Showing results by narrator "Shea Taylor" in All Categories

After traveling to Faubrey to meet the country's seven star hero, Naofumi finds himself faced with Takt, the Whip Hero. It was this same Takt, along with his disdainful attitude, that ultimately caused the death of Atla in the battle against the Phoenix. Fueled by rage, Naofumi tries to fight Takt, but Takt steals the shield that Naofumi thought was permanently attached to his arm. With his defenses weakened, Naofumi suffers a critical injury and finds himself in a mysterious, unfamiliar world.

When Sir Peter Pendragon, a retired pilot of the Great War, meets the free-spirited Louise, a devotee of the mysterious occultist Basil King Lamus, the two immediately get married and set off across Europe, on a drug-fueled honeymoon of heroin and cocaine. Eventually, in an attempt to break free of their recently acquired habit, the newlyweds find their way to the Abbey of Thelema in Italy, where the adults perform invocations to the sun and the children freely recite passages from the Book of the Law.

After they were summoned to another world, the other three heroes persist in behaving as if they are playing a game. But the Shield Hero, Naofumi Iwatani, finally convinces them to change their ways and make them face reality. Later, after a journey riddled with difficulties, Naofumi and crew finally arrive in Q'ten Lo, a country that has made repeated attempts on Raphtalia's life. They initially infiltrate the country with the intention of making its inhabitants pay for its tyrannical actions, but it turns out that even its own citizens are suffering as a result of incompetent rulers.

The Smoky God is a classic tale from the genre of hollow Earth or subterranean literature. A once-favorite tale of Amazing Stories publisher Ray Palmer, The Smoky God is the (purportedly true) tale of two Norwegian fishermen Jens and Olaf Jansen, who sailed their fishing vessel into the inner Earth in the year 1829. While in the center of the Earth, they find an entire society and meet a race and of advanced giants.

Bowie has long been haunted by the angst-ridden, emotional work of the Die Brucke movement and the Expressionists. Berlin is their spiritual home, and after a chaotic world tour, Bowie adopts this city as his new sanctuary. Immediately he sets to work on Low, his own expressionist mood-piece.

Prudence Merriweather has clawed her way to the top of society and now enjoys newfound power as the Duchess of Talonsbury. All she has to do is maintain the act of gentility, make her husband happy—and keep her monstrous magic a secret. Puck Reed, the Thief Lord of Talonsbury, once delighted in taking risks and humiliating the social elite at any cost, but now lives a quieter criminal lifestyle. His daughter, Bea, suffers from a mysterious illness bent on killing her, and Puck will stop at nothing to find a cure.

A famous horror writer. That's what Zackie Beauchamp wants to be. He's writing a story about a giant blob monster. A pink, slimy creature who eats up an entire town! Then Zackie finds the typewriter. In a burned-down antiques store. He takes it home and starts typing. But there's something really odd about that typewriter. Something really dangerous. Because now every scary word Zackie writes is starting to come true.

Why are scholars so prone to fabricate a new Jesus? Why is the public so eager to accept such claims without question? What methods and assumptions predispose scholars to distort the record? Is there a more sober approach to finding the real Jesus? Commenting on such recent releases as Bart Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus, James Tabor's The Jesus Dynasty, Michael Baigent's The Jesus Papers and the Gospel of Judas, Craig Evans offers a sane approach to examining the sources for understanding the historical Jesus.

British author Algernon Blackwood was a prolific writer who is usually remembered for his numerous ghost stories; however, he also wrote on many other supernatural themes. This collection of 13 stories includes: "The Wendigo", "The Olive", "The Goblin's Collection", "The Sea Fit", "Ancient Lights", "The Prayer", "The Wood of the Dead", "An Egyptian Hornet", "The Other Wing", "The Singular Death of Morton", "Entrance and Exit", "The Kit Bag", "The Damned".

The Painted Veil is the story of Kitty Garstin, a young socialite who amuses herself with the pursuit of various men until settling into a marriage with a physician, who takes her to Hong Kong to begin his work. Shortly after they move, Kitty meets the charming, yet distasteful, Charlie Townsend, and begins a passionate affair that lasts several years without notice from her husband.

All that we achieve and all that we fail to achieve is the direct result of our own thoughts. “Self-control is strength. Right thought is mastery. Calmness is power.” (James Allen, As a Man Thinketh) As Allen himself describes, “It shows how, in his own thought-world, each man holds the key to every condition, good or bad, that enters into his life, and that, by working patiently and intelligently upon his thoughts, he may remake his life, and transform his circumstances…and it can be carried in the pocket.”

Princess Riona was eight when the Revonian king murdered her family and conquered her kingdom with a mysterious magic. She has spent the last decade training—and waiting for her moment to avenge them all and reclaim her rightful title.

Finishing the battle with Kyo, Naofumi and his friends return safely to their world. The queen of Melromarc wishes to reward Naofumi for saving the world from the Spirit Tortoise. "Then can I have my own land?" After thinking about what he could do for his friend and partner, Raphtalia, Naofumi decides the best thing for their future would be the establishment of their own settlement–and he decides to build it on the ruins of Raphtalia's old hometown! The start of a whole new chapter in our hero's life begins here, in volume ten of this otherworld revenge fantasy!

After defeating seemingly immortal invaders from another world, Naofumi finally manages to convince the Sword Hero, Ren Amaki, to reconsider his ways. Having reclaimed their peaceful day-to-day lives, Naofumi and his slaves head back to the colosseum to hone their skills in battle. But once there, they are confronted by an unbelievable sight: the Bow Hero has assumed an alias and is completely absorbed in earning fight purses in blind pursuit of his own sense of justice!

The Heavenly Emperor of Q'ten Lo is after Raphtalia's life! To ensure her saftey, Naofumi must team up with the country's revolutionaries to overthrow him! But when they go about fixing the problems of the country's misrule, it drives the emperor even further into a corner. Nevertheless, Naofumi decides to add fuel to the fire by capturing the country's former capital! But he learns that someone is pulling the strings from behind the curtain.

Having claimed his victory at the coliseum tournament, Naofumi successfully frees the demi-human slaves to return to their village. When they arrive back at the village, Naofumi receives news on the whereabouts of Motoyasu, the Spear Hero. In order to capture him, Naofumi organizes a manhunt, but it leads him to a scene of carnage involving the Sword Hero, Motoyasu, and Bitch.

After the successful revolt in Q'ten Lo, Naofumi returns to his village headquarters. Meanwhile, things in Melromarc continue to deteriorate, so he sets out to restore public order before strengthening his village residents. Now, with more allies than ever, Naofumi is faced with deciding who will participate in the battle against the Phoenix. Not everyone agrees with his choices.

Aleister Crowley left behind a literary legacy of hundreds of examples of his authorship, in diverse categories of writing. Collected here is a sampling of those writings.

Dion Fortune was a British occultist and co-founder of the Fraternity of Inner Light. She was also a prolific author of occult fiction. These paranormal adventures of Dr. Taverner and Dr. Rhodes take on everything from death hounds and curses to vampires, using the esoteric sciences to tackle the case. Although published as fiction, Fortune maintained that all her stories were based on true events.

An influential writer of supernatural fiction, Arthur Machen was born in Wales, in 1863. Many modern writers, such as Stephen King, have cited him as an inspiration. Perhaps most notably, though, was H.P. Lovecraft, who cites Machen as what led him down the road to eventually creating the Cthulhu Mythos. Presented here are two short stories and two novellas: "The Inmost Light", "A Fragment of Life", "The Shining Pyramid", and "The Terror."