Jack McDevitt brings back the daring Alex Benedict from "A Talent for War," thrusting him into a far-future tale of mystery and suspense that will lead the prominent antiquities dealer to the truth about an abandoned space yacht called the Polaris.

We are alone in the universe. After 1,000 years of searching humankind believes there is simply nothing out there. Space is a magnificent, but sterile wilderness. That's the received wisdom, anyway. But a new expedition investigating a mysteriously aborted mission 27 years earlier, is about to turn that wisdom on its head.

'Jack McDevitt is that splendid rarity, a storyteller first and a science fiction writer second . In his ability to absolutely rivet the reader, it seems to me that he is the logical heir to Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. If you've never read McDevitt before, you couldn't find a better book to start with than 'Slow Lightening', a nail-biting neo-Gothic tale that blends mystery, horror, and a fascinating look at how first contact with an utterly alien species might happen. I simply couldn't put it down – I was up until past midnight and loving every minute of it. Kim Brandywine is one of McDevitt's most engaging characters, both real and appealing. Snatch this baby up, all right? You're going to live it even if you think you don't like science fiction. You might even want to drop me a thank-you note for the tip before racing out to your local bookstore to pick up the Jack McDevitt backlist.'
STEPHEN KING

With Polaris, multiple Nebula Award-nominee Jack McDevitt reacquainted readers with Alex Benedict, his hero from A Talent for War. Alex and his assistant, Chase Kolpath, return to investigate the provenance of the cup. Alex and Chase follow a deadly trail to the Seeker - strangely adrift in a system barren of habitable worlds. But their discovery raises more questions than it answers, drawing Alex and Chase into the very heart of danger.

Howard Beach The Central Park Jogger The Assassination of Alan Berg Vincent Chin's Murder The Portland Skinhead Slaying Headlines scream of the latest in a wave of hate crime attacks. Hate crime-violence aimed at individuals because they are members of a particular group - were once considered the rare illegal actions of a small but vocal assortment of extremists who thrived on hating minorities. No more. Hate crimes have been sweeping the nation - as well as the world. They are happening in even the most unlikely of places. Whereas college campuses at one time epitomized the lofty principles of tolerance, diversity, and idealism, they have now become the repositories of hatred and division. Hate is hip on campus, as evidenced not only by the popularity of racist and misogynistic music, but by the recent rash of attacks against blacks, women, Asians, Latinos, Jews, and gays. These perceptive authors step back to reveal how the campus of hate has become a microcosm for the world at large. This expose by Jack Levin, one of America's leading sociologists and co-author of Mass Murder: America's Growing Menace, and Jack McDevitt, America's foremost authority on hate crimes, explores the spreading venom of prejudice and bigotry in our society and the world. They proclaim that political correctness - as in tolerance of diversity - is no longer deemed fashionable but, rather, obsolete. Organized hate groups have been taking our alienated youth by storm. But beyond bemoaning our present crisis, Levin and McDevitt set forth practical guidelines on how to stem the rising tide of hate. These experts persuasively argue that as the economic pie shrinks, a new type of terrorism is leaving a trail of bloodshed and destruction in its wake. For anyone who is different, the message of this new brand of terrorism is unmistakable: Either flee or be killed. These courageous and provocative analysts force us to face a spiraling problem around us as well as the prejudices within

Two science fiction masters--Jack McDevitt and Mike Resnick--team up to deliver a classic thriller in which one man uncovers the hidden history of the United States space program...
""Houston, we have a problem...""
Formerly a cynical, ambitious PR man, Jerry Culpepper finally found a client he could believe in when he was hired as NASA's public affairs director. Proud of the Agency's history and sure of its destiny, he was thrilled to be a part of its future.
But public disinterest and budget cuts changed that future. Now, a half century after the first Moon landing, Jerry feels like the only one with stars in his eyes.
Then a fifty-year-old secret about the Apollo XI mission is revealed, and he finds himself embroiled in the biggest controversy of the twenty-first century, one that will test his ability--and his willingness--to spin the truth about a conspiracy of reality-altering proportions...

The first Priscilla Hutchins novel
Humans call them the Monument-Makers. An unknown race, they left stunning alien statues on distant planets in the galaxy. Each relic is different. Each inscription defies translation. Yet all are heartbreakingly beautiful.
And for planet Earth, on the brink of disaster, they may hold the only key to survival for the entire human race.

