Books Tagged With what - topic - religion

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Summary: Welcome to the last of the great flying Cities! It’s 9172, YE (Year of the Empire), and the future has forgotten its past. Soaring miles over the Earth, Autumn, the sole surviving flying city, is filled to the brim with the manifold forms of humankind: from Human Plus “floor models” to the oppressed and disfranchised underclasses doing their dirty work and every imaginable variation between. Valerius Bakhoum is a washed-up private eye and street hustler scraping by in Autumn. Late on his rent, fetishized and reviled for his imperfect genetics, stuck in the quicksand of his own heritage, Valerius is trying desperately to wrap up his too-short life when a mythical relic of humanity’s fog-shrouded past walks in and hires him to do one last job. What starts out as Valerius just taking a stranger’s money quickly turns into the biggest and most dangerous mystery he’s ever tried to crack – and Valerius is running out of time to solve it. Now Autumn’s abandoned history – and the monsters and heroes that adorn it – are emerging from the shadows to threaten the few remaining things Valerius holds dear. Can the burned-out detective navigate the labyrinth of lies and maze of blind faith around him to save the City of Autumn from its greatest myth and deadliest threat as he navigates his feelings for his newest client, the handsome golem Alejandro?

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Summary: Memories of another life and lover guide her, but are they even hers? She is a Bearer—keeper of past lifetimes and gifted with strange talents. Ember must find her answers away from safe Longquan Village, snared instead in the sensuality and dangers of The City. Hidden among spider farmers and slaves, prostitutes and weavers, a nest of people like her are waiting. A powerful man outside The City raises his forces, determined to hunt down the ‘demons’ who could taint his followers. Threatened from without and within, can the Bearers even trust each other? Powers will rise and alliances will be forged in a dark new world. The Memory Bearers are coming. This book includes violent and mature content. Reader discretion is advised.

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Summary: Step through a portal in time - and steal a piece of history! Iria and Madge, witches extraordinaire, have summoned Joshua Norton I, self-declared Emperor of the United States, back from the nineteenth century to help them save the city of San Francisco from a demon of greed. Mammon, their infernal adversary, is running a real estate scam to end all real estate scams, and he's got his own helping hand from the city's past: Etta Place, famous in her day as the accomplice of Butch Cassidy and partner of the Sundance Kid. As Norton dodges mafia foot soldiers alongside another of San Francisco's larger-than-life figures from yesteryear on the fog-shrouded streets of Chinatown long ago, Iria and Madge find themselves face to face with Mammon and Etta in modern day - and trapped in very different timelines. It'll take all their ingenuity, bravery, and prowess to fix time itself, steal the prize, and get these three heroes back together!

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A quest for power. A growing evil. Can a scholar of magic keep an incredible discovery from the forces of chaos?

Buy Ancients today!

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Summary: Ardulum. The planet that vanishes. The planet that sleeps. Neek makes a living piloting the dilapidated tramp transport, Mercy’s Pledge, and smuggling questionable goods across systems blessed with peace and prosperity. She gets by—but only just. In her dreams, she is still haunted by thoughts of Ardulum, the traveling planet that, long ago, visited her homeworld. The Ardulans brought with them agriculture, art, interstellar technology…and then disappeared without a trace, leaving Neek’s people to worship them as gods. Neek does not believe—and has paid dearly for it with an exile from her home for her heretical views. Yet, when the crew stumbles into an armed confrontation between the sheriffs of the Charted Systems and an unknown species, fate deals Neek an unexpected hand in the form of a slave girl—a child whose ability to telepathically manipulate cellulose is reminiscent of that of an Ardulan god. Forced to reconcile her beliefs, Neek chooses to protect her, but is the child the key to her salvation, or will she lead them all to their deaths?

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Summary: The planet wakes. Atalant is torn between two worlds. In uncharted space, head of a sentient planet, the new eld of Ardulum now leads the religion she once rejected. Emn is by her side, but the Mmnnuggl war brewing in the Charted Systems, threatening her homeworld of Neek, cannot be ignored. Atalant must return to the planet that exiled her in order to lead the resistance. She must return home a god, a hypocrite, a liar in gold robes, and decide whether to thrust her unwilling people into the truth of Ardulum, or play the role she has been handed and never see her family, or her world, again.

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Summary: There will be time to crown a king, but first a warlord must rise. Arthur’s battle summer is upon him, and he must be victorious if he is to claim his throne and rid the land of Saxon invaders. The teenage king has pulled the sword from the stone, but still the petty kings will not accept his rule. The Saxons are invading, Lot and Uriens are united against him, and he still has to prove himself to the common folk of the land. Next stop: the mysterious standing stones of the Giants’ Dance and the Beltane ritual. Warfare does not wait for Arthur to catch his breath. Battle follows battle. Love is lost and found. Allies fall, enemies rise, and betrayals come to the young High King. If he stays strong, he can lead his people through a bloody summer. If not, all of Britannia will fall. Arthur alone will be responsible for the glory or ruin to come. Merlin will help him to see it through. But what secrets is the druid keeping? Arthur Rex: Dux Bellorum is the third installment in an epic retelling of the King Arthur legend. You only think you know the story.

