The Celestial Church has all but eliminated the old pagan ways, ruling the people with an iron hand. Demonic gheists terrorize the land, hunted by the warriors of the Inquisition, yet it’s the battling factions within the Church and age-old hatreds between north and south that tear the land apart. Malcolm Blakley, hero of the Reaver War, seeks to end the conflict between men, yet it will fall to his son, Ian, and the huntress Gwen Adair to stop the killing before it tears the land apart. The Pagan Night is an epic of mad gods, inquisitor priests, holy knights bound to hunt and kill, and noble houses fighting battles of politics, prejudice, and power.

From Jeff VanderMeer, the author of Borne and Annihilation, comes the paperback reissue of his cult classic City of Saints and Madmen. In this reinvention of the literature of the fantastic, you hold in your hands an invitation to a place unlike any you’ve ever visited—an invitation delivered by one of our most audacious and astonishing literary magicians. City of elegance and squalor. Of religious fervor and wanton lusts. And everywhere, on the walls of courtyards and churches, an incandescent fungus of mysterious and ominous origin. In Ambergris, a would-be suitor discovers that a sunlit street can become a killing ground in the blink of an eye. An artist receives an invitation to a beheading—and finds himself enchanted. And a patient in a mental institution is convinced that he’s made up a city called Ambergris, imagined its every last detail, and that he’s really from a place called Chicago . . . By turns sensuous and terrifying, filled with exotica and eroticism, this interwoven collection of stories, histories, and “eyewitness” reports invokes a universe within a puzzle box where you can lose—and find—yourself again.

(Piano Solo Songbook). 28 piano solos for the music that envelops you as you lose yourself in the world of video games, including: Angry Birds Theme * Assassin's Creed Revelations * Battlefield Theme * Dragonborn (Skyrim Theme) * Elder Scrolls: Oblivion * Main Theme from Final Fantasy I * Overture from God of War III * Mass Effect: Suicide Mission * Minecraft: Sweden * Rage of Sparta from God of War III * Uncharted Theme * and more.

As they spearhead an advance into the Realm of Death, the Hallowed Knights are beset by enemies – including the treacherous Mannfred von Carstein, who may hold the key to saving a long lost soul. As cities rise across the Mortal Realms, Lord-Celestant Gardus Steel Soul leads his Hallowed Knights into darkest Shyish, hoping to gain a foothold for the forces of Azyr. But as the foundations of a new citadel are laid, the Hallowed Knights find themselves beset by enemies both living and dead – including the Mortarch of Night, Mannfred Von Carstein. Now, Gardus must lead his warriors into the very heart of darkness in order to save the soul of a warrior long thought lost…

The cowards never tried and the weak died along the way. -Elder Valdanes, the Kata Excerpts 14.3 Valdanes. The elite sword clan that serve as the fist of the Empire. From the age of four they are taught to be three things: Servants, Soldiers, Vassals. At the cadet rank of Iron, Tristan Valdanes is no different. His days are spent in the classroom and his nights on the training grounds, always looking to hone the special sword technique of the Valdanes Clan. Everything he's ever known will be put to the test when a portal to another world opens up on the Academy grounds, sealing them off from the rest of the world. As duty is put to the test and loyalties are challenged, will they overcome or will they be corrupted? Buy a copy of "The Hollow Blade" and find out.

A Wall Street Journal bestseller. The fourth book in the million-copy bestselling Kingfountain series from Jeff Wheeler. Following the downfall of a tyrant, years have passed in prosperity for the kingdom of Ceredigion. Now, as the time comes to celebrate the new king's nuptials, the specter of a new enemy emerges to destroy all that has been painstakingly built in those years. Tryneowy Kiskaddon has grown up learning military and diplomatic strategy from her father, one of the king's closest advisors. She feels her destiny lies in defending the kingdom as a knight, not as a Wizr as her parents have decided, though no lady of the realm has taken up the sword in a century. As she seeks to understand her own Fountain-blessed powers, she studies in the tradition of her mother while training in secret and closely following the realm's politics, alarmed by her mother's vision of an impending clash and a devastating future. But the pieces on fate's game board are in motion, and on the eve of battle, a threatening force irrevocably changes the future of the kingdom and her own. Does Trynne have what it takes to maneuver Ceredigion's key players into position and outsmart the kingdom's enemies--even those still concealed in shadow?

Rossiton is a university city with ancient traditions, but now it's being taken over by a military force that seems unstoppable. Skeptic and academic Adam Dara is an unlikely candidate to lead the first stirrings of an uprising against the dictatorship, but he may be the only one with enough vision to succeed. Jory Marren, a young idealist swept up in the romance of rebellion, has raw and untested enthusiasm for helping Adam's goals. But when Jory finds out how deep the fractures in the city run, how will she square the man she thinks she knows with the history she discovers? In a city of dying gods and rising authoritarianism, does the rebellion have any hope of survival?

Video games have captivated us for over 50 years, giving us entire worlds to explore, new ways to connect with friends, thought-provoking stories, or just a fun way to pass the time. Creating games is a dream for many, but making great games is challenging. The Game Designer's Playbook is about meeting that challenge. More specifically, it's a book about game interaction design; in other words, shaping what players can do and how they do it to make a game satisfying and memorable. Our time with a game is built on interaction, from basic things like pushing buttons on a controller, to making complicated strategic decisions and engaging with the narrative. If you've ever felt the adrenaline rush from beating a perfectly tuned boss fight or been delighted by the fanfare of picking up that last collectible, you've experienced good interaction design firsthand. The Game Designer's Playbook is about learning what makes for great (or terrible!) interaction design in games, exploring things like controls, feedback, story, and tutorial design by analyzing existing games. It also looks at how newer and still-developing tech like VR and streaming are changing the ways we play, and how you can bring great interaction design to your own games.