Mythic Worlds

In 1927, as a twenty-three-year-old postgraduate scholar in Paris, Joseph Campbell first encountered James Joyce’s Ulysses. Known for being praised and for kicking up controversy (including an obscenity trial in the United States in 1920), the novel left Campbell both intrigued and confused, as it had many others. Because he was in Paris, he was able to visit the Shakespeare & Company bookstore - the outpost of the original publisher of Ulysses, Sylvia Beach. She gave him “clues” for reading Ulysses, and that, Campbell attested, changed his career.

The day millions of people mysteriously vanished from planet earth, the world was forever changed. Oddly enough, most of us that remained thought it was a change for the better. But that was wrong… way wrong. World leaders hailed this new era as a return to the golden age. Life was supposed to be better than it had ever been. But we were just in the calm before the storm. The four horsemen of the apocalypse were waiting in the wings, and the world was rushing head long into a period of death and destruction like we had never imagined. Somehow I made it through alive… that’s ...

This work presents twelve eclectic, far-ranging, and brilliant essays exploring myth in all its dimensions: its history; its influence on art, literature, and culture; and its role in everyday life. This second volume of Campbell’s essays (following The Flight of the Wild Gander) brings together his uncollected writings from 1959 to 1987. Written at the height of Campbell’s career - and showcasing the lively intelligence that made him the twentieth century’s premier writer on mythology - these essays investigate links between myth, the individual, and societies ancient and contemporary.

Mating to my date’s invisible sister? my wolf must be crazy...I lived a perfect life with enormous power and fortune. Until I turned twenty-one when I found my fated mate. In my date's pack... Fated mating to an unshifted?! That must be kidding. I rejected her immediately, ignoring my wolf’s crazy moaning to possess her. But when my selected wife proposed to kill our mates, I began to hesitate. And finding out that she was the same age as my missing Beta's daughter, I realized it was a huge mistake...She's mine...But maybe it's too late...

Previously published as Destiny Repeating Strange spheres appear in the sky all around the world. No one can explain what they are or where they're from. When people begin suffering from a mysterious illness panic ensues, and soon only a tiny faction of the earth's population remains. With nowhere to call home and no answers to be found, Daniel Brickman takes up residence in the White House and begins trying to rebuild society, but the spheres were only the beginning. "Daniel retreated upstairs to the President's private living room in the White House. The ornate furniture which seemed so ...

Few books on software project management have been as influential and timeless as The Mythical Man-Month. With a blend of software engineering facts and thought-provoking opinions, Fred Brooks offers insight for anyone managing complex projects. These essays draw from his experience as project manager for the IBM System/360 computer family and then for OS/360, its massive software system.

We’ve lived through the worst events in human history. The world is forever, irrevocably changed, and yet I know a secret you may not want to hear… things are only going to get worse. The global government claims to have everything under control. The wars are dying down, and the death flu has burned itself out. But in North America, the tiny population of survivors are desperately struggling to survive each and every day. So priority one is to find shelter, and priority two is to get the word out. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have run wild over the world, but there are ...

“Melvin’s tale painstakingly builds its magical world, where fantastic creatures abound.” —Kirkus Reviews Enter a world where death is not final—it's a magical fuel. In the mystical realm of Triken, enemies are relentless, the struggle is brutal, and one man dares to break the laws of life itself. Torg, a Death Wizard, draws strength from his own demise, rising again and again to defend a world on the brink of ruin. Yet his greatest trial is yet to come—not only against armies and dark sorcery, but against a monster intent on devouring everything Torg loves. As war ignites and ...

Travis Hurts is a hunter of men Collecting rewards for the most wanted men in the galaxy But what happens when the hunter becomes the hunted? P2 was once a thriving world, home to trillions. Then the Hash Gore attacked. They leveled entire cities. The Human Coalition forces nuked everything. A hundred years later, people are returning. There’s no government, no rules, no place that’s safe. But there are fortunes to be found in the rubble of the cities, and the nuclear impact sites created a rare element called Dusticia Seven that is fast becoming the most valuable substance ...

When war becomes a fight for survival… Loyalties are tested… Plans are forgotten… And Anything goes… Sergeant Pace Nix is a Commando in the canine division. Together with his war dog Riot, they carry out deadly missions behind enemy lines on a variety of worlds. While everyone else is signing up for new cybernetic combat enhancements, Pace decides to get out of the service while he and Riot are still whole. But a man with skills is valuable, and Pace is lured into re-enlisting by an easy assignment in the Protective Services devision...

