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2783573 | /m/082gb4 | Baalyakaalasakhi | Vaikom Muhammad Basheer | null | {"/m/01qxvh": "Romance novel"} | The childhood romance between neighbours blossoms into passionate love during adolescence. Majeed's father was rich once, so could send him to a school in the distant town, although he was not very good at studies. Suhra's father on the other hand had trouble making both ends meet. Even then he wanted to send his daughter, who was good at studies to the school. But after her father's death, all her hopes of further studies was ruined. Majeed begs his father to sponsor Suhra's education, but he refuses. Majeed leaves home after a skirmish with his father, and wanders over distant lands for a long time before returning home. On his return, he finds that his family's former affluence is all gone, and that his beloved Suhra has married someone else. He is grief struck at the loss of love, and this is when Suhra turns up at his home. She is a shadow of her former self. The beautiful, sunshiny, vibrant Suhra of old is now a woman worn out by life, battered hard by a loveless marriage to an abusive husband. Majeed commands her, "Suhra, don't go back!" and she stays. Majeed leaves home once again, but this time with plans on his mind. He needs to find a job, to ward off poverty, and thus he reaches a North Indian city. He finds work as a salesman but one day he meets with a bicycle accident in which he loses a leg. The day after he is discharged from hospital, he is informed that he's fired from his job. He again sets off on a job quest knocking at every door, wearing off his soles. He finds work as a dish-washer in a hotel. As he scrubs dirty dishes each day, he dreams of Suhra back home waiting for him to return. He must make enough money to return home and repay debts, before he can finally get married to the woman of his life. His mother writes him that Suhra is sick and subsequently of Suhara's death. |
2785471 | /m/082m94 | The Kingdom of the Wicked | Anthony Burgess | 9/1/1985 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | The story of the birth of Christianity and its interaction with the Roman Empire is told largely chronologically by a narrator slowly succumbing to disease during the reign of Domitian. The story starts where Man of Nazareth ended, immediately after the crucifixion of Jesus, and covers the work of the apostles, in particular Paul (who himself was not one of the original twelve apostles), the development of Christianity as an Abrahamic religion separate from Judaism, the Great Fire of Rome, the persecution of Christians, the destruction of the Second Temple, and the destruction of Pompeii. |
2787167 | /m/082r3j | The Lost City of Faar | D.J. MacHale | 1/1/2003 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Loor flumes to her home in Zadaa while Press and Bobby flume to Cloral. Most of the book takes place on the territory known as Cloral, a planet that is entirely covered by water. The inhabitants of Cloral live on giant floating barges, called habitats. The main habitat in the book is called Grallion. Grallion is responsible for growing food for Cloral. A territory called Zadaa is also visited. Pendragon goes searching for a mythical city called Faar. |
2789564 | /m/082tsv | Not Wanted on the Voyage | Timothy Findley | null | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | Noah Dr. Noyes, an authoritarian doctor and father whose obsession with God's law leads him to neglect his family, his wife, Mrs. Noyes, an alcoholic who talks to animals, and Mottyl, her blind cat are the central characters of the novel. Noah and Mrs. Noyes have three sons, Shem, Japeth, and Ham. Shem is married to Hannah, who spends a great deal of time with Dr. Noyes. Japeth is married to Emma, a young girl of about 11, who refuses to consummate their marriage. One day, an exhausted Yaweh visits Dr. Noyes. Yaweh is depressed to the point of willfully allowing himself to die, due to the treatment he's received from humanity. He tells the Noyes that the people of the City threw offal, rotten fruit, and feces at his carriage and have assassinated him 7 times. Yaweh remains depressed until he's inspired by a magic show Noah puts on to raise his spirits. Noah puts a penny under a glass bottle then fills the bottle with water. Due to refraction of the penny's image, the coin appears to vanish, but Yaweh becomes obsessed by the idea that the application of water can make things disappear. Soon Yaweh tells Noah to build an ark in preparation for the flood. Noah is resolutely obedient, but some in his family react negatively. Ham quickly marries Lucy, a mysterious seven-foot-tall woman with webbed fingers (a trait found only in angels, according to the novel) who is eventually revealed to be Lucifer in drag. As Yaweh leaves, Mottyl hears flies buzzing from within Yaweh's carriage and knows that Yaweh has resigned himself to death. Noah is adamant that Yaweh's edict must be followed to the letter and insists that there must be only two of every animal. Mrs. Noyes tries to bring Mottyl, who Noah has decreed must stay behind since he's chosen Yaweh's own two pet cats to represent felines on the ark. Noah sets fire to the house and barn, with Mottyl inside, offering all their additional animals as a giant sacrifice to Yaweh. Mrs. Noyes in enraged at the attempt to kill her cat, and by the carnage in what is left of her home, and refuses to board the ark. Noah is concerned that if Mrs. Noyes does not come, the ark and its passengers will be doomed, as Yaweh's edict clearly states that Noah's wife must be aboard. Mrs. Noyes hides in Noah's orchard as the rain starts, but leaves when she notices Emma's sister Lotte, a "monkey child" trying to cross the river. Mrs. Noyes rescues Lotte and agrees to board only if Lotte can also come. Noah agrees to let Lotte on board, but has Japeth kill her shortly after. Mrs. Noyes again rebels, but ultimately agrees to board the ark and smuggles Mottyl aboard, hidden in her apron. As the voyage begins Noah quickly imposes his will on his family by drawing a line between the "rebellious" elements (Mrs. Noyes, Emma, Ham, and Lucy) and the rest (himself, Hannah, Japeth, and Shem). One day, dolphins swim by the ark, attempting to befriend the inhabitants. Noah decides that the dolphins must be pirates and has Japeth slaughter them. Mrs. Noyes attempts to stop him, and once the "pirates" have been defeated, Noah locks Mrs. Noyes, Lucy, Ham, and Emma in the lower levels of the ark, forcing them to care for the animals alone. Meanwhile, Noah, Hannah, Shem, and Japeth enjoy quarters on the deck of the ark and freedom from heavy chores. Noah notices that Japeth is becoming more preoccupied with sex and often eyes Hannah in a way that makes Noah wary. He decides that the solution is to force Emma to consummate their marriage. Noah has Emma brought to the deck and "inspects" her to see what the problem is. He decides that Emma's "tightness" is the reason why Japeth could not "gain entry" and requests that the Unicorn is brought to aid the problem. Noah uses the Unicorn to "open" Emma for Japeth, a process which traumatizes Emma and severely injures the Unicorn. When Japeth finds out what his father has done, he cuts off the Unicorn's horn. Emma is then forced to live on the top deck to be near her husband. Mrs. Noyes, Lucy, and Ham decide to rebel against Noah and the others. They formulate a plan to burn through the locked door using the two demons on board. They get the door open and plan to close the armoury, where Japeth sleeps, from the outside so as to neutralize Japeth. Unfortunately, Japeth is patrolling the deck and captures the escapees. He ties up Mrs. Noyes, Lucy, and Ham and throws the demons overboard, which enrages Lucy. She breaks free of her bonds and curses Japeth so that his wounds will never heal properly and he will always smell of the violence he has inflicted on others. Mrs. Noyes, Ham, and Lucy are locked below again, this time with boards and chains locking the door from the outside. Lucy plans another escape and has Crowe take a message to Emma to release them. Emma removes all the chains and bars while Noah and Hannah are preoccupied with praying, Shem is preoccupied with eating, and Japeth is preoccupied dressing his wounds. Mrs. Noyes, Lucy, and Ham bar the armoury and the chapel, locking in Noah, Hannah, and Japeth, but they are unable to find Shem. While locked in the chapel, Hannah's labour begins. She asks Noah to call for help, but he refuses to call for anyone until the baby is born. Noah knows that the baby is likely his and is worried that it will be a "monkey child" like Lotte, as Japeth's dead twin brother was also monkey-like. When the baby is born dead it is indeed revealed to be a "monkey child." Ham, hearing Hannah's cries of pain, opens the chapel door to help Hannah. He is quickly brained by Shem, but not before he sees Hannah's child. Hannah wraps it in blankets to hide its hairy arms and throws the baby overboard. A truce between the factions is tacitly called. The weather is sunny for the first time since the start of the rain, and Noah asks Emma to send a dove to look for land. When the dove does not return, they continue to send birds until Noah decides to send his own trained dove. Noah's dove returns with an olive branch, which Noah uses to prove Yaweh's edict. The other members of the ark remain unconvinced, as they know it is the same branch from the dove's cage. The novel ends with Mrs. Noyes sitting on deck with Mottyl, praying to the clouds for rain. The book is written by Timothy Findley and is produced by Penguin Books. |
2794260 | /m/0832fc | In Search of The La's : A Secret Liverpool | null | 12/11/2003 | null | "With the timeless single "There She Goes", Lee Mavers' La's overtook The Stone Roses as great British guitar hopes and paved the way for the Britpop renaissance of Blur and Oasis. However, since 1991, The La's have been silent, while rumors of studio-perfectionism, madness and drug addiction have abounded with Mavers lined up as another rock casualty. The author sets out to discover the truth behind Mavers' lost decade and eventually gains a revelatory audience with Mavers himself." The author, MW Macefield, travels to Liverpool to interview several ex-members of the band (including co-founder Mike Badger, guitarist Paul Hemmings and bass player John Power), and sundry other personnel, and eventually gets to chat with the group's chief songwriter Lee Mavers. In it several La's myths are dispelled along the way, new song titles are named, and the past and future of the band is discussed. |
2794614 | /m/08335w | Tricked | null | null | null | When the novel opens, Ray Beam is mulling over the decline of his career; he's still making money from residuals, but he's unable to write new music. He's shaken up when a cute temp at his promotional office asks for his autograph - the machine that automatically signs autographs is on the fritz, so she asked him to do the job himself. Ray invites the temp, Lily, into his limo, where he does a line of cocaine and attempts to seduce her. She rebuffs him; he realizes that she isn't one of his fans. This intrigues him, and he offers Lily a job as his "personal assistant." At the same time, a girl named Phoebe is taking a bus to the city from New Mexico. Her eventual destination: The Little Piggy Diner, owned by Richard Krinker, whom she believes is her father. The diner is well known, featured on TV travel shows, but it has a relatively small staff included a waitress named Caprice. She ends many years of awful relationships when she meets Boyd, a bartender, during a double date that's going nowhere. She starts dating Boyd around the same time Phoebe reconnects with Richard. Phoebe is integrated into the diner's life, making a little money with the waitress and hanging out with Richard and her other "father," Richard's partner Frank. As she's showing her new friend around the city, Caprice takes Phoebe to a sports memorabilia store called The Dug Out to buy a gift for Boyd. The clerk who sells her the baseball is Nick, a signature forger who has been stealing from the business and lying to his wife about what he does. He immediately falls for Caprice and gives her a baseball card with a genuine signature, on the condition she'll have coffee with him. She accepts; it just so happens that she's tiring a little bit of Boyd. The two of them start dating while the situation with Boyd remains murky. While all of this is happening, a computer engineer named Steve is going through a severe depression - if not a psychotic period. Bitter about his life, especially his love life, he's stopped taking his medication and grows more and more obsessed with his favorite singer, Ray Beam. He receives a signed photo from Beam's office; as it happens, it's the original signature that Ray did for Lily. Since the signature doesn't match the rest in his (very large) collection, and since Ray drew devil horns and a beard on the photo, Steve obsesses over it. A voice in his head helps convince him that this means the real Ray Beam has been replaced by an evil imposter. Steve loses his job, gets a gun from his grandmother's house, and plots the assassination of the "phony" Ray. Ray and Lily are, of course, unaware of any of this. Ray had hoped Lily would become his muse, and lucky for him, she does. Newly inspired he takes her to a Caribbean recording studio, then to a series of exotic locations, and asks her to marry him. She says yes. But while on their honeymoon, Lily walks into a room of call girls that have been hired by Ray's jealous ex-personal assistant (who had been doing the real work while Ray fell in love with Lily). She flees, but Ray (through his manager Marty) convinces her to come to a reconciliation dinner at a place of her choosing. She chooses the Little Piggy Diner. Before they open the diner for the Ray-Lily meeting, the diner staff start to sort out their lives. Caprice gets tired of Nick's rudeness and deception and realizes that she loves Boyd. Phoebe thanks Richard for letting her stay, but says she wants to return to her mother in New Mexico. Then the diner opens for the dinner. Nick arrives, bruised and bloody - he has killed the manager of the Dug Out in a brawl over the stolen money, although he doesn't tell Caprice this. While she tries to get him to leave, Steve sneaks in through the open door. He attempts to shoot Ray, but Nick dives in the way, takes the bullet, and dies. The story wraps up some months later. Steve is in prison and back on medication, telling his story to a sleazy journalist. Phoebe is in college and working at the diner, where she serves two surprise guests: Caprice and Boyd, still happily together. Ray and Lily are settling some accounts in their mansion. Lily reads Ray a thank-you letter from Nick's family, for the "generous gift" he provided after Nick died saving Ray's life. Then she reads the sales figures for Ray's comeback album which are disappointing. Ray shrugs it off, and excitedly tells Lily about the new song he's working on. "I can't wait!" she says; and they kiss. |
