AustLit

'Horace is missing. Months have passed since he was sent on a military mission to the court of the Emperor of Nihon-Jin but has failed to return. Evanlyn is worried, and in company with Will and Alyss, she sets out to discover what has become of their old friend.

'They find that Horace has become embrolied in Nihon-Jin politics. The arrogant Senji Sect has rebelled against the rightful Emperor and Horace has chosen to stay and lend support to the deposed ruler. Now he and Will must turn farm and forest workers into a fighting force that can face the highly trained Senji warriors, while Alyss and Evanlyn must overcome their long-standing rivalry to seek aid from a mysterious group of mountain dwellers.' (From the author's website.)

'Will is small for his age, but agile and energetic. All his life, he has dreamed of becoming a great knight like the father he never knew, so he is devastated when he is rejected as an apprentice to Castle Redmont's Battleschool. Instead he is apprenticed to Halt, the mysterious Ranger whose uncanny ability to move unseen is thought to be the result of black magic.

'Reluctantly, Will learns to use a Ranger’s secret weapons: a bow and arrow, a mottled cloak and a stubborn little pony. It may not be the sword and battlehorse he longs for, but when Will and Halt set out on a desperate mission to prevent the assassination of the King, Will finds that a Ranger’s weapons are not so useless after all . . . ' (Publication summary)

In this the final story in the Rowan Series, the witch Sheba has spoken, and Rowan knows he has no choice but to obey. The coldest winter in living memory is destroying the people of Rin, and he must do what he can to save them. But Sheba's mysterious rhyme speaks of sacrifice and Rowan is very afraid as he sets out on the most terrifying quest of his life, her final words ringing in his ears.

The people of Rin have long lived in the shadow of the Mountain, hearing the dragon's roar every morning and evening. When the village's precious stream stops flowing, a frightening journey must be undertaken up the Mountain to the stream's source. To the hardy villagers of Rin, the boy Rowan is a timid weakling. Yet because only he can read the magical map, it is Rowan who must brave the unknown terrors of the Mountain to save the village and solve a witch's riddle.

'In a vast maze of dripping limestone caves under the sea, our heroes must face the Guardian. At stake is the purple amethyst, symbol of truth. As Lief, Jasmine and Barda travel on the problems increase as their quest to find the missing gems from the magic belt of Deltora nears completion.' (Publisher's blurb)

"The narrator of Youth, a student in the South Africa of the 1950s, has long been plotting an escape from his native country: from the stifling love of his mother, from a father whose failures haunt him, and from what he is sure is impending revolution. Studying mathematics, reading poetry, saving money, he tries to ensure that when he arrives in the real world, wherever that may be, he will be prepared to experience life to its full intensity, and transform it into art." "Arriving at last in London, however, he finds neither poetry nor romance. Instead he succumbs to the monotony of life as a computer programmer, from which random, loveless affairs offer no relief. Devoid of inspiration, he stops writing. An awkward colonial, a constitutional outsider, he begins a dark pilgrimage in which he is continually tested and continually found wanting" (Source: Viking publisher's blurb)

'Lief, Barda and Jasmine are on a perilous quest to find the seven lost gems of the magic Belt of Deltora. Only when all the gems have been restored to the Belt can Deltora be freed from the tyranny of the evil Shadow Lord. Four gems have been found. Now, though grave news reaches Lief from home and he longs to return, the quest must continue. To find the fifth stone the travellers must venture almost to the border of the Shadowlands and plunge into the darkness and terror of the realm of the monstrous toad Gellik.' (Publisher's blurb)

'When the evil Shadow Lord plots to invade Deltora and enslave its people all that stands between him and victory is the magic Belt of Deltora which holds seven gems of great and mysterious power. When the gems are stolen it appears that Deltora is lost and the Shadow Lord will triumph. However, two unlikely companions set out on a perilous quest to find the gems and bring them back so that the rightful ruler can regain the throne. Together they enter the sinister Forests of Silence and there the mystery begins.' (Source: Back cover)

In the fall of 1869 Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, lately a resident of Germany, is summoned back to St. Petersburg by the sudden death of his stepson, Pavel. Half crazed with grief, stricken by epileptic seizures, and erotically obsessed with his stepson's landlady, Dostoevsky is nevertheless intent on unraveling the enigma of Pavel's life. Was the boy a suicide or a murder victim? Did he love his stepfather or despise him? Was he a disciple of the revolutionary Nechaev, who even now is somewhere in St. Petersburg pursuing a dream of apocalyptic violence? As he follows his stepson's ghost - and becomes enmeshed in the same demonic conspiracies that claimed the boy - Dostoevsky emerges as a figure of unfathomable contradictions: naive and calculating, compassionate and cruel, pious and unspeakably perverse. (Source: Libraries Australia)