Captain Vlora is a powder mage in the Adran army. Once the favored, adopted daughter of the field marshal, she is now a pariah amongst those she called her family. Her superior officers would like nothing more than to send her to a far off posting and forget about her, but no one is exempt when there is a war - and powder mages are desperately needed. When a traitorous guard captain goes on the run with information that could harm the war effort, Vlora is sent on his trail. She has three days to find him; she will have to make new friends and test the limits of her skills. Fail, and good soldiers will die. Succeed and maybe, just maybe, she can begin to work her way back into the field marshal's good graces. A new story set in the world of the Powder Mage trilogy, the most acclaimed and action-packed new epic fantasy series in recent years. RETURN TO HONOR takes place directly following the events of book one, "Promise of Blood.

The Age of Kings is dead . . . and I have killed it.

It's a bloody business overthrowing a king...
Field Marshal Tamas' coup against his king sent corrupt aristocrats to the guillotine and brought bread to the starving. But it also provoked war with the Nine Nations, internal attacks by royalist fanatics, and the greedy to scramble for money and power by Tamas's supposed allies: the Church, workers unions, and mercenary forces.

Stretched to his limit, Tamas is relying heavily on his few remaining powder mages, including the embittered Taniel, a brilliant marksman who also happens to be his estranged son, and Adamat, a retired police inspector whose loyalty is being tested by blackmail.

But when gods are involved...
Now, as attacks batter them from within and without, the credulous are whispering about omens of death and destruction. Just old peasant legends about the gods waking to walk the earth. No modern educated man believes that sort of thing. But they should...

In a rich, distinctive world that mixes magic with technology, who could stand against mages that control gunpowder and bullets?

World book day 2009 edition, holding
1. "Spook's Tale" The story of John Gregory as boy setting off to be trained as priest but meeting a spook on the way. They encounter a boggart and a witch.
2. Story two is "Interception point" by Mark Walden. 58 pages long.

Thomas Ward is the seventh son of a seventh son and has been apprenticed to the local Spook. The job is hard, the Spook is distant and many apprentices have failed before Thomas. Somehow Thomas must learn how to exorcise ghosts, contain witches and bind boggarts. But when he is tricked into freeing Mother Malkin, the most evil witch in the County, the horror begins..

Sid the Skeleton bones up on clues to solve a Haunted House homicide in this mystery from the author of The Skeleton Takes a Bow …

What holiday could bring more warmth to a skeleton’s chest cavity than Halloween? And when you’re a living skeleton who’s not supposed to be seen outside the house, it’s a welcome chance to get some fresh air and rub bony elbows with people. That’s why Sid doesn’t mind wearing a full-body dog suit and going as Scooby-Doo along with Georgia Thackery’s Velma to the Halloween Howl.

Sid can’t wait to go through the Haunted House—but he gets rattled for real when a genuine dead body is discovered. Trapped inside as the police quickly seal off the crime scene, Sid makes no bones about dropping the dog suit and posing as an actual skeleton. This murder is a skull-scratcher, but as long as Sid is on the inside, he might as well case the joint to figure out who used the cover of darkness to commit the perfect crime…

And the best performance as a skull goes to…

After years of hiding in the Thackery family house, Sid the skeleton is delighted to finally have his moment in the spotlight. He’s starring in a high school production of Hamlet. Well, not so much starring in as being a prop. At least part of him has a part—he’s using his head to play Yorick of “Alas, poor Yorick” fame. Every day, Georgia Thackery’s daughter, Madison, who’s also in the play, brings in his skull, and every night, she takes him home...

Until one night when he’s accidentally left at school—and hears the sounds of someone being murdered. But the next day, there’s no body and no one seems to be missing.

Sid is not a numbskull—he knows what he heard. Georgia thinks he imagined it—until a week later when a body is found. Now Georgia and Sid will both need to keep their heads as they stick their necks out and play sleuth to catch the conscience of a killer…

Most families have skeletons in their closets…

Moving back into her parents’ house with her teenage daughter had not been Georgia Thackery’s “Plan A.” But when she got a job at the local college, it seemed the sensible thing to do. So she settled in and began reconnecting with old friends.

Including Sid. Sid is the Thackery family’s skeleton. He’s lived in the house as long as Georgia can remember, although no one, including Sid, knows exactly where he came from and how he came to be a skeleton.

Sid walks, he talks, he makes bad jokes, he tries to keep Georgia’s dog from considering him a snack. And he manages to persuade Georgia to let him leave the house. But when she takes him to an anime convention—disguised as a skeleton, of course—he sees a woman who triggers memories of his past.

