Jordan

Bruna Guedes

Husain Kothari

FRNK

Uendi Prifti

Abdul Hasib

Loughlin Sullivan

Delaney Knopp

Auriel W

Blake Molmen

Dani Shahar

Luis Javier Campos nieto

The Witcher returns in this action-packed sequel to The Tower of Swallows, in the New York Times bestselling series that inspired The Witcher video games. After walking through the portal in the Tower of Swallows while narrowly escaping death, Ciri finds herself in a completely different world... an Elven world. She is trapped with no way out. Time does not seem to exist and there are no obvious borders or portals to cross back into her home world. But this is Ciri, the child of prophecy, and she will not be defeated. She knows she must escape to finally rejoin the Witcher, Geralt, and his companions - and also to try to conquer her worst nightmare. Leo Bonhart, the man who chased, wounded and tortured Ciri, is still on her trail. And the world is still at war.Witcher novelsBlood of Elves The Time of ContemptBaptism of Fire The Tower of SwallowsLady of the Lake\
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Witcher collectionsThe Last WishSword of Destiny\
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The Malady and Other Stories: An Andrzej Sapkowski Sampler (e-only)Translated from original Polish by David French

Praised by fans and critics worldwide, R. Scott Bakker has become one of the most celebrated voices in fantasy literature. With The Great Ordeal, Bakker presents the long-anticipated third volume of The Aspect-Emperor, a series that stands with the finest in the genre for its grandiose scope, rich detail, and thrilling story.  As Fanim war-drums beat just outside the city, the Empress Anasurimbor Esmenet searches frantically throughout the palace for her missing son Kelmomas. Meanwhile and many miles away, Esmenet’s husband’s Great Ordeal continues its epic march further north. But in light of dwindling supplies, the Aspect-Emperor’s decision to allow his men to consume the flesh of fallen Sranc could have consequences even He couldn’t have foreseen. And, deep in Ishuäl, the wizard Achamian grapples with his fear that his unspeakably long journey might be ending in emptiness, no closer to the truth than when he set out.  The Aspect-Emperor series follows Bakker’s Prince of Nothing saga, returning to the same world twenty years later. The Great Ordeal follows The Judging Eye and The White-Luck Warrior, and delivers the first half of the conclusion to this epic story. Returning to Bakker’s richly imagined universe of myth, violence, and sorcery, The Aspect-Emperor continues to set the bar for the fantasy genre, reaching new heights of intricacy and meaning.

This was a good finale to the Prince of Nothing series. I definitely consider this to be one of the best dark fantasy series I've read over the years. Bakker's fantasy world has plenty of depth and his story is engaging and full of twists and turns. It also helps that is is packed with memorable characters and that Bakker has an engaging writing style! This final book focused on the conclusion of the Holy War story arc as well as Kellhus's confrontation with his father. Outside of that there was plenty of other stuff going on to hold ones attention as the various factions kept up their plotting and intrigue while the Consult continued to make their own presence known to the wider world.The story was good. There was plenty of action and intrigue and also a decent amount of interesting social commentary inserted into the story in a way that did not overwhelm it. Kellhus's and his Dûnyain Logos philosophy have always been the most interesting bits of the story for me. It is a little nihilistic but I do love its acknowledgement of cultural indoctrination in particular. Not that Prince of Nothing is a series without any flaws. It is a super dark world with very interesting, but quite evil, characters and some fairly dark content so if you are in the mood for a light read this is not the series to go with! That said, I never felt like this series go too bleak in tone and that is due to the way Bakker succeeded in mitigating the horror and darker moments of the story. It helped that he never sold any of the characters to the reader as people they should like or be rooting for and that his somewhat detached narration style kept things bearable. The biggest flaws of this series for me was the misogyny that was ingrained in every level of the story and the overuse of certain tropes. Bakker claims the misogyny was a deliberate ploy on his part but I've got my doubts. If it was deliberate he was being way to subtle as this guy missed his point! I can see the cultural misogyny present in the worldbuilding as deliberate but I'm less inclined to give him a pass of the stuff we see in the story set up and in places where it has no reason to exist culturally. This series, and this book in particular, has always overdone the madness trope. Half the characters are insane! I've no problem with any of the characters story arcs individually but when you add them all together it makes the trope feel overused and comes off as a bit lazy. Not that any of the flaws were things that overly damaged my enjoyment of this series. It was fantastic in a number of ways and very engaging from start to finish. I just feel like with a few tweaks this series could have joined my all time favourites list! All in all I felt like this was a good conclusion to a memorable series. It wrapped out a number of ongoing story arcs but left plenty of openings to keep me interested in reading the sequel series.Rating: 4.5 stars. I'll round down to 4 stars on my official GR's rating just to chop one star off a book in this series as a result of its few annoying flaws:) Though it is a bit harsh. Audio Note: David DeVries did an excellent job with the audio. It is a pity he was not retained for the sequel series!

