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Old Kingdom Series
The Old Kingdom, or Abhorsen in North America, is a fantasy series written by Australian author Garth Nix. It originated in 1995 with the novel ''Sabriel'' and has continued in the novels ''Lirael'' (2001), ''Abhorsen'' (2003) and ''Goldenhand'' (2016). The series has continued with the prequel novel ''Clariel'' (2014) and the latest installment of the series, ''Terciel & Elinor'', was released in November 2021. ''The Old Kingdom'' also consists of the novella ''The Creature in the Case'' (2005) and other short fiction. In Australia an omnibus edition comprising three novels and one novella was titled ''The Old Kingdom Chronicles''. Omnibus editions in the U.S. have been titled ''The Abhorsen Trilogy'' (2003) and ''The Abhorsen Chronicles'' (2009). ISFDB catalogues the entire continuing series as "The Old Kingdom / Abhorsen". Books in the series ''Sabriel'' The protagonist, Sabriel, is in her final few days at her school in Ancelstierre (an alternate history of 1910 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sabriel
''Sabriel'' is a fantasy novel by Garth Nix, first published in 1995. It is the first in his Old Kingdom series, followed by ''Lirael'', ''Abhorsen'', ''Clariel'', ''Goldenhand,'' and ''Terciel and Elinor''. Plot introduction The novel is set in two neighbouring fictional countries: To the South lies Ancelstierre, which has a technology level and society similar to that of early-20th century Australia, and to the North lies the Old Kingdom, where both Free magic and Charter Magic exist—a fact officially denied by the government of Ancelstierre and disbelieved by most of Ancelstierre's inhabitants. A wall separates the two countries. Near the border some magic crosses the Wall, especially on days when the wind is blowing out of the Old Kingdom. Since the fall of the Royal Family, dangerous entities roam, ranging from the undead to powerful sorcerers and Free Magic elementals. These living Dead are raised by Necromancers, diviners of the dead who roam the Old Kingdom or live in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zombie
A zombie (Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in which a ''zombie'' is a dead body reanimated through various methods, most commonly magic like voodoo. Modern media depictions of the reanimation of the dead often do not involve magic but rather science fictional methods such as carriers, radiation, mental diseases, vectors, pathogens, parasites, scientific accidents, etc. The English word "zombie" was first recorded in 1819, in a history of Brazil by the poet Robert Southey, in the form of "zombi"."Zombie" in |
Ghost
A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to realistic, lifelike forms. The deliberate attempt to contact the spirit of a deceased person is known as necromancy, or in spiritism as a ''séance''. Other terms associated with it are apparition, haunt, phantom, poltergeist, shade, specter or spectre, spirit, spook, wraith, demon, and ghoul. The belief in the existence of an afterlife, as well as manifestations of the spirits of the dead, is widespread, dating back to animism or ancestor worship in pre-literate cultures. Certain religious practices—funeral rites, exorcisms, and some practices of spiritualism and ritual magic—are specifically designed to rest the spirits of the dead. Ghosts are generally described as solitary, human-like essences, though stories of ghostly armies and th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wand
A wand is a thin, light-weight rod that is held with one hand, and is traditionally made of wood, but may also be made of other materials, such as metal or plastic. Long versions of wands are often styled in forms of staves or sceptres, which could have large ornamentation on the top. In modern times, wands are usually associated with stage magic or supernatural magic, but there have been other uses, all stemming from the original meaning as a synonym of rod and virge. A stick that is used for reaching, pointing, drawing in the dirt, and directing other people, is one of the earliest and simplest of tools. History It is possible that wands were used by pre-historic peoples. It is mentioned that 'rods' (as well as rings) were found with Red Lady of Paviland in Britain. It is mentioned by the author in ''Gower - A Guide to Ancient and Historic Monuments on the Gower Peninsula'' that these might have been wands and are depicted as such in a reconstruction drawing of the burial o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sword
A sword is an edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter blade with a pointed tip. A slashing sword is more likely to be curved and to have a sharpened cutting edge on one or both sides of the blade. Many swords are designed for both thrusting and slashing. The precise definition of a sword varies by historical epoch and geographic region. Historically, the sword developed in the Bronze Age, evolving from the dagger; the earliest specimens date to about 1600 BC. The later Iron Age sword remained fairly short and without a crossguard. The spatha, as it developed in the Late Roman army, became the predecessor of the European sword of the Middle Ages, at first adopted as the Migration Period sword, and only in the High Middle Ages, developed into the classical arming sword with crossguard. The word '' sword'' continue ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Psychokinesis
Psychokinesis (from grc, ψυχή, , soul and grc, κίνησις, , movement, label=ㅤ), or telekinesis (from grc, τηλε, , far off and grc, κίνησις, , movement, label=ㅤ), is a hypothetical psychic ability allowing a person to influence a physical system without physical interaction. Psychokinesis experiments have historically been criticized for lack of proper controls and repeatability. There is no good evidence that psychokinesis is a real phenomenon, and the topic is generally regarded as pseudoscience. Etymology The word ''psychokinesis'' was coined in 1914 by American author Henry Holt in his book ''On the Cosmic Relations''. The term is a compound of the Greek words ψυχή (''psyche'') – meaning "mind", "soul", "spirit", or "breath" – and κίνησις (''kinesis'') – meaning "motion" or "movement". The American parapsychologist J. B. Rhine coined the term ''extra-sensory perception'' to describe receiving information paranormally from an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jonathan Strahan