Now he is determined to find out how he died—with Georgia’s help. But their investigation may uncover a killer who’s still alive and well and bad to the bone…

Tainted Victory

Captain Nolan destroyed the Void Wraith factory and the fleet guarding it, but every victory comes with a price. The destruction of the Helios Gate in the Ghantan system stranded Nolan and his crew months from the closest Gate. Dryker and Khar have been imprisoned by the Primo, forced to remain idle.

With both Nolan and Dryker absent from the galactic stage the Void Wraith’s agents have grown bolder. They trigger a war between humanity and the Tigris, one that will devastate both races. Worse, the Void Wraith’s master has arrived in the Milky Way, and it hungers.

Dryker must rally the Primo, Tigris, and Humanity…or all three races face eradication.

Mankind’s outer colonies are disappearing. Without warning. Without a trace. Fleet command chalks the attacks up to pirates, but Captain Dryker of the UFC Johnston isn’t buying it.

Defying command, he leads his misfit crew into hostile territory in search of answers. They encounter a technologically superior foe unlike anything humanity has ever seen, one bent on the destruction of all sentient life. After 26,000 years the mythical Void Wraith have returned to begin the next Eradication.

Humanity cannot stop them. Not without help. Captain Dryker’s only hope is to forge an alliance with mankind’s greatest enemy, the savage Tigris.

One maverick captain, an unlikely crew, and an aging vessel are all that stand between humanity and the Eradication.

“It’s like Battlestar Galactica and Mass Effect had a baby, and that baby was raised by Starcraft. I read this book in one sitting, and immediately looked for the next.”- The author’s totally biased friend.

Minalan’s Summer Vacation!
What does the most powerful wizard in the world do after the war is over? Despite the hordes of goblins still ready to ravage human lands, King Rard has signed a treaty with them, so Minalan is forbidden from taking advantage of their weakened state. Most would take a well-deserved rest over the summer . . . but Minalan and his household are busy repaying a favor owed to the tribal Kasari for their help in the war, and the Spellmonger pays his debts. So Minalan spends his summer sneaking two thousand Kasari children through enemy lines, goblin territory, hostile Wilderlords, and through some of the roughest territory in the Five Duchies toward salvation.
But the Spellmonger soon learns that not even the help of a goddess is going to be sufficient to contend with the realities of the quest. Despite his best efforts and some of the most advanced magic seen since the Magocracy, the march attracts enemies . . . and far too many friends.
For when the desperate refugees of the war-torn Alshari Wilderlands see the well-fed legions of Kasari march by, they cannot help but follow, even if they have no idea of the destination. Any life is better than the hopeless existence they’ve lived avoiding starvation and the goblins’ stewpot. And the promise of hope the great march of the Spellmonger’s children offers is just too good to pass up. Security and the promise of a brighter future lie just on the other side of the border with the duchy of Castal.
The problem is that the Duke of Castal, Prince Tavard, who is also Minalan's titular overlord, is dead-set against a single Alshari refugee crossing his frontier – and he’s assembled a small army to stop any from doing so. With political pressure high and the very gods maneuvering behind the scenes, it’s going to take some clever magic, some inspired legal maneuvering, and some serious effort to pull off this miracle . . . but that’s the kind of job the Spellmonger does in Journeymage!

Rock Star!

Things were starting to look up for Magelord Minalan the Spellmonger – the magic mountain in his domain not only made him a wealthy man and the most powerful mage in history, it also produced a lode of magical gemstones with unique properties – properties the Alka Alon, the masters of magic on Callidore, are fascinated by. When Minalan gets his chance to trade some of his magic rocks for irionite, he finds himself in a position to raise hundreds more magi with the stones . . . making them High Magi.

But as valuable as that bargain is for prosecuting the war with the Dead God and his sinister armies, such power comes with a hefty price. Every new High Mage Minalan raises presents potential new problems. The Magelords have inspired fear in their neighbors. The warmagi invent deadly new spells. The lower orders of magi are getting restless. The mage-led Sevendor Town wants a new charter. King Rard and the royal court are pressuring the nascent Arcane Orders politically. Some magi are crossing the Penumbra and taking stones from the goblins, as well as taking their service. And some are just starting to get a little crazy.

It makes a nice, normal little raid on his lands seem refreshing in its simplicity.

In trying to balance the needs of the war with the needs of a well-ordered Order, Minalan finds himself making compromises, cutting deals, and bargaining what power he has in a high-stakes game where Chaos seems to be the only player who knows the rules. The temptations of his position and the power he wields are great, but so, he discovers, are the responsibilities. But when his patience seems nearly exhausted and his alliances seem ready to crumble, a massive army emerges from the shadowy realms and strikes south, forcing the High Magi to rally around the Spellmonger in defense of the kingdom.


