Search Worlds Without End

Animal Farm meets The Simpsons in this inventive twist on the hard-boiled detective novel, featuring a world made up exclusively of cats, dogs, and one ruthless fox...

Bull terrier Crusher McNash ia s no-nonsense homicide detective who eats out of the can and only bathes when his boss orders him to. He's just been thrown a bone about a gruesome case involving Rottweilers torn abart by a savage killer, and the only lead he's been able to sniff out is "an impression of movement" at the murder scene. Crusher suspects the killer is a cat, and there is nothing he hates more than "the whole cream-lapping, wool juggling, pajama-wearing, fence-sitting, bird-torturing, furball-coughing lot of them." But he'll have to start barking up a diffrent tree if he wants help solving this case as his partner on this case is soymilk-drinking, pressed suit-wearing Cassius Lap, an agent for the FBI (Feline Bureau of Investigation).

As this odd couple puts their paws together, their investigation takes them from the bowels of the kennel into the tony streets of Kathattan. Soon, they begin to uncover a vast conspiracy involving a cat who has been trained as a super killer, capable of growing in size and ferocity and killing any dog who gets in his way - and who may be working for a media baron fox. But they'll need to unravel the conspiracy, and quickly, if they want to stop the next killing before it's too late.

Witty and irresistibly entertaining, this genre-bending mystery bodly mixes human and animal sensibilities in an entertaining satire of our cur-rent society.

It started off like any other day, but for the tourists, staff and workmen at Willerton Castle it will end in terror. Because a storm is coming, a storm like nothing anyone has ever seen. A storm that will herald an attack by creatures this world has never encountered before. Will any of them survive?

Lisa is a 12-year-old girl with all the worries and troubles and angst of any normal girl just beginning the slow transition into womanhood. Her mother is gone, so she has only her father - a man who doesn't really know how to talk to a young girl about personal things - to advise her. She's frightened by the changes that are happening to her body - the budding breasts, the hint of a menstrual cycle, the stiff black hairs that appear on the back of her hands and the way her nails twist to look like claws during the full moon. Is this normal? And if not, how is she different, why is she different, and why doesn't her dad want her to go to the harvest moon dance?

Rufus Kane is a born rebel. Forced to flee from the tightly controlled life of an isolated commune, he finds safety in a large city. But his dream of freedom to live is soon shattered. He is betrayed by a friend and his incredible trial reveals a society gone mad. Law and order are absolute, human rights have surrendered to fear. Hope has vanished from the world.

In this exciting tale, Jeff Clinton is at his storytelling best. Rufus becomes a rebel with a cause: the creation of a world fit for men!

Herman and Janet Erikson are going through a crisis of grief and suffering after losing their daughter in a hit and run. They've given up on each other, they've given up on themselves. They are living day by day. One afternoon, to make a horrible situation worse, their dog goes missing in the coyote-infested badlands behind their property. Herman, resolved in preventing another tragedy, goes to find the dog, completely unaware he's on a hike to the River Styx, which according to Greek myth was the border between the Living World and the world of the Dead. Long ago the gods died and the River dried up, but a bottle containing its waters still remains in the badlands. What Herman discovers about the dark power contained in those waters will change his life forever…

Forget everything you know about Halloween. The stories are distortions. They were created to keep the Church of Midnight hidden from the world. Every October 31st a gateway opens to a hostile land of sacrificial magic and chaos. Since the beginning of civilization the Church of Midnight has attempted to open the gateway and unite with its other half, the Church of Morning. Each year they've come closer, waiting for the ideal sacrifice to open the gateway permanently.

This year that sacrifice has come. And only two can protect it. Martin and Teresa are the nomads, battle-hardened people who lack identity and are forever road-bound on an endless mission to guard the sacrifice. Their only direction is from notes left from a mysterious person called the Messenger. Endowed with a strange telekinetic power, the nomads will use everything at their disposal to make it through the night alive. But matters have become even more complicated this year. Teresa has quickly lost ground battling cancer, while Martin has spiraled into a panic over being left alone. His mind may no longer be on the fight when it matters most... because ever on their heels is the insidious physical representation of a united church: Chaplain Cloth.

A decade has passed since the events of BLACK & ORANGE and the Church of Midnight has almost been singlehandedly decimated by the Nomad named Patty Middleton.

