The Living Sword Chronicles Book I Origins

The legend said that the weapon-bearers used them to defeat the Gods. That when these great warriors vanished and the memory of their actions was forgotten, their weapons were lost also. Not all of them though. Some were kept, preserved by men of knowledge. It is said that there will be a time when the people will try and use the living swords again, but when that time finally comes, one of them will disagree and steal its freedom from the hands of man. A young orphan Philip, accepts the proposal of a mysterious wandering Asian warrior to assist him in his quests, after he promises him fame, wealth and titles. But in a world full of dangers and secrets, everyone has his own agenda and the young orphan soon realizes that if he wants to stay alive, he must learn to wield a Living Sword. Unrated 3rd Edition

Thomas knew right from the start the old book was important, but the moment he begins to read, learn and understand the secrets of the old, long lost diary, a world he never thought it existed, emerges from the darkness. A world of hidden societies and creatures beyond his wildest fantasy. A world of lies, secret plans and battles fought, since the dawn of time. Soon he finds himself in a desperate struggle for his own survival, his life a never-ending horror trip with him the reluctant participant. Because the forbidden words of the long dead Johannes Taub, are so much more than a well of forgotten knowledge gained from a random stroke of luck; for to know of the Lodge or speak of the Tribe isn't just imprudent and unwise, it's deadly. This is the sequel to the The Living Sword Chronicles Book I: Origins.

Sharpen your knowledge of swords with Kristen B. Neuschel as she takes you through a captivating 1,000 years of French and English history. Living by the Sword reveals that warrior culture, with the sword as its ultimate symbol, was deeply rooted in ritual long before the introduction of gunpowder weapons transformed the battlefield. Neuschel argues that objects have agency and that decoding their meaning involves seeing them in motion: bought, sold, exchanged, refurbished, written about, displayed, and used in ceremony. Drawing on evidence about swords (from wills, inventories, records of armories, and treasuries) in the possession of nobles and royalty, she explores the meanings people attached to them from the contexts in which they appeared. These environments included other prestige goods such as tapestries, jewels, and tableware—all used to construct and display status. Living by the Sword draws on an exciting diversity of sources from archaeology, military and social history, literature, and material culture studies to inspire students and educated lay readers (including collectors and reenactors) to stretch the boundaries of what they know as the "war and culture" genre.

Ian Prescott's destiny lies hidden in a past he can't remember and a future he can only imagine, as he traverses the galaxy to destroy the mage who assassinated his parents. Ten years have passed since Ian survived the first devastating attempt on his life. Now, Lord Turok has returned to finish the job he started. After killing the hellhound sent to eviscerate him, Ian journeys to another world where Celtic legends spring to life to save his imprisoned aunt and banish Lord Turok to the underworld for all eternity. Only the flaming sword, Brander, has the power and the magic to return Lord Turok to the underworld, but all magic comes with a price. Will Ian risk losing his soul to save his aunt's life, stop a bloody civil war, and avenge his parents' murder? How much is a single life worth?

Spiritualism is often dismissed by literary critics and historians as merely a Victorian fad. Helen Sword demonstrates that it continued to flourish well into the twentieth century and seeks to explain why. Literary modernism, she maintains, is replete with ghosts and spirits. In Ghostwriting Modernism she explores spiritualism's striking persistence and what she calls "the vexed relationship between mediumistic discourse and modernist literary aesthetics."Sword begins with a brief historical review of popular spiritualism's roots in nineteenth-century literary culture. In subsequent chapters, she discusses the forms of mediumship most closely allied with writing, the forms of writing most closely allied with mediumship, and the thematic and aesthetic alliances between popular spiritualism and modernist literature. Finally, she accounts for the recent proliferation of a spiritualist-influenced vocabulary (ghostliness, hauntings, the uncanny) in the works of historians, sociologists, philosophers, and especially literary critics and theorists.Documenting the hitherto unexplored relationship between spiritualism and modern authors (some credulous, some skeptical), Sword offers compelling readings of works by James Joyce, T. S. Eliot, W. B. Yeats, H.D., James Merrill, Sylvia Plath, and Ted Hughes. Even as modernists mock spiritualism's ludicrous lingo and deride its metaphysical excesses, she finds, they are intrigued and attracted by its ontological shiftiness, its blurring of the traditional divide between high culture and low culture, and its self-serving tendency to favor form over content (medium, so to speak, over message). Like modernism itself, Sword asserts, spiritualism embraces rather than eschews paradox, providing an ideological space where conservative beliefs can coexist with radical, even iconoclastic, thought and action.

When Aidan and Maggie find a fairy cross while rock-hunting with their grandfather, it's just an oddity. But when they discover there is an elf imprisoned in the stone and set him free, they and their grandparents, Nana and Beebop, are attacked by some other elves and have to flee to the magical world of Celahir. In Celahir, Findecano - the elf the children freed from the fairy cross - leads them on a quest to recover gemstones stolen from the Elven Bow by the Dark Elves. Without the restoration of the gemstones to the Elven Bow, the balance between good and evil in Celahir - and the human world - could tip toward evil.

The Seeker of Truth embarks on his perilous training in wizardry in the 2nd novel of the #1 New York Timesbestselling author’s epic fantasy series. In Wizard’s First Rule, forest guide Richard Cypher becomes a Seeker of Truth in order to defeat the tyrannical Wizard Darken Rahl—only to discover that he is in fact Darken’s son. Now, with Darken vanquished, Richard and the beautiful Kahlan Amnell head back to the Mud People to be married. But their adventures are far from over. As the wedding day approaches, Richard is visited by three Sisters of Light who insist on bringing him to the Palace of the Prophets to be trained as a Wizard. Meanwhile, the veil to the underworld has been torn, and the Stone of Tears has passed through. According to prophecy, the only person who has a chance at closing the veil is the one bonded to the blade, the one born true.