Annihilation paperback

This item is sold brand new. It is ordered on demand from our supplier and is usually dispatched within 10 - 17 working days Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; the second expedition ended in mass suicide, the third expedition in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another. The members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within weeks, all had died of cancer. In "Annihilation," the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy, we join the twelfth expedition. The group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one anotioner, and, above all, avoid being contaminated by Area X itself. They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers--they discover a massive topographic anomaly and life forms that surpass understanding--but it's the surprises that came across the border with them and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another that change everything. Features Summary Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine... Author Jeff Vandermeer Publisher Farrar Straus Giroux Release date 20140204 Pages 195 ISBN 0-374-10409-3 ISBN 13 978-0-374-10409-2

 Barkskins by Annie Proulx (Large Paperback)   In the late seventeenth century two penniless young Frenchmen, René Sel and Charles Duquet, arrive in New France. Bound to a feudal lord, a “ seigneur,” for three years in exchange for land, they become wood-cutters—barkskins. René suffers extraordinary hardship, oppressed by the forest he is charged with clearing. He is forced to marry a Mi’kmaw woman and their descendants live trapped between two inimical cultures. But Duquet, crafty and ruthless, runs away from the seigneur, becomes a fur trader, then sets up a timber business. Proulx tells the stories of the descendants of Sel and Duquet over three hundred years—their travels across North America, to Europe, China, and New Zealand, under stunningly brutal conditions—the revenge of rivals, accidents, pestilence, Indian attacks, and cultural annihilation. Over and over again, they seize what they can of a presumed infinite resource, leaving the modern-day characters face to face with possible ecological collapse.  

This item is sold brand new. It is ordered on demand from our supplier and is usually dispatched within 7 - 13 working days Set like a stronghold south-west of the Caucasus mountains, Armenia is caught between East and West. Briefly a great empire in the first century BCE under King Tigranes the Great, Armenia was later incorporated first by the Sasanian and then the Byzantine Empires. Armenian art, literature, religion and material culture have reinterpreted elements of a wide variety of cultures. Spanning over two and a half millennia, the history of Armenia and the Armenian people is a series of riveting tales, from its first mention under the Achaemenid King Darius I to the independence of the Republic of Armenia from the Soviet Union. With the help of the Bodleian Libraries' magnificent collection of Armenian manuscripts and early printed books, this volume tells the story of the region through the medium of its cultural output. Together with introductions written by experts in their fields, close to one hundred manuscripts, works of art and religious artefacts serve as a guide to Armenian culture and history. Gospel manuscripts splendidly illuminated by Armenian masters feature next to philosophical tractates and merchants' handbooks, affording us an insight into what makes the Armenian people truly unique, especially in the shadow of the genocide that threatened their annihilation a hundred years ago: namely their spirituality, language and perseverance in the face of adversity. VISIT THE EXHIBITION Armenia: Treasures from an Enduring Culture October 2015 - January 2016 Bodleian Library, Oxford Features Summary With the help of the Bodleian Libraries' magnificent collection of Armenian manuscripts and early printed books, this volume tells the story of the region through the medium of its cultural output. Author Theo Marten van Lint (Author), Robin Meyer (Author) Publisher The Bodleian Library Release date 20151016 Pages 276 ISBN 1-85124-440-9 ISBN 13 978-1-85124-440-9

This item is sold brand new. It is ordered on demand from our supplier and is usually dispatched within 7 - 11 working days The Sunday Times Bestseller. Go beyond the film with a novelization featuring new scenes and expanded material. As the shadows of the Empire loom ever larger across the galaxy, so do deeply troubling rumors. The Rebellion has learned of a sinister Imperial plot to bring entire worlds to their knees. Deep in Empire-dominated space, a machine of unimaginable destructive power is nearing completion. A weapon too terrifying to contemplate...And a threat that may be too great to overcome. If the worlds at the Empire's mercy stand any chance, it lies with an unlikely band of allies: Jyn Erso, a resourceful young woman seeking vengeance; Cassian Andor, a war-weary rebel commander; Bodhi Rook, a defector from the Empire's military; Chirrut Imwe, a blind holy man and his crack-shot companion, Baze Malbus; and K-2SO, a deadly Imperial droid turned against its former masters. In their hands rests the new hope that could turn the tide toward a crucial Rebellion victory-if only they can capture the plans to the Empire's new weapon. But even as they race toward their dangerous goal, the specter of their ultimate enemy-a monstrous world unto itself-darkens the skies. Waiting to herald the Empire's brutal reign with a burst of annihilation worthy of its dreaded name: Death Star. Features Summary As the shadows of the Empire loom ever larger across the galaxy, so do deeply troubling rumors. The Rebellion has learned of a sinister Imperial plot to bring entire worlds to their knees... Author Alexander Freed Publisher Arrow Books Ltd Release date 20170420 Pages 464 ISBN 1-78475-292-4 ISBN 13 978-1-78475-292-7

