Most Popular Books by Michael Grant

The Severans analyses the colourful decline of the Roman Empire during the reign of the Severans, the first non-Roman dynasty. With its beautifully selected plate section, maps and bibliography, this will appeal to student and general reader.

In the thrilling second book of the Magnificent 12 series, Mack MacAvoy is challenged by his spectral mentor, Grimluk—who only appears in the shiny chrome pipes of bathrooms. Mack must find the ancient ones, the great forgotten forces. Some will help; some not so much. But above all— Learn the ways of Vargran! Assemble the twelve! Go to the nine dragons of Daidu. Go to the Egge rocks. Beware of . . . the trap. Time is short! The wicked Pale Queen’s three-thousand-year banishment ends in thirty-five days, and she will be free to destroy the world. It’s up to Mack to stop her return. But what do all of Grimluk’s clues mean? Can Mack achieve everything he must do without getting killed by the evil Risky—and escape the trap? The Magnificent 12: The Trap is another fast-paced episode in bestselling author Michael Grant’s hilarious fantasy-adventure series.

Written by eminent classical scholar Michael Grant. The Ancient Mediterranean is a wonderfully revealing, unusually comprehensive history of all the peoples who lived around the Mediterranean from about 15,000 B.C. to the time of Constantine (306-337 A.D.). Many volumes, including Professor Grant''s own previous works, trace the histories of the great civilizations of Greece and Rome. But this unique work looks at the influences and cultures of the entire region, including Egypt, Israel, Crete, Carthage, Ionia and the Eastern colonies. Syria, and the Etruscans, as well as the Greek and Roman states. Drawing on archaeology, geography, anthropology, and economics. Professor Grant shows how the great Oriental civilizations—Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Persia—originated attitudes and institutions ultimately passed on to the West. He describes the effect on the people and their achievements of the long, irregular coastline, the mountainous terrain surrounding small fertile plains, the typical plant life of olive and grape, and the rapidly changing weather. Further, he investigates how the demographic factors around this deep and stormy sea caused or influenced the great periods of ancient history, such as that of fifth-century Athens and of Rome in the first century A.D. Appealing and fascinating reading, this impeccably researched history brings a fresh perspective to understanding our ancient heritage.

Fans of the 39 Clues books will love The Key, the third entry in Michael Grant’s middle-grade Magnificent 12 series. Full of adventure and wackiness, the Magnificent 12 books are also perfect for readers of funny, action-filled series like Dan Gutman’s Genius Files. With 21 phobias, Mack MacAvoy is more of a wimpy kid than a hero, but he is on a quest to defeat the wicked—and crazy, and mean, and dangerous—Pale Queen before her three-thousand-year banishment ends. In The Key, Mack must find more of the Magnificent 12, the twelve twelve-year-olds fated to stop the queen from destroying the world, and assemble a key—a cheat sheet, really—to a magical language. Along the way, he’ll transform the Loch Ness monster into a gigantic duck, and transport the Eiffel Tower across the River Seine. The Key is another fast-paced episode in Michael Grant’s bestselling and hysterical fantasy adventure series.

Acclaimed author Michael Grant’s globally bestselling Gone series continues with Villain, where old foes return and new ones rise, with action-packed scenes, gory battles, and plot twists that will leave readers scrambling for more. It’s been four years since the events of GONE. The Perdido Beach dome is down, but the horrors within have spread. The alien virus-infested rock that created the FAYZ is creating monsters—monsters that walk the cities and countryside, terrorizing all. There are tanks in the street and predator drones in the sky, doomed efforts to stop the disintegration of civilization. Into this chaos comes a villain with the power to control anyone with just the sound of his voice. Dillon Poe wanted to be a comedian once…but everyone made fun of him. Dillon the loser. Dillon the freak. Now he’s sending thousands to their death. Who’s laughing now? The only people who can stop a superpowered villain are superpowered heroes. Dekka, Shade, Cruz, Malik, Armo, and a new mutant with unmatched powers, are all that stand in Dillon’s way. But when the lines begin to blur between hero and villain—some begin to wonder who’s really the monster. Praise for the Gone series: “Exciting, high-tension stories. I love these books.” —Stephen King “Intense, marvelously plotted, paced, and characterized.” —ALA Booklist (starred review)