2794729 | /m/0833fn | The Poky Little Puppy | Janette Sebring Lowrey | 10/21/1942 | {"/m/016475": "Picture book"} | Instead of following his siblings when they all sneak out to play, the Poky Little Puppy lags behind to observe other things. In the beginning, his independence is rewarded. The puppies had all dug a hole underneath the fence to escape from their yard, but only the Poky Little Puppy's siblings are caught. The Poky Little Puppy avoids punishment because he's off exploring as his mother scolds his siblings, and he comes home alone after everyone is asleep. The Poky Little Puppy then eats the rice pudding that the mother was planning to give all the puppies but withheld because of the fence-digging incident. This pattern then repeats itself, only with chocolate custard for dessert instead of rice pudding. Only at the end of the book does fate catch up with the Poky Little Puppy. When the puppies are sent to bed without dessert a third time, they wait until they think their mother is sleeping, then sneak out of bed and fill in the hole they'd dug under the fence. She sees them doing this and rewards them with strawberry shortcake. The Poky Little Puppy not only arrives too late to get any strawberry shortcake, but is forced to squeeze between the fence boards since the hole has been filled in. The book concludes with Poky Little Puppy going to bed without a bite and feeling "very sorry for himself." The next day there is a sign outside that says "NO DESSERTS EVER UNLESS PUPPIES NEVER DIG HOLES UNDER THIS FENCE AGAIN!" |
2794802 | /m/0833lv | Tootle | Gertrude Crampton | null | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | The protagonist is Tootle, who is a baby locomotive who is attending train school, hoping to grow up to be the Flyer on the New York-Chicago route. His schoolwork involves such tasks as stopping at red flags and pulling a dining car without spilling the soup. Most important, however, is that he must stay on the rails no matter what...Bill his good friend and teacher tells Tootle that trains are not professional unless they get 100 A+ on staying on the rails no mater what. One day when Tootle is practicing the rule a horse challenges him to a race to the river. Tootle goes faster but loses his race lead to the horse when he turns a curve so he gets off the tracks and ties with the horse. In the days that follow Tootle becomes fond of playing in the meadow and not staying on the tracks and Bill quickly discovers what Tootle has been doing. Not wanting to take away the offer of being a flyer Bill decides a plan with the mayor to put Tootle back on the tracks. One day when Tootle is driving the railroad he hops off the tracks to play in the meadow but sees red flags everywhere in the grasses and he is upset due to having to stop at red flags; trains hate nothing more than stopping. Tootle then sees Bill with a green flag over the railings and having learned his lesson gets back on the track and says that playing in the meadow only brings red flags to trains. In response to the lesson learned the town cheers for him and rewards Tootle the flyer of the route to Chicago. In the days that follow when Tootle becomes elderly he teaches some new locomotives some advice including "Stay on the rails no matter what." |
2795327 | /m/0834vc | Picture This | Joseph Heller | null | {"/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | Like in Heller's version of King David's story, God Knows, the author changes little in the storyline of the original – he execrates narrative, and denies historical counterpoints, both explicit, some implicit. Incomprehension may have contributed to a critical redemption of this book, along with less weight for humour and a sobering conclusion. |
2795495 | /m/08353x | Les Mystères de Paris | null | null | {"/m/02n4kr": "Mystery"} | The hero of the novel is the mysterious and distinguished Rodolphe, who is really the Grand Duke of Gerolstein (a fictional kingdom of Germany) but is disguised as a Parisian worker. Rodolphe can speak in argot, is extremely strong and a good fighter. Yet he also shows great compassion for the lower classes, good judgment, and a brilliant mind. He can navigate all layers of society in order to understand their problems, and to understand how the different social classes are linked. Rodolphe is accompanied by his friends Sir Walter Murph, an Englishman, and David, a gifted black doctor, formerly a slave. The first figures they meet are Le Chourineur and La Goualeuse. Rodolphe saves La Goualeuse from Le Chourineur's brutality, and saves Le Chourineur from himself, knowing that the man still has some good in him. La Goualeuse is a prostitute, and Le Chourineur is a former butcher who has served 15 years in prison for murder. Both characters are grateful for Rodolphe's assistance, as are many other characters in the novel. Though Rodolphe is described as a flawless man, Sue otherwise depicts the Parisian nobility as deaf to the misfortunes of the common people and focused on meaningless intrigues. For this reason, some, such as Dumas, have considered the novel's ending a failure. Rodolphe goes back to Gerolstein to take on the role to which he was destined by birth, rather than staying in Paris to help the lower classes. |
2798992 | /m/083dkz | The Far Country | Nevil Shute | null | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/01qxvh": "Romance novel"} | The story takes place partly in London and partly in Australia. It is set in 1950. Jennifer Morton, a young girl from Leicester but living in London, witnesses the death of her grandmother, the widow of a retired Indian civil servant. Her pension has ceased and she has literally starved to death, despite apparent prosperity. Before she dies, she leaves Jennifer a small sum of money sent by a niece in Australia, and asks that Jennifer use the money to visit Jane and Jack Dorman who own a prosperous sheep station in Merrijig Victoria. She does so. Jennifer finds herself falling in love with the new, relatively unspoiled country, though she continues to worry about her parents. She also meets Carl Zlinter, a 'New Australian'; a Czech refugee who is working at the nearby lumber camp of a timber company as a condition of his free passage to Australia. A medical doctor qualified to practise in Czechoslovakia, he is not qualified to practise in Australia and only looks after First Aid at the lumber camp. But when an accident badly injures two of the workers and no doctor, nurse or medical facilities are available, he is faced with the choice of either watching the workers die or operating on them; he chooses to operate, and Jennifer assists him. The two operations are successful, but one man later gets drunk and dies. Zlinter is initially in potentially serious trouble over the unlicensed operations and death, but he is cleared of responsibility. Jennifer helps Zlinter to trace the history of a man of the same name who lived and died in the district many years before, during a gold rush, and they find the site of his house. Back in England, Jennifer's mother dies and she is forced to return, but she is now restless and dissatisfied. Zlinter turns up in Leicester; he has found gold dust that the earlier Zlinder earned as a bullock driver and hid beneath a stone. He has used the money from illegally selling the gold to travel to England to ask Jennifer to marry him, and to re-qualify as a medical practitioner. |
2799807 | /m/083g6c | Rowan and the Keeper of the Crystal | Jennifer Rowe | null | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | The Keeper of the Crystal - leader of the Maris people - is dying and a messenger brings this news to Rin Rowan of Rin learns that his mother, Jiller, is to choose the new leader from one of the three warring Maris clans. Doss of Pandellis, Asha of Umbray and Seaborn of Fisk are their names. When she falls victim to a strong poison, however, Rowan finds himself in the Chooser's position as well as trying to create the antidote to wake his mother from Death Sleep. Rowan then receives a riddle of how to make an antidote by bonding with the crystal and finding the recipe against the Keeper's will. They then exit the cavern of the keeper to go to the island where Orin the first keeper went to make the antidote. They think that the water will be the answer to the second line, however Doss says that it is too obvious and that it wound not be the sea water. Rowan then sights a slight glint in the trees and runs toward it. they discover that it is a pool of clear water. Seaborn is then asked to retrieve the water but once his hand touches the water clear tubular leeches then get attached to his hand. He screams in pain and gives Rowan the water. Then a bird swoops down towards them but is actually diving toward to the pool to grab some leeches. The pool then turns silver as the leeches bury themselves under the silver sand. In the centre of the pool is a moon flower and they decide that they will have to grab the flow with their hands since the "tears" that they need is the sap. Rowan then remembers that in Rin they use scarecrows to scare away crows and they construct a bird like kite using Seaborn's cape and sticks. They fly the kite near the pool and Rowan puts his and in the pool and grabs for the moonflower because all the other refuse to do it. The 5th line means a quill from the bird that has not been plucked and exposed to air for a long time. They use Asha's cape which is silver as a mirror to attract the bird. The venom of your greatest fear is the venom from the Great Serpent. They got the venom from the serpent while it was laying its eggs into the pool where Rowan got the moonflower from. |
2799854 | /m/083g9v | Rowan and the Zebak | Jennifer Rowe | null | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | Rowan's younger sister, Annad, is snatched from Rin by a flying monster. Rowan must travel to the land of the Zebak - Rin's greatest enemies - in order to rescue her. As she has several times before, the witch Sheba gives a prophecy to guide them on their quest: :Five strange fingers form fate's hand, :Each plays a part at fate's command, :The fiery blaze the answer keeps, :And till its time each secret sleeps, :When pain is truth and truth is pain, :The painted shadows live again, :Five leave but five do not return, :Vain hope in pride and terror burn The five fingers become Rowan, his Zebak born traveller friend Zeel, Allun the baker, A Maris friend, Perlain, and Sheba through correspondence. During the journey to Zebak City, Rowan and his companions have their own strengths that allow the four to safely reach the city. Rowan is given a gift by Sheba, that she tell him that he can only open then he's on Zebak land. Sheba turns the fire into green flames, burns Rowan's hand, and summons pain in his arm, only to have something to laugh at. Later, this gift should become handy, as it contained a special metal medallion owned by the people of Rin's ancestors, a bunch of dry branches, that by burning them, would summon the green flames again, show Sheba's face, and tell a new prophecy. And a little bit of grass from Rin, gathered by Sheba, for a grach. There they discover a thrilling truth, that once long ago their people had been varied, in nature and strength, strong and weak, shy and outgoing. This had been when they were in captivity by the Zebak, but when three hundred years ago, the Zebak captors separated the prisoners, taking the strong people are their warrior slaves, brainwashing them into forgetting family left behind. The story of what happened to the warriors was known,, turning on their Zebak masters the helped the Travelers and the Maris repel them, and eventually settled into what is now Rin, but what happened to those left behind was not. The people left, gentle and timid, with the loss of their people began to decline, so when Rowan and his companions hear this tale there are only three survivors, a grandfather and his grandchildren, Shaaran, gentle like Rowan, and Norris- a throwback to his warrior lineage. Five leave Rin, but five do not return, because along with bringing Annad home, Rowan and the others also bring the grandchildren to rejoin their people after many centuries apart. |
