Agreeing to spy for the Confederacy, Jean-Pierre Mercier, a bilingual McGill student, survives the Battle of Baltimore to join the hundreds of correspondents who have flocked to Washington to report on the forthcoming War Between the States.
A balloon ride brings him to Bull Run. Appalled by the carnage among the green troops on both sides, he follows a Confederate deserter into the hills of Kentucky where he meets the young Protestant girl who will later become his wife.
Rested, he resumes his mission, spying on the disposition of the Union troops at Mill Run and Shiloh. Assigned to report on holes in the Union Naval Blockade, he travels down the Mississippi to New Orleans and then across the Southern States by train through Mobile, Macon, Savannah, and Charleston.
Captured at Chancellorsville, he is sent to the Federal prison at Point Lookout. Once he is free, he heads for home, riding to New York with a trainload of draft protestors.
The man who returns to Montreal, hardened by travel, war, and the constant need to live by his wits, is far different from the boy who left.
Loading ...
It is an era of corruption, intrigue and seduction. Caesar Augustus has died and Tiberius is about to become the second emperor of Rome. Marco, former slave in the house of Claudius, is now a freedman and has become master of the grain shipments at the Claudia Procula estate in Ostia. Procula and her cousin, Claudius the Stammerer, unwittingly involve Marco in a political scheme that could threaten the throne and puts them all at risk. For everyone’s safety, Marco is forced into the Roman Legion and is eventually posted in Judea. Several years later he is reunited with his former mistress, who is now the wife of the procurator of Judea, and the old political maneuver once again threatens their safety. When Marco stands trial for aiding a new sect of fanatics who promote a false faith, he is faced with an agonizing choice–where does his allegiance lay? With Rome, or with the truth?
“The book is based on impeccable research. The times, traditions and values of Rome are brought to life. The people, their motivations, joys and fears are genuine. You can learn more about Rome from this novel than from a library full of dry history books. Perhaps the most attractive aspect of this book is the language: it’s very easy reading.”
–Dr. Bob Rich, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Loading ...
Set in the Victorian age, The Buried Pyramid is, at the start, an archaeological suspense novel. Jenny Benet, a recently orphaned American who was raised in the Wild West before being “finished” in Boston, goes to Egypt with her uncle, Neville Hawthorne, a prominent British archaeologist. They’re searching for the legendary Buried Pyramid, the tomb of the pharaoh Neferankhotep—who may also have been Moses the Lawgiver.
Discovering the tomb is not the end of their journey but only the beginning. In The Buried Pyramid, Jane Lindskold sends us on a marvelous ride through Ancient Egyptian myth, legend, and religion and leaves us enlightened and amazed. It remains my favorite of Jane’s non-series novels, and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.
- Melissa Singer, Tor.com
“Lindskold delivers an exotic historical fantasy that takes the reader from Victorian England to Egypt… the supernatural spookiness carries the story to a satisfying conclusion.” – Publishers Weekly
“The setting is impeccable, as are the characters” manners, with rich details that bring the era vividly to life. Jenny is a charming heroine, at once practical and daring, and the secondary characters comprise a worthy cast of intellectuals and eccentrics, both English and Egyptian…. A definite keeper, and a story to be savored.” – Romantic Times
“Some incredible fantastic encounters, marvels, even a bit of time travel…. it”s spectacular.” – Locus
“This would make a fine movie…. The Buried Pyramid offers hot, dusty entertainment for a dreary afternoon.” – Detroit News and Free Press
Loading ...
The setting is feudal Sussex in the thirteenth century, a landscape and society that have changed almost beyond recognition.
The power of the Church is at its zenith, and the bishop of Alincester is one of the richest men in England. He derives income from the watermills in his diocese: the forces of wind and rain are held to be divine.
Ralf Grigg is the only son of a master carpenter whose business fails when Ralf is small. The family go to live in the seaside village of Mape, where Ralf’s mother was born.
Its lord, Baron Gervase de Maepe, is in debt. He hopes to make a strategic match for his elegant young daughter, Eloise – a match of great importance to the pacific faction at court, lessening the danger of war with France. An exorbitant dowry must be found.
Despite his lowly rank, Ralf makes a close friend of the Baron’s youngest boy. Ralf regards Eloise as haughty; but her attraction to the good-looking carpenter’s son is as strong as it is turbulent, and she must keep her feelings hidden.
At seventeen, still imagining that she despises him, Ralf falls headlong for his best friend’s sister. By now she also is seventeen. Her marriage, sanctioned by the King, has been contracted. The wedding will take place in the autumn of the following year.
Learning of the Baron’s forlorn wish that he could afford a mill, Ralf’s father has the novel idea of a wheel driven not by the wind or rain, but by the tide. Dismissive at first, Gervase changes his mind when he finds that the Church apparently has no call upon such a mill. Here is the answer to his woes. He commissions Master Grigg to build it, and Ralf discovers his vocation: engineering.
The King rules by divine right. His sanction is likewise divine. To violate it is treasonable. The mill forms the focus not only of an intense and dangerous love-affair between Eloise and Ralf, but a legal dispute between baron and bishop which, spiralling out of control, turns into a ruthless power-struggle between Westminster and Rome.
Offered as shareware: free to download
(1 votes, average: 10.00 out of 10)
Loading ...
