When the Duke of Bari suddenly dies, the neighboring nation of Algarve, long seething over its defeat a generation ago in the Six Years' War, sees its chance to bring Bari into the fold...an action which the other countries surrounding Algarve cannot, by treaty, tolerate. As nation after nation declares war, a chain of treaties are invoked, ultimately bringing almost all the Powers of Derlavai into a war of unprecedented destructiveness.For modern magic is deadlier than in ears past. Trained flocks of dragons rain explosive fire down on defenseless cities. Massed infantry race from place to place along a network of ley-lines. Rival powers harness sea leviathans to help sabotage one another's ships. The lights are going out all across Derlavai, and will not come back on in this lifetime.Against this tapestry Harry Turtledove tells the story of an enormous cast of characters: soldiers and generals, washerwomen and scholars, peasants and diplomats. For all the world, highborn and low, is being plunged by world war...into the darkness.Amazon.com ReviewHarry Turtledove is known for his alternate histories; from The Guns of the South to The Great War: American Front, he's practiced at imagining the ways society would have changed if various things had been different in history. Sometimes it's a key figure surviving (or dying); other times it's a strange new variable, like aliens landing during World War II. With Into the Darkness, Turtledove investigates a new wrinkle in this successful field: What if a world war were fought using magic?Although Into the Darkness doesn't take place on Earth, the characters are humans, and they react in plausible ways. In fact, the uses of magic for political ends are eerily similar to the ways weapons have been used to wage cold wars in our own world. And as the magic grows more powerful, the destructive cost of war to the people of Derlavai grows as well. This is no enchanting fantasy world where kindly old wizards use their magic to kill dragons and save fair maidens. Turtledove has envisioned a place where the humans are decidedly political and greedy, and where magic is just a way of getting what you want. --Adam FisherFrom Publishers WeeklyWar is hell and its chaos is a precarious foundation for supporting the sprawl of this epic fantasy. Paralleling the approach of his bestselling alternative histories, Turtledove (Guns of the South, the Worldwar series, etc.) imagines a civilization reminiscent of medieval Europe, save that sorcery is an accessible power harnessed for military use. In the land of Derlavai, armies tap the energy of ley lines for firepower, train dragons to drop incendiary eggs and commandeer leviathans for submarine warfare. Troubles begin when the armed forces of Algarve invade the kingdom of Forthweg to reclaim territories partitioned from them a generation before. Neighboring Unkerlant follows suit, occupying the remainder of Forthweg and competing with Algarve for control of the balkanized duchies drawn into the fray. Turtledove builds a panoramic narrative from the experiences of a cast of hundreds intended to represent a cross-section of Derlavian society, including inexperienced student Ealstan, sensible foreign minister Hajjaj, decadent marchioness Krasta, noble officer Rather, and Vanai, a descendant of the fallen Kaunian culture whose pervasive presence throughout Derlavai lends events an aura of fatalism. Cogently rendered scenes in which these and other characters display the extremes of cowardice and heroism induced by life during wartime give the novel a Tolstoyan sweep, yet never gel into anything resembling a cohesive plot. Dizzying shifts of viewpoint capture the convulsive character of combat but make allegiances hard to keep straight. Even the spectacular war scenes, described with frontline immediacy, become repetitive and generic. Like the casualties that crowd its pages, this novel sometimes seems a victim of overly complicated designs. Author tour. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. Views: 55
A book about one woman's encounter with evil. Reminiscent of Dean Koontz's INTENSITY, this is a fast-paced tale that ventures into some very dark places.
Mercy Higgins is a recent college graduate who lives a fairly sheltered life. Following the death of her mother to cancer, her father brings her on a hike for a needed escape.
Victor Dolor has been secretly watching Mercy. Consumed with the certainty that the End of Everything is fast approaching and he must help “cleanse” the world for the coming Dark Time, Victor pursues Mercy for one purpose.
Up high on Blood Mountain, Victor brutally attacks her.
But that is only the beginning of the nightmare for Mercy. When her father is attacked as well, she is left alone to fight for herself.
And on Blood Mountain, the path to survival can get very gruesome.
