Killing Dragons

Killing Dragons PDF Author: Fergus Fleming
Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
ISBN: 080219754X
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 569

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Book Description
A “dramatic and masterful” account of early alpine explorers and the challenges they faced to scale the summits (Anthony Brandt, National Geographic Adventure). In a riveting narrative of daredevils and eccentrics, Fergus Fleming gives us the breathtaking story of some of history’s greatest explorers as they conquer the soaring peaks of the Alps. Fleming recounts the incredible exploits of the men whose centuries-old fear of the mountain range turned quickly to curiosity, then to obsession, as they explored Europe’s frozen wilderness. In the late eighteenth century, French and Swiss scientists became interested in the Alps as a research destination, but in the 1850s the focus changed: the icy mountains now offered an all-out competition for British climbers who wanted to conquer ever higher and more impossible heights, and explorers fought each other on the peaks and in the press, entertaining a vast public smitten with their bravery, delighted by their personal animosities, and horrified by the disasters that befell them. “Fleming attacks his theme with verve, mining entertainment from eccentric Alpinists, sensational ascents and grisly accidents.” —Food and Travel Magazine

Killing Dragons

Killing Dragons PDF Author: Fergus Fleming
Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
ISBN: 080219754X
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 569

Get Book Here

Book Description
A “dramatic and masterful” account of early alpine explorers and the challenges they faced to scale the summits (Anthony Brandt, National Geographic Adventure). In a riveting narrative of daredevils and eccentrics, Fergus Fleming gives us the breathtaking story of some of history’s greatest explorers as they conquer the soaring peaks of the Alps. Fleming recounts the incredible exploits of the men whose centuries-old fear of the mountain range turned quickly to curiosity, then to obsession, as they explored Europe’s frozen wilderness. In the late eighteenth century, French and Swiss scientists became interested in the Alps as a research destination, but in the 1850s the focus changed: the icy mountains now offered an all-out competition for British climbers who wanted to conquer ever higher and more impossible heights, and explorers fought each other on the peaks and in the press, entertaining a vast public smitten with their bravery, delighted by their personal animosities, and horrified by the disasters that befell them. “Fleming attacks his theme with verve, mining entertainment from eccentric Alpinists, sensational ascents and grisly accidents.” —Food and Travel Magazine

The Dragons of Expectation

The Dragons of Expectation PDF Author: Robert Conquest
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393059335
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
The publication of The Dragons of Expectation in 2005 reaffirmed Robert Conquest's stature as a leading intellectual and one of the world's great humanists. In the tradition of Isaiah Berlin's The Crooked Timber of Humanity and George Orwell's Essays, this book brilliantly traces how seductive ideas have come to corrupt modern minds; to often disastrous effects. In what Publishers Weekly called "a frontal assault on the pieties of the left," Conquest masterfully examines how false nostrums have infected academia, politicians, and the public, showing how their reliance on "isms" and the destructive concepts of "People, Nation, and Masses" have resulted in a ruinous cycle of turbulence and war. Including fresh analyses of Russia's October Revolution, World War II, and the Cold War, The Dragons of Expectation is one of the most important contributions to modern thought in recent years.

Dragon Song

Dragon Song PDF Author: Sal Quartuccio
Publisher: SQP
ISBN: 9780865622074
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 64

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Book Description
Latest in the Song series of fantasy art books, Dragon Song takes a loving look (from a safe distance) at that most special relationship between a girl and her dragon! A remarkable oversized collection of paintings and illustrations that celebrate the magnificent flying reptiles of mythology and their ferocious female protectors! Artists include Pelaez, James Hottinger, Dave Dunstan, Carlos Valenzuela, Steve Fastner and Rich Larson, and many more. Fire-breathing was NEVER this hot!

