Gladiator

Author: Matthew Sprange
Publisher: Mongoose Pub
ISBN: 9781903980057
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 80

Book Description
It is not yet mid-morning and yet the air of excitement around the grand arena is palpableThe crowds mill about you, all streaming for the grand arena, some mute with trepidation, other proclaiming loudly which gladiator will triumph in the matches. It has been a month since the last games day and you, along with everyone else in the city, are eager to leave behind the concerns of your everyday life, replacing it with an afternoon of fun, excitement and sheer passion. The first match is very familiar to you as all games days start this way. These are novice gladiators, either slaves or those seeking fame and fortune, desperately competing to gain the notice of the crowd. The match is short and bloody, but you focus on one woman closest to you, a lithe and well-toned figure who, although outmatched in strength by most of her opponents, adeptly avoids their blows whilst running them through with her spear. Before you know it, she is the last gladiator standing and though you try hard to catch the arena manager's announcement, you miss her name. You will certainly watch out for her later though - she may be worth a strong wager. A cheer rises as the arena manager makes the announcement that Sketari and Deimos - you heard those names well enough - the famed charioteering rivals, have decided to settle who is the greatest once and for all. You immediately jump upon your seat to better see this match - chariot racing is the fastest and deadliest of all arena events. It is also your favourite. The two heavy chariots burst into the arena, sand flying up high behind them. Turning to the man standing next to you, you quickly wager three silver on Deimos. A high wager, but Deimos has long been a your favoured gladiator. The blood is pumping and the adrenaline rushing - there is nothing you enjoy so much as games day.

Sands of Death

Author: Michael Asher
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 1780222548
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 234

Book Description
Desert explorer Michael Asher investigates the most disastrous exploration mission in the history of the Sahara In December 1880 a French expedition attempted to map a route for a railway that would stretch from their colony in Algeria right across the Sahara desert to reach their territories in West Africa. 'Paris to Timbuctoo in Six Days' was the slogan. It would do for the French colonies what the American railways were doing in the western states at the same time. No native opposition was expected. As one of the expedition's organizers said, 'A hundred uncivilized tribesmen armed with old-fashioned spears: what is that against the might of France?' Four months later, a handful of emaciated survivors staggered into a remote outpost on the edge of the desert. Although armed with modern rifles, the column had been lured to destruction by the self-styled 'lords of the desert', the Tuareg. At this, the highpoint of European colonialism in Africa, this story of treachery, massacre, torture and even cannibalism made headlines around the world. Attacked by the Tuareg in their remote heartland, the survivors had been pursued for weeks on end, driven into the waterless desert to die. The desperate lengths they resorted to shocked Victorian sensibilities. They do not make easy reading now. This grisly story, told by our greatest living desert explorer reveals what happened when the conceit of western colonialism met the equally arrogant Tuareg, who had dominated this remote region, and anyone trying to cross it, for a thousand years.

The Ratline

Author: Philippe Sands
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0525562532
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 449

Book Description
A tale of Nazi lives, mass murder, love, Cold War espionage, a mysterious death in the Vatican, and the Nazi escape route to Perón's Argentina,"the Ratline"—from the author of the internationally acclaimed, award-winning East West Street. "Hypnotic, shocking, and unputdownable." —John le Carré, internationally renowned bestselling author Baron Otto von Wächter, a lawyer, husband, and father, was also a senior SS officer and war criminal, indicted for the murder of more than a hundred thousand Poles and Jews. Although he was given a new identity and life via “the Ratline” to Argentina, the escape route taken by thousands of other Nazis, Wächter and his plan were cut short by his mysterious, shocking death in Rome. In the midst of the burgeoning Cold War, was he being recruited by the Americans or by the Soviets—or perhaps both? Or was he poisoned by one side or the other, as his son believes—or by both? With the cooperation of Wächter’s son Horst, who believes his father to have been “a good man,” award-winning author Philippe Sands draws on a trove of family correspondence to piece together Wächter’s extraordinary life before and during the war, his years evading justice, and his sudden, puzzling death. A riveting work of history, The Ratline is part historical detective story, part love story, part family memoir, and part Cold War espionage thriller.