After a series of mass executions, she demands answers from the mysterious Messenger, despite the protests of her partner. While Patty seems closer to discovering the identity of the Messenger, she has also developed a dangerous condition with her power to create the invisible fields known as Mantles. This condition could kill her or people around her, just when she needs to focus on her enemies, who now include a government group known as the Office of Arcane Phenomenon.

Meanwhile, Chaplain Cloth, disappointed and impatient with years of failing, seeks a rumored pair of columns that will hold the gateway open forever. Patty Middleton is more than a match for him though, and with half of his Church gone, if he doesn't make his move now he might not get another chance for thousands of years. There's no room for error. He has to get those columns and sacrifice the Heart of the Harvest.

But this year the Heart isn't in our world.

This time around, the Nomads and Chaplain Cloth are spending Halloween in the Old Domain.

ALL THE BETTER TO READ YOU WITH

It's a prick of blood, the bite of an apple, the evil eye, a wedding ring or a pair of red shoes. Curses come in all shapes and sizes, and they can happen to anyone, not just those of us with unpopular stepparents...

Here you'll find unique twists on curses, from fairy tale classics to brand-new hexes of the modern world - expect new monsters and mythologies as well as twists on well-loved fables. Stories to shock and stories of warning, stories of monsters and stories of magic.

Contents:

• Introduction (Cursed) - essay by Paul Kane and Marie O'Regan
• Castle Cursed - short fiction by Jane Yolen
• As Red As Blood, As White As Snow - short fiction by Christina Henry
• Troll Bridge - (1993) - short story by Neil Gaiman (variant of Troll-Bridge)
• At That Age - short fiction by Catriona Ward
• Listen - short fiction by Jen Williams
• Henry and the Snakewood Box - short fiction by Mike Carey [as by M. R. Carey]
• Skin - short fiction by James Brogden
• Faith & Fred - short fiction by Maura McHugh
• The Black Fairy's Curse - (1997) - short story by Karen Joy Fowler
• Wendy, Darling - (2014) - short fiction by Christopher Golden
• Fairy Werewolf vs. Vampire Zombie - (2011) - short story by Charlie Jane Anders
• Look Inside Me - (2013) - short fiction by Michael Marshall Smith
• Little Red - (2009) - short story by Adam Stemple and Jane Yolen
• New Wine - short fiction by Angela Slatter
• Haza and Ghani - short fiction by Lilith Saintcrow
• Hated - (1995) - novelette by Christopher Fowler
• The Merrie Dancers - short fiction by Alison Littlewood
• Again - short fiction by Tim Lebbon
• The Girl From The Hell - short fiction by Margo Lanagan
• Castle Waking - short fiction by Jane Yolen

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

Take a trip to a terrifying carnival and uncover the secrets within, solve a mysterious puzzle box and await your reward, join a travelling circus and witness the strangest ventriloquist act you've ever seen.

In this follow-up to the bestselling Cursed: An Anthology, you'll unearth curses old and new. From a very different take on Snow White, to a new interpretation of The Red Shoes, the best in fantasy spin straw into gold, and invite you into the labyrinth.

Just don't forget to leave your trail of breadcrumbs...

Contents:

• Joanne Harris
• Neil Gaiman
• Joe Hill
• Sarah Pinborough
• Angela Slatter
• M. R. Carey
• Christina Henry
• A. C. Wise
• Laura Purcell
• Katherine Arden
• Adam L. G. Nevill
• Mark Chadbourn
• Helen Grant
• Kelley Armstrong
• A. K. Benedict
• L. L. McKinney

THE DEPARTED HAVE ARRIVED.

The world is not the way it was. The dead have risen, and the living are under attack. The powerful Church of Real Truth, in charge since the government fell, has sworn to reimburse citizens being harassed by the deceased. Enter Chess Putnam, a fully tattooed witch and freewheeling ghost hunter. She's got a real talent for banishing the wicked dead. But Chess is keeping a dark secret: She owes a lot of money to a murderous drug lord named Bump, who wants immediate payback in the form of a dangerous job that involves black magic, human sacrifice, a nefarious demonic creature, and enough wicked energy to wipe out a city of souls. Toss in lust for a rival gang leader and a dangerous attraction to Bump's ruthless enforcer, and Chess begins to wonder if the rush is really worth it. Hell, yeah.

ENEMIES DON'T NEED TO BE ALIVE TO BE DEADLY.