Interstellar antiquities dealer Alex Benedict receives a cryptic message asking for help from celebrated writer Vicki Greene, who has been mind-wiped. She has no memory of her life, or of her plea for assistance. In helping her, Alex uncovers a secret connected to a decades-old political upheaval.

Sunset Tuttle spent a lifetime looking for alien species. Twenty-five years after Tuttle's death, Alex Benedict discovers a stone tablet inscribed with cryptic symbols, now in the possession of Tuttle's one- time lover Rachel Bannister. Benedict is determined to decipher its secret-one Bannister doesn't want revealed. Could it be that Tuttle's obsessive quest was successful?

'No one writing today is better than McDevitt at combining galaxy-spanning adventure with the genuine novel of ideas' Washington Post Book World A civilization-destroying Omega cloud has switched direction, heading straight for a previously unexplored planetary system - and its alien society. A handful of brave humans must try to save an entire world ... without revealing their existence. 'McDevitt handles the back story so adroitly that readers unfamiliar with earlier volumes in this series should have no trouble following the action' New York Times Book Review

A startling and majestic epic from Jack McDevitt, the Nebula Award-winning author of the Alex Benedict and the Priscilla Hutchins novels A working stargate dating back more than ten thousand years has been discovered on a Sioux reservation. Travel through the gate currently leads to three equally mysterious destinations: (1) an apparently empty garden world, quickly dubbed Eden; (2) a strange maze of underground passageways; or (3) a space station with a view of a galaxy that appears to be the Milky Way. The race to explore and claim the stargate quickly escalates, and those involved divide into opposing camps who view the teleportation technology either as an unprecedented opportunity for scientific research or a disastrous threat to national - if not planetary - security. One thing is for certain: questions about what the stargate means for humanity's role in the galaxy cannot be ignored. Especially since travel through the stargate isn't necessarily only one way...

COMING HOME, from veteran SF author Jack McDevitt, brings together interstellar travel, an 8,000-year-old mystery, and a dramatic mission to rescue 3,000 stranded spaceship passengers . 'The logical heir to Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke' Stephen King It's 1435 on Alex Benedict's world Rimway, eleven years since 3000 passengers boarded the Capella. The interstellar cruise ship is trapped in a transdimensional space warp, frozen in time. Just a few days have passed on board, and its inhabitants are oblivious to having lost the lives they knew. There is hope for a high-profile rescue attempt, but if it fails they may all die. As the Capella effort becomes increasingly difficult, Alex comes across a rare artifact dating back to the original NASA interstellar ships. The discovery arouses suspicions and Alex and his pilot Chase can uncover the truth only by returning to the museum-like planet Earth. As Chase is pulled into the Capella rescue mission, the entire human race watches and waits.

'No one writing today is better than McDevitt at combining galaxy-spanning adventure with the genuine novel of ideas' Washington Post Book World Two hundred years ago, humans made a stunning discovery in the far reaches of the solar system: a huge statue of an alien creature, with an inscription that defied all efforts at translation. Now, as faster-than-light drive opens the stars to exploration, humans are finding other relics of the race they call the Monument-Makers - each different, and each heartbreakingly beautiful. But except for a set of footprints on Jupiter's moon Iapetus, there is no trace of the enigmatic race that has left them behind. Then a team of scientists working on a dead world discover an ominous new image of the Monument-Makers. Somehow it all fits with other lost civilizations, and possibly with Earth's own future. And distant past. But Earth itself is on the brink of ecological disaster - there is no time to search for answers. Even to a question that may hold the key to survival for the entire human race.

'Jack McDevitt is that splendid rarity, a writer who is a storyteller first and a science fiction writer second. In his ability to absolutely rivet the reader, it seems to me that he is the logical heir to Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke' Stephen King Alex Benedict receives a cryptic message asking for help from celebrated writer Vicki Greene, who then voluntarily has her memory erased. She has no memory of her past life, or even of her plea for assistance. But she has transferred an enormous sum of money to Alex, also without explanation. The answers to this mystery lie on the most remote of human worlds. There Alex and his pilot companion, Chase Kolpath, will uncover a secret connected to a decades-old political upheaval, a secret that somebody desperately wants hidden, though the price of that silence is unimaginable.

