Böcker av Alma Alexander

THESE ARE THE STORIES OF A CENTURY IN A PLACE CALLED VAL HALL. NOT VALHALLA. NOT ODIN'S GATHERING PLACE FOR GODS AND IMMORTALS. VAL HALL, HOME AND LAST SANCTUARY FOR RETIRED SUPERHEROES (THIRD CLASS). Val Hall, raised by the vision and devotion of one man for others of his kind... in the wreckage of the world left behind in the ashes of the conflagration of what they called the Great War. Men and women in whom an extraordinary moment released one singular extraordinary power, gathered under the definition of Superheroes (Third Class), could gather here in the twilight of their lives in search of security, contentment, care, and peace - they could come here to find, and take shelter with, others of their kind. From those who could know the unknowable, release gifts trapped in other minds, free ancient memories with a single touch, lead their kin back to the Promised Land, or face down a volcano; from those who use the power of their voice to make others believe anything they say, or those whose task it was to turn annihilation from their people at any cost, or stand against the storm to protect the ones they love, or walk with the dead and glimpse the world beyond - or those who can bend time, see the invisible, or save the world from ruin in their own unique ways - their powers are banked... until the instant in which they are kindled into something unforgettable. These are their stories. Welcome to Val Hall.

Anghara Kir Hama -heir to an ancient throne, holder of a perilous gift called Sight, one who serves the dangerous and powerful Old GodsaEUR and then sweeps them away as the Changer of Days

THe Were Chronicles Omnibus is a collected edition of three novels, Random, Wolf, and Shifter - a triptych of stories about a society so like and so very unlike our own - where Were creatures can coexist alongside "normal" humans, but are subject to fear, prejudice, discrimination, and bullying.In this particular story, first young Jazz Marsh Turns into something unprecedented, throwing her family and the Were authorities into a spin. Then her brother Mal, frustrated beyond reason by his own delayed Turn, takes matters into his own hands and chooses his own destiny, inflitrating the shadowy Lycan clan in order to help expiate his perceived guilt in his older sister''s death. He''s helped by his friend, Chalky, a true Shifter who is capable of Turning into anything he pleases unconstrained by the rules of Were kind.A coming of age story that is fantasy grounded in science, it is aimed at a general readership but particularly commended to older teens.From the Back Blurb:"Everything I knew about the Were was wrong" A Were of no fixed form, a Random, able to Turn into any warm-blooded creature it sees...A young Random whose failure to Turn forces him into taking his destiny into his own hands and becoming full Lycan in the name of pride and fury, learning things he never thought were possible...A true Shifter, the wild card, Turning into anything he chooses at will...Together, they work to turn back a shattering tragedy, solve a conspiracy-shrouded mystery rooted in their own kind, and work to preserve their own existence against a rising tide of superstition andhatred.All they wanted to do, in the end, was save a life. Instead... they started a war.

A sweeping epic set in medieval China; it is the story of a group of women, the Jin-Shei sisterhood, who form a uniquely powerful circle that transcends class and social custom.They are bound together by a declaration of loyalty that transcends all other vows, even those with the gods, by their own secret language, passed from mother to daughter, by the knowledge that some of them will have to pay the ultimate sacrifice to enable others to fulfil their destiny.The sisterhood we meet run from the Emperor's sister to the street-beggar, from the trainee warrior in the Emperor's Guard to the apprentice healer, from the artist to the traveller-girl, herself an illegitimate daughter of an emperor and seen as a threat to the throne. And as one of them becomes Dragon Empress, her determination to hold power against the sages of the temple, against the marauding forces from other kingdoms, drags the sisterhood into a dangerous world of court intrigue, plot and counterplot, and brings them into conflict with each other from which only the one who remains true to all the vows she made at the very beginning to the dying Princess Empress can rescue them.An amazing and unusual book, based on some historical fact, full of drama, adventure and conflict like a Shakespearean history play, it's a novel about kinship and a society of women, of mysticism, jealousy, fate, destiny, all set in the wonderful, swirling background of medieval China.

Perfect for fans of Memoirs of a Geisha and Empress Orchid - 'The Embers of Heaven' is a magical epic, with delightful characters, an intriguing scenario and a real feeling of place and history. It has a wonderful combination of character, romantic lives, and spiritual quest, set against a credible historical background.In 'The Secrets of Jin-Shei,' eight women pledge themselves as sisters in the name of jin-shei, the unbreakable bond, the promise that lasts a lifetime. This sisterhood shapes their lives, their country and their world. 'The Embers of Heaven' begins four hundred years later. In eighteenth-century Syai, and its capital city of Linh-an, things have changed beyond recognition.On the face of it, women are more equal than they have ever been. But the men run the machines, the factories, and the technology. Women have lost the ability to weave their fates and influence the course of events. The foundation of an empire once rested on jin-shei and its customs. It connected women from every walk of life and formed a bond that empowered every woman who swore the oath. The advancement of printing, the developments of technology and the changes in society seem to have improved the daily lives of the underclass, but women have been stripped of this sacred pact.Amais is heir to her poet-ancestress's manuscripts and journals. The journals are all in jin-ashu, the women's tongue, taught sketchily to Amais by her mother. Amais has the clear vision of an outsider looking in. Combined with her deep and instinctive bond to her ancestors and her culture, she determines to reinvent the Women's Country and bring the jin-shei back. But just as her crusade begins, she and her family are caught up in the whirlwind of the Golden Rising - a people's revolution that is fated to destroy much that was once valuable, gracious and beautiful.