Epic Cycle

Loyalty costs money. Betrayal, on the other hand, is free. When the Emperor is taken hostage, the Red Knight and his men find their services in high demand - and themselves surrounded by enemies. The country is in revolt, the capital city is besieged, and any victory will be hard won. But the Red Knight has a plan. The question is, can he negotiate the political, magical, real, and romantic battlefields at the same time - especially when he intends to be victorious on them all?

Twenty-eight florins a month is a huge price to pay for a man to stand between you and the Wild. Twenty-eight florins a month is nowhere near enough when a wyvern's jaws snap shut on your helmet in the hot stink of battle, and the beast starts to rip the head from your shoulders. But if standing and fighting is hard, leading a company of men - or worse, a company of mercenaries - against the smart, deadly creatures of the Wild is even harder. It takes all the advantages of birth, training, and the luck of the devil to do it.

Abarrach, the Realm of stone. Here, on a barren world of underground caverns built around a core of molten lava, the lesser races—humans, elves, and dwarves—seem to have all died off. Here, too, what may well be the last remnants of the once powerful Sartan still struggle to survive. For Haplo and Alfred—enemies by heritage, traveling companions by necessity—Abarrach may reveal more than either dares to discover about the history of Sartan... and the future of all their descendants.

Lucian has achieved the improbable with his acceptance into the prestigious Volsung Academy. Now, he must do something even more difficult: survive it. As a Novice, he must learn the fundamentals of magic while navigating Academy politics. Lucian must not only pass the grueling Trials but survive other mages' mechanizations. But doing that is difficult when he's being left behind.

Cally and Rowe have scoured the demonic wights from Narashtovik. But during the war, Cally learned he can no longer be part of the pacifist Order that raised him to be a sorcerer. The pair has traveled south, seeking the true copy of The Cycle of Arawn - the artifact Cally believes can restore proper rule to Narashtovik. There's a few problems with this plan, though. For one, nobody's seen the true copy in decades. And another, in these lands, possessing a copy of the Cycle is rewarded with a quick trip to the hangman.

For the first time in audio, the Cycle of Fire Trilogy, a stout and epic tale mixing sci-fi and fantasy by acclaimed author Janny Wurts. This classic fantasy trilogy follows three young people struggling to free the Stormwarden, the last of the elemental power-wielding Vaere sorcerers, so that he can battle the humanity-threatening demonkind.

Beyond the lights of Spark City lies a town that bandits and mercenaries call home. Where darkest deeds are currency, and only the ruthless survive. But when the enigmatic and dangerous assassin Aurora arrives at their gates with a legion at her back, even the lawless rules of banditry are tested. Raven Rock's infamous inhabitants are no strangers to bloodshed, yet Aurora brings a storm of carnage and madness unlike any they have ever known, plunging the town into a siege that threatens to wipe it from the map.

Chaos is everywhere as the Lord of the Nexus orders his servant Haplo and the human child known as Bane to further their master's work on Arianus, the realm of air. But their one time companion Alfred has been cast into the deadly Labyrinth. And somehow the assassin Hugh the Hand has been resurrected to complete his dark mission. More important, the evil force that Haplo and Alfred discovered on Arianus has escaped. As Haplo's doubts about his master grow deeper, he must decide whether to obey the Lord of the Nexus or betray the powerful Patryn...

Ling Qi's mastery of the realm of Dreams grows, and her strides carry her further daily. Meeting the skeletal echo again in his jail of twisted space has only reinforced that. But her time is not infinite; there is only so much she can Master and learn before the great undertaking she has taken up must bear fruit. The Summit between her home and the foreigners of the Polar Nation looms, and with it, the chance to head off further conflict and prevent the embers of war that have already ignited in the south from growing further.

The stunning debut fantasy novel from author Peter V. Brett. The Painted Man, book one of the Demon Cycle, is a captivating and thrilling fantasy adventure, pulling the reader into a world of demons, darkness and heroes. Voted one of the top ten fantasy novels of 2008 by amazon.co.uk. Sometimes there is very good reason to be afraid of the dark…Eleven-year-old Arlen lives with his parents on their small farmstead, half a day's ride from the isolated hamlet of Tibbet's Brook.