For Chess Putnam, finding herself near-fatally poisoned by a con psychic and then stopping a murderous ghost is just another day on the job. As an agent of the Church of Real Truth, Chess must expose those looking to profit from the world's unpleasant little poltergeist problem--humans filing false claims of hauntings--all while staving off any undead who really are looking for a kill. But Chess has been extra busy these days, coping with a new "celebrity" assignment while trying on her own time to help some desperate prostitutes.

IT'S A THIN LINE BETWEEN ALIVE AND UNDEAD.

Chess Putnam has a lot on her plate. Mangled human corpses have started to show up on the streets of Downside, and Chess's bosses at the Church of Real Truth have ordered her to team up with the ultra-powerful Black Squad agency to crack the grisly case.

Chess is under a binding spell that threatens death if she talks about the investigation, but the city's most notorious crime boss--and Chess's drug dealer--gets wind of her new assignment and insists on being kept informed. If that isn't bad enough, a sinister street vendor appears to have information Chess needs. Only he's not telling what he knows, or what it all has to do with the vast underground City of Eternity.

Now Chess will have to navigate killer wraiths, First Elders, and a lot of seriously nasty magic--all while coping with some not-so-small issues of her own. And the only man Chess can trust to help her through it all has every reason to want her dead.

READING, WRITING, AND RAISING THE DEAD

When Chess Putnam is ordered by an infamous crime boss--who also happens to be her drug dealer--to use her powers as a witch to solve a grisly murder involving dark magic, she knows she must rise to the challenge. Adding to the intensity: Chess's boyfriend, Terrible, doesn't trust her, and Lex, the son of a rival crime lord, is trying to reignite the sparks between him and Chess.

Plus there's the little matter of Chess's real job as a ghost hunter for the Church of Real Truth, investigating reports of a haunting at a school in the heart of Downside. Someone seems to be taking a crash course in summoning the dead--and if Chess doesn't watch her back, she may soon be joining their ranks.

As Chess is drawn into a shadowy world of twisted secrets and dark violence, it soon becomes clear that she's not going to emerge from its depths without making the ultimate sacrifice.

A DEADLY HIGH

Magic-wielding Churchwitch and secret addict Chess Putnam knows better than anyone just how high a price people are willing to pay for a chemical rush. But when someone with money to burn and a penchant for black magic starts tampering with Downside's drug supply, Chess realizes that the unlucky customers are paying with their souls--and taking the innocent with them, as the magic-infused speed compels them to kill in the most gruesome ways possible.

As if the streets weren't scary enough, the looming war between the two men in her life explodes, taking even more casualties and putting Chess squarely in the middle. Downside could become a literal ghost town if Chess doesn't find a way to stop both the war and the dark wave of death-magic, and the only way to do that is to use both her addiction and her power to enter the spell and chase the magic all the way back to its malevolent source. Too bad that doing so will probably kill Chess--if the war doesn't first destroy the man who's become her reason for living.

You are not welcome here, godkiller.

Kissen's family were killed by zealots of a fire god. Now, she makes a living killing gods, and enjoys it. That is until she finds a god she cannot kill: Skedi, a god of white lies, has somehow bound himself to a young noble, and they are both on the run from unknown assassins.

Joined by a disillusioned knight on a secret quest, they must travel to the ruined city of Blenraden, where the last of the wild gods reside, to each beg a favour.

Pursued by demons, and in the midst of burgeoning civil war, they will all face a reckoning -- something is rotting at the heart of their world, and only they can be the ones to stop it.

When Middren falls to the gods, your kind will be the first to die.

Gods are forbidden in the kingdom of Middren -- but now they are stirring, whispering of war. Godkiller Kissen sacrificed herself to vanquish the fire god Hseth, who murdered her family and endangered her friends. But gods cannot be destroyed so easily, and Hseth's power threatens to reform with even greater strength and a thirst for vengeance. As tensions rise throughout the land, the kingdom needs its Godkiller more than ever.

Still reeling from the loss of Kissen, young noble Inara and her little god of white lies, Skedi, have set out to discover more about the true nature of their bond. As the divide between gods and humans widens, Inara and Skedi will uncover secrets that could determine the fate of the war to come.

Meanwhile, Elogast, no longer a loyal knight of King Arren, has been tasked with killing the man he once called friend. The king vowed to eradicate all gods throughout the land, but has now entered into an unholy pact with the most dangerous of them all. And where his heart once beat, a god now burns...

