Higher Worlds

In April 1945, Linz was one of Nazi Germany's most vital assets. It was a crucial transportation hub and communications center, with railyards brimming with war materiel destined for the front lines. Linz was also the town Hitler claimed as home and had long intended to remake as the cultural capital of Europe, filling its planned Fuehrermuseum with world-famous art stolen from his conquered territories.

Every choice has consequences. That fact is coming all too clear to Basha and Lamont as they have to deal with the fallout of their actions. Basha is given by Tezcatlipoca a life-changing choice concerning Lamont’s fate and future. Lamont is teetering on edge, and only Basha can decide where and how he shall fall. Besides that problem, some of their friends are either dead or missing. To find their friends, they must travel to an alien world that is on the brink of ecological catastrophe in some unknown part of the universe to find them and release them Then they must travel to the very ...

In this expansive, rich, and deeply tragic portrait of a German family from 1899 to 1945, Len Deighton brilliantly weaves a portrait of the fortunes of two sons, and a nation, over half a century.

Here is the story of how, beginning well before the advent of machine production in the 1780s, these men captured ancient trades and skills in Asia, combined them with the expropriation of lands in the Americas and the enslavement of African workers to crucially recast the disparate realms of cotton that had existed for millennia. We see how industrial capitalism then reshaped these worlds of cotton into an empire, and how this empire transformed the world.

Servant to the God of Death, now a prisoner of war. Keres' chains are in the hands of her enemy and he’s bringing her to heel. As twists of fate entangle her, she must learn to play the strings or become the spell-bound puppet. The bargain for freedom, a bond forged in darkness. The deadly game between Gods and mortals has only just begun. ADVANCE PRAISE: "Anastasia King has a wicked and creative mind and I was beside myself for numerous parts of this read. Looking forward to more installments of this series and I cannot recommend this enough. The writing is immaculate. The plot is very ...

Two years ago, Graham Robb moved to a lonely house on the very edge of England, near the banks of a river that once marked the southern boundary of the legendary Debatable Land. The oldest detectable territorial division in Great Britain, the Debatable Land served as a buffer between Scotland and England. It was once the bloodiest region in the country, fought over by Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, and James V. After most of its population was slaughtered or deported, it became the last part of Great Britain to be brought under the control of the state.

The Irish Revolution has long been mythologized in American culture but seldom understood. For too long the story of Irish independence and its aftermath has been told only within an Anglo-Irish context. Now, in the critically acclaimed Bitter Freedom, journalist Maurice Walsh, with "a novelist's eye for the illuminating detail of everyday lives in extremis" ( Prospect), places revolutionary Ireland in the panorama of the global disorder born of the terrible slaughter of World War I and provides a kaleidoscopic portrait of the human face of the conflict.

With his trademark brilliance, generosity of spirit, and clear pastoral calling, Brian McLaren synthesizes an accessible and inviting understanding of what it means to follow Jesus.

What If the Real Problem… Is Math Itself? As a substitute teacher, homeschooling parent, and unapologetic cultural critic, Theo Rhising takes a blowtorch to the sacred cow of compulsory math—revealing how this outdated rite of passage crushes curiosity, squanders youth, and props up a system more concerned with compliance than critical thinking. Why are teens still forced through years of abstract math they'll never use—trig, calculus, polynomials—while graduating clueless about taxes, budgeting, or building a life that actually works? Why is math treated as sacred when, for most, ...

A Hasidic gunslinger tracks the renegade teacher who betrayed his mystic Jewish order of astral travelers across the demon-haunted American Southwest of 1879. In this acclaimed first volume, four sequential novellas and one bonus short story chronicle the weird adventures of the Merkabah Rider. Featuring The Blood Libel, The Dust Devils, Hell's Hired Gun, The Nightjar Women, and "The Shomer Express."

