The Aeronaut's Windlass
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The Aeronaut's Windlass
''The Aeronaut's Windlass'' is the first novel of ''The Cinder Spires'' series written by Jim Butcher. It is a steampunk fantasy series. The story involves steampunk technologies, magical wars and intelligent cats. Setting The novel takes place on a world in which humans live in "spires", huge cylindrical arcologies tall and two miles across. Spire Albion is the central setting, and is governed by constitutional monarchy. Technology based around vat-grown crystals allows them to create airships, which can sail the skies while functioning in most respects like a Golden Age of Sail vessel. These same crystals can be used to generate electricity and to power energy-based weapons. The technology and culture seems to be similar to that of Europe in the 18th century. The surface of their world is a place of horrors, full of dangerous beasts which occasionally make their way into the spires. Characters The book follows two main characters and a handful of minor ones. Gwendolyn Lan ...
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Jim Butcher
Jim Butcher (born October 26, 1971) is an American author., He has written the contemporary fantasy ''The Dresden Files'', ''Codex Alera'', and ''Cinder Spires'' book series. Personal life Butcher was born in Independence, Missouri, in 1971. He is the youngest of three children, having two older sisters. He has one son, James J. Butcher. Career While he was sick with strep throat as a child, Butcher's sisters introduced him to ''The Lord of the Rings'' and ''The Han Solo Adventures'' novels to pass the time, thus beginning his fascination with fantasy and science fiction. As a teenager, he completed his first novel and set out to become a writer. After many unsuccessful attempts to enter the traditional fantasy genre (he cites J. R. R. Tolkien, Lloyd Alexander, and C. S. Lewis, among others, as major influences), he wrote the first book in ''The Dresden Files''—about a professional wizard, named Harry Dresden, in modern-day Chicago—as an exercise for a writing course in 199 ...
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Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year."About Penguin – company history"
, Penguin Books.
Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths Group (United Kingdom), Woolworths and other stores for Sixpence (British coin), sixpence, bringing high-quality fiction and non-fiction to the mass market. Its success showed that large audiences existed for serious books. It also affected modern British popular culture significantly through its books concerning politics, the arts, and science. Penguin Books is now an imprint (trade name), imprint of the ...
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Christian McGrath
Christian McGrath is an American artist and illustrator best known for his work on ''The Dresden Files''. He was born in the Bronx in 1972 and became interested in art and illustration as a small child. In his youth, he was initially interested in comic books, but when he discovered the work of Frank Frazetta, he knew he wanted to be a book cover artist. His work stands out for both its atmospheric qualities and its realism of weight and proportion. McGrath received his degree from The School of Visual Arts in 1995, and spent time teaching guitar. In 2001, he started doing illustrations professionally, and considers himself lucky to create art as his "real" job.''The Menagerie Art of Christian McGrath''
, April 4–6, 2 ...
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Steampunk
Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates retrofuturistic technology and aesthetics inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. Steampunk works are often set in an alternative history of the Victorian era or the American "Wild West", where steam power remains in mainstream use, or in a fantasy world that similarly employs steam power. Steampunk most recognizably features anachronistic technologies or retrofuturistic inventions as people in the 19th century might have envisioned them — distinguishing it from Neo-Victorianism — and is likewise rooted in the era's perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, and art. Such technologies may include fictional machines like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne. Other examples of steampunk contain alternative-history-style presentations of such technology as steam cannons, lighter-than-air airships, analog computers, or such digital mechanical computers as Charles B ...
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Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and drama. From the twentieth century, it has expanded further into various media, including film, television, graphic novels, manga, animations and video games. Fantasy is distinguished from the genres of science fiction and horror fiction, horror by the respective absence of scientific or macabre themes, although these genres overlap. In popular culture, the fantasy genre predominantly features settings that emulate Earth, but with a sense of otherness. In its broadest sense, however, fantasy consists of works by many writers, artists, filmmakers, and musicians from ancient mythology, myths and legends to many recent and popular works. Traits Most fantasy uses magic (paranormal), magic or other supernatural elements as a ma ...
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Steampunk
Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates retrofuturistic technology and aesthetics inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. Steampunk works are often set in an alternative history of the Victorian era or the American "Wild West", where steam power remains in mainstream use, or in a fantasy world that similarly employs steam power. Steampunk most recognizably features anachronistic technologies or retrofuturistic inventions as people in the 19th century might have envisioned them — distinguishing it from Neo-Victorianism — and is likewise rooted in the era's perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, and art. Such technologies may include fictional machines like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne. Other examples of steampunk contain alternative-history-style presentations of such technology as steam cannons, lighter-than-air airships, analog computers, or such digital mechanical computers as Charles B ...