Kane. An immortal, cursed to wander the Earth until he is destroyed by the violence that he himself has created. A warrior and statesman: As comfortable in the shadowy halls of courtly intrigue as he is on the bloody battlefields where those intrigue's inevitably play themselves out. Karl Edward Wagner's complex and compelling character of Kane redefines the boundaries of heroic fantasy, and stands besides Michael Moorcock's Elric, and Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and Gray Mouser as one of the most idiosyncratic and compelling characters of the fantasy genre. Gods in Darkness gathers together in one volume the complete novels of Kane

Edited by Stephen Jones.

Midnight Sun is the companion volume to Gods in Darkness, and collects all of the Kane short stories and poetry.

Contents:

• Death Angel's Shadow (poem)
• Undertow
• Two Suns Setting
• The Dark Muse
• Sing a Last Song of Valdese
• Misericorde
• Lynortis Reprise
• Raven's Eyrie
• In the Lair of Yslsl
• Reflections for the Winter of My Soul
• Cold Light
• Mirage
• The Other One
• The Gothic Touch
  
• Midnight Sun (poem)
• Lacunae
• Deep in the Depths of the Acme Warehouse
• At First Just Ghostly
• The Treasure of Lynortis (early version of Lynortis Reprise)
• In the Wake of the Night (lost novel fragment)
• The Once and Future Kane (non-fiction essay)

Where once the mighty Kane has passed, no one who lives forgets. Now, down the trail of past battles, Kane travels again. To the ruins of a devastated city peopled only with half-men and the waif they call their queen. To the half-burnt tavern where a woman Kane wronged long ago holds his child in keeping for the Devil. To the cave kingdom of the giants where glory and its aftermath await discovery. To the house of death itself where Kane retrieves a woman in love.

The past, the future, the present - all these are one for Kane as he travels through the centuries.

Table of Contents:

• "Undertow"
• "Two Suns Setting"
• "The Dark Muse"
• "Raven's Eyrie"
• "Lynortis Reprise"
• "Sing a Last Song of Valdese"

BFA winning and WFA nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Fantastic, May 1976. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 3 (1977), edited by Lin Carter, and The World Fantasy Awards, Volume Two (1980), edited by Stuart David Schiff and Fritz Leiber. It is included in the collections Night Winds (1978) and Midnight Sun: The Complete Stories of Kane (2003).

Kane - indestructible swordsman, invincible sorcerer, immortal wanderer through strange worlds. Efrel, Empress of Pellin, seeks vengeance on the King of Thovnos and chooses Kane as her champion.

Kane. The Mystic Swordsman becomes the living link with the awesome power of a vanished superrace. In the dark swamp where toadmen croak and cower, slumbers a secret relic of the days when creatures from the stars ruled the Earth. In the booty captured in a savage raid, Kane discovers a ring, a bloodstone, which is key to the power that lies buried, inactive but not dead, within the forest. Now Kane, whose bloody sword has slashed and killed for the glory of other rulers, can scheme to rule the Earth - himself!

When a man proves himself to be more than human and a devotee of your dark god type he quickly develops a following with fervour.

After some initial military success he has his rabble smashed by a trained opposition. Kane sees an opportunity and volunteers his military mind to whip the bunch of crazies into shape. Kane has to see if he can stick around long enough given said bloke's delusions of competency for himself and followers.

Sixteen-year-old Nina Kane should be worrying about her immortal soul, but she's too busy trying to actually survive. Her town's population has been decimated by soul-consuming demons, and souls are in short supply. Watching over her younger sister, Mellie, and scraping together food and money are all that matters. The two of them are a family. They gave up on their deadbeat mom a long time ago.

When Nina discovers that Mellie is keeping a secret that threatens their very existence, she'll do anything to protect her. Because in New Temperance, sins are prosecuted as crimes by the brutal Church and its army of black-robed exorcists. And Mellie's sin has put her in serious trouble.

To keep them both alive, Nina will need to put her trust in Finn, a fugitive with deep green eyes who has already saved her life once and who might just be an exorcist. But what kind of exorcist wears a hoodie?

Wanted by the Church and hunted by dark forces, Nina knows she can't survive on her own. She needs Finn and his group of rogue friends just as much as they need her.

