Toby has been waiting for years to finally get his chance to see the game, but after server problems and issues with the download he only has a few minutes to do so before real life calls. And nothing seems to go right. His first glimpses of the world leave him confused, and it turns out he isn’t alone. Someone has broken into the server and changed things to suit themselves. Everyone has only one character, one life, and an impossible goal: make it to the end in a week. Everyone is mortal, and everyone is a killer. It’s open season on other players. The man who usurped the world chose Toby to be the champion of this cause, despite his lack of knowledge of game… or perhaps because of it. He is given a terrible weapon, the only one capable of setting things right. Yet he is just as mortal as everyone else. Or worse, as his character remains in the world even if he logs out. But with the future of their hard work on the line, the developers are not about to sit out of this fight. Their game, their reputation, and their very company are on the line. With Toby’s help they take up the challenge and fight to reclaim their world.

    Nature has all but disappeared in her world, but no one notices because of the antidepressants they're on. Lulu (who never takes her medicine) feels an increasing sense of dread and despair, until her fate changes one cold day when she finds a magic bottle containing a map. Drawn by pirates long ago, this map shows the way to the lost world of the Peppermint Islands, sunk to the bottom of the sea 400 years ago in the great battle between the pirates and the capitalists. Suddenly, Lulu has the chance to save the last remaining wild animals on earth, but she'll have to battle the Peppermint Man and the Great Trading Company in order to defeat the capitalist machine out to ruin the natural world. With the help of her new octopus friend, Mr. Blue, they start their journey to save the Peppermint Islands from annihilation.This is the latest Blab! storybook, a series of graphic novels showcasing artists from Monte Beauchamp's annual BLAB! anthology, presented in a faux-children's book format, though aimed squarely at adults and young adults.

    Skeeve and Aahz return in the hilarious (and visually fantastic) Myth Adventures Two—the conclusion to the graphic novel adaptation of Robert Asprin's Another Fine Myth.

    Hilarious and beautifully produced, this is a visual feast which will delight and entertain Noel's many impassioned fans."Growing up in the jungles of India there was no need for drawing or painting. I would sometimes arrange ants into primitive still lives or scratch out portraits onto the trunks of trees. Things changed when I was 11, a lame tiger who owned a stationery shop gave me the keys to his stock room, I would roll around in acrylic and oil pastels in reverie, licking canvases and tucking coloured pencils into my wild hair. It was here I learned how to draw and paint well enough to be accepted into Croyden Art College. There, Dexter Dalwood (Turner Prize nominee) taught me and after two years under his supreme tutelage and much hard graft he advised me to become a comedian." —Noel Fielding

    Brave enough to confront the most vicious of demons, and strong enough to destroy them every time, he unfortunately could not conquer his own pride. Foolishly, he turned his adoring brother, Sugreeva, into a mortal enemy and drove him to take the help of that supreme warrior, the mighty Lord Rama.

    Thompson collaborator Ralph Steadman delivers a heaping helping of anti-American vitriol with trademarked bombast, based on his travels throughout the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.

    Bread is a good start for sustenance.Don Eyr and Serana were survivors who came to Low Port – it gave them air, water, a place to stand and a place to make bread. The place to sleep meant they needed a certain amount of safety and to get that they founded a bakery at the corner of Crakle and Toom, brought in others seeking to survive in the midst of the poverty and ignorance, and built a tiny bastion of a self-sufficient community dedicated to raising competent, alert children who understood decency.Low Port toughs tried to break the bakery and a planet-shaking blast from the skies nearly did it in, but the bakery was hope, and people who have hope will fight to keep it.This chapbook collects four stories about sustenance, all about the bakery, its people, and its influence. ″Degrees of Separation,″ ″Fortune’s Favors,″ and "Block Party" are reprints. The novelette ″Our Lady of Benevolence″ appears here for the first time.

