Large print edition of Book 1 of the Confederated Worlds series "Military science fiction [concentrating] on the psychology and politics of societies in conflict." -Analog, on the Confederated Worlds series The Confederated Worlds implanted in his brain the skills to make him a soldier. He had to learn for himself how to survive interstellar war. Tomas Neumann seeks escape from his backwater planet and overbearing mother, and a mentor to replace his long-dead father. "Taking the shilling"-enlisting in the Confederated Worlds military-promises both. But the soldier's skills implanted in his brain can't prepare him for combat against fellow humans. Especially ones supposed to welcome him and his fellow soldiers as liberators. The war on New Liberty threatens to destroy him. Not just in body. Also in spirit. Grieving for lost comrades, demoralized by harrowing combat, Tomas must learn what he needs to survive. Because soon, with the fates of thousands of his fellow soldiers in the balance, he will face his war's ultimate challenge. Take the Shilling is the first book in The Confederated Worlds series.

The British troops who fought so successfully under the Duke of Wellington during his Peninsular Campaign against Napoleon have long been branded by the duke’s own words—“scum of the earth”—and assumed to have been society’s ne’er-do-wells or criminals who enlisted to escape justice. Now Edward J. Coss shows to the contrary that most of these redcoats were respectable laborers and tradesmen and that it was mainly their working-class status that prompted the duke’s derision. Driven into the army by unemployment in the wake of Britain’s industrial revolution, they confronted wartime hardship with ethical values and became formidable soldiers in the bargain These men depended on the king’s shilling for survival, yet pay was erratic and provisions were scant. Fed worse even than sixteenth-century Spanish galley slaves, they often marched for days without adequate food; and if during the campaign they did steal from Portuguese and Spanish civilians, the theft was attributable not to any criminal leanings but to hunger and the paltry rations provided by the army. Coss draws on a comprehensive database on British soldiers as well as first-person accounts of Peninsular War participants to offer a better understanding of their backgrounds and daily lives. He describes how these neglected and abused soldiers came to rely increasingly on the emotional and physical support of comrades and developed their own moral and behavioral code. Their cohesiveness, Coss argues, was a major factor in their legendary triumphs over Napoleon’s battle-hardened troops. The first work to closely examine the social composition of Wellington’s rank and file through the lens of military psychology, All for the King’s Shilling transcends the Napoleonic battlefield to help explain the motivation and behavior of all soldiers under the stress of combat.

Globetrotting troublemaker Delilah Dirk and her loyal friend Selim are just minding their own business, peacefully raiding castles and traipsing across enemy lines, when they attract the unwanted attention of the English Army. Before they know it, Delilah and Selim have gotten themselves accused of espionage against the British crown! Delilah will do whatever it takes to clear her good name, be it sneaking, skirmishing, or even sword fighting... But can she bring herself to wear a pretty dress and have a nice cup of tea with her mother? Delilah Dirk may be defeated at last. By tulle...in Tony Cliff's Delilah Dirk and the King's Shilling.

The body of a woman, Christine Clay (née Christina Gotobed) is discovered at the edge of the surf on a beach in Kent... A Shilling for Candles is a 1936 mystery novel by Josephine Tey (Elizabeth MacKintosh) about the investigation of the drowning of a film actress, known as Christine Clay. It is the second of Tey's five mysteries starring Inspector Alan Grant. The plot draws extensively on Tey's experience in working with actors in her play Richard of Bordeaux.

Once, the Blood Orphans had it all: a million-dollar recording contract from Warner Brothers, killer hooks, and cheekbones that could cut glass. Four pretty boys from Los Angeles, they were supposed to be the next big thing, future kings of rock and roll. But something happened on the way to glory, and now, two years later, along with their coke-fueled, mohawked female manager, they have washed up in Amsterdam for the final show of their doomed and dismal European tour. The singer has become a born-again Buddhist who preaches from the stage, the bass player's raging eczema has turned his hands into a pulpy mess, the drummer is a sex-fiend tormented by the misdeeds of his porn-king father, and the guitar player -- the only talented one -- is thoroughly cowed by the constant abuse of his bandmates. As they stumble through their final day together, the Blood Orphans find themselves on a comic tour of frustration, danger, excitement, and just possibly, redemption.

The fourth novel in a brilliant Napoleonic series from acclaimed historian Adrian Goldsworthy. The year is 1809, and the recruiting sergeants are hard at work, as the British army gathers strength for the next phase of the campaign against Bonaparte on the Spanish Peninsula. Captain Billy Pringle of the 106th Foot, however, has a somewhat more urgent reason to leave the country: having become embroiled in an ill-advised duel with a lieutenant in the 14th Light Dragoons, a posting to Spain would avoid any awkwardness for the regiment. Along with his friend Lieutenant Williams - whose sister Kitty was the cause of the duel - and the doughty veteran Sergeant Dobson, Pringle takes on the task of training Spanish troops to stand alongside their British allies. But what seems at first like easy duty soon turns into a desperate fight for survival as they find themselves besieged in the strategic fortress of Cuidad Rodrigo. For Bonaparte, taking the fortress will be the first step towards pushing the British back to the sea, and the task is entrusted to one of his most daring and successful generals, Marshal Ney. And Ney in his turn has found the perfect officer to lead the assault, a man not only desperate for advancement but also thirsting for revenge - a man whom Williams knows only too well.