A devotee of Hat-hor'¦ 'More than forty years passed between my initial encounter with Hat-hor's name and my first devotions to the goddess. It was a long time. My first thought is that, for most of this period, I was not so much stepping to meet Hat-hor as dawdling on the way.' A religion for the modern world'¦ 'The concept of ma'at also translates readily into the field of ecology. Ecological balance is a matter of balance between species, and between those species and the environments in which they live. This clearly has a kinship with the balance between the stars, which is most certainly a matter of ma'at. Ecology is not, in itself, an ancient Egyptian concept, but the way in which it slots so readily into Kemetic ideas demonstrates how adaptable those conceptions are. It may also form another example of the ease with which Kemetic religion fits with rationalism.'

The second book in the critically acclaimed Obsidian and Blood trilogy: The year is Two House, and the Emperor of the Mexica has just died. The protections he afforded the Empire are crumbling, and the way lies wide open to the flesh-eating star-demons--and to the return of their creator, a malevolent goddess only held in check by the War God's power. The council should convene to choose a new Emperor, but they are too busy plotting against each other. And then someone starts summoning star-demons within the palace, to kill councilmen... Acatl, High Priest of the Dead, must find the culprit before everything is torn apart. REVIEWS: ‘Political intrigue and rivalry among a complex pantheon of divinities drive this well-paced murder mystery set at the height of the Aztec Empire in the late 15th century. De Bodard reintroduces the series hero Acatl, high priest of the dead, immediately following the death of the Tenochtitlan leader. One of the council members in charge of choosing a successor has been brutally murdered in what looks like an attempt to influence the decision. But the deaths continue and the political situation grows more complex, while the empire looks to be increasingly at risk of invasion by malignant powers. Acatl must go face-to-face with the most powerful god in his world and put the good of the empire above his antipathy for is rivals to achieve the uneasy succession. De Bodard incorporates historical fact with great ease and manages the rare feat of explaining complex culture and political system without lecturing or boring the reader.’ —Publishers Weekly ‘Another thing that intrigues me here is the whole fact that historically we know that the real empire died out mysteriously and completely and as such there is always that thought in the back of my mind that the author could choose to bring about the end of days. That highlighted sense of possible doom is something that is missing from too many novels. The way the story is told in this book is very impressive, the plot is both mature and seductive, twisting and turning like a weather vane in a force 9 gale while the action is both bloodthirsty and imaginative. The world building is fantastic and we get to learn even more of this rich culture and the many gods and creatures of the dark. I really can’t fault this book at all and recommend it to one and all but if you haven’t yet read Servant of the Underworld I suggest that you get them both and read them in order, you won’t be disappointed.’ —SF Book Reviews ‘Bodard’s writing is polished and striking, as she convincingly fills in the colorful elements of the Aztec culture–even if those colors tend to be of blood and bile as well as flowers and hummingbirds... beautiful, grimy, breathtaking, and morbid. 5*’ —Examiner ‘Aliette de Bodard has done it again. Harbinger of the Storm is an action packed Aztec mystery opera with magic, interventions from the gods and more twists and turns than the first book. It even has a love story with amusing snippets here and there... The story is self contained and can be enjoyed standalone, but you will not want to miss out on the first. I wish it was 2012 already even if the world is going under while I read the final Obsidian & Blood.’ —Cybermage

'Beware the desecration… Eirene… power of resurrection. She will take her revenge.' Following a mental breakdown, archaeologist Emma Carter convalesces in a rest home. Thoughts return to her childhood and to a windswept beach where she discovered a priceless gold artefact – an ugly gargoyle figure known as a Shiel Na Gig, representing a long forgotten deity from antiquity. She believes this is the source of her troubles as she reflects on events that have occurred over the past few months… Emma’s partner Sam Layton, a renowned psychic medium, is having problems of his own. Plagued by unsettling dreams that involve a Celtic warrior’s death and his love for Eirene, a slave girl who is set to be sacrificed to a sun deity, Sam witnesses the dying warrior burying a golden statuette on a beach. Not only do his dreams bother him, but he is suddenly called away to help his former lover Theia with problems concerning her companion Abi, whose erratic behaviour points to the supernatural… What is the mystery of the 'triumvirate' of Shiel Na Gig goddesses? Who or what will stop at nothing, including murder, to possess Sam and his friends? And will Sam be able to choose between his troubled relationship with Emma and the carefree time spent with Theia? The Golden Goddess is a fast-paced supernatural thriller that continues on from Nigel Plane’s first novel,The Daughters of Carrawburgh. Centred around Celtic deities, it is a gripping read that will appeal to fans of fantasy fiction.

