Winter Omens

Althea and Lucas barely escaped the Others’ clutches in the autumn, and were separated in the process. Alone and on the run from the cruel alien race determined to exterminate her, Althea struggles to adapt and survive in a world she never imagined. When a boy named Pax appears out of nowhere, he quickly recognizes Althea for what she is – a human/Other hybrid just like him. Althea begs him to help her find Lucas, but Pax refuses, intent on following his own mysterious agenda. The Others’ presence continues to devour the planet’s resources, and if history is an indication, they won’t leave until Earth is destroyed beyond repair. Althea and Pax sense the only way to save themselves – and maybe their home – is to understand the powers simmering inside them. Together they push the limits of their capabilities in the quiet Wilds, but are soon confronted with a terrifying fact: no place is safe from the relentless pursuit of the Others. Least of all their own minds.

In 2015, a race of alien Others conquered Earth. They enslaved humanity not by force, but through an aggressive mind control that turned people into contented, unquestioning robots. Except sixteen-year-old Althea isn’t content at all, and she doesn’t need the mysterious note inside her locket to tell her she’s Something Else. It also warns her to trust no one, so she hides the pieces that make her different, even though it means being alone. The autumn she meets Lucas, everything changes. Althea and Lucas are immune to the alien mind control, and together they search for the reason why. What they uncover is a stunning truth the Others never anticipated, one with the potential to free the brainwashed human race. It’s not who they are that makes them special, but what. And what they are is a threat. One the Others are determined to eliminate for good.

“This grand saga is by a wide margin the best Celtic fantasy around.”—Chicago Sun-Times In Deverry the volatile history of humanity continues as a dashing young king journeys to his throne in disguise, fulfilling an ancient prophecy. In the Westlands the exiled lord Rhodry travels anonymously as a silver dagger—a mercenary—as he did in his youth, following a destiny that will take him from the grassy plains of the elven peoples to the hills and towns of Deverry, where dark forces are gathering. And from the shadowy land of the Guardians come omens, ill-defined and mysterious, that seem to point the way toward cataclysmic war. . . . Praise for A Time of Omens “Kerr fluently and gracefully limns her Celtic-based medieval world, depicting attractive and colorful men, women, and elves.”—Publishers Weekly

The first book-length study to explore the links between Christianity and modern Japanese literature, this book analyses the process of conversion of nine canonical authors, unveiling the influence that Christianity had on their self-construction, their oeuvre and, ultimately, the trajectory of modern Japanese literature. Building significantly on previous research, which has treated the intersections of Christianity with the Japanese literary world in only a cursory fashion, this book emphasizes the need to make a clear distinction between the different roles played by Catholicism and Protestantism. In particular, it argues that most Meiji and Taishō intellectuals were exposed to an exclusively Protestant and mainly Calvinist derivation of Christianity and so it is against this worldview that the connections between the two ought to be assessed. Examining the work of authors such as Kitamura Tōkoku, Akutagawa Ryūnosuke and Nagayo Yoshirō, this book also contextualises the spread of Christianity in Japan and challenges the notion that Christian thought was in conflict with mainstream literary schools. As such, this book explains how the dualities experienced by many modern writers were in fact the manifestation of manifold developments which placed Christianity at the center, rather than at the periphery, of their process of self-construction. The Dilemma of Faith in Modern Japanese Literature will be of great interest to students and scholars of Japanese modern literature, as well as those interested in Religious Studies and Japanese Studies more generally.

This third fascicle of Babylonian Planetary Omens contains the edition of all cuneiform texts dealing with the planet Venus known to us. Most of these tablets are kept in the British Museum; the large number of unpublished texts were transliterated and the previously published texts were checked and collated from the originals. The texts are accompanied by translations, and each group of texts is commented upon by David Pingree from the point of view of the text history and astronomical significance. A general introduction, also by David Pingree, analyzes the descriptions of Venus that occur in the texts in terms of astronomical phenomena. Indices are included to facilitate the study of this large corpus.

Insanity By Increments, a collection of short stories, examines the darker side of the human condition with characters that reveal humanity in the midst of distress. Author Alaric Cabiling has one of the most distinct authorial voices in literature today, putting his penchant for subtlety and persuasive language on display in his debut work of fiction. Two brothers test fate. A father mourns the loss of his child. An old abandoned home is the scene of a final journey into the past. A man revisits the scene of a one-night stand. Each story is unforgiving in its attempt at revealing the transcendental from the mundane.

This third fascicle of Babylonian Planetary Omens contains the edition of all cuneiform texts dealing with the planet Venus known to us. Most of these tablets are kept in the British Museum; the large number of unpublished texts were transliterated and the previously published texts were checked and collated from the originals. The texts are accompanied by translations, and each group of texts is commented upon by David Pingree from the point of view of the text history and astronomical significance. A general introduction, also by David Pingree, analyzes the descriptions of Venus that occur in the texts in terms of astronomical phenomena. Indices are included to facilitate the study of this large corpus.

Now in paperback An Old Man's Winter Night: Ghostly tales is the most recent gathering of ghost tales by Tom Dawe, one of Newfoundland and Labrador's most distinguished writeres. It includes tales of visitations both malevolent and benign. There are stories of ghostly galleons, of unsettling graves, of srange omens and fetches; an eerie tale of a notoriously haunted house, and another of a ghostly sled dog that returns to save its master who has been lost in a blizzard. All the stories are based on ones Dawe himself has collected over the years. Targeted to middle readers, the book includes original wood-cut illustrations by acclaimed artist Veselina Tomova. As powerful as the stories themselves, Tomova's haunting images capture perfectly the book's dark moodiness. These are chilling tales--perfect for reading or telling by the fireside on a cold winter's night.