A new novelette set in the realms of Kerstin Hall's acclaimed The Mkalis Cycle series. The 813th realm of Mkalis has fallen to a cruel and mercurial god, but Tahmais, its would-be successor, finds an unlikely ally in her quest to reclaim it at any cost.... At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
There is no doubt in my mind that Kerstin Hall is one of the great imaginative minds writing fantasy today."—Isabel Cañas, USA Today Bestselling author of Vampires of El Norte Sabriel meets Witch King in Nommo Award finalist Kerstin Hall's beguiling new standalone novel. A LitHub most anticipated book of 2024. We choose our own gods here. Karys Eska is a deathspeaker, locked into an irrevocable compact with Sabaster, a terrifying eldritch being—three-faced, hundred-winged, unforgiving—who has granted her the ability to communicate with the newly departed. She pays the rent by using her abilities to investigate suspicious deaths around the troubled city she calls home. When a job goes sideways and connects her to a dying stranger with some very dangerous secrets, her entire world is upended. Ferain is willing to pay a ludicrous sum of money for her help. To save him, Karys inadvertently binds him to her shadow, an act that may doom them both. If they want to survive, they will need to learn to trust one another. Together, they must journey to the heart of a faded empire, all the while haunted by arcane horrors, and the unquiet ghosts of their pasts. And all too soon, Karys knows her debts will come due. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Download a FREE sneak peak today! From Nommo Award finalist Kerstin Hall comes "a layered and incisive examination of power.”—Rory Power, New York Times bestselling author of Wilder Girls "Stunning, bloody, and everything I adore in fantasy.”—Emily Duncan, New York Times bestselling author of Wicked Saints All martyrdoms are difficult. Elfreda Raughn will avoid pregnancy if it kills her, and one way or another, it will kill her. Though she’s able to stomach her gruesome day-to-day duties, the reality of preserving the Sisterhood of Aytrium’s magical bloodline horrifies her. She wants out, whatever the cost. So when a shadowy cabal approaches Elfreda with an offer of escape, she leaps at the opportunity. As their spy, she gains access to the highest reaches of the Sisterhood, and enters a glittering world of opulent parties, subtle deceptions, and unexpected bloodshed. A phantasmagorical indictment of hereditary power, Star Eater takes readers deep into a perilous and uncanny world where even the most powerful women are forced to choose what sacrifices they will make, so that they might have any choice at all. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
From Nommo Award finalist Kerstin Hall comes “a layered and incisive examination of power.”—Rory Power, New York Times bestselling author of Wilder Girls All martyrdoms are difficult. Elfreda Raughn will avoid pregnancy if it kills her, and one way or another, it will kill her. Though she’s able to stomach her gruesome day-to-day duties, the reality of preserving the Sisterhood of Aytrium’s magical bloodline horrifies her. She wants out, whatever the cost. So when a shadowy faction approaches Elfreda with an offer of escape, she leaps at the opportunity. As their spy, she gains access to the highest reaches of the Sisterhood, and enters a glittering world of opulent parties, subtle deceptions, and unexpected bloodshed. A phantasmagorical indictment of hereditary power, Star Eater takes readers deep into a perilous and uncanny world where even the most powerful women are forced to choose what sacrifices they will make, so that they might have any choice at all. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
A 2020 Nommo Award Finalist A Book Bub Best SFF Books of the Summer Pick "A phantasmagorical picaresque through a lushly realised underworld, populated by a grotesque bestiary of fantastical creatures. . . . This twisty example of the new weird genre examines love, loss and loyalty, packing skilful world-building and a powerful emotional punch into a little over 200 pages."—The Guardian She lived where the railway tracks met the saltpan, on the Ahri side of the shadowline. In the old days, when people still talked about her, she was known as the end-of-the-line woman. Vasethe, a man with a troubled past, comes to seek a favor from a woman who is not what she seems, and must enter the nine hundred and ninety-nine realms of Mkalis, the world of spirits, where gods and demons wage endless war. The Border Keeper spins wonders both epic—the Byzantine bureaucracy of hundreds of demon realms, impossible oceans, hidden fortresses—and devastatingly personal—a spear flung straight, the profound terror and power of motherhood. What Vasethe discovers in Mkalis threatens to bring his own secrets into light and throw both worlds into chaos. Praise for The Border Keeper "Beautifully and vividly imagined. Eerie, lovely, and surreal."—Ann Leckie “A labyrinth of demons, dead gods, cranky psychopomps, and broken all-too-human lives. Hall is by turns wry and lush, genuine and venomous. So can I have the next one already?”—Max Gladstone At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
The thrilling, lush follow-up to THE BORDER KEEPERAfter surviving the schemes of the goddess Fanieq and learning some shattering truths about her former life, the warrior Tyn feels estranged from her role guarding her ruler. Grappling with knowledge of her identity, she unleashes her frustrations on all the wrong people.When an old enemy returns wielding an unstoppable, realm-crushing weapon, Tyn is swept up in the path of destruction.
