The Paradise Knights


Book Description

'Do not bandy words with me, woman!' he shrieked, his spit fizzing like acid as it splattered the stone around the window. 'You are nothing. I could squash you with a thought if I wished. You live only as long as I might find you useful in aiding my escape from this place.' Teenage twins, Luke and Alice Goodnight, live an idyllic life in modern-day rural England. However, when Luke discovers a mysterious object in an old book, a disastrous chain of supernatural events ensues. Recruiting their elderly aunt, Augustine Cherrybrum, an eccentric sorceress, only makes things worse for the twins when her curiosity gets the better of her. Something truly evil is stirring in an ancient mine under a nearby wood. Luke and Alice will need all the help they can get to fight it. Can a retired Special Forces soldier, and a secret society of Arthurian knights, founded by Merlin fifteen hundred years ago, aid the twins in their perilous quest?




Power and Paradise in Walt Disney's World


Book Description

In this fascinating analysis, Cher Krause Knight peels back the actual and contextual layers of Walt Disney's inspiration and vision for Disney World in central Florida, exploring the reasons why the resort has emerged as such a prominent sociocultural force. Knight investigates every detail, from the scale and design of the buildings to the sidewalk infrastructure to which items could and could not be sold in the shops, discussing how each was carefully configured to shape the experience of every visitor. Expertly weaving themes of pilgrimage, paradise, fantasy, and urbanism, she delves into the unexpected nuances and contradictions of this elaborately conceived playland of the imagination.




A Small Piece of Paradise


Book Description

The junkman's carefully tended garden is a haven for a poor London boy who desperately tries to save it from destruction when the area is bought for redevelopment.




The Dinosaur Knights


Book Description

A world made by the Eight Creators on which to play out their games of passion and power, Paradise is a sprawling, diverse, often brutal place. Men and women live on Paradise as do dogs, cats, ferrets, goats, and horses. But dinosaurs predominate: wildlife, monsters, beasts of burden and of war. Colossal plant-eaters like Brachiosaurus; terrifying meat-eaters like Allosaurus, and the most feared of all, Tyrannosaurus Rex. Giant lizards swim warm seas. Birds (some with teeth) share the sky with flying reptiles that range in size from bat-sized insectivores to majestic and deadly Dragons.




Knight's Prize


Book Description

She certainly seems meek and soft-spoken, unlike her warrior sisters. But once the sun goes down, Miriel of Rivenloch becomes "The Shadow," the bold, mysterious renegade who robs the rich to give to the poor. But can she outwit the devil-may-care mercenary Sir Rand la Nuit, who has been hired to unmask The Shadow? Miriel doesn't know Rand's mission-only that his sudden, amorous courtship is hiding something. Rand doesn't know who The Shadow is-only that the lovely woman in his arms heats his blood. Touch by silky touch, kiss by sizzling kiss, the stakes-and their passions-mount. And once Rand and Miriel disrobe in his bedchamber, both can lose everything they live for-including their oh-so-vulnerable hearts.




Knight's Wyrd


Book Description

Ahead of its time on its original publication, Debra Doyle and James D. Macdonald's Mythopoeic Fantasy Award-winning dark medieval fantasy Knight's Wyrd is perfect for contemporary tastes. Tor Essentials presents new editions of science fiction and fantasy titles of proven merit and lasting value, each volume introduced by an appropriate literary figure. With an introduction written for this edition by Sherwood Smith. On the eve of his knighting, Will Odosson learns his wyrd, or destiny: He shall meet death before a year has passed. Will rushes north to release his betrothed from their engagement, but on the way he is beset by all manner of horrors--a man-eating troll, carnivorous mermaids, a magic-working dragon . . . and something far worse: an evil unlike anything Will ever imagined. Knight’s Wyrd is an award-winning gem that’s perfect for revival as a Tor Essential and will appeal to fans of books like Hild and Spear, and films like The Green Knight–-a medieval fantasy with the authentic lived-in strangeness of the real Middle Ages. It was originally published by a pair of YA imprints, but it works equally well as an adult read. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.




Herding Monkeys to Paradise


Book Description

This book is a study of the use of monkeys as a tourist attraction in Japan. Monkey parks are popular visitor attractions that display free-ranging troops of Japanese macaques to the paying public. The parks work by manipulating the movements of the monkey troop through the regular provision of food handouts at a fixed site where the monkeys can be easily viewed. This system of management leads to a variety of problems, including proliferating monkey numbers, park-edge crop-raiding, and the sedentarization of the troop. In addition to falling visitor numbers, these problems have led to the closure or fencing in of many parks, calling into question the future of the monkey park as an institution.







The Paradise of Bachelors and The Tartarus of Maids


Book Description

A short story from the Classic Shorts collection: The Happy Failure by Herman Melville