By Michael Kaminski
628 pages
ISBN: 978-0-9784652-3-0
$44.95 Canada
$39.95 U.S.A.
£25.95 U.K.
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Star Wars is one of the most important cultural phenomena of the Western world. The tale of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and the fall and redemption of Anakin Skywalker has become modern myth, an epic tragedy of the corruption of a young man in love into darkness, the rise of evil, and the power of good triumphing in the end.
But it didn’t start out that way.
In this thorough account of one of cinema’s most lasting works, Michael Kaminski presents the true history of how Star Wars was written, from its beginnings as a science fiction fairy tale to its development over three decades into the epic we now know, chronicling the methods, techniques, thought processes, and struggles of its creator. For this unauthorized account, he has pored through over four hundred sources, from interviews to original scripts, to track how the most powerful modern epic in the world was created, expanded, and finalized into the tale an entire generation has grown up with.
Now available from Barnes & Noble; on Amazon in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and Japan; and your local bookstore. Also available at the low price of $9.99 US for Amazon Kindle and as an Adobe Digital Editions e-book from Powells, Ebookmall, and Diesel E-books.
By Aaron Miedema
236 pages
ISBN: 978-0-9784652-9-2
$24.95 U.S.A./Canada/Australia
£15.95 U.K.
€18.95 Europe
For a long time, it has been accepted that the bayonet was an inadequate weapon in World War I – an anachronism, relied upon by foolish generals eager to relive the glories of the Napoleonic Wars while incapable of coming to terms with the modern battlefield and trench warfare. But was this the reality of the Western Front of the Great War, or a myth perpetuated by historians?
In reality, the soldiers of World War I seemed oblivious to what appears so obvious to critics ninety years removed. They quite liked their bayonets, and they used them – often.
In this fascinating and provocative study, Aaron Taylor Miedema takes a new look at the role of the bayonet and shock tactics on the Western front. Through the experience of the Canadian Corps – the British shock troops of the Western Front – he challenges the conventional view of the bayonet as an obsolete weapon system and rekindles the controversial debate over technologies, old and new, on the field of battle.
Now available from Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com in the United States, and your local bookstore. Also available at the low price of $9.99 US for Amazon Kindle and as an Adobe Digital Editions e-book from Powells, Ebookmall, Diesel E-books, and Booksonboard.
By Robert B. Marks
220 pages
ISBN: 978-1-927537-10-7
$22.95 Canada
$19.95 U.S.A.
£15.95 U.K.
€16.95 Europe
$22.95 Australia
At the dawn of the 21st Century, the video game industry experienced a period of wild creativity, fighting for recognition as an art form while making the transformation into a media juggernaut. And as it did, Garwulf’s Corner was there, watching and commentating.
One of the earliest, if not the first, video game issues columns on the Internet, Garwulf’s Corner ran every two weeks from 2000 to 2002 on Diabloii.net. Written by Robert B. Marks, author of Diablo: Demonsbane and The EverQuest Companion, it explored everything up to and including Diablo, the birth of artificial intelligence, hackers, literature and movies, and the video game’s struggle for legitimacy.
Collected here for the first time in print – with new introductions and updates – are all 52 installments of Garwulf’s Corner, along with the three columns written years later for the unpublished Blurred Edge Magazine, the holiday issue that never was, and the author’s final word (so far) on Diablo III and Diablo in general. Insightful, controversial, witty, and thought-provoking, Garwulf’s Corner is a journey into the world of video games that is still relevant today.
Now available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com, and for order at your local bookstore.
316 pages
ISBN: 978-0-9784652-2-3
$29.95 U.S.A./Canada
£18.95 U.K.
€20.95 Europe
$27.95 Australia
Ancient Greece and Rome aren’t usually remembered for their sense of humour. However, in reality the ancient Greeks and Romans often refused to take themselves seriously. Strange and outlandish activities abounded – including somebody accidentally exposing himself while dancing sideways at his wedding (those wearing bed sheets didn’t wear underwear) and a group of drunk young men thinking their house is sinking at sea, and tossing all their furniture out the windows.
In this new edition, R. Drew Griffith and Robert B. Marks take you on a lively and funny journey through the more bizarre activities of the ancient world, venturing out as far as Egypt, Babylon, and Scandinavia, ranging everywhere from moochers to quacks to shrews to perhaps the oldest laundromat joke in history, and even revealing the most terrible thing you can do to anybody involving a radish.
Now available from Amazon.com in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, from Barnes & Noble, and for order at your local bookstore. Also available as an Adobe Digital Editions e-book at the low price of $12.95 US from Powells, Ebookmall, Diesel E-books, and Booksonboard.
By John-Allen Price
442 pages
ISBN: 978-0-9784652-1-6
$29.95 Canada
$24.95 U.S.A.
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$37.95 Australia
Between 1870 and 1871, the world changed forever.
The Franco-Prussian War is often a forgotten war, its significance lost amidst larger conflicts such as the Napoleonic Wars and World War I. But, while it lasted less than a year, its aftermath would shape the course of history for decades to come.
In this comprehensive and epic account, John-Allen Price explores how this short but far-reaching war came to be, bringing the men who shaped history to life. Price examines the Franco-Prussian War and its world, from the seeds of the war in the Age of Napoleon to the Paris Commune, and the aftershocks that led to a century of slaughter, a war to end all wars, and an even greater war after that.
