Jelena Preseren has finally found love and happiness with her new husband Ashinji Sakehera and his family, but her peaceful life is about to be turned upside down. In the coming months, Jelena's and Ashinji's lives undergo profound changes which tests them both in ways that neither is prepared for. They must learn to cope or be swept away. Far to the south, the Soldaran Empire prepares for war against the elves and in the icy north, the arcane power of the Nameless One continues to grow... Set against a backdrop of impending war, shocking betrayals and uneasy alliances, Griffin's Shadow is a...

Until the early 1900s governments of Southeast Asia farmed out the right to run opium, gambling and other monopolies. Yet by about 1920 all of the major farms had been abolished and the collection of revenue brought under direct bureaucratic control. This book explains the rise and sudden fall of revenue farming, traces the changing fortunes of the Chinese businessmen who held the major farms, and uses the study of revenue farming to examine the emergence of the modern state in Southeast Asia.