Книги, похожие на «Brian Aldiss, Forgotten Life»

A vivid, evocative, page-turning read that leaps off the page, with a dazzling recreation of the Renaissance diamond and gem trade.As the chaos of war spreads out across Europe, Charles V extends his empire in a series of ruthless and aggressive moves. The Medici Pope has formed an alliance to drive Charles out of Italy for good.Only England holds aloof from the great struggle that is to come. The 36-year-old Henry VIII presides over an opulent and glamorous court, thinking only of the woman with whom he has fallen in love.In the midst of this politically sensitive and dangerous world, steps Richard Dansey, a young and ambitious jewel merchant, determined to break his mother’s stranglehold on the family firm after his father’s early death.Richard’s reckless pursuit of jewels worthy of Henry’s wooing of Anne Boleyn, lead him across Europe to Venice and Rome. Obsessed with one diamond, but dangerously distracted by love, Richard finds himself thrust into the heart of the murderous politics of the Tudor court.‘The King’s Diamond’ is a story of obsession and love, in a world of political conniving and treachery, that grips from the first page.

The Number One Bestseller.A novel of Ancient Egypt from the bestselling author of River God. Wilbur Smith is a master at the helm of one of the greatest stories of all time.On the banks of the Nile, a hero will riseEgypt is under threat. Taita, a freed slave and the Pharaoh’s closest advisor, must create a master plan to crush the kingdom’s historic enemy and return Egypt to its former glory.He must call on his powers as both tactician and warrior to lead a great army up the Nile, through Arabia to the magical city of Babylon, then across the open seas to Crete.This army will meet battle and betrayal head on. But their greatest challenge will not be found on the battleground and it will threaten not only Taita’s plan, but the very future of Egypt.

From Doris Lessing, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, this is the third instalment in the visionary novel cycle ‘Canopus in Argos: Archives’.Ambien II is one of the Five – the highest level of the Sirian Colonial Service and the hidden rulers of the Sirian Empire for thousands of years. She is an accomplished administrator, a mover of populations and controller of events – and lives in the certain knowledge that the Sirian Empire is the most advanced in the galaxy.As she narrates her story, we follow the profound changes in Ambien II as she realizes that the rival Canopean Empire is superior to Sirius in every way, and is the true ruler of the galaxy. She begins to understand, and accept, that she will be used by her Canopean opposites, announcing their wisdom to her own people, whose denial of this revelation is as fierce and determined as her own would once have been.Continuing her work in the science-fiction genre, Doris Lessing uses these worlds to set out her view of mankind and history, of her conviction that to survive we must learn to open our minds to ways of thinking.