Showing results by narrator "Steven Brand" in All Categories

The Downs, the poor district of the city of Avarest, is home to cutthroats and thieves, pickpockets and prostitutes, all of whom pay tribute to one of two powerful crime bosses. It is also home to Aaron Envelar, a disillusioned sellsword known as the Silent Blade, who cares nothing for the criminal overlords or their schemes, who only wants to survive and make a little coin. But when a group of thugs steal his mother’s necklace, the only link he has to his murdered parents, Aaron decides that sometimes gold isn’t enough - sometimes, blood is the only payment worth taking.

Belgarin’s forces have retreated, but in the city of Perennia there is no rejoicing. The wind carries the smell of freshly dug graves and death. As the city grieves, Aaron and his companions attempt to hold together an alliance that threatens to crumble around them. While the alliance’s leaders bicker and argue, Boyce Kevlane, an ancient wizard bent on revenge, has taken Belgarin’s place as king and uses his twisted powers to create an army out of nightmare. Aaron is forced to venture into a city gripped by madness and terror in search of proof of the coming danger.

Aaron and his companions return from Baresh with the truth of what the alliance faces, yet such knowledge is little comfort. Throughout the city, men and women whisper of demons, of monsters. But though they might disagree on the nature of Kevlane's twisted creations, there is one thing they have in common. Fear. For the creatures they face are not men - not any longer. They are death given form and function. They are, it seems in the darkest hours - and there are many such now - Telrear's doom.

Ridmark Arban is the Shield Knight, the defender of the realm of Andomhaim from dark magic. But when dark magic stirs in the mountains of Taliand, the power of the Shield Knight might not even be enough to save Andomhaim....

Aaron and his companions have been saved from Kevlane's creatures only to find themselves in the power of the Akalians, a shadowy group of warriors many believe aren't men at all, but creatures of nightmare bent on blood and death. But not all the shadows' secrets are evil ones, and allies are often found in the unlikeliest of places. In Baresh, the tournament has begun, and the ancient mage, Kevlane, adds more twisted creatures to his army, fashioning a force the likes of which the world has never seen.

Ambition and jealousy - all set to music. Devout court composer Antonio Salieri plots against his rival, the dissolute but supremely talented Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. How far will Salieri go to achieve the fame that Mozart disregards?

Grinner and his conspiracy to overthrow Perennia have been defeated, but victory came at a high cost. The alliance suffered losses it could ill afford, for the true enemy still lies in Baresh, growing stronger with each day that passes. Leading the combined armies of three kingdoms, Aaron and his companions march to the city, but even with such a force, even with the power of the Virtues, victory is anything but assured. For when blades are drawn, when battle begins, the only certainty is blood.

Sevenfold Sword, Part VI includes books 11 and 12 of the series. The quest of the Seven Swords nears its end, and dark powers rise to seize the world. Ridmark Arban has learned the terrible secret at the heart of the Seven Swords. Now he need only escape Urd Maelwyn, the grim city ruled by the dark elven tyrant known as the Confessor. But few who enter Urd Maelwyn ever leave alive. And the Maledicti priests will kill to protect the secret of the Seven Swords. 

Part of John Muir's appeal to modern audiences is that he not only explored the American West and wrote about its beauties but also fought for their preservation. His successes dot the landscape and are evident in all the natural features that bear his name: forests, lakes, trails, and glaciers. Here collected are some of Muir's finest wilderness essays, ranging in subject matter from Alaska to Yellowstone, from Oregon to the High Sierra. 

Four hundred years ago the Alkomian Empire clawed its way from the long dark, uniting the splintered factions of mankind under one banner. Harnessing the mysterious power of runes, the empire of man spread across the land, exploring and inhabiting the ancient fortresses that they plundered for runestones. For centuries humanity has stood unopposed, masters of their own destiny. Until now. In the east a darkness stirs. An evil beyond myth and memory sends its agents to plant the seeds of mankind's destruction.

After a long and terrible war, the realm of Andomhaim is at peace. But dark powers threaten other lands. Ridmark Arban, the Shield Knight and defender of Andomhaim, finds himself fighting for his life, and for the lives of his family, when a mad elven wizard comes to the High King's court. For the quest of the Seven Swords has begun. And the quest will kill anyone foolish enough to seek its secret.

