Elena Rainn

Zach P

Kyrsten Iris

Fede Bonino

_ eshago@uw.edu

Watashi Wa Jigabudesu

Karl Halmos-Westram

lonely loser

Ljsly Bernard

Miguel Barreto Carrillo

Leonel González

Tim M

Set in the far future amidst a sprawling feudal interstellar empire where planetary dynasties are controlled by noble houses that owe an allegiance to the imperial House Corrino, Dune tells the story of young Paul Atreides (the heir apparent to Duke Leto Atreides and heir of House Atreides) as he and his family accept control of the desert planet Arrakis, the only source of the 'spice' melange, the most important and valuable substance in the cosmos. The story explores the complex, multi-layered interactions of politics, religion, ecology, technology, and human emotion as the forces of the empire confront each other for control of Arrakis.Published in 1965, it won the Hugo Award in 1966 and the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel. Dune is frequently cited as the world's best-selling sf novel.

It takes a special kind of author to write three books and have them sold consecutively on a monthly basis… Typically a fantasy trilogy will take between three and four years from the first through until the last book is released. This allows time for readers to finish a book, have a bit of a change and then re-visit a world about a year later…When Brent Weeks wrote the Night Angel Trilogy his publishers weren’t prepared to make us wait a year for each book. This ‘one month’ wait between each book was almost unheard of and although it was a bold move… it paid off… why? Simple… people read the books within 30 days and wanted to have the next one in their hands instantly… It was in Brent Weeks’s own words “A huge gamble by the publisher’, but it was one that paid off.”The first book in the series ‘The Way of the Shadows’ came out in 2008… It is a bold book that to some extent glorifies the work of assassins, justifies the work of prostitutes and paints thieves in at very least a grey fashion. There is rape, there is murder, there is pure evil and treachery – in fact it is a very, very dark series. Our main character is ‘Azoth’, an orphan who has been born into a world completely corrupt and controlled by an organised crime band known as the Sa’kagé. Azoth has survived by finding his way into a low levelled ‘guild’. These guilds are full of young children who basically work together in order to steal food, mug wealthier folk and dabble in minor profit making crime. The older children in the guild literally make the younger children’s lives hell. They demand payment, beat them, steal their food and even force themselves upon the weaker ones…It paints a terrifying picture and as you can imagine… Azoth is willing to do anything in order to get out. He finds it whilst wading through the disgusting and dangerous gap underneath an Inn’s floorboards to retrieve a few coins that may have fallen beneath the floorboards. Although those within the Inn are unaware of Azoth’s presence – Azoth can see above through cracks in the floor. Whilst hiding underneath a man within the Inn is attacked – he subsequently massacres his attackers with very little effort (even though Azoth thinks he appears drunk) and calmly walks from the bar. Azoth realises that this was Durzo Blint – World Renowned Assassin (Known as a ‘Wetboy’).After all he has witnessed and the lacklustre future he knows he will have unless he does ‘something’ – Azoth asks Durzo Blint to take him on as his apprentice. Durzo Blint tells him that he is a ‘sole’ individual and doesn’t do partners, apprentices, relationships or anything else – his single focus is his job and that’s why he is the best. With no other options Azoth won’t take no for an answer and Durzo Blint tells him that if he really wants to do this he has to first prove himself by killing his guild master and then walk away from his old life, his old friends and begin making himself useful. He doesn’t want a burden, he wants someone who will be able to do the less important or less-well paid jobs for him.Azoth of course agrees and is thrust into the life of a WetBoy… Working for the Sa’kagé and getting deeper and deeper into their world. Azoth becomes ‘Kyler Stern’, but soon finds that life living in the shadow of the greatest Wetboy in existence brings about its own problems… the law want him dead, other assassins want him dead and Durzo Blint’s enemies for which there are many… want him dead. As well as constantly having to watch out for enemies, he also has to question his own reasoning for becoming a Wetboy… does he have the right to murder people? Can he cope with the constant push for perfection that Durzo commands, has he condemned his old guild friends by leaving them behind?————Although the story is absolutely amazing in terms of pace, twists, action and just about everything else – it is the characters that make the story. In addition to Durzo and Azoth, by the second book we have other characters that include a newly appointed king who is highly opposed, we have Vi who is a female assassin intent on killing Azoth, we have ‘Dollgirl’ who was Azoth’s fixation whilst he was in the guild, a seer named Dorian, a King who intends to take over the world… and all of these characters have their own stories and their own viewpoints… One minute we are hating them, the next we are supporting them. Through all the dark themes within this book there is a story here about love and friendship as well as the power and importance of relationships of all kinds as well. Upon reading this book you will begin questioning your own thoughts on good and bad… your ‘grey-area’ will certainly widen and you will certainly be left loving ‘villains’ and ‘despising’ heroes.As the book progresses from the first that could be seen as ‘a standalone novel’ almost, the second begins entering ‘epic’ territory. We find out that Kyler and Durzo are part of something far bigger than we imagined during the first half of the first novel. At the start of the first novel Kyler has to make a choice… does he give up or does he fight. The Godking is ready to take over the world and Kyler needs to make a decision… does he let him or does he use the skills he has learnt to fight against him? Does he risk commit to the life of an assassin or now he has made a bit of money does he give up that way of life? Is he falling too deep into the lust for blood?Questions, Twists, Turns, this book will keep you guessing throughout and has more than its fair share of loveable characters and even absolutely stomach turning characters… one thing is for sure… the characters you read about in this book will never be forgotten. You feel you are actually with these characters, trying for yourself to justify their actions, asking yourself what you would do and it makes for a once in a lifetime ride of suspense, action and storytelling.Do not miss this series… It will raise your bar on fantasy literature.

