A penetrating take on how our planet would respond without the relentless pressure of the human presence

For years, Alfred Ludens has pursued mathematician and philosopher Marcus Vallar in the belief that he possesses a profound metaphysical formula, a missing link of great significance to mankind. Luden's friends are more sceptical. Jack Sheerwater, painter, thinks Marcus is crazy. Gildas herne, ex-preist, thinks he is evil. Patrick Fenman, poet, is dying because he thinks Marcus has cursed him. Marcus has disappeared and must be found. But is he a genius, a hero struggling at the bounds of human knowledge? Is he seeking God, or is he just another victim of the Holocaust, which casts its shadow upon him and upon Ludens, both of them Jewish? Can human thinking discover the foundations of human consciousness? Iris Murdoch's endlessly inventive imagination has touched a fundamental question of our time.

A human space traveler trapped on a remote planet must somehow unravel a confounding alien technology—or else surrender himself to a host of incomprehensible horrors For thousands of years, Carter Horton has been traveling across the galaxy toward a distant world capable of supporting human life. At journey’s end, awakened from his millennia-long sleep by a curiously adaptive android, he is informed that his crewmates have all perished due to a system malfunction. But worse is yet to come: Horton’s sentient ship is refusing to return him to Earth, and a strangely cordial predator is waiting for him on the planet’s surface. The repulsive creature, Carnivore, arrived here via a tunnel across the universe, as did his late companion—a human dubbing himself William Shakespeare—whom Carnivore just recently devoured. But the tunnel moves in only one direction, and if Carter is unable to reverse it, he will find himself marooned forever in this incomprehensible world, at the mercy of monsters and a terrifying, mind-freezing alien anomaly that occurs every evening in the “God-hour.” With unparalleled verve, award-winning science fiction Grand Master Clifford D. Simak performs a truly astonishing feat of world-creation in Shakespeare’s Planet. Bursting with intelligence, imagination, and breathtaking invention, this is a gem of speculative fiction from one of the genre’s most revered and innovative artists.

A classic introduction to the story of Earth's origin and evolution—revised and expanded for the twenty-first century Since its first publication more than twenty-five years ago, How to Build a Habitable Planet has established a legendary reputation as an accessible yet scientifically impeccable introduction to the origin and evolution of Earth, from the Big Bang through the rise of human civilization. This classic account of how our habitable planet was assembled from the stuff of stars introduced readers to planetary, Earth, and climate science by way of a fascinating narrative. Now this great book has been made even better. Harvard geochemist Charles Langmuir has worked closely with the original author, Wally Broecker, one of the world's leading Earth scientists, to revise and expand the book for a new generation of readers for whom active planetary stewardship is becoming imperative. Interweaving physics, astronomy, chemistry, geology, and biology, this sweeping account tells Earth’s complete story, from the synthesis of chemical elements in stars, to the formation of the Solar System, to the evolution of a habitable climate on Earth, to the origin of life and humankind. The book also addresses the search for other habitable worlds in the Milky Way and contemplates whether Earth will remain habitable as our influence on global climate grows. It concludes by considering the ways in which humankind can sustain Earth’s habitability and perhaps even participate in further planetary evolution. Like no other book, How to Build a Habitable Planet provides an understanding of Earth in its broadest context, as well as a greater appreciation of its possibly rare ability to sustain life over geologic time. Leading schools that have ordered, recommended for reading, or adopted this book for course use: Arizona State University Brooklyn College CUNY Columbia University Cornell University ETH Zurich Georgia Institute of Technology Harvard University Johns Hopkins University Luther College Northwestern University Ohio State University Oxford Brookes University Pan American University Rutgers University State University of New York at Binghamton Texas A&M University Trinity College Dublin University of Bristol University of California-Los Angeles University of Cambridge University Of Chicago University of Colorado at Boulder University of Glasgow University of Leicester University of Maine, Farmington University of Michigan University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University of North Georgia University of Nottingham University of Oregon University of Oxford University of Portsmouth University of Southampton University of Ulster University of Victoria University of Wyoming Western Kentucky University Yale University

Bergilinda's Journey: "The Study of Eco" is a fictional story about a group of planetary researchers who travel back four hundred years in time to Eco, "Earth," to study the planet. Bergilinda travels with her two friends Gigi and Nelly, and only one woman makes it back home. One woman succumbed to the pain of love. Berg was troubled by the rules that bound her from helping the people of Eco as she watched its trouble and turmoil and was unable to tell the people of Eco because Arcadians are not allowed to tell less developed planets what happens in their future. All the things Berg was seeing and experiencing on Eco already happened, but she fell in love with a man and felt the pain and loss on this journey.Bergilinda's Journey and the "Diary of Souls" is personal for Sherridean on the first of a set in a series of three that documents a young girl on her personal journey as a gifted soul through love, life, and loss.

Let me ask you a question you probably never pondered: WHY did God create the world in 6 days? Do you think God had NO logic, motive, or purpose behind using that specific number of days? Do you think He just placed a bunch of numbers in a hat and nonchalantly drew one? Or do you think the cosmos required that number of days to be completed, as if God could not have created it in 2, 3, 5, 9, 12, 23 or however many days? Friend, you should know better...God can DO ANYTHING-which brings us back to the original question. The answer to this mystery is contained in the Bible, and its gradual (albeit, secret) uncovering in story after story leads to the stunning title of this book: "Undeniable Biblical Proof Jesus Christ Will Return To Planet Earth Exactly 2,000 Years After The Year Of His Death." But FAR more important than merely discovering that fact, this book will fully elucidate and crush all confusion concerning what a person (soul) MUST DO to obtain eternal life by illuminating the true spiritual meaning behind every detail of the ancient Bible stories. So sit back and hold on, because this book's message is going to be a life-changing ride!