When Princesses Rosalie and Scarlet went to bed on a breezy summer night, they didn't expect to awake to such a fright. Their father, the king's, scepter was taken by a thief. The royal family was in utter disbelief. The princesses sneak out of bed and find a small clue. Their mission is clear, they know what they must do. Along their journey, they meet friends who help them track the thief down. Will they find him and return the scepter to their father who wears the crown?
For hundreds of years, the rulers of Avornis sought to reclaim the Scepter of Mercy, their only protection from the fallen god known as the Banished One. They all failed. Now, the burden rests on the shoulders of two kings, divided by pride, but united in duty.
DENORIEL: WARRIOR OF KORONOS; RIDER IN THE WILD HUNT . . . NURSEMAID Denoriel Siencyn Macreth Silverhair was a warrior in Koronos' band, a fierce rider in the Wild Hunt, but when he was summoned he came obediently to the valley of the FarSeers. A glow of power lifted about the crystal lens. "Here is the nexus of our future," said the FarSeer in the dress of ancient Greece, and a mist seemed to pass over the surface of the lens. A moment later, the surface cleared, and within it, Denoriel saw the image of a human infant, red-haired and scowling, swaddled in fine, embroidered linen and lace . . . and glowing with power. The babe was being held by a figure that Denoriel recognized¾the mortal king of England, Henry, eighth of that name. The lens misted again, and scene after scene played out briefly before him¾briefly, but enough to show him a future very bright for the mortals of England, a flowering of art, music, and letters, of great deeds, of exploration and bravery. Oh, there were problems¾¾twice, if Denoriel read the signs aright Spain sent a great fleet against England, only to be repulsed at minimal cost. But the troubles were weathered, the difficulties overcome, and the result was nearly an age of gold. "And this," said the lady of the ancient ways, "Is what will come to pass if that child does not reign." Fires . . . Black-robed priests, grim-faced and implacable, condemned scores, hundreds, to the Question, torturing their bodies until they would confess to anything, then burning what was left in front of silent onlookers. Others, whose intellects burned as brightly as the flames, did not need to be tortured; they confessed their sins of difference defiantly . . . and were also burned. In place of a flowering of art and science, came a blight. Darkness fell over the land, pressed there by the heavy, iron hand of Spain and the Inquisition. "You are the key to all of this." The FarSeer's emerald eyes held his. "The red-haired child of Great Harry of England must live, and thrive, and grow up to rule. You must go to it in the mortal world, and become its protector." "But I am a warrior, not a nursemaid¾" he said, feebly. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).
Two rival kings must unite to defeat a malevolent god in the “wise and humorous” conclusion to the Hugo Award–winning author’s Scepter of Mercy trilogy (Publishers Weekly). When Avornis falls, the Banished One will reign supreme. Rival kings Lanius and Grus each covet solitary power, but realize that a kingdom divided cannot stand against the evil god who enslaves the minds of men through their nightmares. Once, Avornis was safe from his dark influence, protected by a powerful talisman supplied by the pantheon of deities who expunged the immortal called Milvago from their ranks. But that was centuries earlier, before the Scepter of Mercy was lost, and only through its recovery can Avornis survive. Now, Lanius has a daring—most likely impossible—plan, but it requires the cooperation of his fellow ruler, the warrior and usurper king Grus. If they fail to work together they will die together nevertheless, along with everything that is good and right in their world. Hugo Award winner Harry Turtledove brings his Scepter of Mercy trilogy to a spectacular end with a story of courage, conflict, and selfless sacrifice. In The Scepter’s Return, as in the previous books of the series, the acclaimed world-builder reimagines epic fantasy, leaving his own special imprint on the popular genre much as he has done with the alternate history for which he is so justifiably renowned.
Daniel and Aidan have spent their lives apart from the rest of the kingdom of Castiglias and its subjects. For the last three years, they have been left with only each other for company since King Argyle's men came and took their parents to be slaves. The boys' survival has been dependent on the lessons learned from their parents, as well as their own unique powers. When Argyle's men come to take Daniel, Aidan uses his little-known gift to fight off the gathering party. He does so with only two goals in mind: to save his older brother from a lifetime of serving Argyle, and then escape together. Fleeing the only home they have ever known, they must avoid Argyle's men, werewolves, and a fire-breathing dragon looking for an easy meal. What begins as a fight to save one boy and then disappear unexpectedly turns into a battle against the evil forces of Argyle, a war that may affect the lives of not only the many children waiting to be taken, but the existence of the kingdom itself.
