Alley Urchin

Author: Josephine Cox
Publisher: Canelo
ISBN: 1788632966
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Book Description
From a “born storyteller,” a historical saga of a wrongly imprisoned woman’s reunion with her child and the man she loves (Times & Citizen). It is 1870 and Emma Grady has spent seven years of servitude as a convict in Australia. Now, having earned her ticket-of-leave, she is held by chains of honor and friendship. Emma’s loyalty to her kind and gentle employer Roland Thomas, and her unwillingness to desert fellow convict and beloved friend Nelly, prevent her from leaving. Yet Emma lives for the days when she will return to England, to face those who cheated and betrayed her. And to Marlow Tanner, the man she loves, and whose tragic child she lost. As Emma battles against adversity, she is unaware that in England the child she has given up for dead is being lovingly raised by Marlow’s sister Old Sal. Will Emma ever be reunited with Marlow? And even if she finds him, will he still love her? Despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles, her love can never be denied, or forgotten. The breathtaking second novel of The Emma Grady Sagas Praise for the writing of Josephine Cox: “Hailed quite rightly as a gifted writer in the tradition of Catherine Cookson” —Manchester Evening News “Cox’s talent as a storyteller never lets you escape.” —Daily Mail “Driven and passionate.” —The Sunday Times

Benny the Blue Whale

Author: Andy Stanton
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1836430485
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 335

Book Description
AI is changing the world at frightening speed. A bestselling author decides to find out more… ‘Something profound and utterly brilliant is going on… hilarious.’ THE TIMES Is ChatGPT the end of creative industries as we know them? An ethical quagmire from which there is no return? A threat to all our jobs, as we keep hearing on the news? Bestselling children’s author Andy Stanton has made a career out of writing differently – from the unconventional ‘hero’ of his bestselling Mr Gum series to his penchant for absurdist plots, his children’s books are anything but formulaic. When a friend introduces him to ChatGPT, the new large language chatbot, Andy is as sceptical as he is curious. Can this jumble of algorithms really mimic the spontaneity of human thought? Could it one day replace human authors like him for good? And are we soon to be ruled over by despotic robot overlords? He decides there’s only one thing for it – he must test this bot’s capabilities. Eventually, he settles on a prompt that will push the algorithm to its creative limits: ‘tell me a story about a blue whale with a tiny penis.’ Chaos ensues. What follows is a surprising and illuminating battle between Andy and ChatGPT that maybe, just maybe, might help us all understand AI a little bit better. Join Andy and his beleaguered AI lackey on a rollicking metafictional journey through the art of storytelling. Presenting his prompts and the AI-generated narrative alongside extensive commentary, Stanton provides a startling paean to the art of a good story and boundless human creativity. Hopeful and hilarious, Benny the Blue Whale provides a joyfully anarchic meditation on AI, literature and why we write. *** A WATERSTONES AND NEW SCIENTIST BEST BOOK OF 2023 ‘There’s no book like it. Scholarly, childish, fascinating and hilarious – one of our funniest writers dissects what it takes to build a story and what that tells us about being human. It’ll really make you think, if you can stop laughing.’ Chris Addison, co-creator of BREEDERS ‘Entertaining and alarmingly relevant, provocative and philosophically satisfying, it’s ultimately a profoundly human text.’ OBSERVER ‘A magnificent experiment by a perfect fool – deep and shallow and stupid and clever – the perfect use of AI (Andy Intelligence).’ Robin Ince, author of THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING INTERESTED ‘Benny the Blue Whale is many things. It’s a fascinating discourse on the nature of language and storytelling. It’s a philosophical treatise on the possibilities of artificial intelligence. It’s a receptacle for obscenely hilarious jokes... A brilliant and beautiful cyborg: part human brain, part computational muscle. It’s a post-post-modern work of genius.’ Anthony McGowan, Carnegie Medal-winning author of LARK

Lords of Rainbow

Author: Vera Nazarian
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
ISBN: 1930997884
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 430

Book Description
Imagine a world without color, illuminated by a gray sun.... Imagine a sudden brilliant flash -- an artificial orb ignites, filled with peculiar impossible light. . . . The nature of this light bears no description. It lingers in dreams, inciting an unrequited love for a goddess. A corrupt city is shaped like a perfect wheel, and is ruled by a sister and brother, Regent and Regentrix, by perverse desires, and by a secret. . . . A loyal warrior woman swears to serve a mysterious lord. At the same time, an epic invasion is precipitated by a being of utter darkness, who is the one absolute source of black in a monochrome silver world. And amid all this, flickers an ancient memory of a phenomenon called Rainbow and of those who had once filled the world with an impossible thing called color. . . . Lords of Rainbow.

