Battle Angel Alita: Last Order / Gunnm: Last Order, Vol. 12 (Battle Angel Alita (Graphic Novels))

Product Description
A sophisticated science fiction tale packed with action, black humor, and philosophical, historical, and cultural references! R to L (Japanese Style). "Angel Redux"This time, Alita returns in an unprecedented form (Check out this volume's cover for details!) it seems no one can touch--not even Super Nova! Then Agi Mbadi, the dictator of Ketheres, goes on the offensive. If he cancels the Z.O.T.T. for "safety reasons," will Alita's dream of independence for Tiphares and the Scrapyard be crushed forever? Master manga creater Yukito Kishiro returns, accompanied by his most celebrated character, cyborg sweetheart Battle Angel Alita. Meet Kishiro's latest bevy of bizarre and tormented characters and catch up with your favorite friends and foes! A sophisticated science fiction tale packed with action, black humor, and philosophical, historical, and cultural references!

About the Author
At 17, he won one of Shueisha's manga contests, but opted to go onto art school instead of ploughing straight into the manga industry. Yukito Kishiro is also the author of Ashen Victor, Aqua Knight, and Battle Angel Alita: Last Order.

Click here to buy Battle Angel Alita: Last Order / Gunnm:Last Order, Vol. 12 from Amazon.com

Battle Angel Alita / Gunnm , Vol. 1 (Battle Angel Alita (Graphic Novels)) , Yukito Kishiro

Amazon.com Review
In the first volume of Yukito Kishiro'sBattle Angel Alita /Gunnm , Daisuke Ido discovers a badly damaged cyborg in the trash heap beneath the floating city of Tiphares, which he rebuilds and names Alita. She has no memory of her previous life, but when she is drawn into a battle with the monster Makaku, Alita realizes that she must uncover the dark secrets of her past.
Kishiro's story is much more than a science-fiction adventure. Woven into the violent, roller-coaster plot is a strand of philosophical speculation. Battle Angel Alita takes us to a world where technology blurs the boundaries between human and machine, begging the question "What makes us who we are?"


Product Description
When Doc Ido, a talented cyberphysician, finds Alita's head in a junk heap, she has lost all memory of her past life. But when he reconstructs her, she discovers her body still instinctively remembers the Panzer Kunst, the most powerful cyborg fighting technique ever known. In the postapocalyptic world of the Scrapyard, as the secrets of Alita's past unfold, each day is a struggle for survival.

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Star Wars: Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil: A Novel of the Old Republic by Drew Karpyshyn

One of most popular book from Old replublic saga of Star Wars.

Product Description
Twenty years have passed since Darth Bane, reigning Dark Lord of the Sith, demolished the ancient order devoted to the dark side and reinvented it as a circle of two: one Master to wield the power and pass on the wisdom, and one apprentice to learn, challenge, and ultimately usurp the Dark Lord in a duel to the death. But Bane’s acolyte, Zannah, has yet to engage her Master in mortal combat and prove herself a worthy successor. Determined that the Sith dream of galactic domination will not die with him, Bane vows to learn the secret of a forgotten Dark Lord that will assure the Sith’s immortality–and his own.

A perfect opportunity arises when a Jedi emissary is assassinated on the troubled mining planet Doan, giving Bane an excuse to dispatch his apprentice on a fact-finding mission–while he himself sets out in secret to capture the ancient holocron of Darth Andeddu and its precious knowledge. But Zannah is no fool. She knows that her ruthless Master has begun to doubt her, and she senses that he is hiding something crucial to her future. If she is going to claim the power she craves, she must take action now.

While Bane storms the remote stronghold of a fanatical Sith cult, Zannah prepares for her Master’s downfall by choosing an apprentice of her own: a rogue Jedi cunning and cold-blooded enough to embrace the Sith way and to stand beside her when she at last wrests from Bane the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith.

