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Daedalus Books
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'Sometimes when you're reading Neal Stephenson, he doesn't just seem like one of the best novelists writing in English right now; he seems like the only one'. Time One of the most talented and creative authors working today, Neal Stephenson is renowned for his exceptional novels — works colossal in vision and mind-boggling in complexity. Exploring and blending a diversity of topics, including technology, economics, history, science, pop culture, and philosophy, his books are the product of a keen and adventurous intellect. Not surprisingly, Stephenson is regularly asked to contribute articles, lectures, and essays to numerous outlets, from major newspapers and cutting edge magazines to college symposia. This remarkable collection brings together previously published short writings, both fiction and nonfiction as well as a new essay (and an extremely short story) created specifically for this volume. Stephenson ponders a wealth of subjects, from movies and politics to David Foster Wallace and the Midwestern American College Town; video games to classics-based sci-fi; how geekdom has become cool and how science fiction has become mainstream (whether people admit it or not); the future of publishing and the origins of his novels. By turns amusing and profound, critical and celebratory, yet always entertaining, Some Remarks offers a fascinating look into the prismatic mind of this extraordinary writer. |
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On the eve of the controversial, posthumous publication of The Original of Laura, Michael Maar follows his critically acclaimed The Two Lolitas with a revealing new perspective on Vladimir Nabokov's life and work. Hunting down long-hidden clues in the novels, and using the themes that run through Nabokov's fiction to illuminate the life that produced them, Maar constructs a compelling psychological and philosophical portrait. Characteristically graceful and engaging, Speak, Nabokov offers a vital new perspective on the twentieth- century master. |
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When a body is found floating in a canal, strangely disfigured and with multiple stab wounds, Commissario Brunetti is called to investigate and is convinced he recognises the man from somewhere. However, with no identification except for the distinctive shoes the man was wearing, and no reports of people missing from the Venice area, the case cannot progress. Brunetti soon realises why he remembers the dead man, and asks Signorina Elettra if she can help him find footage of a farmers' protest the previous autumn. But what was his involvement with the protest, and what does it have to do with his murder? Acting on the fragile lead, Brunetti and Inspector Vianello set out to uncover the man's identity. Their investigation eventually takes them to a slaughterhouse on the mainland, where they discover the origin of the crime, and the world of blackmail and corruption that surrounds it. Both a gripping case and a harrowing exploration of the dark side of Italy's meat industry, Donna Leon's latest novel is a compelling addition to the Brunetti series. |
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In the year of the Great Conjunction, the streets of London are abuzz with predictions of horrific events to come, possibly even the death of Queen Elizabeth. Elizabeth calls upon her personal astrologer, John Dee, and Giordano Bruno to solve the mystery behind the deaths of several of her maids as rumors of black magic abound. |
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Popular and scholarly history presents a one-dimensional image of Napoleon as an inveterate instigator of war who repeatedly sought large-scale military conquests. This book dismantles this false conclusion using a researched study that helps in understanding the French emperor better. |
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Designed to lighten the load of already street-savvy New Yorkers, commuters, business travelers, and tourists. In this book, each map is marked with icons identifying our favorite picks around town, from essentials to entertainment, and includes a neighborhood description written by locals, highlighting the important features of each area. |
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A final, apocalyptic, world war has killed millions, driving entire species into extinction and sending the majority of mankind off-planet. Those who remain, venerate all remaining examples of life, and owning an animal of your own is both a symbol of status and a necessity. For those who can't afford an authentic animal, companies build incredibly realistic simulacrae: horses, birds, cats, sheep... even humans. |
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Time is running out for the passengers and crew of the tourist cruiser Selene, incarcerated in a sea of choking lunar dust. On the surface, her rescuers find their resources stretched to the limit by the mercilessly unpredictable conditions of a totally alien environment. |
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A triple murder in a Moscow amusement center: three corpses found frozen in the snow, faces and fingers missing. Chief homicide investigator Arkady Renko is brilliant, sensitive, honest, and cynical about everything except his profession. To identify the victims and uncover the truth, he must battle the KGB, FBI, and New York police as he performs the impossible--and tries to stay alive doing it. |
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«Mars is a desolate place, in this 1964 novel. Largely forgotten by Earth, isolated communities eke out a living alongside the great canals, dependent on Arnie Knott, the union boss who controls the meager water supply. No one is beyond his reach—certainly not Jack Bohlen, the repairman whom Knott's mistress comes to love. Neither is Manfred, the autistic child who slips helplessly backwards and forwards in time, or the pitiful natives of Mars, the Bleekmen. Philip K. Dick «creates a world irradiated by schizophrenic perceptions, and moves with frightening intensity — and hilarity — to an elegant transcendent finale» (Encyclopedia of Science Fiction). A visionary, Hugo Award–winning author, Dick was inducted posthumously into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. His stories have been made into such blockbuster films as Blade Runner, Total Recall, and Minority Report, and he was the first science fiction writer to be included in the Library of America series.» |
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When 14 people arrive to colonize the otherwise uninhabited planet of Delmark — O, they quickly discover that their bizarre new world is more dangerous — and much, much stranger — than they ever could have imagined, in this 1970 novel by Philip K. Dick. The colonists have nothing in common, and no idea why they've been sent there. All they know is that there's no way to leave, and one by one they are being killed. A visionary, Hugo Award–winning author, Philip K. Dick was inducted posthumously into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. His stories have been made into such blockbuster films as Blade Runner, Total Recall, and Minority Report, and he was the first science fiction writer to be included in the Library of America series. |
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The Department of Precrime has cut major crime by almost 100 percent, in the 1956 short story by Philip K. Dick that inspired the Steven Spielberg film Minority Report. No one doubts the efficiency and fairness of a system that can look into the future, arrest soon-to-be criminals, and punish them before they can commit the crime — until the Precrime Commissioner himself is accused, and must go on the run as a convicted murderer to prove his innocence. Eight other stories are also presented in this collection, including We Can Remember it for You Wholesale, the inspiration for the film Total Recall. A visionary, Hugo Award–winning author, Philip K. Dick was inducted posthumously into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. His stories have also been made into other blockbuster films like Blade Runner, and he was the first science fiction writer to be included in the Library of America series. |
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World War III is raging — or so the millions of people crammed into their underground tanks believe, in this 1964 novel by Philip K. Dick. For 15 years, subterranean humanity has been fed on daily broadcasts of a never-ending nuclear devastation, sustained only by their belief in the all — powerful Protector. But up on the surface, a different kind of reality reigns: East and West are at peace, while across the planet, an elite corps of expert hoaxers preserve the lie for those below. A visionary, Hugo Award–winning author, Philip K. Dick was inducted posthumously into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. His stories have been made into such blockbuster films as Blade Runner, Total Recall, and Minority Report, and he was the first science fiction writer to be included in the Library of America series. |
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«In this first novel by the author of The Invention of Wings, Lily Owens — daughter of a South Carolina peach farmer and a mother who was killed when Lily was just four — has since adopted a fierce-hearted black woman named Rosaleen as her «stand-in mother». But after Rosaleen insults three of the worst racists in town, the pair must flee to remote Tiburon, South Carolina, where they are taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters — May, June, and August — and enter their mesmerizing secret world of bees and honey and the Black Madonna, who presides over this household of strong, wise women. «I am amazed that this moving, original, and accomplished book is a first novel. It is wonderfully written, powerful, poignant, and humorous, and takes a line which is — refreshingly — strongly female without being cliché-feminist. It is also deliciously eccentric, which lifts it out of the usual category of a rite-of-passage novel into the realms of real distinction. DO read it».» |
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F. E. Halliday presents in vivid detail what we know about Shakespeare's life after three centuries of discovery, and illuminates and animates the story with illustrations of Elizabethan personalities, pages from the early folios, maps, and photographs of Stratford-upon-Avon. Much of the great playwright's biography is mysterious, but Halliday (an authority on Elizabethan and Jacobean literature, and especially on Shakespeare) documents the Bard's life and work — reassuring us, incidentally, that William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon really was the author of the plays attributed to him. |
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«A masterpiece of modern Gothic literature, Something Wicked This Way Comes is the memorable story of two boys, James Nightshade and William Halloway, and the evil that grips their small Midwestern town with the arrival of a «dark carnival» one Autumn midnight. How these two innocents, both age 13, save the souls of the town (as well as their own), makes for compelling reading on timeless themes. What would you do if your secret wishes could be granted by the mysterious ringmaster Mr. Dark? Bradbury excels in revealing the dark side that exists in us all, teaching us ultimately to celebrate the shadows rather than fear them. In many ways, this is a companion piece to his joyful, nostalgia-drenched Dandelion Wine, in which Bradbury presented us with one perfect summer as seen through the eyes of a 12-year-old. In Something Wicked This Way Comes, he deftly explores the fearsome delights of one perfectly terrifying, unforgettable autumn.» |
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When I'm Big is an interactive story that literally grows with the reader. Specially formatted Silly Sliders are designed to move up and down the page — transforming the picture and telling the story. Words appear and disappear while the characters grow up right before the reader's eyes. Inside When I'm Big, kids will be wowed when a young boy gazing longingly at a rocket ship, suddenly blasts off as a grown-up astronaut inside it. Other dream jobs range from magician, rock star, and firefighter, to chef, circus performer, and baker. Simple text and bright, richly painted illustrations complete this engaging storybook. |
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This heart warming children's book blends the foundations of language and master-works from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts into a lovely journey that both parent and child will enjoy. Twenty-six works from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon accompany delightful prose that unites the alphabet and art in bold color. As the first ABC book published by the VMFA, it surely will be the quintessential gift for children for years to come. |
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Travels of the Zephyr is an interactive book that introduces readers to various lands and peoples across the globe through the notes of the fictional explorer James Mac Killian, who lived from 1889 to 1978. James Mac Killian traveled the world in his homemade hot-air balloon, the Zephyr, documenting everything and everyone he encountered. The goal of his particular expeditions was to visit different ethnic groups and discover traditions that dated back to the dawn of time, including different languages, foods, beliefs, and rituals, to name only a few. He explored such places as Greenland, Newfoundland, North America, Brazil, Scotland, Africa, New Zealand, Indonesia, China, and Russia. Now his niece, Caroline Mac Killian, has inherited his research and has decided to publish his findings. Throughout the book there are interactive devices, such as maps that unfold, envelopes with letters, sketches, drawings, and much more. The story is a work of fiction, but the information presented is factual and fascinating. |
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