Simon R. Green

Me llamo John Taylor. En mi tarjeta pone que soy detective, pero mi verdadero talento consiste en encontrar cosas perdidas. Es uno de los dones que reciben los que han nacido en Nocturnia. Me fui de alli hace mucho tiempo, con la cordura practicamente intacta, y ahora me gano la vida en las soleadas calles de Londres. Pero los negocios no me han ido muy bien. Por eso, cuando Joanna Barrett llamo a mi puerta ofreciendome una fortuna por encontrar a su hija adolescente, no fui capaz de negarme. Ahora rastreo sus huellas por las calles de Nocturnia. El mismo lugar adonde jure no volver, donde los relojes siempre marcan las tres de la madrugada y los monstruos beben compartiendo barra con los mitos. Vuelvo a casa....

Le royaume du roi John a vécu dans la paix durant des générations... Malheureusement, aujourd'hui, son royaume se désagrège. Le mal qui irradie du Noirbois ronge le pays ; les démons se rassemble

Bestseller Green, author of the Deathstalker series (Deathstalker War, etc.), which concluded with Owen Deathstalker and his ragtag comrades defeating the evil Empress Lionstone, presents a swashbuckling sequel, in which Owen's descendant Lewis is dragged unwillingly into emulating his ancestor's desperate heroism. Lewis just wants to be a good Paragon (a kind of high-tech supercop/knight) and faithfully serve his best friend, King Douglas. Unfortunately, Lewis and the king's intended bride fall hopelessly in love. Even more unfortunately, as if there weren't enough monstrously subversive groups plotting against the throne from outside the court, Lewis's jealous rival, Finn, who has a perfect Paragon's surface but a brilliant sociopath's soul, succeeds in discrediting Lewis and throwing the government into disarray. And then the planet-scouring Terror erupts from another dimension. As is in a lot of space opera, the plot doesn't withstand close scrutiny, but this hardly matters as the narrative rushes from one dramatic set piece to the next. If the characterization seems just a shade above comic-book complexity, Green uses echoes of the somber King Arthur legend to lend extra weight. At the end, when Lewis sets off on his heroic quest to locate the original Deathstalker, accompanied by an outrageously diverse band of cohorts, the prospect of another long series of long novels actually sounds like fun.

The old heroes have become legends; it's time for new heroes. It's time for a new Deathstalker ...

Introduction 1. Face to face: basic skills and techniques for talking to people in business situations 2. Letters, faxes and memos: basic skills and techniques for business correspondence 3. On the phone: basic skills and techniques for using the telephone in business 4. Summaries, notes, reports: basic skills and techniques for writing reports, making notes, summarizing and taking notes of conversations in business 5. Working together: talking about where you work, employment policy, a company's activities, organization and trade 6. International trade: ordering and supplying goods or services, answering and making enquiries, making offers, placing and acknowledging orders 7. Money matters: methods of payment, cash flow, invoicing, dealing with non-payment problems 8. Dealing with problems: complaining and apologizing, delivery and after-sales problems 9. Visitors and travellers. Looking after foreign visitors and travelling on business: hotels, restaurants, small talk, telling stories 10. Marketing: marketing a product, market research, promotion and advertising 11. Meetings: taking part in formal and informal meetings, one-to-one meetings and larger group meetings 12. Processes and operations: explaining and describing operations, giving instructions 13. Jobs and careers: applying for jobs and seeking promotion, participating in interviews 14. Sales and negotiations: selling and buying products, negotiating face-to-face and on the phone 15. A special project: a simulation, revising many of the skills and situations in the course Files Acknowledgements

Me llamo John Taylor. En mi tarjeta pone que soy detective, pero mi verdadero talento consiste en encontrar cosas perdidas. Es uno de los dones que reciben los que han nacido en Nocturnia. Me fui de alli hace mucho tiempo, con la cordura practicamente intacta, y ahora me gano la vida en las soleadas calles de Londres.Pero los negocios no me han ido muy bien. Por eso, cuando Joanna Barrett llamo a mi puerta ofreciendome una fortuna por encontrar a su hija adolescente, no fui capaz de negarme. Ahora rastreo sus huellas por las calles de Nocturnia. El mismo lugar adonde jure no volver, donde los relojes siempre marcan las tres de la madrugada y los monstruos beben compartiendo barra con los mitos. Vuelvo a casa....Simon R. Green inaugura con esta novela la saga de Nocturnia, una mirada audaz al Londres contemporaneo a traves del prisma de la fantasia.

Si el Imperio te arrebató todos sus sueños y la llegada del nuevo orden no te los devuelve, sólo cabe el recurso de volver a alzar el estandarte de la rebelión. Nuestros héroes tendrán que enfrentarse a múltiples peligros y aventuras, trampas y combates, tanto dialécticos como físicos, para salvar de la perdición a un puñado de trillones de personas perdidas en mitad del espacio, sin comida ni recursos, expuestas al peligro constante de invasiones alienígenas y a las manipulaciones de resentidos aristócratas dispuestos a salirse con la suya.