Vidarian Rulorat, called the Tesseract, a powerful magic-user whose abilities spread across multiple elements, finds himself at war with the Alorean Import Company, a powerful cabal of merchants wealthy enough to buy nations. By opening the gate between worlds, Vidarian released the Starhunter, goddess of chaos. With her coming, wild magic returned to the world of Andovar, bringing with it shape- changers and strange awakened elemental technologies, including many-sailed ships powered by air magic, and mechanical automata lit from within by earth and fire. Now, Vidarian discovers that the Alorean Import Company is determined to eliminate two- thirds of this new life on Andovar in the hopes of hoarding more magic for themselves in a new, worldwide plutocracy. Along with his human, gryphon, and shapechanger allies, he must stop the Company if he is to safeguard any future for the diverse life of Andovar, including his and Ariadel's newborn daughter. With the existence of whole species hanging in the balance, Vidarian is locked in a race for the future of the world.

A chilling global history of the human shield phenomenon. From Syrian civilians locked in iron cages to veterans joining peaceful indigenous water protectors at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, from Sri Lanka to Iraq and from Yemen to the United States, human beings have been used as shields for protection, coercion, or deterrence. Over the past decade, human shields have also appeared with increasing frequency in antinuclear struggles, civil and environmental protests, and even computer games. The phenomenon, however, is by no means a new one. Describing the use of human shields in key historical and contemporary moments across the globe, Neve Gordon and Nicola Perugini demonstrate how the increasing weaponization of human beings has made the position of civilians trapped in theaters of violence more precarious and their lives more expendable. They show how the law facilitates the use of lethal violence against vulnerable people while portraying it as humane, but they also reveal how people can and do use their own vulnerability to resist violence and denounce forms of dehumanization. Ultimately, Human Shields unsettles our common ethical assumptions about violence and the law and urges us to imagine entirely new forms of humane politics.

Acclaimed Inda series within Sherwood Smith's epic fantasy Sartorias-deles universe • Military fantasy woven with courtly politics, vast worldbuilding, and diverse characters Inda was the second son of the prince and princess of Choraed Elgaer. It had been Inda's fate, as second son, to be his family's Shield Arm and spend his adult life protecting the lands his brother would one day inherit. But powerful factions in the royal court were committed to seeing Inda fail. For eight difficult years, Inda had been at sea, using an assumed name and forcing himself to never think of all he had lost. And he had created a new life, for the military skills that had been trained into him and his own inborn leadership ability could not be erased. After founding a mercenary marine company, he had earned a reputation for defeating dangerous pirate fleets. When Inda discovers that his home country is about to be attacked from the sea by an ancient enemy, he throws his carefully guarded anonymity to the winds and returns home. After nearly a decade at sea, Inda finds his home utterly changed. His good friend Evred, the formerly powerless and harassed younger prince, is now king. Evred has heard of Inda's martial accomplishments at sea, and is determined to make Inda his Royal Shield Arm—the person in charge of defending the entire kingdom. Though Inda is skilled, his experience is entirely naval. Can a former pirate captain alter his tactics to become a successful ground commander in time to save his endangered homeland?

"[This book] is not a study in depth of the growth of Israel's armed forces, nor is it a historical analysis of the military doctrines which those forces developed. It is rather a sketch, a profile of the people and events which moulded first the resistance movement and then the army of the Jewish State"--Author's note.

This official guide to the high-powered, Emmy( Award-winning series on FX takes fans on a ride-along with the most down-and-dirty detectives to hit the small screen. Includes exclusive interviews with the cast and creator Shawn Ryan, episode guides, photos, and more.

This dual biography of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King upends longstanding preconceptions to transform our understanding of the twentieth century's most iconic African American leaders. To most Americans, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. represent contrasting ideals: self-defense vs. nonviolence, black power vs. civil rights, the sword vs. the shield. The struggle for black freedom is wrought with the same contrasts. While nonviolent direct action is remembered as an unassailable part of American democracy, the movement's militancy is either vilified or erased outright. In The Sword and the Shield, Peniel E. Joseph upends these misconceptions and reveals a nuanced portrait of two men who, despite markedly different backgrounds, inspired and pushed each other throughout their adult lives. This is a strikingly revisionist biography, not only of Malcolm and Martin, but also of the movement and era they came to define.