On a futuristic Earth, after a monumental event known as The End of Technology, all life has changed. Now, in the decades since, human beings have adapted to the extinction of technology, blending the old ways of life with the new in a reverse new age. When life finally begins to show signs of stability, a being from an alien world quietly creates a fortress in the darkest reaches of the Earth. He has been watching and waiting for an opportunity to spearhead a plan to make this large, rich blue planet home to his own species, the Drek. He enlists the help of Kabriza, the mighty Quentranzi General, to bring a horde of demons to scourge the Earth of its fragile inhabitants. But first, he must challenge Takashaniel. Far from the mighty dark fortress, Iel, the guardian of Takashaniel, is aware of the Drek's plot to destroy the sacred tower, thus weakening the veil between the Earth realm and the abyss. Together with his young student Mira, they contact four mighty warriors and set them on a perilous path beyond their imagination that will eventually lead them to Takashaniel and into the battle for Earth and life as they know it.

A young widow is haunted by the past in this “fast paced . . . hauntingly original” thriller from the New York Times–bestselling author of The Art Forger (Mystery News). After the tragic death of her husband of less than two years, Lindsey sells her house in the suburbs and moves into a renovated townhouse in the city, only to discover that an earlier tenant—over one hundred years earlier—apparently still lives on the premises. Lindsey wants to start over, but she is haunted by her past, by unfathomable guilt—and perhaps by a ghost. Shattered Echoes is a psychological thriller about murder, madness, and the supernatural in Boston’s historic Back Bay.

The Cinders of Deception The Nether, an ancient evil, stirs from its slumber, casting a long shadow over the realms of Emberfell and Silverwood. Whispers of a forgotten prophecy speak of four individuals, the Embers, destined to rise against the encroaching darkness and restore balance to the world. Kael Torvin, a battle-scarred mercenary haunted by a tragic past, discovers his latent magical abilities and is thrust into a destiny he never sought. Elysia Silverwind, a scholarly apprentice with unwavering faith in the prophecy, embarks on a perilous journey to uncover the truth behind the Embers. Queen Seraphina Sunstone, burdened by the weight of her crown and the escalating political tensions, struggles to maintain unity in her fractured kingdom. Anya, a humble healer with a gentle touch, reveals a hidden power that could turn the tide of war. As the Nether's influence spreads, twisting nature and corrupting the hearts of men, the Embers must overcome their differences and unite against the true enemy. Their journey will take them through treacherous landscapes, ancient ruins, and the depths of their own souls, as they face trials that will test their courage, their loyalty, and their love for each other. But the path to victory is fraught with peril. Betrayal lurks in the shadows, unexpected alliances are forged, and the true meaning of the prophecy is revealed in a shocking twist that will leave readers breathless. The Cinders of Deception is an epic fantasy adventure that will transport you to a world of magic, intrigue, and high-stakes battles. With its richly drawn characters, intricate plot, and breathtaking action sequences, this novel will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last page. Perfect for fans of: Epic fantasy sagas with intricate world-building Compelling characters with complex motivations High-stakes battles and unexpected twists Stories of hope, despair, love, loss, betrayal, and redemption Join Kael, Elysia, Seraphina, and Anya on their quest to save the world from the Nether's encroaching darkness. The fate of their world, and perhaps even their own souls, hangs in the balance.

In Miami, Florida, seeking her younger sister, 16-year-old Ashline Wilde, a Polynesian volcano goddess, joins forces with other reincarnated deities. But trickster Colt's diabolical plans threaten them all.