"In The Scepter and the Star, John J. Collins turns to the Dead Sea Scrolls to shed new light on the origins, meaning, and relevance of messianic expectations. The first Christians were Jews who believed that Jesus of Nazareth was the messiah - the Christ; Christians could be called "followers of the messiah." Other Jews did not accept this claim, and so the Christians went their own way and grew into a separate religion. The disagreement about the identity of the messiah is the root difference between Judaism and Christianity." "The recent disclosure of the full corpus of the Dead Sea Scrolls now makes it possible to see this disagreement in a fuller context than ever before. The most stunning revelation of the new evidence is the diversity of messianic expectations in Judaism around the beginning of the common era. The Hebrew word "messiah" means "anointed one." According to the scrolls, the messiah could be a warrior king in the line of David, a priest, a prophet, or a teacher. He could be called "the Son of God." Jesus of Nazareth fitted the expectations some Jews of the time had of the messiah. The majority of Jews, however, had quite different expectations."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
The first all-encompassing book on Israel’s foreign policy and the diplomatic history of the Jewish people, The Star and the Scepter retraces and explains the interactions of Jews with other nations from the ancient kingdoms of Israel to modernity. Starting with the Hebrew Bible, Emmanuel Navon argues that one cannot grasp Israel’s interactions with the world without understanding how Judaism’s founding document has shaped the Jewish psyche. He sheds light on the people of Israel’s foreign policy through the ages: the ancient kingdoms of Israel, Jewish diasporas in Europe from the Middle Ages to the emancipation, the emerging nineteenth-century Zionist movement, and Zionist diplomacy following World War I and surrounding World War II. Navon elucidates Israel’s foreign policy from the birth of the state in 1948 to our days: the dilemmas and choices at the beginning of the Cold War; Israel’s attempts to establish periphery alliances; the Arab-Israeli conflict; Israel’s relations with Europe, the United States, Russia, Asia, Africa, Latin America, the United Nations, and the Jewish diasporas; and how twenty-first-century energy geopolitics is transforming Israel’s foreign relations today. Navon’s analysis is rooted in two central ideas, represented by the Star of David (faith) and the scepter (political power). First, he contends that the interactions of Jews with the world have always been best served by combining faith with pragmatism. Second, Navon shows how the state of Israel owes its diplomatic achievements to national assertiveness and hard power—not only military strength but economic prowess and technological innovation. Demonstrating that diplomacy is a balancing act between ideals and realpolitik, The Star and the Scepter draws aspirational and pragmatic lessons from Israel’s exceptional diplomatic history.
Alucius, hero of "Legacies" and "Darknesses," returns in this exciting third volume of the Corean Chronicles to face the greatest challenges yet to both his courage and his magical talent.
This multivolume work is still proving to be as fundamental to Old Testament studies as its companion set, the Kittel-Friedrich Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, has been to New Testament studies. Beginning with father, and continuing through the alphabet, the TDOT volumes present in-depth discussions of the key Hebrew and Aramaic words in the Old Testament. Leading scholars of various religious traditions (including Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, Greek Orthodox, and Jewish) and from many parts of the world (Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States) have been carefully selected for each article by editors Botterweck, Ringgren, and Fabry and their consultants, George W. Anderson, Henri Cazelles, David Noel Freedman, Shemaryahu Talmon, and Gerhard Wallis. The intention of the writers is to concentrate on meaning, starting from the more general, everyday senses and building to an understanding of theologically significant concepts. To avoid artificially restricting the focus of the articles, TDOT considers under each keyword the larger groups of words that are related linguistically or semantically. The lexical work includes detailed surveys of a word s occurrences, not only in biblical material but also in other ancient Near Eastern writings. Sumerian, Akkadian, Egyptian, Ethiopic, Ugaritic, and Northwest Semitic sources are surveyed, among others, as well as the Qumran texts and the Septuagint; and in cultures where no cognate word exists, the authors often consider cognate ideas. TDOT s emphasis, though, is on Hebrew terminology and on biblical usage. The contributors employ philology as well as form-critical and traditio-historical methods, with the aim of understanding the religious statements in the Old Testament. Extensive bibliographical information adds to the value of this reference work. This English edition attempts to serve the needs of Old Testament students without the linguistic background of more advanced scholars; it does so, however, without sacrificing the needs of the latter. Ancient scripts (Hebrew, Greek, etc.) are regularly transliterated in a readable way, and meanings of foreign words are given in many cases where the meanings might be obvious to advanced scholars. Where the Hebrew text versification differs from that of English Bibles, the English verse appears in parentheses. Such features will help all earnest students of the Bible to avail themselves of the manifold theological insights contained in this monumental work.
