Ancient Libraries

Originally printed in 1965. HELEN Queen of Sparta, daughter of Aphrodite, a disciple of Eros “Never has there been such a woman as you...? Words whispered in the perfumed shadows of a palace bedchamber, before the altar of a pagan god, within the seclusion of a forest glade ... words were spoken in awed adoration by kings and generals and heroic warriors, to a woman whose uncontrollable passion would change the course of history! Cover illustration by Kurt Brugel

The town of Eden Grove has a legend: In the center of a pine forest there is an aspen grove, and in the center of the aspen grove is an ancient, magnificent tree. A tree that grants wishes. Mayberry and Marshall have heard the stories about the Wishing Tree, but they know nothing like that could really exist near their dreary town. Misunderstood and restless, the teenagers wish for a lot of things, including being on another planet altogether. Somewhere with magic and adventure - someplace where they can be heroes.

Two tiger cub brothers are torn from the jungle and taken to Rome. The stronger cub is trained as a killer at the Coliseum. Emperor Caesar makes a gift of the smaller cub to his beautiful daughter, Aurelia. She adores her cub, Boots. Julius, a young animal keeper, teaches Aurelia how to earn Boots’s trust. Boots is pampered while his brother, known as Brute, lives in the cold and darkness, let out only to kill.

As a consequence of his actions during the Ludus uprising, Fallon's love, Cai, has been stripped of his decurion rank and cast down to serve as one of Caesar's gladiators. Amid fighting for Cai's freedom, Fallon soon learns Caesar's enemies are plotting against him and planning to get revenge on his fearsome gladiatrices. When Caesar is murdered by these conspirators, Fallon and the girls lose any sort of protection they once had. Fallon also realizes the foreign Queen Cleopatra is now in grave danger.

The Nazca Lines in Peru have mystified people around the world for centuries. The famous figures, sometimes called geoglyphs, include a hummingbird, a spider, a fish, a monkey, a dog, a cat, human-like figures, geometric designs, and more. These amazing images were believed to have been created between 500 B.C.E. and 500 C.E., and no one is quite sure how or why they were created. Some historians believe that they are ancient irrigation systems, but other researchers believe in a more paranormal origin story.

They call her "Victrix" now. Victory. But winning the highest honor ever bestowed upon a gladiatrix in Rome has earned Fallon more deadly enemies outside the arena than she ever faced within it. And it is those dearest to Fallon who will pay the price for her success. Now, Fallon and her warrior sisters are thrust into a vicious conflict with a rival gladiator academy, one that will threaten not only Fallon's heart - and her love for Roman soldier Cai - but the very heart of the Roman Empire.

In 1922, explorers opened King Tut's tomb and a nasty hex was placed on everyone present. RIGHT? Not so much. Okay, but aliens did soar in on a space craft and build the Pyramids, right? WRONG! The discovery of King Tutankhamun's tomb taught historians a lot about ancient Egyptian culture. But no one incurred the wrath of a mummy. And this early civilization had the money, power, and smarts to build the Pyramids—along with a host of other impressive structures!

What if John Henry had a son? Twelve-year-old Ray is haunted by the strangest memories of his father, whom Ray swears could speak to animals. Now an orphan, Ray jumps from a train going through the American South and falls in with a medicine show train and its stable of sideshow performers. The performers turn out to be heroes, defenders of the wild, including the son of John Henry. They are hiding the last of the mythical Swamp Sirens from an ancient evil known as the Gog.

Stonehenge is just one of thousands of stone circles erected throughout Britain and Ireland for over three millennia from 3,000 BC on. How did this building tradition survive for so long, over such a large area and with such complexity and uniformity, when the people of the British Isles lived in separate, isolated communities? Graham Phillips argues that these stone circles are evidence of an astonishing system of healthcare and preservation of ancient medical knowledge that held together a society scattered across the British Isles.

Socrates is condemned by the gods of Olympus to perpetual incarnations to atone for his suicide and to complete a mission he left unfulfilled in Ancient Greece. We meet him at the cusp of the 21st Century in the LAST CHANCE SALOON where he holds court in a final effort to redeem himself and to correct the ill-fated impressions of THE REPUBLIC. This utopian novel about the ideal society was inspired by Socrates and written by his pupil Plato. More than any other philosophical treatise, THE REPUBLIC, and its notion of the philosopher king was twisted and misapplied by the tyrants of history. ...

Kit is a young raccoon who has lived his whole life under the Big Sky. But when a pack of hunting dogs destroy his home and kill his parents, Kit needs to escape. He finds himself in Ankle Snap Alley, a city in the midst of a turf war between the Wild Ones and the people's pets who call themselves The Flealess.

As Elio lies stricken under a powerful curse, the only way his friends Thanis, Alish, Kiri and Kaspar can cure him is to venture into the Forest of the Ancients. Rumour tells of a race of healers who dwell there, the mysterious tree-folk known as the Sylvaneth, but are they allies or enemies...?

It was like a nightmare, but there was no waking up. When the night began, Nora had two best friends and an embarrassingly storybook one true love. When it ended, she had nothing but blood on her hands and an echoing scream that stopped only when the tranquilizers pierced her veins and left her in the merciful dark. But the next morning, it was all still true: Chris was dead. His girlfriend Adriane, Nora's best friend, was catatonic. And Max, Nora's sweet, smart, soft-spoken Prince Charming, was gone.

Mitra and her little brother, Babak, are beggars in the city of Rhagae, scratching out a living as best as they can with what they can beg for, or steal. But Mitra burns with hope and ambition, for she and Babak are not what they seem. They are of royal blood, but their father's ill-fated plot against the evil tyrant, King Phraates, has resulted in their father's death and their exile.

Indie Blackwood is a popular cheerleader with a football-star boyfriend. On the surface, her life looks perfect. But when a guy dies right before her eyes and an ancient family Bible is stolen, Indie's world spirals into darkness. Turns out, Indie has a destiny. And it involves much more than pom-poms and parties. If she doesn't get the Bible back, every witch on the planet will die. And that's seriously bad news for Indie, because according to Bishop, the hot warlock who has an uncanny knowledge of everything that matters, she's a witch, too.

Quin Kincaid is a Seeker. Her legacy is an honor, an ancient role passed down for generations. But what she learned on her Oath night changed her world forever. Quin pledged her life to deception. Her legacy as a Seeker is not noble but savage. Her father, a killer. Her uncle, a liar. Her mother, a casualty. And the boy she once loved is out for vengeance, with her family in his sights. Yet Quin is not alone. Shinobu, her oldest companion, might now be the only person she can trust. The only one who wants answers as desperately as she does.