They are always watching. Always listening. Even when your phone is turned off, they’re still there with their ear pressed against your device’s invisible back door. They thrive in darkness and secrecy. They control the economy and bend authorities to their will, yet they remain faceless. They are the silent force tightening their grip around our crumbling society, and they will not stop until their power over the world is complete. Who is this most malevolent secret organization that holds the strings of power? They are known only as the Collective, and their invisible reign across the world seemed unstoppable. That is, until a soul‐searching Montrealer named David Collins followed his intuition to uncover a broken shard of advanced ancient technology with the power to change everything. As David continues to follow his intuition, he finds allies within the Order of Hermes, a secret organization dedicated to uncovering lost knowledge and bringing that knowledge to the world. Yet the Order of Hermes must also keep those secrets safe from the Collective, who would use such technology to consume the world in their greed. With the help of his allies, David begins to unlock the shard’s mysterious powers of healing and destruction, but in doing so, he also draws the eye and ire of the Collective. So begins a deadly chase across Quebec and New York State. With the Collective’s ruthless shadows constantly at David’s heels, will he be able to unlock the shard’s secrets and use its powers to cure the world of the insidious Collective before it’s too late?

They are always watching. Always listening. Even when your phone is turned off, they’re still there with their ear pressed against your device’s invisible back door. They thrive in darkness and secrecy. They control the economy and bend authorities to their will, yet they remain faceless. They are the silent force tightening their grip around our crumbling society, and they will not stop until their power over the world is complete. Who is this most malevolent secret organization that holds the strings of power? They are known only as the Collective, and their invisible reign across the world seemed unstoppable. That is, until a soul‐searching Montrealer named David Collins followed his intuition to uncover a broken shard of advanced ancient technology with the power to change everything. As David continues to follow his intuition, he finds allies within the Order of Hermes, a secret organization dedicated to uncovering lost knowledge and bringing that knowledge to the world. Yet the Order of Hermes must also keep those secrets safe from the Collective, who would use such technology to consume the world in their greed. With the help of his allies, David begins to unlock the shard’s mysterious powers of healing and destruction, but in doing so, he also draws the eye and ire of the Collective. So begins a deadly chase across Quebec and New York State. With the Collective’s ruthless shadows constantly at David’s heels, will he be able to unlock the shard’s secrets and use its powers to cure the world of the insidious Collective before it’s too late?

'Provocative, elegant, intriguing - Jenkins is a bold, imaginative writer, brilliant at challenging old assumptions and encouraging you to look at British architecture in a new light' Rory Stewart The architecture of Britain is an art gallery all around us. From our streets to squares, through our cities, suburbs and villages, we are surrounded by magnificent buildings of eclectic styles. A Short History of British Architecture is the gripping and untold story of why Britain looks the way it does, from prehistoric Stonehenge to the lofty towers of today. Bestselling historian Simon Jenkins traces the relentless battles over the European traditions of classicism and gothic. He guides us from the gothic cathedrals of Lincoln, Ely and Wells to the ‘prodigy’ houses of the Tudor renaissance, and visits the great estates of Georgian London, the docks of Liverpool, the mills of Yorkshire and the chapels of south Wales. The arrival of modernism in the twentieth century politicised public taste, upheaved communities and sought to reconstruct entire cities. It produced Coventry Cathedral and Lloyd’s of London, but also the brutalist monoliths of Sheffield’s Park Hill, Glasgow’s Cumbernauld and London’s South Bank. Only in the 1970s did the public at last give voice to what became the conservation revolution – a movement in which Jenkins played a leading role, both as deputy chairman of English Heritage and chairman of the National Trust, and in the saving of iconic buildings such as St Pancras International and Covent Garden. Jenkins shows that everyone is a consumer of architecture and makes the case for the importance of everyone learning to speak its language. A Short History of British Architecture is a celebration of our national treasures, a lament of our failures – and a call to arms.

