Showing results by author "James Hunter" in All Categories

“I’m deconstructing.” Yet another social-media post announces departure from the Christian faith. The cause could be sex, race, politics, social justice, science, hell - or all of the above. For many, Christianity is becoming implausible, even impossible to believe. While it might be tempting to leave the church in order to find answers, Before You Lose Your Faith argues that church should be the best place to deal with doubts. 

Marine-turned-Monster-Hunter Boyd Knight has found himself trapped in a deadly game of cat and mouse with the Fae Queen of Oblivion. Although the first leg of the Wyld Hunt has drawn to a close, there are still two more Hunts to go, and the targets will only get deadlier. After slaying a Vampire Monarch and being cheated out of victory, the time for fun and games is officially over, and Boyd is ready to unleash some good ol’ fashioned fire and brimstone on anyone who gets in his way again. But it’s not just the nightmarish monsters and Fae champions that Boyd has to worry about.

Somewhere within the Library, a clock is winding down. With Wendy safe, Alan needs to focus on paying his debt to the Plague Doctors of Wyrdtide by the end of the month. But a slip of the tongue doubles the amount, turning a hard task into an impossible one. His only option is to ask the master of assassins for work. But murder for money isn't the only thing Alan needs to worry about. The gods are upset with him, his old colleagues want him dead, and the Circle of Brewers is hiding more than the secrets of Alchemy.

So when Dr. Lisette Chen discovers her staff have uploaded their consciousnesses into the massive MMO, Viridian Gate Online, she reluctantly takes a chance and logs in. Her goal? Discover why her colleagues abandoned her when she needed them the most. In a blink, she finds herself in a fantastical world where her healing skills - both as a doctor and a Priestess of Gaia - are sorely needed.

October, 2042: In two weeks, the world will die, murdered by a nine-mile-wide, extinction-level asteroid. And Robert Osmark - billionaire and savvy tech genius - couldn't be readier for the fiery apocalypse. Unlike the shortsighted masses, he’s been diligently preparing for this day from the moment the asteroid first appeared. Through his relentless efforts, digital salvation now awaits anyone bold enough to take the leap and permanently transition into the brand-new, ultra-immersive, fantasy-based VRMMORPG.

For the first time ever, legendary editor Otto Penzler has handpicked some of the most respected and best-selling thriller writers working today for a riveting collection of spy fiction. From first to last, this stellar collection signals mission accomplished.

Yancy Lazarus is having a bad day: there's a bullet lodged in his butt cheek, his face looks like the site of a demolition derby, and he's been saran-wrapped to a banquet table. He never should have answered the phone. Stupid bleeding heart - helping others in his circles is a good way to die - just ask the gang members ripped to pieces by some kind of demonic nightmare in LA.

The end of the world is not such a bad thing for Russian weapons engineer Vlad Nardoir. Really, his world ended six months ago when his wife died, and ever since then, things have been downhill. Soul-crushing medical debt. Favors to the Russian mafia. Now, asteroid. For Vlad, this is life in a nutshell. But, in a wild twist of fate, he has found a way out. A chance to start fresh in a brand-new ultra-immersive MMORPG called Viridian Gate Online. Making the leap might kill him, but again, death is not such a bad thing for a man with nothing to live for.

It’s been three weeks since Jacob Merely crash-landed on the mythical island of Lycastia, and the newly minted War God finally has things under control. He’s grown into his power, built his city, and earned the respect of his gorgeous, hard-charging amazons. He’s not in the clear yet, though. Hades still lives, and the mystical sigil holding him at bay is rapidly failing. Worse, a horde of new enemies is battering Lycastia’s gates daily, slowly grinding down Jacob’s forces. But Jacob has a plan to get the upper hand.

When Marine Corps pilot Jacob Merely crashes during a routine mission off the coast of Cyprus, he was sure it was game over. After surviving the crash and pulling himself onto the sandy shores of a long-abandoned island, however, Jacob unwittingly stumbles headfirst into the ancient ruins of a dead city. Unfortunately, he also stumbles into an age-old battle between good and evil - and he is now its newest recruit. The island once belonged to the Amazons, but Jacob’s arrival has awakened the old gods and disturbed the seal holding the ravaging darkness at bay.

