But also on board the Centaur is Charles de Bernis - a mysterious and intriguing buccaneer. Just as their friendship is beginning to blossom, a dark figure from de Bernis' past emerges to propel them into a thrilling and perilous adventure, taking them right to the heart of pirate life.

    The humble Wang Lung glories in the soil he works, nurturing the land as it nurtures him and his family. Nearby, the nobles of the House of Hwang consider themselves above the land and its workers; but they will soon meet their own downfall.Hard times come upon Wang Lung and his family when flood and drought force them to seek work in the city. The working people riot, breaking into the homes of the rich and forcing them to flee. When Wang Lung shows mercy to one noble and is rewarded, he begins to rise in the world, even as the House of Hwang falls.

    Set in seventeenth-century Canada, an evocation of North American origins highlights the men and women who struggled to adapt to the new world even as they clung to the one they left behind.

    Set over two thousand years ago on the clam and fertile shores of the Black Sea, Naomi Mitchison's The Corn King and the Spring Queen tells of ancient civilisations where tenderness, beauty and love vie with brutality and dark magic. Erif Der, a young witch, is compelled by her father to marry his powerful rival, Tarrik the Corn King, so becoming the Spring Queen. Forced by her father, she uses her magic spells to try and break Tarrik's power. But one night Tarrik rescues Sphaeros, an Hellenic philosopher, from a shipwreck. Sphaeros in turn rescues Tarrik from near death and so breaks the enchantment that has bound him. And so begins for Tarrik a Quest - a fabulous voyage of discovery which will bring him new knowledge and which will reunite him with his beautiful Spring Queen.

    Tierney.

    Durandal, the fabled sword of history and legend, somehow found its way into the Near-East after the death of Roland, knight of Charlemagne.The tale of two Crusaders whose band of 800 has been betrayed by the Christian Emperor Theodore and butchered by the Turks."Simply brilliant!" wrote one critic. "It is the foundation of modern heroic fantasy". (Somber and moody, this title is included among my all-time favorites -- Donald M. Grant.)