Nina Kane was born to be an exorcist. And since uncovering the horrifying truth--that the war against demons is far from over--seventeen-year-old Nina and her pregnant younger sister, Mellie, have been on the run, incinerating the remains of the demon horde as they go.

In the badlands, Nina, Mellie, and Finn, the fugitive and rogue exorcist who saved her life, find allies in a group of freedom fighters. They also face a new threat: Pandemonia, a city full of demons. But this fresh new hell is the least of Nina's worries. The well of souls ran dry more than a century ago, drained by the demons secretly living among humans, and without a donor soul, Mellie's child will die within hours of its birth.

Nina isn't about to let that happen... even if it means she has to make the ultimate sacrifice.

In a world where being of mixed-blood is a major liability, Sabina Kane has the only profession fit for an outcast: assassin. But, her latest mission threatens the fragile peace between the vampire and mage races and Sabina must scramble to figure out which side she's on. She's never brought her work home with her---until now.<?p>

This time, it's personal.

The sequel to Red-Headed Stepchild from USA Today Bestselling author Jaye Wells...

Sabina Kane doesn't have the best track record when it comes to family. After all, her own grandmother, the leader of the vampire race, just tried to kill her. When she arrives in New York to meet the mage side of her family, the reunion takes the fun out of dysfunctional. On top of that, the Hekate Council wants to use her as a pawn in the brewing war against the vampires. Her mission will take her into the bowels of New York's Black Light district, entangles her in mage politics, and challenges her beliefs about the race she was raised to distrust.

And Sabina thought vampires were bloodthirsty.

Things to do:
1. Rescue sister.
2. Murder grandmother.
3. Don't upset the voodoo priestess.

The clock is ticking for Sabina Kane. Her sister has been kidnapped by her grandmother, the Dark Races are on the brink of war, and a mysterious order is manipulating everyone behind the scenes.Working on information provided by an unlikely ally, Sabina and her trusty sidekicks--a sexy mage named Adam Lazarus and Giguhl, a Mischief demon--head to New Orleans to begin the hunt for her sister. Once there, they must contend with belligerent werewolves, magic-wielding vampires and--perhaps most frightening of all--humans.

But as much as Sabina is focused on surviving the present, the past won't be ignored. Before she can save those she cares about most, she must save herself from the ghosts of her past.

Now that the threat of war has passed, Sabina Kane is ready to focus on the future. Her relationship with Adam Lazarus is getting stronger and she's helping her sister, Maisie, overcome the trauma of her captivity in New Orleans. Even Giguhl is managing to stay out of trouble thanks to the arrival of Pussy Willow and his new roller derby team. But as much as Sabina wants to feel hopeful about the future, part of her doesn't believe that peace is possible.

Her suspicions are confirmed when a string of sadistic murders threatens to stall treaty negotiations between the mages and the vampires. Sabina pitches in to find the killer, but her investigation soon leads her down dark paths that have her questioning everyone she thought she could trust. And the closer she gets to the killer, the more Sabina begins to suspect this is one foe she may not be able to kill.

The epic conclusion to the amazing Sabina Kane urban fantasy series by USA Today bestseller Jaye Wells.

Sabina Kane is on the hunt. Her prey: Cain, the father of the vampire race and the one who murdered her family and her friends. Unfortunately, Cain is hunting Sabina, too. The one man who holds the key to defeating Cain is, of course, Abel. A mage with secrets to spare and, hopefully, the power to match it. Unfortunately, for Sabina, he's in Rome and may not want to be found.

Sabina sets out for Italy with her friends, Giguhl and Adam Lazarus, to track down the only man who can get her the revenge she hungers for. But will he help her or oppose her? And just who is Abel, really? Worst of all, when Sabina figures out the goddess Lilith has a plan for her-she realizes this trip is getting deadlier by the minute. As they say: when in Rome-SURVIVE.

The sixteenth-century Puritan Solomon Kane has a thirst for justice which surpasses common reason. Sombre of mood, clad in black and grey, he 'never sought to analyse his motives and he never wavered once his mind was made up. Though he always acted on impulse, he firmly believed that all his actions were governed by cold and logical reasonings... A hunger in his soul drove him on and on, an urge to right all wrongs, protect all weaker things, and avenge all crimes against right and justice'.