2800015 | /m/083gnr | Rowan of the Bukshah | Jennifer Rowe | null | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | :The beasts are wiser than we know :And where they lead, four souls must go. :One to weep and one to fight, :One to dream and one for flight. :Four must make their sacrifice. :In the realm twixt fire and ice :The hunger will not be denied, :The hunger must be satisfied. :And in that balct of fiery breath, :The quest unites both life and death. Winters have been getting colder and longer the past few years, posing mounting problems for the people of the valley of Rin. This year, in what should be spring the people are still in the dead of winter, with no end to the cold in sight. The people are worried, because if the winter continues much longer, their food storehouses will be empty. A decision is made to evacuate to the coast, to finish the winter with the Travelers and the Maris. The group departs, leaving behind Rowan, Brondon, Sharron and Norris. Rowan will care for his beloved Bukshah; Brondon will care for Lann, the elderly village leader; and the other two are newcomers to the group who returned with Rowan from the Land of the Zebak. When a new enemy, the ice creepers, are discovered, Rowan follows Sheba's advice. He takes Norris and Sharron, and sets off on a long trek through the land following the Bukshah. Along the way, Zeel joins the trek (thus completing the introductory rhyme; Sharron to weep, Morris to fight, Rowan to dream, and Zeel for flight). The Bukshah lead them to the mountain, where they learn some new and terrifying facts. When the Bukshah are fenced, they cannot go up the mountain to eat the seals on the ice creeper nests, preventing the numbers from growing and the habitual spreading. When the ice creepers multiply they cause the cold to grow. When the Bukshah are free to roam, they make an annual pilgrimage to the mountain and keep the ice creepers under control, preventing the rise of a cold time. Far more chilling is the extended truth about what happened to the people of the Valley of the Gold. In Travelers, Rowan already discovered the truth about the destruction of the Valley of Gold. Due to the mountain berry plants the soil was loosened and the Valley was destroyed by a landslide. Here he learns much more. When the Zebak invaded and word of the invasion was sent to the Valley, the message was received. Leaving only two behind (the Keepers of the Bukshah and the Silks), the villagers set out for the coast. On their way they were ambushed by the Zebak,captured and taken as slaves. One man escaped and returned to the Valley to warn the others. Fearing other attacks the three followed the Bukshah into the heart of the mountain where they were trapped by the landslide that destroyed the Valley as they knew it. Rowan and his companions learn this from the silks that were kept as up-to-date as possible. From this they learn the truth, that the people of Rin were once the people of the Valley of the Gold, that the land is their home, and has always been their home. :"Yes," he said. "At last the people truly can come home." |
2801349 | /m/083kr5 | Claudine at School | Colette | 1900 | null | Claudine, a fifteen year old girl, lives in Montigny, with her father, who is more interested in mollusks than his daughter. Claudine attends the small village school, which is the primary location of her many adventures, presented as an intimate journal. The journal begins with the new school year, marked by the arrival of the new headmistress, Miss Sergent, and her assistant, Miss Aimée Lanthenay, as well as the boys' instructors, Mr. Duplessis and Mr. Rabastens. Although Claudine begins an affair early on with Miss Lanthenay, Miss Sergent soon discovers the liaison and discourages Miss Lanthenay, ultimately taking her on as her own lover. Claudine feels betrayed and causes trouble for the two women with the help of her friends, cynical Anaïs and childlike Marie Belhomme. Miss Lanthenay's sister Luce arrives at school, and Claudine mistreats her, but Luce idolizes Claudine nonetheless. Some major events of the school year documented in the novel are the final exams, the opening of the new school, and a ball to mark the visit of an important political minister to the town. |
2803150 | /m/083pnq | The First Men in the Moon | H. G. Wells | 1901 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/06www": "Steampunk", "/m/01gw42": "Scientific romance"} | The narrator is a London businessman who withdraws to the countryside to write a play, by which he hopes to alleviate his financial problems. Bedford rents a small countryside house in Lympne, in Kent, where he wants to work in peace. He is bothered every afternoon, however, at precisely the same time, by a passer-by making odd noises. After two weeks Bedford accosts the man, who proves to be a reclusive physicist named Mr. Cavor. Bedford befriends Cavor when he learns he is developing a new material, cavorite, that can negate the force of gravity. When a sheet of cavorite is prematurely produced, it makes the air above it weightless and shoots off into space. Bedford sees in the commercial production of cavorite a possible source of "wealth enough to work any sort of social revolution we fancied; we might own and order the whole world." Cavor hits upon the idea of a spherical spaceship made of "steel, lined with glass," and with sliding "windows or blinds" made of cavorite by which it can be steered, and persuades a reluctant Bedford to undertake a voyage to the moon; Cavor is certain there is no life there. On the way to the moon, they experience weightlessness, which Bedford finds "exceedingly restful." On the surface of the moon the two men discover a desolate landscape, but as the sun rises, the thin, frozen atmosphere vaporizes and strange plants begin to grow with extraordinary rapidity. Bedford and Cavor leave the capsule, but in romping about get lost in the rapidly growing jungle. They hear for the first time a mysterious booming coming from beneath their feet. They encounter "great beasts," "monsters of mere fatness," that they dub "mooncalves," and five-foot-high "Selenites" tending them. At first they hide and crawl about, but growing hungry partake of some "monstrous coralline growths" of fungus that inebriate them. They wander drunkenly until they encounter a party of six extraterrestrials, who capture them. The insectoid lunar natives (referred to as "Selenites", after Selene, the moon goddess) are part of a complex and technologically sophisticated society that lives underground, but this is revealed only in radio communications received from Cavor after Bedford's return to earth. Bedford and Cavor break out of captivity beneath the surface of the moon and flee, killing several Selenites. In their flight they discover that gold is common on the moon. In their attempt to find their way back to the surface and to their sphere, they come upon some Selenites carving up mooncalves but fight their way past. Back on the surface, they split up to search for their spaceship. Bedford finds it but returns to Earth without Cavor, who injured himself in a fall and was recaptured by the Selenites, as Bedford learns from a hastily scribbled note he left behind. Chapter 19, "Mr. Bedford in Infinite Space," plays no role in the plot but is a remarkable set piece in which the narrator describes experiencing a quasi-mystical "pervading doubt of my own identity. . . the doubts within me could still argue: 'It is not you that is reading, it is Bedford — but you are not Bedford, you know. That's just where the mistake comes in.' 'Counfound it!' I cried, 'and if I am not Bedford, what am I? But in that direction no light was forthcoming, though the strangest fancies came drifting into my brain, queer remote suspicions like shadow seem from far away... Do you know I had an idea that really I was something quite outside not only the world, but all worlds, and out of space and time, and that this poor Bedford was just a peephole through which I looked at life..." By good fortune, the narrator lands in the sea off the coast of Britain, near the seaside town of Littlestone, not far from his point of departure. His fortune is made by some gold he brings back, but he loses the sphere when a curious boy named Tommy Simmons climbs into the unattended sphere and shoots off into space. Bedford writes and publishes his story in The Strand Magazine, then learns that "Mr. Julius Wendigee, a Dutch electrician, who has been experimenting with certain apparatus akin to the apparatus used by Mr. Tesla in America," has picked up fragments of radio communications from Cavor sent from inside the moon. During a period of relative freedom Cavor has taught two Selenites English and learned much about lunar society. Cavor's account explains that Selenites exist in thousands of forms and find fulfillment in carrying out the specific social function for which they have been brought up: specialization is the essence of Selenite society. "With knowledge the Selenites grew and changed; mankind stored their knowledge about them and remained brutes — equipped," remarks the Grand Lunar, when he finally meets Cavor and hears about life on Earth. Unfortunately, Cavor reveals humanity's propensity for war; the lunar leader and those listening to the interview are "stricken with amazement." Bedford infers that is for this reason that Cavor is prevented from further broadcasting to Earth. Cavor's transmissions are cut off as he is trying to describe how to make cavorite. His final fate is unknown, but Bedford is sure that "we shall never . . . receive another message from the moon." |
2803688 | /m/083qtr | Little Boy Blue | Edward Bunker | 1981-01 | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense"} | Alex Hammond is an 11 year old boy living in Los Angeles, California. His father Clem Hammond is a carpenter and has been struggling to find a job ever since the Great Depression hit the US. His parents are separated and he is very close with his father. However, Clem does not have the resources to support Alex. As a result, he attempts to have outside intervention in supporting Alex such as enrolling him into military school and placing him into foster homes. Alex has run way from all of these places and exhibits temper tantrums because he does not want to be away from his father. His bursts of rage cause authorities and fellow inmates in various institutions to believe that he is crazy, specifically displaying the early traits of psychopathy, such as what is deemed to be "criminal versatility". The story starts out in 1943, with Alex, Clem, and a social worker going from LA to the Valley Home For Boys in San Fernando Valley where Alex will live. However, he meets up with trouble there because one of his roommates Sammy decides to shoplift from a store. Even though Alex does not steal anything, the housemother Thelma Cavendish decides to punish him. This unfair act in the eyes of Alex causes him to attack her and he rips her dress. He decides to run away with Sammy. They decide to burglarize a shop during the night, but the owners investigate as the boys are inside. Alex shoots one of them with a pistol that he had found when they broke in. Alex runs away, but he gets caught very soon. The police beat him and humiliate him. He finds out that his father died in a tragic accident while trying to find him. Alex goes to Juvenile Hall. There, he first sees the brutal violence that is so typical of a prison and other institutions. He quickly learns about the usefulness of such violence and how it can protect him from various injustices. It is also here that he learns about racial identity and racism. His love for reading and his high intelligence sets him apart from the other juvenile delinquents. He is sent to Camarillo, a state mental institution to determine whether or not he is insane. There, he meets First Choice Floyd and Red Barzo who are two black heroin addicts. They teach him how to play poker and how to box. He also starts to masturbate. Eventually, Alex meets an older teen called Scabs. They regularly sneak out of the institution. One day, Scabs teaches Alex how to hot-wire a car, and they leave. Alex is not able to go back to the institution so he decides to stay in the city. It is not long before the authorities find him and they send him to Pacific Colony. Alex regards the new institution as a lot worse than Camarillo. One night, one of the members of the staff nicknamed “The Jabber” beats Alex for a minor infraction that he did not commit. He fights back in self defense, and hurts the Jabber. He gets into trouble again and gets sent back to Juvenile Hall before going to another juvenile institution at Whittier. He gets into one more fight. At Whittier, Alex gets into more conflicts and he fights so that no one would regard him as a “punk.” (In other words, an inmate who gets sodomized) He finally decides to escape with a friend named Joe