Painstakingly restored from Tolkien's manuscripts and presented for the first time as a fully continuous and standalone story, the epic tale of The Children of Húrin will reunite fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with Elves and Men, dragons and Dwarves, eagles and Orcs, and the rich landscape and characters unique to Tolkien. There are tales of Middle-earth from times long before The Lord of the Rings, and the story told in this book is set in the great country that lay beyond the Grey Havens in the West: lands where Treebeard once walked, but which were drowned in the great cataclysm that ended the First Age of the World. In that remote time Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in the vast fortress of Angband, the Hells of Iron, in the North; and the tragedy of Túrin and his sister Nienor unfolded within the shadow of the fear of Angband and the war waged by Morgoth against the lands and secret cities of the Elves. Their brief and passionate lives were dominated by the elemental hatred that Morgoth bore them as the children of Húrin, the man who had dared to defy and to scorn him to his face. Against them he sent his most formidable servant, Glaurung, a powerful spirit in the form of a huge wingless dragon of fire. Into this story of brutal conquest and flight, of forest hiding-places and pursuit, of resistance with lessening hope, the Dark Lord and the Dragon enter in direly articulate form. Sardonic and mocking, Glaurung manipulated the fates of Túrin and Nienor by lies of diabolic cunning and guile, and the curse of Morgoth was fulfilled. The earliest versions of this story by J.R.R. Tolkien go back to the end of the First World War and the years that followed; but long afterwards, when The Lord of the Rings was finished, he wrote it anew and greatly enlarged it in complexities of motive and character: it became the dominant story in his later work on Middle-earth. But he could not bring it to a final and finished form. In this book Christopher Tolkien has constructed, after long study of the manuscripts, a coherent narrative without any editorial invention.

A thrilling first-hand account by the husband-and-wife operatives who rebuilt the CIA's most important network of sources in Asia after its sudden collapse in 2011 - an intelligence disaster that espionage services around the world have transformed into a new, cutting-edge form of spycraft. Andrew and Jihi Bustamante are a husband-and-wife spy duo whose lives revolved around the CIA. They met as trainees at Langley, Virginia, and built a family together while hunting terrorists across the globe. But in 2010, they were pulled off the anti-terrorism desk for an even bigger assignment: to head to Asia, where the CIA's spy network in the superpower that the Bustamantes code-named JADE KINGDOM - one of America's most formidable rivals - had recently vanished, dismantled practically overnight in a series of brutal murders and quiet disappearances. With the CIA's most important Asian spy network in ashes, the US had been thrust into darkness just as its competition with JADE KINGDOM was entering a new, even more dangerous, phase. Although not regional experts, the Bustamantes brought to the table a granular understanding of how terrorist cells operate, and how to take them out. Now, along with a rag-tag team of CIA operatives, they set about building a cell of their own - right at the heart of JADE KINGDOM. The pressure on the Bustamantes was intense: it was only a matter of time before America's intelligence blackout led to a wider cataclysm. As they were racing against the clock, a mole deep within the US intelligence community threatened their entire operation, leading to a dramatic cat-and-mouse game on the heavily surveilled streets of JADE KINGDOM's capital city. The thrilling, untold tale of one of history's greatest intelligence failures and the unlikely band of agents who were sent in to clean up the mess, Red Cell is also the tale of how a couple of outside-the-box thinkers pioneered a bold new way of spying-one that today has been adopted throughout Western intelligence services to meet the national security challenges of the next century. A story so secret it still can't be told in full, Red Cell allows us to peer behind the curtain to see how one of the biggest spy wars in the world is currently being fought - and won.

