Showing results by author "Judith Tarr" in All Categories

Book View Cafe celebrates its fifth anniversary with an anthology of our favorite stories. From the fantasy and science fiction of our roots to steampunk, romance, historical and mainstream; from humor to life's hardest challenges, across the spectrum from light to dark.

In 336 B.C., Egypt lies under the yoke of Persia. But a spirit of fire has risen to blaze across the world. His name is Alexander, and he is the destined conqueror of the Persian Empire - and the king foretold of Egypt. Meriamon, daughter of the last Pharaoh, journeys out of the Two Lands to find him and bring him home. From the battlefield of Issus to the siege of Tyre, from the founding of Alexandria to the divine revelations of Siwah, Meriamon both leads and follows her divine charge, who becomes her friend and her chosen king.

At the coronation of the new king of England, two crowns are offered to Richard the Lionheart: the mortal and the magical. Lured by earthbound glory and driven by mortal faith, Richard spurns the pagan crown - and rides off on a Crusade to reclaim a sun-scorched Jerusalem from the infidels, leaving his new kingdom defenseless in the mists…. For some unknown power has brought down the wall between worlds - and beings of dark magic await their chance to cross over the threshold.

The emperor Estarion's long reign has finally brought peace and even reconciliation to the two warring halves of his empire. But no sun lord can rest content in his triumph. Now Estarion and Vanyi, his master of mages, have the leisure to explore the rest of their wide world. Vanyi's Mage Guild has created a series of gates that can take a traveler halfway around their planet in only a few steps.

The life and times of Melisende, the crusader queen of Jerusalem, regent to her young son, the king, during the 12th century, come to life through the eyes of Lady Richildis, a young Frankish woman on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, who becomes one of Melisende's confidantes.

In the grandfathers' time, when few yet living had been born, the People worshipped the horse, and served him, and took the gifts that he gave them: his meat, his hide, the milk of his mares. But he had not yet granted to men the greatest gift of all: the gift of riding on his back, and racing the wind. Sparrow is a shaman's daughter in a tribe that forbids women to be kings, to be shamans, to be anything but silent and tractable servants to the all-powerful men.

Kidnapped, tortured, betrayed by his brothers whom he loved, the heir of the Golden Empire has lost everything but his life. His only hope is a chance encounter, a wandering priest from the Empire of the Sun. But the priest is more than he seems, and the prince is stronger than he knew; and war is coming. Two empires hang in the balance. Two emperors will fall, unless the prince and his unwelcome ally find a way to make peace. But peace comes at a price; and that price may be too high for either to pay.

Historical fact and fantastic legend clash when Merlin's descendant Roland takes up the Quest for the Grail against Arthur's ancient enemy - a thrilling new adventure from an extraordinary talent whose appeal is growing fast with each new book....

Gerbert was a farmer's son in an obscure town in France, but his gifts of mind and intellect were so remarkable that even in the feudal world of the tenth century, he could rise far above his station. Princes and prelates courted him; emperors called him friend and teacher. He brought the lost art of mathematics back into Europe; he was an astronomer, a musician, a builder of strange and wonderful devices. In the end he reached the pinnacle of the world, a seat so lofty and an authority so great that he answered only to God Himself. But Gerbert was more than a simple professor of the mathematical arts, or even a prince of the Church.

In the time of the Crusades, in a world at war, a prince of immortal lineage and a spirit of fire who was once an assassin prepare to celebrate a royal wedding. But he is Christian and she is Muslim, and there are those who hate them not only for their disparate faiths but for their power and magic.

A wild, spoiled princeling of the house of Han-Gilen, Indaros Karelios is handsome, arrogant, a seducer and tavern-crawler with little regard for the noble line that spawned him. But Daros is also a mage, unruly, untrained, and unbound by the constraints that block other workers of magic. Caught violating the mages' gravest prohibition, crossing through the forbidden gates between the worlds, Daros is brought to judgment before the Lady Merian, ruler of the Golden Empire, Mistress of the Gates, and heir of Avaryan.

Nine tales of magic and enchantment. Horses of the ancient world, horses of the Middle Ages and the Arabian Nights, horses of the present and the future, even horses (and not quite horses) of a world that never was. When a mysterious stranger steals the Emperor Charlemagne’s favorite horse, the Emperor’s page goes hunting for the thief and the horse - and uncovers a secret older than gods.

Red William, the eldest son of William the Conqueror, has inherited the throne and a kingdom free of Saxon Christian influence. But his decision to leave magic out of his rule causes the land to wither and die. Now the fate of Britain lies in the hands of Edith, princess of Scotland, and Henry, the youngest son of the Conqueror. Both are highly gifted in magic, but only the blood of a king will cleanse the land from the evil and pestilence that infects it.

In the dawn of time, women ruled, and the people had no word for war. Then the horsemen came. Sarama is the last of the White Mare's servants, descended from an ancient line conquered long ago by warrior tribes. Her father is the king of one such tribe. Her twin brother Agni is the king's heir. But she is heir to an older world, and a different way.

The war between the Golden Empire and the Empire of the Sun is over; the empires merged into one, and there is one emperor over them all: Estarion, heir to both royal houses. But Estarion will not accept half of his heritage, nor will the Golden Empire willingly accept him. The same forces that assassinated his father are arrayed against him, led by the last scion of an ancient imperial line--and he must stand against them and truly unite the empires or see all the great work of his ancestors reduced to rubble.

Alexander the Great ruled the greatest Empire of the ancient world, but he was ruled by his mother, called Olympias. There are as many legends about this powerful Queen as there are of her famous son, and the stories began long before she even met Philip of Macedon. Priestess of the Great Goddess, daughter of ruling house of Epiros, witch, and familiar of Serpents... she was a figure of mystery, fascination, and fear even during her own lifetime.

Once upon a time, the Caliph of Baghdad sent the Emperor Charlemagne a wonderful gift: An elephant named Abul Abbas. That gift brought great magic into the royal court, and a great betrayal. With the help of a stableboy who is more than he seems, and the Elephant himself, the Emperor’s daughter Rowan must learn to master that magic and save her father’s life.

Constantinople, A.D. 1203: a great army camps outside the City of Cities, and threatens it with conquest. Within the City, a Greek witch and a renegade monk who is also a white enchanter do their utmost to hold back the tides of war. But even their great powers may not be able to save Byzantium’s empire from the Western Crusade.

Elian of Han-Gilen is the pride and scandal of her father's princedom. She has out-ridden, out-hunted, and out-shot every suitor. Now comes one whom she could bring herself to love: No lesser man than the throne prince of the Golden Empire. But Elian swore an oath as a child to a foster brother who is now a warrior king. Consort to an imperial heir or squire at arms to a conqueror: Elian must choose, and in choosing, decide the fate of two empires.

Meredith has the summer all planned. She'll hang out with her friends, ride her horse, and spend time with her mom, who is recovering from cancer. Then her mom drops a bomb: she's sending Meredith to Egypt to dig up mummies with her aunt the archaeologist. Meredith doesn't want to go. At all. But there are more forces at work than a 16th-birthday present she doesn't want and a summer she didn't plan - and a greater adventure than she could ever have imagined.