When the maniacal leader of a worldwide human trafficking cabal called Black Scorpion kidnaps the woman he loves, Michael Tiranno must embrace his true destiny and become "The Tyrant" once again.

I originally wrote this book as a movie script back in 1992 while awaiting trial. It was a add-on to a movie that I had started filming before being locked up. It was my answer to the movie Rocky. But if you knew anything about the publishing business, you would know that at the time, it was virtually impossible to get published as a black author. So this book went in my bag. Once convicted and sent off to the plantation, this book was passed around amongst the convicts alongside the likes of Goines and Ice Berg. Til finally my homie shipped with it. I tried unsuccessfully to contact Apple for about two years with no luck. By this time, 2002, I had written four more books, and with the emergence of independent black publishers, I realized that my own try at independent publishing in 1998 wasnt a pipe dream but rather the lack of vision from un-named people. So once again I tried to go thru the established. Finally I concluded that a nigga that has never had nothing dont know how to be true to the game. So back to square one with the idea of dropping two books at the same time. I rewrote the book and merged it with the book that all my readers liked the most. But since my luck is as good as a rabbit losing his foot. You know I lost the book again. Finally, January 2006, I re-wrote this book. Only this time I set out to put it in book form as I wrote it. And here it is, all hand written; cover and all. 14 years in the making. Damn, why so long?

"This book richly details life in a fighter squadron. Readers will learn new details and gain a better understanding of the daily experience outside of the intense combat environment. It is well worth reading this contribution to World War II oral history." —The Journal of America's Military Past On December 6, 1941, despite his objections, James Lynch was discharged from the Army for being over age in grade. After the terrible events at Pearl Harbor, James Lynch was recalled to duty. Within a month he was part of the Air Corps, involved in a secret project to send air support to help General Montgomery and the Eighth Army. He joined the nucleus of officers in charge of the 64th Fighter Squadron, 57th Fighter Group. For the next 33 months, he fought across the top of Africa and then up through Italy. The 57th Fighter Group arrived in Egypt just in time for the battle at El Alamein. How the United States was able to get the pink-winged P-40s to the battlefield baffled the Germans for many years. The Black Scorpions chased the Afrika Corps across the top of Africa, culminating in the Palm Sunday massacre where the Squadron helped shoot down 74 planes in a single engagement. For the Italian campaign, the Black Scorpions switched from P-40s to P-47s, changing from fighters to bombers and disrupting the German and Italian lines up the Italian Peninsula. Through all the battles, including a battle with an erupting Mount Vesuvius, James Lynch kept an unauthorized diary. He also collected daily intelligence reports, newspaper stories, souvenirs, pictures, and letters from home. After the war he reminisced with fellow soldiers about their experiences, and eventually felt it was time to write the story of the Black Scorpions—this book is the result.

Scorpions and black widows are both feared arachnids. They carry venom that can be deadly. Black widow venom can turn their prey's insides into mush! Scorpions have their deadly stinger to inject their poison, while black widows use fangs. These two bad beasts occasionally meet in a battle to the death. Through enlightening text and vibrant photographs, readers will discover the weapons each uses to best its opponent and the adaptations that make them both predators you wouldn't want to mess with.

A fascinating written exploration of the superhero phenomenon, from its beginnings in the depths of Great Depression to the blockbuster movies of today. For over 90 years, superheroes have been interrogated, deconstructed, and reinvented. In this wide-ranging study, Robb looks at the diverse characters, their creators, and the ways in which their creations have been reinvented for successive generations. Inevitably, the focus is on the United States, but the context is international, including an examination of characters developed in India and Japan in reaction to the traditional American hero. Sections examine: the birth of the superhero, including Superman, in 1938; the DC family (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and The Justice Society/League of America), from the 1940s to the 1960s; the superheroes enlistment in the war effort in the 1940s and 50s; their neutering by the Comics Code; the challenge to DC from the Marvel family (The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and The X-Men), from the 1960s to the 1980s; the superhero as complex anti-hero; superheroes deconstructed in the 1980s (The Watchmen and Frank Miller’s Batman), and their politicization; independent comic book creators and new publishers in the 1980s and 90s; superheroes in retreat, and their rebirth at the movies in blockbusters from Batman to Spider-Man and The Avengers.

Newberry Honour Award Winner & National Book Award Winner. Matt is six years old when he discovers that he is different from other children and other people. To most, Matt isn't considered a boy at all, but a beast, dirty and disgusting. But to El Patron, lord of a country called Opium, Matt is the guarantee of eternal life. El Patron loves Matt as he loves himself - for Matt is himself. They share the exact same DNA. As Matt struggles to understand his existence and what that existence truly means, he is threatened by a host of sinister and manipulating characters, from El Patron's power-hungry family to the brain-deadened eejits and mindless slaves that toil Opium's poppy fields. Surrounded by a dangerous army of bodyguards, escape is the only chance Matt has to survive. But even escape is no guarantee of freedom . . . because Matt is marked by his difference in ways that he doesn't even suspect. Praise for The House of Scorpions: 'It's a pleasure to read science fiction that's full of warm, strong characters... that doesn't rely on violence as the solution to complex problems of right and wrong. It's a pleasure to read.' Ursula K. LeGuin 'Fabulous' Diana Wynne Jones Also by Nancy Farmer: The Sea of Trolls Land of the Silver Apples The Islands of the Blessed The Lord of Opium

"The book celebrates the intrinsic worth of all plants and animals in order to motivate people in a unified effort to preserve the Earth's rich array of life forms."--Cover.