He was so celebrated that the newspapers—of that time—always said nice things about him, and always knew what he was doing before he did himself. As he was a very truthful man, he did the things, so that the editors might not get into trouble. Views: 430
A tale set in ancient Cornwall and the lost world of Aeden, about a man and his wife, and the man's quest for Truth at any cost - and for the Perfect Woman. He finds her, and she teaches him to honour the Goddess in his wife, and to return to her. But she has been taken far away. He must find her and win her back. Only then will they fulfill their remarkable destiny - and at last find true love.A tale set in ancient Cornwall and the lost world of Aeden, about a young swordsmith named Calibur, and his wife, Rosa. It also features a rat, a rose, an anklebiter, a colony of icon-makers, a goatherd, a muse, a monastery, and a goddess.Calibur's troubles all begin one morning at the local market. He is selling swords to make ends meet, as usual, when a stranger's glittering wares catch his eye. He rashly trades all his swords for a little wisdom book - and an icon of a mysterious holy woman of great beauty. Bewitched by the book's promise of ultimate Truth, and maddened by a vision of the woman in the icon, he leaves Rosa to go into the mountains on a quest for Truth at any cost - and for the Perfect Woman of the icon. In the mountains he joins a hermitage, but becomes disillusioned with the ascetic quest for truth. He leaves the hermits to their disputations, and sets out for home. He becomes lost in the wilderness. There he is rescued by the woman of the icon whom he adores, but to his sorrow she commands him to honour the Goddess in his wife, and to return to her. He reluctantly obeys. But she has been taken far away, beyond the borders of the world, by the Boatman of Avalon. He must find the boatman, and prove that he is worthy to be ferried across to that other place. There he must find Rosa and with the help of Ainenia, the mysterious Lady of Aeden, and win her back from a Thorn Convent run by the Aghmaath. These are from the darkened world of Phangkor, and teach the absolute relinquishment of the will to life, and hate and despise the Goddess and love. Only together will Calibur and Rosa fulfill their remarkable destiny back on Earth - and at last find true love.The Icon of Ainenia can be read alone, but it refers to things more fully dealt with in the epic The Apples of Aeden, In the telling of the story of the Icon, it was inevitable that some greater matters should be mentioned, concerning the ancient Order of the Makers and the Nine Worlds. If this becomes a distraction, my apologies in advance; if (as I hope will be the case) you find yourself wishing to know more about Ainenia, Anklebiters, the Aghmaath, Avalon and the whole World of Aeden, there is a remedy: the 'Apples of Aeden' epic, set in the present time and based on the historical source book, 'The Ennead of Aeden', and the Diary of Shelley Arkle. Volume one, The Girl and the Guardian, is now available as an ebook. Views: 379
Shelley is lost in a World once known as Aeden. The ancient Tree of Life is dying, and deadly Thornmen are hunting her.Someone else has been waiting for Shelley. He asks to be her Guardian on a perilous quest to save Aeden. The Thornmen are closing in as the Girl and the Guardian seek the faery refuge of Urak Tara.In the terrible Valley of Thorns they make a daring - and fateful - pact...Volume I of the 2000-plus page epic fantasy Apples of Aeden, twelve years in the making. Newly edited in October 2012, with many new coloured maps and graphics throughout.This epic isn't for the casual reader! Be warned: this world will draw you in, and you will lose yourself in it, and as with Galadriel's realm, those who visit Aeden do not emerge unchanged. The world of the epic is ageless, esoteric, philosophical, and Romantic, exploring in a vast cycle what an intergalactic civilisation which truly honoured Love, Beauty, Truth, and Freedom might have looked like - and how it might have fallen, and how far...The Narrator, a distracted Oxford history student, finds a cryptic manuscript connected with the Knights Templar which leads him, via a hollow yew tree and a skeleton clutching an artefact not of this world, to Chartres cathedral, and thence to a mysterious antipodean forest containing an ancient Portal.Meanwhile Shelley Arkle of New Zealand has had a very busy 13th birthday. On the way North, summoned by her eccentric grandfather, she learned that she was adopted, her ‘father’ crashed the car, then she was lured into the dangerous forest of the