Valley of the Damned Epic Martial Arts/Allegorical Life Poem Close ranks and join in Battle Royal far beyond all human sensibilities with Valley of the Damned as the tenacious tome engages the worldwide Forces of Evil for all of humanities sake! Valley is an action-adventure martial-arts story and is designed as an interactive karate kata, a mirror, a Zen meditative rock garden, a mandala, a guide to the classical Underworld, a strategic soul-map and life-labrinth in which to see yourself and the "musing's upon" humanity of the great and awesome "Celestial Powers That Be." Pilgrim, if you're going to ride with those three killer-phantoms, best saddle up and strap in, because they are looking for you! Poem Info: For millennia, Epic poems have been some of the world's most powerful sources of inspiration, capturing the high essence of gods, heroes, romances, glories, tragedies and monsters. From Homer's Odyssey to The Aeneid, Arthur and Beowulf, and from Gilgamesh to The Mahbhrata and The Divine Comedy, these larger than life tales transcend time, revealing to humanity our innermost secrets, dreamsand nightmares. Conveying a deep sense of the mystical, Epics carry with them a sweeping sense of life in the fullest measure, as men and women of renown stand tall against the backdrop of history and destiny, our presentand futurebeing firmly rooted in the past . . . Valhalla! Norse gods, spirits o'war, shades, swordketeering pallorous ghost traces, soulpires, jowling grunting pigmen and slavering wolveweres, spectres, wraiths, banshees and other mind-lacerating night-haunting creatures of untold dread all come together in this Epic action-packed, martial arts adventure never before heard of tale on earthThe Valley of the Damned! In this, the "Forgotten tale that no one knows, except those who enter therein," all are invited to venture into the exotic, serrating, unseen Netherworld of the dead, where fragmented remnants of driven spirits contend with each other for power and control over kingdoms, unspeakable legions of fallen shades, and the most prized possession of allthe immortal human soul! Ride now with three killer-phantoms on their quest to pursue the vainglorious sneering karate movie superstar Mark Theman for his soulthe despised arrogant human whom all spirits desire to capture for their own sinister purposes! Trail the perpetual teenage Valkyrie Kari, mass-battle artist, known for her mesmerizing psychotically poetic-sword s'kills and who will confront "any and all never odd or even" risks to win. Shadowing her is the jackal-like Angel-Heart, amoral sword-slingin'duelist who always dogs her, never missing an opportunity to exploit and track with Dark Storm, merciless bounty huntress who will stop at nothing in order to seize the power that Theman possesseshis soulish living human aura! Based upon the works of cinematic masters such as Japanese director Akira Kurosawa (The Seven Samurai, 1954) and Italian director Sergio Leone (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, 1966), Valley is constructed as a movie. Words, sentences and stanzas function as camera shots for full lucid visual impact, pulling readers in and out of their own self-made focal mindset realizations of delight or horror that can only but belong to their own innermost soul-searching intertwined personal Netherscapes! From the mortal aspect, what is covered in the Epic is a survey of the modern American martial arts scene. A study of souls in action, readers may recognize that Valley is a social commentary, allowing insight into the deadly, bizarre, icy undercurrents and riptides of the unseen "Martial Art Deadlands"the Field of Marsthat many trod today, as must the bloody countless who are yet to come. Rich in visual and audio description and replete with scores of villainous and heroic spirits, Valley is an outrageous tale of valor and woe, bravery and cowardiceof damnation and redemptionplayed out on an immense spiritual killing field where spectral phantoms are tried and tested in the fires of their (and our) own passions. In Valley readers will: Enter the grotesque Market of the Soul where long-lost warriors screetch and claw in vain to recapture their former glory! Sit with the great Warlords of all climes, times and dimensions and listen to Motion-Effectrix Artifex St. Kari of the Blade, Val-kid extraswordinaire spin inspirangular tales of gallantry as Evil lurks about waiting to devour the unwaryand then follow her into glaringly-beyond hellishly lunacidal pitched battle Join with Mark Theman, the ruthless, scheming martial arts film star as he desperately attempts to retrieve his long-lost soul before it is hurled headlong into the deepest Abyss of Hell! Ensnare doomed pitiful souls with the implacable bounty hunting phasma-revenant Dark Storm in her bid for supreme power over millions and the coveted throne of Asgard! Follow the hell-hound packin' cold mercenary Angel-Heart as he, like a goodly razor-sharp Ginsu kitchen knife scrupulously cutting away as seen on eleven o'clock at night TV, slices and dices the damned on his way up to become the top blade in the grisly Mortuus! Valley is laced with myth/hist notes from the world over. (S)wordplay and inter-twistorted tales chorridor and pierce the Epic. Elusive mind-resonances, shadowy mental focal lengths, pale thought-illusions, intangible swhirling emotion-pools, insubstantial spring-loaded will-traps, graspless snaring barbed-wired realizations, sharp-cornered soul-fading mirages and spiritually bleak sucking quicksands nigh unto dimensions invisi'bled labrinth readers down into the inner sanctums of her lores; devilering them up to the uncanny, disturbing veiled Nether and the grim, macabre obliquitious secrets she brings to dark! Valley culminates in a superlative modern legend that will stir the imaginations of those hearts who desire a bold, soul-searching undertaking into the rhapsodic core of their own Heavenly stratums or the dankest helks of their own stark raving mad personal Hells! Good Luck Hunting!

