Enemy ​in Sight!

Bernard Cornwell - Sword ​Song
'Cornwell's ​narration is quite masterly and supremely well-researched' OBSERVER The year is 885, and England is at peace, divided between the Danish kingdom to the north and Alfred's Wessex in the south. But trouble stirs, a dead man has risen and new Vikings have arrived to occupy London. It is a dangerous time, and it falls to Uhtred, half Saxon, half Dane, a man feared and respected the length and breadth of Britain, to expel the Viking raiders and take control of London for Alfred. His uncertain loyalties must now decide England's future. A gripping tale of love, rivalry and violence, Sword Song tells the story of England's making. ' y.ere is Alfred's world restored - impeccably researched and illuminated with the colour and-passion of a master storyteller' JUSTIN POL HOR OF ALFR

R. D. Blackmore - Lorna ​Doone
First ​published in 1869, Lorna Doone is the story of John Ridd, a farmer who finds love amid the religious and social turmoil of seventeenth-century England. He is just a boy when his father is slain by the Doones, a lawless clan inhabiting wild Exmoor on the border of Somerset and Devon. Seized by curiosity and a sense of adventure, he makes his way to the valley of the Doones, where he is discovered by the beautiful Lorna. In time their childish fantasies blossom into mature love a bond that will inspire John to rescue his beloved from the ravages of a stormy winter, rekindling a conflict with his archrival, Carver Doone, that climaxes in heartrending violence. Beloved for its portrait of star-crossed lovers and its surpassing descriptions of the English countryside, Lorna Doone is R. D. Blackmore's enduring masterpiece.

Tim O'Brien - The ​Things They Carried
They ​carried malaria tablets, love letters, 28-pound mine detectors, dope, illustrated bibles, each other. And if they made it home alive, they carried unrelenting images of a nightmarish war that history is only beginning to absorb. Since its first publication, The Things They Carried has become an unparalleled Vietnam testament, a classic work of American literature, and a profound study of men at war that illuminates the capacity, and the limits, of the human heart and soul.

George R. R. Martin - A ​Storm of Swords: Blood and Gold
Reissued ​for September 2011 in B format. Split into two books for the paperback, the third volume in George R.R. Martin's superb and highly acclaimed epic fantasy A Song of Ice and Fire continues the richest, most exotic and mesmerising saga since The Lord of the Rings. The Seven Kingdoms are divided by revolt and blood feud, and winter approaches like an angry beast. Beyond the Northern borders, wildlings leave their villages to gather in the ice and stone wasteland of the Frostfangs. From there, the renegade Brother Mance Rayder will lead them South towards the Wall. Robb Stark wears his new-forged crown in the Kingdom of the North, but his defences are ranged against attack from the South, the land of House Stark's enemies the Lannisters. His sisters are trapped there, dead or likely yet to die, at the whim of the Lannister boy-king Joffrey or his depraved mother Cersei, regent of the Iron Throne. And Daenerys Stormborn will return to the land of her birth to avenge the murder of her father, the last Dragon King on the Iron Throne.

Oliver Bowden - Assassin's ​Creed - Brotherhood
This ​is a sequel to Assassin's Creed: Renaissance. Ezio, the master assassin, seeks to avenge the death of his uncle. Unbeknownst to him this will pit him against the Knights Templar.

Don DeLillo - Libra
An ​unparalleled work of historical conjecture, ranging imaginatively over huge tracts of the American popular consciousness, Don DeLillo's Libra contains an introduction by the author in Penguin Modern Classics. In this powerful, eerily convincing fictional speculation on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Don DeLillo chronicles Lee Harvey Oswald's odyssey from troubled teenager to a man of precarious stability who imagines himself an agent of history. When "history" presents itself in the form of two disgruntled CIA operatives who decide that an unsuccessful attempt on the life of JFK will galvanize the nation against Communism, the scales are irrevocably tipped.

