Charles Ott

Brian Covington and Pete Wiegand are from Earth. They've been transported in some mysterious way to the planet Brythe They find out that Brythe is going to explode. Who can they trust for help? They're scientists but can't trust science: nothing seems to be normal on Brythe. There are lights in the sky but no sun and no stars, the length of every day is different and unpredictable, physics is normal sometimes and sometimes weird (how is that even possible, anywhere in the universe?), and the humans on Brythe are not exactly homo sapiens -- but how can they be so similar? There's no use asking the humans for help. They're swarming in panicky mobs, expecting the end of their world. There's an alien race called Cortays on Brythe and they want to help. They're building a big machine which is supposed to stop the explosion, but they don't understand how it will work. They're just following instructions. And the other race of aliens, who call themselves "The Hands of God", designed the machine and are willing to help. But no one has ever seen them, no one knows if they're smart enough to stop the explosion or not, and nobody is certain they even want the machine to work. The clock is ticking.

Something Made of Vacuum is a science fiction romantic comedy, and here's the complete plot spoiler: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. That's complicated enough anywhere and in any time. It's more complicated on the Moon. Tom is a Moon Man, part of the staff that serves the spaceports on the Moon. It's inconvenient to change back into clothes, so Moon Men wear their spacesuits round the clock and live in the vacuum, in a "village" that has no houses. For purposes of romance, they rent a hotel room in the domed crater city they call "Air Town." Otherwise, they work, dance, eat and sleep in spacesuits. Helene is from Earth, and Moon Men find it odd to think she regularly wears clothes, gets rained on, and doesn't think it's icky to walk around with her face hanging out, breathing air that has been exhaled out of the wet lungs of strangers. Tom and Helene are a couple with baggage like no other. She's got a boyfriend whose shell she literally can't get past. He's got a girlfriend who doesn't understand all the precautions and safety checks necessary before a kiss. The course of true love never did run smooth.

The Sorcerer's Deluge swept the world, destroyed civilization, blew the Moon out of the sky and ushered in the Age of Magic. It was triggered when a mathematician discovered a new series of numbers. Like negative, irrational and imaginary numbers, "commotic" numbers seem like purely mental constructions but turn out to describe the real world. Unlike the others, expressions written with magical or "commotic" numbers also directly affect the world, by changing the relationships between things and places. Used ignorantly, mathematical magic leveled cities, brought down fire from the skies and killed millions. But a mathematician trained in magic can bring needed rain, heal wounds, travel instantly between places and use spells to do a hundred other useful things. For eight hundred years, society has been painfully rebuilding, aided by magicians of mathematics. There are two new, lunatic cults gaining power in the Kingdom, each crazier than the other. They worship the "Unborn Gods," one repressed and puritanical, the others Dionysian and drunk. They threaten the Kingdom, and more importantly, they threaten the very concept of rationality. Hondoll, the King's Magician, is charged with standing against them. He has a few allies and many enemies. Will reason and courage be stronger than craziness?

A science-fiction adventure. Two scientists from Earth find themselves carried away to a strange realm where the laws of physics are different, which really can't happen anywhere in the universe. At the same time, the aliens they meet are pretty much ordinary humans, and that can't happen either. They gradually realize where they are, why they are among humans, and exactly how perilous their moment is.

The Sorcerer's Deluge swept the world, destroyed civilization, blew the Moon out of the sky and ushered in the Age of Magic ...... and it was triggered when a mathematician discovered a new series of numbers. For eight hundred years, society has been painfully rebuilding, aided by magicians of mathematics. Now two new, lunatic cults of the "Unborn Gods" are threatening both the Kingdom and the very concept of rationality. Hondoll, the King's Magician, is dedicated to the defense of both. The gods are about to be born. Hondoll and others stand against them. Will reason be stronger than craziness?

Something Made of Vacuum is a science fiction romantic comedy, and here's the complete plot spoiler: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. That's complicated enough anywhere, but when Helene arrives on the Moon on a business trip, she has the bad luck to get involved with one of the natives. The Moon is dotted with spaceports handling traffic between eight planets, and the "natives" are the port workers, who call themselves Moon Men. They find it inconvenient to cycle in and out of airlocks all the time, so they live, work, sleep, raise families and play sports 24/7 in space suits. Now Helene's got a boyfriend whose shell she literally can't get inside. When Helene is forced to don a Moon suit herself, she learns that it's loaded with body sensors whose data is available to any other Moon Man, including Tom. Every one in the village knows Tom is in love with her, because his heart beats faster when he's near her ... and it shows up on their in-helmet displays. Helene thinks she's not in love, but the data shows her pupils expand when she looks at him, and the Moon Men find that interesting, too. Helene is simultaneously blocked off and isolated from all human contact by her suit, and connected so intimately to others that they can tell what her blood-sugar level is (and have opinions about that, which they will tell her.)It's a romance like no other.

""Birds of Mount McKinley National Park, Alaska"" is a comprehensive guide to the avian species found in the famous national park. Written by Adolph Murie, a renowned naturalist and biologist, the book provides detailed descriptions and illustrations of over 200 bird species commonly found in the park. The book includes information on the habitat, behavior, and migration patterns of each species, as well as tips for birdwatchers and photographers looking to observe and capture these beautiful creatures in their natural habitat. The book also includes a historical overview of the park and its birdlife, as well as a glossary of terms and a comprehensive index. This book is an essential resource for bird enthusiasts, naturalists, and anyone interested in the unique wildlife of Mount McKinley National Park in Alaska. This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.