Dead Sand

Author: Brendan DuBois
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780671545215
Category : Cole, Lewis (Fictitious character)
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description

Bobby Sands

Author: Denis O'Hearn
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780745336336
Category : Northern Ireland
Languages : en
Pages : 464

Book Description
This is the best-selling biography of the IRA resistance fighter and hunger-striker, Bobby Sands. In this updated, new edition, Denis O'Hearn draws from a wealth of interviews with friends, comrades, fellow prisoners and prison wardens, to provide a faithful and shocking insight into life in Northern Ireland's H-Block prisons, an exploration of the motivations and thoughts of the Republican strikers and the story of one of the world's most radical, inspirational figures.Following his journey from its very beginnings - an ordinary boy from a working-class background in Belfast to a highly politicised, articulate revolutionary whose death in HM Prison Maze sent reverberations around the world, Bobby Sands: Nothing But An Unfinished Song captures the atmosphere of the time and the vibrancy of the man: a militant anti-imperialist who held on to his humanity despite living through a bitter, ugly struggle.

Mark of the Plague

Author: Kevin Sands
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1481446762
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 387

Book Description
Christopher Rowe is back and there are more puzzles, riddles, and secrets to uncover in this follow-up to the Indie Next pick The Blackthorn Key, which was called a “spectacular debut” by Kirkus Reviews in a starred review. The Black Death has returned to London, spreading disease and fear through town. A mysterious prophet predicts the city’s ultimate doom—until an unknown apothecary arrives with a cure that actually works. Christopher’s Blackthorn shop is chosen to prepare the remedy. But when an assassin threatens the apothecary’s life, Christopher and his faithful friend Tom are back to hunting down the truth, risking their lives to untangle the heart of a dark conspiracy. And as the sickness strikes close to home, the stakes are higher than ever before…

To Dance On Sands

Author: Marta Becket
Publisher: Page Publishing Inc
ISBN: 1634176618
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 394

Book Description
About Marta Becket . . . "Tears came to my eyes. Marta represented to me the spirit of the individual. The spirit of the theater. The spirit of creativity." -Ray Bradbury, Author "Marta's paintings have a degree of humor and playfulness. The use of color is outstanding and tell of a generosity, talent and skill." -Red Skelton, Comedian/Artist "Long before anybody invented the term performance art, Marta Becket was doing it, in an abandoned opera house in Death Valley Junction. She restored it and it restored her. With serene tenacity, she set down roots, working hard for decades, caring as well for endangered animals, including wild burros, until the world began coming to her." -Boston Globe "Becket's saga epitomizes the eternal struggle of the artist for personal expression." - Chicago Tribune "The forthright artist went on with what essentially was her own private show. She choreographed and performed her own dances, at first to an audience of tumbleweeds. But over the course of years, she painstakingly developed another audience - the Renaissance-looking crowd she painted in elaborate murals to fill her Amargosa Opera House with gawking spectators. Eventually Becket was discovered by living audiences, mostly appreciators of art, who have gone to great lengths to see her work. Becket overcame much and worked hard to get where she is today, a relatively unknown artist in the middle of nowhere. But she loves her unique place in the world." -San Francisco Chronicle "If this were fiction - if Marta Becket were not a real person - then the whole oddball-in-the-desert scenario might seem like something dreamed up by David Lynch. Or Sam Shepard. But Becket is very much the real thing, and she has made quite a name for herself out there in the desert." -Northern California Bohemian "On stage there is a warble to her voice. She is thin, but her expressions are as varied and fluid as shifting sand dunes. To say that Becket was beautiful when she was young, as evidenced by photographs in her program is to do a disservice to the beauty she still holds." -Los Angeles Times "There's something really wonderful about the fact that she picked the most desolate spot in America to do this. It says you can have your life on your own terms, but you'll have to sacrifice. It says the process is the point. And people come away from there inspired." -Todd Robinson, Director, Amargosa "There is indisputably a whiff of eccentricity about Ms. Becket's enterprise. And if one might expect the woman herself - dark haired, trim, with the visible sinews of a dancer - to carry an eccentric air, she doesn't, though there is a faint haughtiness of the artiste about her. Ms. Becket is self-aware, perfectly willing to admit that her shows and her painting have been her obsessions. In explanation of what amounts to her self-imposed exile, she said, 'I couldn't have created another world anyplace else'." -New York Times "Death Valley holds a special mystique for Europeans. You can find them among the locals in the 120-seat house, along with the occasional journalist or ghost-hunter- the place has a reputation for being haunted." -Dance Magazine "Becket's paintings are marvelous and will live long after she is gone. The paintings are worth the long drive." -The Connected Traveler

