Literary Fiction Epics

Few novels have offered the modern listener such a fresh view of World War II as Markus Zusak's The Book Thief. With this new guide, you will have an even greater understanding of the book. Included in this guide: a biography of author Markus Zusak, a look at the book's context, its literary elements, detailed chapter summaries, analysis, and suggestions for essays. This is the definitive guide to The Book Thief - concise, easy to listen to, and guaranteed to add to your enjoyment of this classic story.

Robin Hood has disappeared. In his absence, the Sheriff's rule is absolute. The people cower beneath his iron fist. The land is bled dry, and dying. But not everyone has given up the fight. Only the blind bowman, Robin Hood, can bring these forces together, and lead the uprising. But first, Marian must find him.

Sus pesadillas eran tan vívidas que casi podía respirarlas. Ningún horror escapaba a su experiencia, ya nada la sorprendía, pero... cuán equivocada estaba. En el despertar de la tragedia, ni Lazlo ni Sarai son quienes solían ser. Uno, deidad; el otro, fantasma: ambos luchan por comprender el alcance de los límites propios de su condición, que antes desconocían, pues la mente oscura de Minya los mantiene rehenes, en su intento de venganza contra Weep.

«Хроника Горбатого» — новый роман Софии Синицкой, финалиста литературных премий «Большая книга», «Национальный бестселлер», «НОС» и «Ясная Поляна». Сюжет «Хроники Горбатого» охватывает несколько столетий, а действие разворачивается в городе Выборг — от момента его снования шведами до наших дней. Мириады персонажей разного возраста, этноса и миропонимания, не зная друг друга, крепко сплетаются судьбами, исторические факты соседствуют с мифами, а документальная летопись перетекает в магический реализм.

Измученные осадой, окруженные могущественными колдунами, значительно превосходящими их по численности, бойцы Черного отряда, рискуя своими душами и жизнями из последних сил стараются удержать отвоеванный Дежагор. Это удается им с большим трудом. Отряд расколот и разделился на два враждующих лагеря. Обезумевший командир ведет переговоры с Хозяевами Теней. Паломники из древнего племени нюень бао, волею случая оказавшиеся вместе с Отрядом, утверждают, что пробудились древние божества.

Most of the great Greek stories and epic tales are initiated over women, which is exactly what happens in the very beginning of The Iliad by Homer. The Trojan War has been waging for nearly a decade, and really erupted when Helen, the wife to Menelaos, was kidnapped and thus launched the "thousand ships" in pursuit of her. This is the reason that the Achaians and the Trojans have been fighting each other for so long. Achilles, who has become hero to the Greeks, is given the present of a slave girl for his excellence in battle.

Blaine McFadden endured six long years in the brutal Velant prison colony, exiled for murder. War devastated his homeland of Donderath and destroyed the magic on which the Ascendant Kingdoms relied. Now Blaine and a small group of fellow exiles have returned to a lawless wasteland, where unrestrained magic storms wreak havoc and monsters roam free. Yet, amidst the chaos, rumors persist of a new magic that could restore the kingdoms. But the key lies with a dangerous, ancient ritual and a group of vanished survivors.

Magery is failing, the war has been lost and Hightspall has fallen. The Cythonian enemy, led by their reincarnated sorcerer-king, Lyf, are determined to wipe it off the map and build their ancient realm of Cythe anew. Rix, now known as Deadhand, was once heir to the greatest fortune in all Hightspall. Now he’s disgraced, dispossessed and is running for his life. Tali, an escaped slave, is held captive. But when she discovers that her enslaved people face genocide at the hands of the enemy, Tali conceives a desperate, impossible plan.

Blaine "Mick" McFadden managed to restore Donderath's magic partially, but not without a cost. He and the magic are now bound together, and the power remains dangerous and erratic - draining the life from him with every use. New threats are rising from the wreckage of the battered kingdoms, and warlords both mortal and undead vie for control.

After the loss of friends and comrades, after betrayal and battle, master thief Shadow Harold finally enters Hrad Spein the dreaded underground complex where the object of Harold’s quest, the Rainbow Horn, is hidden. With nothing more than his wits, the advice of a goblin shaman, and a stolen map, he must succeed where battalions of soldiers and wizards have failed. Before the master thief are many dangerous obstacles including ghouls, long-dead armies of elves, orcs, and magical traps...

