After a nuclear disaster, the people of Diablo Keep, located in California's San Gabriel Mountains, work to survive long enough to eventually build a bridge to the stars and escape a dying Earth.

As birthrates continue to fall, the survival of Diablo Keep is dependent on its herd of Tyrannobos - fire-breathing, two-and-a-half story tall, omnivorous long-horned cattle.

The people of Diablo Keep prepare for a visit from the Governor of New California and Rich Ransdell.

The people of Diablo Keep are falling into despair until Paul Royer returns from a strange encounter on the cliffs.

Virtual Music is about artificial creativity. Focusing on the author's Experiments in Musical Intelligence computer music composing program, the author and a distinguished group of experts discuss many of the issues surrounding the program, including artificial intelligence, music cognition, and aesthetics. The book is divided into four parts. The first part provides a historical background to Experiments in Musical Intelligence, including examples of historical antecedents, followed by an overview of the program by Douglas Hofstadter. The second part follows the composition of an Experiments in Musical Intelligence work, from the creation of a database to the completion of a new work in the style of Mozart. It includes, in sophisticated lay terms, relatively detailed explanations of how each step in the process contributes to the final composition. The third part consists of perspectives and analyses by Jonathan Berger, Daniel Dennett, Bernard Greenberg, Douglas R. Hofstadter, Steve Larson, and Eleanor Selfridge-Field. The fourth part presents the author's responses to these commentaries, as well as his thoughts on the implications of artificial creativity. The book (and corresponding Web site) includes an appendix providing extended musical examples referred to and discussed in the book, including composers such as Scarlatti, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Puccini, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Debussy, Bartok, and others. It is also accompanied by a CD containing performances of the music in the text.

A classic study of the allegorical power of love in literature, traced through the medieval and Renaissance periods.