Irreverently juggling magical realism, film noir, hip hop, and chicanismo, Tropic of Orange takes place in a Los Angeles where the homeless, gangsters, infant organ entrepreneurs, and Hollywood collide on a stretch of the Harbor Freeway. Hemmed in by wildfires, it's a symphony conducted from an overpass, grandiose, comic, and as diverse as the city itself - from an author who has received the California Book Award and the Association for Asian American Studies Book Award, among other literary honors.

"Entertaining story of fascinating other realms." –Kirkus Reviews "Magic and other races really add to the magnificent story!" –Auburn, Vine Voice Tolkien meets Herbert and takes us on an incredible two world struggle for survival of humankind! To avoid a confrontation with the Creek sisters—Crystalyn and Jade—a parasitic alien calling itself the One Mind, escapes to the land of Terra, and grows quickly stronger. Gorging on the brain neurons of organic beings, the creature scales up a planet-wide plan for genocidal control, using someone dear as a host. With a small band of fighters...

In July 1776 a pair of Franciscan friars, Francisco Atanasio Dominguez and Silvestre Velez de Escalante, were charged by the governor of New Mexico with discovering a route across the unknown Southwest to the new Spanish colony in California. They had other goals as well, some of them secret: converting the indigenous natives along the way to the true faith, discovering a semi-mythical paradise known as Teguayo, hunting for sources of gold and silver, and paving the way for Spanish settlements from Santa Fe to Monterey. In strict terms, the expedition failed.

Jack Corvus is a retired police detective, seeking tranquility in a world cruise after a lifetime of solving crimes. His peaceful journey takes a sinister turn when a fellow passenger is murdered. Trapped aboard a ship filled with suspects, Jack must once again put his detective skills to the test. With limited resources and a ticking clock, he'll need to navigate a labyrinth of secrets and lies to uncover the truth and bring the killer to justice.

Ben Kuroki was a twenty-four-year-old Japanese American farm boy whose heritage was never a problem in remote Nebraska—until Pearl Harbor. Among the millions of Americans who flocked to military stations to enlist, Ben wanted to avenge the attack, reclaim his family honor, and prove his patriotism. But as anti-Japanese sentiment soared, Ben had to fight to be allowed to fight for America. And fight he did.

As President Barack Obama's adviser on Russian affairs, Michael McFaul helped craft the United States' policy known as "reset" that fostered new and unprecedented collaboration between the two countries. And then, as US ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014, he had a front-row seat when this fleeting, hopeful moment crumbled with Vladimir Putin's return to the presidency. This riveting inside account combines history and memoir to tell the full story of US-Russia relations from the fall of the Soviet Union to the new rise of the hostile, paranoid Russian president.

After Tripoli declared war on the United States in 1801, Barbary pirates captured 300 U.S. sailors and marines. President Jefferson sent navy squadrons to the Mediterranean, but he also authorized a secret mission to overthrow the government of Tripoli. He chose an unlikely diplomat, William Eaton, to lead the mission, but before Eaton departed, Jefferson grew wary of the affair and withdrew his support.

The Persian Empire was the world's first hyperpower, with territory stretching from Central Asia to Northeastern Africa and from Southeastern Europe to the Indus Valley. It was the dominant geopolitical force from the later sixth century to its conquest by Alexander in the 330s BCE. Much of the empire's territory was conquered by its founder, Cyrus the Great, who reigned from 559-530 BCE.

Pakistan's pathway to developing nuclear weapons remains shrouded in mystery and surrounded by misconceptions. While it is no secret why Pakistan became a nuclear power, how Pakistan became a nuclear state has been obscured by mythmaking. In Pakistan's Pathway to the Bomb, Mansoor Ahmed offers a revisionist history of Pakistan's nuclear program and the bureaucratic politics that shaped its development from its inception in 1956 until the 1998 nuclear tests.

Drawing on an unprecedented range and variety of original research, Hitler's Empire sheds new light on how the Nazis designed, maintained, and lost their European dominion - and offers a chilling vision of what the world would have become had they won the war. Mark Mazower forces us to set aside timeworn opinions of the Third Reich, and instead shows how the party drew inspiration for its imperial expansion from America and Great Britain.