The Cursed Codex

The Cursed Codex
Author: Matthew S. Cox
Publisher: Division Zero Press
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2020-02-09
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1949174220

Fantasy roleplayers often get deep into their games, but thirteen-year-old Keith Croft is about to take it to a new level. He’s been invisible for seven years, smart but not working hard, athletic enough, but too lazy to excel. His parents are sorta cool, but only two weeks into his eighth-grade year, his friends are all busy with sports or projects and can’t hang out. On the way home one day, he stops at a neighbor’s yard sale and discovers a book for Crypts & Creepers that the lonely old woman says belonged to her granddaughter who disappeared without a trace. Days after he convinces his friends to try this bizarre game that doesn’t require electronics, strange noises in his closet wake him. His increasing inability to focus on anything other than a girl who vanished before he was born―and his obsession with her NPC ranger―drives him to dig deeper into the past, searching for what really happened to her. By the time Keith realizes the Gamemaster’s Codex holds something darker than rules within its pages, the curse that claimed the soul of a girl in 1987 has its claws in his group as well. Keith vows his friends will escape―even if he can’t.

The Aleppo Codex

The Aleppo Codex
Author: Matti Friedman
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2013-05-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 161620270X

Winner of the 2014 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature A thousand years ago, the most perfect copy of the Hebrew Bible was written. It was kept safe through one upheaval after another in the Middle East, and by the 1940s it was housed in a dark grotto in Aleppo, Syria, and had become known around the world as the Aleppo Codex. Journalist Matti Friedman’s true-life detective story traces how this precious manuscript was smuggled from its hiding place in Syria into the newly founded state of Israel and how and why many of its most sacred and valuable pages went missing. It’s a tale that involves grizzled secret agents, pious clergymen, shrewd antiquities collectors, and highly placed national figures who, as it turns out, would do anything to get their hands on an ancient, decaying book. What it reveals are uncomfortable truths about greed, state cover-ups, and the fascinating role of historical treasures in creating a national identity.

The First Codex

The First Codex
Author: Michael Scott
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Total Pages: 856
Release: 2012-02-28
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 0307978028

Nicholas Flamel appeared in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter—but did you know he really lived? And he might still be alive today! Discover the truth in Michael Scott’s New York Times bestselling series the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel with the first three books: The Alchemyst, The Magician, and The Sorceress. The truth: Nicholas Flamel was born in Paris on September 28, 1330. The legend: Nicholas Flamel discovered the secret of eternal life. The records show that he died in 1418. But his tomb is empty. Nicholas Flamel lives. But only because he has been making the elixir of life for centuries. The secret of eternal life is hidden within the book he protects—the Book of Abraham the Mage. It's the most powerful book that has ever existed. In the wrong hands, it will destroy the world. That's exactly what Dr. John Dee plans to do when he steals it. Humankind won't know what's happening until it's too late. And if the prophecy is right, Sophie and Josh Newman are the only ones with the power to save the world as we know it. Sometimes legends are true. And Sophie and Josh Newman are about to find themselves in the middle of the greatest legend of all time. “[A] A riveting fantasy…While there is plenty here to send readers rushing to their encyclopedias…those who read the book at face value will simply be caught up in the enthralling story. A fabulous read.”—SLJ, Starred Read the whole series! The Alchemyst The Magician The Sorceress The Necromancer The Warlock The Enchantress

The Cursed Crown

The Cursed Crown
Author: Matthew S. Cox
Publisher: Division Zero Press
Total Pages: 430
Release: 2019-07-09
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 1949174840

In the wake of a twenty-year war, the people of Lucernia struggle to believe their former enemies aren’t demon-loving savages. However, that’s easy compared to the more alarming change: accepting their nation now has two queens. Many citizens in a land devoted to the God of Purity view the love between Kitlyn and Oona as unnatural, but the young women have earned guarded acceptance in the wake of their heroic deeds. Alas, unrest stirs in the shadows. Worse, Oona thinks the Talomir family line is cursed. All who have worn the crown before her have met with untimely deaths. Much work lies ahead for the new queens in helping the kingdom recover from a conflict older than its rulers. The people are restless and hurting, trust in the crown is tenuous, and the king of Evermoor demands reparations. That two women should love each other may be the last little piece to hurl the nation into rebellion. Mysterious forces attacking towns close to the border with Evermoor stoke tensions even further, threatening a relapse to war. Their crowns not even warm, Kitlyn and Oona set off to find the source of the raids and stabilize the nation… hoping to stay ahead of an ancient curse.