This item is sold brand new. It is ordered on demand from our supplier and is usually dispatched within 6 - 13 working days Robert Junior never knew the father he was named for, an American G.I. who was captured during the Battle of the Bulge and fell briefly into the arms of a Belgian nurse. Growing up with his mother in the lush forests of the Ardennes, Robert turns for guidance to his godfather, Markus Hebel, a Belgian who served in the German army in Russia. Breaking the silence around his painful past, Markus speaks of the consequences and madness of war - of the son he lost at Stalingrad and the courage of the men who tried to free the trapped German soldiers with a desperate charge across the frozen steppe. In so doing, Markus reveals a secret he has kept since the war, and a doubt that has gnawed at him for twenty years. Did he, a lowly radio operator, waste a chance to save an entire army from annihilation? Features Summary A story of impossible choices in a theatre of total war, where familial love, national identity, even military genius, count for nothing in the face of war's own all-consuming appetites. Author Roy Jacobsen (Author), Don Bartlett (Translator), Don Shaw (Translator) Publisher MacLehose Press Release date 20160303 Pages 288 ISBN 1-78206-958-5 ISBN 13 978-1-78206-958-4

This item is sold brand new. It is ordered on demand from our supplier and is usually dispatched within 7 - 12 working days The Sunday Times Bestseller Go beyond the film with a novelization featuring new scenes and expanded material. As the shadows of the Empire loom ever larger across the galaxy, so do deeply troubling rumors. The Rebellion has learned of a sinister Imperial plot to bring entire worlds to their knees. Deep in Empire-dominated space, a machine of unimaginable destructive power is nearing completion. A weapon too terrifying to contemplate... and a threat that may be too great to overcome. If the worlds at the Empire's mercy stand any chance, it lies with an unlikely band of allies: Jyn Erso, a resourceful young woman seeking vengeance; Cassian Andor, a war-weary rebel commander; Bodhi Rook, a defector from the Empire's military; Chirrut Imwe, a blind holy man and his crack-shot companion, Baze Malbus; and K-2SO, a deadly Imperial droid turned against its former masters. In their hands rests the new hope that could turn the tide toward a crucial Rebellion victory-if only they can capture the plans to the Empire's new weapon. But even as they race toward their dangerous goal, the specter of their ultimate enemy-a monstrous world unto itself-darkens the skies. Waiting to herald the Empire's brutal reign with a burst of annihilation worthy of its dreaded name: Death Star. Features Summary In their hands rests the new hope that could turn the tide toward a crucial Rebellion victory-if only they can capture the plans to the Empire's new weapon... Author Alexander Freed Publisher Arrow Books Ltd Release date 20170420 Pages 453 ISBN 1-78475-292-4 ISBN 13 978-1-78475-292-7

This item is sold brand new. It is ordered on demand from our supplier and is usually dispatched within 7 - 12 working days Henry James left London in 1897 to spend the last two decades of his life in East Sussex where his neighbours included H. G. Wells, Stephen Crane, Ford Madox Ford, Joseph Conrad. In this widely admired study Miranda Seymour aims to cut through 'the mass of evasions...and misrepresentations' about their relationships with James. She finds that James was cruelly patronizing to protege Wells and to Conrad; that he was annoyed by Ford, an incorrigible romancer; that he envied his rich friend Edith Wharton for her wide readership; that he snubbed Cora Taylor, Crane's lover, after she fled America when her railway-conductor husband was found guilty of murder. Seymour, a descendant of James's close friend, the novelist Howard Sturgis, records how James's critiques of fellow writers often amounted to annihilation and she chronicles his infatuations with handsome young men, including sculptor Hendrik Andersen and poet Rupert Brooke. In this erudite and insightful book that draws on letters and published works, Miranda Seymour vividly recreates the uneasy alliance of writers and personalities in this 'Rye Mafia'. Features Summary The critically acclaimed and innovative study of Henry James's circle, for the first time in paperback. Author Miranda Seymour Publisher Simon & Schuster Release date 20041004 Pages 336 ISBN 0-7432-3220-8 ISBN 13 978-0-7432-3220-3