New Releases by Ian Watson

A decade after the discovery of the Higgs Boson, the large Hadron Collider at CERN still leads the world in the search to uncover what the universe is made of, how it was formed, and what fate may lie in store for it. If there is such a thing as a cutting edge, it surely lies 100 metres below the Swiss-French border, at the point the beams collide. As part of a unique collaboration, this book pairs a team of award-winning authors with CERN physicists to explore some of the consequences of what the LHC is learning, through fiction. Authors include Sherlock and Dr Who writer Steven Moffat, novelist and Small Axe screenwriter Courttia Newland, Dame Margaret Drabble and SF legends Ian Watson (whose credits include the screenplay for the Spielberg''s A.I.) and Stephen Baxter (winner of the Philip K Dick and John W Campbell Memorial Award).Featuring CERN physicist and engineers: Professor Lyn Evans, Professor John Ellis, Dr Andrea Bersani, Dr Tessa Charles, Dr Joey Huston, Dr Michael Davis, Dr Carole Weydert, Dr Joe Haley, Dr Kristin Lohwasser, Dr Pete Dong, Dr Daniel Cervenkov, Dr Andrea Giammanco.

You can count on Rick Steves to tell you what you really need to know when traveling in Reykjavík. In this slim guide excerpted from Rick Steves Iceland, you''ll get Rick''s firsthand, up-to-date advice on the best sights, restaurants, and hotels in Reykjavík. You''ll sample deliciously fresh seafood, visit the Icelandic Symphony, and pick up a cozy Nordic sweater as a souvenir. Rick also covers day trips to nearby destinations like the Golden Circle and South Coast, with helpful maps and self-guided tours to keep you on track. You''ll learn to travel smart and get around like a local as you journey through Viking history at the Saga Museum, soak in the famous Blue Lagoon Hot Springs, and admire Iceland''s classic and modern architecture. More than just reviews and directions, Rick Steves Snapshot Reykjavík is truly a tour guide in your pocket. Exploring beyond Reykjavík? Pick up Rick Steves Iceland for in-depth coverage, detailed itineraries, and important planning information for a countrywide trip.

Hike vast glaciers, marvel at steaming volcanic lakes, and explore the land of the midnight sun: with Rick Steves on your side, Iceland can be yours! Inside Rick Steves Iceland you''ll find: Comprehensive coverage for exploring Iceland, whether you''ve got a long layover in Reykjavík or two weeks to dive into the whole country Rick''s strategic advice on how to get the most out of your time and money, with rankings of his must-see favorites Top sights and hidden gems, from the stunning northern lights to hidden hikes and cozy bookstores How to connect with local culture: Soak in the famous Blue Lagoon, sample smoked fishes, and chat with locals in stark and lovely rural towns Beat the crowds, skip the lines, and avoid tourist traps with Rick''s candid, humorous insight The best places to eat, sleep, and relax Self-guided walking tours of lively Reykjavík and art and history museums Complete, mile-by-mile driving tours, including the Golden Circle, the Ring Road, and more, with recommendations of Iceland''s most scenic detours Detailed maps for exploring on the go Useful resources including a packing list, an Icelandic phrase book, a historical overview, and recommended reading Over 500 bible-thin pages include everything worth seeing without weighing you down Complete, up-to-date information on Reykjavík, the Reykjanes Peninsula, the Golden Circle, the South Coast, the Westman Islands, West Iceland, The Ring Road, the East Fjords, and more Make the most of every day and every dollar with Rick Steves Iceland. Expanding your trip? Try Rick Steves Scandinavia or Rick Steves Northern European Cruise Ports.

Hydrology covers the fundamentals of hydrology and hydrogeology, taking an environmental slant dictated by the emphasis in recent times for the remediation of contaminated aquifers and surface-water bodies as well as a demand for new designs that impose the least negative impact on the natural environment. Major topics covered include hydrological principles, groundwater flow, groundwater contamination and clean-up, groundwater applications to civil engineering, well hydraulics, and surface water. Additional topics addressed include flood analysis, flood control, and both ground-water and surface-water applications to civil engineering design.