For as long as we have sought god, we have found the goddess. Ruling over the imaginations of humankind’s earliest agricultural civilizations, she played a critical spiritual role as a keeper of nature’s fertile powers and an assurance of the next sustaining harvest. In The Goddess, David Leeming and Christopher Fee take us all the way back into prehistory, tracing the goddess across vast spans of time to tell the epic story of the transformation of belief and what it says about who we are. Leeming and Fee use the goddess to gaze into the lives and souls of the people who worshipped her. They chart the development of traditional Western gender roles through an understanding of the transformation of concepts of the Goddess from her earliest roots in India and Iran to her more familiar faces in Ireland and Iceland. They examine the subordination of the goddess to the god as human civilizations became mobile and began to look upon masculine deities for assurances of survival in movement and battle. And they show how, despite this history, the goddess has remained alive in our spiritual imaginations, in figures such as the Christian Virgin Mother and, in contemporary times, the new-age resurrection of figures such as Gaia. The Goddess explores this central aspect of ancient spiritual thought as a window into human history and the deepest roots of our beliefs.

The acclaimed authors of The Map of Moments and The Secret Journeys of Jack London join creative forces once more in this epic, standalone novel—an exciting dark fantasy of gods and mortals, fools and heroes, saviors and destroyers with a brilliant beam of hope at its core—that should more than appeal to readers of N.K. Jemisin and Brandon Sanderson. In the great kingdom of Quandis, everyone is a slave. Some are slaves to the gods. Most are slaves to everyone else. Blessed by the gods with lives of comfort and splendor, the royal elite routinely perform their duties, yet some chafe at their role. A young woman of stunning ambition, Princess Phela refuses to allow a few obstacles—including her mother the queen and her brother, the heir apparent—stand in the way of claiming ultimate power and glory for herself. Far below the royals are the Bajuman. Poor and oppressed, members of this wretched caste have but two paths out of servitude: the priesthood . . . or death. Because magic has been kept at bay in Quandis, royals and Bajuman have lived together in an uneasy peace for centuries. But Princess Phela’s desire for power will disrupt the realm’s order, setting into motion a series of events that will end with her becoming a goddess in her own right . . . or ultimately destroying Quandis and all its inhabitants.

Blazing passion, unrestrained power, perilous secrets... Shana is determined to personally destroy her enemy or die in the attempt. Roman can’t know. Roman keeps his demons locked away from his beloved Golden, afraid she’ll despise him if she knows the truth. The rebellious, sensuous, provocative and intense relationship between Shana and Roman is ablaze again. When Shana readies herself to accept her love for Roman, he drops a bomb on her lap: her abuser of ages ago is hunting her, and is the man who’d kidnapped and detained Roman. Furious, she turns her hunter into the hunted - she goes after her tormentor in his “fortress with modern security gadgets” country mansion, armed for victory. For Shana, it’s a do or die. But Roman mustn’t know of her mission. Roman has his own Pandora’s box of secrets that threaten to destroy their relationship yet must be revealed. But first, he has to protect Shana from his rival, a dangerous international criminal who keeps eluding both Europol and Interpol. Who will manage to eliminate their common enemy first?

A coffin drifts on the Bay of Bengal... Within lies Sebastian Newcastle, rapt in the dreamless sleep of the Undead. His flight from England, spurred by the agonizing memories of his ruined love, Felicia Lamb, ends in the heart of India's darkest cult. The Thugs still make human sacrifice to Kali, the Goddess of Death... sacrifice she will accept only when there is no blood spilled. Reginald Callender, accused of the death of his fiancée, Felicia, has sworn vengeance on Newcastle. He has tracked the vampire to India, but the terrors of this strange new land—from the savage prowling panthers to the murderous Thugs—prove as formidable as his ancient enemy. Moreover, he has lost his heart to the beautiful widow Sarala Ghosh. But like Felicia before her, Sarala is headed for her own dark destiny in the cold embrace of Sebastian Newcastle.