Richard Garfinkle

In an alternate universe in which the Greek Empire has existed for a thousand years, Aias, a distinguished scientist of the Delian League, accompanied by Yellow Hare, a tough Spartan warrior woman, commands Earth's first expedition to the sun

Celestial Matters

Humanity has discovered an existence outside of Time, the Instant, from which all events, past and future, can be controlled, not realizing that the Instant also serves as a battleground for forces that would control all of reality.

All of an Instant

Peter Refton is a hunter of human lives. Across a score and more of Earths he has caught and captured the most fascinating and pivotal people. The knight who reformed Charlemagne's army. The bureaucrat who oversaw China's expansion and control. The inspirerer of wisdom in a million seekers of understanding. Peter Refton is that most dangerous of hunters: the biographer. He has made trophy-stories of so many, and boldly carries their lives around from world to world. Then one day, a story comes to hunt his life. Now, caught between worlds and aided by a knight, an ancestress, a sorceress and twin warriors, Peter Refton is on a Quest to -- To free himself from the coils of the most voracious of stories: the Quest. To fight the Quest itself and those who told the story onto him.

Exaltations

This book gives students and experienced programmers a way to see coding as an art and themselves as artists whose personal views, experiences, and ways of thinking can make their programs better for themselves and their users. This book shows in a good-humored and sympathetic way how the artistic and practical sides of programming are the same, delving into the methods of coding, the history of art, and the ways in which artists and audiences interact and benefit each other. Not confined to a single language or style of coding, this book provides a widely applicable framework for people to learn what languages and styles work best for them at present and as the field evolves. It can be used as a classroom text or for personal study and enrichment.

Computer Programming as Art

The Muse of Coding

David Garfinkle

X Marks the Spot is written from the point of view of the users of mathematics. Since the beginning, mathematical concepts and techniques (such as arithmetic and geometry) were created as tools with a particular purpose like counting sheep and measuring land areas. Understanding those purposes leads to a greater understanding of why mathematics developed as it did. Later mathematical concepts came from a process of abstracting and generalizing earlier mathematics. This process of abstraction is very powerful, but often comes at the price of intuition and understanding. This book strives to give a guided tour of the development of various branches of mathematics (and what they're used for) that will give the reader this intuitive understanding. Features Treats mathematical techniques as tools, and areas of mathematics as the result of abstracting and generalizing earlier mathematical tools Written in a relaxed conversational and occasionally humorous style making it easy to follow even when discussing esoterica. Unravels how mathematicians think, demystifying math and connecting it to the ways non-mathematicians think and connecting math to people's lives Discusses how math education can be improved in order to prevent future generations from being turned off by math.

The Lost Inheritance of Mathematics

X Marks the Spot

X Marks the Spot is written from the point of view of the users of mathematics. Since the beginning, mathematical concepts and techniques (such as arithmetic and geometry) were created as tools with a particular purpose like counting sheep and measuring land areas. Understanding those purposes leads to a greater understanding of why mathematics developed as it did. Later mathematical concepts came from a process of abstracting and generalizing earlier mathematics. This process of abstraction is very powerful, but often comes at the price of intuition and understanding. This book strives to give a guided tour of the development of various branches of mathematics (and what they’re used for) that will give the reader this intuitive understanding. Features Treats mathematical techniques as tools, and areas of mathematics as the result of abstracting and generalizing earlier mathematical tools Written in a relaxed conversational and occasionally humorous style making it easy to follow even when discussing esoterica. Unravels how mathematicians think, demystifying math and connecting it to the ways non-mathematicians think and connecting math to people’s lives Discusses how math education can be improved in order to prevent future generations from being turned off by math.

A thousand years after Alexander the Great, the Greek Empire has expanded over the world with the help of advanced technology. Its plans for Total Domination of the entire planet will be complete once the war with the empire of the middle kingdom has been won. The scientist Aias, commander of the celestial ship Chandra's Tear, prepares to embark on a secret mission to the sun, to steal a piece of the purest elemental fire. This ultimate piece of celestial matter will form the basis for a weapon capable of decisively ending the war with the Taoists of the Far East.

The discovery of a medium beyond time and space propells humans into an unexpected encounter with a new and violent realm they don't understand. Reprint.

If scientists can’t touch the Sun, how do they know what it’s made of? And if we can’t see black holes, how can we be confident they exist? Gravitational physicist David Garfinkle and his brother, science fiction writer Richard Garfinkle, tackle these questions and more in Three Steps to the Universe, a tour through some of the most complex phenomena in the cosmos and an accessible exploration of how scientists acquire knowledge about the universe through observation, indirect detection, and theory. The authors begin by inviting readers to step away from the Earth and reconsider our Sun. What we can directly observe of this star is limited to its surface, but with the advent of telescopes and spectroscopy, scientists know more than ever about its physical characteristics, origins, and projected lifetime. From the Sun, the authors journey further out into space to explore black holes. The Garfinkle brothers explain that our understanding of these astronomical oddities began in theory, and growing mathematical and physical evidence has unexpectedly supported it. From black holes, the authors lead us further into the unknown, to the dark matter and energy that pervade our universe, where science teeters on the edge of theory and discovery. Returning from the depths of space, the final section of the book brings the reader back down to Earth for a final look at the practice of science, ending with a practical guide to discerning real science from pseudoscience among the cacophony of print and online scientific sources. Three Steps to the Universe will reward anyone interested in learning more about the universe around us and shows how scientists uncover its mysteries.

From the Sun to Black Holes to the Mystery of Dark Matter

Three Steps to the Universe

Why this book? -- Sticks and stones -- Abstraction, mistrust, and laziness -- Algebra, geometry, analysis : the mathematical mindsets -- Analytic geometry -- Calculus : motion and size -- The language of motion -- Sound, notes, and harmonics -- Probability and statistics -- Other geometries : not so straight, these sticks -- Algebra and the rise of abstraction -- The smith and the knight -- Building the theoretical universe -- Computers -- The theoretical universe of modern physics : toolkit included -- Math education & math in education.

In his second novel Garfinkle shows again his own brand of large-scale imagination. All of an Instant is a groundbreaking SF novel that chronicles the discovery of a medium of existence outside of time--the Instant--from which one can influence all past and future history. War dominates this strange, abstract place--war among forces contending for control of all times and places.

Richard Garfinkle

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