My closest friend had been Michelle. We'd been buds since Kindergarten, and then she moved away last summer. Sometimes I'd email her, but it wasn't the same as talking in real time. The fairies kept me from being totally lonely, but sometimes a Crystal Keeper needs other friends, human friends. Who's got time for homework when your problems involve evil sorcerers? Wanda should be studying for a quiz, avoiding the bullies at her new school and living a normal tweenage life. But, she is called upon once more to be a savior of the fairies, a protector of the fey, a Crystal Keeper. Bees are dying, fairies are missing and nobody knows why. Wanda and her new friend, Edina, visit a crystal store to search for clues. They read about the Green Man, a forest king who Wanda thinks could be the key to solving the mystery. But, when a unicorn appears in her bedroom, the mystery just seems to deepen. Perhaps by asking the right questions, she can find the answer to the crisis. Or will she just end up in peril herself?
The owner of a haunted country inn contends with death, fatherhood, romantic woes, and alcoholism in this humorous and “rattling good ghost story” from a Booker Prize–winning author (The New York Times) Maurice Allington has reached middle age and is haunted by death. As he says, “I honestly can’t see why everybody who isn’t a child, everybody who’s theoretically old enough to have understood what death means, doesn’t spend all his time thinking about it. It’s a pretty arresting thought.” He also happens to own and run a country inn that is haunted. The Green Man opens as Maurice’s father drops dead (had he seen something in the room?) and continues as friends and family convene for the funeral. Maurice’s problems are many and increasing: How to deal with his own declining health? How to reach out to a teenage daughter who watches TV all the time? How to get his best friend’s wife in the sack? How to find another drink? (And another.) And then there is always death. The Green Man is a ghost story that hits a live nerve, a very black comedy with an uncannily happy ending: in other words, Kingsley Amis at his best.
Fairies are real. Don't have doubts. Their world can be dangerous as well. Wanda is too familiar with this. As a Crystal Keeper, she helps the fairies of her realm. But the evil sorcerer Balkazaar has other plans. He's kidnapped her friend and fellow Crystal Keeper Edina. Wanda is faced with the mystery of her disappearance while trying to figure out Balkazaar's next move. Haunted by dreams of dragons, Wanda must find a way to save her friend. But problems don't end with just one path. Will she find the right one to save the Fairy World? Or will Balkazaar have other plans? Join her in the third book of the Crystal Keeper Chronicles.
Beyond its housing estates and identikit high streets there is another Britain. This is the Britain of mist-drenched forests and unpredictable sea-frets: of wraith-like fog banks, druidic mistletoe and peculiar creatures that lurk, half-unseen, in the undergrowth, tantalising and teasing just at the periphery of human vision. How have the remarkably persistent folkloric traditions of the British Isles formed and been formed by the identities and psyches of those who inhabit them? In her sparkling new history, Carolyne Larrington explores the diverse ways in which a myriad of imaginary and fantastical beings has moulded the cultural history of the nation. Fairies, elves and goblins here tread purposefully, sometimes malignly, over an eerie, preternatural landscape that also conceals brownies, selkies, trows, knockers, boggarts, land-wights, Jack o'Lanterns, Barguests, the sinister Nuckleavee, or water-horse, and even Black Shuck: terrifying hell-hound of the Norfolk coast with eyes of burning coal. Focusing on liminal points where the boundaries between this world and that of the supernatural grow thin those marginal tide-banks, saltmarshes, floodplains, moors and rock-pools wherein mystery lies the author shows how mythologies of Mermen, Green men and Wild-men have helped and continue to help human beings deal with such ubiquitous concerns as love and lust, loss and death and continuity and change. Evoking the Wild Hunt, the ghostly bells of Lyonesse and the dread fenlands haunted by Grendel, and ranging the while from Shetland to Jersey and from Ireland to East Anglia, this is a book that will captivate all those who long for the wild places: the mountains and chasms where Gog, Magog and their fellow giants lie in wait."
The Ancient Alien Theory: Part Three and ancientalienpedia.com are both a written and online resource. The written guide serves as an opportunity to log out, shut down, and unplug from the online world. The online guide serves as a gateway to the Ancient Alien Theory, with links to online sources, books, and authors. Just as Bill Birnes' created The UFO Magazine Encyclopedia to provide a comprehensive guide to UFOs and extraterrestrial contact, AncientAlienPedia is providing a database to the Ancient Alien Theory. This all-inclusive guidebook saves readers countless of hours of searching for this information which is scattered across hundreds of websites and books. The AncientAlienPedia will prove to be an essential reference for the highly controversial Ancient Alien Theory.
