Download or read book In The Shadow Of The Sword written by Tom Holland and published by Abacus. This book was released on 2012-04-05 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER 'A stunning blockbuster' Robert Fisk 'A brilliant tour de force of revisionist scholarship and thrilling storytelling' Simon Sebag Montefiore 'A compelling detective story of the highest order' Sunday Times 'Tom Holland has an enviable gift for summoning up the colour, the individuals and animation of the past' Independent In the 6th century AD, the Near East was divided between two venerable empires: the Persian and the Roman. A hundred years on and one had vanished forever, while the other seemed almost finished. Ruling in their place were the Arabs: an upheaval so profound that it spelt, in effect, the end of the ancient world. In the Shadow of the Sword explores how this came about. Spanning from Constantinople to the Arabian desert, and starring some of the most remarkable rulers who ever lived, he tells a story vivid with drama, horror, and startling achievement.

Download or read book In the Shadow of the Sword written by Tom Holland and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2012-05-15 with total page 614 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The acclaimed author of Rubicon and other superb works of popular history now produces a thrillingly panoramic (and incredibly timely) account of the rise of Islam. No less significant than the collapse of the Roman Republic or the Persian invasion of Greece, the evolution of the Arab empire is one of the supreme narratives of ancient history, a story dazzlingly rich in drama, character, and achievement. Just like the Romans, the Arabs came from nowhere to carve out a stupefyingly vast dominion—except that they achieved their conquests not over the course of centuries as the Romans did but in a matter of decades. Just like the Greeks during the Persian wars, they overcame seemingly insuperable odds to emerge triumphant against the greatest empire of the day—not by standing on the defensive, however, but by hurling themselves against all who lay in their path.

Download or read book Shadow of the Swords written by Kamran Pasha and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-06-22 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An epic saga of love and war, Shadow of the Swords tells the story of the Crusades—from the Muslim perspective. Saladin, a Muslim sultan, finds himself pitted against King Richard the Lionheart as Islam and Christianity clash against each other, launching a conflict that still echoes today. In the midst of a brutal and unforgiving war, Saladin finds forbidden love in the arms of Miriam, a beautiful Jewish girl with a tragic past. But when King Richard captures Miriam, the two most powerful men on Earth must face each other in a personal battle that will determine the future of the woman they both love—and of all civilization. Richly imagined, deftly plotted, and highly entertaining, Shadow of the Swords is a remarkable story that will stay with readers long after the final page has been turned.

Download or read book Soul of the Sword written by Julie Kagawa and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2019-06-18 with total page 437 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this YA fantasy adventure by a New York Times–bestselling author, a shapeshifter must stop a demon from using a dragon to destroy the world. One thousand years ago, a wish was made, and a sword of rage and lightning was forged. Kamigoroshi. The Godslayer. A weapon powerful enough to seal away the formidable demon Hakaimono. Now he has broken free . . . Kitsune shapeshifter Yumeko has one task: take her piece of the ancient and powerful Scroll of a Thousand Prayers to the Steel Feather temple in order to prevent the summoning of the great Kami Dragon, who will grant one wish to whomever holds the scroll. But she has a new enemy now, more dangerous than any she has yet faced. The demon Hakaimono is free at last, and he has possessed the very person Yumeko trusted to protect her—Kage Tatsumi of the Shadow Clan. Hakaimono has one goal: break the curse of the sword and set himself free to rain chaos and destruction over the land forevermore. To do so, he will need the scroll. And Yumeko is the only one standing in his way. Books in the Shadow of the Fox trilogy: Shadow of the Fox Soul of the Sword Night of the Dragon Praise for Shadow of the Fox “One of my all-time favorite fantasy novels! I’m in love with this book, its characters, its worldbuilding!” —Ellen Oh, author of the Prophecy and Spirit Hunters series “Kagawa uses elements of Japanese mythology and folklore to spin an epic yarn . . . readers will be drawn into the world of Kagawa’s first Japan-based fantasy; with its engaging action scenes and the cliffhanger ending, they will look forward to the next volume. Action-packed adventure.” —Kirkus Reviews “Kagawa’s series starter never disappoints; she’s a vet at putting realistic characters within believable worlds, here doused in Japanese folklore.” —Booklist

