Are aliens visiting Earth, right now, even as you're reading this? For a long-time, best-selling science fiction author Stephen Hunt believed - as you might do - that UFOs and the chance extraterrestrials are presently calling on Earth was a load of... (let's keep this family-friendly), complete old nonsense! What was it that changed his mind? Interestingly, not his encounter with an alien probe in 2001. He wrote that off as a council pollution-monitoring drone - even though the first commercial drone wasn't used until 2006. No, it was the New York Times's article revealing that the Pentagon had been running, and denying the existence of, a top-secret alien-hunting program so covert it had to change the word 'UFO' to 'UAP' just to escape the stigma created by the CIA around the term. This feature came with confirmed videos of the latest U.S. navy fighter jets being made to look like paper planes by anti-gravity effect vehicles. Craft racing at mind-boggling speeds that would turn human pilots into meat-paste. Since then, Stephen has been exploring deep down this rabbit hole. Now, in his very first non-fiction book, he brings you the results of his strange voyage of exploration, seeking the answers to such eye-opening questions as...Has the U.S. government (a) lost its mind, or (b) are they really trying to back-engineer crashed alien craft wreckage?What is the connection between UFOs/UAPs and high strangeness (portals, ghosts, Bigfoot)?Given there are between 100 and 400 billion star systems in our Milky Way Galaxy, where the heck is everyone else? Is humanity truly that unique? The only machine-using species?What does the U.S. government know that we don't?Are UFO witnesses and whistle-blowers influenced by popular science fiction entertainment, or are our media companies dropping approved UFO/alien bread-crumbs?Is this new wave of official U.S.-sanctioned UFO openness a prelude to something shocking coming our planet's way? Revelations so improbable, they'll change humanity forever?Stephen Hunt examines this fascinating and astonishing universe through the eyes of a science fiction author, drawing the parallels between our sci-fictions, and what just might be a bizarre classified reality of actual alien-derived sci-facts.
It is the far future. The artificial intelligences created by humanity are now gods, and mankind mere ants who scrabble in their shadows across a million worlds.The Lords of the Great Houses on the ever-night Moon of Hexator are suspected of the murder of one of their own. And merchant William Roxley, once a magistrate-priest, is unwillingly coopted to uncover the truth behind the killings. With only the help of his naive young assistant and a brutish robot bodyguard, the man they call 'Sweet William' digs into the Moon's eerie existence. A collapsing society where many strange, terrible things are happening under night's unsettling cover. Hexator is a place where nothing is what it seems, perhaps not even William Roxley himself!--------------------------------ABOUT THE AUTHOR Stephen Hunt is the creator of the much-loved 'Far-called' series (Gollancz/Hachette), as well as the 'Jackelian' series, published across the world via HarperCollins alongside their other science fiction authors, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, PhilipK. Dick and Ray Bradbury.--------------------------------REVIEWS Praise for Stephen Hunt's novels: 'Mr. Hunt takes off at racing speed.'- THE WALL STREET JOURNAL'Hunt's imagination is probably visible from space. He scatters concepts that other writers would mine for a trilogy like chocolate-bar wrappers.' - TOM HOLT 'All manner of bizarre and fantastical extravagance.' - DAILY MAIL 'Compulsive reading for all ages.' - GUARDIAN 'An inventive, ambitious work, full of wonders and marvels.' - THE TIMES 'Studded with invention.' -THE INDEPENDENT 'To say this book is action packed is almost an understatement... a wonderful escapist yarn!' - INTERZONE 'Hunt has packed the story full of intriguing gimmicks... affecting and original.' - PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 'A rip-roaring Indiana Jones-style adventure.' -RT BOOK REVIEWS 'A curious part-future blend.' - KIRKUS REVIEWS 'Hunt knows what his audience like and gives it to them with a sardonic wit and carefully developed tension.' - TIME OUT 'A ripping yarn ... the story pounds along... constant inventiveness keeps the reader hooked... the finale is a cracking succession of cliffhangers and surprise comebacks. Great fun.' - SFX MAGAZINE 'Put on your seatbelts for a frenetic cat and mouse encounter... an exciting tale.' - SF REVU --------------------------------FORMAT Full novel - a stand-alone adventure. --------------------------------READ THIS BOOK IF YOU LIKE THESE AUTHORS... Frank HerbertNeal Asher Iain M. Banks Jack Campbell Orson Scott Card James S.A. Corey Evan Currie Peter F. Hamilton Ric Locke Dan Simmons Charles Stross David Weber --------------------------------GENRES Science fiction (space opera) Adventure (scifi) Mystery (science fiction)
