Freedom is out of the question for practitioners of the Institute, and any supporters otherwise are dealt with violently. A system Sylvie Sirx neither refutes, nor endorses—born from an enviable family, talented in her skills, and entirely too content with her position, her path has always been a straight one… until now. Her qualifications backfire when an elder from the north descends upon her home for a Choosing. He calls upon the Drowned Tower’s most sought after practitioners for a simple job that ends in blood, and then Sylvie’s blissful world erupts. She finds herself in the company of the Elementalist, Jacques Dace, an insufferable but deadly enthusiast of personal reform. Together, they’re swept into a spiral of powerful magic and ancient grudges. Where truth bends, stones whisper secrets of the past, and their home lies at the heart of what could very well be Ferus Terria’s next recorded war. And for once, she is forced to choose a side, learning for herself what it means to master fate.

From the author of cult classic THE MINOTAUR TAKES A CIGARETTE BREAK comes a dark narrative that begs the question: at what point do we become responsible for the things that we see? Benny Poteat observes the world from above, working hundreds of feet in the air repairing tension lines. He's seen a lot of things from this vantage point, but nothing can compare to watching a girl die. She approaches the river that snakes far below him and walks purposefully into the rushing water, never to reappear. Startled at both what he’s witnessed and his inability to prevent it, what Benny does next will forever alter the course of his life: He does nothing. He gathers up the drowned girl’s belongings and doesn’t tell a soul what he saw. Instead, Benny visits the address on a business card he finds in the drowned girl’s bag and slowly insinuates himself into the life she once lived. But even as he immerses himself in her world, he wonders: What does it mean to watch someone die? And what can explain his strange attraction to the drowned girl? VISITS FROM THE DROWNED GIRL is an unforgettable tale about the seductive but ultimately pernicious nature of secrecy. As Benny struggles to figure out what to do and who to tell, his burden becomes unbearable, and the secrets he keeps threaten to pull him under.

**Longlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger Award** 'A gripping thriller' THE TIMES | 'Dark and enthralling' ANDREW TAYLOR | 'Devilishly good' DAILY MAIL 'I couldn't put it down' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 'A story of disaster, espionage, murder and a deep-seated conspiracy... it's nothing short of genius' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Revenge runs deep in this captivating historical thriller for fans of C.J. Sansom and Laura Shepherd-Robinson. 1606. England stands divided in the wake of the failed Gunpowder Plot. As a devastating tidal wave sweeps the Bristol Channel, rumours of new treachery reach the King. In Newgate prison, Daniel Pursglove receives an unexpected - and dangerous - offer. Charles FitzAlan, close confidant of King James, will grant his freedom - if Daniel can infiltrate the underground Catholic network in Bristol and unmask the one conspirator still at large. Where better to hide a traitor than in the chaos of a drowned city? Daniel goes to Bristol to investigate, but soon finds himself at the heart of a dark Jesuit conspiracy - and in pursuit of a killer. PRAISE FOR DANIEL PURSGLOVE BOOK 1 'Colourful and compelling' SUNDAY TIMES 'Goes right to the heart of the Jacobean court' TRACY BORMAN 'Spies, thieves, murderers and King James I? Brilliant' CONN IGGULDEN 'The intrigues of Jacobean court politics simmer beneath the surface in this gripping and masterful crime novel' KATHERINE CLEMENTS 'Shadows and menace lurk round almost every corner... Brilliant writing and more importantly, riveting reading' SIMON SCARROW 'Beautifully written with a dark heart, Maitland knows how to pull you deep into the early Jacobean period' RHIANNON WARD

Hieronymus Jones will die in forty-nine days. The Ori Ki’al’s seed uttered that massively disturbing sentence, thirty-one days ago. So Hieronymus Jones will die in eighteen days… Hooray. The Fae on the island are having their ability to hide beneath human masks, torn away from them. What does this mean? Hiero and Gerty have their snuggle time seriously curtailed when a group of non-human high-schoolers invade the library. Which frankly is unacceptable. There is more going on than is immediately apparent and Hiero and Gerty have a fairly shrewd idea that it has something to do with the vast, cannibalistic, half-insane, cephalopod nightmare that is coming to kill and consume the world... like a jerk. The Emperor has allies in his quest for the pendant, foul tentacle waggling abominations, not to mention a certain young woman named Lillith, who is rapidly working her way up Hiero's list of things that will probably kill him. Join Hiero and Gerty for the devastating final confrontation with the Emperor of the drowned, where they will lose more than they ever thought possible. They will lose... everything. The countdown has started, brace yourself.

