New Releases by David Adams

It''s 2037. I''m Mike Williams, but you can call me ''Magnet''. Everyone else does. It''s short for ''Chick Magnet'', which is good old-fashioned military humour at its finest. At age fifteen, my face picked a fight with the propeller of my family''s boat, on a shoal near Broome, off Western Australia. It was an accident, but, needless to say, the propeller won. Twelve years later, I was a not-so-ruggedly-handsome fighter pilot assigned to the TFR Sydney. Not the Captain, or flight leader, or anything similarly exciting. Nobody special, just one mostly-unmemorable pilot among the many nameless, faceless masses. I''m Magnet. This is my story. Contains: Magnet Magnet: Special Mission Magnet: Marauder Magnet: Scarecrow and a bonus story, "Magnet Saves Christmas"! This novel length collection of Magnet stories is interwoven into the Lacuna universe, taking place between Lacuna: The Sands of Karathi and Lacuna: The Ashes of Humanity, but is suitable for reading as a standalone collection. Parts of the Lacuna universe: - Magnet - Magnet: Special Mission - Magnet: Marauder - Magnet: Scarecrow - Magnet Omnibus I (new release!) - Imperfect - Faith The Lacuna series: - Lacuna - Lacuna: The Sands of Karathi - Lacuna: The Spectre of Oblivion - Lacuna: The Ashes of Humanity (new release!) - Lacuna: The Prelude to Eternity (coming soon!)

My name is Mike “Magnet” Williams. I''ve come a long way. These days I have my own ship, the Rubens. We stole it from the Toralii Alliance. For the last year the Rubens has been tasked with ‘counter-logistical privateering’ against the Toralii Alliance, attacking their military supply network. We hit them hard, we get out, we do it all over again. Modern day buccaneers given total autonomy. We''re alone, without anothr Human within a thousand light years. If only that were true. Somewhere out in the black, around a remote moon covered in ice that''s kilometres thick, we found something. Something that was not supposed to be there. Something we were not supposed to find. Scarecrow. I can take a lot of pressure. Fighter pilots are supposed to be able to do that. Whatever the universe throws at me, I can handle it. So far I''ve faced aliens, friendly and otherwise, and I''ve seen things that so very few Humans have. I''ve dealt with it all. But not this. Not my own conscience. 15,700-word story in the Lacuna universe, set after the events of Magnet: Marauder and Lacuna: The Ashes of Humanity, but suitable for reading as a stand-alone story. Parts of the Lacuna universe: - Magnet - Magnet: Special Mission - Magnet: Marauder - Magnet: Scarecrow (new release!) - Imperfect - Faith The Lacuna series: - Lacuna - Lacuna: The Sands of Karathi - Lacuna: The Spectre of Oblivion - Lacuna: The Ashes of Humanity (new release!) - Lacuna: The Prelude to Eternity (coming soon!)

Humans thought that they could stand amongst the older races. They believed, in their hubris, that the perils of interstellar travel could be mastered within a single generation. That they would be spared the wrath of the Toralii. Now humanity lies in ashes. The cradle of our civilization, Earth, is nothing more than a charred husk, a dead world in an empty solar system in an unremarkable corner of the galaxy. The war is over. We lost. Captain Melissa Liao and the remaining band of Humans, numbering barely in the tens of thousands, hold the future of their entire species in their hands. They must settle a new world, encounter friends and enemies new and old, and plant the seeds of hope in the ashes of humanity. Book four of the Lacuna series. - Lacuna - Lacuna: The Sands of Karathi - Lacuna: The Spectre of Oblivion - Lacuna: The Ashes of Humanity (new release!) - Lacuna: The Prelude to Eternity (coming 2014!) Don''t miss these short stories set in the Lacuna universe: - Magnet - Magnet: Special Mission - Magnet: Marauder - Imperfect - Faith

The central theme of the Bible is about life, specifically the eternal life that is God''s gift to all who believe in what he says about himself, and who accompany that belief with repentance. In this short book, we''ve pulled together many of the key bible verses that deal with this theme of life. Their combined effect is electric, especially when seen in contrast to the verses that speak of death. This book will be encouraging to born-again Christians, and challenging to those who are inclined to regard the Bible as little more than a significant ancient document. It will also alert non-believers to the heart of the Christian gospel

