Fires of Eden

Fires of Eden PDF Author: Dan Simmons
Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group
ISBN: 9780399139222
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 399

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Book Description
A real-estate mogul's attempts to build a deluxe Hawaiian resort are undermined by the disappearance of guests, discovery of strange beasts capable of human speech, and volcanic eruptions, as vengeful gods bring their immortal rivalries into the modern world.

Fires of Eden

Fires of Eden PDF Author: Dan Simmons
Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group
ISBN: 9780399139222
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 399

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Book Description
A real-estate mogul's attempts to build a deluxe Hawaiian resort are undermined by the disappearance of guests, discovery of strange beasts capable of human speech, and volcanic eruptions, as vengeful gods bring their immortal rivalries into the modern world.

Whole World on Fire

Whole World on Fire PDF Author: Lynn Eden
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 9780801435782
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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Book Description
Whole World on Fire focuses on a technical riddle wrapped in an organizational mystery: How and why, for more than half a century, did the U.S. government fail to predict nuclear fire damage as it drew up plans to fight strategic nuclear war?U.S. bombing in World War II caused massive fire damage to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but later war plans took account only of damage from blast; they completely ignored damage from atomic firestorms. Recently a small group of researchers has shown that for modern nuclear weapons the destructiveness and lethality of nuclear mass fire often--and predictably--greatly exceeds that of nuclear blast. This has major implications for defense policy: the U.S. government has underestimated the damage caused by nuclear weapons, Lynn Eden finds, and built far more warheads, and far more destructive warheads, than it needed for the Pentagon's war-planning purposes. How could this have happened? The answer lies in how organizations frame the problems they try to solve. In a narrative grounded in organization theory, science and technology studies, and primary historical sources (including declassified documents and interviews), Eden explains how the U.S. Air Force's doctrine of precision bombing led to the development of very good predictions of nuclear blast--a significant achievement--but for many years to no development of organizational knowledge about nuclear fire. Expert communities outside the military reinforced this disparity in organizational capability to predict blast damage but not fire damage. Yet some innovation occurred, and predictions of fire damage were nearly incorporated into nuclear war planning in the early 1990s. The author explains how such a dramatic change almost happened, and why it did not. Whole World on Fire shows how well-funded and highly professional organizations, by focusing on what they do well and systematically excluding what they don't do well, may build a poor representation of the world--a self-reinforcing fallacy that can have serious consequences. In a sweeping conclusion, Eden shows the implications of the analysis for understanding such things as the sinking of the Titanic, the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, and the poor fireproofing in the World Trade Center.

Five Fires

Five Fires PDF Author: David Wyatt
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195127412
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
Using his background in cultural history and literature, David Wyatt focuses this history of California on five events that swept through the state, altering its physical and political landscape. "Five Fires" provides a unique framework for understanding the recent developments in California and will prove an important contribution to the history of American culture. Photos.

Hidden Fires

Hidden Fires PDF Author: Betina Krahn
Publisher: Kensington Books
ISBN: 9780821757932
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 548

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Book Description
Eden Marlow finds himself pursued by Ramsay Maclean, who must marry her in order to keep his Scottish estate, and although Eden is determined to avoid him, she is gradually drawn to him

Dream of Legends

Dream of Legends PDF Author: Stephen Zimmer
Publisher: Fires in Eden
ISBN: 9780983108627
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 746

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Book Description
Dream of legends, and soar across the world of Ave... For Janus and the other exiles from a modern world, finding themselves in the fantastical lands of Ave was just the beginning. The assault upon the Kingdom of Saxany and the tribes of the Five Realms ignites, as the eyes of The Unifier turn southward, across the seas towards faraway Midragard. A desperate, dangerous time looms, when all will be swept up in the tides of war rippling out from Avanor. Yet in the heart of the maelstrom, several lights begin to shine through the darkness. Some are on a path of discovery, to uncover the power that lies within, while others will brave perilous journeys, to seek out the things said to exist only in the faded mists of myth and legend. In the face of monstrous adversaries, massive armies, and even horrific entities summoned from infernal depths, courage and honor become the sword and shield in the hands of those who choose to resist. Book Two of the Fires in Eden Series, Dream of Legends is immersive, epic fantasy, for those who love to explore richly developed fantasy worlds alongside an ensemble of intriguing, diverse characters. Readers of the great epic fantasy authors such as Robert Jordan, George R.R. Martin, and J.R.R. Tolkien will find a wondrous trove of adventure, characters, and depth in this next step of the Fires in Eden series.

