Showing results for "the nightingale" in Science Fiction & Fantasy

An international best seller, Across the Nightingale Floor is the first book in the Tales of the Otori series by Lian Hearn. In his black-walled fortress at Inuyama, the warlord Iida Sadamu surveys his famous nightingale floor. Constructed with exquisite skill, it sings at the tread of each human foot. No assassin can cross it unheard. The youth Takeo has been brought up in a remote mountain village among the Hidden, a reclusive and spiritual people who have taught him only the ways of peace.

In a village at the edge of the wilderness of Northern Russia, where the winds blow cold and the snow falls many months of the year, a stranger with piercing blue eyes presents a new father with a gift - a precious jewel on a delicate chain, intended for his young daughter. Uncertain of its meaning, the father hides the gift away, and his daughter, Vasya, grows up a wild, willful girl, to the chagrin of her family. But when mysterious forces threaten the happiness of their village, Vasya discovers that she may be the only one who can keep the darkness at bay.

All across Scotland, the resistance movement is growing in both strength and numbers. For the first time in five generations, the Mages are afraid—and it's all because of one woman. But Mairi knows where the real power lies and that it is the Mages who maintain control of the country. She has become the poster girl for the resistance and her magic is growing stronger by the day. That doesn't mean, however, that she has any real chance of succeeding against the might of the Mages. And yet strange things are afoot.

A S Byatt's fairy tales and fables are among the best-loved features of her fiction. Innumerable listeners have asked for the two marvellous fairy tales in Possession - 'The Glass Coffin' and 'Gode's Tale' of the Breton Naie des Trepasses - to be published separately. Here they take their place with three other stories with medieval and oriental settings.

Detective Jack Nightingale fights his battles in the shadows, in the grey areas where demons and monsters seek their prey. In this collection of nine short stories, Nightingale matches wits against demons from Hell, monsters created by humans, and Satanists who have done their own private deals with the devil.

Disturbed by the growing presence of the Church throughout Alanda, Nightingale fears for her non-human friends and joins forces with birdman T'fyrr in a quest to save the High King.

Three vampires walk into a tattoo shop. Some people would welcome their long-lost family. But when your father is a ruthless, ancient vampire, it’s best to run in the opposite direction. Emmaline is a demure witch with a heart of gold. She’s also more powerful than all of Blackthorn Grove’s witches combined.

1890, Lutèce: In this city, Talents are everything: precious gems that gift unrivalled skills to their owners. The most coveted, Elite Talents, are claimed by the aristocracy, passed through generations by blood magic. Cleodora dreamed of inheriting her father's Tailoring Talent, but when he died, the magic died with him. Now she's left with empty promises, a dress shop she can't keep afloat, and her bed-ridden younger sister. But everything changes when she meets the dark-eyed Lady Dahlia Sibille.

Erzsébet Báthory, whose infamous place in history characterises her as the 'Blood Countess', is rumoured to have murdered 600 peasant girls. The Nightingale's Castle tells the gripping story of an intelligent and capable woman fighting to hold onto her wealth and independence, in a world where the poor and the wealthy alike face savage challenges.

In a land of vast forests and clustered cities, humans and anthelai live in uneasy proximity. Forced deep into the wilds, the anthelai are feared and hated. They are perceived as monsters, servants of the dark god Enas, master of the hell-like Plains of Centura. Halfbloods, the children of two species, are extremely rare. The blood does not mix easy, but when it does, the result belongs to neither side. They are outcasts. The lone survivor of an attack that destroys her home and family, one halfblood girl is captured by a man bent on transforming her into a deadly assassin.

Someone is harvesting souls from the battlefields of the Crimea, turning dying soldiers into a vampire army. The leaders of nearby Constantinople are calling in the hunter clans to cleanse their city, even if it means killing all the law-abiding creatures living among their human neighbors. British nurse Florence Nightingale summons her old friend, an angel and fellow nurse, to find the source of the vampires in her hospital. Ashley Moore, together with her valkyrie sister, Ingrid, begins the hunt for clues.

This is a story from the The Happy Prince and Other Stories collection.

A long time ago, the Emperor of China lived in a magnificent palace made of fine china and surrounded by a splendid garden that was so big that even the gardener did not know it all. One day, the Emperor read a book that told him that most marvellous bird was the nightingale and so he asked his court to find him one because he wanted to hear it sing that very evening. But, where could one be found? - Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) was a Danish author, poet and artist.

Meg finds out Sparrow has a sister. A beautiful and deranged sister that Sparrow's family is keeping locked in the basement. And now, they're locked up together while Sparrow attempts to make amends with family. Meg and Sparrow might be invincible together, but Meg is having a hard time getting along with Sparrow's father.

Two short novels set in Eric Flint's best-selling Ring of Fire series from David Carrico, coauthor of 1636: The Devil's Opera. Due to a temporal disturbance known as the Ring of Fire, the 20th-century town of Grantville, West Virginia, finds itself transported through time and space to Central Europe in the year 1632. The turmoil resulting from the event has massive repercussions for the up-time citizens of Grantville, the down-time citizens of Europe - and the world at large. Massive political and social upheavals take place. But change happens on a smaller, human scale, too.