Altabella (also credited as "JoJo"). They escape successfully, to where they hide out with the rest of JoJo's family (primarily Italian-Americans), and Alex meets JoJo’s sister Teresa as well as their younger sister Lisa, the latter of whom seems to hold most affection for Alex over time. At this point in the novel, Alex is 13 and he starts to have sexual feelings for her as well as other girls. Soon, Alex meets Teresa’s 17 year old boyfriend Wedo and the two boys begin to like each other. However, JoJo and Alex eventually get caught, both at separate instances. This time, Alex gets sent to Preston, an even stricter institution. At Preston, an older boy, Kennedy, cons Alex out of his shoes. Out of great anger, Alex unscrews a fire hose nozzle and attacks him with it, almost killing him. Alex is unrepentant in the face of authorities. One of them wants to send Alex to San Quentin State Prison, but he is too young at the age of 13 so he is put into solitary confinement. He actually prefers this because he can be away from the violence and he can read in peace. Eventually, he serves his time and gets released into the custody of his aunt and her husband. Alex finds them to be quite hospitable and he helps them by working at their cafe. However, after having walked out one day, this superficially placid exterior is shattered by the unjustly great indignance towards his lengthy absence from both relatives, his uncle threatening to attack him. Recalling prior attacks upon him ala "The Jabber", Alex threatens to kill them if they dare to attack him. He runs away and finds Wedo again. The older teen has become a heroin addict and must commit robbery in order to support his drug habit. The two youths begin to rob drugstores, taking the money and selling the drugs. One night, they attempt to rob a store, but the owners shoot Wedo with a shotgun. Alex gets hit, in a literary reprise of the event that brought him into the prison system to begin with, and he gives up. The novel ends with him drifting into unconsciousness, surrounded by the police as he is about to be taken to a hospital. |
2809611 | /m/0842_d | Mount Dragon | Douglas Preston | 1996 | {"/m/01jfsb": "Thriller", "/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/017rf8": "Techno-thriller", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Dr. Guy Carson is a young scientist and cowboy-at-heart, raised on a southwestern ranch and bored with city life. That is, until the prestigious genetic engineering corporation GeneDyne offers Carson a six-month position as a lab researcher at its Mount Dragon Remote Desert Testing Facility in Jornada del Muerto desert in New Mexico. Carson accepts and soon finds that the Mount Dragon facility is home to testing far more promising—yet extremely dangerous—things than Carson ever expected. Scientists at the facility spend months isolated from the outside world, essentially locked in the guarded facility within a Level 5 containment lab, as they conduct medical tests and research for a seemingly common mission: to create a vaccine for the influenza virus. With the help of his feisty lab assistant, Susanna Cabeza de Vaca, Carson begins to unlock the mysteries of the spontaneously mutating influenza virus, dubbed “X-FLU,” and even the Mount Dragon facility itself. Carson and DeVaca discover that their predecessor, Dr. Franklin Burt, was literally driven mad by his time at Mount Dragon and was institutionalized. Burt’s death is not the only one caused by the facility; an emergency quarantine prompted by the contamination of the Level 5 lab by a chimp infected with the deadly X-FLU results in the death of researcher Rosalind Brandon-Smith. Soon, more human harm follows as Carson’s friend and messmate Dr. Andrew Vanderwagon spontaneously punctures his own eye with a fork and attempts to commit suicide and kill others. Through researching Burt’s descent to madness, Carson and DeVaca realize that what occurred with Vanderwagon closely resembled the behavior of Burt toward the end. In fact, everyone at the facility except for Carson and DeVaca begin to display abnormal and erratic behavior that Carson at first presumes is the result of tight quarters or contamination by X-FLU. However, Carson has an epiphany after conducting further tests on influenza and discovers that what caused the virus to mutate is Burt’s filtering system — a system that was used to filter the artificial blood product PurBlood that GeneDyne is releasing in hospitals across the nation in mere days. Burt’s journal confirms that PurBlood is in fact contaminated; Burt’s filtering system caused the contamination by mutating the cells in the artificial blood. Carson and DeVaca are the only workers at the Mount Dragon facility who did not undergo a PurBlood transfusion for beta testing, and thus are the only ones not driven to insanity by the contamination. They set off an explosion to destroy the facility and flee from its homicidal and suicidal inhabitants. Attempting to alert officials before PurBlood can be introduced across the nation, resulting in an epidemic, Carson and DeVaca set off on horseback across the arid New Mexico desert, hundreds of miles from the nearest civilization. They are chased by the security director, an eccentric Englishman named Nye whose PurBlood-induced madness has led him to believe that there is a treasure buried in the desert and that Carson and DeVaca are trying to steal it from him. After days of thirst and starvation, Carson and DeVaca find water—and the remains of the worthless “treasure” of Spanish explorer Mondragón—before engaging in a fight-to-the-death battle with Nye. Carson and DeVaca are injured, but survive, and make it to a nearby cattle ranch in time to spread the word about the dangers of PurBlood. Aside from the action-ridden plot of Carson and DeVaca, the novel highlights political and scientific battle between the CEO of GeneDyne, Brent Scopes, and his former best friend, Charles Levine, over the ethics of genetic modification. Scopes argues that genetic modification, such as that involved in the creation of PurBlood, will one day lead to a healthier human race. Levine counters that the extent of the dangers of genetically modified products is unknown, and that humans should proceed with caution in genetically altering or engineering products that could change the biological make-up of humanity. In the end, Scopes and Levine are exposed to the mutated influenza virus X-FLU and resolve their differences before dying. |
2809701 | /m/08436j | Paaththummaayude aadu | null | null | null | Ever since Basheer first left home to participate in the salt satyagraha at Kozhikode, he had led a wanderer's life; Ottaanthadi, muchaanvayaru. Only occasionally did he return to his home at Thalayolapparambu, with the intention of penning down his thoughts in interludes of tranquility. Next to the house where he grew up, in the same compound, he had a walled-in plot with a small house. He built this retreat himself, and around the house he planted a garden. This gate was always closed, and he required silence and peace of mind. He would sit and write or walk around his garden tending to his beloved plants. On returning from one of his travels, he was forced to live in the house where his large family lived, instead of in his private home. This household was always filled with noise and chaos; no place for a writer. The inhabitants were Basheer's mother, his younger siblings and their families. Add to this, there were myriads of domestic animals who treated the house as their own. Basheer's sister Paaththumma, who lived in a dilapidated shack a little distance away, would visit the house everyday with her daughter Khadeeja and with them would come Paaththumma's goat. This goat had absolute freedom in the house. It would eat up anything it could, from fallen leaves before someone came to sweep them, Chaambaykka fruits (Water Apple) from the lower branches of the tree basheer planted, trousers worn by Basheer's nephew Abi, grass specially gathered for it, food set away for it, even food meant for human inhabitants of the house, to the author's copy of newest editions of Basheer's Baalyakaalasakhi, Shabdangal and Vishwavikhyaadamaaya Mookku, fresh out of press. When Basheer arrived home, each of the family members approach him with requests for financial assistance. When Basheer gives money to his mother, the next day his younger brother Adbul Khaadar would take it all from her. When he gives anything to any of his nephews or nieces, other people of the family ask why he doesn't give stuff to their children. His money runs out within a few days of his arrival. He gets down to disciplining the noisy children of the house. His youngest brother, Abu terrorises the household, the children, women and animals. Basheer's immediate younger brother, Abdul Khaadar was the head of the family, since Basheer was away most of the time and did not have a permanent source of income. At times the author would return home with a small fortune after publishing one of his books, then people of the family and the village would approach him with supplications. Abdul Khaadar was handicapped in one leg. When Basheer and he were young, he used to beat up Basheer and make him carry his books to school. His handicap got him special privileges from everyone. Once when Basheer's tolerance was pushed to the limits, he beat up his younger brother, and since then Abdul Khadar began giving him due respect. In their childhood, Basheer often had to bear the punishment when actually Abdul Khaadar was the real culprit. While Basheer wandered from place to place, Abdul Khadar got himself a job and looked after the family. First he worked as a school master, then quit the job and took various other employments. At the time when he became a schoolmaster, Basheer was serving three months prison term in Kannur prison after getting arrested at Kozhikode on his way to participate in Salt Satyagraham (1930). In 1936-37, he was residing at Ernakulam, writing for various magazines essentially for free. That was the time when he lived in near poverty, struggling to get to eat one square meal a day, having to borrow from everyone even to manage a cup of tea. He wrote prolifically, for newspapers and periodicals, but he got paid next to nothing for his efforts. This was the period which forms the backdrop in which works like Janmadinam were set. Once during this period, Abdul Khadar visited Basheer. The older brother proudly gave him his literary works to read. Abdul Khadar, instead of admiring his brother's literary genius found fault with the grammar and language usage. Avante oru lodukkoos akhya... Ithu njaan varthamaanam parayunnathupole ezhuthivachirikkayaanu. Avante chattukaalan akhyaadam. Palunkoosan vyakaranam, Basheer retorts. Years later, with the publication of major works like Baalyakaalasakhi(1944), Basheer's name became recognised throughout Kerala. Then Abdul Khaadar no longer complained of grammatical errors in his brother's sentences, instead asked him for copies of the book so that he could make money selling them. He even asked Basheer to write about members of the family and gave him ideas for plots of stories. |
2810191 | /m/0844lx | Thumbelina | Hans Christian Andersen | 1835-12-16 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/0707q": "Short story", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/09kqc": "Humour"} | In the first English translation of 1847 by Mary Howitt, the tale opens with a beggar woman giving a peasant's wife a barleycorn in exchange for food. Once planted, a tiny girl, Thumbelina (Tommelise), emerges from its flower. One night, Thumbelina, asleep in her walnut-shell cradle, is carried off by a toad who wants the miniature maiden as a bride for her son. With the help of friendly fish and a butterfly, Thumbelina escapes the toad and her son, and drifts on a lily pad until captured by a stag beetle. The insect discards her when his friends reject her company. Thumbelina tries to protect herself from the elements, but when winter comes, she is in desperate straits. She is finally given shelter by an old field mouse and tends her dwelling in gratitude. The mouse suggests Thumbelina marry her neighbor, a mole, but Thumbelina finds repulsive the prospect of being married to such a creature. She escapes the situation by fleeing to a far land with a swallow she nursed back to health during the winter. In a sunny field of flowers, Thumbelina meets a tiny flower-fairy prince just her size and to her liking, and they wed. She receives a pair of wings to accompany her husband on his travels from flower to flower, and a new name, Maia. In Hans Christian Andersen's version of the story, a bluebird had been viewing Thumbelina's story since the beginning, and had been in love with her since. In the end, the bird is heartbroken once Thumbelina marries the flower prince, and flies off, eventually arriving at a small house. There, he tells Thumbelina's story to a man who is implied to be Andersen himself, who chronicles the story in a book. |
