The Romance of Tristan and Iseult is a tale of chivalry and doomed, transcendent love. This story is one of the most resonant works of Western literature and the basis for our enduring idea of romance.
The story of the Cornish knight and the Irish princess who meet by deception, fall in love by magic, and pursue that love in defiance of heavenly and earthly law, has inspired artists from Matthew Arnold to Richard Wagner. But nowhere has it been retold with greater eloquence and dignity than in Joseph Bédier’s edition, which weaves several medieval sources into a seamless whole, elegantly translated by Hilaire Belloc and Paul Rosenfeld.
The Drawing of the Dark is a captivating blend of mythology and real history by Tim Powers, offering a rollicking magical adventure that is both tense and hilarious.
Meet Brian Duffy, an aging soldier of fortune, hired in Venice by a mysterious old man named Aurelianus Ambrosius. Tasked with a seemingly simple job as a bouncer at a Vienna inn, where the fabulous Herzwesten beer is brewed, his journey turns out to be anything but straightforward.
Guided and guarded by creatures from ancient legends, Duffy is attacked by ifrits and saved by mythical dwarfs, all while plagued by visions of a sword and an arm rising from a lake. The fate of the West hangs in the balance as Vienna is besieged by the Turkish armies of Suleiman, and Duffy finds himself drawn into a desperate war of magic.
It's up to him to preserve the West until the drawing of the Dark. Dive into this epic tale filled with magic, humor, and legendary quests!
After a senseless tragedy destroys his life, Will is obsessed with punishing those responsible—even if it means leaving the Ranger Corps. His worried friends must find a way to stop him from taking such a dark path.
It is Halt who suggests the solution: Will must take an apprentice. The candidate Halt has in mind surprises everyone—and it's a request Will cannot refuse. Training a rebellious, unwilling apprentice is hard enough. But when a routine mission uncovers a shocking web of crime, Will must decide where his priorities lie—finishing his quest for revenge, or saving innocent lives?
John Flanagan makes a spectacular return to the world of Ranger's Apprentice—but what has happened since you last saw Will and his friends might shock you!
Two men who hate each other. One impossible mission. A legend in the making.
Hadrian Blackwater, a warrior with nothing to fight for, is paired with Royce Melborn, a thieving assassin with nothing to lose. Hired by an old wizard, they must steal a treasure that no one can reach.
The Crown Tower is the impregnable remains of the grandest fortress ever built and home to the realm’s most prized possessions. But it isn’t gold or jewels that the wizard is after, and if he can just keep them from killing each other, they just might succeed.
Suor Teodora narrates the story of Agilulfo, a knight without a body, whose only presence is his shining armor. During the siege of Paris by Charlemagne, Agilulfo, after covering himself with glory, embarks on a quest to find Sofronia, a maiden he saved fifteen years earlier.
Accompanied by his squire, Gurdulù, Agilulfo encounters numerous adventures and is pursued by the warrior Bradamante, who is in love with him. He eventually finds Sofronia, but believing her tainted by grave sins, decides to vanish.
Agilulfo removes his armor and passes it to Rambaldo, a young comrade-in-arms. Now, it is Rambaldo who will continue the deeds of the bodiless knight, clad in the white armor.
The white light surrounded her, exuding from the ground within the circle. The mist rose towards the sky to form a billowing cloud. From within the largest stone, a ball of blue light steadily made its way towards her.
Late one evening, a car accident leaves Tory - a daughter of a prominent history professor - stranded near a ring of stones in the English countryside. She resolves to spend the night at the sacred site; a black belt in Tae-kwon-do, Tory holds little fear for her safety...
But across the vortex of time and space, she is being watched. The Merlin knows of the legend Tory is to become, and through the wisdom of the Old Ones, teleports her back to the Dark Age.
Prince Maelgwyn of Gwynedd and his band of knights stumble across this mysterious woman dressed in jeans and a leather jacket. Believing she is the witch of the stones, they threaten to kill her. Rising to her own defence, Tory challenges the Prince's champion to unarmed combat. With her superior fighting skill, she easily overwhelms the warrior, winning the admiration of the Prince, and changing the course of British history forever.
A Lost Civilization. A Dangerous Quest. A Deadly Secret.
It's one of history's most enduring and controversial legends—the lost city of Atlantis. Archaeologist Nina Wilde is certain she's solved the riddle of its whereabouts, and with the help of reclusive billionaire Kristian Frost, his beautiful daughter, Kari, and ex-SAS bodyguard Eddie Chase, she's about to make the most important discovery in centuries.
But not everyone wants them to succeed: a powerful and mysterious organization will stop at nothing to ensure that a secret submerged for 11,000 years never resurfaces. More than one would-be discoverer has already died in pursuit of Atlantis's secrets—including Nina's own parents. Failure isn't an option.
From the streets of Manhattan to the Brazilian jungle, from a Tibetan mountaintop to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, Nina and Eddie will race against time—and follow a trail of danger and death to a revelation so explosive, it could destroy civilization forever.
