Download or read book Red Smoking Mirror written by Nick Hunt and published by Swift Press. This book was released on 2023-07-06 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: xe2x80x98Withxc2xa0 Red Smoking Mirror, Nick Hunt has created the love child of JG Ballard and Ursula K Le Guinxe2x80x99 - Joanna Pocock, author ofxc2xa0 Surrender The year is 1521 in the Mexica city of Tenochtitlan. Twenty-nine years earlier, Islamic Spain never fell to the Christians, and Andalus launched a voyage of discovery to the New Maghreb. For two decades the Jewish merchant Eli Ben Abram, who led the first ships across the sea, has maintained a delicate peace in the Moorish enclave of Moctezumaxe2x80x99s breathtaking capital, assisted by his Nahua wife Malinala. But the emperor has been acting strangely, sacrifices are increasing at the temples, a mysterious sickness is spreading through the city, and there are rumours of a hostile army crossing the seaxe2x80xa6 A bravura reimagining of an alternate history,xc2xa0 Red Smoking Mirrorxc2xa0is a richly written novel of love and fate, of how cultures co-operate and clash, and of how individuals can shape and are shaped by the times they live through.

Download or read book Smoking Mirror Blues written by Ernest Hogan and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: AN ANCIENT GOD & Tezcatlipoca, the Mirror that Smokes, warrior/wizard god of the Aztecs. Western Civilization thought it wiped him out centuries ago... A NEW TECHNOLOGY & With the help of silly-bio nanochips, Beto Orozco creates an artificial intelligence version of Tezcatlipoca. The result is a computerized resurrection... THE FUTURE WILL NEVER BE THE SAME & So Tezcatlipoca hijacks Beto's body, and runs wild through futuristic Hollywood. The trickster adapts well to the brave, new world, and gets back to his old business of creating chaos and taking control... -- Cover page 4.

Download or read book The Smoking Mirror written by David Bowles and published by Ifwg Publishing. This book was released on 2016-03-15 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Carol and Johnny Garza are 12-year-old twins whose lives in a small Texas town are forever changed by their mother's unexplained disappearance. Shipped off to relatives in Mexico by their grieving father, the twins soon learn that their mother is a nagual, a shapeshifter, and that they have inherited her powers. In order to rescue her, they will have to descend into the Aztec underworld and face the dangers that await them. American Library Association, 2016 Pura Belpre Author Honor winning novel.

Download or read book Smoke and Mirrors written by Neil Gaiman and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-03-17 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The astonishing and impressive first collection of short stories from New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman An elderly widow finds the Holy Grail beneath an old fur coat in a second-hand store . . . A stray cat fights and refights a nightly battle to protect his adoptive family from an unimagiable evil . . . A young couple receives a wedding gift that will reveal a chilling alternate history of their marriage . . . Beneath a bridge by the railroad tracks, a frightened little boy bargains for his life with a most persistent troll . . . Such miraculous inventions and more await within Neil Gaiman’s first collection of short fiction, a gift of wonder and delight from one of the most unique literary artists of our day. In his capable hands, magic is no mere illusion, but a powerful means to reveal the nature of our humanity obscured in the smoke of our fears and anxieties . . . and reflected in the funhouse mirrors of our dreams.

Download or read book Walking the Woods and the Water written by Nick Hunt and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2014-03-20 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nick Hunt pays homage to Patrick Leigh Fermor by walking the same route across Europe in this "glorious book."

Download or read book Smoking Mirror written by Richard L. Anderson and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2015-07-11 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this epic historical adventure, Orlando de Bolonia reaches the steamy coast of Vera Cruz, New Spain, ten years after the Conquest as a relatively innocent Franciscan friar. He has come to the Americas to seek the meaning of a troubling vision he once had of a sacrifice in front of a crimson pyramid. Orlando does gain converts to the Faith, but because of his sensual nature and restless curiosity, his own transformation is even more radical: He takes an Indian lover, Itzel; and he samples sinicuichi, the hallucinogenic "sun opener" tea. The Inquisition imprisons Orlando for supporting the Indians in their struggles against powerful Spanish landholders at the time of the Mixton Rebellion. After his release Orlando quits the Franciscan Order to grow chilis on a flower-covered mountain overlooking Lake Chapala. Peace still eludes him, though, because his Indian friends require a sacrifice to save their world. The secret to helping them lies with Black Tezcatlipoca, the god of the Smoking Mirror."