After saving the people of Ironmoor, Boyd Knight thought he was finally getting a handle on this whole Vigil thing. Bounties were rolling up. Monsters were dying in droves. Plus, he convinced his chaotic pixie familiar, Renholm, to stop committing random acts of arson. But defeating the fabled Hexblight of Ironmoor is child’s play compared to the tests Boyd will face in Wildespell, home to the Citadel of the Vigilant. Something foul has infiltrated the city.

After dying, losing his soulmate twice, building elemental cannons, and knocking down more than metaphorical walls for the Crimson Alliance, Vlad is looking for a place to call his own: a crafting guild that will be able to produce the most overpowered loot the world of VGO has ever seen. Gathering his personal guard, Vlad sets off across the monster-infested Storme Marshes to find the perfect power source, hidden away in the guts of a mysterious sunken ruin. Unfortunately, the mob from old Earth hasn't forgotten him, and Vlad isn't the only one with a thirst for forbidden inventions.

Jacob Merely has secured the ultimate weapon against evil, the Crystal Scythe, and now it’s time for to bring the fight to Hades himself. Unfortunately, Earl Necro Earl and his undead forces stand in the way, so if Jacob is going to take the God of Death out, he’s going to have to take Earl out first. Yeah, Jacob is totally okay with that. And when a mysterious new woman arrives unexpectedly at their gates with no memory of who she is - but seems to know of a secret passageway into the heart of the Temple of Hades - Jacob finally has the last piece of the puzzle.

Winona Treesinger is a Bigfoot - and no, she doesn’t just have large feet. She’s literally an eight-foot-tall walking myth, and the last great princess of the People of the Forest. All she and her people want is to dwell in the deep places of the forest, well away from mankind and the destruction they bring to the land and the world. But when Winona hears about a string of grisly murders in the nearby city of Missoula, she knows in her gut it’s the work of an ancient evil, driven away from their lands long ago. 

Yancy Lazarus - mage, bluesman, and demon-souled - is having the worst hangover of his life. He just woke up in a dingy hotel in literal Hell with one eye missing, an arm covered in swirling golden tattoos, and no recollection of the past six months. All he wants is to figure out how he ended up in the Great Below and whether there’s a way home. But getting out of Hell is no easy feat. Yancy is the most wanted man in the infernal city of Pandæmonium, and he’s being hunted by demonic cutthroats for a series of high-profile murders he can’t remember committing.

Bigfoot is real. Yancy Lazarus - mage, bluesman, and rambler - knows because there happens to be a nine-foot-tall, walking myth standing in the road, flagging him down. Yancy just can't escape his reputation as a supernatural fix-it man even when cruising through the forgotten backwoods of Montana. Turns out Bigfoot has a serious problem on his hands: one of his own has gone rogue, developing a taste for the flesh of humans and Sasquatch alike.

The call to make the world a better place is inherent in the Christian belief and practice. But why have efforts to change the world by Christians so often failed or gone tragically awry? And how might Christians in the twenty-first century live in ways that have integrity with their traditions and are more truly transformative? In To Change the World, James Davison Hunter offers persuasive answers to these questions.

Liberal democracy in America has always contained contradictions—most notably, a noble but abstract commitment to freedom, justice, and equality that, tragically, has seldom been realized in practice. While these contradictions have caused dissent and even violence, there was always an underlying and evolving solidarity drawn from the cultural resources of America’s “hybrid Enlightenment”. James Davison Hunter, who introduced the concept of “culture wars” 30 years ago, tells us in this new book that those historic sources of national solidarity have now largely dissolved.

Legions of murderous undead, Haitian voodoo, and a 5,000-year-old serpent god. Yeah, 'cause that's exactly what Yancy Lazarus needs in his life: more complications. As if being the Hand of Fate and the newly appointed guardian over one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse wasn't headache enough. All Yancy wants is an easy life on the open road - chock-full of ribs, beer, cigarettes, and smoky bars blaring with gritty blues music - but that just isn't in the cards. Nope, not anymore.

Yancy Lazarus just wants to be left alone. He wants to play his blues music, smoke a few cigarettes, and otherwise leave the supernatural world to fend for itself. He especially wants to be left alone by the Guild of the Staff - the mage ruling body where he used to work as a fix-it man. But when a little kid gets nabbed by an ancient fae creature from the nether regions of Winter, and the Guild refuses to set things right, he just can't seem to heed good sense and leave things be.