The Shadowed Sun

In the ancient city-state of Gujaareh, peace is the only law. Upon its rooftops and amongst the shadows of its cobbled streets wait the Gatherers - the keepers of this peace. Priests of the dream-goddess, their duty is to harvest the magic of the sleeping mind and use it to heal, soothe . . . and kill those judged corrupt.But when a conspiracy blooms within Gujaareh's great temple, Ehiru - the most famous of the city's Gatherers - must question everything he knows. Someone, or something, is murdering innocent dreamers in the goddess' name, stalking its prey both in Gujaareh's alleys and the realm of dreams. Ehiru must now protect the woman he was sent to kill - or watch the city be devoured by war and forbidden magic.

On May 13 1992, the Bosnian civil war finally came to Prijedo, a once-peaceful city where Muslims, Croats and Serbs had lived side by side for centuries. The Serb occupation of Prijedor was an exercise in what the victors called 'ethnic cleansing' whereby the town's Muslim and Croat citizens were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. Among those who lived though the nightmare was the journalist Rewak Hukanovic, whose riveting memoir chronicles the crimes against humanity that were committed by the Bosnian Serbs in the death camps of Omarska and Manjaca. Through the summer and fall of that endless year, Hukanovic and his friends, colleagues, relatives and neighbours were subjected to terror , torture, and grisly death. Through his unbelieving eyes we see the patina of civilization stripped away from aggressor and victim alike, revealing a brutality that calls into question all our notions of human decency.

Fallion and Jaz, sons of the Earth King Garborn, have returned from their long exile. Yet they have arrived under cover of darkess, fugitives in their own kingdom. There seems little left to save, but Fallion's heritage has given him a powerful calling to heal not just this land, but all lands - if he can master the flameweaver's talent that threatens to consume him. But he has an ancient enemy, skilled in the ways of evil, and she initiated the catastrophe that doomed the worlds of men. Many ages ago, a perfect world was split into fragments, and each fragment was but a distorted image of this golden age. If Fallion could but unite all these splinters, he could recreate the One True World of Legend, and heal the sickness in the realm. But his adversary wants the One World for her own ends, and an army of darkness is on her side.

King Kieri's realm has been destabilised by political wrangling and his court is blind to the dangers - until an assassination attempt on their king. And when this backfires, Kieri's enemies start planning an invasion using dragonfire, a force unseen for hundreds of years.In King Mikeli's adjoining kingdom, his crown is threatened by a bandit prince. Alured the Black claims his lineage gives him dominion over all the lands. His ambition is boundless, his methods are ruthless and he will not be swayed from his goal, whether or not it undermines a region already on the brink of war. Dark mages also watch for weakness and hunger for their own lost powers. The Kings of the North must plan wisely, as disaster is a sword's breadth away.

Stolen from her people as a child and raised as a citizen of the Tyranian Empire, Ligea Gayed is the obvious choice to despatch to her homeland, occupied Kardiastan, with orders to root out a rebel conspiracy. At first, she devotes herself to her new assignment with zeal. Adopted daughter of the Empire's greatest general, and possessing a fearsome reputation within the ruthless Imperial spy network known as the Brotherhood, Ligea views herself as a loyal servant of Tyrans. But blood will out, and with each day she spends among her parents' people, her disciplined self-image crumbles a little. And there are secrets in Kardiastan, secrets that will inevitably force Ligea to choose between her upbringing and her birthright. Secrets that will shape the destiny of two nations. . .

The Year is 2012 - and Queen Victoria still rules with an immortal fist. She's the undead matriarch of a Britain where the Aristocracy is made up of werewolves and vampires, where goblins live underground and mothers know better than to let their children out after dark. A world where technology lives side by side with magic, where being nobility means being infected with the Plague (side-effects include undeath) and Hysteria is the popular affliction of the day.Xandra Vardan is a member of the elite Royal Guard, and it's her duty to protect the Aristocracy. But things get complicated when her sister goes missing. Xandra will not only realise she's the prize in a dangerous power struggle - but she'll also uncover a conspiracy that threatens to topple the empire itself.

John Bradshaw is one of the bestselling self-help authors of our generation and a dominant figure in the fields of addiction/recovery and family systems. In RECLAIMING VIRTUE, his first new book in more than ten years, Bradshaw takes on a new challenge. He has written a landmark exploration of the life of virtue, how we can develop it in ourselves, and how we can teach it to our children. RECLAIMING VIRTUE redefines what it means to live a moral life in today's world. Coming at a time of heightened debate about public and private morality, a time of greed and lack of caring, he says that the answer is not simply to return to traditional rules-based morality and an idealised past. Instead, he shows that each of us has what he calls an inborn moral intelligence, an inner guidance system, that can lead us - if we know how to cultivate it in ourselves and others. Step by step, Bradshaw shows us how our deepest instincts for goodness can be developed in childhood and nurtured throughout adult life. The result is a compelling vision of good character and moral responsibility for the modern world. Whether the topic is sex, discipline, marriage, the development of conscience or the true aims of education, Bradshaw once again provokes, enlightens and inspires readers everywhere.