Wounded and near death, Jalav, war leader of the Hosta clan is kidnapped by northern barbarians who believe she is the one the legends say will journey to Sigurr's Peak

Courtesan and criminal, thief and trollop, warrior and wanderer--the picara embodies the continuing archetypal pattern of a woman's autonomy. She is the sly sharpster in Defoe's heroines such as Roxana and Moll Flanders. With an ancestress like Becky Sharp, the picara evolves into Scarlett O'Hara before finding a comfortable niche as the female hero in fantasy written by women. The Picara traces the development of this character, from an autonomous woman in a harsh patriarchal society to the female hero of the modern fantasy novel.

A guide to series fiction lists popular series, identifies novels by character, and offers guidance on the order in which to read unnumbered series.

What would you think if you found evidence of an advanced life-form encased in a two-hundred-million-year-old sandstone canyon wall? This was the problem that Ev Collins had when he found something on a hike in the canyon country of southern Utah. Ev, a geology professor, was pondering whom he could tell and what he could share, when the day after his discovery he chanced upon Mida Peterson, a doctoral anthropology student from the Mescalero Apache Reservation in New Mexico. Ev de