Race the Sands

Author: Sarah Beth Durst
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062888625
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 443

Book Description
“National Velvet with monsters and a big helping of palace intrigue, Race the Sands is monstrous (literally), heartwarming, and empowering in equal measure. An incredibly fun and inspiring read.” – Katherine Arden, New York Times bestselling author of The Bear and the Nightingale In this epic standalone fantasy, the acclaimed author of the Queens of Renthia series introduces an imaginative new world in which a pair of strong and determined women risk their lives battling injustice, corruption, and deadly enemies in their quest to become monster racing champions. Life, death, and rebirth—in Becar, who you are in this life will determine your next life. Yet there is hope—you can change your destiny with the choices you make. But for the darkest individuals, there is no redemption: you come back as a kehok, a monster, and are doomed to be a kehok for the rest of time. Unless you can win the Races. After a celebrated career as an elite kehok rider, Tamra became a professional trainer. Then a tragic accident shattered her confidence, damaged her reputation, and left her nearly broke. Now, she needs the prize money to prevent the local temple from taking her daughter away from her, and that means she must once again find a winning kehok . . . and a rider willing to trust her. Raia is desperate to get away from her domineering family and cruel fiancé. As a kehok rider, she could earn enough to buy her freedom. But she needs a first-rate trainer. Impressed by the inexperienced young woman’s determination, Tamra hires Raia and pairs her with a strange new kehok with the potential to win—if he can be tamed. But in this sport, if you forget you’re riding on the back of a monster, you die. Tamra and Raia will work harder than they ever thought possible to win the deadly Becaran Races—and in the process, discover what makes this particular kehok so special.

Nazis on the Run

Author: Gerald Steinacher
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191653772
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 411

Book Description
This is the story of how Nazi war criminals escaped from justice at the end of the Second World War by fleeing through the Tyrolean Alps to Italian seaports, and the role played by the Red Cross, the Vatican, and the Secret Services of the major powers in smuggling them away from prosecution in Europe to a new life in South America. The Nazi sympathies held by groups and individuals within these organizations evolved into a successful assistance network for fugitive criminals, providing them not only with secret escape routes but hiding places for their loot. Gerald Steinacher skillfully traces the complex escape stories of some of the most prominent Nazi war criminals, including Adolf Eichmann, showing how they mingled and blended with thousands of technically stateless or displaced persons, all flooding across the Alps to Italy and from there, to destinations abroad. The story of their escape shows clearly just how difficult the apprehending of war criminals can be. As Steinacher shows, all the major countries in the post-war world had 'mixed motives' for their actions, ranging from the shortage of trained intelligence personnel in the immediate aftermath of the war to the emerging East-West confrontation after 1947, which led to many former Nazis being recruited as agents turned in the Cold War.

Writings From Prison

Author: Bobby Sands Trust
Publisher: Mercier Press Ltd
ISBN: 1781171106
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 332

Book Description
In this book the author chronicles the abuse by the British state of emergency laws: harassment and intimidation of civilians; injuries and deaths caused by rubber and plastic bullets; collusion between British security forces, British intelligence and loyalist paramilitaries; unjust killings and murders by the security forces; excessive punishments and degrading strip-searches in prisons – abuses ignored by all but a handful of individuals and civil rights organisations.