You think you know how the world works? Think again From bestselling author Neal Stephenson & critically acclaimed historical & contemporary commercial novelist Nicole Galland comes a captivating & complex near-future thriller that questions the very foundations of the modern world 1851 England The Great Exhibition at London's Crystal Palace has opened celebrating the rise of technology & commerce With it the power of magic
- in decline since the industrial revolution began
- is completely snuffed out The existence of magic begins its gradual devolution into mere myth 21st Century America Magic has faded from the minds of mankind until an encounter between Melisande Stokes linguistics expert at Harvard & Tristan Lyons shadowy agent of government leads to the uncovering of a distant past After translating a series of ancient texts Melisande & Tristan discover the connection between science magic & time travel & so the Department of Diachronic Operations
- DODO
- is hastily brought into existence It's mission to develop a device that will send their agents back to the past where they can stop magic from disappearing & alter the course of history But when you interfere with the past there's no telling what you might find in your future Written with the genius complexity & innovation that characterize all of Neal Stephenson's work & steeped with the down-to-earth warmth & humour of Nicole Galland's storytelling style this exciting & vividly realised work of science fiction will make you believe in the impossible & take you to places
- & times
- beyond imagining





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THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER' Entertaining acute & disarmingly honest' Economist'A vital guide to the new economic order' Rana Foroohar Time The crisis of 2008 ended the illusion of a golden era in which many people imagined that prosperity & political calm would continue to spread indefinitely In a world now racked by slowing growth & mounting unrest how can we discern which nations will thrive & which will fail? Shaped by prize-winning author Ruchir Sharma's twenty-five years travelling the world The Rise & Fall of Nations rethinks economics as a practical art By narrowing down the thousands of factors that can shape a country's future it spells out ten clear rules for identifying the next big winners & losers in the global economy' The nub of the book is how to spot which countries are likely to succeed & which to fail in this impermanent world Sharma offers a framework of 10 rules The more of these rules countries achieve the more they are likely to rise rather than fall it may just help you avoid picking losers' David Smith Sunday Times' Amazing fascinating insights quite simply the best guide to the global economy today' Fareed Zakaria' Lively & informative' Martin Wolf Financial Times' As ambitious as it is well executed a mix of humble pragmatism & daring decisiveness' Reuters ...

Owain Glyn Dwr is one of the great figures of Welsh & military history Initially a loyal subject of the king of England he reluctantly took up arms against the Crown he had served Once committed to rebellion he proved surprisingly talented at leading rebel troops against a theoretically vastly superior enemy Not solely a warrior he conceived & implemented a strategy which saw his small poorly-equipped forces repeatedly defeat Crown troops & bring down the apparatus of governance in Wales Following these achievements he held native parliaments & established diplomatic contact with surrounding powers This led to a treaty with France after the conclusion of which he welcomed French forces to Welsh soil to campaign with the rebels In brief Owain erected a rebel state & won international recognition Owain's foreign support was fractured by the intrigues of exceptionally talented English diplomats at work in the French court This created an environment which allowed Crown forces to concentrate on defeating the rebellion in Wales Although ultimately unsuccessful Owain emerges from the era as a gifted & honourable leader giving the Welsh a figure commonly recalled as a hero ...

WINNER OF THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE Paul Kennedy's international bestseller is a sweeping account of five hundred years of fluctuating economic muscle & military might Kennedy's masterwork begins in the year 1500 at a time of various great centres of power including Minh China the Ottomans the rising Mughal state the nations of Europe But it was the latter which through competition economic growth & better military organisation came to dominate the globe
- until challenged later by Japan the Soviet Union & the United States Now China boosted by its own economic prowess rises to the fore Throughout this brilliant work Kennedy persuasively demonstrates the interdependence of economic & military power showing how an imbalance between the two has historically led to spectacular political disaster Erudite & brilliantly original The Rise & Fall of the Great Powers is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the politics of power
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An illuminating & highly readable account of the rise & demise of a world classic which still informs our common language as well as much of the great literature of the last four centuries Most histories of Church of England liturgy for good reason begin in the 1530s & centre on the 1549 & 1552 Books of Common Prayer That is important for initial doctrinal changes & the establishment of the liturgical text However both liturgies were extremely short-lived & the real history of the Book of Common Prayer as the Liturgy of the Church of England begins with the Elizabethan Settlement 1559 & a long tenure of the enacted Elizabethan liturgy The only revision of any note was that of 1662 & this revision lasted without serious challenge until the 19th century & without legal alternative until the twentieth century This study therefore concentrates on 1559 until the Report of the Royal Commission in 1906 which paved the way for liturgical revision ...