In the heartbreaking finale to the War of Lost Hearts trilogy, a tale of romance, magic, vengeance and redemption comes to a close. Perfect for fans of Carissa Broadbent's Crowns of Nyaxia series. Tell me, little butterfly, what would you do for love? In the wake of a crushing defeat, Tisaanah and Maxantarius have been ripped apart. Tisaanah is desperate to rescue Max from his imprisonment, even as her people's fight for freedom grows more treacherous. But within the walls of Ilyzath, Max's mind is a shadow of what it once was . . . leaving his past a mystery and his future at the mercy of Ara's new, ruthless queen. Meanwhile, in the Fey lands, Aefe has been dragged back into this world by a king who vows to destroy civilizations in her name. But even as her past returns to claim her, her former self is a stranger. Tisaanah, Max and Aefe are thrust into the centre of a cataclysm between the human and Fey worlds. The unique magic they share is key to either winning the war or ending it. But that power demands sacrifice. Tisaanah may be forced to choose between love and duty. Max cannot forge his future without confronting his past. And Aefe must decide between reclaiming who she was or embracing who she has become. The choices they make will either reshape this world for ever . . . or end it. Mother of Death and Dawn is the third and final book in the phenomenal War of Lost Hearts trilogy. Begin the series with Daughter of No Worlds and Children of Fallen Gods. ** Readers Love Mother of Death & Dawn: 'The stakes? Sky high. The angst? Relentless. The emotional damage? Ongoing' 'This trilogy will be a staple on the bookshelf of every romantasy reader' 'Was I biting my nails all the way to the end, not able to predict how the story is going to end? Have I been left with the biggest book hangover of all times? Well, this might come as a shocker, but the answer to all the above is YES???????' Carissa Broadbent's The Serpent and the Wings of Night was an instant No. 9 New York Times bestseller and USA Today bestseller on 06/12/23.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The author of The Splendid and the Vile brings to life the pivotal five months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the start of the Civil War in this “riveting reexamination of a nation in tumult” (Los Angeles Times). “A feast of historical insight and narrative verve . . . This is Erik Larson at his best, enlivening even a thrice-told tale into an irresistible thriller.”—The Wall Street Journal A PARADE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Slavery fueled the conflict, but somehow the passions of North and South came to focus on a lonely federal fortress in Charleston Harbor: Fort Sumter. Master storyteller Erik Larson offers a gripping account of the chaotic months between Lincoln’s election and the Confederacy’s shelling of Sumter—a period marked by tragic errors and miscommunications, enflamed egos and craven ambitions, personal tragedies and betrayals. Lincoln himself wrote that the trials of these five months were “so great that, could I have anticipated them, I would not have believed it possible to survive them.” At the heart of this suspense-filled narrative are Major Robert Anderson, Sumter’s commander and a former slave owner sympathetic to the South but loyal to the Union; Edmund Ruffin, a vain and bloodthirsty radical who stirs secessionist ardor at every opportunity; and Mary Boykin Chesnut, wife of a prominent planter, conflicted over both marriage and slavery and seeing parallels between them. In the middle of it all is the overwhelmed Lincoln, battling with his duplicitous secretary of state, William Seward, as he tries desperately to avert a war that he fears is inevitable—one that will eventually kill 750,000 Americans. Drawing on diaries, secret communiques, slave ledgers, and plantation records, Larson gives us a political horror story that captures the forces that led America to the brink—a dark reminder that we often don’t see a cataclysm coming until it’s too late.

In the heartbreaking finale to the War of Lost Hearts trilogy, a tale of romance, magic, vengeance and redemption comes to a close. Perfect for fans of Carissa Broadbent's Crowns of Nyaxia series. Tell me, little butterfly, what would you do for love? In the wake of a crushing defeat, Tisaanah and Maxantarius have been ripped apart. Tisaanah is desperate to rescue Max from his imprisonment, even as her people's fight for freedom grows more treacherous. But within the walls of Ilyzath, Max's mind is a shadow of what it once was . . . leaving his past a mystery and his future at the mercy of Ara's new, ruthless queen. Meanwhile, in the Fey lands, Aefe has been dragged back into this world by a king who vows to destroy civilizations in her name. But even as her past returns to claim her, her former self is a stranger. Tisaanah, Max and Aefe are thrust into the centre of a cataclysm between the human and Fey worlds. The unique magic they share is key to either winning the war or ending it. But that power demands sacrifice. Tisaanah may be forced to choose between love and duty. Max cannot forge his future without confronting his past. And Aefe must decide between reclaiming who she was or embracing who she has become. The choices they make will either reshape this world for ever . . . or end it. Mother of Death and Dawn is the third and final book in the phenomenal War of Lost Hearts trilogy. Begin the series with Daughter of No Worlds and Children of Fallen Gods. ** Readers Love Mother of Death & Dawn: 'The stakes? Sky high. The angst? Relentless. The emotional damage? Ongoing' 'This trilogy will be a staple on the bookshelf of every romantasy reader' 'Was I biting my nails all the way to the end, not able to predict how the story is going to end? Have I been left with the biggest book hangover of all times? Well, this might come as a shocker, but the answer to all the above is YES???????' Carissa Broadbent's The Serpent and the Wings of Night was an instant No. 9 New York Times bestseller and USA Today bestseller on 06/12/23.