Northern ''Q'': The History of Royal Air Force, Leuchars takes its title from the long standing primary role as one of the oldest airfields in the UK. Leuchars began its links with military aviation as far back as 1911 with the arrival of the Royal Engineers who established a balloon squadron for reconnaissance training. Following the outbreak of war in 1939, the station was identified as an ideal location to launch maritime operations under Coastal Command. By the end of the war, Leuchars, like so many other airfields, was under the threat of redundancy as many airfields were rendered surplus to requirements. The developing international situation placed a shift in defense with the Cold War and Leuchars was once more deemed to be in an ideal and vital position. From 1950, this corner of northeast Fife has been on permanent guard with every type of operational interceptor in RAF service. Now politics from austerity to Scottish independence, rather than sound judgment, is setting the agenda as the RAF leave for Lossiemouth in Moray.

Translated and community-appropriate telecommunications resources for remote Indigenous communities

Originally published in 1983. Song has always been a natural way to record everyday experiences – an expression of celebration, commiseration, complaint and protest. This innovative book is a study of popular and working-class song combining several approaches to the subject. It is a history of working-class song in Britain which concentrates not simply on the songs and the singers but attempts to locate such song in its cultural context and apply principles of literary criticism to this essentially oral medium. It triggered controversy: some critics castigated its Marxist approach, others enthused that ‘such unabashed partisanship amply reveals the outstanding characteristic of Watson''s book’. The author discusses the way in which the popular song, from Victorian times onwards, has been forced by the entertainment industry out of its roots in popular culture, to become a blander form of art with minimal critical potential. The book ends by considering the possibilities for a continued flourishing of a genuine popular song culture in an electronic age. It has become a standard title in bibliographies and curricula. Much has changed since 1983, not least in music; but this then innovative book still has a lot to say about popular song in its social and historical context.

Refereed technical papers for the subject Conference

The relationship between sleep and storytelling is an ancient one. For centuries, sleep has provided writers with a magical ingredient – a passage of time during which great changes miraculously occur, an Orpheus-like voyage through the subconscious daubed with the fantastic. But over the last ten years, our scientific understanding of sleep has been revolutionised. No longer is sleep viewed as a time of simple rest and recuperation. Instead, it is proving to be an intensely dynamic period of brain activity: a vital stage in the re-wiring of memories, the learning of new skills, and the processing of problems and emotions. How will storytelling respond to this new and emerging science of sleep? Here, 14 authors have been invited to work with key scientists to explore various aspects of sleep research: from the possibilities of ‘sleep engineering’ and ‘overnight therapies’, to future-tech ways of harnessing sleep’s problem-solving powers, to the challenges posed by our increasingly 24-hour lifestyles. Just as new hypotheses are being put forward, old hunches are also being confirmed (there’s now a scientific basis for the time-worn advice ‘to sleep on a problem’). As these responses show, sleep and the spinning of stories are still very much entwined. Featuring scientific contributions from: Prof Russell G. Foster, Isabel Hutchison, Dr. Simon Kyle, Dr. Penny Lewis, Dr. Paul Reading, Stephanie Romiszewski, Prof Robert Stickgold, Prof Manuel Schabus, Prof Ed Watkins, Prof Adam Zeman, Dr. Thomas Wehr. This project was supported by the Wellcome Trust.

Poems that wheel around home, belonging and memory on a sliding scale between tenderness and satire, and between breavement and celebration.

