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A War, a Witch, a Reckoning

A boastful young Englishman who dreams of finding riches and glory on the battlefields of 17th-century Germany soon finds himself thrown into a nightmare world of brutality and betrayal that will take every ounce of strength, cunning, and blind luck just to survive.

Fleeing the battlefield, Richard's life takes an even darker turn when he stumbles upon a coven of peasant women dwelling deep in the forest of the Harz Mountains, women who have their own secrets to protect--and a burning hatred to avenge. Led by the mysterious Oma, the women save him from pursuing enemies but there is a heavy price to pay. His future and the fate of his very soul are soon tied to theirs.

Daniel is desperate for a job. When someone slides a note under his door offering him the groundskeeper's position at an old estate, it seems too good to be true.

Alarm bells start ringing when he arrives at Craven Manor. The mansion's front door hangs open, and leaves and cobwebs coat the marble foyer. It's clear no one has lived there in a long time. But an envelope waits for him inside the doorway. It contains money, and promises more.

Daniel is desperate. Against his better judgement, he moves into the groundskeeper's cottage behind the crypt. He's determined to ignore the strange occurrences that plague the estate. But when a candle flickers to life in the abandoned tower window, Daniel realises Craven Manor is hiding a terrible secret... one that threatens to bury him with it.

His grandma is just your average sweet, supportive, lipstick-wearing, enchilada-loving Christian Scientist. Yeah, and the aliens are just tourists....

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

The Curse of the Morrigu

In 279 BC an army of Celts invaded Alexander the Great's Greece and changed the course of history....

From the moment he rode into battle, Bran Mac Morgor was doomed to the fate foretold to him by the Goddess of Death herself. And he bore the scars of the raven's claws to prove it. Exiled from his country, Bran would begin an epic journey in search of the only woman he could ever love. But she was a priestess of Apollo....

Set in the legendary Ireland of swirling mists and powerful magic, Ravenmoon is a fantasy adventure of heroes and gods, and frightful creatures from the Otherworld.

When a child is born to the Dèsi clan, he is named by the druid Aonghus Gae-adúath - Aonghus the Terrible Spear - the man who will drive the people out of their land by a single cast of his spear.

Despite attempts to prevent this curse coming true, the terrible day dawns when the Dèsi must flee from the High King's wrath and their home in Eire.

What follows is a fearsome story of journeying and incidents, of monsters and magic, and the ultimate fate of the Dèsi...

Edie is a barmaid at The Tup in the small town of Ravenglass. So far, so normal. But when she is caught in a freak earthquake she subsequently develops 'The Eye' - a power that allows her glimpses of other worlds and strange events. At first Edie passes her visions off as nightmares, but when a corpse is found, murdered, she realises that she has seen this death before, and that her visions are not imaginary, but real. Mankind had better hope that Edie finds a solution to the murders soon, because it's more than just the influence of 'The Eye' that has entered the world. A power far more malevolent has been released, and that power is hungry for death.

A cozy motel and restaurant becomes a haven to nine people during a deep-winter blizzard, but when someone among them starts killing off the others, the remaining survivors must identify and eliminate a murderer.

In the dim future, the energy crisis has forced most of the world's populations into huge urban centers, and countries have banded together in protective political confederations. Noram (the confederation of North and South America) is currently involved in maneuvers to avoid being sucked into another world war. Premier Alton and his Consuls have decided to stage a mock revolution in order to convince their allies that Noram is in no shape or position to wage war on so many fronts.

To lend credence to their plot, they plan to accuse Shanlon Raille, a magician by trade and a minor lobbyist, of fomenting the revolution. And while that much of the plan works, little else does. And Shanlon Raille, while running for his life and trying to establish his own innocence, must battle all the harder because he knows that if he fails, if the jockeying for power at the top succeeds while people are dying in the streets, Noram will collapse, and with it the world...

Being a child of wealth hasn't made life easy for Daryn Alwyn but he hasn't wanted it easy and he's always been determined to choose his own path, abandoning the possibility of power and leisure with his family's giant Media Network for a solo career, first as a military space pilot, later as a freelance media consultant. Only when he becomes the target of a series of deadly attacks does he begin to realize the true depth of responsibility his heritage forces on him. And when his sister is assassinated and he becomes one of the wealthiest people in the world he learns that his real troubles are only beginning.

This novelette originally appeared in the anthology Twelve Tomorrows (2014), edited by Bruce Sterling. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Second Annual Collection (2015), edited by Gardner Dozois.

Richard Fountain, a promising young Cambridge scholar, went to the island of Crete to study ancient rites and pagan rituals before suddenly and inexplicably breaking off all contact with the outside world. Disturbing rumours have filtered their way back to England, whisperings of blasphemous rituals and obscene orgies, hints of terrible crimes and wanton murder...

Three of Richard's friends travel to Greece to find him and bring him back. Following a grim progression of ominous clues, they will arrive at last at an abandoned fortress high in the wild and desolate White Mountains, where they will discover Richard's terrible and shocking fate.

This novelette originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, December 2001. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Nineteenth Annual Collection (2002), edited by Gardner Dozois.

Isobel is an artistic prodigy with a dangerous set of clients: the sinister fair folk, immortal creatures who cannot bake bread or put a pen to paper without crumbling to dust. They crave human Craft with a terrible thirst, and Isobel's paintings are highly prized. But when she receives her first royal patron--Rook, the autumn prince--she makes a terrible mistake. She paints mortal sorrow in his eyes--a weakness that could cost him his life.

Furious, Rook spirits her away to his kingdom to stand trial for her crime. But something is seriously wrong in his world, and they are attacked from every side. With Isobel and Rook depending on each other for survival, their alliance blossoms into trust, then love--and that love violates the fair folks' ruthless laws. Now both of their lives are forfeit, unless Isobel can use her skill as an artist to fight the fairy courts. Because secretly, her Craft represents a threat the fair folk have never faced in all the millennia of their unchanging lives: for the first time, her portraits have the power to make them feel.

Jenna Rosen returns to the place in Alaska where her young son, Bobby, disappeared without a trace two years before. Jenna is determined to lay to rest the aching mystery of his death. But ancient legends may have had a hand in Bobby's fate, forcing Jenna to sift through her own Native American ancestry to uncover the truth.

Wrangell, Alaska, offers Jenna little comfort beyond the constant and tender attention of Eddie, a local fisherman. When ancient legends begin to suggest a frightening new possibility about Bobby's fate, Jenna digs deeper into the menacing forces at work in the wilderness. A Tlingit shaman named Dr. David Livingstone warns Jenna not to disturb the legendary kushtaka--soul stealing predators that stalk a netherworld between land and sea, the living and the dead. But Jenna is desperate for answers, and she appeals to both Livingstone and Eddie to help her sort fact from myth, and face the unthinkable possibilities head-on.

In this strange, sly retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's "Snow Queen," when Gerta's friend Kay is stolen away by the mysterious Snow Queen, it's up to Gerta to find him. Her journey will take her through a dangerous land of snow and witchcraft, accompanied only by a bandit and a talking raven. Can she win her friend's release, or will following her heart take her to unexpected places?

Seventeen-year-old Edgar Poe counts down the days until he can escape his foster family--the wealthy Allans of Richmond, Virginia. He hungers for his upcoming life as a student at the prestigious new university, almost as much as he longs to marry his beloved Elmira Royster. However, on the brink of his departure, all his plans go awry when a macabre Muse named Lenore appears to him. Muses are frightful creatures that lead Artists down a path of ruin and disgrace, and no respectable person could possibly understand or accept them. But Lenore steps out of the shadows with one request: "Let them see me!"

In following the white man's road, Joseph Blue Crow has lost his Lakota heritage and is haunted by the loss. After the inexplicable suicide of the woman he loves, and as he sinks into alcoholism and despair and stands on the precipice of suicide, his best friend tells him, "You got to go on the mountain."

Blue's journey takes him on a torturous path, and as he is guided by a shaman and a spirit bird, under whose wings lay the shadows of the past, he revisits--and relives--the massacre of Wounded Knee, standing beside his people as they fall under the gun and cannon fire.

