Told through an examination of animal and plant life today - with occasional juxtapositions of extinct fossil forms to reveal the origin of living creatures - "Life on Earth" is an astonishing pageant of life, with a cast of characters drawn from the whole range of living animals the world over. Attenborough's perceptive, dynamic approach to the evolution of some four million species of living organisms that populate the planet is to trace the most significant thread in the history of each major group. He then proceeds to explain from the evidence of living representatives and fossil remains why certain animals adapted and survived, evolved to more complex and "higher" forms of life, while others, by some inherent limitation imposed by their physiology or structure, failed and became extinct. "Life on Earth" is a book of wonders. A model of clarity and ease as a guide, Attenborough takes the reader around the world with him into jungles where orchids have petals that "impersonate" wasps to attract pollinating insects; to Australia, where honeypot ants force feed nectar to workers of a special caste, then hang them up by their forelegs like living storage jars; to remote mountains in Japan where little monkeys called macaques have learned to combat the winter snows by bathing in hot volcanic springs.

     Part of the Storycuts series, this short story was previously published in the collection If You Liked School, You'll Love Work.

    The fire created its own weather, including hurricane-strength winds, bubbles of plasma-like glowing gas, and 200-foot-tall flames. As temperatures reached 1,600 degrees Fahrenheit, the firestorm knocked down buildings and carried flaming debris high into the sky. Two trains-one with every single car on fire-became the only means of escape. In all, more than four hundred people would die, leading to a revolution in forestry management and the birth of federal agencies that monitor and fight wildfires. A spellbinding account of danger, devastation, and courage, Under a Flaming Sky reveals the dramatic, minute-by-minute story of the tragedy and brings into focus the ordinary citizens whose lives it irrevocably marked.

    To show the world that magic isn’t a threat to be feared, but a tool of hope. After eight months, she’s ready to present the Venture, a magically-created ship capable of reaching Mars within hours. It will mark a new phase of human exploration and discovery.But at a crucial moment, her spell is wrested from her control and twisted against her. As Jeneta recovers, whoever sabotaged her magic begins to strike down those around her. The attacker haunts her thoughts and dreams, reviving Jeneta's past traumas. And the most powerful magic-users at New Millennium are unable to help.How do you stop an enemy who strikes from within your own mind?This 15,000-word novelette is set eight months after the events of Revisionary.

    It’s not quite a nature book, not quite a humour book, not quite a family memoir, not quite folklore, not quite social history, not quite a collection of essays, but a bit of all six.It contains owls, badgers, ponies, beavers, otters, bats, bees, scarecrows, dogs, ghosts, Tom’s loud and excitable dad and, yes, even a few cats. It’s full of Devon’s local folklore – the ancient kind, and the everyday kind – and provincial places and small things. But what emerges from this focus on the small are themes that are broader and bigger and more definitive.The book’s language is colloquial and easy and its eleven chapters are discursive and wide-ranging, rambling even. The feel of the book has a lot in common with the country walks Tom Cox was on when he composed much of it: it’s bewitched by fresh air, intrepid in minor ways, haunted by weather and old stories and the spooky edges of the outdoors, restless, sometimes foolish, and prone to a few detours... but it always reaches its intended destination.The book is illustrated with Tom’s own landscape photographs and linocuts by his mother.

    Reprint. AB. LJ. PW.

    Now, its journey is almost over. As it approaches, two competing manned vehicles race through almost half a million kilometers of space to reach it first. But when they both arrive on the entity, they learn that it has been sent toward Earth for a reason. An intelligent race is desperately attempting to communicate with our primitive species. And the message is: Help us.

    What we can—and must—do to succeed. This book will change the way we understand the future of our planet. It is both alarming and hopeful. James Gustave Speth, renowned as a visionary environmentalist leader, warns that in spite of all the international negotiations and agreements of the past two decades, efforts to protect Earth’s environment are not succeeding. Still, he says, the challenges are not insurmountable. He offers comprehensive, viable new strategies for dealing with environmental threats around the world.The author explains why current approaches to critical global environmental problems—climate change, biodiversity loss, deterioration of marine environments, deforestation, water shortages, and others—don’t work. He offers intriguing insights into why we have been able to address domestic environmental threats with some success while largely failing at the international level. Setting forth eight specific steps to a sustainable future, Speth convincingly argues that dramatically different government and citizen action are now urgent. If ever a book could be described as “essential,” this is it.

