Mytologi

*** Finalist for 2023 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize in Speculative Fiction category ***When I was seven, my mother died. I struck a bargain with the Gods to bring her back to life.For thirteen years now, I have served as a Harbinger of Death, coaxing dying wishes out of mortals so that the God of Death may grant them moksha, liberation from the cycles of birth and death.The man about to die this evening claims he has nothing to offer me. He is dying a content man, a rarity in our world.But when the God of Death arrives to lead his soul away, the man changes his mind about dying and flees, planting on me something that is not quite a dying wish.I only know I cannot trust any God with this secret. And that I'll pay an unbearable price for this concealment.Yet again, I underestimate how savagely the Gods can wound me. Even though one of them is supposedly my father who still doesn't know I exist.Set in Burlington, Ontario, this contemporary fantasy novel weaves Hindu mythology and South Indian folklore into a quest for belonging across different worlds - the World of Mortals and the World of Gods, India and Canada, the past and the present, the world outside and the one within.It is an offering to lovers of whimsical worlds and heartbreaking prose, and to anyone yearning to simply belong.¿

HORROR IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN EVIL OVERTAKES THE HEART. Joey's a Baltimore mechanic. One night, she receives a call from her best friend, asking for his car to be picked up from the infamous body dumping grounds of Baltimore: Leakin Park. When she arrives, there's little more around than a stalled-out car and a couple of ravens, so she leaves only with the car. Back at the body shop, it doesn't take long for the smell of rot to permeate the trunk. Inside? A corpse. The cops say her friend did it. His absence is his guilt, but Joey knows better. She will find her missing friend and she will prove his innocence.But something isn't right in Baltimore. It's not just the feeling that someone is always watching from the city's abandoned buildings... Her search for her friend reveals something much worse hiding under her city. A ghost town, a reaper, regret. Suddenly, the city's rage and the stink rising out of the dirt make much more sense.A haunting, magical story about intergenerational trauma and how the ghosts of the past can follow us with aesthetics like Edgar Allan Poe meets Tim Burton and the rage of Stephen King. This novel will show you around Baltimore with a little dread and a lot of spunk. Watch out for the ravens.

An assassination in the Elven Court; an orphaned infant Princess; and twelve mages who have sworn to protect her.The Elven court has tasked the Nightshade Guild with keeping Princess Ameria protected until the assassins are found and the Kingdom is stabilized. Isla Ryan has no experience with babies and is less than thrilled to take the first shift. When word gets out that the Elven Kingdom is vulnerable, everyone wants to get their hands on the orphan.Killian Stewart arrived in Ireland desperate to heal from the PTSD he suffered after three tours of duty. He expected a quiet time on the Cliffs, instead he ends up on the run from creatures he didn't know existed, with a woman who claims the Supernatural is real, and an infant that can make it rain.Together, they'll criss-cross Europe and try to stay one step ahead of the creatures hunting the Princess.Buy the first book of the Nightshade Guild Series now! A new mage story will be released every month in 2021.

Everyone takes things that don't belong to them.From Medusa, it was her reputation. From Poseidon, it was his freedom.When Poseidon is released from prison, after years of being locked away, the bodies start piling up, and all fingers point to Medusa. Agent Kyrie Alcide of the Perseus Initiative is tasked with investigating the case, and keeping tabs on Medusa. But Kyrie is about to find out that everything in the legend of the infamous gorgon might not be as it seems. Now, if Kyrie can't discover who the real murderer is Medusa could find herself their next victim.

Prepare to be spooked by these chilling Japanese short stories! Strange Tales from Japan presents 99 spine-tingling tales of ghosts, yokai, demons, shapeshifters and trickster animals who inhabit remote reaches of the Japanese countryside. 33 color woodblock prints and over 55 b&w illustrations of these creatures, who have inhabited the Japanese imagination for centuries, bring the stories to life. The captivating tales in this volume include: The Vengeance of Oiwa--The terrifying spirit of a woman murdered by her husband who seeks retribution from beyond the graveThe Curse of Okiku--A servant girl is murdered by her master and curses his family, with gruesome resultsThe Snow Woman--A man is saved by a mysterious woman who swears him to secrecyTales of the Kappa--Strange human-like sprites with green, scaly skin who live in water and are known to pull children and animals to their deathsAnd many, many more!In his introduction, renowned translator William Scott Wilson explains the role these stories play in local Japanese culture and folklore, and their importance to understanding the Japanese psyche. Readers will learn which particular region, city, mountain or temple the stories originate from--in case you're brave enough to visit these haunts yourself!

Folk stories from different cultures about the Little People that inhabit hidden lands

Published in English for the first time, and the only Arabic epic named for a woman, The Tale of Princess Fatima recounts the thrilling adventures of a legendary medieval warrior universally known throughout the Middle East and long overdue to join world literature's pantheon of female heroes.A Penguin ClassicA fearsome, sword-slinging heroine who defeated countless men in stealth attacks on horseback, Dhat al-Himma, or Princess Fatima, was secretly given away at birth because she wasn't male, only to triumph as the most formidable warrior of her time. Known alternately as "she-wolf," "woman of high resolve," and "calamity of the soul," she lives on in this rousing narrative of female empowerment, in which she leads armies of more than seventy thousand men in clashes between rival tribes and between Muslims and Christians; reconciles with her father after taking him prisoner; and fends off her infatuated cousin, who challenges her to a battle for the right to marry her. Though her cousin suffers an ignominious defeat, he impregnates Fatima against her will and, when she gives birth to a Black son, disowns his own son, who also grows up to be a great warrior, eventually avenging his mother's honor. The epic culminates in a showdown between Fatima and another formidable warrior woman, and earns Fatima a place alongside the likes of Circe, Mulan, Wonder Woman, Katniss Everdeen and other powerful women.