Book picks similar to
The Green Pearl and Madouc by Jack Vance
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Shadowfall
James Clemens - 2005
Out of chaos they created the Nine Lands, blessed with their Graces and protected from the nightmarish Hinterlands, where rogue gods stalked across a barbarous wilderness. In all this time nothing has disturbed the peace of the Nine Lands.Until now. For the impossible...the unthinkable...has happened. Meeryn, goddess of the Summering Isles, has been murdered.The only witness was Tylar de Noche, a crippled and disgraced former Shadowknight who lives in agonizing shame of his past. He saw the dark entity that killed Meeryn. And as he held the dying goddess, her last breath bestowed a powerful blessing on him—a mark that healed his broken body. A mark that many see as proof that he killed a god. A mark that unleashed a powerful force of darkness within him.Chased across Myrillia by enemies both human and ethereal, aided only by outcasts like himself, Tylar must uncover and face down a being powerful enought to kill an immortal—the true godslayer. If he fails, all of Myrillia will fall into shadow....
Song for the Basilisk
Patricia A. McKillip - 1998
Of his past he knew nothing -- except faint memories of fire and death that he'd do anything to forget. But nightmares, and a new threat to the island that had become his own, would not let him escape the dreaded fate of his true family. Haunted by the music of the bards, he left the only home he knew to wander the land of the power-hungry basilisk who had destroyed his family. And perhaps, finally, to find a future in the fulfillment of his forgotten destiny.(
The Gods of Pegana
Lord Dunsany - 1905
Dunsany, as the second writer to fully exploit the fantasy and adventure of imaginary lands, which include gods, witches, magic and spirits, The God of Pegana is both an important science fiction work which is both for its ability to be an excellent collection children's fairy tales as well as sophistcated enough to work well at an adult level.
The Dark Side of the Sun
Terry Pratchett - 1976
Librarian Note: An alternative cover for this ISBN can be found here Dom Salabos had a lot of advantages.As heir to a huge fortune he had an excellent robot servant (with Man-Friday subcircuitry), a planet (the First Syrian Bank) as a godfather, a security chief who even ran checks on himself, and on Dom's home world even death was not always fatal.Why then, in an age when prediction was a science, was his future in doubt?
Black Gods and Scarlet Dreams
C.L. Moore - 2002
She wielded her bright sword against mighty armies, the sinister magic of evil sorcerers and fearsome castles guarded by the dead, even daring to descend into Hell itself... Northwest Smith, the scarred and weathered outlaw, the legendary hero of the spaceways, forced to confront the terrible mysteries, the terrifying, mythic monsters of the universe... Jirel of Joiry and Northwest Smith are C.L. Moore's greatest creations and she used them not only to spin spellbinding tales but also to explore the mysteries of the human psyche.Contents:1 • Black Gods • [Jirel of Joiry] • (1969) • collection by C. L. Moore (variant of Jirel of Joiry)3 • Jirel Meets Magic • [Jirel of Joiry] • (1935) • novelette by C. L. Moore39 • Black God's Kiss • [Jirel of Joiry] • (1934) • novelette by C. L. Moore69 • Black God's Shadow • [Jirel of Joiry] • (1934) • novelette by C. L. Moore97 • The Dark Land • [Jirel of Joiry] • (1936) • novelette by C. L. Moore126 • Hellsgarde • [Jirel of Joiry] • (1939) • novelette by C. L. Moore163 • Scarlet Dreams • [Northwest Smith] • (1981) • collection by C. L. Moore (variant of Scarlet Dream)165 • Shambleau • [Northwest Smith] • (1933) • novelette by C. L. Moore196 • Black Thirst • [Northwest Smith] • (1934) • novelette by C. L. Moore234 • The Tree of Life • [Northwest Smith] • (1936) • novelette by C. L. Moore263 • Scarlet Dream • [Northwest Smith] • (1934) • novelette by C. L. Moore288 • Dust of Gods • [Northwest Smith] • (1934) • novelette by C. L. Moore (variant of Dust of the Gods)316 • Lost Paradise • [Northwest Smith] • (1936) • novelette by C. L. Moore342 • Julhi • [Northwest Smith] • (1935) • novelette by C. L. Moore375 • The Cold Gray God • [Northwest Smith] • (1935) • novelette by C. L. Moore404 • Yvala • [Northwest Smith] • (1936) • novelette by C. L. Moore436 • Song in a Minor Key • [Northwest Smith] • (1940) • shortstory by C. L. Moore
The Grace of Kings
Ken Liu - 2015
Yet, in the uprising against the emperor, the two quickly become the best of friends after a series of adventures fighting against vast conscripted armies, silk-draped airships, and shapeshifting gods. Once the emperor has been overthrown, however, they each find themselves the leader of separate factions—two sides with very different ideas about how the world should be run and the meaning of justice.