2810372 | /m/08451l | The Dwarf | Pär Lagerkvist | null | null | The main character of this story is a dwarf, 26 inches high, at the court of an Italian City-state in the Renaissance. The exact locations are unclear, but since a character named Bernardo, who is unmistakably modeled on Leonardo da Vinci, appears in the novel, it appears to take place in a fictional version of Milan around the time of Leonardo's stay at the court of the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, from 1482 to 1499. There is a reference to Santa Croce being in the immediate surroundings, but this is possibly mixed up with the Basilica di Santa Croce di Firenze so that the story could actually be set in Florence. At the same time Lagerkvist puts Bernardo/Leonardo's creation of The Last Supper and Mona Lisa into the plot, one of them created in Milan, the other presumably in Florence. Further, the prince that inspired Niccolò Machiavelli to write The Prince has been assumed to be Cesare Borgia, who also employed Leonardo da Vinci as a military architect, a role he (as Bernardo) plays alongside his painting work in The Dwarf. In this way aspects of all these historical places and people are mixed into the background of the novel. The dwarf is the teller of the narrative, obviously obsessed by writing down his experiences in a form of diary. Everything in the novel is described from his particular viewpoint, mostly in retrospect, ranging from a few hours or minutes to several weeks or months after the actual events. The dwarf is a profound misanthrope and generally embodies all things evil. He hates almost every person at the court except for the prince (who is the ruler of the city-state, rather king than prince), or rather aspects of him. He loves war, brutality and fixed positions. While almost all other characters of the novel develop during the chain of events, the dwarf does not change. He is still exactly the same character from the first to the last page. He is deeply religious, but his take on Christianity includes the belief in a non-forgiving God. He is impressed with Bernardo's science but soon repelled by its relentless search for truth. When the dwarf is ordered to assassinate a number of enemies of the prince using poisoned wine, he takes this opportunity to assassinate one of the prince's rivals, simply because the dwarf dislikes the rival and the rival is having an affair with the prince's wife. The novel ends with the dwarf being strapped in chains at the bottom of the royal castle, never to be released again. He is seemingly convicted for flogging the prince's wife to death in anger over her sins. However he takes this sentence lightly, since, as he says, "soon the prince will need his dwarf again". |
2811232 | /m/0846nk | Moscow 2042 | Vladimir Voinovich | 1986 | {"/m/06nbt": "Satire", "/m/05qt0": "Politics", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/026ny": "Dystopia"} | The Russian author Kartsev, living in Munich in 1982 (just like Voinovich himself), time travels to the Moscow of 2042. After the "Great August Revolution", the new leader referred to as "Genialissimus" has changed the Soviet Union... up to a certain point. After Vladimir Lenin's dream of the world revolution narrowed down to Joseph Stalin's theory of "Socialism in one country", Genialissimus has decided to start from building "Communism in one city", namely in Moscow. The ideology has changed somewhat, into a hodgepodge of Marxism-Leninism and Russian Orthodoxy (Genialissimo himself is also Patriarch). The decay from which the Soviet Union suffered has worsened. The rest of the Soviet Union, where people barely survive, has been separated by a Berlin type of wall from the "paradise" of Moscow, where communism has been realised. Within the wall everyone gets everything "according to his needs". Only their needs are not decided by themselves, but by the wise Genialissimus. Most people have "ordinary needs", but a chosen few have "extraordinary needs". For the first-mentioned group, life is dismal even within the privileged "Moscow Republic". The situation finally gets so desperate that people throw themselves in the arms of the "liberator", a fellow dissident writer and (kind of) friend of Kartsev, the Slavophile Sim Karnavalov (apparently inspired by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn), who enters Moscow on a white horse and proclaims himself Tsar Serafim the First. Thus, communism is abandoned and society progressed back into feudal autocracy. This novel is considered to be a masterpiece of dystopian satire. |
2811336 | /m/0846ts | Doctor Fischer of Geneva | Graham Greene | 1980 | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | The story is narrated by Alfred Jones, a translator for a large chocolate company in Switzerland. Jones, in his 50s, lost his left hand while working as a fireman during The Blitz. Jones is a widower when he meets the young Anna-Luise Fischer in a local restaurant. Jones is surprised to learn that Anna-Luise is the daughter of Dr. Fischer, who has become rich after inventing a perfumed toothpaste and whose dinner parties are famous (or infamous) around Geneva. After a brief courtship, the two are married. Anna-Luise is estranged from her father, the Dr. Fischer of the book’s title. Jones goes to see Dr. Fischer to inform him that he and Anna-Luise are married, but Dr. Fischer is indifferent to the information. Later, however, he invites Jones to one of his dinner parties; Anna-Luise warns Jones not to go, saying that these parties are nothing more than an outlet for her father to humiliate the rich sycophants (whom she calls “the Toads,” her malapropism for “toadies”) in his coterie. Jones goes anyway when Anna-Luise relents, saying that one dinner party can’t corrupt him. At the party, Dr. Fischer and his guests explain some of the rules of engagement: If a guest follows all the rules, s/he receives a present (or prize) at the end of the meal. The presents are usually tailored to each guest and are worth a substantial amount of money. However, the rules include complete submission to the humiliations of Dr. Fischer, which always include barbed verbal taunts that focus on each guest’s failings or insecurities. At this particular party, the dinner consists strictly of porridge. One guest asks for sugar, but Dr. Fischer only provides salt. Dr. Fischer explains to Jones that the guests must eat the porridge to receive their presents, and that this is all part of his experiment to see how far the rich will go to debase themselves for more riches. The guests all eat the porridge except for Jones, who earns himself the enmity of the Toads by abstaining. Jones doesn’t receive another invitation for some time. Anna-Luise fills Jones in on the dissolution of her parents’ marriage. Her mother had developed a friendship with an employee of Kips, one of the Toads, based on their mutual love of Mozart. When Dr. Fischer found out, he paid Kips’ firm fifty thousand francs to fire the man, and then hounded his wife until she “willed herself” to die. Jones and Anna-Luise encounter the man, Steiner, in a local record shop, and Anna-Luise’s resemblance to her mother (Anna) gives Steiner a heart attack. Meanwhile, he and Anna-Luise discuss having children, but she says she would prefer to wait until after the skiing season is over because she wouldn’t want to ski while pregnant. The two go on a skiing trip, and while Jones (who doesn’t ski) waits in the lodge, Anna-Luise collides with a tree after swerving to avoid a young boy who had sprained his ankle while skiing a course that was too tough for him. She suffers a severe head injury and bleeds enough to stain the front of her white sweater red. She later dies at the hospital, leaving Jones broken and lonesome. He attempts suicide by drinking whiskey laced with aspirin, but it only leaves him drowsy. The next day he responds to an invitation to visit Dr. Fischer in his office. Dr. Fischer offers to give Jones the money held in trust for Anna-Luise, but Jones refuses it. Fischer is surprised, and asks Jones to attend his next dinner party with the Toads, which he promises will be the last. This party - the “Bomb Party” of the novel's alternate title - fills the longest chapter of the book. The party is held outside sometime around New Year’s Day, and the guests are kept warm via enormous bonfires around Dr. Fischer’s lawn. The meal is exquisite. Following dinner, Dr. Fischer explains the rules for that night’s experiment. He has hidden six crackers in a bran bucket. Inside five of them are checks for two million francs apiece, with the name left blank. Inside the sixth is a small bomb. The guests are expected to draw crackers and open them one by one. One of the toads, a stooped man named Kips, says that gambling is immoral and refuses to take part, leaving the party instead, and leaving Mr. Jones to consider that it is only Mr. Kips and himself who take the Doctor's threat of a bomb in the last cracker seriously; the other Toads seem to be disbelieving, especially Mrs. Montgomery, who passes off Fischer's bomb-threat as playful, untrue banter. The other Toads begin to take the crackers; a hack actor named Deane, immediately goes into a role from one of his movies as a soldier volunteering for a dangerous mission, rambling dialogue to himself while he stands near the bucket. Two other Toads, the widow Mrs. Montgomery and the accountant Belmont, rush up and draw their crackers, realizing that the odds favor the earlier selectors. Both draw crackers with checks inside. Deane finally snaps out of his delusion long enough to draw a cracker, and when he finds a check inside, he passes out of either shock or inebriation. This leaves just Jones and the retired military officer, the Divisionnaire. The Divisionnaire takes a cracker but won’t open it. Jones, still considering suicide as a way to avoid his lonely future, takes a cracker, opens it, and finds a check. The Divisionnaire remains paralyzed by fear, so Jones roots around for the last cracker (which would have gone to Kips) and opens it as well, finding the last check, meaning that the Divisionnaire must hold the bomb. While Dr. Fischer torments the Divisionnaire for his cowardice, Jones offers to buy the Divisionnaire’s cracker for two million francs. Over Dr. Fischer’s objections, Jones takes the fatal cracker and runs off into the snow, where he opens the cracker to find nothing. Steiner suddenly wanders up to Jones, saying he came to confront Dr. Fischer and to spit in his face. Dr. Fischer arrives and after a brief conversation about whether he has achieved his goals with his experiment, says that it is “time to sleep” but heads away from the house. A few moments later, Jones and Steiner hear a crack, and rush off to find Dr. Fischer, who has shot himself with a revolver. The novel ends with Jones saying that he is no longer considering suicide and has even struck up a small friendship with Steiner where the two meet for coffee and mourn their lost loves. Jones says he rarely sees any of the Toads and avoids Geneva for the most part; he did once see Mrs. Montgomery, who called him “Mr. Smith,” allowing Jones to pretend he didn’t hear her and walk away. |
2815166 | /m/084h0k | Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road | Neil Peart | 2002-06 | null | Neil begins his story with explaining the beginning of his travels by motorcycle from his home in Quebec to Telegraph Creek, British Columbia. In reality he has no schedule, no restriction in time, or life for that matter. In time he finds himself traveling from Canada to Alaska, and then ultimately down south through the United States to Mexico then to Belize. Eventually he travels (by plane) back to his home in Canada where he continues a series of letters to his friend Brutus. He then continues his journey, which ultimately ends at his home. |
2818294 | /m/084mxg | Polar Star | Martin Cruz Smith | 1989 | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense"} | Arkady Renko, former Chief Investigator of the Moscow Town Prosecutor's Office, is serving a self-imposed exile in Siberia to avoid being detained for his actions in Gorky Park several years earlier, despite the Soviet Union's ostensibly increasing liberalization. He procures menial employment as a fish gutter on the "slime lime" of a large Arctic sea factory ship called the Polar Star, part of a joint Soviet-American fishing exercise within detente. He is brought to the attention of Viktor Marchuk, the ship's captain, after a young woman named Zina Patiashvili is found dead in a net full of freshly-caught fish. Due to his past as a homicide investigator, he is given the task of finding out what happened to her—to the dislike of political officer Volovoi. Hess, the ship's chief electrical engineer—an elaborate blind for his espionage activities—welcomes Arkady more warmly. Researching the girl's background, he discovers an open and somewhat radical Georgian personality, known for her many lovers (including the Captain, before she became a crew member) and fondness for underground music. Looking into her death also attracts the attention of the ship's main gang, lead by Karp Corabetz—the ship's leading fisher and Arkady's former prisoner. The American corporate representative on board, Susan Hightower, takes an interest in the case. Arkady grows weary of the investigation, largely due to the obstructive actions of many of his shipmates—many of whom are concerned that it will delay a long-awaited shore leave on the island of Dutch Harbour. Renko finally decides to go along with the original verdict of suicide, letting the ship's crew disembark. Though lacking proper authorization to go ashore himself, Arkady is sponsored in an impromptu shore leave by "Fleet Electrical Engineer" Hess. Whilst there, he starts to enter into a relationship with Susan before encountering Volovoi in a nearby dwelling. Volovoi threatens him but is killed by a disgruntled Karp, who then locks Arkady in and sets the building on fire. The investigator manages to escape and "accidentally" falls into the water to wash off any incriminating odors. Questions are raised, but nothing is decided. Arkady has no evidence against Karp and, having already survived an attempt on his life, fears he will be attacked again. Entering the icy North, the American trawler freezes into the ice whilst trailing the Polar Star. Arkady learns of Karp's relationship with Zina and her attempts to defect aboard the American ship, as well the secret spy cable running underneath the vessel that is operated by Hess. Arkady ventures out into the ice towards the American ship, and Karp casually follows and eventually catches up with him. On board they find evidence that Zina was killed and stowed on board in one of the lockers. Arkady also finds indications that the Americans were deceiving Hess by transmitting the electronic signatures of numerous other decommissioned American vessels. Karp kills the killer, scaring off the Americans and allowing him and Renko to escape. After a final foiled attempt to finish Arkady off, Karp finally decides, with draconian Russian justice awaiting him back home, to drown himself in the icy water. When the Polar Star returns to Vladivostok, Arkady says farewell to Susan and his fellow crewmen, suddenly finding himself in the party's favour again. <gallery> Image:AleutianIslandsFromSpace.jpg|The Aleutian Islands. Image:UnalaskaAlaska.jpg|Dutch Harbor, Alaska with the Russian Orthodox church in the foreground. </gallery> |
