Oratory is a novel of a brilliant sculptor long regulated to the shadows of the art world. The protagonist Giacomo Serpotta was a genius. The story of his trials and the high points of his career are set among changes of government, plague, and religious fervor of the 17th and 18th centuries in Palermo, Sicily. His work which is only found in Palermo, Alcomo, and Agrigento are wedding cake like confections of white stucco in a banquet of baroque and rococo style, Within the pages the reade...

Stranded on the distant planet Tschai, young Adam Reith is the sole survivor of a space mission who discovers the world is inhabited—not only by warring alien cultures but by human slaves as well, taken early in Earth’s history. Reith must find a way off the planet to warn Earth of Tschai’s deadly existence.Against a backdrop of baroque cities and haunted wastelands, sumptuous palaces and riotous inns, Reith will encounter deadly wastrels and murderous aliens, dastardly villains an...

There is a world behind the canvas. Past the flat façade and the crackling paint is a realm where art lives, breathes, creates, and destroys.Claudia Miravista loves art but only sees what is on the surface-until the Dutch boy Pim appears in the painting in her room. Pim has been trapped in the world behind the canvas for centuries by a power-hungry witch, and he now believes that Claudia is his only hope for escape. Fueled by the help of an ancient artist and some microwaveable magi...

This historical romance, perhaps the greatest cloak-and-sword story ever written, relates the adventures of four fictional swashbuckling heroes who loyally served the French kings Louis XIII and Louis XIV.When the dashing young d’Artagnan arrives in Paris from Gascony, he becomes embroiled in three duels with the musketeers Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. But when he proves himself by fighting with, not against, the three Musketeers, they form a quick and lasting friendship. The daring...

Behind the Canvas by Alexander Vance is an adventurous middle grade novel full of friendship, magic, and mystery.There is a world behind the canvas. Past the flat façade and the crackling paint is a realm where art lives, breathes, creates, and destroys.Claudia Miravista loves art but only sees what is on the surface—until the Dutch boy Pim appears in the painting in her room. Pim has been trapped in the world behind the c...

Breaking up is hard to do—so why not pay someone to do it for you?Twelve-year-old Quentin never asked to be the Heartbreak Messenger. It just kind of happened, and he can't let a golden opportunity pass him by. The valuable communication service he offers is simple: He delivers breakup messages. For a small fee, he will deliver that message to your soon-to-be ex. If you order the deluxe package, he'll even throw in some flowers and a box of chocolates. You ...

When someone sent distress signals to outer space from the planet Tschai, it was Adam Reith’s misfortune to be sent from Earth to investigate. Because when his ship came close to Tschai, it was torpedoed—and Adam escaped to the surface with his life and nothing else.On Tschai, a vast, previously unexplored planet, Adam is taken as a slave by humans and learns that there are four other intelligent but nonhuman races dominant on this strange world. To solve the mystery of the distres...

Breaking up is hard to do—so why not pay someone to do it for you?Twelve-year-old Quentin never asked to be the Heartbreak Messenger. It just kind of happened, and he can't let a golden opportunity pass him by. The valuable communication service he offers is simple: He delivers breakup messages. For a small fee, he will deliver that message to your soon-to-be ex. If you order the deluxe package, he'll even throw in some flowers and a box of chocolates. You...

Getting back to Earth from the planet Tschai involved either stealing a spaceship or having one built to order—for Tschai was home to several intelligent star-born races, and so they had spaceyards. But Adam Reith’s problem was not so simple.He’d already been lucky to escape the Chasch and the Wankh and a dozen different types of humans, and now his course led directly to the Grand Sivishe Spaceyards in the domains of the Dirdir.But the Dirdir were quite different from the ...

The Pnume were an ancient race of the planet Tschai, living underground in a vast network of caverns with their human slave-species, the Pnumekin. The Pnume were the historians of Tschai, collecting its past with ruthless and scholarly dedication. Surface dwellers never saw the Pnume—if they were lucky. Adam Reith was not so fortunate. The Pnume had heard rumors of a strange man claiming to have come from the planet Earth, and they wanted him for Foreverness, the museum of Tschai life. Ada...

Dumas continues his Musketeer Romances with a final trilogy. The Vicomte de Bragelonne opens an epic adventure which continues with Louise de la Vallière and reaches its climax in The Man in the Iron Mask.It is May 1660, and the fate of nations is at stake. Mazarin plots, Louis XIV is in love, and Raoul de Bragelonne, son of Athos, is intent on serving France and winning the heart of Louise de la Vallière. Meanwhile, d’Artagnan learns that his old comrade...

Thirty-five years after the events of The Three Musketeers, D’Artagnan, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis find themselves caught between conflicting loyalties in a power struggle that could change the face of the French monarchy.For eight long years, a young prisoner has languished within the dreaded Bastille, his face hidden in an iron mask. He knows neither his true identity nor the crime for which he has been imprisoned. But Aramis knows this secret—a secret so dangerous, it c...