Through The Daemons Gate

Download or read book Through the Daemon's Gate written by Dean Swinford and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-08 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book tells the story of the early modern astronomer Johannes Kepler’s Somnium, which has been regarded by science historians and literary critics alike as the first true example of science fiction. Kepler began writing his complex and heavily-footnoted tale of a fictional Icelandic astronomer as an undergraduate and added to it throughout his life. The Somnium fuses supernatural and scientific models of the cosmos through a satirical defense of Copernicanism that features witches, lunar inhabitants, and a daemon who speaks in the empirical language of modern science. Swinford’s looks at the ways that Kepler’s Somnium is influenced by the cosmic dream, a literary genre that enjoyed considerable popularity among medieval authors, including Geoffrey Chaucer, Dante, John of Salisbury, Macrobius, and Alan of Lille. He examines the generic conventions of the cosmic dream, also studying the poetic and theological sensibilities underlying the categories of dreams formulated by Macrobius and Artemidorus that were widely used to interpret specific symbols in dreams and to assess their overall reliability. Swinford develops a key claim about the form of the Somnium as it relates to early science: Kepler relies on a genre that is closely connected to a Ptolemaic, or earth-centered, model of the cosmos as a way of explaining and justifying a model of the cosmos that does not posit the same connections between the individual and the divine that are so important for the Ptolemaic model. In effect, Kepler uses the cosmic dream to describe a universe that cannot lay claim to the same correspondences between an individual’s dream and the order of the cosmos understood within the rules of the genre itself. To that end, Kepler’s Somnium is the first example of science fiction, but the last example of Neoplatonic allegory.

Download or read book Demon's Gate written by Steve White and published by Baen Publishing Enterprises. This book was released on 2004-01-01 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If the Demon Gate is Opened, Nothing Can Ever Close it Again . . . Valdar, heir to the throne of Dhulon, was in the fabled city-state of Schaerisa to pay his kingdom's respects to the recently deceased co-emperor. But then he ran into his old mentor, the sorcerer Nyrthim-who was supposed to be dead. The sorcerer's death had been faked so that he could be free to investigate tales that demons, once banished, were returning to the world. And unfortunately, the tales understated the danger. Once demons ranging from deadly imps to evil demigods had ruled the world. They had been cast out and confined to the nether world only with powerful sorcery, using spells long lost. Now someone is trying to summon the most powerful-and unspeakably dangerous-of these accursed creatures back to the world of men, hoping to conquer it through them. And unless Valdar and his companions at arms can thwart the plan, creatures evil beyond all human conception will return to rule the world. And this time, nothing will drive them back into the darkness. Instead darkness will rule the world forever . . . At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).

Download or read book The Chaos Gate written by Jeff Pantanella and published by . This book was released on 2020-08-25 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The arrival of an unlikely traveler to the Abyssal ice world of Gathos creates a tear in the Amaranthine Barrier, allowing an unspeakable evil to enter the Mortal Realm and unleash a world of horror on humankind. Only one man can stop the madness, but the demigod, Aetenos, has vanished and hasn't been seen for over a hundred years.Kasai Ch'ou and his mentor, blind Master Choejor, must flee the burning Monastery of Ordu in a desperate attempt to escape the wicked creatures of nightmare who have overrun the holy sanctuary. The two fugitives must reach the city of Gethem and warn the Grandmaster of the Seventh Heaven before the remaining monasteries of Aetenos fall to the same deadly fate.But to reach Gethem, they must travel across the dangerous wilderness and through dark forests, prowled by preternatural beasts and haunted by witches. Meanwhile, other sinister forces vie for power to overthrow the king and plunge the land into darkness. A new hero must rise, or all is lost.The Chaos Gate is the first book in a dark fantasy series featuring unwilling heroes, crafty devils, capricious witches, and terrifying demons. If you like fast-paced, action adventures, with high court intrigue and highly imaginative worlds, you'll love the first installment in Jeff Pantanella's page-turning Ever Hero Saga.