"The efforts of the North Harbour Club over a 20 year period from 1995 through until 2015 have been truly exceptional. When the founders created the charitable trust back in 1995, it is highly unlikely that they would have foreseen that the organisation would be in such a strong position, and have achieved so much, two decades later. To celebrate this success, the first 20 years of the club has been captured in a 200 page hard covered quality book - The First Twenty Years of Excellence - written by founding member Ian Watson and current president and long-serving trustee Aidan Bennett. Not only is this book an excellent historical record that generations will look back on, it also highlights what can happen when different sectors collaborate for the good of their community. In this case the momentum was started by a group of business leaders, along the way they have embraced the education and public affairs sectors and made a real difference to those achieving excellence in the arts; information technology, innovation and science; music; sport and community service. They''ve also had some fun."--Publisher''s information.

An illustrated children''s story about townsfolk who have too many things. A little girl comes up with a simple plan to help them all out.

Born in St Albans in 1943 and raised on Tyneside, Ian Watson escaped to Oxford as a student in 1960 for 5 years, including a dissertation on 19th Century French literature. Next he taught literature in Tanzania, then Tokyo, and finally (along with Futures Studies) at Birmingham School of History of Art, becoming a full-time author, mainly of SF, in 1976. By now he has published about 30 novels and 11 story collections, and lives in the north of Spain where he recently married the lovely Cristina. His daughter Jessica is a textile designer. Many months eyeball to eyeball with Stanley Kubrick in 1990 resulted in screen credit for A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), directed by Steven Spielberg after Kubrick''s death. With Cristina he has also published a cookbook in Spanish about meals named after famous people, and with Italian surrealist Roberto Quaglia he authored a book of transgressive stories, The Beloved of My Beloved, possibly the only full-length genre book by two authors with different mother tongues. His photo-strewn website is www.ianwatson.info, and as regards his most recent major novel (with Andy West), a medieval and modern medical Islamic technothriller, see www.watersofdestiny.com. His favourite beers and wines are many (excluding Shiraz and Syrah), and he fries ray wings in butter.

We know Stanislaw Lem, whether or not we consciously know that we do. He may only be recognised in the West as the author of the twice-filmed novel, Solaris, but the influence of his other work is legion. From computer games (The Sims was inspired by one of his short stories), to films (the red and blue pills of The Matrix owe much to his Futurological Congress); from the space comedies of Red Dwarf to the metaphysical satires of Douglas Adams... the presence of this masterly Polish writer can be traced far and wide. Nor was his genius confined to fiction. Lem''s essays and pseudo-essays borne out of the military industrial tensions of the Cold War have outlived their original context and speak to the most current developments in virtual reality, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence. To celebrate his name, as well as his vision, this anthology brings together writers, critics and scientists who continue to grapple with his concerns. British and Polish novelists join screenwriters, poets, computer engineers, and artists, to celebrate and explore Lem''s legacy through short stories and essays - two literary forms that, as Lem knew well, can blend together to create something altogether new. As one of the barriers to Lem''s fame was language, this book also features specially commissioned translations: three stories never to have appeared in English before. Lem was always ahead of us. It''s time we caught up.

War is becoming increasingly ''SF-ized'' with remotely controlled attack drones and robot warriors already in development and being tested. Over the past 100 years the technology of war has advanced enormously in destructive power, yet also in sophistication so that we no longer seem to live under the constant threat of all-out global thermonuclear cataclysm. So what will future wars be like? And what will start them: religion, politics, resources, refugees, or advanced weaponry itself? Watson and Whates present a gripping anthology of SF stories which explores the gamut of possible future conflicts, including such themes as nuclear war, psychological and cyberwars, enhanced soldiery, mercenaries, terrorism, intelligent robotic war machines, and war with aliens. All the stories in this collection of remarkable quality and diversity reveals humankind pressed to the limits in every conceivable way. It includes 24 stories with highlights such as: The Pyre of the New Day'' - Catherine Asaro. The Rhine''s World Incident'' - Neal Asher. Caught in the Crossfire'' - David Drake. Politics'' - Elizabeth Moon. The Traitor'' - David Weber. And others from: Dan Abnett, Tony Ballantyne, Fredric Brown, Algis Budrys, Simon R. Green, Joe Haldeman, John Kessel, John Lambshead, Paul McAuley, Andy Remic, Laura Resnick, Mike Resnick & Brad R. Torgersen, Fred Saberhagen, Cordwainer Smith, Allen Steele, William Tenn, Walter Jon Williams, Michael Z. Williamson, Gene Wolfe.

