Showing results by narrator "William Hope" in All Categories

The observations and insights of the Buddha are practical and eminently down to earth, dealing exclusively with awareness in the here and now. Buddhism Plain and Simple offers listeners these fundamental teachings, stripped of cultural trappings that have accumulated around Buddhism over the past 25 centuries.

What is autism: a devastating developmental condition, a lifelong disability, or a naturally occurring form of cognitive difference akin to certain forms of genius? In truth it is all of these things and more - and the future of our society depends on our understanding it.

Mars. The red planet. A new frontier for humanity: a civilisation where humans can live in peace, lord and master of all they survey. But this isn't Space City from those old science-fiction books. It's more like Hell City, built into and from a huge crater. There's a big silk canopy over it, feeding out atmosphere as we generate it, little by little, because we can't breathe the air here. I guess it's a perfect place to live, if you want to live on Mars. At some point I must have wanted to live on Mars, because here I am.

Glasgow, 2025. Dr Amanda Maclean is called to treat a young man with a mild fever. Within three hours, he dies. The mysterious illness sweeps through the hospital with deadly speed. This is how it begins. The victims are all men. Dr Maclean raises the alarm, but the sickness spreads to every corner of the globe. Threatening families. Governments. Countries. Can they find a cure before it’s too late? Will this be the story of the end of the world - or its salvation?

Sailing on a boat by yourself out at sea and out of sight of land can be exhilarating or terrifying, compelling or tedious - sometimes it can be all of these things just in one morning. It is an adventure at odds with our normal, sociable lives, carried out floating on a medium wholly inimical to our existence. But the deep ocean is also a remarkable place on which to think. Richard King's enormously engaging and curious book is about the debt we owe to solo sailors: women and men, young and old, who have set out alone.

Andrew Harlan’s job is to range through past and present centuries monitoring and even altering Time’s myriad cause-and-effect relationships. As a Technician with the Allwhen Council, he initiates Reality Changes that may affect the lives of as many as fifty billion people – and a million or more of them may be so drastically affected as to be considered new individuals. Above all, therefore, a Technician must be dispassionate. An emotional make-up is a distinct handicap. Then Harlan meets Noÿs and falls victim to a phenomenon older than Time itself – love.

The First Foundation survived two centuries of barbarism as the once-mighty Galactic Empire descended into chaos. Now it must prepare for war against the remnants of the Empire as the Imperial fleet advances on their planet, Terminus. Hari Seldon predicted this war; he even prepared his Foundation for it. But he couldn’t foresee the birth of the mutant Mule. In possession of a power which reduces fearsome opposition to devoted slaves, the Mule poses a terrible threat to Seldon’s Foundation.

On Aurora, the first and greatest of the Spacer planets, Elijah Baley and R. Daneel Olivaw investigate yet another seemingly impossible crime – this time, a roboticide. Someone has destroyed the positronic mind of R. Jander Panell, a humanoid twin to Daneel. His creator, the master roboticist Han Fastolfe, denies all involvement. So does Gladia Delmarre, the robot’s owner. And lover.

There's an ever-growing body of evidence supporting the relatively simple principles that are behind healthy eating - yet the public seems to be more confused than ever. Never-ending promotions of fad diets get in the way of people making healthy choices. In this revised and updated edition of Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy, Dr. Willett uses eye-opening research to explain the relative importance of various food groups and supplements as well as how to choose foods with the best types of carbohydrates, fats, and protein.

It's 1959, and Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom, one-time high school sports superstar, is going nowhere. At twenty-six he is trapped in a second-rate existence - stuck with a fragile, alcoholic wife, a house full of overflowing ashtrays and discarded glasses, a young son and a futile job. With no way to fix things, he resolves to flee from his family and his home in Pennsylvania, beginning a thousand-mile journey that he hopes will free him from his mediocre life.

