Riding The Dragon S Spine

When windmill-dodgers David Bristow and Steve Thomas followed their dream to blaze (and map) a mountain bike trail across South Africa, they hoped to be spared howling headwinds, freezing rain and slushy terrain. They weren’t, yet were not deterred from having a mud-splattering good time. The result, the Spine of the Dragon trail, is the country’s ultimate mountain bike tour, covering a distance of 4000km from Beit Bridge to Cape Town. Aimed at the average off-road rider, the 58-day trail through South Africa and Lesotho is broken into nine sections, each with several stages. The entire course can be done in one go, or as a series of shorter rides – ideal for those with boundless enthusiasm but limited time. The authors offer valuable advice on preparing for the trail that includes suggested clothing, gear, bike maintenance, food and safety. Each day’s route is described in detail and includes: • Customised, annotated map with GPS points • Total daily distance • Difficulty grading: from short and easy to long and hard • Entertaining insight into the people and places along the way • Engaging photographs • Accommodation suggestions and contact details When he’s not out cycling, David Bristow writes for a living. He is the former editor of Getaway travel magazine and the author of more than a dozen books for Random House Struik. Steve Thomas discovered mountain bikes while living in the US in the 1980s. Upon his return to South Africa in 1992, he established Daytrippers, South Africa’s oldest and biggest bicycle touring company.

Daring dragon-riders fight to save a uniquely magical world from destruction by vengeful outcasts, in Storm Riders by Margaret Weis and Robert Krammes In a world where magic is intrinsic to the fabric of everyday life, two kingdoms, centuries-long enemies, have long sought a powerful magical weapon that will win them lasting dominance. But neither realm is ready when they are both attacked by the Bottom-Dwellers, a bitter people whose own land was destroyed, and who now live only to take vengeance on those they blame for a wretched life in the storm-tossed abyss they inhabit. Using contramagic strengthened by blood sacrifice to attack the world above, they threaten to bring down whole cities, or even the island kingdoms themselves. Freya and Rosia are forced to put aside their age-old conflict to defend themselves, or risk losing everything. As the Bottom-Dwellers' contramagic eats away at the magic of the dragons that helps protect the world above, a former dragon-riding hero gathers a ragtag group to form a new dragon brigade, the one desperate hope of the two kingdoms to defeat the fiends who threaten their world. As the effects of contramagic bring the world ever closer to disaster, the new dragon brigade fight the vengeful adversary. Their high-flying heroics will be to no avail, though, unless they can somehow uncover forbidden knowledge, long hidden by the Church, without which they will never be able to prevent the world's destruction. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Three young Dragon Riders. One magical world… This exciting collection includes three complete trilogies set in the dragon-riding world of Torvald. Nine books of breathtaking fantasy adventure, featuring three unforgettable heroes… Neill Torvald is desperate to prove himself to his warlord father—until a chance meeting with a princess places father and son at odds. To unite a fractured kingdom, this reluctant hero must rise to the challenge and lead the Dragon Riders against a rogue sorcerer… High-born Agathea and scruffy Sebastian seem an unlikely pair at first glance. But this duo must forge an unbreakable bond and find the sacred Dragon Stones. Can they defend the realm from an ancient evil—before endless darkness swallows them all? Dragon Rider Saffron’s wild and untamed magic is not enough to defeat the evil Dark Mage that threatens Torvald. To fulfill a mystic prophecy, she’ll have to help a reclusive heir to a decaying noble house claim his rightful place on the throne… And the fate of the entire kingdom hangs in the balance. Immerse yourself in a world filled with mighty dragons, epic magic, and brave heroes. This collection includes all nine books in Ava Richardson’s Torvald Dragon Riders series…

Teens and their giant robots search for a new home for mankind, but the planet they discover belongs to the dragons. Two hundred years after the Climate Wars left Earth uninhabitable, Johari and his giant robot companion lead a squad of scouts on a quest for a new Goldilocks planet to settle the remnants of the human race. When one of the scouts and his bot go down in a hostile wilderness, Johari's fight to save them reveals complex behavior in the dragon-like dominant species. The scout team fragments as Johari strives to rescue his friends and discover the truth about the aliens. If he's right, mankind will lose its best hope for a home — or sacrifice its own humanity.

On the first morning of Jonah Drake’s summer holiday on the Welsh Borders, an enormous dog attacks him, and then weird creatures appear. An old legend of the area comes true and the last Great Dragon of Wales wakes from beneath the Radnor Forest. The people of the valley discover that terrifying Night Creatures want to take over the modern world. Only dragon-fire can destroy them – and Jonah finds that he is the only person who can control the Great Dragon.

Millions of readers adore Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle: its earnest hero, its breathtaking battles and, of course, its awe-inspiring dragon Saphira. But there's so much more to the series than meets the eye—and Secrets of the Dragon Riders, edited by today's second hottest dragon-writer James A. Owen, shows readers what they're missing. Why might Roran be the real hero of the Inheritance Cycle? What does Paolini's writing have in common with role-play games and modern action films? Are teenage writers judged more harshly than their adult counterparts? The YA authors in Secrets of the Dragon Riders—some of them no older than Paolini when he wrote Eragon—each take on a different aspect of the series to engage and entertain Paolini fans.

Having survived Jehal's betrayal, former Queen Zafir is determined to take back control of the kingdom. To that end, she seizes Jehal's wife and son as hostages. Desperate to save his queen and his heir, Jehal makes a tentative peace with the dragons of the north, and prepares to fly against his enemies. But as politics throw the realms of men into turmoil, a far greater danger threatens. The dragons are awakening from the spells cast upon them, and returning to their native fury. They are out for revenge. And that revenge will be brutal.

“Take some James Bond and throw in some of Green’s own Nightside, and mix liberally with the epic over-the-top action of his Deathstalker novels, and you’re somewhere in the right neighborhood” (The Green Man Review) of this all-new urban fantasy mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of The Spy Who Haunted me… It’s no walk in the bloody park, being a Drood—one of the family who has protected ordinary humanity from the things that go bump in the night for centuries. We’re not much liked—even by one another. Now our Matriarch is dead. Murdered. Maybe by one of us. Maybe not. It’s been left up to me, Eddie Drood, to figure out whodunit. That’s not going to be easy. You see, opinion is divided evenly between two camps of thought: those who think the killer was Molly, my best girl, and those who think the killer was actually me. And I know for a fact that I didn’t do it.