Most Popular Books by Charles Wilson

A spectacular new SF novel of immense scope

Robert Charles Wilson, says The New York Times, "writes superior science fiction thrillers." His Darwinia won Canada''s Aurora Award; his most recent novel, The Chronoliths, won the prestigious John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Now he tells a gripping tale of alien contact and human love in a mysterious but hopeful universe. At Blind Lake, a large federal research installation in northern Minnesota, scientists are using a technology they barely understand to watch everyday life in a city of lobster like aliens upon a distant planet. They can''t contact the aliens in any way or understand their language. All they can do is watch. Then, without warning, a military cordon is imposed on the Blind Lake site. All communication with the outside world is cut off. Food and other vital supplies are delivered by remote control. No one knows why. The scientists, nevertheless, go on with their research. Among them are Nerissa Iverson and the man she recently divorced, Raymond Scutter. They continue to work together despite the difficult conditions and the bitterness between them. Ray believes their efforts are doomed; that culture is arbitrary, and the aliens will forever be an enigma. Nerissa believes there is a commonality of sentient thought, and that our failure to understand is our own ignorance, not a fact of nature. The behavior of the alien she has been tracking seems to be developing an elusive narrative logic--and she comes to feel that the alien is somehow, impossibly, aware of the project''s observers. But her time is running out. Ray is turning hostile, stalking her. The military cordon is tightening. Understanding had better come soon.... Blind Lake is a 2004 Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel.

''Chew On This'' reveals the truth about the the fast food industry - how it all began, its success, what fast food actually is, what goes on in the slaughterhouses, meatpacking factories and flavour labs, the exploitation of young workers in the thousands of fast-food outlets throughout the world, and much more.

"The First Peace; My Search for the Better Angels" is a spiritual, intellectual, emotional, and perhaps educational memoir that spans fifty-plus years, eleven states, three countries, military and seminary, birth and death, marriage and divorce, three Christian denominations, and a monastery. This memoir is a journey through faith and knowledge, hope and reality, love and experience. The author attempts to reconcile what he has been taught, what he believes, what he experiences, what he knows, what he wants, and what he perceives. His unacknowledged question: What do we do when we evolve beyond the "faith of our fathers" (and/or mothers)? After a life of seeking to understand through the lens of Christianity (and other religions), the author comes to understand that religious beliefs and dogma may become a barrier to faith and understanding. The author learns that liberty entails responsibility, faith requires self-reliance, and enlightenment is found within. Liberty and freedom entail responsibility, responsibly that no other person or institution can assume for use. We remain responsible for our actions and inactions. No person, government, or religious institution can assume or remove our responsibility for our actions, for our lives. "The First Peace; My Search for the Better Angels" is an attempt to weave a tapestry of stories, ideas and ideals, ethics, experiences, and expressions - with the goal (and hope) to entertain, inform, educate, persuade, stimulate, and even challenge. Perhaps "The First Peace; My Search for the Better Angels" will remind you of your own experiences, thoughts, and feelings that provide some measure of contentment, but also some measure of challenge, even conflict. The silence beyond those reminders is where we find "the first peace" and where we are "at liberty to be real" and where "the better angels of our nature" touch us.

Science fiction-roman.

"Vortex" tells the story of Turk Findley, the protagonist introduced in "Axis," who is transported 10,000 years into the future by the mysterious entities called "the Hypotheticals."

The Hugo Award–winning author of Spin, praised as “a hell of a storyteller” by Stephen King, gives time travel his own mind-bending twist . . . Two events made September 1st a memorable day for Jesse Cullum. First, he lost a pair of Oakley sunglasses. Second, he saved the life of President Ulysses S. Grant. In the near future of Robert Charles Wilson’s Last Year, the technology exists to open doorways into the past—but not our past, not exactly. Each “past” is effectively an alternate world, identical to ours but only up to the date on which we access it. And a given “past” can only be reached once. After a passageway is open, it’s the only road to that particular past; once closed, it can’t be reopened. A passageway has been opened to a version of late 19th-century Ohio. It’s been in operation for most of a decade, but it’s no secret, on either side of time. A small city has grown up around it to entertain visitors from our time, and many locals earn a good living catering to them. But like all such operations, it has a shelf life; as the “natives” become more sophisticated, their version of the “past” grows less attractive as a destination. Jesse Cullum is a native. And he knows the passageway will be closing soon. He’s fallen in love with a woman from our time, and he means to follow her back—no matter whose secrets he has to expose in order to do it. “Wilson’s prose is beautifully constructed in this intelligent and gripping novel.” —Chicago Review of Books

From the Hugo Award–winning author of Spin, an early classic of time-travel and human transformation. Originally published in 1991, we are bringing this back as a reprint.

