Urban City

The captivating dystopian trilogy that began with Gilded Cage continues. In a modern Britain where magic users control wealth, politics - and you - an uprising has been crushed. In its aftermath, two families will determine the country's fate. The ruthless Jardines make a play for ultimate power. And the Hadleys, once an ordinary family, must find the extraordinary strength to fight back.

Darcy Newhart thought it was a stroke of genius—the first–ever reality TV show where mortals vie with vampires for the title of The Sexiest Man on Earth. As the show's director, Darcy's career would be on track again. And she can finally have a life apart from the vampire harem. Okay, so she's still technically dead, but two out of three's not bad. Now she just has to make sure that a mortal doesn't win. If only she wasn't so distracted by a super-sexy and live contestant named Austin....

Nothing ruins your day more than a bloated, stinking corpse on your doorstep. My natural optimism has taken a serious beating lately. I’ve been working my butt off, drafting a series of outreach programs to help the poor, lost supe kids of the Hidden City before they fall through the cracks in our society and end up in our Otherworld Child Protective system. There’s one thing I desperately need, and that’s funding. But there’s no money to be had. Nobody wants to invest in these kids; it’s enough to break your heart.

The preeminent sociologist Richard Sennett traces the anguished relation between how cities are built and how people live in them, from ancient Athens to twenty-first-century Shanghai. He shows how Paris, Barcelona, and New York City assumed their modern forms; rethinks the reputations of Jane Jacobs, Lewis Mumford, and others; and takes us on a tour of emblematic contemporary locations, from the backstreets of Medellin, Colombia, to Google headquarters in Manhattan.

Legal scholar and architect Sara C. Bronin examines how zoning became such a prevailing force and reveals its impact. Outdated zoning codes have maintained racial segregation, prioritized cars over people, and enabled great ecological harm. But, as Bronin argues, once we recognize the power of zoning, we can harness it to create the communities we desire, and deserve. Drawing on her own experience leading the overhaul of Hartford's zoning code and exploring the efforts of activists and city planners across the country, Bronin shows how new codes are reshaping our cities.

In recent years the young, educated, and affluent have surged back into cities, reversing decades of suburban flight and urban decline. And yet all is not well, Richard Florida argues in The New Urban Crisis. Florida demonstrates how the same forces that power the growth of the world's superstar cities also generate their vexing challenges: gentrification, unaffordability, segregation, and inequality.

In a near future where climate change has severely affected weather and agriculture, the North End of an unnamed city has long been abandoned in favor of the neighboring South End. Aside from the scavengers steadily stripping the empty city to its bones, only a few thousand people remain, content to live quietly among the crumbling metropolis. Many, like the narrator, are there to try to escape the demons of their past. He spends his time observing and recording the decay around him, attempting to bury memories of what he has lost.

When you get up in the morning, the last thing you expect to see is a murdered guy hanging outside your window. Things like that tend to draw the attention of the local police, and when you're squatting in your parents' old house until you can afford to buy it, another thing you can't afford is the attention of the cops. Oh yeah. Hi. My name is Pet. It's not my real name, but it's the only one you're getting.

Times are truly desperate within Averalaan's hundred holdings, and Jewel MArkess and her den are finding it hard to survive. Then suddenly their mentor, Rath, orders them to avoid the ancient Undercity beneath Averlaan's streets, cutting them off from their main source of income. Yet Rath himself refuses to heed the warnings of Jewel's seer dreams. Instead, he allies with the mages of the Order of Knowledge in a secret war against demonic foes, knowing he'll be targeted for death - or worse.

