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Vulcan's Hammer
''Vulcan's Hammer'' is a 1960 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was released originally as an Ace Double. This has been considered to be the final outing of Dick's 1950s style pulp science fiction writing, before his better-received work such as the Hugo Award-winning '' Man in the High Castle'', published a year later. Plot summary In the year 2029, the Earth is run by the Unity organisation after the Third World War. Unity runs the planet, controlling humans from childhood education onwards through the Vulcan series of artificial intelligences, but is fought by the Healer movement. Unity Director William Barris discovers that the Vulcan 3 computer has become sentient and is considering drastic action to combat what it sees as a threat to itself. Vulcan 3 has been kept ignorant about information related to the Healer revolutionary movement by Managing Director Jason Dills, who is still loyal to its (also sentient) predecessor, Vulcan 2. Vulcan 2 fear ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WikiProject Novels
A WikiProject, or Wikiproject, is a Wikimedia movement affinity group for contributors with shared goals. WikiProjects are prevalent within the largest wiki, Wikipedia, and exist to varying degrees within sister projects such as Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikidata, and Wikisource. They also exist in different languages, and translation of articles is a form of their collaboration. During the COVID-19 pandemic, CBS News noted the role of Wikipedia's WikiProject Medicine in maintaining the accuracy of articles related to the disease. Another WikiProject that has drawn attention is WikiProject Women Scientists, which was profiled by '' Smithsonian'' for its efforts to improve coverage of women scientists which the profile noted had "helped increase the number of female scientists on Wikipedia from around 1,600 to over 5,000". On Wikipedia Some Wikipedia WikiProjects are substantial enough to engage in cooperative activities with outside organizations relevant to the field at issue. For e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melee
A melee ( or , French: mêlée ) or pell-mell is disorganized hand-to-hand combat in battles fought at abnormally close range with little central control once it starts. In military aviation, a melee has been defined as " air battle in which several aircraft, both friend and foe, are confusingly intermingled". History of the term In the 1579 translation of Plutarch's '' Lives of the noble Grecians and Romanes'', Sir Thomas North uses the term '' to refer to a disorganized retreat. The phrase was later used in its current spelling in Shakespeare's ''Richard III'', 1594: The phrase comes from the French expression ''pêle-mêle'', a rhyme based on the old French ''mesler'', meaning to mix or mingle. The French term ''melee'' was first used in English in c. 1640 (also derived from the old French ''mesler'', but the Old French stem survives in '' medley'' and ''meddle''). Lord Nelson described his tactics for the Battle of Trafalgar as inducing a "pell mell battle" focused o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1960 American Novels
Year 196 ( CXCVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Dexter and Messalla (or, less frequently, year 949 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 196 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Emperor Septimius Severus attempts to assassinate Clodius Albinus but fails, causing Albinus to retaliate militarily. * Emperor Septimius Severus captures and sacks Byzantium; the city is rebuilt and regains its previous prosperity. * In order to assure the support of the Roman legion in Germany on his march to Rome, Clodius Albinus is declared Augustus by his army while crossing Gaul. * Hadrian's wall in Britain is partially destroyed. China * First year of the '' Jian'an era of the Chinese Han Dynasty. * Emperor Xian of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electric Shepherd Productions
Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928March 2, 1982), often referred to by his initials PKD, was an American science fiction writer. He wrote 44 novels and about 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime. His fiction explored varied philosophical and social questions such as the nature of reality, perception, human nature, and identity, and commonly featured characters struggling against elements such as alternate realities, illusory environments, monopolistic corporations, drug abuse, authoritarian governments, and altered states of consciousness. Born in Chicago, Dick moved to the San Francisco Bay Area with his family at a young age. He began publishing science fiction stories in 1952, at age 23. He found little commercial success until his alternative history novel ''The Man in the High Castle'' (1962) earned him acclaim, including a Hugo Award for Best Novel, when he was 33. He followed with science fiction novels such as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Republic Pictures
New Republic Pictures is an American production company and independent financier of feature films founded by Brian Oliver in 2017. History Through partnerships with major studios and foreign sales companies, New Republic brings outstanding commercial motion pictures from distinguished filmmakers to theaters worldwide. Their first film was the Elton John biopic, ''Rocketman'' (2019), which was followed by '' 1917'' (2019). Since May 2018, New Republic has struck a first-look co-financing and distribution deal with Paramount Pictures, where the studio's four-year pact would kick off with Elton John musical Rocketman to star Taron Egerton, which Paramount will distribute worldwide and went into production on 2 August 2018. In December 2019, Bradley J. Fischer has been tapped as president and Chief Content Officer of New Republic Pictures, whom him and Oliver will produce all New Republic film, TV and streaming projects. In June 2020, Cate Blanchett and her Dirty Films comp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francis Lawrence