This volume is one of several that examines the National Gallery of Art's distinguished collection of decorative arts. (The second volume will be published in 1996.) The group treated here is composed primarily of works acquired from the Widener Collection, and amplified by holdings acquired from the Kress family. Included are more than eighty Medieval, Renaissance, and later historic objects in a wide variety of media, encompassing metalwork, stained glass, enamels, ceramics, and jewels. Among the highlights are a Limoges reliquary chasse, a Mosan lion aquamanile, thirty-eight pieces in a remarkable cohesive group of Italian maiolica, three of the very rare pottery objects known as 'Saint-Porchaire', and, the centerpiece of the collection, the Suger chalice, an ancient sardonyx cup to which the Abbot Suger added a bejewelled golden setting in the twelfth century. Like other volumes in the Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art Collections,Western Decorative Arts includes a thoroughly researched entry for each object, together with an artist biography, up-to-date bibliography, and a technical analysis.

Using the ancient magic bestowed upon them as their guide, Sylvie and Jack traverse the icy ranges that surround the Diamond Alps. The core of the four Institutes, however, is not as tranquil as its silent gateway suggests. Behind the scenes, an internal struggle for power rages as the Zenith Council strives to elect their new leader. Gridlock among the Diamond Alps’ top brass has brought the entirety of the north to a standstill, and the pair arrive just as tensions peak. But Sylvie and Jack quickly realize that the real danger does not lie within the Diamond Alps, rather in the snowy plains outside of it. The mountains that make up the north are home to a heinous secret. A forgotten god tied to the past slumbers beneath a once venerated altar deep in the heart of the mountains. As events spiral out of control, the ancient plot that devastated the First Zenith is finally dragged into the light. Bearing the burden of Thelarius Merve’s legacy, Sylvie and Jack must face off against the bloody ambitions of a man they believed long dead in one last epic struggle.

From one of the most powerful and original talents in science fiction comes the story of a new world--a strange world where solar radiation fluctuations have melted the polar ice caps, flooding the land and raising the temperature of the atmosphere.

A new generation discovers "the most original English writer of the last century." —China Miéville, The Nation Appearing in hardcover in America for the first time, this neglected Ballardian masterpiece promises to be a touchstone for environmentalists the world over. First published in 1962, J.G. Ballard’s mesmerizing and ferociously imaginative novel not only gained him widespread critical acclaim but also established his reputation as one of the finest writers of a generation. The Drowned World imagines a terrifying world in which global warming has melted the ice caps and primordial jungles have overrun a tropical London. Set during the year 2145, this novel follows biologist Dr. Robert Kearns and his team of scientists as they confront a cityscape in which nature is on the rampage and giant lizards, dragonflies, and insects fiercely compete for domination. Both an unmatched biological mystery and a brilliant retelling of Heart of Darkness—complete with a mad white hunter and his hordes of native soldiers—this “powerful and beautifully clear” (Brian Aldiss) work becomes a thrilling adventure with “an oppressive power reminiscent of Conrad” (Kingsley Amis).

Francis Conway is Swill - one of the millions in the year 2041 who must subsist on the inadequate charities of the state. Life, already difficult, is rapidly becoming impossible for Francis and others like him, as government corruption, official blindness and nature have conspired to turn Swill homes into watery tombs. And now the young boy must find a way to escape the approaching tide of disaster. The Sea and Summer, published in the US as The Drowning Towers is George Turner's masterful exploration of the effects of climate change in the not-too-distant future. Comparable to J.G. Ballard's The Drowned World, it was shortlisted for the Nebula and won the Arthur C. Clarke Award. Winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award for best novel, 1988

Robinson Jeffers and the American Sublime is the most comprehensive and most substantial critical work ever devoted to the major American poet Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962). Jeffers, the best known poet of California and the American West, particularly valorized the Big Sur region, making it his own as Frost did New England and Faulkner, Mississippi, and connecting it to the wider tradition of the American sublime in Emerson, Thoreau, and John Muir. The book also links Jeffers to a Puritan sublime in early American verse and explores his response to the Darwinian and Freudian revolutions and his engagement with modern astronomy. This discussion leads to a broad consideration of Jeffers' focus on the figure of Christ as emblematic of the human aspiration toward God—a God whom Jeffers defines not in Christian terms but in those of an older materialist pantheism and of modern science. The later sections of the book develop a conspectus of the democratic sublime that addresses American exceptionalism through the prism of Jeffers' Jeffersonian ethos. A final chapter places Jeffers' poetic thought in the larger cosmological perspective he sought in his late works.