The Book of Swords

The Book of Swords PDF Author: George R. R. Martin
Publisher: Bantam
ISBN: 0399593772
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 584

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Book Description
New epic fantasy in the grand tradition—including a never-before-published Song of Ice and Fire story by George R. R. Martin! Fantasy fiction has produced some of the most unforgettable heroes ever conjured onto the page: Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian, Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné, Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Classic characters like these made sword and sorcery a storytelling sensation, a cornerstone of fantasy fiction—and an inspiration for a new generation of writers, spinning their own outsize tales of magic and swashbuckling adventure. Now, in The Book of Swords, acclaimed editor and bestselling author Gardner Dozois presents an all-new anthology of original epic tales by a stellar cast of award-winning modern masters—many of them set in their authors’ best-loved worlds. Join today’s finest tellers of fantastic tales, including George R. R. Martin, K. J. Parker, Robin Hobb, Scott Lynch, Ken Liu, C. J. Cherryh, Daniel Abraham, Lavie Tidhar, Ellen Kushner, and more on action-packed journeys into the outer realms of dark enchantment and intrepid derring-do, featuring a stunning assortment of fearless swordsmen and warrior women who face down danger and death at every turn with courage, cunning, and cold steel. FEATURING SIXTEEN ALL-NEW STORIES: “The Best Man Wins” by K. J. Parker “Her Father’s Sword” by Robin Hobb “The Hidden Girl” by Ken Liu “The Sword of Destiny” by Matthew Hughes “‘I Am a Handsome Man,’ Said Apollo Crow” by Kate Elliott “The Triumph of Virtue” by Walter Jon Williams “The Mocking Tower” by Daniel Abraham “Hrunting” by C. J. Cherryh “A Long, Cold Trail” by Garth Nix “When I Was a Highwayman” by Ellen Kushner “The Smoke of Gold Is Glory” by Scott Lynch “The Colgrid Conundrum” by Rich Larson “The King’s Evil” by Elizabeth Bear “Waterfalling” by Lavie Tidhar “The Sword Tyraste” by Cecelia Holland “The Sons of the Dragon” by George R. R. Martin And an introduction by Gardner Dozois “When fine writer and expert editor [Gardner] Dozois beckons, authors deliver—and this surely will be one of the year’s essential anthologies.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Lord Dragon's Conquest

Lord Dragon's Conquest PDF Author: Sharon Ashwood
Publisher: Rowan & Ash Artistry
ISBN: 1738257304
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 99

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Book Description
A rare discovery. A secret world. A lover beyond her dreams. Archaeologist Keltie Clarke makes the find of a lifetime inside a remote mountain cave. But her ambitions are challenged by a mysterious stranger who confronts her at the site. He tries to wipe her memory of the entire event—as if she could ever forget the handsome man. But nothing can shake her conviction that she’s seen the impossible. Larkan is a Flameborn warrior trained to protect his shapeshifting dragon kin from the outside world. He is also one of the privileged few allowed to venture beyond the dragons’ mountain home. When the kind and lovely Keltie stumbles into his territory, she puts her safety and his freedom in jeopardy—not the least because her courage inspires him to defy his beautiful but deadly queen. That puts the lives of everyone—humans and dragons—at terrible risk. The stakes are high. Keltie has found a powerful secret that only a dragon can unlock. Both she and Larkan must retreat to the lives they know—or leap together into peril and legend. Second edition. Previously published in 2014 by Harlequin Nocturne Cravings

Conquest

Conquest PDF Author: Celeste Harte
Publisher: Dragon Bones
ISBN: 9781734386646
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
Jashi Anyua has been arranged to be married to the leader of her nation, the Great Faresh. To help her escape the unwanted engagement, her future husband's enemies offer her an out - if she agrees to spy on her intended, they'll give her a new identity and a life somewhere the Faresh will never find her. Yet as Jashi gets to know the Faresh, she wonders if she put her loyalties in the right place; especially when she realizes that he shares the abilities she's had to keep secret her whole life. What's more, he might be the only one who can train her to use them.