2818495 | /m/084n89 | Red Square | Martin Cruz Smith | 1991 | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | As the existing social and economic structures of the Soviet Union break down, Arkady Renko has been reinstated as an Investigator in the Moscow Militsiya (Police Force). He is trying to clear up a nest of illicit traders when his chief informant dies in a horrific fireball. At the late informer's flat, his fax machine keeps asking the apparently meaningless question, "Where is Red Square?" The question does not pertain to a location but to an avant-garde painting by suprematist painter Malevich which has resurfaced on the black market after being lost since World War II. The story, however, reverts to the August Coup, which takes place in and around Red Square and indeed throughout Moscow in August 1991, leading to the fragmentation of the former Soviet Union. One of the subplots within this novel involves Arkady Renko's improbable reunion with the one great love of his life, Irina Asanova. Her seemingly total disinterest in Arkady sends him resignedly on his way until, in an ultimate ironic twist, a belatedly-delivered message from Renko's recently deceased father galvanizes him into one last, determined attempt at winning Irina back. <gallery> Image:Redsquarenight.jpg|The Red Square in Moscow Image:Red Square. Visual Realism of a Peasant Woman in Two Dimensions.jpg|Rotes Viereck (Red Square, Malevich, 1913), the source of the book's name. </gallery> |
2819151 | /m/084pkb | The Bay of Love and Sorrows | David Adams Richards | null | null | Set in rural New Brunswick in 1974, the novel's protagonist is Michael Skid, the privileged son of the town judge. After a falling out with his friend Tom Donnerel, Michael befriends Madonna and Silver Brassaurd, a brother and sister who draw him into the orbit of Everette Hutch, a charismatic and violent man who ultimately leads the three youths to commit murder. |
2819247 | /m/084pw9 | Mercy Among the Children | David Adams Richards | null | null | Set in the rural Miramichi Valley of New Brunswick, the novel depicts the family of Sydney Henderson, a man who vowed in childhood never to express himself in anger or violence after accidentally pushing a playmate off the roof of a building. As a result of his vow, residents of the community exploit Henderson, framing him for a crime and tormenting his children. The novel closely explores the effect of this dynamic on one particular son, Lyle, who is drawn into violence as he attempts to defend his family. The characters are limited by many constraints such as class, poverty, lack of education, family background and reputation and the biases that come along with these factors. |
2822315 | /m/084xj6 | In the Presence of Mine Enemies | Harry Turtledove | 11/4/2003 | {"/m/0mz2": "Alternate history", "/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/026ny": "Dystopia"} | Wehrmacht officer Heinrich Gimpel astonishes his 10-year-old daughter, Alicia, with a secret that has been hidden from her all her life: the family is Jewish. He explains that the Gimpels, friends Walther and Esther Stutzman, and their extended families all belong to those remnants of Jews who now survive by hiding in plain sight within the very society that wants them dead. Now old enough, by family tradition, to be trusted with this life-or-death deception, Alicia is obliged to hide the truth from her friends, her classmates, and even her younger sisters even as she is forced to regard her school's racist curriculum from a new perspective that leaves her sick and angry over all the anti-Semitic propaganda that she always learned and parroted without question. Meanwhile, Heinrich finds himself caught in the marital strife between his co-worker, Willi Dorsch, and Willi's wife, Erika. Embittered by her husband's infidelity, Erika wants a retaliatory affair with Heinrich. He resists, which leads to Erika accusing him of being a Jew and Heinrich being arrested by the SS. Only after Erika realizes that her accusation caused Heinrich's children to be taken also, she confesses that she lied, unaware the entire time that Heinrich and his family really are Jewish. Esther Stutzman, who works as a receptionist in a doctor's office, also experiences a close call with Nazi policies when her friends Richard and Maria Klein, closeted Jews like herself, bring their ailing eight-month-old baby, Paul, in for a checkup. The diagnosis, Tay-Sachs disease, is a disease known to be prevalent among Jews. A subsequent investigation into his family background would spell doom for his parents and any names they might be forced to reveal under torture. Although Esther's husband, Walther, is able to hack into the Reich's computer network and change the Klein's family history, it is the revelation that Reichsführer-SS Lothar Prützmann has a nephew with Tay-Sachs that brings the investigation to a halt. All of this happens against the background of the events happening after the death of the current Führer, Kurt Haldweim. He is replaced by the reform-minded Heinz Buckliger, who relaxes the oppressive laws of the Reich. In a secret speech, with word-of-mouth spreading it to the populace, the new Führer denounced his predecessors, saying that the Reich committed crimes in the past. Reactionary opposition rallies around the SS, while the populist Gauleiter of Berlin, Rolf Stolle, champions accelerated reform. Things come to a head with the announcement of (relatively) free elections: candidates need not be Nazi Party members, but they must be Aryan. Led by Reichsführer-SS Lothar Prützmann, the SS effect a conservative coup d'état, imprisoning the Führer, and installing former High Commissioner of Ostland Affairs, Odilo Globocnik, as the new Führer. However, Stolle instigates a people power movement, which the Wehrmacht supports. The coup d'état is defeated after Walther Stutzman salts the country's computer network with the information about Reichsführer-SS Prützmann's Tay-Sachs afflicted nephew. Soon, Berlin comes to the conclusion that Prützmann is a Jew, which definitively turns the tide against the coup. In the aftermath, Prützmann kills himself, and Globocnick is lynched. |
2822553 | /m/084x_4 | Sweet Thursday | John Steinbeck | 1954 | null | Doc returns to a failed Western Biological Laboratories after serving in the army during World War II to a changed Cannery Row. Mack and the Boys are still living in the Palace Flophouse, but Lee Chong has sold his general store to Joseph and Mary Rivas. Since the death of its original owner Dora, the local brothel, The Bear Flag Restaurant, is now being run by Dora's older sister Fauna, a former mission worker previously known as Flora. Under Fauna, the girls of the Bear Flag study etiquette and posture with the goal of joining Fauna's list of "gold stars", former employees of the Bear Flag who have married and left their employ there. As Doc tries to rebuild his neglected business, the latest Bear Flag resident Suzy is causing trouble. Fauna knows Suzy isn't cut out to be a working girl, but her soft heart always causes her to fall for a hard luck story. Deciding to make Suzy one of her gold star girls, Fauna plots to throw Suzy into the arms of an unwitting Doc and enlists the aid of Mack and the Boys. After a disastrous party hosted by Mack and the Boys, Suzy leaves the Bear Flag but not to marry Doc. Choosing to live alone, Suzy moves into an empty boiler in a vacant lot and takes a job at the local diner, the Golden Poppy. While Cannery Row is stunned over Suzy's actions and Doc wrestles with a critical project, Hazel, one of the Boys living in the Palace Flophouse, struggles with his own demons. Having been told by Fauna in an astrological reading he will become President of the United States, Hazel fights destiny. To practice for high office, Hazel understands that he must learn to make difficult decisions — one of which is breaking Doc's arm, for he’s realized that this, arousing Suzy's sympathy, is the only way to bring the couple together. Realizing Doc's broken arm will keep him from a much-needed collecting expedition, Mack and the Boys teach Suzy to drive a car. Suzy and the injured Doc head off to the coast for the collecting expedition. |
2823228 | /m/084zks | Paradise City | Lorenzo Carcaterra | null | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Paradise City is the story of Giancarlo Lo Manto, an east Bronx raised Italian American who returns with his widowed mother to Naples at the age of fifteen. Giancarlo grows up to become an educated yet street-wise cop within the poverty and crime-ridden southern Italian city. His on-going battle with the city's organized crime families has him in constant contact with his native NYC. Then one day, his young niece, who is on an exchange trip to the city that never sleeps, goes missing resulting in Giancarlo canceling his holiday to the Capri in exchange for the Island of Manhattan to search for her. |
2823345 | /m/084ztt | The Death Of Grass | John Christopher | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/0hc1z": "Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | A new virus strain has infected rice crops in East Asia causing massive famine; soon a mutation appears which infects the staple crops of West Asia and Europe such as wheat and barley, all of them types of grasses (thus the novel's title), threatening a famine engulfing the whole of the Old World, while Australasia and the Americas attempt to impose rigorous quarantine to keep the virus out. The novel follows the struggles of architect John Custance and his friend, civil servant Roger Buckley, as, along with their families, they make their way across an England which is rapidly descending into anarchy, hoping to reach the safety of John's brother's potato farm in an isolated Westmorland valley. Picking up a travelling companion in a gun shop owner named Pirrie, they find they must sacrifice many of their morals in order to stay alive. At one point, when their food supply runs out, they kill a family to take their bread. The protagonist justifies this with the belief that "it was them or us." By the time they reach the valley, they have accumulated a considerable entourage as a result of their encounters with other groups of survivors along the way. They find that John's brother is unable to let them all in to the heavily-defended valley. Pirrie acts to prevent John leaving the group and taking only his immediate family into the valley; instead, the group takes the valley by force. Pirrie and John's brother are killed; John takes possession of the valley. |
2824017 | /m/085060 | Outbound Flight | Timothy Zahn | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The book, which is set five years after Star Wars—Episode I: The Phantom Menace, tells the story of the mysterious Outbound Flight Project mentioned in Heir to the Empire, Specter of the Past, Vision of the Future, and Survivor's Quest. |
2824118 | /m/0850ff | Allegiance | Timothy Zahn | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The story is set just after Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. The book's subject is, according to Zahn, "...three different people and groups with allegiance issues." |
2824171 | /m/0850k8 | A World of Difference | Harry Turtledove | 1990-05 | {"/m/0mz2": "Alternate history", "/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | When the Viking 1 space probe lands on Minerva in 1976 it takes a picture of a native Minervan wielding a primitive tool, thus proving the existence of intelligent life on other worlds. The main action of the story involves separate American and Soviet missions, who both pay lip service to non-interference with Minervan society, but in the course of their research, the teams' respective political ideologies inevitably come to the fore. This leads the teams and their commanders back home to use the Minervans in a transparent analogy to Third World/Cold War proxy conflicts on Earth. One of the Americans saves the life of a female Minervan after she gives birth. Eventually Minervans get their hands on high tech items like steel hatchets, rubber rafts, and finally AK-74s, which severely disrupt their way of life. |