The explosive growth of Pentecostalism has radically transformed Latin America's religious landscape within the last half century or so. In a region where Catholicism reigned hegemonic for centuries, the expansion of Pentecostalism has now resulted in a situation of religious pluralism and competition, bearing much more resemblance to the United States than to the Iberian motherlands. Furthermore, the fierce competition from Pentecostal churches has inspired significant renewals of Latin American Catholicism, most notably the growth of a Catholic Charismatic movement. However, another and more recent source of religious pluralism and diversity in Latin America is an increasing pluralization and diversification of Pentecostalism itself and of the ways in which individual Pentecostals exercise their faith. By carefully exploring this diversification, the book at hand breaks new ground in the literature on Latin American Christianity. Particular attention is focused on new ways of being Pentecostal and on the consequences of recent transformations of Christianity for individuals, faith communities and societies. More specifically, the chapters of the book look into certain transformations of Pentecostalism such as: theological renewals and new kinds of religious competition between Pentecostal churches; a growing political and civic engagement of Pentecostals; an observed de-institutionalization of Pentecostal religious life and the negotiation individual Pentecostal identities, composed of multiple intra- and extra-ecclesial points of identification; and the emergence of new generations of Pentecostals (children of Pentecostal parents), many of whom have higher levels of education and higher incomes than the previous generations within their churches. In addition, Catholic responses to Pentecostal competition are also addressed in several chapters of the book.
The sixth marvellous tale of high adventure and derring-do from the master of steampunk literature, set in the world of The Court of the Air.A daring underwater chase ends in a battle for the Kingdom itself...The streets of Middlesteel are under attack by an unseen enemy, leaving bloodless corpses in its trail. The newssheets scream vampire, but the truth is even more deadly than anyone knows.Charlotte Shades, Mistress of Mesmerism, is a thief - and a darned good one at that. When two mysterious men ask her to steal King Jude's sceptre from the Parliament vaults, the challenge (and reward) is too great to pass up. After all, Charlotte's natural charm and the magic of the gem she wears - the mysterious Eye of Fate - have never failed her before.Only consulting detective Jethro Daunt and his steamman companion Boxiron know there's more to these two men than meets the eye. Yet even as they rescue Charlotte from a fate worse than death, they are thrown into a plot thicker than even they realize. They escape beneath the waves in an ancient submarine led by Commodore Jethro Black, where they encounter stiff resistance from the strange people who inhabit the vast underwater kingdoms. But man, woman, seanore and gill-neck alike must band together if they are to defeat a danger that might not even be from this world...
Carter has been kidnapped. Enslaved. But he's determined to fight to the end. Jacob is a pacifist. His family destroyed. He's about to choose the path of violence to reclaim his son. Their world has changed for ever. Between them, they're going to avenge it.
A tale of high adventure and derring-do set in the same Victorian-style world as the acclaimed The Court of the Air and The Rise of the Iron Moon.The isolated island of Jago is the only place Hannah Conquest has ever known as home. Encircled by the magma ocean of the Fire Sea, it was once the last bastion of freedom when the world struggled under the tyranny of the Chimecan Empire during the age-long winter of the cold-time. But now this once-shining jewel of civilization faces an uncertain future as its inhabitants emigrate to greener climes, leaving the basalt plains and raging steam storms far behind them.For Hannah and her few friends, the streets of the island's last occupied underground city form a vast, near-deserted playground. But Hannah's carefree existence comes to an abrupt halt when her guardian, Archbishop Alice Gray, is brutally murdered in her own cathedral.Someone desperately wants to suppress a secret kept by the archbishop, and if the attempts on Hannah's own life are any indication, the killer believes that Alice passed the knowledge of it onto her ward before her saintly head was separated from her neck.But it soon becomes clear that there is more at stake than the life of one orphan. A deadly power struggle is brewing on Jago, involving rival factions in the senate and the island's most powerful trading partner. And it's beginning to look as if the deaths of Hannah's archaeologist parents shortly after her birth were very far from accidental. Soon the race is on for Hannah and her friends to unravel a chain of hidden riddles and follow them back to their source to save not just her own life, but her island home itself.
