Melvin “the Troll” Horgan—lead singer and lyricist of the grunge band Billy Goat’s Gruff; self-loathing, angry little gargoyle, and a spiritually and literally impotent loser; a musician devoid of talent and artistry—finally gets his big break after one fleeting burst of creativity while squatting in the bathroom of a Popeye’s restaurant just outside of Washington, D.C. Knowing his career is in freefall, Melvin desperately wrenches together a song for his next album—his last shot at succes...

The debate over affirmative action has raged for over four decades, with little give on either side. Most agree that it began as noble effort to jump-start racial integration; many believe it devolved into a patently unfair system of quotas and concealment. Now, with the Supreme Court set to rule on a case that could sharply curtail the use of racial preferences in American universities, law professor Richard Sander and legal journalist Stuart Taylor offer a definitive account of what affi...

Economic transition in China has witnessed (re)centralization of resources from the margin to the core in economic, social and political senses. This book employs a marginalization lens to reveal, delineate and better understand the processes, patterns, trends, multiple dimensions and dynamics of the phenomenon, and the consequences and implications for development and well-being in the country. Bringing together a wide range of domestic and international experts and disciplinary perspecti...

This title was first published in 2000: An examination of the potential for Chinese ecological agriculture providing a basis for sustainable development in the Chinese countryside. Richard Sanders involves primary research in seven villages and four countries in China that have adopted ecological agriculture. He examines the concept of sustainable development generally and analyses China’s political-economic policies towards the countryside since 1949, the impacts on the environment and th...

"Footeballe is nothinge but beastlie furie and extreme violence", wrote Thomas Elyot in 1531. Nearly five hundred years later, the game may still seem furious and violent, but it has also become the most popular sport on the planet.This is the story of how the modern, professional, spectator sport of football was born in Britain in the second half of the nineteenth century. It's a tale of testosterone-filled public schoolboys, eccentric mill-owners and bolshy miners, and of why we ...

As Kalila's forces battle the Rotham invasion, Blackmoth is attempting to detonate an isotome weapon in close proximity. After a coup against White Rook, Raidan now controls the Organization. He has taken his remaining warships to Capital World, the planet he loves most in the galaxy, and is threatening to destroy it, unless Caerwyn Martel is surrendered to his custody. Calvin has returned to the Nighthawk and together he and his crew attempt their most dangerous adventure yet, an excursio...

A fearful Empire anticipates King Akira's next move: will he abandon them to the corrupt hands of Caerwyn Martel or doom them to bloody civil war, leaving them defenseless against an imminent alien invasion? Just beyond human space, the crows are circling. Across the DMZ, the Rotham Republic prepares its war fleets with hungry eyes fixed on the weakened Empire. Spurred on to war by the pervasive Rahajiim, a shadowy organization that has struck a dark deal with the nightmarish Enclave. Mean...

The hour is grim for the Empire, which has split into opposing sides. Civil War rages between Queen Kalila Akira and Steward Caerwyn Martel. As all Imperial forces are dragged into the conflict, threatening to destroy the once mighty Imperial fleet, enemies abroad have their sights set on the juicy, and ever more defenseless, human worlds. Rotham invasion seems imminent and unstoppable. Summers and the Nighthawk race against Blackmoth and Tristan, each hoping to reach Zander first, and get...

As the most serious threat ever facing the galaxy now looms over them, Calvin and his crew continue their mission to expose the dark conspiracy haunting the Empire. Now a fugitive on the run, Calvin has no choice but to work alongside Raidan’s mysterious Organization. And form an alliance with a misfit band of fair-weather friends. Meanwhile, ships are vanishing with no explanation and murders are going unnoticed.

A storm is brewing. Eager war fleets patrol the edges of human space, waiting. The leaders of the Phoenix Conspiracy are poised to usher in The Hour of Ascension. And it is up to Calvin to expose the conspiracy before the Empire collapses in a firestorm of civil war. Deadly isotome weapons remain at large, forces across every border are arming for war, and now even the monarchy itself is threatened by the chaos. From the blood-soaked soil of Renora, where the very strength of the Empire is...

"The Sign of the Four" is the second Sherlock Holmes novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The story has a complex plot involving stolen treasure, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, and a secret pact among four convicts and two prison guards.

On the surface, the galaxy seems peaceful. Humankind prospers from the Capital World to the far reaches of The Corridor. But to those who can see the signs, it's clear something is wrong. Long, dark fingers are pulling strings inside the military, making clandestine deals with enemy states, and fulfilling some dark design. Calvin is an intelligence agent working for the Imperial government. He's young, his methods are unorthodox, but he gets results. So when a former military hero steals a...