High Medieval

The assault on the city of Shadowfen has taken its toll. With so many lives lost, the people have begun to rebel while the king desperately searches for answers. How did this happen? Who is to blame for so much bloodshed? Someone must be held accountable. But while the king is doing everything he can to calm his people, barely able to hold his kingdom together by a thread, a deadly force has risen in the north. Unseen, unnoticed, it silently threatens the world of Ayrith from the shadows. Now Viola and her friends must make a choice. Do they defend the humans from this latest threat, or ...

Falstaff is both a comic and tragic central protagonist in Shakespeare's three Henry plays. He is companion to Prince Hal (the future Henry V), who loves him, goads him, teases him, indulges his vast appetites, and commits all sorts of mischief with him. Award-winning author and esteemed professor Harold Bloom examines Falstaff with the deepest compassion and sympathy and also with unerring wisdom. He uses the relationship between Falstaff and Hal to explore the devastation of severed bonds and the heartbreak of betrayal.

The Abbey Mice are preparing for Christmas. Collecting food to last them through the winter. Arranging their home high up in the tower of Ramsley Abbey. The spirit of Christmas is alive when they meet the poor Country Mice and bring them happiness and comfort. The Abbey Mice have lived for generations high up in the safety of Ramsley Abbey tower. From there they set out on their tales of friendships made, courage shown, adventures and excitement experienced. The Adventures of the Abbey Mice series were written over forty years ago now. Loosely based on the beautiful historic Romsey Abbey in...

Late December, 1389. Ordered to undertake a grueling three-day journey to bleak Whitby Abbey in the Far North of England in a bid to purchase the Abbey's priceless holy relic - a lock of St. Hild's hair, said to be 700 years old - Hildegard of Meaux and her three companion monks arrive to find the abbey a decidedly unwelcoming place, a place of strange customs and practices very different from their modest lifestyle at Meaux. Nor, as Hildegard discovers, is she the only visitor intent on acquiring the relic.

Best-selling author Richard E. Rubenstein brings the past to life in this engrossing story of social, religious, and scientific revolution during one of the darkest periods in European history. When a group of Dark Ages scholars rediscovered the works of Aristotle, the great thinker's ideas ignited a firestorm of enlightened thought. This is the endlessly fascinating account of the pivotal period in history when the modern era took root.

In the final installment of the Tales of the Otori, the young Takeo meets his destiny, fulfilling the prophesy: "You were born into the Hidden, but your life...is no longer your own."

"Magic and other races really add to the magnificent story!" –Auburn, Vine Voice "Great dark fantasy!" -Vine Voice "If you love Tolkien, as I do, you will love this book." -Veronica Richards "Fantasy done right!" -Kindle Reviewer Ancient evil crawls from the dark. The great river of magic threatened. An epic struggle to prevail. Wielding the strongest magic ever known to Astura, Crystalyn faces the hooded man’s ruthless determination to annihilate a peaceful race dwelling within the vibrant beauty of an ancient vale. Ultimately, she faces a desperate choice: hunt down a former dear ...

Is the Voice Lisa’s Protector or a Predator? When her father Alexander is murdered, Lisa’s safe, carefree world unravels. At 16, her only escape is to flee from the mayhem and chaos that promises to come crashing down on her very being. From her wicked mother. From her drunken stepbrother. And from the greedy church. The year was 1,000 AD. Bright and clever, she becomes the eyes and ears of her papa’s many enterprises. Lisa is his confidant and the son he desires as an heir. Afraid for his own daughter’s future, Alexander shares a plan to her to follow upon his death. Within days of...

'Terrible Apart' - Separated by fate and circumstance the Fitzwarren brothers find themselves on very different missions. Trouble is brewing on England's border with Scotland, and rebel Protestant Scottish nobles are begging Elizabeth to help them throw off French rule. One man can help to unite Scotland, and that man is John Knox. Denied entry to England, hated by Elizabeth and excommunicated by the church Knox is not a man to be associated with. Lord Burghley tasks Richard Fitzwarren with delivering him to Scotland, knowing full well that he can deny any involvement should things not go ...

It is three centuries after the Shaper Wars, a conflict involving magic so powerful that it altered all of humanity. That magical legacy remains in the form of a handful of young women every generation – so feared that they are cursed and locked away from childhood. But fate promises that their ability will again change the world, for good or ill. As prophecies of a great doom converge, and an ancient race that desires the destruction of all human life arises, those in power attempt to control the legacy of the Daughters of Vae.