2824720 | /m/0851s4 | O Pioneers! | Willa Cather | null | {"/m/02p0szs": "Historical fiction"} | The book is divided into five parts, each of which has numerous (unnumbered) chapters. On a windy day in Hanover, Nebraska, Alexandra Bergson is with her five-year-old brother Emil. Emil's little kitten has climbed a telegraph pole and is afraid to come down. Alexandra finds her neighbor and friend Carl Linstrum, who retrieves the kitten. In the general store, Alexandra finds Emil with Marie Tovesky who is two years older than Emil. Marie's father has brought her from Omaha. Alexandra's father is dying, and he wishes that she run the farm after he is gone. They later visit Crazy Ivar, who advises them to keep their hogs clean. When the Linstrums are leaving, Oscar and Lou want to leave too, but neither their mother nor Alexandra will. After visiting villages downwards to see how they are getting on, she talks her brothers Oscar and Lou into mortgaging the farm to buy more land, in hopes of ending up as rich landowners. Sixteen years later, the farms are now prosperous. Alexandra and her brothers have divided up their inheritance, and Emil has just returned from college. The Linstrum farm has failed, and Marie, now married to Frank Shabata, has bought it. That same day, the Bergsons are surprised by a visit from Carl Linstrum, whom they have not seen for thirteen years, [Note: Carl says it has been sixteen years, but this is a textual error. John Bergson died sixteen years earlier, and Carl's family left during the drought that occurred three years later.] having failed in a job in Chicago. He is on his way to Alaska, but decides to stay with Alexandra for a while. There is a growing flirtatious relationship between Emil and Marie, which Carl notices. Lou and Oscar suspect that Carl wants to marry Alexandra, and are resentful that they had to work hard for their farms, but he thinks he can marry into a farm. After this, Alexandra and her brothers are no longer speaking. Then Carl, recognizing a problem, decides to leave for Alaska. At the same time, Emil announces he is leaving for a job in Mexico City. Alexandra is left alone. Alexandra spends the winter alone, except for occasional visits from Marie, whom she visits with Mrs. Lee. She also begins to have mysterious dreams. Emil returns from Mexico City. His best friend, Amédée, is now married with a young son. At a fair at the French church, Emil and Marie kiss for the first time. They later confess their illicit love, and Emil determines to leave for law school in Michigan. Before he leaves Amédée dies from a ruptured appendix, and as a result both he and Marie realize what they value most. Before leaving he stops by Marie's farm to say one last goodbye, and they fall into a passionate embrace beneath the white mulberry tree. They stay there for several hours, until Marie's husband, Frank, finds them, and shoots them. He goes off to Omaha. Ivar discovers Emil's abandoned horse, leading him to search for the boy and discover the bodies. Alexandra has gone off in a rainstorm. Ivar goes looking for her and brings her back home, where she sleeps fitfully and dreams about death. She then decides to visit Frank in Lincoln where he is incarcerated. While in town she walks by Emil's university campus, comes upon a polite young man, and feels better. The next day she talks to Frank in prison. He is bedraggled and can barely speak properly, and she promises to do what she can to see him released; she bears no ill will toward him. She then receives a telegram from Carl, saying he is back. They decide to marry, unconcerned with her brothers' approval. |
2825416 | /m/0853fb | The Hammer of God | Arthur C. Clarke | 1993 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | A good portion of the book details the life of spaceship-captain Robert Singh (including his running a marathon race on the Lunar surface and uprooting his life and moving to Mars). When it is discovered that the asteroid Kali is likely to hit Earth, Singh's ship Goliath makes an emergency voyage to Kali with a load of thrusters to set up on the asteroid, hopefully nudging the rock's orbit just enough to push it clear of Earth. In the meantime, a religious sect called Chrislam, originally founded by a female veteran of the Persian Gulf War, believes that they can convert a human being into a few terabytes of computer information, and then transmit this data across space to Sirius (where they believe aliens reside); members of the sect also come to believe that the asteroid is meant to destroy the Earth. They thus sneak a bomb on board the Goliath and ruin the thrusters. While Singh uses the Goliath itself as a thruster to move the asteroid, the world government on Earth rushes to reconstruct one of the planet's long-decommissioned nuclear weapons, hoping to break the peanut-shaped Kali in two. |
2826174 | /m/085518 | Survivor's Quest | Timothy Zahn | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | Survivor's Quest opens with a meeting between Talon Karrde and Luke and Mara Skywalker. Karrde's people had earlier picked up an urgent transmission, addressed to Luke, coming from Admiral Voss Parck on the planet Nirauan. Before the message could be passed on, however, it had been stolen by a member of Karrde's own organisation, one Dean Jinzler. Fearing that the message might be somehow connected with the unknown menace Parck and Baron Fel had warned them about two years previous, Luke and Mara decide to head out to Nirauan. There, they learn that the message had in fact come from Chiss Aristocra Chaf'orm'bintrano (or "Formbi"). The Chiss have found the remains of the pioneering Jedi expedition, Outbound Flight, which had been mercilessly destroyed by Grand Admiral Thrawn many years previous. Now, the Chiss wish to hand over their find to the New Republic, and Luke and Mara join the odd group—which includes a squad of stormtroopers from the 501st, a remnant of an alien people, the Geroons, who owe a strange debt to the people of Outbound Flight, and a false New Republic Ambassador—which will visit the site of the tragedy. As they voyage on the Chaf Envoy deeper into Chiss space, into a treacherous cluster of stars known as the Redoubt, Luke and Mara grow more uneasy. Occurrences of sabotage and theft only serve to deepen their suspicions. On top of that, Mara begins to feel torn between her duty to the New Republic and her troubled respect for the Empire. The expedition reaches its destination: the remains of the Dreadnaughts that made up the Outbound Flight project. Not only are the ships fairly intact, but Mara can sense life. There are survivors, possibly hundreds of them. Suddenly, everything comes together in a whirlwind of events. The supposedly peaceloving Geroons instead are revealed to be the bloodthirsty Vagaari, who desire revenge against the Chiss and Outbound Flight for their defeat at the hand of Admiral Thrawn years before. Luke, Mara, the Chiss, the Imperials, and the embittered survivors now must work together against the Vagaari if any of them are to come out alive. They manage to defeat the Vagaari, who in turn sabotage the Chaf Envoy and commandeer one of the Dreadnaughts. The Vagaari then head back through the Redoubt to attack the Chiss command center, leaving Luke, Mara, and the others practically stranded. Following the welcome discovery of a Delta-Twelve Skysprite, however, Luke and Mara are soon pursuing the rogue Dreadnaught. They catch up to it and make their way aboard. They find out that the main Vagaari "colony ship" is actually a starfighter carrier that is beginning to overwhelm Chiss defenses. Using a fake signal, Luke and Mara trick the Vagaari into believing the Dreadnaught to be a friendly ship. However, Luke and Mara use the Dreadnaught under their control after a showdown with a droideka and the fanatical Vagaari Estosh, to aid the Chiss fighters and to defeat the other Vagaari forces. The survivors are entrusted into the care of the Empire of the Hand, and Luke and Mara finally have time to settle down and enjoy their marriage. |
2827217 | /m/08577d | A Year Down Yonder | Richard Peck | 2000-10 | {"/m/02p0szs": "Historical fiction", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The year is 1937, and the Great Depression has hit the Dowdel family hard. 15-year-old Mary Alice is sent downstate to live with Grandma Dowdel while her Ma and Pa eke out a meager living in Chicago. Mary Alice is less than thrilled with the arrangement. Grandma's Hicksville farming community couldn't be more different from Chicago if it tried, and the grandmother Mary Alice remembers from childhood is a no-nonsense country gal. Having no choice in the matter, Mary Alice arrives by train in September with her beloved cat Bootsie and prized Philco radio. Day one in the new high school finds Mary Alice getting on the wrong side of the local bully, Mildred Burdick. Mildred brazenly follows Mary Alice home, demanding a dollar---but Grandma Dowdel turns the tables on the tyrant, slyly untying Mildred's horse. Faced with a barefoot 5-mile-hike home, Mildred loses in interest in making trouble for Mary Alice. October brings plenty of other trouble, however, when another teen hooligan - August Fluke Jr. - gets in the habit of knocking down privies for pre-Halloween amusement. With the help of a strategically strung wire and a pan of glue, Grandma Dowdel trips up Augie's trickery, with a hot coat of glue that sticks "till kingdom come." Luckily, Grandma's treats prove far sweeter than her tricks: at the school Halloween party, Mrs. Dowdel dishes up home-baked pies made with borrowed pecans and pumpkins. In November, Armistice Day cracks dawn with a bang when Grandma rises to shine at the annual Turkey Shoot. The Legion Auxiliary ladies serve stew at noon for a dime-a-cup---but with Grandma Dowdel as cashier, this year's price is pay-what-you-can-afford, publicly pressuring the banker, Mr. L.J. Weidenbach, for five dollars. The money Grandma raises is given to Mrs. Abernathy and her son, a war veteran gassed and injured in combat now using a wheelchair. As the Virgin Mother in the school Christmas pageant, Mary Alice is set to steal the spotlight from the local snob Carleen Lovejoy. The moonlit winter nights find Grandma and Mary Alice trapping foxes; with the extra money, Grandma buys Joey a train ticket and he arrives just in time for the pageant. But when Mildred Burdick's illegitimate baby turns up in the manger, Christmas is anything but a silent night. Mary Alice stirs the town up by submitting an anonymous article to a community newspaper and a new boy---Royce McNabb---arrives just in time for Valentine's Day. Carleen develops an instant crush on Royce. With the help of best friend Ina-Rae, Mary Alice fools Carleen into believing that Royce sent Ina-Ray a valentine. Meanwhile, Grandma hosts a tea for the Daughters of the American Revolution and country bumpkin Effie Wilcox learns that the hoity-toity Mrs. L.J. Weidenbach is her long-lost sister. In spring, Grandma takes in a New York artist, Arnold Green, as a boarder for a whopping $2.50 a day as Mary Alice invites Royce over for an ostensibly "study" focused-date. The snake Grandma keeps in the attic drops down on Maxine Patch, the postmistress, whom Green was painting naked, or nude, as he prefers, leaving Maxine shamed (as she ran through town au natural) and Arnold in shock. Grandma cameos as matchmaker, introducing Green to Mary Alice's English teacher, Miss Butler. Mary Alice survives her first tornado, and the school-year wraps up with a hayride that finds Royce and Mary Alice promising to exchange letters. A year down yonder leaves Mary Alice with a more tenderhearted view of country-life and Grandma Dowdel, and she hesitates to head back to Chicago. Wedding bells ring when World War II ends, and Mary Alice returns to tie the knot with Royce McNabb on Grandma's front porch. |