A thrilling and original coming-of-age novel for adults about a young man practicing magic in the real world.Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A senior in high school, he’s still secretly preoccupied with a series of fantasy novels he read as a child, set in a magical land called Fillory. Imagine his surprise when he finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the craft of modern sorcery. He also discovers all the other things people learn in college: friendship, love, sex, booze, and boredom. Something is missing, though. Magic doesn’t bring Quentin the happiness and adventure he dreamed it would. After graduation he and his friends make a stunning discovery: Fillory is real. But the land of Quentin’s fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he could have imagined. His childhood dream becomes a nightmare with a shocking truth at its heart. At once psychologically piercing and magnificently absorbing, The Magicians boldly moves into uncharted literary territory, imagining magic as practiced by real people, with their capricious desires and volatile emotions. Lev Grossman creates an utterly original world in which good and evil aren’t black and white, love and sex aren’t simple or innocent, and power comes at a terrible price.

Zeroville begins in 1969 on Hollywood Boulevard, when a Greyhound bus drops off a film-obsessed ex-seminarian with images of Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift tattooed on his head. Vikar Jerome steps into the vortex of a cultural transformation: rock ’n’ roll, sex, drugs, and — far more important to him — the decline of the movie studios and the rise of the independent director. Jerome will become a film editor of astonishing vision. Then through encounters with former starlets, burglars, political guerillas, punk musicians, and veteran filmmakers, he discovers the astonishing secret that lies in every movie ever made.

A THOUSAND-YEAR EPIC, A GALACTIC STRUGGLE, A MONUMENTAL WORK IN THE ANNALS OF SCIENCE FICTION FOUNDATION begins a new chapter in the story of man's future. As the Old Empire crumbles into barbarism throughout the million worlds of the galaxy, Hari Seldon and his band of psychologists must create a new entity, the Foundation-dedicated to art, science, and technology-as the beginning of a new empire. FOUNDATION AND EMPIRE describes the mighty struggle for power amid the chaos of the stars in which man stands at the threshold of a new enlightened life which could easily be destroyed by the old forces of barbarism. SECOND FOUNDATION follows the Seldon Plan after the First Empire's defeat and describes its greatest threat-a dangerous mutant strain gone wild, which produces a mind capable of bending men's wills, directing their thoughts, reshaping their desires, and destroying the universe.

