Before games became billion-dollar spectacles, some of their most unforgettable worlds were built from blinking cursors, crude pixels, clever puzzles, and the dangerous phrase “You are standing at the end of a road.” Computer adventure gaming turned the keyboard into a doorway, asking players to think, explore, experiment, and lose themselves in stories that existed halfway between literature and software.From the mainframe caves of Colossal Cave Adventure and Zork to the rise of S...

The Occult History of Angels is a serious non-fiction exploration of the mysterious place angels have occupied within religion, mysticism, ceremonial magic, esoteric philosophy, and hidden spiritual traditions throughout history.For centuries, angels have been described as messengers of God, guardians of the soul, warriors of heaven, guides between worlds, and terrifying intelligences whose true nature may be far stranger than the gentle figures often imagined in popular culture. T...

Everyone Everywhere blends oral history, reportage and storytelling to uncover a major yet neglected thread in Britain's national story – the experience of its mixed-race communities.Through dozens of vivid interviews and years of archival research, Lucas Fothergill pieces together an alternative history of the country: one told through the lives of those who have shaped, challenged and redefined what it means to be British.From the descendants of empire to the art...

This Element explores the innovative integration of microlearning and generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in second-language education. Designed for language teachers, teacher trainers, and future educators, it offers research-informed insights and actionable strategies for designing learner-centred, technology-enhanced instruction. The Element introduces the evolution and applications of GenAI in language learning, examines its synergy with microlearning, and presents pedagogical f...

Every hero's journey starts with a punch!Seventeen-year-old Kevin Jason starts his first day at his new school by unintentionally punching the local bully through the cafeteria wall. When Kevin's father, a legendary superhero, learns of this, he insists on training Kevin to master his new powers, though Kevin finds his father's training methods a lot less exciting than he thought they were going to be.But Kevin's training takes on new urgency when the local...

After a year of fighting villains as the superhero Bolt, Kevin Jason must now deal with integrating his newly-rescued twin brother into the Young Neos, as well as think about his future career as a superhero. Things become more complicated, however, when Kevin's brother is kidnapped by a mysterious new team of supervillains whose motives are unknown but whose actions could spell the end of his brother's life if Kevin doesn't save him.Despite being a member of the Young Neos for two...

As the children of an infamous supervillain, Bait and Switch find themselves ostracized and isolated from their peers in the superhero school they attend. Even many of their teachers distrust them on the basis of their parentage.Switch wants to leave the Academy and break their supervillain mother out of prison, while Bait sees the Academy as their best chance at rising above their mother's legacy and become superheroes themselves. The two fight over these differences of opinions m...

College professor Kate Jefferies hopes a quiet weekend at a secluded beach house will save the growing distance between her and her husband. Tired of being ignored while his work consumes every waking hour, Kate throws herself into rekindling their intimacy, buying elegant lingerie, expensive wine, and daring bedroom toys in a desperate attempt to remind him—and herself—that the passion between them still exists. But when her husband arrives distracted and emotionally absent once again, th...

She doesn't want to be a superhero. But she has no choice.Sixteen-year-old Ashley 'Crafter' Jason has trust issues. Especially with supers, despite being a super and daughter of two famous superheroes herself.That's because Ashley suffers from a rare genetic disorder known as Hernandez's Disease. Left unchecked, Ashley's own powers will kill her before she turns twenty-one. The superhero community fears and shuns everyone who suffers from this disorder, for...

In a world where superheroes are a business, sixteen-year-old Alex Fry gets the dream job of teenagers everywhere when he is hired by the famous superhero Rubberman as his sidekick. As Rubberman's sidekick, Alex hopes to not only learn how to use his powers, but also save up enough money to buy his first car before he heads off to college.But Alex gets more than he bargains for when a powerful supervillain with mysterious connections to Rubberman's past appears in his city with a d...

Eighteen-year-old Alex Fry (Beams) thinks he's seen it all in his year and a half as a part-time sidekick. That's why he's surprised when the police call him and his boss to investigate the gruesome slaughter of a local crime gang. Nineteen of Golden City's most wanted killed in one night by one man.The culprit: A supervillain knight known as Slasher seeking to conquer Golden City in the name of his mysterious king. Slasher is willing to kill anyone who stands in the way of his con...

Artificial Mathematics III: The Final Equation is the closing volume of the Artificial Mathematics trilogy — the point where money, power, markets, intelligence, and calculation finally return to the human being behind them.The first volume explored the mathematics of business. The second volume went deeper into capital, risk, valuation, institutions, and artificial intelligence. This final volume asks the question underneath all of it: what is any of it for?