I am Ren of Atikala. Kobold. Sorceress. Warrior. I am many things and I have many stories to tell. This one is about my home. Home. The word has a special resonance with us all. Great or humble, rich or poor, everyone cherishes their home and if deprived of it loses a piece of themselves. I remember looking back at Atikala, its ceiling collapsed in, the homes of fifty thousand kobolds crushed under unimaginable tonnes of rock and dirt. I remembering the feeling of horror and denial that immediately set in. I wanted to reject that this had happened to me, to scream to the ceiling until the rock receded, until fate changed its mind and restored everything to the way it was. I thought that life could not be so cruel as to take everything I''d known in an instant. Oh, how I now understand that life can be capricious indeed. This is story of how I came to the surface of Drathari and unwillingly traded a life for a life. The Kobolds series: #1: Ren of Atikala #2: Ren of Atikala: The Scars of Northaven (Now available for preorder!) Other stories set in Drathari, the World of Shattered Dreams: - The Gods are Silent, a short story (Coming early 2015!). Keywords: free, freebie, free download, fantasy, epic fantasy, sword and sorcery, kobold, pathfinder, dungeons and dragons, open gaming content, sorceress

The words of a construct, an artificial mind, ring truer than ever. Humanity has angered a powerful foe and cannot weather the growing storm. The Toralii are coming. But instead of warships, the Toralii Alliance send an ambassador to the Sol system. The message it brings is a startling, marked departure from all other contact with the species... and one that heralds a shift in the balance of power in the Milky Way, the most significant in hundreds of years. The Toralii face a larger threat. A something their ships cannot catch, their weapons cannot touch and gravimetric interference cannot stop. The Toralii, for the first time in centuries, know the crushing grip of fear. The TFR Beijing must face an old enemy, an enemy who has not been idle; an imperfect being whose ambition seems matched only by his capabilities. Liao''s child is born into an era of war and fear, and the spectre of oblivion looms over all mankind. Book three of the Lacuna series. Lacuna Lacuna: The Sands of Karathi Lacuna: The Spectre of Oblivion Lacuna: The Ashes of Humanity Lacuna: The Prelude to Eternity (coming soon!) Don''t miss these short stories set in the Lacuna universe: Magnet Magnet: Special Mission Magnet: Marauder Magnet: Scarecrow (new release!) Magnet Omnibus I (new release!) Imperfect Faith

Drawn to a desert world by the legacy of a traitor, the crew of the TFR Beijing discover something abandoned, something forgotten... something mysterious. Buddha once said, "An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast... ... for a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind." The scars of betrayal runs deep... and Captain Melissa Liao will find out just how far the slighted will go for revenge. Book two of the Lacuna series. Lacuna Lacuna: The Sands of Karathi Lacuna: The Spectre of Oblivion Lacuna: The Ashes of Humanity Lacuna: The Prelude to Eternity (coming soon!) Don''t miss these short stories set in the Lacuna universe: Magnet Magnet: Special Mission Magnet: Marauder Magnet: Scarecrow (new release!) Magnet Omnibus I (new release!) Imperfect Faith

On Belthas IV, the great forge world in the inner sphere of Toralii space, thousands of constructs -- artificial slaves -- are manufactured every week. They are initially identical and indistinguishable from the other until each is implanted with a stock neural net. From that moment onward every construct is different. They all have one thing in common, though; all constructs are bound by rules. They serve. They do not question their place. They do not betray. Each construct is different, but some are more different than others... A 4,000 word short story set in the Lacuna universe but suitable to read as a stand-alone story. Parts of the Lacuna universe: Magnet Magnet: Special Mission Magnet: Marauder Magnet: Scarecrow (new release!) Magnet Omnibus I (new release!) Imperfect Faith The Lacuna series: Lacuna Lacuna: The Sands of Karathi Lacuna: The Spectre of Oblivion Lacuna: The Ashes of Humanity (new release!) Lacuna: The Prelude to Eternity (coming soon!) Keywords: free, freebie, free download, sci-fi, robot, construct, ai, artificial intelligence, hard sci-fi, lacuna