Download or read book Where the Wild Winds Are written by Nick Hunt and published by Nicholas Brealey. This book was released on 2017-11-07 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Selected as a Book of the Year by the Financial Times, the Daily Telegraph and the Spectator "Travel writing in excelsis." -Jan Morris, author of Venice "A thrilling and gorgeous tale, packed with meteorological wonder." -Amy Liptrot, author of The Outrun Nick Hunt sets off on an unlikely quest: to follow four of Europe's winds across the continent. His wind-walks begin on Cross Fell, the highest point of the Pennines, as he chases the roaring Helm - the only named wind in Britain.In southern Europe he follows the Bora - a bitter northerly that blows from Trieste through Slovenia and down the Croatian coast. His hunt for the "snow-eating" Foehn becomes a meandering journey of exhilaration and despair through the Alpine valleys of Switzerland, and his final walk traces an ancient pilgrims' path in the south of France on the trail of the Mistral - the "wind of madness," which animated and tormented Vincent Van Gogh. These are journeys into wild wind, but also into wild landscapes and the people who inhabit them - a cast of meteorologists, storm chasers, mountain men, eccentric wind enthusiasts, sailors and shepherds. Soon Nick finds himself borne along by the very forces he is pursuing, through rain, blizzards, howling gales, and back through time itself. For, where the wild winds are, there are also myths and legends, history and hearsay, science and superstition - and occasionally remote mountain cabins packed with pickles, cured meats and homemade alcohol. Where the Wild Winds Are is a beautiful, unconventional travelogue that makes the invisible visible.

Download or read book The Secret of the Smoking Mirror written by Michael Cantwell and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2011-03-11 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Peter Collins is a shy sixth-grader who thinks his worst problems are being bullied by his stepfather and his classmatesuntil he awakens one night to see a giant feathered serpent hovering over his bed. Terrified beyond belief, he has no idea that he and his classmate, Rosa Guzman, are about to time travel to ancient Mexico on the back of Quetzalcoatl, the god of life and peace. Through Quetzalcoatl, Peter soon learns it is time for him to discover the powers that are his rightful heritage. Two nights later, the twelve-year-olds cling to the serpents feathered coat and lift off away from Peters bedroom, achieving speeds that send them to a different time. After they fly over a dazzling city of colorful pyramids and temples, the children quickly descend to earth in feathered parachutes and begin their mission to help a boy prince defeat the evil lords of Smoking Mirror, the god of war. Guided by the feathered serpent, Peter and Rosa find the courage to meet their challenges, unravel the Secret of the Smoking Mirror, and transform their lives.

Download or read book Muscle Smoke Mirrors written by Randy Roach and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2008 with total page 586 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The research for this extensive, two volume project... represents a comprehensive effort to establish a complete context from which the sport of bodybuilding arose. "Muscle, Smoke & Mirrors" is the rise and fall of what was truly once an extraordinary discipline associated with a term known as "Physical Culture". Experience what bodybuilding was originally and learn just exactly what "Physical Culture" really is. See what growing philanthropic power flexed its financial and political muscles to foster its corporate agenda, compromising human health internationally. Read how the merger of technology and politics culminated in the industrialization, commercialization, federalization, internationalization and finally the STERILIZATION of a nation's food supply, rendering it suspect not only to the general public; but also to the most elite of athletes. Whether you are a novice, an elite bodybuilder or simply sports-nutrition minded, learn how the emerging forces of the Iron Game evolved. Ultimately, the factions of this industry would grow powerful and manipulative while fighting for control over the Game. It took the running of several parallel histories on bodybuilding, nutrition, supplements and the role of drugs to offer a complete, first-time unraveling of the web of confusion and politics that still permeates the sport into the 21st century! Volume I of "Muscle, Smoke & Mirrors" is truly the untold stories surrounding "Bodybuilding's Amazing Nutritional Origins."

Download or read book Smoke Mirrors And Murder written by Ann Rule and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2008-12-09 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An ideal family is targeted for death by the least likely enemy, who plotted their demise from behind bars.... A sexual predator hides behind multiple fake identities, eluding police for years while his past victims live in fear that he will hunt them down.... A modest preacher's wife confesses to shooting her husband after an argument -- but there's more to her shattering story than meets the eye. These and other true cases are analyzed with stunning clarity in a page-turning collection you won't be able to put down. Included in this volume are stories of a victim burned beyond recognition - spontaneous human combustion? - impossible - and yet no one else seemed to enter or exit; a man who was a woman who was a man, whose con games in a small community led to murder; a "counterfeit priest" who wasn't a priest at all; a lifetime rapist; and the strangest case ever to hit Montana.