Before he was the engaging professor who brought mythology into people’s living rooms through his conversations with Bill Moyers, before he became known as the thinker whose ideas influenced Star Wars, and before his now-beloved phrase “follow your bliss” entered the popular lexicon, Joseph Campbell was a young man who tried his hand at writing fiction. After years of Depression-era unemployment, when he lived off money he had earned playing saxophone and read the world’s great literature in a syllabus of his own design, Campbell published his first short story.

This is the tale of the coming of the Irish to Ireland, and of the men and women who made that emerald isle their own.

This is a collection of erotica and contains graphic descriptions of sex acts and other explicit adult content. This book is not suitable for individuals under 18 years of age. Adventurous souls face the peril of the unknown and are richly rewarded in these seven erotic short stories by Alison Osias. It’s a monster mash with just a dash of danger to make it all the more exciting. Have a taste of the strange with the legendary lady you like, be she a mermaid, dragoness, vampire, siren, slime girl, or enormous sea nymph! The Garden of Hera: A Satyr Erotica Human encounters with the fae go ...

“…a fantasy world that draws readers in and keeps them turning the pages.” — Reader Review The entire collected Channeler Trilogy—Moon & Shadow, Sun & Dream, and Death & Dragon—in one sweeping volume. A moon misplaced. A girl who dreams too well. A world beginning to bend. Sebastian never asked to be a hero. But when nightmare creatures rise from the shadows, he finds himself gathering strange objects—gifts tied to a quiet girl named Anise, whose dreams stir ancient forces. As years pass and old stories deepen, Anise steps from the edges of his tale into the heart of her own. ...

One year after the Heroes of the Realm defeated the Last Demon, the world should have known peace. But peace is a fragile thing. Erik Voller never wanted to be a hero. Power was all he sought, strength beyond any mortal—enough to carve his own path, free from kings and Gods alike. Yet when a hunt for forbidden strength leads him to the heart of something far greater, he finds himself standing at the edge of another war.

In the depths of a cosmic void, an ancient creator stands before a blank canvas, haunted by worlds that destroyed themselves—again and again. Around him writhe seven shadow-eels, living manifestations of his past failures: doubt, destruction, entropy itself. As he attempts to paint existence anew—separating light from darkness, waters from sky, breathing life into clay—his shadows corrupt and destroy. But where he once would have abandoned everything, this time he fights back—transforming his failures into the foundation of creation itself. Can a broken god learn to create alongside...

Welcome to a world unravelling at the seams... In the dying echoes of Earth’s final age, four beings rise from the shadows: Tar-Klis the tyrant, Grimhildr the vampire-witch, Sugwin the mischievous imp, and the mysterious L’amie. Together, they guard the last remnants of magic—and a terrifying secret. Into this crumbling world steps Decede, an unlikely dreamer with a connection to forces even the gods have forgotten. As chaos spreads and nightmares awaken, Decede must choose between surrendering to darkness or reshaping the fate of all realms. For fans of atmospheric worldbuilding, ...

Religion begins not with answers, but with questions—questions whispered into the dark, carved into bone, sung into flame. What happens when we die? Who made the thunder? Why do we suffer, love, dream? These questions are older than writing, older than cities. They are the pulse beneath myth, ritual, and prayer. They are the sacred thread. This book follows that thread—from the earliest traces of belief among archaic humans to the complex spiritual landscapes of our present day. It is not a catalogue of doctrines, nor a chronology of institutions. It is a mythic history: a tapestry ...

For Malcom McKnight, her life has been entrenched in a protective web of secrets and lies, but when she discovers soul-shattering truths about her family, she finds herself thrust into an entirely different world, and falling headfirst into the comforting arms of a stranger. But she has no time to rest. A nightmarish creature of unbridled rage threatens her new life—the result of a secret that has plagued her family for centuries.

Imagine a Rome that never fell. Yet beneath the marble and splendor, corruption festers—threatening to destroy the very ideal of virtue and order that once defined the Empire. Sextus Cornelius Marianus stands at the crossroads of destiny and duty. Haunted by the decay of the world he serves, he is drawn toward an escape—into a vast simulation where a mythic Rome endures in eternal perfection, an Elysium untouched by time. But even paradise has its price. And as the line between the real and the ideal begins to blur, Marianus must choose which Rome he will save… and which he will let ...