This is the first book to take a deep dive into the philosophical, social, moral, political, and religious issues tackled by Seth MacFarlane's marvelous space adventure, The Orville. These new essays explore what The Orville has to say on everything from climate change, artificial intelligence, and sexual assault, to gender, feminism, love, and care. Divided into six "acts" (just like every episode ofThe Orville), with the show as its backdrop, the book asks questions about the dangers of democracy and social media, the show's relationship to Star Trek and the puzzle of time travel.
This is the first book to take a deep dive into the philosophical, social, moral, political, and religious issues tackled by Seth MacFarlane's marvelous space adventure, The Orville. These new essays explore what The Orville has to say on everything from climate change, artificial intelligence, and sexual assault, to gender, feminism, love, and care. Divided into six "acts" (just like every episode ofThe Orville), with the show as its backdrop, the book asks questions about the dangers of democracy and social media, the show's relationship to Star Trek and the puzzle of time travel.
Four-time Emmy Award winner Seth MacFarlane creates a new sci-fi dramedy universe on the Fox Network with his new show, The Orville. MacFarlane plays Captain Ed Mercer, an officer in the Planetary Union in the 25th century who gathers a crew from the farthest reaches of the galaxy—his ex-wife included—to man the exploration vessel Orville and patrol the mysteries of deep space. Filled with alien species, exotic worlds, futuristic technology and awe-inspiring spaceships, this lavish companion to The Orville takes you behind the scenes through concept art, on-set photography and technical schematics to explore the show’s production design, costumes, makeup prosthetics and visual effects. This is the ultimate guide to this new space-faring epic adventure.
Join the starship Orville on these new missions set between seasons two and three of Seth MacFarlane’s hit sci-fi TV show! Across space and time, Captain Ed Mercer and his crew explore some of the galaxy’s greatest mysteries in these two thrilling adventures written by Executive Producer David A. Goodman. In “Digressions,” after being pulled into the future and then sent back with her memory intact, Kelly rejects Ed’s offer of a second date. As a result, she, Ed, Gordon, and Claire never end up serving aboard the Orville. When Kelly realizes this will result in the destruction of Earth, she races to unravel how to bring her would-have-been crewmates together and undo this alternate timeline before the Kaylon burn the galaxy to cinders. In “Artifacts,” Ed’s old astro-archeology teacher puts the Orville in grave danger when, in pursuit of a legendary fleet of starships from a lost civilization, he leads them into a system so hazardous no ship has ever successfully navigated it. Realizing that the professor hasn’t been entirely forthright, Ed must uncover the truth if the Orville is to survive this perilous endeavor. Collects The Orville #1: Digressions Part 1 of 2, The Orville #2: Digressions Part 2 of 2, The Orville #1: Artifacts Part 1 of 2, and The Orville #2: Artifacts Part 2 of 2.
A uniquely experienced observer of China gives us a sweeping historical novel that takes us on a journey from the rise of Mao Zedong in 1949 to the Tiananmen Square uprising in 1989, as a father and his son are swept away by a relentless series of devastating events. It’s 1950, and pianist Li Tongshu is one of the few Chinese to have graduated from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Engaged to a Chinese-American violinist who is the daughter of a missionary father and a Shanghai-born mother, Li Tongshu is drawn not just by Mao’s grand promise to “build a new China” but also by the enthusiasm of many other Chinese artists and scientists living abroad, who take hope in Mao’s promise of a rejuvenated China. And so when the recently established Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing offers Li Tongshu a teaching position, he leaves San Francisco and returns home with his new wife. But instead of being allowed to teach, Li Tongshu is plunged into Mao’s manic revolution, which becomes deeply distrustful of his Western education and his American wife. It’s not long before his son, Little Li, also gets caught up in the maelstrom of political and ideological upheaval that ends up not only savaging the Li family but, ultimately, destroying the essential fabric of Chinese society.