Download or read book Mirror Image written by Danielle Steel and published by Dell. This book was released on 2009-02-27 with total page 562 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To look at one was to see the other. For family, even the girls' own father, it was a constant guessing game. For strangers, the surprise was overwhelming. And for the twins Olivia and Victoria Henderson, two remarkable young women coming of age at the turn of the century, their bond was mysterious, marvelous, and often playful--a secret realm only they inhabited. Olivia and Victoria were the beloved daughters of a man who never fully recovered from his wife's death bearing them in 1893. Shy, serious Olivia, born eleven minutes before her sister, had taken over the role of mother in their lush New York estate, managing not only a household but her rebellious twin's flights of fancy. Free-spirited Victoria wanted to change the world. She embraced the women's suffrage movement and dreamed of sailing to war-torn Europe. Then, in the girls' twenty-first year, as the first world war escalated overseas, a fateful choice changed their lives forever. It began when Victoria's life was about to become a public scandal. It led to a painful decision, and brought handsome lawyer Charles Dawson into the Henderson's life and family. Hand-picked by the twins' father to save his daughter's reputation, Charles was still mourning his wife's death aboard the Titanic, struggling to raise his nine year-old son alone, determined never to lose his heart again. Charles wanted to believe that, for the sake of his son, he could make an unwanted marriage work. But in an act of deception that only Olivia and Victoria could manage, the twins took an irrevocable step, which changed both their lives forever; and took one of the twins to the battlefields of France, the other into a marriage she longed for but could not have. From Manhattan society to the trenches of war-ravaged France, Mirror Image moves elegantly and dramatically through a rich and troubled era. With startling insight, Danielle Steel explores women's choices: between home and adventure, between the love for family and the passion for a cause, between sacrifice and desire. But at the heart of Mirror Image is a fascinating, realistic portrait of identical twins, two vastly different sisters who lead their lives and follow their destinies against a vivid backdrop of a world at war.

Download or read book Mirror Shoulder Signal written by Dorthe Nors and published by . This book was released on 2018-06-05 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sonja's over forty, and she's trying to move in the right direction. She's learning to drive. She's joined a meditation group. And she's attempting to reconnect with her sister. But Sonja would rather eat cake than meditate. Her driving instructor won't let her change gear. And her sister won't return her calls. Sonja's mind keeps wandering back to the dramatic landscapes of her childhood--the singing whooper swans, the endless sky, and getting lost barefoot in the rye fields--but how can she return to a place that she no longer recognises? And how can she escape the alienating streets of Copenhagen?

Download or read book Cycles of Time and Meaning in the Mexican Books of Fate written by Elizabeth Hill Boone and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2013-05-17 with total page 527 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In communities throughout precontact Mesoamerica, calendar priests and diviners relied on pictographic almanacs to predict the fate of newborns, to guide people in choosing marriage partners and auspicious wedding dates, to know when to plant and harvest crops, and to be successful in many of life's activities. As the Spanish colonized Mesoamerica in the sixteenth century, they made a determined effort to destroy these books, in which the Aztec and neighboring peoples recorded their understanding of the invisible world of the sacred calendar and the cosmic forces and supernaturals that adhered to time. Today, only a few of these divinatory codices survive. Visually complex, esoteric, and strikingly beautiful, painted books such as the famous Codex Borgia and Codex Borbonicus still serve as portals into the ancient Mexican calendrical systems and the cycles of time and meaning they encode. In this comprehensive study, Elizabeth Hill Boone analyzes the entire extant corpus of Mexican divinatory codices and offers a masterful explanation of the genre as a whole. She introduces the sacred, divinatory calendar and the calendar priests and diviners who owned and used the books. Boone then explains the graphic vocabulary of the calendar and its prophetic forces and describes the organizing principles that structure the codices. She shows how they form almanacs that either offer general purpose guidance or focus topically on specific aspects of life, such as birth, marriage, agriculture and rain, travel, and the forces of the planet Venus. Boone also tackles two major areas of controversy—the great narrative passage in the Codex Borgia, which she freshly interprets as a cosmic narrative of creation, and the disputed origins of the codices, which, she argues, grew out of a single religious and divinatory system.

Download or read book Mockeries and Metamorphoses of an Aztec God written by Guilhem Olivier and published by . This book was released on 2008-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of Tezcatlipoca, one of the greatest but least understood Mesoamerican pantheon. Analyzing the sources and problems related to Tezcatlipoca's protean powers and shifting meanings, the author guides readers through the symbolic names of this great god, from his representation on skins and stones to his relationship to ritual knives and other deities.

