When Lochlann becomes nervous about his upcoming Rite of Wands ceremony, his brother Mierta McKinnon reassures him everything will be okay. But when Lochlann staggers out of his ceremony and refuses to use magic, Mierta McKinnon is determined to find out what really happened. Meanwhile, the kingdom of Vandolay is under attack by a dangerous, unidentified creature, and Mierta’s father, Mortain McKinnon, requests his son’s assistance to help aid the injured. But the people of Vandolay aren’t the only ones Mierta must save when someone he holds dear comes face-to-face with the creature and their life hangs in the balance. Now Mierta must draw upon his strength and his newly acquired magic skills to defeat a dangerous foe and save everyone from death.

'How short a time a century really is . . .' The speaker was Immortal Karmesin, and he had lived a thousand years. He stood, a gigantic figure against the rush of time, a permanently open channel for the infants of the galaxy to explore the deep past. He was anathema to the Phoenixes, for their creed was that of birth in death, of regeneration in destruction. And he knew that he - one man - had to unravel the Phoenix mystery, or live to watch it bring fiery death to all the planets of man . . . (First published 1963)

Mackenzie Flohr believes in order to call yourself a true Whovian, you must follow the Doctor's message. The Binge Watcher's Guide to Doctor Who will take you on a journey through time and space, showing you how Doctor Who became the longest running show on television by weaving through its history, starting with our current incarnation of the Doctor, played by Jodie Whittaker. In addition to exploring the details of creating this season of the show, the book will examine the impact of having the first female Doctor in the show’s five decade-long history among fans and critics, as well as include exclusive, never-before-seen interviews with Wendy Abrahams, Beth Axford, Christian Basel, Will Brooks, Ken Deep, Stephen Hatcher, Krystal Moore, David Solomons and Alisa Stern. Ultimately, The Binge Watcher’s Guide to Doctor Who is a love letter for Doctor Who fans, and a gift book for those who you think will learn to love the Doctor. Mackenzie Flohr is a multi-award-winning novelist and in-demand speaker for conferences and conventions including actively discussing the process of writing and Doctor Who. She is also an active panelist on The Legend of the Traveling Tardis Radio Show and has done book signings previously at Who North America, the largest Doctor Who store, and museum located in the state of Indiana. Her publishing portfolio includes The Rite of Wands, The Whispered Tales of Graves Grove and Unknown Realms: A Fiction-Atlas Press Anthology. A storyteller at heart, she loves to inspire the imagination. Mackenzie makes her home in Mount Morris, Michigan, where she is currently penning her next adventure.

The Rites of Identity argues that Kenneth Burke was the most deciding influence on Ralph Ellison's writings, that Burke and Ellison are firmly situated within the American tradition of religious naturalism, and that this tradition--properly understood as religious--offers a highly useful means for considering contemporary identity and mitigating religious conflict. Beth Eddy adds Burke and Ellison to a tradition of religious naturalism that traces back to Ralph Waldo Emerson but received its most nuanced expression in the work of George Santayana. Through close readings of the essays and fiction of Burke and Ellison, Eddy shows the extent to which their cultural criticisms are intertwined. Both offer a naturalized understanding of piety, explore the psychological and social dynamics of scapegoating, and propose comic religious resources. And both explicitly connect these religious categories to identity, be it religious, racial, national, ethnic, or gendered. Eddy--arguing that the most socially damaging uses of religious language and ritual are connected to the best uses that such language has to offer--finds in Burke and Ellison ways to manage this precarious situation and to mitigate religious violence through wise use of performative symbolic action. By placing Burke and Ellison in a tradition of pragmatic thought, The Rites of Identity uncovers an antiessentialist approach to identity that serves the moral needs of a world that is constantly negotiating, performing, and ritualizing changes of identity.

Geek Heroines not only tells the stories of fictional and real women, but also explores how they represent changes in societal views of women, including women of color and the LGBTQ community. Geek culture stems from science and technology and so is frequently associated with science fiction. In the beginnings of science fiction, the genre was tied to "magic" and dystopic outcomes; however, as technology turned "geek" into "chic," geek culture extended to include comics, video games, board games, movie, books, and television. Geek culture now revolves around fictional characters about whom people are passionate. Geek Heroines seeks to encourage women and young girls in pursuing their passions by providing them with female role models in the form of diverse heroines within geek culture. Carefully curated to incorporate LGBTQ+ identities as well as racial diversity, the book defines geek culture, explains geek culture's sometimes problematic nature, and provides detailed fiction and nonfiction biographies that highlight women in this area. Entries include writers and directors as well as characters from comic books, science fiction, speculative fiction, television, movies, and video games.

Good and evil, clean and unclean, rich and poor, self and other. The nature and function of such binary oppositions have long intrigued scholars in such fields as philosophy, linguistics, classics, and anthropology. From the opening chapters of Genesis, in which God separates day from night, and Adam and Eve partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, dyadic pairs proliferate throughout the Hebrew Bible. In this groundbreaking work melding critical exegesis and contemporary theory, Saul M. Olyan considers the prevalence of polarities in biblical discourse and expounds their significance for the social and religious institutions of ancient Israel. Extant biblical narrative and legal texts reveal a set of socially constructed and culturally privileged binary oppositions, Olyan argues, which instigate and perpetuate hierarchical social relations in ritual settings such as the sanctuary. Focusing on four binary pairs--holy/common, Israelite/alien, clean/unclean, and whole/blemished--Olyan shows how these privileged oppositions were used to restrict access to cultic spaces, such as the temple or the Passover table. These ritual sites, therefore, became the primary contexts for creating and recreating unequal social relations. Olyan also uncovers a pattern of challenge to the established hierarchies by nonprivileged groups. Converging with contemporary issues of power, marginalization, and privileging, Olyan's painstaking yet lucid study abounds with implications for anthropology, classics, critical theory, and feminist studies.

21st Century Anthropology: A Reference Handbook highlights the most important topics, issues, questions, and debates any student obtaining a degree in the field of anthropology ought to have mastered for effectiveness in the 21st century. This two-volume set provides undergraduate majors with an authoritative reference source that serves their research needs with more detailed information than encyclopedia entries but in a clear, accessible style, devoid of jargon, unnecessary detail or density. Key Features- Emphasizes key curricular topics, making it useful for students researching for term papers, preparing for GREs, or considering topics for a senior thesis, graduate degree, or career.- Comprehensive, providing full coverage of key subthemes and subfields within the discipline, such as applied anthropology, archaeology and paleontology, sociocultural anthropology, evolution, linguistics, physical and biological anthropology, primate studies, and more.- Offers uniform chapter structure so students can easily locate key information, within these sections: Introduction, Theory, Methods, Applications, Comparison, Future Directions, Summary, Bibliography & Suggestions for Further Reading, and Cross References.- Available in print or electronically at SAGE Reference Online, providing students with convenient, easy access to its contents.