What are Al and Owen doing on a small rocky outcrop in the middle of the ocean? Does it have anything to do with the old sea trunk they were peering into only seconds ago? And are the pirates who rescue them friends - or foes? Just try to resist the action-packed Dragon Blood Pirates series - and the lure of adventure and mystery on the high seas.

Contextualizing the sutra within a milieu of intense religious and cultural experimentation, this volume unravels the sudden rise of Diamond Sutra devotion in the Tang dynasty against the backdrop of a range of social, political, and literary activities. Through the translation and exploration of a substantial body of narratives extolling the efficacy of the sutra, it explores the complex social history of lay Buddhism by focusing on how the laity might have conceived of the sutra and devoted themselves to it. Corroborated by various sources, it reveals the cult’s effect on medieval Chinese religiosity in the activities of an empowered laity, who modified and produced parasutraic texts, prompting the monastic establishment to accommodate to the changes they brought about.

Four hundred years ago an alien menace attacked a peaceful US colony and sent humanity speeding down a new evolutionary path. Nine people survived, but they would never be the same. Their modified DNA was passed on to their descendants and meta-humans with superpowers were born. Now a reluctant hero is thrust into a collision course with the aliens as those changes threaten to end that path with an earth-shattering conclusion. After a violent plane crash, Wolff Kingsley finds himself surrounded by meta-humans, alien technology, and mind-bending foes. Unwillingly recruited as a member of Diamond Justice, Wolff faces an uncertain future and fears a return to his past. He struggles to understand his friendship with a remnant of alien technology known as Glip-2, his concern for a young girl with an interest in him, and his growing love for a mysterious meta-human woman who may be tied to the origin of the threat. After a strange storm terrorizes a major city, Wolff must decide whether he will help Diamond solve the centuries old mystery and save millions of innocent lives before time runs out or flee the people he has grown to care about.