Search Results for: dark-mountain

Olura Manoli is a lovely creature, though perhaps a little foolish in her friendship with an African prime minister whom she accompanies to Spain without police protection.

Olura and the politician are followed by an Italian paparazzo hoping to catch glimpses of their indiscretion. But when he turns up dead in the couple’s bathroom, it seems there is no one Olura can turn to for help but Philip Ardower, an English don and authority on the Basque language.

His help is certainly needed in the dangerous day to follow, when violent death and police suspicion dog the lovers along the rugged mountains and dark mine shafts of the fierce Biscay coast.

WINNER OF TWO WORLD FANTASY AWARDS

A magical apple tree in the mountains. A hopeless king with no people to rule. A woman who loves a god. An unsettling princess.

This collection of wonderous fairy tales from award-winning author Gwyneth Jones takes traditional tropes and spins them in the way only she can. Darkness hides in the mundane as much as the magical, and the morals may not be what you’re expecting. Enchanting and chilling in alternate turns, each story will weave a spell and draw you in deep . . .

You can find more information on the writing Gwyneth did as Ann Halam on her website:http://www.gwynethjones.uk/HALAM.htm

The ruins of the Well-Built City and the village of Wenau are not all the world has to offer-there is also the Beyond, a dark land between life and death, populated by flying demons, restless ghosts, invisible terrors, and ravenous trees. Cast out by the people of Wenau after finding a cure for their sickness, former physiognomist Cley sets out to brave the dark mountains and seas of the Beyond in order to find the woman he doomed on his quest to destroy the Well-Built City. As Cley journeys deeper into the unknown, he is accompanied by an invisible companion-the demon Misrix, who is searching for his own humanity.

Centuries after Connavar’s triumphant battles against the invading army of Stone gained the Rigante their freedom, the clan finds itself oppressed once again. Magic that once flourished has been all but snuffed out. The Varlish king and his barons have stolen Rigante lands and robbed the people of their culture and liberty. From the Rigante’s former seat of power the black-hearted Moidart rules; only in the north are the clansmen free. There, in the Druagh mountains, the magic still reigns, strengthened by bold, brilliant victories of the outlaw leader known as Ravenheart. In the south, civil war has drenched the land in blood, and the armies of destruction are slowly creeping north where Ravenheart waits, believing the armies of hated Moidart will come, led by the brutal ruler’s only son, Stormrider.

Ravenheart and Stormrider: enemies of uncommon courage, are unaware that the fate of their world lies in their hands. Both are destined to be heroes, but one of them is doomed. For a secret lost in the uncharted past has returned to haunt these two warriors as they face, not only the malice of powerful men, but the vengeance of an ancient evil, rising from the bloodshed to slake its thirst. As immense armies of darkness advance, it seems as if nothing will stop them. They crush their enemies with ease, until only a few thousand highlanders stand before them, with no help in sight.

But these are not ordinary men. They are clansmen, and more than that, they are Rigante.

Read by Adjoa Andoh
(p) 2017 Orion Publishing Group

It advanced not in the manner of a living creature but in the manner of sand. It had no arms and then a hundred, no feet but one as wide as the base of the advancing dune itself.
Everywhere and all of it was dark red, like all the rust that had ever afflicted the metals of the world squeezed into a swiftly shifting pyramid rage.
The dune howled and moaned and bellowed like some sky-scraping banshee unwillingly fastened to the Earth.
And in the midst of all that geologic fury, two thirds up the face of the oncoming mountain were two eyes…

A lost aviatrix, a professor, a gangster, and the golden-haired goddess of the Midianites are brought together in the heart of the Dark Continent to create an explosive situation. Once again, only the incomparable figure of the Lord of the Jungle can surmount the mountains and mysteries that stood between these four and disaster.

George was a shoemaker – but not just a simple artisan. He thought a lot, worried too much and questioned everything. But he knew when to keep his mouth shut, and he knew his duty. Life in the Roman Empire was hard these days, and no one could say it might not get harder. Cities to the north of Thessalonica on the Greek peninsula had already fallen to the swarming Slavs and Alars.

The tribes were definitely on the move, bringing their powerful pagan demons with them: bats with gleaming red eyes spied out the city, diving on the militia men as they patrolled the city walls; giant wolves whose howls chilled the soul surrounded the city; and there were rumours of worse. Even the satyrs, centaurs, nymphs and other remnants of the Greek pantheon lurking in the mountains around Thessalonica were frightened. George’s city was a Christian light in a sea of pagan darkness. And now that sea was rising, threatening to wash over him and his little island as if they did not exist and were of no account.

For George, that was just unacceptable. He was a simple artisan – but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t give everything to defend his family, his city and his faith.

After withstanding the power of the Black Jewel and saving the city of Hamadan from the conquest of the Dark Empire of Granbretan, Hawkmoon set off for the Kamarg, where friendship and love await him.

But the journey is beyond treacherous. With his boon companion, Oladahn, the beastman of the Bulgar Mountains, Hawkmoon discovers the peaceful city of Soryandum, which holds the power to transcend the confines of time and space.

This power, which keeps the city from falling to the Dark Empire, could keep the Kamarg safe. But alas his love Yisselda is now a prisoner of the Mad God, whose powerful amulet is linked to Hawkmoon’s ultimate destiny: a power that began at creation and calls heroes to arms throughout existence. Hawkmoon must rip this amulet from the neck of the Mad God if he hopes to save the Kamarg and free his friends and his one true love from the Dark Empire’s relentless wrath.

In the dim far future of Earth, when the sun had shrunk to a small red disk in the dark sky and the race of man lived in isolated cities that echoed with the vastness of the world’s history, science, myth and magic had become one. Sorcerors who read the books of ancient times held great power, and fearsome monsters created in ages long forgotten stalked the land. In this world of mystery and danger, the adventurer known as Cugel the Clever was forced to undertake a quest for Iucounu the Laughing Magician – a quest that was to take him to lands stranger than any he had dreamed of, and pit his wits and his sword against powers from beyond time itself.

Previously published as The Eyes of the Overworld, this is the second of a quartet of titles sharing the same far-future setting first introduced in The Dying Earth

Contents: The Overworld, Cil, The Mountains of Magnatz, The Sorcerer Pharesm, The Pilgrims, The Cave in the Forest, The Manse of Iucounu.

All Jack Vance titles in the SFGateway use the author’s preferred texts, as restored for the Vance Integral Edition (VIE), an extensive project masterminded by an international online community of Vance’s admirers. In general, we also use the VIE titles, and have adopted the arrangement of short story collections to eliminate overlaps.