More than 98 percent of human genes are shared with two species of chimpanzee The 'third' chimpanzee is man Jared Diamond surveys out life-cycle culture sexuality & destructive urges both towards ourselves & the planet to explore the ways in which we are uniquely human yet still influenced by our animal origins ...

Please note this is a region 2 DVD & will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play British crime drama starring Timothy Spall Iwan Rheon & Matthew Lewis Falsely imprisoned as a result of local drug kingpin Roper (Neil Maskell)&s scheming Harvey (Luke Treadaway) returns home a man desperate to get his revenge As well as concocting a plan with the help of his three close friends Dempsey (Rheon) Charlie (Gerard Kearns) & Dodd (Lewis) to strip Roper of all his assets & undermine his reputation Harvey is also tasked with winning back the trust & admiration of his girlfriend Nicola (Vanessa Kirby) ...

New omnibus edition of Mike Lee's classic Warhammer fantasy trilogy The Rise of Nagash In the fantasy world of Warhammer magic suffuses the land to such an extent that even the dead can live' again & whole empires of undead creatures hold sway in the dark places of the Old World The vampires in the forests the ghouls in their tunnels the tomb kings of the southern deserts
- all can trace their dark lineage back to Nagash the first necromancer & supreme lord of undeath For it was Nagash two millennia before the time of Sigmar who wrested the secrets of life & death from the dark elves embarking upon a quest for immortality that would spark a war destroy an empire & unleash a plague of undeath that would blight the Old World until the End Times & beyond The Time of Legends omnibuses tell the stories of the ancient events that shaped the Warhammer Old World & still resonate aeons later in the current Age of Sigmar setting Nagash is a key antagonist in the original Warhammer setting & he has risen again to cause havoc amid the Mortal Realms in the Age of Sigmar A great-value collection of three novels that bring the legend of the dark necromancer Nagash vividly to life Previous trade paperback omnibus edition The Rise of Nagash (ISBN9781849702829)
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The Rise of Nine is the next thrilling instalment in the gripping Lorien Legacies series by Pittacus Lore' Number Four is a hero for this generation' Michael Bay director of Transformers Until I met John Smith Number Four I'd been on the run alone hiding & fighting to stay alive Together we are much more powerful But it could only last so long before we had to separate to find the others I went to Spain to find Seven & I found even more including a tenth member of the Garde who escaped from Lorien alive Ella is younger than the rest of us but just as brave Now we're looking for the others
- including John But so are they I am Number Six To finish what they started they'll have to fight us first Praise for Pittacus Lore' Tense exciting full of energy' Observer' Relentlessly readable' The Times' Tense keeps you wondering' Sunday Times' Set to eclipse Harry Potter & moody vampires Pittacus Lore is about to become one of the hottest names on the planet' Big Issue The Rise of Nine is the third book in Pittacus Lore's Lorien Legacies series The first book in his Lorien Legacies series I Am Number Four is now a major Disney motion picture & along with The Power of Six & The Rise of Nine perfect for fans of The Hunger Games
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'the fates ordained the founding of this great city & the beginning of the world's mightiest empire second only to the power of the gods' Romulus & Remus the rape of Lucretia Horatius at the bridge the saga of Coriolanus Cincinnatus called from his farm to save the state
- these & many more are stories which immortalised by Livy in his history of early Rome have become part of our cultural heritage The historian's huge work written between 20 BC & AD 17 ran to 12 books beginning with Rome's founding in 753 BC & coming down to Livy's own lifetime (9 BC) Books 1-5 cover the period from Rome's beginnings to her first great foreign conquest the capture of the Etruscan city of Veii & a few years later to her first major defeat the sack of the city by the Gauls in 390 BC The complete Livy in English available in five volumes from Oxford World's Classics ABOUT THE SERIES For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features including expert introductions by leading authorities helpful notes to clarify the text up-to-date bibliographies for further study & much more
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