To defeat the evil of the Seven Swords, Ridmark must learn the secrets of their making. But the creator of the Swords is imprisoned within the dungeons of Urd Maelwyn, once the stronghold of the dark elven tyrant called the Sovereign. And those who enter the dungeons of Urd Maelwyn never return. To find a way to destroy the Swords, Ridmark enters the Durance of Urd Maelwyn, a twisted dungeon built by a dark elven tyrant. There, he must find the mad smith who forged the Swords. But the ruler of the Durance does not let prisoners escape her iron grasp....

The quest of the Seven Swords has freed the shadows to prey upon mankind. Ridmark has learned that the sorceress Cathala holds the secret of the Seven Swords and quests to free her from the grasp of an imprisoning spell. But the Maledicti priests know of Ridmark's quest and plot to stop him with a deadly new weapon. Ridmark and his companions find themselves caught in the war between the final remnant of the dying gray elves and the brutal muridach horde. Unless Ridmark can save the gray elves, he and his friends will die, and the New God will rise in power to enslave the world.

Ridmark Arban is the Shield Knight, the only Swordbearer in the realm of Owyllain. He is allied with the noble King Hektor Pendragon, who fights to reunify the Seven Swords and to end the destructive war they have unleashed. But the tyrannical King Justin Cyros is marching to war against Hektor, and King Justin knows the secret of the malevolent New God, a secret that will kill everyone in Owyllain. Meanwhile, the Necromancer of Trojas wields the Sword of Death, and with it he has summoned a vast host of the undead.

The quest of the Seven Swords will unmask treachery. It threatens to summon the malevolent New God...but other dark powers might seize the New God's throne. Ridmark Arban is the Shield Knight, questing to stop the rise of the evil New God and to rescue his friends from the cruel dvargir slavers of Najaris. The sorceress Cathala, imprisoned within magical stone, holds the lore of the creator of the Seven Swords. But dark powers are stirring in the Serpent Marshes, and Cathala has secrets of her own. Secrets that might kill Ridmark and his friends.

Jimmy Porter barely ekes out a living running a candy stall by day and playing jazz trumpet by night. Although he usually takes his frustrations out on his emotionless wife, Jimmy's scathing tongue and self-loathing seem destined to destroy everything. Set in the UK at the dawn of the '60s social unrest, this savage morality tale spawned the phrase “angry young man".

Months have passed since Tyrus ended a decade of war between Turine and Genesha by destroying the Geneshan's sorcerous artifact. He had hoped that taking his family south would grant him the peace he desired, but even in the Southern Kingdoms, war welcomes him instead. Ava strikes a deal with the Southern Kingdom leaders to protect her brother, taking his place in their fight to protect their lands from invading forces. Having spent her adult life entrenched in battle, Ava doesn't hold any illusions as to what awaits her.

The Turine army is on the brink of victory against the Geneshans. Sergeant Tyrus and his unit are tasked to steal an artifact from the enemy that some believe has the power to destroy the world. Taking such power from the Geneshans would end the decade long war. Upon their success, Tyrus' unit is among the first wave of soldiers discharged from the army. War has robbed him of time with his wife and children, but now the life he has dreamed of every day for the last 10 years is just a long journey away.

The Alkomian Empire lies in ruin. An army of traitors marches on the capital, forcing the emperor from his throne. In his absence, chaos reigns. Villages burn as the blood of innocents runs in the streets. Entire provinces are reduced to rubble, demolished by terrible rune-power. Darkness and despair covers the land as hope for deliverance is consumed in the flames of destruction. On the border of the empire, two young heroes stand bloodied but unbroken.

Tyrus never thought he'd see war again, but to save his family he must once again accept its sickening embrace. By night, painful memories of past battles haunt his dreams. By day, the nightmare continues as he commands an army against impossible odds to destroy the Geneshan artifact responsible for the near destruction of Turine. Worrying about friends and family both near and far, he wonders if he'll ever truly know peace.