For the first time, all five novels in the epic fantasy series that inspired HBO's "Game of Thrones "are together in one boxed set. An immersive entertainment experience unlike any other, A Song of Ice and Fire has earned George R. R. Martin--dubbed "the American Tolkien" by "Time" magazine--international acclaim and millions of loyal readers. Now here is the entire monumental cycle: A GAME OF THRONESA CLASH OF KINGSA STORM OF SWORDSA FEAST OF CROWSA DANCE WITH DRAGONS Winter is coming. Such is the stern motto of House Stark, the northernmost of the fiefdoms that owe allegiance to King Robert Baratheon in far-off King's Landing. There Eddard Stark of Winterfell rules in Robert's name. There his family dwells in peace and comfort: his proud wife, Catelyn; his sons Robb, Brandon, and Rickon; his daughters Sansa and Arya; and his bastard son, Jon Snow. Far to the north, behind the towering Wall, lie savage Wildings and worse--unnatural things relegated to myth during the centuries-long summer, but proving all too real and all too deadly in the turning of the season.  Yet a more immediate threat lurks to the south, where Jon Arryn, the Hand of the King, has died under mysterious circumstances. Now Robert is riding north to Winterfell, bringing his queen, the lovely but cold Cersei, his son, the cruel, vainglorious Prince Joffrey, and the queen's brothers Jaime and Tyrion of the powerful and wealthy House Lannister--the first a swordsman without equal, the second a dwarf whose stunted stature belies a brilliant mind. All are heading for Winterfell and a fateful encounter that will change the course of kingdoms.  Meanwhile, across the Narrow Sea, Prince Viserys, heir of the fallen House Targaryen, which once ruled all of Westeros, schemes to reclaim the throne with an army of barbarian Dothraki--whose loyalty he will purchase in the only coin left to him: his beautiful yet innocent sister, Daenerys."

Told in Kvothe's own voice, this is the tale of the magically gifted young man who grows to be the most notorious wizard his world has ever seen. The intimate narrative of his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, his years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-ridden city, his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, and his life as a fugitive after the murder of a king form a gripping coming-of-age story unrivaled in recent literature. A high-action story written with a poet's hand, The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece that will transport readers into the body and mind of a wizard.

[Available in the U.S. - Feb 2014] This new yet traditional offering from Square Enix captures the charm and elegant and simplicity of yesteryear's canonical RP...

You manage the Kestrel and its crew as you explore the galaxy. Strategic, real-time combat involves managing power between essential systems and choosing which...

Final Fantasy's first game on the Playstation 2 is the first to use voice acting and a massive leap in the cinematic approach to storytelling. Stop reading and...

Kingdom Hearts is the story of Sora, a 14-year-old boy whose world is shattered when a violent storm hits his island-paradise home, and is separated from his tw...

A world where you live the life you have always wanted to lead. FANTASY LIFE is an original RPG for the Nintendo 3DS from LEVEL-5, featuring music by Nobuo Uema...

Path of Exile is an online Action RPG set in the dark fantasy world of Wraeclast. They're a small independent team of hardcore gamers based in New Zealand and h...

The game involves players creating and destroying various types of blocks in a three dimensional environment. The player takes an avatar that can destroy or cre...

Magicka is an action-adventure game set in a rich fantasy world based on Norse mythology. The player assumes the role of a wizard from a sacred order tasked wit...

Borderlands 2 advances the distinct blending of FPS and role-playing genres to create an evolution of the Role Playing Shooter. Team up with up to 3 other playe...

[WiiWare] Cave Story takes you into a rare world where a curious race of innocent, rabbit-like creatures called Mimiga run free. You wake up in a dark cave wit...

When Isaacs mother starts hearing the voice of God demanding a sacrifice be made to prove her faith, Isaac escapes into the basement facing droves of deranged e...

Bastion is an action role-playing game from Supergiant Games....

Portal is a new single player game from Valve. Set in the mysterious Aperture Science Laboratories, Portal has been called one of the most innovative new games...

Monster Hunter offers gamers the challenge of exploring vastly detailed environments confronting mammoth creatures and completing the numerous quests that await...

