故事從 1914 年揭開序幕，距離達爾文的小獵犬號遠航，轉眼已經八十年過去。然而在《利維坦》的世界裡，他不只是發表了《物種原始》、奠定現代生物學的基礎，更發現了「生命線」（life thread, 也就是 DNA），永遠改變了世界。如今英法兩國的自然學者已經完全掌握了「合成物種」的奧秘，開啟了一個輝煌的生物科技時代。工業革命的燃煤黑煙不再，取而代之的各式各樣的合成獸，或行走於倫敦街頭、或遨翔於首都上空。
在這個被稱為「達爾文主義者」（Darwinists）的世界裡，由猛馬象改造成的長途載具取代了火車，力大無窮的狼虎合成獸成了主要的拉車馱獸，巨型飛空艇乃是帶有鯨魚基因的完整的生態系，藉由棲息其間的蜜蜂和鳥類帶回的食物排放氫氣，因而能騰空飛行。為了防止巨鯨體內的氫氣外洩，引起爆炸，自然學者又造出六隻腳的嗅氫犬（hydrogen sniffer）。空戰的主力包括吞食鐵釘而後排泄射出的飛鏢蝙蝠，以及能灑下劇毒網的戰鷹。除此之外，還有能夠「錄製」人類聲音的傳話蜥蜴（message lizard）。
與英法敵對的勢力，則是由德意志帝國和奧匈帝國組成的「叮噹同盟」（Clankers），他們信仰天主教，把達爾文主義者的生物科技視為褻瀆上帝之舉。他們相信機械的力量，製造出陸行戰艦、高速機動偵察車、搭載重機槍和主砲的人形「暴風行者」（Stormwalker）戰具。Clank 原意為金屬碰撞的叮噹聲，後為達爾文主義者便稱他們為「叮噹人」（Clanckers）。《利維坦》的兩位主角恰好來自敵對陣營，被捲入一場即將延燒全球的超級大戰。
男主角亞歷山大（Aleksandar）是奧地利斐迪南大公的獨子，但因為母親沒有皇族血統，他不能繼承父親的爵位或領土。當被大公夫婦在塞拉耶佛遇刺身亡後，亞歷立刻被帶上一具「暴風行者」，連夜逃離奧地利。表面上這是一樁綁架行動，實際上卻是大公的先見之明，他知道自己的和平主張終將引來殺機，為了保護兒子免受政敵迫害，便託付摯友瓦格伯爵（Count Volger）帶亞歷逃走。
斐迪南夫婦的暗殺事件，使得原本便一觸即發的歐洲局勢，終於全面爆發衝突。奧匈帝國立刻向塞爾維亞宣戰，而俄國為了履行盟約，立即向奧地利宣戰，接著德國向俄國宣戰，法國向德國宣戰，戰爭有如骨牌效應，在全歐蔓延開來。亞歷在瓦格伯爵和機械長柯羅普（Klopp）的引導下，一邊學習駕駛機器人，一邊躲避來自德奧兩國的追兵，前往目的地：中立國瑞士。
在遙遠的英國，女主角戴琳‧夏普（Deryn Sharp）來到首都倫敦，準備女扮男裝用「戴倫」的身份加入皇家空軍，如此才能和已經入伍的哥哥在一起。她來自蘇格蘭，從小嚮往飛行，並從父親那邊學到駕馭合成獸升空的秘訣。誰知她才第一天參加新兵選拔，就因為自告奮勇乘「赫胥黎」（Huxley，一種水母改造的合成獸，能夠產生氫氣升空，類似熱氣球）升空試膽，被暴風吹離市區，一路飄流，最後被巨型飛空艇「利維坦號」搭救，成了船上一員。
眼看英國參戰在即，「利維坦號」奉命返回倫敦，搭載一位科學家和外交官，緊急前往君士坦丁堡，執行秘密外交任務。飛船在倫敦動物園降落，戴琳驚訝地發現科學家竟是個女博士，而且還是達爾文的孫女！這位諾拉博士莫測高深，隨身的「寵物」是一隻長得很奇怪的袋狼（thycaline, 又稱「塔斯馬尼亞虎」，現已絕種），除了大批行李，她還帶了一個超重的保溫箱！
朝土耳其飛去的途中，「利維坦號」遭到德國空軍襲擊，迫降阿爾卑斯山上。本來這個生態系只要有花草植物就能自給自足，修補損傷重新出發，偏偏他們落在海拔數千公尺、花草不生的雪地裡，孤立無援。誰知失事地點正好在亞歷的藏身處附近：斐迪南大公十五年前便相中這裡的一座荒廢城堡，將內部整修後準備了超過十年份的糧食物資，為的就是要讓兒子在此躲避戰亂。
亞歷不顧瓦格伯爵的勸阻，執意向「利維坦號」伸出援手，雙方歷經猜疑、誤解到抱持戒心的互助，這時德意志大軍開到，包括最新式的八足陸上戰艦，以及會發射燃燐照明彈，足以瞬間引爆氫氣的偵察車。「利維坦號」能否擊退敵人、逃出生天？亞歷的皇儲身份和戴琳的真實性別會不會被揭穿？諾拉博士的秘密任務究竟又是什麼？

