The Martyr's Blade
The Martyr's Blade

Author: Joel Manners

Publisher:

Published: 2016-05-01

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9780997259407

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Fear rumbles deep within the halls of the great temple of Bandirma....Brought together by bonds of friendship, love and duty, the Temple's guardians journey into the ice-covered hinterlands to investigate disquieting omens of an ancient foe. Desecrated temples, ruined farms and butchered innocents presage an evil the Temple believed destroyed in a cataclysm centuries ago.Thus begins the epic saga of Wyn, a thief escaping her past, Killock, a threadbare knight, Danielle, a bewitching marquessa, and Bradon, a courageous and compassionate lord, as they fight for survival in the frozen land of Albyn. Their struggle to overcome evil engulfs the country from ancient halls to barren mountains and treacherous ruins; from a newly-crowned queen to an imprisoned child, and from a jealous priest to an eccentric wizard. No one escapes the plots, betrayals, triumphs, tragedies, desires, and despair that encompass them.As they fight to preserve life, and death, their fate is tied to a weapon of myth, the great Blade that felled the Nameless King a millennium ago. Who will wield the Martyr's Blade and how many lives will it claim, this time? In The Martyr's Blade, the first volume in the Chronicles of the Martyr, Joel Manners intricately creates a fantastical world ruled by ice and snow, tradition and belief, love and betrayal, magic and might. His characters linger in the mind long after you've closed the book. A compelling adventure story filled with humor and humanity, each narrator sheds new light on the unfolding, impending devastation with a fresh voice and unique perspective.

The Martyr
The Martyr

Author: Anthony Ryan

Publisher: Orbit

Published: 2022-06-28

Total Pages: 566

ISBN-13: 031643079X

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Deadly feuds and ancient secrets spell war in the second novel of The Covenant of Steel, an epic series of action, intrigue, and magic from Anthony Ryan, a master storyteller who has taken the fantasy world by storm. "Ryan again showcases his gift for epic fantasy in his excellent sequel to The Pariah . . . . Ryan's evocative prose enhances the suspenseful, intricate story . . . .This fires on all cylinders." —Publishers Weekly (starred review) Times have changed for Alwyn Scribe. Once an outlaw, he’s now a spymaster and sworn protector of Lady Evadine Courlain, whose visions of a demonic apocalypse have earned her the fanatical devotion of the faithful. Yet Evadine’s growing fame has put her at odds with both Crown and Covenant. As trouble brews in the kingdom, both seek to exploit her position for their own ends. Sent to the Duchy of Alundia to put down a rebellion, Alwyn must rely on old instincts to fight for his new cause. Deadly feuds and ancient secrets are laid bare as war erupts, a war that will decide the fate of the Kingdom of Albermaine and, perhaps, prevent the coming of the prophesied Second Scourge. "A gritty, heart-pounding tale of betrayal and bloody vengeance. I loved every single word." — John Gwynne on The Pariah For more from Anthony Ryan, check out: The Covenant of Steel The Pariah The Martyr Raven's Shadow Trilogy Blood Song Tower Lord Queen of Fire Raven's Blade Duology The Wolf's Call The Black Song The Draconis Memoria Trilogy The Waking Fire The Legion of Flame The Empire of Ashes

The cinema of Álex de la Iglesia
The cinema of Álex de la Iglesia

Author: Andy Willis

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Published: 2013-07-19

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 184779629X

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Álex de la Iglesia, initially championed by Pedro Almodóvar, and at one time the enfant terrible of Spanish film, still makes film critics nervous. The director of some of the most important films of the Post-Franco era – Acción mutante, El día de la bestia, Muertos de risa – receives here the first full length study of his work. Breaking away from the pious tradition of acclaiming art-house auteurs, The cinema of Álex de la Iglesia tackles a new sort of beast: the popular auteur, who brings the provocation of the avant-garde to popular genres such as horror and comedy. This book brings together Anglo-American film theory, an exploration of the legal and economic history of Spanish audio-visual culture, a comprehensive knowledge of Spanish cultural forms and traditions (esperpento, sainete costumbrista) with a detailed textual analysis of all of Álex de la Iglesia’s seven feature films.

