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The Sword Of Shannara
''The Sword of Shannara'' is a 1977 epic fantasy novel by American writer Terry Brooks. It is the first book in a titular trilogy. The novel interweaves two major plots into a fictional world called The Four Lands. One follows the protagonist Shea Ohmsford on his quest to gain the Sword of Shannara and use it to confront the Warlock Lord (the antagonist). The other plot shadows Prince Balinor Buckhannah's attempt to oust his insane brother Palance from the throne of Callahorn while the country and its capital (Tyrsis) come under attack from overwhelming armies of the Warlock Lord. The novel contains themes of mundane heroism and nuclear holocaust throughout. Brooks wrote ''The Sword of Shannara'' over seven years, during which time he also attended law school. Ballantine Books published the novel and used it to launch the company's new subsidiary, Del Rey Books. The success of ''The Sword of Shannara'' significantly boosted the commercial prospects of the fantasy literary gen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Terry Brooks
Terence Dean Brooks (born January 8, 1944) is an American writer of fantasy fiction. He writes mainly high fantasy, epic fantasy, and has also written two film novelizations. He has written 23 New York Times Best Seller List, ''New York Times'' bestsellers during his writing career, and has sold over 25 million copies of his books in print. He is one of the most successful living fantasy writers. Early life Brooks was born in the rural Midwestern town of Sterling, Illinois, and spent a large part of his life living there. He is an alumnus of Hamilton College (New York), Hamilton College, earning his Bachelor of Arts, B.A. in English literature in 1966. He later obtained a Juris Doctor, J.D. degree from Washington and Lee University. He was a practicing attorney before becoming a full-time author. Career Brooks had been a writer since high school, writing mainly in the genres of science fiction, western, fiction, and Non-fiction writing, non-fiction. One day, in his early college ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nuclear Holocaust
A nuclear holocaust, also known as a nuclear apocalypse, nuclear annihilation, nuclear armageddon, or atomic holocaust, is a Futures studies, theoretical scenario where the mass detonation of nuclear weapons causes widespread destruction and radioactive fallout, with global consequences. Such a scenario envisages large parts of the Earth becoming uninhabitable due to the effects of nuclear warfare, potentially causing the Societal collapse, collapse of civilization, the extinction of humanity, or Extinction event, the termination of most biological life on Earth. Besides the immediate destruction of cities by nuclear blasts, the potential aftermath of a nuclear war could involve firestorms, a nuclear winter, widespread Acute radiation syndrome, radiation sickness from Nuclear fallout, fallout, and/or the temporary (if not permanent) loss of much modern technology due to electromagnetic pulses. Some scientists, such as Alan Robock, have speculated that a thermonuclear war could re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Washington And Lee University
Washington and Lee University (Washington and Lee or W&L) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Lexington, Virginia, United States. Established in 1749 as Augusta Academy, it is among the Colonial colleges, oldest institutions of higher learning in the US. Washington and Lee's 325-acre campus sits at the edge of Lexington and abuts the campus of the Virginia Military Institute in the Shenandoah Valley region between the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Allegheny Mountains. The institution consists of three academic units: the college itself; the Williams School of Commerce, Economics, and Politics; and the Washington and Lee University School of Law, School of Law. It hosts 24 intercollegiate varsity athletic teams which compete as part of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA Division III). History The classical school from which Washington and Lee descended was establ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skull Bearers (Shannara)
''Shannara'' is a series of high fantasy novels written by Terry Brooks, beginning with ''The Sword of Shannara'' in 1977 and concluding with ''The Last Druid'' which was released in October 2020; there is also a prequel, ''First King of Shannara''. The series blends magic and primitive technology and is set in the Four Lands, which are identified as Earth long after civilization was destroyed in a chemical and nuclear holocaust called the Great Wars. By the time of the prequel ''First King of Shannara'', the world had reverted to a pre-industrial state and magic had re-emerged to supplement science. Setting The Shannara series is set in a post-apocalyptic world called the Four Lands. This world is a futuristic version of our own, and not a secondary world. The ''Genesis of Shannara'' trilogy reveals the Four Lands to be located in the modern Pacific Northwest region of the United States and Canada. Much of the landscape has been changed by a future nuclear holocaust called The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthony Hope
Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins (9 February 1863 – 8 July 1933), better known as Anthony Hope, was a British novelist and playwright. He was a prolific writer, especially of adventure novels but he is remembered predominantly for only two books: ''The Prisoner of Zenda'' (1894) and its sequel '' Rupert of Hentzau'' (1898). These works, "minor classics" of English literature, are set in the contemporaneous fictional country of Ruritania and spawned the genre known as Ruritanian romance, books set in fictional European locales similar to the novels. ''Zenda'' has inspired many adaptations, most notably the 1937 Hollywood movie of the same name and the 1952 version. Early career and ''Zenda'' Hope was educated at St John's School, Leatherhead, Marlborough College and Balliol College, Oxford. In an academically distinguished career at Oxford he obtained first-class honours in Classical Moderations (Literis Graecis et Latinis) in 1882 and in Literae Humaniores ('Greats') in 1885. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Prisoner Of Zenda
