A retired Roman soldier looks back on his early life and battlefield adventures fighting under Julius Caesar in this gripping fictional memoir. The Gabinian Affair is a memoir written by a retired Roman soldier, Gaius Marius Insubrecus, who served Caesar during his wars in Gaul. As a youth, Insubrecus is caught between two worlds: the heroic myths of his people, the Gahâél, and the harsh realities of their conqueror, Rome. Insubrecus tries to escape assassins sent after him from Rome by hiding in the Roman army, right at the time that the new governor, Gaius Julius Caesar, launches his legions into Gaul to stop an invasion by a fierce and ruthless tribe called the Helvetii. Insubrecus is plunged into a world of violence, intrigue and betrayal, as he tries to serve his new patron, Caesar, and to stay alive, while pursued by Roman cutthroats and Gallic warriors. Views: 20
In the 1920s, Janie McLeary and George King run one of the first movie theatres in the Maritimes. The marriage of the young Irish Catholic woman to an older English man is thought scandalous, but they work happily together, playing music to accompany the films. When George succumbs to illness and dies, leaving Janie with one young child and another on the way, the unscrupulous Joey Elias tries to take over the business. But Janie guards the theatre with a shotgun, and still in mourning, re-opens it herself. "If there was no real bliss in Janie's life," recounts her grandson, "there were moments of triumph."One night, deceived by the bank manager and Elias into believing she will lose her mortgage, Janie resolves to go and ask for money from the Catholic houses. Elias has sent out men to stop her, so she leaps out the back window and with a broken rib she swims in the dark across the icy Miramichi River, doubting her own sanity. Yet, seeing these people swayed into... Views: 20
The ten stories in The View from Stalin's Head unfold in the post--Cold War Prague of the 1990s--a magnet not only for artists and writers but also for American tourists and college grad deadbeats, a city with a glorious yet sometimes shameful history, its citizens both resentful of and nostalgic for their Communist past. Against this backdrop, Aaron Hamburger conjures an arresting array of characters: a self-appointed rabbi who runs a synagogue for non-Jews; an artist, once branded as a criminal by the Communist regime, who hires a teenage boy to boss him around; a fiery would-be socialist trying to rouse the oppressed masses while feeling the tug of her comfortable Stateside upbringing. European and American, Jewish and gentile, straight and gay, the people in these stories are forced to confront themselves when the ethnic, religious, political, and sexual labels they used to rely on prove surprisingly less stable than they'd imagined.As Christopher Isherwood... Views: 20
Menage Erotica/Science Fiction. 33091 words long. Views: 20
Getting to Etna Station is all that matters, with the world rapidly collapsing around them, Mike and company make a desperate trek to reach what they believe to be a safe haven. Can they out run the demons that chase them? Will they succumb to Knox and his tyrannical army or Payne, a revenge-bent vampire? New friends will be made along the way while some old ones will fall. If they make it, will it be all they hoped or just another nightmare? Views: 20
From School Library JournalGrade 7 Up–In this well-realized fantasy, the people of the Uplands have unusual and potentially dangerous abilities that can involve the killing or maiming of others. Gry can communicate with animals, but she refuses to use her gift to call creatures to the hunt, a stance her mother doesn't understand. The males in Orrec's line have the power of unmaking–or destroying–other living things. However, because his mother is a Lowlander, there is concern that this ability will not run true to him. When his gift finally manifests itself, it seems to be uncontrollable. His father blindfolds him so that he will not mistakenly hurt someone, and everyone fears him. Meanwhile, Ogge Drum, a greedy and cruel landowner, causes heartache for Orrec and his family. There is a strong sense of foreboding throughout the novel. The characters, who are well rounded and believable, often fail to understand the extent of the responsibility that comes with great power. In the end, Gry and Orrec come to recognize the true nature of their gifts and how best to use them. Readers can enjoy this story as a suspenseful struggle between good and evil, or they can delve deeper and come away with a better understanding of the choices that all individuals must make if they are to realize their full potential. An excellent choice for discussion and contemplation.–Bruce Anne Shook, Mendenhall Middle School, Greensboro, NC Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistStarred Review Gr. 6-10. Gifts, in the context of Le Guin's newest novel, inspire fear more often than gratitude. But this book is a gift in the purest sense, as the renowned fantasist's admirers have waited 14 years since the release of Tehanu (1990) for another full-length young adult novel. Providing an intriguing counterpoint to the epic third-person voice of Le Guin's Earthsea novels, this quieter, more intimate tale is narrated by its central character, Orrec. Born into a feud-riven community where the balance of power depends on inherited, extrasensory "gifts," Orrec's gift of Unmaking (which is wielded at a glance and is as fearsome as it sounds) manifests late and strangely, forcing him to don a blindfold to protect those he loves from his dire abilities. The blindfold becomes a source of escalating tension between Orrec and his stern father, and its eventual removal serves as a powerful metaphor for the transition from dependent youngster to self-possessed, questioning young adult. Although intriguing as a coming-of-age allegory, Orrec's story is also rich in the earthy magic and intelligent plot twists that made the Earthsea novels classics. One would expect nothing less from the author whose contributions to literature have earned her a World Fantasy Award, a Nebula Award, and, most recently, a Margaret Edwards Award for lifetime achievement. Jennifer MattsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Views: 20
By all appearances, wealthy widower Gideon Renaud is an attractive, vibrant man, and an attentive father to his son, Jude, who suffers from a rare disorder that renders him fatally allergic to sunlight. But Gideon has harbored a bloodstained secret for one hundred fifty years-he's a vampire. When he finds himself falling for Kate O'Brien, his son's new home-school tutor, only Gideon knows their passion is a time bomb, one that will end in heartbreak…and possibly death for the young teacher. As Kate finds herself drawn into Gideon and Jude's sinister world, she is forced to confront their extraordinary reality, the existence of the most horrifying evil…and ultimately, the power of love to banish even the darkest shadows. Views: 20
Paige Vallis claimed that she gave in to Tripping's sexual demands because he had threatened to harm his son if she didn't. Alexandra Cooper, prosecuting the ex-CIA man, knew she had her work cut out to convince the jury, but before Paige could complete her testimony on the stand she is found dead - strangled in her own apartment building, just hours after she'd confessed to Alex that she had had a relationship with another ex-CIA operative. While the accusation of rape against Tripping is dropped, he has other charges to face, not least abusing his own child. As Tripping's defence team go into overdrive to keep their client out of jail, Alex, Chapman and Mercer set out to discover who so conveniently killed the woman who could have put him behind bars. As they peel back the layers of Paige's life, they discover a decades-old viper's nest of robbery and double-dealing and discover that truth of the adage of money being at the root of all evil - however old and 'respectable' it might be. Views: 20
Author Carol Umberger combines her love of history, romance, and God in a quartet of powerful stories set in 14th-century Scotland during the reign of Robert the Bruce, Scotland's great hero king. Umberger pens a riveting story of betrayal and love set in the highlands of 14th-century Scotland. Views: 20
In a ground-breaking book that combines a novelist's eye with rivettinginvestigative journalism, Bernard-Henri Lévy, one of the world's mostesteemed writers, retraces Pearl's final steps through a murky Islamicunderworld, suffused by "an odour of the apocalypse." The investigationplunges Lévy into his own heart of darkness – and a series of stunningrevelations about who the real terrorists are. Views: 20
