Fire The Bastards

"Fire the Bastards! "is a scorching attack on the book-review media using the critical reception of William Gaddis's 1955 novel "The Recognitions "as a case study.

"A scorching attack on the book-review media using the critical reception of William Gaddis's 1955 novel The recognitions as a case study"--Cover.

Blue's Bastards is an inspiring story of duty and obligation, and of honorable men defending their ideals both on the battlefield and in the courtroom, and, for once, winning.

Eddie's Bastard spins the warm, endearing tale of William Amos Mann IV and of the inhabitants of his eponymous small upstate New York town, Mannville. Related in flashback by the adult Billy, the story begins with him being deposited as an infant on the doorstep of his grandfather's home in a simple wicker basket with a plain two-word message pinned to his shawl reading 'Eddie's Bastard'. Eddie had been killed in Vietnam three months earlier - his father, Thomas Mann Jnr, had given up on life, having lost his only son and, he thought, his only heir. But now, suddenly, Thomas has a grandson and an heir - if not to the once-vast Mann fortune (for Thomas had recklessly squandered that in a foolhardy enterprise just after his heroic return from WWII), then at least to the long legacy of the Mann family stories, stretching back to the Civil War. Eddie's Bastard is filled with episodes of madcap adventure and resonates with the power of lifelong friendship. By turns hilarious, thrilling and heart-breaking, here is a début that stays in the mind long after the reading is over.

A postmodern masterpiece about fraud and forgery by one of the most distinctive, accomplished novelists of the last century. The Recognitions is a sweeping depiction of a world in which everything that anyone recognizes as beautiful or true or good emerges as anything but: our world. The book is a masquerade, moving from New England to New York to Madrid, from the art world to the underworld, but it centers on the story of Wyatt Gwyon, the son of a New England minister, who forsakes religion to devote himself to painting, only to despair of his inspiration. In expiation, he will paint nothing but flawless copies of his revered old masters—copies, however, that find their way into the hands of a sinister financial wizard by the name of Recktall Brown, who of course sells them as the real thing. Dismissed uncomprehendingly by reviewers on publication in 1955 and ignored by the literary world for decades after, The Recognitions is now established as one of the great American novels, immensely ambitious and entirely unique, a book of wild, Boschian inspiration and outrageous comedy that is also profoundly serious and sad.

In the epic conclusion to the Royal Bastards trilogy, Tilla faces an impossible choice: unthinkable destruction in the name of peace...or an uncertain future that means confronting a terrible past. A year has passed since the fall of Lightspire. The Inquisitor Miles Hampstedt rules Noveris with a blood-soaked iron fist. Tilla and her friends have become hardened rebels in the Unbroken, a band of guerilla fighters hiding out on the fringes of the Kingdom protecting the true queen, Lyriana Volaris. Even as they fight, they know their cause is doomed -- that with every passing day Miles's army of Bloodmages spreads across the continent. But at least they have each other...and some halfway-decent drinks. After a daring rescue mission, the group frees two vital prisoners: the Raven, a mysterious informant with a deep personal connection to Tilla, and Syan Syee, a strange girl from the Red Wastes who demonstrates an incredible new kind of magic and speaks of a secret civilization hidden in her isolated homeland. With Miles's forces closing in, a ragtag team sets out on an eleventh-hour mission: form an alliance with Syan's people that could turn the tide of the war. But what they discover in the Red Wastes changes everything, including their very understanding of the magic that runs through Noveris -- magic that has brought the Kingdom to the brink of ruin.

In this action-packed sequel to Royal Bastards, Tilla uncovers a sinister conspiracy to take down the kingdom from within. Tilla, bastard of House Kent, has it made. Safe from her murderous father in the dazzling capital of Lightspire, she lives a life of luxury under the protection of the Volaris King, alongside her boyfriend, Zell, and best friend, Princess Lyriana. So why isn't she happy? Maybe it's the whispers and stares that follow her wherever she goes, as the daughter of the traitor waging war against Lightspire. Or maybe it's the memories of her beloved brother, Jax, who lies cold in his grave even as she tries to settle into a life in the city's prestigious University. Then Tilla stumbles upon the body of a classmate -- a friend. The authorities are quick to rule it a suicide and sweep it under the rug, but when Tilla herself is attacked by a mysterious man with terrifying powers, she's convinced of a conspiracy. Her friends beg her to stay silent; what she's suggesting is impossible...and treasonous. The deeper she digs, the more questions she uncovers. Nothing is as it seems in the glorious capital, and Tilla's presence might just be the spark that sets the Kingdom aflame.

"Jon Snow won't be the only 'bastard' whose name readers will remember." —Entertainment Weekly Being a bastard blows. Tilla would know. Her father, Lord Kent of the Western Province, loved her as a child, but cast her aside as soon as he had trueborn children. At sixteen, Tilla spends her days exploring long-forgotten tunnels beneath the castle with her stablehand half-brother, Jax, and her nights drinking with the servants, passing out on Jax's floor while her castle bedroom collects dust. Tilla longs to sit by her father's side, enjoying feasts with the rest of the family. Instead, she sits with the other bastards, like Miles of House Hampstedt, an awkward scholar who's been in love with Tilla since they were children. Then, at a feast honoring the visiting princess Lyriana, the royal shocks everyone by choosing to sit at the Bastards' Table. Before she knows it, Tilla is leading the sheltered princess on a late-night escapade. Along with Jax, Miles, and fellow bastard Zell, a Zitochi warrior from the north, they stumble upon a crime they were never meant to witness. The bastards band together, realizing they alone have the power to prevent a civil war that will tear their kingdom apart—if they can warn the king in time. And if they can survive the journey...