By Gary Jennings
From Publishers Weekly
In the hole pages of Jennings's ( Aztec ) significant, audacious old novel concerning the Gothic conquest of the Roman Empire, Thorn, the hermaphrodite hero/heroine, is seduced first by means of a monk after which through a nun. Evicted from a monastery and a convent, Thorn is then schooled within the methods of the area through the grumpy, blasphemous woodsman Wyrd. Rugged but delicate, frequently dressed as a guy, Thorn is to elim fragment raptorial (i.e., predatory) in his thirst for enthusiasts, female and male, and for event. He serves as box marshal, sidekick and secret agent for bloody Theodoric (A.D. 454-526), king of the Ostrogoths, depicted the following as a benevolent despot. For all its sexual titillation and gory battles, this majestically paced epic with its unconventional hero regularly rewards because it leads readers via unique byways of the fragmented Roman Empire, delving into pagan customs, Christian mysteries, corruption, slavery and the tolerant Arianism embraced by way of the Goths yet condemned through the Catholic Church as a heresy. during the androgynous Thorn, attuned to the warfare betwen the masculine and female aspects of his nature, Jennings subtly explores the gender-based roles imposed by way of society. Spiced with medieval taste, the radical will captivate readers prepared to devote themselves to an extended, targeted, occasionally ploddingly written yet eventually intoxicating narrative.
Read Online or Download Raptor PDF
Best historical fiction books
The yr is 1929. big apple is governed by way of the intense younger issues: flappers and socialites looking thrills and chasing desires within the anything-goes period of the Roaring Twenties.
Letty Larkspur and Cordelia gray escaped their small Midwestern city for brand spanking new York's glittering city. All Letty desires is to determine her identify in lighting, yet she quick discovers ny is stuffed with beautiful ladies who will do whatever to be a celeb. . . .
Cordelia is looking for the daddy she's by no means identified, a guy as notorious for his wild events as he's for his shadowy schemes. in a single day, she enters an international extra exciting and glamorous than she ever may have imagined—and extra risky. It's a existence somebody might kill for . . . and a person will.
The in basic terms individual Cordelia can belief is Astrid Donal, a flapper who turns out to have all of it: funds, appears to be like, and the affection of Cordelia's brother, Charlie. yet Astrid's excellent veneer hides a ranking of relations secrets.
Across the immense lawns of ny, within the illicit speakeasies of long island, and at the blindingly lit phases of Broadway, the 3 girls' fortunes will upward thrust and fall—together and aside. From the hot York instances bestselling writer of The Luxe comes an epic new sequence set within the dizzying final summer time of the Jazz Age.
The Secret History: A Novel of Empress Theodora
The place Theodora went, difficulty undefined. ..
In sixth-century Constantinople, one girl, Theodora, defied each conference and the entire odds and rose from universal theater tart to empress of a superb state, the main robust lady the Roman Empire may ever be aware of. the girl whose photograph used to be later immortalized in glittering mosaic was once a scrappy, smart, conniving, flesh-and-blood lady choked with sensuality and spirit whose genuine tale is as superb as any ever informed. ..
After her father dies all at once, Theodora and her sisters face hunger and a existence at the streets. decided to outlive, Theodora makes a dwelling any approach she can—first on her again with each guy who may have her, then at the level in a scandalous dramatization of her personal invention. while her bold functionality promises her a backdoor access into the halls of energy, she seizes the opportunity to win a prosperous protector—only to stand heartbreak and betrayal.
Ever resilient, Theodora rises above such trials and, via a coincidence, meets her so much passionate admirer but: the emperor's nephew. She flourishes as his confidant and courtesan, yet many demanding situations lie forward. For sooner or later this guy will hand her a crown. And the entire empire will wonder—is she daring adequate, sensible adequate, and robust adequate to maintain it?
The Winds of Dalmatia is Tanja Tuma’s impressive, epic, exciting, and well-crafted novel devoted to these who’ve the headlines from the Bosnian warfare but would possibly not totally understand the poor person affliction that transpired within the lives of its victims.
It’s the 1st publication of Tuma’s Balkan trilogy. fanatics should still notice that the second one e-book will go back and forth north to Istria and Slovenia, and within the 3rd, east to Serbia, Kosovo, and Macedonia.
The plot of Winds of Dalmatia is sweeping, grand, romantic, and lovely.