Fairyhill Reserve, and through its Portal into the world of Aeden (sketchily remembered by humans as the Garden of Eden).Waiting there for Shelley is a grim hermit warrior. She flees from him, and is picked up by a sinister black wagon. She is rescued by the wild Boy Raiders, but her glasses are smashed. The Boys deliver her back to the grim warrior: Korman the Outcast. He swears to be her Guardian, and together they flee the Kiraglim Trackers and Wardogs. In the cave of the learned Padrathad, Shelley eats the healing Apples of Aeden, and her eyesight becomes perfect. She learns that Aeden was once the hub of a magical Republic of nine worlds, whose pillars were Love, Beauty, Truth and Freedom, and which once honoured the Balance of the Divine Feminine and Masculine. Shelley realizes that the fate of Earth is linked with that of Aeden. She begins to accept the mysterious call to become the Kortana, or Jewel-caller, and find the lost Heartstone of the Tree of Life. Only thus can Aeden be saved from the fanatical life-denying Aghmaath, or thornmen. Then the lost Balance between the Masculine (Truth and Freedom) and the suppressed Feminine (Love and Beauty) will be restored and the Fifth Age will dawn. But first they must seek the hidden refuge of Urak Tara where Shelley will learn how to become the Kortana. Along the way she meets (to name a few): the rebel Quickblade and his Boy Raiders; the wild Urxura (the origin of our unicorn myths) and their even wilder friends the elusive Evergirls; Ainenia, Lady of Aeden and exiled mistress of Avalon; the boy Rilke who gives her a blue diamond; their shared pet Worriette, a cute orphaned wurrier; the not-so-cute werewurriers; a dragon-snake; a burrow-dwelling gem-hoarding anklebiter called Bootnip (Korman's grumpy pet); the squabbling dwellers of the Bottomless Canyon; swindling agathra fossickers; a colony of poets and artists; Hillgard the rebel Guardian; and the happy Waveriders. She also falls in love twice. Guided by the troubled Korman (and sometimes guiding him) she learns many magical wisdoms, such as Walking in Faery, Guiding the Unfolding, Entering the Dreamweb, and Defence against Mindbolts and Mindwebs. Pursued by the Aghmaath, they are hampered by the fact that Korman long ago vowed not use Arcratine, his mighty firesword. One by one the remnants of the Old Order are being conquered, and they are drawn into battles and seiges as they seek the lost school of Ürak Tara.When a fateful pact with Korman goes wrong, Shelley is left alone on an island on Lake Deadwater, deep in the thornfields. But a strange, forsaken creature from the lake comes to her aid, and together they escape, seeking Ürak Tara. She is now a true Rebel of Aeden - with a price on her head. Views: 240
From the author of The Last Testament comes the true love of Bonnie Prince Charlie, her adventures in America and her lasting legacy.In the page-turning popular genre trail-blazed by Antonia Fraser and Phillippa Gregory, The Pretender's Lady, Alan Gold's meticulously researched novel, accurately opens history's pages on a peerless woman who helped change the course of history and whose legend lives on in Scotland today—Flora MacDonald.She was the most famous Scotswoman of her day, single handedly saving Bonnie Prince Charlie. This is her fictionalized life story—her relations with the Prince, her flight to America, Ben Franklin's influence, and her return to Britain to lobby for peaceBut what's hidden from history, revealed now for the first time in Gold's dazzling new work of fiction, is the result of Flora's and Charlie's love: a beautiful and talented boy raised on an American farm. But only she knows his true heritage and his claim to... Views: 50
By the time of his death in 1982, Sam “Lightnin’” Hopkins was likely the most recorded blues artist in history. This brilliant new biography--the first book ever written about him--illuminates the many contradictions of the man and his myth. Born in 1912 to a poor sharecropping family in the cotton country between Dallas and Houston, Hopkins left home when he was only eight years old with a guitar his brother had given him. He made his living however he could, sticking to the open road, playing the blues, and taking odd jobs when money was short. This biography delves into Hopkins’s early years, exploring the myths surrounding his meetings with Blind Lemon Jefferson and Texas Alexander, his time on a chain gang, his relationships with women, and his lifelong appetite for gambling and drinking. Hopkins didn’t begin recording until 1946, when he was dubbed “Lightnin’” during his first session, and he soon joined Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker on the national R & B charts. But by the time he was “rediscovered” by Mack McCormick and Sam Charters in 1959, his popularity had begun to wane. A second career emerged--now Lightnin’ was pitched to white audiences, not black ones, and he became immensely successful, singing about his country roots and injustices that informed the civil rights era with a searing emotive power. More than a decade in the making, this biography is based on scores of interviews with Lightnin’s lover, friends, producers, accompanists, managers, and fans. Views: 49
A story of justice through the ages . . . and revenge.Germany, 1945. The bloodiest war in history is at an end. Now the retribution and search for justice begins. In a series of Nuremberg trials, war criminals are hanged or commit suicide. Others are judged and sent to prison for their part in the most heinous crimes of all time.But in the final trial, one in which ordinary Germans are forced to confront their complicity, a leading American defense counselor has to consider questions of good and evil when he defends a simple mechanic, a man who kept the gas chambers in working order.As his trial progresses, Wilhelm Deutch, a Nazi mechanic within the concentration camps, is forced by a court to confront his past with nobody to speak on his behalf. Only one man, Joachim Gutman, a Jewish survivor of Auschwitz—a living hell, the worst of all the concentration camps—knows the truth. Gutman knows that Deutch was a life-saving hero, not another sadistic... Views: 47
The dramatic fight for modern Jewish statehood forms the backdrop of this second book in the Heritage trilogy, a series of epic political thrillers set in Jerusalem.Following Bloodline, in which Bilal and Yael raced to thwart a terrorist plot in modern-day Jerusalem, Book Two travels six decades into the past and introduces Yael’s grandparents: Shalman, a freedom fighter turned peacenik archaeologist, and his young, beautiful wife Judit, a refugee from the horrors of Stalin’s USSR. As WWII draws to a close and the truth about Hitler’s genocide emerges, the need for a permanent safe haven for the Jewish people takes on unprecedented urgency. But the path to statehood is anything but clear. Throughout Palestine, Arab and Jewish forces battle each other and the British for supremacy in a nightmarish environment riddled with hatred and suspicion. A plot to fashion the fledgling Israeli nation as a puppet of the Soviet Union—undermining... Views: 44
Two individuals from different countries but who share one ancestral bloodline race to thwart a terrorist plot in Jerusalem—the first heart-pounding book in a new epic trilogy that delves into the dark underbelly of the Holy City.Bilal, a radicalized Palestinian youth, is promised paradise if he destroys the Western Wall. But his attempted terrorist attack fails and he finds himself in the hands of a young Jewish surgeon, Yael Cohen. After saving his life, Yael makes the startling discovery that her DNA and Bilal's are nearly identical, sparking suspicion that their connection is greater than mere coincidence. Their search for answers soon puts them in the middle of a high-stakes international conspiracy—one that has its roots in the blood of thousands, and now threatens to spill the blood of thousands more. Unknown to Bilal and Yael, theirs is the last chapter in a story that crosses millennia. Century after century, two ancient... Views: 38
A grand historical novel about Gertrude Bell, one of the most influential women of the twentieth century.She was the most celebrated adventurer of her day, the brains behind Lawrence of Arabia, an adviser to kings and desert sheikhs, and the British government's secret weapon in WWI in the campaign against the Turks. A brilliant academic, mountaineer, explorer, linguist, politician, and towering literary figure, Gertrude Bell is the most significant unsung heroine of the twentieth century.Alan Gold's meticulously researched novel accurately opens history's pages on a peerless woman who broke all molds on how Victorian women were supposed to behave—socially, intellectually, and physically. Guiding the events of the day in open, sanctioned diplomacy and adventure all across the Middle East, her influence on the men at the vanguard of history, and her unparalleled skill in sculpting the pathways and influences of the English, French, and Arab allies on the... Views: 34