The Eagle and the Dragon

The Eagle and the Dragon PDF Author: Serge Gruzinski
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745681328
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
In this important new book the renowned historian Serge Gruzinski returns to two episodes in the sixteenth century which mark a decisive stage in global history and show how China and Mexico experienced the expansion of Europe. In the early 1520s, Magellan set sail for Asia by the Western route, Cortes seized Mexico and some Portuguese based in Malacca dreamed of colonizing China. The Aztec Eagle was destroyed but the Chinese Dragon held strong and repelled the invaders - after first seizing their cannon. For the first time, people from three continents encountered one other, confronted one other and their lives became entangled. These events were of great interest to contemporaries and many people at the time grasped the magnitude of what was going on around them. The Iberians succeeded in America and failed in China. The New World became inseparable from the Europeans who were to conquer it, while the Celestial Empire became, for a long time to come, an unattainable goal. Gruzinski explores this encounter between civilizations that were different from one another but that already fascinated contemporaries, and he shows that our world today bears the mark of this distant age. For it was in the sixteenth century that human history began to be played out on a global stage. It was then that connections between different parts of the world began to accelerate, not only between Europe and the Americas but also between Europe and China. This is what is revealed by a global history of the sixteenth century, conceived as another way of reading the Renaissance, less Eurocentric and more in tune with our age.

Fire & Blood

Fire & Blood PDF Author: George R. R. Martin
Publisher: Bantam
ISBN: 1524796301
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 754

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Book Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The thrilling history of the Targaryens comes to life in this masterly work, the inspiration for HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon “The thrill of Fire & Blood is the thrill of all Martin’s fantasy work: familiar myths debunked, the whole trope table flipped.”—Entertainment Weekly Centuries before the events of A Game of Thrones, House Targaryen—the only family of dragonlords to survive the Doom of Valyria—took up residence on Dragonstone. Fire & Blood begins their tale with the legendary Aegon the Conqueror, creator of the Iron Throne, and goes on to recount the generations of Targaryens who fought to hold that iconic seat, all the way up to the civil war that nearly tore their dynasty apart. What really happened during the Dance of the Dragons? Why was it so deadly to visit Valyria after the Doom? What were Maegor the Cruel’s worst crimes? What was it like in Westeros when dragons ruled the skies? These are but a few of the questions answered in this essential chronicle, as related by a learned maester of the Citadel and featuring more than eighty-five black-and-white illustrations by artist Doug Wheatley—including five illustrations exclusive to the trade paperback edition. Readers have glimpsed small parts of this narrative in such volumes as The World of Ice & Fire, but now, for the first time, the full tapestry of Targaryen history is revealed. With all the scope and grandeur of Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Fire & Blood is the first volume of the definitive two-part history of the Targaryens, giving readers a whole new appreciation for the dynamic, often bloody, and always fascinating history of Westeros. Praise for Fire & Blood “A masterpiece of popular historical fiction.”—The Sunday Times “The saga is a rich and dark one, full of both the title’s promised elements. . . . It’s hard not to thrill to the descriptions of dragons engaging in airborne combat, or the dilemma of whether defeated rulers should ‘bend the knee,’ ‘take the black’ and join the Night’s Watch, or simply meet an inventive and horrible end.”—The Guardian

Reflections on a Ravaged Century

Reflections on a Ravaged Century PDF Author: Robert Conquest
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393320862
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
A look at the twentieth century examines the factors and events that have sent millions to their deaths, discussing the philosophies that have caused so much conflict, as well as what the future may hold for the human race.

Kings of Morning

Kings of Morning PDF Author: Paul Kearney
Publisher: Solaris
ISBN: 1849973334
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
For the first time in recorded history, the ferocious city-states of the Macht now acknowledge a single man as their overlord. Corvus, the strange, brilliant boy-general, is now High King, having united his people in a fearsome, bloody campaign. He is not yet thirty years old. A generation ago, ten thousand of the Macht marched into the heart of the ancient Asurian Empire, and fought their way back out again, passing into legend. Corvus?s father was one of those who undertook that march, and his most trusted general, Rictus, was leader of those ten thousand. But he intends to do more. The preparations will take years, but when they are complete, Corvus will lead an invasion the like of which the world of Kuf has never seen. Under him, the Macht will undertake nothing less than the overthrow of the Asurian Empire.