This haunting retelling of the tale of Tristan and Iseult (here called Drustan and Esseilte in accordance with Celtic legend and language) goes back to early versions, before Mallory and Wagner, to explore the nature of love, duty and loyalty. The story is told by Branwen, cousin and companion to Esseilte, daughter of the High King of Eriu (Ireland). The two young women save the life of a badly wounded harper, later discovered to be Drustan, who had killed Esseilte's beloved uncle and Branwen's father, Morholt, in battle. Drustan seeks Esseilte's hand for his uncle, Marc'h, King of Kernow (Cornwall), an alliance arranged for political reasons. On the way to Cornwall, Esseilte tries to poison Drustan, but the potion they both drink turns out to be a love filtre prepared for Esseilte and Marc'h. Thus the tale is set in motion, with passion and hate binding the lovers together. With Branwen's aid, they are able to deceive Marc'h on the wedding night: Branwen, close in appearance to the queen, sleeps with the king and falls in love with him. For a while Esseilte and Drustan escape detection, but eventually they are caught in circumstances that cannot be ignored, leading to the tragic denouement. This is a complex tale, interweaving the political and religious conflicts of the sixth century, when the ancient Druid religion still had a strong hold.

A nightmarish power unleashed from the depths infiltrates Arkham...

When dissolute fisherman Abel Davenport discovers an ancient temple in the deep ocean, he under the influence of a long dead god. In his attempts to restore the god's cult, Abel unleashes a plague of twisted doppelgangers on Arkham. Horrified by the consequences, Davenport realizes that he alone cannot stop the monsters from resurrecting the Ancient One. Sometimes the only way to end one cult is to start another... Teaming up with redeemed cultist Diana Stanley and notorious thief Ruby Standish is the first step. The second is convincing Carl Sanford, the powerful leader of Arkham's Silver Twilight Lodge, to join their cause. Together they might be the only hope of averting a cataclysmic eldritch invasion.

Diana L. Paxson expands Marion Zimmer Bradley's beloved and bestselling Avalon series in a dramatic new installment. Marion Zimmer Bradley's Ravens of Avalon is the prequel to The Forest House and tells the story of the Roman conquest of Britain and the origin of the Forest House that preceded the return to Avalon.

Marion Zimmer Bradley's Ravens of Avalon follows the journey of Boudica, a Celtic princess, and Lhiannon, a priestess who is Boudica's mentor on the Druid isle. When the Romans conquer Britain, Lhiannon fights them while Boudica is married to a king who has surrendered. Theirs is a great love story, but when he dies, the Romans brutalize her and her daughters. In rage, Boudica raises the British tribes and nearly succeeds in driving the Romans from Britain, claiming a place in history. Lhiannon survives and becomes the guardian of the Druid traditions in the new Roman Britannia as high priestess of the Forest House.

Epic in its sweep and peopled by the remarkable women who have always inhabited Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley's Ravens of Avalon expands the legendary saga that has enchanted millions of readers over the years and is sure to please Bradley's loyal readership and anyone who loves wonderfully told stories of history, myth, and fantasy.

HE IS FELIMID MAC FAL, once a bard of Ireland. Now he uses his wits and his magic in the service of his lover, the most notorious pirate on the seas of ancient Britain.

SHE IS GUDRUN BLACKHAIR, the lusty, legendary pirate chieftain who commands the sorcerous ship "Ormungandr" and numbers the shape-shifting Children of Lir among her crew.

Together they've sailed through adventure after adventure, and never known defeat. But Gudrun's many enemies are gathering, and Odin himself will lead them into battle against her. How can a poet and a pirate hope to defeat a god?

This is #4 in Bard Series.

Aidan, only child of Brennan and Aileen, and the grandson of Niall, is heir to the Lion Throne of Homana and inheritor, too, of a prophecy carried down through the generations and finally on the verge of fulfillment. But will Aidan--driven as he is by strange visions and portents--prove the weak link in the ages-old prophecy, the Chevsuli who fails to achieve his foretold destine.

For as Aidan prepares to set out for Erinn to claim his betrothed, he will become the focus of forces out of legend, visited by the ghosts of long-dead kinsmen, and by the Hunter, a mysterious being who may be a Chevsuli god incarnate. Commanded by the Hunter to undertake a quest to claim a series of "god-given" golden links, Aidan will find himself challenged by the Cheysuli's most deadly foe, Lochiel, the son of Strahan, who will use every trick of lhlini sorcery to stop Aidan and destroy the promise of the prophecy once and for all.

The Raven: six men and an elf, sword for hire in the wars that have torn apart Balaia. For years their loyalty has been only to themselves and their code. But, that time is over. The Wytch Lords have escaped and The Raven find themselves fighting for the Dark College of magic, searching for the location of Dawnthief. It is a spell created to end the world, and it must be cast if any of them are to survive.

An apocalyptic spell has been cast, an ancient evil banished. Now the land of Balaia, still driven by war, must live with the consequences. The Dawnthief spell - designed to destroy the world, but cast to save it - has torn a hole in the sky, a pathway into the dragon dimension, and, through it, unfriendly eyes are turning to Balaia. With war already sweeping the land, there are no armies to send against the dragons. All that stands between Balaia and complete dominion by these tyrannous beasts is a tiny, but legendary band of mercenaries: The Raven. And if they fail, Balaia will fall beneath the wings of countless dragons.

It begins with a tidal wave. There is a new power coming. It will sweep aside the four colleges of magic. It is the power of the land, and it has manifested itself in Lyanna, a five year old girl. Unknowingly, she could destroy Balaia. Desperate to maintain their power, the colleges will do anything to control the child. If that fails, they will kill her.

Terrified, Lyanna's mother, Erienne the mage, takes her into hiding. But they can't hide forever. As the hunt goes on, Lyanna starts to test her powers and nature itself begins to turn on Balaia. Her father, Denser of The Raven, is also desperate to find her. But can even The Raven find Erienne and her child when they do not want to be found? And if they do find them, what then should they do? Lyanna is ripping the world apart. Thousands are dying. Can The Raven afford to let her live?

In the nightmare future of the 41st millennium, the superhuman Space Marines wage an endless war in their quest to protect humanity. Follow the adventures of Brother-Captain Gabriel Angelos and the Blood Ravens Space Marines as they clash against hordes of savage alien orks, battle the forces of Chaos and confront the enigmatic eldar in all out war!

This omnibus collections together the three action packed tie-in novels to the acclaimed computer game, Dawn of War.

Contents:

• Dawn of War
• Ascension
• Tempest
• The Trials of Isador

For the devoted followers of the dazzling Deverry and Westlands cycle, Katharine Kerr continues the magical epic saga she began in The Red Wyvern.

The Black Raven

Her latest tale shifts effortlessly between the shattered lands of the Rhiddaer and Dun Deverry itself. At the historic end of the Civil Wars, Lilli, newly apprenticed to the dweomer, fights with her untried powers to save her beloved Prince Maryn from evil. Centuries later, in the city of Cerr Cawnen, the old evil awakens yet again when the sorceress Raena schemes to destroy Rhodry Maelwaedd, her bitter enemy during life after life. But her malice will draw the intervention of astral powers--and unleash the ravaging rage of Rhodry's guardian dragon. Only another untried dweomer can buy safety for the city and the berserker himself--and only at a most fearsome price....

Unforgettable stories of witches and wishes, Sleeping Beauties and Snow Whites, ingeniously twisted into darker, more grown-up shapes by fantasy fiction's most talented practitioners

Once again, World Fantasy Award-winning editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling prove that fairy tales don't have to be for little children and that happily ever after doesn't necessarily mean forever. Black Swan, White Raven is Datlow and Windling's fourth collection of once-familiar and much-beloved bedtime stories reimagined by some of the finest fantasists currently plying their literary trade--acclaimed writers like Jane Yolen, John Crowley, Michael Cadnum, and Joyce Carol Oates, who give new lives and new meanings to the plights of Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Rapunzel, and more.

Hansel and Gretel make several appearances here, not the least being at their trial for the murder of a supposedly helpless old woman. The shocking real reason for Snow White's desperate flight from her home is revealed in "The True Story," and the steadfast tin soldier, made flesh and blood, pays a terrible price for his love and devotion.