Summer of Night

Summer of Night PDF Author: Dan Simmons
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
ISBN: 1429985313
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 529

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Book Description
This masterfully crafted horror classic, featuring a brand-new introduction by Dan Simmons, will bring you to the edge of your seat, hair standing on end and blood freezing in your veins It's the summer of 1960 and in the small town of Elm Haven, Illinois, five twelve-year-old boys are forging the powerful bonds that a lifetime of change will not break. From sunset bike rides to shaded hiding places in the woods, the boys' days are marked by all of the secrets and silences of an idyllic middle-childhood. But amid the sundrenched cornfields their loyalty will be pitilessly tested. When a long-silent bell peals in the middle of the night, the townsfolk know it marks the end of their carefree days. From the depths of the Old Central School, a hulking fortress tinged with the mahogany scent of coffins, an invisible evil is rising. Strange and horrifying events begin to overtake everyday life, spreading terror through the once idyllic town. Determined to exorcize this ancient plague, Mike, Duane, Dale, Harlen, and Kevin must wage a war of blood—against an arcane abomination who owns the night...

Gardeners of Eden

Gardeners of Eden PDF Author: Dan Dagget
Publisher: University of Nevada Press
ISBN: 1943859361
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
Dan Dagget believes that humanity can have a positive effect on the land. He demonstrates case after case of positive human engagement in the environment and of managed ecosystems and restored areas that are richer, more diverse, and healthier than unmanaged ones. Much of pre-Columbian America, he contends, was not a pristine wilderness but an ancient garden managed over millennia by native peoples who shaped the plant and animal communities around them to the mutual benefit of all. Dagget recommends a new kind of environmentalism based on management, science, evolution, and holism, and served by humans who enrich the environment even as they benefit from it. His new environmentalism offers hopeful solutions to the current ecological crisis and a new purpose for our human energies and ideals. This book is essential reading for anyone concerned with the earth and anyone seeking a viable way for our burgeoning human population to continue to live upon it.

Eden Burning

Eden Burning PDF Author: Elizabeth Lowell
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 9780380789955
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
Paradise calls to Chase Wilcox. A man of science, escaping the destruction of his own personal world, he is drawn to the lush beauty of the island of Hawaii and the secrets it holds. Here he intends to immerse himself in his work . . . and somehow heal and forget. A research assistant, an artist, and a dancer, Nicole Ballard also hides a secret pain. Together on an important scientific project in the moist, verdant heart of a tropical wonderland, both she and Chase will be forced to confront their own lingering inner darkness. But in the shadows of Mount Kilauea, a passion that burns like fire will erupt, as unpredictable and dangerous as the living volcano, transforming the very landscape of their lives. A classic story of desire, hope, and dangerous destiny from the incomparable New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Elizabeth Lowell

West of Eden

West of Eden PDF Author: Harry Harrison
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 146682283X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 491

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Book Description
From a Science Fiction Hall of Fame inductee, “intelligent reptiles battle stone age humans for control of an alternate Earth” (Kirkus Reviews). Sixty-five million years ago, a disastrous cataclysm eliminated three quarters of all life on Earth. Overnight, the age of dinosaurs ended. The age of mammals had begun. But what if history had happened differently? What if the reptiles had survived to evolve intelligent life? In West of Eden, bestselling author Harry Harrison has created a rich, dramatic saga of a world where the descendants of the dinosaurs struggled with a clan of humans in a battle for survival. Here is the story of Kerrick, a young hunter who grows to manhood among the dinosaurs, escaping at last to rejoin his own kind. His knowledge of their strange customs makes him the humans’ leader . . . and the dinosaurs’ greatest enemy. West of Eden is a monumental epic of love and savagery, bravery and hope. “A perfectly grand storyteller.” —David Brin, Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author of Star Tide Rising “Few commercial writers are more deserving of their popularity than Harrison, a fine writer who occasionally reaches brilliant heights.” —Publishers Weekly

Vestal Fire

Vestal Fire PDF Author: Stephen J. Pyne
Publisher: University of Washington Press
ISBN: 0295803525
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 680

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Book Description
Stephen Pyne has been described as having a consciousness "composed of equal parts historian, ecologist, philosopher, critic, poet, and sociologist." At this time in history when many people are trying to understand their true relationship with the natural environment, this book offers a remarkable contribution--breathtaking in the scope of its research and exhilarating to read. Pyne takes the reader on a journey through time, exploring the terrain of Europe and the uses and abuses of its lands as well as, through migration and conquest, many parts of the rest of the world. Whether he is discussing the Mediterranean region, Russia, Scandinavia, the British Isles, central Europe, or colonized islands; whether he is considering the impact of agriculture, forestry, or Enlightenment thinking, the author brings an unmatched insight to his subject. Vestal Fire takes its title from Vesta, Roman goddess of the hearth and keeper of the sacred fire on Mount Olympus. But the book's title also suggests the strengths and limitations of Europe's peculiar conception of fire, and through fire, of its relationship to nature. Between the untamed fire of the wilderness and the tended fire of the hearth lies a never-ending dialectic in which human beings struggle to control natural forces and processes that in fact can sometimes be directed but never wholly dominated or contained.