Janet Morris

Tempus takes Manhattan. Is this the Lemuria of antiquity, or of times to come? Once you've ridden the storm clouds of heaven from the edge of time, anything is possible. Demonic hordes threaten to destroy the very fabric of time itself. The fate of all humanity rests on the shoulders of Tempus the Black, Favorite of the Storm God. But even this hero of legend will encounter a challenge he has never faced before . . . present-day New York City. Praise for the Sacred Band series: "... much more than great Heroic Fantasy: it is classic literature, filled with sub-plots, a fine cast of well-drawn characters, insight and wisdom and recurring themes of honor, faith, brotherhood and love." -- Joe Bonadonna, Black Gate Magazine* * * * * "Janet Morris, Tempus (1987), and, with Chris Morris, Tempus Unbound (1989), The Sacred Band (2010)." A fantasy series about the Sacred Band of Stepsons, an elite army modeled on the fourth-century B. C. E. Sacred Band of Thebes. The stories explore the fraught personal relationships of mixed hetero- and homosexual troops, only sometimes paired, as they fight for their commander, the immortal Tempus. Morris includes archaeological and historical details, from physical items to social practices, religion, and philosophy, to create a fantasy world that is, in many ways, more historically accurate than many popular accounts of antiquity." -- Robert W. Cape, Jr, in Classical Traditions in Science Fiction, Brett M. Rogers & Benjamin Eldon Stevens, eds., Oxford University Press

Heroic fiction. Mythic Fantasy. Beyond Sanctuary"'Beyond Sanctuary' is a wonderful novel, and this edition is a brand-new, revised and expanded Author's Cut. This is a lucid, lyrical, and powerful story of love and war, loss and betrayal, life and death. Death is the price we pay for war. Grief is the price we pay for love. Indeed. I've already started reading the second book in the Trilogy, Beyond the Veil. I urge you to start here, with Beyond Sanctuary, and don't stop reading. Ever." -- Joe Bonadonna, Black Gate Adventures in Fantasy Literature. THE SACRED BAND GOES NORTH - TO WAR Here is the newly revised Author's Cut edition of BEYOND SANCTUARY, the first ever full-length novel to take you BEYOND the notorious Thieves World(TM) fantasy universe, where gods still stalk the land, warring with demons and human sorcerers and trampling unfortunate humanity underfoot. If you like stories of bold brave knights employed in meritorious duty, or tales of ladies delicate and fair, be warned: Beyond Sanctuary, set at the foot of notorious Wizardwall, may be too realistic for your sensibilities. War is coming to Tyse, an occupied town at the foot of Wizardwall. And so is the Sacred Band, commanded by Tempus, who is called the favorite of the storm god, the Riddler, Tempus the Black, and worse by his enemies. Tempus longs to align his cavalry with the Nisibisi freemen on Wizardwall's slopes, fighting to regain their homeland against the allied sorcerers of Black Nisibis and the evil Mygdonian empire, intent on conquering all who stand in their way. BEYOND SANCTUARY lies occupied Tyse, a war-torn town in the shadow of Wizardwall that hosts refugees, insurgents, murderers, thieves, and wizards whose allegiance shifts with the wind. And abutting Tyse is godless Peace Falls, where anything can happen, and often does. . . . To some, Tempus is a villain. To others, a hero, albeit a hero with a terrible curse: any he loves will spurn him; any who love him soon die of it. His curse grants him immortality, the gift of healing, and great prowess on the battlefield, but denies him sleep and love -- a curse so dreadful that even the southern storm god he once served has turned against him. But god or no god, Tempus and his Stepsons, with help from his sorcerer-slaying sister Cime and Jihan the Froth Daughter, must battle Datan, the archmage of Black Nisibis and the inhuman legions of Roxane, Death's Queen. In BEYOND SANCTUARY, Tempus and his Sacred Band must war against the deadliest demons and most malevolent mages conceivable. In this war there is no such thing as honorable defeat, or even honorable death in a losing cause. The winners will eat your soul. BEYOND SANCTUARY is the first novel in Janet Morris' BEYOND Trilogy, followed by BEYOND THE VEIL and BEYOND WIZARDWALL.