From Library Journal
This is an ambitious attempt to define and summarize ``cognitive science,'' a new field of scientific inquiry and knowledge. The author, a leading authority and researcher in this area, writes in a clear, accessible manner; yet, his book conveys the tremendous scope and complexity of this burgeoning field. He convincingly links such seemingly disparate areas as linguistics, computer science, cognitive psychology, structural anthropology, and neuroscience, and attempts to integrate both their historical development and underlying approaches to cognition. Recommended for scholars as an introductory text and for informed laypersons who want a thorough and fascinating grounding in the study of the mind and how it works.

This comprehensive overview of the history of computing and its industry, and of commercial applications of the computer also outlines the history of how computing operations were managed within American companies. Based on extensive research in the contemporary business literature, this work is one of the few which looks at computing as business history, and it is the first to look at the broad scope of computing from the perspective of the business historian. The work is also directed at business managers to help them appreciate and understand the uses of the computer in their firms.

While we have been preoccupied with the latest i-gadget from Apple and with Google's ongoing expansion, we may have missed something: the fundamental transformation of whole firms and industries into giant information-processing machines. Today, more than eighty percent of workers collect and analyze information (often in digital form) in the course of doing their jobs. This book offers a guide to the role of information in modern business, mapping the use of information within work processes and tracing flows of information across supply-chain management, product development, customer relations, and sales. The emphasis is on information itself, not on information technology. Information, overshadowed for a while by the glamour and novelty of IT, is the fundamental component of the modern corporation. In Information and the Modern Corporation, longtime IBM manager and consultant James Cortada clarifies the differences among data, facts, information, and knowledge and describes how the art of analytics has all but eliminated decision making based on gut feeling, replacing it with fact-based decisions. He describes the working style of "road warriors," whose offices are anywhere their laptops and cell phones are and whose deep knowledge of a given topic becomes their medium of exchange. Information is the core of the modern enterprise, and the use of information defines the activities of a firm. This essential guide shows managers and employees better ways to leverage information--by design and not by accident.

"From Richard Tedlow's insightful group portrait of seven American entrepreneurs...a rough formula for titanhood can be deduced." (Atlantic Monthly )^"Tedlow's 'passionate and fluid writing' makes Giants of Enterprise a pleasure to read." (Business Week )^"Tedlow's mastery as a historian.takes us to the heart of what is unique about the American economy." (Michael E. PorterBishop William Lawrence University ProfessorHarvard Business School )^One of the top ten business books of 2001 (Business Week )

The million-copy bestseller, revised and updated with new investment strategies for retirement and the most current research into behavioral finance.
Updated with a new chapter that draws on behavioral finance, the field that studies the psychology of investment decisions, here is the best-selling, authoritative, and gimmick-free guide to investing. Burton Malkiel evaluates the full range of investment opportunities, from stocks, bonds, and money markets to real estate investment trusts and insurance, home ownership, and tangible assets such as gold and collectibles. This edition includes new strategies for rearranging your portfolio for retirement, along with the book's classic life-cycle guide to investing, which matches the needs of investors in any age bracket. A Random Walk Down Wall Street long ago established itself as a must-read, the first book to purchase before starting a portfolio. So whether you want to brief yourself on the ways of the market before talking to a broker or follow Malkiel's easy steps to managing your own portfolio, this book remains the best investing guide money can buy.

