She's stunning in a sleeveless black dress that's cut high and low and hugs her like a bodysuit. Her accessories are diamond stud earrings, matching tennis bracelet, and a pearl-handled Colt .45.

[H]uman sacrifice ... has been practiced in a number of real-world human societies, where the entire population was made up of real people, rather than the one-dimensional caricatures bent on slaughter which populate so many fantasy novels.

The train slides toward the hill-concealed horizon, / a mammoth serpent winding through the tall grass,