Oh! The Mountain of TBRs!

IF KNOWLEDGE WAS POWER, CECIL ADAMS WOULD RULE THE WORLD!
It's true! For the past twenty-five years, in his books and weekly newspaper column, world-history genius Cecil Adams has been patiently explaining to the Teeming Millions how the world works. He answered questions such as how do porcupines mate, what exactly does Barney Rubble do for a living, and where is Einstein's brain? His answers changed your life. Or at least settled a bet with a loved one. But surely, you are thinking, all the salient facts of the universe have been ascertained by now. Ha! Get a load of the mysteries The Master explores in this landmark volume:

¸ If Teflon is such a nonsticky substance, how do they get it to stick to the pan?
¸ Is the Great Cabal implanting microchips in our brains?
¸ Do fluorescent lights cause cataracts?
¸ What do Scotsmen wear under those kilts?
¸ Can some people extinguish street lamps by force of their bodily emanations?
¸ Is the U.S. Government really hiding alien spaceships?

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations is the foundation of classical economics, and it has influenced a broad range of thinkers. Smith stresses the importance of the division of labor to economic progress. He criticizes the arguments for economic planning and offers a detailed theoretical and historical case for free trade.

The first tape in the set examines the basic problems addressed by Adam Smith in the context of the Scottish Enlightenment. This intellectual revival during the late 18th century produced many outstanding thinkers in addition to Smith, such as the philosopher David Hume. This tape also discusses Adam Smith's general approach to philosophy and how The Wealth of Nations fits into that approach.

The second tape covers some major themes in The Wealth of Nations, a lengthy and complex book. These include the division of labor, the idea of an unplanned social order (the famous "invisible hand"), Adam Smith's theory of economic value and its influence on later thinkers, and Smith's defense of free trade.

Some of Smith's arguments are difficult to follow for the modern reader. The third and fourth tapes explain Smith's major arguments in the order they appear in The Wealth of Nations, while providing the background necessary for comprehension. These tapes follow the five books of The Wealth of Nations and explain how their seemingly diverse themes related to Smith's general purpose. Far more than a work on economic theory, The Wealth of Nations contains philosophy, history, and political theory.

One more collection of Soviet SF stories now lies in your hands. Seven stories by ten authors. Like ten people talking around one table. Collections of stories by different writers always resemble round-table conferences. All the more so is this true of science fiction, as a genre that bubbles with polemic zest. Indeed, I would compare this more to a students' debating society in some smoke-filled room, in whose blue haze the flushed faces and flashing eyes can barely be distinguished. Here, one declaims with inspired ardour, another grins wryly, as he intersperses some snide remark, a third thumps the table, his voice hoarse with passion.
Students, indeed, most young folk, for that matter, adore to talk of love and learning, of life and its meaning, of virtuous and wicked ways, of the problems that face man today and tomorrow, and of how all this is expressed by writer and artist. Science fiction, in effect, does the same, with, perhaps, as is only natural, a somewhat greater emphasis on the problems of tomorrow and of how best to convey their substance.

Soviet SF lies well within the mainstream of Soviet writing, generally, and is as diverse in theme and imagery. In the fifty odd years of its existence, its course has been a chequered one, veering with all the turns in the tide of Soviet history, particularly during the times of the First Five -Year Plan and World War Two, but more so, when Sputnik shot up to furrow the unexplored outer fields of space, and the now famous dispute between poet and physicist began.

Some twenty seven years ago, Boris Slutsky, a rather well-known Soviet poet - who is no writer of SF, mind you! - produced the following quatrain, which is often quoted in this country:

It is the poet versus physicist;
One is out, the other in, today.
Perhaps a general law is this,
And no accidental step astray?

Soviet science fiction also has its physicists and its poets. The physicists believe in the omnipotence of the exact sciences, in mathematics and the machine. They claim that every single problem can be pinned down to the drawing board and can be solved in laboratory retorts, that everything can be done by computer and robot. The poets are sceptical. Not for them are the formulas of the physicists, but rather the feelings and promptings of the heart. True enough, the machine can make life easier; but, they say, it can also become an onerous, oppressive burden.

