Millennia ago, the Fates spoke. A prophecy was delivered. A child shall be born. A vessel to bear all evils. A warrior tasked to protect her. Their trials shall be many, Three seals they protect. Defile. Betray. Condemn. Beware the treacherous whispers. Broken seals are the mortal’s doom. All is not lost, for hope remains. Atone for thy deeds. My name is Anesidora Hope Athanasiou. Yeah, don’t try to work it out. Just call me Hope. My life was normal… until my twenty-first birthday. You know what they say, be careful what you wish for. Apparently, I’m the star of an ancient prophecy, and if those three old bags weren’t listening, I’d tell you what I really think. The only good thing to come out of this crap deal is my guardian. Alexander, a smoking hot, immortal Greek warrior, ripped straight out of history and every woman’s wet dreams. Including mine. Together we battle the worst of Erebos, who seek control of the vessel (ahem, that would be me) and all it contains. We fight to protect three seals the Fates didn’t see fit to explain, to prevent unleashing literal hell on Earth. No big deal, right? When there’s nothing left but hope, Will history repeat itself?

"The consequences of crossing the Indus once to settle a government in Afghanistan will be a perennial march into that country."--The Duke of Wellington, 1838 "There is nothing more to be dreaded or guarded against in our endeavor to re-establish the Afghan monarchy than the overweening confidence with which Europeans are too often accustomed to regard the excellence of their own institutions and the anxiety that they display to introduce them in new and untried soils."--Claude Wade, January 1839. Convinced in 1839 that Britain's invaluable empire in India was threatened by Russia, Persia, and Afghan tribes, the British government ordered its Army of the Indus into Afghanistan to oust from power the independent-minded king Dost Mohammed and install in Kabul the unpopular puppet ruler Shah Shuja. Expecting a quick campaign, the British found themselves trapped by unforeseen circumstances; eventually the tribes united and the seemingly omnipotent army was slaughtered in 1842 as it desperately retreated through the mountain passes from Kabul to Jalalabad. Only one man survived. Diana Preston vividly recounts the drama of this First Afghan War, the opening salvo in the strategic rivalry between Britain and Russia for supremacy in Central Asia. As insightful about geography as she is about political and military miscalculation, Preston draws on rarely documented letters and diaries to bring alive long lost characters--Lord Auckland, the weak British Governor-General in India; his impetuous aide William McNaghten; the prescient adventurer-envoy Alexander Burnes, whose sage advice was steadfastly ignored. A model of compelling narrative history, The First Afghan War is a cautionary tale that resonates loudly today.

An account of the mid-19th-century war in Afghanistan documents how the British government sought to protect regional interests by attempting to install a puppet ruler only to be defeated by united Afghanistan tribes, in a volume that profiles key contributors and discusses how the war set the stage for subsequent hostilities.

Declan Forrester is arrogant, selfish, and insanely sexy. He was the very first boy I ever loved. Then fame and fortune turned him into a man I no longer recognized. I tried to give him everything he needed, and in return... he broke my heart. Now he's back, and he wants to make things right. What started as love turned to hate. I told myself I'd never fall for him again, but he's determined to prove me wrong. He wants to win me. He wants to own me. He wants to defile me. And if I'm not careful... I just might let him.

Joe Abercrombie’s Best Served Cold meets George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones in the final novel in Richard K. Morgan’s epic A Land Fit for Heroes trilogy, which burst onto the fantasy scene with The Steel Remains and The Cold Commands. Ringil Eskiath, a reluctant hero viewed as a corrupt degenerate by the very people who demand his help, has traveled far in search of the Illwrack Changeling, a deathless human sorcerer-warrior raised by the bloodthirsty Aldrain, former rulers of the world. Separated from his companions—Egar the Dragonbane and Archeth—Ringil risks his soul to master a deadly magic that alone can challenge the might of the Changeling. While Archeth and the Dragonbane embark on a trail of blood and tears that ends up exposing long-buried secrets, Ringil finds himself tested as never before, with his life and all existence hanging in the balance. Praise for The Dark Defiles “A finale that displays all the purposefully hard edges and grim magnificence that made the first two volumes stand out.”—Kirkus Reviews “Morgan brings his mammoth A Land Fit for Heroes fantasy trilogy to a rousing conclusion. . . . Expect surprises and suspense, along with the usual derring-do and entertaining characters.”—Booklist Praise for Richard K. Morgan and his acclaimed series, A Land Fit for Heroes “Bold, brutal, and making no compromises—Richard K. Morgan doesn’t so much twist the clichés of fantasy as take an axe to them. Then set fire to them.”—Joe Abercrombie “Morgan has taken traditional sword and sorcery tropes and given them a hard, contemporary kick. The anitithesis of the cosy fairytale, this one is for big boys.”—The Times (London) “A crisp stylist who demonstrates equal facility with action scenes and angst.”—The New York Times Book Review “A full-immersion experience, uncompromising and bleakly magnificent.”—Kirkus Reviews

This book presents a social and cultural history of 'dishonourable people' (unehrliche Leute), an outcast group in early modern Germany. Executioners, skinners, grave-diggers, shepherds, barber-surgeons, millers, linen-weavers, sow-gelders, latrine-cleaners, and bailiffs were among the 'dishonourable' by virtue of their trades. This dishonour was either hereditary, often through several generations, or it arose from ritual pollution whereby honourable citizens could become dishonourable by coming into casual contact with members of the outcast group. The dishonourable milieu of the city of Augsburg from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries is reconstructed to show the extent to which dishonour determined the life-chances and self-identity of dishonourable people. The book then investigates how honourable estates interacted with dishonourable people, and how the pollution anxieties of early modern Germans structured social and political relations within honourable society.