Dwarven Ruby (Sword of Heavens #4)


Book Description

Before the Prince of Alcea can secure the Dwarven Ruby for the Sword of Heavens, he must first find an ancient magical shield created by dwarven magicians eons ago. The shield was carried into battle against the goblins, but the dwarves that carried it have never been heard from again. Meanwhile, the mysteriously senile Mage entices some of the Children of the Ancient Prophecy to join him in what may be a suicide attack of the Imperial Palace of Emperor Hanchi. The Contest of Power reaches a critical stage in Tagaret, and gypsy rebels must determine what the Ancient Prophecy means to them. Discover a world of might, magic, and intrigue as the search for the fourth gem of the Sword of Heavens brings danger to a new level.




Dwarven Ruby


Book Description

The mysteriously senile Mage entices some of the Children to join him in what may be a suicide attack of the Imperial Palace of Emperor Hanchi. The Contest of Power reaches a critical stage, and gypsy rebels must determine what the Ancient Prophecy means to them. Discover a world of might, magic, and intrigue as the search for the fourth gem of the Sword of Heavens brings danger to a new level.




Demonkin (Demonstone Chronicles #4)


Book Description

As two continents prepare for a world-wide war, a small group of Alceans plot to free the Dielderal elves from the grip of the Federation. The goal is to make the elves simply disappear, but over a thousand elven children are held captive in the four major cities of the Federation, and the Dielderal elves will not flee while their children are endangered. Complicating matters are the 'births' of a new breed of demonkin, the Claws of Alutar. While the K'san demonkin are charged with crushing Alcea, the Claws of Alutar are singular in purpose. Their goal is to assassinate the heroes of the Mage, and their victory would spell far more than defeat for Alcea, as the world would crumble into a decaying ball of misery.




Aakuta: the Dark Mage (Forgotten Legacy #4)


Book Description

Lord Marak tries to gain support from the lords of Khadora as the Jiadin invasion begins. Complicating the situation is the arrival of a male mage, something unheard of in Khadora.




Blood Magic (Amica Saga #4)


Book Description

Posing as a merchant's warrior, the Avenging Shadow sneaks into the Northlands to learn what the rogue mages have in store for Amica, but the enemy is waiting for him and seals the mountain pass that is his only path of escape.




Abuud: the One-Eyed God


Book Description

Follow the adventures of the Children of the Ancient Prophecy as the mysterious Master Khatama, the charismatic prophet Azmet, and the unseen Stafa Rakech take part in molding the Ancient Prophecy towards their desired goals.




Luxury Arts of the Renaissance


Book Description

Today we associate the Renaissance with painting, sculpture, and architecture—the “major” arts. Yet contemporaries often held the “minor” arts—gem-studded goldwork, richly embellished armor, splendid tapestries and embroideries, music, and ephemeral multi-media spectacles—in much higher esteem. Isabella d’Este, Marchesa of Mantua, was typical of the Italian nobility: she bequeathed to her children precious stone vases mounted in gold, engraved gems, ivories, and antique bronzes and marbles; her favorite ladies-in-waiting, by contrast, received mere paintings. Renaissance patrons and observers extolled finely wrought luxury artifacts for their exquisite craftsmanship and the symbolic capital of their components; paintings and sculptures in modest materials, although discussed by some literati, were of lesser consequence. This book endeavors to return to the mainstream material long marginalized as a result of historical and ideological biases of the intervening centuries. The author analyzes how luxury arts went from being lofty markers of ascendancy and discernment in the Renaissance to being dismissed as “decorative” or “minor” arts—extravagant trinkets of the rich unworthy of the status of Art. Then, by re-examining the objects themselves and their uses in their day, she shows how sumptuous creations constructed the world and taste of Renaissance women and men.




Heaven-made Ring


Book Description

When an orphan adult crossed over to another world and inadvertently obtained the mysterious ring, he or she embarked on a different cultivation path. He trained in the natural energy of the world, then fused it with his magical beast techniques, thus beginning his and his magical beast brothers' life of adventure. To punish adultery is my hobby, to help the world to alleviate poverty is my ideal! Other than having more gold coins, more brothers, and more wisdom, there were only a few other things ...




Blindsight


Book Description

Hugo and Shirley Jackson award-winning Peter Watts stands on the cutting edge of hard SF with his acclaimed novel, Blindsight Two months since the stars fell... Two months of silence, while a world held its breath. Now some half-derelict space probe, sparking fitfully past Neptune's orbit, hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever's out there isn't talking to us. It's talking to some distant star, perhaps. Or perhaps to something closer, something en route. So who do you send to force introductions with unknown and unknowable alien intellect that doesn't wish to be met? You send a linguist with multiple personalities, her brain surgically partitioned into separate, sentient processing cores. You send a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees x-rays and tastes ultrasound. You send a pacifist warrior in the faint hope she won't be needed. You send a monster to command them all, an extinct hominid predator once called vampire, recalled from the grave with the voodoo of recombinant genetics and the blood of sociopaths. And you send a synthesist—an informational topologist with half his mind gone—as an interface between here and there. Pray they can be trusted with the fate of a world. They may be more alien than the thing they've been sent to find. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.




Weapons of Legacy


Book Description

For centuries, Inuit in the Arctic have lived on and around the frozen ocean. Now, as climate change is rapidly melting the sea ice between Canada and Greenland, development here threatens to upset the delicate balance between their communities, land and wildlife.