Schuh-Shopping

Kurzbeschreibung

"Black ash stirred and sifted off the body still, rising to float on the water's surface. Franklin had never seen anything like this. Never. The timer sitting on the side of the tub went off and Franklin dutifully released the water, watching while additional black ash drifted down the drain. More water ran in the tub and the wait began again."--Blood Sense

"Saxom may be dead, but his children are alive and well."--Blood Passage

Saxom is dead. The vampires know this. Anthony Hancock, Director of the Joint NSA/Homeland Security Department knows it as well. Tony and the vampires are now on the hunt for Saxom's brood, all of whom are determined to avenge their sire's death. Neither Tony nor the vampires are aware of the other's efforts to search out these rogues, who may number in the hundreds at the very least. Tony holds information the vampires don't--he knows that Xenides, Saxom's eldest vampire child, has allied with terrorists (both foreign and domestic). Tony also neglects to provide vital infromation to Wlodek when he requests Lissa's help.

While struggling to recover from a near-fatal bout with the sun, Lissa fails to understand why Wlodek willingly sends her away on assignment so quickly. With very little information provided to her, Lissa is forced to face an enemy more deadly than anyone can imagine and unravel a plot that could kill millions.

Kurzbeschreibung

"Black ash stirred and sifted off the body still, rising to float on the water's surface. Franklin had never seen anything like this. Never. The timer sitting on the side of the tub went off and Franklin dutifully released the water, watching while additional black ash drifted down the drain. More water ran in the tub and the wait began again."--Blood Sense

"Saxom may be dead, but his children are alive and well."--Blood Passage

Saxom is dead. The vampires know this. Anthony Hancock, Director of the Joint NSA/Homeland Security Department knows it as well. Tony and the vampires are now on the hunt for Saxom's brood, all of whom are determined to avenge their sire's death. Neither Tony nor the vampires are aware of the other's efforts to search out these rogues, who may number in the hundreds at the very least. Tony holds information the vampires don't--he knows that Xenides, Saxom's eldest vampire child, has allied with terrorists (both foreign and domestic). Tony also neglects to provide vital infromation to Wlodek when he requests Lissa's help.

While struggling to recover from a near-fatal bout with the sun, Lissa fails to understand why Wlodek willingly sends her away on assignment so quickly. With very little information provided to her, Lissa is forced to face an enemy more deadly than anyone can imagine and unravel a plot that could kill millions.

Amazon.com

That Alice. When she's not traipsing after a rabbit into Wonderland, she's gallivanting off into the topsy-turvy world behind the drawing-room looking glass. In Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll's masterful and zany sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, she makes more eccentric acquaintances, including Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the White Queen, and a somewhat grumpy Humpty Dumpty. Through a giant and elaborate chess game, Alice explores this odd country, where one must eat dry biscuits to quench thirst, and run like the wind to stay in one place. As in life, Alice must stay on her toes to learn the rules of this game. Through the Looking Glass immediately took its rightful place beside its partner on the shelf of eternal classics. And luckily for generations of enraptured children, Carroll was again able to persuade John Tenniel to create the fantastic woodblock engravings that have become so indelibly associated with the Alice stories. For almost 130 years, Alice's curious adventures have amused, perplexed, and delighted readers, young and old. This gorgeous, deluxe boxed set of both volumes contains engravings from Tenniel's original woodblocks that were discovered in a London bank in 1985, and reproduced for the first time here. "'What is the use of a book,' thought Alice, 'without pictures?'" What indeed? (All ages)

Kurzbeschreibung

Kurzbeschreibung

Crete: A place of magic, of mystery, where violence and sacrifice meet courage and hope.

Aridela: Wrapped in legend, beloved of the people. An extraordinary woman who dances with bulls.

The north wind brings a swift ship and two brothers who plot Crete?s overthrow. Desire for this woman will propel their long rivalry into hatred so murderous it hurtles all three into an unimaginable future, and sparks the immortal rage of the Erinyes.

A woman of keen instinct and unshakeable loyalty. A proud warrior prince and his wounded half-brother. Glory, passion, treachery and conspiracy on the grandest scale.

What seems the end is only the beginning.

Kurzbeschreibung

Crete: A place of magic, of mystery, where violence and sacrifice meet courage and hope.

Aridela: Wrapped in legend, beloved of the people. An extraordinary woman who dances with bulls.