But Zannah is not the only one with the desire and power to destroy Darth Bane. Princess Serra of the Doan royal family is haunted by memories of the monstrous Sith soldier who murdered her father and tortured her when she was a child. Bent on retribution, she hires a merciless assassin to find her tormentor–and bring him back alive to taste her wrath.

Only a Sith who has taken down her own Master can become Dark Lord of the Sith. So when Bane suddenly vanishes, Zannah must find him–possibly even rescue him–before she can kill him. And so she pursues her quarry from the grim depths of a ravaged world on the brink of catastrophe to the barren reaches of a desert outpost, where the future of the dark side’s most powerful disciples will be decided, once and for all, by the final, fatal stroke of a lightsaber.

About the Author
Drew Karpyshyn is the New York Times bestselling author of Star Wars: Darth Bane: Rule of Two, Star Wars: Darth Bane: Path of Destruction, and the Mass Effect novels Revelation and Ascension, as well as several other fantasy and science fiction novels. He is also an award-winning writer/designer for the computer game company BioWare, where he was lead writer on Mass Effect and the blockbuster Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic video game. He lives in Canada’s hinterlands with his wife, Jen, and their cat.

World Almanac and Book of Facts 2010

Posted on http://platinumbooks.blogspot.com/2010/01/world-almanac-and-book-of-facts-2010.html

Ranked #1 of New York Times bestseller book.
World Almanac is a complete book of statistic data of 2009. Containing complete information of political , economic , scientific , entertainment and education in 1008 pages. Almanac is one of all time annually published book.

Product Description
Get answers to virtually any question with this impressive compendium of information.

The World Almanac and Book of Facts is America's top-selling reference book of all time, with more than 80 million copies sold. Published annually since 1868, this compendium of information is the source for all your entertainment, reference, and learning needs. Labeled a "treasure trove of political, economic, scientific and educational statistics and information" by the Wall Street Journal, the almanac contains thousands of facts that are unavailable publicly elsewhere, making it a must-have for students, teachers, and anyone with a thirst for knowledge-in fact, it has been featured as a category on Jeopardy and is routinely used as a go-to general study guide for aspiring game show contestants. Coming soon in a 2010 edition and boasting full-color and black-and-white photographs, The World Almanac and Book of Facts will answer all your trivia questions-spanning a wide range of categories, including history, sports, geography, pop culture, and much more.

Notable features include:

-2009 Time Capsule
-The Bush Legacy
-Swine Flu Coverage
-Decade in Review
-U.S. Colleges and Universities
-Population Statistics for Cities over 10,000 People
-The World at a Glance
-Offbeat News Stories
-World Series Results
-Year in Pictures.

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The Autobiography of Ben Franklin by Benjamin Franklin himself

Posted on http://platinumbooks.blogspot.com/2010/01/autobiography-of-ben-franklin-by.html

Benjamin Franklin ( January 17, 1706 - April 17, 1790 ) ,is perhaps one of most important history figure in U.S. history. Benjamin Franklin was a leading author and printer, satirist, political theorist, politician, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman , soldier and one of Founding Fathers of United States of America. His colorful life and legacy of scientific and political achievement have seen Franklin honored on coinage and money; warships; the names of many towns, counties, educational institutions, namesakes, and companies; and more than two centuries after his death, countless cultural references.

Every children in U.S. have learned about his role in American history, but there are more to learn about his inspired life during the hard time of American Revolutionary.

Review
"The acting is superb."

-- LA Times

"This well-known work by one of our nation's founding fathers was certainly given to the right individual to narrate. Fredd Wayne, whose one-man show, "Benjamin Franklin, Citizen," has also been recorded by Audio Editions, seems to have captured Franklin's persona."

-- Dick Richmond, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 19, 1997


Product Description
Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography is one of the most famous works in American literature. He started it as a private collection of anecdotes for his son, but soon it was transformed into a work of history. This is a charming, self-portrait of one of America's greatest forefathers.