Sounding 1: BEFORE 1840 The notes, journals and characters of Aboriginal Protectors William Thomas and his Chief George Robinson form the backbone of this compilation. With this ethnographic material we learn something of the Kulin worldview into this mostly white-fella history. Sounding 1: Before 1840 describes the initial British and European experiences, events, observations, intentions, self-serving judgements, ignorance, naivete, treachery and so on when they found Oz and proclaimed the continent theirs by the now obvious fiction of terra nullius – Latin legalese for ‘land belonging to no people’. The reader may enjoy separating the grains of truth from the chaff propaganda of Empire capitalism or racist / sectarian Christian bible dogma that was the self-serving mindset of the white land-takers. Batman and Fawkner’s land-hunting deals with local koori’s along with the re-emergence of the remarkable wild white castaway Buckley made their mark on the first settlement at Melbourne. The focus widens in 1836 with Surveyor-General Major Mitchell’s and his Wuradjuri guides ‘conquering the interior’ from the Murray near Mildura to the Western District at Portland and then back north-east across the state to the Murray upstream at Albury. His wheel tracks opened up Victoria from the north. First contact race interactions at Port Phillip and the notion of cultural-coexistence during the first five years leads to the role of ‘successful battler’ and publican Fawkner in the colonial invasion process from Kulin country to sheep-run to city. Sounding 1 then winds up with Melbourne’s first executions and descriptions of Port Phillip as the money melting pot forming the Melbourne hub of world capitalism. Twentieth century academic studies now identify native religion, language zones, tribal locations and clan heads at the time of dispossession by pirate capitalism. In describing the Australian land-rush the chapter echoes oscillate between history, sociology, race theory, trade and class wars, whaling and sealing, imperialism and the monopoly East India Company army mates all pitted against the ‘vanishing race’ of hunter-gathering ‘savages’. The dispossession was virtually complete in Victoria before the 1850’s gold rushes transformed the sheep-runs into banker’s dividend wealth for the ‘winners’. Sounding 2: DISPOSSESSION AT MELBOURNE: Sounding 2 unfolds gently with a wistful early Melbourne memoir involving Batman’s lost lawyer Gellibrand in 1836 but then we confront the frontier ‘kill or be killed’ point of necessity. The violent life, times and fate of mass murderer Fred Taylor who was first employed as overseer for banker Swanston’s Bellarine peninsula land-grab sets the local dispossession tone. Taylor’s repeated atrocities today exposes a credibility gap in Oz – between civilized progress and slaughter, that now looms over all else in Victoria’s birth as an independent state in 1851. The winter of 1837 saw the first violent death of a white squatter and his servant by ‘savage natives’ north-west of Williamstown at Mt Cotterell. Town leaders such as Fawkner and ‘police chief’ Henry Batman formed a posse that also included clan heads from both the Melbourne and Geelong tribal areas. Buckley refused to take part in the vigilante party and its punitive actions belied the humanitarian standards expressed in Batman’s treaty deed. This revenge slaughter and destruction of ‘villages’ by the white invaders forced the Sydney government to investigate and so began administering ‘law and order’ at Port Phillip. By 1838 Sydney trumped Batman’s land-grab and the penal government of NSW on the one hand executing eight ‘whites’ for killing what the newspapers called ‘savages’, while on the other hand providing sufficient speedy cavalry to tackle black resistance in Victoria at places such as west of Colac and near Benalla after the Faithfull massacre. The arrival in 1839 of first governor La Trobe and the Aboriginal Protectorate plan then unfolds the development of town civic structures while tribal life disintegrates. Government and private measures to ‘tame the naked Melbourne natives’ culminated with the dawn Merri Creek round-up in October 1840 of hundreds of Kulins by Major Lettsom’s redcoats and townsmen. This appears as the death blow to tribal life, and with the first shiploads of migrating British colonists arriving in 1841, near genocide for the Kulin, Mara, Kurnai and Murray River first-peoples.

The Echoes Saga continues!"Here is today's lesson; heroes die..."It's fifteen years since the Orcs were defeated. Fifteen years since a new king rose from the battlefield. Fifteen years since Illian knew the horror of war.Fifteen years of peace are about to end.Something is coming. Shadows gather. Whispers of rebellion have reached the king. Darkness stirs beyond Illian's borders.Beyond the mountains, Dhenaheim has lost a quiet war. Refugees pour into Illian, bringing suspicion and unrest. For Doran Heavybelly, Dhenaheim's war means facing a personal tragedy that demands his attention... and his axe.A simple job for too much coin should have been warning enough for Asher but, like Fate, trouble always has a way of finding him. Conspiracy. Rebellion. Betrayal. Time to find out who the real heroes are.

