Download or read book The Heaven Tree written by Edith Pargeter and published by Sphere. This book was released on 1960 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: England in the reign of King John - a time of beauty and squalor, of swift treachery and unswerving loyalty. Against this violent, exciting background the story of Harry Talvace, master mason, unfolds. Harry and his foster-brother Adam tasted injustice young and together fled to Paris, where Harry's genius for carving drew him into friendship with the enigmatic Ralf Isambard, Lord of Parfois, and the incomparably beautiful Madonna Benedetta, a Venetian courtesan. In their company he returned to his native Shropshire to build a church for Isambard beside Parfois castle. Soaring heavenwards, the tree of stone became an arrow of light; but as it flowered darkening shadows presaged jealousy, pitiless revenge - and death.

Download or read book The Heaven Tree Triology written by Edith Pargeter and published by Sphere. This book was released on 1994-01 with total page 899 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Together in one volume, this book contains The Heaven Tree, The Green Branch and The Scarlet Seed - tales of 13th-century master stone carver Harry Talvace and the church he builds.

Download or read book The Green Branch written by Edith Pargeter and published by Sphere. This book was released on 1962 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Young Harry Talvace, the son of Ralf Isambard's master-builder who raised the great church of Parfois and was put to death by his jealous patron, has grown up at the court of Llewelyn, Prince of North Wales. Deep in his heart he nurses a desire for vengence, and when Harry become innocently involved in the tragedy which strikes Llewelyn's marriage he sets out to avenge his father's death. Alone he makes his way to Parfois to challenge Isambard. But enmity can prove as complex as love, Harry discovers, as in his turn he falls under the spell of the old warrior.

Download or read book Between Heaven and Here written by Susan Straight and published by McSweeney's. This book was released on 2012-09-12 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In August in Rio Seco, California, the ground is too hard to bury a body. But Glorette Picard is dead, and across the canal, out in the orange groves, they’ll gather shovels and pickaxes and soak the dirt until they can lay her coffin down. First, someone needs to find her son Victor, who memorizes SAT words to avoid the guys selling rock, and someone needs to tell her uncle Enrique, who will be the one to hunt down her killer, and someone needs to brush out her perfect crown of hair and paint her cracked toenails. As the residents of this dry-creek town prepare to bury their own, it becomes clear that Glorette’s life and death are deeply entangled with the dark history of the city and the untouchable beauty that, finally, killed her.

Download or read book The Summer Tree written by Guy Gavriel Kay and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2001-04-01 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Taken to a realm of magic and war, five men and women from our world embark on an epic journey in the first novel in Guy Gavriel Kay’s classic, critically acclaimed fantasy trilogy, The Fionavar Tapestry. It begins with a chance meeting that introduces the five to a man who will change their lives: a mage who brings them to the first of all worlds, Fionavar. In this land of gods and myth, each of them is forced to discover what they are and what they are willing to do, as Fionavar stands on the brink of a terrifying war against a dark, vengeful god...

Download or read book The Scarlet Seed written by Edith Pargeter and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the castle of Parfois, Harry Talvace is held prisoner by his father's patron and murder, Ralf Isambard. The threat of civil war in England lays Isambard open to his enemies, and the story reaches a strange and violent climax as the principal characters are drawn together in the final siege of Parfois.

Download or read book The Pillars of the Earth written by Ken Follett and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2010-06-29 with total page 1009 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 New York Times Bestseller Oprah's Book Club Selection The “extraordinary . . . monumental masterpiece” (Booklist) that changed the course of Ken Follett’s already phenomenal career—and begins where its prequel, The Evening and the Morning, ended. “Follett risks all and comes out a clear winner,” extolled Publishers Weekly on the release of The Pillars of the Earth. A departure for the bestselling thriller writer, the historical epic stunned readers and critics alike with its ambitious scope and gripping humanity. Today, it stands as a testament to Follett’s unassailable command of the written word and to his universal appeal. The Pillars of the Earth tells the story of Philip, prior of Kingsbridge, a devout and resourceful monk driven to build the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has known . . . of Tom, the mason who becomes his architect—a man divided in his soul . . . of the beautiful, elusive Lady Aliena, haunted by a secret shame . . . and of a struggle between good and evil that will turn church against state and brother against brother. A spellbinding epic tale of ambition, anarchy, and absolute power set against the sprawling medieval canvas of twelfth-century England, this is Ken Follett’s historical masterpiece.