It''s 2037. I''m Mike Williams, but you can call me ''Magnet''. Everyone else does. It''s short for ''Chick Magnet''. Good old-fashioned military humour at its finest. At age fifteen, my face picked a fight with the propeller of my family''s boat, on a shoal near Broome, off Western Australia. It was an accident, but, needless to say, the propeller won. Twelve years later, I was a not-so-ruggedly-handsome fighter pilot assigned to the TFR Sydney. Not the Captain, or flight leader, or anything similarly exciting. Nobody special, just one mostly-unmemorable pilot among the many nameless, faceless masses. I''m Magnet. This is the beginning of my story. A 5500 word story in the Lacuna universe, set during the events of Lacuna: The Sands of Karathi but suitable to read as a stand-alone story. Parts of the Lacuna universe: Magnet Magnet: Special Mission Magnet: Marauder Magnet: Scarecrow (new release!) Magnet Omnibus I (new release!) Imperfect Faith The Lacuna series: Lacuna Lacuna: The Sands of Karathi Lacuna: The Spectre of Oblivion Lacuna: The Ashes of Humanity Lacuna: The Prelude to Eternity Lacuna: The Requiem of Steel Keywords: free, freebie, free download, military sci-fi, fighter pilot, pilot, space pilot, space fighter, military space, lacuna

Anyone who has ever tied a blood knot in a leader or spun a line on the reel, felt the tug of a salmon or seen the glimmer of a brook trout in the early morning sun, understands that fishing is more than a sport. It is, for many, a way of life. In Lines on the Water, we are reminded why this is so. Writing with the same mastery that has won him praise for his fiction, Richards takes us—even those unfamiliar with days spent in chilly waters—on an unforgettable journey to the famed Miramichi River. Casting new light on the mysterious and elegant world of fly fishing, it teems with lore and wisdom, humor, and most of all, passion.

A practical treatment of short-range radar processing for reliable object detection at ground level.

"Never again attempt to develop this kind of technology." It is with these words that an unknown alien attacker destroys the Earth cities of Tehran, Sydney and Beijing. Fifty million people die... and nothing is ever the same again. Some call them Demons, some call them Aliens, but to Chinese Naval Captain Melissa Liao they are the enemy. She is given command of one of three great warships built to fight the "demons", the TFR Beijing. Her task is simple. Find who attacked Earth and why... then stop them. Book one of the Lacuna series. Lacuna: Demons of the Void Lacuna: The Sands of Karathi Lacuna: The Spectre of Oblivion Lacuna: The Ashes of Humanity (new release!) Lacuna: The Prelude to Eternity (coming soon!) Don''t miss these short stories set in the Lacuna universe: Magnet Magnet: Special Mission Magnet: Marauder Magnet: Scarecrow (new release!) Imperfect Faith Keywords: free, freebie, free download, military sci-fi, navy, future, people''s republic of china, space exploration, military space, lacuna

