Against a backdrop of glittering kingdoms & dark prophecies a rogue magister & a dying prince fight for their lives. Magisters from across the known world are gathering for an unusual meeting. King Aurelius has summoned them to heal his dying son who has fallen victim to an incurable wasting disease. The King has demanded an explanation & a cure yet appearances are deceptive. Its clear to the initiated that a magister is responsible
- so the order remains quiet & organises a manhunt to silence the culprit. But while men are distracted strangeness is stirring in the world. An ancient evil is rising in the north but the old warnings are long forgotten. Only those carrying the Protector bloodline feel fear & their numbers are few. So the powerful will soon find themselves playing a new & more dangerous game.
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In the High Kingdom of Danton Aurelius magisters from across the known world are gathering for an unusual meeting. The High King's son is dying of an apparently incurable wasting disease & he has charged them with providing an explanation & a cure. There is a mystery here but not the one the High King thinks: the magisters know the cause of the prince's illness but they dare not reveal it for fear that it will expose the secret at the heart of their order. No the mystery is not what is responsible but who... Now the magisters must embark upon a manhunt racing against time before the High King learns the truth. But they have not counted on the young prince's determination to control his own fate nor on the existence of Kamala a young woman schooled in their own arts who will soon shake the world to its very roots. ...

Robert Nobel the school pariah triumphs over his own fears & the school bully in this extraordinary tale of self-empowerment legend & death. Robert is a boy who can do anything -- or so old Edith Sorrel at the nursing home tells him. Robert doesnt think so knowing as he does that he is the school geek. But something compels him to do what Edith asks -- to visit old Chance House where a boy once fell to his death from the top floor flat to confront his fears & find some answers. Niker the bully thinks this is a great laugh. He challenges Robert to spend the night at Chance House with him -- but there the balance of power changes & it is Robert who proves to be the stronger. Niker feels threatened by the change -- & when he finds out Roberts secret obsession to make the dying Edith Sorrel a coat of feathers like in the old legend of the Firebird he knows just how to wrest his old power back. But just how important is the coat of feathers? Could it really save Ediths life? ...

Now in paperback this is Thor Hansons critically-acclaimed natural & cultural history of natures finest invention. Feathers are an evolutionary marvel: aerodynamic insulating & beguiling. Their story begins in the Jurassic period & leads through the development of flight to high fashion
- from leaping dinosaurs to da Vinci sketches to showgirls on the Las Vegas Strip they date back to the dawn of time. Yet their story has never been fully told. In Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle" biologist Thor Hanson tells a sweeping natural history of feathers as theyve been used to fly protect attract & adorn through time & place. Applying the research of palaeontologists ornithologists biologists engineers & even art historians Hanson asks: What are feathers? How did they evolve? What do they mean to us? Engineers call feathers the most efficient insulating material ever discovered. Theyve inspired legends & literature from Icarus to Shakespeare. Theyve inked documents from the Constitution to the novels of Jane Austen. Theyve decorated queens jesters plague doctors Aztec priests & the fabled birds of paradise. They silence the flight of owls give shimmer to hummingbirds & keep penguins dry below the ice. They are at the root of biologys most enduring debate. It goes without saying the importance & intrigue of feathers is patent. Informed by Hansons own field experiences form Africa to Antarctica " Feathers" deftly traces a history of evolution fluff flight fancy & function. A captivating & beautifully-written exploration of the human fascination with a most enchanting object " Feathers" transports readers from mythical associations with the divine to the height of modern-day science & technology."
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Davie Armstrong watches as his master Angus Mc Bain publicly thrashes young Molly Geary for refusing to name the man who had made her pregnant. & yet only an hour later Davie sees the two of them alone in the malthouse & learns that the child is Mc Bains. In a whirl of disbelieving rage he overhears them plotting to let him Davie take the blame & marry Molly. Meanwhile the masters wife is also pregnant. & a few months later the birth of the Mc Bains son Amos unleashes violence & tragedy at the farm. Born with no legs & emotionally crippled Amos will learn to wield power of frightening intensity over everyone around him. ...

On New Years Eve Callum Ormond is chased down the street by a crazed man with a deadly warning: They killed your father. Theyll kill you. You must survive the next 365 days! Now hes on the run. The people who killed his father want him dead & the police are chasing him for a crime he didnt commit. A month has gone by & hes still no nearer to solving the Ormond Riddle the family secret that has turned his life into a nightmare. Can he trust the mysterious Winter Frey or will she lead him further into danger? He has 334 days. The clock is ticking... ...

The central event in Hildes childhood occurred on 2 February 1945. She was a confused but compliant girl at the time. Now she is a depressed & angry old woman who is haunted by the memory of that shameful day. For on that day in February the ordinary citizens of her village hunted down & murdered Approx. 500 prisoners who had escaped from the concentration camp in Mauthausen. This brilliant novel renders the experiences of common people caught up in the political cyclone of the time reminding us that history is not behind us nor is it outside us. ...

This is a deadly compendium of all your favourite feckin books. Do you know the difference between a bowsie & a cute hoor? Can you sing all the words to Raggle Taggle Gypsy" or whip up a Beef & Guinness casserole with a side of Boxty? If these questions have you scratching your head then look no further. Discover how feckin deadly Irish Slang can be find out why plastic-wrap played a vital role in the sex lives of the Irish in the seventies learn the words to the most beloved Irish songs & get the recipes for the most famous & delicious Irish dishes. " The Feckin Book of Everything Irish" is a laughter-filled guide to the genuine culture of Irel&." ...

In Fedor" the undefeated undisputed heavyweight MMA champion of the world unveils for the first time his trademark striking & grappling techniques through descriptive narrative & more than 2500 step-by-step colour photographs. Detailing dozens of throws punching combinations cardio workouts & ground & pound techniques this book leaves no stone unturned." ...

The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beaten the common cold. But in doing so we created something new something terrible that no one could stop. The infection spread virus blocks taking over bodies & minds with one unstoppable command: FEED. Now twenty years after the Rising bloggers Georgia & Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives
- the dark conspiracy behind the infected. The truth will get out even if it kills them.
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