Barndon Cummings, a successful management consultant from New York, becomes a victim of the touch of two universes. He is torn from his existence on Earth and appears in another universe on the planet Tanros, where people have been used to dealing with so-called world jumpers for thousands of years. On Tanros, after centuries of oppression by radical priests, people live the great permissiveness and love between partners is alien to the native Tanros. Brandon integrates himself into the peculiar society, lives a fulfilled life at the side of Ushe, whose ancestors came from Thailand and who is capable of feeling love. The 280-hour man becomes a well-balanced, content and successful financial broker, and during his stay on Tanros the society undergoes repeated significant changes in which he participates. He is happy there, enjoying the freedom of movement, but the universe has its own ideas about Brandon's existence.

Tanja Sorg owns an Opel Nakkita GTC, a chic girls' coupe, tuned at the factory and with its paint job an absolute one-off. Hans Burgmeister, a moderately successful traveling salesman, drives too fast into a densely populated residential area in Porta Westfalica, loses control of his SUV and rams Tanja's beloved Nakky. Two days later he is dead, run over in a field and all the evidence points to Nakky as the murder weapon. This is the beginning of an absurd series of murders in which detective inspector Charlotte Bauer has a lot to gnaw on. Absurd, because you can kill someone with a Nakkita, but you certainly can't run them over, because the coupes of the GTC series with their sports chassis are much too low over the road for that. The victims of the murders, however, have tire marks on their faces, and in the courtyard of Nadja Pfeifer's workshop there are literally piles of damaged cars and wrecks of this type, which after the respective accidents are observed undamaged by witnesses during the murders.

What do you want, dear reader? A thriller, a science fiction epic, or rather a fantasy novel? Or perhaps a dystopian, dark story with a post-apocalyptic background? Then you are holding the right book in your hands right now, because it starts with a murder, describes science fiction paired with plenty of fantasy and takes you into a dark future. The only reason for you not to read this book might be if you can't handle the description of lesbian activities. -*- It begins quite 'innocently' with a brutal murder in the lesbian porn scene, which detective inspector Anja Hirrwanger, who has been transferred from Munich to Inzell, is tasked with solving. In the course of her investigation, the murder case increasingly fades into the background and the shadows of her past as an elite soldier increasingly reach out to her, as she encounters a soulful Class V android who knows more about herself than she does. Anja and the android Bernadette uncover more and more pieces of a vicious game in which she and her two unknown sisters were merely genetically engineered, highly efficient, deadly chess pieces. In the end, it is up to Anja's young assistant, budding detective Chantall Küppers, to solve the murder case, because Anja must die if she is to survive. Thus begins for a handful of women, who defy the natural course of events, a bizarre journey through time, away from the dying earth in search of a new home in which there may be no men.

Classic telescopes are of interest to amateur astronomers for a variety of reasons. There are the dedicated collectors, but there are also many amateurs who love the nostalgia they inspire. These telescopes "feel" different from any contemporary telescope and perhaps have a unique ability to reconnect the owner to a bygone age of craftmanship. This book takes a look at traditional telescopes built by the great instrument makers of the 18th and 19th centuries, particularly the dynastic telescope makers, including Dollond, Alvan Clark, Thomas Cooke & Sons, and Carl Zeiss. Also included are lesser luminaries such as John Brashear, John Calver, William Wray, Henry Fitz, and William Henry Mogey. 'Classic Telescopes' covers the key features of the telescopes designed by these manufacturers, and shows how a heady combination of market trends, instrument condition, and pedigree will dictate their prices at auction. 'Classic Telescopes' also shows the reader how to find real bargains! Interviews with top classic telescope collectors (and users) provide the best tips of prospecting for a genuine acquisition.

This book is a feminist reading of gender performance and construction of the female role players, onnogata, of the Kabuki theatre. It is not limited to a 'theatre arts' focus, rather it is a mapping and close analysis of transformative genders through several historical periods in Japan (the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries).

Choosing and Using a Refracting Telescope has been written for the many amateur astronomers who already own, or are intending to purchase, a refracting telescope – perhaps to complement their existing arsenal of larger reflecting telescopes – or for the specialist who requires a particular refractor for serious astronomical applications or nature studies. Four hundred year ago, during the winter of 1609, a relatively unknown Italian scientist, Galileo Galilei designed a spyglass with two crude lenses and turned it skyward. Since then, refractors have retained their dominance over all types of reflector in studies of the Moon, planets and double stars because of the precision of their optics and lack of a central obstruction in the optical path, which causes diffraction effects in all commercially-made reflectors. Most mature amateur astronomers got started with a 60mm refractor, or something similar. Thirty years ago, there was little choice available to the hobbyist, but in the last decade long focus crown-flint achromats have moved aside for some exquisitely crafted apochromatic designs offered by leading commercial manufacturers. There has been a huge increase in the popularity of these telescopes in the last few years, led by a significant increase in the number of companies (particularly, William Optics, Orion USA, StellarVue, SkyWatcher and AstroTech) who are now heavily marketing refractors in the amateur astronomical magazines. In Choosing and Using a Refracting Telescope, well-known observer and astronomy writer Neil English celebrates the remarkable history and evolution of the refracting telescope and looks in detail at the instruments, their development and their use. A major feature of this book is the way it compares not only different classes of refractor, but also telescopes of each class that are sold by various commercial manufacturers. The author is perhaps uniquely placed to do this, having used and tested literally hundreds of different refracting telescopes over three decades. Because it includes many diverse subjects such as imaging with consumer-level digital cameras, imaging with webcams, and imaging with astronomical CCD cameras – that are not covered together in equal depth in any other single volume – Choosing and Using a Refracting Telescope could become the ‘refractor bible’ for amateur astronomers at all levels, especially those who are interested in imaging astronomical objects of every class.