Whether they're the starting points of incredible campaigns, communities facing unfathomable dangers, or merely places for adventurers to rest and resupply, vibrantly detailed towns are vital to any fantasy adventure. Towns of the Inner Sea explores six small but richly detailed settlements from the Pathfinder campaign setting. Each entry provides insights into the town's history, culture, and residents, as well as what dangers lurk in the shadows. Numerous adventure hooks, full-page maps, and stat blocks for key NPCs make these towns fully realized settings, ready for Game Masters to drop into campaigns whenever they're needed. This book contain details on the following distinctive towns: ►Diobel: What you can't get in Absalom, you can get in this notorious smuggler's port. ►Falcon's Hollow: Were monsters and curses not enough, the ambitions of this town's greedy overseers would still trap its residents in mud and sawdust. ►Ilsurian: Torn between rival city-states, this Varisian town bows to no master. ►Pezzak: This sheltered port defies the rulers of the devil-dominated nation of Cheliax, its rebel spirit burning strong despite its scheming overlords. ►Solku: This pious fortress-town faces constant threats from nearby gnoll tribes, and while its walls stand unbreached, none can say for how much longer. ►Trunau: Trapped on the wrong side of the border with the orcs of Belkzen, the citizens of this stronghold stand fast against savagery. Towns of the Inner Sea is intended for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Pathfinder campaign setting, but can easily be used in any fantasy game.

Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Castles of the Inner Sea provides a detailed overview of six of Golarion's most storied citadels, bastions that might serve as the setting of entire adventures, homes to allies and enemies, or the headquarters of the land's most capable adventurers. Each features elaborate overview maps and detailed descriptions of the most noteworthy floors, structures, or dungeons. Famous and infamous castles explored in this 64-page book include: * Castle Everstand, a magically created bastion of heroic knights that protects Lastwall from endless tides of rampaging orcs. * Castle Kronquist, the haunted keep of a vampirc conqueror and his legion of ancient undead abominations. * The Cloud Castle of the Storm King, an elusive, soaring structure inhabited by a tempestuous clan of cloud giant wanderers. * Citadel Vriad, the infamous fortress of Varisia's Hellknights, a grim edifice from which the lawless never return. * Highhelm, an unbreechable mountain fortress that holds the capital of an entire dwarven nation. * Icerift Castle, ruins chilled by arctic cold and a tragedy that endlessly hungers for mortal life. Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Castles of the Inner Sea is intended for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Pathfinder campaign setting, but can easily be used in any fantasy game setting.

The exciting world of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game comes alive in this giant 320-page, full-color hardcover campaign setting! Fully revised to match the new Pathfinder RPG rules, this definitive volume contains expanded coverage of the 40+ nations in the world of Golarion's Inner Sea region, from ruin-strewn Varisia in the north to the sweltering jungles of the Mwangi Expanse in the south to crashed sky cities, savage frontier kingdoms, powerful city-states, and everything in-between. A broad overview of Golarion's gods and religions, new character abilities, magic items, and monsters flesh out the world for both players and Game Masters. Plus, a beautiful poster map reveals the lands of the Inner Sea in all their treacherous glory.

"An elegiac prose celebration . . . a classic in its genre."—Publishers Weekly In this acclaimed travel memoir, Donald Richie paints a memorable portrait of the island-studded Inland Sea. His existential ruminations on food, culture, and love and his brilliant descriptions of life and landscape are a window into an Old Japan that has now nearly vanished. Included are the twenty black and white photographs by Yoichi Midorikawa that accompanied the original 1971 edition. Donald Richie (1924-2013) was an internationally recognized expert on Japanese culture and film. Yoichi Midorikawa (1915-2001) was one of Japan's foremost nature photographers.

This in-depth gazetteer explores the legendary Lands of the Linnorm Kings, a northern realm of larger-than-life adventure where Viking kings earn the right to rule by defeating enormous, primeval dragons -- linnorms. From the rugged western islands of the Ironbound Archipelago to the battleworn expanse known as Hagreach in the east, this Pathfinder setting sourcebook contains detailed treatments of all the major locales in the region. Numerous adventure sites and campaign themes are explored in detail, such as remote troll-haunted ruins, mysterious locations linked to the eerie realm of the fey, and even a sample linnorm hunt. Rules on weregild (fees for hostages or slain enemies), effigies (mundane and magical ways to strike fear into your enemies), and reputation in this ferocious land are explored, as are several new monsters and pre-built enemy NPCs, such as remorseless longship captains, berserkers, new trolls, and the most powerful linnorm in the land -- dread Fafnheir

Explore the forbidden reaches of the treacherous Darkmoon Vale, a fey-haunted wilderness on the outskirts of civilization. Face-off against the diabolical forces of the dreaded Kobold King, explore the ancient dwarven dungeons of Droskar's Crag, and confront a cabal of evil druids in this detail-packed regional sourcebook for the Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting. The lumber-town of Falcon's Hollow holds deadly secrets of its own, and vicious orcs and hobgoblins from the neighboring mountains look upon its modest riches with deadly envy. A perfect locale for low-level adventuring, Darkmoon Vale and its secrets are laid bare for players and game masters alike!