Join forces with your closest allies as you unite to defeat your foes in deadly multiplayer battle arenas. League of Legends combines elements from both strateg...

After stealing a mysterious orb in the far reaches of outer space, Peter Quill from Earth is now the main target of a manhunt led by the villain known as Ronan the Accuser. To help fight Ronan and his team and save the galaxy from his power, Quill creates a team of space heroes known as the "Guardians of the Galaxy" to save the galaxy.

Set within a year after the events of Batman Begins (2005), Batman, Lieutenant James Gordon, and new District Attorney Harvey Dent successfully begin to round up the criminals that plague Gotham City, until a mysterious and sadistic criminal mastermind known only as "The Joker" appears in Gotham, creating a new wave of chaos. Batman's struggle against The Joker becomes deeply personal, forcing him to "confront everything he believes" and improve his technology to stop him. A love triangle develops between Bruce Wayne, Dent, and Rachel Dawes.

2008 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan

An elderly man reads the book "The Princess Bride" to his sick and thus currently bedridden adolescent grandson, the reading of the book which has been passed down within the family for generations. The grandson is sure he won't like the story, with a romance at its core, he prefers something with lots of action and "no kissing", but he lets grandfather continue, because he doesn't want to hurt his feelings. The story centers on Buttercup, a former farm girl who has been chosen as the princess bride to Prince Humperdinck of Florian. Buttercup does not love him, she who still laments the death of her one true love, Westley, five years ago. Westley was a hired hand on the farm, his stock answer of "as you wish" to any request she made of him which she came to understand was his way of saying that he loved her. But Westley went away to sea, only to be killed by the Dread Pirate Roberts. On a horse ride to clear her mind of her upcoming predicament of marriage, Buttercup is kidnapped by a band of bandits: Vizzini who works on his wits, and his two associates, a giant named Fezzik who works on his brawn, and a Spaniard named Inigo Montoya, who has trained himself his entire life to be an expert swordsman. They in turn are chased by the Dread Pirate Roberts himself. But chasing them all is the Prince, and his men led by Count Tyrone Rugen. What happens to these collectives is dependent partly on Buttercup, who does not want to marry the Prince, and may see other options as lesser evils, and partly on the other motives of individuals within the groups. But a larger question is what the grandson will think of the story as it proceeds and at its end, especially as he sees justice as high a priority as action.

Earth's future has been riddled by disasters, famines, and droughts. There is only one way to ensure mankind's survival: Interstellar travel. A newly discovered wormhole in the far reaches of our solar system allows a team of astronauts to go where no man has gone before, a planet that may have the right environment to sustain human life.

Naota is a normal student living with his abnormal father and grandfather. One day, a seemingly insane girl named Haruko blazes in from out of nowhere on her Vespa, wielding an electric guitar with a buzzsaw! Haruko moves in with Naota under the pretense of being a housekeeper, but Naota knows there's something obviously strange about her. To make matters worse, large shapes are growing out of his head, hatching into large monsters that Haruko makes her mission to kill. Who is Haruko really, and what is she after? You won't find out until the end of this bizarre story.

Daten City is plagued by numerous Ghosts that feed upon its residents, but coming to the rescue are the angel sisters Panty and Stocking! Aided by the priest Garterbelt and their pet Chuck Zipper, these sisters from Heaven are assigned the duty of exorcising these specters. However, all they really want to do is have fun and slack off: Panty's goal is to bed one thousand men, and Stocking is only interested in sweets and desserts. To make matters worse, they were not sent from Heaven but rather thrown out, and the only way they can get back into Heaven is to defeat and destroy these Ghosts. And so this dirty pair is off to bust ghosts, and have a lot of fun on the side.