    In this age of dramatic technological advancement, Vandercroft was fascinated by how the rise of steam technology at the start of the American Civil War had transformed warfare and the role of the fighting man. This volume collects all of Vandercroft's surviving paintings, along with his associated commentary on the specific military units he encountered.

    In this graphic biography like no other, his genius and astonishing records — no man has won more majors, or spent more weeks as the world number one — are explored and celebrated with beautiful infographics analysing his serving patterns, the speed of his shots, the spin he generates, his movement, as well as his performance in high-pressure situations such as tiebreaks and Grand Slam finals. Drawing on interviews with Federer and those close to him, this is the story of how a young hothead from Basel transformed himself into a calm and poised athlete who came to dominate tennis. And who, while deep in his thirties, has continued to seek improvements, to challenge men many years younger than him and to contend for the sport's biggest prizes. The sheer brilliance of Roger Federer is revealed through illuminating infographics of his game alongside stunning photography, stories and analysis from those who have played, watched and admired him that will give you a new appreciation of his greatness and how his tennis has moved so many people.

    

    Each image in Talking Pictures reveals a singular, frozen moment in a person’s life, be it joyful, quiet, or steeped in sorrow. Yet the book’s unique depth comes from the writing accompanying each photo: as with the caption revealing how one seemingly random snapshot of a dancing couple captured the first dance of their 40-year marriage, each successive inscription shines like a flashbulb illuminating a photograph’s particular context and lighting up our connection to the past.

    Before he learns much about the current age, the Germans put him to work as a researcher in their occult research facility and as a teacher of conscripted young wizards. His research uncovers the existence of a malevolent artifact hidden in the facility. At its full potential, the artifact could allow the Germans to dominate the war, assuring their victory. He also finds the staff of the facility on the edge of madness, driven there by an insidious creature of dark magic. As the SS insinuates itself into the facility, Merlin may be the only one who can resist them and destroy the dangerous artifact before it's too late to save his students, himself, and the world.

    

    A Galactic dark elf. A woman who has given up her humanity to become something more. These stories and more are available in the first short story anthology for the System Apocalypse, covering year one on Earth. When the world ends, humanity steps up, finding new ways to survive in a world with Classes, magic and monsters. The anthology features exciting, new stories by five new writers and a new, never publicly released short story by Tao Wong. The System Apocalypse world was first introduced in 'Life in the North' and is a LitRPG science fiction and fantasy post-apocalyptic work that features monsters, science fiction technology, character sheets, supernatural races and ancient myths in one heady, LitRPG brew. Stories and writers featured in this anthology include: Craig Hamilton - "Hunting Monsters" has our protagonist doing what he does best. Finding those who would exploit the System and the people within. Except this time, there are even more complications than normal. Alexis Keane - "Tooth and Claw" is a heart-warming tale of friendship that knows no bounds of race or distance. Ix Phoen - "Rebel Within" tells a tale of hardship in South America, where the monsters are not always the ones outside the walls. Tao Wong – “Debts & Dances” covers the arrival of the System from the perspective of our favorite Truinnar Lord. R.K. Billiau – “Phoenix Rising” covers an unconventional hero, one whose mind is slipping from him before the apocalypse. Will the apocalypse be his salvation? Or doom? L.A. Batt - “Overture to Obliteration” brings us to far-off New Zealand to glimpse the wreckage the System has wrought.

    Created in the 1890s by George Washington Vanderbilt, a member of one of America's wealthiest families, the estate combined a 250-room French Renaissance-style chateau with 125,000 acres of gardens, forests, and working farms. Biltmore House served as Vanderbilt's primary residence for almost 20 years. After Mr. Vanderbilt's death in 1914, life at Biltmore continued for his wife Edith and daughter Cornelia. In 1930, Cornelia Vanderbilt Cecil and her husband, Hon. John Francis Amherst Cecil, opened Biltmore House--the largest private home in the United States--to the public, firmly establishing the Asheville area as a major tourist destination.