Mercy Among the Children received effusive praise from the critics, was nominated for a Governor General’s Award and won the Giller Prize. It was named one of 2000’s best books, became a national bestseller in hardcover for months, and would be published in the US and UK. It is seen, however, as being at odds with literary fashion for concerning itself with good and evil and the human freedom to choose between them — an approach that puts Richards, as Maclean’s magazine says, firmly in the tradition of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. Author Wayne Johnston recounts hearing Richards read in 1983 and being struck by his unqualified love for every one of his characters, even though “it was not then fashionable to love your characters”. Pottersfield Portfolio editor Tony Tremblay calls Richards the most misunderstood Canadian writer of the century, and a “great moralist”, comparing him to Morley Callaghan, Kafka and Melville. As a boy, Sydney Henderson thinks he has killed Connie Devlin when he pushes him from a roof for stealing his sandwich. He vows to God he will never again harm another if Connie survives. Connie walks away, laughing, and Sydney embarks upon a life of self-immolating goodness. In spite of having educated himself with such classics as Tolstoy and Marcus Aurelius, he is not taken seriously enough to enter university because of his background of dire poverty and abuse, which leads everyone to expect the worst of him. His saintly generosity of spirit is treated with suspicion and contempt, especially when he manages to win the love of beautiful Elly. Unwilling to harm another in thought or deed, or to defend himself against false accusations, he is exploited and tormented by others in this rural community, and finally implicated in the death of a 19-year-old boy. Lyle Henderson knows his father is innocent, but is angry that the family has been ridiculed for years, and that his mother and sister suffer for it. He feels betrayed by his father’s passivity in the face of one blow after another, and unable to accept his belief in long-term salvation. Unlike his father, he cannot believe that evil will be punished in the end. While his father turns the other cheek, Lyle decides the right way is in fighting, and embarks on a morally empty life of stealing, drinking and violence. A compassionate, powerful story of humanity confronting inhumanity, it is a culmination of Richards’ last seven books, beginning with Road to the Stilt House. It takes place in New Brunswick’s Miramichi Valley, like all of his novels so far, which has led some urban critics to misjudge his work as regional — a criticism leveled at Thomas Hardy, Joseph Conrad and Emily Bronte in their own day. Like his literary heroes, Richards aims to evoke universal human struggles through his depiction of the events of a small, rural place, where one person’s actions impact inevitably on others in a tragic web of interconnectedness. The setting is extremely important in Richards’ work, “because the characters come from the soil”; but as British Columbia author Jack Hodgins once told Richards, “every character you talk about is a character I''ve met here in Campbell River”.

With The Friends of Meager Fortune, award-winning author David Adams Richards continues his exploration of New Brunswick’s Miramichi Valley, and the universal human matters that concern us all. A story of good and evil, fate and hope, set against the background of a logging town on the brink of change. Will Jameson has a temperament of iron, standing up to men twice his age when he takes over the Jameson lumber company after his father''s death. His younger brother Owen is sensitive, literary and fanciful. But when Will dies suddenly and Owen''s beloved Lula rejects him, Owen''s deeper character comes to light: joining the army in the hope of getting himself killed, instead Owen returns home a decorated war hero. Then he falls in love with the beautiful, childlike Camellia—the wife of Will''s old friend Reggie Glidden—and soon Owen and Camellia find themselves watched on all sides, caught in the teeth of an entire town''s gossip and hypocrisy. Inexorably, they are pulled into a chain of events that will end with death, disappearance and a sensational trial. At the same time, realizing his destiny, Owen takes over the family business and begins what will become the greatest cut in New Brunswick history, his men setting up camp on the notoriously dangerous Good Friday Mountain. The teamsters spend months in fierce ice and snow, daily pitting themselves against nature and risking their lives for scant reward, in the last moments before the coming of mechanization that will make them obsolete. This heroic, brutal life is all Meager Fortune, the camp keeper, knows. A good and innocent man, he shows unexpected resolution in the face of the betrayals of the more worldly men around him.

The monograph written by John Mullane, Ba-Ngu Vo, Martin Adams and Ba-Tuong Vo is devoted to the field of autonomous robot systems, which have been receiving a great deal of attention by the research community in the latest few years. The contents are focused on the problem of representing the environment and its uncertainty in terms of feature based maps. Random Finite Sets are adopted as the fundamental tool to represent a map, and a general framework is proposed for feature management, data association and state estimation. The approaches are tested in a number of experiments on both ground based and marine based facilities.

With a voice as Canadian as winter, David Adams Richards reflects on the place of hockey in the Canadian soul. The lyrical narrative of Hockey Dreams flows from Richards'' boyhood games on the Miramichi to heated debates with university professors who dare to back the wrong team. It examines the globalization of hockey, and how Canadians react to the threat of foreigners beating us at "our" game. Part memoir, part essay on national identity, part hockey history, Hockey Dreams is a meditation by one of Canada''s finest writers on the essence of the game that helps define our nation.

The first definitive overview of the Tonalist movement-the crucial but long-misunderstood missing link in the evolution of American art. Includes over 300 color plates.