Young ER doctor Michael Sims feels too many of his patients are dying without cause. Shannon Donnelly, the Congressman''s beautiful daughter, believes the police are wrong in ruling her father''s death a suicide. Now they''re teaming up uncover the truth about a terrifying medical experiment involving nerve regeneration and organ transplants. It''s backed by millions of dollars. It''s protected at the highest levels of government. But there are no volunteers, no donors. There are only ordinary people who check into this Mississippi hospital...and discover that death isn''t he worst thing they have to fear. Getting "chosen" is....

MYSTERY ROMANCE AND SUBVERSION Fr Jos van Engelen, a Dutch missionary priest stationed in New Guinea before World War II, is recalled to Holland to help his superior general combat suspected ideological subversion within his fraternity. He arrives in March 1940. After the Nazis invade Holland, he is drawn into covert operations by British intelligence. It all goes horribly wrong, and he is forced to flee to Amsterdam where he goes to ground. When the Nazis fire on the crowds gathered on Dam square in May 1945, he saves a young woman and her baby from being crushed in the stampede. It is the start of an unspoken relationship with the Strict Reformed Truus van den Donker, and a deadly tussle with her brutish occultist husband. After the war, he has a running conflict with those he suspects of undermining the order’s ways and of betraying him. The conflict comes to a head during and after the Second Vatican Council, with the conflict settling on the council’s document on the liturgy. The strife results in more measures to get him out of the way. At the same time, he must confront sinister occultist forces that want him dead. The unspoken love of the woman he can never have keeps his spirits from being crushed. This is a story of unswerving faith and commitment against diabolical forces Fr Jos and Truus could hardly conceive. Book One of the CONCILIAR SERIES develops the early story of Fr van Engelen and Truus van den Donker with the location of the story in Holland, New Guinea and Australia. The period is from 1940 to 1970. Both will appear in coming titles in the series. The CONCILIAR SERIES will consist of six connected but stand-alone stories. The themes of the ‘Goddess’, neo-paganism, the occult and Gnosticism are threads through the stories. The Second Vatican Council and the cultural revolution of the 1960s and 1970s (1965-1975) form the background. The author attempts to recreate the atmosphere of the times. The first book in the series was TIMES OF DISTRESS, the Second book, FEELINGS DIE NOT IN SILENCE, and the third DESCENT INTO HADES: A SPIRITUAL JOURNEY. COUNTERCULTURE DREAMS, book 4, is due 2022.

The sequel to the Hugo Award-winning SF epic Spin

MYSTERY ROMANCE AND THE OCCULT Virginia Pearson and the beautiful Aine O’Riordan are among a group of young women entering the convent of the Sisters of the Suffering Saviour. Strange happenings torment the sensitive and withdrawn Aine O’Riordan. Virginia tries to comfort her, but dark mysterious events force Aine out of the convent. Deeply saddened, she leaves behind her dear friend to deal with the unexplained happenings and an atmosphere of foreboding that seems to infect the life of the convent. Virginia (later Sister Agnes), suspicious of fellow postulant Margaret McGuigan’s (later Sister Catherine) role in convent’s atmosphere, enters into a barely suppressed conflict with her through their religious training to their university course in 1962. The intrusion of Virginia Pearson’s resentful former fiancé – and senior lecturer Dr Philip Stevenson – into her life as Sister Agnes adds an unexpected problem. Meanwhile, Aine has been lured into the world of fashion modelling and appears unaware of where personable photographer Harry is leading her. She unwittingly plays a connecting role in the deepening conflict and the continuing mysteries that see Virginia and Aine each rushing towards a crisis. The SIXTIES SERIES will consist of eight connected but stand-alone stories. The cultural revolution of the 1960s (1960-1975) and the Second Vatican Council are the social, cultural, and political background. The author who lived through the turmoil of those times recreates its atmosphere. The themes of neo-paganism and Gnosticism are threads through the stories. Book 1 TIMES OF DISTRESS Book 2 IN THIS VALE OF TEARS Book 3 COUNTERCULTURE DREAMS Book 4 THE DREAM BECOMES A NIGHTMARE due Sept 2024 Book 5 THE CASTLE OF HEAVENLY BLISS Book 6 A SENSE OF LOSS due 2025 Book 7 WHERE TO NOW? due 2026 Book 8 A LONG WAY BACK due 2027