''The Prisoner of Zenda'' is an 1894 adventure novel by Anthony Hope, in which the King of Ruritania is drugged on the eve of his coronation and thus is unable to attend the ceremony. Political forces within the realm are such that, in order for the king to retain the crown, his coronation must proceed. Fortuitously, an English gentleman on holiday in Ruritania who resembles the monarch is persuaded to act as his political decoy in an effort to save the unstable political situation of the interregnum. A sequel, '' Rupert of Hentzau'', was published in 1898 and is included in some editions of ''The Prisoner of Zenda''. The popularity of the novels inspired the Ruritanian romance genre of literature, film, and theatre that features stories set in a fictional country, usually in Central or Eastern Europe,John Clute and John Grant, ''The Encyclopedia of Fantasy'', p. 826 for example Graustark from the novels of George Barr McCutcheon, and the neighbouring countries of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Con-man
A scam, or a confidence trick, is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using a combination of the victim's credulity, naivety, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers have defined confidence tricks as "a distinctive species of fraudulent conduct ... intending to further voluntary exchanges that are not mutually beneficial", as they "benefit con operators ('con men') at the expense of their victims (the 'marks')". Terminology Other terms for "scam" include confidence trick, con, con game, confidence game, confidence scheme, ripoff, stratagem, finesse, grift, hustle, bunko, bunco, swindle, flimflam, gaffle, and bamboozle. The perpetrator is often referred to as a scammer, confidence man, con man, con artist, grifter, hustler, or swindler. The intended victims are known as marks, suckers, stooges, mugs, rubes, or gulls (from the word ''gullible''). When accomplices are employed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthurian Legend
The Matter of Britain (; ; ; ) is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. The 12th-century writer Geoffrey of Monmouth's (''History of the Kings of Britain)'' is a central component of the Matter of Britain. It was one of the three great Western story cycles recalled repeatedly in medieval literature, together with the Matter of France, which concerned the legends of Charlemagne and his companions, as well as the Matter of Rome, which included material derived from or inspired by classical mythology and classical history. Its pseudo-chronicle and chivalric romance works, written both in prose and verse, flourished from the 12th to the 16th century. Name The three "matters" were first described in the 12th century by French poet Jean Bodel, whose epic ' ("Song of the Saxons") contains the lines: The name distinguishes and relates the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Merlin
The Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) is an interferometer array of radio telescopes spread across England. The array is run from Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire by the University of Manchester on behalf of UK Research and Innovation. The array consists of up to seven radio telescopes and includes the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank, Mark II, Cambridge, Defford in Worcestershire, Knockin in Shropshire, and Darnhall and Pickmere (previously known as Tabley) in Cheshire. The longest baseline is therefore 217 km and MERLIN can operate at frequencies between 151 MHz and 24 GHz. At a wavelength of 6 cm (5 GHz frequency), MERLIN has a resolution of 40 milliarcseconds which is comparable to that of the HST at optical wavelengths. Some of the telescopes are occasionally used for European VLBI Network (EVN) and Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations in order to create an interferometer with even larger ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shannara Quest Party
''Shannara'' is a series of high fantasy novels written by Terry Brooks, beginning with ''The Sword of Shannara'' in 1977 and concluding with ''The Last Druid'' which was released in October 2020; there is also a prequel, ''First King of Shannara''. The series blends magic and primitive technology and is set in the Four Lands, which are identified as Earth long after civilization was destroyed in a chemical and nuclear holocaust called the Great Wars. By the time of the prequel ''First King of Shannara'', the world had reverted to a pre-industrial state and magic had re-emerged to supplement science. Setting The Shannara series is set in a post-apocalyptic world called the Four Lands. This world is a futuristic version of our own, and not a secondary world. The ''Genesis of Shannara'' trilogy reveals the Four Lands to be located in the modern Pacific Northwest region of the United States and Canada. Much of the landscape has been changed by a future nuclear holocaust called The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Last Stand
A last stand, or final stand, is a military situation in which a body of troops holds a defensive position in the face of overwhelming and virtually insurmountable odds. Troops may make a last stand due to a sense of duty; because they are defending a tactically crucial point; to buy time to enable a trapped army, person, or group of people to escape; due to fear of execution if captured; or to protect their ruler or leader. Last stands loom large in history, as the heroism and sacrifice of the defenders exert a large pull on the public's imagination. Some last stands have become a celebrated part of a fighting force's or a country's history, especially if the defenders accomplished their goals (or, in rare cases, defeated their attackers). Tactical significance A "last stand" is a last resort tactic, and is chosen because the defending force realizes or believes the benefits of fighting outweigh the benefits of retreat or surrender. This usually arises from strategic or mora ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
