TOR fantasy

When Serina Daeth, favorite concubine of the Elf-Lord Dyran, conceives a half-blood child by him, she flees his wrath into the desert, where she quickly succumbs. But the child, born in Serina's dying moments, is rescued by a friendly dragon and raised with her own draconic brood. As the child Shana grows, she develops prodigious sorcerous powers--so strong that it seems she might be the fabled Elvenbane, powerful enough to free the enslaved humans from their elven oppressors. The dragons come to fear her unplumbed power, though, and cast her out. With a renegade elf-lord and his half-blood servant, and the aid of her remaining dragon friends, Shana prepares to challenge the elfish supremacy.

(Witch World Series 2: High Hallack Cycle) #9 Eydrth is a Master Songsmith...who has no magic. She will do anything to save her father from the evil that has stolen his mind. But the paths to the magic of the Witch World are many - & to save the ones you love, the truest magic must come from the heart.

Gunnar, who has kept himself and his family alive using druidic techniques taught by his brother Justen, sends his son Lerris (who is unaware of his father's history and his own magical potential) to Candar to undertake a rite of passage commonly administered to dissatisfied individuals living in Recluce, especially those who have an affinity or ability for either order or chaos. While exiled to Candar, Lerris meets his uncle Justen, and comes to understand his father's ulterior motives for sending him off. Centuries of dominance by Recluce and their order engineers has once again led to increasingly more powerful chaos mages in Candar, with one in particular threatening to cause trouble on the scale of the white council. Gunnar has sent Lerris to Candar with the suspicion that a strong order mage and strong chaos mage will ultimately be drawn into direct conflict, and that Lerris would take care of the problem without Recluce being directly involved. Lerris ultimately defeats the white mage and settles down in Candar to live as a woodworker.

This book is the start of a stirring, intrigue-filled quest duology.

Mysterious figures from Arthurian mythology intrude into the daily lives of a small town family in Illinois.

This is NOT a mermaid book! (The title is a quote from Christopher Columbus's diary.) In this disturbing book, mythical king Prester John's ship is racing against Columbus to the New World. If he gets there first, all of the mythical creatures such as unicorns, fairies, pixies, selkies, etc will be saved and stay on earth. If not, they will be gone forever. This ship also carries a pregnant girl. She may or may not be a virgin, and may or may not be carrying a Savior, or just a human baby.

Judith Tarr returns to her created world of mages in this fourth volume of her Avaryan Rising series. The Sunborn's heirs have ruled the two empires for four generations, but the latest heir to the thrones of Endros and Asanion does not sit easily. Estarion saw his father die in the golden palace of Asanion, victim of mage-wrought poison and the enduring hatred of a conquered race. On the very day of his enthronement, after long years of regency, Estarion is forced to agree to return to Asanion - and he vows that even if he must rule that accursed land, he will never love it. With the new Golden Emperor travels his beloved, Vanyi, the mage-born priestess who can never be Empress. She was born a common fisherman's daughter, but gifted with great power - more, perhaps, than the Emperor himself wields. And waiting for them In the Golden Palace of Asanion is plot and intrigue, conspirators who would kill the son as they killed the father. They would place their own creature on the throne of empires, and their own God in the seat of the Sunlord.

Aglirta is known as the Kingless Land. Once a prosperous and peaceful river valley, it has fallen into lawlessness, and its feuding baronies are engaged in a constant state of war. But the land is kingless no more, for the Sleeping King of legend, King Kelgrael, has been reawakened by the efforts of the valiant Band of Four.

Working as a check-and-balance team at the side of the Wizard Lord, the magically infused Chosen wonder if his plan to modernize will jeopardize the delicate balance of power and require them to remove him from his position.

A raging sea tosses a boy upon the shores of ancient Wales. Left for dead, he has no memory, no name, and no home. But it is his determination to find out who he is—to learn the truth about his mysterious powers—that leads him to a strange and enchanted land. And it is there he discovers that the fate of this land and his personal quest are strangely entwined.

A great fantasy read, by Steven Brust. Set in the same universe as his Vlad Taltos series with a very different tone. Brust describes the book as "a blatant ripoff of The Three Musketeers."(see Wikipedia for details and citations on this book). The first in a five book series called The Khaavren Romances.

Tamson House in downtown Ottawa is a place of hidden power, for the House is a door to other lands where Celtic and native American magicks mingle and leak into our own. Magic breathes in the walls of the House, mystery sleeps in its enclosed garden. Leylines rest beneath its foundations, and inside its rooms Weirdin discs are thrown into patterns that speak of the distant past and the shadowed future to come. The House takes up a entire city block and yet is even larger than it seems, for rooms appear and disappear and the twisty overgrown garden paths lead to a vast and primal Wood that no city streets have ever contained. There is something dark within that Wood, threatening the existence of Tamson House and all who dwell within it. Three green children hang from a tree; a coyote man waits in the moonless dark, the Autumn Lady carries her heavy gift; shadows are lost; the Westlin Wind sings; and old spirits wake and walk between worlds. Whether you are returning to the halls of Tamson House, or entering its doors for the very first time, prepare yourself for wonders and terrors and enchantments dark and bright, where modern characters and old spirits meet and walk between worlds, and ultimately, wage a battle that threatens the existence of Tamson House—a strange, rambling old house and haven for artists, musicians, writers and others: Blue, the biker; Emma, the Autumn Lady; Esmeralda, the Westlin Wind; and a host of other unforgettable characters. Spiritwalk is the sequel to the classic Moonheart. This edition features a new afterword by the author.

