Books download for Obsidian Butterfly

#1 New York Times bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton offers a sexy, suspenseful novel of human—and inhuman—passions, as vampire hunter Anita Blake must repay a favor to a man almost as dangerous as the ancient evil she's about to face... Edward is a hit man, specializing in monsters, vampires, shapeshifters, anything and everything. There are people like Anita who do it legal, but Edward doesn't sweat the legalities, or, hell, the ethics. He's an equal opportunity killer. Anita may be one of the few friends that Edward has, but it’s like being friends with a tame leopard. It may curl up on the foot of your bed and let you pet its head, but it can still eat your throat out... EXCLUSIVE TO THIS EDITION ONLY: A PREVIEW OF THE LATEST ANITA BLAKE, VAMPIRE HUNTER NOVEL, CRIMSON DEATH

In her tenth adventure, nothing can save vampire hunter Anita Blake from a twist of fate that draws her ever closer to the brink of humanity.

Into Anita Blake's world-a world already overflowing with power-come creatures so feared that centuries-old vampires refuse to mention their names.

Anita Blake is a vampire hunter. But when someone else sets his sights on her prey, she must save them both from the inferno. From the Paperback edition.

Departing from the political economy perspective taken by the vast majority of volumes devoted to Mesoamerican obsidian, Obsidian Reflections is an examination of obsidian's sociocultural dimensions—particularly in regard to Mesoamerican world view, religion, and belief systems. Exploring the materiality of this volcanic glass rather than only its functionality, this book considers the interplay among people, obsidian, and meaning and how these relationships shaped patterns of procurement, exchange, and use. An international group of scholars hailing from Belize, France, Japan, Mexico, and the United States provides a variety of case studies from Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras. The authors draw on archaeological, iconographic, ethnographic, and ethnohistoric data to examine obsidian as a touchstone for cultural meaning, including references to sacrificial precepts, powerful deities, landscape, warfare, social relations, and fertility. Obsidian Reflections underscores the necessity of understanding obsidian from within its cultural context—the perspective of the indigenous people of Mesoamerica. It will be of great interest to Mesoamericanists as well as students and scholars of lithic studies and material culture.

In her twenty-fifth adventure, vampire hunter and necromancer Anita Blake learns that evil is in the eye of the beholder... Anita has never seen Damian, her vampire servant, in such a state. The rising sun doesn’t usher in the peaceful death that he desperately needs. Instead, he’s being bombarded with violent nightmares and blood sweats. And now, with Damian at his most vulnerable, Anita needs him the most. The vampire who created him, who subjected him to centuries of torture, might be losing control, allowing rogue vampires to run wild and break one of their kind’s few strict taboos. Some say love is a great motivator, but hatred gets the job done, too. And when Anita joins forces with her friend Edward to stop the carnage, Damian will be at their side, even if it means traveling back to the land where all his nightmares spring from...a place that couldn’t be less welcoming to a vampire, an assassin, and a necromancer: Ireland. From the Hardcover edition.

The theme of memory has played a significant role in anime throughout its evolution as an art form and as popular entertainment. Anime’s handling of memory is multifaceted, weaving it into diverse symbolic motifs, narratives and aesthetic issues. This study aims to provide a detailed analysis of a range of anime titles wherein different aspects of this cultural phenomenon are articulated. It explores anime films and series that exemplify the distinctive signatures placed by particular directors or studios on the treatment of memory, while also highlighting the prominence of memory in anime with reference to specific philosophical, artistic, and historical contexts.

A vampire is on a murder spree in Sin City in this Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton. When a vampire serial killer sends Anita Blake a grisly souvenir from Las Vegas, she has to warn Sin City’s local authorities what they’re dealing with. Only it’s worse than she thought. Police officers and one executioner have been slain—paranormal style. Anita heads to Vegas, where’s she’s joined by three other federal marshals, including the ruthless Edward hiding behind his mild-mannered persona. It’s a good thing Edward always has her back, because, when she gets close to the bodies, Anita senses “tiger” too strongly to ignore it. And the weretigers are powerful in Las Vegas, which means the odds of her rubbing someone very powerful the wrong way just got a lot higher… From the Paperback edition.

The Paradox War’s knot in time tightens about Desi and her abductors. Lost in space and time, fighting a pitched battle against Garner and his machine-god ally, while Teucoi weaves his thread through their story. The intertwined stories and characters that began in An0ma1y continue to explore a universe perched on the brink of destruction. This is a story with UFOs, aliens, time-travel, magic, Dæmons, faeries, shape-shifters, werebears, dragons, nanotechnology, femtotechnology, black holes, weaponised Memes, alternate universes, fate, space-craft, artificial intelligences, cyberwraiths, mythology, Arthurian legend, and masses of mysteries...