Immune to the attractions of the opposite sex, he seems drawn by some psychological distress beacon to places where he knows only that he will be called upon to defend the helpless or (more often) exact retribution on their behalf. Himself a Christian, possessed of enormous strength and skill in swordplay, he yet has little hesitation in calling upon the assistance of his Voodoo-practising friend N'Longa when strength, skill and Christian belief are not enough.

Stories include:

• Solomon Kane
• Skulls in the Stars
• The Right Hand of Doom
• Rattle of Bones
• The Moon of Skulls
• The Hills of the Dead
• The Footfalls Within
• Wings in the Night
• Blades of the Brotherhood
• Death's Black Riders

As the world dies, a legend is reborn!- In the years following 'The Cull' England has reverted back to the Middle Ages, ripe for invasion by the Frenchman De Falaise and his group of mercenaries. They enter through the Channel Tunnel and work their way up the country. Ex-policeman Robert Stokes lost everything to the virus that ravaged these isles. Along with his wife and his son, it took Robert's whole reason for living. Retreating into the woods and forests near Nottingham, he has become a hunter, living off the land and avoiding any form of human contact – until now. Pockets of survivors are attempting to build up small communities in the region, bartering at makeshift markets and forming tentative connections. But when De Falaise arrives at Nottingham – proclaiming himself the new 'Sheriff' – Robert finds himself drawn reluctantly into the fight, using the famous legend of a Hooded Man as his guide! The Afterblight Chronicles is an exciting series of high action post-apocalypse fiction set in a world ruled by crazed gangs and strange cults.

A year has passed since the Hooded Man took back Nottingham Castle from the crazed Sheriff, De Falaise. The citizens of Nottingham have settled back into an uneasy peace, but a new threat is emerging. From Russia a covetous and psychotic general eyes the treasures of Britain. In Yorkshire a dangerous Satanic cult emerges and from Europe comes an old, familiar foe. The Hooded Man must fight for his people once more!

In the years since the Hooded Man emerged from the forest to defeat the new Sheriff of Nottingham, his reputation has spread. Now a new threat has risen and The Dragon and The Widow must be tackled by Robert and his band. But when an assassin is dispatched, just as skilled as Robert with a bow and arrow, the Hooded Man finds himself once more fighting to survive!

LIFE AFTER DEATH

Kaito Ukei was destined for greatness in his new world, landing himself the role of a hero and defeating the evil sorceress alongside a band of noble adventurers. When he's double crossed, though, and brutally murdered by his former allies, something inside him snaps. Death brings Kaito neither peace nor salvation. Rather, it instills in him a singular desire--to squeeze the life out of his blasted betrayers in the cruellest manner possible...! The strange twist of fate that gives him a second chance in the world with all his memories intact provides opportunity to do just that, and so begins his quest to stalk and torture the members of his former party in the bloodiest, unholiest, most sadistic ways imaginable!

COME HELL OR HIGH WATER

Now that Kaito Ukei's been given another shot at life, he has set out on his journey to exact revenge on the party members who brutally murdered him. He walks this path of vengeance with the beastfolk girl Minnalis, inching toward the capital to carry out his plan. Their first stop along the way? The City of Learning, Elmia. There, he brushes shoulders with the band of adventurers who purged the place most precious to him...as well as the damned Eumis--the traitorous spellcaster who turned her back on him in his time of need!

WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND

As Kaito plots his revenge against Eumis, he discovers that the spellcaster has bolstered her powers by selling her sister Shuria's soul to a demon. Not one to let an opportunity to humiliate his foes go to waste, Kaito saves the girl from the brink of death and invites her to join him and Minnalis on their quest for vengeance. Now the stage is set for the three partners in crime to corner their common enemy and strip her of everything she holds dear in a spectacular act of retribution...

The next target on Kaito's quest for vengeance is Grond the merchant, a money-hungry villain who goes as far as murder to satisfy his greed. But when Kaito finally gets Grond in his clutches, he forces the corrupt magnate to make an impossible choice: Would he rather part with his money or his life?

Sights set on their next target, Kaito, Minnalis, and Shuria travel to the magical city of Karvanheim, where they find Minnalis's traitorous childhood friends leading carefree lives. But soon, the partners in crime come across an obstacle not even Kaito could have foreseen: a merchant woman named Leone who was also summoned from Japan and remembers the world of Kaito's first life. Still possessed of her morals, Leone attempts to interfere with the trio's rampage of revenge... but there's no stopping Minnalis from exacting hellish reprisal on the people who doomed her to slavery and killed her mother.

