As we turn over these volumes we feel that the pieces that spring most directly from his fancy, constitute, as I have said (putting his four novels aside), his most substantial claim to our attention. It would be a mistake to insist too much upon them; Hawthorne was himself the first to recognize that. . . . the valuable element in these things was not what Hawthorne put into them consciously, but what passed into them without his being able to measure it -- the element of simple genius, the quality of imagination. This is the real charm of Hawthorne's writing -- this purity and spontaneity and naturalness of fancy. -- Henry James

For the first time ever, a very special edition of the forerunner to The Lord of the Rings, illustrated throughout in color by J.R.R. Tolkien himself and with the complete text printed in two colors.

The Silmarilli were three perfect jewels, fashioned by Fëanor, most gifted of the Elves, and within them was imprisoned the last Light of the Two Trees of Valinor. But the first Dark Lord, Morgoth, stole the jewels and set them within his iron crown, guarded in the impenetrable fortress of Angband in the north of Middle-earth.

The Silmarillion is the history of the rebellion of Fëanor and his kindred against the gods, their exile from Valinor and return to Middle-earth, and their war, hopeless despite all the heroism, against the great Enemy. It is the ancient drama to which the characters in The Lord of the Rings look back, and in whose events some of them such as Elrond and Galadriel took part.

The book also includes several shorter works: the Ainulindalë, a myth of the Creation, and the Valaquenta, in which the nature and powers of each of the gods is described. The Alkallb?th recounts the downfall of the great island kingdom of Númenor at the end of the Second Age, and Of the Rings of Power tells of the great events at the end of the Third Age, as narrated in The Lord of the Rings.

Tolkien could not publish The Silmarillion in his lifetime, as it grew with him, so he would leave it to his son, Christopher Tolkien, to edit the work from many manuscripts and bring his father’s great vision to publishable form, so completing the literary achievement of a lifetime. This special edition presents anew this seminal first step towards mapping out the posthumous publishing of Middle-earth, and the beginning of an illustrious forty years and more than twenty books celebrating his father’s legacy.

This definitive new edition includes, by way of an introduction, a letter written by Tolkien in 1951 which provides a brilliant exposition of the earlier Ages, and for the first time in its history is presented with J.R.R. Tolkien’s own paintings and drawings, which reveal the breathtaking grandeur and beauty of his vision of the First Age of Middle-earth.

This is the 10th Anniversary Edition of the critically acclaimed mythic fantasy classic "collage novel" DREAMS OF THE COMPASS ROSE by two-time Nebula Award Nominee Vera Nazarian.

"The world is shaped by two things -- stories told and the memories they leave behind."

The Compass Rose universe -- an ancient milieu where places have no names, cities spring forth like bouquets in the desert, gods and dreams walk the scorching sands in the South, ice floats like mirror shards upon the Northern sea, islands that do not exist are found in the East, death chases a thief on the rooftops of a Western city, immortal love spans time, and directions are intertwined into one road we all travel....

"You come to this place when you wonder, and sometimes, only when you dream."

What is the nature of evil?

When a young warrior of a dark race finds himself bound in servitude to a beautiful cruel princess, his loyalty becomes entwined with something more horrifying and mysterious than endless night falling over the ancient desert.

When a courageous young servant reveals her hidden wisdom to the madman conqueror of the world, her fate is joined to a nightmare suspended beyond death and outside the universe.

Two souls from different times -- their destinies connected through hundreds of other lives and generations, through soft whispers of the wind, through ancient truths that lie buried in an island between worlds.

Both souls enslaved through dream and desire in an endless conflict between truth and illusion.

They can only be set free by the wonder of the Compass Rose.

"A clever concoction of vignettes and short stories knitted into a morality tale about the temptation of illusion and the price of truth... an exotic setting reminiscent of Tanith Lee's Flat Earth series.... The author's sumptuous language will resonate with Lord Dunsany and Clark Ashton Smith fans... Nazarian's vital themes and engaging characters are sure to entertain."
-Publishers Weekly

"The colorful strong writing style that Vera has worked on for years has come to full fruition."
-Marion Zimmer Bradley

"I love this book. Dreams of the Compass Rose is a story-cycle in which we keep coming back to the same characters, except from different viewpoints and different times in their lives. It's set in a land of desert empires that never was, though it could easily be our world-far in the future, or deep in the past. Some of the stories are brutal, some are like dreams. All of them are engaging and resonant, creating a new mythology that feels so right one might be forgiven for thinking that it's the cultural heritage of some forgotten country or people that have been lost to history. It reminded me of those wonderful, dream-laden story-cycles that Clark Ashton Smith and Lord Dunsany were writing around the turn of the last century. Dreams of the Compass Rose has a similar stately lyricism, a compelling and visionary voice that speaks to the heart of the reader."
-Charles de Lint