The twenty-one stories and poems in this collection run the gamut from triumphant to troubling to utterly outrageous, like Don Webb's brilliant merging of numerous tales into one wild, hallucinogenic trip in his "Three Dwarves and 2000 Maniacs." All in all, the reimagined fairy tales and fables in Datlow and Windling's literary offering mine the fantastical yarns we loved as children for new and darker gold.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow
• The Flounder's Kiss - shortstory by Michael Cadnum
• The Black Fairy's Curse - shortstory by Karen Joy Fowler
• Snow in Dirt - novelette by Michael Blumlein
• Riding the Red - shortstory by Nalo Hopkinson
• No Bigger Than My Thumb - shortstory by Esther M. Friesner
• In the Insomniac Night - novelette by Joyce Carol Oates
• The Little Match Girl - poem by Steve Rasnic Tem
• The Trial of Hansel and Gretel - shortstory by Garry Kilworth
• Rapunzel - shortstory by Anne Bishop
• Sparks - novelette by Gregory Frost
• The Dog Rose - shortstory by Sten Westgard
• The Reverend's Wife - novelette by Midori Snyder
• The Orphan the Moth and the Magic - shortstory by Harvey Jacobs
• Three Dwarves and 2000 Maniacs - shortstory by Don Webb
• True Thomas - novelette by Bruce Glassco
• The True Story - shortstory by Pat Murphy
• Lost and Abandoned - shortstory by John Crowley
• The Breadcrumb Trail - poem by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
• On Lickerish Hill - novelette by Susanna Clarke
• Steadfast - shortstory by Nancy Kress
• Godmother Death - shortstory by Jane Yolen
• Recommended Reading - essay by uncredited

Ravens Bluff

The City of Ravens

For the first time, Jack Ravenwild's designs exceed his talents. His ambitions plunge him into the middle of a plot to destroy the city, a noble quest to find a lost hoard, and a conspiracy to seize the reins of power through the nobility's Game of Masks. Worse yet, Jack must choose between a life of freedom and saving the city he doesn't even know he loves.

Sophie had lost a child. She was looking for peace and rest. She didn't know what it was, but Glenraven promised her that. JayJay had bad luck with husbands -- a three-time loser now, all she wanted was to be a million miles away from her small North Carolina town.

Glenraven seemed to be an Alpine principality somewhere in the neighborhood of northern Italy -- according to the unique guidebook advertising Glenraven's charms, obscure, almost non-traversable Alpine passages constituted the only way in. But in reality it was a magic kingdom detached in some strange dimensional way from our world. What the people of Glenraven wanted was a couple of heroes who would free them from a ruler who was quite literally a monster in human guise. What the people of Glenraven got were JayJay and Sophie.They could have done worse.

Kate Beacham had had a bad day. After almost being assaulted in an alley by three masked bigots, she arrived home to find her beloved stallion lying dead in her driveway with a note reading YoU'Re nExt. Too tough a cookie to crumble, Kate got out her shotgun and loaded it. Then she saw the book on her nightstand -- a guide book to a place she had never heard of: Glenraven.

When she opened it, words magically appeared: Get out of the house, quick. Still holding the shotgun, she obeyed; and saw riders on horseback gallop from a hole in midair, pursued by a nightmarish flying thing like a cross between a dragon and a shark. Good thing she had the shotgun, or there would have been no hope for Kate, the riders, and both their worlds.Once before a woman from our world had saved the realm of Glenraven. Now another must do it again -- or her own world will be forfeit, too....

Keira, hired as Blighty Graveyard's new groundskeeper, lives surrounded by the dead. They watch her through the fog. They wordlessly cry out. They've been desperately waiting for help moving on?and only Keira can hear them. But not every restless spirit wants to be saved.

Sometimes the dead hate the living too much to find peace.

As Keira struggles to uncover the tangled histories of some of the graveyard's oldest denizens, danger seeps from the darkest edges of the forest. A vicious serial killer was interred among the trees decades before, his spirit twisted by his violent nature. He's furious. Ravenous. And when Keira unwittingly answers his call, she may just seal her fate as his final intended victim.

The Bennett family has a secret: They're not just a family, they're a pack.

Gordo Livingstone never forgot the lessons carved into his skin. Hardened by the betrayal of a pack that left him behind, he sought solace in the garage in his tiny mountain town, vowing never again to involve himself in the affairs of wolves.

It should have been enough.

It was, until the wolves came back, and with them, Mark Bennett. And when his town is caught in the jaws of a beast, Gordo is summoned back into the life that left him.

Now, a year later, Gordo has once again found himself the witch of the Bennett pack. Green Creek has settled after the death of Richard Collins, and Gordo constantly struggles to ignore Mark and the song that howls between them.

But time is running out. Something is coming. And this time, it's coming from within.

To the Danes, he is skraelingr; to the English, he is orcnéas; to the Irish, he is fomoraig. He is Corpse-maker and Life-quencher, the Bringer of Night, the Son of the Wolf and Brother of the Serpent. He is Grimnir, and he is the last of his kind?the last in a long line of monsters who have plagued humanity since the Elder Days.

Drawn from his lair by a thirst for vengeance against the Dane who slew his brother, Grimnir emerges into a world that's changed. A new faith has arisen. The Old Ways are dying, and their followers retreating into the shadows; even still, Grimnir's vengeance cannot be denied.

Taking a young Christian hostage to be his guide, Grimnir embarks on a journey that takes him from the hinterlands of Denmark, where the wisdom of the ancient dwarves has given way to madness, to the war-torn heart of southern England, where the spirits of the land make violence on one another. And thence to the green shores of Ireland and the Viking stronghold of Dubhlinn, where his enemy awaits.

But, unless Grimnir can set aside his hatreds, his dream of retribution will come to nothing. For Dubhlinn is set to be the site of a reckoning?the Old Ways versus the New?and Grimnir, the last of his kind left to plague mankind, must choose: stand with the Christian King of Ireland and see his vengeance done or stand against him and see it slip away?

Note: published under the pen-name Jeremy Bishop.

A battle to the death with six-hundred-year-old zombie Vikings in the frozen far North was just the beginning...

Undercover activist Jane Harper and father-and-son whalers Jakob and Willem Olavson thought they sent the walking corpses to their graves for good, but the intelligent parasites controlling the dead flesh lived on to keep fighting, and infecting.

Now Jane's Nordic allies and a motley crew of mates are shoving off on a new monster-killing ship to take the battle to the insidious creatures before they infect the world. This time, though, they're up against more than just a handful of ancient zombies on an isolated island. Even if Jane and her crew can conquer an army of the swimming dead--murderous and cunning zombie whales--they'll still face a floating graveyard of ghost ships packed stem to stern with the next wave of the ravenous undead...who are hungry to settle the score with the last hope of humankind.

The vampires of Asheville, North Carolina, want to establish their own clan, but since they owe loyalty to the Master Vampire of New Orleans they must work out the terms with him. To come up with an equitable solution, he sends an envoy with the best bodyguard blood money can buy: Jane Yellowrock.

But when a group of local campers are attacked by something fanged, Jane goes from escort to investigator. Unless she wants to face a very angry mast vampire, she will have to work overtime to find the killer. It's a good thing she's worth every penny.

This is the Ultimate Fantasy: a quest of epic reach spanning the globe under the mythologies of five great cultures - and finally crossing the barrier between life and death.

Jack Churchill, archaeologist and dreamer, walks out of the mist and into Celtic Britain more than two thousand years before he was born, with no knowledge of how he got there. All Jack wants is to get home to his own time where the woman he loves waits for him. Finding his way to the timeless mystical Otherworld, the home of the gods, he plans to while away the days, the years, the millennia, until his own era rolls around again... but nothing is ever that simple. A great Evil waits in modern times and will do all in its power to stop Jack's return. In a universe where time and space are meaningless, its tendrils stetch back through the years... Through Roman times, the Elizabethan age, Victoria's reign, the Second World War to the Swinging Sixties, the Evil sets its traps to destroy Jack.

Mark Chadbourn gives us a high adventure of dazzling sword fights, passionate romance and apocalyptic wars in the days leading up to Ragnarok, the End-Times: a breathtaking, surreal vision of twisting realities where nothing is quite what it seems.

Another action-packed adventure from the new master of fantasy.

The Raven travel to a new continent in search of mages to help the ruined college of Julatsa rebuild and find themselves in the midst of an ancient curse--a curse that has unleashed a plague that threatens to wipe out the elven race. Barclay excels with another tale that pitches The Raven against the clock and unseen foes. Full of desperate fights and secret betrayals, the story also fills in more of Balaia's history and delves deeper into the ancient emnities between the colleges.

Barclay has created a wonderfully appealing group of heroes, and with every book their history grows and the land they live in becomes wider and richer. This is landmark fantasy in the making.

