A stirring history of the blood disease retraces the emergence of a modern hemophiliac community, from the identification of Queen Victoria as a carrier of the disease, through the AIDS infections of the 1980s and subsequent breakthroughs in gene therapy.

For thousands of years boys known as "bleeders" faced an early, painful death from hemophilia. Dubbed "the Royal Disease" because of its identification with Queen Victoria, the world's most renowned carrier, hemophilia is a genetic disease whose sufferers had little recourse until the mid-twentieth century. In the first book to chronicle the emergence and transformation of the hemophilia community, Susan Resnik sets her story within our national political landscape—where the disease is also a social, psychological, and economic experience. Blood Saga includes many players and domains: men with hemophilia and their families, medical personnel, science researchers, and the author herself, who was Director of Education of the National Hemophilia Foundation in the early 1980s. At that time the "miracle treatment" of freeze-dried pooled plasma blood products enabled men with hemophilia to lead full, normal lives. Then the AIDS virus infiltrated the treatment system and over fifty percent of the hemophilia community became HIV-positive. But rather than collapsing, this community refocused its priorities, extended its reach, and helped shape blood safety policies to prevent further tragedy. The hemophilia community includes people from every socioeconomic and ethnic group, and Resnik's narrative and use of oral histories never lose touch with those affected by the disease. Her extensive informant interviewing allows much of this social history to be told by participants on all levels: parents, wives, nurses, doctors, government agency directors, health care providers, and many others. Gene insertion therapy now holds the promise of a cure for hemophilia in the near future. Scientific breakthroughs inevitably become intertwined with the industry and academic medical centers that govern the national health care system. And in that system, says Resnik, costs and safety are sometimes contending issues. She makes clear that the lessons learned in Blood Saga apply to all of us.

If you like Bernard Cornwell, Conn Iggulden, Simon Scarrow, David Gemmell and Giles Kristian, you will love this epic Viking adventure, packed with battles, treachery, blood and gore. 865 AD. The fierce Vikings stormed onto Saxon soil hungry for spoils, conquest, and vengeance for the death of Ragnar Lothbrok. Hundr, a Northman with a dog's name... a crew of battle hardened warriors... and Ivar the Boneless. Amidst the invasion of Saxon England by the sons of Ragnar Lothbrok, Hundr joins a crew of Viking warriors under the command of Einar the Brawler. Hundr fights to forge a warriors reputation under the glare of Ivar and his equally fearsome brothers, but to do that he must battle the Saxons and treachery from within the Viking army itself... Hundr must navigate the invasion, survive brutal attacks, and find his place in the vicious world of the Vikings in this fast paced adventure with memorable characters.

The adventures of Magiere and Leesil continue as they journey into Leesil's savage homeland seeking the family-and secret burden-he abandoned long ago.

Before Larten Crepsley was a vampire general... Before he was Darren Shan's master... Before the War of Scars... Larten Crepsley was a teenager. And he was sick of the pomp and circumstance of fusty old vampires telling him what to do. Taking off on his own with his blood brother, Wester, Larten takes off into the world to see what his newly blooded vampire status can get him in the human world. Sucking all he can out of humanity, Larten stumbles into a violent, hedonistic lifestyle, where cheats beckon, power corrupts, and enemies are waiting. This is his story.

I’m no one—just a magic-less woman who fled the supernatural world after being dumped and humiliated by the most powerful vampire in Britain. He made me a laughing stock, a cautionary tale. I had no choice but to leave. That was a long time ago. I got over the betrayal. Now, I’m on the mend. But when an assassin tracks me down to London, claiming that a deadly power thrums beneath my veins, only one person is strong enough to save my hide: Valentine Sargon—the Vampire King who stole my virginity and broke my heart. He will help, but only if I move into a safe house. With him. Valentine is as handsome as the devil, silver-tongued and seductive as sin. I don’t trust him or the way he hungers for my blood. But I’ve run out of choices and can’t refuse.

Dante Gabriel is starving. What he craves is red gold—human blood. After being held captive as a blood slave to a female vampire for years, he has finally escaped. Unchained at last, he follows his nose to the nearest blood bank to sate his hunger. ER nurse Erin Hamilton expects just another busy night shift…until she finds a gorgeous stranger vandalizing the hospital blood bank. Though her logic tells her to turn him in, she’s pulled by stronger and unfamiliar emotions to protect the man who seems oddly infatuated with her scent. Chemistry sizzles between them, but Dante, plagued by nightmares of his time in captivity, fears he won’t be able to control himself…especially when he discovers a secret she doesn’t even know she’s hiding.