Vacuum Flowers

Download or read book Vacuum Flowers written by Michael Swanwick and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2016-05-31 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A cyberpunk thriller from Nebula Award winner Michael Swanwick that explores bioengineering, wetware, and the riddle of personality Rebel Elizabeth Mudlark is a recorded personality owned by corporate giant Deutsche Nakasone. When Rebel’s personality is uploaded to persona tester Eucrasia Walsh and burned into her brain, Rebel escapes the corporation and takes off across an exotically transformed solar system, hijacking Eucrasia’s body and becoming the most wanted fugitive in existence. A fast-paced technological thriller, Vacuum Flowers allows the reader to consider the implications of bioengineering while providing an entertaining and dynamic story. Reminiscent of the innovative work of Philip K. Dick, William Gibson, and Bruce Sterling, this high-tech work of science fiction carves out a niche all its own with themes as relevant today as when it was first published.

Download or read book Lightning Flowers written by Katherine E. Standefer and published by Little, Brown Spark. This book was released on 2020-11-10 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This "utterly spectacular" book weighs the impact modern medical technology has had on the author's life against the social and environmental costs inevitably incurred by the mining that makes such innovation possible (Rachel Louise Snyder, author of No Visible Bruises). What if a lifesaving medical device causes loss of life along its supply chain? That's the question Katherine E. Standefer finds herself asking one night after being suddenly shocked by her implanted cardiac defibrillator. In this gripping, intimate memoir about health, illness, and the invisible reverberating effects of our medical system, Standefer recounts the astonishing true story of the rare diagnosis that upended her rugged life in the mountains of Wyoming and sent her tumbling into a fraught maze of cardiology units, dramatic surgeries, and slow, painful recoveries. As her life increasingly comes to revolve around the internal defibrillator freshly wired into her heart, she becomes consumed with questions about the supply chain that allows such an ostensibly miraculous device to exist. So she sets out to trace its materials back to their roots. From the sterile labs of a medical device manufacturer in southern California to the tantalum and tin mines seized by armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to a nickel and cobalt mine carved out of endemic Madagascar jungle, Lightning Flowers takes us on a global reckoning with the social and environmental costs of a technology that promises to be lifesaving but is, in fact, much more complicated. Deeply personal and sharply reported, Lightning Flowers takes a hard look at technological mythos, healthcare, and our cultural relationship to medical technology, raising important questions about our obligations to one another, and the cost of saving one life.

Download or read book Seeing Flowers written by Teri Dunn Chace and published by Timber Press. This book was released on 2013-09-24 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We’ve all seen red roses, blue irises, and yellow daffodils. But when we really look closely at a flower, whole new worlds of beauty and intricacy emerge. Using a unique process that far surpasses conventional macro photography, Robert Llewellyn shows us details that few of us have ever seen: the amazing architecture of stamens and pistils; the subtle shadings on a petal; the secret recesses of nectar tubes. Complementing Llewellyn’s stunning photographs are Teri Dunn Chace’s lyrical, illuminating essays. By highlighting the features that distinguish twenty-eight of the most common families of flowering plants, Chace gives us fascinating insights into the natural history of flowers, such as the relationship between pollinators and floral form and color. At the same time she gives us a deeper appreciation of why and how flowers have become so deeply embedded in human culture. Whether you’re a nature lover, a gardener, a photography buff, or someone who simply responds to the timeless beauty and variety of the floral world, Seeing Flowers will be a source of enduring delight.

Download or read book Other Worlds Than These written by John Adams and published by Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.. This book was released on 2012-06-26 with total page 575 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What if you could not only travel any location in the world, but to any possible world? We can all imagine such “other worlds”—be they worlds just slightly different than our own or worlds full of magic and wonder—but it is only in fiction that we can travel to them. From The Wizard of Oz to The Dark Tower, from Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass to C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia, there is a rich tradition of this kind of fiction, but never before have the best parallel world stories and portal fantasies been collected in a single volume—until now.

Download or read book Florists Exchange and Horticultural Trade World written by and published by . This book was released on 1925 with total page 1146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Galactic North written by Alastair Reynolds and published by Orbit. This book was released on 2020-04-21 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of eight short stories and novellas in the dark and turbulent world of Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space universe.Centuries from now, solidarity stretches thin as humanity spreads past the solar system and to the nearest stars. Technology has produced powerful new tools-but lethal risk will always accompany great advancement.And without foresight, opposing groups may fracture multiple worlds. Between the Demarchists and the Conjoiners, the basic right to expand human intelligence-beyond its natural limits-has become a war-worthy cause. Only vast lighthugger starships bind these squabbling colonies together, manned by the panicky and paranoid Ultras. And the hyperpigs just try to keep their heads down.The rich get richer. And everyone tries not to think about the worrying number of extinct alien civilizations turning up on the outer reaches of settled space...because who's to say that humanity won't be next?

Download or read book Science Fiction in the Real World written by Norman Spinrad and published by SIU Press. This book was released on 1990 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Updates Lentz's previous work (which Library journal said was producers, screenwriters, cinematographers, special effects technicians, make-up artists, art directors. III: film index. IV: TV series index. V: alternate title index. Science fiction writer Spinrad presents 13 essays, some previously published, examining particular works in the genre, aspects of the industry, and how they influence each other. Topics include critical standards, the visual expression in comic books and movies, modes of content, politics, and profiles of individual authors. No bibliography. Paper edition (unseen), $14.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR