An American pilot is shot down at the border between North and South Korea. While his team-mates cover up the whole incident so as to avoid a diplomatic disaster, Buck Danny is in charge of bringing the pilot back to the US. In the heart of the hostile jungle, a lethal game of hide-and-seek begins. Can Buck Danny find the American pilot before the North Koreans do?
Not all battles are won by the sword. Jurian's victory against the dark power in Cyrene has earned him renown throughout the Empire, but fame means nothing to him if he can't save the friend he lost. When Jurian's search for Menas leads him to Alexandria, he finds an unlikely ally in the Roman governor's brilliant and precocious daughter, Aikaterina. Together they are swept into the glittering intrigue of Diocletian's court in Nicomedia, where no one and nothing is what it seems. Then Sabra arrives in the city, and Jurian proves to the Emperor that he is more than just a legend, and finally everything he ever hoped for seems within his reach. But Marcus Valerius Casca is also vying for Diocletian's favor, and his hatred for Jurian knows no limits. As Casca's devious plotting snares each of Jurian's friends in turn, Jurian must discover a way to beat his enemy at his own game and rescue Menas before he destroys them all. From the exotic Alexandria to the imperial court of Nicomedia and the bloody sands of the Roman Colosseum, this sweeping second installment of the Sword and Serpent series will pull you into a riveting adventure through a world of deadly intrigue, where nothing is what it seems and the price of freedom can be greater than life itself. Saints aren't born. They are forged.
"Trying to enjoy married life, October Daye discovers that an old friend and ally is really an enemy in disguise and must battle for her life and community"--
Named to ten BEST OF THE YEAR lists and selected as a William C. Morris Award Winner,The Serpent King is the critically acclaimed, much-beloved story of three teens who find themselves--and each other--while on the cusp of graduating from high school with hopes of leaving their small-town behind. Perfect for fans of John Green's Turtles All the Way Down. "Move over, John Green; Zentner is coming for you." —The New York Public Library “Will fill the infinite space that was left in your chest after you finished The Perks of Being a Wallflower.” —BookRiot.com Dill isn't the most popular kid at his rural Tennessee high school. After his father fell from grace in a public scandal that reverberated throughout their small town, Dill became a target. Fortunately, his two fellow misfits and best friends, Travis and Lydia, have his back. But as they begin their senior year, Dill feels the coils of his future tightening around him. His only escapes are music and his secret feelings for Lydia--neither of which he is brave enough to share. Graduation feels more like an ending to Dill than a beginning. But even before then, he must cope with another ending--one that will rock his life to the core. Debut novelist Jeff Zentner provides an unblinking and at times comic view of the hard realities of growing up in the Bible belt, and an intimate look at the struggles to find one’s true self in the wreckage of the past. “A story about friendship, family and forgiveness, it’s as funny and witty as it is utterly heartbreaking.” —PasteMagazine.com “A brutally honest portrayal of teen life . . . [and] a love letter to the South from a man who really understands it.” —Mashable.com “I adored all three of these characters and the way they talked to and loved one another.”—New York Times
“We travel the world,” writes Gregory McNamee, “and wherever we go there are snake stories to entertain us.” Here are some fifty diverse and unusual accounts of serpents from cultures across time and around the globe: snakes that talk, jump, and dance; snakes that transform into other creatures; snakes that just . . . watch. Many selections are drawn from the rich oral traditions of peoples in every clime that supports reptiles, from the Akimel O’odham of North America to the Mensa Bet-Abrahe of Africa to the Mungkjan of Australia. Included as well are such writings as prayers from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm, a poem by Emily Dickinson, and a journal entry by Charles Darwin. What we read about snakes in The Serpent’s Tale is just as fascinating for what it says about us, for there always will be something primordial about our connection to them. That bond is evident in these stories: in how we associate snakes with nature’s elemental forces, how we attribute special qualities to their eyes and skin, and how they preside over all phases of our existence, from creation to death to resurrection.