Download or read book Shadow of the Sword written by Jeremiah Workman and published by Presidio Press. This book was released on 2009-09-15 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Awarded the Navy Cross for gallantry under fire, Staff Sergeant Jeremiah Workman is one of the Marine Corps’ best-known contemporary combat veterans. In this searing and inspiring memoir, he tells an unforgettable story of his service overseas–and of the emotional wars that continue to rage long after our fighting men come home. Raised in a tiny blue-collar town in Ohio, Jeremiah Workman was a handsome and athletic high achiever. Having excelled on the sporting field, he believed that the Marine Corps would be the perfect way to harness his physical and professional drives. In the Iraqi city of Fallujah in December 2004, Workman faced the challenge that would change his life. He and his platoon were searching for hidden caches of weapons and mopping up die-hard insurgent cells when they came upon a building in which a team of fanatical insurgents had their fellow Marines trapped. Leading repeated assaults on that building, Workman killed more than twenty of the enemy in a ferocious firefight that left three of his own men dead. But Workman’s most difficult fight lay ahead of him–in the battlefield of his mind. Burying his guilt about the deaths of his men, he returned stateside, where he was decorated for valor and then found himself assigned to the Marine base at Parris Island as a “Kill Hat”: a drill instructor with the least seniority and the most brutal responsibilities. He was instructed, only half in jest, to push his untested recruits to the brink of suicide. Haunted by the thought that he had failed his men overseas, Workman cracked, suffering a psychological breakdown in front of the men he was charged with leading and preparing for war. In Shadow of the Sword, a memoir that brilliantly captures both wartime courage and its lifelong consequences, Workman candidly reveals the ordeal of post-traumatic stress disorder: the therapy and drug treatments that deadened his mind even as they eased his pain, the overwhelming stress that pushed his marriage to the brink, and the confrontations with anger and self-blame that he had internalized for years. Having fought through the worst of his trials–and now the father of a young son–Workman has found not perfection or a panacea but a way to accommodate his traumas and to move forward toward hope, love, and reconciliation.

Download or read book The Book and the Sword written by Daṿid Halivni and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 1996 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The words of the Talmud were the universe for David Weiss Halivni during his childhood in Sighet, in the Carpathian Mountains. Before he was five he began his studies; by the time he was ten he had outgrown the town's teachers and started to learn at home with his scholarly, impoverished grandfather. Even before his ordination at the age of fifteen, in 1943, he was famous for his erudition. But when the Nazis crushed the Jewish community of the Carpathians in 1944, he closed his Talmud. Halivni taught in the concentration camps and risked his life to save a scrap of paper from a sacred book. But adherence to the fundamentalist worldview that insists on reconciling every apparent contradiction in the text - troubling to him even as a child - had become impossible for him now. When he arrived in New York after the war, he began struggling toward the "window" of secular learning. From that synthesis emerged his original approach to critical study of the Talmudic text not only in its modern, printed form but as it was in its original form, the Oral Torah from the mouths of countless sages. Painful, beautiful, and passionate, this memoir asks: What can the Holocaust mean for persons who have devoted their lives to the love of God? At the same time it is a unique look into the world of Talmudic learning, millennia old and still vibrant.