"The Herod of popular tradition is the tyrannical King of Judaea who ordered the Massacre of the Innocents and died a terrible death in 4 BC as the judgment of God. But this biography paints a much more complex picture of this contemporary of Mark Antony, Cleopatra, and the Emperor Augustus. Herod devoted his life to the task of keeping the Jews prosperous and racially intact. To judge by the two disastrous Jewish rebellions that occurred within a hundred and fifty years of his death -- those the Jews called the First and Second Roman Wars -- he was not, in the long run, completely successful. For forty years Herod walked the most precarious of political tightropes. For he had to be enough of a Jew to retain control of his Jewish subjects, and enough of a pro-Roman to preserve the confidence of Rome, within whose territory his kingdom fell. For more than a quarter of a century he was one of the chief bulwarks of Augustus'' empire in the east. He made Judaea a large and prosperous country. He founded cities and built public works on a scale never seen before: of these, recently excavated Masada is a spectacular example. And he did all this in spite of a continuous undercurrent of protest and underground resistance. The numerous illustrations presents portraits and coins, buildings and articles of everyday use, landscapes and fortresses, and subsequent generations'' interpretations of the more famous events, actual and mythical, of Herod''s career." --

FULLY REVISED AND UPDATED ''The finest Fergie book of them all'' – Tom English, BBC Sport When Sir Alex Ferguson retired at the end of the 2013 season he was the most successful football manager Britain had ever seen, having won twice as many trophies as his nearest rival. But that success had not come easily. Thirty-five years previously he had arrived at the rain-swept training ground at Aberdeen F.C. as the recently sacked manager of St Mirren. Already a divisive figure, this Alex Ferguson came with a reputation for trouble and a lot still to prove. Not for nothing, many thought he was a risky choice. Fergie Rises returns to a time when Ferguson was lucky to get Aberdeen, not the other way around. It''s the story of an eight-year revolution that saw the Dons and their ambitious young manager knock the Old Firm off their perch, taste victory in Europe for the first time, and electrify Scottish football. When Ferguson finally left the club for Manchester United, in 1986, fans and rivals were unanimous in believing he had engineered one of the most astonishing upheavals in the game''s history. The author also examines the personal tragedies Ferguson overcame – the deaths of his father and his mentor Jock Stein – and the rivalries, setbacks and triumphs that shaped a sporting genius. ''A masterful retelling of how Ferguson was "made" at Aberdeen'' – Alan Pattullo, The Scotsman

Collapse and Recovery of the Roman Empire presents a study of third century Rome, which is lavishly illustrated and a lucid read, typical of Michael Grant''s inimitable style. In Collapse and Recovery of the Roman Empire, Michael Grant asserts that the fact that the Roman empire of the third century AD did not collapse is one of the miracles of history. He argues that at that time the empire seemed ripe for disintegration and expresses amazement that it continued, in the west, for another two hundred years, and in the east, for far longer. Michael Grant examines the reasons for collapse, including analyses of the succession of emperors, the Germans and the Persians and also, the reasons for its remarkable recovery, including discussions of strong emperors, a reconstituted army, finance and coinage and state religion.

Drawing on recent techniques practiced in archaeology and anthropology, Michael Grant reveals the ancient Greece and Rome of the common people--men and women citizens as well as slaves and freedmen and women--and adds a human dimension to more standard accounts of political and military events. "Grant blows the dust off our timeworn images. . . ".--Publishers Weekly.

In the near future, the conjoined Armstrong twins, under the guise of the Armstrong Fancy Gifts Corporation, plot to create their own version of utopia using nanobots, while a guerilla group known as BZRK develops a DNA-based biot that can stop bots, butat risk of the host''s brain.

In time the poems began to present themselves. And although they came with a surplus of emotion, the words themselves appeared with little effort on his part. This second book picks up where the first left off. Reading one before the other should matter little, as they both cover similar topics. If you like his writing feel free to tell your friends. If you do not, forget everything you heard here! A Future More Than This

The games continue in New York Times bestselling author Michael Grant''s sequel to Messenger of Fear—a haunting tale for fans of Stephen King that combines fantasy with real-world horror stories. Mara has learned to punish the wicked as the Messenger''s apprentice. Those who act out of selfishness and greed, and others who become violent because of prejudice and hate, pay the ultimate price. But Mara is constantly reminded that Messengers are serving their own kind of punishment—for every person who is offered justice, they wear a tattoo that symbolizes the heart of the crime. As Mara delves deeper into her harsh reality she will discover that in spite of all the terror she and Messenger inflict, caring in this world is the hardest part of all.

Draws upon the advances of twentieth-century biblical scholarship and interpretations of principal New Testament writings to reconstruct the life of Jesus and cast light on the origins of Christianity