One night, 14-year-old Madoka Kaname has a terrible nightmare - against the backdrop of a devastated city, she witnesses a girl fight a losing battle against a dreadful being lingering above, while a cat-like magical creature tells Madoka the only way to change that tragic outcome is for her to make a contract with him and become a magical girl. The next day, the teen's dream seemingly becomes reality as the girl she saw in her dream - Homura - arrives at Mitakihara Middle School as a transfer student, mysteriously warning Madoka to stay just the way she is. But when later on she and her best friend Sayaka encounter the same cat-like magical creature from her dream - who introduces himself as Kyubey - the pair discovers that magical girls are real, and what's more, they can choose to become one. All they must do is sign a contract with Kyubey and agree to take on the duty to fight abstract beings called 'witches' that spread despair to the human world, and in return, each one of them will be granted any single wish they desire. However, as Homura's omen suggests, there might be far more to becoming a magical girl than Madoka and Sayaka realize.

Dr. Horrible, an aspiring supervillain with his own video blog, is attempting to join the prestigious Evil League of Evil (led by the legendary "thoroughbred of sin", Bad Horse), but his plans are usually foiled by the egotistical superhero Captain Hammer. Horrible's life is thrown for a loop when he falls in love with Penny, a beautiful and optimistic advocate for the homeless he meets at the laundromat, a situation which complicates itself even further when Penny begins dating the boorish, oafish Hammer after he apparently saves her life. Faced with the task of impressing the League, can Horrible overcome his own incompetence to ruin the day, kill the hero, and still get the girl?

When the Angels start attacking the planet Earth in the year 2015, only a handful of 14-year-old EVA pilots are able to stop them. Young Shinji Ikari suddenly finds himself forced to pilot EVA-01, a giant organic mecha, designed and constructed by NERV, that is the only thing that can stop the Angels.

In their closed-off underground village, Kamina and Simon chafe at the limits imposed by the village elder. Yet all this will change, when Simon stumbles across a fantastic device - just as the village's peace is broken by a violent intrusion.

Philip J. Fry is a twenty-five-year-old pizza delivery boy whose life is going nowhere. When he accidentally freezes himself on December 31, 1999, he wakes up one thousand years in the future, and has a chance to make a fresh start. He goes to work for the Planet Express Corporation, a futuristic delivery service that transports packages to all five quadrants of the universe. His companions include the delivery ship's Captain, Leela, a beautiful one-eyed female alien who kicks some serious butt, and Bender, a robot with very human flaws.

American animated sitcom for the Fox Broadcasting Company and Comedy Central

At an international spy agency, global crises are merely opportunities for its highly-trained employees to confuse, undermine, betray, and royally screw one another. At the center of it all is suave master spy Sterling Archer, whose less-than-masculine code name is "Duchess." Archer works with his domineering mother Malory, who also is his boss. He must also deal with his ex-girlfriend, Agent Lana Kane, and her new boyfriend, comptroller Cyril Figgis, as well as Malory's lovesick secretary Cheryl.

The Doctor, a Time Lord from the race whose home planet is Gallifrey, travels through time and space in their ship the TARDIS (an acronym for Time and Relative Dimension In Space) with numerous companions. From time to time, the Doctor regenerates into a new form.

A shadowy organization uses mind-wiped humans known technically as "actives" and colloquially as "dolls" who are imprinted with false memories and specialized skills for various tasks on behalf of paying clients. When they are not on assignments, they live in an underground "Dollhouse", a facility that protects and provides for their needs, including food, exercise and sleeping pods little bigger than coffins. One of the dolls, a young woman called Echo by her handlers, is slowly becoming aware of herself and what is going on. Meanwhile, at least two different people on the outside are trying to bring down the Dollhouse, one by finding Echo and the other by using her.

Captain Malcolm 'Mal' Reynolds is a former galactic war veteran who is the captain of the transport ship "Serenity". Mal and his crew, ensign Zoe Alleyne Washburne; Zoe's husband, pilot Hoban 'Wash' Washburne; muscular mercenary Jayne Cobb; young mechanic Kaylee Frye; former Alliance medical officer Simon Tam; his disturbed teenage sister River (both on the run from the interplanetary government "The Alliance"); the beautiful courtesan Inara Serra; and preacher Shepherd Book do any jobs, legal or illegal, they can find as the Serenity crew travels across the outskirts of outer space.

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