The Iron Dirge

A standalone epic fantasy novella starring Sal the Cacophony, who Pierce Brown called a "protagonist for the ages," from Sam Sykes' widely acclaimed Seven Blades in Black and Ten Arrows of Iron. Sal the Cacophony does not make friends. When you have a magic gun, a trusty blade and rogue mages to hunt, you don’t need them. Sal the Cacophony makes enemies. And when her hunt leads to a town on the edge of nowhere, she finds them in spades: an unassuming mage with a secret, a vengeful bandit queen with ideals and steel to spare, and a colossal, centuries-old beast who has decided now is the best time to migrate. Sal the Cacophony could be their savior. But as everyone eventually learns, Sal’s “salvation” is usually worse.

Acclaimed author Sam Sykes returns with a brilliant new epic fantasy that introduces an unforgettable outcast mage caught between two warring empires. Her magic was stolen. She was left for dead. Betrayed by those she trusts most and her magic ripped from her, all Sal the Cacophony has left is her name, her story, and the weapon she used to carve both. But she has a will stronger than magic, and knows exactly where to go. The Scar, a land torn between powerful empires, where rogue mages go to disappear, disgraced soldiers go to die and Sal went with a blade, a gun, and a list of seven names. Revenge will be its own reward.

An outcast mage caught between two warring empires must either save the world or destroy everything she loves in the second novel of "an unforgettable epic fantasy" trilogy (Publishers Weekly). Sal the Cacophony -- outlaw, outcast, outnumbered -- destroys all that she loves. Her lover lost and cities burned in her wake, all she has left is her magical gun and her all-consuming quest for revenge against those who stole her power and took the sky from her. When the roguish agent of a mysterious patron offers her the chance to participate in a heist to steal an incredible power from the famed airship fleet, the Ten Arrows, she finds a new purpose. But a plot to save the world by bringing down empires swiftly escalates into a conspiracy of magic and vengeance that threatens to burn everything to ash, including herself. For more from Sam Sykes, check out: The Grave of Empires:Seven Blades in BlackTen Arrows of Iron Bring Down Heaven:The City Stained RedThe Mortal TallyGod's Last Breath The Affinity for Steel Trilogy:Tome of the UndergatesBlack HaloThe Skybound Sea

Death is one of the major themes of 'First Isaiah, ' although it has not generally been recognized as such. Images of death are repeatedly used by the prophet and his earliest tradents.The book begins by concisely summarizing what is known about death in the Ancient Near East during the Iron Age II, covering beliefs and practices in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Syria-Palestine, and Judah/Israel. Incorporating both textual and archeological data, Christopher B. Hays surveys and analyzes existing scholarly literature on these topics from multiple fields.Focusing on the text's meaning for its producers and its initial audiences, he describes the ways in which the 'rhetoric of death' functioned in its historical context and offers fresh interpretations of more than a dozen passages in Isa 5-38. He shows how they employ the imagery of death that was part of their cultural contexts, and also identifies ways in which they break new creative ground.This holistic approach to questions that have attracted much scholarly attention in recent decades produces new insights not only for the interpretation of specific biblical passages, but also for the formation of the book of Isaiah and for the history of ancient Near Eastern religions