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Summary: Merlin has devised a test. All of the petty kings have gathered in Londinium to see who will be the next High King. Arthur and his retinue travel to the city in secret, but they are not the only ones with an interest in the Sword in the Stone. Morgana, Arthur's half-sister and the renegade queen of Rheged, has journeyed there with her Saxon lover, and petty kings have come with no kind welcome for the young High King. Arthur pulls the sword, but the kings will not accept him. He is given the temporary title of Dux Bellorum, and with Merlin at his side, he sets out to unite the tribes of Britannia as the Saxon threat grows more menacing on their eastern shore. Some battles are easy. Others are carried out in secret. It is the secret battles that Arthur will need to fear. "Arthur Rex: Ex Lapis" is the second installment of an epic retelling of the Arthurian legend. You only think you know the story.

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Summary: The High King is dead. While royal bastards and petty kings squabble for the power to take the vacant throne, only the druid Merlin and his succubus mother know where to find the late king’s only legal heir. Arthur is young, idealistic, and living a quiet life at Caer Gai, protected by his foster father. Merlin put him there, and he will take him back out when the time is right, but first he has to set the stage and sweep away distractions… like the boy that Arthur loves. Merlin and his mother have plans for the hidden king, and they will stop at nothing to get him where they want him to go. But Arthur is no mere pawn, and though Merlin is a master manipulator, Arthur has ideas of his own about how his life should be. “ARTHUR REX: In Principio” is the first installment of an epic retelling of the Arthurian legend. You only think you know the story.

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Summary: For the past few years Yarroway L’Estrella has lived in exile, gathering arcane power.  But that power came at a price, and he carries the scars to prove it. Now he must do his duty: his uncle, the king, needs him to escort Prince Garith to his wedding, a union that will create an alliance between the two strongest countries in the known world. But Yarrow isn’t the prince’s only guard. A whole company of knights is assigned to the mission, and Yarrow’s not sure he trusts their leader. Knight Duncan Purefroy isn't sure he trusts Yarrow either, but after a bizarre occurrence during their travels, they have no choice but to work together—especially since the incident also reveals a disturbing secret, one that might threaten the entire kingdom. The precarious alliance is strained further when a third member joins the cause for reasons of his own—reasons that may not be in the best interests of the prince or the kingdom. With enemies at every turn, no one left to trust, and the dark power within Yarrow pulling dangerously away from his control, the fragile bond the three of them have built may be all that stands between them and destruction.

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Summary: Starship captain Ardeva Korrell is used to fighting prejudice, both because she's a woman in what's normally a man's line of work and because she's from a world with a misunderstood religion. But now, on a trading mission to a backwater planet, she finds herself with another kind of fight on her hands; she and her small crew must battle an army of robots and defeat the tyrannical, god-like beings who have enslaved the native population. The task before them is straightforward: to storm the gates of Heaven itself!

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Summary: U.S. Marshal James Creed has known loss, starting from the untimely death of his wife and daughter in a sudden fire. His work, chasing down and arresting outlaws across the Wild West, is all he has left to live for. Then one day, in 1876, the infamous killer Corwin Blake catches Creed by surprise and guns him down. Creed awakes after a mysterious young woman resurrects him in a basement laboratory beneath a brothel. Half alive, Creed feels torn between his need for justice and his desire to fall back into the peace of death. Creed's instincts drive him to protect the city of Santa Cruz, California, from the outlaws it harbors while searching for Blake. He uncovers a secret criminal organization, likely protecting Blake, determined to use resurrection technology for its own ends. The former marshal, now faster, stronger, and a more deadly shot than ever before, must work with a brothel madam, a bounty hunter, and the remaining marshals to uncover the criminal syndicate before they can misuse the machines of rebirth and create more mindless zombies. Meanwhile, he must also stop Blake, before the outlaw kills the only people he cares about. His own death can wait.

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Summary: A young man sold into servitude has his loyalties tested in ways he never imagined. Raised in an orphanage in Dickens, Daniel doesn't know who his parents were, where he comes from, or even his last name. Like all orphans, on his 16th birthday, he's sold to the highest bidder. Not knowing where he's going, who's bought him, or what they even want with him, Daniel embarks on an adventure he never thought he'd take. He finds love, a family, and a secure future - yet in a split second, makes a decision he ends up regretting the rest of his life. Brothers begins fifteen years before the Red Dog Conspiracy series. Warning: Language, smoking, use of alcohol and drugs, attempted suicide by hanging, M/M underage sexuality with consent issues, forced servitude, blood, gun violence, a man being beaten by a horsewhip, murder, discussion of child prostitution, underage M/F sexuality with age gap (female older).

