Capturing the electric short fiction energy that led Robert E. Howard to be one of the top fantasy writers of the century, with exclusive serialized eBook stories starring Conan, Solomon Kane, and more by many of today’s top writers in fantasy and sword-and-sorcery. Queen of the Black Coast and captain of the Tigress, Bêlit, and her pirate crew roam the seas in pursuit of treasure and adventure. The crew are utterly devoted to their leader, yet they can do little when a massive storm beaches their ship on unknown shores. She and her first mate Seneka send a trio of teams to search for resources and human habitation, but only two return. When Bêlit and her best swordsmen venture into the jungle, they discover a temple, silent warriors, and a charismatic leader who promises Bêlit a kingdom… But at what cost?
By Crom! Issue 5 of The Savage Sword of Conan is HERE! King Conan: The Ensorcelled Part One The first chilling chapter of a witch hunt gone horribly haywire, from writer Jason Aaron and artist Geof Isherwood. Conan: Damn Thing in the Water A short story of a not-so-simple rest stop, from writer Jim Zub and artist Roberto de la Torre. Conan: Forged A tales of testing one’s metal in the forge fires of youth, from writer Michael Kogge and artist Dan Parsons.
After trouncing a trio of Aesir warriors set to steal his hard-fought game, Conan of Cimmeria struck a peace with their leader Niord and shared their campfire, where he listened to Aesir tales of battle, the fury of their gods, and of their mortal enemies the Vanir. Upon heeding a desperate horn call, the group found the nearby Aesir village aflame and, knowing the Vanir were to blame, Niord set his warband to hunt, accepting Conan’s offer of help and arming the Cimmerian for battle. Setting out into the norther wastes, the war party was shadowed by an ethereal mysterious woman, who observed the warriors persisting through a blizzard sent by ‘her father.’ When the sudden storm abated, Niord’s war party found themselves facing the Vanir out on the ice, and an orgy of violence followed. During the brutal battle, the woman marveled at the black-haired Cimmerian, whose fire and fury burned so much brighter than the others. There, amidst the cold and carnage, she claimed Conan for herself.
Amidst the bloodstained snow, Conan of Cimmeria slew the last of the Vanir war party. Thinking himself alone, Conan was surprised to see a mysterious woman at the battlefield’s edge, who taunted him with her nudity and mocked his ignorance of the gods. Stoking his desire, the woman led Conan on a merry chase through the deepening snows and into twilight realms not meant for mortal men. There, thunder preceded the arrival of the woman’s Frost-Giant brothers, who attempted to slay the Cimmerian. But Conan was underestimated, succeeding in felling both brothers before chasing the woman to fulfil his raging desires. Capture, the woman beseeched her father, Ymir, who rescued his daughter from her folly and rendered Conan unconscious. When the Cimmerian awoke, he was surrounded by Niord and his Aesirmen who’d followed his spoor through the wastes. Though first disbelieving his tale, all recognized the truth when they beheld the gossamer in the Cimmerian’s hands: Conan had met Atali, the Frost-Giant’s daughter.
Denver enters the Noir Series arena with a wide range of mile-high misgivings and perils. “Denver Noir presents an impressive range of perspectives and observations. Between the writers and their characters, you’ll encounter dozens of distinct and compelling relationships with this place. Maybe you’ll start to see our city—and even yourself—in new ways.” —Denver North Star “Denver Noir is a fascinating exploration of this sunny city’s dark side. Mountain views, a roughneck Gold Rush past, and stories of murder and mayhem make this anthology a must-read for anyone curious about Denver and its environs. Like the countless entries before it, Akashic Books allows an editor to craft an anthology filled with stories varying in tone and perspective.” —New York Journal of Books Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each book comprises all new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city. Brand-new stories by: Peter Heller, Barbara Nickless, Cynthia Swanson, Mario Acevedo, Francelia Belton, R. Alan Brooks, D.L. Cordero, Amy Drayer, Twanna LaTrice Hill, Manuel Ramos, Mark Stevens, Mathangi Subramanian, David Heska Wanbli Weiden, and Erika T. Wurth.