The second of James Barclay's Legends of The Raven trilogy sees Barclay up the ante yet again and throw Balaia into a full blown war. Barclay has never been afraid of killing off favourite characters, but now in the latest of his blisteringly paced, all-action heroic fantasies he puts The Raven through a trial that all of them will be hard pressed to survive.

Barclay has proved himself to be the most successful fantasy writer of his generation. With 200,000 copies in print, Chronicles and Legends of the Raven are building into landmark fantasy.

THIS IS THE END ...

The dragons have gone home, the elves are safe. The Raven have kept their promises. But fate has not finished with them.

As the war between the colleges rages on an old enemy senses that his chance to revenge a bitter defeat has come. Tessaya, Lord of the Paleon Tribes has waited patiently for his moment and now, with Balaia in flames, he makes his move and unleashes the Wesmen hordes.

In Xetesk, his forces scattered, Dystran, Lord of the Mount faces certain defeat by the Wesmen unless he unleashes the horrfying power of dimensional magics. And Dystran has not come this far to be beaten at the last by a rabble of ignorant tribesmen. And so the veil between dimensions is torn...

And beyond, a predatory evil stirs. Demons catch the scent of countless souls in Balaia. Can even the Raven prevail when the world is coming to an end?

A fantasy milestone is reached. James Barclay brings his sensational saga of The Raven to a heartsopping conclusion.

Death cannot separate them.

For those who believe that death is the end, an unbroken rest and peace, here is the wake-up call. For those who believed that the defeat of the demons had finally secured peace for Balaia, here is an enemy far more deadly, far more ruthless and far, far colder.

The Garonin: dimensional travelers seeking new worlds to rape of the element of magical power. Technologically advanced in weaponry and armor, and facing only swords and magic, they are destroying everything in their path.

Surely this is not a battle The Raven can win, even with allies both elven and dragon. But prevail they must, somehow. One thing we know for sure is that they will not subside meekly into the void.

For aficionados of The Raven, this is the ultimate challenge. It cuts to the very heart —from calls beyond the veil of death, to dissension in their ranks, to the greed of men who cannot see they are about to die, to betrayal by one they loved. But above it all, the heroism and selfless sacrifice displayed will bring tears to the eyes of even the most hardened fantasy reader.

This is The Raven, older, wiser, some returned from the grave. Grieving they seek nothing but rest from conflict, something the world will not grant them. But they remain The Raven, still answering when the call comes, still the force most likely to survive and bring the world with them, and still willing to die so that those they love can live.

In this book from Wrede's acclaimed Lyra fantasy series, a young woman must fight for her life while on a quest to claim a magical family heirloom

Three weeks after Eleret's mother is killed, the messenger arrives with the tragic news. She died far from home, succumbing to wounds sustained in battle, and Eleret must travel to reclaim her belongings. The overland journey to the city of Ciaron is treacherous, but Eleret has no fear. She straps a dagger to her leg and sets off to recover one of her mother's prized possessions: a ring etched with a raven. Though she makes it to Ciaron safely, getting home is another story.

Eleret doesn't know what's special about her mother's ring, but someone wanted it badly enough to kill for it. To make it home in one piece, she must unlock the mysteries of the ring her mother died to protect.

The raven had struck. And the thing was, she knew exactly who was next...

London, 1960. Marion Lane, a twenty-five-year-old apprentice detective at the elusive Miss Brickett's Investigations & Inquiries, is busier than ever and determined to prove herself worthy of an official Inquirer badge. But when her close friend's girlfriend, Darcy, is targeted by a dangerous gang leader and seeks out the Inquirers' assistance, Marion cannot help but get involved.

Just when Marion thinks she has the situation under control, Darcy disappears and the agency receives a package containing a dead raven. Everyone is puzzled by what the threat could mean, except for Marion. She recognizes it as the same calling card left on her mother's doorstep just before she died.

With harrowing twists and turns, Marion Lane and the Raven's Revenge follows Marion's most personal case to date. To uncover who is behind these ominous packages and find Darcy, she must piece together how they are related to her mother's mysterious death and secretive past.

Seraph is a Raven mage who left behind her responsibilities for the love of the ex-soldier Tier. But when Tier disappears, Seraph must use her magic--and fulfill her ancestors' oath to protect humanity from destruction.

She escaped the slavepens of Lyland--a beautiful girl with hair the color of summer sun, eyes as blue as the heavens, and a body that invited love.

Rescued by sorcerer priests, she was schooled in every art of weaponry and combat. Her sword stained by the blood of legions, no man could defeat her.

With her mysterious companion-mentor Spellbinder, and a great black bird to watch over them, Raven journeyed forth to her destiny--and the happy day of slaughtering Karl ir Donwayne, the cruel master who had tortured her mercilessly as a slave...

The Traveler Seraph must use all her cunning and ability as a Raven mage to track down an unimaginable force of destruction known as the Shadowed.

"There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark's Eve," Neeve said. "Either you're his true love . . . or you killed him."

It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them-not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.

His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can't entirely explain. He has it all-family money, good looks, devoted friends-but he's looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys.

The second installment in the all-new series from the masterful, #1 NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater!

Now that the ley lines around Cabeswater have been woken, nothing for Ronan, Gansey, Blue, and Adam will be the same. Ronan, for one, is falling more and more deeply into his dreams, and his dreams are intruding more and more into waking life. Meanwhile, some very sinister people are looking for some of the same pieces of the Cabeswater puzzle that Gansey is after....

Blue Sargent has found things. For the first time in her life, she has friends she can trust, a group to which she can belong. The Raven Boys have taken her in as one of their own. Their problems have become hers, and her problems have become theirs.

The trick with found things, though, is how easily they can be lost.

Friends can betray.

Mothers can disappear.

Visions can mislead.

Certainties can unravel.

In a starred review, THE BULLETIN called THE DREAM THIEVES, the previous book in The Raven Cycle, "a complex web of magical intrigue and heart-stopping action." Now, with BLUE LILY, LILY BLUE, the web becomes even more complex, snaring readers at every turn.

All her life, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love's death. She doesn't believe in true love and never thought this would be a problem, but as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she's not so sure anymore.

VAELIN AL SORNA RETURNS

Anthony Ryan's debut novel Blood Song--the first book of the Raven's Shadow series - took the fantasy world by storm. Now, he continues that saga with The Wolf's Call, which begins a thrilling new story of razor-sharp action and epic adventure.

Peace never lasts.

Vaelin Al Sorna is a living legend, his name known across the Realm. It was his leadership that overthrew empires, his blade that won hard-fought battles - and his sacrifice that defeated an evil more terrifying than anything the world had ever seen. He won titles aplenty, only to cast aside his earned glory for a quiet life in the Realm's northern reaches.

Yet whispers have come from across the sea - rumours of an army called the Steel Horde, led by a man who believes himself a god. Vaelin has no wish to fight another war, but when he learns that Sherin, the woman he lost long ago, has fallen into the Horde's grasp, he resolves to confront this powerful new threat.

To this end, Vaelin travels to the realms of the Merchant Kings, a land ruled by honor and intrigue. There, as the drums of war thunder across kingdoms riven by conflict, Vaelin learns a terrible truth: that there are some battles that even he may not be strong enough to win.

A matchless warrior is pitted against a near-God in the second epic installment of the Raven's Blade series.

It has long been our lot in life, brother, to do what others can't.

Vaelin Al Sorna was known across the realm as the greatest of warriors, but he thought battles were behind him. He was wrong. Prophecy and rumor led him across the sea to find a woman he once loved, and drew him into a war waged by the Darkblade, a man who believes himself a god--and one who has gathered a fanatical army that threatens all of the known world.

After a costly defeat by the Darkblade, Vaelin's forces are shattered, while the self-proclaimed immortal and his army continue their terrible march. But during the clash, Vaelin regained some of the dark magic that once gave him unrivaled skill in battle. And though the fight he has been drawn into seems near unwinnable, the song that drives him now desires the blood of his enemy above all else...

"The Sixth Order wields the sword of justice and smites the enemies of the Faith and the Realm."

Vaelin Al Sorna was only a child of ten when his father left him at the iron gate of the Sixth Order--a caste devoted to battle. Vaelin will be trained and hardened to the austere, celibate and dangerous life of a warrior of the Faith. He has no family now save the Order.

Vaelin's father was Battle Lord to King Janus, ruler of the Unified Realm--and Vaelin's rage at being deprived of his birthright knows no bounds. Even his cherished memories of his mother are soon challenged by what he learns within the Order.