The Alpha Initiative explores the development, growth and impact of the most widely used evangelizing programme of recent decades. The Alpha course is run in over seven thousand churches in the UK and over five thousand in the USA. Across the world some four million people have graduated through the course in over 80 countries.
From the author of The Court of the Air and The Kingdom Beyond the Waves comes a thrilling new adventure set in the same Victorian-style world. Perfect for fans of Philip Pullman and Susanna Clarke.Born into captivity as a product of the Royal Breeding House, friendless orphan Purity Drake suddenly finds herself on the run with a foreign vagrant from the North after accidentally killing one of her guards.Her strange rescuer claims he is on the run himself from terrible forces who mean to enslave the Kingdom of Jackals as they conquered his own nation. Purity doubts his story, until reports begin to filter through from Jackals' neighbours of the terrible Army of Shadows, marching across the continent and sweepign all before them.But there's more to Purity than meets the eye. As Jackals girds itself for war against and army of near-unkillable beasts serving an ancient evil with a terrible secret, it soon becomes clear that their only hope is a strange little royalist girl and the last, desperate plan of an escaped slave.
A fantastical version of Dickens, filled with perilous quests, dastardly deeds and deadly intrigue - perfect for all fans of Philip Pullman and Susanna ClarkeProfessor Amelia Harsh is obsessed with finding the lost civilisation of Camlantis, a legendary city from pre-history that is said to have conquered hunger, war and disease - tempering the race of man's baser instincts by the creation of the perfect pacifist society. It is an obsession that is to cost her dearly. She returns home to Jackals from her latest archaeological misadventure to discover that the university council has finally stripped her of her position in retaliation for her heretical research.Without official funding, Amelia has no choice but to accept the offer of patronage from the man she blames for her father's bankruptcy and suicide, the fiercely intelligent and incredibly wealthy Abraham Quest. He has an ancient crystal-book that suggests the Camlantean ruins are buried under one of the sea-like lakes that dot the murderous jungles of Liongeli.Amelia undertakes an expedition deep into the dark heart of the jungle, blackmailing her old friend Commodore Black into ferrying her along the huge river of the Shedarkshe on his ancient u-boat. With an untrustworthy crew of freed convicts, Quest's force of female mercenaries on board and a lunatic steamman safari hunter acting as their guide, Amelia's luck can hardly get any worse. But she's as yet unaware that her quest for the perfect society is about to bring her own world to the brink of destruction...
A hugely engaging adventure set in a Victorian-style world - a fantastical version of Dickens - that will appeal to fans of Susanna Clarke and Philip Pullman.Two orphans are more than they seem. And one megalomaniac will stop at nothing to find them...When Molly Templar witnesses a brutal murder at the brothel she has just been apprenticed to, her first instinct is to return to the poorhouse where she grew up. But there she finds her fellow orphans butchered, and it slowly dawns on her that she was in fact the real target of the attack. For Molly carries a secret deep in her blood, a secret that marks her out for destruction by enemies of the state. Soon Molly will find herself battling a grave threat to civilization which draws on an ancient power thought to have been quelled millennia ago.Oliver Brooks has led a sheltered life in the home of his merchant uncle. But when he is framed for his only relative's murder he is forced to flee for his life. He is accompanied by Harry Stave, an agent of the Court of the Air - a shadowy organization independent of the government that acts as the final judiciary of the land, ensuring that order prevails. Chased across the country, Oliver finds himself in the company of thieves, outlaws and spies, and gradually learns more about the secret that has blighted his life, but which may also offer him the power to avert the coming catastrophe.Their enemies are ruthless and myriad, but Molly and Oliver are joined by indomitable friends in this endlessly inventive tale full of drama, intrigue and adventure.
This introductory text challenges current sociological thought and explores the historical and contemporary relevance of religion to social life, through an examination of practice and belief.
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