Flight Paths Of The Emperor

Set mainly in the psychologically insulated communities of expatriate teachers in Osaka, Japan, these fourteen stories seek to understand issues of national or personal honour, and the problematic importance of family. Heighton also examines subtly related themes, like death, age, marriage, war and poetry, while hinting at autobiography throughout. Sophisticated, passionate and elegantly told, this collection, first published in 1992, was nominated for the 1992 Ontario Trillium Book Award and brought Steven Heighton much national acclaim.

Punctuate his title as you like but T.F. Rigelhof considers This is Our Writing a declaration, an enquiry and an exclamation. As a writer of half a dozen, a reviewer of dozens upon dozens, and as a reader of a multitude more books, Terry Rigelhof knows much about writing in Canada. In these eleven essays, he asks what is best in what has been written by Canadians in the twentieth century. He examines selected works of some writers whose accomplishments need serious revaluation. What are the real achievements of Robertson Davies, Carole Corbeil, Mavis Gallant, Mordecai Richler, Hugh Hood, Leonard Cohen and George Grant? Rigelhof comes up with a list that will surprise some and dismay others. This is a book for readers who have always known in their heart of hearts that Robertson Davies was an egregious windbag and that underneath the inspired silliness of their carefully contrived and managed public images, Mordecai Richler and Leonard Cohen have produced three of the most intelligent novels we have. In a sequence of interlocking personal essays, Rigelhof explores living a writerly life in Canada at the end of the twentieth century. The text is fortified by a dozen photographs, all but one previously unpublished, by Gabor Szilasi, one of Canada's greatest active documentary photographers.

In a time of terror for Europe’s monarchs—imprisoned, exiled, executed—Napoleon’s army marched toward Lisbon. Cornered, Prince Regent João had to make the most fraught decision of his life. Protected by the British Navy, he fled to Brazil with his entire family, including his deranged mother, most of the nobility, and the entire state apparatus. Until then, no European monarch had ever set foot in the Americas. Thousands made the voyage, but it was no luxury cruise. It took two months in cramped, decrepit ships. Lice infested some of the vessels, and noble women had to shave their hair and grease their bald heads with antiseptic sulfur. Vermin infested the food, and bacteria contaminated the drinking water. Sickness ran rampant. After landing in Brazil, Prince João liberated the colony from a trade monopoly with Portugal. As explorers mapped the burgeoning nation’s distant regions, the prince authorized the construction of roads, the founding of schools, and the creation of factories, raising Brazil to kingdom status in 1815. Meanwhile, Portugal was suffering the effects of abandonment, war, and famine. Never had the country lost so many people in so little time. Finally, after Napoleon’s fall and over a decade of misery, the Portuguese demanded the return of their king. João sailed back in tears in 1821, and the last chapter of colonial Brazil drew to a close, setting the stage for the strong, independent nation that we know today, changing the New World forever.

A prominent authority on China’s Belt and Road Initiative reveals the global risks lurking within Beijing’s project of the century China’s Belt and Road Initiative is the world’s most ambitious and misunderstood geoeconomic vision. To carry out President Xi Jinping’s flagship foreign-policy effort, China promises to spend over one trillion dollars for new ports, railways, fiber-optic cables, power plants, and other connections. The plan touches more than one hundred and thirty countries and has expanded into the Arctic, cyberspace, and even outer space. Beijing says that it is promoting global development, but Washington warns that it is charting a path to global dominance. Taking readers on a journey to China’s projects in Asia, Europe, and Africa, Jonathan E. Hillman reveals how this grand vision is unfolding. As China pushes beyond its borders and deep into dangerous territory, it is repeating the mistakes of the great powers that came before it, Hillman argues. If China succeeds, it will remake the world and place itself at the center of everything. But Xi may be overreaching: all roads do not yet lead to Beijing.

Placed in the Top 20 in the 1998 Preditors and Editors Reader's Choice Awards! #4 Cumulative Sales, SF&F, eBook Bestseller List #52 BarnesandNoble.com Rocket Edition Romance Bestsellers #12 Lifetime sales, Hard Shell Word Factory Finalist! 1999 Affaire de Coeur Reader's Poll Best Up and Coming Author. Jameelah was always prepared to die for her cause. Now, unless her plan to gain the attention of the Triden Emperor succeeds, she may have to kill for it as well. But peace has one last chance. She plants a smoke bomb at the royal wedding reception. After the explosion, Jameelah is betrayed by one of her own, and finds herself stranded in a runaway escape pod. She is not alone. One of the party goers lies bruised and bloodied at her feet. Jameelah knows Alec is a Triden officer, ruthless minion to an evil Emperor. Alec knows Jameelah is an Imsada terrorist, a threat to everything he loves. But Jameelah isn't just any terrorist--she is the one person her people will follow on their road to peace. And Alec isnt just any Triden lieutenant--he is the Emperor's only brother and heir to the throne.

Eight interviews, eight stories, eight commentaries. Eight of Canada's finest writers. Writers Talking gives readers a chance to listen in: Terry Griggs on where stories come from, Michael Winter on writing Newfoundland, K. D. Miller on being an actor who writes. The volume also features stories by and conversations with Mary Borsky, Steven Heighton, Elise Levine, Annabel Lyon, and Lisa Moore.

The Oregon crew must work without their usual resources when a rogue hacker empties their bank account in this action-packed installment from the #1 New York Times–bestselling grand master of adventure. When a bank heist during the Monaco Grand Prix decimates the Corporation’s “offshore” account, Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon find themselves unexpectedly vulnerable. Without his usual financial assets, Juan must trust a woman from his past, an old friend from his days with the CIA, to help him keep his team safe. Together, they’ll face a mysterious hacker with a brutal vendetta. It is only after the hunt begins that the enormity of the plan comes into focus: the bank theft is just the first step in a plot that will result in the deaths of millions and bring the world’s economies to a standstill. The catalyst for the scheme? A stunning document stolen during Napoleon’s disastrous invasion of Russia. But two hundred years later, it may be the thing that brings Europe to its knees.

In 1975, the Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, recently deposed in a Communist revolution, was declared dead. In the hands of the brutal army officer Mengistu Haile Mariam, the country descended into chaos and bloodshed. Then an astonishing truth emerged. The Emperor was not dead. He had been kept alive in prison by Lieutenant-Colonel Mengistu, whose objective was to wring from him his massive fortune bullion, jewels, cash and shares amounting to £2.5 billion lodged in Swiss, British and New York banks. In London, bankers and diplomats were appalled. The banks could not contemplate the loss of such a huge sum. The British and American governments would not tolerate a ruthless Communist regime's acquisition of wealth: it would destabilise the Middle East and all East Africa. There was only one answer: kidnap the Emperor. And there was only one organisation capable of mounting the operation: the legendary Special Air Service the SAS! Three men Peter Halloran, Michael Rourke and Richard Collins were selected for this hazardous mission, which was like nothing the regiment had ever tackled before: to penetrate a remote desert fortress and then to escape through arid highlands with a frail old man in tow. Only extraordinary duplicity would get them in. Only acute tactical expertise and merciless improvisation would get them out. And if anything went wrong, it would be as if they had never existed.