Thirty-five years in the making, and destined to be the last word in fanta-film references! This incredible 1,017-page resource provides vital credits on over 9,000 films (1896-1999) of horror, fantasy, mystery, science fiction, heavy melodrama, and film noir. Comprehensive cast lists include: directors, writers, cinematographers, and composers. Also includes plot synopses, critiques, re-title/translation information, running times, photographs, and several cross-referenced indexes (by artist, year, song, etc.). Paperback.
A prolific writer about contemporary paganism and pagan themes generally, Varner here turns his attention to The Green Man as an avatar of trees in particular and the vegetable world in general. His first section sets the stage by reviewing ideas and beliefs about the spirit of nature, sacred groves, and May Day. He draws heavily on research from t
Green Man, Earth Angel explores the central role of imagination for understanding the place of humans in the cosmos. Tom Cheetham suggests that lives can only be completely whole if human beings come to recognize that the human and natural worlds are part of a vast living network and that the material and spiritual worlds are deeply interconnected. Central to this reimagining is an examination of the place of language in human life and art and in the worldview that the prophetic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—presuppose. If human language is experienced only as a subset of a vastly more-than-human whole, then it is not only humans who speak, but also God and the world with all its creatures. If humans' internal poetry and creative imaginations are part of a greater conversation, then language can have the vital power to transform the human soul, and the soul of the world itself.
New York Times bestselling author Simon Green introduces a new kind of hero, one who fights the good fight against some very old foes in the first novel in the Secret Histories series. The name’s Bond. Shaman Bond. Actually, that's just his cover. His real name is Eddie Drood, but when your job includes a license to kick supernatural arse on a regular basis, you find your laughs where you can. For centuries, his family has been the secret guardian of Humanity, all that stands between all of you and all of the really nasty things that go bump in the night. As a Drood field agent he wore the golden torc, he killed monsters, and he protected the world. He loved his job. Right up to the point where his own family declared him rogue for no reason. Now, the only people who can help Eddie prove his innocence are the people he used to consider his enemies...
From Hugo-nominated editor Bryan Thomas Schmidt and Nebula nominated author Robin Wayne Bailey, here are nineteen top-notch science fiction stories guaranteed to make you think –and- laugh, featuring such major writers as Robert Silverberg, Mike Resnick, Allen M. Steele, Esther Friesner, Elizabeth Moon, Seanan McGuire, Jody Lynn Nye, James Gunn, Kristine Kathryn Rusch and many more. When Little Green Men Attack, It’s All-out Laugh Warfare From the far reaches of outer space they come—inscrutable aliens, malicious invaders, wacky tourists from another planet—to conquer, study, and tickle us. From the battlefields of the Ozarks to the marble halls of the Boston Library, from Central Park to the skies above Washington, on the moon and in the seediest bars of Kansas City— they’re here. But do they really know who they’re up against? Not hardly! At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). COMPLETE AUTHOR LIST: Mike Resnick, Kristine Kathryn, Dantzel Cherry, Ken Scholes, Jody Lynn Nye, Seanan McGuire, Martin L. Shoemaker, Steven H. Silver, Selina Rosen, Beth L. Cato, Peter J. Wacks & Josh Vogt, Allen M. Steele, Elizabeth Moon, Esther M. Friesner, K.C. Ball, James Gunn, Bryan Thomas Schmidt & Alex Shvartsman, Robert Silverberg, Robin Wayne Bailey About Mission: Tomorrow, edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt: “This themed anthology . . . will appeal to a wide range of readers, who will appreciate the diversity of stories . . . a solid introduction to a classic genre.”—Kirkus “Editor Schmidt adds grandmasters to a mix of newer established names and balances the tragic with the humorous.”—Publishers Weekly About Shattered Shields, edited by Jennifer Brozek and Bryan Thomas Schmidt: “In this well-built anthology, seventeen original stories cut to the heart of military fantasy, diving directly into the most exciting moments of dramatic bravery, grand battles, and life-changing heroism. . . . Readers who prefer to cut straight to the action, but want more depth than pure hack-and-slash, will find these offerings appealing.”—Publishers Weekly “An inventive and thought-provoking set of tales that capture the bravery and terrors of battle. Carries the banner of military fantasy proudly.”—John Marco, author of The Bronze Knight Series About The Raygun Chronicles, edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt: “Fans of sf should enjoy this stylistically varied homage to a genre as old as the fiction . . . ”—Library Journal About Beyond the Sun, edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt: “Beyond the Sun mixes courage, redemption, and stark terror in tales of distant worlds. Buckle in.”—Jack McDevitt, author of Firebird