Maria Perić has undergone her own hell in the course of the Balkan warfare and survived. Now in her sixties, she leads a comfy existence dealing with a lodge on a quiet island, and elevating her cherished Paula. Her prior is as shady because the resource of her wealth. whilst Paula falls unwell with leukemia, there’s just one option to store her — Maria needs to inform the reality, and Paula needs to face the Serbian battle legal looking ahead to his verdict from the overseas legal Tribunal on the Hague Hilton.
In her spare time, Maria escapes truth by way of gaining knowledge of the heritage of her place of origin Dalmatia. Her old saga starts with a Greek colony within the 6th Century B. C. at the isle of Korčula, through a bankruptcy at the Roman occasions, the period of the Emperor Diocletian, born in Dalmatia.
Her learn strikes to Dubrovnik, because the robust Republic of Ragusa blooms within the Fourteenth Century, tough the Venetians within the Adriatic. The 15th Century witnesses the Ottoman Empire deliver Islam to the hinterland of Dalmatia. Readers will thrill to the intrigues of a harem the place a tender rebellious spouse and a eunuch lengthy for freedom and love.
As global battle I calls for extra squaddies, a mom comes to a decision to dedicate her loved son to the security of the Blaca monastery at the island of Brač, which saves him from front. but the mum nonetheless loses him, and her wrath is bad.
These escapist stories by no means fail to entertain, yet can't distract Maria and Paula from their appointment with future. And as the entire motion wraps up, the most characters survive, prepared for the second one and the 3rd components of Tuma’s Balkan troika.
The ethical dilemmas, in addition to the twists and turns of the unconventional, will retain readers at the fringe of their seats. the fundamental topic Tuma units forth is that of people residing in tough instances of conflicts and wars, and the way they take care of their very own own values, love, and family. Villains may perhaps occasionally do this that is correct, natural, and noble, whereas stable everyone is compelled into committing crimes. Tuma’s characters are deep, attention-grabbing, and intricate. Her ebook is dramatic, beautiful, and packed with characters which are mistaken but consistently choked with surprises. occasionally it’s very unlikely to not hate them, whereas different instances the reader should be pushed to face up and cheer for them.
The Winds of Dalmatia will grip the readers, and take them right into a passionate, first-hand trip of many of the cultures of the previous Yugoslavia. the radical craftily skirts through the troubling warfare violence because it conveys the interior conflicts of assorted characters facing it in several ancient sessions. The clashes of 3 religions and cultures — Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Islam — in addition to global warfare I, global warfare II, and the Nineties conflict within the Balkans, give you the backdrop for romance tales within which general everyone is attempting to come to phrases with the tumult of conflicts and wars round them, eager for freedom, love, and peace.
The Last Necromancer (Ministry of Curiosities, Book 1)
Victorian London: for 5 years, Charlotte (Charlie) Holloway has lived as a boy within the slums. but if one robbery too many will get her arrested, her in basic terms technique of break out lies with a useless guy. Charlie hasn't raised a spirit considering the fact that she first came upon she might accomplish that 5 years in the past. that point, her father banished her.
- Clarissa Oakes (Aubrey/Maturin, Book 15)
- Hullo Russia, Goodbye England (RFC Trilogy, Book 3)
- The Three-Arched Bridge
- The Mulberry Empire
- Seduced by a Pirate
Additional resources for Raptor
Example text
Soon afterward came an episode in Bastogne, showing again what kind of battle this was going to be. They carted off not merely the staff and the supplies, but all the wounded men. IV Monuments resumed work on interrogation; it was the way they could be most useful, setting free the military men for more urgent duties. Lanny’s interest was the keener because his own life was at stake. Many whom he didn’t know would know him, for he had been a conspicuous figure wherever he went in Naziland, the American whom the Führer trusted.
They talked fast, and it was evident that they knew their business down to the last detail; they had spent two years learning it and half a year acting what they had learned. With quiet competence they laid out the procedure. Another commando would be a second or two behind, prepared to help. All that presupposed darkness, of which there was an unlimited quantity outside. ” asked Lanny. ” exclaimed the lieutenant, pleased but uncertain. “Most of the officers will be in the farmhouse, eating supper and resting.
He had destroyed all his papers and could give a false name and might get by with it. But he had traveled all over Germany, ever since boyhood, and had known literally thousands of Germans, especially of the officer class and among the Nazis of the ruling group. Wasn’t it certain that they would apply all the fancy kinds of scientific torture they had devised to make him reveal the names of his accomplices? So why not die quickly and take a few highly trained enemy troops along with him? If only he had had one of those tiny cyanide capsules with which the OSS provided its agents when going into enemy territory!