Heavenly Intrigue is the fascinating, true account of the seventeenth-century collaboration between Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe that revolutionized our understanding of the universe–and ended in murder.One of history’s greatest geniuses, Kepler laid the foundations of modern physics with his revolutionary laws of planetary motion. But his beautiful mind was beset by demons. Born into poverty and abuse, half-blinded by smallpox, he festered with rage, resentment, and a longing for worldly fame. Brahe, his mentor, was a flamboyant aristocrat who had spent forty years mapping the heavens with unprecedented accuracy–but he refused to share his data with Kepler. With Brahe’s untimely death in Prague in 1601, rumors flew across Europe that he had been murdered. But it took twentieth-century forensics to uncover the poison in his remains, and the detective work of Joshua and Anne-Lee Gilder to identify the prime suspect–the ambitious, envy-ridden Kepler himself. A fast-paced, true-life account that reads like a thriller, Heavenly Intrigue is a remarkable feat of historical re-creation.

Heavenly Intrigue is the fascinating, true account of the seventeenth-century collaboration between Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe that revolutionized our understanding of the universe–and ended in murder.One of history’s greatest geniuses, Kepler laid the foundations of modern physics with his revolutionary laws of planetary motion. But his beautiful mind was beset by demons. Born into poverty and abuse, half-blinded by smallpox, he festered with rage, resentment, and a longing for worldly fame. Brahe, his mentor, was a flamboyant aristocrat who had spent forty years mapping the heavens with unprecedented accuracy–but he refused to share his data with Kepler. With Brahe’s untimely death in Prague in 1601, rumors flew across Europe that he had been murdered. But it took twentieth-century forensics to uncover the poison in his remains, and the detective work of Joshua and Anne-Lee Gilder to identify the prime suspect–the ambitious, envy-ridden Kepler himself. A fast-paced, true-life account that reads like a thriller, Heavenly Intrigue is a remarkable feat of historical re-creation.

The extraordinary, unlikely tale of Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler and their enormous contribution to astronomy and understanding of the cosmos is one of the strangest stories in the history of science. Kepler was a poor, devoutly religious teacher with a genius for mathematics. Brahe was an arrogant, extravagant aristocrat who possessed the finest astronomical instruments and observations of the time, before the telescope. Both espoused theories that seem off-the-wall to modern minds, but their fateful meeting in Prague in 1600 was to change the future of science. Set in one of the most turbulent and colourful eras in European history, when medieval was giving way to modern, Tycho and Kepler is a double biography of these two remarkable men.

It is written in an unknown language and illustrated with enigmatic drawings. First surfacing in the court of Rudolph II of Bohemia, the Voynich Manuscript has developed a global cult following of cryptographers, none of whom has been able to crack its code. But rumors abound: the Bohemian court also gave refuge to two of the greatest, and most controversial, scientific minds of all time. Could the manuscript be codified findings, written in a special language to conceal scientific discoveries from the Church and its brutal Inquisition? When a key to unlocking Voynich is discovered in the church where a young Jesuit teaches, he suddenly finds himself at the center of a centuries-old mystery . . . uncovering secrets both ancient and modern.

Johannes Kepler was an obsessive, devout teacher of astronomy, and Tycho Brahe was a cruel, extravagant aristocrat who believed the sun orbited the Earth. Kepler's analytical abilities were said to be second to none, while Brahe was one of the best observational astronomers of all time. Their meeting in Prague in 1600 led to an extraordinary, if uneasy, alliance which eventually resulted in a huge leap forward in the understanding of astronomy. Together they produced the first three laws of planetary motion. This book tells the story of a major watershed in the history of human thought.

Bobby Dollar is an angel—a real one. He knows a lot about sin, and not just in his professional capacity as an advocate for souls caught between Heaven and Hell. Bobby’s wrestling with a few deadly sins of his own—pride, anger, even lust. But his problems aren’t all his fault. Bobby can’t entirely trust his heavenly superiors, and he’s not too sure about any of his fellow earthbound angels either, especially the new kid that Heaven has dropped into their midst, a trainee angel who asks too many questions. And he sure as hell doesn’t trust the achingly gorgeous Countess of Cold Hands, a mysterious she-demon who seems to be the only one willing to tell him the truth. When the souls of the recently departed start disappearing, catching both Heaven and Hell by surprise, things get bad very quickly for Bobby D. End-of-the-world bad. Beast of Revelations bad. Caught between the angry forces of Hell, the dangerous strategies of his own side, and a monstrous undead avenger that wants to rip his head off and suck out his soul, Bobby’s going to need all the friends he can get—in Heaven, on Earth, or anywhere else he can find them. You’ve never met an angel like Bobby Dollar. And you’ve never read anything like The Dirty Streets of Heaven. Brace yourself—the afterlife is weirder than you ever believed.

This historical fiction is based on the true story of Li Shimin (also known as Tang Taizong), the greatest sovereign in Chinese history. About 30 years younger than Muhammad, he grew up in a world of devastating upheaval that tore China asunder and was thrust into the role of a military commander in his father’s rebel army while still a teenager. In the process of vanquishing his enemies on the battlefield, he proved himself to be a great military genius. As emperor he encouraged critical suggestions by his court officials, which he often adopted, and lent support to the religions of his day, notably, Buddhism, Daoism, and Christianity. The international prestige he had won for Tang China was so high that the states of Central and North Asia honored him with the title of “Heavenly Khan.” Although his father founded the dynasty, it was his reign that laid the groundwork for a brilliant empire that was to endure for centuries. 本書根據史實，描述唐太宗李世民透過一場場的征戰，消滅敵軍，開疆闢土；同時鼓勵諫言，包容不同宗教，進而成就唐代偉大盛世，獲得「天可汗」的美名。