Age of Giants - awakening

Age of Giants - awakening Review

Four generations have passed since the giants of old, the Nephilim, returned to dominate the world with an iron fist. After eliminating three-quarters of the human population with an engineered plague, these sons of the fallen angels have enslaved mankind to satiate their lust for power, gluttony and sexual avarice. Yet hidden among the rubble and decay of a vanquished civilization are scattered bands of survivors, raiders, who press their fight for freedom and the ultimate annihilation of the race of giants who once again threaten to lay waste to the earth.

Nora is a tall and beautiful young woman whose skills in guerrilla combat have earned her a position as leader of a small team of raiders. While away on a mission to destroy an outlying Nephilim communications post in old New Mexico, Nora's clan is nearly wiped out in a Nephilim attack. The survivors, including Nora's father, are taken for slave labor deep inside the Kralen Dominion. Nora sets out to rescue her father, but along the way she's held captive by a secretive resistance group, and uncovers a dark secret that puts her in the center of the war against the brutal giant overlords.

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING...

"You are engrossed in the tale, turning pages. You are no longer sitting back in your chair. You are leaning forward, close to the seat's edge, reading more quickly. These are real characters and this is tight, suspenseful storytelling. This is "Awakening" in Rob Reaser's AGE OF GIANTS series, and awake you will be. Long into the night, well into tomorrow." -Tom Corcoran, author of the Alex Rutledge Mystery, "Hawk Channel Chase" and the forthcoming "The Quick Adios (Times Six)."

"In his excellent debut novel AGE OF GIANTS: Awakening, Reaser's muscular style and fast-paced ease of storytelling prove he's got the goods to be a giant in the speculative fiction realm." - Gregory L. Norris, author of "The Q Guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (Alyson Books 2008) and the forthcoming "The Fierce and Unforgiving Muse: A Baker's Dozen From the Terrifying Mind of Gregory L. Norris" (EJP 2011).

"Reaser delivers with a riveting, chilling tale of a future Earth in which the human race is no longer dominant. AGE OF GIANTS is a hugely entertaining novel with a tightly-wound plot, flesh-and-blood characters and masterful world-building. I came to the last page and wanted to start the next book in the series immediately." - Steve Statham, author of the comedic alternate history "Presidential Muscle Cars" and the forthcoming sci-fi thriller "Rules of Force."

Awakening the Sleeping Giant: Helping Teachers Develop as Leaders

Awakening the Sleeping Giant: Helping Teachers Develop as Leaders Review

The book discusses the challenges that teacher leaders face, such as deciding to accept a leadership role, building principal–teacher leader relationships, and working with peers.

Awakening Giants, Feet of Clay: Assessing the Economic Rise of China and India

Awakening Giants, Feet of Clay: Assessing the Economic Rise of China and India Review

The recent economic rise of China and India has attracted a great deal of attention--and justifiably so. Together, the two countries account for one-fifth of the global economy and are projected to represent a full third of the world's income by 2025. Yet, many of the views regarding China and India's market reforms and high growth have been tendentious, exaggerated, or oversimplified. Awakening Giants, Feet of Clay scrutinizes the phenomenal rise of both nations, and demolishes the myths that have accumulated around the economic achievements of these two giants in the last quarter century. Exploring the challenges that both countries must overcome to become true leaders in the international economy, Pranab Bardhan looks beyond short-run macroeconomic issues to examine and compare China and India's major policy changes, political and economic structures, and current general performance.

Bardhan investigates the two countries' economic reforms, each nation's pattern and composition of growth, and the problems afflicting their agricultural, industrial, infrastructural, and financial sectors. He considers how these factors affect China and India's poverty, inequality, and environment, how political factors shape each country's pattern of burgeoning capitalism, and how significant poverty reduction in both countries is mainly due to domestic factors--not global integration, as most would believe. He shows how authoritarianism has distorted Chinese development while democratic governance in India has been marred by severe accountability failures.

Full of valuable insights, Awakening Giants, Feet of Clay provides a nuanced picture of China and India's complex political economy at a time of startling global reconfiguration and change.