George R. R. Martin - A ​Clash of Kings
The ​second novel of Martin's titanic Song of Ice and Fire saga (A Game of Thrones, 1996) begins with Princess Arya Stark fleeing her dead father's capital of King's Landing, disguised as a boy. It ends with the princess, now known as Weasel, having led the liberation of the accursed castle of Harrenhal. In between, her actions map the further course of a truly epic fantasy set in a world bedecked with 8000 years of history, beset by an imminent winter that will last 10 years and bedazzled by swords and spells wielded to devastating effect by the scrupulous and unscrupulous alike. Standout characters besides Arya include Queen Cersei, so lacking in morals that she becomes almost pitiable; the queen's brother, the relentlessly ingenious dwarf Tyrion Lannister; and Arya's brother, Prince Brandon, crippled except when he runs with the wolves in his dreams. The novel is notable particularly for the lived-in quality of its world, created through abundant detail that dramatically increases narrative length even as it aids suspension of disbelief; for the comparatively modest role of magic (although with one ambitious young woman raising a trio of dragons, that may change in future volumes); and for its magnificent action-filled climax, an amphibious assault on King's Landing, now ruled by the evil Queen Cersei. Martin may not rival Tolkien or Robert Jordan, but he ranks with such accomplished medievalists of fantasy as Poul Anderson and Gordon Dickson. Here, he provides a banquet for fantasy lovers with large appetites?and this is only the second course of a repast with no end in sight. Author tour.

Thomas Mullen - The ​Last Town on Earth
Set ​against the backdrop of one of the most virulent epidemics that America ever experienced -the 1918 flu-Thomas Mullen's powerful, sweeping first novel is a tale of morality in a time of upheaval. Deep in the mist-shrouded forests of the Pacific Northwest is a small mill town called Commonwealth, conceived as a haven for workers weary of exploitation. For Philip Worthy, the adopted son of the town's founder, it is a haven in another sense-as the first place in his life he's had a loving family to call his own. And yet, the ideals that define this outpost are being threatened from all sides. A world war is raging, and with the fear of spies rampant, the loyalty of all Americans is coming under scrutiny. Meanwhile, another shadow has fallen across the region in the form of a deadly illness striking down vast swaths of surrounding communities. When Commonwealth votes to quarantine itself against contagion, guards are posted at the single road leading in and out of town, and Philip Worthy is among them. He will be unlucky enough to be on duty when a cold, hungry, tired-and apparently ill-soldier presents himself at the town's doorstep begging for sanctuary. The encounter that ensues, and the shots that are fired, will have deafening reverberations throughout Commonwealth, escalating until every human value-love, patriotism, community, family, friendship-not to mention the town's very survival, is imperiled. Inspired by a little-known historical footnote regarding towns that quarantined themselves during the 1918 epidemic, The Last Town on Earth is a remarkably moving and accomplished debut.

William Golding - The ​Inheritors
Eight ​Neanderthals encounter another race of beings like themselves, yet strangely different. This new race, Homo sapiens, fascinating in their skills and sophistication, terrifying in their cruelty, sense of guilt, and incipient corruption, spell doom for the more gentle folk whose world they will inherit. Golding, author of Lord of the Flies, won the 1983 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Bernard Cornwell - The ​Last Kingdom
'I ​had been given a perfect childhood, perfect, at least, to the ideas of a boy. I was raised among men, I was free, I ran wild, was encumbered by no laws, was troubled by no priests and was encouraged to violence.' Uhtred is an English boy, born into the aristocracy of 9th Century Northumbria, but orphaned at ten, adopted by a Dane and taught the Viking ways. Yet Uhtred's fate is indissolubly bound up with Alfred, King of Wessex, who rules over the last English kingdom when the Danes have overrun Northumbria, Mercia and East Anglia. That war, with its massacres, defeats and betrayals, is the background to Uhtred's childhood, a childhood which leaves him uncertain of his loyalties, but a slaughter in a winter dawn propels him to the English side and he will become a man just as the Danes launch their fiercest attack yet on Alfred's kingdom. Marriage ties him further to the West Saxon cause, but when his wife and child vanish in the chaos of a Danish invasion, Uhtred is driven to face the greatest of the Viking chieftains in a battle beside the sea, and there, in the horror of a shield-wall, he discovers his true allegiance.

D. M. Thomas - The ​White Hotel
It ​is a dream of electrifying eroticism and inexplicable violence, recounted by a young woman to her analyst, Sigmund Freud. It is a horrifying yet restrained narrative of the Holocaust. It is a searing vision of the wounds of our century, and an attempt to heal them. Interweaving poetry and case of history, fantasy and historical truth-telling, The White Hotel is a modern classic of enduring emotional power that attempts nothing less than to reconcile the notion of individual destiny with that of historical fate.