A major collection includes never-before-published fantastical tales of war and warriors from some of today's most popular writers, including stories by Lawrence Block, Carrie Vaughn, James Rollins, Diana Gabaldon, Joe R. Lansdale and more, as well as an introduction by George R. R. Martin himself.

Young Prince Gaborn Val Orden of Mystarria is traveling in disguise on a journey to ask for the hand of the lovely Princess Iome of Sylvarresta when he and his warrior bodyguard spot a pair of assassins who have set their sights on the princess's father. The pair races to warn the king of the impending danger and realizes that more than the royal family is at risk--the very fate of the Earth is in jeopardy.

The frost king's daughter / Robert E. Howard -- The frost-giant's daughter / Robert E. Howard -- An autobiographical sketch of C.L. Moore / C.L. Moore -- Quest of the starstone / C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner -- Nymph of darkness / C.L. Moore and Forrest J. Ackerman -- The nymph o' maniack / Forrest J. Ackerman -- Werewoman / C.L. Moore -- Song in a minor key / C.L. Moore -- Lorelei of the red mist / Leigh Brackett and Ray Bradbury -- Hok visits the land of legends / Manly Wade Wellman -- Untitled Hok fragment / Manly Wade Wellman.

Shivery tales of Yuletide ghosts. Since Charles Dickens the Christmas ghost story has become a seasonal tradition that has delighted generations. Tales of Christmas ghosts have enchanted both readers and listeners of all ages with the magic of the season. In Spirits of Christmas, Kathryn Cramer and David G. Hartwell have assembled twenty of these charming stories - from a lesser-known story of Dickens' to newly commissioned contemporary tales. The stories range in style from humor to chilling suspense, and are set in historical and modern milieus. Spirits of Christmas is a compilation that represents the ghost in its varied forms and manifestations: family ghosts and supernatural ghouls; ghosts of romance to ghosts of hatred and revenge with a variety of unforgettable characters gathered for the evocative Christmas season. Many of these Christmas stories should be read aloud and shared at Christmastime. Rediscover, with family and friends, the timeless beauty of this tradition in Charles Dickens' overshadowed "Haunted Man," and its parody by Bret Harte. Be privy to "The Confessions of Ebenezer Scrooge" by James Morrow, and smile at the hard-boiled detective in Greg Cox's "But Do You Recall." Share the cheerful "Old Applejoy's Ghost" by master story-teller Frank Stockton, and an old man's salvation in the ghost of love in Susan Palwick's "A Masquerade of Voices."

The Spellsong War, the second book in New York Times bestselling author L. E. Modesitt, Jr.'s epic fantasy series the Spellsong Cycle about a singer and music instructor at Iowa State University who gets far more than she expected when she is magically transported to the world of Erde. Anna Marshal is regent of the kingdom of Defalk only a few months after a sorcerer pulled her from her boring life as a music instructor. Her power and abilities saved Defalk from invasion, and now she must defend it against the greedy rulers of neighboring kingdoms who see an opportunity.

The Cymrian Alliance takes desperate measures in its war with the merchant emperor Talquist, with Rhapsody joining the battle in disguise, Ashe seeking the help from the Sea Mages, and Achmed planning to assassinate the emperor.

While helping her Great Aunt Melanie try to protect an Oregon redwood forest from loggers, thirteen-year-old Kate goes back five centuries through a time tunnel and faces the evil creature Gashra, who is bent on destroying the same forest.

This is another collection of short stories based on Andre Norton's witch world by various authors. Most are quite good.

Collection of 13 short stories and novellas written between 1952 and 1985 samples the wide range of Nebula Grand Master Norton's (Tales of the witch world ) work. The first six entries, set in the Witch World universe, depict mostly female protagonists coping with aftermath of war made even more devastating by deployment of magic. "Toads of Grimmerdale" and "Cangeling" recount the travails of Hertha, a noblewoman who is cast out into"drifts of ice-crusted snow" by her brother after she refuses to abort the fetus. Of a rapist. "SpiderSilk" is what blind, former slave Dairine is taught to weave by male-hating giant arachnids. In the title novella, an Esper fleeing a lynch mob us arrived into another world, where his kind rules--but even there he is different and must fight for survival. A dreamer who creates worlds for others finds her work, herself and her client in grave danger in"Toys of Tamisan." " Mowsetrap," the earliest story here., envisions a not-too- gist ant future in which mankind explores Mars but human nature remains the same.

The hidden world of Eastern European Jews during the 1940s turns into a world of wonders in a fantasy tale that transcends the Holocaust with magical optimism.

A raging sea tosses a boy upon the shores of ancient Wales. Left for dead, he has no memory, no name, and no home. But it is his determination to find out who he is—to learn the truth about his mysterious powers—that leads him to a strange and enchanted land. And it is there he discovers that the fate of this land and his personal quest are strangely entwined.