First Ancient

Searching for his long-lost father, Bransen Garibond is tricked into journeying across the Gulf of Corona to the wild lands of Vanguard, where he is pressed into service in a desperate war against the brutal Samhaist, Ancient Badden. On an Alpinadoran lake, just below Ancient Badden's magical ice castle, several societies, caught in the web of their own conflicts, are oblivious to Ancient Badden's devastating plans to destroy them.

The ancient Mediterranean teemed with gods. For centuries, a practical religious pluralism prevailed. How, then, did one particular god come to dominate the politics and piety of the late Roman Empire? In Ancient Christianities, Paula Fredriksen traces the evolution of early Christianity—or rather, of early Christianities—through five centuries of Empire, mapping its pathways from the hills of Judea to the halls of Rome and Constantinople.

In November 1095, Pope Urban II stood before a crowd in central France and issued a call that would send tens of thousands of people on a journey most would never complete. What followed was not merely a military campaign but a mass movement that reshaped the medieval world, dragging peasants and princes alike across thousands of miles of hostile territory toward a city most had only heard of in scripture. The First Crusade remains one of history's most improbable ventures, a collision of religious fervor, political calculation, and raw human endurance that ended in triumph and atrocity in ...

Captain Elya Nevers and the Furies face a different kind of danger back home as they bid farewell to fallen comrades, wade into the murky realm of Solaran politics, and hunt for knowledge about the Telos relics—while being hunted themselves. Overmind X is still at large. She’s hungry to get her talons on the next artifact of alien power. Will she find it before the Solarans get their own house in order? And what terrifying existential threat to the galaxy does she become if they’re too late?

In the fifth century BC, a global superpower was determined to bring truth and order to what it regarded as two terrorist states. The superpower was Persia, incomparably rich in ambition, gold, and men. The terrorist states were Athens and Sparta, eccentric cities in a poor and mountainous backwater: Greece. The story of how their citizens took on the Great King of Persia, and thereby saved not only themselves, but Western civilization as well, is as heart-stopping and fateful as any episode in history.

There are few things more in common across cultures than the belief in ghosts. Ghosts inhabit something of the very essence of what it is to be human. Whether we personally 'believe' or not, we are all aware of ghosts and the rich mythologies and rituals surrounding them. They have inspired, fascinated and frightened us for centuries - yet most of us are only familiar with the vengeful apparitions of Shakespeare, or the ghastly spectres haunting the pages of 19th-century Gothic literature. But their origins are much, much older.

The Solaran Defense Forces make the difficult decision to evacuate the colony of Robichar in order to avoid a direct confrontation. But when Captain Elya Nevers gets shot down during the evacuation, his squadron and the admiral in charge have to think fast to rescue their pilot before the Kryl overrun the system.

Here, anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom: He shows that before there was money, there was debt. For more than 5,000 years, since the beginnings of the first agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems to buy and sell goods - that is, long before the invention of coins or cash. It is in this era, Graeber argues, that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors.

The oldest stories ever written. The gods who came before all other gods. The myths that built every civilization that followed. Five thousand years ago, in the world's first cities, a civilization pressed its beliefs into clay. Those tablets contained the original versions of the stories the modern world thinks it knows — the Great Flood, the creation of humanity, the descent into the underworld, the hero who could not accept death. The Sumerians told these stories first, told them without apology, and told them with a brutal honesty about the nature of gods and humans that every ...

The Apostolic Fathers in Modern English Experience the earliest Christian writings, clearly translated for today. This edition presents the complete collection traditionally known as the Apostolic Fathers in fresh, readable modern English, paired with concise, thematic essays at the end of the book that frame the world, worship, and witness of the early church. If you’ve tried public-domain or Victorian renderings and bounced off the archaic phrasing, this volume is built to be faithful, direct, and readable, without dumbing anything down. What’s Included (Complete Texts) 1 & 2 Clement ...

“Superb....Augustus is a first-rate popular biography by a skilled and knowing hand.” (Washington Post) Caesar Augustus created the Roman Empire and forever associated the name Caesar with power. Heir to Julius Caesar, he thrust himself into the middle of Roman politics at its most violent...

“Dramatic, adventurous, heroic, romantic. . . these historical chronicles, legends, myths, tall tales and fables, featuring warriors, kings, monks, explorers and clever common folk, imaginatively tell the history of Ireland.” — Philadelphia Inquirer This New York Times bestselling epic is...

Before there were churches. Before there were kings. Before there were names. There were the first gods. Across the British Isles lie ancient places older than memory — stone circles raised to unknown powers, burial mounds sealed with dread, moors that whisper in forgotten tongues, and forests that do not welcome trespassers. The land remembers what humanity has tried to forget. In The First Gods of the Isles, Adrian Cave delivers twenty chilling tales of folk horror and ancient evil rooted deep in Britain’s sacred and cursed ground. Archaeologists unearth what should have remained ...

Known for her “delightful blend of historical fiction and suspense” (People), New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict, returns with a sweeping tale of a young woman who unearths the truth about a forgotten Pharaoh—rewriting both of their legacies forever. "Narrator Bessie Carter...

The Age of Paradise is the first of a projected four-volume history of Christendom, a civilization with a supporting culture that gave rise to what we now call the West. At a time of renewed interest in the future of Western culture, author John Strickland—an Orthodox scholar, professor, and priest—offers a vision rooted in the deep past of the first millennium. At the heart of his story is the early Church’s “culture of paradise”, an experience of the world in which the kingdom of heaven was tangible and familiar.

A new history of Assyria, the ancient civilization that set the model for future empires At its height in 660 BCE, the kingdom of Assyria stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. It was the first empire the world had ever seen. Here, historian Eckart Frahm tells the epic story...

Out past the last mapped jump gate, the universe starts sending distress calls, and someone has to decide which ones to answer. Captain Zara Keene and the crew of the UNSS Nostromo have finally crossed beyond known space, hunting the mysterious “Horizon” signal that once pulled a dying world back from the brink. What they find at the edge of the map is not a simple beacon, but a presence already entangled with far more than their mission orders admit. Under the watchful eye of political liaison Evren Hale, Zara is pushed to turn the Nostromo into the sharp end of someone else’s policy...

From the schism between Rome and Constantinople to the rise of the T'ang Dynasty, from the birth of Muhammad to the crowning of Charlemagne, this erudite book tells the fascinating, often violent story of kings, generals, and the peoples they ruled.

Discover the Fascinating Journey of China from Ancient Dynasties to a Modern Superpower China’s history offers a comprehensive, clear, and compelling look at the key moments that shaped one of the world's oldest and most influential civilizations. Forget the dry history lessons and get ready to connect the dots between the past and the present. For thousands of years, China has navigated periods of immense change, conflict, and reinvention. This book takes you on a journey through every major phase of that history, from its legendary beginnings and foundational dynasties to the wars and ...

In the twilight of the apostolic age, with Jerusalem in ruins and the last of the eyewitnesses passing from the world, a deep and dangerous schism fractures the heart of the Christian faith. The Two Churches (c. 71-96 AD), the thirteenth volume in the sweeping 1st Century House Churches series, plunges readers into the critical decades where two competing models of the church—one visible and powerful, the other hidden and persecuted—vie for the soul of the fledgling movement. In Rome, the trauma of Nero’s persecution has forged two divergent paths. The influential Clement, a man who ...