EDITORIAL REVIEW: This is a story of the greatest love, ever. An outlandish claim, outrageous perhaps, but trust me--And so begin the enchanting, unforgettable tale of J. J. Smith, Keeper of the Records for The Book of Records, an ordinary man searching for the extraordinary. J.J. has clocked the world's longest continuous kiss, 30 hours and 45 minutes. He has verified the lengthiest single unbroken apple peel, 172 feet and 4 inches. He has measured the farthest flight of a champagne cork from an untreated, unheated bottle 177 feet 9 inches. He has tasted the world's largest menu item, whole-roasted Bedouin camel.But in all his adventure from Australia to Zanzibar, J.J. has never witnessed great love until he comes upon a tiny windswept town in the heartland of America, where folks still talk about family, faith, and crops. Here, where he last expects it, J.J. discovers a world record attempt like no other: Piece by piece, a farmer is eating a Boeing 747 to prove his love for a woman.In this vast landscape of cornfields and lightning storms, J.J. is doubly astounded to be struck by love from the same woman, Willa Wyatt of the honey eyes and wild blond hair. It is a feeling beyond measure, throwing J.J.'s carefully ordered world upside down, proving that hears, like world records, can be broken, and the greatest wonders in life can not be qualified.Richly romantic, whimsical, and uplifting, **The Man Who Ate the 747** is a flight of fancy from start to finish. It stretches imagination, bends physics and biology, but believe it just a little and you may find yourself reaching for your own records, the kind that really count. Written with tenderness, originality, and insight, filled with old-fashioned warmth and newfangled humor, it is an extraordinary novel, a found treasure that marks the emergence of a major storytelling tale.*From the Hardcover edition.* Views: 25
The Dark Knight of Gotham City is back in this exciting new novel based on the hit film
BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM
All across Gotham City, mobsters are dying—murdered. At the scene of each killing, witnesses see a mysterious masked figure in a long dark cloak. The word spreads through the city like wildfire . . . Batman has crossed the line, become a criminal in the name of fighting crime. And suddenly the Dark Knight is hunted by the very lawmen he once risked his life to assist.
While Batman searches for the masked murderer of Gotham’s crime lords, an old flame unexpectedly reenters his life. She is the first woman Bruce Wayne ever loved—and the only person who could make him consider giving up his life as a crime fighter. Now, as the mysterious figure dubbed the Phantasm spreads terror throughout Gotham City, Batman must decide whether his rediscovered love is worth fighting for—even if it means hanging up his cape and cowl for good. Views: 24
From the jungles of Indonesia to the very heart of New York City comes a plague that kills 100 percent of its victims. Medicine's greatest nightmare, this modern black death is caused by the most virulent and uncontrollable mutant virus humanity has ever witnessed. And medicine can do nothing to stop its merciless spread.Scientist Debra Hart and her team of experts are tasked by the United Nations to stop the disease. Racing against time, they must find the cause and the cure and figure out why this deadly disease—spread by bats—is killing thousands in cities across the globe. Debra and her team will struggle to stop the disease from spreading to millions more, even if it means killing off every bat alive. But fighting to prevent her are manic animal rights' activists who rail against species genocide, even if it means risking the deaths of human beings. And hidden behind a cloak of secrecy is a crazed academic who'll even kill top American government officials... Views: 19
In this next thrilling story from Alan Gold and Mike Jones, we meet Shalman, a freedom-fighter turned peacenik and archaeologist, and his young beautiful wife, Judit, a refugee from the horrors of Stalin’s USSR.As the Second World War draws to a close, and the world begins to learn the truth about Hitler’s genocide, the foundation of the State of Israel as a permanent home for what’s left of the Jewish people becomes increasingly urgent. In Palestine, Arab and Jewish forces fight each other and the British for supremacy and the right to own the land, causing a nightmare environment of hatred and suspicion. But a deeply buried global conspiracy, which has its origin in Stalin’s Russia, seeks to undermine Israel’s future as an independent nation. A plot to fashion the fledgling nation as a puppet of the Soviet Union rests upon a handful of committed Jewish Communists, led secretly by Judit. But is she a heartless assassin, a disciple of the... Views: 16
