Starmen

"The starmen" by Leigh Brackett. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first person in history to leave the Earth's atmosphere and venture into space. His flight aboard a Russian Vostok rocket lasted only 108 minutes, but at the end of it he had become the most famous man in the world. Back on the ground, his smiling face captured the hearts of millions around the globe. Film stars, politicians and pop stars from Europe to Japan, India to the United States vied with each other to shake his hand. Despite this immense fame, almost nothing is known about Gagarin or the exceptional people behind his dramatic space flight. Starman tells for the first time Gagarin's personal odyssey from peasant to international icon, his subsequent decline as his personal life began to disintegrate under the pressures of fame, and his final disillusionment with the Russian state. President Kennedy's quest to put an American on the Moon was a direct reaction to Gagarin's achievement--yet before that successful moonshot occurred, Gagarin himself was dead, aged just thirty-four, killed in a mysterious air crash. Publicly the Soviet hierarchy mourned; privately their sighs of relief were almost audible, and the KGB report into his death remains secret. Entwined with Gagarin's history is that of the breathtaking and highly secretive Russian space program - its technological daring, its triumphs and disasters. In a gripping account, Jamie Doran and Piers Bizony reveal the astonishing world behind the scenes of the first great space spectacular, and how Gagarin's flight came frighteningly close to destruction.

Playing with Videogames documents the richly productive, playful and social cultures of videogaming that support, surround and sustain this most important of digital media forms and yet which remain largely invisible within existing studies. James Newman details the rich array of activities that surround game-playing, charting the vibrant and productive practices of the vast number of videogame players and the extensive 'shadow' economy of walkthroughs, FAQs, art, narratives, online discussion boards and fan games, as well as the cultures of cheating, copying and piracy that have emerged. Playing with Videogames offers the reader a comprehensive understanding of the meanings of videogames and videogaming within the contemporary media environment.

Book two of The Starman Saga. "My name is Lurton Zimbardo." "My asteroid strike has just destroyed the atmosphere plant at New Emmaus." "You cannot see me." "You cannot stop me." "Within the day, my asteroids will destroy the remaining four atmosphere plants on Mars." "I have more power than you can imagine." "You are helpless to oppose me." "Soon you will be hopeless to survive me." "Wait for my demands." An undetectable planet killer. Lurton Zimbardo, the leader of the Martian mutineers has escaped into the Asteroid Belt. With deadly accuracy, he hurls undetectable asteroids at Mars, devastating the terraformation process. Now his ruthless and vengeful sights are dead set on Earth. David Foster and the Starmen are the only ones who can locate the invisible pirate base, disable the cloaking device, and turn aside the unstoppable asteroids. But the secret behind Lurton Zimbardo's unstoppable power will change humanity forever! This is the future. The way it used to be.

Book five of the Starman Saga. "Attention all agents. You know my voice. You know our purpose." "It's time to move." "The Starmen are still on the estate." "Keep them there." "Make sure they don't leave!" An Unseen Enemy The Starmen's search for the Benefactors has led to a conspiracy of powerful men embedded in the leadership of Mars. With every new revelation, the Ancient Enemy of the Xenobots retreats farther into the shadows, along with the Starmen's fading hope. An invisible army opposes them at every turn. An insidious enemy has turned an entire world against them. If the Starmen cannot reveal their true opponent before his plans are complete, they stand to lose everything. A worlds hangs in the balance. This is the future. The way it used to be!

Three best-selling Jerry Pournelle masterpieces in one volume for the first time: Janissaries and Tran. A modern soldier is transported by aliens to a world filled with warriors through the ages including medieval knights, Roman soldiers. His task: survival. Janissaries Some days it just didn't pay to be a soldier. Captain Rick Galloway and his men had been talked into volunteering for a dangeorus mission--only to be ruthlessly abandoned when faceless CIA higher-ups pulled the plug on the operation. They were cut off in hostile teritory, with local troops and their Cuban "advisors" rapidly closing in. And then the alien spaceship landed... Clan and Crown and Storms of Victory He didn't want to conquer the world. He had to. Captain Rick Galloway, formerly of the US Army, more recently a mercenary commander, was now Lord Rick on the planet Tran. Rescued by an alien spaceship from certain death when a mercenary assignment went sour, he and his men were dropped on a world distant from Earth, but inhabited by humans transplanted in the past from medieval Europe, from Imperial Rome, and from other now-vanished nations. Now the time of the Demon Star approaches, whose close approach and fierce heat will render much of Tran uninhabitable. To survive this fiery apocalypse, the warring nations of Tran must be united. Lord Rick doesn't want to conquer the world, but the alternative is certain extinction! At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). About Janissaries: "On the cover... is the clain 'No. 1 Adventure Novel of the Year.' And well it might be." - Milwaukee Journal

The cross-cultural interactions of Japanese videogames and the West—from DIY localization by fans to corporate strategies of “Japaneseness.” In the early days of arcades and Nintendo, many players didn’t recognize Japanese games as coming from Japan; they were simply new and interesting games to play. But since then, fans, media, and the games industry have thought further about the “Japaneseness” of particular games. Game developers try to decide whether a game's Japaneseness is a selling point or stumbling block; critics try to determine what elements in a game express its Japaneseness—cultural motifs or technical markers. Games were “localized,” subjected to sociocultural and technical tinkering. In this book, Mia Consalvo looks at what happens when Japanese games travel outside Japan, and how they are played, thought about, and transformed by individuals, companies, and groups in the West. Consalvo begins with players, first exploring North American players’ interest in Japanese games (and Japanese culture in general) and then investigating players’ DIY localization of games, in the form of ROM hacking and fan translating. She analyzes several Japanese games released in North America and looks in detail at the Japanese game company Square Enix. She examines indie and corporate localization work, and the rise of the professional culture broker. Finally, she compares different approaches to Japaneseness in games sold in the West and considers how Japanese games have influenced Western games developers. Her account reveals surprising cross-cultural interactions between Japanese games and Western game developers and players, between Japaneseness and the market.