Jewish and Christian authors of the High Middle Ages not infrequently came into dialogue or conflict with each other over traditions drawn from ancient writings outside of the bible. Circulating in Latin and Hebrew adaptations and translations, these included the two independent versions of the Testament of Naphtali in which the patriarch has a vision of the Diaspora, a shipwreck that scatters the twelve tribes. The Christian narrative is linear and ends in salvation; the Jewish narrative is circular and pessimistic. For Ruth Nisse, this is an emblematic text that illuminates relationships between interpretation, translation, and survival. In Nisse’s account, extrabiblical literature encompasses not only the historical works of Flavius Josephus but also, in some of the more ingenious medieval Hebrew imaginative texts, Aesop’s fables and the Aeneid. While Christian-Jewish relations in medieval England and Northern France are most often associated with Christian polemics against Judaism and persecutions of Jews in the wake of the Crusades, the period also saw a growing interest in language study and translation in both communities. These noncanonical texts and their afterlives provided Jews and Christians alike with resources of fiction that they used to reconsider boundaries of doctrine and interpretation. Among the works that Nisse takes as exemplary of this intersection are the Book of Yosippon, a tenth-century Hebrew adaptation of Josephus with a wide circulation and influence in the later middle ages, and the second-century romance of Aseneth about the religious conversion of Joseph’s Egyptian wife. Yosippon gave Jews a new discourse of martyrdom in its narrative of the fall of Jerusalem, and at the same time it offered access to the classical historical models being used by their Christian contemporaries. Aseneth provided its new audience of medieval monks with a way to reimagine the troubling consequences of unwilling Jewish converts.
History and folklore abound in these twenty-five true stories about lost ships along North Carolina's storm-washed Outer Banks. Learn the haunting tales of wrecked vessels such as the steam packet Pulaski in 1838, the Pocahantas in 1862, the Virginia in 1900 and, of course, the ongoing search for the pirate ship of Blackbeard, among many others.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of the runaway phenomenon Unbroken comes a universal underdog story about the horse who came out of nowhere to become a legend. Seabiscuit was one of the most electrifying and popular attractions in sports history and the single biggest newsmaker in the world in 1938, receiving more coverage than FDR, Hitler, or Mussolini. But his success was a surprise to the racing establishment, which had written off the crooked-legged racehorse with the sad tail. Three men changed Seabiscuit’s fortunes: Charles Howard was a onetime bicycle repairman who introduced the automobile to the western United States and became an overnight millionaire. When he needed a trainer for his new racehorses, he hired Tom Smith, a mysterious mustang breaker from the Colorado plains. Smith urged Howard to buy Seabiscuit for a bargain-basement price, then hired as his jockey Red Pollard, a failed boxer who was blind in one eye, half-crippled, and prone to quoting passages from Ralph Waldo Emerson. Over four years, these unlikely partners survived a phenomenal run of bad fortune, conspiracy, and severe injury to transform Seabiscuit from a neurotic, pathologically indolent also-ran into an American sports icon. BONUS: This edition contains a Seabiscuit discussion guide and an excerpt from Unbroken. Praise for Seabiscuit “Fascinating . . . Vivid . . . A first-rate piece of storytelling, leaving us not only with a vivid portrait of a horse but a fascinating slice of American history as well.”—The New York Times “Engrossing . . . Fast-moving . . . More than just a horse’s tale, because the humans who owned, trained, and rode Seabiscuit are equally fascinating. . . . [Laura Hillenbrand] shows an extraordinary talent for describing a horse race so vividly that the reader feels like the rider.”—Sports Illustrated “REMARKABLE . . . MEMORABLE . . . JUST AS COMPELLING TODAY AS IT WAS IN 1938.”—The Washington Post
