Eternal Remains: World Mummification and the Beliefs that make it Necessary provides a comprehensive introduction to bodily preservation in worldwide cultures. It is unique, as it focuses on the religious and spiritual beliefs that necessitated the practice.

Many know of the legends concerning the Shaolin Temple as the font of Asian martial arts. However, this was not the only temple with deep associations with combatives. This anthology dives deep into the historic significance of the relationship between temples, monks, and martial arts.As a transporter of culture, it seems logical that the Indian monk Bodhidharma brought more than just Buddhist texts to the Shaolin Temple. India has a wonderful tradition of martial and healing arts ...

Aikido Ground Fighting presents effective ground techniques that remain true to aikido founder Morehei Ueshiba's teachings while addressing a potential weakness in the system: while aikido is renowned for its submission and compliance techniques as well as grappling from a standing position, it is not known for its effectiveness when it comes to ground fighting. Aikido Ground Fighting is a unique look at the roots of aikido techniques (in particular, the kneeling practice...

This guide to identifying lions, unicorns and other creatures real and fanciful in Chinese and Japanese artwork explains how these and other animal depictions were introduced to the East, and how their portrayals changed over time. Tracing the lion's early use in Mesopotamian art and its cultural symbolism in Greece and Rome, this study includes stylized foxes, tigers, badgers and cats, as well as fanciful creatures like dragons, humanoid birds, water imps, demons and other chimerical beas...

LIGHTSPEED #1 was launched in June 2010, and now eight years later, we've reached a milestone: Issue 100. To celebrate, we're publishing a super-sized issue, with ten original stories--more than twice the amount of original fiction than usual--plus ten reprints and some special nonfiction to boot. And to make things even more commemorative, the vast majority of our fiction in this issue, both original and reprint, comes from our most frequently published fiction contributors—the LIGHTSPEED...

LIGHTSPEED is an online science fiction and fantasy magazine. In its pages, you will find science fiction: from near-future, sociological soft SF, to far-future, star-spanning hard SF--and fantasy: from epic fantasy, sword-and-sorcery, and contemporary urban tales, to magical realism, science-fantasy, and folktales.Our cover art this month comes from Reiko Murakami, illustrating an original science fiction short by Bryan Camp ("The Independence Patch"). We also have fresh new work ...