The essays span fifty years of critical reaction, from the first publication of The Fellowship of the Ring through the release of Peter Jackson's film trilogy, which inspired a new generation of readers to discover the classic work and prior generations to rediscover its power and beauty. Fans and scholars alike will appreciate these important, insightful, and timely pieces. Fourteen of the fifteen have been previously published but are gathered here for the first time. The final essay in the volume, "The Road Back to Middle-earth" by Tom Shippey, was commissioned especially for this collection. Shippey examines how Peter Jackson translated the text into film drama, shaping the story to fit the understanding of a modern audience without compromising its deep philosophical core.

    Join Loren, a girl from the Selvan forest, as she runs away from her abusive home and embarks upon an epic adventure that will take her across the nine kingdoms. Ever since she was a little girl, Loren has dreamed of becoming a renowned master thief, capable of slipping through any security and stealing the rich blind. When the fugitive wizard Xain passes through her village on the run from the law, Loren sees her chance and joins him. But the world beyond her forest is both more complex and more dangerous than she imagined, putting her wits and bravery to the test as she tries to become the woman she always hoped she would be: Nightblade, the most feared thief in all the land.A new episode of this heroic fantasy releases every Thursday. Order your copy direct from the author and start the adventure NOW.

    This book-length celebration and analysis of the Artistic Event of the Century includes an exclusive interview and introduction by League of Extraordinary Gentlemen co creator and author Alan Moore; commentary by co-creator a nd illustrator Kevin O'Neill: detailed, panel-by-panel annotations of the first League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series.

    He asserts that it is no accident that the upsurge of academic interest in science fiction since the 1970s coincides with the heyday of literary theory, and that likewise science fiction is one of the most theoretically informed areas of the literary profession. Extended readings of novels by five of the most important modern science fiction authors illustrate the affinity between science fiction and critical theory, in each case concentrating on one major novel that resonates with concerns proper to critical theory.Freedman's five readings are: Solaris: Stanislaw Lem and the Structure of Cognition; The Dispossessed: Ursula LeGuin and the Ambiguities of Utopia; The Two of Them: Joanna Russ and the Violence of Gender; Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand: Samuel Delany and the Dialectics of Difference; The Man in the High Castle: Philip K. Dick and the Construction of Realities.

    We asked twenty-one of today’s most talented and inventive writers to go even further and pen an original tale inspired by one of dozens of obscure and fascinating championship words. The result is Logorrhea–a veritable dictionary of the weird, the fantastic, the haunting, and the indefinable that will have you spellbound from the very first page. There’s only one word for such an irresistible anthology: Logorrhea

    In the WORLD OF DARKNESS series, this book includes everything necessary for playing the Damned of the Middle Ages, allowing characters to experience the events that have influenced our age.

    This isn't heaven. This isn't hell. This isn't anything you could have imagined. Death wasn't the end. Death wasn't the answer. Death was just the beginning. So what do you do? Do you listen to the voice inside your head telling you just to let go? Or do you still fight, still love, still feel the passion that won't let you rest? Oblivion's the easy way out. Life after death is hard. Choose. You have eternity to weigh the consquences.

    Greatest of these heroes was a doom-driven adventurer who bore a runeblade that he loathed. His name was Elric of Melniboni, king of ruins, and lord of a scattered race that once ruled the world. Legendary artist P. Craig Russell adapts Michael Moorcock's climactic Elric novel -- the grand story of the final battle between Law and Chaos -- to the comics format. This is Russell's finest work yet, and the greatest Elric epic of them all, combining the best elements of horror, sword, and sorcery into one amazingly powerful story.

    Making a bargain with a Xsa captain leads Elle to learn the depths of the betrayal, and realizes that Falsheim is in greater danger than she imagined. She must strengthen her bond with the elemental, and find a way to stop the attack, or the city—and all of Doma—will fall.Part 3 of Elle’s story, set in the Cloud Warrior Saga.

