"A wonderful ride that encompasses the true essence of martial arts. Olech beautifully relates the common man with the teachings and spirit of many of the sport's masters. --Joe Ferraro, host of UFC Central radio"

Learn to draw mind-bending fantasy characters from an expert video game character designer! This captivating book presents a treasure trove of ideas for hundreds of different fantasy characters and creatures. Experienced video game character designer Satoshi Matsuura explains his method for designing characters to play specific roles in fantasy world video games, graphic novels, anime films and fine art illustrations. This extraordinary sourcebook contains over 600 different character designs as well as an exclusive tutorial showing you how to conceptualize and draw new, believable characters with clearly defined features matching their individual motivations and actions. The hundreds of characters in this book include: Majestic dragons, dinosaurs, monsters and anthropomorphic creatures Fairytale ogres, orcs, trolls, giants, elves, fairies, hobbits and dwarves Kawaii critters like the Owl Bear, Werechipmunk, Cat Fairy and Mouse Knight Zombies, Yokai, demons and oddballs like the Death Mole and Sushi Monster Kings, generals, monks, shamans, knights, rogues, assassins, mercenaries and more! Indispensable for fantasy world artists, this book is an endlessly fascinating storehouse of creative ideas!

A dot.com millionaire's obsession with a young married woman spirals homicidally out of control, leading to the destruction of everything he holds dear.

It’s 2042 and a foreign power controls Australia. Mind reading robotic security guards monitor every move and thought. They patrol the streets, the farms and the university halls, and people who step out of line are eliminated or cut up for body parts. On the surface everything runs like clockwork, but the people are suffering. Factory workers are fed drugs to keep them passive, people on the land are evicted for foreign take overs and individual thought or spiritual belief is prohibited. But there is an underground resistance. It comes from the bush. Harry, an acutely sensitive young autistic boy, who can read minds himself, is horrified when the ‘Wasps’ try to recruit him. Tanja, beautiful, abused and alone, who must try to build a life for herself and her unborn daughter. Jodie, a gun toting girl from a cattle station, who joined a revolution in Africa before returning to Australia. Johnno and Moe, gifted students who meet Harry at a Sydney university. As their stories evolve and their lives cross paths, they must join forces to outwit the far-reaching tentacles of technology and the ruthless police state to survive.

Book 2 of The Mindstream Chronicles Condemned murderer—and now Gatekeeper—Jora Lanseri is offered a chance at redemption in exchange for her silence. Driven to protect her only remaining brother, she must covertly investigate the dark and hidden forces smuggling the life-giving godfruit to Serocia’s enemies and perpetuating the long and bloody war. Aided by the dolphin Sundancer, Jora discovers more long-forgotten secrets of the Spirit Stones—including the ability to call the Colossus, the ancient warrior statues positioned around Jolver. But the Colossus warriors had fought against the previous Gatekeeper in the war known as The Great Reckoning. Can Jora convince them to join her struggle for peace and justice, or will they side with her nemesis and use her brother against her?

A used phone bought when you were down and out, with a powerful app store inside. Tianting WeChat, merit financial management, beauty camera, future news, a variety of powerful software functions against the sky. The protagonist by virtue of the fairy app store, east into the island, west to destroy junrong, north to strike Dixie, south plain savage, American Sam President shiver, "where is my black box?" "Mr. President, a nuclear bomb will not solve the problem. Life is like rape.

"Simon Thorn is a hero worthy of a young Harry Potter, and readers are bound to be delighted." --Booklist on Simon Thorn and the Wolf's Den For fans of Rick Riordan and Spirit Animals, this thrilling follow-up to Simon Thorn and the Viper's Pit continues the adventures of a boy who can shapeshift into an animal. Simon Thorn has only recently discovered that he's an Animalgam, a member of a secret race of people who can shift into animals, and found a home where he truly belongs. But not everything is as good as it seems. Simon's evil grandfather, Orion, is bent on taking over the entire animal kingdom, and to do so, he'll need to gather the pieces of a terrible weapon--one that could shred the very foundations of the Animalgams' world. . . unless Simon can gather the pieces first. So when Simon's dolphin Animalgam friend Jam is summoned home to the underwater kingdom's headquarters, Avalon, Simon sees it as an opportunity to secure another piece. But as soon as he and his friends arrive in Avalon, their search is complicated by Jam's strict family--and a potential traitor. Can they locate the piece before it falls into Orion's hands and puts the entire underwater kingdom at risk? With plenty of action and adventure and characters full of heart, this story is perfect for fans of Rick Riordan and the Spirit Animals series. Don't miss the other books in the Simon Thorn series: Simon Thorn and the Wolf's Den Simon Thorn and the Viper's Pit Simon Thorn and the Shark's Cave

An updated and expanded version of this classic study of contemporary American film, the new edition of A Cinema of Loneliness reassesses the landscape of American cinema over the past decade, incorporating discussions of directors like Judd Apatow and David Fincher while offering assessments of the recent, and in some cases final, work from the filmmakers--Penn, Scorsese, Stone, Altman, Kubrick--at the book's core.