But one truth overpowers all the rest: Vaelin Al Sorna is destined for a future he has yet to comprehend. A future that will alter not only the Realm, but the world.

In Blood Song, Anthony Ryan introduced readers to "a fascinating world of conflicting religions and the wars fought in the name of those faiths" (Library Journal). Now Ryan's epic tale continues as Vaelin Al Sorna discovers that there is no escape from the call of destiny...

"The blood-song rose with an unexpected tune, a warm hum mingling recognition with an impression of safety. He had a sense it was welcoming him home."

Vaelin Al Sorna, warrior of the Sixth Order, called Darkblade, called Hope Killer. The greatest warrior of his day, and witness to the greatest defeat of his nation: King Janus's vision of a Greater Unified Realm drowned in the blood of brave men fighting for a cause Vaelin alone knows was forged from a lie. Sick at heart, he comes home, determined to kill no more. Named Tower Lord of the Northern Reaches by King Janus's grateful heir, he can perhaps find peace in a colder, more remote land far from the intrigues of a troubled Realm.

But those gifted with the blood-song are never destined to live a quiet life. Many died in King Janus's wars, but many survived, and Vaelin is a target, not just for those seeking revenge but for those who know what he can do. The Faith has been sundered, and many have no doubt who their leader should be. The new King is weak, but his sister is strong. The blood-song is powerful, rich in warning and guidance in times of trouble, but is only a fraction of the power available to others who understand more of its mysteries. Something moves against the Realm, something that commands mighty forces, and Vaelin will find to his great regret that when faced with annihilation, even the most reluctant hand must eventually draw a sword.

In the thrilling conclusion to the "deftly and originally executed" (Booklist) New York Times bestselling trilogy, Vaelin Al Sorna must help his Queen reclaim her Realm. Only his enemy has a dangerous new collaborator, one with powers darker than Vaelin has ever encountered...

"The Ally is there, but only ever as a shadow, unexplained catastrophe or murder committed at the behest of a dark vengeful spirit. Sorting truth from myth is often a fruitless task."

After fighting back from the brink of death, Queen Lyrna is determined to repel the invading Volarian army and regain the independence of the Unified Realm. Except, to accomplish her goals, she must do more than rally her loyal supporters. She must align herself with forces she once found repugnant--those who possess the strange and varied gifts of the Dark--and take the war to her enemy's doorstep.

Victory rests on the shoulders of Vaelin Al Sorna, now named Battle Lord of the Realm. However, his path is riddled with difficulties. For the Volarian enemy has a new weapon on their side, one that Vaelin must destroy if the Realm is to prevail--a mysterious Ally with the ability to grant unnaturally long life to her servants. And defeating one who cannot be killed is a nearly impossible feat, especially when Vaelin's blood-song, the mystical power which has made him the epic fighter he is, has gone ominously silent...

In the war-torn future of the 41st millennium, the Inquisition fights a secret war against the darkest enemies of mankind--the alien, the heretic and the daemon. When Inquisitor Gideon Ravenor and his band of lethal operatives are drawn into a conspiracy to spread the taint of Chaos across a sector, their investigations take them into the gravest peril through space and even time. Wherever they go, and whatever dangers they face, they will never give up until their mission succeeds.

This book contains the novels Ravenor, Ravenor Returned, and Ravenor Rogue by Dan Abnett.

The first novel in the Ravenor trilogy, the follow-up to Dan Abnett's immensely popular Eisenhorn trilogy.

When his body is hideously damaged in an enemy attack, it looks as though Inquisitor Gideon Ravenor's promising career would be abruptly brought short. Now, encased in a life support sytem that keeps him alive but forever cuts him off from the physical world, Ravenor utilises his formidable mental powers to continue his investigations and thwart the machinations of Chaos. Along with his retinue of warriors and assassins, Gideon Ravenor fights to protect an Imperium he can no longer see, hear or feel.

Ravenor and his loyal retinue go undercover, investigating a conspiracy to move heretical arcane technology within the Imperium.

Inquisitor Gideon Ravenor and his retinue are believed dead and, with shadowy forces moving against them, they'd like to keep it that way. Returning back to the planet Eustis Majoris, they go undercover, investigating a brutal ring of smugglers moving stolen arcane technology within the Imperium. As they descend deeper into the organisation, it becomes clear that a terrible plot is unravelling. The ancient machines contain the unthinkable, and Ravenor must summon all of his wits to thwart the conspirators before the ultimate secrets of Chaos itself are laid bare.

Ravenor and his retinue become fugitives from the Inquisition in order to hunt down the arch-heretic Zygmunt Molotch.

Inquisitor Ravenor continues his persecution of the arch-heretic Zygmunt Molotch--a hunt that has, for him, now become an obsession. In direct contravention of Inquisition orders, Ravenor and his team go rogue, in relentless pursuit of their quarry. Thrown through time and space, pitted against enemies of limitless power and cunning, just how much will Ravenor and his team have to sacrifice in order to thwart Molotch's schemes and bring the heretic to justice?

Lorelai Diederich, crown princess and fugitive at large, has one mission: kill the wicked queen who took both the Ravenspire throne and the life of her father. To do that, Lorelai needs to use the one weapon she and Queen Irina have in common--magic. She'll have to be stronger, faster, and more powerful than Irina, the most dangerous sorceress Ravenspire has ever seen.

In the neighboring kingdom of Eldr, when Prince Kol's father and older brother are killed by an invading army of magic-wielding ogres, the second-born prince is suddenly given the responsibility of saving his kingdom. To do that, Kol needs magic of his own--and the only way to get it is to make a deal with the queen of Ravenspire, promise to become her personal huntsman--and bring her Lorelai's heart.

But Lorelai is nothing like Kol expected--beautiful, fierce, and unstoppable--and despite dark magic, Lorelai is drawn in by the passionate and troubled king. Fighting to stay one step ahead of the dragon huntsman--who she likes far more than she should--Lorelai does everything in her power to ruin the wicked queen. But Irina isn't going down without a fight, and her final move may cost the princess the one thing she still has left to lose.

The world has turned upside down for Thad and Ari Glavan, the bastard twins of Súndraille's king. Their mother was murdered. The royal family died mysteriously. And now Thad sits on the throne of a kingdom whose streets are suddenly overrun with violence he can't stop.

Growing up ignored by the nobility, Ari never wanted to be a proper princess. And when Thad suddenly starts training Ari to take his place, she realizes that her brother's ascension to the throne wasn't fate. It was the work of a Wish Granter named Alistair Teague who tricked Thad into wishing away both the safety of his people and his soul in exchange for the crown.

So Ari recruits the help of Thad's enigmatic new weapons master, Sebastian Vaughn, to teach her how to fight Teague. With secret ties to Teague's criminal empire, Sebastian might just hold the key to discovering Alistair's weaknesses, saving Ari's brother--and herself.

But Teague is ruthless and more than ready to destroy anyone who dares stand in his way--and now he has his sights set on the princess. And if Ari can't outwit him, she'll lose Sebastian, her brother... and her soul.

Javan Najafai, crown prince of Akram, has spent the last ten years at an elite boarding school, far away from his kingdom. But his eagerly awaited return home is cut short when a mysterious impostor takes his place--and no one believes Javan is the true prince.

After barely escaping the impostor's assassins, Javan is thrown into Maqbara, the kingdom's most dangerous prison. The only way to gain an audience with the king--and reveal Javan's identity--is to fight in Maqbara's yearly tournament. But winning is much harder than acing competitions at school, and soon Javan finds himself beset not just by the terrifying creatures in the arena but also by a band of prisoners allied against him, and even by the warden herself.

The only person who can help him is Sajda, who has been enslaved by Maqbara's warden since she was a child, and whose guarded demeanor and powerful right hook keep the prisoners in check. Working with Sajda might be the only way Javan can escape alive--but she has dangerous secrets.

Together, Javan and Sajda have to outwit the vicious warden, outfight deadly creatures, and outlast the murderous prisoners intent on killing Javan. If they fail, they'll be trapped in Maqbara for good--and the secret Sajda's been hiding will bury them both.

Blue de la Cour has her life planned: hide the magic in her blood and continue trying to turn metal into gold so she can help her city's homeless. But when her father is murdered and a cruel but powerful woman claims custody of Blue and her property, one wrong move could expose her--and doom her once and for all. The only one who can help? The boy she's loathed since childhood: Prince Kellan.

