Spider Light

The Church of Armes of the Light has battled the forces of Darkness for as long as anyone can remember. The great prophecy has foretold that a band of misfits, led by a high priestess will defeat the Dark Lord Darvezian, armed with their wits, the blessing of the Light and an artifact stolen from the merciless Spider Queen. Their journey will be long, hard and fraught with danger. Allies will become enemies; enemies will become allies. And the Dark Lord will be waiting, always waiting... Spiderlight is an exhilarating fantasy quest from Adrian Tchaikovsky, the author of Guns at Dawn and the Shadows of the Apt series. Reviews and quotes "Spiderlight is a creepy-crawly treat from the master of non-human heroes, a joy from beginning to end." — Paul Cornell, author of Witches of Lychford and The Severed Streets "[Spiderlight] is a master class in subverting our expectations to surprise, engage, and deliver a fantastic story that works even when it isn’t pulling the rug out from under us." — Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog "Tchaikovsky clearly has a great deal of talent, and a real handle on the fantasy genre, with the ability to splice in different influences almost seamlessly." —SciFi Now Magazine "Occasionally a fantasy author comes up with a way to break the mould of traditional genre tropes: M. John Harrison’sViriconium and China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station are two examples that immediately spring to mind. Tchaikovsky looks like a new addition to that select hall of fame." —Death Ray Magazine “Working in a small space, Tchaikovsky gives us sympathetic characters, real moral dilemmas, and emotional depth, all shot through with a sly humor that kept me grinning throughout. If, like me, you’re a D&D fan who always wondered about the ethics of Detect Evil or what the orcs eat in Mordor, you will love this one.” — Django Wexler, author of the Shadow Campaigns series “Subversive and classic, Spiderlight is a timeless adventure cranked up for the modern era of readers. A warship-rocker of an adventure, Adrian Tchaikovsky has struck another literary goldmine that’s perfect for readers to dive into. Gripping and highly recommended." — Jeremy Szal, Starship Sofa "Spiderlight is a rip-roaring, old-fashioned heroic fantasy romp that also messes playfully with some of the genre’s more outdated conventions... a breathless rush that never outstays its welcome." — Dirge Mag "Spiderlight will take you on a ride directly through straight fantasy and into the realms of the really fantastic... a brilliantly original novel." — Geek Syndicate "A must-read for all fans of fantasy. Very highly recommended." — Civilian Reader "In a world of large epic fantasy series with mushy pacing and a lack of focus, Spiderlight is as sharp as a spider’s fang, as tight as its webbing, and as multifaceted as its gaze." — Skiffy & Fanty "A very fun, creepy quest tale with some quirky and engaging adventurers." — Bull Spec At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

"The dangerous thing about spider light is that it hides things - things you never knew existed. But once you have seen those things, you can never afterwards forget them ..." Antonia Weston has come to the sleepy market town of Amberwood in search of peace and anonymity after a shattering and all-too-public tragedy in her life. But shortly after her arrival, a series of disturbing incidents occur - incidents that eerily echo a past she is trying to forget. As Antonia struggles to re-build her life, she becomes increasingly fascinated by the macabre history surrounding her: the disused watermill, Twygrist, with its brooding darkness, and the now-vanished Latchkill Asylum. Memories of Latchkill still linger: memories of how, when the autumn dusk - the 'spider-light' - fell, no one would dare walk past its gates. But Antonia's fascination with the linked histories of Latchkill and Twygrist has alerted someone from her own past. Someone who knows all about Twygrist's darkness. Someone prepared to use that knowledge in the most horrific way ... 'Rayne handles a complicated story with many skeins very cleverly. A top psychological thriller' Good Reading magazine

In this lavishly illustrated, first-ever book on how spider webs are built, function, and evolved, William Eberhard provides a comprehensive overview of spider functional morphology and behavior related to web building, and of the surprising physical agility and mental abilities of orb weavers. For instance, one spider spins more than three precisely spaced, morphologically complex spiral attachments per second for up to fifteen minutes at a time. Spiders even adjust the mechanical properties of their famously strong silken lines to different parts of their webs and different environments, and make dramatic modifications in orb designs to adapt to available spaces. This extensive adaptive flexibility, involving decisions influenced by up to sixteen different cues, is unexpected in such small, supposedly simple animals. As Eberhard reveals, the extraordinary diversity of webs includes ingenious solutions to gain access to prey in esoteric habitats, from blazing hot and shifting sand dunes (to capture ants) to the surfaces of tropical lakes (to capture water striders). Some webs are nets that are cast onto prey, while others form baskets into which the spider flicks prey. Some aerial webs are tramways used by spiders searching for chemical cues from their prey below, while others feature landing sites for flying insects and spiders where the spider then stalks its prey. In some webs, long trip lines are delicately sustained just above the ground by tiny rigid silk poles. Stemming from the author’s more than five decades observing spider webs, this book will be the definitive reference for years to come.

Spiders are wonderful creatures. Their varied and complex range of behavior and highly developed sensory systems are excellently adapted to the environmental conditions - as is proven by their evolutionary success. Over 400 million years, spiders have developed their sensory organs to a fascinating technical perfection and complexity. In his intriguing book, Professor Friedrich G. Barth puts this technical perfection into the context of "biology", in which the interaction between environment and sensory organs and the selectivity of the senses as a link between environment and behavior play a major role.

THE PRICE WE PAY. Sacrifice the goddess to save humanity, or sacrifice humanity to save the goddess? ...What kind of sadist would throw the entire world into chaos with an impossible choice like that?! D, obviously. The head honchos of the Word of God religionare doing all they can to tip the scales in humanity’s favor, so they’re backing Güli-güli 100 percent. Meanwhile, me and the Demon Lord are fighting the good fight for team Save Sariel! So what if a few hundred thousand humans die? That doesn’t make us the baddies, right? Either way, it’s time for the grand finale! it’s all or nothingin this battle of the gods! And if Iknow D, she’s just gonna kick back and watch as we fight tooth, nail, and spinneret for our happily ever after!

I used to be a normal high school girl but in the blink of an eye, I woke up in a place I've never seen before and-and I was reborn as a spider?! How could something that's nothing more than a tiny spider (that's me) possibly survive in literally the worst dungeon ever? Are there no rules? There should be some rules! Who the hell is responsible for this? SHOW YOUR FACE!

Spiders, objects of eternal human fascination, are found in many places: on the ground, in the air, and even under water. Leslie Brunetta and Catherine Craig have teamed up to produce a substantive yet entertaining book for anyone who has ever wondered, as a spider rappelled out of reach on a line of silk, “How do they do that?” The orb web, that iconic wheel-shaped web most of us associate with spiders, contains at least four different silk proteins, each performing a different function and all meshing together to create a fly-catching machine that has amazed and inspired humans through the ages. Brunetta and Craig tell the intriguing story of how spiders evolved over 400 million years to add new silks and new uses for silk to their survival “toolkit” and, in the telling, take readers far beyond the orb. The authors describe the trials and triumphs of spiders as they use silk to negotiate an ever-changing environment, and they show how natural selection acts at the genetic level and as individuals struggle for survival.

The Spiders Tale, Book One, is the first of four novels spanning the last 26,000 years revealing the four lives of a Neanderthal / Cro-Magnon hybrid named NKeeDoo. Book One tells of NKeeDoos first life and details how he was born, his childhood, how he became a godling and his escape from the genocide of his Neanderthal brethren by our ancestors. The reader is in for a treat of thought - provoking epic proportions. Enjoy, if you will.