family of Antwar. He's half-human, half-alien, with an IQ approaching 200, and a penchant for Swiss chocolates and defending humanity from itself. Is he Earth's savior from climate change? Or, as his genetic grandmother would say, only another mensch?

In this audiobook, The Human Odyssey, we explore the evolution of those characteristics that make us human. The first section looks at our family tree and why some branches survived and not others. Swings in climate are emerging as a factor in what traits succeeded and failed; meanwhile, DNA analyses show that Homo sapiens interbred with other human species, which played a key role in our survival.

Zuerst bemerkte niemand, dass sich die Dinge zu verändern begannen. Ein paar Tiere verschwanden. Neue erschienen. Dann tauchten die ersten Monstrositäten auf. Niemand wollte die Wahrheit erkennen, außer Ben Cartwright und die anderen Überlebenden der Abenteuer um jenes Portal in den Tiefen des Amazonas. Nur sie ahnten etwas von der ungeheuren Bedrohung für die menschliche Rasse.

The unnamed Ice-cream Dragon pushed through the dangers wrought by humans and insatiable beasts atop the mountains. His might rapidly expanded as constant improvements steamrolled a middling competition. However, that simple life cannot exist any longer. The return of magical power to the Evelard range brings attention in no small quantities. The fertile land and valuable mines were the cause of many wars across ages past, but the newfound dangers feel far more familiar.

A gentleman, with the aid of a close female companion, investigates a hidden disturbance within his unconscious. This acclaimed classic short story is rendered in perfect Jamesian fashion by narrator Jonathan Epstein.

Think of an animal, any animal at all. It could be a shark or a squid or a snail, or even a human like you! Every single animals has a secret history. A death-defying adventure that has happened across millions of years, called evolution. You will discover a new animal with its own exciting story to tell, and it's up to YOU to make the decisions that will lead to their next evolutionary step. Can you survive to the present-day or will you face extinction along the way? Will you grow a backbone, take to the skies, or dive deeper for your dinner?

The end of man was not signaled by marauding gangs or explosions but with silence. People simply grew older knowing a younger generation would not be there to replace them. The final two residents in the neighborhood of Camelot, an old man and his invalid brother, are trapped in their house by forests full of cats and dogs battling with the bears and wolves to eat anything they can find. As the man struggles to survive, he recounts all the ways society changed as the human population continued to shrink.