A DEVASTATING HOMECOMING

Metelia ambushes Kaito just after he completes his latest feat of vengeance, forcing him through a portal to his home of present-day Japan. Stripped of his memories, Kaito comes to terms with his tragic new reality - a world where almost everyone he knows is dead, having been sacrificed when he was summoned as a hero the first time, and the few survivors of the incident are being hunted by a group of conspiracy theorists. Even this fragile status quo is disrupted when an assassin nearly succeeds in taking his life. But the brush with death restores Kaito's memories and powers, giving him the perfect opportunity to take revenge on his assailants and chart a course back to his partners in crime...

NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED

After successfully coming back to the other world, Kaito happens upon Leticia, only to discover that she doesn't recognize him. From there, he and his two newest accomplices, Mai and Yuuto, travel to the town of Zolkia and start climbing the ranks at the Adventurers Guild. Don't think they've turned over a new leaf, however--it's all in service of drawing the attention of their next targets: a prince of the beast lands named Leon and Leticia's elder sister Lilia. In the past, this accomplished duo betrayed Kaito out of a conviction that it would save their realm.

But Kaito couldn't care less about their motivations; the only thing he's concerned with is returning the pain they inflicted on him, a thousand times over.

Since their mother's death, Carter and Sadie have become near strangers. While Sadie has lived with her grandparents in London, her brother has traveled the world with their father, the brilliant Egyptologist, Dr Julius Kane.

One night, Dr Kane brings the siblings together for a "research experiment" at the British Museum, where he hopes to set things right for his family. Instead, he unleashes the Egyptian god Set, who banishes him to oblivion and forces the children to flee for their lives.

Soon, Sadie and Carter discover that the gods of Egypt are waking, and the worst of them, Set, has his sights on the Kanes. To stop him, the siblings embark on a dangerous journey across the globe - a quest that brings them ever closer to the truth about their family, and their links to a secret order that has existed since the time of the pharaohs.

Ever since the gods of ancient Egypt were unleashed in the modern world, Carter Kane and his sister, Sadie, have been in trouble.

As descendants of the House of Life, the Kanes have some powers at their command; but the devious gods haven't given them time to master their skills at Brooklyn House, a training ground for young magicians.

And now their most threatening enemy yet - the Chaos snake, Apophis - is rising. If they don't prevent him from breaking free in a few days' time, the world will end. In other words, it's a typical week for the Kane family.

To have any chance of battling the forces of Chaos, the Kanes must revive the sun god, Ra. But that would be a feat more difficult than any magician has ever accomplished. First they have to search the world for the Book of Ra, then they have to learn how to chant its spells. Oh, and did we mention that no one knows where Ra is, exactly?

He's b-a-a-ack! Despite their best efforts, Carter and Sadie Kane can't seem to keep Apophis, the chaos snake, down.

Now Apophis is threatening to plunge the world into eternal darkness, and the Kanes are faced with the impossible task of having to destroy him once and for all.

Unfortunately, the magicians of the House of Life are on the brink of civil war, the gods are divided, and the young initiates of Brooklyn House stand almost alone against the forces of chaos.

The Kanes' only hope is an ancient spell that might turn the serpent's own shadow into a weapon, but the magic has been lost for a millennia. To find the answer they need, the Kanes must rely on the murderous ghost of a powerful magician who might be able to lead them to the serpent's shadow... or might lead them to their deaths in the depths of the underworld.

Nothing less than the mortal world is at stake when the Kane family fulfills its destiny in this thrilling conclusion to the Kane Chronicles.

Four stories of the Robert E. Howard's puritan swordsman, Solomon Kane

Hills of the Dead
First published in Weird Tales, August 1930. In Africa, Kane's old friend N'Longa (the witch doctor from "Red Shadows") gives the Puritan a magic wooden staff, the Staff of Solomon, which will protect him in his travels. Kane enters the jungle and finds a city of vampires.

The Hawk of Basti
First published in Red Shadows. Kane's old acquaintance, Jeremy Hawk, was once the king of an African lost civilization, and wants to resume that role.

Wings in the Night
First published in Weird Tales, July 1932. In Africa again, Kane comes across an entire village wiped out, and all of the roofs have been ripped off, as if by something was trying to get inside from above.

The Children of Asshur
First published in Red Shadows. Kane comes across a lost city of Assyrians.