This ebundle includes: The Border Keeper and Second Spear. Kerstin Hall’s award-winning novella series, The Mkalis Cycle, introduces readers to an epic, action-packed fantasy world. The Border Keeper, the first book, tells the epic tale of a Byzantine bureaucracy of hundreds of demon realms, impossible oceans, hidden fortresses. What Vasethe discovers in Mkalis threatens to bring his own secrets into light and throw both worlds into chaos. In book two, Second Spear, warrior Tyn grapples with the knowledge of her identity, and unleashes her frustrations on all the wrong people. “Quite but intricate, shored up by rich prose. . . The tangle of love, loss, grief, and regret that is gradually exposed as the book’s emotional core feels tender and profound.”—Publishers Weekly The Border Keeper: She lived where the railway tracks met the saltpan, on the Ahri side of the shadowline. In the old days, when people still talked about her, she was known as the end-of-the-line woman. Vasethe, a man with a troubled past, comes to seek a favor from a woman who is not what she seems, and must enter the nine hundred and ninety-nine realms of Mkalis, the world of spirits, where gods and demons wage endless war. The Border Keeper spins wonders both epic—the Byzantine bureaucracy of hundreds of demon realms, impossible oceans, hidden fortresses—and devastatingly personal—a spear flung straight, the profound terror and power of motherhood. What Vasethe discovers in Mkalis threatens to bring his own secrets into light and throw both worlds into chaos. The Second Spear: After surviving the schemes of a vengeful goddess and learning some shattering truths about her former life, the warrior Tyn feels estranged from her role guarding her ruler. Grappling with knowledge of her identity, she unleashes her frustrations on all the wrong people. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Tor.com Publishing is proud to present a sneak peak at its 2019 debut authors. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
How do minority Christian churches adapt to and negotiate with the changes brought about by deep mediatization? How do they use their media to present themselves to their followers and the general public? This book aims to answer these questions by investigating how minority organizations of two different Christian traditions in the UK and Poland – the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the Orthodox Churches – use their own media to position themselves in their social, religious, and political environments. Based on the analyses of media practices, media content, and interview material, the study develops the new concept of media settlers, which pertains to religious organizations that use their media to fulfill their own aims: expand, assert their authority, and maintain their communities. They do so through five key media practices, which can be defined as strategies: acknowledgment, authorization, omission, replication of content, and mass-mediatization of digital media. This book is of particular interest to scholars of religion and mediatization, mainly sociologists, graduate students, and qualitative researchers working with discourse analysis. It is an insightful read for anyone interested in the Seventh-day Adventist and Orthodox Churches nowadays.
Making it through the tough waiting periods that string together, can leave us feeling anything but fabulous. But oh queen, you are! Four-time Emmy Award winning journalist and TV host Kerstin Lindquist helps us break out of our most painful waiting rooms by delivering raw truth (When did making women friends become so hard?), attainable faith (For two excruciating, sweat-inducing minutes, I publicly prayed a prayer so disjointed I can’t even recreate the sounds, it was that bad), and real-life humor (My text read: “Just realized I’m naked in my kitchen making myself a martini”). Through the pages, Kerstin shares her own stories with the honesty of your best friend. She explains what has worked for real, overwhelmed, under-supported women just like you, who are living through unbearable waits: unemployment, illness, infertility, death, even seasons of joylessness that seem to never end. You will learn how to manage all the little waits that come daily, the ones that make you feel like you’re missing out on your life. Where’s My Crown offers tangible advice and actionable steps for coping through each season, including: • How to improve your prayer life. • How to break free from lack of sleep. • What foods can help you get and stay fit for this period of struggle. • The two categories of exercise that are essential for thriving. • How to find the elusive “tribe” we’re supposed to have but can’t seem to locate. • How to pick the right therapist. • How serving others can get you out of this waiting period faster. Where’s My Crown considers that those waiting rooms of life that we so dread are full of gifts we’re just too frustrated to find. Maybe you aren’t getting out because there is something inside you’re meant to discover—a person, a place, a situation that will change your life, or theirs, for the better. You just need to take a break from trying so hard to find the door.
