To a man who has earned such titles as "The Shakespeare of Hungary" and "The Glory of Hungarian Literature"; who published in fifty years three hundred and fifty novels, dramas, and miscellaneous works, not to mention innumerable articles for the press that owes its freedom chiefly to him, it seems incredible that there was ever a time of indecision as to what career he was best fitted to follow. The idle life of the nobility into which Maurus Jókay was born in 1825 had no attractions for a strongly intellectual boy, fired with zeal and energy that carried him easily to the head of each class in school and college; nor did he feel any attraction for the prosaic practice of law, his father's profession, to which Austria's despotism drove many a nobleman in those wretched days for Hungary. It was Pétofi, the poet, who was his dearest friend during the student-life at Pápa; idealism ever attracted him, and, by natural gravitation toward the finest minds, he chose the friendship of young men who quickly rose into eminence during the days of revolution and invasion that tried men's souls.

Dueling Demons endanger the enchanted land of Xanth in this delightful new fantasy adventure by the author of "Fell Swoop."

When Carlin and Loraine Restoney are invited by their grandmother to move to the Kingdom of Pespermeir to become heirs to their mysterious Uncle Casper, they don't know what to say. Despite warnings and rumors, the curious siblings soon discover the truth: their uncle is the caretaker of the mythical fethilars, flying horses long thought extinct. Around the same time, under mounting pressure of too many knights, the 5 kings announce a special tournament, to resettle the wild and untameable land of Arbocath. But Arbocath has dark secrets of it's own, which only the fethilars know how to cure. Loraine and Carlin soon find themselves fighting bandits, tending unicorns, dodging dragons, trolls, and a host of other monsters, all to care for and protect the very pregnant fethilar mare Moonbat. In addition they have to attempt the monumental task of stopping the king's tournament while their uncle is away. All the while, the foreboding Ebony Hearthrug and Swamps of Shandell silently wait...