He was done with royal life years ago. One problem… it’s not done with him. Exiled prince turned mercenary, Fin, wants nothing more than to spend his days drinking, fighting and trying to persuade his beautiful crewmate, Red, into his bed. When a summons arrives from his home planet of Navarr, his secret is out. He’s not just any prince, he’s the heir to the throne. He must return home to pay his respects and fight for his crown. But once Warborne, always Warborne, and his crew won’t let him go into a dangerous situation without back up. Just one problem… for Red and Sparky to set foot on Navarr, he has to marry them. As his spouses though, they become prime targets. Can Fin keep them safe and claim his birthright against a dangerous rival, or will he have to choose between them? Fool her once, shame on you. Fool her twice, and this girl bites! Red has everything she needs. A home on the mercenary ship, the Sprite, and her crew mates in place of the family who rejected her before she was born. She doesn’t need anything else. Especially not the handsome but arrogant Navarr princeling, Fin, or the equally handsome but utterly insane human, Sparky. But then the proverbial hits the fan and Fin must return home, there’s no way she’ll let the two of them go alone. They’d only get themselves killed, or worse… What’s a girl to do but pick up her blasters and hope she doesn’t lose her heart in the process? He’s spent a lifetime fighting. Now he just wants someone to call home… preferably two someones… Jayce Allen—Sparky to most—has more than a screw loose. In fact, he’s probably got a whole boxful somewhere, a fact his superiors knew when they hung him out to dry in one of humanity’s worst max-security prisons. Since breaking himself out, he’s made a new life for himself amongst the dangerous alien crew of the Warborne. If pushed, he’d say it was all in the interests of furthering alien-human relations, but really the only two aliens he’s interested in are so far into each other that he doubts they know he exists… But when a dangerous mission means he needs to marry them both, he can’t resist. He’ll take whatever they’re prepared to offer him. And if he gets burned… so be it.

Stowing away on an alien ship? Idiotic. Stowing away on the Warborne's ship? Suicidal. Marika Ingrassia is desperate. To escape another wedding arranged by her father, she runs. Between a homicidal groom and a ship full of trained killers, she'll take her chances with the mercenaries, thank you very much. Only things don't go quite to plan. Her idea to force them to help her at gunpoint seemed a stroke of brilliance until she's on board and facing down the sexiest mercenary she'd ever seen. She can't think straight, never mind shoot straight. She's doomed for a long walk out of a short airlock until Mr. tall, muscled, and growly agrees to help her escape her father's clutches... by marrying her. Just one problem. This time she wants the wedding to be for real... She's the prettiest thing he's ever seen. And everything a killer like him doesn't deserve. Skinny has been a mercenary most of his life. One of the legendary Warborne, he's killed more men than he's had hot dinners and he's damn good at it. When he finds a scared human female, he doesn't expect his reaction to her, or for her to clock him over the head with a pipe. Unpleasantness aside, when he realizes she needs help, he's all ears. And everything else she needs. Up to and including his hand in marriage to protect her... No plan survives first contact with the enemy. Between an assassination attempt and his past catching up with them... can Skinny convince Marika he's the alien for her, or will he lose her forever? Keywords: alien mate romance, alien romance, space books for adults, sci fi, sci fi books, sci fi romance, sci fi adventure, sci fi series, space marine, alien warrior, alien assassins

He saved her from certain death. She didn’t count on him being a… nerd. A Tarviisan pit fighter forced to fight for survival her entire life, Zadaenae is sure she’s about to breathe her last when she’s cornered during a breakout. But help comes from an unexpected quarter; an alien with the infamous Warborne Mercenary team. Only her savior isn’t an experienced mercenary, he’s a scientist without a clue about fighting… Wracked with guilt over his injuries saving her, she takes a hire with the Warborne to stick around, even though the last thing she needs is the scarily intelligent, utterly fascinating human finding out her deepest, darkest secret… He nearly died. Then he became something else. Something… not human. Dr. Eric Archer has all the smarts he’s ever needed, but multiple degrees don’t mean anything on the alien mercenary vessel, Sprite. Instead of working in a lab, he’s had a crash course in battlefield tactics, field stripping alien rifles, and shooting just to stay alive and earn his place among the lethal aliens. She’s an alien. And a princess. He needs to up his game to have any chance… When rescuing a beautiful damsel in distress almost kills him, an experimental alien treatment saves his life. And makes him more than human. Makes him something… else. Forced to deal with more new muscles than he knows what to do with, plus hormones and instincts no human has ever encountered before, Eric must navigate his new abilities and prove to alien princess Zadaenae he's the only man she'll ever need. But he’s not the only one with eyes on his beautiful alien princess. She’s someone else’s means to an end, and this scientist must use everything at his disposal: new skills and old alike to try and save the woman he loves… Keywords: alien mate romance, alien romance, space books for adults, sci fi, sci fi books, sci fi romance, sci fi adventure, sci fi series, space marine, alien warrior, alien mercenary.