Download or read book A Fortress of Grey Ice written by J. V. Jones and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2004-08-01 with total page 672 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Wonderful . . . J. V. Jones is a striking writer." So says Robert Jordan, the author of The Wheel of Time epic fantasy series. And Jones lives up to that praise in the highly charged epic adventure of Ash March and Raif Sevrance, two outcasts whose fate are entwined by ancient prophecies and need, in the cold, dark world that threatens to be torn asunder by a war to end all wars. Isolated by their birthrights, they are but two who fight the dreaded Endlords, and their strength and courage will be needed if the world is to be saved from darkness." Raif, wrongly accused and cut off from his clan by the treachery of their new headsman, has a talent for killing that is part of his curse and his burden. But he bears another burden of greater weight. Ash is a sacred warrior to the Sull, an ancient race whose numbers have declined. Raised as a foundling, never knowing her true history, she must learn to accept the terrible gifts of her heritage. But as Ash learns more of her greater fate, Raif's task looms dark and desperate, for he must journey through the nightmare realm of the Want, a place where even the Sull now fear to tread. For deep within the Want is the Fortress of Grey Ice, and there he must heal the breach in the Blindwall that already threatens the world. Should he fail, not even Ash's powers can save them. . . . At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Download or read book Sword and Shadow written by Michelle Sagara and published by MIRA. This book was released on 2022-02-22 with total page 524 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beyond the Emperor's law In the city of Elantra, the law is upheld by a few groups, and the most feared are the Wolves—the Emperor’s executioners. The newest member of this elite force is Severn Handred. Granted a leave of absence to pursue information about his unknown past, Severn joins a mission to an enclave well outside the boundaries of the Empire. And he will be in danger the entire time. Still, the instincts that led him to the Wolves and the sense of duty that keeps him there can’t be discarded as easily as the tabard he wears. While he's in the heart of the West March, enmeshed in a tangled web of mysteries that have been held for centuries, Severn's belief in justice is going to be tested. It's one mortal man and his single ally against a community of immortals who will kill to keep their secrets. But they don't know who they're up against. “This world feels so complex and so complete.” —ReadingReality.net on The Emperor's Wolves The Wolves of Elantra Book 1: The Emperor's Wolves Book 2: Sword and Shadow

Download or read book Night of the Dragon written by Julie Kagawa and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the epic finale to New York Times bestselling author Julie Kagawa’s Shadow of the Fox trilogy, the scroll has been taken, and no one is safe. To save everyone she loves from imminent death, kitsune shapeshifter Yumeko gave up the final piece of the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers. Now she and her ragtag band of companions must make one desperate final effort to stop the Master of Demons from using the scroll to call the Great Kami Dragon and make the wish that will plunge the empire into chaos. Shadow clan assassin Kage Tatsumi has regained control of his body and agreed to a true deal with the devil—the demon inside him, Hakaimono. They will share his body and work with Yumeko to stop a madman, and to separate Hakaimono from Tatsumi and the cursed sword that trapped the demon for nearly a millennium. But even with their combined skills and powers, this unlikely team of heroes knows the forces of evil may be impossible to overcome. And there is another player in the battle for the scroll, a player who has been watching, waiting for the right moment to pull strings that no one even realized existed…until now. Books in the Shadow of the Fox trilogy: Shadow of the Fox Soul of the Sword Night of the Dragon

Download or read book In the Shadow of the Swords written by D. W. Wilber and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2020-10-05 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Brings light to a little-known aspect of our War on Terror . . . an inside look at our nation’s efforts to train Iraqi police officers.” —Bob Hamer, veteran undercover FBI agent and author of The Last Undercover Following the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the subsequent fall of the regime of Saddam Hussein, the U.S. government embarked upon a reconstruction effort which included rebuilding an Iraqi National Police. Retired and former American Police Officers were contracted to travel to Iraq to train this new police force. Dependent on their experience and ingenuity to make life bearable under very austere conditions, and relying on the “gallows sense of humor” they had acquired during their time in law enforcement back in the States, the instructors persevered in their task, often under trying and difficult circumstances, as well as hostile fire from insurgents determined to prevent the Iraqi police from regaining control of the streets of Baghdad. Life at the Police Academy varied from sheer boredom to moments of terror as mortars and rockets rained in. Leaving the academy to travel through the streets of Baghdad to the Green Zone for meetings could easily result in being ambushed. D. W. Wilber recounts his experiences as part of this effort, and the unique personalities who came to Baghdad to serve as instructors to the Iraqi Police Cadets attending the Baghdad Police Academy. “A snarky and smart blade that’s plunged to the hilt in serious reality . . . Solid writing. Entertaining. Awesome storytelling with amazing first-hand accounts about a whole new angle on the war in Iraq. Loaded with modest heroes that made a difference.” —Boone Cutler, Iraq War combat veteran, author of CallSign Voodoo

Download or read book Sword Citadel written by Gene Wolfe and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 1994-10-15 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Major work of twentieth-century American Literature.