''A brilliant, unsettling, gothic take on a Greek tragedy.'' - i-D. ''Gothic, strange, provocative, but also incredibly moving and absolutely unforgettable, a powerful debut from a truly original new voice.'' - Cosmopolitan. ''Bizarre and strangely beautiful . . . Williams''s lyrical, visceral prose brilliantly sustains her nightmarish vision . . . bold and demented.'' - Publishers Weekly. ''[A] grim and strange, but utterly unique, literary and gothic debut . . . This is a gripping look at humanity''s treatment of women and questions whether human survival at all costs is worth it.'' - Booklist. ''Williams compiles her images in breathless, smothering drifts that mimic both the oppressive landscape and the gauzy unreliability of the main characters'' perceptions with virtuosic intensity . . . Williams'' linguistic project is akin to the early work of Cormac McCarthy.'' - Kirkus. In the wake of a mysterious environmental cataclysm that has wiped out the rest of humankind, the Matriarch, her brother, and the family descended from their incest cling to existence on the edges of a ruined city. The Matriarch, ruling with fear and force, dreams of starting humanity over. Her children and the children they have with one another aren''t so sure. Surrounded by the silent forest and the dead suburbs, they feel closer to the ruined world than to their parents. Nevertheless, they scavenge supplies, collect fuel, plant seeds, and attempt to cultivate the poisoned earth, brutalizing and caring for one another in equal measure. For entertainment, they watch old VHS tapes of a TV show called Get Aquinas in Here, in which a problem-solving medieval saint faces down a sequence of logical and ethical dilemmas. But one day the Matriarch dreams of another group of survivors, and sends away one of her daughters, the legless Dolores, as a marriage offering. When Dolores returns a few days later, her reappearance triggers the breakdown of Matriarch''s fragile order and the control she wields over their sprawling family begins to weaken. As the children seize their chance to escape, the world of the television saint Aquinas and that of the family begin to melt together with terrible consequences. Told in extraordinary, intricate prose that moves with a life of its own, at times striking with the power of physical force, Missouri Williams''s debut novel is a blazingly original document of depravity and salvation. Gothic and strange, moving and disquieting, and often hilarious, The Doloriad stares down, with narrowed eyes, humanity''s unbreakable commitment to life.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In this provocative, startling book, Robert D. Kaplan, the bestselling author of Monsoon and Balkan Ghosts, offers a revelatory new prism through which to view global upheavals and to understand what lies ahead for continents and countries around the world. Bestselling author Robert D. Kaplan builds on the insights, discoveries, and theories of great geographers and geopolitical thinkers of the recent and distant past to look back at critical pivots in history and then to look forward at the evolving global scene. Kaplan traces the history of the world's hot spots by examining their climates, topographies, and proximities to other embattled lands. He then applies the lessons learned to the present crises in Europe, Russia, China, the Indian Subcontinent, Turkey, Iran, and the Arab Middle East. The result is a holistic interpretation of the next cycle of conflict throughout Eurasia, a visionary glimpse into a future that can be understood only in the context of temperature, land allotment, and other physical certainties. A brilliant rebuttal to thinkers who suggest that globalism will trump geography, this indispensable work shows how timeless truths and natural facts can help prevent this century's looming cataclysms. Praise for The Revenge of Geography "[An] ambitious and challenging new book . . . [The Revenge of Geography] displays a formidable grasp of contemporary world politics and serves as a powerful reminder that it has been the planet's geophysical configurations, as much as the flow of competing religions and ideologies, that have shaped human conflicts, past and present."-Malise Ruthven, The New York Review of Books "Robert D. Kaplan, the world-traveling reporter and intellectual whose fourteen books constitute a bedrock of penetrating exposition and analysis on the post-Cold War world . . . strips away much of the cant that suffuses public discourse these days on global developments and gets to a fundamental reality: that geography remains today, as it has been throughout history, one of the most powerful drivers of world events."-The National Interest "Kaplan plunges into a planetary review that is often thrilling in its sheer scale . . . encyclopedic."-The New Yorker "[The Revenge of Geography] serves the facts straight up. . . . Kaplan's realism and willingness to face hard facts make The Revenge of Geography a valuable antidote to the feel-good manifestoes that often masquerade as strategic thought."-The Daily Beast

