Caution: Contains incidents of insane motorcycle antics, drug use and swearing. 'Boris has more fun on two wheels than should be legally possible.' - Richard Fidler, ABC His mother may not know it but Boris Mihailovic has lived a fast, furious, often politically incorrect life chasing the epiphanies of speed (the sensation not the drug). For Boris, motorbike riding was the rite of passage into manhood he'd been searching for. Now, nearly 40 years since he first rode a bike, the wisdom of age has provided the perspective for Boris to look back and realise some pretty wild shit went down. At the Altar of the Road Gods is about popping your motorcycle-buying cherry with an XJ650 Yamaha. It's about fines, feuds and fractures, high-sides, tank-slappers, angry police, even angrier young men, crashing, getting up, cranky girlfriends, riding faster, outlaws, and partaking in copious amounts of alcohol and drugs. It is about mateship and motorcycles. Ultimately, it is about four decades of two-wheel-related mayhem. Just don't tell Boris's mum! Be warned: may cause laughter, sleeplessness and the desire to buy a Lucifer-black Katana.

In a land where gods walk on the hills and goddesses rise from river, lake, and spring, the caravan-guard Holla-Sayan, escaping the bloody conquest of a lakeside town, stops to help an abandoned child and a dying dog. The girl, though, is the incarnation of Attalissa, goddess of Lissavakail, and the dog a shape-changing guardian spirit whose origins have been forgotten. Possessed and nearly driven mad by the Blackdog, Holla-Sayan flees to the desert road, taking the powerless avatar with him. Necromancy, treachery, massacres, rebellions, and gods dead or lost or mad, follow hard on the their heels. But it is Attalissa herself who may be the Blackdog’s—and Holla-Sayan’s—doom.

Highways, Byways, and Road Systems in the Pre-Modern World reveals the significance and interconnectedness of early civilizations’ pathways. This international collection of readings providing a description and comparative analysis of several sophisticated systems of transport and communication across pre-modern cultures. Offers a comparative analysis of several sophisticated systems of overland transport and communication networks across pre-modern cultures Addresses the burgeoning interest in connectivity and globalization in ancient history, archaeology, anthropology, and recent work in network analysis Explores the societal, cultural, and religious implications of various transportation networks around the globe Includes contributions from an international team of scholars with expertise on pre-modern India, China, Japan, the Americas, North Africa, Europe, and the Near East Structured to encourage comparative thinking across case studies

Shadow is a man with a past. But now he wants nothing more than to live a quiet life with his wife and stay out of trouble. Until he learns that she's been killed in a terrible accident. Flying home for the funeral, as a violent storm rocks the plane, a strange man in the seat next to him introduces himself. The man calls himself Mr. Wednesday, and he knows more about Shadow than is possible. He warns Shadow that a far bigger storm is coming. And from that moment on, nothing will ever he the same...