As the genocidal goblin army marches toward the once-prosperous cottonlands of Gilmora, Minalan and his High Magi must defend a single bridge against them at all costs. And they are ready to. But the plans of magi count little when the powerful and subtle mind of the Dead God opposes them. For when the die is cast and the first blow is struck, it becomes clear that nothing is as Minalan had foreseen. As disaster looms for the humani kingdom and even the Alka Alon are threatened, only a desperate appeal to divinity, a dangerously risky adventure and a little classy enchantment offer any hope against calamity. For the day has come when all that stands between ruin and survival is the bravery and cunning of the Spellmonger and his High Magi!

Opposites Attack!

When the Magelord Minalan the Spellmonger’s two apprentices, Tyndal and Rondal, were knighted after the battle of Timberwatch, they were dubbed Knights Magi: a new class of nobility for distinguished High Magi. Designed to combine the pursuit of arcane knowledge with the noble aspirations of chivalry, it elevated them above common warmage . . . in theory. The problem was they had no idea how to be a Knight Mage . . . because no one had ever been one before. And as a couple of half-trained rustic apprentices from the Mindens they did not feel up to the task or the high ideals of their title.

But Master Minalan the Spellmonger decided to cure that ignorance. He arranges for Tyndal and Rondal to be tutored and trained together in their new vocation, learning the arts of magic, the craft of warfare and the subtleties of chivalry from the finest masters in the kingdom.

If they didn’t kill each other, first.

The two young spellmonger’s apprentices from the Minden mountain domain of Boval Vale have much in common: both had their homes destroyed, they were both sent into exile by the goblin invasion, and they both serve the same master. Yet they could not be more different.

Rondal is quiet, bookish, and introspective, dedicated to the disciplines of academic magic and anticipating a future of study, service, and, perhaps, romance. Tyndal is bold and brash: an extroverted over-achiever with dreams of glory, gold, and girls. Fate, circumstance, and the whims of the gods have forced them together, but the raw emotions of adolescence and the trauma of war put them at each others’ throats with depressing frequency. Master Minalan can’t have that, especially not in his fragile new domain with another baby on the way . . . so he sends them on the road.

Jealousy, anxiety, passion and frustration conspire to make them rivals - but if they don’t figure out a way to learn to work together, and quickly, then their stubborn feud could end up affecting the fate of the entire war. Along the way they pick up some enemies, gain a few allies, master a few new skills, and attempt to learn the laws of love. But as they stumble through their lessons and learn to master their tempers they discover that the strongest bonds between men are forged by the most difficult of trials.

For after they become proficient at magic, war, and errantry they are put to the test in the field, the most difficult of circumstances . . . a mission where the strength of their friendship and the quality of their honor may be what defines them best as

Knights Magi!

Alternate cover edition of ASIN B00F7V28VG

MINALAN GETS MEDIEVAL!

When you defeat the invading goblin army, get knighted on the field of battle, gifted with lands and gold, usually your happily-ever-after is . . . happy. But now that Minalan the Spellmonger has been ennobled and enfiefed, Sire Minalan has a task cut out for him that makes defeating goblins seem like child’s play: moving his very pregnant bride and a few thousand refugees from Boval Vale into the remote, sparsely-peopled Domain of Sevendor. But when he arrives, he finds the land withered from neglect, filled with superstition and suspicion, a third of his domain has been conquered before he got there, and the castle he now owns hasn’t been maintained in decades. As Minalan manages the challenges of being a noble, being a mage knight, being the lord of the manor, being a landlord, and fending off a belligerent (and well-armed) neighbor, he also has to learn how to be a husband, father, and a leader of a people.

Then the fateful night his son is finally born, Minalan learns the nature of fear, as he, his family, and his very realm are forever changed when the spell he casts to save their lives transforms the land. Minalan, his apprentices Sir Tyndal and Sir Rondal, his dour but efficacious castellan Sir Cei, and his moody wife struggle through the winter and defend their domain in his attempt to prove what a Magelord can do for his people when he puts magic in their service.

But in the distance, the threat of a renewed war with the goblins looms as they approach the Riverlands, the Gilmoran baronies that are the heart of the Duchies. The contentious High Magi convene to constitute the new Arcane Orders, while the fanatical Royal Censorate of Magic plots defeat them and the thousands of hedgemagi, witches and footwizards they terrorized now see Minalan as a hero. The sinister Family schemes to promote Duke Rard II to become King Rard I of the newly-united Kingdom of Castalshar – over a pile of bodies, if necessary. And suddenly, out of the sky fall dragons in the service of the Dead God to strike at the strength of the nascent Kingdom.