Horus Lupercal, Warmaster of the Emperor's armies, has turned upon his gene-father and sent the Imperium spiralling into bloody civil war. Half of the great Space Marine Legions have sided with the traitorous Warmaster, and countless cohorts of the Solar Auxilia, Knight Households, and Titan Legions march at his side. Now brother fights brother as the Imperium's vast armies tear one another apart in a cataclysm of fire and blood. An age of darkness descends, the likes of which have never been witnessed before. The Horus Heresy - Legions Imperialis is a tabletop game of vast armies and apocalyptic battles, and this boxed set contains everything you need to start playing. Muster your forces, declare your allegiance to the arch-traitor Horus Lupercal or the Golden Throne of Terra, and recreate the truly enormous clashes that shook the galaxy in the civil war of the Horus Heresy. Unlike Warhammer - The Horus Heresy or many other Warhammer games, the miniatures used in Legions Imperialis are epic scale - meaning they are approximately a quarter of the size of standard Citadel miniatures. This allows you to field bigger armies featuring everything from massed frontline infantry to gargantuan war machines like Titans. Inside this box, you will find 223 epic scale plastic miniatures representing two full armies - Space Marines and Solar Auxilia accompanied by Titans - each of which can be painted and played as Loyalists or Traitors, as well as a rulebook containing all the core rules, faction rules, lore, and galleries of stunning miniatures. Please note that models from the Aeronautica Imperialis range can also be used in games of The Horus Heresy - Legions Imperialis, but must be mounted on Legions Imperialis Round Flying Bases, which are sold separately. Some elements of this product are available separately. Please note that the base designs shown in the imagery may differ to those supplied in this product. Contains unpainted miniatures. Assembly required. Game Contents: 61 Tokens 32 Solar Auxilia Models: 8 Auxilia Lasrifle Squads 4 Aethon Heavy Sentinels 4 Auxiliaries with Flamers Squads 4 Charonite Ogryns Squads 4 Leman Russ Tanks 4 Veletarii Squads 2 Malcador Tanks 2 Solar Auxilia Legate Commander Squads / Auxilia Tactical Command Squads 27 Legiones Astartes Models: 8 Tactical Legionaries Squads 4 Contemptor Dreadnoughts 3 Predator Tanks 2 Assault Marines Squads 2 Legion Command Squads 2 Legion Terminators Squads 2 Sicaran Tanks 2 Support Legionaries with Missile Launchers Squads 2 Support Legionaries with Plasma Guns Squads 21 Dice 3 Templates 2 Measuring Sticks 2 Quick Reference Sheets 2 Warhound Titans 1 The Horus Heresy - Legions Imperialis Rulebook (HC) (240 Pages) 1 Transfer Sheet containing 556 Decals

By the author of the acclaimed bestseller The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, a "brilliant" and "beautifully told" new natural history of mammals, illuminating the lost story of the extraordinary family tree that led to us [New Scientist; The Times UK] National Bestseller • Top 10 Nonfiction of the Year: Kirkus • Best Science Book of the Year: The Times UK We humans are the inheritors of a dynasty that has reigned over the planet for nearly 66 million years, through fiery cataclysm and ice ages: the mammals. Our lineage includes saber-toothed tigers, woolly mammoths, armadillos the size of a car, cave bears three times the weight of a grizzly, clever scurriers that outlasted Tyrannosaurus rex, and even other types of humans, like Neanderthals. Indeed humankind and many of the beloved fellow mammals we share the planet with today—lions; whales, dogs—represent only the few survivors of a sprawling and astonishing family tree that has been pruned by time and mass extinctions. How did we get here? In his acclaimed bestseller The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs—hailed as "the ultimate dinosaur biography" by Scientific American—American paleontologist Steve Brusatte enchanted readers with his definitive history of the dinosaurs. Now, in a masterwork of scientific storytelling, he picks up the narrative in the ashes of the extinction event that doomed T-rex and its kind, Brusatte explores the remarkable story of the family of animals that inherited the Earth—mammals— and brilliantly reveals that their story is every bit as fascinating and complex as that of the dinosaurs. Beginning with the earliest days of our lineage some 325 million years ago, Brusatte charts the evolution of mammals, showing how they survived the asteroid that claimed the dinosaurs and made the world their own, becoming the astonishingly diverse range of animals that dominate today’s Earth. Brusatte also brings alive the lost worlds mammals inhabited through time, from ice ages to volcanic catastrophes. Entwined in this story is the detective work he and other scientists have done to piece together our understanding of this rich fossil history using fossil clues and cutting-edge technology. A sterling example of scientific storytelling by one of our finest young researchers, The Rise and Reign of the Mammals illustrates how this incredible history laid the foundation for today’s world, for us, and our future. This landmark work of science writing explores: The Age of Mammals: How our ancestors survived the asteroid impact that doomed the dinosaurs and seized their chance to inherit the Earth. Prehistoric Beasts: A stunning cast of extinct relatives, from saber-toothed tigers and woolly mammoths to car-sized armadillos and Neanderthals. Human Origins: The epic 325-million-year story of the sprawling family tree that ultimately led to us. Scientific Detective Work: A look at the cutting-edge technology and fossil clues paleontologist Steve Brusatte and his colleagues use to uncover the secrets of our past.