Charles Wilson has received the highest praise from authors such as John Grisham and from reviewers, including being termed "Wizard Plotter" by the Los Angeles Times. Now, he has created his most chilling story yet-- a fast-paced thriller so realistic it will take your breath away and keep you riveted to the page. From the Gulf of Mexico''s warm shallow waters...to the deepest parts of the Pacific...terror comes to the surface... Six-year-old Paul Haines watches as two older boys dive into a coastal river...and don''t come up. His mother, Carolyn, a charter boat captain on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, finds herself embroiled in the tragedy to an extent she could never have imagined. Carolyn joins the marine biologist Alan Freeman in the hunt for a creature that is terrorizing the waters along the Gulf Coast. But neither of them could have envisioned exactly what kind of danger they are facing. Yet one man, Admiral Vandiver, does know what this creature is, and how it has come into the shallows. And his secret obsession with it will force him, as well as Paul, Carolyn and Alan, into a race against time...and a race toward death.

IN MEXICO...the charred remains of a medical clinic hold a clue to an experiment that can change the world. IN LOS ANGELES...a famous model, desperate to have a baby of her own, sends a detective to track down a legend...and a doctor missing for twenty years. IN BILOXI, MISSISSIPPI...a little boy plays with matchs and smiles. IN A SECRET LOCATION...the radical procedure begins, leading to a scientific miracle ...or the beginning of a nightmare. What does the next step in high-tech reporduction hold for humankind? In a tale as real as tomorrow''s headlines, a rich, successful woman takes a desperate gamble to have a child. A young lawyer discovers a fatal flaw in an unethical experiment. And a new life begins -- a life that could signal a revolution in modern medicine...or the end of us all.

This title is part of UC Press''s Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1970.

Bursting with ideas, replete with human insight, Bios is science fiction in the grand tradition: a novel of bravery, exploration, and discovery in a universe charged with awe. In the 22nd century, humankind has colonized the solar system. Starflight is possible but hugely expensive, so humakind''s efforts are focussed on Isis, the one nearby Earthlike world. Isis is verdant, Edenic, rich with complex DNA-based plant and animal life. And every molecule of Isian life is spectacularly toxic to human beings. The entire planet is a permanent Level Four Hot Zone. Despite that, Isis is the most interesting discovery of the millennium: a parallel biology with lessons to teach us about our own nature. It''s also the hardest of hardship posts, the loneliest place in the universe. Zoe Fisher was born to explore Isis. Literally. Cloned and genetically engineered by a faction within the hothouse politics of Earth, Zoe is optimized to face Isis''s terrors. Now at last Zoe has arrived on Isis. But there are secrets implanted within her that not even she suspects--and the planet itself has secrets that will change our understanding of life in the universe. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

In the hard years of the Depression, young Travis lives with his uncle and aunt. Upstairs lives the mysterious Anna. Anna says she''s going to be "changing," and she needs Travis''s help...for purposes she won''t explain. Robert Charles Wilson''s A Hidden Place is a science fiction tale of passion, terror, and hope, opening out to a great, dark, and unsuspected universe. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Scott Warden is a man haunted by the past--and soon to be haunted by the future. In early-twenty-first-century Thailand, Scott is an expatriate slacker. Then, one day, he inadvertently witnesses an impossible event: the violent appearance of a 200-foot stone pillar in the forested interior. Its arrival collapses trees for a quarter mile around its base, freezing ice out of the air and emitting a burst of ionizing radiation. It appears to be composed of an exotic form of matter. And the inscription chiseled into it commemorates a military victory--sixteen years in the future. Shortly afterwards, another, larger pillar arrives in the center of Bangkok--obliterating the city and killing thousands. Over the next several years, human society is transformed by these mysterious arrivals from, seemingly, our own near future. Who is the warlord "Kuin" whose victories they note? Scott wants only to rebuild his life. But some strange loop of causality keeps drawing him in, to the central mystery and a final battle with the future. The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson is a 2002 Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel and the winner of the 2002 John W. Campbell Memorial Award. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

From the Hugo-winning author of "Spin" comes an exuberant adventure in a post-climate-change America.