Francis Lawrence (born March 26, 1971) is an Austrian-born American filmmaker and producer. After establishing himself as a director of music videos and commercials, Lawrence made his feature-length directorial debut with the superhero thriller ''Constantine (film), Constantine'' (2005) and has since directed the Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, post-apocalyptic horror film ''I Am Legend (film), I Am Legend'' (2007), the romantic drama ''Water for Elephants (film), Water for Elephants'' (2011), three of the four films in the The Hunger Games (film series), ''Hunger Games'' film series, and the spy thriller ''Red Sparrow'' (2018). Early life Lawrence was born to American parents in Vienna, Austria. His father was a theoretical physicist who taught at California State University, Northridge, and his mother is a vice president of technology at a public-relations agency based in his hometown. He moved to Los Angeles at the age of four. Lawrence worked as second assistan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Man Who Japed
''The Man Who Japed'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in 1956. Although one of Dick's lesser-known novels, it features several of the ideas and themes that recur throughout his later works. The "jape or practical jokes of the novel begin with a statue's unconventional decapitation. ''The Man Who Japed'' was first published by Ace Books as one half of Ace Double D-193, bound dos-à-dos with ''The Space Born'' by E. C. Tubb. Plot introduction ''The Man Who Japed'' is set in the year 2114. After a devastating twentieth century limited nuclear war, a South African ("Afrikaans Empire") military survivor named General Streiter launched a global revolution in 1985 that ushered in a totalitarian government. In one example of the carnage Dick has his protagonist Allen Purcell visit Japan's northern island, Hokkaidō. The location is still a desolate wasteland that has not recovered from nuclear bombardment in 1972, the last year of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orion Publishing Group
Orion Publishing Group Ltd. is a UK-based book publisher. It was founded in 1991 and acquired Weidenfeld & Nicolson the following year. The group has published numerous bestselling books by notable authors including Ian Rankin, Michael Connelly, Nemir Kirdar and Quentin Tarantino. History Orion Books was launched in 1992, with Orion purchasing the assets of Chapman publishers the following year. In the same year (1993), Orion acquired a warehousing and distribution centre called Littlehampton Book Services (LBS), which was based in Sussex in the UK. A majority share capital of Orion was sold to Hachette Livre in 1998, before Hachette Livre became the sole owner of the Orion Publishing Group in 2003. In December 1998, Orion acquired publishing house Cassell, whose imprints included Victor Gollancz Ltd. This imprint became a part of the Orion group and Orion also took ownership of the Cassell Military list. After acquiring Hodder Headline, Hachette UK was formed, with Orion as its ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Brunner (novelist)
John Kilian Houston Brunner (24 September 1934 – 25 August 1995) was a British author of science fiction novels and stories. His 1968 novel '' Stand on Zanzibar'', about an overpopulated world, won the 1969 Hugo Award for best science fiction novel, and the BSFA award the same year. '' The Jagged Orbit'' won the BSFA award in 1970. Life Brunner was born in 1934 in Preston Crowmarsh, near Wallingford in Oxfordshire, and went to school at St Andrew's Prep School, Pangbourne. He did his upper studies at Cheltenham College. He wrote his first novel, ''Galactic Storm'', at 17, and published it under the pen-name Gill Hunt. He did not start writing full-time until 1958, some years after his military service. He served as an officer in the Royal Air Force from 1953 to 1955. He married Marjorie Rosamond Sauer on 12 July 1958. Brunner had an uneasy relationship with British new wave writers, who often considered him too American in his settings and themes. He attempted to shift ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dos-à-dos Binding
In bookbinding, a dos-à-dos binding ( or , from the French for "back-to-back") is a binding structure in which two separate books are bound together such that the fore edge of one is adjacent to the spine of the other, with a shared lower board between them serving as the back cover of both. When shelved, the spine of the book to the right faces outward, while the spine of the book to the left faces the back of the shelf; the text of both works runs head-to-tail. The dos-à-dos format dates back at least to the 16th century, though they were most common in England in the first half of the 17th century. Two books frequently bound in this form were the New Testament and Psalter, which were both needed during church services. Regardless of content, the outer boards of dos-à-dos bindings were usually embroidered, or covered with leather and then finished with gold. One example is Irvin S. Cobb's '' Oh! Well! You Know How Women Are!'' bound dos-à-dos with Mary Roberts Rinehart's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Future Science Fiction
''Future Science Fiction'' and ''Science Fiction Stories'' were two American science fiction magazines that were published under various names between 1939 and 1943 and again from 1950 to 1960. Both publications were edited by Charles Hornig for the first few issues; Robert W. Lowndes took over in late 1941 and remained editor until the end. The initial launch of the magazines came as part of a boom in science fiction pulp magazine publishing at the end of the 1930s. In 1941 the two magazines were combined into one, titled ''Future Fiction combined with Science Fiction'', but in 1943 wartime paper shortages ended the magazine's run, as Louis Silberkleit, the publisher, decided to focus his resources on his mystery and western magazine titles. In 1950, with the market improving again, Silberkleit relaunched ''Future Fiction'', still in the pulp format. In the mid-1950s he also relaunched ''Science Fiction'', this time under the title ''Science Fiction Stories''. Silberkleit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Novella
A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts. Definition The Italian term is a feminine of ''novello'', which means ''new'', similarly to the English word ''news''. Merriam-Webster defines a novella as "a work of fiction intermediate in length and complexity between a short story and a novel". No official definition exists regarding the number of pages or words necessary for a story to be considered a novella, a short story or a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association defines a novella's word count to be between 17,500 and 40,000 words. History The novella as a literary genre began developing in the Italian literature of the early Renaissance, principally Giovanni Boccaccio, author of ''The Decameron'' (1353). ''The Decameron'' featured 100 tales (named nov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