A score of years after he first walked into the histories of men, Anasûrimbor Kellhus rules all the three seas, the first true Aspect-Emperor in a thousand years.As Kellhus and his Great Ordeal march ever farther into the perilous wastes of the Ancient North, Esmenet finds herself at war with not only the Gods, but her own family as well. Achamian, meanwhile, leads his own ragtag expedition to the legendary ruins of Sauglish, and to a truth he can scarce survive, let alone comprehend.Into this tumult walks the White Luck Warrior, assassin and messiah both, executing a mission as old as the World's making...

A score of years after he first walked into the histories of men, Anasûrimbor Kellhus rules all the three seas, the first true Aspect-Emperor in a thousand years.The Unholy Consult is the hugely anticipated final novel in R. Scott Bakker's acclaimed Aspect-Emperor series, set in a vivid world of myth, war and sorcery. It is a series that stands alongside the finest in the genre, for its grand scope, rich detail and thrilling story.

"Book Two of The Prince of Nothing" finds the Holy War continuing its inexorable march southward. But the suspicion begins to dawn that the real threat comes not from the infidel but from within...Steering souls through the subtleties of word and expression, Kellhus strives to extend his dominion over the Men of the Tusk. The sorcerer Achamian and his lover, Esmenet, submit entirely, only to have their faith - and their love - tested in unimaginable ways. Meanwhile, the warrior Cnaiur falls ever deeper into madness. Convinced that Kellhus will betray their pact to murder his father, Cnaiur turns to the agents of the Second Apocalypse and strikes an infernal bargain. The Holy War stands on a knife edge. If all is not to be lost, the great powers of the world will have to choose between their most desperate desires and the end of the world. Between hatred and hope. Between Anasurimbor Kellhus and the second apocalypse.

The Darkness That Comes Before, The Warrior Prophet, and The Thousandfold Thought — collectively the Prince of Nothing Saga — were R. Scott Bakker's magnificent debut into the upper echelon of epic fantasy. In those three books, Bakker created a world that was at once a triumph of the fantastic and an historical epic as real as any that came before.Widely praised by reviewers and a growing body of fans, Bakker has already established the reputation as one of the smartest writers in the fantasy genre-a writer in the line stretching from Homer to Peake to Tolkein. Now he returns to The Prince of Nothing with the long awaited The Judging Eye, the first book in an all-new series. Set twenty years after the end of The Thousandfold Thought, Bakker reintroduces us to a world that is at once familiar but also very different than the one readers thought they knew. Delving even further into his richly imagined universe of myth, violence, and sorcery, and fully remolding the fantasy genre to broaden the scope of intricacy and meaning, R. Scott Bakker has once again written a fantasy novel that defies all expectations and rewards the reader with an experience unlike any to be had in the canon of today's literature.

The New York Times bestselling series that inspired the international hit video game: The Witcher\
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 The Wizards Guild has been shattered by a coup and, in the uproar, Geralt was seriously injured. The Witcher is supposed to be a guardian of the innocent, a protector of those in need, a defender against powerful and dangerous monsters that prey on men in dark times. But now that dark times have fallen upon the world, Geralt is helpless until he has recovered from his injuries. While war rages across all of the lands, the future of magic is under threat and those sorcerers who survive are determined to protect it. It's an impossible situation in which to find one girl - Ciri, the heiress to the throne of Cintra, has vanished - until a rumor places her in the Niflgaard court, preparing to marry the Emperor. Injured or not, Geralt has a rescue mission on his hands. The Witcher returns in this action-packed sequel to The Time of Contempt.

The New York Times bestselling series that inspired the international hit video game: The Witcher\
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Geralt is a witcher: guardian of the innocent; protector of those in need; a defender, in dark times, against some of the most frightening creatures of myth and legend. His task, now, is to protect Ciri. A child of prophecy, she will have the power to change the world for good or for ill -- but only if she lives to use it.A coup threatens the Wizard's Guild.War breaks out across the lands.A serious injury leaves Geralt fighting for his life...... and Ciri, in whose hands the world's fate rests, has vanished...The Witcher returns in this sequel to Blood of Elves.\
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The Witcher series The Last WishThe Sword of Destiny Blood of ElvesThe Time of ContemptBaptism of FireThe Malady and Other Stories: An Andrzej Sapkowski Sampler (e-only)

The world has fallen into war. Ciri, the child of prophecy, has vanished. Hunted by friends and foes alike, she has taken on the guise of a petty bandit and lives free for the first time in her life. But the net around her is closing. Geralt, the Witcher, has assembled a group of allies determined to rescue her. Both sides of the war have sent brutal mercenaries to hunt her down. Her crimes have made her famous. There is only one place left to run. The tower of the swallow is waiting...

