Demonstrating how emotion became central to the legal and literary meanings of piracy in nineteenth-century AmericaPirates have long occupied a central yet unstable place in American law and national identity. In the decades leading up to and including the U.S. Civil War, the charge of piracy was leveled against an unusually wide range of figures: foreign heads of state, imperial filibusters, transoceanic enslavers, enslaved mutineers, radical abolitionists, and ot...

Once again in spring, Kitt sails across the sea to the dark Murkowydir forest. He does his best to avoid his enemies, the murderous Feen Woodstalkers - just to meet the Hunters in the Mist who eat Woodstalker warriors for dinner, in the truest sense of the word. Kitt has never been in a bigger fix trying to escape them.The creatures have more than the usual five senses, and Kitt is not even sure if they are human, but they have a language that is so strange that it is apt to tear o...

Dragons don't really exist – do they? His wanderings take Kitt to Nurkande, a city on the border of the red desert Kisil Kora, where trade has come to a standstill on the caravan roads. The mythic Dragon-Lord has risen and loosed his minions to steal, torture, and murder to find the Rosary of Varakhsha, forty-four cherry-sized, rose-coloured dragon pearls of immense value and strange power.Kitt meets the rogue Salawar, who has great plans with his band of gentlemen of fortune. For ...

The pursuit of the robber gang's most brutal member, Bakar the Beast, brings Kitt to the gates of the prosperous and crime-ridden trading city of Binkat. There, he crosses paths with Apandi Bai, a ruined trader asking too many questions.In consequence, more and more criminals suffer sudden blood loss, and the city authorities are in no hurry to apprehend the mysterious killer. As dark secrets unravel, a dangerous conspiracy comes to light, threatening all the caravan cities.

Haunted by the memories of too many battles, Kitt renounces the warrior's way and decides that from now on, he will work as a blacksmith. The legends tell that in Taumeiryale, a city by the river Meira, sleeps a secret of steel, and he wanders there to uncover it.In Taumeiryale, Maiat, the Higher Order of things, rules in the person of the Sunlord, a ten-year-old boy. Kitt is the only blacksmith there. Tempted by the dark secrets of iron, the young Sunlord befriends Kitt and brings...

Deep in the mysterious forests of Murkowydir, Kitt stumbles upon the crumbling remains of ancient cities and abandoned copper and tin mines and saves a man from mortal danger. Not for a moment does he suspect that this selfless act sets off a chain of events that will plunge the kingdom of Rilante into war and despair.Prince Ardri is driven by the convolutions of the Wandering Stars and the intrigues of Cryssumha's ancient magical kingdom. He tempts the young blacksmith with the se...

To escape the Tolosan Troubles, in which he was entangled by his friends, the Knights of the Red Lily, Kitt stows away on a merchant ship just setting sail. However, his hopes for a quick escape are dashed as the ship becomes caught up in a succession of unnatural storms, preventing it from making landfall. In this perilous situation, a new threat appears on the horizon: the ominous purple sails of a formidable pirate ship. It is the dread Orokun of the Bloody Hand.As the pirates a...

The infamous ship Orokun of the purple sails docks in the lawless port of Khattom, where kingdoms and empires hold no sway. Here, a mysterious stranger manages to drug Kitt and steal his sword.In grim pursuit of the thief, Kitt ascends the desolate mountain range high above Khattom. He comes to a forgotten city lost in time and held in thrall by a cosmic predator. The beautiful demon beast spawned in the black abyss catches humans in a net of celestial music and devours thousands. ...

Abandoned by his family, Kitt sails away from his home island, Isenkliff. On the mainland, in Nordheim, he finds out more about his origins, and new battles await him.The young blacksmith goes upriver in his boat until he reaches the steel mill of Domalki, where the Black Master holds all the workers in his thrall with the power of knowledge drawn from seven books of wisdom and power.Next, Kitt goes to Wanninge Castle to learn more about his vanquished people. Meanwhile, a ...

In gold-towered Chrasten, darkness hides manifold terrors. From Nordheim, Kitt arrives in the city of scholarship and alchemy, craftsmanship and magic. So it appears by day, but at night, bloodsuckers and poisoners wreak havoc.The young blacksmith only wants to read books in the magnificent Guild Library, unravel the secrets of mechanics in Helfstein's renowned workshop and build intricate devices. While doing this, he receives an immoral proposal to steal rare books, becomes entan...

The Kri are a people of dangerous and cold-hearted mercenaries, on the verge of plunging the northern lands into an abyss of war and destruction. The hero-king Grimwolf leads the united armies into battle in the Bloodswamp, where a generation of warriors loses their lives. The Kri are annihilated there — men, women, old and young, even the children — except for one boy. This is his story.In the aftermath of that battle, the healer Aslaug discovers the baby lying next to a dying war...

**A "Best Non-Fiction to Read This Year" Selection from The New StatesmanA magisterial, revisionist narrative history of the Soviet Union in its post-Stalin heyday, bringing a forgotten society to vivid life and offering a new explanation for how it suddenly collapsed.**To those of us in the West, the Soviet Union is synonymous with Stalinism. The common view of the USSR is of a brutal regime that squelched dissent and oversaw a drab, terrified society. Yet as Camb...