· 2021
From the award-winning author of the collection Every House Is Haunted comes Ian Rogers's horror story, "Shards", a Tor.com Original A group of five friends rent a cabin in the woods—the next day only four are alive. What happened and why is something the survivors are desperate to unravel. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
· 2020
A team of psychic investigators are assigned to examine the grisly death of a night watchman in an abandoned fish processing plant. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Excellent Ennui! Chess, so the theory goes, takes 10,000 hours of practice to master. Clearly not all of those hours will be enjoyable and studying 80 endgames featuring a specific isolated pawn is definitely not in the fun category. This is where The World’s Most Boring Chess Book comes in. What The World’s Most Boring Chess Book lacks in entertainment, it makes up in examples explaining how to push for a win in an endgame where one side is saddled with an isolated pawn, and how to defend against such efforts. The commentary which accompanies the deep analysis, makes the subject accessible but never easy: even the endgames with just kings and pawns are surprisingly challenging. Isolated pawns are one major type of technical position. One can find oneself in such a position from many different openings, or at the end of a middlegame or endgame battle. Hundreds of fascinating games have been played with an isolated pawn and Rogers and Hazai deeply analyse 80 of them in this book... [A] reader will learn which pieces it is better to exchange, when one can wait patiently, and when one needs to look for active counterplay... If you are not shy about working diligently and want to improve your technique, then this book is for you! – From the Foreword by Boris Gelfand Many chessplayers are uncomfortable in positions which have an isolated d-pawn. With the help of the authors, you will come to embrace these positions, whether on offence or defence. What excellent ennui!
This volume explores the ways in which music scenes are not merely physical spaces for the practice of collective musical life but are also inscribed with and enacted through the articulation of cultural memory and emotional geography. The book draws on empirical data collected in cites throughout Australia. In terms of understanding the relationship between music scenes and participants, much of the existing popular music literature tends to avoid one key aspect of scene: its predominant past-tense and memory-based nature. Nascent music scenes may be emergent and on-going but their articulation in the present is often based on past events, ideas and histories. There is a noticeable gap between the literature concerning popular music ethnography and the growing body of work on cultural memory and emotional geography. This book is a study of the conceptual formation and use of music scenes by participants. It is also an investigation of the structures underpinning music scenes more generally.
· 2021
Uh-oh! That doesn’t look right!? Who would be silly enough to resign a tournament game they were not losing? As Oops! I Resigned Again! shows, almost anyone – including some of the world’s best players! Learn the stories behind the most embarrassing moment any chessplayer can suffer, while trying to outmatch the poor, unfortunate player who resigned. Indeed, this is the only chess puzzle book where you cannot do worse than the player in the game! Pit your wits against legends such as Kramnik, Nunn, Tarrasch and Timman, knowing that they failed the test and that you can, perhaps, do better. Australian Grandmaster Ian Rogers has assembled 100 extraordinary positions in themed sets of five puzzles designed to both baffle and delight the solver, in a format which makes it easy to sneak a look at the answer! With a foreword written by US Olympian Sam Shankland – baring his soul about his own silly resignation at a top level tournament – Oops! I Resigned Again! is a rare treat for chessplayers of all strengths, who after finishing the book will fervently hope never to have to say... Oops!
· 2018
An epic motorbike ride from the UK through Europe, Asia and Mongolia to the outer reaches of Siberia. A book about the healing power of travel and motorcycling through an unknown landscape. Fully illustrated with the photographs the author took while on the journey. When his wife died tragically, Ian Rogers decided that to ride from London to Magadan, in Russia, would be his road to healing and recovery. Completing the Road of Bones on a motorcycle would be an escape route from the helplessness he had felt as he had nursed his wife through the cancer that he would in the end lose her to. It took him away from his work, his family, his normal life and gave him the time to grieve and put his world in perspective. No windows, no automatic transmission, no metal box protection and absolutely no safety belt, motorcycling fills your senses. Wind, rain, sunshine, smells and with your eyes always on the prize be it the idiot road users in built up areas or mile upon mile of breath-taking Monglian wilderness. Join the author for a journey of discovery through 15 countries, 11 time zones and 30,000 kilometres of Europe, Central Asia and the Far East. An adventure story as well as a homage to the author’s wife, this is diary of a journey to places people do not normally think of visiting, or know anything about. ‘It’s good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters in the end.’ Ursula Le Guin, author.
· 2020
Oops! He’s Back! Australian Grandmaster Ian Rogers is back with a new book of silly resignation puzzles - the only chess puzzle book where your solution cannot be worse than the player who mistakenly abandoned the game! Pit your wits against legends from yesteryear to today, from Anderssen to Korchnoi to Gelfand, knowing that they resigned their games unnecessarily and you, perhaps, could have found a way out. Oops! I Resigned One More Time! is the sequel to Oops! I Resigned Again!, which has gained a cult following since its release in 2021. Marvel again at 100 extraordinary positions and the stories behind them, in themed sets of five, with sneaking a peek at the answers made easy. What the Critics Said About Oops! I Resigned Again! “Oops! I Resigned Again! is the most hilarious and unputdownable chess puzzle book I have ever seen.” Welsh Olympian Manny Rayner “There’s a can’t-turn-your-head-away car crash quality to many of these positions.” David Sands, Washington Times “It is difficult to write a truly original book, but Grandmaster Ian Rogers has done just that with Oops! I Resigned Again! The rare chess book I can warmly recommend to chess players of all levels.” US Olympic Captain John Donaldson “I could easily imagine resigning a few of these games myself! Pretty hilarious
· 2019
There are haunted places in the world, every bit as tangible and accessible as the house next door. . .
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Released in 1996, Kitten Licks catapulted Brisbane indie-rock three-piece Screamfeeder into the '90s alternative-rock boom alongside Powderfinger, silverchair, You Am I and Regurgitator. International tours, regular festival shows, and TV appearances followed. And yet, commercial success for Screamfeeder was comparatively short-lived. By the end of the decade, the band's outlook was bleak: at a career standstill and unable to record new music. Today, both Screamfeeder and Kitten Licks endure as fiercely loved cult icons. In its vitality and idiosyncrasy, Kitten Licks captures a moment of cresting change for a band, a city and a national scene, while continuing to delight and inspire those who discover it anew. This book tells the story of Kitten Licks in the words of those who lived it, and who still do. How it was made, how it was swept up into '90s mythology and what the journey tells us about the fickle nature of music production in Australia, namely: how to survive it.