Islamic Arms and Armor in The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Islamic Arms and Armor in The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Author: David G. Alexander

Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Published: 2015-12-31

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 1588395707

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Armor and weaponry were central to Islamic culture not only as a means of conquest and the spread of the faith, but also as symbols of status, wealth, and power. The finest arms were made by master craftsmen working with the leading designers, goldsmiths, and jewelers, whose work transformed utilitarian military equipment into courtly works of art. This book reveals the diversity and artistic quality of one of the most important and encyclopedic collections of its kind in the West. The Metropolitan Museum's holdings span ten centuries and include representative pieces from almost every Islamic culture from Spain to the Caucasus. The collection includes rare early works, among them the oldest documented Islamic sword, and is rich in helmets and body armor, decorated with calligraphy and arabesques, that were worn in Iran and Anatolia in the late fifteenth century. Other masterpieces include a jeweled short sword (yatagan) with a blade of "watered" steel that comes from the court of Süleyman the Magnificent, a seventeenth-century gold-inlaid armor associated with Shah Jahan, and two gold-inlaid flintlock firearms belonging to the guard of Tipu Sultan of Mysore. Presenting 126 objects, each handsomely photographed and richly documented with a detailed description and discussion of its technical, historical, and artistic importance, this overview of the Met's holdings is supplemented by an introductory essay on the formation of the collection, and appendixes on iconography and on Turkman-style armor.

The Era of the Martyrs
The Era of the Martyrs

Author: Aaltje Hidding

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2020-08-24

Total Pages: 299

ISBN-13: 3110689707

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One of the most traumatic experiences of Late Antique Christians was the Great Persecution, begun by Emperor Diocletian and his Tetrarchic colleagues in 303 CE. Here Aaltje Hidding unites research of traditional memory studies with work done by cognitive scientists to examine how they remembered the Persecution. The resulting methodological framework, the ‘cognitive ecology’, systemically studies all what can be covered by this term - social surroundings, cognitive artefacts and the physical environment - and bridges the gap between individual and collective memory. The author analyses the remembrance of the Persecution in three different regions along the Nile river. In Oxyrhynchus, the thousands of papyrus fragments found at the city’s rubbish dump give a vivid image of the martyrs in the daily lives of the Oxyrhynchites. In Antinoopolis, known for the cult of the physician saint Colluthus, she zooms in on the rituals and practices at a martyr’s sanctuary. Finally, in Dandara, the rich hagiographical dossier of the anchorite Paphnutius shows how old memories of the Persecution became mixed with new monastic experiences. The Bohairic and Greek Passion of Paphnutius appear in their first complete English translations.

The Book of the Sword
The Book of the Sword

Author: Richard Francis Burton

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2014-01-07

Total Pages: 612

ISBN-13: 1628738472

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“The history of the sword,” the author writes in his introduction, “is the history of humanity.” For centuries, the sword has been a symbol of power, strength, liberty, and courage. In the Middle Ages, the image of a sword was used to signify the word of God. Nearly every culture in history has forged blades from stone or steel to fight in times of battle and protect in times of peace. In this groundbreaking work, Richard Francis Burton, explorer, translator, scholar, and swordsman, draws on a wealth of linguistic, archaeological, and literary sources to trace the millennia-old history of the sword. From its earliest days as a charred, sharpened stick to the height of craftsmanship in the modern era, the sword has been the weapon of choice for warriors of all stripes. In eloquent, captivating prose, Burton describes: • Dirks • Daggers • Knives • Sabers • Cutlasses • The origin of the weapon • The weapons of the age of wood • The Copper Age of weapons • The Iron Age of weapons • The sword in ancient Egypt • The sword in ancient Greece • And more Nearly three hundred line drawings enhance Burton’s richly detailed text. Any reader of history or student of weaponry will find this book a fascinating, highly enjoyable read.