Jonathan Strahan (born 1964, Belfast, Northern Ireland) is an editor and publisher of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. His family moved to Perth, Western Australia in 1968, and he graduated from the University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Arts in 1986. In 1990 he co-founded ''Eidolon: The Journal of Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy'', and worked on it as co-editor and co-publisher until 1999. He was also co-publisher of Eidolon Books which published Robin Pen's ''The Secret Life of Rubber-Suit Monsters'', Howard Waldrop's ''Going Home Again'', Storm Constantine's ''The Thorn Boy'', and Terry Dowling's ''Blackwater Days''. In 1997 Jonathan worked in Oakland, California for ''Locus: The Newspaper of the Science Fiction Field'' as an assistant editor and wrote a regular reviewer column for the magazine until March 1998 when he returned to Australia. In early 1999 Jonathan resumed reviewing and copyediting for ''Locus'', and was then promoted to Reviews Edito ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack Dann
Jack Dann (born February 15, 1945) is an American writer best known for his science fiction, an editor and a writing teacher, who has lived in Australia since 1994. He has published over seventy books, in the majority of cases as editor or co-editor of story anthologies in the science fiction, fantasy and horror genres. He has published nine novels, numerous shorter works of fiction, essays and poetry and his books have been translated into thirteen languages. His work, which includes fiction in the science fiction, fantasy, horror, magical realism and historical and alternative history genres, has been compared to Jorge Luis Borges, Roald Dahl, Lewis Carroll, J. G. Ballard, and Philip K. Dick. Life and career Earlier life Jack Dann was born to a Jewish family in New York State in 1945 and grew up in Johnson City, New York. His father was an attorney and a Judge. Dann describes himself as having been "a troublesome child in a very small town" and in his teens associated with a lo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Tale Of The Abhorsen And Other Stories
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version can be written in two forms: the double-storey a and single-storey ɑ. The latter is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also found in italic type. In English grammar, " a", and its variant " an", are indefinite articles. History The earliest certain ancestor of "A" is aleph (also written 'aleph), the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet, which consisted entirely of consonants (for that reason, it is also called an abjad to distinguish ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Book Day
World Book Day, also known as World Book and Copyright Day or International Day of the Book, is an annual event organized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to promote reading, publishing, and copyright. The first World Book Day was celebrated on 23 April in 1995, and continues to be recognized on that day. A related event in the United Kingdom and Ireland is observed in March. On the occasion of World Book and Copyright Day, UNESCO along with the advisory committee from the major sectors of the book industry, select the World Book Capital for one year. Each designated World Book Capital City carries out a program of activities to celebrate and promote books and reading. Date selection The original idea was conceived in 1922 by Spanish writer Vicente Clavel Andrés as a way to honour the author Miguel de Cervantes. It was first celebrated on 7 October 1926, Cervantes' birthday, before being moved to his death date, 23 April, in 1930. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prequel
A prequel is a literary, dramatic or cinematic work whose story precedes that of a previous work, by focusing on events that occur before the original narrative. A prequel is a work that forms part of a backstory to the preceding work. The term "prequel" is a 20th-century neologism from the prefix "pre-" (from Latin ''prae'', "before") and "sequel". Like sequels, prequels may or may not concern the same plot as the work from which they are derived. More often they explain the background that led to the events in the original, but sometimes the connections are not completely explicit. Sometimes prequels play on the audience's knowledge of what will happen next, using deliberate references to create dramatic irony. History Though the word "prequel" is of recent origin, works fitting this concept existed long before. The ''Cypria'', presupposing hearers' acquaintance with the events of the Homeric epic, confined itself to what preceded the ''Iliad'', and thus formed a kind of introd ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hadrian's Wall
Hadrian's Wall ( la, Vallum Aelium), also known as the Roman Wall, Picts' Wall, or ''Vallum Hadriani'' in Latin, is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. Running from Wallsend on the River Tyne in the east to Bowness-on-Solway in the west of what is now northern England, it was a stone wall with large ditches in front of it and behind it that crossed the whole width of the island. Soldiers were garrisoned along the line of the wall in large forts, smaller milecastles and intervening turrets. In addition to the wall's defensive military role, its gates may have been customs posts. A significant portion of the wall still stands and can be followed on foot along the adjoining Hadrian's Wall Path. The largest Roman archaeological feature in Britain, it runs a total of in northern England. Regarded as a British cultural icon, Hadrian's Wall is one of Britain's major ancient tourist attract ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
