Are all film stars linked to Kevin Bacon? Why do the stock markets rise and fall sharply on the strength of a vague rumour? How does gossip spread so quickly? Are we all related through six degrees of separation? There is a growing awareness of the complex networks that pervade modern society. We see them in the rapid growth of the Internet, the ease of global communication, the swift spread of news and information, and in the way epidemics and financial crises develop with startling speed and […]

When a titanic explosion ripped through the Number Four reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant in 1986, spewing flames and chunks of burning, radioactive material into the atmosphere, one of our worst nightmares came true. As the news gradually seeped out of the USSR and the extent of the disaster was realized, it became clear how horribly wrong things had gone. Dozens died – two from the explosion and many more from radiation illness during the following months – while scores of additional victims came down with […]

The future of fact GBS_insertEmbeddedViewer(“dD52AAAAIAAJ”, 500,400);

Acclaimed cartoonist Dylan Horrocks returns with a long-awaited new graphic novel, the first since his perennial classic, 1998’s Hicksville. Cartoonist Sam Zabel hasn’t drawn a comic in years. Stuck in a nightmare of creative block and despair, Sam spends his days writing superhero stories for a large American comics publisher and staring at a blank piece of paper, unable to draw a single line. Then one day he finds a mysterious old comic book set on Mars and is suddenly thrown headlong into a wild, fantastic journey […]

They were enemies in a divided land… Saxon beauty Caryn of Ivesham longed to escape the chill gray cloisters of the convent to which she’d fled-but not in marriage to the towering, feared Raolfe de Gere, the Norman knight they called Ral the Relentless. Even though he had once saved her from a fate worse than death, she could not forget he’d raised the grim battlements of Braxton, keep on her dead father’s lands or that his men had dishonored her sister. If she wed him to […]

Victor Losa has spent his life studying magic – he lives, breathes and dreams it. His mentor, Mario Galvan, taught him not only the practical aspects of the art, but also its history and in particular the lives of famous Victorian magicians such as Hoffman, Maskelyne, and Cooke, and the tricks that made them famous: the line of fire, the disappearing woman. But perhaps the most enigmatic historical figure of all is Peter Grouse, a pickpocket who decided to challenge the best magicians of the day. Now, […]

You’ve heard the stories about the dark side of the internet–hackers, #gamergate, anonymous mobs attacking an unlucky victim, and revenge porn–but they remain just that: stories. Surely these things would never happen to you. Zoe Quinn used to feel the same way. She is a video game developer whose ex-boyfriend published a crazed blog post cobbled together from private information, half-truths, and outright fictions, along with a rallying cry to the online hordes to go after her. They answered in the form of a so-called movement known […]

A debut coloring book for all ages from Swedish artist Emelie Lidehall Oberg. Reminiscent of classic Swedish fairy tales, Emelie Lidehall Oberg’s debut coloring book fills 96 pages of sweetly sleeping animals, dolls come to life, and whimsical abodes. This paperback edition makes coloring-on-the-go a breeze. Gold foil accents on the cover and enticing colorable French flaps make this a beautiful gift. The Fairy Tales Coloring Book will capture the imagination of the young and the young at heart. Emelie Lidehall Oberg is a freelance illustrator. She […]

Aruito. Moving Forward GBS_insertEmbeddedViewer(“OJjpsgEACAAJ”, 500,400);

Taking its cue from practices of reading texts in literary and cultural studies, this book considers the computer game as a new and emerging mode of contemporary storytelling. In a carefully organized study, Barry Atkins discusses questions of narrative and realism in four of the most significant games of the last decade: Tomb Raider, Half-Life, Close Combat and SimCity. This is a work for both the student of contemporary culture and those game-players who are interested in how computer games tell their stories. GBS_insertEmbeddedViewer(“dxMLnayXwTQC”, 500,400);