A "USA Today"-bestselling author returns with the long-awaited third novel in his Sword of Shadows series, which takes place in a vivid, fully realized fantasy world with a unique culture and magic.

From William C. Dietz, the New York Times bestselling author of the America Rising novels, comes RED ICE. A military thriller so believable the story could be ripped from tomorrow's headlines.World War III is a month old. After attacking, and sinking the Destroyer USS Stacy Heath, the Chinese invade Tibet, and India counterattacks.Rather than allow the Chinese to seize control of the subcontinent the U.S. sends 20,000 U.S. soldiers and marines in to join the fight.The Russians use the opportunity to invade Ukraine, which leaves NATO with no choice but to respond. A full fledged ground war begins. American forces are spread thin, and the decision is made to evacuate all personnel from Afghanistan. Troops have already begun to pull out, when Air Force JTAC (Joint Terminal Attack Controller) Dan Falco, receives orders to kill a ruthless Taliban leader named Noor Mohammad Hashemi. But it won't be easy. Falco must enter enemy territory with a guide who may, or may not be a member of the Taliban, take up a position above an enemy held town, and call in a targeted air strike on a man standing in the middle of a populated area. Meanwhile 7,000 miles to north, the Russians are holding a training exercise called RED ICE. Except that it isn't a training exercise and, if American forces fail to stop the enemy, the Russians will land on American soil. An accomplishment that would be a tremendous blow to American morale, and would suck much needed resources away from the conflicts in Europe and Asia.Army Air Force and even Coast Guard personnel will do their best to push the Russians back.But will their best be good enough?For more about William C. Dietz and his fiction please visit williamcdietz.com. You can find him on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/williamcdietz and you can follow him on Twitter: William C. Dietz @wcdietz

HIGH ADVENTURE ON THE SWORD EDGE OF DESTINY A Cavern of Black Ice is the first book in J.V. Jones's Sword of Shadow series As a newborn Ash March was abandoned--left for dead at the foot of a frozen mountain. Found and raised by the Penthero Iss, the mighty Surlord of Spire Vanis, she has always known she is different. Terrible dreams plague her and sometimes in the darkness she hears dread voices from another world. Iss watches her as she grows to womanhood, eager to discover what powers his ward might possess. As his interest quickens, he sends his living blade, Marafice Eye, to guard her night and day. Raif Sevrance, a young man of Clan Blackhail, also knows he is different, with uncanny abilities that distance him from the clan. But when he and his brother survive an ambush that plunges the entire Northern Territories into war, he yet seeks justice for his own . . . even if means he must forsake clan and kin. Ash and Raif must learn to master their powers and accept their joint fate if they are to defeat an ancient prophecy and prevent the release of the pure evil known as the End Lords. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

"Wonderful . . . J. V. Jones is a striking writer." So says Robert Jordan, the author of The Wheel of Time epic fantasy series. And Jones lives up to that praise in the highly charged epic adventure of Ash March and Raif Sevrance, two outcasts whose fate are entwined by ancient prophecies and need, in the cold, dark world that threatens to be torn asunder by a war to end all wars. Isolated by their birthrights, they are but two who fight the dreaded Endlords, and their strength and courage will be needed if the world is to be saved from darkness." Raif, wrongly accused and cut off from his clan by the treachery of their new headsman, has a talent for killing that is part of his curse and his burden. But he bears another burden of greater weight. Ash is a sacred warrior to the Sull, an ancient race whose numbers have declined. Raised as a foundling, never knowing her true history, she must learn to accept the terrible gifts of her heritage. But as Ash learns more of her greater fate, Raif's task looms dark and desperate, for he must journey through the nightmare realm of the Want, a place where even the Sull now fear to tread. For deep within the Want is the Fortress of Grey Ice, and there he must heal the breach in the Blindwall that already threatens the world. Should he fail, not even Ash's powers can save them. . . . At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

True love really is blind... After optometrist Kate Kapowski kicks her controlling husband—now ex-husband—to the curb, she is anxious for a change. So when sexy Logan Murray strides into her office wearing a smile that could stop traffic, she impulsively decides to proposition him. Her crash course in casual sex is encouraged by her well-meaning sister Julia. But as soon as Kate embraces the idea of carefree relationships, she starts to develop genuine feelings for the smooth-talking hockey player. Now Kate must figure out how to rescue Julia from her own crisis and decide whether Logan can be converted into a one-woman man. All without sacrificing her newly found freedom and hard-earned confidence. In the end, Kate and Julia will find that love really is blind. *Although part of a series, Blind Ice can be read as a stand-alone, as can all the stories in the Red Valley Ravens series.*

Preferences are useful in many real-life problems, guiding human decision making from early childhood up to complex professional and organizational decisions. In artificial intelligence specifically, preferences is a relatively new topic of relevance to nonmonotonic reasoning, multiagent systems, constraint satisfaction, decision making, social choice theory and decision-theoretic planning The first part of this book deals with preference representation, with specific chapters dedicated to representation languages, nonmonotonic logics of preferences, conditional preference networks, positive and negative preferences, and the study of preferences in cognitive psychology. The second part of the book deals with reasoning with preferences, and includes chapters dedicated to preference-based argumentation, preferences database queries, and rank-ordering outcomes and intervals. The author concludes by examining forthcoming research perspectives. This is inherently a multidisciplinary topic and this book will be of interest to computer scientists, economists, operations researchers, mathematicians, logicians, philosophers and psychologists.

This land of dream painting Snow star in the light Like a little ice crystal that jumped. Eternal ice crystals. When you rustle the snow, what do you hoard in it? Snowflake dancing in prismatic light. This land of dream painting

The only exception was the Immortal Hero! Sword, the king of weapons! Immortal enlightenment was a matter of life and death, and was eternal! Sword Immortal, Heaven's Sword, and Grounds!