Bøger af David Kushner

The Crimean Circle is a historical novel about the Jews in the Crimean War. For the first time in modern history Jews are forcibly conscripted to serve in an army to fight a war for a nation that dispises, mistreats and tries to convert them. They are trained by a Jew-hating sergeant and a Jewish corporal who has lost the love of his father and the faith in his God. With the help of the Jewish corporal the pious young Jews learn to survive in what for them is a hostile environment and become brave and competent soldiers. The story is played out during the exciting backdrop of The Crimean War (1855-56) and the horrific siege of Sevastopol as the Russian Army, poorly led and ill equipped tries to fight against the combined forces of Britain, France and Turkey. It is a stirring adventure story. The story of the young corporal is central to the story as he trains his platoon, teaches them to defend themselves against hatred and humiliation and struggles to return to his lost faith. He falls in love during the darkest days of the siege, survives the paranoid hatred of a high-ranking Russian officer and finally marries his betrothed. It is a colorful story of a period of Jewish history seldom mentioned in Jewish historical fiction. A period that just preceded the great immigration of eastern European Jews to the United States.

The second volume of The Crimean Circle follows the rifle platoon, predominantly made up of young Jewish boys conscripted into the Russian Army, into the siege of Sevastopol during the war of 1854-55. Led by their Ukrainian training sergeant, Grigorij Timoshenko, and their Jewish corporal, Iosif Cymerman, they now have a sympathetic commander, Lieutenant Vladimir (Volodya) Sasanoff, aristocratic son of one the richest men in Russia. During the city's deadly bombardment of the town by the allied British, French and Turkish forces, Iosif meets and falls in love with Sima, daughter of a retired naval petty officer, and invited into her family's home. Despite the dangerous raids he and the platoon make behind the enemy lines, Iosif is constantly under threat from a malicious Jew-hating colonel. This colonel orders the regiment to make a disastrous frontal assault on the enemy lines during which Sasanoff is almost killed and Iosif's huge dog, Ivan, perishes, trying to defend them. Later, while avenging Sima's honor in a fight with the men who raped her, the colonel finds an excuse to arrest Iosif as a troublemaker and, out of insane hatred, and has him whipped ruthlessly prior to an execution At the very last minute, Iosif is rescued, finally recovers from his injuries, and marries his Sima. For saving the life of the Tsarevich, during the battle of Balaklava, the surviving platoon is decorated. Together with Sima, Iosif returns to his hometown in the Ukraine to visit his family and reconcile with his father but finds him near death. After the traditional week of mourning, Iosif and Sima revisit a devastated and shattered Sevastopol for a final goodbye. They could feel in their hearts that despite all the sacrifices, the city would soon fall. For those interested in Jewish life in the middle of the 19th century. The Crimean Circle is a colorful and exciting story of a period of Jewish history seldom mentioned in historical fiction. A period that just preceded the great immigration of eastern European Jews to the United States. The book contains paintings, illustrations, photographs and maps

“An engrossing microcosm of the internet’s Wild West years” (Kirkus Reviews), award-winning journalist David Kushner tells the incredible battle between the founder of Match.com and the con man who swindled him out of the website Sex.com, resulting in an all-out war for control for what still powers the internet today: love and sex.In 1994, visionary entrepreneur Gary Kremen used a $2,500 loan to create the first online dating service, Match.com. Only five percent of Americans were using the internet at the time, and even fewer were looking online for love. He quickly bought the Sex.com domain too, betting the combination of love and sex would help propel the internet into the mainstream. Imagine Kremen’s surprise when he learned that someone named Stephen Michael Cohen had stolen the rights to Sex.com and was already making millions that Kremen would never see. Thus follows the wild true story of Kremen’s and Cohen’s decade-long battle for control. In The Players Ball, author and journalist David Kushner provides a front seat to these must-read Wild West years online, when innovators and outlaws battled for power and money. This cat-and-mouse game between a genius and a con man changed the way people connect forever, and is key to understanding the rise and future of the online world. “Kushner delivers a fast-paced, raunchy tale of sex, drugs, and dial-up.” —Publishers Weekly

The gripping origin story of Pong, Atari, and the digital icons who defined the world of video games.A deep, nostalgic dive into the advent of gaming, Easy to Learn, Difficult to Master returns us to the emerging culture of Silicon Valley. At the center of this graphic history, dynamically drawn in colors inspired by old computer screens, is the epic feud that raged between Atari founder Nolan Bushnell and inventor Ralph Baer for the title of “father of the video game.” While Baer, a Jewish immigrant whose family fled Germany for America, developed the first TV video-game console and ping-pong game in the 1960s, Bushnell, a self-taught whiz kid from Utah, put out Atari’s pioneering table-tennis arcade game, Pong, in 1972. Thus, a prolonged battle began over who truly spearheaded the multibillion-dollar gaming industry, and around it a sweeping narrative about invention, inspiration, and the seeds of digital revolution.

