Outlander

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Alastair Bonnett

"The real-life answers to Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, Unruly Places explores the most extraordinary, off-grid, offbeat places on the planet. Alastair Bonnett's tour of the planet's most unlikely micro-nations, moving villages, secret cities, and no man's lands shows us the modern world from surprising new vantage points, bound to inspire urban explorers, off-the-beaten-trail wanderers, and armchair travelers. He connects what we see on maps to what's happening in the world by looking at the places that are hardest to pin down: inaccessible zones, improvised settlements, multiple cities sharing the same space. Consider Sealand, an abandoned gun platform off the English coast that a British citizen claimed as his own sovereign nation, issuing passports and making his wife a princess. Or Baarle, a patchwork city of Dutch and Flemish enclaves where crossing the street can involve traversing national borders. Or Sandy Island, which appeared on maps well into 2012 despite the fact it never existed. Illustrated with original maps and drawings, Unruly Places gives readers a new way of understanding the places we occupy."--

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Eugene Cernan and Don Davis

Eugene Cernan came of age as an astronaut during the most exciting and dangerous decade of space flight. His career spanned the entire Gemini and Apollo programs, from being the first person to spacewalk all the way around our world to the moment when he left man's last footprint on the Moon as commander of Apollo 17. Between those two historic events lay more adventures than an ordinary person could imagine as Cernan repeatedly put his life, his family, and everything he held dear on the altar of an obsessive desire. Written with New York Times bestselling author Don Davis, this is the astronaut story never before told - about the fear, love, and sacrifice demanded of the few men who dared to reach beyond the heavens for the biggest prize of all: the Moon.

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Robert D. Kaplan

Kaplan is a realist. This book is about the physical facts of the world we live on and what those facts mean for cultures and nations. Take for example, the two oceans that insulate the isolationist United States from any credible threats and compare this with the non-existence of any mountains or other barriers around Russia that make its’ land easy to invade and the Russians perennially insecure. Just as a child growing up is influenced in his development by local immediate factors like the composition of his family and his neighborhood; cultures exist in the context of their interaction with the geographical surroundings and their cultural neighbors. America is the product of its European and specifically British ‘parents’. With coastlines on two oceans and abundant natural harbors on both coasts, America could hardly have done otherwise than become a sea power. Given our abundance of resources to export, it simply was in our national interest to be focused on maritime trade and the protection of the same. Contrast this with Russia, which is not a sea power and can hardly become one, no matter how much it wishes to do so. Russia is almost completely cut off from the sea lanes by ice to the north and the expanse of South Asian nations in the other direction. Even Vladivostok, which does sit on the Pacific coast, is not as useful as it may seem as it sits thousands of miles away from 90% of Russia’s population. Distance matters as much as elevation and climate. Difficult climates like the Russian steppes, Kaplan says, lead to more centralized authority – because that is what works for the survival of the nation. Humans have an appetite for power, but their environment shapes how easy or difficult it is to acquire it. Kaplan applies these kinds of lessons from geography to all the world’s inhabited regions, looking for the physical factors that have shaped and continue to shape the life of the peoples & nations. For example, the Asiatic steppes produced nomadic horse clans because nothing else made sense there – poor soil, few rivers to use for irrigation or transport, little timber to build homes all point away from sedentary agriculture, and towards a mobile culture that raids outward to acquire the things it needs. The solitary homestead of the American Midwest could not have survived there, the geography just won't allow it. However, Kaplan is not a determinist; geography is not fate. Persons and nations can choose how they will respond to the world, but they will be influenced by geography whether they realize it or not. What your piece of the globe looks like tells us something important about you and the savvy observer will not let the modern talk of ‘One World’ obscure the enduring realities of geography.

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Eric Flint, Paula Goodlett, Gorg Huff

"Book #18 in the multiple New York Times best-selling Ring of Fire series, and the team behind national bestseller 1635: The Kremlin Games. After carving a free state for itself in war-torn 17th century Europe, citizens of the modern town of Grantville, West Virginia contend with aristocratic forces determined to keep their grip on power whatever it takes. When Grantville, West Virginia was transported back to the year 1631 -- in the middle of the Thirty Years' War, no less -- many things happened. Many opportunities arose. It's said that a rising tide lifts all boats. Perhaps not quite as high as the Barbie Consortium rose, however. A cabal of ten- to twelve-year-old girls? They aren't twelve anymore. And they gave up playing with dolls some years ago, when they sold them all and started an investment consortium. A consortium that did quite well. The Barbie Consortium hits Vienna. In several different ways. The princes and princesses, dukes and duchesses, the common men and women on the street have no idea what's about to happen. Neither do the girls, but they're determined it'll happen their way. About 1636: The Devil's Opera: "Another engaging alternate history from a master of the genre."--Booklist ". an old-style police-procedural mystery, set in 17th century Germany. the threads. spin together. to weave an addictively entertaining story. a strong addition to a fun series."--Daily News of Galveston County About Eric Flint's Ring of Fire series: "This alternate history series is ... a landmark ..."--Booklist "[Eric] Flint's 1632 universe seems to be inspiring a whole new crop of gifted alternate historians."--Booklist " ... reads like a technothriller set in the age of the Medicis ..."--Publishers Weekly"-- "The United States of Europe, the new nation formed by an alliance between Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus and the West Virginians hurled back in time is beset by enemies. But as a young new emperor comes to the throne in Austria, an opening has developed for making peace with one branch of the mighty Habsburg dynasty. However, this is no job for diplomats. With the Austro-Hungarian empire teetering on the brink of economic collapse, the USE sends auto mechanics and financiers to the rescue. But the mechanics are West Virginia hillbillies and the financiers are mostly teenage American girls. Ready to greet them is an emperor uncertain of his goals, common folk desperate for work, noblemen with intentions both fair and foul and priest plotting on all sides. To put it mildly, a culture clash in the making"--