Hanczár János - Óperencia
Hanczár ​János tizedik kötetét vette most a kezébe az Olvasó. A beszédtanár-újságíró, talán a legtöbb Murphy törvénykönyv hazai szerzője, eddig összesen hét könyvet írt. Később megjelent két politikai szatírákat is tartalmazó könyve. 2006-ban úgy döntött, hogy megvalósítja régi álmát, és majd hat évig dolgozott a történeten, mely a magyarok Honfoglalást lezáró Pozsony mellett megvívott csatáját tárgyalja. A könyv, amit az Olvasó a kezében tart, kiválóan alkalmas arra, hogy megismerjük belőle a magyar történelem eme méltatlanul keveset emlegetett fejezetét. A pozsonyi diadal nem legenda. Ma már nemcsak az önjelölt kutatók foglalkoznak e témával, hanem a hadtörténészek egy része is az ügy mellé állt, és segít feltárni a részleteit annak a csatának, amelynek eredményeként 1105 éve végleg eldőlt, hogy lesz hazánk. Ezt a gondolatot szolgálja ez a filmre kívánkozó, forgatókönyvszerűen megírt történet is, továbbá példát mutat a kor embere számára arra, hogy nincs lehetetlen helyzet, nincs kilátástalan jövő: dolgozni kell érte, hol fegyverrel, hol szellemmel, s hazánk sorsát jobbra fordíthatjuk. A mai nehéz időszakban is nagyon fontos, hogy higgyünk a sikerben! A hazaszeretet, a nemzettudat kérdése hangsúlyossá válik a műben: anakronisztikusnak tűnhet ezen fogalmak használata a tárgyalt kor kapcsán. De mi magyarok jól tudjuk: szükségünk van olyan példaképekre, akik ezen tulajdonságokkal felvértezve évszázadok távlatából is tanítanak bennünket. Árpád, Kurszán, Csepel és a többiek példája erőt adhat nekünk a folytatáshoz.

Catrin Collier - Winners ​& Losers
Megan ​Williams is eighteen and in love with the boy next door, Victor Evans. But Tonypandy in 1910 is a town of poverty, hardship and strife, garrisoned by troops brought in to control the striking miners whose anger all too frequently erupts into bouts of violence and rioting. At thirteen Megan is sent from her family's farm to keep house for her widower uncle and his five children, but when her uncle can no longer pay her wages, she is forced to seek work elsewhere. The only people who are hiring are those that run the houses where the police and soldiers lodge. Ostracised by friends and former neighbours who believe she has betrayed her class by working for the enemy, Megan is not the only one fighting for survival. Her lover turns to bare knuckle boxing in the hope of making enough money for them to marry. But Megan's father would rather see his daughter dead than married to a Catholic, particularly one whose father and brother are marked as strike ringleaders. Tempers and violence flare on both sides of the dispute. Caught in the middle, Victor and Megan find themselves fighting for the right to love one another, remain together and build a future they can share.

Peter May - Entry ​Island
When ​Detective Sime Mackenzie boards a light aircraft at Montreal's St. Hubertairfield, he does so without looking back. For Sime, the 850-mile journey aheadrepresents an opportunity to escape the bitter blend of loneliness and regret thathas come to characterise his life in the city.Travelling as part of an eight-officer investigation team, Sime's destination lies inthe Gulf of St. Lawrence. Only two kilometres wide and three long, ENTRY ISLAND ishome to a population of around 130 inhabitants - the wealthiest of which has justbeen discovered murdered in his home.The investigation itself appears little more than a formality.

Celia Rees - Sovay
England, ​1783. When the rich and beautiful Sovay isn't sitting for portraits, she's donning a man's cloak and robbing travelers in broad daylight. But in a time when political allegiances between France and England are strained, a rogue bandit is not the only thing travelers fear. Spies abound, and rumors of sedition can quickly lead to disappearances. So when Sovay lifts the wallet of one of England's most powerful and dangerous men, it's not just her own identity she must hide, but that of her father. A dazzling historical saga in which the roles of thieves and gentry, good and bad, and men and women are interchanged to riveting effect.

