"Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College--Violet included. But Threshing was only the first impossible test meant to weed out the weak-willed, the unworthy, and the unlucky. Now the real training begins, and Violet's already wondering how she'll get through. It's not just that it's grueling and maliciously brutal, or even that it's designed to stretch the riders' capacity for pain beyond endurance....

"After nearly eighteen months at Basgiath War College, Violet Sorrengail knows there's no more time for lessons. No more time for uncertainty. Because the battle has truly begun, and with enemies closing in from outside their walls and within their ranks, it's impossible to know who to trust. Now Violet must journey beyond the failing Aretian wards to seek allies from unfamiliar lands to stand with Navarre. The trip will test every bit of her wit,...

This is an exciting, atmospheric work that works on several levels: partly a story of tropical adventures, partly a melodramatic novel, partly a psychological thriller, partly a criticism of the empire. Axel Heist lives on an island in present-day Indonesia with a Chinese aide Wang. Heist visits a nearby island when a women's group plays in a hotel owned by Mr. Schomberg. Schomberg tries to impose himself sexually on one of the band members, Alma,...

Lyra and Will find themselves at the center of a battle between the forces of the Authority and those gathered by Lyra's father, Lord Asriel.

It begins on a lazy summer day in a small, secluded mountain town named Paradise. But in Paradise, nothing is as it seems. When a stranger named Marsuvees Black appears and announces he's come to bring hope and grace to Paradise, the town isn't sure how to respond. He offers dazzling love, hope, faith, and fun . . . the kind of fun everyone desires but is too timid to pursue. He knows the unspoken secrets of each person's heart--and has the power...

Apparently being a half-angel Grigori doesn't always make you right, and for Violet Eden the decisions between right and wrong are getting harder and harder. Where is the good in having to choose between the life of her best friend and saving humanity? Both sides-- Angels and Exiles-- are racing to decipher an ancient scripture that would allow anyone banished to the Underworld to return. And at the very center: Violet. She only has one chance to...

"Cordelia knows her mother is...unusual. Their house doesn't have any doors between rooms--there are no secrets in this house--and her mother doesn't allow Cordelia to have a single friend. Unless you count Falada, her mother's beautiful white horse. The only time Cordelia feels truly free is on her daily rides with him. But more than simple eccentricity sets her mother apart. Other mothers don't force their daughters to be silent and motionless for...

"It began on New Year's Eve. The sickness came on suddenly, and spread quickly. The fear spread even faster. Within weeks, everything people counted on began to fail them. The electrical grid sputtered; law and government collapsed--and more than half of the world's population was decimated. Where there had been order, there was now chaos. And as the power of science and technology receded, magic rose up in its place. Some of it is good, like the...

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkeness bind them. In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, The Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell into the hands of Bilbo Baggins,...

"When she arrives in a small village in the Two Rivers, Moiraine discovers three young men, each of whom might be the long-awaited and reviled Chosen One, the Dragon Reborn. But she is not the only stranger new to the village, nor the only one searching. In a race against time and the agents of the Shadow, she must guide her charges through lands of myth and legend, toward allies both new and old, and into the footsteps of prophecy. The Wheel of Time...