Bred For War

HEAVY IS THE HEAD THAT WEARS THE CROWN.... Along with the throne of the Federated Commonwealth, Prince Victor Steiner-Davion inherited a number of problems. Foremost among them is the Clans' threat to the peace of the Inner Sphere—and a treacherous sister who wants to supplant him. The expected demise of Joshua Marik—heir to the Free Worlds League, whose very presence maintained peace—also endangers harmony. Victor's idea is to use a double for Joshua, a deception that will prevent war. But secret duplicity is hard to maintain, and war erupts anyway, splitting the Inner Sphere and leaving the Federated Commonwealth defenseless. And when Victor thinks things can get no worse, word comes that the Clans, once again, have brought war to the Inner Sphere...

After ascending the throne of the Federated Commonwealth, Prince Victor Steiner-Davion struggles to cope with the continuing threat of the Clans to the peace of the inner sphere and with the machinations of his own ambitious and treacherous sister. Original.

How did animal breeding emerge as a movement? Who took part and for what reasons? How do the pedigree and market systems work? What light might the movement shed on the assumptions behind human eugenics? In Bred for Perfection, Margaret Derry provides the most comprehensive and accessible book yet published on the human quest to improve and develop livestock. Derry, herself a breeder and trained historian of science, explores the "triangle" of genetics, eugenics, and practical breeding, focusing on Shorthorn cattle, show dogs and working dogs, and one type of purebred horse, the Arabian. By examining specific breeders and the animals they produced, she illuminates the role of technology, genetics, culture, and economics in the system of purebred breeding. Bred for Perfection also provides the historical context in which this system arose, adding to our understanding of how domestication works and how our welfare—since the dawn of time—has been intertwined with the lives of animals.

Called “an altogether remarkable creation, his most accomplished novel to date” (The New York Times), What's Bred in the Bone is the second brilliant novel in Robertson Davies’ The Cornish Trilogy. Available as an eBook for the first time. Francis Cornish was always good at keeping secrets. From the well-hidden family secret of his childhood to his mysterious encounters with a small-town embalmer, a master art restorer, a Bavarian countess, and various masters of espionage, the events in Francis’s life were not always what they seemed. In this wonderfully ingenious portrait of an art expert and collector of international renown, Robertson Davies has created a spellbinding tale of artistic triumph and heroic deceit. It is a tale told in stylish, elegant prose, endowed with lavish portions of Davies’ wit and wisdom. “Davies’s make-believe universe has the appeal of a mystic’s vision… What’s Bred in the Bone is vintage Davies.” The Globe and Mail

An essayistic memoir on being a soldier. Alex Vernon's Most Succinctly Bred explores war by exploring around war, by operating in the margins. Vernon records his ongoing relationship with war and soldiering, from growing up in late Cold War 1980s middle America to attending West Point, going to and returning from the first Gulf War, and watching, as a writer and academic, the coming of the second Iraq war. Unlike a mere essay collection, this book has a trajectory, and the chapters, appearing in rough chronological order, loop in and out of one another. It is not a narrow autobiography that attempts to account only for the writer's life; it uses that life to illuminate the lives of its readers, to tell us all about the time and place in which we find ourselves. War has seasoned this reluctant soldier; it has wounded him as it wounds all soldiers. But war has not stopped Alex Vernon's life. A large part of what we read here is a fascinating story of recovery.