How can Sire Minalan fight goblins, plots, poverty and politics, all from his remote and rustic vale while keeping the peasants in line and the Warbird of West Fleria at bay? With wit, courage, determination, and a healthy dose of magic. And when the new King tasks him to find a way to slay a dragon, an ordinary knight might shy away from the quest. For Sire Minalan, it’s just another day on the job as a

MAGELORD!

The Goblin Invasion Is On...

...and a wizard's work is never done! After facing a hopeless siege, an implacable foe and an impossible escape, you would think that Minalan the Spellmonger would be able to rest -- but the armies of the undead goblin shaman Shereul (known as the Dead God to his human victims) are rolling over the western reaches of the rustic Duchy of Alshar and is headed toward the heart of the Duchy of Castal. Thousands are fleeing for their lives as hordes of goblins pour out of Boval Vale and devastate the rugged fiefs of the Alshari Wilderlands. And the super-charged shamans of the Dead God are making defending the realm almost impossible for the outnumbered Alshari country knights.

While the two Dukes play feudal politics to further their own ends, the only people who seem to care about the invasion are Minalan and his outlaw warmagi friends -- and they're busy dodging agents of the sinister Royal Censorate of Magic.

But if someone doesn't organize an army in northern Alshar soon, then there will be nothing to stop the armies of the divinely-powerful Dead God from conquering all five Duchies in his genocidal quest for vengeance.

But things are just not that simple: he has to cope with a sexy young Shadowmage assasin who works for a mysterious spymaster, a cocky new manservant, a dysfunctional group of suddenly-powerful warmagi, the Censor General, and a bunch of whiny nobles before the Dukes will grant him the troops and money he will need -- and the Dukes have plans of their own. If Minalan the Spellmonger can't lobby the courts of Alshar and Castal to work together -- and quickly -- the hordes of the Dead God will sweep over the frontiers of both states. Worse, the mysterious Umbra veil he has erected around Boval Vale may come to imperil all Five Duchies.

Minalan would rather just go home and let the Dukes handle it, but his conscience won't let him. Someone has to stop the Dead God . . . and that someone happens to be him. Beyond politics and plots, goblins and trolls, mercenaries and magic, the Soulless and the shamans, Censors and secret orders, for Minalan there is only the thought that his child is to be born in a world with such dangers, and that is something he cannot permit.

It is time for the Spellmonger to pick up his mageblade, summon his allies, and go to war again . . . as a Warmage!
Product Details

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 1620 KB
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
Language: English
ASIN: B00701DQSU
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
Lending: Enabled

Before the dramatic events at the Battle of Timberwatch - as told in Warmage - Tyndal of Boval was on a secret mission: to take Master's intended (and expecting) bride to his hometown to live with his family until he returned from the war, and then protect her in the unlikely event that the sinister Royal Censorate of Magic would find them . . . and use them as leverage against Master Minalan the Spellmonger.

Tyndal is out of his element - just barely a mage, he's far more adept with a pitchfork than a wand. But then the gods never asked his opinion, and he sets to his task with the determination of a mountain-born lad. And the attractive daughter of a local innkeeper persists in distracting him from his charge, an attention that Tyndal desires even as he recognizes the danger of such an entanglement.

What's a young apprentice mage to do . . . especially when the worst of his fears are realized, and the checkered cloaks of the Censorate warmagi appear on the docks of Talry. Then Tyndal's only hope to save his master's bride and his family - not to mention his own life - is to trust in the River Mists of Talry!

Minalan gave up a promising career as a professional warmage to live the quiet life of a village spellmonger in the remote mountain valley of Boval. It was a peaceful, beautiful little fief, far from the dangerous feudal petty squabbles of the Five Duchies, on the world of Callidore. There were cows. Lots of cows. And cheese. For six months things went well: he found a quaint little shop, befriended the local lord, the village folk loved him, he found a sharp young apprentice to help out, and best yet, he met a pretty young widow with the prettiest eyes . . .

Then one night Minalan is forced to pick up his mageblade again to defend his adopted home from the vanguard of an army of goblins – gurvani, they call themselves – bent on a genocidal crusade against all mankind. And that was the good news. The bad news was that their shamans were armed with more magical power than has been seen since the days of the ancient Imperial Magocracy – and their leader, a mysterious, vengeful force of hate and dark magic, is headed directly to Boval valley. The good people of Boval and their spellmonger have only one choice, to hole up in the over-sized Boval Castle and hope they can endure a siege against hundreds of thousands.

