Mystery fiction. Adventure fiction. Book III of The Guild Trilogy: the adventure continues and the stakes are higher than ever. Becca and Doug are back at their old family home in Lucknow, India, where they discover research papers containing clues to their missing parents' expedition route and to the location of Ur-Can - the fabled Storm City. Soon they are on a perilous journey to the Takla Makan desert, racing against the enemy by steam train, riverboat, and airship across the Himalayas. But the race is on to take control of Ur-Can - ancient source of power and threat to the security of the planet. Can Becca, Doug and the Guild get there in time? And has their quest taught them enough to solve the final mystery of Storm City, or will they find their parents only to lose them again for ever?
This title finds Becca and Doug back at their old family home in Lucknow, India, where they discover research papers containing clues to their missing parents' expedition route and to the location of Ur-Can - the fabled Storm City.
This first of three tales begins the story of a sister and brother, who, while searching for their missing parents in 1920s Shanghai, uncover a mysterious secret society. Includes maps, documents, four full-color gatefolds, and extensive appendices and notes.
The riveting true story of Japan's top secret plan to change the course of World War II using a squadron of mammoth submarines a generation ahead of their time In 1941, the architects of Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor planned a bold follow-up: a potentially devastating air raid—this time against New York City and Washington, DC. The classified Japanese program required developing a squadron of top secret submarines—the Sen-toku or I-400 class—designed as underwater aircraft carriers, each equipped with three Aichi M6A1 attack bombers painted to look like U.S. aircraft. The bombers, called Seiran (which translates as “storm from a clear sky”), were tucked in a huge, water-tight hanger on the sub’s deck. The subs' mission was to travel more than halfway around the world, surface on the U.S. coast, and launch their deadly air attack. This entire operation was unknown to U.S. intelligence. And the amazing thing is how close the Japanese came to pulling it off. John Geoghegan’s meticulous research, including first-person accounts from the I-401 crew and the U.S. capturing party, creates a fascinating portrait of the Sen-toku's desperate push into Allied waters and the U.S. Navy's dramatic pursuit, masterfully illuminating a previously forgotten story of the Pacific war.
Integrating interviews with individuals ranging from senior policymakers to frontline soldiers, a look at the Persian Gulf War shows how the conflict transformed modern warfare.
Welcome to Steelhaven . . . Under the reign of King Cael the Uniter, this vast cityport on the southern coast has for years been a symbol of strength, maintaining an uneasy peace throughout the Free States. But now a long shadow hangs over the city, in the form of the dread Elharim warlord, Amon Tugha. When his herald infiltrates the city, looking to exploit its dangerous criminal underworld, and a terrible dark magick that has long been buried once again begins to rise, it could be the beginning of the end.
Each stage in the Gulf War, the liberation by American-led UN forces of Iraqi-occupied Kuwait in 1990-91, is vividly described in this photographic history. Over 180 photographs provide a remarkable visual account of Operation Desert Storm in the air, at sea and on land, and they show the vast array of military equipment deployed by both sides. ??Anthony Tucker-Jones, who worked at the time as an analyst for British Defence Intelligence, describes the armed forces that were ranged against each other, in total over a million troops, over 7000 armoured vehicles, 4600 artillery pieces, and thousands of aircraft. ??In a concise text he relates the key events in the short, intense conflict that followed the preliminary air campaign, the elimination of the Iraqi navy, the coalition's ground offensive, the tank battles in which American Abrams and British Challengers engaged Soviet-designed T-72 and T-62s, the Iraqi retreat, the death and destruction at the Muttla Pass, and the liberation of Kuwait City. ??The photographs, most of which have not been published before, give a powerful impression of the character of late-twentieth-century warfare. They also record a major conflict that has been overshadowed by the more recent war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
When President Clinton sent Richard Holbrooke to Bosnia as America's chief negotiator in late 1995, he took a gamble that would eventually redefine his presidency. But there was no saying then, at the height of the war, that Holbrooke's mission would succeed. The odds were strongly against it. As passionate as he was controversial, Holbrooke believed that the only way to bring peace to the Balkans was through a complex blend of American leadership, aggressive and creative diplomacy, and a willingness to use force, if necessary, in the cause for peace. This was not a universally popular view. Resistance was fierce within the United Nations and the chronically divided Contact Group, and in Washington, where many argued that the United States should not get more deeply involved. This book is Holbrooke's gripping inside account of his mission, of the decisive months when, belatedly and reluctantly but ultimately decisively, the United States reasserted its moral authority and leadership and ended Europe's worst war in over half a century. To End a War reveals many important new details of how America made this historic decision. What George F. Kennan has called Holbrooke's "heroic efforts" were shaped by the enormous tragedy with which the mission began, when three of his four team members were killed during their first attempt to reach Sarajevo. In Belgrade, Sarajevo, Zagreb, Paris, Athens, and Ankara, and throughout the dramatic roller-coaster ride at Dayton, he tirelessly imposed, cajoled, and threatened in the quest to stop the killing and forge a peace agreement. Holbrooke's portraits of the key actors, from officials in the White House and the Élysée Palace to the leaders in the Balkans, are sharp and unforgiving. His explanation of how the United States was finally forced to intervene breaks important new ground, as does his discussion of the near disaster in the early period of the implementation of the Dayton agreement. To End a War is a brilliant portrayal of high-wire, high-stakes diplomacy in one of the toughest negotiations of modern times. A classic account of the uses and misuses of American power, its lessons go far beyond the boundaries of the Balkans and provide a powerful argument for continued American leadership in the modern world.
Almost everything you know about airships is wrong. Between 1917 and 1935, the US Navy poured tens of millions of dollars into their airship programme, building a series of dirigibles each one more enormous than the last. These flying behemoths were to be the future of long-distance transport, competing with trains and ocean liners to carry people, post and cargo from country to country, and even across the sea. But by 1936 all these ambitious plans had been scrapped. What happened? When Giants Ruled the Sky is the story of how the American rigid airship came within a hair's breadth of dominating long-distance transportation. It is also the story of four men whose courage and determination kept the programme going despite the obstacles thrown in their way – until the Navy deliberately ignored a fatal design flaw, bringing the programme crashing back to earth. The subsequent cover-up prevented the truth from being told for more than eighty years. Now, for the first time, what really happened can be revealed.