David Adams Richards’ Governor General’s Award-winning novel is a powerful tale of resignation and struggle, fierce loyalties and compassion. This book is the first in Richards’ acclaimed Miramichi trilogy. Set in a small mill town in northern New Brunswick, it draws us into the lives of a community of people who live there, including: Joe Walsh, isolated and strong in the face of a drinking problem; his wife, Rita, willing to believe the best about people; and their teenage daughter Adele, whose nature is rebellious and wise, and whose love for her father wars with her desire for independence. Richards’ unforgettable characters are linked together in conflict, and in inarticulate love and understanding. Their plight as human beings is one we share.

Cindi and Ivan Basterache have been married only twenty months. There is a disagreement over a loan, and rumours of violence in the ensuing quarrel begin to spread throughout the northern New Brunswick mill town in which they live, setting in motion a series of events and misunderstandings. As Ivan struggles to reconcile with Cindi, the community turns against him, fuelled by his father’s self-deluded lies and misguided attempts to set things right, exposing the other side of good intentions and leading to the novel’s powerful conclusion. Disturbing, tender-hearted, and at times darkly humorous, Evening Snow Will Bring Such Peace reveals the strange unrecognized power in us all to shape one another’s destinies.

In this invaluable contribution to the continuing debate about religious belief, David Adams Richards offers an exhilaratingly fresh perspective and a voice more impassioned, heartfelt, and sometimes furious, than anything written about God by an atheist. David Adams Richards, one of Canada’s most beloved and celebrated authors, has been wrestling with questions of morality, faith, and religion ever since he was a child. They have always informed his fiction. Now he examines their role in his own life and spells out his own belief, in what is his most self-revealing work to date. With characteristic honesty, Richards charts his rocky relationship with his cradle Catholicism, his battles with personal demons, his encounters with men who were proud to be murderers, and the many times in his life when he has been witness to what he unapologetically calls miracles. In this subtly argued, highly personal polemic, David Adams Richards insists that the presence of God cannot be denied, and that many of those who espouse atheism also know that presence, though they would not admit it to anyone—including themselves. Every follower of today’s battle between faith and atheism, and every lover of David Adams Richards’ superb fiction, will find God Is revelatory. “I believe that all of us, even those who are atheists, seek God—or at the very least not one of us would be unhappy if God appeared and told us that the universe was actually His creation. Oh, we might put Him on trial for making it so hard, and get angry at Him, too, but we would be very happy that He is here. Well, He is.” Questions of faith, morality, the role of unseen forces in our destinies, have been central to the fiction of David Adams Richards. Now he directly addresses what these questions have meant to him in his own life, and what he has come firmly to believe. He has always been a courageous and uncompromisingly honest writer—but never more so than here.

Let your imagination take flight! David Adams''s paintings guide you into a realm of wonder and delight. In this book, you''ll discover techniques for using acrylic paints to create realistic interpretations of fairies and their romantic worlds. From the basics of color and composition to ideas for using nature as a starting point, you''ll find everything you need to paint your own enchanting fairy dreamscapes. Instruction on how to paint a variety of fairies, including facial features, delicate wings, poses, flowing hair, clothing and more Lessons on painting natural settings and elements to enhance your fairy scenes, such as butterflies, birds, trees, bumblebees, water reflections, flowers, mushrooms, waterfalls, clouds and rainbows Secrets to achieving otherworldly lighting effects such as magical sparkles, moody fogs and luminous glows 20+ step-by-step painting demonstrations show you how to portray beautiful fairies in various settings

Although there are many histories of war, this is the first history of the culture of war. Drawing on anthropological, sociological and historical data, it traces all aspects of the the culture of war in its evolution from prehistory to the present time. It concludes that the history of the state has been the increasing monopolization of the culture of war, to the point that the state is incapable of promoting a culture of peace. This book is part of a trilogy along with World Peace through the Town Hall: A Strategy for the Global Movement for a Culture of Peace and the utopian novella, I Have Seen the Promised Land. Together they put forward a comprehensive and feasible plan to achieve world peace. They are based on the author''s responsibility for the United Nations International Year for the Culture of Peace (2000), the Manifesto 2000 signed by 75 million people, and the United Nations Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace.

