Bücher von Paul Collins

The historical record crowns success. Those enshrined in its annals are men and women whose ideas, accomplishments, or personalities have dominated, endured, and most important of all, found champions. John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage, Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists, and Samuel Johnson's Lives of the Poets are classic celebrations of the greatest, the brightest, the eternally constellated.Paul Collins' Banvard's Folly is a different kind of book. Here are thirteen unforgettable portraits of forgotten people: men and women who might have claimed their share of renown but who, whether from ill timing, skullduggery, monomania, the tinge of madness, or plain bad luck-or perhaps some combination of them all-leapt straight from life into thankless obscurity. Among their number are scientists, artists, writers, entrepreneurs, and adventurers, from across the centuries and around the world. They hold in common the silenced aftermath of failure, the name that rings no bells.Collins brings them back to glorious life. John Banvard was an artist whose colossal panoramic canvasses (one behemoth depiction of the entire eastern shore of the Mississippi River was simply known as "The Three Mile Painting") made him the richest and most famous artist of his day. . . before he decided to go head to head with P. T. Barnum. René Blondot was a distinguished French physicist whose celebrated discovery of a new form of radiation, called the N-Ray, went terribly awry. At the tender age of seventeen, William Henry Ireland signed "William Shakespeare" to a book and launched a short but meteoric career as a forger of undiscovered works by the Bard -- until he pushed his luck too far. John Symmes, a hero of the War of 1812, nearly succeeded in convincing Congress to fund an expedition to the North Pole, where he intended to prove his theory that the earth was hollow and ripe for exploitation; his quixotic quest counted Jules Verne and Edgar Allan Poe among its greatest admirers.Collins' love for what he calls the "forgotten ephemera of genius" give his portraits of these figures and the other nine men and women in Banvard's Folly sympathetic depth and poignant relevance. Their effect is not to make us sneer or revel in schadenfreude; here are no cautionary tales. Rather, here are brief introductions-acts of excavation and reclamation-to people whom history may have forgotten, but whom now we cannot.

This work identifies 'social ideology' as an example of a crucial mover in the emergence of a complex society, and one that helps explain the developments visible in the archaeological record of fourth millennium BC Mesopotamia. It is argued that these developments were the result of an expansion in the exploitation of resources (flora and fauna); acquisition of rare materials, such as stones and metals, probably played a role but not as the primary basis for the resulting pattern. The shape this expansion took was conditioned by a unique ideology, known as 'The Uruk Phenomenon' and the point of departure for this study.

Five pentagram gems. Two people want them. Only one can have them.'Anyone who has read Dragonlinks will recognise Paul Collins as a writer who truly understands the power of high fantasy. It is the power to tease the imagination with worlds so exotic, yet so seemingly familiar, that we allow ourselves to recognise within them the best and worst that we can be. From the opening battle with the deadmoon warriors to the final confrontation with the Preceptor's fearsome legions, through the wonders and dangers of paraworlds, the Countess Jelindel, scholar, Adept and fighter, must call upon all her power, intelligence and courage and trust in the loyalty of friends to restore balance. Share the journey on the Dragonfang. The ride is exhilarating!' - Brian Caswell.

The warlock Calbaras wants to revive the ancient, forbidden magic of dragons, and his son Dantar is vital to his plans. Dantar is on the run in an enemy kingdom, unaware that he is so important. Worse, his sister Velza is now working for the enemy king.

Mole Hunt is the first book in a science fiction series set in the future and in a universe far beyond earth, a place with floating cities where people can regenerate at will and mankind is out of control, killing and maiming at will. The protagonist - and anti-hero -- is teenager Maximus Black, who works for galactic law enforcement agency, RIM. He is a tightly-drawn, unlikeable psychopath trained to kill - and he does: he also commissions others to do his terrible bidding. Orphaned at the age of six when his parents are murdered, Black is so enraged by their deaths that he seeks to exact revenge: he plans to amass an enormous cache of Old Empire weapons as his way of controlling the galaxy. Black is extremely clever, able to cover his devious tracks as he progresses towards his goals. There are two narrative points of view in the novel, that of Black and Anneke Longshadow, both of whom are orphans, pitted against one another. Black, a mole who has infiltrated the RIM operation, has no conscience, whereas Longshadow has. Early in the book she sets out to unearth the mole, her quest made more urgent when her adoptive father, her uncle Viktus is murdered. Conflict occurs when, in a world full of spies and secret agents, the Black and Longshadow again and again work out ways to dominate one another. This fast-paced and bloody tale, tightly-plotted and exciting, is marketed as a young adult novel, but it is really cross-over, also ideal for adult reading.

Three mercenaries. Poison coursing through their veins. And only six weeks to find a stolen dragon relic.'The action never stops in Dragonsight. Countess Jelindel dek Mediesar, Daretor and Zimak are sent on a desperate quest to recover a stolen jade talisman called the dragonsight. With a slow-acting poison ticking through their veins, they have only six weeks to find the talisman and take the antidote. There's magic and mayhem aplenty as they're hunted through the paraworlds, before the final violent confrontation at the Tower Inviolate. And then in sight of their goal, the ultimate treachery. A terrific page-turner, crammed full of action, intrigue and lashings of magic.' - Ian Irvine

In a galaxy of cutthroat companies, shadowy clans and a million agendas, spy agency RIM barely wields enough control to keep order. Maximus Black is RIM's star cadet. But he has a problem. One of RIM's best agents, Anneke Longshadow, knows there's a mole in the organisation. And Maximus has a lot to hide.

The fascinating and sensational story of the last two centuries of the papacy and a vital call for the reevaluation and reimagination of papal power by one of today's preeminent theologians

The concept of stylus phantasticus as it was expressed in free keyboard music of the north German Baroque is the focus of this book. Exploring the theoretical background to the style and its application by composers and performers, the author surveys the development of Athanasius Kircher's original concept and its influence on music theorists.