The Last Bastion

The Last Bastion of Civilization is a scenario analysis in the form of a series of letters and essays from various intellectuals and leading figures written in 2041. Extrapolating from present day events, it chronicles the rise of Japan as the leading superpower of the world by examining relevant economic, cultural, and technological advancements. Coupled with the rise of Japan is the fall of Western society in the wake of massive riots, depressions, and an overall decline in the quality of life. Widespread unemployment, rising illegitimacy, and moral and spiritual decline have led the formerly great United States into a period of extreme mob-driven violence. Europe meets a similar fate, coupled with a decline in the euro and the defaulting of banks. As a work of speculative fiction, The Last Bastion of Civilization offers a critically insightful look at a possible future, a future that will not seem far off from the truth.

The last battle for the fate of your country is coming. My kin are out for blood and revenge. Another empire sees a chance to come in and pick up the pieces of our war. Most of your warriors are stuck hiding in the swamps, always aware that they do not have enough numbers to win a straight fight. And from over the seas, my people bring their most deadly weapons, the Fateguard. Living suits of armour, imbued with mystical and deadly power. The end times have come for your land. I have fought alongside you, I have bled for you, I have made myself a traitor to all I believe in for you. And yet you still do not trust me. But you have no option. This will be our last battle, and there is only one place that it can be fought. We must defend our stronghold, no matter how many lives it may cost, no matter how hard it is. For if we do not, there will be no mercy and no relief from the terrors to come. Good thing I'm on your side.

This book deals with prejudice, specifically the neglected area of prejudice towards Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers. It describes a problem-solving approach at both practitioner and strategic levels that can overcome prejudice in many of its forms and help achieve greater social justice. John Coxhead has drawn on his extensive research with practitioners, strategic workers and the communities to highlight the issues for and about Travellers. He provides an analytical but practical approach that is also a toolkit for those working in public services to improve service delivery. As the definitive text for understanding the approaches and strategies by which prejudice towards a certain community can be effectively tackled, the book will be indispensable to practitioners in public services, particularly criminal justice and policing. It will also interest sociologists and the communities themselves.

The Bastion was humanity's last hope against the fearsome undead creatures known as the Inferi Scourge. A fortified city with a high wall, surrounded by lush land rich with all the resources needed to survive, protected by high mountain summits, and a massive gate to secure the only pass into the valley, the Bastion became the last stronghold of the living on earth. But one fateful day, the gate failed and the Inferi Scourge destroyed the human settlements outside the walls and trapped the survivors inside the city. Now decades later, the last remaining humans are struggling to survive in a dying city as resources and hope dwindle.Vanguard Maria Martinez has lived her whole life within the towering walls of steel. She yearns for a life away from the overcrowded streets, rolling blackouts, and food shortages, but there is no hope for anyone as long as the Inferi Scourge howl outside the high walls. Her only refuge from the daily grind is in the arms of her lover, Dwayne Reichardt, an officer in the Bastion Constabulary. Both are highly-decorated veterans of the last disastrous push against the Inferi Scourge. Their secret affair is her only happiness.Then one day Maria is summoned to meet with a mysterious representative from the Science Warfare Division and is offered the opportunity to finally destroy the Inferi Scourge in the valley and close the gate. The rewards of success are great, but she will have to sacrifice everything, possibly even her life, to accomplish the ultimate goal of securing the future of humanity and saving it from extinction.

Literary Nonfiction. Photography by Hannah Klein. MAXIMUM SUNLIGHT is a timely and incisive portrait of the people, communities, anxieties, and contradictions that make up what many think of--now, more than ever, after the 2016 election--as rural white America. Told through a series of candid interviews and sharp observations of town life in tiny Tonopah, Nevada, journalist Meagan Day and photographer Hannah Klein create a book that is both traditional reportage and searching portrait of this eccentric and yet archetypal desert town. Day, a journalist and editor, writes with Didion's penetrating keenness for detail and Stegner's sense of the beauty and spareness of life in the west--illustrated throughout by Klein's striking color photo-spreads of desolate vistas, dilapidated houses, and cluttered shelves of clown figurines and neo-Nazi paraphernalia. The unexpected brightness and shocking depth of color in the photographs juxtapose the harshness and expanse of Tonopah's exteriors with the sharpness and peculiarity of its interiors. Tonopah is a town of former skinheads, drunks, pawnshop owners, drifters, lifers, day laborers, military contractors, and 4H moms. It is a town of casino bars, a highly classified military base, UFO sightings, ghosts of dead miners, and a massive solar energy plant. It's most notable attraction is a clown-themed motel next to a 19th century miners' graveyard. Written in the years leading up to the 2016 election, the book emerges as a vital and nuanced portrait of white identity and experience in an era in which rural isolationism and white nationalism have been thrust into the national spotlight.

The Charles Club is not the best men’s club in Boston—most people assume the Somerset is—but it is one of the oldest, rowdiest, and most alcoholic. It is also facing the greatest crisis of its one-hundred-and-twenty-five–year history. Demetria Constantine, the beautiful young Boston politico and Chairperson of the Massachusetts Licensing Board, has the Charles Club squarely in her sights. If they do not admit women as members they will lose that which is almost as dear to them as their principles—their liquor license.

When the angels could no longer be trusted, Heaven created her... Quayla's daring rescue has freed Atlanta's Shield, both saving and dooming the city. Ignis is lost to her. Terrance is corrupted. Vitae is once more free to terrorize the city and a tortured and tormented Mare has been wrenched from damnation itself. Even Summus, the Divine One meant to protect them all, has been drained nearly to death. Faery is on the march. Empowered with Summus's stolen divine essence, the Exiled Lady ignites a plot to free all of the Fallen from their chains. As the battlelines are drawn, Quayla clings to beaten and bloodied hope. To protect Atlanta and the world, Quayla need only put aside her pain and redeem her nemesis. At the eleventh hour, the Exiled Lady offers her an alternative. Quayla can punish Dylan's murderer, save her loved ones, even protect Creation from the apocalypse. All she has to do is change sides.