In the sixth volume of The Wheel of Time, Rand al'Thor, a farm boy defending humanity, attempts to unite the nations for a last battle with the Dark One. The plan involves a pact with the Aes Sedai, the female mystics of the One Power. On the slopes of Shayol Ghul, the Myrddraal swords are forged, and the sky is not the sky of this world; . In Salidar the White Tower in exile prepares an embassy to Caemlyn, where Rand Al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, holds...

A highly infectious, deadly virus from the central African rain forest suddenly appears in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. There is no cure. In a few days 90 percent of its victims are dead. A secret military SWAT team of soldiers and scientists is mobilized to stop the outbreak of this virus. The book tells this dramatic story, giving an account of the appearance of rare and lethal viruses and their "crashes" into the human race.

"As soon as they became recognizably human, men and women--in their hunger to understand their own presence on earth and the mysteries within and around them--began to worship gods. Karen Armstrong's masterly and illuminating book explores the ways in which the idea and experience of God evolved among the monotheists--Jews, Christians and Muslims. Weaving a multicolored fabric of historical, philosophical, intellectual and social developments and...