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Summary: Whose hand will orchestrate the change in the world? The decade-long war with Johmatra is over, but peace hangs by a thread in Garith’s kingdom. Yarrow, isolated in his island realm, refuses to abide by the treaty or to follow the dictates of the priestesses. Others—Octavian Rose among them—are uneasy with the growing military power of the temples, and the mage island of Espero remains a tenuous ally. Garith knows his people cannot weather another conflict and that infighting will leave their lands vulnerable to further invasion. The arrival of a Johmatran ambassador with his own agenda calls everyone’s loyalties into question. Sides will be chosen, and the consequences of those choices will have repercussions no one can foresee. Even among the turmoil, Yarrow is determined to have his vengeance against the thirteen goddesses and heal the world’s magic. But how far will he go, and what lines is he willing to cross? As unlikely alliances are forged and enemies are revealed, Prince Thane seems to be the key to forgotten knowledge that will shape the future—and some will do whatever it takes to control him.

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Summary: Eclectic, imaginative, and unexpected, Community of Magic Pens features forty genre-spanning flash and short stories--including fantasy, humor, science fiction, romance, historical fiction, satire, and mystery--bringing together a rich group of diverse voices from a wide range of backgrounds and intersections. Fountain pens, markers and ink, charcoals, spy pens, a braille writer, a printing press, virtual reality, and a supernatural pizza: whether revealing unspoken truths, fighting injustice, or finding friendship and love, our pens have power. Join us as a recent graduate of superhero school struggles to understand her gift, a disabled android interviews for a job, a queen’s conscripted artist must pull reality from illustrations on parchment, and a grandmother’s secret room is…better kept a secret. Tales of struggle and triumph, compassion and hope: Community of Magic Pens is a celebration of our shared story.

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Summary: Other stories will take you to Mars. This one will take you inside the boardroom, the pub, and the bedroom with the people planning the mission. Gurdeep is an engineer and a soldier. Georgie’s a food scientist. One is pragmatic with a tough outer shell; the other’s an optimist, a person of ideas and compassion. In the span of a single afternoon, the couple find themselves in charge of planning a self-sustaining colony on Mars. Together, they’re humanity’s last hope for survival. They have 160 slots to fill with experts from all over the world as they set about designing an all-new society with its own government, economy, and culture – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Among those chosen for the mission is Devon, an autistic scientist with a unique skill set who finds life on Earth strange and alienating. Maybe a whole new planet is exactly what’s needed. With 1,114 days until the launch, excitement and tensions run high. Earth’s second chance hangs in the balance. Between strict genetic requirements and the dangers of the dystopian almost-present, will everyone make it to the final countdown? This is a work of neurodiverse, culturally diverse, gender-bendy, socio-politico-economic, drunken-arguments-in-the-pub science fiction – not bang-bang-pew-pew science fiction.

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Summary: They told him he was chosen, but everything they told him was a lie. Sookahr believes he’s destined to change the world. With his rodent companion and a motley crew of fellow serpents, he journeys to the farthest outpost of Serpentia, determined to prove himself. The quest leads him to the very edge of the jungle, where Sookahr encounters, not only sabotage, but a dark secret that could shake the foundation of his civilization. Betrayed and abandoned, Sookarh must discover his own power, harness the magic inside his dreams, and decide who he really wants to be. Because if he can’t rise to the challenge, expose his enemy, and uncover the truth, he won\'t just lose his way. He’ll lose his friends, his place in society… and his life. In a world ruled by reptiles, one snake must fulfil his destiny to overthrow corruption, expose a dark secret, and save his people… from themselves. 2020 Leo Literary Award Winner

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Summary: Three vampires. Three lives. Three stories intertwined. Bearing the guilt of destroying the holiest of books after becoming a vampire, the Dragon, Lord Desmond searches the world for lost knowledge, but instead, discovers truth in love. Born a slave in Ancient Greece, Alexandra craves freedom above all else, until a vampire sets her free, and then, she must pay the highest price of all … her human soul. An assassin who lives in the shadows, Roquelaure is cloaked even from himself, until he discovers the power of friendship and loyalty. Three vampires, traveling the world by moonlight—one woman and two men who forge a bond made in love and blood. Together they form a band of mercenaries called the Scarlet Order, and recruit others who are like them. Their mission is to protect kings and emperors against marauders, invaders, and rogue vampires as the world descends into the chaos of the Dark Ages.

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Summary: Katja has long spent her life buried in the pain and sorrow of her past, a vampire abandoned to her fate for over 300 years, she never expects to meet another who could help her reclaim her existence. Raven, a poet and fellow lost soul, could be the one to spur her on, but in order to have the future she has only begun to grasp, she must uncover the truth about her origins and the awful event which left her alone centuries before. If she cannot face her past and reclaim her strength, she will lose everything.