Download or read book The Sweet Far Thing written by Libba Bray and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-07-01 with total page 746 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It has been a year of change since Gemma Doyle arrived at the foreboding Spence Academy. Having bound the wild, dark magic of the realms to her, Gemma has forged unlikely and unsuspected new alliances both with the headstrong Felicity and timid Ann, Kartik, the exotic young man whose companionship is forbidden, and the fearsome creatures of the realms. Now, as Gemma approaches her London debut, the time has come to test those bonds. As her friendship with Felicity and Ann faces its gravest trial, and with the Order grappling for control of the realms, Gemma is compelled to decide once and for all which path she is meant to take. Pulled forward by fate, the destiny Gemma faces threatens to set chaos loose, not only in the realms, but also upon the rigid Victorian society whose rules Gemma has both defied and followed. Where does Gemma really belong? And will she, can she, survive?

Download or read book The Bean Trees written by Barbara Kingsolver and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-03-17 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The Bean Trees is the work of a visionary. . . . It leaves you open-mouthed and smiling.” — Los Angeles Times A bestseller that has come to be regarded as an American classic, The Bean Trees is the novel that launched Barbara Kingsolver’s remarkable literary career. It is the charming, engrossing tale of rural Kentucky native Taylor Greer, who only wants to get away from her roots and avoid getting pregnant. She succeeds, but inherits a three-year-old Native American girl named Turtle along the way, and together, from Oklahoma to Arizona, half-Cherokee Taylor and her charge search for a new life in the West. Hers is a story about love and friendship, abandonment and belonging, and the discovery of surprising resources in seemingly empty places. This edition includes a P.S. section with additional insights from the author, background material, suggestions for further reading, and more.

Download or read book Rebel Angels written by Libba Bray and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-05-01 with total page 531 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this thrilling sequel, Gemma continues to pursue her destiny to bind the magic of the Realms and restore it to the Order. Gemma and her friends from Spence use magical power to transport themselves on visits from their corseted world of Victorian London (at the height of the Christmas season), to the visionary country of the Realms, with its strange beauty and menace. There they search for the lost Temple, the key to Gemma's mission, and comfort Pippa, their friend who has been left behind in the Realms. After these visits they bring back magical power for a short time to use in their own world. Meanwhile, Gemma is torn between her attraction to the exotic Kartik, the messenger from the opposing forces of the Rakshana, and the handsome but clueless Simon, a young man of good family who is courting her. This is the second book in Libba Bray's engrossing trilogy, set in a time of strict morality and barely repressed sensuality, about a girl who saw another way.

Download or read book Deeper Heaven written by Christiana Hale and published by . This book was released on 2020-11 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: C.S. Lewis's Ransom Trilogy, better known as "the Space Trilogy", is a much-neglected and yet critically important part of Lewis' works. It has captivated and bewildered readers since its publication, and though hundreds of books about Lewis have been written, few seek to navigate the maze that is Lewis's "space-travel story." These books are a distillation in novel form of one of Lewis' favorite subjects, a subject whose melody is woven into almost everything that Lewis ever wrote: the medieval model of the cosmos. Deeper Heaven is a guide and companion through the magical web of medieval cosmology, ancient myth, and critique of modern philosophies that makes up the oft-maligned "Space Trilogy." A student and teacher of literature and history herself, Christiana Hale will walk you through the Trilogy one step at a time, with eyes fixed where Lewis himself fixed his: on Deep Heaven and beyond. In the process, many questions will be answered: What does Christ have to do with Jupiter? Why does Lewis care so much about the medieval conception of the heavens? Why should we? And, perhaps the most puzzling question of all: why is Merlin in That Hideous Strength?

Download or read book The North and South Trilogy written by John Jakes and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2013-05-21 with total page 3647 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two families are united—and torn apart—by the Civil War in these three dramatic novels by the #1 New York Times–bestselling master of the historical epic. In North and South, the first volume of John Jakes’s acclaimed and sweeping saga, a friendship is threatened by the divisions of the Civil War. In the years leading up to the Civil War, one enduring friendship embodies the tensions of a nation. Orry Main from South Carolina and George Hazard from Pennsylvania forge a lasting bond while training at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Together they fight in the Mexican-American War, but their closeness is tested as their regional politics diverge. As the first rounds are fired at Fort Sumter, Orry and George find themselves on different sides of the coming struggle. In John Jakes’s unmatched style, North and South launches a trilogy that captures the fierce passions of a country at the precipice of disaster. In Love and War, the Main and Hazard families clash on and off the Civil War’s battlefields as they grapple with the violent realities of a divided nation. With the Confederate and Union armies furiously fighting, the once-steadfast bond between the Main and Hazard families continues to be tested. From opposite sides of the conflict, they face heartache and triumph on the frontlines as they fight for the future of the nation and their loved ones. With his impeccable research and unfailing devotion to the historical record, John Jakes offers his most enthralling and enduring tale yet. In Heaven and Hell, the battle between the Mains and Hazards—and Confederate and Union armies—comes to a brilliant end. The last days of the Civil War bring no peace for the Main and Hazard families. As the Mains’ South smolders in the ruins of defeat, the Hazards’ North pushes blindly for relentless industrial progress. Both the nation and the families’ long-standing bond hover on the brink of destruction. In the series’ epic conclusion, Jakes expertly blends personal conflict with historical events, crafting a haunting page-turner about America’s constant change and unyielding hope. This “entertaining [and] authentic dramatization” (The New York Times) is a thrilling tale of shifting loyalties, set during one of the darkest moments in American history.

