Ī prequel trilogy, The Dark Elf Trilogy, followed, as did several subsequent sequel series such as Legacy of the Drow and Paths of Darkness. The final book of this series, The Halfling's Gem, appeared in The New York Times Best Seller list. It is the first of Salvatore's Forgotten Realms novels which introduces some of the best-known characters in that world. They tell the tale of ranger Drizzt Do'Urden the drow (or dark elf), Wulfgar the barbarian warrior, Regis the halfling, dwarf king Bruenor, and Bruenor's adopted human daughter Catti-brie. The books are The Crystal Shard, Streams of Silver and The Halfling's Gem. The Icewind Dale Trilogy is a trilogy of epic fantasy novels by the American writer R.A.
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Allira and her family need to make decisions. She's not Defective, but what seventeen-year-old girl has the ability to pull two teenage boys away from a fiery rubble and walk away without a scratch? It would definitely be seen as suspicious. By doing so, she may have just caught the eye of the Institute. When Allira stumbles across a car crash involving two of her school classmates, she ignores all of her father's warnings of laying low and not drawing attention to herself. Protecting Shilah from that fate is their number one priority. To Allira and the rest of her family, the Institute seems more like a prison than the safe-haven they promote themselves to be. Defectives are dangerous, they possess abilities that no human should be able to. They claim to protect Defectives, but it's human nature to fear the unknown. Allira Daniels will do anything to keep her Defective brother safe from the Institute. Its content also extends to cover aspects like drug tourism, drugs in culture, psychedelic exploration and the handling of mandatory drug tests. This is a substantial body of work, embracing a wealth of direct support material, including addiction/overdose advice, legal briefings, and relative harm tables. This delivered another invaluable insight, enabling for example, an objective assessment of the extent of any loss of judgement and self-control. In addition, for every compound he also produced a trip report, detailing the qualitative experience itself, often in the form of a log of effects at various time checks. For each of them he recorded the essential and life-sensitive safety data, including the anticipated onset times, the common threshold doses, the routes of administration, and the expected periods of efficacy. Over a 10 year period the author self-administered over 150 psychoactive substances both chemicals and plants. Instead, I want to hone in on some of the philosophical assumptions on which this book and others like it are founded, with the goal of exposing some key ethical issues that are too often minimized or ignored by technologists and futurists. It’s a worthwhile read for anyone passionate about the subject matter and willing to wade through a fair amount of jargon.īostrom demonstrates an impressive grasp of AI theory, and a reader like me has neither the professional standing nor the basic knowledge to challenge his technical schemas or predictions, which by and large seem prudent and well-reasoned. Nick Bostrom’s Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies is a short, dense introduction to our most cutting-edge theories about how far off superintelligence might be, what it might look like if it arrives, and what the consequences might be for humanity. The idea of artificial superintelligence (ASI) has long tantalized and taunted the human imagination, but only in recent years have we begun to analyze in depth the technical, strategic, and ethical problems of creating as well as managing advanced AI. As she works against the forces intent on destroying her loved ones, she can’t know that her actions will have ramifications for generations to come. Yet when the Nazis come for her friends, Estelle doesn’t hesitate to help those she holds dear, no matter the cost. Paris, 1942: The Germans may occupy the City of Lights, but glamorous Estelle Allard flourishes in a world separate from the hardships of war. Together they attempt to uncover the truths concealed within the apartment’s walls. One obscure painting leads her to Gabriel Seymour, a highly respected art restorer with his own mysterious past. Here’s the synopsis for The Paris Apartment:Ģ017, London: When Aurelia Leclaire inherits an opulent Paris apartment, she is shocked to discover her grandmother’s hidden secrets-including a treasure trove of famous art and couture gowns. She worked as a research scientist before realizing her dream to be a writer of historical fiction. Kelly Bowen grew up in Manitoba, Canada, and attended the University of Manitoba, where she earned Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in veterinary studies. It's clear that they were destined to meet - and that Rory may hold the key to righting a forty-year wrong and opening the door to shared healing and, perhaps, a little magic. When Rory returns the mementos, an unlikely friendship develops, and eerie parallels in Rory's and Soline's lives begin to surface. She boxes up her memories, stowing them away, along with her broken dreams, determined to forget.