Book picks similar to
The Cripple and the Staff by M.M. Mancey
fantasy
ebook
overdrive
epic-fantasy
Tears of the Anaren
C.W. Longbottom - 2021
Longbottom, the Nebula Award-winning science-fiction and fantasy author and head writer of Mythic Quest. C.W. found literary fame with Inside the Caves of Beneroth and Tears of the Anaren, but even his most loyal fans don’t know that Tears of the Anaren began as a short story he wrote in the early 1970s while interning at Amazing Tales magazine.This never-before-published draft is now yours to discover, complete with C.W.’s (extremely) colorful commentary and an Introduction and Afterword by Ian Grimm, the iconoclastic creator of Mythic Quest. As sparks fly between heroic scoundrel Zeb and space seductress Merrith, we get a glimpse into the mind of a talented young man yearning for greatness. Like early Mozart, it is raw and green — but also magic.From Charlie Day, Megan Ganz, and Rob McElhenney, the Apple TV+ original comedy series, Mythic Quest, goes behind the scenes to follow the game’s creators. In a workplace focused on building worlds, molding heroes, and creating legends, the most hard-fought battles don’t occur in the game — they happen in the office. Rob McElhenney stars as Ian Grimm alongside Charlotte Nicdao and F. Murray Abraham.
Chased by Fire
D.K. Holmberg - 2014
Terrifying creatures from dark and dangerous Incendin... And long-forgotten elementals again unleashed on the world. As an earth senser, Tan is tasked with helping guide the king's servant through the dangerous mountain passes in search for the artifact before Incendin can reach it first. But after losing his father to the war, Tan wants nothing to do with the king's demands. When everything he knows is lost, he is forced to risk himself to save the one person who can find the artifact, a beautiful girl who has lost as much as Tan. In doing so, power the world hasn't seen in nearly a thousand years is awoken, and a warrior long thought dead returns to claim the artifact for himself.
The Color Master: Stories
Aimee Bender - 2013
In her deft hands, “relationships and mundane activities take on mythic qualities” (The Wall Street Journal).In this collection, Bender’s unique talents sparkle brilliantly in stories about people searching for connection through love, sex, and family—while navigating the often painful realities of their lives. A traumatic event unfolds when a girl with flowing hair of golden wheat appears in an apple orchard, where a group of people await her. A woman plays out a prostitution fantasy with her husband and finds she cannot go back to her old sex life. An ugly woman marries an ogre and struggles to decide if she should stay with him after he mistakenly eats their children. Two sisters travel deep into Malaysia, where one learns the art of mending tigers who have been ripped to shreds.In these deeply resonant stories—evocative, funny, beautiful, and sad—we see ourselves reflected as if in a funhouse mirror. Aimee Bender has once again proven herself to be among the most imaginative, exciting, and intelligent writers of our time.
Scion of Abacus: Part One
Brondt Kamffer - 2011
For a millennia, the Eikos caste has been subject to him and to the Synths, who consume the powerful hyma drug in order to awaken their ether and work magic. Toven Aimis is a poor Eikos boy who passes a test and is taken to be trained as one of the Hymage's Synths. At the University where he is schooled, Toven begins to understand that his ether is quite different than that of the others around him, for he is able to do things with magic that should be impossible.He finds himself at the center of a thousand-year-old conspiracy, though what his part is in that plot, he does not yet know. What he does know, however, is that he is no mere Synth. A thousand years ago, the true mages died out, but all evidence points to Toven possessing their superhuman ability to manipulate the physical world.The question now is whether Toven can use his power to right the many wrongs of the Hymage and bring equality and justice to the Aarian Dominion, or whether he will simply become the next in a long line of tyrants. Because power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The Wizard and the Dragon
Joseph Anderson - 2012
After barely surviving the dragon's magic, Bryce flees into the nearby forest fearing that the dragon is still after him. He stumbles upon a mysterious tower built in the forest and finds shelter from the monster.