    Captain Aisen, a military officer in the newly re-founded Sigil Order, is returning home where his life will be altered forever.His grandfather, Duke Kyreth Edorin, has died, and his body lies in preparation for a burial in the family crypts. As the heir to House Edorin, Aisen will be forced to leave his life as a solider behind and assume the role of the next leader of his house. With help from his younger brother, Beonen, and his allies within the Sigil Corps, Aisen hopes to build relationships with the other noble houses and gain the respect of the people entrusted to his care.Confronted by betrayal, Aisen will be shaped in ways which will give rise his reputation as the feared Blood Prince, and threaten to throw the nation of Nar Edor into a deadly internal conflict. The Blood Prince serves as an introduction to a larger story told in the full length novels of the trilogy.

    This figure shows up time and again in Native American folklore, where he takes many forms, from the irascible Coyote of the Southwest, to Iktomi, the amorphous spider man of the Lakota tribe. This dazzling collection of American Indian trickster tales, compiled by an eminent anthropologist and a master storyteller, serves as the perfect companion to their previous masterwork, American Indian Myths and Legends. American Indian Trickster Tales includes more than one hundred stories from sixty tribes? many recorded from living storytellers?which are illustrated with lively and evocative drawings. These entertaining tales can be read aloud and enjoyed by readers of any age, and will entrance folklorists, anthropologists, lovers of Native American literature, and fans of both Joseph Campbell and the Brothers Grimm.

    However over the past decade there has been a rising movement to accurately describe Native cultures and histories. In particular, people have begun to explore the experience of urban Indians—individuals who live in two worlds struggling to preserve traditional Native values within the context of an ever-changing modern society. In Genocide of the Mind, the experience and determination of these people is recorded in a revealing and compelling collection of essays that brings the Native American experience into the twenty-first century. Contributors include: Paula Gunn Allen, Simon Ortiz, Sherman Alexie, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Maurice Kenny, as well as emerging writers from different Indian nations.

    The only ones who could have opposed him are the Knights of Dragonwatch, an ancient order created to defend the world against the Dragon Queen, and they are no more, betrayed by one of their own and hunted to extinction.Jarryd is a young man with a secret. He sees demons. The visions have plagued him since he witnessed a traumatic event as a small boy.Jarryd lives in fear that his secret will be discovered, and he will be condemned to the fate of those who consort with demons. Or, even worse, that the demons will consume him, make him one of them.As the visions grow ever more powerful, Jarryd sets out on a journey to find answers at Knights Keep, the ancestral home of the Dragonwatch Knights. The journey brings him to the notice of the Emperor himself and sets Jarryd on a desperate quest to resurrect the Dragonwatch Knights.Can Jarryd overcome the demons within himself and defeat the Emperor in time? Or will the Dragon Queen escape her prison and ravage the cosmos once again?

    Danger thrills her. But magic always has a price.Twenty years have passed since the Darkmage was destroyed and the war between mages ended. For Lira Astor, the single living heir to the Darkmage, escaping her name is impossible. People still fear what is long dead, and they see in her the rise of another dangerous mage with deadly ambition. Desperate to claw her way free of her grandfather’s shadow, to make her own name amongst the world of mages, Lira is willing to do whatever it takes. Even if that means joining the secretive rebel group looking to restore his vision.Survival is a lesson Lira learned early and often, yet when she is abducted and held prisoner in a deadly game of cat and mouse, she finds herself facing a nemesis she may be no match for. Forced to band together with unlikely allies who challenge everything she believes about what it means to be a mage, she will have to rely on every bit of ruthlessness she possesses.Because the war may only just be beginning……and Lira Astor intends to come out on top.

    Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.0 Fantasy Roleplaying, Forgotten Realms Setting)This book contains nearly everything you need to run a bare-bones version of Forgotten Realms: it details various regions, cities, people, world, cosmology, monsters, deities and other items of interest, such as NPCs people have learned to love and hate.It also has new rules, prestige classes and feats that are Faerûn-specific, but which can be ported to other game worlds as well.