On the unforgiving streets of Karad, Veron grows up hungry, inexperienced, and stealing just to survive. After tragedy strikes, he is forced to decide what path his life will take. Opportunity arises when he discovers the last survivor of a secret organization called the Shadow Knights. Apprenticed to learn their ways, Veron begins to develop abilities he never dreamed he could have. Meanwhile, an enemy from across the mountains comes to destroy their kingdom's way of life, and the Shadow Knights are the only ones able to stop him. As Veron fights to survive the city, he prepares to face his destiny.
Following his beloved debut, Traitor's Blade, Sebastien de Castell returns with volume two of his fast-paced fantasy adventure series, inspired by the swashbuckling action and witty banter of The Three Musketeers. Knight's Shadow continues the series with a thrilling and dark tale of heroism and betrayal in a country crushed under the weight of its rulers' corruption. A few days after the horrifying murder of a duke and his family, Falcio val Mond, swordsman and First Cantor of the Greatcoats, begins a deadly pursuit to capture the killer. But Falcio soon discovers his own life is in mortal danger from a poison administered as a final act of revenge by one of his deadliest enemies. As chaos and civil war begin to overtake the country, Falcio has precious little time left to stop those determined to destroy his homeland.
The latest in the series of Amber novels, in which Merlin, the son of Prince Corwin, continues to claim his birthright, despite the various people who wish to kill him.
Pulp History brings to life extraordinary feats of bravery, violence, and redemption that history has forgotten. These stories are so dramatic and thrilling they have to be true. In SHADOW KNIGHTS, everyday men and women risk their lives on top-secret missions to sabotage Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich. Hell-bent on conquering Europe, Hitler had just set his sights on England when Winston Churchill reached into his bag of tricks and invented a secret spy network of ordinary citizens. These schoolteachers, housewives, prostitutes, and farmers abandoned their former lives, trained in covert black ops, and set Europe ablaze. Parachuting into Nazi territory under the cover of night, they destroyed factories, armed resistance networks, and turned Hitler’s juggernaut on its head.
The highly anticipated second volume of the Shadow Knights Trilogy: After tasting financial success and the Shadow Knights' power, Veron lost everything. Now, trapped in slavery, jealous servants and harsh justice threaten his ability to fulfill his destiny. Caught between secrets he cannot divulge and attention from the master's daughter, Chelci, Veron must choose between following the rules or following his heart as he fights to rise again. Meanwhile, King Bale searches to kill the young shadow knight, and Veron's old friend Brixton is the only one who knows where he is. Will the lure of power entice Brixton to turn on him again? His first betrayal nearly cost Veron everything. A second would cost him his life.
Sixteen-year-old Jack thinks he’s a failure. Living with aches and nausea, hearing voices and disconnected from his friends, he wonders if crystal meth might take the pain away. But when his mother ends up in a coma, and his father can’t cope, Jack runs from home with his younger sister Emily. As the siblings shelter from a violent storm, goddess Freyja appears. She says they must travel to the realm of Sylvaheim to defeat the malevolent Lord Batu Glass and his partner Morgana. Growing in power, they now threaten all the realms. But the ultimate challenge lies within: Can Jack and Emily conquer their deepest fears to stop druglord Batu Glass and his henchmen, the traitorous ravens, before Jack’s soul is lost too? Shadows of Sylvaheim is not just a coming-of-age mythic fantasy novel, it also acts as a Jungian guide to life. “It is a worthy undertaking to introduce young people to Jungian psychology and I applaud Toula’s efforts and dedication. I wish her great success!” Dr Murray Stein ~ Jungian Analyst, Author, Lecturer
As a member of the Knights of the Realm, Reid swore an oath to protect her king only to discover he harbors a traitorous agenda. Being a woman raised in a man’s world, Reid thought becoming a Knight would give her purpose and strength. So far, it has done nothing but give her trouble. The king ordered her to spy on the Axian royal family while she prepares for her marriage—a marriage neither she nor Prince Dexter wants. Once in Axian, Reid realizes she’s being used as a pawn in a decades-old political match. With the king and Knights seemingly at odds, Reid’s allegiances are torn, especially when she finds friendship in the unlikeliest of places. As the kingdom of Marsden teeters on the brink of civil war, Reid must decide whose side she’s on—even if that means betraying her king in order to save the kingdom.
Without light, there is no photograph. As almost every photographer knows, the word “photograph” has its roots in two Greek words that, together, mean “drawing with light.” But what is less commonly acknowledged and understood is the role that shadow plays in creating striking, expressive imagery, especially in portraiture. It is through deft, nuanced use of both light and shadow that you can move beyond shooting simply ordinary, competent headshots into the realm of creating dramatic portraiture that can so powerfully convey a subject’s inner essence, communicate a personal narrative, and express your photographic vision.
In The Dramatic Portrait: The Art of Crafting Light and Shadow, Chris Knight addresses portraiture with a unique approach to both light and shadow that allows you to improve and elevate your own portraiture. He begins with the history of portraiture, from the early work of Egyptians and Greeks to the sublime treatment of light and subject by artists such as Caravaggio, Rembrandt, and Vermeer. Chris then dives into a deep, hands-on exploration of light, shadow, and portraiture, offering numerous lessons and takeaways. He covers:
• The qualities of light: hard, soft, and the spectrum in between
• The relationships between light, subject, and background, and how to control them
• Lighting patterns such as Paramount, Rembrandt, loop, and split
• Lighting ratios and how they affect contrast in your image
• Equipment: from big and small modifiers to grids, snoots, barn doors, flags, and gels
• Multiple setups for portrait shoots, including those that utilize one, two, and three lights
• How color contributes to drama and mood, eliciting an emotional response from the viewer
• How to approach styling your portrait, from wardrobe to background
• The post-processing workflow, including developing the RAW file, maximizing contrast, color grading, retouching, and dodging and burning for heightened drama and effect
A brilliant tour de force, The Knight and His Shadow tells the tale of Lat-Sukabé’s quest to find his former lover, Khadidja, who writes him to “come before it’s too late.” As Lat-Sukabé recounts his past with Khadidja, reality shapeshifts and takes on a dreamlike quality. He describes how Khadidja is hired by a wealthy stranger to sit before an open door and tell stories into an uncertain darkness, unable to see the person to whom she speaks. Like Lat-Sukabé and Khadidja, the reader feels farther from home with every page, as the world turns and morphs. With those shifts, the symbolic order, the basis of meaning and sanity, begins to tremble. Postmodernist sensibilities meet postcolonial concerns in this lyrical novel from a master of Senegalese literature.