The Steel Remains
Richard K. Morgan - 2008
Such is the prophecy that dogs Ringil Eskiath—Gil, for short—a washed-up mercenary and onetime war hero whose cynicism is surpassed only by the speed of his sword. Gil is estranged from his aristocratic family, but when his mother enlists his help in freeing a cousin sold into slavery, Gil sets out to track her down. But it soon becomes apparent that more is at stake than the fate of one young woman. Grim sorceries are awakening in the land. Some speak in whispers of the return of the Aldrain, a race of widely feared, cruel yet beautiful demons. Now Gil and two old comrades are all that stand in the way of a prophecy whose fulfillment will drown an entire world in blood. But with heroes like these, the cure is likely to be worse than the disease.
A Crucible of Souls
Mitchell Hogan - 2013
With nothing to his name but a pair of mysterious heirlooms and a handful of coins, he must prove his talent to earn an apprenticeship with a guild of sorcerers.But he soon learns the world outside the monastery is a darker place than he ever imagined, and his treasured sorcery has disturbing depths.As a shadowed evil manipulates the unwary and forbidden powers are unleashed, Caldan is plunged into an age-old conflict that brings the world to the edge of destruction…
Darker Than You Think
Jack Williamson - 1940
Inexorably drawn into investigating a rash of grisly deaths, he soon finds himself embroiled in something far beyond mortal understanding.Doggedly pursuing his investigations, he meets the mysterious and seductive April Bell and starts having disturbing, tantalizing dreams in which he does terrible things--things that are stranger and wilder than his worst nightmares. then his friends being dying one by one and he slowly realizes that an unspeakable evil has been unleashed.As Barbee's world crumbles around him in a dizzying blizzard of madness, the intoxicating, dangerous April pushes Barbee ever closer to the answer to the question "Who is the Child of Night?"When Barbee finds out, he'll wish he'd never been born.
Orphans of Chaos
John C. Wright - 2005
The sprawling estate, bordered by unknown territory on all four sides, is both orphanage, academy, and prison. The school has a large staff, but only five students, none of whom know what their real names are, or even how old they are.Precocious and rebellious, all five teenagers are more than just prodigies. Amelia can see in four dimensions. Victor can control the molecular arrangement of matter. Vanity can find secret passageways where none existed before. Colin is a psychic. Quentin is a warlock.And, as time goes by, they're starting to suspect that none of them are entirely human . . .John C. Wright previous fantasy novels, the Epic Chronicles of Everness, were lavishly praised by both readers and reviewers. Now he embarks on an ambitious new saga that explores the overlapping boundaries of science, mythology, and the imagination.
Cold Magic
Kate Elliott - 2010
At a select academy they study new airship technologies and the dawning Industrial Revolution, but magical forces still rule. And the cousins are about to discover the full ruthlessness of this rule.
Songs of the Dying Earth: Stories in Honour of Jack Vance
George R.R. MartinMike Resnick - 2009
Martin and Gardner Dozois, with the full cooperation of Jack Vance, his family, and his agents, suggest a Jack Vance tribute anthology called Songs of the Dying Earth, to encourage the best of today's fantasy writers to return to the unique and evocative milieu of The Dying Earth, from which they and so many others have drawn so much inspiration, to create their own brand-new adventures in the world of Jack Vance s greatest novel.Half a century ago, Jack Vance created the world of the Dying Earth, and fantasy has never been the same. Now, for the first time ever, Jack has agreed to open this bizarre and darkly beautiful world to other fantasists, to play in as their very own. To say that other fantasy writers are excited by this prospect is a gross understatement; one has told us that he'd crawl through broken glass for the chance to write for the anthology, another that he'd gladly give up his right arm for the privilege that's the kind of regard in which Jack Vance and The Dying Earth are held by generations of his peers.
Clockwork Heart
Dru Pagliassotti - 2008
Taya, a metal-winged courier, can travel freely across the city's sectors and mingle indiscriminately among its castes. A daring mid-air rescue leads to involvement with two scions of an upperclass family and entanglement in a web of terrorism, loyalty, murder, and secrets.
Heroes Die
Matthew Woodring Stover - 1998
He is relentless, unstoppable, simply the best there is at what he does.At home on Earth, Caine is Hari Michaelson, a superstar whose adventures in Ankhana command an audience of billions. Yet he is shackled by a rigid caste society, bound to ignore the grim fact that he kills men on a far-off world for the entertainment of his own planet--and bound to keep his rage in check.But now Michaelson has crossed the line. His estranged wife, Pallas Rill, has mysteriously disappeared in the slums of Ankhana. To save her, he must confront the greatest challenge of his life: a lethal game of cat and mouse with the most treacherous rulers of two worlds...
Imajica
Clive Barker - 1991
At its heart lies the sensualist and master art forger, Gentle, whose life unravels when he encounters Judith Odell, whose power to influence the destinies of men is vaster than she knows, and Pie 'oh' pah, an alien assassin who comes from a hidden dimension.That dimension is one of five in the great system called Imajica. They are worlds that are utterly unlike our own, but are ruled, peopled, and haunted by species whose lives are intricately connected with ours. As Gentle, Judith, and Pie 'oh' pah travel the Imajica, they uncover a trail of crimes and intimate betrayals, leading them to a revelation so startling that it changes reality forever.