You may have to register before you can download all our books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
THE WINNER OF THE 2013 ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARD SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2013 BRITISH SCIENCE FICTION ASSOCIATION BEST NOVEL CATEGORY SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2013 BRITISH FICTION ASSOCIATION BEST COVER DESIGN (SI SCOTT) SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2013 BSFA AWARDS You live in Eden. You are a member of the Family, one of 532 descendants of Angela and Tommy. You shelter beneath the Forest's lantern trees. Beyond the forest lie mountains so forbidding that no one has ever crossed them. The Oldest recount legends of a time when men and women made boats that could travel between worlds. One day, they will come back for you. You live in Eden. You are a member of the Family, one of 532 descendants of two marooned explorers. You huddle, slowly starving, in the warmth of geothermal trees, confined to one barely habitable valley of an alien, sunless world. You are John Redlantern. You will break the laws of Eden, shatter the Family and change history. You will be the first to kill another, the first to venture into the Dark and the first to discover the truth about Eden.
The fascinating new novel f rom Chris Beckett, the Arthur C. Clarke award-winning author. 'Tomorrow I'm going to begin my novel...' A would-be author has taken time out from life in the city to live in a cabin by a river and write a novel. And not just any novel. A novel that will avoid all the pitfalls and limitations of other novels, a novel that will include everything. At first these new surroundings are so idyllic that it's hard to find the motivation to get started. And then, in all its brutality, the outside world intervenes... Ranging constantly backwards and forwards in time and space, Tomorrow becomes a restless search for meaning in a precarious and elusive world.
'Brilliantly and chillingly imagined' Guardian 'E xplored with wit, thoughtfulness and emotional weight' Spectator As a historian in the bleak, climate-ravaged twenty-third century, it's Zoe's job to record and archive the past, not to recreate it. But when she comes across the diaries of Harry and Michelle, who lived two hundred years ago, she becomes fascinated by the minutiae of their lives and decides to write a novel about them, filling in the gaps with her own imaginings. Harry and Michelle meet just after the Brexit referendum when Harry's car breaks down outside a small town in Norfolk. Despite their different backgrounds, and Michelle having voted Leave while Harry voted Remain, they are drawn to each other and begin a relationship. From her long perspective, the way Zoe sees their world is somewhat different from the way we see it now. Two Tribes becomes a reflection on the way our ideas are shaped by class and social circumstances, and how they change without us even noticing. It explores what divides us and what brings us together. And it asks where we may be headed next.
A thought-provoking collection of contemporary short stories from the winner of the Arthur C. Clarke award 2013. Chris Beckett's thought-provoking and wide-ranging collection of contemporary short stories is a joy to read, rich in detail and texture. From stories about first love, to a man who discovers a labyrinth beneath his house, to an angel left alone at the end of the universe, Beckett displays both incredible range and extraordinary subtlety as a writer. Every story is a world unto itself - each one beautifully realized and brilliantly imagined.
Mother of Eden has been shortlisted for the British Science Fiction Association Novel of the Year Award, 2015. ' We speak of a mother's love, but we forget her power. Power over life. Power to give and to withhold.' Generations after the breakup of the human family of Eden, the Johnfolk emphasise knowledge and innovation, the Davidfolk tradition and cohesion. But both have built hierarchical societies sustained by violence and dominated by men - and both claim to be the favoured children of a long-dead woman from Earth that all Eden knows as Gela, the mother of them all. When Starlight Brooking meets a handsome and powerful man from across Worldpool, she believes he will offer an outlet for her ambition and energy. But she has no idea that she will be a stand-in for Gela herself, and wear Gela's ring on her own finger. And she has no idea of the enemies she will make, no inkling that a time will come when she, like John Redlantern, will choose to kill...
Human Growth and Development, Second Edition is a bestselling introduction to emotional, psychological, intellectual and social development throughout the lifespan. Written for students training in fields such as Social Work, Healthcare and Education, the book covers topics which are central to understanding people whether they are clients, service users, patients or pupils. Each chapter outlines theories that explain development at different stages of life and the transitions we make between childhood, adolesence, adulthood and old age. For this second edition, a new chapter has been added (Chapter 10: It Takes a Village: the Sociological Perspective) exploring the wider social factors which influence human growth and development. Activities are provided within each chapter to help student test theoretical concepts against their own experience and intuitions. Combining theoretical concepts and reflective learning, Human Growth & Development, second edition is the ideal introduction to psychosocial development for students on a wide range of professional courses.
Finalist for the 2021 Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry This is the very first anthology of Ethiopian poetry in English, packed with all the energy, wit and heartache of a beautiful country and language. From folk and religious poems, warrior boasts, praises of women and kings and modern plumbing; through a flowering of literary poets in the twentieth century; right up to thirty of the most exciting contemporary Amharic poets working both inside and outside the country. These poems ask what it means to be Ethiopian today, part of a young fast-growing economy, heirs to the one African state which was never colonised, but beset by deep political, ethnic and moral problems.
George Simling has grown up in the city-state of Illyria, an enclave of logic and reason founded as a refuge from the Reaction, a wave of religious fundamentalism that swept away the nations of the 21st century. Yet to George, Illyria's militant rationalism is as stifling as the faith-based superstition that dominates the world outside its walls. For George has fallen in love with Lucy. A prostitute. A robot. She might be a machine, but the semblance of life is perfect. To the city authorities, robot sentience is a malfunction, curable by erasing and resetting silicon minds. But George knows that Lucy is something more. His only alternative is to flee Illyria, taking Lucy deep into the religious Outlands where she must pass as human because robots are seen as mockeries of God, burned at the stake, dismembered, crucified. Their odyssey leads them through betrayal, war and madness, ending only at the monastery of the Holy Machine.
`I can say without equivocation this text is without doubt the best book about social work I have read. Chris Beckett explores the purpose, values activities and theories of social work in an ever-changing social context that is clearly identified and examined' - Stephanie Petrie, University of Liverpool Every day social workers face decisions that will significantly impact others' lives, and it is essential that these practical assessments are supported by a sound understanding of social work theory. In this innovative and highly accessible textbook Chris Beckett explains how an understanding of these theoretical issues can improve the knowledge and skills base of professional practice. Ess...
Charles Bowen is an immigration officer with a difference: the migrants he deals with don't come from other countries but from other universes. Known as shifters, they materialize from parallel timelines, bringing with them a mysterious drug called slip which breaks down the boundary between what is and what might have been, and offers the desperate and the dispossessed the tantalizing possibility of escape. Summoned to investigate a case at the Thurston Meadows Social Inclusion Zone, Bowen struggles to keep track of his place in the world and to uphold the values of the system he has fought so long to maintain... One of Britain's most exciting and innovative science fiction writers, Chris Beckett is the winner of the 2013 Arthur C Clarke Award and the 2009 Edge Hill Prize. Marcher is perhaps his finest work to date. This is the author's preferred text, significantly revised, and the book's first release in the UK.