In the climax of the Traitor Son Cycle, the allied armies of the Wild and the Kingdoms of men and women must face Ash for control of the gates to the hermetical universe, and for control of their own destinies. But exhaustion, treachery, and time may all prove deadlier enemies. In Alba, Queen Desiderata struggles to rebuild her kingdom wrecked by a year of civil war, even as the Autumn battles are fought in the west. In the Terra Antica, the Red Knight attempts to force his unwilling allies to finish the Necromancer instead of each other.

For time out of mind, bloodthirsty demons have stalked the night, culling the human race to scattered remnants dependent on half-forgotten magics to protect them. Then two heroes arose - men as close as brothers, yet divided by bitter betrayal. Arlen Bales became known as the Warded Man, tattooed head to toe with powerful magic symbols that enable him to fight demons in hand-to-hand combat - and emerge victorious.

From his army of the undead, Xar, Lord of the Nexus, learns of the existence of the mysterious Seventh Gate. It is said that this gate grants whoever enters it the power to create worlds—or destroy them. Only Haplo knows its location—but he doesn't know he knows it. Now an ex-lover has been sent to betray Haplo and bring back his corpse. Meanwhile, the assassin Hugh the Hand is also after Haplo, wielding the Accursed Blade. With his old companion Alfred, Haplo must seek sanctuary in the Labyrinth—a deadly prison maze whose inhabitants are condemned to death.

After fleeing the revolution and settling into the craggy cliffs of New Pythos, the dragonlords are eager to punish their usurpers and reclaim their city. Their first order of business was destroying the Callipolan food supply. Now they're coming for the dragonriders. Annie is Callipolis' new Firstrider, charged with leading the war against New Pythos. But with unrest at home, enforcing the government's rationing program risks turning her into public enemy number one.

On steamy Pryan, never-ending sunlight and plentiful rain have created a jungle so vast that humans and elves dwell high in the trees and only dwarves live anywhere near the ground. From the treetops the aristocratic elves sell weapons to the other races, whose incessant warfare sends a steady steam of profits and essential resources skyward. Now, generations of dissent and race hatred will not heal—not even under the threat of annihilation at the hands of legendary Titans.

The tournament is past, the Inner Sect achieved, and Ling Qi has chosen the path of her life going forward. Retainer to the heir of the province, an absurd step up from a girl who lived on the street a year before. Now she faces a strange prospect, peace. There are no great tournaments in her immediate future, no desperate battles to maintain her station. Formal duels and skill challenges just aren't the same. But she has much to learn, and now that she has proven herself, the Argent Peak Sect has much to teach an inner disciple.

Despite his warriors' lineage, Erroh would rather waste his potential stumbling alone from one tavern to the next, drinking and gambling. Fate, however, has greater plans for him. After decades of peace, a great war draws near, and though he doesn't know it, he is standing in the way of the first wave. What is more, and very much to his dismay, he's about to find out he's not entirely alone either. But Erroh has a plan, a simple plan.

Ever since I cycled down the west coast of Canada and the United States as a means of saving the bus fare on a round-the-world trip, I dreamed of cycling the whole length of that landmass, from the southern tip of South America all the way up to the Arctic Ocean. Returning home to a job I didn’t enjoy, that dream burned at my mind until, as a mature student in 1999, I was given the opportunity to take a year out and decided now was my time.

The Red Knight has stood against soldiers, armies, and the might of an empire without flinching. He's fought on real and magical battlefields alike, and now he's facing one of the greatest challenges yet. A tournament. A joyous spring event, the flower of the nobility will ride against each other for royal favor and acclaim. It's a political contest - one that the Red Knight has the skill to win. But the stakes may be higher than he thinks.

Advancement has come quickly to Ling Qi. With help from strong allies and connections, her foe has been defeated. The enemies of the alliance she has helped to build have surrendered. Her talent no longer goes unnoticed in the Celestial Empire, casting new eyes on her path. Those like her are accounted for; a title of nobility is within her reach...a prize with implications that will stretch over her now long life.