Snehild vient au monde au milieu d'une guerre sanglante. Sa mère se réfugie dans les bois, puis dans la ville de Himlinge où Snehild grandit. Lorsque Ragnfrid, la grande prêtresse toute puissante de la ville devine que Snehild a des dons qui surpassent les siens, elle va tout mettre en œuvre pour se débarrasser d'elle.

From the moment Isabel Archer arrives in England, the soon-to-be heiress is in high demand. But the idealistic American rejects two proposals - and convention altogether. Headstrong Isabel prefers to shape her identity and confront her own destiny. When she is finally swayed, it’s by the manipulative charms of expatriate Gilbert Osmond. Where once was promise and determination is now the fear that the independence she’s pursued might have been forever lost.

After his father’s untimely death, Nicholas Nickleby is charged with supporting his mother and sister as he finds his way in the world. Broke, Nickleby goes to his maleficent uncle Ralph for help. The ruthless and resentful businessman appeases his nephew with a thankless position at a grim orphans’ home. Nickleby is swiftly conspired against, and the young man is forced to leave his family and London behind. Accompanied by colorful eccentrics and a rogues’ gallery of villains, Nickleby is tested at every turn on his journey home and to self-discovery.

Napoleon has England on edge. For the cunning and conniving Becky Sharp, it’s an opportunity to take advantage of the chaos and improve her lowly station. Her friend Amelia Sedley, a blue-blood pawn, affords Becky entrée into the moneyed class. As the guileless Amelia pines for a rakish soldier, the ruthless Becky climbs upward, setting the stage for a domestic battlefield of greed, ambition, deception, and dizzying reversals of love and fortune.

When Kyri Vantage, Phoenix Justiciar of Myrionar - with the help of her companions, Tobimar Silverun of Skysand and the unexpectedly dangerous little Toad, Poplock Duckweed - defeated monstrous killer Thornfalcon and unmasked a conspiracy of treacherous False Justiciars, she knew the job was only partly done.

Ancient enemies stalk ghostly fog forests as legends come to life. The Divide is flooded. Habryn Kail and the Homunculus are missing, presumed dead. Sal and his companions seek the source of the flood in the legendary Hanging Mountains, hoping to head off a crisis that was put in motion a thousand years ago. As conflict erupts between two long-forgotten civilizations, the outsiders find that allies are hard to come by. Taken captive and separated, they uncover uncomfortable truths about the world and how it relates to the one that came before - our world.

Having been ambushed in San Francisco, which is now fully engulfed in the zombie plague, Ashley and the wild cards must pursue the enemy to San Diego. There they will discover a splinter of their own organization, the Dolofónoi tou Zontanoús Nekroús, which seeks to weaponize the plague. But that isn't the worst news. The plague has gone airborne, making it transferable without physical contract.

An article in a random travel magazine - about coyotes freely roaming the banks of the Rio Grande right in the middle of the city of Albuquerque - compels talented but socially isolated artist Margaret Shaw to pack up and move from New York City to New Mexico. She quickly settles into a Chicano/Mexican barrio near the river, spending long days at local junkyards attempting to satisfy another recent obsession - her determination to move her art from two dimensions to three.

With the Shaitan War at an end, Lieutenant Commander Shawn "Calvin" Hobbs was able to finally complete the task given him by the long-lost Progenitors. Unfortunately, rather than getting a reward, the Progenitors’ rod was trapped, and it called the Progenitors’ ancient Enemy instead. Calvin and the crew of the Vella Gulf have now been given a choice - prepare the galaxy’s civilizations for the Enemy’s cull or become the first victims of that cull. Calvin has overcome insurmountable odds before, however, and the crew of the Vella Gulf decides to fight.

An offer they couldn’t refuse. A chance to re-set the balance.... Tog and Kryder were raised as brothers, even though they were very different. Tog was a Half-Orc, tall and strong, and good with an axe. Kryder was shorter and tended to daggers...except when he used the magic passed down to him from his deceased mother. Having just reached adulthood in the Baronies West, both were enjoying life.