Kellan Renard, crown prince of Balavata, is walking a thin line between political success and devastating violence. Newly returned from boarding school, he must find a bride among the kingdom's head families and announce his betrothal--but escalating violence among the families makes the search nearly impossible. He's surprised to discover that the one person who makes him feel like he can breathe is Blue, the girl who once ruined all his best adventures.

When mysterious forces lead to disappearances throughout Balavata, Blue and Kellan must work together to find the truth. What they discover will lead them to the darkest reaches of the kingdom, and to the most painful moments of their pasts.

When romance is forbidden and evil is rising, can Blue save those she loves, even if it costs her everything?

Condemned for lacking the horns so prized by her people, One-Horn's daughter must escape by riding one of the legendary flying horses to freedom-if she can stay on its back long enough. But to save a land where the dead walk and ghosts haunt the living, this strange, feral girl-renamed Rhiannon, the rider no one can catch-must convince the human apprentice witches she meets to trust the word of a wild, half-human girl.

Eight hundred years have passed since King Connavar of the Rigante and his bastard son, Bane, defeated the invading army of Stone. Now the Rigante have lost the freedom and culture so many gave their lives to preserve. Only one woman remains who follows the ancient ways–the Wyrd of Wishing Tree Wood–and she alone knows the nature of the evil soon to be unleashed. But the Wyrd pins her hope on two men: a giant Rigante fighter, a man haunted by his failure to save his best friend from betrayal; and a youth whose deadly talents will earn him the rancor of the brutal Varlish. One will become the Ravenheart, an outlaw leader whose daring exploits will inspire the Rigante. The other will forge a legend–and light the fires of revolution. . . .

Neryn has finally found the rebel group at Shadowfell, and now her task is to seek out the elusive Guardians, vital to her training as a Caller. These four powerful beings have been increasingly at odds with human kind, and Neryn must prove her worth to them. She desperately needs their help to use her gift without compromising herself or the cause of overthrowing the evil King Keldec.

Neryn must journey with the tough and steadfast Tali, who looks on Neryn's love for the double agent Flint as a needless vulnerability. And perhaps it is. What Flint learns from the king will change the battlefield entirely—but in whose favor, no one knows.

A merchant ship's frantic S.O.S sends the U.S.S. Enterprise speeding to the rescue! But the starship's mission of mercy soon becomes a desperate struggle for survival against a nightmarish enemy Captain Kirk can neither identify nor understand, an enemy he must defeat without the aid of one of his most trusted officers.

For the Leonard McCoy Kirk knew is gone. In his place stands a stranger -- a man with no memory of his Starfleet career, his family, his friends... or the one thing James T. Kirk needs most of all: his dreams.

Born of the Highlands, along Pictish shores washed by the icy North Sea, Guinevere, Queen of the Dragon People, has become a woman. She has taken the power offered to her by the Dragon Throne. Now there is no turning back. In order to protect her beloved homeland from the obscene greed of the Saxon raiders, Guinevere knows she must launch an attack. The sub-chiefs refuse to fall in line with her plans (because what does this young thing, barely a woman, know of warfare?) and give her an army of the useless, the outcast, the weakest of their young boys and girls. But the war party must proceed. If it fails, the command of both land and sea will fall to the enemy.

A DEADLY MENACE IS BREAKING THROUGH THE GROUND. THE PEOPLE OF ABASCAR MUST ABANDON THEIR STONE REFUGE AND FLEE INTO VULNERABILITY IN THE FOREST. BUT THEIR KING HAS HAD A VISION...

Following the beacon of Auralia's colors and the footsteps of a mysterious dream-creature, King Cal-raven has discovered a destination for his weary crowd of refugees. It's a city only imagined in legendary tales. And it gives him hope to establish New Abascar.

But when Cal-raven is waylaid by fortune hunters, his people become vulnerable to a danger more powerful than the prowling beastmen––House Bel Amica. In this oceanside kingdom of wealth, enchantment, and beauty, deceitful Seers are all too eager to ensnare House Abascar's wandering throng.

Even worse, the Bel Amicans have discovered Auralia's colors, and are twisting a language of faith into a lie of corruption and control.

If there is any hope for the people of Abascar, it lies in the courage of Cyndere, daughter of Bel Amica's queen; the strength of Jordam the beastman; and the fiery gifts of the ale boy, who is devising a rescue for prisoners of the savage Cent Regus beastmen.

As his faith suffers one devastating blow after another, Cal-raven's journey is a perilous climb from despair to a faint gleam of hope––the vision he sees in Auralia's colors.

Every year, each village is required to send a young woman to the Empire's capital--her fate to be burned alive for the entertainment of the masses. For the last five years, one small village's tithe has been the same woman. Gilene's sacrifice protects all the other young women of her village, and her secret to staying alive lies with the magic only she possesses.

But this year is different.

Azarion, the Empire's most famous gladiator, has somehow seen through her illusion--and is set on blackmailing Gilene into using her abilities to help him escape his life of slavery. Unknown to Gilene, he also wants to reclaim the birthright of his clan.

To protect her family and village, she will abandon everything to return to the Empire--and burn once more.

Magic is outlawed in the Krael Empire and punishable by death. Born with the gift of earth magic, the free trader Halani keeps her dangerous secret closely guarded. When her uncle buys a mysterious artifact, a piece of bone belonging to a long-dead draga, Halani knows it's far more than what it seems.

Dragas haven't been seen for more than a century, and most believe them extinct. They're wrong. Dragas still walk among the denizens of the Empire, disguised as humans. Malachus is a draga living on borrowed time. The magic that has protected him will soon turn on him--unless he finds a key part of his heritage. He has tracked it to a group of free traders, among them a grave-robbing earth witch who fascinates him as much as she frustrates him with her many secrets.

Unbeknownst to both, the Empire's twisted empress searches for a draga of her own, to capture and kill as a trophy. As Malachus the hunter becomes the hunted, Halani must risk herself and all she loves to save him from the Empire's machinations and his own lethal birthright.

Siora has been on the run for longer than she cares to remember, from her past and her gift. Born with the ability to see and speak to ghosts, she has heard their desperate pleas as an otherworldly predator stalks the dead amid the fertile killing fields of the collapsing Krael Empire. The creature's power and reach are growing with every soul it consumes, but Siora is preoccupied with her own troubles: namely an assassin who has sworn an oath of vengeance against her.

>Gharek of Cabast was once the right-hand man of the reviled empress but is now a wanted fugitive. Although his reasons for hunting Siora are viscerally personal, what Gharek can't anticipate is that when he finally does find her, she will hold the key to saving his world, or what's left of it. To make good on old debts and protect the vulnerable dead from a malevolent force, Gharek and Siora will both need to make an ally out of an enemy--and trust that will be enough to save each other.

When Matt Freeman gets into trouble with the police, he's sent to be fostered in Yorkshire. It's not long before he senses there's something wrong with his guardian: with the whole village.

Then Matt learns about the Old Ones and begins to understand just how he is different. But no one will believe him; no one can help.

There is no proof. There is no logic. There is just the Gate.

Gods meddle in the fates of men, men play with the fates of gods, and a pretender must be cast down from the throne in this breathtaking first fantasy novel from Ann Leckie, New York Timesbestselling author and winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke Awards.

For centuries, the kingdom of Iraden has been protected by the god known as the Raven. He watches over his territory from atop a tower in the powerful port of Vastai. His will is enacted through the Raven's Lease, a human ruler chosen by the god himself. His magic is sustained via the blood sacrifice that every Lease must offer. And under the Raven's watch, the city flourishes.

But the power of the Raven is weakening. A usurper has claimed the throne. The kingdom borders are tested by invaders who long for the prosperity that Vastai boasts. And they have made their own alliances with other gods.

It is into this unrest that the warrior Eolo--aide to Mawat, the true Lease--arrives. And in seeking to help Mawat reclaim his city, Eolo discovers that the Raven's Tower holds a secret. Its foundations conceal a dark history that has been waiting to reveal itself... and to set in motion a chain of events that could destroy Iraden forever.

Caiden's planet is destroyed. His family gone. And, his only hope for survival is a crew of misfit aliens and a mysterious ship that seems to have a soul and a universe of its own. Together they will show him that the universe is much bigger, much more advanced, and much more mysterious than Caiden had ever imagined. But the universe hides dangers as well, and soon Caiden has his own plans.