This edition also includes the bonus short story, "Flies." Views: 55
'There is an act, a very particular form of torture, which anthropologists and historians occasionally ruminate over. It is an act still reported from time to time from far-flung war zones around the world. What is unusual is that in spite of the oral evidence it has never been captured on film. But if film did exist, some people say, the most likely place it would come from, the place that was always whispered, the place that first comes to mind, is Nanking.' Student Grey Hutchins comes to Tokyo seeking a rare piece of film showing the notorious Nanking Massacre in which, in one city, the Imperial Japanese Army butchered up to 300,000 civilians. Only one man can help her, a survivor of the massacre, and now a visiting professor at the prestigious University of Todai in Tokyo; a man who is rumoured to possess documentary evidence of Nanking.But first Grey must gain his trust. Desperate and alone, she accepts a job as a hostess in an upmarket nightspot catering for Japanese businessmen and wealthy gangsters. One gangster dominates – an old man in a wheelchair guarded by a terrifying entourage – who is said to rely on a powerful elixir for his continued wealth and well-being. It is an elixir that others want for themselves – at any price. With its focus on the Tokyo underworld and China in the late 1930s, and a woman who has a lot to prove and even more to hide, this is a literary thriller of the highest order. Views: 55
IS MARRIAGE A BLESSING...OR A CURSE? A man of honor, Alexander Hallworth, Marquess of Pembrooke, will not rest until he exacts revenge on the man who destroyed his family. Just one more piece must fall into place for him to succeed—he needs to convince his enemy's fiancée, the tragically beautiful Lady Claire Cavensham, to marry him instead. Lady Claire's "curse" has always left her one misstep away from social ruin—her past three engagements have gone awry, and now her fourth is headed in the same direction. . .until Alex, a man she barely even knows, shocks the ton and Claire by announcing their engagement. What begins as a sham turns into something deeper, and more passionate, than either Claire or Alex could have imagined. But when their secrets are revealed, will the truth behind their union scandalize them both—or is their love strong enough to break the curse and lead them toward their happily ever after? Views: 55
A bestselling author of Amish fiction and a popular blogger who grew up Amish write a delightful story for young readers aged 8-12 chronicling the gentle ways of the Amish through the eyes of a young girl.For a child, every day is a thing of wonder. And for six-year-old Lily Lapp, every day is a new opportunity for blessings, laughter, family, and a touch of mischief. As she explores her world, goes to school, spends time with her family, and gets into a bit of trouble with her friends, Lily learns what it means to be Amish and what it means to grow up. From getting a new teacher to welcoming a new sibling, Lily's life is always full of adventure.The first of four charming novels that chronicle the gentle way of the Amish through the eyes of a young girl, Life with Lily gives children ages 8-12 a fascinating glimpse into the life of the Amish—and lots of fun and laughter along the way. It combines the real-life stories of growing up Amish from Mary Ann... Views: 55
The harsh realities of village life in Colonial New England are fertile ground for gossip and superstition. Catherine Williams, a wealthy widow and midwife, refuses to believe that an Irish Catholic servant girl is to blame for the mysterious death of a newborn infant Catherine delivered. With the help of her Native American assistant, Massaquoit, she must use the town’s own religious prejudices to discover the truth. Historical Mystery by Stephen Lewis; originally published as a Berkley Prime Crime Views: 55
"It was a man, standing quite motionless and staring down. He wore a broad-brimmed hat and was otherwise wrapped in a flowing cloak that flapped about him in the wind." Making a departure from his bestselling political thrillers, Fredrick Forsyth takes a literary leap in The Phantom of Manahattan, the sequel to Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera.
Inspired by a meeting with Andrew Lloyd Webber, who longed for a sequel to his world-renowned musical, Forsyth decided after extensively researching the subject to rekindle the legend. The story opens in 1906, 12 years after the Phantom escapes a bloodthirsty mob at L'Opera in Paris and mysteriously vanishes without a trace. On her death bed, the Mistress of the Chorus, Madame Anionette Giry, confesses that she plucked a horrifically deformed boy from a carnival prison and spirited him away to live in recesses of L'Opera: "[His] face was distorted down one side as if struck long ago by monstrous hammer and the flesh of this visage was raw and shapeless like molten candle wax. The eyes were deep-set in sockets puckered and misshapen." Keeping to the shadowy nooks of the opera house, Erik Mulhiem, became known as the Phantom, living a mysterious, solitary existence. However, that abruptly ended when he fell in love with a beautiful diva, Christine Daae. Unable to control his obsession, he flees to America with the help of Madame Giry. There, after years of destitution and misery, he builds a vast empire and devises a plan to ensnare his beloved Christine.
Along with the legendary staples, the delightful cast of supporting characters--from the refined, French lawyer with a pinched disposition, to Cholly Bloom, a street-wise New York hack--appears in chapter vignettes enriching the plot and propelling the scenes, so that it reads in documentary form. And preface-skippers be warned: The introduction gives essential background to the sequel, as well as interesting tidbits about the architecture and history of L'Opera. For example, did you know there is buried lake underneath that is biannually maintained? Or that almost half of its 17 floors are subterranean and were once used for grisly tortures and imprisonment during a military coup in the early 1870s? In fact, that, coupled with reports of ghostly sightings and unexplained accidents fed Leroux's imagination and led to his classic creation. Views: 55
Tonight you take the last step on Your journey of a year and a day. Welcome home, o new-made witch, And in our circle rest and stay.The joyful culmination of a year and a day's dedication--Kate, Annie, and Cooper's Wiccan initiation--brings celebration, an exhilarating ritual, and unexpected choices for the new witches. Views: 55
A few months into freshman year, April thought her rocky friendship with her childhood BFF, Brynn, was improving. But then Brynn blames April for the breakup with her boyfriend, Billy, and soon other girls on the dance team do too. Meanwhile, April's cousin Sophie seems to like Billy—and vice versa—putting April awkwardly in the middle. On top of it all, April can't figure out what to make of being maybe-friends-maybe-more with sixteen-year-old genius Leo, now that he's leaving for college a few hours away. As a new calendar year kicks off, April just wants a clean start—but high school is messy business. Views: 55