Download or read book The Book of the New Sun written by Gene Wolfe and published by Gollancz. This book was released on 2015-03-12 with total page 608 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An extraordinary epic, set a million years in the future, in the time of a dying sun, when our present culture is no longer even a memory. Severian, a torturer's apprentice, is exiled from his guild after falling in love with one of his prisoners. Ordered to the distant city of Thrax, armed with his ancient executioner's sword, Terminus Est, Severian must make his way across the perilous, ruined landscape of this far-future Urth. But is his finding of the mystical gem, the Claw of the Conciliator, merely an accident, or does Fate have a grander plans for Severian the torturer . . . ? This edition contains the first two volumes of this four volume novel, The Shadow of the Torturer and The Claw of the Conciliator.

Download or read book Watcher of the Dead written by J. V. Jones and published by Tor Books. This book was released on 2010-04-13 with total page 447 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The epic fourth novel of the Sword of Shadows fantasy series In this powerful saga of redemption and renewal, J. V. Jones brings to vivid life the magnificent tapestry of a world at once desperately fighting for survival against supernatural monsters and rent by internecine warfare. The frozen land at the north of the world was once ruled by a legendary nation of superhuman warriors. But that age has passed, leaving ancient clans to struggle for dominance as supernatural forces beyond their control threaten their very existence. Amid the chaos of world-changing violence, unlikely heroes emerge. An unwanted warrior, a forsaken woman of power, the betrayed widow of a slain clan chief: these are the heroes rising to claim what has been taken from them and to reshape the world. In a sharply observed narrative that illuminates these riven lives, Jones has crafted a human drama full of the excitement, suspense, and sheer storytelling power that have made the Sword of Shadows a fantasy series that transcends genre to become a memorable tale of human striving and triumph that speaks to readers as have few others. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Download or read book In The Shadow Of The Banyan written by Vaddey Ratner and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-09-13 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A stunning, powerful debut novel set against the backdrop of the Cambodian War, perfect for fans of Chris Cleave and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie For seven-year-old Raami, the shattering end of childhood begins with the footsteps of her father returning home in the early dawn hours bringing details of the civil war that has overwhelmed the streets of Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital. Soon the family's world of carefully guarded royal privilege is swept up in the chaos of revolution and forced exodus. Over the next four years, as she endures the deaths of family members, starvation, and brutal forced labour, Raami clings to the only remaining vestige of childhood - the mythical legends and poems told to her by her father. In a climate of systematic violence where memory is sickness and justification for execution, Raami fights for her improbable survival. Displaying the author's extraordinary gift for language, In the Shadow of the Banyanis testament to the transcendent power of narrative and a brilliantly wrought tale of human resilience. 'In the Shadow of the Banyanis one of the most extraordinary and beautiful acts of storytelling I have ever encountered' Chris Cleave, author of The Other Hand 'Ratner is a fearless writer, and the novel explores important themes such as power, the relationship between love and guilt, and class. Most remarkably, it depicts the lives of characters forced to live in extreme circumstances, and investigates how that changes them. To read In the Shadow of the Banyan is to be left with a profound sense of being witness to a tragedy of history' Guardian 'This is an extraordinary debut … as beautiful as it is heartbreaking' Mail on Sunday

Download or read book The Shade of Swords written by M.J Akbar and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-05-03 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Muhammed to the Ottoman empires and the modern struggle for Palestine, Akbar's story explains how Jihad thrives on complex and shifting notions of persecution, victory and sacrifice and the Muslim control over this phenomenon.

Download or read book Sisters of the Sword written by Maya Snow and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-01-21 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I see you blink with surprise. A girl? you are thinking. Surely a girl cannot be asamurai. But you are wrong. Kimi dreams of being a great samurai warrior, but she and her sister, Hana, are young ladies of ancient Japan, daughters of the Jito of the province. Her future seems clear: Girls do not become samurai. Then, a murderous betrayal shatters the sisters' world. Suddenly, Kimi and Hana are thrown headlong into a life of warrior codes, deadly swords, and dangerous enemies. Life has swept them into an adventure more heart-pounding than the sisters ever could have imagined . . . and once it has been set in motion, nothing will ever be the same.

Download or read book The Sword and the Song written by Carla Laureano and published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. This book was released on 2015 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Conor has believed he was being led to seize the high kingship. But now he learns that he has been shaped to be a tool in the hand of the true high king. Is he willing to sacrifice his life and his future to fulfill a prophecy that isn't his?"--