Showing results by narrator "Justin Avoth" in All Categories

The world's population is soaring, creating overcrowded cities and an economic crisis. And in the UK, breaking point has arrived. A growing number of people can no longer afford to start families let alone raise them. But for those desperate to experience parenthood, there is an alternative. For a monthly subscription fee, clients can create a virtual child from scratch who they can access via the metaverse and a VR headset. To launch this new initiative, the company behind Virtual Children has created a reality tv show.

A whirlwind of unrepentant nihilism charged with raw, colloquial language that shocked the listeners of its day, Journey to the End of the Night is a bitter symphony of violence, human cruelty, greed and chaos. Based on the author’s life, Journey follows the antihero Bardamu, Céline’s alter ego, in a relentless adventure that pulls us further and further into an endless night.

Under the orders of Ireheart, now High King of the dwarves, a small delegation is sent to search for Tungdil Goldhand, the true High King, who many believe dead. Against all odds, Tungdil has survived his mission to the terrifying realm of Phondrasôn. But is he truly the legendary hero of the dwarves, or an impostor at the heart of a deeper conspiracy?

A beautiful discovery outside the window of her underwater home prompts the reclusive E. to begin a correspondence with renowned scholar Henerey Clel. The letters they share are filled with passion, at first for their mutual interests, and then, inevitably, for each other. Together, they uncover a mystery from the unknown depths, destined to transform the underwater world they both equally fear and love. But by no mere coincidence, a seaquake destroys E.'s home, and she and Henerey vanish.

Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were a Sixties supercharged couple in an era of supercharged couples. As a pairing they were fantasy figures, impossibly desirable. Liz supple and soft, in perfumes and furs - yet with something demonic and lethal about her. Dick, in turn, with his ravaged, handsome face, looked as though lit by silver moonlight - poised to turn into a wolf. Roger Lewis uses this glamorous and damaged pair as the starting point to tell the story of an age of excess.

Olivia: 22 years old. No history of running away. Last seen on CCTV, entering a dead-end alley. And not coming back out again. Missing for one day and counting. Julia is the detective heading up the case. She knows what to expect. A desperate family, a ticking clock, and long hours away from her children. But Julia has no idea how close to home it's going to get. Because her family's safety depends on one thing: Julia must NOT find out what happened to Olivia—and must frame somebody else for her murder.

From Stoics to existentialists, in philosophy and literature, discussion of the philosophy of life—of love and death, of courage, fortitude and wisdom—challenges us all to think about what kinds of life are truly worth living. In this summation of a lifetime thinking and writing about this great question, A. C. Grayling explores with clarity and depth the ideas that each of us must use in answering it for ourselves.

Hundreds of cycles have passed in Girdlegard since Tungdil Goldhand vanished. The dwarf Goïmron works as a gem carver in the city of Mallenias Watch. He is particularly fascinated by the old times, the great times of the five dwarf tribes, and so spends his spare time searching the markets for records and artefacts for clues about their proud history. And then Goïmron comes across an extraordinary book. The wealth of detail it contains leaves no doubt that the book must have been written by the heroic Tungdil Goldhand himself. But, impossibly, the last entry seems to be recent.

Modigliani. Unarguably one of the greatest artists who ever lived. Modigliani's women. Those elongated, haunting figures, as eternally provocative as the Mona Lisa. And Modigliani's missing masterpiece. A priceless lost treasure - or a chillingly dangerous game? In Ken Follett's gripping thriller The Modigliani Scandal, up and coming artist Peter Usher has still to exhibit anywhere, still to make even the most modest mark on the London art scene.

Goïmron gathers a small band of trusted companions, and they set off to find Tungdil and save Girdlegard from the mysterious Albae. But the story's only half-over. Brabandor's on the trail of something extraordinary; Rodana is trying to change her fate, and Klaey remains an unknown quantity: his lust for power is unparalleled, and he'll do anything to get it. And the most worrying question of all . . . will their quest, change Goïmron himself?

