Ancient Machine

James Robert Scott was 13 when his parents died in an aircar crash and two years later his last remaining immediate family member, his grandfather a Nobel prize-winning physicist disappeared without a trace. On the day of his 19th birthday, a man with a stainless steel briefcase cabled to his wrist waited outside his classroom door. The letter contained in the case was addressed to James and was postmarked March of 1888, 157 years in the past. The letter indicated that the elder Scott was lost somewhere in time and contained the location of the Time Machine and access codes to the ...

The first robot to walk the earth was a bronze giant called Talos. This wondrous machine was created not by MIT Robotics Lab, but by Hephaestus, the Greek god of invention, more than 2,500 years ago. In this groundbreaking account of the earliest expressions of the timeless impulse to create artificial life, Adrienne Mayor tells the fascinating story of how ancient Greek, Roman, Indian, and Chinese myths envisioned artificial life, automata, self-moving devices, and human enhancements - and how these visions relate to and reflect the ancient invention of real animated machines.

Did the ancient Greeks and Romans have conspiracy theories? Did they come close to an industrial revolution? Did they drink beer? In a series of fast-paced essays, Insane Emperors, Sunken Cities, and Earthquake Machines answers 40 questions that ancient historian Garrett Ryan has been asked in the classroom and through his popular YouTube channel ToldinStone. As in Dr. Ryan's previous book—Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants—the emphasis is on the fascinating details of daily life in the classical world.

Gideon Crew--brilliant scientist, master thief--is living on borrowed time. When his mysterious employer, Eli Glinn, gives him an eyebrow-raising mission, he has no reason to refuse. Gideon's task: steal a page from the priceless Book of Kells, now on display in New York City and protected by...

The 14th Gemina Martia Victrix Legion was the most celebrated unit of the early Roman Empire - a force that had been wiped out under Julius Caesar, reformed, and almost wiped out again. After participating in the a.d. 43 invasion of Britain, the 14th Legion achieved its greatest glory when it put down the famous rebellion of the Britons under Boudicca.

Time travel meets urban fantasy. Book 1 of The Time Corps Chronicles The Time Corps Chronicles is a fantasy series that moves from worlds much like our own to those where the mythical is real and the impossible is true. Clockworks, fey, ancient spirits, time machines, talking animals and other things both beautiful and strange wait for the travelers daring enough to find them. But moving between worlds comes at a price. Medical student Felicia Sanchez is only trying to help an injured man when she slips through a time rip and into 19th century New Orleans, one very different than the one ...

When the crew of a Shoomaran freighter find themselves stranded on Earth in 5342 BCE, they learn that the native inhabitants are destined to die out in only a thousand years. Aided by a machine that can foretell the future, they are able to make minor changes from time-to-time in order to keep mankind on the path to survival. However, in spite of all of their efforts, the clock will finally run out for everyone in less than a year from now. Unable to find a solution on their own, they turn to those that they have watched over for more than seven millennia. But will the humans be able to ...

Time travel meets urban fantasy. Book 4 of The Time Corps Chronicles The Time Corps Chronicles is a fantasy series that moves from worlds much like our own to those where the mythical is real and the impossible is true. Clockworks, fey, ancient spirits, time machines, talking animals and other things both beautiful and strange wait for the travelers daring enough to find them. But moving between worlds comes at a price. When Astrid, a fledgling psychopomp, sent her cousin Elliot to the Library, she thought she was saving his life. Now he is trapped in an endless building that exists in the ...

In the city of Seraphine, obedience is a hymn sung through every wall, every street, every vein. Silence is not absence here—it is policy, programmed into memory and stitched into the body. But when a single forbidden name surfaces in a place it shouldn’t exist, one woman begins to pull at the threads of a tapestry woven from surveillance, faith, and forgetting. What she finds beneath isn’t just a hidden truth—it’s an unmaking of the world’s most sacred lie. Hallowed Be Thy Name is a haunting, atmospheric descent into a society where control is scripture, history is curated, and...

Time travel meets urban fantasy. Book 2 of The Time Corps Chronicles The Time Corps Chronicles is a fantasy series that moves from worlds much like our own to those where the mythical is real and the impossible is true. Clockworks, fey, ancient spirits, time machines, talking animals and other things both beautiful and strange wait for the travelers daring enough to find them. But moving between worlds comes at a price. Time Travelers aren’t born. They’re made. Determined to return a twenty-first-century woman to her own world, Professor Seamus Connor has spent six long years—since ...

From an award-winning University of Oxford professor comes a brilliant, urgent new look at prophecies—the predictions that determine our lives, from our personal finances and the quality of our healthcare to the news and social media we consume and the products foisted upon us. Today’s...

Do you feel like the world is falling apart? Do your bones ache? Do you feel despair as you stare into the void of eternity? Chances are, you just might be a human. We've survived dark times before, and we'll do it again. Join professor Dan Lawrence in How To Be Human: A Guide for the Age of Machines & Fire to explore what it really means to be a temporary creature on a floating rock in the universe, and learn how we can make decent, cozy lives in a world of chaos and tumult. Digestible, chewy book packed full of stories, grand allusions, and ancient wisdom Honestly explore the experience ...

From Arlo Parks, Grammy Award-nominated recording artist and “voice of a generation”—a stunning debut book of poetry and a world-building companion to her sophomore album My Soft Machine. “Poetry was my place, my little clearing in the forest, where I could quietly put everything I was...

Time travel meets urban fantasy. Book 3 of The Time Corps Chronicles The Time Corps Chronicles is a fantasy series that moves from worlds much like our own to those where the mythical is real and the impossible is true. Clockworks, fey, ancient spirits, time machines, talking animals and other things both beautiful and strange wait for the travelers daring enough to find them. But moving between worlds comes at a price. Astrid dreams of escaping a dull job at the California boardwalk and moving to New York for art school. But after a series of unexplainable events, she is forced into a ...

Time travel meets urban fantasy. Book 5 of The Time Corps Chronicles The Time Corps Chronicles is a fantasy series that moves from worlds much like our own to those where the mythical is real and the impossible is true. Clockworks, fey, ancient spirits, time machines, talking animals and other things both beautiful and strange wait for the travelers daring enough to find them. But moving between worlds comes at a price. The existence of the Time Corps has always been problematic, from the origin of their time machines to the unstable time loops created by their asynchronous relationships. ...

Sadie is a restless teenager with a thirst for adventure. When her father mysteriously vanishes, she discovers his assistant, Gus, and her father's time machine and sets off on a journey through other time dimensions in search of him. With each jump through time, Sadie finds herself immersed in iconic moments and encounters legendary figures, from ancient civilizations to the medieval era to the American Wild West. But her mission to find her father is not without its challenges, and Sadie must use her wit, bravery, and determination to overcome the obstacles she encounters. Join Sadie as ...

The Armenians were a crucial part of the army of Alexander the Great following him to the ends of the known world at that time.

The galaxy burns. An ancient weapon has awakened — a sentient machine older than memory, powered by antimatter, built only for one purpose: annihilation. It strips planets bare, devours moons, and grinds civilizations into ash. Its name is whispered like a curse. War Sprite. Earth is in the damage path. Three avatars — Ariel, Jenna, and Iris — thrill-seekers, rebels, and reluctant heroines — are hurled from ice-yacht races and wingsuit dives into a mission no one can survive. To stop War Sprite, they must infiltrate it from within: a labyrinth of alien machinery, nanotech nightmares...