The Fallen Fortress

Equipped with new powers and confidence, Cadderly wages battle against Castle Trinity in this penultimate installment of the Cleric Quintet Warrior-priest Cadderly Bonaduce is tired of living in fear of his enemies. Joined by his friends Danica, Ivan and Pikel Bouldershoulder, Shayleigh the elf, and Vander the firbolg, he takes matters into his own hands to bring the battle to Castle Trinity, the headquarters of a nefarious sect that worships the goddess of disease. Against the wishes of the chief priests, the friends set forth to win fight after fight against foes old and new, drawing on Cadderly’s newfound strength and power. As the most epic battle of all draws near, the motley group of warriors will each need to unleash their powers, especially as the ultimate enemy may be more familiar and more deadly than they anticipate . . .

It has been twenty-five years since the end of what has become known as the Great War. A time of peace and prosperity has reigned in the land of Kashin with past events becoming mere myths and legends in the minds of most with the passing of the years, wanting nothing more but to forget the horrors of war. Peace, however, never lasts forever. A humanoid army led by Kareen, the half-orc, seizes control of a newly built fortress in the north, threatening to unleash an ancient evil long feared by the elfin people. A group of young would-be adventurers sets out seeking to make a name for themselves, unaware of the special lineage they possess that will draw them deep into the coming conflict, changing them and their lives forever. The fate of an entire country, it seems, may very well rest on their very shoulders when they discover the identity of the true villain behind it all, while Lord Silverwolf attempts to regain his fallen castle. Evil, it seems, does not accept defeat but, instead, hides in the shadows, lurking. It bides its time, growing stronger as it waits for its next opportunity to strike, seeking to finish what it failed to achieve decades earlier.

On April 27th, 1944, an 8th Air Force B-17 piloted by Lt. W. C. Shaddix was hit by anti-aircraft fire over Belgium. Shaddix and his crew bailed out of their crippled bomber and Shaddix alone was able to elude capture by the German Army. The rest of his crew spent the war in German POW camps. Shaddix was hidden and protected by the Belgian underground who passed him along from family to family. While trying to make his way to neutral Spain along with another downed pilot, Shaddix was picked up by the French Underground who were fighting a guerilla war in the Ardennes Forest. He joined them in their battle against the retreating German Army. Finally their unit was swept up by Patton's 3rd Army as it raced across Europe. Drawing on interviews, diaries, and recently declassified documents, author Tom Bartlett, a former Air Force officer, traces the remarkable story of the training, survival, and return of a downed Air Force pilot.

The five popular novels featuring Cadderly, the heroic scholar priest, come together in a giant omnibus edition that includes Canticle, In Sylvan Shadows, Night Masks, The Fallen Fortress, and The Chaos Curse. Reprint.

French Huguenots made enormous contributions to the life and culture of colonial New York during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Huguenot craftsmen were the city's most successful artisans, turning out unrivaled works of furniture which were distinguished by unique designs and arcane details. More than just decorative flourishes, however, the visual language employed by Huguenot artisans reflected a distinct belief system shaped during the religious wars of sixteenth-century France. In Fortress of the Soul, historian Neil Kamil traces the Huguenots' journey to New York from the Aunis-Saintonge region of southwestern France. There, in the sixteenth century, artisans had created a subterranean culture of clandestine workshops and meeting places inspired by the teachings of Bernard Palissy, a potter, alchemist, and philosopher who rejected the communal, militaristic ideology of the Huguenot majority which was centered in the walled city of La Rochelle. Palissy and his followers instead embraced a more fluid, portable, and discrete religious identity that encouraged members to practice their beliefs in secret while living safely—even prospering—as artisans in hostile communities. And when these artisans first fled France for England and Holland, then left Europe for America, they carried with them both their skills and their doctrine of artisanal security. Drawing on significant archival research and fresh interpretations of Huguenot material culture, Kamil offers an exhaustive and sophisticated study of the complex worldview of the Huguenot community. From the function of sacred violence and alchemy in the visual language of Huguenot artisans, to the impact among Protestants everywhere of the destruction of La Rochelle in 1628, to the ways in which New York's Huguenots interacted with each other and with other communities of religious dissenters and refugees, Fortress of the Soul brilliantly places American colonial history and material life firmly within the larger context of the early modern Atlantic world.

Like Ypres, Arras was a front line town throughout the Great War. From March 1916 it became home to the British Army and it remained so until the Advance to Victory was well under way. In 1917 the Battle of Arras came and went. It occupied barely half a season, but was then largely forgotten; the periods before and after it have been virtually ignored, and yet the Arras sector was always important and holding it was never easy or without incident; death, of course, was never far away. The area around Arras is as rich in Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries as anywhere else on the Western Front, including the Somme and Ypres, and yet these quiet redoubts with their headstones proudly on parade still remain largely unvisited. This book is the story of the men who fell and who are now buried in those cemeteries; and the telling of their story is the telling of what it was like to be a soldier on the Western Front. 'Arras-North' is the first of three books by the same author. This volume contains in depth coverage of almost sixty Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries and is a veritable 'Who's Who' of officers and other ranks who fell on this part of the Western Front. It provides comprehensive details of gallantry awards and citations and describes many minor operations, raids and other actions, as well as the events that took place in April and May 1917. It is the story of warfare on the Western Front as illustrated through the lives of those who fought and died on the battlefields of Arras.There are many unsung heroes and personal tragedies, including a young man who went out into no man's land to rescue his brother, an uncle and nephew killed by the same shell, a suicide in the trenches and a young soldier killed by a random shell whilst celebrating his birthday with his comrades. There is an unexpected connection to Ulster dating back to the days of Oliver Cromwell and William of Orange, a link to Sinn Fein and an assassination, a descendant of Sir Isaac Newton, as well as a conjuror, a friend of P.G. Wodehouse, a young officer said to have been 'thrilled' to lead his platoon into the trenches for the first time, only to be killed three hours later, and a man whose headstone still awaits the addition of his Military Medal after almost a century, despite having been involved in one of the most daring rescues of the war. This is a superb reference guide for anyone visiting Arras and its battlefields.