Recognized for decades as the West's doyen on China, John King Fairbank here offers the full and final expression of his lifelong engagement with this vast, ancient civilization. Fairbank's masterwork, China: A New History, is without parallel as a concise, comprehensive, and authoritative account of China and its People over four millennia.

The history of computing could be told as the story of hardware and software, or the story of the Internet, or the story of "smart" hand-held devices, with subplots involving IBM, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, and Twitter. In this concise and accessible account of the invention and development of digital technology, computer historian Paul Ceruzzi offers a broader and more useful perspective. He identifies four major threads that run throughout all of computing's technological development: digitization--the coding of information, computation, and control in binary form, ones and zeros; the convergence of multiple streams of techniques, devices, and machines, yielding more than the sum of their parts; the steady advance of electronic technology, as characterized famously by "Moore's Law"; and the human-machine interface. Ceruzzi guides us through computing history, telling how a Bell Labs mathematician coined the word "digital" in 1942 (to describe a high-speed method of calculating used in anti-aircraft devices), and recounting the development of the punch card (for use in the 1890 U.S. Census). He describes the ENIAC, built for scientific and military applications; the UNIVAC, the first general purpose computer; and ARPANET, the Internet's precursor. Ceruzzi's account traces the world-changing evolution of the computer from a room-size ensemble of machinery to a "minicomputer" to a desktop computer to a pocket-sized smart phone. He describes the development of the silicon chip, which could store ever-increasing amounts of data and enabled ever-decreasing device size. He visits that hotbed of innovation, Silicon Valley, and brings the story up to the present with the Internet, the World Wide Web, and social networking.

Have you ever wondered how your GPS can find the fastest way to your destination, selecting one route from seemingly countless possibilities in mere seconds? How your credit card account number is protected when you make a purchase over the Internet? The answer is algorithms. And how do these mathematical formulations translate themselves into your GPS, your laptop, or your smart phone? This book offers an engagingly written guide to the basics of computer algorithms. In Algorithms Unlocked, Thomas Cormen -- coauthor of the leading college textbook on the subject -- provides a general explanation, with limited mathematics, of how algorithms enable computers to solve problems. Readers will learn what computer algorithms are, how to describe them, and how to evaluate them. They will discover simple ways to search for information in a computer; methods for rearranging information in a computer into a prescribed order ("sorting"); how to solve basic problems that can be modeled in a computer with a mathematical structure called a "graph" (useful for modeling road networks, dependencies among tasks, and financial relationships); how to solve problems that ask questions about strings of characters such as DNA structures; the basic principles behind cryptography; fundamentals of data compression; and even that there are some problems that no one has figured out how to solve on a computer in a reasonable amount of time.

Every now and then, a simple yet radical idea shakes the very foundations of knowledge. The startling discovery that the world was not flat challenged and ultimately changed the way people perceived themselves and their relationships with the world. For most humans of the 15th century, the notion of Earth as ball of rock was nonsense. The whole of Western natural philosophy is undergoing a sea change again, forced upon us by the experimental findings of quantum theory. At the same time, these findings have increased our doubt and uncertainty about traditional physical explanations of the universe's genesis and structure. Biocentrism completes this shift in worldview, turning the planet upside down again with the revolutionary view that life creates the universe instead of the other way around. In this new paradigm, life is not just an accidental byproduct of the laws of physics. Biocentrism takes the reader on a seemingly improbable but ultimately inescapable journey through a foreign universe--our own--from the viewpoints of an acclaimed biologist and a leading astronomer. Switching perspective from physics to biology unlocks the cages in which Western science has unwittingly managed to confine itself. Biocentrism shatters the reader's ideas of life, time and space, and even death. At the same time, it releases us from the dull worldview that life is merely the activity of an admixture of carbon and a few other elements; it suggests the exhilarating possibility that life is fundamentally immortal. Biocentrism awakens in readers a new sense of possibility and is full of so many shocking new perspectives that the reader will never see reality the same way again.