Jack McDevitt's gripping SF adventure POLARIS once again proves this Nebula-Award winning author to be a master of the genre. 'Combines hard science fiction with mystery and adventure in a wild tour of the distant future. Stellar plotting, engaging characters, and a mastery of storytelling' Library Journal The luxury space yacht Polaris carried an elite group of the wealthy and curious thousands of light-years from Earth to witness a spectacular stellar phenomenon. It never returned. The search party sent to investigate found the Polaris empty and adrift in space, the fate of its pilot and passengers a mystery. Sixty years later, Alex Benedict is determined to find the truth about Polaris - no matter how far he must travel across the stars, no matter the risk.

On June 9-10, 1999, President Bill Clinton, Attorney General Janet Reno, civil rights leaders, police, and other government leaders participated in the Strengthening Police-Community Relationships conference in Washington, D.C. During the conference, President Clinton called racial profiling a "morally indefensible, deeply corrosive practice" and further stated that "racial profiling is in fact the opposite of good police work, where actions are based on hard facts, not stereotypes. It is wrong, it is destructive, and it must stop." As a result of increased national concern over racial profiling, the President directed federal agencies to begin gathering data on the race and ethnicity of persons stopped for future analysis. At a later session of the same conference, participants discussed the design and implementation of racial profiling data collection systems. That discussion featured presentations by state and local jurisdictions where efforts were already under way to collect data on the race, ethnicity, and gender of the individuals police stop. This guide is an outgrowth of that breakout session. As its title suggests, the guide is designed to provide law enforcement, state and local elected officials, civil rights leaders, community organizations, and other local stakeholders with strategies and practices for gathering and analyzing data about police stops. By providing information about the nature, characteristics, and demographics of police enforcement patterns, these data collection efforts have the potential for shifting the rhetoric surrounding racial profiling from accusations, anecdotal stories, and stereotypes to a more rational discussion about the appropriate allocation of police resources. Well-planned and comprehensive data collection efforts can serve as a catalyst for nurturing and shaping this type of community and police discussion. This guide is a blueprint that police and communities can use to develop data collection systems. It offers practical information about implementing these systems and analyzing the data. The guide is not intended to serve as a comprehensive and thorough inventory of all existing data collection systems. It focuses on providing detailed descriptions of data collection efforts in a few selected sites: San Jose, California, which has designed a simple letter-code system allowing information to be collected verbally (via radio) or by computer; San Diego, California, which utilizes an online data collection system; North Carolina, the first state to collect data on traffic stops pursuant to state legislation; Great Britain, which uses a paper based system to collect information on both traffic and pedestrian stops and searches; and New Jersey, which is collecting information on traffic stops pursuant to a consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). These sites were first identified by DOJ in preparation for the conference and represent various population sizes and geographic locations. Site visits were later made to obtain further information about each site's data collection process. Since the conference, there has been a flurry of activity in this area and hundreds of jurisdictions have begun to initiate data collection efforts. This resource guide is organized into four main sections: Chapter 2: An introduction to the nature of the problem of racial profiling; Chapter 3: A general description of data collection and its limitations; Chapter 4: Study-site descriptions and analysis; Chapter 5: Recommendations and future goals. The "selected site" approach of this resource guide is intended to encourage and guide police and communities as they begin to take action to evaluate allegations of racial profiling and to help police and communities learn from one another's experiences and successes.

A magazine of speculative fiction. Edited by Mike Resnick. Stories by Robert J. Sawyer, Kij Johnson, Nick DiChario, Lou J. Berger Jack McDevitt, Alex Shvartsman, Stephen Leigh, Robert T. Jeschonek and James Patrick Kelly. Columns by Barry Malzberg and Horace Cocroft. Book Reviews by Paul Cook.

Famine. Death. War. Pestilence. These are the harbingers of the biblical apocalypse, of the End of the World. In science fiction, the end is triggered by less figurative means: nuclear holocaust, biological warfare/pandemic, ecological disaster, or cosmological cataclysm. But before any catastrophe, there are people who see it coming. During, there are heroes who fight against it. And after, there are the survivors who persevere and try to rebuild. THE APOCALYPSE TRIPTYCH will tell their stories. Edited by acclaimed anthologist John Joseph Adams and bestselling author Hugh Howey, THE APOCALYPSE TRIPTYCH is a series of three anthologies of apocalyptic fiction. THE END IS NIGH focuses on life before the apocalypse. THE END IS NOW turns its attention to life during the apocalypse. And THE END HAS COME focuses on life after the apocalypse. THE END IS NIGH features all-new, never-before-published works by Hugh Howey, Paolo Bacigalupi, Jamie Ford, Seanan McGuire, Tananarive Due, Jonathan Maberry, Scott Sigler, Robin Wasserman, Nancy Kress, Charlie Jane Anders, Ken Liu, and many others.

