War: The Afterlife Series V

Is perfection really an attainable goal? After their deaths, best friends Kate and Daniel learn that perfection is, well, boring. Heaven is not their cup of tea, so to speak, so they leave and begin visiting the afterlives of other religions, other times, even other species. But turmoil keeps churning back on earth, and the friends discover secrets between themselves, and secrets about the world they left, and they begin to wonder if their wandering wasn't aimless after all, but part of a much bigger design.

Heaven is the first book in the epic Afterlife Series that began as a free podcast and remains one of the top five most downloaded podcast books. It will be followed by Hell, Earth, Wasteland, and War.

"Mur Lafferty's Heaven is a heartfelt, engaging fantasy. It's like a Unifying Theory for all religions and mythologies, binding together diverse cosmologies into a coherent, end-of-the-world tale in which the deepest human values may not be enough to save us. Full of surprises and pointed observations about human behaviour." - Minister Faust, author of From The Notebooks of Dr. Brain and The Alchemists of Kush

Daniel is exiled and the new Earth is in trouble. In his efforts to restore Kate, a new world is born out of the Wasteland and the two have to make their way in it. The issue of the besieged Heaven and Earth are never far from their minds as they explore this odd new world.

Kate and Daniel are reunited, but they have to return to their duties in traveling the afterlife. There are stolen souls suffering without cause in Hell, and only they can help. Kate is back in her corporeal body, but keeping memories of her time as pure soul energy, recently touched by the divine. Daniel carries the magic of an old god and the sword of a death goddess, as well a grudge against the deity who tricked him into losing nearly everything. As they search for the missing souls, Kate and Daniel have to come to terms with themselves and see if their friendship - not to mention the cosmos - can handle everything they've been through thus far.

The Selene Experiment effortlessly straddles genres, combining science fiction, intrigue and mysteries. In the shadow of an alien invasion Rowhan shines as the main character. She's plucky, smart, occasionally waspish and thoroughly present in every scene.

A ‘must read’ for anyone who likes smart and believable science fiction with strong female characters, a great plot and lots of action!

Aurora Award Finalist story from a multi-award winning author.

"Doug Smith is, quite simply, the finest short-story writer Canada has ever produced in the science fiction and fantasy genres, and he's also the most prolific. His stories are a treasure trove of riches that will touch your heart while making you think."

—Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of Hominids and FlashForward

"A great storyteller with a gifted and individual voice."

—Charles de Lint

"One of Canada's most original writers of speculative fiction."

—Library Journal

DESCRIPTION:

As First Officer on the part passenger ship, part space freighter, The Fiscal Restraint, Dex figures he knows all there is to know about “Murphy’s Law”: if anything can go wrong, it will. And on the perpetually under-staffed, under-funded Restraint, it generally does.

But he never expected to actually meet Murphy.

The real Murphy.

REVIEWS:

"Smith showcases his talent for creating strong characters who are believable and sympathetic -- even when they inhabit an absurd world. ... A hilarious, yet poignant read."

—Rainbow Dragon Recommends

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Doug is an award-winning author of speculative fiction, with over a million words of fiction sold and over a hundred short story sales to professional markets in thirty countries and two dozen languages.

He has published three short story collections: Chimerascope (ChiZine Publications, Canada, 2010), Impossibilia, (PS Publishing, UK, 2008), and just recently, La Danse des Esprits (Dreampress, France, 2011).

Doug has twice won Canada's Aurora Award for speculative fiction, and have been a finalist for the international John W. Campbell Award, the Canadian Broadcast Corporation's Bookies Award, and the juried Sunburst Award.

On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection; Or, The Preservation ...

-Included TOC for Reader.

-Included biography the author.

This is example in ebook ;

Present distribution cannot be accounted for by differences in physical conditions. Importance of barriers. Affinity of the productions of the same continent. Centres of creation. Means of dispersal, by changes of climate and of the level of the land, and by occasional means. Dispersal during the Glacial period co-extensive with the world.

In considering the distribution of organic beings over the face of the globe, the first great fact which strikes us is, that neither the similarity nor the dissimilarity of the inhabitants of various regions can be accounted for by their climatal and other physical conditions. Of late, almost every author who has studied the subject has come to this conclusion. The case of America alone would almost suffice to prove its truth: for if we exclude the northern parts where the circumpolar land is almost continuous, all authors agree that one of the most fundamental divisions in geographical distribution is that between the New and Old Worlds; yet if we travel over the vast American continent, from the central parts of the United States to its extreme southern point, we meet with the most diversified conditions; the most humid districts, arid deserts, lofty mountains, grassy plains, forests, marshes, lakes, and great rivers, under almost every temperature. There is hardly a climate or condition in the Old World which cannot be paralleled in the New—at least as closely as the same species generally require; for it is a most rare case to find a group of organisms confined to any small spot, having conditions peculiar in only a slight degree; for instance, small areas in the Old World could be pointed out hotter than any in the New World, yet these are not inhabited by a peculiar fauna or flora. Notwithstanding this parallelism in the conditions of the Old and New Worlds, how widely different are their living productions!

In the southern hemisphere, if we compare large tracts of land in Australia, South Africa, and western South America, between latitudes 25 deg and 35 deg, we shall find parts extremely similar in all their conditions, yet it would not be possible to point out three faunas and floras more utterly dissimilar. Or again we may compare the productions of South America south of lat. 35 deg with those north of 25 deg, which consequently inhabit a considerably different climate, and they will be found incomparably more closely related to each other, than they are to the productions of Australia or Africa under nearly the same climate. Analogous facts could be given with respect to the inhabitants of the sea.