Surviving the slaughter of the human race by the cybernetic Master Race, mercenary Athol Morrison and a group of desperate resistors return to an alien-occupied America in a daring attempt to overthrow the dark rulers of the universe. Original.

Natalia Heath is a survivor. She’ll survive an alien fight pit. No problem. On the run from her crime lord father most of her life, Nat knows how to survive in the worst places in the universe. Being kidnapped by aliens and thrown into a gladiatorial arena to fight for her life is just another turn of bad luck in a lifetime of them. She just needs to figure out a plan to escape. What she doesn’t plan on though is the sexy alien who says he’s here to rescue her... or the sparks that fly between them. Beauty’s secret could get him killed... not revealing it will mean her death. Former pit champion and now a member of the famous mercenary unit, the Warborne, Beauty has two goals in life; keep his head down and die of old age in his own bed. Unfortunately he picked the wrong profession for that. When a team member’s sister is captured, he must head back to the gladiatorial fight pits and reclaim his place as champion to save her. Unfortunately for him, she turns out to be a spiky, snippy little human female with plans to save herself. Worse, her scent is the most tantalizing he’s ever encountered... She’s beautiful, alluring, and HIS. His mate. But the rules have changed. The pits are no longer a place where skill in combat can elevate a fighter to freedom. It’s a place of despair and hopelessness with no way out. To save them all, he must deal with the devils of his past and fight a new champion, one shrouded in secrecy who kills all who dare to step onto the sands in challenge... Keywords: alien mate romance, alien romance, space books for adults, sci fi, sci fi books, sci fi romance, sci fi adventure, sci fi series, space marine, alien warrior.

Today we associate the Renaissance with painting, sculpture, and architecture—the “major” arts. Yet contemporaries often held the “minor” arts—gem-studded goldwork, richly embellished armor, splendid tapestries and embroideries, music, and ephemeral multi-media spectacles—in much higher esteem. Isabella d’Este, Marchesa of Mantua, was typical of the Italian nobility: she bequeathed to her children precious stone vases mounted in gold, engraved gems, ivories, and antique bronzes and marbles; her favorite ladies-in-waiting, by contrast, received mere paintings. Renaissance patrons and observers extolled finely wrought luxury artifacts for their exquisite craftsmanship and the symbolic capital of their components; paintings and sculptures in modest materials, although discussed by some literati, were of lesser consequence. This book endeavors to return to the mainstream material long marginalized as a result of historical and ideological biases of the intervening centuries. The author analyzes how luxury arts went from being lofty markers of ascendancy and discernment in the Renaissance to being dismissed as “decorative” or “minor” arts—extravagant trinkets of the rich unworthy of the status of Art. Then, by re-examining the objects themselves and their uses in their day, she shows how sumptuous creations constructed the world and taste of Renaissance women and men.

After your home planet turns into a smoking ruin, staying within the law stops being important.Van Orskey and Tayn Kassik missed the slaughter when the Federation cybersoldiers wrecked their world. With nothing left but each other, they've run to rival Coalition space. With no home but the Cormorant, an Explorer Class vessel they've liberated with the help of the shadowy Poksairian known only as Commander, they're free to run contraband and smuggle fugitives, with the occasional clandestine mission thrown in. Spending half their time in the ship's circuitry and the rest in spacer bars, they don't have or need any plan for the future.Until Tayn's body gets stolen.When your home planet is about to be turned into a smoking ruin, a prince does what he must.Prince Jorvik despises off-worlders, who come to planet Akiak to plunder her natural resources and enslave his people. Betrayed by his uncle, who's in bed with the Federation, Jorvik's only chance to free his people and take back his world is to hike a ride off-world to beg the Coalition's aid. Betrayed and with no one left to trust, the three men must form a bond, and overcome their differences, pitting themselves against insurmountable odds. Their very survival depends on it.

