Throughout history, from Kublai Khan's attempted invasions of Japan to Rommel's desert warfare, military operations have succeeded or failed on the ability of commanders to incorporate environmental conditions into their tactics. In Battling the Elements, geographer Harold A. Winters and former U.S. Army officers Gerald E. Galloway Jr., William J. Reynolds, and David W. Rhyne, examine the connections between major battles in world history and their geographic components, revealing what role factors such as weather, climate, terrain, soil, and vegetation have played in combat. Each chapter offers a detailed and engaging explanation of a specific environmental factor and then looks at several battles that highlight its effects on military operations. As this cogent analysis of geography and war makes clear, those who know more about the shape, nature, and variability of battleground conditions will always have a better understanding of the nature of combat and at least one significant advantage over a less knowledgeable enemy.

With a world under the control of an evil sorcerer and magic feared by all, will anyone fight for freedom? When the tyranny becomes unbearable, Marcus and his allies set out to find a way to break the evil power controlling the lands, facing challenges as they travel battling evil soldiers, fierce dragons, and foul demons. Can the magic of water, earth, and air hold back the power of fire, or will the fire sorcerer extinguish all hope for the people?

The Elements of Lore Alex, Amber and Caius' adventure reveals our world's secret magic. Alex Fletcher is an ordinary boy, but after being chased through the snow and taking a scholarship at the Lore Ordinance Research Establishment life is never the same again...Welcome Apprentice to a world where science and magic combine, where a Manor and Biospheres hold terrible secrets, where Lore Masters battle and deadly enemies rage. Is Alex the One? Will darkness overthrow the Lore? Alex's journey promises magic, adventure and horror, remember Apprentice when the Elements' secrets are revealed you'll never go back...Sales generate donation to Cystic Fibrosis Trust.

"Space opera the way it ought to be . . . Bujold and Weber, bend the knee; interstellar adventure has a new king, and his name is Walter Jon Williams."—George R. R. Martin Following The Accidental War, the second book of a brand-new series set in the Praxis—an epic mix of space opera and military science fiction, from a grand master of science fiction, Walter Jon Williams. The Praxis, the empire of now extinct Shaa, has again fallen into civil war, with desperate and outnumbered humans battling several alien species for survival. Leading the human forces are star-crossed lovers Gareth Martinez and Caroline Sula, who must find a way to overcome their own thorny personal history to defeat the aliens and assure humanity’s survival. But even if the human fleet is victorious, the divisions fracturing the empire may be too wide to repair, as battles between politicians, the military, and fanatics who want to kill every alien threaten to further tear the empire apart. While Martinez and Sula believe they have the talent and tactics to defeat an overwhelming enemy, what will prevent their fellow humans from destroying themselves?

List of members in each volume except v. 27.