Download or read book A Rare Benedictine written by Ellis Peters and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 1989-11 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Peters has gained worldwide praise for her meticulous re-creations of 12th-century monastic life. Here, her chronicles continue with a Christmas story, a tale of robbery and attempted murder, and a narrative of Brother Cadfael's early years.

Download or read book Here Be Dragons written by Sharon Kay Penman and published by St. Martin's Griffin. This book was released on 2008-05-27 with total page 718 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thirteenth-century Wales is a divided country, ever at the mercy of England's ruthless, power-hungry King John. Llewelyn, Prince of North Wales, secures an uneasy truce by marrying the English king's beloved illegitimate daughter, Joanna, who slowly grows to love her charismatic and courageous husband. But as John's attentions turn again and again to subduing Wales---and Llewelyn---Joanna must decide where her love and loyalties truly lie. The turbulent clashes of two disparate worlds and the destinies of the individuals caught between them spring to life in this magnificent novel of power and passion, loyalty and lies. The book that began the trilogy that includes Falls the Shadow and The Reckoning, Here Be Dragons brings thirteenth-century England, France, and Wales to tangled, tempestuous life.

Download or read book Brightness Reef written by David Brin and published by Spectra. This book was released on 2010-01-27 with total page 679 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David Brin’s Uplift novels—Sundiver, Hugo award winner The Uplift War, and Hugo and Nebula winner Startide Rising—are among the most thrilling and extraordinary science fiction tales ever written. Now David Brin returns to this future universe for a new Uplift trilogy, packed with adventure, passion and wit. The planet Jijo is forbidden to settlers, its ecology protected by guardians of the Five Galaxies. But over the centuries it has been resettled, populated by refugees of six intelligent races. Together they have woven a new society in the wilderness, drawn together by their fear of Judgment Day, when the Five Galaxies will discover their illegal colony. Then a strange starship arrives on Jijo. Does it bring the long-dreaded judgment, or worse—a band of criminals willing to destroy the six races of Jijo in order to cover their own crimes?

Download or read book World Tree Online written by Ea Hooper and published by . This book was released on 2019-07-11 with total page 494 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2056, the world's most powerful AI System, ARKUS, comes online. Created to extend human lifespans, it quickly makes world-changing discoveries in health science. It also develops an advanced VR headset that uses consumable nanomachines to let users experience time faster in virtual worlds.Two years later, ARKUS releases World-Tree Online, a game where players scale a giant tree with thousands of unique game worlds hanging from the branches. The game's time-dilation makes it so that one hour of playtime feels like one month to those in-game, allowing humans to virtually extend their lifespans.However, after an old gamer named Vincent joins World-Tree Online, an update begins that stretches the time-dilation to one year for every five seconds. Players are unable to exit the game during the update-with an estimated wait time of three hundred sixty years.After experimenting with an exploit, Vincent begins to develop new spells that will take him higher in the game than he ever thought possible. Unfortunately, he crosses paths with the last moderator, a young man named Lucas that uses his mod abilities to torture and subjugate other players.Lucas is willing to abuse his power to conquer the World-Tree, but Vincent's exploit might just be the key to stopping him.

Download or read book Edith Pargeter written by Margaret Lewis and published by Isis Large Print Books. This book was released on 1997-04-01 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This perceptive survey of the two faces of prolific and award-winning author Edith Pargeter explores both her life and her work. Pargeter is best known as Ellis Peters, the author of the Chronicles of Brother Cadfael. These 20 novels have been televised and adapted for radio and have played a major role in turning crime writing into a literary genre and making historical detectives popular. Also discussed are Pargeter's series of 14 Inspector Felse novels, written under her real name, and her further novels, including two outstanding historical sequences. The Brothers of Gwynedd quartet and The Heaven Tree trilogy. The Eighth Champion of Christendom, a trilogy of novels about the Second World War, is also illuminated.