Friedrich Hölderlin's only novel, Hyperion (1797-99), is a fictional epistolary autobiography that juxtaposes narration with critical reflection. Returning to Greece after German exile, following his part in the abortive uprising against the occupying Turks (1770), and his failure as both a lover and a revolutionary, Hyperion assumes a hermitic existence, during which he writes his letters. Confronting and commenting on his own past, with all its joy and grief, the narrator undergoes a transformation that culminates in the realisation of his true vocation. Though Hölderlin is now established as a great lyric poet, recognition of his novel as a supreme achievement of European Romanticism has been belated in the Anglophone world. Incorporating the aesthetic evangelism that is a characteristic feature of the age, Hyperion preaches a message of redemption through beauty. The resolution of the contradictions and antinomies raised in the novel is found in the act of articulation itself. To a degree remarkable in a prose work of any length, what it means is inseparable from how it means. In this skilful translation, Gaskill conveys the beautiful music and rhythms of Hölderlin's language to an English-speaking reader.

The New York Times bestseller and basis for the Tony-winning hit musical, soon to be a major motion picture starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande With millions of copies in print around the world, Gregory Maguire’s Wicked is established not only as a commentary on our time but as a novel to revisit for years to come. Wicked relishes the inspired inventions of L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, while playing sleight of hand with our collective memories of the 1939 MGM film starring Margaret Hamilton (and Judy Garland). In this fast-paced, fantastically real, and supremely entertaining novel, Maguire has populated the largely unknown world of Oz with the power of his own imagination. Years before Dorothy and her dog crash-land, another little girl makes her presence known in Oz. This girl, Elphaba, is born with emerald-green skin—no easy burden in a land as mean and poor as Oz, where superstition and magic are not strong enough to explain or overcome the natural disasters of flood and famine. Still, Elphaba is smart, and by the time she enters Shiz University, she becomes a member of a charmed circle of Oz’s most promising young citizens. But Elphaba’s Oz is no utopia. The Wizard’s secret police are everywhere. Animals—those creatures with voices, souls, and minds—are threatened with exile. Young Elphaba, green and wild and misunderstood, is determined to protect the Animals—even if it means combating the mysterious Wizard, even if it means risking her single chance at romance. Ever wiser in guilt and sorrow, she can find herself grateful when the world declares her a witch. And she can even make herself glad for that young girl from Kansas. Recognized as an iconoclastic tour de force on its initial publication, the novel has inspired the blockbuster musical of the same name—one of the longest-running plays in Broadway history. Popular, indeed. But while the novel’s distant cousins hail from the traditions of magical realism, mythopoeic fantasy, and sprawling nineteenth-century sagas of moral urgency, Maguire’s Wicked is as unique as its green-skinned witch.

Introduction. Nigerian Connections -- Palm Wine, Amos Tutuola, and a Literary Gatekeeper -- Bahia-Lagos-Ouidah: Mariana's Story -- Igbo Life, Past and Present: Three Views -- Inland, Upriver with the Empire: Borrioboola-Gha -- The City, according to Ekwensi . . . and Onuzo -- Points of Cultural Geography: Ibadan . . . Enugu, Onitsha, Nsukka -- Been-To: Dreams, Disappointments, Departures, and Returns -- Dateline Lagos: Reporting on Nigeria to the World -- Death in Lagos -- Tai Solarin: On Colonial Power, Schools, Work Ethic, Religion, and the Press -- Wole Soyinka, Leo Frobenius, and the Ori Olokun -- A Voice from the Purdah: Baba of Karo -- Bauchi: The Academic and the Imam -- Railtown Writers -- Nigeria at War -- America Observed: With Nigerian Eyes -- Transatlantic Shuttle -- Sojourners from Black Britain -- Oyotunji Village, South Carolina: Reverse Afropolitanism.