The north wind brings a swift ship and two brothers who plot Crete?s overthrow. Desire for this woman will propel their long rivalry into hatred so murderous it hurtles all three into an unimaginable future, and sparks the immortal rage of the Erinyes.

A woman of keen instinct and unshakeable loyalty. A proud warrior prince and his wounded half-brother. Glory, passion, treachery and conspiracy on the grandest scale.

What seems the end is only the beginning.

Produktbeschreibung

Aus der Amazon.de-Redaktion

Selten ist ein Roman mit so viel Vorschusslorbeeren an den Start gegangen: American Gods wird als Meisterwerk eines neuen Stephen King gefeiert, als Schaffenszenit eines Autors, der mit seiner Sandman-Comicserie ein ganzes Genre neu definiert hat. Dabei hat sich Neil Gaiman mit seinen beiden ersten Romanen nicht eben mit Ruhm bekleckert. Niemalsland ist eine nur mäßig inspirierte Umsetzung einer BBC-Fernsehserie und Sternwanderer eine fantasievolle Hommage an Hope Mirrlees' Klassiker Flucht ins Feenland.

American Gods spielt da schon in einer anderen Liga. Hauptfigur ist Shadow, eine eher zwiespältige Gestalt, die nach einer dreijährigen Gefängnisstrafe in die Freiheit entlassen wird, nur um sich mit dem Tod seiner Frau und seines besten Freundes konfrontiert zu sehen, die ein Verhältnis miteinander hatten. Notgedrungen nimmt er einen Job bei einem merkwürdigen alten Mann an, der sich "Wednesday" nennt. Wednesday entpuppt sich als Inkarnation des nordischen Gottes Odin und ist nur einer von zahlreichen übermächtigen Wesen, denen Shadow auf seiner Reise durch das Herz von Amerika begegnet.

Im Laufe des Romans stellt sich heraus, dass der nordamerikanische Kontinent nicht nur die Heimat von Menschen aus der ganzen Welt geworden ist, sondern auch von Güttern aus den unterschiedlichsten Mythologien und Religionen. Wie schon bei Sandman zaubert Neil Gaiman mit großer Virtuosität Figuren und Geschichten aus allen Kontinenten aufs Tableau und lässt seine Leser eine ihnen bekannte Welt mit völlig neuen Augen sehen.

American Godsüberzeugt von der ersten bis zur letzten Seite -- liebevoll gezeichnete Protagonisten, eine spannende und vielschichtige Handlung, unaufdringliche Kritik am Selbstbild der USA und ihrer Bewohner. Allerdings ist der Roman auch eindeutig das Werk eines Briten, der einen Blick auf die ehemalige Kolonie wirft, die sich längst zur Weltmacht aufgeschwungen hat. Entsprechend sind die Vergleiche mit Stephen King und anderen US-Bestsellerautoren zwar schmeichelhaft, aber unangemessen.

An der deutschen Ausgabe wiederum stört nicht nur die reißerische Aufmachung, sondern vor allem die Entscheidung von Verlag und Übersetzer, Titel und Namen im Original stehen zu lassen, eine Unsitte, die aus Filmsynchronisierungen nur allzu bekannt ist. Nichtsdestotrotz: American Gods erfüllt die hohen Erwartungen und dürfte bald zu jener kleinen Zahl fantastischer Romane gehören, die als Messlatte für das ganze Genre gelten. --Felix Darwin

Amazon.co.uk

Within just a few pages of Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods, he commandingly reveals that he is at his considerable best with this disturbing and dark journey into the hidden soul of America. Gaiman, one of the most talented and imaginative writers at work today, achieved nigh-legendary status with his comic Sandman, which took the genre to heights that even the equally talented Alan Moore had not attained; Gaiman's subsequent career as a novelist has displayed the same glittering inventiveness and exquisite use of language.

Gaiman's protagonist Shadow has patiently done his time in prison. But as the moment of his release approaches, he begins to sense that some unnamed disaster is lying in wait for him. As he makes his way home, he encounters the mysterious Mr Wednesday, who appears to be both a refugee from a distant country at war and the King of America. And perhaps even a god. As Shadow and Mr Wednesday begin a bizarre odyssey across the United States, solving murders is only one of their accomplishments. With an epic storm of supernatural origin brewing, one questions whether they will be destroyed before Shadow pays the price for grim mistakes in his past.