Object Lessons and the Formation of Knowledge explores the museums, libraries, and special collections of the University of Michigan on its bicentennial. Since its inception, U-M has collected and preserved objects: biological and geological specimens; ethnographic and archaeological artifacts; photographs and artistic works; encyclopedia, textbooks, rare books, and documents; and many other items. These vast collections and libraries testify to an ambitious vision of the research university as a place where knowledge is accumulated, shared, and disseminated through teaching, exhibition, and publication. Today, two hundred years after the university’s founding, museums, libraries, and archives continue to be an important part of U-M, which maintains more than twenty distinct museums, libraries, and collections. Viewed from a historic perspective, they provide a window through which we can explore the transformation of the academy, its public role, and the development of scholarly disciplines over the last two centuries. Even as they speak to important facets of Michigan’s history, many of these collections also remain essential to academic research, knowledge production, and object-based pedagogy. Moreover, the university’s exhibitions and displays attract hundreds of thousands of visitors per year from the campus, regional, and global communities. Beautifully illustrated with color photographs of these world-renowned collections, this book will appeal to readers interested in the history of museums and collections, the formation of academic disciplines, and of course the University of Michigan.
As she walks through the forest outside a remote Swedish village in 1974, a woman stumbles upon the site of a grisly double murder--a crime that will remain unsolved for nearly 20 years.
The Sound State of Uzbekistan: Popular Music and Politics in the Karimov Era is a pioneering study of the intersection between popular music and state politics in Central Asia. Based on 20 months of fieldwork and archival research in Tashkent, this book explores a remarkable era in Uzbekistan’s politics (2001–2016), when the Uzbek government promoted a rather unlikely candidate to the prominent position of state sound: estrada, a genre of popular music and a musical relic of socialism. The political importance it attached to estrada was matched by the establishment of an elaborate bureaucratic apparatus for state oversight. The Sound State of Uzbekistan shows the continuing legacy of Soviet concepts to frame the nexus between music, artists and the state, and explains the extraordinary potency ascribed to estrada. At the same time, it challenges classical readings of transition and also questions common binary models for researching culture in totalitarian or authoritarian states. Proposing to approach lives in music under authoritarianism as a form of normality instead, the author promotes a post-Cold War paradigm in music studies.
Rolf Wittig worked for four different railways in his life, as a stoker, subway driver, window cleaner and IC engineer. He recounts events from his railway experience.
When Margarete Dos moved with her family to Berlin on the eve of World War II, she and her younger brother were blindly ushered into a generation of Hitler Youth. Like countless citizens under Hitler’s regime, Margarete struggled to understand what was happening to her country. Later, as a nurse for the German Red Cross, she treated countless young soldiers—recruited in the eleventh hour to fight a losing battle—they would die before her eyes as Allied bombs racked her beloved city. Yet, her deep humanity, intelligence, and passion for life—which sparkles in every sentence of her memoir—carried Margarete through to war’s end. But just when she thought the worst was over, and she and her mother were on a train headed to Sweden, they were suddenly rerouted deep into Russia… This powerful account draws back the curtain on a piece of history that has been largely overlooked—the nightmare that millions of German civilians suffered, simply because they were German. That Margarete survived to tell her tale so vividly and courageously is a gift to us all.
Mysterious doors with lizard-head knobs. Talking stone statues. A crazy girl with a hatchet. Yes, Liv's dreams have been pretty weird lately. Especially the one where she's in a graveyard at night, watching four boys conduct dark magic rituals. The strangest part is that Liv recognizes the boys in her dream. They're classmates from her new school in London, the school where she's starting over because her mom has moved them to a new country (again). But what's really scaring Liv is that the dream boys seem to know things about her in real life, things they couldn't possibly know—unless they actually are in her dreams? Luckily, Liv never could resist a good mystery, and all four of those boys are pretty cute....
