The Academy Award-winning cinematographer of Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago tells his story, from his early days processing celluloid in silent movies to his work with Ava Gardner and Elizabeth Taylor, among many others.

Two-time Academy Award winner Sir David Lean (1908–1991) was one of the most prominent directors of the twentieth century, responsible for the classics The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), and Doctor Zhivago (1965). British-born Lean asserted himself in Hollywood as a major filmmaker with his epic storytelling and panoramic visions of history, but he started out as a talented film editor and director in Great Britain. As a result, he brought an art-house mentality to blockbuster films. Combining elements of biography and film criticism, Beyond the Epic: The Life and Films of David Lean uses screenplays and production histories to assess Lean’s body of work. Author Gene D. Phillips interviews actors who worked with Lean and directors who knew him, and their comments reveal new details about the director’s life and career. Phillips also explores Lean’s lesser-studied films, such as The Passionate Friends (1949), Hobson’s Choice (1954), and Summertime (1955). The result is an in-depth examination of the director in cultural, historical, and cinematic contexts. Lean’s approach to filmmaking was far different than that of many of his contemporaries. He chose his films carefully and, as a result, directed only sixteen films in a period of more than forty years. Those films, however, have become some of the landmarks of motion-picture history. Lean is best known for his epics, but Phillips also focuses on Lean’s successful adaptations of famous works of literature, including retellings of plays such as Brief Encounter (1945) and novels such as Great Expectations (1946), Oliver Twist (1948), and A Passage to India (1984). From expansive studies of war and strife to some of literature’s greatest high comedies and domestic dramas, Lean imbued all of his films with his unique creative vision. Few directors can match Lean’s ability to combine narrative sweep and psychological detail, and Phillips goes beyond Lean’s epics to reveal this unifying characteristic in the director’s body of work. Beyond the Epic is a vital assessment of a great director’s artistic process and his place in the film industry.

The asteroid belt wasnt a natural accident; it was just another product of evil and criminal minds. Few survived to carry their seed (some good, others evil) across the infinite space to an empire created through eons of conquest and colonization. However, the same minds that destroyed the old planet went at full speed to destroy the new home in their ambition, stupidity, and criminality. Their tools: blackmail, crime, depravation, and powerful drugs capable of destroying the awareness of the planets population. Their allies: insane criminals locked in a ward planet of the empire because of their experiments with all kinds of drugs and torture, aimed at controlling and suppressing the population. Their enemy: a genius capable of leading and creating havoc on their evil and criminal plans. A man determined to survive and lead the path to a new civilization.

Before Paulo Coelho and Eckhart Tolle came Rodney Collin. A huge 462 page book full of essential knowledge. How To Become Supernatural Man, The Universe and Cosmic Mystery is an exploration of the universe and man's place in it. Rodney Collin examines 20th-century scientific discoveries and traditional esoteric teachings and concludes that the driving force behind everything is neither procreation nor survival, but expansion of awareness. Collin sets out to reconcile the considerable contradictions of the rational and imaginative minds and of the ways we see the external world versus our inner selves. For readers familiar with Gurdjieff's cosmology will here find further examinations of the systems outlined in by Ouspensky in Search of the Miraculous.

Terran Corps scattered their ships outward into the glittering galaxies. Solterra's prime objective: orbital reconstruction of the far-flung planets. They had tightened up Solterra's galaxy and had made mankind secure against alien threats - or so Terrans believed. As Chief Commander, Stephen Strang aggressively explored the cosmos for the glory of his beloved Earth. He could boast that he had moved more planets into orbit around Sol than any other. Strang felt smugly safe against alien "sharks" - until he discovered the vast time-bomb that was planet Vesta's core. . .

To a basic civilization, advanced science can seem like magic. What happens when magic seems like advanced science? It depends on who is the observer and who is the observed. John Crackstone and his Science Officer, Tem, accidentally become trapped on a cloaked planet on their way to a priority first contact mission. This planet and its unusual inhabitants change Crackstone's original mission, as well as the current time line of the universe. The Ambassador comes face to face with the mysterious "Time Keepers" race; Crackstone's civilization is a class three, the Time Keepers are at least a class six. The final installment of the Crackstone Chronicle trilogy answers the question of how an Ambassador from a system in the Andromeda Galaxy relates to two humans, an omniscient, immortal race called the "Time Keepers" and why scores of alien civilizations become interested in twentieth century Earth. The three novels of the Crackstone Chronicles, Extinction, Connections and Extraordinary Solution carry the reader through time and space, exploring the question: why would extraterrestrials visit Earth, let alone conceal themselves here?