This book, as you will have probably noticed, is entitled Journey Across Three Worlds. It is called thus after the novelet presented herein by the Abramovs, father and son. No generational animosity here, as you see! Quite the contrary. One is Seventy odd years old, the other only thirty, one is a professional writer, with numerous novels, stories and essays to his credit, the other is an engineer of the breed inspired by Sputnik, and for whom all of Soviet SF that came before serves as but the launching pad for blasting off into the incredible unknown. And, indeed, everything that comes from under their pen - pens? - is steeped in the latest and most unbelievable of hypotheses, in the wildest of fantasies and conjectures. This time it is parallel worlds, but elsewhere it may be extragalactic visitors, invested with an aura of unfathomable power, or the duplication not just of things and inanimate objects, but also of people, whole cities, countries, an even whole epochs, what is sometimes known as the split-image theme.

"Horsemen from Nowhere" is a science-fiction story about the arrival on earth of mysterious rose-colored clouds from deep space. Members of the Soviet Antarctic expedition are the first to meet them in a series of inexplicable events. The "clouds" are seen to be removing the Antarctic ice-cap and carrying it off into space. They are capable of reproducing any kind of atomic structure, and this goes for human beings as well. The heroes of the story meet their "counterparts," come upon a duplicated airliner, journey through a modeled city, and fight Gestapo policemen that have been reconstructed from the past by these same mysterious "clouds."
Scientists are unable to explain why terrestrial life is being modeled. All attempts to contact the space beings fail. In the end, however, Soviet scientists penetrate the enigma of the rose clouds and establish contact with a highly developed extragalactic civilization.

The Abramovs are a father and son writing team. No generational animosity here, as you see! Quite the contrary. One is seventy odd years old, the other only thirty, one is a professional writer, with numerous novels, stories and essays to his credit, the other is an engineer of the breed inspired by Sputnik, and for whom all of Soviet SF that came before serves as but the launching pad for blasting off into the incredible unknown. And, indeed, everything that comes from under their pen - pens? - is steeped in the latest and most unbelievable of hypotheses, in the wildest of fantasies and conjectures

Here is the explosive conclusion of the blockbuster trilogy that chronicles the never-before-told story of the young Han Solo. Set before the Star Wars(r) movie adventures, these books chronicle the coming-of-age of the galaxy's most famous con man, smuggler, and thief.

The Millennium Falcon is "the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy." So when Han Solo wins it in a game of sabacc, he and Chewbacca become kings of the smugglers—uncatchable, unstoppable. But with the Empire clamping down, Han knows his luck can't last. Still, when an old girlfriend who is now the leader of an insurgent Rebel group offers him a shot at an incredible fortune, Han can't resist. The plan seems a sure thing. The resistance will be light and the take enormous. Han and his friends will divide it equally with the Rebels. Too bad for Han that the planet of Ylesia is far from a pushover, that the Rebels have an agenda of their own, and that smuggler friends can often turn into enemies...quicker than lightspeed.

Here is the second novel in the blockbuster new trilogy that reveals the never-before-told story of the young Han Solo. Set before the Star Wars(r) movie adventures, these books chronicle the coming-of-age of the galaxy's most famous con man, smuggler and thief.
Solo is now a fugitive from the Imperial Navy. But he has made a valuable friend in a former Wookiee slave named Chewbacca, who has sworn Han a life debt. Han will need all the help he can get. For the Ylesian Hutts have dispatched the dreaded bounty hunter Boba Fett to track down the man who already outsmarted them once. But Han and Chewie find themselves in even bigger trouble when they agree to lend their services to the crime lords Jiliac and Jabba the Hutt. Suddenly the two smugglers are thrust into the middle of a battle between the might of the Empire and the treachery of their outlaw allies...a battle where even victory means death!

Here is the first book in the blockbuster trilogy that chronicles the never-before-told story of the young Han Solo. Set before the Star Wars movie adventures, these books chronicle the coming-of-age of the galaxy's most famous con man, smuggler, and thief.

The first book in this exciting new Han Solo series begins with a recounting of Han's late teen years and shows us how he escaped an unhappy adopted home situation to carve out an adventurous new life for himself as a pilot. Han Solo, the handsome rogue, is every girl's dream man, and every boy's hero. The Paradise Snare is another stellar Star Wars production, complete with original music and sound effect