Gilded Cage
Vic James - 2016
If you’re not one of the ultimate one-percenters—the magical elite—you owe them ten years of service. Do those years when you’re old, and you’ll never get through them. Do them young, and you’ll never get over them. This is the darkly decadent world of Gilded Cage. In its glittering milieu move the all-powerful Jardines and the everyday Hadleys. The families have only one thing in common: Each has three children. But their destinies entwine when one family enters the service of the other. They will all discover whether any magic is more powerful than the human spirit. Have a quick ten years. . . .
The Hidden Wizard: The Complete Series
Vaughan W. Smith - 2019
Alrion doesn’t know the power inside him. He’s more surprised than anyone when he discovers he’s a wizard. Why is his power unique? Learning the ways of a wizard is not enough. Alrion is charged with a quest to cleanse the Blight. He’s the world’s last chance to be free of that malevolent force, and the twisted creatures that it creates. Three trials await the young wizard. He must conquer each of the pillars of magic: Knowledge, Will, and Spark. Only then will he be ready to face his destiny. But the forces of darkness are not sitting idle. They will stop at nothing to halt Alrion’s quest and claim him for their own. Can he grow as a wizard and navigate his way through the trials? Or will he be consumed by the darkness he’s so desperately struggling against. You’ll love this epic adventure because of the action, intrigue, and the one lingering question: Who is the Hidden Wizard? Get the whole series now in this single volume. The Hidden Wizard (The Complete Series) contains the following books: Book 1: Pool of Knowledge Book 2: Vault of Silence Book 3: Spark of Truth Book 4: Soul of Light
Tales for Christmas: Free Festive Tasters to Warm Your Heart
Katie Flynn - 2013
When his plane goes down, the sisters must put aside their differences and pray he comes back in time for Christmas.The Ragged Heiress by Dilly CourtOn a bitter winter's day, an unnamed girl lies dangerously ill in hospital. When two coarse, rough-speaking individuals come to claim her, she can remember nothing. It's a Vet's Life by Cathy WoodmanAlex and Maz are due to get married at Christmas. But as busy country vets, there's little time for each other, let alone arranging a wedding. It's going to take a Christmas miracle to get these two down the aisle.
Against the Unweaving
Derek Prior - 2014
The liche, Dr. Cadman, has discovered a long-hidden artifact and perverted its power for his own selfish ends. But an ancient evil from beyond the stars is drawn by its use and turns hungry eyes upon the Earth. These are the times of Unweaving, the times Deacon Shader has been prepared for since the day he was born. A man of prayer, deeply troubled by a contradictory faith, he is also the deadliest warrior of his generation. As events spiral out of control, and Creation itself hangs by a thread, the paradox at the heart of Shader’s life may just be the last desperate hope of all the worlds. Contains: Book 1: Sword of the Archon Book 2: Best Laid Plans Book 3: The Unweaving
The Outer Rims
Clint Morey - 2013
But expansion means contact with new worlds and species—and with them, new challenges.As a young boy, Matthew Wallace experienced this as the child of missionaries on the planet Altair, living a rugged existence on the undeveloped world. Undeveloped, but not uninhabited. For Altair was home to a proud race of warriors—the Ananke.The same warriors Matthew watched as they murdered his parents.Now he is the Marshal of the place he swore he’d never return to, his hatred for the Ananke only tempered by his desperation to treat his wife’s terrible illness. For located on Altair is a clinic performing medical miracles, curing men and women of terminal diseases that even the most advanced technologies can’t touch. And yet, nothing is without its price, and as Matthew learns more about the world where he’s now charged with keeping the peace, he slowly realizes he’s going to have to decide what is more important: The life of his wife…or the lives of an entire species.A sci-fi thriller that calls to mind the grand masters of the genre, The Outer Rims explores the morality of doing whatever is necessary and the question of whether humanity and sentience are one in the same.
