In the first decades of the twentieth century, gothic fiction flourished in Russia, despite official efforts to stamp it out.

For over a century, most of the science fiction produced by the world’s largest country has been beyond the reach of Western readers. This new collection aims to change that, bringing a large body of influential works into the English orbit. A scientist keeps a severed head alive, and the head lives to tell the tale… An explorer experiences life on the moon, in a story written six decades before the first moon landing... Electrical appliances respond to human anxieties and threaten to crash the electrical grid… Archaeologists discover strange powers emanating from a Central Asian excavation site… A teleporting experiment goes awry, leaving a subject to cope with a bizarre sensory swap… A boy discovers the explosive truth of his father’s “antiseptic” work, stamping out dissent on distant worlds… The last 100 years in Russia have seen an astonishing diversity and depth of literary works in the science fiction genre, by authors with a dizzying array of styles and subject matter. This volume brings together 18 such works, translated into English for the first time, spanning from path-breaking, pre-revolutionary works of the 1890s, through the difficult Stalinist era, to post-Soviet stories published in the 1980s and 1990s.

In this newest installment in Chicago’s series of Jacques Derrida’s seminars, the renowned philosopher attempts one of his most ambitious goals: the first truly philosophical argument against the death penalty. While much has been written against the death penalty, Derrida contends that Western philosophy is massively, if not always overtly, complicit with a logic in which a sovereign state has the right to take a life. Haunted by this notion, he turns to the key places where such logic has been established—and to the place it has been most effectively challenged: literature. With his signature genius and patient yet dazzling readings of an impressive breadth of texts, Derrida examines everything from the Bible to Plato to Camus to Jean Genet, with special attention to Kant and post–World War II juridical texts, to draw the landscape of death penalty discourses. Keeping clearly in view the death rows and execution chambers of the United States, he shows how arguments surrounding cruel and unusual punishment depend on what he calls an “anesthesial logic,” which has also driven the development of death penalty technology from the French guillotine to lethal injection. Confronting a demand for philosophical rigor, he pursues provocative analyses of the shortcomings of abolitionist discourse. Above all, he argues that the death penalty and its attendant technologies are products of a desire to put an end to one of the most fundamental qualities of our finite existence: the radical uncertainty of when we will die. Arriving at a critical juncture in history—especially in the United States, one of the last Christian-inspired democracies to resist abolition—The Death Penalty is both a timely response to an important ethical debate and a timeless addition to Derrida’s esteemed body of work.

Robert E. Howard's '80+ Adventure Tales of Robert E. Howard' is a comprehensive collection of action-packed stories that showcase the author's masterful storytelling and vivid imagination. Set in a variety of exotic locales and time periods, Howard's tales introduce readers to unforgettable characters who embark on thrilling adventures filled with danger and excitement. The collection captures Howard's unique blend of action, suspense, and the supernatural, making it a must-read for fans of adventure fiction. His fast-paced narratives and vivid descriptions immerse readers in the worlds he creates, leaving them on the edge of their seats until the very last page. Howard's own life experiences and his fascination with history and mythology are evident in his work, as he expertly weaves together elements of real-world history with elements of fantasy and the supernatural. His passion for storytelling shines through in every tale, making him a pioneer in the genres of adventure and sword-and-sorcery fiction. Readers looking for an action-packed, immersive reading experience will find '80+ Adventure Tales of Robert E. Howard' to be a thrilling and captivating collection that showcases the best of Howard's storytelling prowess.

Robert Ervin Howard (1906 – 1936) was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. He is well known for his character Conan the Barbarian and is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre. In the pages of the Depression-era pulp magazine Weird Tales, Howard created Conan the Barbarian, a character whose cultural impact has been compared to such icons as Batman, Count Dracula, James Bond, Sherlock Holmes, and Tarzan. Table of Contents: Fantasy Stories: 'Conan the Barbarian' Stories The 'Kull' Stories The 'Solomon Kane' Stories The 'Bran Mak Morn' Stories The 'Turlogh Dubh O'Brien' Stories The 'James Allison' Stories Other Fantasy Stories Boxing Stories: The 'Sailor Steve Costigan' Stories Other Boxing Stories Western Stories: The 'Breckinridge Elkins' Stories The 'Pike Bearfield' Stories The 'Buckner Jeopardy Grimes' Stories Other Western Stories Historical Stories: The 'El Borak' Stories The 'Cormac Fitzgeoffrey' Stories The 'Kirby O'Donnell' Stories The 'Black Vulmea' Stories The 'Helen Tavrel' Story Other Historical Stories Horror Stories: The 'John Kirowan' Stories The Faring Town Saga The 'De Montour' Stories The Weird West Stories Other Weird Menace Other Cthulhu Mythos Stories Other Horror Stories Detective Stories: The 'Steve Harrison' Stories Spicy Stories: The 'Wild Bill Clanton' Stories Poetry Essays and Articles Letters A Tribute Poem