![]() ![]() I thought the world-building was a lot better and more fleshed-out than in Swordbird. (I skimmed a lot of it since I’d read it before. It’s predictable, but at least it’s a quick read. I’m being a little sarcastic here.) Our merry band of birds escape from the archaeopteryxes, visit other bird tribes in search of help and the Leasorn gems, get captured again, get rescued, visit some penguins, etcetera, etcetera. The plot is a pretty basic hero and quest-type story: the search for the magical Leasorn gemstones and the One Sword to Rule Them All. The villains this time around are the archaeopteryxes, but there’s another villain, Yin-soul, trying to control and manipulate both our hero, Wind-voice, and our antagonist, Maldeor. The story is set in a world of birds, where various species rule over their own kingdoms and territories. ![]() It’s a stronger story than Swordbird by far, but still very cliche and juvenile, sorry to say. Nancy Yi Fan was about 14 when she penned Sword Quest, and, in a nutshell, Sword Quest is about, wait for it - bird-Jesus. Sword Quest is the prequel to Swordbird, and tells the life of the dove Wind-voice before he became the legendary Swordbird. Find this review and more fantastical things at The Leaning Tower of Tomes. ![]()
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![]() ![]() It features a psychopath hell-bent on romance and a disgraced FBI agent attempting to redeem himself. And August always gets what he wants.Can he convince Lucas that not all killers are created equal and that having a psychopath in his corner-and in his life-might be just what he needs?Psycho is a fast-paced, thrill ride of a romance with an HEA and no cliffhangers. Lucas knows his secret, and August knows he wants Lucas. He doesn't believe in psychics, but there's no missing the terror in his eyes when they collide in the hallway. Literally.August is immediately intrigued with Lucas and his backstory. He seeks refuge at a small college, hoping to rebuild his life and his reputation. Now, the world thinks he's crazy and that co-worker wants him dead. Until, with a touch, he discovers his co-worker is a killer and his life falls apart. And he's just found his latest obsession: Lucas Blackwell.Lucas Blackwell was once the golden child of the FBI, using his secret talent as a clairvoyant to help put away society's worst. obsessive killer tasked with righting the wrongs of a failing justice system. ![]() August is both-a brilliant professor loved by his students and a ruthless. They say there's a thin line between genius and madness. As the genius son of an eccentric billionaire, his off-putting behavior is often blamed on his high IQ. August Mulvaney has always been exceptional. ![]() ![]() But it does not take Miss Marple long to realize that the hotel’s lack of change seemed unusual, considering that most long-standing hotels tend to change over the years. ![]() Otherwise, the hotel’s atmosphere, interior designs, the food and the style of the hotel’s staff has not changed a whit. The plumbing and communication system may have been modernized. Her first reaction to Bertram’s is sheer rapture, as she realizes that the hotel has retained its late Victorian/Edwardian atmosphere after many decades. “AT BERTRAM’S HOTEL” beings with Miss Jane Marple arriving in London to spend a holiday at Bertram’s Hotel, a place she used to stay during her youth. ![]() When I first saw the television adaptation for it, I found myself wondering how the director and the screenwriter would handle it. It strikes me as one of the most unusual novels she has ever written. ![]() Agatha Christie’s 1965 novel is a bit of a conundrum for me. ![]() ![]() ![]() Manhattan is America’s ultimate weapon against Soviet expansion, a reporter accuses him of causing dozens of former friends’ and lovers’ terminal cancer. Laurie, currently dating Jon, feels neglected by him and leaves him to date Daniel. At Edward Blake’s funeral, Daniel, Jon, and Adrian recall their memories of the Comedian-all of them remember him as vicious, even murderous. Manhattan), and Adrian Veidt (Ozymandias), though none of them take Rorschach’s theory seriously. Believing that he has discovered a “mask-killer conspiracy,” Rorschach warns several other retired vigilantes, including Daniel Dreiberg (Nite Owl), Laurie Juspeczyk (Silk Spectre), Jon Osterman (the superhuman Dr. After the police leave, the costumed vigilante Rorschach enters Blake’s apartment and starts his own investigation, quickly discovering that Blake was the Comedian, another masked vigilante. ![]() In 1985, detectives investigate the death of Edward Blake in New York City, after an intruder threw him through the window of his high-rise apartment. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() But when a strange hooded man appears interested in the same thing, they begin to wonder what terrible threat this cryptic link from the past holds for the future. and why? Confronted by Adam in 2001, the TimeRiders travel back to Sherwood Forest in 1193 to discover the origins of the ancient message. In 1993 British computer hacker Adam Lewis finds his name in a coded manuscript that is almost one thousand years old. Its purpose- to prevent time travel destroying history. But all three have been given a second chance - to work for an agency that no one knows exists. ![]() Sal Vikram should have died in a fire in 2026. Maddy Carter should have died on a plane in 2010. %%%Liam O'Connor should have died at sea in 1912. Liam O'Connor should have died at sea in 1912. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() And then, to top it off, throughout the series individuals keep needing her help. However Grim has decided that she requires a companion, and much to Blackthorn's dismay, has taken it onto himself to look out for her. A grumpy healer who has dealt with more than her fair share of cruelty and pain, Blackthorn would much rather reside alone in the forest and avoid the rest of the world - sounds relatable. We meet Blackthorn just as she escapes imprisonment and is magically bound to help anyone who seeks her help. ![]() This series spans three books, Dreamer's Pool, Tower of Thorns and Den of Wolves. Meet Blackthorn, the cantankerous, antisocial protagonist from Juliet Marillier's series Blackthorn and Grim. Sometimes you come across a character that you connect with on a very special level. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() There is a “mono no aware” beauty to these photographs, in the color work especially-an acute awareness of the beauty of the transient, of the ephemeral, which might explain, in part, their magical and poetic essence. Indeed, I’ve always felt a closeness to Japan in Saul’s work: the photographs in the snow the women under their umbrellas the improbable perspectives and revolutionary compositions reminiscent of Japanese woodblocks, ukiyo-e and the presence of the seasons and the verticality of the compositions evoking Japanese scroll paintings, kakejiku. Over the past years, the neighborhood has become strikingly Japanese, filled with izakayas, sobayas, ramen restaurants, and Japanese specialty supermarkets. ![]() Saul Leiter spent over sixty years of his life and took most of his photographs in New York City’s East Village, near Saint Marks Place. “Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and I open a book by Matisse, Cézanne, or Sôtatsu…” -Saul Leiter The first Japanese exhibition of the American photographer Saul Leiter is on view at the Bunkamura Museum in Tokyo, featuring some little-known images. ![]() ![]() This book also examines the new voices, ideas, and movements for justice that emerged over this period-and the effects of the persistent, haunting shadow of our nation’s old and unreconciled history. In this sweeping collection of new and selected essays, Ta-Nehisi Coates explores the tragic echoes of that history in our own time: the unprecedented election of a black president followed by a vicious backlash that fueled the election of the man Coates argues is America’s “first white president.”īut the story of these present-day eight years is not just about presidential politics. “We were eight years in power” was the lament of Reconstruction-era black politicians as the American experiment in multiracial democracy ended with the return of white supremacist rule in the South. Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times Finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. ![]() ![]() In this “urgently relevant”* collection featuring the landmark essay “The Case for Reparations,” the National Book Award–winning author of Between the World and Me “reflects on race, Barack Obama’s presidency and its jarring aftermath”*-including the election of Donald Trump. ![]() ![]() #7 in Bestselling Politics & Economy Audiobooks ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() To learn more about how and for what purposes Amazon uses personal information (such as Amazon Store order history), please visit our Privacy Notice. ![]() You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie Preferences, as described in the Cookie Notice. A bold new series of original graphic novels, with three books releasing over the next year, each a full-length story that stands on its own. Click ‘Customise Cookies’ to decline these cookies, make more detailed choices, or learn more. ED BRUBAKER and SEAN PHILLIPS, the modern masters of crime noir, bring us the last thing anyone expected from thema good guy. Third parties use cookies for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalised ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. This includes using first- and third-party cookies, which store or access standard device information such as a unique identifier. If you agree, we’ll also use cookies to complement your shopping experience across the Amazon stores as described in our Cookie Notice. We also use these cookies to understand how customers use our services (for example, by measuring site visits) so we can make improvements. Reckless, the new graphic novel series from Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, is aching for cinematic adaptation. ![]() We use cookies and similar tools that are necessary to enable you to make purchases, to enhance your shopping experiences and to provide our services, as detailed in our Cookie Notice. The FIFTH BOOK in the best-selling Reckless series is hereBestselling crime noir masters Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips bring us another original graphic. ![]() ![]() ![]() But as the novel progresses, Leo’s meta commentary becomes increasingly disturbing, taking this subplot in a deliciously sinister direction. ![]() ![]() Initially, it’s brilliant to see how Hannah reflects Leo’s comments in each successive chapter. This back and forth shapes the novel’s structure: we read a chapter of Hannah’s murder mystery as it unfolds, and it’s followed by Leo’s feedback. ![]() It transpires that Hannah sends Leo each chapter of the US-based novel she’s penning and he gives his feedback – whether to offer a US correction to her Australianisms, a critique of her characters, or a promise to scout location details. On one hand, the novel opens with a chit-chatty message to Australian author Hannah Tigone from one of her US fans, Leo. The novel’s main delight is the Agatha Christie-esque whodunnit set-up that brings together a group of strangers with a common interest in exposing the murderous culprit, each in turn becoming a possible suspect.īut Gentill has thrown in extra layers, weaving in a second, equally entertaining narrative, creating a story within the story in which she explores the art of writing itself. Best-known for her Rowland Sinclair detective stories, in this new novel Sulari Gentill puts merriment into a murder mystery.įrom the moment the action kicks off in The Woman in the Library with a scream piercing the rarefied air of the Boston Public Library, there is a buoyancy to the prose that keeps the mood light and the pace steady. ![]() |
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