In a 2010 terrorist plot, Al-Qaeda hid a bomb in a FedEx shipment addressed to Reynald de Chatillon, a knight who had died centuries ago in the Crusades. A reviled figure in Islamic history, often portrayed as the very epitome of brutality, Reynald remains as controversial - and as vividly present in the minds of many in the Middle East - as the story of the Crusades themselves.

Everything hinges on the success of Dougray and Robbie, orphaned brothers and fugitives, to lead King Morgran’s soldiers on a wild goose chase to the Groaning Rocks, a place of demented souls. Attacked by a black dragon, they are rescued and given shelter by Alysam, an exile from Alpinia. But all is not well. Dougray is infected with dragon venom and begins to turn to stone. A desperate race for survival begins as the dragon pursues them through the underground passageways. Found by Navarre, last of the Healers, Dougray is restored to health and the brothers are then offered a place of ...

There are some things that even a song can't fix. Ever since Lucifer tried to ease his ache for Elaria by altering human women to look like her, there have been doppelgangers of the Spellsinger on Earth. Now, those Elaria-look-alikes are dying, murdered by assassins who are most likely after Elaria. But assassins are the least of her worries. Greek Gods are disappearing and it looks as if Apollo's warning of Poseidon conquering the Beneath might not be so farfetched after all. As doppelgangers start dropping like flies, the Spellsinger must find a way to save herself and the entire world. ...

Profoundly poetic yet gloriously accessible, this is the best way to experience a work that has remained a centerpiece of Western civilization for 2,000 years. Fitzgerald's rendering speaks directly to the modern listener, inviting us to share the excitement, adventure, and human tears as Aeneas, the warrior hero, escapes from the burning city of Troy, embarks on a long and perilous journey, and eventually, triumphantly establishes a new nation: Rome.

Paris, 1393. A masquerade ball at the palace ends in tragedy, with four revelers burned to death. Was it an accident...or did someone deliberately hurl a flaming torch at the dancers? Convinced it was an act of murder and that the king himself was the real target, Queen Isabeau has asked Christine de Pizan to spend time at court in an attempt to uncover the identity of the would-be assassin.

The Viking Great Army landed in East Anglia in late 865 and over the following fifteen years it fought numerous battles in all four Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, made and broke peace treaties, and deposed or killed at least three Anglo-Saxon kings, replacing them with its own appointees. It had a major impact on English society, initiating extensive transformations in Anglo-Saxon society, culture, economy, and political organization. Previous Viking armies had raided only in the summer months, but the Great Army was a constant presence over this period.

Two villains become heroes as their decaying empires clash. Two hundred years before the events of the Apócryfa trilogy, the fledgling Kingdom of Nevermore faces wild monsters and rebellious mountain colonies. As plague takes the realm, a rare knight defends an outpost and makes tough decisions to save her people while a young summoner shaman seeks power for her village from dark spirits at a steep cost. Both women, innocent yet guilty of causing devastation, will be transformed by their hard choices. Sacrifice changes all.

Cleopatra is one of the most famous women in history - and thanks to Shakespeare, one of the most intriguing personalities in literature. Award-winning writer and beloved professor Harold Bloom delivers exhilarating clarity and invites us to look at this character as a flawed human who might be living in our world. He also explores his own personal relationship to the character: Just as we encounter one Anna Karenina or Jay Gatsby when we are in high school and college and another when we are adults, Bloom explains his shifting understanding of Cleopatra over the course of his own lifetime.

Discovering that his Sheen lady has been sadistically killed, Kyre sets out to avenge her death, equally pitilessly. But will the quarrelling members of the ruling Volko family allow him to have his own way in anything? Is the path he treads a defiant whim, or the destiny his star has chosen for him? Can he find which of the stars is his? Or is he – as all tell him – truly from The Pit? The demands of the Rua Sisterhood mount up, and he has to find ways to satisfy them, while attempting to hold out against the massing enemies of the Lordlands realm – the rebellious provincial lords; ...

As Kyre returns to Lordstown, what awaits him? If he can escape the riotous charms of Lind-on-Hill, will it be his Troop of high-born guerrilla fighters, bent of ridiculing him, betraying him, or begging him to lead them into battle again? Or will the lord's powerful, scheming wife, the Lady Delfindiana have tasks for him? Tasks that could break him, or make him a fortune in silver, or lord of a second province within the Lordlands? Is it violence and vengeance that await him in Sabri Province? And in Bati? Lost children; thieving travelling entertainers; a doomed wedding; meeting an old/...