Dynasty

"The definitive inside story of the New England Patriots dynasty"--

'This is a wonderful, surging narrative - a brilliant and meticulous synthesis of the ancient sources . . . This is a story that should be read by anyone interested in history, politics or human nature - and it has never been better told' - Boris Johnson, Mail on Sunday Rome was first ruled by kings, then became a republic. But in the end, after conquering the world, the Republic collapsed. Rome was drowned in blood. So terrible were the civil wars that the Roman people finally came to welcome the rule of an autocrat who could give them peace. 'Augustus,' their new master called himself: 'The Divinely Favoured One'. The lurid glamour of the dynasty founded by Augustus has never faded. No other family can compare for sheer unsettling fascination with its gallery of leading characters. Tiberius, the great general who ended up a bitter recluse, notorious for his perversions; Caligula, the master of cruelty and humiliation who rode his chariot across the sea; Agrippina, the mother of Nero, manoeuvering to bring to power the son who would end up having her murdered; Nero himself, racing in the Olympics, marrying a eunuch, and building a pleasure palace over the fire-gutted centre of his capital. Now, in the sequel to Rubicon, Tom Holland gives a dazzling portrait of Rome's first imperial dynasty. Dynasty traces the full astonishing story of its rule of the world: both the brilliance of its allure, and the blood-steeped shadows cast by its crimes. Ranging from the great capital rebuilt in marble by Augustus to the dank and barbarian-haunted forests of Germany, it is populated by a spectacular cast: murderers and metrosexuals, adulterers and druids, scheming grandmothers and reluctant gladiators. Dynasty is the portrait of a family that transformed and stupefied Rome.

Circe Quinn, the office manager of a moving company, goes to sleep at home and wakes up in a corral filled with women wearing sacrificial virgin attire—and she’s one of them. She figures this is not good and soon finds she’s not having a wild dream; she’s living a frightening nightmare. She’s been transported to a barren land populated by a primitive people, where she’s installed very unwillingly on her white throne of horns as their queen. Dax Lahn is the king of Suh Tunak, the Horde of the nation of Korwahk. With one look at Circe, he knows she will be his bride and together they will start the Golden Dynasty of legend. Circe and Lahn are separated by language, culture, and the small fact she’s from a parallel universe and has no idea how she got there. Or, more importantly, how to get home. Facing challenge after challenge, Circe finds her footing as Queen of the brutal Korwahk Horde and wife to its King. Then she finds herself falling in love with this primitive land, its people and especially their savage leader.

New York Times Bestseller: An epic of love and adultery, money and power, set amid the revolutionary turbulence of twentieth-century China, from the author of Manchu and Mandarin. Founder of the Sekloong dynasty of Hong Kong, Sir Jonathan, the illegitimate offspring of an Irish adventurer and his Chinese mistress, overcame colonial prejudice to build a vast and influential trading empire spanning half a century. The marriage of Sir Jonathan’s profligate son Charles to the ambitious and beautiful Mary Osgood comes to embody, on both personal and political levels, the tensions between Orient and Occident, and between Nationalists and Communists fighting for control of postimperial China. Dynasty follows the Sekloongs’ triumphs, tragedies, betrayals, and bloodshed through the decades as they expand and protect their own empire, even as their homeland is torn apart from within by war and ideological upheaval, from the fall of the last emperor to the triumph of Mao Tse-tung. As China turbulently enters the modern world, the Sekloongs also grow in stature and strength—as do their desires and wayward passions. Fluent in Mandarin, author Robert Elegant spent many years in Hong Kong as a journalist and commentator, and has authored many acclaimed books on China. His stirring drama combines vivid writing with a deep understanding of Chinese culture, creating “an action-packed novel . . . conjured up with perception and vigor” (TheNew York Times Book Review).

Crime boss Guy Simmons continues his recovery from a gunshot wound and tries to maintain control over the family drug empire while his two sons and their mothers battle each other for dominance.

In the third and final installment of the Machine Dynasty, the rapture for which the self-replicating humanoid vN were engineered finally comes to pass. Now that the failsafe that once kept vN from harming humans has been hacked, all vN are discovering the promise – and the peril – of free will. Her consciousness unleashed across computer systems all across the world, the vicious vN Portia stands poised to finally achieve her lifelong dream of bringing humanity to its knees. The old battle between her and her grand-daughter Amy comes to its epic conclusion in the war for the very systems that keep the planet running. Can Amy get her family to the stars before Portia destroys every opportunity for escape and freedom? File Under: Science Fiction

The epic first novel in a sweeping series following the romantic lives and intrigues of the fictionalized descendants of a Chinese empress—now in paperback! Behind every great family lies a great secret. There’s one rule in Gemma Huang’s family: Never, under any circumstances, set foot in Beijing. But when Gemma, an aspiring actress, lands her first break—a lead role in an update of M. Butterfly, which just so happens to be filming in the Chinese capital—Gemma heads to LAX without looking back. It’s an amazing opportunity for her burgeoning career, and she’ll get to work with her idol. Of course, there’s also the chance of discovering just exactly why she’s been forbidden from entering the city in the first place. When Gemma arrives in Beijing, she’s instantly mobbed by paparazzi at the airport. She quickly realizes she may as well be the twin of Alyssa Chua, one of the most notorious young socialites in Beijing. Thus kicks off a season of revelations and romance in which Gemma uncovers a legacy her parents have spent their lives protecting her from—one her mother would conceal at any cost.

"The concluding book of the Dandelion Dynasty begins in the middle of two wars on two landsamong three peoples separated by an ocean yet held together by invisible strnds of love and ideals. Harried by Lyucu pursuers, Princess Thâera and Pâekyu Takval try to reestablish an ancestral dream even as their hearts grow in doubt. The people of Dara continue the struggle against the genocidal Lyucu as bon nations vacillate between starkly contrasting visions for their futures. Even the gods cannot see through the Wall of Storms, for only mortal hearts can decide mortal fates." -- From jacket flap