Epic fantasy, social science fiction, heroic fantasy. allegorical fantasyWind from the Abyss is the third volume in Janet Morris' classic Silistra Quartet, continuing one woman's quest for self-realization in a distant tomorrow. Aristocrat. Outcast. Picara. Slave. Ruler .... She is descended from the masters of the universe. To hold her he challenges the gods themselves. Praise for Janet Morris' Silistra Quartet: "The amazing and erotic adventures of the most beautiful courtesan in tomorrow's universe." -- Fred Pohl"Engrossing characters in a marvelous adventure." -- Charles N. Brown, Locus Magazine. The best single example of prostitution used in fantasy is Janet Morris' Silsitra series." -- Anne K. Kahler, The Picara: From Hera to Fantasy Heroine. This Perseid Press Author's Cut Edition is revised and expanded by the author and presented in a format designed to enhance your reading experience with larger, easy-to-read print, more generous margins, and covers designed for these premium editions. Wind from the Abyss starts with this . . . Author's NoteSince, at the beginning of this tale, I did not recollect myself nor retain even the slightest glimmer of such understanding as would have led me to an awareness of the significance of the various occurrences that transpired at the Lake of Horns then, I am adding this preface, though it was no part of my initial conception, that the meaningfulness of the events described by "Khys' Estri" (as I have come to think of the shadow-self I was while the dharen held my skills and memory in abeyance) not be withheld from you as they were from me. I knew myself not: I was Estri because the girl Carth supposedly found wandering in the forest stripped of comprehension and identity chose that name. There, perhaps, lies the greatest irony of all, that I named myself anew after Estri Hadrath diet Estrazi, who in reality I had once been. And perhaps it is not irony at all, but an expression of Khys' humor, an implicit dissertation by him who structured my experiences, my very thoughts, for nearly two years, until his audacity drove him to bring together once more Sereth crill Tyris, past-Slayer, then the outlawed Ebvrasea, then arrar to the dharen himself; Chayin rendi Inekte, cahndor of Nemar, co-cahndor of the Taken Lands, chosen so of Tar-Kesa, and at that time Khys' puppet-vassal; and myself, former Well-Keepress, tiask of Nemar, and lastly becoming the chaldless outlaw who had come to judgment and endured ongoing retribution at the dharen's hands. To test his hesting, his power over owkahen, the time-coming-to-be, did Khys put us together, all three, in his Day-Keeper's city -- and from that moment onward, the Weathers of Life became fixed: siphoned into a singular future; sealed tight as a dead god in his mausoleum, whose every move brought him closer to the sum total, obliteration. So did the dharen Khys bespeak it, himself. . . .

Welcome to the world of shadows, cloaked in perpetual starlight; its denizens are a mysterious and frightening breed. And sometimes, just sometimes, their eldritch whispers and murmurs can cross the boundaries of reality and enter our darkest dreams. Richard Groller and his troupe of dead and living poets pull back the veil in The Book of Night, revealing the terrifying denizens of the shadows. Eerie and hypnotic artwork by some of today's most chilling artists illuminates the vivid imaginings of the poets. If you dare, open this tome of Macabre Eerie Tales of the Supernatural, this King of Rhyming Horror Books for Adults, filled with Dark Tales of the Darkest Depth of Your Soul, Nightmare Scenarios Hiding in The Dark, Hidden Fates, Halloween Treats, and Midnight Poetry. This is the Poetry Slam of Chilling Creatures of Passage, and the Ultimate in Frightening Fortunes Spoken Word Poetry. Welcome to Dark Poetry from the Creepypasta Masters of Horror. Apparitions-things seen and unseen at the edge of our vision, or embedded in the corners of our nightmares. Sweet Sorrow-the pain and poignancy of loss, love unrequited, visions from afar, the pangs of memory, or the last breaths of mortals. The Autumn People-denizens of the night welcome the Fall and its All Hallows promises. Through A Glass Darkly-peer through the gloom seeking the moment of revelation, and all becomes clear-or not. Come, the Night awaits... Authors-Living: Louis AgrestaLarry Atchley, Jr. Jeff BarnesDean M. DrinkelRichard D. EvansJack William FinleyAllan GilbreathRichard GrollerMichael HansonLori MartinChris MorrisJanet MorrisKurt NewtonJillian PerkinsKimberly RichardsonBill SniderAngel WeaverAuthors-Deceased: Ambrose Bierce (1842-1913)Rupert Brooke (1887-1915)Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)George Gordon (Lord) Byron (1788-1824)Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)Robert Frost (1874-1963)Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)William Ernest Henley (1849-1903)Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)Edward J. M. D. Plunkett, (Lord Dunsany) (1878-1957)Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)Artists: Michael BielaczycPaul BielaczycBob GiadrosichLiz HollandChris Mars