"Nazarian's story cycle treads the borderline between the episodic novel and the short-story collection... her imagery is rich, vivid, and memorable, not to mention being remarkable because she realizes it not in her native language, Russian, but in English.... this is a singularly appealing book by a new voice in fantasy."
-ALA Booklist

"An intricate multi-level story... a kind of Aesop's Fables... spoken with a voice from the Far East, hypnotic as the desert sands."
-Locus

Robin Hood is the best-loved outlaw of all time. In this edition, Henry Gilbert tells of the adventures of the Merry Men of Sherwood Forest - Robin himself, Little John, Friar Tuck, Will Scarlet, and Alan-a-Dale, as well as Maid Marian, good King Richard, and Robin's deadly enemies Guy of Gisborne and the evil Sheriff of Nottingham.

The Algonquins, Iroquois, the legend of Hiawatha and The Last of the Mohicans - the tribes of North America and their folk tales are deeply fascinating because they are unique amongst the mythologies of the world. The tribes were isolated from outside influence for thousands of years and developed a fruitful, empathetic relationship with their landscape, evolving a tradition that respected and feared nature in equal measure. The retold tales collected for this new book celebrate the diverse tribal vision of a rich and powerful land that still resonates today. FLAME TREE 451: From mystery to crime, supernatural to horror and myth, fantasy and science fiction, Flame Tree 451 offers a healthy diet of werewolves and mechanical men, blood-lusty vampires, dastardly villains, mad scientists, secret worlds, lost civilizations and escapist fantasies. Discover a storehouse of tales gathered specifically for the reader of the fantastic.

It is 2020 when a mountain of rock weighing millions of tons hits the planet's atmosphere. As the rigid crust of the planet gives away, a massive chain reaction of earthquakes, tidal waves, and volcanic eruptions follows. The catastrophic event known as the Great Crash is deadly and swift. Life on the planet will never be the same.

Four thousand years later, nine-year-old Prince Jadan studies the disastrous effects of the Great Crash with his tutor. As he learns about the characteristics of Mutants and the differences between Fusors and Cabals, he has no idea that he will soon be putting his newfound knowledge to work. After he escapes the marauding Mutant army that kills his father and steals his birthright, Jadan is forced to hide in the forest where he is taught lessons of survival from a Cabal, half-man, half-spider. Thought dead by the rest of the world, Jadan returns as a teenager to unite his kingdom against Mutant warlords and half-humans. But first, he must prove himself worthy.

In this adventurous tale, not everyone believes Jadan is the Chosen One. Left with no other options, Jadan must embark on a dangerous quest to fulfill his destiny and claim a fabled sword-before it is too late.

'Playful, moving and wholly remarkable' Guardian 'A small miracle' New Statesman 'Mastery of craft, resonance and deep feeling on every page' Telegraph An introspective young boy, Joseph Coppock squints at the world with his lazy eye. Living alone in an old house, he reads comics, collects birds' eggs and plays with his marbles. When, one day, a rag-and-bone man called Treacle Walker appears, exchanging an empty jar of a cure-all medicine and a donkey stone for a pair of Joseph's pyjamas and a lamb's shoulder blade, a mysterious friendship develops between them. A fusion of myth, magic and the stories we make for ourselves, Treacle Walker is an extraordinary novel from one of our greatest living writers. 'All the exuberance and eccentricity, all the deep thought and resounding mythology of [Garner's] best work' Observer 'Spare and allusive... luminous and understated' Rowan Williams, New Statesman 'Cryptic, evocative, sparely told and deceptively simple' Carolyne Larrington, TLS A NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR * A TLS BOOK OF THE YEAR * A GUARDIAN BEST FICTION BOOK OF 2021

From Ritual to Romance was written in 1920 by Jessie L. Weston. The book was made famous by being mentioned by T. S. Eliot in the notes to his poem, The Waste Land. He says, "Not only the title, but the plan and a good deal of the incidental symbolism of the poem were suggested by Miss Jessie L. Weston's book."The book centres on an examination of the roots of the King Arthur legends and seeks to make connections between the early pagan elements and the later Christian influences. In particular, the book looks at the Holy Grail tradition and its influence.