"Haunting and bittersweet, lush and vivid, this extraordinary story has lived with me since I first read it." -- Naomi Novik, author of His Majesty's Dragon The world is ending. One by one the mighty cities are falling, to earthquakes, to flood, to raiders on both land and sea. In a time of war and doubt, Gull is an oracle. Daughter of a slave taken from fallen Troy, chosen at the age of seven to be the voice of the Lady of the Dead, it is her destiny to counsel kings. When nine black ships appear, captained by an exiled Trojan prince, Gull must decide between the life she has been destined for and the most perilous adventure -- to join the remnant of her mother's people in their desperate flight. From the doomed bastions of the City of Pirates to the temples of Byblos, from the intrigues of the Egyptian court to the haunted caves beneath Mount Vesuvius, only Gull can guide Prince Aeneas on his quest, and only she can dare the gates of the Underworld itself to lead him to his destiny. In the last shadowed days of the Age of Bronze, one woman dreams of the world beginning anew. This is her story.

Recreation of the great siege of Troy drawn from the epic tale of the Iliad

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

For nearly a century, Japanese writers gave voice to the anxieties of a nation headed inexorably toward war. Not just any war, but one that in the minds of many would eventually--and inevitably--take place with Japan's neighbor across the Pacific, the United States. In the wake of U.S. Navy Commodore Matthew C. Perry's first visit to Japan with his Black Ships in 1853, Japanese novelists and military analysts, along with a few foreign counterparts, produced a dizzying array of prophetic visions of this coming conflict, creating a massive body of popular works through which Japan would debate its own passage, however violent, into the modern, globalized era. Painstakingly researched by one of Japan's preeminent men of letters, Tokyo Prefecture Vice Governor Naoki Inose, The Century of the Black Ships is a landmark study of a literary tradition that anticipated the defining moment in the lives of a nation and its people.

A rousing tale of American nautical lore and skullduggery, The Black Ships reveals a little-known, intriguing episode of American history. One of the nation's best-kept secrets, rum-running during Prohibition provided fast bucks for adventurous boatmen along the Atlantic Coast. The Black Ships unfolds the saga of the smuggling fleet that, at great risk, illegally imported liquor to America's shores. Drawing on interviews with rumrunners and their kin, government reports, and some of his own boyhood memories, Everett S. Allen reveals how the Coast Guard bravely tried to stem the flow of liquor, and how, in boats too fast to catch, the rumrunners circumnavigated the law.

"A vividly realized high-seas epic that pulls you deep into its world and keeps you tangled there until the very last word." —Evan Winter The tale of the Tide Child comes to an end in The Bone Ship's Wake, a brilliantly imagined saga of honor, glory, and warfare by British Fantasy Award-winning author, RJ Barker. Joron Twiner's dreams of freedom lay shattered. His Shipwife is gone and all he has left is revenge. Leading the black fleet from the deck of Tide Child, he takes every opportunity to hurt the Hundred Isles he is given. But his time is limited. His fleet is shrinking, the Keyshan's Rot is running through his body, and he hiding from a prophecy that says he and the avian sorcerer, the Windseer will end the entire world. But the Sea Dragons have returned, a miracle in itself, and who is to say that if you can have one miracle, there cannot be another? Praise for the Tide Child Trilogy: "Brilliant." —Robin Hobb "Excellent. One of the most interesting and original fantasy worlds I've seen in years." —Adrian Tchaikovsky, Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author The Tide Child Trilogy The Bone Ships Call of the Bone Ships The Bone Ship's Wake For more from RJ Barker, check out: The Wounded Kingdom Age of Assassins Blood of Assassins King of Assassins