Geralt is a witcher, a man whose magic powers, enhanced by long training and a mysterious elixir, have made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless assassin. Yet he is no ordinary murderer: his targets are the multifarious monsters and vile fiends that ravage the land and attack the innocent. He roams the country seeking assignments, but gradually comes to realise that while some of his quarry are unremittingly vile, vicious grotesques, others are the victims of sin, evil or simple naivety.In this collection of short stories, following the adventures of the hit collection The Last Wish, join Geralt as he battles monsters, demons and prejudices alike...The anthology is composed of several stories, loosely linked in a chronological order:The Bounds of Reason (Granica możliwości)A Shard of Ice (Okruch lodu)Eternal Flame (Wieczny ogień)A Little Dedication (Trochę poświęcenia)The Sword of Destiny (Miecz przeznaczenia)Something More (Coś więcej)

The New York Times bestselling series that inspired the international hit video game: The Witcher.For over a century, humans, dwarves, gnomes, and elves have lived together in relative peace. But times have changed, the uneasy peace is over, and now the races are fighting once again. The only good elf, it seems, is a dead elf.Geralt of Rivia, the cunning assassin known as The Witcher, has been waiting for the birth of a prophesied child. This child has the power to change the world - for good, or for evil.As the threat of war hangs over the land and the child is hunted for her extraordinary powers, it will become Geralt's responsibility to protect them all - and the Witcher never accepts defeat.The Witcher returns in this sequel to The Last Wish, as the inhabitants of his world become embroiled in a state of total war.

Think about a fantasy book. Think about your favorite fantasy book. Chances are, it included elves or maybe dwarves. It probably had knights or something like them. It was, most likely, heavily influenced by Tolkien, or his successors, and it was probably based, at least in part, on a certain Anglo-saxon, or maybe French, sort of medieval culture. And if you read fantasy, there's probably 15 or so more like it on your bookshelf or your e-reader of choice.So here's my recommendation: put down Lord of the Rings. You've already read it. Put aside that new George R. R. Martin. It'll give him a chance to write a little further ahead, and you'll get a chance to read it again before the next one comes out. Set aside your Jordan, your Eddings or even your Pratchett. Do it, just for a little while. Just for the 2 days or so that it will take you to devour a series of short stories that have a totally different flavor. The stories of Geralt, the Witcher, professional monster hunter, sorcerer, swordsman and mutant. And you should do it for the same reason that you shouldn't have the exact same food at every meal. These short stories will leave you wanting so much more, and by the time you put it down, your last wish will be for the rest of the series to finally be translated from Polish to English so you can find out what happens next.

Chapters: The Darkness That Comes Before, the Aspect-Emperor, E rwa, the Thousandfold Thought, the Warrior Prophet. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 28. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The Prince of Nothing is a series of three fantasy novels by the Canadian author R. Scott Bakker, first published in 2004, part of a wider series known as "The Second Apocalypse." This trilogy details the emergence of Anas rimbor Kellhus, a brilliant monastic warrior, as he takes control of a holy war and the hearts and minds of its leaders. Kellhus exhibits incredible powers of prediction and persuasion, which are derived from deep knowledge of rationality, cognitive biases, and causality, as discovered by the D nyain, a secret monastic sect. As Kellhus goes from military leader to divine prophet, Drusas Achamian, the sorcerer who mentored Kellhus, comes to realize that his student may well be the harbinger of the Second Apocalypse. The key feature distinguishing the Prince of Nothing series from its contemporaries is the importance of philosophy to the work. The plot, characters, setting, and metaphysics of the Prince of Nothing are intertwined with philosophical positions unique to the series. Bakker has mentioned that this series was primarily influenced by the works of Tolkien and Frank Herbert. The Prince of Nothing series takes place in the fictional continent of E rwa, which is separated from another continent to the east (mentioned but unseen), called E nna. The main inhabitants of E rwa are human, but were preceded by the Nonmen (or C nuroi), immortal beings who went mad with the accumulation of centuries of memory, and the Inchoroi, alien beings who crash-landed in northern E rwa. These creatures' machinations led both to the downfall of the Nonmen and, with the aid of a group of human s...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=141477

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