The Golden Dynasty

Circe Quinn, the office manager of a moving company, goes to sleep at home and wakes up in a corral filled with women wearing sacrificial virgin attire—and she’s one of them. She figures this is not good and soon finds she’s not having a wild dream; she’s living a frightening nightmare. She’s been transported to a barren land populated by a primitive people, where she’s installed very unwillingly on her white throne of horns as their queen. Dax Lahn is the king of Suh Tunak, the Horde of the nation of Korwahk. With one look at Circe, he knows she will be his bride and together they will start the Golden Dynasty of legend. Circe and Lahn are separated by language, culture, and the small fact she’s from a parallel universe and has no idea how she got there. Or, more importantly, how to get home. Facing challenge after challenge, Circe finds her footing as Queen of the brutal Korwahk Horde and wife to its King. Then she finds herself falling in love with this primitive land, its people and especially their savage leader.

Circe Quinn, the office manager of her father's moving company, goes to sleep at home and wakes up in a corral filled with women wearing sacrificial virgin attire - and she's one of them. She figures (rightly) this is not good and soon finds out that she's not having a wild dream, she's living a frightening nightmare where she's been transported to a barren land populated by a primitive people. Then, in short order, she is installed very unwillingly on her white throne of horns as their Queen. Dax Lahn is the king of Suh Tunak, the Horde of the nation of Korwahk. With one look at Circe, he knows she will be his bride and together they will start the Golden Dynasty of legend. Circe and Lahn are separated by language, culture and the small fact she's from a parallel universe and has no idea how she got there or how to get home. But facing challenge after challenge, Circe finds her footing as Queen of the brutal Korwahk Horde and wife to its King. Then she makes friends. Then she finds herself falling in love with this primitive land, its people and especially their savage leader.

Seoafin Wilde was taught by her parents that every breath was a treasure and to seek every adventure she could find. She learns this lesson the hard way after they perish in a plane crash. When she discovers there’s a parallel universe where every person has a twin, she finds a witch who can send her there so she can see her parents again. And have the adventure of a lifetime. Upon arrival in the winter wonderland of Lunwyn, Finnie realizes she’s been played and finds herself walking down the aisle to wed The Drakkar. Instantly thrown into inauspicious circumstances, with years of practice (she did survive that elephant stampede), Finnie bests the challenges and digs into her adventure. But as Frey Drakkar discovers the woman who is his new wife is not Princess Sjofn, a woman he loathes, but instead his Finnie, a free spirit with a thirst for venture just

In this fascinating and detailed profile, Benn paints a vivid picture of life in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), traditionally regarded as the golden age of China. 40 line illustrations.

The Fantasyland Series is the collection of five novels that take place in our world and a parallel universe where fantasies are true…but perhaps not all you would expect. Wildest Dreams - Seoafin “Finnie” Wilde travels to an alternate universe to have the adventure of a lifetime and instantly finds herself walking down the aisle toward The Drakkar. And Frey Drakkar finds himself married to a woman beyond his wildest dreams and binds her to his world everlasting, plunging her into a web of political intrigue, magic, mystery and… dragons. The Golden Dynasty - Circe Quinn goes to sleep at home and wakes up in a barren land populated by primitive people. Dax Lahn is the king of a savage horde and with one look at Circe, he knows she will be his queen. Circe and Lahn are separated by language, culture and the fact she’s from a parallel universe but Circe finds herself falling in love with this primitive land and its savage leader. Fantastical - Cora Goode has woken up in a fairytale world. But within minutes, she does something to start a curse and her fairytale becomes a nightmare. Fantasyland Noctorno is there to save her but unfortunately he thinks she’s Cora of his world and he doesn’t like her much. But Cora needs Tor to keep her safe and the more time she spends with the warrior, the faster she falls in love with him. Broken Dove - Far too young, Apollo Ulfr lost Ilsa, his wife, the love of his life and the mother of his two children. The grief of her loss does not settle in his soul, it solders to it. But when he discovers there is a parallel universe where his wife may have a twin, he feels there's hope and sets about bringing her to his world so he can have her back. Midnight Soul - Against his will, Noctorno Hawthorne finds himself embroiled in magic, mayhem and parallel universes. In that universe, Franka Drakkar wears a mask she never takes off to protect herself in a world of malice, intrigue and danger. When Noc meets Franka, over wine and whiskey, her mask slips and Noc knows it’s her. Now he has to find a way to get her to come home with him and make her want to stay.

