NASA's history is a familiar story, one that typically peaks with Neil Armstrong taking his small step on the Moon in 1969. But America's space agency wasn't created in a vacuum. It was assembled from pre-existing parts, drawing together some of the best minds the non-Soviet world had to offer. In the 1930s, rockets were all the rage in Germany, the focus both of scientists hoping to fly into space and of the German armed forces, looking to circumvent the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles. One of the key figures in this period was Wernher von Braun, an engineer who designed the rockets that became the devastating V-2. As the war came to its chaotic conclusion, von Braun escaped from the ruins of Nazi Germany, and was taken to America where he began developing missiles for the US Army. Meanwhile, the US Air Force was looking ahead to a time when men would fly in space, and test pilots like Neil Armstrong were flying cutting-edge, rocket-powered aircraft in the...

'The majestic beauty of Van Diemen's Land as well as its tendency to foster grotesque violence is effectively captured in this narrative of notorious convict Alexander Pearce.' Sydney Morning HeraldFor the convicts transported from their homeland, Van Diemen's Land was a feared and dreaded penal settlement at the end of the earth. The worst prisoners were sent to the isolated Sarah Island, accessed through a treacherous channel that the convicts named 'Hell's Gates', a reference to the gates of hell in Dante's Inferno: 'Abandon all hope, ye who enter here'.In 1822, eight convicts escaped in a fateful bid for freedom. This band of escapees with little food or equipment, in a place these immigrants knew little about, battled a merciless enemy - an unforgiving, hostile land - that led to starvation and, ultimately, cannibalism.In Hell's Gates,Paul Collins has fashioned an utterly riveting narrative of physical hardship and pathological behaviour.

Nick Blacksheep was an outsider to all: the police force, his community and the women he kept at arm's length. Experienced in modern warfare, the tall Navajo's imposing spirit recalled the intensity of his ancestors. His heart incapable of wounding, Nick was the fiercest protector beautiful Drew Simmons could have ever imagined -- or desired. With contract killers on her tail, the small-town librarian needed a cop who was true to his word. Though Blacksheep promised to safeguard Drew, he couldn't have expected her compassion to thaw the ice in his veins. Now his greatest duty isn't to himself, but the woman he welcomed into his home.

Dr. Carl Sagan takes us on a great reading adventure, offering his vivid and startling insight into the brain of man and beast, the origin of human intelligence, the function of our most haunting legends--and their amazing links to recent discoveries."A history of the human brain from the big bang, fifteen billion years ago, to the day before yesterday...It's a delight."THE NEW YORK TIMESFrom the Paperback edition.

AURORA AWARD WINNER A Heroka story The Heroka are an ancient race of shape shifters, drawing vitality from their animal totems. Gwyn Blaidd, a Heroka of the wolf totem, has been a recluse ever since a deadly battle with the Tainchel, the covert government agency that hunts his kind—a battle that cost him the woman he loved. But to save an old friend, Gwyn must again face the Tainchel—and his own dark past. “A vivid and wonderfully written tale about Native Canadian spirits, in the vein of Thomas King.” —Challenging Destiny “Draws on North American Indian myths, particularly the idea of shapeshifters... Smith once more creates a credible and sympathetic protagonist, Gwyn Blaidd, [who] returns to his old stomping ground to help out some fellow shapeshifters who have become embroiled in a conflict with a large logging concern.” —The Fix

When his next-door neighbors in a quaint New England town suddenly pick up and move to a gated retired community in Florida called The Villages, Andrew Blechman is astonished by their stories, so he goes to investigate. Larger than Manhattan, with a golf course for every day of the month, two downtowns, its own newspaper, radio, and TV station, The Villages is a city of nearly one hundred thousand (and growing) missing only one thing: children.In the critically acclaimed Leisureville, Blechman delves into life in the senior utopia, offering a hilarious firsthand report on everything from ersatz nostalgia to the residents’ surprisingly active sex life. But this is more than just a romp through a retirement paradise; Blechman traces the history of the age-segregated retirement phenomenon, and travels to Arizona to show what has happened to the pioneering developments after decades of segregation. A fascinating blend of serious history, social commentary, and...

Ben Tracy is on holiday in the Cayman Islands when a hurricane warning means he and his new friend, the son of an oil billionaire, must fly out of range. But as the plane heads for Miami, an unfamiliar voice comes over the tannoy: the aircraft has been hijacked. If anyone tries to make their way into the cockpit, they will be instantly shot… So begins this dramatic adventure, the fifth in the exciting "Code Red" series.

John Porter, hero of the original Strikeback novel and TV series returns in an exciting adventure, when old enemies attack the SAS. 1999. A bitterly cold morning in the Brecon Beacons, and the soldiers trying out for SAS Selection are preparing to face their toughest test yet. Overseeing the soldiers is John Porter: once a promising young Blade, now a broken man and a drunk, seeing out his days in the Regiment Training Wing. But before the Fan Dance can begin, six masked gunmen carry out a devastating attack. Dozens of soldiers are killed. In the aftermath of the massacre, and with a government desperate for action, Porter and another surviving operator, John Bald, are taken to a secretive briefing in London. Their orders - to hunt down and kill those responsible for the attack. What follows is a deadly game of kill or be killed as Bald and Porter lead a Strike Team across Europe on a blood-soaked mission of revenge. But as they draw closer to their ultimate target, the men discover that there is a greater threat - much closer to home...

An apartment full of questions on a street full of mysteries ...Why does Squishy have to share everything with her new step-sisters?Why is her next-door neighbor the crankiest man in the world?Why are green jelly snakes the yummiest?Who's that hiding in the basement?

The Case of the Displaced Detective Omnibus contains the first four books in Stephanie Osborn's exciting and popular science fiction and mystery series.Book 1 - The Case of the Displaced Detective: The Arrival is a SF mystery in which brilliant hyperspatial physicist, Dr. Skye Chadwick, discovers there are alternate realities, often populated by those we consider only literary characters, including one Sherlock Holmes. In a freak series of events, Holmes crosses into Chadwick's reality, and cannot be sent back.Book 2 - Having foiled sabotage of Project: Tesseract by an unknown spy ring, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Skye Chadwick face the next challenge. How do they find the members of this diabolical spy ring when they do not even know what the ring is trying to accomplish? And how can they do it when Skye is recovering from no less than two nigh-fatal wounds?Book 3 - In 1980, RAF Bentwaters and Woodbridge were plagued by UFO sightings that were never solved. Now a resident...