Dirge for an Imaginary World from Matthew Buckley Smith is the winner of the 2011 Able Muse Book Award, selected by Andrew Hudgins. These are poems of breathtaking craftsmanship that find inspiration in the simplicity of the quotidian, or the perplexity of the grand. Smith is equally at ease musing about Neanderthals or God as he is with a ballet exam or highway medians. These poems of personal and universal introspection are filled with grace, and sparkle with abundant intelligence and wit. This masterful debut collection is an event to celebrate. PRAISE FOR DIRGE FOR AN IMAGINARY WORLD: Wildness and precision and passion balanced with wit—there are the hallmarks of Matthew Buckley Smith’s superb Dirge for an Imaginary World. In subjects great (“For the Neanderthals”) and small made great (“For the College Football Mascots”), the comic is rich with serious intent and gravity lightened with discerning wit. But only a poet who lifts heavy and unwieldy subjects—death, lost love, the absence of god—knows the imperatives of graceful balance. – Andrew Hudgins (Judge, 2011 Able Muse Book Award) In this deeply impressive debut volume of poetry, Dirge for an Imaginary World, Matthew Buckley Smith delivers a remarkable range of deft formal schemes, temporal movements, and varied settings. We encounter sonnets, couplets, quatrains, Sapphics, sestets and so forth written with a slick, delightful merging of technical expertise and smooth contemporary rhythms. The range of subjects is equally and as charmingly eclectic, from Neanderthals, Dante, Vermeer, for instance, to College Football Mascots, Highway Mediums, and Spring Ballet Exams. Mental and linguistic agility generously challenge the reader in poem after poem. – Greg Williamson (from the “Foreword”) “If a way to the Better there be, it exacts a full look at the Worst,” wrote Thomas Hardy, whose spirit moves through the fine poems of Matthew Buckley Smith’s debut collection. Like his blast-beruffled predecessor, Smith braves a clear-eyed look at our fallen world, mourning in elegantly precise language the sorrows inherent in “set(ting) out to map a promised land/ Out of reach and always just at hand,” but also wishing great mercy upon us travelers failed and failing. These are poems full of both reckoning and grace, made all the more beautiful for their humane wisdom. Dirge for an Imaginary World is immensely impressive. – Carrie Jerrell

​A standalone epic fantasy novella starring Sal the Cacophony, who Pierce Brown called a "protagonist for the ages," from Sam Sykes' widely acclaimed The Grave of Empires trilogy. Sal the Cacophony solves problems no one else can. Because she's caused more than a few herself. And the pursuit of such a problem from her past has brought her to a frontier town held together in the face of disaster through strength alone. But both the town and Sal will learn that strength alone can't save everyone. They called her for help. Unfortunately for them, she answered. For more from Sam Sykes, check out: The Grave of Empires: Seven Blades in Black Ten Arrows of Iron Three Axes to Fall The Gallows Black The Iron Dirge Dream of the Falling Axe Bring Down Heaven: The City Stained Red The Mortal Tally God's Last Breath The Affinity for Steel Trilogy: Tome of the Undergates Black Halo The Skybound Sea

Of all the many forms which natural religion has assumed none probably has exerted so deep and far-reaching an influence on human life as the belief in immortality and the worship of the dead. This first volume of Frazer's book comprises the Gifford Lectures he gave at the University of St. Andrews in the years 1911 and 1912, and deals with the belief in immortality and the worship of the dead, as these are found among the aborigines of Australia, the Torres Straits Islands, New Guinea, and Melanesia. In the second volume, the author describes the corresponding belief and worship among the Polynesians, a people related to their neighbors the Melanesians by language, if not by blood. Contents: Introduction The Savage Conception of Death Myths of the Origin of Death The Belief in Immortality among the Aborigines of Central Australia The Belief in Immortality among the other Aborigines of Australia The Belief in Immortality among the Natives of the Torres Straits Islands The Belief in Immortality among the Natives of British New Guinea The Belief in Immortality among the Natives of German New Guinea The Belief in Immortality among the Natives of German and Dutch New Guinea The Belief in Immortality among the Natives of Southern Melanesia (New Caledonia) The Belief in Immortality among the Natives of Central Melanesia The Belief in Immortality among the Natives of Northern and Eastern Melanesia The Belief in Immortality among the Natives of Eastern Melanesia (Fiji) The Belief in Immortality among the Maoris The Belief in Immortality among the Tongans The Belief in Immortality among the Samoans The Belief in Immortality among the Hervey Islanders The Belief in Immortality among the Society Islanders The Belief in Immortality among the Marquesans The Belief in Immortality among the Hawaiians