Showing results by author "Judith Tarr" in All Categories

The life and times of Melisende, the crusader queen of Jerusalem, regent to her young son, the king, during the 12th century, come to life through the eyes of Lady Richildis, a young Frankish woman on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, who becomes one of Melisende's confidantes.

Historical fact and fantastic legend clash when Merlin's descendant Roland takes up the Quest for the Grail against Arthur's ancient enemy - a thrilling new adventure from an extraordinary talent whose appeal is growing fast with each new book....

Alfred of St. Ruan's has lived his life in the seclusion of the monastery. But a badly wounded knight on a mission from the Elvenking, a beautiful and mysterious stranger who walks as both woman and beast, and a warrior king call him out of the cloister's walls into the wars and storms of the world. For he is neither mortal nor human, though he has long tried to live as both; and he can deny neither his nature nor his powerful magic.

Constantinople, A.D. 1203: a great army camps outside the City of Cities, and threatens it with conquest. Within the City, a Greek witch and a renegade monk who is also a white enchanter do their utmost to hold back the tides of war. But even their great powers may not be able to save Byzantium’s empire from the Western Crusade.

National bestselling author Judith Tarr returns to the world of her critically-acclaimed Devil’s Bargain as the sorceress Sioned and her half-brother King Richard once again face the Old Man of the Mountain, an evil sorcerer determined to destroy them....

In ancient Egypt, a woman might be king - but the price she paid would bind her soul for eternity. Hatshepsut, the Great Royal Wife, is bound in marriage to her brother, Thutmose, whom she despises. When the king dies while his son is yet a child, Hatshepsut raises herself from queen regent to ruling king. And all the while, the royal heir, the son of the concubine, watches and waits.

Red William, the eldest son of William the Conqueror, has inherited the throne and a kingdom free of Saxon Christian influence. But his decision to leave magic out of his rule causes the land to wither and die. Now the fate of Britain lies in the hands of Edith, princess of Scotland, and Henry, the youngest son of the Conqueror. Both are highly gifted in magic, but only the blood of a king will cleanse the land from the evil and pestilence that infects it.

Elian of Han-Gilen is the pride and scandal of her father's princedom. She has out-ridden, out-hunted, and out-shot every suitor. Now comes one whom she could bring herself to love: No lesser man than the throne prince of the Golden Empire. But Elian swore an oath as a child to a foster brother who is now a warrior king. Consort to an imperial heir or squire at arms to a conqueror: Elian must choose, and in choosing, decide the fate of two empires.

Long years after the White Mare came to the people of the Mothers, bringing the wild horsemen from the sea of grass and changing the world forever, the world is changing again. The Mother of Lir is dead, her heir cast out amid dire omens. War is coming - such a war as the people have never seen, fought with a new and terrible weapon: the chariot. Rhian, potter's child and White Mare's chosen, ventures with Emry the prince of Lir into the sea of grass and undertakes to steal the enemy's weapon.

In the grandfathers' time, when few yet living had been born, the People worshipped the horse, and served him, and took the gifts that he gave them: his meat, his hide, the milk of his mares. But he had not yet granted to men the greatest gift of all: the gift of riding on his back, and racing the wind. Sparrow is a shaman's daughter in a tribe that forbids women to be kings, to be shamans, to be anything but silent and tractable servants to the all-powerful men.

In the dawn of time, women ruled, and the people had no word for war. Then the horsemen came. Sarama is the last of the White Mare's servants, descended from an ancient line conquered long ago by warrior tribes. Her father is the king of one such tribe. Her twin brother Agni is the king's heir. But she is heir to an older world, and a different way.

In the time of the Crusades, in a world at war, a prince of immortal lineage and a spirit of fire who was once an assassin prepare to celebrate a royal wedding. But he is Christian and she is Muslim, and there are those who hate them not only for their disparate faiths but for their power and magic.

Judith Tarr returns to the always fascinating character of Alexander the Great in this fantasy novel that springs from the legend that the Queen of the Amazons came to meet him in Persia, and became his friend.

Alfred of St. Ruan's Abbey is a monk and a scholar, a religious man whose vocation is beyond question. But Alfred is also, without a doubt, one of the fair folk, for though he is more than seventy years old by the Abbey's records, he seems to be only a youth. But Alfred is drawn from the haven of his monastery into his dangerous currents of politics when an ambassador from the kingdom of Rhiyana to Richard Coeur de Leon is wounded and Alfred himself is sent to complete the mission.

In 336 B.C., Egypt lies under the yoke of Persia. But a spirit of fire has risen to blaze across the world. His name is Alexander, and he is the destined conqueror of the Persian Empire - and the king foretold of Egypt. Meriamon, daughter of the last Pharaoh, journeys out of the Two Lands to find him and bring him home. From the battlefield of Issus to the siege of Tyre, from the founding of Alexandria to the divine revelations of Siwah, Meriamon both leads and follows her divine charge, who becomes her friend and her chosen king.

The war between the Golden Empire and the Empire of the Sun is over; the empires merged into one, and there is one emperor over them all: Estarion, heir to both royal houses. But Estarion will not accept half of his heritage, nor will the Golden Empire willingly accept him. The same forces that assassinated his father are arrayed against him, led by the last scion of an ancient imperial line--and he must stand against them and truly unite the empires or see all the great work of his ancestors reduced to rubble.