In the thralls of supernatural passion, Anita Blake faces a most human dilemma.

Clara Luna's name means "clear moon" in Spanish. But lately, her head has felt anything but clear. One day a letter comes from Mexico, written in Spanish: Dear Clara, We invite you to our house for the summer. We will wait for you on the day of the full moon, in June, at the Oaxaca airport. Love, your grandparents. Fourteen-year-old Clara has never met her father's parents. She knows he snuck over the border from Mexico as a teenager, but beyond that, she knows almost nothing about his childhood. When she agrees to go, she's stunned by her grandparents' life: they live in simple shacks in the mountains of southern Mexico, where most people speak not only Spanish, but an indigenous language, Mixteco. The village of Yucuyoo holds other surprises, too-- like the spirit waterfall, which is heard but never seen. And Pedro, an intriguing young goatherder who wants to help Clara find the waterfall. Hearing her grandmother’s adventurous tales of growing up as a healer awakens Clara to the magic in Yucuyoo, and in her own soul. What The Moon Saw is an enchanting story of discovering your true self in the most unexpected place. From the Hardcover edition.

The Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter backlist-now dangerously beautiful. In her sixth adventure, Anita becomes a wanted woman-by a vampire, a werewolf, and a creature far more terrifying: a man who puts a price on her head. From the Paperback edition.

I am Meredith Gentry, P.I. and Princess Merry, heir to the throne of Fairie. Now there are those among me who whisper I am more. They fear me even as they protect me. And who can blame them? I’ve awakened the dazzling magic that’s slumbered in them for thousands of years. But the thing is, I can’t figure out why. My aunt, the Queen of Air and Darkness, is no longer distracted by her usual sadistic hobbies. Her obsession has turned unwaveringly to me. The mission to get me pregnant and beat my cousin Prince Cel to the crown is taking longer than expected. Even though I spend each night with the Queen’s Ravens, my immortal guards, no child has come of our decadent pleasures. But something else is happening. My magic courses through me uncontrollably. And as I lock my half-mortal body with their full-Sidhe blooded ones, the power surges like never before. It all began with the chalice. I dreamed of it, and it appeared, cool and hard, beside me when I awoke. My guards know the ancient relic well—its disappearance ages ago stripped them of their vital powers. But it is here with us now. My touch resonates with its force, and they’re consumed with it, their Sidhe essences lit up by it. But even as they cherish me for this unexpected gift, there are those who loathe me for it. Me, a mongrel, only half fey and part mortal. The Unseelie court has suffered for so long, and there are some who would not have it weakened further by an impure queen. My enemies grow in number every day. But they do not know what I am capable of. Nor, for that matter, do I. . . . In Seduced by Moonlight, Laurell K. Hamilton brings the dark, erotic reign of the immortal fey to a startling new depth. Full of sensuality and the consuming anticipation of latent powers unleashed, this world of gods, shapeshifters, and immortal souls is unveiled in all of its supreme magnificence and its treacherous deceits. From the Hardcover edition.

Vampire hunter Anita Blake finds her life is more complicated than ever, caught as she is between her obligations to the living-and the undead.

A collection of books 6-10 in Laurell K. Hamilton's New York Times bestselling Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series. • The Killing Dance • Burnt Offerings • Blue Moon • Obsidian Butterfly • Narcissus in Chains

Lynn V. Andrews takes the reader with her as she goes on inward journeys with the help of the Sisterhood of the Shields, and relates the stories of others. Join her as she is initiated into the Sisterhood and creates her own shield, which will show her the nature of her spiritual path (Spirit Woman). Follow her to the Yucatan, where the medicine wheel leads her, and she is faced with the terrifying reality of the butterfly tree (Jaguar Woman). Enter the Dreamtime with her, where she emerges in medieval England as Catherine, and encounters the Grandmother, who offers to show Andrews how to make her life one of goodness, power, adventure, and love (The Woman of Wyrrd). Not all these stories describe the author's own spiritual experiences. Meet Sin Coraz?n, an initiate into the Sisterhood, whose husband abandons her. She nearly succumbs to her inner dark power and unleashes her rage on men and the Sisterhood (Dark Sister). Andrews also writes about the elder women of the Sisterhood: their loves, their lives, their losses (Tree of Dreams). Andrews shows us how to channel our own spiritual and intellectual energy and balance the need for love with the desire for power (Love and Power). She takes the reader on numerous spiritual journeys that inevitably uplift.

The Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter backlist lights up the night. In her eighth adventure, Anita Blake can't turn her back on a former lover during the full moon. Especially since he's behind bars-and he's a werewolf... From the Paperback edition.

Anita Blake has been asked to raise the dead-but the results aren't going to make everybody happy... From the Paperback edition.

In John G. Hemry's terrific military science fiction series, a young officer risks everything in his fight for justice . . . Lieutenant Junior Grade Paul Sinclair must adjust to his new position on the warship USS Michaelson--juggling his Legal Officer responsibilities and his personal life, as his relationship with girlfriend Jen Shen intensifies. When an explosion takes out most of Forward Engineering, Sinclair leads the effort to extinguish the fire. He's practically a hero. But when Captain Shen, Jen’s father, is brought in to conduct an investigation, it seems that he’s gunning for his daughter’s suitor. Soon Sinclair uncovers evidence that points to a cover-up—involving a rising star in the officer corps. His evidence is circumstantial, and the suspect is the son of a powerful vice admiral. Sinclair is determined to see justice done, but is he willing to risk his name, his career, and his future among the stars?

Watch a video A serial killer is hunting the Pacific Northwest, murdering victims in a gruesome and spectacular way. The local police suspect "monsters" are involved, and have called in Anita Blake and Edward, U.S. Marshals who really know their monsters, to catch the killer.

A breathtaking novel of suspense and high-adventure by New York Times bestselling author Stuart Woods. Will Lee ran from a life of Southern wealth and privilege to spend a peaceful summer on the coast of Ireland. But there is no peace in this beautiful, troubled land. Restless and dissatisfied, Will dreams of shipbuilding and sailing on crystal-blue waters. But an explosion of senseless violence is dragging the young American drifter into a lethal game of terror and revenge. For the fires of hatred rage unchecked in this place of lush, rolling hills and deadly secrets. Now Will Lee must run for his life from a bloody past that is not his own-and he will find no sanctuary on the rolling waves of the Irish sea.

Kicking off a riveting sci-fi trilogy, National Book Award winner Pete Hautman plunges us into a world where time is a tool - and the question is, who will control it? The first time his father disappeared, Tucker Feye had just turned thirteen. The Reverend Feye simply climbed on the roof to fix a shingle, let out a scream, and vanished - only to walk up the driveway an hour later, looking older and worn, with a strange girl named Lahlia in tow. In the months that followed, Tucker watched his father grow distant and his once loving mother slide into madness. But then both of his parents disappear. Now in the care of his wild Uncle Kosh, Tucker begins to suspect that the disks of shimmering air he keeps seeing - one right on top of the roof - hold the answer to restoring his family. And when he dares to step into one, he's launched on a time-twisting journey- from a small Midwestern town to a futuristic hospital run by digitally augmented healers, from the death of an ancient prophet to a forest at the end of time. Inevitably, Tucker's actions alter the past and future, changing his world forever.

For the first time in trade paperback: the fifth novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series. When Branson, Missouri, is hit with a death wave? four unsolved murders?it doesn?t take an expert to realize that all is not well. But luckily for the locals, Anita Blake is an expert in the kinds of preternatural goings-on that have everyone spooked. And she?s got an ?in? with the creature that can make sense of the slayings??the sexy master vampire known as Jean-Claude. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Despite rumors of impending war, the majestic ship Normandie makes its transatlantic voyage from Washington D.C., to France. Aboard is beautiful, American-born Liane De Villiers, devoted to her much-older husband, the French ambassador to the United States, and her two daughters. She meets Nick Burnham, an American steel magnate, a kind man trapped in a loveless marriage. Their passion remains unacknowledged. But when the outbreak of World War II forces Liane to flee Paris, she and Nick meet again—and pledge a love that can no longer be denied. From the Paperback edition.

Meet Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, in the first novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series that “blends the genres of romance, horror and adventure with stunning panache”(Diana Gabaldon). Laurell K. Hamilton’s bestselling series has captured readers’ wildest imaginations and addicted them to a seductive world where supernatural hungers collide with the desires of the human heart, starring a heroine like no other... Anita Blake is small, dark, and dangerous. Her turf is the city of St. Louis. Her job: re-animating the dead and killing the undead who take things too far. But when the city’s most powerful vampire asks her to solve a series of vicious slayings, Anita must confront her greatest fear—her undeniable attraction to master vampire Jean-Claude, one of the creatures she is sworn to destroy... “What The Da Vinci Code did for the religious thriller, the Anita Blake series has done for the vampire novel.”—USA Today

A New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller about a good girl dangerously drawn to the ultimate bad boy. The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance from the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University’s Walking One-Night Stand. Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby wants—and needs—to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the ultimate college campus charmer. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his appeal, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis’s apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match.