Cora Goode has woken up in a fairytale world where she can understand what birds are saying, men ride horses and have fluffy feathers in their hats and furniture zigs, zags and whirls in miracles of construction. The problem is, she thinks she's in a dream, but she's actually taken the place of the parallel universe Cora. Without realizing it, our Cora does something that starts a centuries-old curse that will sweep the land if she gets captured by the evil Minerva. At this point, her dream world becomes a nightmare. Luckily, hot guy, fantasyland Noctorno is there to save her from the clutches of the grotesque vickrants sent by Minerva to capture her. Unfortunately, hot guy, fantasyland Noctorno doesn't like the Cora of his world all that much (to say the least) and he thinks our Cora is her. And no matter what our Cora says or does to try to convince him, he won't be convinced. But Cora needs Tor to keep her safe and guide her through this fantastical world as she hopes one day to wake up in her not-so-great apartment in her not-so-great life in her world. The problem is, the more time she spends with the gorgeous warrior Tor, the faster she falls in love with him.

In 1995, the People’s Republic of China resurrected a Qing-era law mandating that the reincarnations of prominent Tibetan Buddhist monks be identified by drawing lots from a golden urn. The Chinese Communist Party hoped to limit the ability of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile to independently identify reincarnations. In so doing, they elevated a long-forgotten ceremony into a controversial symbol of Chinese sovereignty in Tibet. In Forging the Golden Urn, Max Oidtmann ventures into the polyglot world of the Qing empire in search of the origins of the golden urn tradition. He seeks to understand the relationship between the Qing state and its most powerful partner in Inner Asia—the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism. Why did the Qianlong emperor invent the golden urn lottery in 1792? What ability did the Qing state have to alter Tibetan religious and political traditions? What did this law mean to Qing rulers, their advisors, and Tibetan Buddhists? Working with both the Manchu-language archives of the empire’s colonial bureaucracy and the chronicles of Tibetan elites, Oidtmann traces how a Chinese bureaucratic technology—a lottery for assigning administrative posts—was exported to the Tibetan and Mongolian regions of the Qing empire and transformed into a ritual for identifying and authenticating reincarnations. Forging the Golden Urn sheds new light on how the empire’s frontier officers grappled with matters of sovereignty, faith, and law and reveals the role that Tibetan elites played in the production of new religious traditions in the context of Qing rule.

Far too young, Apollo Ulfr lost Ilsa, his wife, the love of his life and the mother of his two children. The grief of her loss does not settle in his soul, it solders to it. But when he discovers there's a parallel universe where his wife may have a twin, he feels there's hope and sets about bringing her to his world so he can have her back. But Ilsa Ulfr of our world is married to the parallel universe's twin, Pol, who is not a good man. Not in any way. She's on the run from him and the last thing she wants is to be transported to a fantastical world and forced to take his side as his wife, even if he's not Pol. And Apollo finds the broken Ilsa nothing like his beloved and further wants nothing to do with her. But darkness is looming and evil is amassing. Apollo must protect his land and keep his family safe, including the new Ilsa.

This endlessly informative history brings the classical Islamic world to lifeIn this accessibly written history, Amira K. Bennison contradicts the common assumption that Islam somehow interrupted the smooth flow of Western civilization from its Graeco-Roman origins to its more recent European and American manifestations. Instead, she places Islamic civilization in the longer trajectory of Mediterranean civilizations and sees the ‘Abbasid Empire (750–1258 CE) as the inheritor and interpreter of Graeco-Roman traditions.At its zenith the ‘Abbasid caliphate stretched over the entire Middle East and part of North Africa, and influenced Islamic regimes as far west as Spain. Bennison’s examination of the politics, society, and culture of the ‘Abbasid period presents a picture of a society that nurtured many of the “civilized” values that Western civilization claims to represent, albeit in different premodern forms: from urban planning and international trade networks to religious pluralism and academic research. Bennison’s argument counters the common Western view of Muslim culture as alien and offers a new perspective on the relationship between Western and Islamic cultures.