The literature on political machines of American mayors is rich and varied. Essentially undiscovered, however, is "Orvie," the most flamboyant and original of them all-and, on his home turf, arguably the most powerful. David L. Good describes the public and private life of Orville L. Hubbard, a man whose remarkable political career overlapped the terms of seven presidents. Hubbard was mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, home of the Ford Motor Company, from 1942 to 1978, ranking him as the second-longest-tenured mayor in U.S. history. He became a model for successful suburban leaders, establishing a reputation for outstanding municipal services and low taxes-as well as for the most notorious racist rhetoric north of the Mason-Dixon line. During his reign, Hubbard was compared with nearly all the tyrants of the twentieth century and some before. At his peak of some 350 pounds, Orvie was a blimp-shaped dreadnaught who set up a government in exile in Canada because sheriff's deputies were waiting to arrest him back home; was pictured in the newspapers on his way to the Republican National Convention disguised in a clown mask; and ordered his fire chief to take an axe to the office door of Henry Ford II. Acquitted in a federal civil rights case, Hubbard showed his appreciation to the jury by taking them out to dinner. After the 1967 riots in Detroit, Orvie threatened to "shoot looters on sight." Hubbard took over a town-the town run by the American legend Henry Ford-without a traditional party organization, extensive patronage, or other trappings of a political machine. The "Hubbard machine" was essentially a one-man operation, consisting of Hubbard himself who prevailed on the sheer force of his personality. David L. Good, who reported on Hubbard for eighteen years, bases his book on personal observation, public and private records, and interviews with Hubbard and family members. Although the book reads like the stuff of novels, Orvie: The Dictator of Dearborn is a serious study of one of the most controversial figures in American municipal government.
This fascinating firsthand account covers the Wright Brothers' early experiments, construction of planes and motors, first flights, and much more. Introduction and commentary by Fred C. Kelly. 76 photographs.
Stunning in its breadth and conclusions, The Age of Lincoln is a fiercely original history of the five decades that pivoted around the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. Abolishing slavery, the age's most extraordinary accomplishment, was not its most profound. The enduring legacy of the age of Lincoln was inscribing personal liberty into the nation's millennial aspirations. America has always perceived providence in its progress, but in the 1840s and 1850s pessimism accompanied marked extremism, as Millerites predicted the Second Coming, utopianists planned perfection, Southerners made slavery an inviolable honor, and Northerners conflated Manifest Destiny with free-market opportunity. Even amid historic political compromises the middle ground collapsed. In a remarkable reappraisal of Lincoln, the distinguished historian Orville Vernon Burton shows how the president's authentic Southernness empowered him to conduct a civil war that redefined freedom as a personal right to be expanded to all Americans. In the violent decades to follow, the extent of that freedom would be contested but not its central place in what defined the country. Presenting a fresh conceptualization of the defining decades of modern America, The Age of Lincoln is narrative history of the highest order.
Board the starship Orville and adventure through space on these new missions set between seasons two and three of Seth MacFarlane's hit sci-fi TV show! Executive Producer David A. Goodman writes a double feature that has Captain Ed Mercer and crew investigating an enigmatic alien device and contemplating the consequences of intervention when a primitive civilization faces an off-world threat. In "Launch Day," when seemingly hostile Krill ships cross into Union space, the Orville intercepts. Ed learns they are en route to a planet that left the Planetary Union decades ago under mysterious circumstances. Scans have discovered a moon-sized construct above the planet, and the Krill intend a preemptive strike against the presumed weapon. But is it? In "Heroes," Lieutenant Talla Keyali returns to a planet she surveyed as an Ensign when a quantum signature on the surface suggests significant technological advances since her last visit. Instead, she discovers a spacefaring species has subjugated the locals, transforming their once idyllic society into a grim mining operation. Stymied by the Union's hesitance to provoke hostilities, Talla must consider how far she's willing to go to help these people and the repercussions of doing so. Collects The Orville #1: Launch Day Part 1 of 2, The Orville #2: Launch Day Part 2 of 2, The Orville #3: Heroes Part 1 of 2, The Orville #4: Heroes Part 2 of 2.
America's foremost chronicler of contemporary China brilliantly illuminates the new power structure, economic initiatives, and cultural changes that have transformed China since the Tianamen Square massacre of 1989. "A rich portrait, capturing a fascinating and perhaps fateful moment in China's long, turbulent history".--Arnold R. Isaacs, San Francisco Chronicle.
