The Night Fairies' magic is missing—and now Fairyland is in the dark!Rachel and Kirsty can't wait for their week at Camp Stargaze! They'll get to roast marshmallows, tell spooky stories, and sleep in cool cabins. But when the Night Fairies' magic goes missing, Rachel and Kirsty have another activity to add to their list—helping their fairy friends!Rachel, Kirsty, and all the other campers are getting ready for a fun midnight feast. But Morgan the Midnight Fairy's magic is missing. Without it, the midnight feast could turn into a midnight flop! Views: 60
Knights of the Cross follows Tom Harper’s critically acclaimed debut, The Mosaic of ShadowsByzantium, 1098. Two years prior, the legions of armies of the First Crusade were called upon by the Byzantine emperor to reinforce his position as the mightiest power in Christendom. Fighting as mercenaries, and claiming no particular allegiance, their presence was strained within the city walls of Byzantium. But with their differences now settled, the armies of the First Crusade leave the emperor---racing across the vast stretch of Asia Minor, chasing the Turkish armies of the East.
As they continue to route the Turks and reclaim the stolen land for Christendom, the powerful armies are quickly halted. On the Syrian border, their advance is blocked before the impregnable walls of Antioch. As winter draws on, they are forced to suffer a fruitless, interminable siege---gnawed upon by famine, and tormented by the Turkish defenders. The perilous season leaves the entire crusade on a precarious verge of collapse.
In the midst of this freezing misery, rivalries, and divisions appear. Lines are drawn between the ruling princes; the lords and the men they command; and between the Byzantines fighting alongside the Western crusaders. So when the Norman knight, Drago, is found murdered, his lord, the ruthlessly ambitious Bohemond, charges Demetrios Askiates, unveiler of mysteries, with finding the murderer. As Demetrios investigates further, the trail seems to lead ever deeper into the vipers’ nest of jealousy, betrayal, and fanaticism that lies at the heart of the crusade.
A separate army of Turkish infidels is sent to relieve Antioch. With danger looming within the crusader ranks, and impending battles headed their direction, time is running out, and Demetrios is forced to work with Bohemond to uncover the killer. And still the walls of Antioch are locked, with no key in sight---and no assurance that once the crusaders are inside, the battles will end.
The extraordinary story of the crisis of the First Crusade---a powerful novel of intrigue, sacrifice, savagery, and holy war. An amazing sequel to the acclaimed debut, The Mosaic of Shadows. “Gripping for its portrayal of the crusader leaders . . . this is a great example from a trustworthy historian.” ---Independent Views: 60
Issue #20 of Beneath Ceaseless Skies online magazine, featuring stories by Caroline M. Yoachim and James Lecky. Views: 60
Mathematics scares and depresses most of us, but politicians, journalists and everyone in power use numbers all the time to bamboozle us. Most maths is really simple - as easy as 2+2 in fact. Better still it can be understood without any jargon, any formulas - and in fact not even many numbers. Most of it is commonsense, and by using a few really simple principles one can quickly see when maths, statistics and numbers are being abused to play tricks - or create policies - which can waste millions of pounds. It is liberating to understand when numbers are telling the truth or being used to lie, whether it is health scares, the costs of government policies, the supposed risks of certain activities or the real burden of taxes. Views: 60
Man Booker Prize–winning author David Storey takes us to a crumbling English town where a childhood friendship blossoms into obsessive love Leonard Radcliffe is the last heir to a proud family name that has nearly been forgotten. All that remains of the Radcliffe legacy is the Place: a ramshackle manor that once loomed over the countryside, but is now hemmed in by public housing and all but shaken apart by the trains that pass beneath it. At age 9, Leonard is shy, lonely, and too smart for his own good. When he becomes the target of school bullies, he is saved by the charming brute Vic Tolson, which marks the start of a friendship that will both define and destroy the two boys' lives. When Vic and Leonard meet again as adults, their dormant childhood friendship erupts into an irresistible physical passion. As the Place crumbles around them, Leonard and Vic pursue a love so powerful it can only end in death. Views: 60
Like you I ve been feeling forlorn of late. I don't know how long you have to be somewhere before it begins to feel normal, before you start to feel as though you belong... And so all I have is you. Your letters and the thought that somewhere, something good exists in my life. For now that seems enough to get by on.Introduced via a pen-pal scheme, Verity and Jonah write their lives, hopes and dreams to one another without ever having met. Verity is a fragile beauty. When a dangerous sequence of events is set in motion, she tries to explain to Jonah, what led her to unravel so spectacularly. Jonah has been released after years of imprisonment, and embarks upon the quiet life he's always wanted. But then a dark reminder shatters his world, keen to make history repeat itself. Offering the sole strand of stability in two progressively elaborate lives, they develop a deep and delicate love, a love that becomes clouded and threatened by increasingly dark forces. Views: 60
The Little Army...Rani Trader survived the destruction of her family, her glasswrights' guild, and everything else that she held dear. She has begun to settle into her new life, living in the palace of Morenia's new king. A brutal betrayal, though, within the very castle walls, results in Rani being kidnapped, carried overseas to distant Amanthia.There, Rani discovers a plot against her king. Amanthia has raised the Little Army, a murderous force composed entirely of children. When Rani meets their captain, Crestman, she dreams of liberating the Little Army. But will she live long enough to try? Views: 60
An Irish gumshoe gets in trouble again in this steamy short fiction that features gangs, pay-offs, immigration and a dose of greed. Private detective John Blaine is back treading Dublin's mean streets. With his marriage now on track, and a new baby to keep him closer to home, it seems life is good. That is, until he gets a call from the owner of nightclub in Dublin's raucous Temple Bar. A Romanian gang is threatening to burn the place down, but there are two sides to every story. Before he knows it, Blaine finds himself in the center of the blaze. Views: 60