Download or read book The Gates written by John Connolly and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-09-28 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Young Samuel Johnson and his dachshund, Boswell, are trying to show initiative by trick-or-treating a full three days before Halloween, which is how they come to witness strange goings-on at 666 Crowley Road. The Abernathys don’t mean any harm by their flirtation with the underworld, but when they unknowingly call forth Satan himself, they create a gap in the universe, a gap through which a pair of enormous gates is visible. The gates to Hell. And there are some pretty terrifying beings just itching to get out. . . . Bursting with imagination and impossible to put down, New York Times bestselling author John Connolly’s "wholly original" (People) and "refreshing" (San Francisco Chronicle) novel is about the pull between good and evil, physics and fantasy. It is about a quirky and eccentric boy, who is impossible not to love, and the unlikely cast of characters who give him the strength to stand up to a demonic power.

Download or read book The Armour of Contempt written by Dan Abnett and published by Games Workshop. This book was released on 2007-12-04 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fantasy-roman.

Download or read book Rival Demons written by Sarra Cannon and published by Dead River Books. This book was released on 2012-01-19 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: **Get Books 1-3 in this bestselling series for FREE in the Beautiful Demons Box Set. Book 4: Shadow Demons is on sale for just 99 cents for a limited time!** After narrowly escaping death at the hand of the Order of Shadows, Harper finds herself thrust into the strange and beautiful world of the shadow demons. But crossing through the portal doesn't mean she is safe. The Order of Shadows is determined to bring her home and finish the ritual to take her life and her power. They send their most vicious hunters after Harper. Hunters who will not stop until they have found their prey. Determined to keep her safe, Jackson takes her deep into an underground world filled with dangers of its own. Here, Harper will begin a journey that will teach her more about herself and her own path than she ever imagined possible. But will her relationship with Jackson survive? And is she really ready to find out the truth about who she is? Read the Complete Shadow Demons Saga: BEAUTIFUL DEMONS (Book 1) INNER DEMONS (Book 2) BITTER DEMONS (Book 3) SHADOW DEMONS (Book 4) RIVAL DEMONS (Book 5) DEMONS FOREVER (Book 6) EMERALD DARKNESS (Book 7) FORGOTTEN DARKNESS (Book 8) This book is approximately 78,000 words.

Download or read book David's Secret Demons written by Baruch Halpern and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2003-11-12 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a print on demand book and is therefore non- returnable. The Bible portrays King David as an exceptional man and a paragon of godly devotion. But was he? Some scholars deny that he existed at all. Did he? This challenging book examines the written and archaeological evidence critically in an effort to paint an accurate picture of one of the Bible's central figures. Neither defending nor rejecting the traditions about David, Baruch Halpern, a leading scholar of biblical history and the ancient Near East, traces the origins of development of David's persona. Because the biblical text clearly responds to concerns that can only be contemporary with David himself, we can believe that David was both real and a central actor in the historical drama of ancient Israel. Yet at the same time, the written record also shows that contemporaries understood David's character to be much more unsavory trhan the tradition has hitherto allowed. Halpern digs beneath the layers of tradition to understand David as an individual, as a person. The man he uncovers turns out to have been complex, ambiguous, and -- above all -- surprising. According to Halpern, the image of David grew over time. He was the founder of the dynasty that perpetuated the texts about him, and they progressively exaggerated his accomplishments. But in the earliest writings David remains a modest figure, as this book shows for the first time. To understand David as a human being, one must keep in mind that he was primarily a politicians who operated in a rough-and-tumble environment in which competitors were ready literally to slit throats. Halpern's work raises many provocative questions: Was David an Israelite or a Philistine? Was Solomon really David's son? Did David take the throne of Israel by the consent or against the will of the people? How many murders did he commit on his way to the crown? Indeed, was David someone it would have been wise to even invite to dinner? The challenging arguments in David's Secret Demons are sure to provoke all kinds of discussion among biblical scholars and general readers alike. In addition -- a big bonus -- Halpern's accessible, at times humorous prose will itself draw readers everywhere into the compelling story of David found between these covers.