In the vast, domed cities of Earth, artificial intelligence is strictly controlled; in the distant Outer Worlds, colonists and robots live side by side. A Spacer ambassador is found dead and detective Elijah Baley is assigned to find the killer. But with relations between the two cultures in the balance, the Spacers insist that he work with a partner of their choosing – a robot partner, R. Daneel Olivaw. Baley has never seen a robot like Daneel before – and soon, though the Three Laws of Robotics should render the crime impossible, Baley’s partner becomes his prime suspect.

World's changing. Doesn't mean Dredd has to. Mega-City One, 2082. In two short years, Judge Joseph Dredd has tackled hardened killers and would-be revolutionaries; he's taken beat-downs and bounced back; and he's even arrested his own brother. There's no such thing as a 'normal year' in the Big Meg. In his third year on the sked, he'll become embroiled in the growing anti-robot movement; he'll head back out to the Cursed Earth; and he'll fall afoul of the secretive SJS - and not for the last time....

On the planet of Solaria, Spacers live in almost complete isolation, tended by robot servants and disgusted by the thought of human contact. And yet, one of their number has been beaten to death. Incapable of solving the crime, the authorities of the Outer Worlds seek help from Earth – from renowned detective Elijah Baley. Partnered once again with the robot Daneel Olivaw, Baley travels to this strange new world and uncovers a plot that could change the relationship between humans and robots for ever.

A shopping mall where droids sell organs harvested from street trash. A murderous imaginary friend. A psychotic composer drafting music from pain. All in a day's work for the Lawman of the Future. Edited by and with an introduction by Dredd veteran Michael Carroll, Judge Fear's Big Day Out and Other Stories gathers the very best short stories from more than a decade of the Judge Dredd Megazine, including stories by legends Alan Grant, Gordon Rennie and Simon Spurrier, among countless others.

The crew of an oceanic research vessel goes missing in the Pacific along with their mini submarine. An evangelical media star holds a rally next door to a cinematic convention in LA. The cops know there's going to be trouble, but what they didn't foresee was the presence of a Glaswegian photographer with an indecipherable accent and a strong dislike of hypocrisy or of a terrorist who seems to have access to plutonium as well as Semtex.

How could robots be used in a time of war? Could a robot be raised like a child? Could we allow them to have children of their own? Is there any human profession that could never be performed by a robotic replacement? In The Rest of the Robots, robopsychologist Dr. Susan Calvin and engineers Powell and Donovan return to investigate many more puzzling anomalies and catastrophic malfunctions.

A collection of 98 enthralling and pulse-quickening stories, spanning five decades, venerates the remarkable imagination of J. G. Ballard. With a body of work unparalleled in twentieth-century literature, J. G. Ballard is recognized as one of the greatest and most prophetic writers in the world. With the much-hailed release of The Complete Stories of J. G. Ballard, readers now have a means to celebrate the unmatched range and mesmerizing cadences of a literary genius.

One hot, humid day in July 1944, the Gestapo abducted 15-year-old Henry and his mother, forcing them onto cramped cattle cars in the Łódź Polish Ghetto. Like so many Jews before them, they had been selected to disappear–they were being sent to Auschwitz.

Frank Bascombe, in the aftermath of his divorce and the ruin of his career, has entered an 'Existence Period' - selling real estate in New Jersey and mastering the high-wire act of normalcy. But over one Fourth of July weekend, Frank is called into sudden, bewildering engagement with life. Independence Day is a moving, peerlessly funny odyssey through America and through the layered consciousness of one of its most compelling literary incarnations, conducted by a novelist of extraordinary perception.

Frank Bascombe has a younger girlfriend and a job as a sportswriter. To many men of his age, 38, this would be a cause for optimism, yet Frank feels the pull of his inner despair and especially of his recent losses - his preferred career has ended, his wife has divorced him, and a tragic accident took his elder son. In the course of this Easter weekend, Frank will lose all the remnants of his familiar life, though he will emerge heroic, with spirits soaring.