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In the far future, humans have colonized a distant planet, home to the enigmatic Ariekei, sentient beings famed for a language unique in the universe, one that only a few altered human ambassadors can speak. Avice Benner Cho, a human colonist, has returned to Embassytown after years of deep-space adventure. She cannot speak the Ariekei tongue, but she is an indelible part of it, having long ago been made a figure of speech, a living simile in their language. When distant political machinations deliver a new ambassador to Arieka, the fragile equilibrium between humans and aliens is violently upset. Catastrophe looms, and Avice is torn between competing loyalties: to a husband she no longer loves, to a system she no longer trusts, and to her place in a language she cannot speak—but which speaks through her, whether she likes it or not. Praise for Embassytown “A breakneck tale of suspense . . . disturbing and beautiful by turns. I cannot emphasize enough how terrific this novel is. It's definitely one of the best books I've read in the past year, perfectly balanced between escapism and otherworldly philosophizing.”—io9 “Embassytown is a fully achieved work of art. . . . Works on every level, providing compulsive narrative, splendid intellectual rigour and risk, moral sophistication, fine verbal fireworks and sideshows, and even the old-fashioned satisfaction of watching a protagonist become more of a person than she gave promise of being.”—Ursula K Le Guin “The Kafkaesque writer journeys to the distant edges of the universe in his latest sci-fi thriller.”—Entertainment Weekly “Utterly astonishing . . . A major intellectual achievement.”—Kirkus Reviews “Brilliant storytelling . . . The result is a world masterfully wrecked and rebuilt.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

A lively history of Boston’s emergence as a world-class city—home to the likes of Frederick Douglass and Alexander Graham Bell—by a beloved Bostonian historian “It’s been quite a while since I’ve read anything—fiction or nonfiction—so enthralling.”—Dennis Lehane, author of Mystic River and Shutter Island Once upon a time, “Boston Town” was an insulated New England township. But the community was destined for greatness. Between 1850 and 1900, Boston underwent a stunning metamorphosis to emerge as one of the world’s great metropolises—one that achieved national and international prominence in politics, medicine, education, science, social activism, literature, commerce, and transportation. Long before the frustrations of our modern era, in which the notion of accomplishing great things often appears overwhelming or even impossible, Boston distinguished itself in the last half of the nineteenth century by proving it could tackle and overcome the most arduous of challenges and obstacles with repeated—and often resounding—success, becoming a city of vision and daring. In A City So Grand, Stephen Puleo chronicles this remarkable period in Boston’s history, in his trademark page-turning style. Our journey begins with the ferocity of the abolitionist movement of the 1850s and ends with the glorious opening of America’s first subway station, in 1897. In between we witness the thirty-five-year engineering and city-planning feat of the Back Bay project, Boston’s explosion in size through immigration and annexation, the devastating Great Fire of 1872 and subsequent rebuilding of downtown, and Alexander Graham Bell’s first telephone utterance in 1876 from his lab at Exeter Place. These lively stories and many more paint an extraordinary portrait of a half century of progress, leadership, and influence that turned a New England town into a world-class city, giving us the Boston we know today.

The classic work on the evaluation of city form. What does the city's form actually mean to the people who live there? What can the city planner do to make the city's image more vivid and memorable to the city dweller? To answer these questions, Mr. Lynch, supported by studies of Los Angeles, Boston, and Jersey City, formulates a new criterion—imageability—and shows its potential value as a guide for the building and rebuilding of cities. The wide scope of this study leads to an original and vital method for the evaluation of city form. The architect, the planner, and certainly the city dweller will all want to read this book.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of The Little Paris Bookshop, an extraordinary novel about self-discovery and new beginnings. Marianne is stuck in a loveless, unhappy marriage. After forty-one years, she has reached her limit, and one evening in Paris she decides to take action. Following a dramatic moment on the banks of the Seine, Marianne leaves her life behind and sets out for the coast of Brittany, also known as “the end of the world.” Here she meets a cast of colorful and unforgettable locals who surprise her with their warm welcome, and the natural ease they all seem to have, taking pleasure in life’s small moments. And, as the parts of herself she had long forgotten return to her in this new world, Marianne learns it’s never too late to begin the search for what life should have been all along. With all the buoyant charm that made The Little Paris Bookshop a beloved bestseller, The Little French Bistro is a tale of second chances and a delightful embrace of the joys of life in France.