    The trilobites, which dominated the ocean floors for 300 million years, are gone. The last of the dinosaurs was wiped out by a Mount Everest-sized meteorite that slammed into the earth 65 million years ago. The great flying reptiles are gone, and so are the marine reptiles, some of them larger than a humpback whale. Before humans crossed the Bering land bridge some 15,000 years ago, North America was populated by mastodons, mammoths, saber-toothed tigers, and cave bears. They too are MIA. Passenger pigeons once flew over North America in flocks that numbered in the billions; the last one died in 1914.In this book you will meet creatures that were driven to extinction even more recently, as well as some that were brought back from the brink. You will even encounter animals not known to exist until recently -- an antidote to extinction.

    Sovartus is collecting such elemental whisperers and already has the other three. He wants Eldia to complete his set. This brings Conan into conflict with a host of other threats as well, including a demon employed by Sovartus and the witch Djuvula, who happens to be the demon's half-sister, the rich senator Lemparius, who's actually a were-panther, an avaricious thief named Loganaro, and various monsters.

     Now get Books 4, 5 & 6 all in one Volume! Athena Lee has had a very difficult couple of years. After surviving years alone lost in a distant galaxy she joined a new Navy and has been reassigned to her home planet. At first her family is happy to see her. Interstellar politics intrude upon her happy visit. Revolution is in the air, in more ways than one. Pirates return to threaten her planet. A hidden conspiracy emerges that threatens the galaxy. What can one lone Engineer do against all of that?

    Hephaestus Books represents a new publishing paradigm, allowing disparate content sources to be curated into cohesive, relevant, and informative books. To date, this content has been curated from Wikipedia articles and images under Creative Commons licensing, although as Hephaestus Books continues to increase in scope and dimension, more licensed and public domain content is being added. We believe books such as this represent a new and exciting lexicon in the sharing of human knowledge. This particular book contains chapters focused on Vorkosigan Saga, and Vorkosigan saga planets. More info: The Vorkosigan Saga is a series of science fiction novels and short stories by American author Lois McMaster Bujold. Most of them concern Miles Vorkosigan, a physically disabled aristocrat from the planet Barrayar whose life (from before birth), military career, and post-military career is a challenge to his native planet's prejudices against "mutants."

    He has spent centuries without a body, but now he is ready for his return. There is only one obstacle standing in his way. In the sixteen years since their marriage, Justan and Jhonate have gone through many adventures together. During this time, Justan has grown into the name given to him by the Bowl of Souls. He is SIR EDGE. He has the fame and glory that he had dreamt of as a child, but those things mean nothing to him anymore. He is now embroiled in a new conflict and driven by a deep pain within him, a pain fifteen years in the making . . . Join Edge and his bonded on an epic journey that will take them to places both holy and wrought with evil. Ogres and dragons, warriors and wizards are destined to clash, their fates guided by The Bowl of Souls. The Bowl of Souls series. THE MOONRAT SAGA 1. Eye of the Moonrat 2. Messenger of the Dark Prophet 3. Hunt of the Bandham 1.5. Hilt's Pride 4. War of Stardeon 5. Mother of the Moonrat THE JHARRO GROVE SAGA 1. Tarah Woodblade 2. Protector of the Grove 3. Ogre Apprentice 4. The Troll King 5. Priestess of War 6. Behemoth THE DARK PROPHET SAGA 1. Sir Edge 2. Half Breeds (2019)

    From the murky depths of the Shining Sea rises a prehistoric menace who commands a rising tide of invasion to crash over the shores of Faerun. Iakhovas has plotted for long bitter years to regain the powers that were torn from him by an angry goddess. Oblivious to the growing danger of the undersea civilizations, the surface world is about to awaken to a new horrifying threat from the sea. Award-winning author Mel Odom's Forgotten Realms(R) trilogy is now repackaged as a stunning trade paperback collector's edition. Exploring an area of the Realms few think to tread--the bottom of the ocean--Threat from the Sea takes readers for a ride that's full of high-seas adventure and monster battles.