Dan Brown - The ​Lost Symbol
The ​most anticipated publication of the decade, The Lost Symbol is the stunning new thriller featuring Robert Langdon. Six years in the writing, it is Dan Brown's extraordinary sequel to his internationally bestselling Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code. Nothing is ever what it first appears in a Dan Brown novel. Set over a breathtaking 12 hour time span, the book's narrative takes the reader on an exhilarating journey through a masterful and unexpected landscape as Professor of Symbology, Robert Langdon, is once again called into action.

Anatole France - A ​Lúdláb Királynő
Anatole ​France 1892-ben írta ezt a könyvet. A tizennyolcadik századot keltette életre benne, az ő kedves századát, amelyről, azt tartotta, hogy a "legmerészebb, a legszeretetreméltóbb, a legnagyobb" valamennyi század közül. A Lúdláb Királynő egy régi-régi párizsi fogadó cégére. Ott nevelkedett Nyársforgató Jakab, ennek a vérbő történetnek az elbeszélője. Ez a regényes mű a világirodalomban kivételes módon egyesíti a játékos könnyedséget a magvas modanivalóval, s népszerűségére mi sem jellemzőbb, mint a századelő Lúdláb Királynő divatja, a számtalan Lúdláb Királynő vendéglő Párizstól Budáig.

David Mitchell - The ​Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
Imagine ​an empire that has shut out the world for a century and a half. No one can leave, foreigners are excluded, their religions banned and their ideas deeply mistrusted. Yet a narrow window onto this nation-fortress still exists: an artificial walled island connected to a mainland port, and manned by a handful of European traders. And locked as the land-gate may be, it cannot prevent the meeting of minds - or hearts. The nation was Japan, the port was Nagasaki and the island was Dejima, to where David Mitchell's panoramic novel transports us in the year 1799. For one Dutch clerk, Jacob de Zoet, a dark adventure of duplicity, love, guilt, faith and murder is about to begin -- and all the while, unbeknownst to him and his feuding compatriots, the axis of global power is turning...

Henryk Sienkiewicz - Kereszteslovagok
A ​Kereszteslovagok még Sienkiewicz rendkívül közkedvelt történelmi regényei közül is kiemelkedik népszerűségével. Ez a nagyméretű tabló a legteljesebben tükrözi az író romantikus szemléletét. A regény lapjain az évszázados német-lengyel háborúk egyik jelentős epizódja elevenedik meg: Jagello Ulászló, a harcias, ifjú király állt a felkelt lengyel-litván hadak élére, hogy elégtételt vegyen minden kegyetlenkedésért, melyet a Német Lovagrend követett el a szláv lakosságon. A szereplőkkel együtt járjuk be a középkori lengyel-német ellentétek vad történeti tájait. A harc, mely a sok méltánytalanság, csalás, árulás következményeként hatalmas összecsapásba torkollik, életre-halálra szól. De megtalálható ebben a regényben a lovagregények minden kedvelt mozzanata: szerelem az első látásra, leányrablás, a hű szerelmes kitartó küzdelme imádottjért. Sienkiewicz a történeti források alalpján alkotta meg ezt a művet, de a Kereszteslovagok gazdag cselekménye, pompás, hús-vér alakjainak sora mégis elsősorban az írói képzelet szülötte. Mese ez a javából, de oly igézően előadva, hogy a "legmodernebb" olvasó sem szabadulhat varázsa alól, ha már egyszer belefogott az olvasásba.

Neal Stephenson - Quicksilver
Daniel ​Waterhouse possesses a brilliant scientific mind and yet knows that his genius is dwarfed by that of his friends Isaac Newton, Gottfried Leibniz, and Robert Hooke. A student of the twin disciplines of science and alchemy, he is embroiled in a bloody struggle for religious freedom. Jack Shaftoe began his life as a London street urchin and is now a reckless wanderer in search of good fortune. The intrepid exploits of Half-Cocked Jack, King of the Vagabonds, are quickly becoming the stuff of legend through Europe. Eliza is a young woman whose ingenuity is all that keeps her alive after being set adrift from the Turkish harem in which she has been imprisoned since she was a child. Daniel, Jack and Eliza traverse a landscape populated by mad alchemists, Barbary pirates, and bawdy courtiers, as well as historical figures including Samuel Pepys, Ben Franklin, and other great minds of the age. Travelling from the infant American colonies to the Tower of London, the glittering courts of Louis XIV, and all manner of places in between, this magnificent historical epic brings to vivid life a time like no other, and establishes its author as one of the pre-eminent talents of our own age.