The use of language here is impeccable, and it is wedded to a surreal narrative that brings out the most quirky and unsettling aspects of Gaiman's imagination. Forget Gaiman the Guru: just enjoy Gaiman the consummate writer:

He opened his mouth to catch the rain as it fell, moistening his cracked lips and his dry tongue, wetting the ropes that bound him to the trunk of the tree. There was a flash of lightning so bright it fell like a blow to his eyes, transforming the world into an intense panorama of image and after-image. The wind tugged at Shadow, trying to pull him from the tree, flaying him, cutting to the bone. Shadow knew in his soul that the real storm had truly begun...

--Barry Forshaw

Amazon.com's Best of 2001

American Gods is Neil Gaiman's best and most ambitious novel yet, a scary, strange, and hallucinogenic road-trip story wrapped around a deep examination of the American spirit. Gaiman tackles everything from the onslaught of the information age to the meaning of death, but he doesn't sacrifice the razor-sharp plotting and narrative style he's been delivering since his Sandman days.

Shadow gets out of prison early when his wife is killed in a car crash. At a loss, he takes up with a mysterious character called Wednesday, who is much more than he appears. In fact, Wednesday is an old god, once known as Odin the All-father, who is roaming America rounding up his forgotten fellows in preparation for an epic battle against the upstart deities of the Internet, credit cards, television, and all that is wired. Shadow agrees to help Wednesday, and they whirl through a psycho-spiritual storm that becomes all too real in its manifestations. For instance, Shadow's dead wife Laura keeps showing up, and not just as a ghost--the difficulty of their continuing relationship is by turns grim and darkly funny, just like the rest of the book.

Armed only with some coin tricks and a sense of purpose, Shadow travels through, around, and underneath the visible surface of things, digging up all the powerful myths Americans brought with them in their journeys to this land as well as the ones that were already here. Shadow's road story is the heart of the novel, and it's here that Gaiman offers up the details that make this such a cinematic book--the distinctly American foods and diversions, the bizarre roadside attractions, the decrepit gods reduced to shell games and prostitution. "This is a bad land for Gods," says Shadow.

More than a tourist in America, but not a native, Neil Gaiman offers an outside-in and inside-out perspective on the soul and spirituality of the country--our obsessions with money and power, our jumbled religious heritage and its societal outcomes, and the millennial decisions we face about what's real and what's not. --Therese Littleton

Kurzbeschreibung

"Magic requires sacrifice."

Alexandria, Egypt, 2008. The Sentinel assault on the vampire citadel was broken by a spell that consumed the caster and destroyed everything around him. Only two of the vampire hunters walked away: Antonio Martinez, last of the Winds, and Edgar Jameson, his trusted lieutenant.

Circumstances drew them together again, eventually. Will the Sentinel curse bring them down just as it has all who came before them, or can the choices they make trump destiny?

This novella comes after Sunrise (Book 2) in story continuity.

Arshad Ahsanuddin is a hematopathologist. The irony of a physician who specializes in blood disease writing a series of vampire novels is not lost upon him.

For more details about Arshad, check out the author's website at pactarcanum.com.

Search on "Pact Arcanum" to find all the books in the series.

Kurzbeschreibung

"Magic requires sacrifice."

Alexandria, Egypt, 2008. The Sentinel assault on the vampire citadel was broken by a spell that consumed the caster and destroyed everything around him. Only two of the vampire hunters walked away: Antonio Martinez, last of the Winds, and Edgar Jameson, his trusted lieutenant.

Circumstances drew them together again, eventually. Will the Sentinel curse bring them down just as it has all who came before them, or can the choices they make trump destiny?

This novella comes after Sunrise (Book 2) in story continuity.

Arshad Ahsanuddin is a hematopathologist. The irony of a physician who specializes in blood disease writing a series of vampire novels is not lost upon him.

For more details about Arshad, check out the author's website at pactarcanum.com.

Search on "Pact Arcanum" to find all the books in the series.

Produktbeschreibung

Erscheinungsjahr: 2012
Abmessung: 20 cm
Von Canavan, Trudi

Lorkin lebt unter den Rebellen von Sachaka, doch sein Ziel, von ihnen zu lernen, wird vereitelt durch ihren Unwillen, ihr Wissen der Heilkünste zu teilen. Und ihm scheint, als verfolgten sie mit ihrer Magie noch ganz andere Ziele. In Sachaka erscheint ein neuer Botschafter, ein Mann, den Dannyl nur zu gut kennt. Währenddessen werden in der Universität zwei Novizinnen zur Gefahr für die Gilde