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Arcology
Arcology, a portmanteau of "architecture" and "ecology",. is a field of creating architectural design principles for very densely populated and ecologically low-impact human habitats. The term was coined in 1969 by architect Paolo Soleri, who believed that a completed arcology would provide space for a variety of residential, commercial, and agricultural facilities while minimizing individual human environmental impact. These structures have been largely hypothetical, as no arcology, even one envisioned by Soleri himself, has yet been built. The concept has been popularized by various science fiction writers. Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle provided a detailed description of an arcology in their 1981 novel ''Oath of Fealty''. William Gibson mainstreamed the term in his seminal 1984 cyberpunk novel ''Neuromancer'', where each corporation has its own self-contained city known as arcologies. More recently, authors such as Peter Hamilton in '' Neutronium Alchemist'' and Paolo Baciga ...
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Age Of Sail
The Age of Sail is a period that lasted at the latest from the mid-16th (or mid- 15th) to the mid- 19th centuries, in which the dominance of sailing ships in global trade and warfare culminated, particularly marked by the introduction of naval artillery, and ultimately reached its highest extent at the advent of the analogue Age of Steam. Enabled by the advances of the related Age of Navigation, it is identified as a distinctive element of the early modern period and the Age of Discovery. Especially in context of the latter, it refers to a more particular Eurocentric Age of Sail, while generally the Age of Sail is the culminating period of a long intercontinental history of sailing. Periodization Like most periodic eras, the definition is inexact but instead serves as a general description. The term is used differently for warships and merchant vessels. Sailing ships are an ancient technology, making far-reaching trade like the ancient spice trade possible. With the M ...
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Mexican Standoff
A Mexican standoff is a confrontation in which no strategy exists that allows any party to achieve victory. Any party initiating aggression might trigger its own demise. At the same time, the parties are unable to extricate themselves from the situation without suffering a loss. As a result, all participants need to maintain the strategic tension, which remains unresolved until some outside event or interparty dialogue makes it possible to resolve it. The term ''Mexican standoff'' was originally used in the context of using firearms and it still commonly implies a situation in which the parties face some form of threat from the other parties. The Mexican standoff is a recurring trope in cinema, in which several armed characters hold each other at gunpoint. Etymology Sources claim the reference is to the Mexican–American War or post-war Mexican bandits in the 19th century. The earliest use of the phrase in print was on 19 March 1876, in a short story about Mexico. An American ...
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Silverfish
The silverfish (''Lepisma saccharinum'') is a species of small, primitive, wingless insect in the order Zygentoma (formerly Thysanura). Its common name derives from the insect's silvery light grey colour, combined with the fish-like appearance of its movements. The scientific name (''L. saccharinum'') indicates that the silverfish's diet consists of carbohydrates such as sugar or starches. While the common name ''silverfish'' is used throughout the global literature to refer to various species of Zygentoma, the Entomological Society of America restricts use of the term solely for ''Lepisma saccharinum''. Description The silverfish is a nocturnal insect typically long. Its abdomen tapers at the end, giving it a fish-like appearance. The newly hatched are whitish, but develop a greyish hue and metallic shine as they get older. It has two long cerci and one terminal filament at the tip of the abdomen between the cerci. It also has two small compound eyes, although other mem ...
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2015 American Novels
Fifteen or 15 may refer to: *15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16 *one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015 Music *Fifteen (band), a punk rock band Albums * ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005 * ''15'' (Ani Lorak album), 2007 * ''15'' (Phatfish album), 2008 * ''15'' (mixtape), a 2018 mixtape by Bhad Bhabie * ''Fifteen'' (Green River Ordinance album), 2016 * ''Fifteen'' (The Wailin' Jennys album), 2017 * ''Fifteen'', a 2012 album by Colin James Songs * "Fifteen" (song), a 2008 song by Taylor Swift *"Fifteen", a song by Harry Belafonte from the album '' Love Is a Gentle Thing'' *"15", a song by Rilo Kiley from the album ''Under the Blacklight'' *"15", a song by Marilyn Manson from the album ''The High End of Low'' *"The 15th", a 1979 song by Wire Other uses *Fifteen, Ohio, a community in the United States * ''15'' (film), a 2003 Singaporean film * ''Fifteen'' (TV series), international release name of ''Hillside'', a Canadian-American teen drama * ...
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2015 Fantasy Novels
Fifteen or 15 may refer to: *15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16 *one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015 Music *Fifteen (band), a punk rock band Albums * ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005 * ''15'' (Ani Lorak album), 2007 * ''15'' (Phatfish album), 2008 * ''15'' (mixtape), a 2018 mixtape by Bhad Bhabie * ''Fifteen'' (Green River Ordinance album), 2016 * ''Fifteen'' (The Wailin' Jennys album), 2017 * ''Fifteen'', a 2012 album by Colin James Songs * "Fifteen" (song), a 2008 song by Taylor Swift *"Fifteen", a song by Harry Belafonte from the album '' Love Is a Gentle Thing'' *"15", a song by Rilo Kiley from the album ''Under the Blacklight'' *"15", a song by Marilyn Manson from the album ''The High End of Low'' *"The 15th", a 1979 song by Wire Other uses *Fifteen, Ohio, a community in the United States * ''15'' (film), a 2003 Singaporean film * ''Fifteen'' (TV series), international release name of ''Hillside'', a Canadian-American teen drama *Fi ...
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