Thankfully Alan and Lauren Gregory aren't on the guest list when their affluent new neighbors hold a housewarming party-because the next morning, a rape accusation rocks the town of Boulder. And though Alan discovers he has a most unusual perspective into what truly happened after the party-he may not be able to stop crucial witnesses-and people close to him-from being murdered...

Watch a video The music came back up and the next group of little girls, slightly older, came out. There was a lot of that in the next hour and change. I liked dance, and it was no reflection on the kids, but my will to live began to seep away on about the fifth group of sequined children... Anita Blake is back in St. Louis and trying to live a normal life-as normal as possible for someone who is a legal vampire executioner and a U. S. Marshal. There are lovers, friends and their children, school programs to attend. In the midst of all the ordinary happiness a vampire from Anita's past reaches out. She was supposed to be dead, killed in an explosion, but the Mother of All Darkness is the first vampire, their dark creator. It's hard to kill a god. This dark goddess has reached out to her here-in St. Louis, home of everyone Anita loves most. The Mother of All Darkness has decided she has to act now or never, to control Anita, and all the vampires in America. The Mother of All Darkness believes that the triumvirate created by master vampire Jean-Claude with Anita and the werewolf Richard Zeeman has enough power for her to regain a body and to immigrate to the New World. But the body she wants to possess is already taken. Anita is about to learn a whole new meaning to sharing her body, one that has nothing to do with the bedroom. And if the Mother of All Darkness can't succeed in taking over Anita's body for herself, she means to see that no one else has the use of it, ever again. Even Belle Morte, not always a friend to Anita, has sent word: "Run if you can..."

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Meet Merry Gentry, paranormal P.I., and enter a thrilling, sensual world as dangerous as it is beautiful, full of earthly pleasures and dazzling magic, and ruled by the all-consuming passions of immortal beings once worshipped as gods . . . or demons. Merry Gentry, princess of the high court of Faerie, is posing as a human in Los Angeles, working as a private investigator specializing in supernatural crime. But now the queen’s assassin has been dispatched to fetch her—whether she likes it or not. Suddenly Merry finds herself a pawn in her dreaded aunt’s plans. The job that awaits her: enjoy the constant company of the most beautiful immortal men in the world. The reward: the crown—and the opportunity to continue to live. The penalty for failure: death. BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from Laurell K. Hamilton’s A Shiver of Light. Praise for Laurell K. Hamilton and A Kiss of Shadows “One of the most inventive and exciting writers in the paranormal field.”—Charlaine Harris “Sexy . . . Merry’s adventures are engaging and keep the reader turning the pages.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch “Stunning . . . steamy . . . an exciting and original world.”—San Jose Mercury News “I’ve never read a writer with a more fertile imagination.”—Diana Gabaldon

HE'D DO ANYTHING TO GET A STORY. When journalist Lex Falk gets himself chipped into the brain of a combat soldier, he thinks he has the ultimate scoop - a report from the forbidden front line of a distant planetary war, live to the living rooms of Earth. When the soldier is killed, however, Lex has to take over the body and somehow get himself back to safety once more... broadcasting all the way. Heart-stopping combat science fiction from the million-selling Warhammer 40,000 author. File Under: Science Fiction [ Future Warefare | Chipped-In | Anything For a Story | Get Out Alive! ] From the Paperback edition.

John G. Hemry’s novels featuring Lieutenant Paul Sinclair "give SF its own JAG" (SF Reviews.net). Now, in the final novel in the series that melds science fiction action and page-turning courtroom drama, Sinclair finds himself fighting for justice once more—and the danger is closer than ever before… After a long tour as legal officer aboard the starship USS Michaelson, Paul Sinclair is anticipating shore duty. Too bad it’s cancelled when a group of religious fanatics hijack a freighter and invade an asteroid. Fearing they could threaten the earth with asteroid debris, starships from several countries converge on the scene. But their mission turns deadly when the South Asian Alliance opens fire on the asteroid. After the smoke clears, Paul suspects the Michaelson’s rules of engagement have been compromised—suspicions that are confirmed when NCIS asks him to work covertly as a spy. Someone onboard the Michaelson is selling secrets, and to uncover the traitor, Paul must walk the dangerous line between duty and honor…