It's tough being a faery in New Orleans, a city fraught with vampires...especially when their very existence drains your life force. Willow Rhoswen, owner of The Fated Cupcake and part-time vampire hunter for the Void is having a rough week. Four years after her twin brother's mysterious death, Willow's life is threatened and the director saddles her with a new partner-her ex-boyfriend, David. To her horror, he's turned vamp, which causes her physical pain whenever she touches him

Jane Finch wishes her problems ended with a bad commute and no coffee. But when she and her beloved Great Dane, Schrodinger, emerge from a locked room they discover a city changed for the undead. Zombies are everywhere. Some are endlessly cycling through their last actions, others have turned feral—and hungry. Jane and Schroddie's best chance for survival? Reaching her parents' bunker on the city's north shore. Not an easy commute on foot—when surrounded by zombies. Dodging stray bullets and feral zombies is one thing. But soon Jane realizes one of the zombies is following her.

Move America's capital to another city? To Alexander Robey Shepherd, the solution to Washington, DC's problems was clear: modernization. Shepherd took on the monumental task of improving roadways and drinking water, adding street gaslights, and planting trees.

Mya's world is falling apart. After a series of earthquakes, deadly animals with glowing red eyes begin attacking people and start the spread of a zombie-like plague. Safety is just a memory as she tries to make her way home. When a different creature attacks the people helping her reach Oklahoma City, Mya is sure she'll never see the light of another day. Despite his eerie green eyes and very sharp teeth, the grey-skinned creature is more intelligent and humanlike than he first appears. He's determined to keep Mya by his side and protect her.

The year is 2072, and Deacon City, a metropolis mirroring the restless pulse of modern-day Los Angeles, evolves into a sprawling urban maze where danger lurks at every corner. Time slips by, thirty years since the last Mortal Kombat tournament, yet the city's underbelly still simmers with the embers of old rivalries. For its inhabitants, Deacon City is both a glittering beacon of opportunity and a treacherous pit of vice. Petty crimes and criminal activities have become woven into the fabric of daily life, thriving in the shadowy alleys and neon-lit streets.

Found wandering the Witch Woods as a child, everything about Sophia is a mystery. With no memories and no family, she’s raised in secret by the professors of Nighthelm Academy...all of whom know far more about her than they’re letting on. But Sophia does know one thing: she’s a contritum, a magical being with a broken soul. Her very existence is illegal, and until she finds the other piece of her soul, her uncontrollable magic will only grow more deadly and untamed. Then she discovers three men who hold a mysterious sway over not just her soul, but also her heart.

Addy Loest is harbouring a secret - several, in fact. Dedicated overthinker, frockaholic and hard-partier, she’s been doing all she can to avoid the truth for quite some time. A working-class girl raised between the Port Kembla Steelworks and the surf of the Illawarra coast, Addy is a fish out of water at the prestigious University of Sydney. She’s also the child of German immigrants, and her broken-hearted widower dad won’t tell her anything about her family’s tragic past.

Even if you only have a tiny balcony to work with, you can grow fresh food and flowers there. You've probably already considered container gardening - but what about vertical gardening with vining plants that can grow up the wall or using a vertical aeroponics gardening system that can grow 20+ plants in a four square foot area?

Following on the success of his first two story collections, ghost-walk guide and host of the Ghosts ‘N Bears Podcast Ian Gibbs returns to Calgary, the city of his childhood, to reckon with his earliest experiences of the supernatural, corroborate some of the city’s better known hauntings—think Heritage Park, Fort Calgary, and the Stampede Grandstand—and uncover many more. These thirty stories range from heritage homes and official historic sites, to strip malls and suburban basements.

Thirteen hundred years ago, the conquering wizard, Nasoj, cast three great spells on the people of Metamor Keep. Fueled by the power of the dark gods, these spells would irrevocably change the castle's defenders in body and soul, rendering them helpless against his advancing armies. Things did not work out as he hoped. The spells were countered, but only partially. They wove together with the castle's own magic, becoming a curse that blanketed the entire valley.

Lucid, forward-looking, and guided by a level-headed optimism that clearly distinguishes between genuine progress and exaggerated claims, Emerald Cities points the way toward a sustainable future for the American city.