When the people look to him for hope, Minalan does his best, but there are multitudes of goblins, and they want Boval Vale as a staging ground for an invasion of the whole Five Duchies, and only Minalan is standing in their way. Add a jealous rival mage, a motley band of mercenaries, a delusional liege lord who insists victory is at hand despite the hordes at his door, a moody, pregnant girlfriend and a catty ex-girlfriend who specializes in sex magic -- all trapped in a stinking, besieged castle with no hope of rescue, and you’ll understand why Minalan is willing to take his chances with the goblins.

All that stands between the gurvani horde and the people of the Five Duchies is one tired, overwhelmed baker’s son who wanted nothing more than to be a simple spellmonger.

Alternate covers for 9780307277671 can be found:
The da Vinci Code , The da Vinci Code , The da Vinci Code , and The da Vinci Code

While in Paris on business, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon receives an urgent late-night phone call: the elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum. Near the body, police have found a baffling cipher. While working to solve the enigmatic riddle, Langdon is stunned to discover it leads to a trail of clues hidden in the works of Da Vinci -- clues visible for all to see -- yet ingeniously disguised by the painter.

Langdon joins forces with a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, and learns the late curator was involved in the Priory of Sion -- an actual secret society whose members included Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo, and Da Vinci, among others.

In a breathless race through Paris, London, and beyond, Langdon and Neveu match wits with a faceless powerbroker who seems to anticipate their every move. Unless Langdon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine puzzle in time, the Priory's ancient secret -- and an explosive historical truth -- will be lost forever.

The Da Vinci Code heralds the arrival of a new breed of lightning-paced, intelligent thriller utterly unpredictable right up to its stunning conclusion.

Doctor Impossible—evil genius, diabolical scientist, wannabe world dominator—languishes in a federal detention facility. He's lost his freedom, his girlfriend, and his hidden island fortress.

Over the years he's tried to take over the world in every way imaginable: doomsday devices of all varieties (nuclear, thermonuclear, nanotechnological) and mass mind control. He's traveled backwards in time to change history, forward in time to escape it. He's commanded robot armies, insect armies, and dinosaur armies. Fungus army. Army of fish. Of rodents. Alien invasions. All failures. But not this time. This time it's going to be different...

Fatale is a rookie superhero on her first day with the Champions, the world's most famous superteam. She's a patchwork woman of skin and chrome, a gleaming technological marvel built to be the next generation of warfare. Filling the void left by a slain former member, Fatale joins a team struggling with a damaged past, trying to come together in the face of unthinkable evil.

Soon I Will Be Invincible is a thrilling first novel; a fantastical adventure that gives new meaning to the notions of power, glory, responsibility, and (of course) good and evil.

Bloodier than Fried Green Tomatoes !
Funnier than The Texas Chainsaw Massacre !

Welcome to Gil's All Night Diner, where zombie attacks are a regular occurrence and you never know what might be lurking in the freezer. . . .

Duke and Earl are just passing through Rockwood county in their pick-up truck when they stop at the diner for a quick bite to eat. They aren't planning to stick around--until Loretta, the eatery's owner, offers them one hundred dollars to take care of her zombie problem. Given that Duke is a werewolf and Earl's a vampire, this looks right up their alley.

But the shambling dead are just the tip of a particularly spiky iceberg. Seems someone's out to drive Loretta from the diner, and more than willing to raise a little hell on earth if that's what it takes. Before Duke and Earl get to the bottom of the diner's troubles, they'll run into such otherworldly complications as undead cattle, an amorous ghost, a jailbait sorceress, and the terrifying occult power of pig Latin.

And maybe--just maybe--the End of the World, too.

Gory, sexy, and flat-out hilarious, Gil's All Fright Diner will tickle your funny bone--before ripping it out of its socket!

For a two-thousand-year-old Druid, Atticus O’Sullivan is a pretty fast runner. Good thing, because he’s being chased by not one but two goddesses of the hunt—Artemis and Diana—for messing with one of their own. Dodging their slings and arrows, Atticus, Granuaile, and his wolfhound Oberon are making a mad dash across modern-day Europe to seek help from a friend of the Tuatha Dé Danann. His usual magical option of shifting planes is blocked, so instead of playing hide-and-seek, the game plan is . . . run like hell.
 
Crashing the pantheon marathon is the Norse god Loki. Killing Atticus is the only loose end he needs to tie up before unleashing Ragnarok—AKA the Apocalypse. Atticus and Granuaile have to outfox the Olympians and contain the god of mischief if they want to go on living—and still have a world to live in.

Also contains the novella "Two Ravens and One Crow" (#4.5).