Legends told of how the evil God Torak had coveted the power of the Orb of Aldur until defeated in a final battle. But the prophecy spoke of a time when he would awake & again seek dominance over the world. Now the Orb has been stolen by a priest of Torak & that time is at h&. ...

The Queen of Spades has long been acknowledged as one of the world's greatest short stories. In this classic literary representation of gambling Alexander Pushkin explores the nature of obsession. Hints of the occult & gothic alternate with scenes of St Petersburg high-society in the story of the passionate Hermann's quest to master chance & make his fortune at the card-table. Underlying the taut plot is an ironical treatment of the romantic dreamer & social outcast. This volume contains three other major works of Pushkin's fiction moving from the witty parodies of sentimentalism & high melodrama in The Tales of Belkin to an early experiment with recreating the past in Peter the Great's Blackamoor. It concludes with the novel-length masterpiece The Captain's Daughter which combines historical fiction in the manner of Sir Walter Scott with the colour & devices of the Russian fairy-tale in a narrative of rebellion & romance. These new translations as well as being meticulously faithful to the original do full justice to the elegance & fluency of Pushkin's prose. The Introduction provides insightful readings of the stories & places them in their European literary context. A chronology of the Pugachov Uprising illuminates the events in The Captain's Daughter. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features including expert introductions by leading authorities helpful notes to clarify the text up-to-date bibliographies for further study & much more. ...

Ambitious determined & passionate Nella Castelluca dreams of achieving more than her humble roots allow
- an education & a good
...

After 6 000 years of horrifying stillness Akash mother of all vampires & Queen of the Damned has risen from her sleep to let loose the powers of the night. But her monstrous plan for ruling the worlds of the living & the undead must be stopped before she destroys mankind & it falls to the evil vampire Lestat to fight her all-encompassing evil
- for it is he who challenged her power by waking her from sleep.
...

Life for East End families like Pat's was always a struggle. She worked for years in Tate & Lyle's sugar factory while her husband Charlie took on two jobs so their growing family could survive. Until one day Charlie came home with a brilliant idea
- they should take over The Rising Sun pub in Bromley-by-Bow. In this charming memoir Pat describes her years as a pub landlady & vividly evokes the East End community she served in the 1960s the extraordinary characters she encountered & the changes that swept through society at that time. She also reveals why she & Charlie moved to Essex & what it felt like to become a star of The Only Way is Essex in her seventies.
...

Thulsa Dooms evil snake-god Set is bringing him back from the grave so Doom can have vengeance on Sonja. But Set has his own hidden agenda. As Doom rises from the hellish depths to smash Sonjas palace Sonja is lucky just to escape with all her limbs attached. Doom owes a heavy debt to his god Set for his new-found power. Set didnt revive Thulsa out of charity; it needs the undead sorcerer to carry out a horrific rite that can only be performed once every thousand years. The results of this dark ritual? Only Set knows the full truth... The Queen Sonja Volume 4 TP" collects issues numbered 16-20 [the " Son of Set" storyline] along with a complete cover gallery." ...

Imagine being alongside one of the greatest bands in the history of rock touring the world & being there as they perform at some of the best & biggest music venues in the world. Peter Hince didnt have to imagine: for more than a decade he lived a life that other people can only dream of as he worked with Queen as head of their road crew. In 1973 Queen was the support act for Mott the Hoople for whom Peter was a roadie. Back then Queen had to content themselves with being second on the bill & the world had not yet woken up to the flamboyant talent of Freddie Mercury. Peter started working full time for Queen just as they were making A Night at the Opera the album which catapulted them to international stardom. In this intimate & affectionate book Peter recalls the highlights of his years with the b&. He was with Freddie when he composed Crazy Little Thing Called Love; he was responsible for making sure that Freddies stage performances went without a hitch
- & was often there to witness his famed tantrums! He was also party to the sex drugs & rock n roll which are invariably part of life on the road with a rock b&.
...

Queen Victoria is the longest-reigning monarch in British history. In this concise biography Lady Longford long recognised as an authority on the subject gives a full account of Queen Victorias life & provides her unique assessment of the monarch. David Cannadine hailed her Victoria RI as pre-eminent in the genre...the commissioned biography that the great Queen never got. Victoria ascended the throne in 1837 on the death of her uncle William IV. In 1840 she married her first cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha & for the next twenty years they were inseperable. Their descendants were to succeed to most of the thrones of Europe. When Albert died in 1861 Victorias overwhelming grief meant that she virtually withdrew from public life. This perceived dereliction of public duty coupled with rumours about her relationship with her Scottish ghillie John Brown led to increasing criticism. Coaxed back into the public eye by Disraeli she resumed her former enthusiasm for political & constitutional matters with vigour until her death in 1901. ...

This title explores the life of Queen Victoria & uses essential facts & engaging imagery to give the reader an understanding of this period in history
- from the British Empire & the industrial revolution to Charles Dickens & the poorhouses.
...