The computer unlike other inventions is universal; you can use a computer for many tasks: writing, composing music, designing buildings, creating movies, inhabiting virtual worlds, communicating... This popular science history isn''t just about technology but introduces the pioneers: Babbage, Turing, Apple''s Wozniak and Jobs, Bill Gates, Tim Berners-Lee, Mark Zuckerberg. This story is about people and the changes computers have caused. In the future ubiquitous computing, AI, quantum and molecular computing could even make us immortal. The computer has been a radical invention. In less than a single human life computers are transforming economies and societies like no human invention before.

When a young British couple, who make jigsaw puzzles, are hired by an ageing Norwegian to take nude photos of themselves in a sculpture park in Oslo, they are drawn into a web of occult Nazi horror. Even more horrifying will be the fate of the whole world some years later if alien visitors achieve their secret aims. However, the aftermath of events in that Oslo park will provide Anna Sharman with a key to unlock those aims. Anna is a rebel within Britain''s intelligence service at a time when most of the world appeases the aliens because of the gifts they bring - and if she must lose her own body in order to discover the truth, she will do so.

The Very Slow Time Machine arrives on earth in 1985. Its sole inhabitant is old and mad. Soon it becomes apparent that for him, time is going slowly backward. With every day, he is getting younger and saner. The world, and its whole concept of time, science and philosophy, must wait for him to speak. But while the world waits, it changes...

Ian Watson''s brilliant debut novel was one of the most significant publications in British SF in the 1970s. Intellectually bracing and grippingly written, it is the story of three experiments in linguistics, and is driven by a searching analysis of the nature of communication. Deep in the Brazilian jungle, an isolated tribe face eviction from their ancestral lands - and the psychedelic fungus that makes their religious language possible. In a British laboratory, a brilliant linguist conducts cutting-edge experiments - but does his search for answers come at too high a cost? And in the ultimate test of linguistics, First Contact presents a challenge unlike any humanity has faced before . . . Fiercely intelligent, energetic and challenging, The Embedding immediately established Watson as a writer of rare power and vision, and is now recognized as a modern classic of SF.

A collection of science-fiction short stories by the author of "Lucky''s Harvest". They feature dozens of characters, a new way of travelling between the stars, a strange planet, magical powers, bravura set-pieces, and manoeuvres of narrative.

Ian Watson''s latest collection shows the same range and apparently inexhaustible fund of ideas that have characterized all his previous books. No other contemporary figure in SF is so prolific or inventive a writer of short stories. In the title story we immediately encounter a phantasmagoric vision of a society increasingly dependent on recycling its usable material; other brilliant inventions include a planet inhabited by lemur-like aliens who bafflingly produce marvellously finished stone carvings without apparently having the tools to do so (''The Moon and Michelangelo''); people fighting their way through the various levels of what appears to be a real-life version of a computer adventure game (''Jewels in an Angel''s Wing''); and a zoo in which are caged the extensions into our universe of four-dimensional hyberbeings (''Hyperzoo''). And that is only the beginning: there are fifteen stories in all, each one a state-of-the-art example of short science fiction at its finest.