Since its inception in 1865, the Detroit Police Department has been a trailblazer and pioneer in adopting revolutionary advances in law enforcement that are essential to policing today. The Detroit Police Department was among the first police departments to put its officers on bicycles and developed one of the earliest motorized forces using motorcycles, ultimately becoming the first department to utilize Harley Davidson motorcycles. Of its firsts, arguably the most important and synonymous with the city of Detroit being recognized as the "Automotive Capital of the World" is the department''s deployment of its first patrol car in 1909. This photographic book highlights the Detroit Police Department''s rich history, resplendent with groundbreaking advancements in the field of law enforcement. Over the years, many of the issues that proved challenging to large metropolitan cities, such as urban unrest, school busing, labor disputes, crime, and poverty, also produced challenges for the department. This book illustrates how the department met those challenges and continued to serves its community with the utmost professionalism, respect, and pride. The vision of the Detroit Police Department is "building a safer Detroit through community partnerships," a with the unquestioned dedication and hard work exhibited by Detroit''s fi nest, this vision has become a reality.

After becoming a part of the Tau, one of twenty-two large global network Affinities in the near future, young Adam Fisk thinks his life has improved for the better until the different Affinities begin to go to war with one another in a conflict that will change Adam''s world forever.

Paleontologist Cameron Malone has discovered a 500,000-year-old man. Renegade scientist Dr. Noel Anderson has plans for the ancient man. When Anderson steals tissue from the frozen corpse, he uses the DNA to create a modern Ancient Man. Now, Dr. Malone must stop this waking nightmare of genetic engineering. "Paleontologist Malone discovers a 500,000-year-old man, only to have a rival scientist defile the find in his search for genetic material to implant in an unsuspecting woman. What grows from the ancient DNA is a twin horror so unpredictible and terrifying that it shakes modern science and those who try to control the new arrivals." -- Midwest Book Review

He was designed to be the perfect man. And at first the experiment seemed a success. John Shaw - the product of secret government research into enhanced intelligence - was from birth far beyond anything human. Brilliant and charismatic, John could have been anything he wanted - except that which he longed for more than anything. To be normal. So John created Benjamin: an alternative persona, a way of coping with people who hated what they could not understand. He was everything that John wasn''t - but now those very differences are killing him. Benjamin has become the dominant personality, more and more often in control. John''s altered body has left his mind at risk - and unless he can discover the truth that will fuse both parts together, both he and Benjamin will die. Robert Charles Wilson spins one of his most stirring, tightly woven tales with The Divide. Reminiscent of Flowers for Algernon, it is at once an adventure story and a sensitive look at the consequences of man''s actions - and of one man''s quite literal search for himself.

More than just another ""customer care"" book, this book will help companies to maximize their profits, by learning how to identify their most profitable customers. It focuses on a unique approach to managing the customer base - the importance of decision-making by managers, rather than sales and customer service staff. This updated edition gives examples of new technology for dealing with the customer base, examines the routes to reducing the costs of serving customers and identifies how to develop successful customer-supplier relationships.

Robert Charles Wilson''s time has come. His first novel from Tor, Darwinia, was a finalist for science fiction''s Hugo award, and a #1 Locus bestseller in paperback. His next novel, Bios, is a critical and commercial success. Now Wilson''s brilliant short science fiction is available in book form for the first time. Beginning with "The Perseids," winner of Canada''s national SF award, this collection showcases Wilson''s suppleness and strength: bravura ideas, scientific rigor, and living, breathing human beings facing choices that matter. Also included among the several stories herein are the acclaimed Hugo Award finalist "Divided by Infinity" and three new stories written specifically for this collection. "Beautifully observed, skillfully worked out: stories that flow subtly, almost imperceptably, from the prosaic to the preternatural."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review) At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Botschaften aus der Zukunft Rätselhafte Artefakte erscheinen eines Tages auf der Erde – doch sie stammen nicht von Außerirdischen, sondern von uns selbst, von einer zukünftigen Menschheit, die Botschaften in die Vergangenheit schickt. Doch was haben diese Botschaften zu bedeuten? Ein Wettlauf gegen die Zeit beginnt ...