The TikTok sensation Broken Prince, the second in the #1 New York Times bestselling The Royals series, now in a new special edition with bonus material! From wharf fights and school brawls to crumbling lives inside glittery mansions, one guy tries to save himself. These Royals will ruin you… Reed Royal has it all—looks, status, money. The girls at his elite prep school line up to date him, the guys want to be him, but Reed never gave a damn about anyone but his family until Ella Harper walked into his life. What started off as burning resentment and the need to make his father’s new ward suffer turned into something else entirely—keep Ella close. Keep Ella safe. But when one foolish mistake drives her out of Reed’s arms and brings chaos to the Royal household, Reed’s entire world begins to fall apart around him. Ella doesn’t want him anymore. She says they’ll only destroy each other. She might be right. Secrets. Betrayal. Enemies. It’s like nothing Reed has ever dealt with before, and if he’s going to win back his princess, he’ll need to prove himself Royally worthy.

Accident? Or murder? DI Harland is on the case... Contains the short story BROKEN FALL and a 7-chapter preview at the first DI Harland novel, EYE CONTACT. When Detective Inspector Graham Harland first sees the body, it's just a tragic little bundle lying at the foot of the stairs, the shock of white hair bright against the dark carpet. It looks like a straightforward accident. Albert Errington, aged seventy-nine, lived alone in his Bristol home and appears to have taken a nasty tumble down the stairs late one night. His death seems a terrible shock for his son and daughter, and his long-term carer. But ever-observant, DI Harland is sure this isn't an accidental death. And he will find out who is trying to get away with murder... Praise for Fergus McNeil 'A chilling game of cat and mouse that should keep you awake long after bedtime. DI Harland is a welcome addition to the growing ranks of British detectives' Peter Robinson, bestselling author of the DCI Banks series 'Let's welcome Fergus McNeill to the ranks of British Crime fiction innovators; he has found a darker shade of noir' Quintin Jardine, bestselling author of the Constable Bob Skinner series 'Creepy, compelling and completely convincing' Erin Kelly, bestselling author of He Said/ She Said 'A gripping first novel' Irish Independent

A man reunites with his estranged, ailing father to learn the truth about his own tragic childhood in this mystery from “a very promising writer” (Sir Michael Parkinson, journalist and television presenter). In 1994, eleven-year-old Callum was abducted from his Wiltshire village. His body was found six months later by his older brother, Tom, near a Neolithic henge called the Shadowing Stones. It was the first in a series of events that would destroy Tom’s family; the boys’ father was a suspect but never charged, and their mother committed suicide a year later. Convinced his father was responsible for his brother’s death, Tom fled to Australia to start a new life. Now, almost three decades later, Tom learns that his father is dying of cancer. Knowing this may be his last chance to uncover the truth, Tom returns to England. But when childhood acquaintance, Anna, forms a bond with Tom, old feelings are stirred. As he’s reluctantly drawn closer to both Anna and his father, Tom is confronted with a series of shocking twists and revelations that will change his life forever.

This volume of twelve original essays is the first comprehensive study of feminist issues in Restoration drama. The late seventeenth century marks a pivotal era in the history of feminism, when Renaissance assumptions about gender and patriarchy were being directly challenged. For the first time, women appeared onstage as actresses, made their presence felt as spectators and patrons, and wrote a number of the plays produced in theaters. In an unusually direct and probing way, drama of the Restoration period raised radical questions about the place of women in the family and in society, and about the essential nature of men and women. The essays examine feminist issues from a variety of historical and theoretical approaches across a spectrum of plays—comedies, tragedies, tragicomedies, and heroic drama. By addressing the acute questions of gender raised in the drama, Broken Boundaries presents a vivid portrait of the uncertainties and changing perceptions in all areas of intellectual, political, and social life during the last decades of the seventeenth century.