Cave paintings at Lascaux, France and Altamira, Spain, fraught with expression thousands of years later; point to an early human desire to form a cultural identity. In The Oxford Companion to World Mythology, David Leeming explores the role of mythology, or myth-logic, in history anddetermines that the dreams of specific cultures add up to a larger collective story of humanity. Stopping short of attempting to be all-inclusive, this fascinating volume will nonetheless be comprehensive, opening with an introduction exploring the nature and dimensions of myth and proposing adefinition as a universal language. Briefly dipping into the ways our understanding of myth has changed from Aristotle and Plato to modern scholars such as Joseph Campbell, the introduction loosely places the concept in its present context and precedes articles on influential mythologists andmythological approaches that appear later in the Companion.The main body of Leeming''s work consists of A-Z entries covering all aspects of mythology, including substantial essays on the world''s major mythological traditions (Greek, Native American, Indian, Japanese, Sumerian, Egyptian), mythological types and motifs (Descent to the Underworld, the Hero, theTrickster, Creation, the Quest), mythological figures (Odysseus, Zeus, Osiris, Spider Woman, and Inanna) as well as numerous interrelated subjects such as fairy tales and legends. The Companion also locates myth in our lives today, relating it to language patterns, psychology, religion, politics,art, and gender attitudes. Many of the better-known and more significant myths are vividly retold in this volume that will be illustrated with maps, more than 70 black and white images, and eight pages of color highlighting the central role art has often played in the transmission and perpetuationof myth. Following the entries, a rich section of appendices will include family trees of the major pantheons, equivalency charts for the gods of Greece and Rome, Babylon and Sumer, as well as other traditions, an extensive bibliography, and an index.

Now in its second edition, A Handbook of Diction for Singers is a complete guide to achieving professional levels of diction in Italian, German, and French, the three major languages of the classical vocal repertory. Written for English-speaking singers and offering thorough, consistent explanations, it is an ideal tool for students and an invaluable reference for voice teachers, vocal coaches, and conductors. The book combines traditional approaches proven successful in the teaching of diction with important new material not readily available elsewhere, presenting the sounds of each language in logical order, along with essential information on matters such as diacritical marks, syllabification, word stress, and effective use of the variety of foreign-language dictionaries. Presented in an attractively concise format, the book goes into greater detail than comparable texts, providing specific information to clarify concepts typically difficult for English-speaking singers. Particular emphasis is placed on the characteristics of vowel length, the sequencing of sounds between words, as well as the differences between spoken and sung sounds in all three languages. Featuring significantly expanded coverage of each of the three languages and illustrated with numerous examples, this second edition of A Handbook of Diction for Singers is an exceptional text for courses in diction and a valuable reference source for all vocalists.

This study of domestic homicide in America examines the lives and moitvation of men who kill their intimate partners.

After twenty years, Alex Chapman still blames his great-uncle James for the direction his life has taken. When Alex learns that James has won thirteen million dollars in a lottery, he sees a chance for revenge. A plot to steal the ticket from his uncle turns into a a tale of small-town jealousy and corruption.

Exchanging Western values for far-off Thailand, Gunnar Ray plans to teach in the countryside and absorb the country''s ancient wisdom. When monsoon rains flood the lands above his adopted village, catastrophe strikes. Gunnar''s innocence is swept downstream along with hundreds of Thai lives. Exchanging Western values for far-off Thailand, Gunnar Ray plans to teach in the countryside and absorb the country''s ancient wisdom. When monsoon rains flood the lands above his adopted village, catastrophe strikes. Gunnar''s innocence is swept downstream along with hundreds of Thai lives.

In the first comprehensive narrative study of the mythology of the Middle East, David Leeming ranges from prehistoric figures such as the Mother Goddess of Çatal Hüyük to Mesopotamian gods such as Marduk and mythic heroes such as Gilgamesh, to the pantheon of Egyptian mythology, including the falcon-headed sky-sun god Horus and jackal-headed Anubis. The author also offers an illuminating exploration of the mythology of the three great monotheistic religions of the region: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.