A Continuum book

The futurologists of the world have gathered at their Eighth World Congress at the Costa Rica Hilton to discuss the problem of overpopulation. Their deliberations, however, are interrupted by a revolution which the government attempts to quell with chemical weapons. The air and water are laden with "benignimizers" and other exotic drags which send futurologist Tichy careening into a hallucinatory tomorrow. Lem's view of the overcrowded future is original and disturbing. A pessimistic, mordantly funny book, well translated from the Polish by Michael Kandel -- Kirkus Review.

Reads initially like the sort of traditional science fiction you might see on TV - rocket lands on foreign planet, sends out teams to discover what gives. what follows is a gripping scientific detective story as we learn the terrible secrets of a past race, and Lem takes us on a journey of wonder and awe. Reminiscent of the final passages of HG Wells' Time Machine as the author shows us beings and worlds we could never imagine. I've read this several times and will read it again and you should too.

The adventures and encounters of Ijon Tichy, tourist of the universe. Tichy reveals that "out there" is not so different from "down here," since people are people everywhere. When not traveling in space, he is a magnet for eccentric unrecognized inventors of spenetic genius, whose spooky experiments are revealed to him with megalomaniacal pride.

From first page Avon paperback July 1976: Into an unearthly sequence of events, in which dead bodies seem to resurrect themselves without cause, comes Harvey Sciss, the statistical mastermind who, in his brilliantly offbeat way, discerns a pattern in the gruesome incidents. Ironically, Sciss himself becomes the prime suspect as even wild animals and alien invaders are under investigation in a case that stretches to the utmost limits the elastic faculties of human reason.

ix, 145 p. 24 cm

Jacques Ellul is primarily known for his insightful critiques of Western culture. His recent books describe the "new demons" let loose upon the contemporary world by the double-edged achievements of science and industry. But, he asserts in this latest book, the critics have gone too far. The West is the victim of a betrayal - that of its own children. Its intellectuals, most notably those of the Left, are necessarily the products of a civilized society. Yet they so loudly reproach this civilization for the atrocities and the destruction of rich local culture which have accompanied its growth that we are deaf to the reasoned voice which proclaims our debts to this Western tradition. While Ellul acknowledges the validity of these accusations, in The Betrayal of the West he points out that they are not peculiar to the West, that they are indeed inherent in the growth of any civilization. Ellul, as an historian, is a lover of civilization. He especially emphasizes the importance of the legacy of our own civilization. We are indebted tothe West for our concepts of freedom, equality, and above all, the idea of the individual. In his words, "The West represents values for which there is no substitute. The West is a past, a difference, a shared history, and a shared human project... The end of the West today would mean the end of any possible civilization." The Betrayal of the West explores the need for defense as well as critique of our culture. It explains the origins of the contradiction at the heart of Western civilization and traces the course of this dialectic in three supreme chapters constructed around metaphors which correspond to a promise, the challenge, and ultimately, the failure of the political left in Western societies. Le Monde has described this book as "a classic," one in which Ellul "is in effect a prophet and a visionary."

OMG I can't believe there's no description for this - but then I can because this book defies description. Stanislaw Lem is a genius and your minds will be expanded to bursting when you begin this journey into a world where machines are the dominant species. It is hugely entertaining, inventive, witty, and above all, laugh out loud funny. The book concerns two "constructors" - Trurl and Klaupacious who build machines, and who are in fact machines themselves. Find out what happens when Trurl builds the world's stupidest computer, and Klaupacious' machine that can do "anything in N" nearly ends the universe.

Traces the evolution of communal principles in such historic cooperative living situations as the Essenes, the early Church, the Shakers, and Brook Farm.

"Five hundred years after Columbus's first voyage to the New World, the debate over the European impact on Native American civilization has grown more heated than ever. Among the first--and most insistent--voices raised in that debate was that of a Spanish priest, Bartolome de Las Casas, acquaintance of Cortes and Pizarro and shipmate of Velasquez on the voyage to conquer Cuba. In 1552, after forty years of witnessing--and opposing--countless acts of brutality in the new Spanish colonies, Las Casas returned to Seville, where he published a book that caused a storm of controversy that persists to the present day." "The Devastation of the Indies is an eyewitness account of the first modern genocide, a story of greed, hypocrisy, and cruelties so grotesque as to rival the worst of our own century. Las Casas writes of men, women, and children burned alive "thirteen at a time in memory of Our Redeemer and his twelve apostles." He describes butcher shops that sold human flesh for dog food ("Give me a quarter of that rascal there," one customer says, "until I can kill some more of my own"). Slave ship captains navigate "without need of compass or charts," following instead the trail of floating corpses tossed overboard by the ship before them. Native kings are promised peace, then slaughtered. Whole families hang themselves in despair. Once-fertile islands are turned to desert, the wealth of nations plundered, millions killed outright, whole peoples annihilated." "In an introduction, historian Bill M. Donovan provides a brief biography of Las Casas and reviews the controversy his work produced among Europeans, whose indignation--and denials--lasted centuries. But the book itself is short. "Were I to describe all this," writes Las Casas of the four decades of suffering he witnessed, "no amount of time and paper could encompass this task.""--BOOK JACKET.

In English the title is "Memoirs found in a bathtub" Expertly piercing the bloated belly of the cold war mentality, the author leaves us to reflect on the things we should value in an age of artifice and invention of myths and monsters. This novel, although biting at the ankles of the cold war superpowers, never dates, as the tale it unfolds holds much truth and importance for the 21st century reader. Read this, then turn on the news, and see how it looks afterwards. Different world now, huh ? Now watcha gonna do ?

Elias Canettis Kindheitsbuch, das uns mit Spannung die Schilderung seiner eigenen Lehrjahre erwarten läßt, ist ein Rückblick ohne Zorn und ohne Hätschelei einer besonnten Vergangenheit. Es ist ein grundehrliches Buch.

This is one of Andrew Greeley's first books and deals with several of the neighborhoods in Chicago

Es sind merkwürdige und unheimliche Erfahrungen, die jene machen, die sich in die Zone Null wagen. Nach einer globalen Katastrophe haben die zwei überlebenden Supermächte jahrhundertelang in die völliger Isolation existiert. Doch eines Tages bricht eine Expedition ins dazwischenliegende Niemandsland, die Zone Null, auf. Die Teilnehmer sind sorgfältig ausgesucht und ausgebildet worden. Sie sind auf alle Eventualitäten vorbereitet. Doch kann man auf alle Eventualitäten vorbereitet sein? Sie treffen auf eine hochtechnisierte Zivilisation, die seit der Katastrophe ganz andere Wege gegangen ist. Die Bewohner leben – aller materiellen Sorgen enthoben – für ihr Spiel, für ihre Forschung, für die Kunst. Sie leben in einem technischen Paradies, doch ist es ein menschliches? Daniel wagt als Erster die Kontaktaufnahme ...