Saga of Recluce: Books 10-13

Author: L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
Publisher: Tor Books
ISBN: 1250218209
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 2631

Book Description
This discounted ebundle of the Saga of Recluce includes: Magi’i of Cyador, Scions of Cyador, The Wellspring of Chaos, Ordermaster "An intriguing fantasy in a fascinating world." —Robert Jordan, New York Times bestselling author of The Wheel of Time® series L.E. Modesitt, Jr.'s bestselling fantasy novels set in the magical world of Recluce are among the most popular in contemporary fantasy. Each novel tells an independent story that nevertheless reverberates though all the other books in the series, to deepen and enhance the reading experience. Rich in detail, the Saga of Recluce is epic storytelling at its finest. A world of warring magical forces: black order, white chaos, and shades of gray. Saga of Recluce #1 The Magic of Recluce #2 The Towers of Sunset #3 The Magic Engineer #4 The Order War #5 The Death of Chaos #6 Fall of Angels #7 The Chaos Balance #8 The White Order #9 Colors of Chaos #10 Magi’i of Cyador #11 Scion of Cyador #12 Wellspring of Chaos #13 Ordermaster #14 Natural Order Mage #15 Mage-Guard of Hamor #16 Arms-Commander #17 Cyador’s Heirs #18 Heritage of Cyador #19 The Mongrel Mage #20 Outcasts of Order Story Collection: Recluce Tales Other Series by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. The Imager Portfolio The Corean Chronicles The Spellsong Cycle The Ghost Books The Ecolitan Matter At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The Sentinel

Author: Troy Denning
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
ISBN: 0786965487
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 277

Book Description
An embittered paladin races to stop evil forces from taking advantage of the chaos rolling across Faerûn and claiming dominion over the Realms Stubbornly clinging to his family’s worship of a long-forgotten god, paladin Kleef Kenric soon discovers that his god has blessed him with divine gifts, making him one of a new group of Chosen cropping up around the Realms. This divine gift makes him an excellent ally—and a target for those who wish to corral his powers. After battling his way out of Marsember, a city besieged on all sides in the wake of the Sundering, he becomes swept up in the mission of a group of odd allies—a warrior noblewoman, an accomplished thief, and a mysterious short, pudgy man exuding a faint odor of decay. With the forces of Shade tracking their every step, they travel to the Underdark to thwart the rise of the goddess of Death. But before long, Kleef learns that his allies hide dangerous secrets—secrets that could destroy not only Kleef but the very fabric of the Forgotten Realms.

Growing Up...Sort Of

Author: Robert Charles Hannah
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1496968557
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 65

Book Description
Bob Hannah has always enjoyed writing prose and poetry. He has written stories and poems to celebrate birthdays and special occasions over the years. While living in a condominium community in Avon, Connecticut, he wrote a monthly column called Valley Adventures for the community's publication, In the Woods. Over the course of his lifetime, he has regaled his family with many of the stories contained in this book. His four children and his dear friend Jean urged him to commit these stories to paper so they would be preserved for future generations. Despite failing eyesight and the physical challenges he faces at age ninety-two, his talents as a writer and his perseverance to leave a legacy of memories resulted in the publication of Growing Up...sort of, his first book.

Dangerous Rhythms

Author: T. J. English
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0063031434
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 578

Book Description
From T. J. English, the New York Times bestselling author of Havana Nocturne, comes the epic, scintillating narrative of the interconnected worlds of jazz and organized crime in 20th century America. "[A] brilliant and courageous book." —Dr. Cornel West Dangerous Rhythms tells the symbiotic story of jazz and the underworld: a relationship fostered in some of 20th century America’s most notorious vice districts. For the first half of the century mobsters and musicians enjoyed a mutually beneficial partnership. By offering artists like Louis Armstrong, Earl “Fatha” Hines, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, and Ella Fitzgerald a stage, the mob, including major players Al Capone, Meyer Lansky, and Charlie “Lucky” Luciano, provided opportunities that would not otherwise have existed. Even so, at the heart of this relationship was a festering racial inequity. The musicians were mostly African American, and the clubs and means of production were owned by white men. It was a glorified plantation system that, over time, would find itself out of tune with an emerging Civil Rights movement. Some artists, including Louis Armstrong, believed they were safer and more likely to be paid fairly if they worked in “protected” joints. Others believed that playing in venues outside mob rule would make it easier to have control over their careers. Through English’s voluminous research and keen narrative skills, Dangerous Rhythms reveals this deeply fascinating slice of American history in all its sordid glory.

The Journey

Author: Josephine Cox
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
ISBN: 0007373139
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 466

Book Description
This bestseller from the country’s number one storyteller is a deeply moving and powerful tale of love and courage.

Blood Brothers

Author: Josephine Cox
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062092480
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 418

Book Description
One of the United Kingdom’s most popular authors—a #1 London Times bestseller—Josephine Cox will delight fans of Rosamund Pilcher, Barbara Delinsky, and Amanda Stevens with this heartbreaking, engrossing, electrifyingly exciting and dramatic story of a love triangle gone terribly wrong. Blood Brothers is Cox at her captivating best as she draws readers deep into this tale of two siblings with nothing in common but a desperate and dangerous desire for the same woman.

Songbird

Author: Josephine Cox
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061983039
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 372

Book Description
She was once young and vibrant, a beautiful woman with a promising future. But a dark and dangerous secret forced her to leave everything—and everyone—she cared for. Now she lives alone in a quiet riverside town, her heart breaking as she watches the world change from the shadows. All that is left to bring her joy is her stunning, glorious voice, a voice that enthralls anyone who hears it, including a student named Betsy. Kind and thoughtful, Betsy is determined to help the woman live her life to the fullest again. But coming out of the dark—and exposing her heart to hurt once more—will not be easy . . .