The Cursed Carolers in Context

The Cursed Carolers in Context
Author: Lynneth Miller Renberg
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 186
Release: 2021-03-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000365573

The Cursed Carolers in Context explores the interplay between the forms and contexts in which the tale of the cursed carolers circulated and the meanings it had for medieval and early modern authors and audiences. The story of the cursed carolers has circulated in Europe since the eleventh century. In this story, a group of people in a village in Saxony skip Christmas mass to perform a circle dance in the cemetery, only to be cursed and forced to keep dancing for a whole year. By approaching the story in specific historical contexts, this book shows how the story of the cursed carolers became a space in which medieval readers, writers, and listeners could debate the meaning and significance of a surprising variety of questions, including ecclesiastical authority, gender roles, pastoral responsibility, and even the conduct of crusades. This consideration of the interplay between text and context sheds new light on how and why the story of the dancers achieved such popularity in the Middle Ages, and how its meanings developed and changed throughout the period. This book will appeal to scholars and students of medieval European history, literature, and dance, as well as those interested in cultural history.

Challenger Intrepid

Challenger Intrepid
Author: Michael W. Mounts
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Total Pages: 190
Release: 2010-05
Genre: Sisters
ISBN: 1452010420

What happens when proper ladies go traipsing through time and space? Grand adventure, and you can join them. Georgia Challenger with her sister Claudette Roxton aren't afraid to go looking for problems and the miscreants who cause them. The sisters explore jungles, space, a river delta, and more, all while sticking close to the mystical plateau that is their home. In this first volume an Untamed Jungle Beauty, a Living Saint turned Post Personal-Apocalypse Cyber-Cynic, a Big Game Hunter, and a Mad Scientist chase bandits, historical heretics and terrorists wherever they must. Despite good intentions, and lots of intelligence, they may not be ready for the ultimate challenge.

Araphel

Araphel
Author: Matthew S. Cox
Publisher: Division Zero Press
Total Pages: 437
Release: 2020-02-27
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1949174387

Sometimes, the best thing a girl has to look forward to is killing someone. When she learned the truth behind her father’s death, Risa Black thought she’d given up on revenge. After an unknown enemy takes the life of someone dear to her, revenge is all that keeps her going. While hunting for the assassins, she uncovers a web of espionage and deceit that destroys her sense of everything she knew. Her idealism tarnished, her drive to free Mars from Earth gives way to something more personal: the need to protect a child. It soon becomes clear she’s in over her head. Consumed by the sorrow of loss, she accepts a mission from the Martian Liberation Front, not caring it’s a one-way ticket. Desperate to uncover the truth hidden behind all the lies, she hopes to find answers in a place that should not exist: Araphel. The home of the angel Raziel.

Caller 107

Caller 107
Author: Matthew S. Cox
Publisher: Division Zero Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2019-07-09
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 1949174085

Natalie Rausch said she’d die for a chance to meet DJ Crazy Todd, but she didn’t mean to be literal. A bitter divorce shattered her family and turned her into a thirteen-year-old weapon in the hands of two people who want nothing more than to destroy each other. Once an accelerated student looking at early college, Natalie let anger at her parents lead her down a desperate path of self-destruction. No amount of rebellion gets her mom or dad’s attention—or stitches up the hole inside her where love used to be. She still listens to actual radio because her stupid mom won’t let her have an iPhone. Whenever WROK 107.1 ran a contest, she and her best friend would always try to call in, but even that lost its fun. Her wildest attempt to send her parents a message, falling in with a dangerous group of older teens, goes as wrong as possible. Karma comes full circle in the form of her favorite DJ. He gives her a few hours to make up for two years’ worth of mistakes… Or be forever lost.

Emma and the Box of Wonder

Emma and the Box of Wonder
Author: Matthew S. Cox
Publisher: Division Zero Press
Total Pages: 480
Release: 2022-11-07
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1950738582

Emma planned to have a nice fun day playing with her sister and friend... not going halfway across the world. For most of her ten years, Emma always felt apart from other children in the village, always trying to be responsible, helpful, and mature. When Ambril Starling, the closest person she has to a real friend, invites her over to play, Emma is excited at the chance to simply have fun for a while. Alas, Ambril’s family is incredibly wealthy, leading to a rather inconveniently timed abduction attempt interrupting their play date. While hiding from thieves, the girls stumble across an enchanted jewelry box that accidentally saves them from being kidnapped—only to put them in much, much bigger trouble. Trouble that might even kill them.

Dr. Infinity and the Soul Smasher

Dr. Infinity and the Soul Smasher
Author: Matthew S. Cox
Publisher: Division Zero Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2022-06-09
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1950738361

There’s only one thing Übergirl loves—almost—as much as helping people: Star Prince comics. Before the Nolmek accidentally made superheroes real, Kelly Donovan often escaped into the pages of her favorite comic series to forget about bullies and her parents always complaining about their jobs. Star Prince and Ms. Omni might be fictional, but they saved her as much as any living hero could. When Dad surprises her with a copy of the latest and greatest video game set in the Star Prince Universe, Kelly dives right in, too excited to think. Alas, diving in turns out to be far more literal than she expected. Übergirl and her best friend Paige—a.k.a Will-O-Wisp—end up stranded inside the MegaStation, helpless to interfere while Dad puts together a most nefarious plan. If the girls cannot defeat the virtual Dr. Infinity in time to escape, her father’s orbital machine will rain down an unimaginable horror on innocent people… adding pineapple to every pizza on Earth.