Asteria is dying. Its kingdoms are fractured, its people warring, its magic faltering—and anyone who could save it has vanished. On Earth, Conor will do whatever it takes to keep her head down and her sister alive. She’s a shadow in her own life—until the night her classmate Jaime drags her into the woods and through a rift between worlds. Trapped in the mysterious realm of Asteria, Conor has no choice but to flee with him through dark forests and even darker tunnels. As they race to evade prowling fexes and sentinels, she searches for something—anything—that could get her home. She’s not the only one desperate to escape. In the sea’s shadowy depths, a thief and an assassin hunt for answers that might save their doomed city. Atop floating towers, a reluctant queen uncovers ancient secrets. As storms rise and dragons stir, she longs only to disappear. Across the wintry meadows below, an exiled heir fights to outwit an unsettling captor—all while plotting to reclaim her stolen throne. Their paths are converging. Something in Asteria is waking. And nothing will ever be the same.

Viola Bowen has the chance of a lifetime: to design a video game based on her all-time favorite book series. The only problem? Her co-lead is Jesse F-ing Andrews, a.k.a. her arch-nemesis. Jesse has made it abundantly clear over the years that he wants nothing to do with her–and Viola has no idea why. When their bosses insist a wintery retreat is the perfect team-building exercise, Viola can’t think of anything worse. Being freezing cold in a remote mountain lodge knowing Jesse is right next door? No, thank you. But as the snow piles on, Viola discovers there’s more to Jesse than she knew, and heat builds in more ways than one.

Viola Bowen has the chance of a lifetime: to design a video game based on her all-time favorite book series. The only problem? Her co-lead is Jesse F-ing Andrews, a.k.a. her arch-nemesis. Jesse has made it abundantly clear over the years that he wants nothing to do with her–and Viola has no idea why. When their bosses insist a wintery retreat is the perfect team-building exercise, Viola can’t think of anything worse. Being freezing cold in a remote mountain lodge knowing Jesse is right next door? No, thank you. But as the snow piles on, Viola discovers there’s more to Jesse than she knew, and heat builds in more ways than one.

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “An informed and entertaining guide to what science can and cannot tell us.” — The Wall Street Journal “Stimulating . . . encourage[s] readers to push past well-trod assumptions […] and have fun doing so.” — Science Magazine From renowned physicist and creator of the YouTube series “Science without the Gobbledygook,” a book that takes a no-nonsense approach to life’s biggest questions, and wrestles with what physics really says about the human condition Not only can we not currently explain the origin of the universe, it is questionable we will ever be able to explain it. The notion that there are universes within particles, or that particles are conscious, is ascientific, as is the hypothesis that our universe is a computer simulation.  On the other hand, the idea that the universe itself is conscious is difficult to rule out entirely.    According to Sabine Hossenfelder, it is not a coincidence that quantum entanglement and vacuum energy have become the go-to explanations of alternative healers, or that people believe their deceased grandmother is still alive because of quantum mechanics. Science and religion have the same roots, and they still tackle some of the same Where do we come from? Where do we go to? How much can we know? The area of science that is closest to answering these questions is physics. Over the last century, physicists have learned a lot about which spiritual ideas are still compatible with the laws of nature. Not always, though, have they stayed on the scientific side of the debate. In this lively, thought-provoking book, Hossenfelder takes on the biggest questions in Does the past still exist? Do particles think? Was the universe made for us? Has physics ruled out free will? Will we ever have a theory of everything? She lays out how far physicists are on the way to answering these questions, where the current limits are, and what questions might well remain unanswerable forever. Her book offers a no-nonsense yet entertaining take on some of the toughest riddles in existence, and will give the reader a solid grasp on what we know—and what we don’t know.

Very Short Introductions Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring Philosophy of physics is concerned with the deepest theories of modern physics--notably quantum theory, our theories of space, time and symmetry, and thermal physics--and their strange, even bizarre conceptual implications. A deeper understanding of these theories helps both physics, through pointing the way to new theories and new applications, and philosophy, through seeing how our worldview has to change in the light of what we learn from physics. This Very Short Introduction explores the core topics in philosophy of physics through three key themes. The first-- the nature of space, time, and motion--begins by considering the philosophical puzzles that led Isaac Newton to propose the existence of absolute space, and then discusses how those puzzles change--but do not disappear-- in the context of the revolutions in our understanding of space and time that came first from special, and then from general, relativity. The second--the emergence of irreversible behavior in statistical mechanics--considers how the microscopic laws of physics, which know of no distinction between past and future, can be compatible with the melting of ice, the cooling of coffee, the passing of youth, and all the other ways in which the large-scale world distinguishes past from future. The last section discusses quantum theory--the foundation of most of modern physics, yet mysterious to this day. It explains just why quantum theory is so difficult to make sense of, how we might nonetheless attempt to do it, and why the question has been highly relevant to the development of physics, and continues to be so. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.