Hell mattered in the United States' first century of nationhood. The fear of fire-and-brimstone haunted Americans and shaped how they thought about and interacted with each other and the rest of the world. Damned Nation asks how and why that fear survived Enlightenment critiques that diminished its importance elsewhere.

"Time travel, UFOs, mysterious planets, stigmata, rock-throwing poltergeists, huge footprints, bizarre rains of fish and frogs-nearly a century after Charles Fort's Book of the Damned was originally published, the strange phenomenon presented in this book remains largely unexplained by modern science. Through painstaking research and a witty, sarcastic style, Fort captures the imagination while exposing the flaws of popular scientific explanations. Virtually all of his material was compiled and documented from reports published in reputable journals, newspapers and periodicals because he was an avid collector. Charles Fort was somewhat of a recluse who spent most of his spare time researching these strange events and collected these reports from publications sent to him from around the globe. This was the first of a series of books he created on unusual and unexplained events and to this day it remains the most popular. If you agree that truth is often stranger than fiction, then this book is for you"--Taken from Good Reads website.

An ancient alien menace threatens in this hardcover volume which collects for the first time Weber's epic space adventure trilogy--"Mutineer's Moon, The Armageddon Inheritance" and "Heirs of Empire."

The story of a counterfeiter, rapist, kidnapper, and serial killer—from the New York Times–bestselling author of Ted Bundy: Conversations with a Killer. Authorities opened the door on one man’s hidden life . . . Mike DeBardeleben was known as the Mall Passer for the way he passed off fake money at local shopping centers. But when US Secret Service agents finally arrested him, they were met with more than just phony bills. They found that their counterfeiter led a shocking double life . . . . . . only to discover a house of horrors. DeBardeleben’s home was littered with drugs, bondage gear, and a collection of audio tapes in which he recorded the abuse of his countless victims. As the evidence mounted, a terrifying profile emerged of a man who forced women to be his accomplices, practiced sadism, even dressed up in women’s clothes—a serial killer whose depraved fantasies led to a spree of violence that would last as long as eighteen years . . . and would end in a sentence of almost four hundred years in prison. As terrifying as it is true, this is the story of a man who proved to be, beyond the shadow of a doubt, Beyond Cruel.

Think adolescence is hell? You have no idea... Welcome to Dante's Inferno, by way of The Breakfast Club, from the mind of American fiction's most brilliant troublemaker. "Death, like life, is what you make out of it." So says Madison, the whip-tongued 11-year-old narrator of Damned, Chuck Palahniuk's subversive homage to the young adult genre. Madison is abandoned at her Swiss boarding school over Christmas while her parents are off touting their new film projects and adopting more orphans. Over the holidays she dies of a marijuana overdose--and the next thing she knows, she's in Hell. This is the afterlife as only Chuck Palahniuk could imagine it: a twisted inferno inspired by both the most extreme and mundane of human evils, where The English Patient plays on repeat and roaming demons devour sinners limb by limb. However, underneath Madison's sad teenager affect there is still a child struggling to accept not only the events of her dysfunctional life, but also the truth about her death. For Madison, though, a more immediate source of comfort lies in the motley crew of young sinners she meets during her first days in Hell. With the help of Archer, Babette, Leonard, and Patterson, she learns to navigate Hell--and discovers that she'd rather be mortal and deluded and stupid with those she loves than perfect and alone.

NPR Best Book of 2017 Los Angeles Times Best Fiction Pick Refinery29 Best Book of the Year BOLO Books Top Read of 2017 “Destined to be a classic L.A. novel.”—Michael Connelly When a teen runs away from his father’s mysterious commune, he sets in motion a domino effect that will connect six characters desperate for hope and love, set across the sun-bleached canvas of Los Angeles. From the acclaimed author of Visitation Street, a visionary portrait of contemporary Los Angeles in all its facets, from the Mojave Desert to the Pacific, from the 110 to Skid Row. During a typically crowded morning commute, a naked runner is dodging between the stalled cars. The strange sight makes the local news and captures the imaginations of a stunning cast of misfits and lost souls. There's Ren, just out of juvie, who travels to LA in search of his mother. There's Owen and James, teenage twins who live in a desert commune, where their father, a self-proclaimed healer, holds a powerful sway over his disciples. There's Britt, who shows up at the commune harboring a dark secret. There's Tony, a bored and unhappy lawyer who is inspired by the runner. And there's Blake, a drifter hiding in the desert, doing his best to fight off his most violent instincts. Their lives will all intertwine and come crashing together in a shocking way, one that could only happen in this enchanting, dangerous city. Wonder Valley is a swirling mix of angst, violence, heartache, and yearning—a masterpiece by a writer on the rise.