One woman's mythic search for self-realization in a distant tomorrow... Her sensuality was at the core of her world, her quest beyond the civilized stars. Aristocrat. Outcast. Picara. Slave. Ruler." Engrossing characters in a marvelous adventure." - Charles N. Brown, Locus Magazine"The amazing and erotic adventures of the most beautiful courtesan in tomorrow's universe" - Frederik Pohl"The best single example of prostitution used in fantasy is Janet Morris' Silistra series... Estri's character is most like that of Ishtar who describes herself as "'a prostitute compassionate am I'" because she "symbolizes the creative submission to the demands of instinct, to the chaos of nature ...the free woman, as opposed to the domesticated woman". Linking Estri with these lunar and water symbols is not difficult because of the moon's eternal virginity (the strength of integrity) links with her changeability (the prostitute's switching of lovers). ...] Morris strengthens the moon imagery by having Estri as a well-keepress because wells, fountains, and the moon as the orb which controls water have long been associated with fertility, ...] In a sense, she is like the moon because she is apparently eternal, never waxing or waning except in her pursuit of the quest; she is the prototypical wanderer like the moon and Ishtar. She is the eternal night symbol of the moon in opposition to the Day-Keepers ...] At her majority (her three hundredth birthday), she is given a silver-cubed hologram letter from her mother, containing a videotape of her conception by the savage bronzed barbarian god from another world. ...] If Estri's mother then acts as a bawd, willing her lineage as Well-Keepress to her daughter, then Estri's great-grandmother Astria as foundress of the Well becomes a further mother-bawd figure when she offers her prophetic advice in her letter: "Guard Astria for you may lose it, and more. Beware of one who is not as he seems. Stray not in the port city of Baniev ...look well about you, for your father's daughter's brother seeks you". Having no brother that she knows of does not stay Estri from undertaking the heroic quest of finding her father." - Anne K. Kaler, The Picara: From Hera to Fantasy Heroine

JANET MORRIS' BEYOND WIZARDWALL - the northern adventures of Tempus and his Stepsons come to their apocalyptic conclusion at the Festival of Man, where the games are not the scheduled ones of prowess in swordplay or chariot-racing, but games of assassination and treachery, with the Rankan emperor's life and the honor of the Sacred Band at stake. When Niko quits the Stepsons, he finds that his troubles are just beginning: not only has Death's Queen marshaled new forces to entrap him, but Rankan interests desirous of a change in emperors have singled him out as the perfect assassin. Randal, the Stepsons' pet mage and Niko's former partner, must unite Tempus, the Stepsons, and hellish aid from magical quarters in a desperate attempt to save the defenseless Niko from Death's Queen - and himself. In imperial Ranke, Tempus finds himself torn between conflicting oaths and pitted against powers not even his supernal strength can vanquish - powers both mortal and immortal, magical and heavenly, so that, in the end, the god-ridden and accursed soldier must make pacts with his most hated enemies - not only Askelon, the Lord of Dreams, but Death's Queen herself - in order to save the souls of those he loves and the empire he's served so long. And this time, Tempus' own soul hangs in the balance, as primal forces and even Enlil, the most fearsome storm god of them all, haggle over his fate.

Unchecked after the collapse of the USSR, a Soviet scientific team conducts experiments in time travel, hoping to rewrite history and thus cultivate a Russian superpower.