The Eyre Affair

No one could cheat the Colourman and the colour test. What you got was what you were, forever. Your life, career and social standing decided right there and then, and all worrisome life-uncertainties eradicated forever. You knew who you were, what you would do, where you would go, and what was expected of you. In return, you simply accepted your rung upon the Chromatic ladder, and assiduously followed the Rulebook. Your life was mapped. And all in the time it takes to bake a tray of scones ...Eddie Russett lives comfortably in a world where fortune, career and ultimate destiny are rigidly dictated by the colours you can see. Until he falls in love with a Grey named Jane, and starts to question every aspect of the Rulebook. Why are spoons illegal? And what actually happens to all those people who are sent to the Emerald City to Reboot?

Thursday Next returns in another inventive, funny and fantastical adventure by the comic and creative genius, Jasper Fforde

The BookWorld's leading enforcement officer Thursday Next is four months into an enforced semi-retirement following an assassination attempt. She returns home to Swindon for what you'd expect to be a time of recuperation. If only life were that simple. Thursday is faced with an array of family problems - son Friday's lack of focus since his career in the Chronoguard was relegated to a might-have-been, daughter Tuesday's difficulty perfecting the Anti-Smote shield needed to thwart an angry Deity's promise to wipe Swindon off the face of the earth, and Jenny, who doesn't exist. And that's not all. With Goliath attempting to replace Thursday at every opportunity with synthetic Thursdays, the prediction that Friday's Destiny-Aware colleagues will die in mysterious circumstances, and a looming meteorite that could destroy all human life on earth, Thursday's retirement is going to be anything but easy.

Si Morley is bored with his job as a commercial illustrator and his social life doesn't seem to be going anywhere. So, when he is approached by an affable ex-football star and told that he is just what the government is looking for to take part in a top-secret programme, he doesn't hesitate for too long. And so one day Si steps out of his twentieth-century, New York apartment and finds himself back in January 1882. There are no cars, no planes, no computers, no television and the word 'nuclear' appears in no dictionaries. For Si, it's very like Eden, somewhere he could find happiness. But has he really been back in time? The portfolio of tintype photographs and sketches that he brings back convince the government. But all Si wants is to return ...

The best-selling book on computer graphics is now available in this C-language version. All code has been converted into C, and changes through the ninth printing of the second edition have been incorporated. The book's many outstanding features continue to ensure its position as the standard computer graphics text and reference. By uniquely combining current concepts and practical applications in computer graphics, four well-known authors provide here the most comprehensive, authoritative, and up-to-date coverage of the field. The important algorithms in 2D and 3D graphics are detailed for easy implementation, including a close look at the more subtle special cases. There is also a thorough presentation of the mathematical principles of geometric transformations and viewing. In this book, the authors explore multiple perspectives on computer graphics: the user's, the application programmer's, the package implementor's, and the hardware designer's. For example, the issues of user-centered design are expertly addressed in three chapters on interaction techniques, dialogue design, and user interface software. Hardware concerns are examined in a chapter, contributed by Steven Molnar and Henry Fuchs, on advanced architectures for real-time, high performance graphics. The comprehensive topic coverage includes: *Programming with SRGP, a simple but powerful raster graphics package that combines features of Apple's QuickDraw and the MIT X Window System graphics library. *Hierarchical, geometric modeling using SPHIGS, a simplified dialect of the 3D graphics standard PHIGS. *Raster graphics hardware and software, including both basic and advanced algorithms for scan converting and clipping lines, polygons, conics, spline curves, and text. *Image synthesis, including visible-surface determination, illumination and shading models, image manipulation, and antialiasing. *Techniques for photorealistic rendering, including ray tracing and radiosity methods. *Surface modeling with parametric polynomials, including NURBS, and solid-modeling representations such as B-reps, CSG, and octrees. *Advanced modeling techniques such as fractals, grammar-based models, particle systems. *Concepts of computer animation and descriptions of state-of-the-art animation systems. Over 100 full-color plates and over 700 figures illustrate the techniques presented in the book. 0201848406B04062001

When, in 1996, Neil Gaiman laid his acclaimed Sandman series to rest after seven extraordinarily successful years, the fans lamented. And with good reason: its influence on the comic book industry was immeasurable; the harbinger of a renewed literary acceptance for the medium. Gaiman had expertly fashioned a vivid Gothic fantasy world that mixed the majesty of folklore with the horrors of modern life. The rich tapestry of stories that unfolded focused on a lonely Byronic figure called Morpheus, ruler of the amorphous world of our dreams. With The Dream Hunters, fans can rejoice as Gaiman returns to his signature work with a haunting fable of love, devotion and betrayal set in Ancient Japan. A lone monk spends his days tending to his temple garden, when he meets a Fox, a beautiful woman in human form, who becomes trapped within the monk's dreams. To save her, the monk must travel to the Realm of the Sandman and face a terrible choice between love and death. Meanwhile, a sinister magician makes nefarious plans against the pair to achieve his heart's desire. On this occasion, Gaiman's evocative prose is paired with the ethereally beautiful paintings of Japanese artist Yoshitaka Amano. And what a pairing it is; this is a prime example of creative symbiosis if ever there was one. True, the story is slight, but Gaiman weaves his own magic of letting simplicity harbour a wondrous complexity that lurks in the background, wonderfully rendered by Amano. Fans will be delighted by this comeback, while others can be captivated by Gaiman's assurance that popular culture cannot displace old-fashioned tales of magic and wonder. —Danny Graydon

An incredible collection of rare and previously unseen material, which shows the true versatility of the comics creator who is credited with turning comic strip into critically-acclaimed literature. Gathered from Gaiman's long career, and with unprecedented access having been given to the DC comics archive, it includes his early work on Death, John Constantine: Hellblazer and Swamp Thing as well as an exclusive, never-before-published, Sandman story, and features a new introduction by Gaiman himself.