Lavondyss is a haunting entry in the World Fantasy Award-winning Mythago Cycle. In Mythago Wood, Robert Holdstock spins an intricate world from the stories of Irish and English mythology. It is a great forest steeped in mystery and legend, whose heart contains secrets that will change all who behold them.
Young Tallis is one such seeker. When she was just an infant, she lost her brother Harry to Ryhope Wood. Her adolescent fancies now cause her to suspect that he is still alive—and in grave danger. Tallis follows Harry into the primal Otherworld, armed only with magic, masks, and clues left by her grandfather.
Eventually, the primitive forest gives way to Lavondyss itself, a fascinating and terrible realm where she is forced to confront the mythagos, physical manifestations of the legends of humanity's collective unconscious. Join Tallis on her quest into the ultimate unknown, and be invited into one of the finest and most compelling mythologies you will ever encounter.
Enemy of God is a masterful retelling of the Arthurian legend. The balance of King Arthur's unified kingdom is threatened by Merlin's quest for the last of Britain's 13 Treasures. This quest is set against the backdrop of the conflict between the ancient religion and the new Christianity, and Britain's ongoing war with the Saxons.
Bernard Cornwell, a master storyteller, continues to weave a tale where myth and history blend seamlessly. Arthur, a man battling for his vision of the future in a brutal age, is surrounded by intrigue and dependent on his skill at war and genius for leadership. Can Arthur hold back the Saxons threatening the country, or will those closest to him be moved to betray him?
Join Merlin on his divisive quest and dive into an epic saga filled with thrilling battlefield action and legendary quests. Enemy of God brilliantly combines myth, history, and adventure to bring Arthur and his world to vivid life.
The Book of Lost Tales 1 stands at the beginning of the entire conception of Middle-earth and Valinor. Embedded in English legend and English association, they were set in the narrative frame of a great westward voyage over the Ocean by a mariner named Eriol (or Ælfwine) to Tol Eressëa, the Lonely Isle, where Elves dwelt. From them, he learned their true story, the Lost Tales of Elfinesse.
In the Tales are found the earliest accounts and original ideas of Gods and Elves; Dwarves and Orcs; the Silmarils and the Two Trees of Valinor; Nargothrond and Gondolin; and the geography and cosmology of the invented world.
The long awaited sequel to Gene Wolfe’s four-volume classic, The Book of the New Sun. We return to the world of Severian, now the Autarch of Urth, as he leaves the planet on one of the huge spaceships of the alien Hierodules to travel across time and space to face his greatest test: to become the legendary New Sun or die.
The strange, rich, original spaceship scenes give way to travels in time, wherein Severian revisits times and places which fill in parts of the background of the four-volume work. This will thrill and intrigue particularly all readers of the earlier books.
But The Urth of the New Sun is an independent structure all of a piece, an integral masterpiece to shelve beside the classics, one itself.
Louis L'Amour has been best known for his ability to capture the spirit and drama of the authentic American West. Now he guides his readers to an even more distant frontier—the enthralling lands of the twelfth century.
Warrior, lover, and scholar, Kerbouchard is a daring seeker of knowledge and fortune bound on a journey of enormous challenge, danger, and revenge. Across Europe, over the Russian steppes, and through the Byzantine wonders of Constantinople, Kerbouchard is thrust into the treacheries, passions, violence, and dazzling wonders of a magnificent time.
From castle to slave galley, from sword-racked battlefields to a princess's secret chamber, and ultimately, to the impregnable fortress of the Valley of Assassins, The Walking Drum is a powerful adventure in an ancient world that you will find every bit as riveting as Louis L'Amour's stories of the American West.
The magnificent saga of Thomas Covenant continues in Stephen Donaldson's highly acclaimed second epic fantasy trilogy, together in one volume.
This complete Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant contains the books The Wounded Land, The One Tree, and White Gold Wielder.
4000 years have passed since Covenant first freed the land from the devastating grip of Lord Foul and his minions.
Book Four finds Morgaine moving closer to the fate that will set her intractably against Arthur—her lover, brother, and now, enemy. Returning to Camelot during the Feast of Pentecost, Morgaine accuses Arthur of compromising the crown and demands that he return Excalibur to her. When he refuses, Morgaine arranges a confrontation between her lover, Accolon, and Arthur in the kingdom of Fairy, resulting in Accolon's death.
Grieving and still without Excalibur, Morgaine makes a hasty retreat to Avalon. When she finally returns to Camelot, it is to retrieve Avalon's Holy Regalia, now being used in a Christian mass. Enraged at this betrayal, Morgaine calls upon the Lady's magic, which results in the mysterious disappearance of the holy chalice, prompting the companions of the Round Table to embark on a 12-month quest to find it.
Events spiral out of control when Lancelet returns, resumes his adulterous relationship with Gwenhwyfar, and is finally exposed. The novel closes with the King Stag's death and Morgaine's long-anticipated return to Avalon.