He vows to do anything it takes to get revenge on the slavers who murdered his people and took away his home. To destroy their regime, he must infiltrate and dismantle them from the inside, or die trying.

Caiden has been on the run for ten years in order to keep his Graven ship out of the hands of his old adversary, Threi. But when a childhood friend he once thought dead reappears to take it, he is lured into a game of hunter and hunted with the one person whose powers rival Threi's; his sister, Abriss.

Now to have a fighting chance against the most influential siblings in the multiverse, Caiden is left with no choice. He must unlock the Azura's true potential--which means finally confronting his own mysterious genetic origins.

Caiden has finally been reunited with his sister Leta after ten years on the run with his unique starship and managed to convince his longtime enemy--Threi--to join his side. But the multiverse isn't safe yet. Threi's sister is still the most powerful being in existence. And she still wants to collapse their beautiful, diverse, constellation of multiverses down to one.

Now, Caiden and his makeshift family carry the fate of all the worlds in their hands.

Magical creatures are attacking the capital city, seeking to retake what was once theirs, and no one is safe. Ancient cultists have cursed the highest members of the Church, turning them into twisted abominations. The only hope for a cure lies with Adria Eveson. To learn the cure, she must befriend an imprisoned cultist, and guard her heart against his seductive promises and twisted logic.

The fate of all races, human and magical, rests in her hands, and in the choices she makes. Should she choose wrong, only one person stands in her way: her brother, the Soulkeeper Devin Eveson.

The epic saga of Norway's greatest hero concludes as the legendary Viking conqueror-king Harald Hardrede pursues his dreams of empire to the shores of England

Young Norseman Harald Hardrede eagerly followed the hand of destiny around the world, learning much of the methods of conquerors and kings. Throughout history there have been great and lauded champions who achieved far less than the towering Viking who now rightly rules Norway. But the crown sits heavily upon Harald's head, for the throne he occupies rests on shaky ground: Treachery is brewing in the lands of a one-time ally in the North and the conquest of Denmark remains an elusive dream. The enduring sadness of his beloved wife pains him, and the sons he sired with his tempestuous mistress remain to him perplexing mysteries.

As the middle years take their toll on the greatest of all Norse champions and a magnificent era approaches its end, destiny once again summons the "Lightning of the North." Ahead lies the king's final adventure, one last opportunity to man the dragon-prowed ships and sail across an ocean for the prize he has coveted above all others: the fortified island called Britannia.

Upon steeds of adamantium and steel, the Ravenwing of the Dark Angels bring death to the foes of the Imperium in the first book in a new trilogy from acclaimed author Gav Thorpe.

The Ravenwing stand apart from the rest of the Dark Angels Chapter--these dynamic Space Marines take to the battlefield upon steeds of adamantium and steel, and swoop from the skies in lightning-fast speeders to bring death to the foes of the Imperium. Led by the heroic Master Sammael, they prosecute war where their battle-brothers cannot, and are ever at the forefront of the Dark Angels' campaigns.

All that was dead will rise. All that now lives will fall. The final, epic battle for the Lands of Ro.

The dead god is waking. His power-mad priestess has deployed a mass of men and beasts onto the plains of Ro Weir. Faced with this black swarm, the last remnants of a nation crumbles and falls. This is the final battle for the mortal lands of Ro.

Far to the north, the ice men of Rowanoco muster their Exemplars against the witch's assassins. In the blistering southern deserts, a squire with no master walks unscathed through a poisoned city. And, in the halls beyond the world, a thrice-born man dares to tread the path of Giants...

Captain Kel Cheris is possessed by a long-dead traitor general. Together they must face the rivalries of the hexarchate and a potentially devastating invasion.

When the hexarchate's gifted young captain Kel Cheris summoned the ghost of the long-dead General Shuos Jedao to help her put down a rebellion, she didn't reckon on his breaking free of centuries of imprisonment--and possessing her.

Even worse, the enemy Hafn are invading, and Jedao takes over General Kel Khiruev's fleet, which was tasked with stopping them. Only one of Khiruev's subordinates, Lieutenant Colonel Kel Brezan, seems to be able to resist the influence of the brilliant but psychotic Jedao.

Jedao claims to be interested in defending the hexarchate, but can Khiruev or Brezan trust him? For that matter, will the hexarchate's masters wipe out the entire fleet to destroy the rogue general?

In the year 2098 America isn't so different from the USA of today. But, in a post-9/11 security-obsessed world, "secured" doesn't just refer to borders between countries, it also refer to borders between states. Teenagers still think they know everything, but there is no cure for cancer, as Kelsa knows first-hand from watching her father die.

The night Kelsa buries her father, a boy appears. He claims magic is responsible for the health of Earth, but human damage disrupts its flow. The planet is dying.

Kelsa has the power to reverse the damage, but first she must accept that magic exists and see beyond her own pain in order to heal the planet.

In near-future North America, Kelsa--last seen in Trickster's Girl--has passed on the medicine pouch that contains the spiritual magic to save the earth from environmental destruction. Her pick to continue the quest is Jase, a native boy. But in fact, a family feud has cut Jase off from his traditional roots, and he is even more doubtful and resistant than Kelsa was. But the shapeshifting spirit Raven, now a beautiful girl, is quite persuasive and manages to convince Jase this is something not only that he can do, but that he must if he wants to heal his family and the earth.

Imagine lacking something that everyone else has.

Something that proves you belong to this world. Something so vital that without it, you are nothing. A plague. A myth. A human.

Fifteen winters old, Hirka learns that she is an Odin's child--a tailless rot from another world. Despised. Dreaded. Hunted. She no longer knows who she is, and someone wants to kill her to keep it a secret. But there are worse things than humans, and Hirka is not the only creature to have broken through the gates...

Odin's Child is a unique fantasy with Norse roots. An epic clash of xenophobia, blind faith, and the right or will to lead. The first in a trilogy, Odin's Child is a thrilling modern fantasy epic.

She has no identity. No family. No money. But the fate of the worlds rests in her hands.

Hirka is stranded in a rotting world, with nothing but a raven and a notebook to connect her to the life she left behind in Ym. She came in search of her family, believing that she could protect Rime and the rest of Ym from the ancient evil of the blind. Instead, what Hirka finds in this new world are people willing to do anything for the blessing--or the curse--of eternal life. And for Rime, the threat of the blind is only growing stronger...

Separated by worlds, unsure who to trust, and in danger from all sides, Hirka and Rime fight to end a thousand-year quest for power and revenge--and, maybe, to find a way back to each other.

In this follow-up to the international bestseller Odin's Child, Norse-inspired mythology combines with modern-day action to create a work that is wholly original, endlessly surprising, and utterly unforgettable.

HIrka has been sent to the world of the blind, a powerful and immortal people whom she has been taught to fear since infancy--and who now see her as their only chance to reignite a thousand-year-old war. The blind will use Hirka's ability to travel between worlds to return to Ym, the land where Hirka grew up and where the blind were betrayed all those years ago. And this time, they will prevail.

Hirka is torn between her loyalties to the people who birthed her and the people who raised her, between the savior she is expected to be and the individual she wants to be. And every choice she makes pulls her further away from Rime, the love of her life, who is doing everything he can to stop Ym from falling to pieces all around him.

A million things stand between Hirka and Rime. But only together can they stop the end of the worlds.

The republic faces annihilation, despite the vigilance of Galharrow's Blackwings. When a raven tattoo rips itself from his arm to deliver a desperate message, Galharrow and a mysterious noblewoman must investigate a long dead sorcerer's legacy. But there is a conspiracy within the citadel: traitors, flesh-eaters and the ghosts of the wastelands seek to destroy them, but if they cannot solve the ancient wizard's paradox, the Deep Kings will walk the earth again, and all will be lost.

The war with the Eastern Empire ended in stalemate some eighty years ago, thanks to Nall's 'Engine', a wizard-crafted weapon so powerful even the Deep Kings feared it. The strike of the Engine created the Misery - a wasteland full of ghosts and corrupted magic that now forms a No Mans Land along the frontier. But when Galharrow investigates a frontier fortress, he discovers complacency bordering on treason: then the walls are stormed, and the Engine fails to launch. Galharrow only escapes because of the preternatural magical power of the noblewoman he was supposed to be protecting. Together, they race to the capital to unmask the traitors and restore the republic's defences. Far across the Misery a vast army is on the move, as the Empire prepares to call the republic's bluff.