Building effective state institutions before introducing democracy is widely presumed to improve different development outcomes. Conversely, proponents of this “stateness-first” argument anticipate that democratization before state building yields poor development outcomes. In this Element, we discuss several strong assumptions that (different versions of) this argument rests upon and critically evaluate the existing evidence base. In extension, we specify various observable implications. We then subject the stateness-first argument to multiple tests, focusing on economic growth as an outcome. First, we conduct historical case studies of two countries with different institutional sequencing histories, Denmark and Greece, and assess the stateness-first argument (e.g., by using a synthetic control approach). Thereafter, we draw on an extensive global sample of about 180 countries, measured across 1789–2019 and leverage panel regressions, preparametric matching, and sequence analysis to test a number of observable implications. Overall, we find little evidence to support the stateness-first argument.

From the Hugo-winning author of Spin, an exuberant adventure in a post-climate-change America In the reign of President Deklan Comstock, a reborn United States is struggling back to prosperity. Over a century after the Efflorescence of Oil, after the Fall of the Cities, after the Plague of Infertility, after the False Tribulation, after the days of the Pious Presidents, the sixty stars and thirteen stripes wave from the plains of Athabaska to the national capital in New York City. In Colorado Springs, the Dominion sees to the nation''s spiritual needs. In Labrador, the Army wages war on the Dutch. America, unified, is rising once again. Then out of Labrador come tales of a new Ajax-Captain Commongold, the Youthful Hero of the Saguenay. The ordinary people follow his adventures in the popular press. The Army adores him. The President is...troubled. Especially when the dashing Captain turns out to be his nephew Julian, son of the falsely accused and executed Bryce. Treachery and intrigue dog Julian''s footsteps. Hairsbreadth escapes and daring rescues fill his days. Stern resolve and tender sentiment dice for Julian''s soul, while his admiration for the works of the Secular Ancients, and his adherence to the evolutionary doctrines of the heretical Darwin, set him at fatal odds with the hierarchy of the Dominion. Plague and fire swirl around the Presidential palace when at last he arrives with the acclamation of the mob. As told by Julian''s best friend and faithful companion, a rustic yet observant lad from the west, this tale of the 22nd Century asks- and answers-the age-old question: "Do you want to tell the truth, or do you want to tell a story?"

As child sexual abuse investigation and intervention in the United States has evolved over the past decade, it has become clear that no single discipline or agency can meet the needs of abused children and their families. Coordinated investigative teams, involving an alliance between a wide range of professionals - such as criminal justice professionals, social workers, medical practitioners and mental health clinicians - are needed for fact-finding, child protection and criminal prosecution. This practical book focuses on how to design, develop, operate and maintain effective teams. It begins with examinations of how to build teams and the roles and responsibilities of the professionals involved. Investigative interviewing

Every book in this series has earned the classic status due to its popularity, durability, and uncompromising quality. All books in the Unity Classic Library series feature hardcover binding with gold engraving, colorful endpapers, library nameplate page, author photograph, and biography. The series makes a beautiful display on a library shelf, and each book is a respected addition to any metaphysical collection.This book gives a new perspective on forty-seven events of Holy Week, from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday, and is presented in the form of daily lessons. A study guide is included.

Kids love fast food. And the fast food industry definitely loves kids. It couldn''t survive without them. Did you know that the biggest toy company in the world is McDonald''s? It''s true. In fact, one out of every three toys given to a child in the United States each year is from a fast food restaurant. When Eric Schlosser''s best-selling book, Fast Food Nation, was published for adults in 2001, many called for his groundbreaking insight to be shared with young people. Now Schlosser, along with co-writer Charles Wilson, has investigated the subject further, uncovering new facts children need to know. In Chew On This, they share with kids the fascinating and sometimes frightening truth about what lurks between those sesame seed buns, what a chicken ''nugget'' really is, and how the fast food industry has been feeding off children for generations. This edition features a new introduction by Eric Schlosser.