“A sentimental and, at times, heart-wrenching story that touches on guilt, grief, forgiveness, and motherhood” from the author of Family Trees (Publishers Weekly). Nestled along the shores of the beautiful Great Lakes, Meyers Orchard is where Shelby Meyers found unexpected love and strength—and now must forge a new life on her own terms . . . Marriage marks both a happy ending and a new chapter for Shelby Meyers. She and Ryan Chambers have overcome tremendous odds to stand together in her grandparents’ orchard on the bluffs of Lake Superior, exchanging vows. Still, there are challenges old and new to contend with. Shelby struggles to find her niche among Ryan’s prominent Chicago family, while her own mother remains unreliable and unpredictable, impacting her life even from afar. Though Shelby’s love for Ryan is as deep-rooted as the orchard, her rocky upbringing makes her hesitant to start a family. Before she can reconcile those feelings, a personal tragedy throws Shelby’s confidence, and her marriage, into crisis. To move forward she’ll have to go back—to her Great Lakes hometown and her mother, and to secrets she could never have guessed at, as she resolves to branch out on her own . . . Praise for Family Trees “March writes lyrically about the orchard and Lake Superior . . . [a] story of love, forgiveness, and growing into adulthood.”—St. Paul Pioneer Press “Kerstin March writes a captivating story of love, heartbreak and triumph.”—Laura Sobiech, author of Fly a Little Higher
When Hillevi, a young, inexperienced midwife, moves from the university town of Uppsala to the wilderness of Svartvattnet (Blackwater) to be with her unofficial fiancé, she is ill prepared for what awaits her. In this frigid, austere, and isolated territory, she encounters the overwhelming and unpredictable forces of nature and demoralizing poverty and ignorance while also gaining access to the unfamiliar world of nomadic Sami reindeer herders. A single traumatic event, never fully confronted, has devastating and far-reaching repercussions, but Hillevi also finds unexpected warmth and love. Incorporating elements of the jojk oral tradition of Sami culture, God’s Mercy is a thoroughly engrossing story about the capriciousness of memory, the resilience of the human psyche, and the endless wonder of the wild.
Gwen's life has been a rollercoaster since she discovered she was the Ruby, the final member of the secret time-traveling Circle of Twelve. In between searching through history for the other time-travelers and asking for a bit of their blood (gross!), she's been trying to figure out what all the mysteries and prophecies surrounding the Circle really mean. At least Gwen has plenty of help. Her best friend Lesley follows every lead diligently on the Internet. James the ghost teaches Gwen how to fit in at an eighteenth century party. And Xemerius, the gargoyle demon who has been following Gwen since he caught her kissing Gideon in a church, offers advice on everything. Oh, yes. And of course there is Gideon, the Diamond. One minute he's very warm indeed; the next he's freezing cold. Gwen's not sure what's going on there, but she's pretty much destined to find out.
The Ruby Red Trilogy: Ruby Red, Sapphire Blue, and Emerald Green This internationally bestselling series follows Gwyneth Shepherd, a girl with a time-traveling secret. Traipsing through past centuries, juggling a potential romance, and unlocking her destiny, Gwen has her work cut out for her. Ruby Red: Gwen has always known that her family is different—the women, in particular. As time travelers, they are no strangers to the possibility of the impossible. But even they are't expecting it when Gwen shows signs of being a time traveler rather than her cousin Charlotte. Thrust into a world she should have been excluded from, Gwen is introduced to Gideon, a fellow traveler. Although the two don't get along, something other than annoyance might be brewing under the surface. As Gwen masters her new ability, she learns more abou therself than she ever could have imagined. Sapphire Blue: Gwen has joined the ranks of the Circle of Twelve, a secret society of chosen time travelers. As the Ruby, Gwen is tasked with finding travelers in the past, all while delving into prophecies and trying to read the mixed signals that Gideon, the Diamond of the Circle, has been sending. With the help of her best friend, a ghost, and a gargoyle demon, Gwen seeks to unearth the truth behind the Circle—a truth that has been actively hidden from her. Emerald Green: Crushed to learn that Gideon may have been deceiving her all along, Gwen has to move forward nonetheless. She has more than enough on her plate: her distrust of Count Saint-Germain, founder of the Circle of Twelve, who wants Gwen to finish collecting blood from the other chosen travelers; the chronograph, a device which will close the Circle if she succeeds; and the resistance she meets at every turn as she seeks more knowledge. With much more to be revealed, Gwen must race against the clock to fulfill her destiny—before it's too late. Includes bonus chapters from Kerstin Gier Dream a Little Dream!
This book provides a comparative assessment of social pacts between governments, labor unions and employer organizations in Western Europe. Using a dataset covering 16 European countries, as well as eight in-depth country case studies, the authors argue that governments’ choice of social pacts or legislation is less influenced by economic problems, but is strongly influenced by electoral competition.