ĭecades later, while coping with her own tragic loss, aspiring gallery owner Rory Grant leases Soline's old property and discovers a box containing letters and a vintage wedding dress, never worn. But devastating losses during World War II leave Soline's world and heart in ruins and her faith in love shaken. It's said that the bride who wears a Roussel gown is guaranteed a lifetime of joy. An enchanting novel about fate, second chances, and hope, lost and found, by the Amazon Charts bestselling author of The Last of the Moon Girls. For generations her family has kept an exclusive bridal salon in Paris, where magic is worked with needle and thread. Soline Roussel is well schooled in the business of happy endings. An enchanting novel about fate, second chances, and hope, lost and found, by the bestselling author of The Last of the Moon Girls. I tried to write a long, third-person summary that would imply how great the book is and also sound vaguely authoritative-like maybe someone who isn’t me wrote it-but I soon discovered that I’m not sneaky enough to pull it off convincingly. Because I wrote it, I had to figure out what to put on the back cover to explain what it is. This full-color, beautifully illustrated edition features more than fifty percent new content, with ten never-before-seen essays and one wholly revised and expanded piece as well as classics from the website like, “The God of Cake,” “Dogs Don’t Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving,” and her astonishing, “Adventures in Depression,” and “Depression Part Two,” which have been hailed as some of the most insightful meditations on the disease ever written.īrosh’s debut marks the launch of a major new American humorist who will surely make even the biggest scrooge or snob laugh. Hyperbole And A Half Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened by Allie Brosh Paperback, 369 pages purchase Allie Brosh is the creator of. “Funny and smart as hell” (Bill Gates), Allie Brosh’s Hyperbole and a Half showcases her unique voice, leaping wit, and her ability to capture complex emotions with deceptively simple illustrations.Įvery time Allie Brosh posts something new on her hugely popular blog Hyperbole and a Half the internet rejoices. You're sending communiques out into the void. And at some point I realized that tweeting is actually just a form of writing, right?. It is nighttime there in this place where they ought not to be and they're not expecting to confront people in the middle of the night on their doorstep. It's an uncomfortable place to be because they're acknowledging some very deep and unflattering preconceptions based on race. But this liberal white couple is then forced to confront the fact that their immediate presumption is that this Black couple who show up on their doorstep must somehow be criminals, that they must be lying, that they couldn't possibly have a house this nice because they are Black.Īmanda reflects at one point that they look like they could be the handyman and the maid associated with the house and that maybe this whole thing is just a con. The reader is meant to feel a bit of discomfort there because, of course, a knock at the door late at night in a place where you're not expecting to be, it feels suspicious, it feels threatening. On the novel's opening chapters, in which the white family who is renting the house opens the door in the middle of the night to an older Black couple who claim to be the home's owners Second, by entering the experience of an immortal character, one raised with a deep Catholic faith, Rice was able to explore profound philosophical concerns-the nature of evil, the reality of death, and the limits of human perception-in ways not possible from the perspective of a more finite narrator.Īfter the spectacular debut of Interview with the Vampire in 1976, Anne Rice put aside her vampires to explore other literary interests-Italian castrati in Cry to Heaven and the Free People of Color in The Feast of All Saints. First and foremost, the method Rice chose to tell her tale-with Louis' first-person confession to a skeptical boy-transformed the vampire from a hideous predator into a highly sympathetic, seductive, and all-too-human figure. But a summary of this story bypasses the central attractions of the novel. The two prey on innocents, give their "dark gift" to a young girl, and seek out others of their kind (notably the ancient vampire Armand) in Paris. At his emotional nadir, he is confronted by Lestat, a charismatic and powerful vampire who chooses Louis to be his fledgling. The story is ostensibly a simple one: having suffered a tremendous personal loss, an 18th-century Louisiana plantation owner named Louis Pointe du Lac descends into an alcoholic stupor. In the now-classic novel Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice refreshed the archetypal vampire myth for a late-20th-century audience. With enemies threatening to tear them apart, the lovers seem doomed. When she is faced with marriage to a terrible man in her own tribe, she must choose between the life she's always known and running away to an uncertain future with Peter. Soon, she is risking everything - her family, her future - to be with him. As the leader of the Lost Boys, the most fearsome of Neverland's inhabitants, Peter is an unthinkable match for Tiger Lily. Impetuous and brave, he both scares and enthralls her. Then she meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland and immediately falls under his spell. Before Peter Pan belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with the crow feather in her hair.įifteen-year-old Tiger Lily doesn't believe in love stories or happy endings. |