Blackwing is a gritty epic fantasy for fans of Mark Lawrence, Scott Lynch and Daniel Polansky.

For Ryhalt Galharrow, working for Crowfoot as a Blackwing captain is about as bad as it gets - especially when his orders are garbled, or incoherent, or impossible to carry out.

The Deep Kings are hurling fire from the sky, a ghost in the light known only as the Bright Lady had begun to manifest in visions across the city, and the cult that worship her grasp for power while the city burns around them.

Galharrow may not be able to do much about the cult - or about strange orders from the Nameless - but when Crowfoot's arcane vault is breached and an object of terrible power is stolen, he's propelled into a race against time to recover it. Only to do that, he needs answers, and finding them means travelling into nightmare: to the very heart of the Misery.

In the third gritty installment of the Raven's Mark series, Blackwing Captain Ryhalt Galharrow finds that all power comes with a price...

A sorcerous cataclysm has hit the Range, the final defensive line between the republic and the immortal Deep Kings.

Tormenting red rains sweep the land, new monstrosities feed on fear in the darkness, and the power of the Nameless, the gods who protect the republic, lies broken. The Blackwing captains who serve them are being picked off one by one, and even immortals have learned what it means to die. Meanwhile, the Deep Kings have only grown stronger, and they are poised to deliver a blow that will finally end the war.

Ryhalt Galharrow stands apart from it all.

He has been deeper into the wasteland known as the Misery than ever before. It has grown within him--changed him--and now the ghosts of his past, formerly confined to the Misery, walk with him everywhere.

They will even follow him--and the few surviving Blackwing captains--on one final mission into the darkness.

The first time Hellevir visited Death, she was ten years old...

Since she was a little girl, Hellevir has been able to raise the dead. Every creature can be saved for a price, a price demanded by the shrouded figure who rules the afterlife, who takes a little more from Hellevir with each soul she resurrects.

Such a gift can rarely remain a secret. When Princess Sullivain, sole heir to the kingdom's throne, is assassinated, the Queen summons Hellevir to demand she bring her granddaughter back to life. But once is not enough; the killers might strike again. The Princess's death would cause a civil war, so the Queen commands that Hellevir remain by her side.

But Sullivain is no easy woman to be bound to, even as Hellevir begins to fall in love with her. With the threat of war looming, Hellevir must trade more and more of herself to keep the Princess alive.

But Death will always take what he is owed.

The Ravani kingdom was born of a prophecy, carved from unforgiving desert sands and ruled by the Ravence bloodline: those with the power to command the Eternal Fire.

Elena Aadya is the heir to the throne--and the only Ravence who cannot wield her family's legendary magic. As her coronation approaches, she will do whatever it takes to prove herself a worthy successor to her revered father. But she doesn't anticipate the arrival of Yassen Knight, the notorious assassin who now claims fealty to the throne. Elena's father might trust Yassen to be a member of her royal guard, but she is certain he is hiding something.

As the threat of war looms like a storm on the horizon, the two begin a dangerous dance of intrigue and betrayal. And the choices they make could burn down the world.

At first glance, the sisters of ultra-exclusive Kappa Rho Nu--the Ravens--seem like typical sorority girls. Ambitious, beautiful, and smart, they're the most powerful girls on Westerly College's Savannah, Georgia, campus.

But the Ravens aren't just regular sorority girls. They're witches.

Scarlett Winter has always known she's a witch--and she's determined to be the sorority's president, just like her mother and sister before her. But if a painful secret from her past ever comes to light, she could lose absolutely everything...

Vivi Devereaux has no idea she's a witch and she's never lived in one place long enough to make a friend. So when she gets a coveted bid to pledge the Ravens, she vows to do whatever it takes to be part of the magical sisterhood. The only thing standing in her way is Scarlett, who doesn't think Vivi is Ravens material.

But when a dark power rises on campus, the girls will have to put their rivalry aside to save their fellow sisters. Someone has discovered the Ravens' secret. And that someone will do anything to see these witches burn...

The ultra-exclusive Kappa Rho Nu--the Ravens--are determined to restore balance to the world. After destroying an ancient talisman and barely saving their sorority in the process, they'll go to any lengths to keep their secret as Westerly's most powerful coven of witches.

Scarlett Winter, a legacy Raven, has finally gotten what she's always wanted: Scarlett is Kappa Rho Nu's newest president. Unlike her mother or older sister before her, Scarlett has a vision for a more unified Kappa, one where no sister falls to the forces of wicked magic. But the powers of the presidency have their own pitfalls. And with the pressures of alumni bureaucracy and past failures weighing on her, Scarlett finds herself at risk of losing the very thing that defined her: her magic.

As a new member of Kappa Rho Nu, Vivi Devereaux finally knows what it's like to belong. She has her Kappa Rho Nu sisters behind her and, with Scarlett's blessing, Vivi's happily dating her first college crush (who also just happens to be Scarlett's ex). When Scarlett assigns Vivi the coveted role of social chair, Vivi is determined to live up to her Big's expectations. But Vivi's studies in witchcraft take a deadly turn when she uncovers a new form of magic, one that has mysterious ties to Kappa Rho Nu's past and the vengeful demon once tied to their talisman.

With the weight of their newfound roles and the terrible price of destroying the talisman haunting them, Scarlett and Vivi must save their sisterhood when the forces of hell itself and a rival sorority threaten to unleash havoc on the Ravens.

Nettie Lonesome made a leap -- not knowing what she'd become. But now her destiny as the Shadow is calling.

A powerful alchemist is leaving a trail of dead across the prairie. And Nettie must face the ultimate challenge: side with her friends and the badge on her chest or take off alone on a dangerous mission that is pulling her inexorably toward the fight of her life.

When it comes to monsters and men, the world isn't black and white. What good are two wings and a gun when your enemy can command a conspiracy of ravens?

Something wicked this way comes.

Suddenly, being bitten by a werewolf is the least of Joanne Walker's problems.

Her personal life in turmoil, her job as a cop over, she's been called to Ireland by the magic within her. And though Joanne's skills have grown by leaps and bounds, Ireland's magic is old and very powerful.

In fact, this is a case of unfinished business. Because the woman Joanne has come to Ireland to rescue is the woman who sacrificed everything for Joanne - the woman who died a year ago. Now, through a slip in time, she's in thrall to a dark power and Joanne must battle darkness, time and the gods themselves to save her.

The Raven is a carrion creature and its tale is one of blood and death.

After years of feuding and bloodshed, Innisfail is divided by war once more. The Watchers, an ancient and malevolent pair of troublemakers, are impatient to be released from their bonds of immortality. They have promised to visit their bloody vengeance on Innisfail for many generations to come should Eremon of the North gain victory over his brother Eber of the South.

As it stands, Eber has no hope of matching his brother in numbers or arms, and when a poet-king and his red-capped warriors arrive from across the sea, it seems he has yet another enemy preparing to move against him. Amidst this chaos and confusion, the Druids Dalan and Sorcha seek to track down the mystical Draoi song - possibly Innisfail's only hope of undoing the Watchers' evil influence, and the only way to bring peace to the land at last.

But the Raven is also one of the aspects of the Morrigan, goddess of war, and few may escape her claws...

The Raven's Shadow, the third book of Elspeth Cooper's The Wild Hunt series finds war brewing on both sides of the Veil between the worlds.

The desert of Gimrael is aflame with violence, and in the far north an ancient hatred is about to spill over into the renewal of a war that, a thousand years ago, forged an empire. This time, it may shatter one.

Wrestling with his failing grip on the power of the Song, and still trying to come to terms with the horrifying events he witnessed in El Maqqam, Gair returns to the mainland with only one thing on his mind: vengeance. It may cost him his life, but when everything that he had to live for is being stripped away from him, that may be a fair price to pay.

Old friends and old foes converge in a battle of wills to stem the tide of the Nimrothi clans as they charge south to reclaim the lands lost in the Founding Wars. If they succeed, the rest of the empire may be their next target. And with the Wild Hunt at their head, the overstretched Imperial Army may not be enough to stop them.

In a novel inspired by the myth popularized by Wagner's Ring Trilogy, Paxson recounts the first part of the Nibelungenlied legend. Children Brunahild and Sigfrid are raised along their fated paths, each immersed in the special knowledge that will mold them into leaders of their people. Soon they are drawn together in a union of perfect love and heroic glory.