This is the first book that comprehensively examines Indigenous filmmaking in North America, as it analyzes in detail a variety of representative films by Canadian and US-American Indigenous filmmakers: two films that contextualize the oral tradition, three short films, and four dramatic films. The book explores how members of colonized groups use the medium of film as a means for cultural and political expression and thus enter the dominant colonial film discourse and create an answering discourse. The theoretical framework is developed as an interdisciplinary approach, combining postcolonialism, Indigenous studies, and film studies. As Indigenous people are gradually taking control over the imagemaking process in the area of film and video, they cease being studied and described objects and become subjects who create self-controlled images of Indigenous cultures. The book explores the translatability of Indigenous oral tradition into film, touching upon the changes the cultural knowledge is subject to in this process, including statements of Indigenous filmmakers on this issue. It also asks whether or not there is a definite Indigenous film practice and whether filmmakers tend to dissociate their work from dominant classical filmmaking, adapt to it, or create new film forms and styles through converging classical film conventions and their conscious violation. This approach presupposes that Indigenous filmmakers are constantly in some state of reaction to Western ethnographic filmmaking and to classical narrative filmmaking and its epitome, the Hollywood narrative cinema. The films analyzed are The Road Allowance People by Maria Campbell, Itam Hakim, Hopiit by Victor Masayesva, Talker by Lloyd Martell, Tenacity and Smoke Signals by Chris Eyre, Overweight With Crooked Teeth and Honey Moccasin by Shelley Niro, Big Bear by Gil Cardinal, and Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner by Zacharias Kunuk.
The interaction between color and architecture determines our perception of space, and defines the tectonic relationships. The fascinating spatial potential of color, and the multi-layered dimensions of interpretation in the experience of color are design and communication means which, however, are often not fully used – color oscillates between autonomy and functional purpose, and should be understood as a distinct "material" that can be used as part of the design. The book focuses both on the tangible aspects and design criteria of color, and on its indeterminate nature and its experience value. Using examples in art and architecture, the spatial interdependency of color is illustrated, as is its interaction with structure, light, and geometry.
Exploring a variety of topics—including health, politics, education, art, literature, media, and film—Aboriginal Canada Revisited draws a portrait of the current political and cultural position of Canada’s Aboriginal peoples. While lauding improvements made in the past decades, the contributors draw attention to the systemic problems that continue to marginalize Aboriginal people within Canadian society. From the Introduction: “[This collection helps] to highlight areas where the colonial legacy still takes its toll, to acknowledge the manifold ways of Aboriginal cultural expression, and to demonstrate where Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people are starting to find common ground.” Contributors include Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal scholars from Europe and Canada, including Marlene Atleo, University of Manitoba; Mansell Griffin, Nisga’a Village of Gitwinksihlkw, British Columbia; Robert Harding, University College of the Fraser Valley; Tricia Logan, University of Manitoba; Steffi Retzlaff, McMaster University; Siobhán Smith, University of British Columbia; Barbara Walberg, Confederation College.
Since learning she is the Ruby, the final member of the time-traveling Circle of Twelve, nothing has gone right for Gwen and she holds suspicions about both Count Saint-German and Gideon, but as she uncovers the Circle's secrets she finally learns her own destiny.
The performance of current transport systems is inadequate when viewed in terms of economic efficiency, sustainability and safety. Drawing together key an impressive list of contributors from the vast field of transportation economics including Kenneth Button, David Banister and Juan Carlos Martín, this book investigates transport systems, and covers a wide range of topics such as: airline markets congestion charging speed control. This informative book, ideal for undergraduate and postgraduate students of economics, business and industrial studies examines the tools that are necessary to effectively measure transport systems and those that are required to improve them. Utilizing advanced tools of network analysis, the contributors challenge various pieces of conventional wisdom, in particular the view that intermodal transport is more environmentally benign than road transport.
Balances Scientific and Economic Points of View to Thoroughly Address Management Issues Responding to the need for clarification and benchmarks, Environmental Life Cycle Costing provides the fundamental basis on which to establish a definitive methodology. Clearly defining environmental LCC, this book balances scientific and econom
The Web has become a rich source of personal information in the last few years. People twitter, blog, and chat online. Current feelings, experiences or latest news are posted. For instance, first hints to disease outbreaks, customer preferences, or political changes could be identified with this data. Surveillance or early warning systems enable such detection of changes and support humans in getting information on changing situations. However, the variety of data that could be considered for surveillance is immense, ranging from sensor-measured values to collected counts and information extracted from natural language documents. Denecke’s objective is to introduce the multiple possibilities and facets of surveillance and its applications. She first introduces the task of surveillance and provides an overview on surveillance in various domains. Next, the various information sources that are available and could already be used by surveillance systems are summarized. In the main part of the book, her focus is on unstructured data as a source for surveillance. An overview on existing methods as well as methods to be developed in order to process this kind of data with respect to surveillance is presented. As an example application, she introduces disease surveillance using Web 2.0, including corresponding methods and challenges to be addressed. The book closes with remarks on new possibilities for surveillance gained by recent developments of the Internet and mobile communication, and with an outline of future challenges.
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