This edited book significantly contributes to the knowledge on how to address gang problems from a broad community perspective, which takes into account criminal justice agencies, social service providers, and community leaders, along with police, who have implemented collaborative anti-gang policies and practices. As community-wide efforts become more common, it is increasingly important to investigate effective strategies to address social problems. Beyond Suppression: Community Strategies to Reduce Gang Violence explores a demonstration project of one state's efforts to reduce gang and youth violence through use of a comprehensive initiative, the Comprehensive Gang Model (CGM). The relevance of the CGM as a conceptual framework to guide gang policy and practice is illustrated throughout the book, and tailored gang reduction strategies derived from that framework and rooted in the ecological constitution of communities are showcased. The chapters highlight implementation strategies employed by various communities using a case study methodology that assists in garnering an in-depth perspective of implementation issues and key dimensions of the CGM. This book answers important questions about how communities operationalize the CGM. The results of these investigations are important for scholars, learners, and practitioners who seek to address gang violence using a customized response.

'You should definitely read Jack McDevitt' Gregory Benford Forty-one years ago, renowned physicist Dr. Christopher Robin vanished. Before his disappearance, his fringe science theories about the existence of endless alternate universes had earned him both admirers and enemies. Now his widow has died and Alex Benedict has been asked to handle the auction of the physicist's artifacts - leading the public to once again speculate on the mystery surrounding Robin's disappearance. Did he finally find the door between parallel universes that he had long sought? Intrigued, Alex Benedict and Chase Kolpath embark on their own investigation as they follow the missing man's trail into the unknown to uncover the truth - a truth people are willing to kill to protect...

'A writer who is a storyteller first and a science fiction writer second. In his ability to absolutely rivet the reader, it seems to me that he is the logical heir to Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke' Stephen King The universe has been explored - and humanity has all but given up on finding other intelligent life. Then an alien satellite orbiting a distant star sends out an unreadable signal. Is it the final programmed gasp of an ancient, long-dead race? Or the first greeting of an undiscovered life form?

From Nebula-Award winning Jack McDevitt comes the thrilling, edge-of-your-seat tale of interstellar pilot Priscilla 'Hutch' Hutchins's very first mission. Not to be missed by readers of Ray Bradbury and Joe Haldeman. Hutch has finally realised her dream: she's completed a nerve-bending qualification flight for a pilot's licence. Her timing is far from optimal, however. Faster-than-light travel has only recently become a reality and the World Space Authority is still learning how to manage long-range missions safely. To make matters worse, efforts to prepare two planets for colonization are killing off native life forms, outraging people on Earth. So interstellar pilots are not exactly in demand. Although Hutch fears her career may be over before it has begun, her ambition won't be denied and soon she is on the bridge of an interstellar ship, working for the corporation that is responsible for the terraforming. Her working conditions include bomb threats, sabotage, clashes with her employers ... and a mission to a world adrift between the stars which harbours a life form unlike anything humanity has ever seen. Ultimately, she will be part of a life and death struggle which will test not just her capabilities, but also her character.

'A writer who is a storyteller first and a science fiction writer second. In his ability to absolutely rivet the reader, it seems to me that he is the logical heir to Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke' Stephen King The year is 2255. The Academy that trained the starfarers is long gone and veteran pilot Priscilla 'Hutch' Hutchins spends her retirement supporting fund-raising efforts for The Prometheus Foundation, a privately funded organization devoted to deep space exploration. But when a young physicist unveils an efficient star drive capable of reaching the core of the galaxy, Hutch finds herself back in the deepest reaches of space, and on the verge of discovering the origins of the deadly Omega clouds that continue to haunt her.

'Why read Jack McDevitt? The question should be: Who among us is such a slow pony that s/he isn't reading McDevitt?' Harlan Ellison Sunset Tuttle spent his life searching in vain for forms of alien life. Thirty years after his death, a stone tablet inscribed with cryptic, indecipherable symbols is found in the possession of Tuttle's onetime lover, and antiquities dealer Alex Benedict is anxious to discover what secret the tablet holds. It could be proof that the eccentric Tuttle had found what he was looking for. To find out, Benedict and Chase Kolpath embark on their own voyage of discovery ... one that will lead them directly into the path of a very determined assassin who doesn't want those secrets revealed.