A dazzling new fantasy from New York Times and Indie bestselling author Joan He, full of secrets and betrayal, Strike the Zither is an inventive and sweeping fantasy perfect for fans of Rebecca Ross and Chloe Gong, “rich in intrigue and epic in scale.” Orphaned at a young age, Zephyr took control of her fate by becoming the realm’s most powerful strategist, serving under a leader whose cause jeopardizes their survival in a war where one must betray or be betrayed. When Zephyr is forced to infiltrate an enemy camp, she encounters the enigmatic Crow, the only strategist who has ever rivaled Zephyr’s talent. But mastermind though Crow may be, he is no match for Zephyr. She will defy the heavens to win and no one—neither human nor god—can stop her. Featuring gorgeous map art and black-and-white portraits, Strike the Zither is the first book in Joan He's riveting Kingdom of Three duology that explores human greed and ambition in a war-torn world. Don't miss the epic conclusion in Sound the Gong!

Why did Thomas Eakins, now considered the foremost American painter of the nineteenth century, make portraiture his main field in an era when other major artists disdained such a choice? With a rich discussion of the cultural and vocational context of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Elizabeth Johns answers this question.

After entering the ptacticing world, Li Xiaobai, a young man who woke up and found that the world he knew was different. High school is no longer just teaching cultural knowledge, but actually teaching martial arts! He had a crush on the beautiful girl in school for three years while no one in the school was able to defeat her. The grade director who was very harsh on the students turned out to have a sword against the sky. The former college entrance examination has now become the national martial arts entrance examination. However, Li Xiaobai found that in this new world, his innate ancestors had a place to play, and he was invincible!☆About the Author☆Qu Mao De Lao Shu, a new online novelist, his writing is smooth and full of fun, and his work Supreme Taoism Master has been widely welcomed for its ups and downs storyline and peculiar imagination.

Where is life to return to Hong, stormy in the martial arts world. When you bend over, you know what it means to be humiliated. When you look back, you can see your head bobbing up and down. His name was Lu Lu, who wasn't trapped within and struggling with all their might ... Perhaps this was his dream. This book has neither transmigrated nor become a fantasy, but it is simply about a colorful martial world: the tragic song of a prodigal son on an ancient road in the setting sun, the heroic demeanor of the desert in the sands of the earth, the thrilling killing and burning of a high moon and night, the windy and drizzling of the south of the river, the snow-capped wilderness, those tragic and moving love legends that make people mourn over their memories and think about their deaths ... [Previous Chapter] [Table of Contents] [Next Chapter] The story was written by Song Renzong from the north. Close]

The five-volume set LNCS 14355, 14356, 14357, 14358 and 14359 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Image and Graphics, ICIG 2023, held in Nanjing, China, during September 22–24, 2023. The 166 papers presented in the proceedings set were carefully reviewed and selected from 409 submissions. They were organized in topical sections as follows: computer vision and pattern recognition; computer graphics and visualization; compression, transmission, retrieval; artificial intelligence; biological and medical image processing; color and multispectral processing; computational imaging; multi-view and stereoscopic processing; multimedia security; surveillance and remote sensing, and virtual reality. The ICIG 2023 is a biennial conference that focuses on innovative technologies of image, video and graphics processing and fostering innovation, entrepreneurship, and networking. It will feature world-class plenary speakers, exhibits, and high-quality peer reviewed oral and poster presentations.