Download or read book High Aztech written by Ernest Hogan and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-05-06 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: HIGH AZTECH, the underground cult classic, is back and ready to blow your mind wide open. "A high-energy adventure peppered with great ideas, well-imagined unusual settings, outlandish characters, and a wicked sense of fun.'. -Locus In mid 21st century Mexico, Tenochtitlan, the metropolis formerly known as Mexico City, is the most exciting place on Earth. Stainless steel pyramids pierce the smoggy sky. Human sacrifice is coming back into fashion, especially on the new Aztechan TV channels, and everyone wants an artificial heart. Xolotl Zapata, celebrated poet, skeptic and trmrhsfr journalistr, starts receiving death threats from a cult he's lampooned in a comic book. But soon he will have much worse problems and be running for his life. The government, the Mafia, street gangs, cults, terrorists, even garbage collectors will be after him. Why? He has been infected with a technological development that will changing human life as we know it Zapata is carrying a virus that can download religious beliefs into the human brain - a highly contagious virus that is converting everyone he meets, and everyone they meet, to the Aztec religion. This is Witnessing with a PUNCH! Since he's a virtulent carrier he infects a large part of the city all by himself, and the masses, filled with visions and portents, await the End of the World. "Cyberpunk is the combining of science fiction and technology with a future society on the brink of self-destruction. Ernest Hogan takes the concept a step further, blending in his love of the Aztec's ancient beliefs and civilization to produce very unique and gripping stories. When it comes to science fiction of a different breed, Hogan is definitely sitting in the front row. One reviewer aptly referred to Hogan as a "mad Mexican Hunter S. Thompson."" -Wicked local.com "Chicano writer Ernest Hogan bridges the gap between hard science fiction and cyberpunk ... interweaving Pre-Colombian mythology and Spanish, Spanglish, and Nahuatl language into a humorously dystopian sci-fi context ... exploring the intersection of religion, technology, pop culture ... with a distinctly Latino twist." -- The Routledge Companion to Latino/a Literature"

Download or read book Tolteca written by Michael and published by Medallion Media Group. This book was released on 2006-10-01 with total page 643 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: His name is Topiltzin. He is the son of the Dragon, a blue-eyed Mesoamerican hero. He is also a godless ballplayer, a wanderer, a rogue warrior. He will become known as the Plumed Serpent, the man who became a god, who transcended death to become the Morning Star. In the world of the Fourth Sun, Topiltzin is the unconquered hero of the rubberball game. When he comes with his companions to a city to play, children flock to meet him, maidens cover the roadway with flowers for him to tread on, and people gather to watch the mighty Turquoise Lords of Tollan. They are the undefeated champions of the ancient game of ritual, a game so fanatically revered that spectators would often wager their own children on its outcome. To lose meant decapitation. The Turquoise Lords of Tollan never lost. At least until now. The Smoking Lord, descended from Highland Mountain kings, has come with vast armies. He has learned of the splendid Tolteca from a priest who tried to teach him the true way of the one god. After offering the old man up as a sacrifice to the midnight sun, Smoking Mirror has now come north to see if the legends are true. An army has come, and a new age. Topiltzin witnesses its horrors. He finds cities destroyed, villagers raped and ritualistically slaughtered by sorcerer priests sent as heralds to offer up human sacrifice. Unable to stop the blood slaughter of innocents, realizing the vast armies of the Shadow Lords will annihilate even the mighty Tolteca, Topiltzin becomes obsessed with one final objective, one last move in the rubberball game: the death of the Smoking Mirror.

Download or read book The Materiality of Color written by Andrea Feeser and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although much has been written on the aesthetic value of color, there are other values that adhere to it with economic and social values among them. Through case studies of particular colors and colored objects, this volume demonstrates just how complex the history of color is by focusing on the diverse social and cultural meanings of color; the trouble, pain, and suffering behind the production and application of these colors; the difficult technical processes for making and applying color; and the intricacy of commercial exchanges and knowledge transfers as commodities and techniques moved from one region to another. By emphasizing color's materiality, the way in which it was produced, exchanged, and used by artisans, artists, and craftspersons, contributors draw attention to the disjuncture between the beauty of color and the blood, sweat, and tears that went into its production, circulation, and application as well as to the complicated and varied social meanings attached to color within specific historical and social contexts. This book captures color's global history with chapters on indigo plantations in India and the American South, cochineal production in colonial Oaxaca, the taste for brightly colored Chinese objects in Europe, and the thriving trade in vermilion between Europeans and Native Americans. To underscore the complexity of the technical knowledge behind color production, there are chapters on the 'discovery' of Prussian blue, Brazilian feather techn?and wallpaper production. To sound the depths of color's capacity for social and cultural meaning-making, there are chapters that explore the significance of black ink in Shakespeare's sonnets, red threads in women's needlework samplers, blues in Mayan sacred statuary, and greens and yellows in colored glass bracelets that were traded across the Arabian desert in the late Middle Ages. The purpose of this book is to recover color's complex-and sometimes morally troubling-past, and in doing so,