The Ultimate Collection of Vampire Facts and Fiction Death and immortality, sexual prowess and surrender, intimacy and alienation, rebellion and temptation. The allure of the vampire is eternal. The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead, Third edition, explores the historical, literary, mythological, biographical, and popular aspects of one of the world's most mesmerizing paranormal subject. This vast reference is an alphabetical tour of the psychosexual, macabre world of the soul-sucking undead. In the first fully revised and updated edition in a decade, Dr. J. Gordon Melton (president of the American chapter of the Transylvania Society of Dracula) bites even deeper into vampire lore, myths, reported realities, and legends that come from all around the world. From Vlad the Impaler to Dracula and from modern literature to movies and TV series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, True Blood, Twilight, and The Vampire Lestat, this exhaustive guide furnishes more than 400 essays to quench your thirst for facts, biographies, definitions, and more.

The Winged Prophet from Hermes to Quetzalcoatl, provides the first ever introduction to the deities of MesoAmerica as they relate to classical European mythology and the archetypes contained in the major arcana of the tarot cards.

Anita Blake is a vampire hunter. But when someone else sets his sights on her prey, she must save them both from the inferno. From the Paperback edition.

A radiant and epic new novel that is among the finest achievements of Mexico's greatest man of letters. The Years With Laura Diaz is Carlos Fuentes' most important novel in several decades. Like his masterpiece The Death of Artemio Cruz, the action begins in the state of Veracruz and moves to Mexico City--tracing a migration during the Revolution and its aftermath that was a feature of Mexico's demographic history and that is a significant element in Fuentes's fictional world. Now the principle figure is not Artemio Cruz (who, however, makes a brief appearance) but Fuentes's first major female protagonist, the extraordinary Laura Diaz. Carlos Fuentes's richly woven narrative tapestry-filled with a multitude of dramatic scenes both witty, amusing, and heartbreaking-shows us this wonderful creature as she grows into a politically committed artist who is also a wife and mother, a lover of great men, a complicated and alluring heroine whose brave honesty prevails despite her losing a son and grandson to the darkest forces of Mexico's repressive, corrupt regimes. In the end, Laura Diaz herself dies, after a life filled with tragedy and loss, but she is a happy woman, for she has borne witness to, and helped to affect, the course of history and has vindicated the aims and intentions of the highest art.

In the thralls of supernatural passion, Anita Blake faces a most human dilemma.

It was the Sunday after Easter, and the last bull-fight of the season in Mexico City. Four special bulls had been brought over from Spain for the occasion, since Spanish bulls are more fiery than Mexican. Perhaps it is the altitude, perhaps just the spirit of the western Continent which is to blame for the lack of pep, as Owen put it, in the native animal.

Both an artist and activist, Octavio Paz won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1990. This recognition was the culmination of decades of work, as Paz strove to marry traditional Mexican poetry with distinctly surrealist and Spanish influences. Along with his work, Paz’s contribution to the intellectual debates of his time, such as those over the role of Mexican art in national identity, cannot be overemphasized. In Octavio Paz, Nicholas Caistor takes a fresh look at Paz’s exquisite poetry and fascinating life. Born during the Mexican Revolution, Paz spent his youth fighting to free Mexico from the ideologies of both the left and right. He traveled to the United States, then to Spain, where he fought with the Republicans against Franco's Nationalists. He eventually served as a diplomat in India before returning to his homeland in 1968, where he again became a vocal opponent of the government. As Caistor demonstrates, Paz’s personal journey in those years was as exciting as his public life. He details here the multiple marriages and passionate friendships that inevitably made their way into Paz’s poetry. Both concise and insightful, Octavio Paz reveals the life that informs a poetry that is deeply expressive—and distinctly political.

Into Anita Blake's world-a world already overflowing with power-come creatures so feared that centuries-old vampires refuse to mention their names.

First time in trade paperback: the third novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series. In Circus of the Damned-now in trade paperback for the first time-a rogue master vampire hits town, and Anita gets caught in the middle of an undead turf war. Jean-Claude, the Master Vamp of the city, wants her for his own-but his enemies have other plans. And to make matters worse, Anita takes a hit to the heart when she meets a stunningly handsome junior high science teacher named Richard Zeeman. They're two humans caught in the crossfire-or so Anita thinks. From the Trade Paperback edition.