From the Inside Flap
Famous as a scientist, statesman, philosopher, businessman, and civic leader, Benjamin Franklin was also one of the most powerful and controversial American writers of his time, and has been a subject of intense debate ever since: to Matthew Arnold, he exemplified "victorious good sense"; to D.H. Lawrence, he was "the first dummy American." Franklin's classic Autobiography is his last word on his greatest literary creation -- his own invented persona, the original incarnation of the American success story.

For the first time, the authoritative editions of works by major American novelists, poets, scholars, and essayists collected in the hardcover volumes of The Library of America are being published singly in a series of handsome and durable paperback books. A distinguished author has contributed an introduction for each volume, which also includes a detailed chronology of the author's life and career, an essay on the choice of the text, and notes.


About the Author
Fredd Wayne's distinguished career includes stage, film and television performances in South Pacific, Oh, Men! Oh, Women!, Wonderful Town, Cagney & Lacey, Cheers, and Matlock. He has performed Benjamin Franklin, Citizen on Broadway and toured with it throughout the world, as well as starring in an NBC-TV special, Ben Franklin, American.

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Star Trek: Countdown TPB

Product Description
The countdown to the motion picture event of 2009 begins here,

in the exclusive graphic novel prequel to Star Trek, the upcoming blockbuster film from Paramount Pictures! JJ Abrams, Roberto Orci, and Alex Kurtzman present the origin of Nero, the mysterious Romulan who will ultimately threaten the survival of the entire universe. Don't miss this story that brings STAR TREK back to the big screen!

Genesis by Bernard Beckett

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best of the Month, April 2009: If robots began to self-evolve, learning to feel and create as we do, what traits would set humans apart--and help us survive? Beckett isn't the first to dramatize this question, and his Genesis pays subtle homage to his predecessors (including Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Philip K. Dick). But his near-future tale feels unique, and oddly credible. As the young historian Anax endures an examination by the Academy--an order of philosopher-rulers as imagined in Plato's Republic--we're brought up quickly on a catastrophic backstory: accelerating climate change, dust storms, rising fear and fundamentalism, the Last War, and the rise of a new Plato, who builds an island republic and seals it behind a Great Sea Fence. Plagues decimate human populations outside, while the Republic's surveillance society (thick with shadows of Huxley, Atwood, and Moore) flourishes under the Orwellian motto "Forward towards the past"--until it falls to forces led by the young rebel Adam Forde. The Academy interrogates Anax on Adam's period of imprisonment with the most advanced android of his time, and we witness their vicious sparring on the virtues of men and machines, the nature of consciousness, and what gives any life worth. It may not sound gripping, but Genesis reads like a thriller to the last word, propelled by the power of ideas longing to be unleashed. --Mari Malcolm

Product Description

Set on a remote island in a post-apocalyptic, plague-ridden world, this electrifying novel is destined to become a modern classic.


Anax thinks she knows her history. She’d better. She’s now facing three Examiners, and her grueling all-day Examination has just begun. If she passes, she’ll be admitted into the Academy—the elite governing institution of her utopian society.


But Anax is about to discover that for all her learning, the history she’s been taught isn’t the whole story. And that the Academy isn’t what she believes it to be.


In this brilliant novel of dazzling ingenuity, Anax’s examination leads us into a future where we are confronted with unresolved questions raised by science and philosophy. Centuries old, these questions have gained new urgency in the face of rapidly developing technology. What is consciousness? What makes us human? If artificial intelligence were developed to a high enough capability, what special status could humanity still claim?


Outstanding and original, Beckett’s dramatic narrative comes to a stunning close. This perfect combination of thrilling page-turner and provocative novel of ideas demands to be read again and again.



About the Author

BERNARD BECKETT, born in 1967, is a high school teacher based in Wellington, New Zealand, where he teaches drama, mathematics, and English. Genesis was written while he was on a Royal Society genetics research fellowship investigating DNA mutations. The book has already received international acclaim, including two literary prizes in Beckett’s native New Zealand. Rights to Genesis have been sold in twenty-one countries.