“John-Allen Price’s The War that Changed the World is a brilliantly written and exhaustively researched masterwork. With all the attention to detail one would expect of Keegan or Ambrose, Price has created a stunningly entertaining and thorough examination of an historical era which shaped the conflicts of the 20th and 21st Centuries. Price’s examination of the Franco-Prussian war is engrossing, entertaining and delightfully readable—presented with a historian’s eye for detail and a novelist’s ear for story. Students of military history pass this book by at their peril.”
Available from Amazon.com in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Barnes & Noble, and your local bookstore. Also available at the low price of $9.95 US for Amazon Kindle and as an Adobe Digital Editions e-book from Powells, Ebookmall, Diesel E-books, and Booksonboard.
By Robert B. Marks
234 pages
ISBN: 978-1927537-38-1
$26.95 Canada
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£13.95 U.K
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A pioneer in video game commentary, Robert B. Marks was one of the first – if not the first – video games issues columnists in the English language. In March 2015 he returned to take a fresh new look at video games and pop culture.
Thought provoking, controversial, and insightful – and with new introductions – this collection includes:
– All 29 installments of Garwulf’s Corner from the pages of The Escapist, covering issues ranging from outrage culture to diversity to the culture war over the Hugo Awards.
– “Beyond the Escapist,” a collection of installments including an examination of shared cinematic universes, an analysis of one of the most famous Twitter harassment criminal cases of all time, and the first two parts of “The Road to GamerGate,” a planned but abandoned 4-part series taking a historical look at the events of August 2014 – most published here for the first time.
– Garwulf Speaks, Robert B. Marks’ magazine experiment, with feature articles covering video game piracy to the history of the public climate change debate to the changing identity of the gamer – and short stories to thrill, move, and even terrify.
From the toy industry to the revival of Battlebots, from the Ghostbusters remake to one of video gaming’s first mass murder simulators, this is a fascinating odyssey into the amazing world of video games and pop culture.
Now available on Amazon.com.
By Kjeld Hald Galster
224 pages
ISBN: 9978-1-927537-13-8
$22.95 Canada
$19.95 U.S.A.
£12.95 U.K
€15.95 Europe
$22.95 Australia
Every nation that goes to war has to create images of their enemy. Through intelligence gathering and propaganda, these images are created and used to drive public support and keep soldiers fighting. At the same time, decision-makers must be provided with clear and incisive information on the opposition at hand. Frequently, these aims are mutually conflicting. Carefully balanced and used with circumspection, these images can lead to victory – but they can also drive armies to disaster and entire nations to atrocity.
In this sweeping and fascinating survey – now revised and updated in light of recent developments in the war against terrorism – Kjeld Hald Galster, author of Crucial Coalition and Danish Troops in the Williamite Army in Ireland, explores how intelligence is collected and interpreted. Drawing from examples ranging from the Napoleonic Wars to the 2003 War in Iraq to the death of Osama bin Laden, he examines how military intelligence is used to create the face of the foe – and what makes it a tremendous success…or a disastrous failure.
Now available from Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com.
By Kjeld Hald Galster
358 pages
ISBN: 978-0-9880192-8-7
$25.95 Canada
$23.95 U.S.A.
£16.95 U.K.
€19.95 Europe
$37.95 Australia
In the summer of 2010, a unit of Danish soldiers known as ISAF-10 deployed to Afghanistan under British command. In Helmand Province, they tried to secure a fragile peace while dealing with the challenges of training an often apparently indifferent Afghan police and army, ensuring a functioning collaboration with the British despite insufficient military intelligence and divergent military cultures, and fell under frequent attack by an increasingly sophisticated and deadly Taliban.
In this remarkable book, Kjeld Hald Galster tells their story. He also looks at the wider picture, examining coalitions ranging from Ancient Greece to the Cold War. Exploring the millennia-long history of coalition warfare, he looks at what makes them work, the lessons they teach us, and how they reflect – and predict – the rise and downfall of the coalitions of the willing in Afghanistan and Iraq, and those yet to come.
Now available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com, and for order at your local bookstore.
By Robert B. Marks
207 pages
ISBN: 978-1927537-41-1
$26.95 Canada
$19.95 U.S.A.
£15.95 U.K
€17.95 Europe
$29.95 Australia
The year was 2016. The culture wars were deepening, with no end in sight. As the marketplace of ideas faded further into memory, one writer tried to bring it back – and succeeded.
In September 2016 Robert B. Marks’ Garwulf’s Corner returned to The Escapist for another year, presenting a moderate and mature look at many of the hot-button issues facing pop culture. Months after Garwulf’s Corner’s second year came to an end the Escapist was sold to another media company – and its new editor-in-chief libeled everybody who had worked there since 2014. During the ensuing legal action, the whole of Garwulf’s Corner was removed from the pages of the Escapist and all but destroyed…until now.
Insightful, compelling, and still relevant, this volume contains:
– The second year of Garwulf’s Corner, covering topics ranging from Star Wars movies to outrage culture to video games.
– Previously unpublished installments looking at Minecraft, video game addiction, and more.
– The full run of The Most Important PC Games of All Time, a comprehensive look at the decades-long history of the video game from the 1940s to today.
From No Man’s Sky to Police Quest, from Fox’s Gotham to military science fiction, take a fresh and new odyssey back into the world of pop culture.
Now available from Amazon.com.