It is the final years of the 18th century, but a world which few would recognise. The people of Europe shelter in small islands of safety, havens from the enchanted wilderness - the strange boundless forests people call the Tumble. It is across this demon-haunted landscape that the low-born officer Taliesin must lead his men, caught up in the deadliest of intrigues while fighting wars for a noble class which despises him. With vicious murderers from the worst gutters in the Realm marching behind him, and the forces of the most powerful nations of the mainland arrayed against him, the odds are stacked against Taliesin. Heavily. Yet he will fight on, battling armies, sorcerers, assassins, beastmen and cross into the face of hell itself. Not for loyalty, or grudging respect for his scheming monarch - not even for the small mountain of silver the Island Queen has promised him if he succeeds. But because fighting is all he and his pressed band of cut-throats and thieves have ever known.

The land of Deira burns. Two decades of war have laid waste to this once-green paradise ... but even more destructive than rampaging armies is the wrath of the dragon-an uncontrollable living weapon unleashed by the invaders. Some brave rebels struggle against impossible odds. Others turn outlaw just to stay alive. Like many of her people, Elenn of Adair has lost family, lands, and possessions to the brutal realities of war. To save her people, she seizes a desperate chance to defeat the monstrous dragon, break the occupation, and see the rightful king crowned. She must protect a sacred relic from enemy soldiers, bandits, creatures of darkness ... and the implacable Magister Corvus. Elenn's reluctant guide is Aedin Jeoris, a bandit escaped from the gallows. These two must rely on each other to survive mortal danger and dire magicks. And both must decide what sacrifices they are willing to make in order to achieve their destinies.

"Does it seem reasonable to you that a Regency continues—into an Emperor's thirtieth year " "No, m'lord," Shoka said. "Not to us, either. Not to many of us. We were ready to make that objection—when lord Gitu overran Yijang and Hua.... Assassinations, elsewhere. Hired killers. Bands of mercenaries traveling under imperial orders. The Emperor'sseal, and the Regent's orders. How do we stop such a thing How do we prevent it—when every lord able to lead is apprehended, assassinated, when they strip us of men, even boys out of the fields—go to Saukendar, some said. Go to Saukendar. They urged me to send to you. This time he has to listen, they said. But if I had sent—and Ghita had known—you understand—" Reidi gave an uncomfortable twitch of the shoulders. His horse shifted again. "I had no true hope that you'd come. You'd indicated to the villagers—that you had no wish to hear from anyone. That you would refuse any such petitions—" "You were watching me." "It's my village, m'lord—as the Regent pointed out to me again and again, and threatened my life should you leave that mountain. Of course the word came to me. I tried to get a messenger down the road to you when I knew you'd left Mon.... We believed you'd come back to deal with Ghita and his partisans." Shoka felt cold, cold all the way to the bones. "There are men ready to follow you, lord Saukendar. There are men who've committed their lives to this— We didn't know the hour. We only believed. Now you've come back ..." "It's gripping drama, tightly focussed and inexorable as Taizu herself. Read The Paladin and you'll never settle for another ordinary sword-wielding female." —Faren Miller LOCUS At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management)

In his autobiography Stanley S.K. Kwan discusses his roots, Hong Kong after the War, Hang Seng Bank, the new China and home and country.

Elven Queen Vielissiar Farcarinon makes wrenching sacrifices to work unprecedented magics and bond with a dragon. Set in the same world as the Enduring Flame trilogy.

Robin McKinley's mesmerizing history of Damar is the stuff that legends are made of. The Hero and the Crown is a dazzling "prequel" to The Blue Sword. Aerin is the only child of the king of Damar, and should be his rightful heir. But she is also the daughter of a witchwoman of the North, who died when she was born, and the Damarians cannot trust her. But Aerin's destiny is greater than her father's people know, for it leads her to battle with Maur, the Black Dragon, and into the wilder Damarian Hills, where she meets the wizard Luthe. It is he who at last tells her the truth about her mother, and he also gives over to her hand the Blue Sword, Gonturan. But such gifts as these bear a great price, a price Aerin only begins to realize when she faces the evil mage, Agsded, who has seized the Hero's Crown, greatest treasure and secret strength of Damar.

Set in an alternate Europe where bloody conflicts rage, the first book of the Crown of Stars epic fantasy series chronicles a world-shaking conflict for the survival of humanity It begins with civil war.... For though King Henry still holds the crown of Wendar, his reign has long been contested by his sister Sabella. There are many eager to flock to her banner, and there are ways to make even the most unwilling lord into a weapon pointed at the heart of Henry’s realm. Torn by internal strife, Wendar also faces deadly raids from the north by an inhuman race, the Eika. And now terrifying portents are being seen; old ruins restored to life under the light of the full moon and peopled by the long-vanished Lost Ones; dark spirits walking the land in broad daylight. And suddenly two innocents are about to be thrust into the middle of the conflict. Liath, who has spent her early years fleeing from unknown enemies, is a young woman with the power to change the course of history if she can only learn to master her fear and seize what is rightfully hers. While Alain, a young man who may find his future in a vision granted by the Lady of Battles, must first unravel the mystery of who he is—whether the bastard son of a noble father, the half-breed child of an elfin lord, the unwanted get of a whore, or the heir to a proud and ancient lineage. For only when he discovers the truth can he accept the destiny for which he was born. Liath and Alain, each trapped in a personal struggle for survival, both helplessly being drawn into a far greater battle, a war in which sorcery not swords will determine the final outcome, and the land itself may be irrevocably reshaped by the forces unleashed....