The Murder of Kelsey Berreth: A Shocking True Crime Story
Rod Kackley - 2020
The FBI is afraid they’ll have to do a deal with the devil to find her.Kelsey, a pilot so good she taught the military how to fly, goes shopping at a Safeway store, and simply disappears.Her fiance, Patrick Frazee, says he doesn't have a clue. In fact, he says they broke up just a few days before. He's as mystified as everyone else.But Kelsey's mother, Cheryl, is afraid she knows what happened to her daughter.A task force of FBI and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation agents believe they also know what happened to Kelsey. They have cell phone records and more, including surveillance video and DNA. But they have run into a roadblock.The agents have to get someone close to the killer to flip and turn state's evidence.Are they going to have to do a deal with the devil to find justice for Kelsey Berreth?The Murder of Kelsey Berreth: A Shocking True Crime Story.This is a riveting story of a young woman's disappearance, her family's will to find out what happened, and a 21st-century police investigation that nearly cracks the case wide open.Nearly.Will the FBI do a deal with the devil to solve this crime?
The Return of the Titans
J.J. Thompson - 2013
Small for his age and in his first year of high school, Justin's only friend has become a bully and harasses him at every turn. But Justin has a secret. He feels no pain from the punches and shoves that come his way and, at his mother's request, must pretend to be normal even though he wants to fight back.A mysterious message on his computer sends him in search of knowledge about the legendary Titans. While at the local library, he is confronted by a frightening group of men who follow him and attack his home.Justin must escape, but there seems no way out and leaving his ailing mother behind is something Justin does not want to do. But Justin's mother and a family friend urge him to get to a place of safety; a sanctuary where he may, perhaps, learn more about his strange gift and it's connection with the long-dead Titans.
Little King Henry
Richard Raley - 2011
But how exactly did she find out about her most troubling recruit just days before the new school year? How did she find out about King Henry Price?This story is set in the world of THE KING HENRY TAPES:Book 1 - The Foul Mouth and the Fanged Lady (released)Book 2 - The Foul Mouth and the Cat Killing Coyotes (released)Book 3 - Forthcoming
King of Ashes
Raymond E. Feist - 2018
Feist’s epic heroic fantasy series, The Firemane Saga—an electrifying tale of two young men whose choices will determine a world’s destiny.For centuries, the five greatest kingdoms of North and South Tembria, twin continents on the world of Garn, have coexisted in peace. But the balance of power is destroyed when four of the kingdoms violate an ancient covenant and betray the fifth: Ithrace, the Kingdom of Flames, ruled by Steveren Langene, known as "the Firemane" for his brilliant red hair. As war engulfs the world, Ithrace is destroyed and the Greater Realms of Tembria are thrust into a dangerous struggle for supremacy.As a Free Lord, Baron Daylon Dumarch owes allegiance to no king. When an abandoned infant is found hidden in Daylon’s pavilion, he realizes that the child must be the missing heir of the slain Steveren. The boy is valuable—and vulnerable. A cunning and patient man, Daylon decides to keep the baby’s existence secret, and sends him to be raised on the Island of Coaltachin, home of the so-called Kingdom of Night, where the powerful and lethal Nocusara, the "Hidden Warriors," legendary assassins and spies, are trained.Years later, another orphan of mysterious provenance, a young man named Declan, earns his Masters rank as a weapons smith. Blessed with intelligence and skill, he unlocks the secret to forging King’s Steel, the apex of a weapon maker’s trade known by very few. Yet this precious knowledge is also deadly, and Declan is forced to leave his home to safeguard his life. Landing in Lord Daylon’s provinces, he hopes to start anew.Soon, the two young men—an unknowing rightful heir to a throne and a brilliantly talented young swordsmith—will discover that their fates, and that of Garn, are entwined. The legendary, long-ago War of Betrayal has never truly ended . . . and they must discover the secret of who truly threatens their world.
Horror in Honduras
Benjamin Wallace - 2012
Blessed with the physique of a demigod and one of the world’s foremost minds, he travels the globe on a quest to confront evil and punch it in the face. At his disposal is a vast fortune, an endless array of gadgets and loyal friends. Now, one of those friends has gone missing in a Central American jungle and the only clue is the grotesque image of a demonic tribal mask. Dam and his trusted valet Bertrand rush headlong into danger and go face-to-face with evil incarnate to save their missing friend and attempt to destroy the Horror in Honduras.