The Emperor is dead. His son now inherits the throne to the Emrosian Empire and he dreams of greatness.The mercenaries of the Stone and the Shield have fulfilled their contract in the southern deserts of Ahnvesh. Now they must begin their journey to the imperial capital of Emros City to be paid. A long march and an odd job stand between them, a hefty payment, and possible retirement. But as they march, the Empire they thought they knew is changing.In the far west the Councilors of Guilion seek answers to their own problems, and those that would effect the future of the world. Their source of power nears its end, their ties to the Empire are failing. Now, they must decide which part of their world matters most.

She is lightning and storm. A spy, driven out of her home by a tyrant ruler. He is granite and earth. A guard, ordered to keep her contained. Continue on in the epic fantasy romance series that begins with Reign & Ruin.

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.

An epic, adult fantasy romance set in a land of domes and spires, and magic. She wants to rule in her father's place, where no woman has ruled before. He wants to protect his people from war, but who would ever trust a man who wields the forbidden magic of death? They must stand together to align old enemies against a new one.

A richly detailed, profoundly engrossing story of how religion has influenced American foreign relations, told through the stories of the men and women—from presidents to preachers—who have plotted the country’s course in the world. Ever since John Winthrop argued that the Puritans’ new home would be “a city upon a hill,” Americans’ role in the world has been shaped by their belief that God has something special in mind for them. But this is a story that historians have mostly ignored. Now, in the first authoritative work on the subject, Andrew Preston explores the major strains of religious fervor—liberal and conservative, pacifist and militant, internationalist and isolationist—that framed American thinking on international issues from the earliest colonial wars to the twenty-first century. He arrives at some startling conclusions, among them: Abraham Lincoln’s use of religion in the Civil War became the model for subsequent wars of humanitarian intervention; nineteenth-century Protestant missionaries made up the first NGO to advance a global human rights agenda; religious liberty was the centerpiece of Franklin Roosevelt’s strategy to bring the United States into World War II. From George Washington to George W. Bush, from the Puritans to the present, from the colonial wars to the Cold War, religion has been one of America’s most powerful sources of ideas about the wider world. When, just days after 9/11, George W. Bush described America as “a prayerful nation, a nation that prays to an almighty God for protection and for peace,” or when Barack Obama spoke of balancing the “just war and the imperatives of a just peace” in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, they were echoing four hundred years of religious rhetoric. Preston traces this echo back to its source. Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith is an unprecedented achievement: no one has yet attempted such a bold synthesis of American history. It is also a remarkable work of balance and fair-mindedness about one of the most fraught subjects in America.

Back in print for the first time in decades, Auden’s National Book Award–winning poetry collection, in a critical edition that introduces it to a new generation of readers The Shield of Achilles, which won the National Book Award in 1956, may well be W. H. Auden’s most important, intricately designed, and unified book of poetry. In addition to its famous title poem, which reimagines Achilles’s shield for the modern age, when war and heroism have changed beyond recognition, the book also includes two sequences—“Bucolics” and “Horae Canonicae”—that Auden believed to be among his most significant work. Featuring an authoritative text and an introduction and notes by Alan Jacobs, this volume brings Auden’s collection back into print for the first time in decades and offers the only critical edition of the work. As Jacobs writes in the introduction, Auden’s collection “is the boldest and most intellectually assured work of his career, an achievement that has not been sufficiently acknowledged.” Describing the book’s formal qualities and careful structure, Jacobs shows why The Shield of Achilles should be seen as one of Auden’s most central poetic statements—a richly imaginative, beautifully envisioned account of what it means to live, as human beings do, simultaneously in nature and in history.

On the world of Orne, the Torlok Council discover a change in the balance of magic. Strange, dark magic is getting stronger. They learn that Malanhor, a dark wizard, has found a way to unlock the dark magic sealed deep inside the planet. Lie'net, the leader of the Council, chooses a young apprentice, Sha'mi, to help locate and stop Malanhor. Sha'mi knows little of magic but reluctantly agrees to help. Along the way she meets an ancient wizard who teaches her about magic and helps her learn how to fight Malanhor. She must fight her own feelings of inadequacy and learn to believe in herself before she can face Malanhor. Her journey will help her discover who she is and how to use her special abilities to save the planet. Can she find the strength to defeat Malanhor before he becomes too powerful?