British Science Fiction award winner Ian Watson graces us here with a brilliant new collection of short stories and essays. Though he dazzles the reader with his footwork in the kaleidoscope intensity of his vision, each piece is plainly the work of a master craftsman. Whether he is dealing with a future culture where whales control us ("The Culling") or taking a hilarious poke at the matter of government funding ("The President''s Not for Turning"), his concepts are clear and undeniably logical. True to the highest ideal of science fiction, Watson carries present tendencies of our society to possible conclusions in "Roof Gardens under Saturn," and points a warning finger at the consequences of alienation from the environment. In an innovative style which borders on the experimental, Watson explores in "The Pharaoh and the Mademoiselle" the horrors of fascism. Ian Watson''s writing stays with us. He entertains and he makes us think. If in some future and better world politicians were to take advice form writers, Watson should be one of them.

Tattooed on a woman-sized tumour, these tales, told to it as bedtime stories, are by turns surreal, satiric, erotic, obscene, ingenious, hilarious, and quite, quite brilliant. Together, they combine to create a weird and wonderful love story, unlike anything told before.

In his fourth short-story collection, Watson again demonstrates the extraordinary scope of his imagination. The title story has ancient witchcraft meeting complacent modern suburbia in a tale of spine-chilling horror, while ''When the Timegate Failed'' casts an unexpected light in the dangers of space travel and man''s powers of self-delusion. Alien matters of a different kind crop up in ''Windows'', in which mysterious artefacts found on Mars prove to be something of a problem for their chic human owners. Evil Water is a highly inventive collection which is a delight to read.

John Deacon uses hypnosis to research altered states of consciousness. One of his subjects, Michael Peacocke, is unusually susceptible and in their first session together he recalls a Close Encounter which took place some years before. Deacon is sceptical of UFOs and dismisses Peacocke''s story as an adolescent sexual fantasy. But then inexplicable things happen - the tape of the session is mysteriously erased, Deacon''s dog is killed, he and Michael see a pterodactyl, Michael''s girlfriend is menaced by Men in Black - and Deacon is forced to reconsider. Could UFOs be symbols projected from the collective unconscious? Are they messages from the biomatrix? Does the mind have the ability to project tulpas, objects and people which are physically real yet somehow illusory?

Meet Qua, the quantum computer with the immense power capabilities that tunes into pathways in parallel universes to operate at lightning speed. But with such power comes the threat of catastrophe, and as government agents, cult disciples, and computer criminals learn what this computer is capable of, Cambridge researcher Clare Conway makes every attempt to safeguard herself and society from the realities she discovers about Qua. For all of the power this computer offers, it threatens to spark a civil war in America, a danger unlike any other that history has ever known.

Predictably unpredictable, normally abnormal. Watson combines science fiction and fantasy into an eclectic mix that includes stories about fallen angels in Hell rebelling and mounting a breakout, about the inconvenience of keeping aging parents in your brain instead of a nursing home, about Jesus'' immortal brother as solo passenger on the first starship, about alien coffins bombarding the solar system, about right-wing U.S. militias stealing a quantum computer to commit nuclear blackmail, about a computer games designer haunted by the cyber-ghost of his murdered wife, about frozen heads and strange mind-changes, and how a cake decorator defeats a vampire with a sweet tooth. De-evolution, treasure-hunting via hang glider, dark animal fantasies, humanity as hive-entity, Hercules Poirot on a starship - Watson takes the strange, the eerie the weird, mixes his seasoned writing skills, and produces a potpourri of the fantastic. These nineteen stories are sure to amuse, bemuse and entertain.

Alex Winter and Deborah Tate arrive by hovercraft at the city of Babylon, lying on the river Euphrates in the Arizona desert. He is a sociology drop-out from the University of Oregon at Eugene who wants to become a Babylonian. She has a much stranger ambition. Their minds are babbling in the Greek that has been pumped into them via computer interface at the University of Heuristics. To them, English has yet to be invented and the young king Alexander lies dying in his palace. The city is dominated by the tower of Babel, its spiral roadway curling up towards the heavens and wide enough for several donkey carts. And women sit outside the Temple of Ishtar, waiting for some stranger to drop a coin in their laps. The prospect seems to fascinate Deborah. She wants to become one of the Whores of Babylon.