Set against the stunning backdrop of Renaissance France, The Serpent and the Moon is a true story of love, war, intrigue, betrayal, and persecution. At its heart is one of the world's greatest love stories: the lifelong devotion of King Henri II of France to Diane de Poitiers, a beautiful aristocrat who was nineteen years older than her lover. At age fourteen, Henri was married to fourteen-year-old Catherine de' Medici, an unattractive but extremely wealthy heiress who was to bring half of Italy to France as her dowry. When Catherine met Henri on her wedding day, she fell instantly in love, but Henri could see no one but the beautiful Diane. When Henri eventually became king, he and Diane ruled France as one. Meanwhile, Catherine took as her secret motto the words "Hate and Wait" and lived for the day Diane would die and she could win Henri's love and rule by his side. Fate had another plan. Her Royal Highness Princess Michael of Kent, herself a descendant of both Catherine and Diane, imbues this seldom-told story with an insider's grasp of royal life. The Serpent and the Moon is a fascinating love story as well as a richly woven history of an extraordinary time.
The first novel in Mercedes Lackey's magical Elemental Masters series reimagines the fairy tale Snow White in a richly-detailed alternate Edwardian England Maya Witherspoon lived most of the first twenty-five years of her life in her native India. As the daughter of a prominent British physician and a Brahmin woman of the highest caste, she graduated from the University of Delhi as a Doctor of Medicine by the age of twenty-two. But the science of medicine was not Maya’s only heritage. For Maya’s aristocratic mother Surya was a sorceress—a former priestess of the mystical magics fueled by the powerful and fearsome pantheon of Indian gods. Though Maya felt the stirring of magic in her blood, her mother had repeatedly refused to train her. “I cannot,” she had said, her eyes dark with distress, whenever Maya asked. “Yours is the magic of your father’s blood, not mine....” Surya never had the chance to explain this enigmatic statement to her daughter before a mysterious illness claimed her life. Yet it was Maya’s father’s death shortly thereafter that confirmed her darkest suspicions. For her father was killed by the bite of a krait, a tiny venomous snake, and in the last hours of her mother’s life, Surya had warned Maya to beware “the serpent’s shadow.” Maya knew she must flee the land of her birth or face the same fate as her parents. In self-imposed exile in Edwardian London, Maya knew that she could not hide forever from the vindictive power that had murdered her parents. She knew in her heart that even a vast ocean couldn’t protect her from “the serpent’s shadow” that had so terrified her mother. Her only hope was to find a way to master her own magic: the magic of her father’s blood. But who would teach her? And could she learn enough to save her life by the time her relentless pursuers caught up with their prey?
Steven Dennison, 55, ad agency executive is happily married, cock sure—and having an affair. He returns home from an evening with his lover to find that his wife has been killed. His safe, secure world is shattered with grief, guilt and regret. Desperate, he turns to his parish priest for counsel—and perhaps forgiveness. In penetrating discussions, the pair revisit his entire life searching for the source of his failures and the means to peace of mind. Insights are drawn from a remarkable diary Steven has kept from adolescence to young manhood. But their task is compounded as Steven reveals shocking ideas about religion and morals, a sudden new interest in another woman and problems at the office. Fate comes close to a final solution when Steven and friends suffer an auto accident. His injuries are slight but frightening. The close call drives him to laboriously study, sort out and resolve new meanings, beliefs and objectives for the rest of his life. These are recorded in a manifesto he presents to friends and loved ones.
A hired gun delivers frontier justice on a colony world in this exciting novel from “an imaginative writer with a director’s eye” (Aaron Allston, New York Times–bestselling author of Mercy Kill: Star Wars Legends). The man called Twelve is a hired gun, taking his laser pistol from planet to planet, renting his services out to the highest bidder. He finds himself on Glycon-Prime, a new colony at the edge of space. On the hunt for work, Twelve blows into a small frontier town—only to find a massacre. The survivors? A trio of young children, devastated by the murder of their families. They are hellbent on hiring the gunslinger to get revenge on the leader of the vicious mutants responsible—the man known only as The Serpent’s Head . . .