How does a group of young underdogs with big dreams but little experience transform a culture and industry? In the case of the $75 billion video game business, it helps if the outfit is run by a brash iconoclast with the vision of an outlaw and the work ethic of a Puritan--and grew up madly in love with gangster movies, video games, and rap music. It also helps if the company makes the most revolutionary, controversial, and successful video game franchise ever--Grand Theft Auto. In Jacked, acclaimed author and journalist David Kushner takes you on an unauthorized joyride through the high-risk, high-profit, and fast-moving world of the biggest players in the game industry--and the haters out to get them. He reveals the untold story behind the people who created the product that defined one generation and infuriated another. Drawing on more than a decade of his own reporting, game playing, and interviewing, Kushner goes deep inside the making of Grand Theft Auto (GTA), long veiled in secrecy, rumor, and myth. He also examines the cultural and political backlash that sent sales soaring, even as it threatened the game's continued existence. This is a pop culture story for the ages. It begins in the back alleys of Dundee, Scotland, where the geeky geniuses at DMA Design invented GTA. Fledgling marketer and rebellious gamer Sam Houser saw GTA's enormous potential and pushed DMA to make it bolder, wilder, and funnier, and let players freely explore the game's gritty cities, wreaking havoc whenever they pleased. With its groundbreaking innovations and cinematic flair, GTA quickly became the centerpiece of Houser's new company, Rockstar Games, and the hottest title on the planet. But one of America's most notorious culture warriors, Jack Thompson, had his own mission--to ensure that GTA was banned from store shelves for corrupting youth and to bring Rockstar to their knees--even as the gamers of the world rallied against him. With its incredible artistry, arch satire, and massive press coverage, GTA earned critical and commercial acclaim around the world, breaking the Guinness record for most successful entertainment product launch of all time. But deep within its urban wasteland lurked a nasty little secret--the now-famous sex mini-game, "Hot Coffee." It would mean big trouble for Rockstar Games and bring Houser and his rival, Thompson, to the brink. Whichever side you're on, Jacked gives you a new understanding of this breakout industry, and the game that defined it.

If you think a gang of real-life geeks can't take on the world and win big . . . think again. And whatever you do, don't sit down across a gaming table from Jon Finkel, better known as Jonny Magic. Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids is his amazing true story: the jaw-dropping, zero-to-hero chronicle of a fat, friendless boy from New Jersey who found his edge in a game of cards-and turned it into a fortune.The ultimate bully-magnet, Finkel grew up heckled and hazed until destiny came in the form of a trading-card game called Magic: The Gathering. Magic exploded from nerdy obsession to mainstream mania and made the teenage Finkel an ultracool world champion. Once transformed, this young shark stormed poker rooms from the underground clubs of New York City to the high-stakes tables online, until he landed on the largest card-counting blackjack team in the country. Taking Vegas for millions, Finkel's squad of brainy gamers became the biggest players in town. Then they took on the town's biggest game, the World Series of Poker, and walked away with more than $3.5 million.Thrilling, edgy, and ferociously feel-good, the odyssey of these underdogs-turned-overlords is the stuff of pop-culture legend. And David Kushner, acclaimed author of Masters of Doom, masterfully deals out the outrageous details while bringing to life a cast of characters rife with aces, kings, knaves . . . and more than a few jokers. If you secretly believe every player has his day, you're right. Here's the proof.

Masters of Doom is the amazing true story of the Lennon and McCartney of video games: John Carmack and John Romero. Together, they ruled big business. They transformed popular culture. And they provoked a national controversy. More than anything, they lived a unique and rollicking American Dream, escaping the broken homes of their youth to co-create the most notoriously successful game franchises in history-Doom and Quake-until the games they made tore them apart. Americans spend more money on video games than on movie tickets. Masters of Doom is the first book to chronicle this industry's greatest story, written by one of the medium's leading observers. David Kushner takes readers inside the rags-to-riches adventure of two rebellious entrepreneurs who came of age to shape a generation. The vivid portrait reveals why their games are so violent and why their immersion in their brilliantly designed fantasy worlds offered them solace. And it shows how they channeled their fury and imagination into products that are a formative influence on our culture, from MTV to the Internet to Columbine. This is a story of friendship and betrayal, commerce and artistry-a powerful and compassionate account of what it's like to be young, driven, and wildly creative. "To my taste, the greatest American myth of cosmogenesis features the maladjusted, antisocial, genius teenage boy who, in the insular laboratory of his own bedroom, invents the universe from scratch. Masters of Doom is a particularly inspired rendition. Dave Kushner chronicles the saga of video game virtuosi Carmack and Romero with terrific brio. This is a page-turning, mythopoeic cyber-soap opera about two glamorous geek geniuses-and it should be read while scarfing down pepperoni pizza and swilling Diet Coke, with Queens of the Stone Age cranked up all the way."-Mark Leyner, author of I Smell Esther Williams

The illustrated, inside story of the legendary hacktivist group's origins and most daring exploits.

A magnet for bullies at school, Jon Finkel grew up heckled and hazed until he discovered the trading-card game Magic: The Gathering.