Discover ancient civilizations that have disappeared beneath the ocean's surface and explore how the science of submergence adds to our knowledge of human history. The traces of much of human history – and that which preceded it – lie beneath the ocean surface; broken up, dispersed, often buried and always mysterious. This is fertile ground for speculation, even myth-making, but also a topic on which geologists and climatologists have increasingly focused in recent decades. We now know enough to tell the true story of some of the continents and islands that have disappeared throughout Earth's history, to explain how and why such things happened, and to unravel the effects of submergence on the rise and fall of human civilizations. In Worlds in Shadow Patrick Nunn sifts the facts from the fiction, using the most up-to-date research to work out which submerged places may have actually existed versus those that probably only exist in myth. He looks at the descriptions of recently drowned lands that have been well documented, those that are plausible, and those that almost certainly didn't exist. Going even further back, Patrick examines the presence of more ancient lands, submerged beneath the waves in a time that even the longest-reaching folk memory can't touch. Such places may have played important roles in human evolution, but can only be reconstructed through careful geological detective work. Exploring how lands become submerged, whether from sea-level changes, tectonic changes, gravity collapse, giant waves or volcanoes, helps us determine why, when and where land may disappear in the future, and what might be done to prevent it.

The Shadow World presents the behind-the-scenes tale of the global arms trade, exposing in forensic detail the deadly collusion that too often exists among senior politicians, weapons manufacturers, felonious arms dealers, and the military--a situation that compromises our security and undermines our democracy. Now a major PBS documentary "An authoritative guide to the business of war. Chilling, heartbreaking, and enraging."--Arundhati Roy Andrew Feinstein reveals the cover-ups behind a range of weapons deals, from the largest in history--between the British and Saudi governments---to the guns-for-diamonds deals in Africa and the current $60 billion U.S. weapons contract with Saudi Arabia. Based on pathbreaking reporting and unprecedented access to top-secret information, The Shadow World takes us into a clandestine realm that is as vitally important as it is shocking.

The Bronte siblings—Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne—find escape from their constrained lives via their rich imaginations. The glittering world of Verdopolis and the romantic and melancholy world of Gondal literally come to life under their pens, offering the sort of romance and intrigue missing from their isolated parsonage home. But at what price? As Branwell begins to descend into madness and the sisters feel their real lives slipping away, they must weigh the cost of their powerful imaginations, even as the characters they have created—the brooding Rogue and dashing Duke of Zamorna—refuse to let them go. Gorgeously written and based on the Brontes’ juvenilia, Worlds of Ink and Shadow brings to life one of history’s most celebrated literary families in a thrilling, suspenseful fantasy.

THE SECRET WAR AGAINST AMERICA America is at war and the stakes are huge. The fight is not just in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is a global contest between the United States, radical Islam, a resurgent Russia, and a virulent New Left that is coming to power in Latin America and stalking the corridors of power around the world, including the United States. These three enemies of America are separate but they cooperate--and in his stunning new book, Shadow World, Robert Chandler shows how. In Shadow World you'll learn: * Why "post-Communist" Russia is not really "post-Communist" at all, but represents an insidious new strategic threat to the United States * How "cultural communism" has rejuvenated the radical Left's prospects around the world * Why American-style democracy is losing out to Castro and Hugo Chavez-style communism in Latin America * How radical Islam has allied itself to the New Left--and why this makes radical Islam even more dangerous than before Shadow World reveals, in a way no other book has done, the new strategic realities of the post-Cold War, post-9/11 world. Provocative, insightful, thorough, it is essential reading for those who want to see the 21st century as America's century, and not the century of her enemies.

How the perception of shadows, studied by vision scientists and visual artists, reveals the inner workings of the visual system. In The Visual World of Shadows, Roberto Casati and Patrick Cavanagh examine how the perception of shadows, as studied by vision scientists and visual artists, reveals the inner workings of the visual system. Shadows are at once a massive problem for vision—which must distinguish them from objects or material features of objects—and a resource, signaling the presence, location, shape, and size of objects. Casati and Cavanagh draw up an inventory of information retrievable from shadows, showing their amazing variety. They present an overview of the visual system, distinguishing between measurement and inference. They discuss the shadow mission, the work done by the visual brain to parse, and perhaps discard, the information from shadows; shadow ownership, the association of a shadow with the object that casts it; shadow labeling, the visual system's ability to tell shadows from nonshadows; and the shadow concept, our knowledge about shadows as a category. Casati and Cavanagh then apply the theoretical apparatus they have developed for shadows to other phenomena: illumination, reflection, and transparency. Finally, they examine the art of the shadow, paying tribute to artists' exploration of shadow, analyzing a series of artworks (reproduced in color) from a rich and fascinating art historical corpus.

McEvoy is a truth-seeker. He has moments when he sees through the surface sheen of the world to a deeper reality, and moments when his sense of self dissolves. The Scotsman is restless, a wanderer. He flings himself into new relationships, even as he flees family secrets. In Shadow World, we see through McEvoy's eyes as he grows from boisterous youth to a man defined equally by darkness and light. We meet his demons and his lovers. His adventure unfolds like beads on a string, with each episode separate yet connected. His journey takes him from the Arizona desert to the wilds of Patagonia, from the Silk Road in China to the lush countryside of Ireland, ending in a twilight zone near the Arctic Circle. Shadow World is a first novel by noted popular science writer Chris Impey. Shadow World inhabits the boundary between narrative fiction and science fiction. It explores the tension between artifacts and natural forms, between reality and illusion, between the science that is and the science that might be. The novel is filled with intriguing characters. We meet a death camp survivor for whom music is everything, a relentless archeologist who is rewriting the story of human civilization, a mercurial sculptor who has a personality that mirrors her art, identical twins who inhabit parallel worlds of science and religion, a brilliant but raunchy astrophysicist, and an enigmatic philosopher who seems to know McEvoy better than he knows himself. By the end of his twenty-year odyssey, McEvoy has gained a startling insight into his reality, and perhaps ours as well.

All Ben wants is a Mongolian fighting fish. He's saved his allowance for weeks and finally has enough to go to the pet store. But instead of his fish, he comes home with a talking cat from Eidolon, the Secret Country. Ben learns that this is just a small piece of the magical creature smuggling that is going on and that with each creature taken from their home, the magical land grows weaker. And so does Ben's mom, the long-lost queen of Eidolon. Ben exposed Mr. Dodd's vile pet emporium in The Secret Country, but that was not enough to put a stop to his evil scheme. In The Shadow World, Queen Isadora goes back to her homeland to help the magical creatures overcome the dog-headed Dodman. Ellie, Ben's sister, follows and lands in a trap. The Arnold children are destined to save the Secret Country, but first they must save each other. The battle continues in The Dragon's Fire, but the magical creatures under Queen Isadora's guide are not fairing so well. Before Ben and the others ride to her rescue, she is captured by the Dodman and taken to the castle for a wedding ceremony. Her wedding ceremony. But first the Dodman must get rid of Ben's father. It is a fight to the finish when baby sister Alice goes through the most extraordinary transformation, vanquishes the Dodman, and reunites her family for good.