Ever since its publication in 1651, Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan has unsettled and challenged how we understand the World. Condemned and vilified by each new generation, Hobbes' cold political vision continues to see through any number of political and ethical vanities. In his wonderfully stimulating book The New Leviathans, John Gray allows us to understand the World of the 2020s with all its contradictions, moral horrors and disappointments through a new reading of Hobbes' classic work.

Louis-Ferdinand Céline thunders out from the grave with this long-lost novel. Looted by the Resistance during the liberation of Paris and resurfacing only in 2020, War is a major rediscovery. It begins in the chaotic battlefields of Flanders, with Bardamu (Céline’s fictional alter ego) surrounded by corpses. Wounded and shell-shocked, he wanders in hallucination, finding refuge at a hospital in Peurdu-sur-la-Lys and striking up a friendship with a Parisian pimp – however, the war continues to drive itself under his skin and destroy him.

Mastering kung fu, as learned from China's legendary Shaolin monks, teaches that it empowers your life and interactions, applicable personally and professionally. Beyond physical strength, the mindset overcomes challenges. In this book, Bernhard Moestl unveils the Shaolin 'mind power' principle, the monks' source of energy. Through thirteen principles, he guides handling stress and demands, bringing vitality to life anywhere, no monastery required.

English writer Hilary Wainwright lost all trace of his young son when Lisa, his wife, was killed by the Gestapo in Paris. Several years later, an acquaintance travels to England with news that Hilary’s son may be alive in France. Doubting whether five-year-old Jean is indeed his, and determined not to feel vulnerable to love and tenderness again, Hilary travels to France to find the boy. Amidst a war-torn Northern French town, he gets to know young Jean, as well as the town’s inhabitants.

In these four dialogues, Plato develops the Socratic belief in responsibility for one's self and shows Socrates living and dying under his philosophy. In Euthyphro, Socrates debates goodness outside the courthouse, Apology sees him in court, rebutting all charges of impiety, in Crito, he refuses an entreaty to escape from prison, and in Phaedo, Socrates faces his impending death with calmness and skillful discussion of immortality.

Unexpectedly thrust into the role of the Ferryman, young Milo is tasked with taking the lingering Dead across the dark sea to the Island of the Broken Tower, where they can finally move on. On his first perilious journey, his ghostly passengers include his own father and the teenage daughter of the Lord of Merlank, who is unprepared to give her up and follows in pursuit in a bigger boat, filled with armed men and two dark magicians at his command. Milo must face untold traps, dangers and fears as he carries his ghostly passengers across secret seas.

The study of ancient Greek history has been central to the western conception of history since the Renaissance. The Muse of History traces the shifting patterns of this preoccupation in the last three centuries, in which each generation has reinterpreted the Greeks in the light of their contemporary world, through times of revolution, conflicting ideologies and warfare. It aims to offer a new history of Greek historiography from the Enlightenment to the present, and to acknowledge the continuing spiritual importance of the ancient Greeks for European culture.

1919. On the desolate battlefields of Northern France, the guns of the Great War are silent. Special battalions now face the dangerous task of gathering up the dead for mass burial. Captain Mackenzie, a survivor of the war, cannot yet bring himself to go home. First he must see that his fallen comrades are recovered and laid to rest.

Elizabeth Finch was a teacher, a thinker, an inspiration—always rigorous, always thoughtful. With careful empathy, she guided her students to develop meaningful ideas and to discover their centres of seriousness. As a former student unpacks her notebooks and remembers her uniquely inquisitive mind, her passion for reason resonates through the years. Her ideas unlock the philosophies of the past and explore key events that show us how to make sense of our lives today.

Drawing on decades of research into decision-making under uncertainty, Gerd Gigerenzer makes a compelling case for the enduring importance of human discernment in an automated world that we are told can - and will - replace our efforts. Filled with practical examples and cutting-edge research, How to Stay Smart in a Smart World examines the growing role of AI at all levels of daily life with refreshing clarity. This book is a life raft in a sea of information and an urgent invitation to actively shape the digital world in which we want to live.