The Asclepius is one of two philosophical books ascribed to the legendary sage of Ancient Egypt, Hermes Trismegistus, who was believed in classical and renaissance times to have lived shortly after Moses. The Greek original, lost since classical times, is thought to date from the 2nd or 3rd century AD. However, a Latin version survived, of which this volume is a translation. Like its companion, the Corpus Hermeticum (or The Way of Hermes), the Asclepius describes the most profound philosophical questions in the form of a conversation about secrets: the nature of the One, the role of the gods, and the stature of the human being. Not only does this work offer spiritual guidance, but it is also a valuable insight into the minds and emotions of the Egyptians in ancient and classical times. Many of the views expressed also reflect Gnostic beliefs which passed into early Christianity.

A thoroughly revised and updated edition of Mark Golden’s groundbreaking study of childhood in ancient Greece. First published in 1990, Children and Childhood in Classical Athens was the first book in English to explore the lives of children in ancient Athens. Drawing on literary, artistic, and archaeological sources as well as on comparative studies of family history, Mark Golden offers a vivid portrait of the public and private lives of children from about 500 to 300 B.C. Golden discusses how the Athenians viewed children and childhood, describes everyday activities of children at home and in the community, and explores the differences in the social lives of boys and girls. He details the complex bonds among children, parents, siblings, and household slaves, and he shows how a growing child’s changing roles often led to conflict between the demands of family and the demands of community. In this thoroughly revised edition, Golden places particular emphasis on the problem of identifying change over time and the relationship of children to adults. He also explores three dominant topics in the recent historiography of childhood: the agency of children, the archaeology of childhood, and representations of children in art. The book includes a completely new final chapter, text and notes rewritten throughout to incorporate evidence and scholarship that has appeared over the past twenty-five years, and an index of ancient sources.

Plagiarized: Who Actually Created the WTC Skyscraper Design, in 2002. This book tells the REAL STORY, of the provenance and design history of the Original WTC Design, plagiarized by CSUK, and SOM - A fascinating account from the designer himself, with supporting documentation and Complete Architectural Illustration Sets, Conceptual Renderings

The third edition of The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature is the complete and authoritative reference guide to the classical world and its literary heritage. It not only presents the reader with all the essential facts about the authors, tales, and characters from ancient myth and literature, but it also places these details in the wider contexts of the history and society of the Greek and Roman worlds. With an extensive web of cross-references and a useful chronological table and location maps (all of which have been brought fully up to date), this volume traces the development of literary forms and the classical allusions which have become embedded in our Western culture. Extensively revised and updated since the second edition was published in 1989, the Companion acknowledges changes in the focus of scholarship over the last twenty years, through the incorporation of a far larger number of thematic entries such as medicine, friendship, science, freedom (concept of), and sexuality. These topical entries provide an excellent starting point to the exploration of their subjects in classical literature; after all, for many aspects of classical society the literature we have inherited is the primary (and sometimes the only) source material. Additions and changes have been made taking into account the advice of teachers and lecturers in Classics, ensuring that current educational needs are catered for. In addition to newly covered topics, the Companion still plays to its traditional strengths, with extensive biographies of classical literary figures from Aeschylus to Zeno; entries on a multitude of literary styles from biography and rhetoric to lyric poetry and epic, encompassing everything in between; and character entries and plot summaries for the major figures and myths in the classical canon. It is the ideal guide for students in Classics, and for all who are passionate about the vast and varied literary tradition bequeathed to us from the classical world.

Once she was a noblewoman. Now she is a palace servant. Ashlin never pictured herself scrubbing floors. But with the family savings depleted and her stepmother crippled by grief, Ashlin selflessly takes a job at the royal palace. She can pursue her dreams of becoming a seamstress someday in the future. However, as she forms an unlikely friendship with the prince, she learns that the future may not be so certain. Wielders of a powerful magic threaten their small coastal kingdom and Prince Onric does not believe that their defenses will hold. As Ashlin navigates growing feelings for the charming prince, she realizes that her unique skills could help save the kingdom. But her stepmother starts to demand more from Ashlin, blaming her for the situation their family is in. Wanting desperately to keep her family together, Ashlin starts to push the prince away. Can she learn who really loves her and who is merely exploiting her selfless nature? Shard of Glass is a fantasy retelling of Cinderella. Discover a world where heroines can be both powerful and worthy of protection. If you love sweet romance, a little bit of magic, and heart-melting conversations, then this story was written for you.