Alain Robert Bücher

Infinitesimals have been hotly debated since the invention of calculus 300 years ago. This accessible treatment of nonstandard analysis (NSA) presents an elementary, yet rigorous account of the theory of infinitesimals and derives some known mathematical results in a nonclassical way. Provides recent solutions to mathematical questions which remained unsolved until the advent of NSA. Treatment is self-contained and includes exercises with detailed solutions. This wonderful little book...is simple and brilliant, deep and witty, short and far-ranging...''"(--J.-M. Ley-Leblond, European Journal of Physics)"

When struggling riverboat captain Abner Marsh receives an offer of partnership from a wealthy aristocrat, he suspects something’s amiss. But when he meets the hauntingly pale, steely-eyed Joshua York, he is certain. For York doesn’t care that the icy winter of 1857 has wiped out all but one of Marsh’s dilapidated fleet. Nor does he care that he won’t earn back his investment in a decade. York has his own reasons for wanting to traverse the powerful Mississippi. And they are to be none of Marsh’s concern—no matter how bizarre, arbitrary, or capricious his actions may prove. Marsh meant to turn down York’s offer. It was too full of secrets that spelled danger. But the promise of both gold and a grand new boat that could make history crushed his resolve—coupled with the terrible force of York’s mesmerizing gaze. Not until the maiden voyage of his new sidewheeler Fevre Dream would Marsh realize he had joined a mission both more sinister, and perhaps more noble, than his most fantastic nightmare...and mankind’s most impossible dream. Here is the spellbinding tale of a vampire’s quest to unite his race with humanity, of a garrulous riverman’s dream of immortality, and of the undying legends of the steamboat era and a majestic, ancient river.