An electrifying mystery that will draw one woman into a global conspiracy—and into the sights of one of the most dangerous men in the world... Maddy Blume is a survivor. Years ago, while working as an art analyst in New York, she was changed forever by an encounter with Ilya Severin, the thief and former assassin once known as the Scythian. Now, in London, she is presented with an unusual proposition: to go undercover as an art consultant to a Russian oil billionaire suspected of channeling profits to military intelligence. As Maddy grows closer to her new boss, however, she discovers that his ambitions extend far beyond natural resources. He is out to shape the future of Russia on a massive scale, using the secret of the mythical empire of Shambhala in a quest that will lead Maddy on a violent odyssey across Europe and to the far edge of the Black Sea. Yet her involvement has not gone unnoticed. Not by the secret police. Not by her employer’s rivals. And least of all by the Scythian himself...

An electrifying mystery that will draw one woman into a global conspiracy—and into the sights of one of the most dangerous men in the world... Maddy Blume is a survivor. Years ago, while working as an art analyst in New York, she was changed forever by an encounter with Ilya Severin, the thief and former assassin once known as the Scythian. Now, in London, she is presented with an unusual proposition: to go undercover as an art consultant to a Russian oil billionaire suspected of channeling profits to military intelligence. As Maddy grows closer to her new boss, however, she discovers that his ambitions extend far beyond natural resources. He is out to shape the future of Russia on a massive scale, using the secret of the mythical empire of Shambhala in a quest that will lead Maddy on a violent odyssey across Europe and to the far edge of the Black Sea. Yet her involvement has not gone unnoticed. Not by the secret police. Not by her employer’s rivals. And least of all by the Scythian himself...

Established in 221 BCE, the Chinese empire lasted for 2,132 years before being replaced by the Republic of China in 1912. During its two millennia, the empire endured internal wars, foreign incursions, alien occupations, and devastating rebellions--yet fundamental institutional, sociopolitical, and cultural features of the empire remained intact. The Everlasting Empire traces the roots of the Chinese empire's exceptional longevity and unparalleled political durability, and shows how lessons from the imperial past are relevant for China today. Yuri Pines demonstrates that the empire survived and adjusted to a variety of domestic and external challenges through a peculiar combination of rigid ideological premises and their flexible implementation. The empire's major political actors and neighbors shared its fundamental ideological principles, such as unity under a single monarch--hence, even the empire's strongest domestic and foreign foes adopted the system of imperial rule. Yet details of this rule were constantly negotiated and adjusted. Pines shows how deep tensions between political actors including the emperor, the literati, local elites, and rebellious commoners actually enabled the empire's basic institutional framework to remain critically vital and adaptable to ever-changing sociopolitical circumstances. As contemporary China moves toward a new period of prosperity and power in the twenty-first century, Pines argues that the legacy of the empire may become an increasingly important force in shaping the nation's future trajectory.

JONATHAN LUNA (ALEX + ADA, THE SWORD, Spider-Woman: Origin) and SARAH VAUGHN (ALEX + ADA, Deadman: Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love, Ruined) team up again with ETERNAL EMPIRE, a fantasy epic! The Eternal Empress has waged war against the countries of Saia for over 100 years, and now her sights are set on the last country standing. But within the brutal Empire's workforce, a young man and woman discover they share a synergistic power that could change the fate of the entire world. Collects ETERNAL EMPIRE #1-5

"The men who founded these great civilizations are long gone, but their blood still lives within us. We are called to conquer. Our age, like every other age, is a war of all against all for the domination of space." Throughout the 19th and through the early 20th centuries, the European Great Powers established direct control over the majority of the planet, and suzerainty over the rest. Despite the crumbling of those empires under the hammer blows of two world wars and the machinations of the United States and the Soviet Union, the feats by which they were established and the titanic efforts of the brave few that fought to preserve them still reverberate in history. Brave warriors conquered foreign lands, planted their flags, and tried to grow new cultures that mirrored their own. Sinclair Jenkins - writer, thinker, and dissident - lays out a resolute defense of, and advocacy for, that force of will which made the age of European Imperialism possible. From the conquering of the American West, to the bloody Rif War, to the heroic defenses of Katanga and Rhodesia, Empire Eternal: In Defense of Imperialism is a tour de force of the various chapters of European Imperialism. It is said that men did not love Rome because it is great - Rome was great because men loved her. These pages make it clear that likewise the European empires were not great because of some kind of overwhelming material superiority, but because of the eternal flame that pushed men to sacrifice for them - a flame that can never be extinguished.

This ambitious book looks into the reasons for the exceptional durability of the Chinese empire, which lasted for more than two millennia (221 B.C.E.-1911 C.E.). Yuri Pines identifies the roots of the empire's longevity in the activities of thinkers of the Warring States period (453-221 B.C.E.), who, in their search for solutions to an ongoing political crisis, developed ideals, values, and perceptions that would become essential for the future imperial polity. In marked distinction to similar empires worldwide, the Chinese empire was envisioned and to a certain extent "preplanned" long before it came into being. As a result, it was not only a military and administrative construct, but also an intellectual one. Pines makes the argument that it was precisely its ideological appeal that allowed the survival and regeneration of the empire after repeated periods of turmoil. Envisioning Eternal Empire presents a panoptic survey of philosophical and social conflicts in Warring States political culture. By examining the extant corpus of preimperial literature, including transmitted texts and manuscripts uncovered at archaeological sites, Pines locates the common ideas of competing thinkers that underlie their ideological controversies. This bold approach allows him to transcend the once fashionable perspective of competing "schools of thought" and show that beneath the immense pluralism of Warring States thought one may identify common ideological choices that eventually shaped traditional Chinese political culture

Collects Star Wars (2020) #19-23. Luke Skywalker's quest for answers takes a dangerous turn! As the Rebellion tries to pull itself together for a last-ditch effort to defeat the evil Galactic Empire, Luke realizes it's time to take the next step on the path to becoming a Jedi. But the Jedi order is gone, so where can Luke turn to find the legacy he so desperately needs? The voice of Master Yoda will be a key piece of instruction in his journey, but Yoda will not teach the lesson Luke must learn. And this lesson will take - and give - more than the young Skywalker could ever have imagined! Plus: After a mission gone wrong, ace Rebel pilot Shara Bey - mother of Poe Dameron - was left stranded on a Star Destroyer. And now her time is running out!