2827312 | /m/0857g1 | Maniac Magee | Jerry Spinelli | 1990 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/037mh8": "Philosophy"} | Jeffrey Lionel Magee's parents were in a trolley when a drunk driver crashed and sunk the trolley (P and W) into the Schuylkill River in Bridgeport, PA, orphaning him at age three. After living with his Aunt Dot and Uncle Dan in another town and enduring their mutual hatred and silence for eight years, he runs away during a school musical performance. One year (The Lost Year) and 200 miles later, Jeffrey finds himself across the river from Bridgeport in Two Mills, PA, where Hector Street sharply divides black East Enders from white West Enders. He meets Amanda Beale, an East Ender who carries her library of random books in a suitcase, and borrows a book before continuing his dash through town. Along the way, he intercepts a football pass made to local football star James "Hands" Down, infuriates gigantic little-leaguer, John McNab, by hitting home runs off his fastball, and saves an unlucky child from Finnsterwald’s backyard. Finnsterwald house is a house dreaded by everyone and has a very bad reputation. Because of these acts, he earned the nickname "Maniac" and started a local legend. When East Ender "Mars Bar" Thompson corners Maniac and rips a page from Amanda's book, Maniac is rescued by Amanda herself, who takes him home to her chaotic but loving household. Maniac finds a temporary home there, helping Mr. and Mrs. Beale with the chores and pacifying Amanda's little brother and sister, Hester and Lester. Soon though, a few East End residents make it clear to Maniac that they don't want him in the East End anymore by writing racist graffiti on the Beale's front door. His final effort to gain acceptance is by untying the famous Cobble’s Knot (a huge, grimy ball of string with a year's supply of pizza waiting for its vanquisher.) After finishing the task he is praised by everyone as confetti is thrown into the air. Amanda Beale realizes, too late, that the confetti was made from the pages of her favorite book. Maniac runs away again so he won't hurt the Beales anymore. He takes shelter in the buffalo pen at the zoo and occasionally eats with the Pickwells—West Enders who kindly provide spaghetti dinners for anyone who shows up at their dinner table. At the zoo, Maniac meets Earl Grayson, a washed up minor-league baseball pitcher who turns out to be a groundskeeper , who hasn't ever learned to read, and who insists he has no stories to tell. For a few months Maniac has a home again with Grayson, helping him at work, celebrating holidays with him, and teaching Grayson to read. When Grayson dies in his sleep, Maniac wanders off aimlessly. On the verge of frozen starvation he encounters Piper and Russell, child-ruffians who are running away to Mexico, and who turn out to be John McNab's little brothers. Maniac leads them back home, bribing them with free pizza, and stays at their cockroach-infested, decrepit house. Here, Maniac finds the worst that the West End has to offer as he learns that the McNabs are making a bunker because they believe the East End is planning a rebellion. He endures the coarseness and squalor of the McNab home in hopes of keeping Piper and Russell in school and under control, but eventually gives up. After beating Mars Bar in a foot race and goading him into crashing a birthday party at the McNab's, Maniac is homeless again. He moves back into the buffalo pen, and runs for miles every morning before Two Mills wakes up. Before long, Mars Bar Thompson starts running with him as if by coincidence, and the two never say a word to each other. One day they come across a hysterical Piper McNab, who frantically leads them to Russell, stuck on the trolley trestle where Maniac's parents died. Maniac walks away silently, nearly unconscious and stunned by fear, while Mars Bar rescues Russell, becoming a hero in the child’s eyes. Maniac retreats once again to the buffalo pen, where Mars Bar leads Amanda Beale to persuade Maniac once and for all to come and live with her family again. *Jeffrey Lionel "Maniac Magee," is the book’s protagonist. Jeffrey is orphaned and finds himself in Two Mills, where he becomes a local legend while trying to find a home. He has astonishing athletic abilities, runs everywhere he goes, can untie any knot, is allergic to pizza, and crosses the barrier between East End and West End as if blind to racial distinction. *Amanda Beale is the first person Maniac meets in Two Mills. Amanda carries her library in a suitcase so her books aren't ruined by her younger siblings, Hester and Lester. She defends Maniac (whom she always calls Jeffrey) from Mars Bar the bully, and eventually provides him with a home. *Mars Bar Thompson the worst kid in the East End and antagonist to Maniac. He is actually a Mountaineer, which means he knows how to party. -He resents Maniac's presence in the East End, which is exacerbated when Maniac beats him in a race. Mars Bar eventually rescues Russell McNab from the trolley truss, and offers Maniac a place for a while. As his nickname applies, he is known for eating Mars Bar chocolate bars. *John McNab is infuriated when he can’t strike out Maniac with his ball. After acting as a bully, he welcomes Maniac into his home when Maniac brings back John's younger brothers Piper and Russell after their attempt to run away to Mexico. He remains convinced that the black East Enders are planning a rebellion. *Piper and Russell McNab are younger brothers of John McNab who play hookey, steal, and constantly try to run away from home. In their house, they use toy machine guns to shoot the "rebels" from the East End. *Earl Grayson is the groundskeeper at the zoo and resident of the YMCA, though he was once a minor league baseball pitcher who struck out Willie Mays. He becomes friends with Maniac, who listens to his stories and teaches him to read. *Mrs. Beale is the kind and caring mother of Amanda, Hester, and Lester. She is very sweet and thoughtful to Maniac as well. *Hester and Lester are the brother and sister of Amanda Beale and the son and daughter of Mrs. Beale. They are very hyper and will mess anything that they can get their hands on. |
2827977 | /m/0858kd | The Lime Twig | John Hawkes | null | null | This highly elliptical novel, set in England after World War II, deals with a sedate, bored lower-class couple -- Michael and Margaret Banks -- who are lured into fronting a racehorse scheme. Michael Banks is befriended by William Hencher, a well-meaning but lost soul who fell into association with a ruthless gang during the war. After his mother's death, Hencher wants to repay the Bankses for their allowing him to rent a room in their home, where he lived with his mother twenty years prior. Knowing Michael likes horses, Hencher invites him to the heist of the racehorse Rock Castle -- which goes awry, leading to Hencher's death. The gang members then keep Michael under wraps. Realizing that Margaret is becoming suspicious of Michael's absence, they force Michael to call and tell her to meet him at a party. In order to ensure that Michael will front as the owner of the stolen stallion, they kidnap Margaret while distracting Michael with two women, both sexual predators. The heavy of the gang, Thick, beats Margaret mercilessly with a truncheon after she attempts to escape; then, Larry, the seemingly invincible kingpin of the gang who orchestrates the novel's events, slashes and rapes her. Meanwhile, in a brutally ironic contrast, Michael finds delirious pleasure in a femme fatale, Sybilline, the mistress of Larry -- and two other women, as well. Having been badly beaten in a street fight with a constable, Michael attempts to redeem himself from both criminal activity and infidelity by thwarting the race, which has been set up in order to allow Larry to retire to America in comfort. Plot, though, is decidedly subordinate in Hawkes' fiction to intense imagery and a nightmarish, hallucinatory atmosphere. Many details of the plot can only be inferred, and many narrative questions cannot easily be answered. The narrative parodies detective thrillers, particularly through the final presentation of two baffled detectives in bowler hats who, having discovered Hencher's corpse during a heavy rain, set out "separately on vacant streets to uncover the particulars of this crime." In some sense, these figures may be taken as representatives of the reader, who is left to make coherent sense out of the novel's fragments. Some readers have found the novel's events highly disturbing, but the ultimate meaning and value of the work are irreducible to incident; instead, they inhere in the vividly impressionistic style through which these sordid events are both presented and transfigured. |
2828565 | /m/0859lh | Nervous Conditions | Tsitsi Dangarembga | 1988 | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/01jym": "Bildungsroman"} | Tambu is the main character of the novel. She is a young bright girl that is eager to go to school. The novel opens up with the news that Tambu’s older brother, Nhamo, had just died. Tambu is not upset about this because Nhamo studied at a missionary school away from his homestead with his uncle Babamukuru and his family. The only thing Tambu desires is to attend school, but her family is very poor and does not have enough money to pay for her school fees. Tambu’s uncle, Babamukuru, and his family came to visit the homestead. Because of Babamakuru’s success, Babamukuru is worshipped whenever he comes to visit. During the visit, Babamukuru suggests that Tambu should take Nhamo's place and attend the missionary school by his house. Tambu is extremely excited to be going away to study at the missionary school. Upon arriving, she soon becomes close to her cousin Nyasha and completely focuses in her studies. During her stay with Babamukuru, Tambu is exposed to a different lifestyle. She often questions Nyasha’s behavior. On one occasion, Nyasha and Babamukuru get into a serious argument after a school dance. The argument soon develops into a fight, where Nyasha punches Babamukuru and Babamukuru strikes her back. Tambu is completely shocked by these events. After the fight, Nyasha becomes distant and focuses on her studies and exams. During term break, everyone returns to visit the family back in the homestead. Tambu does not want to go back as she is much more comfortable living with Babamukuru. Babamukuru's wife, Maiguru also does not look forward going back, because there she is expected to do all the cooking and cleaning for all the members of the extended family. Upon arriving, family drama arises everywhere. Babamukuru concludes that the reason his family has so many problems is because Tambu’s parents are not legally married. He decides that they must marry as soon as possible. Tambu is punished by Babamukuru because she disagrees with the idea of her parents marrying and does not attend the wedding. Soon after, Maiguru decides to leave Babamukuru after an argument over how she is being treated. However, she later returns to live with him. Towards the end of the term, there is an exam administered at Tambu’s school. This exam is to test the students and offer them an opportunity to study at a well known missionary school. Tambu excels on the exam and is offered a scholarship to attend this well known school. Babamukuru is hesitant to let her go, but he then realizes that this is a great opportunity and allows her to attend. Since Tambu is leaving, Nyasha gets upset with her because she does not want her to leave. In the new school Tambu is introduced to many cultural changes; however, she remains resilient to the changes. As always she is fully focused on her studies. When Tambu returns home to Babamukuru, she discovers that Nyasha has changed. Nyasha is extremely thin due to the fact that she is suffering from a serious eating disorder. Babamukuru finally decides to take Nyasha to see a psychiatrist, which allows her to slowly recover. Maiguru is also very disappointed that Chido has decided to have a white girlfriend. Because of the unfortunate events that surround Tambu’s family, Tambu fears that she may become affected by them just like Nyasha. Consequently, Tambu remains cautious of her daily situations and nervous of the conditions that surround her. |
2829031 | /m/085bmc | Night of the Big Heat | null | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction"} | The main characters are a former novelist named Richard Callum and his wife Frankie, who own a pub called the White Lion. Richard has hired a secretary to help out on his new book, Patricia Wells, who turns out to have an obsession for Callum. A visiting scientist named Harsen reveals, ultimately, that the reason for the extreme heat is that an alien race of spiders are "beaming in" scouts from their home planet via an improbable "radio wave" ray which generates intense amounts of heat as a side effect. The spiders themselves are carnivorous and eat humans, and give off bodily heat intense enough to burn alive any person who gets too close to them. Together with Harsen, Patricia, and science fiction author Vernon Stone, the Callums try to make it to the island's radio station to call for help so that they can thwart the invasion. |
2829546 | /m/085chc | The Warden | Anthony Trollope | 1855 | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The Warden concerns Mr Septimus Harding, the meek, elderly warden of Hiram's Hospital and precentor of Barchester Cathedral, in the fictional county of Barsetshire. Hiram's Hospital is an almshouse supported by a medieval charitable bequest to the Diocese of Barchester. The income maintains the almshouse itself, supports its twelve bedesmen, and, in addition, provides a comfortable abode and living for its warden. Mr Harding was appointed to this position through the patronage of his old friend the Bishop of Barchester, who is also the father of Archdeacon Grantly to whom Harding's older daughter, Susan, is married. The warden, who lives with his remaining child, an unmarried younger daughter Eleanor, performs his duties conscientiously. The story concerns the impact upon Harding and his circle when a zealous young reformer, John Bold, launches a campaign to expose the disparity in the apportionment of the charity's income between its object, the bedesmen, and its officer, Mr Harding. John Bold embarks on this campaign in a spirit of public duty despite his romantic involvement with Eleanor and previously cordial relations with Mr Harding. Bold starts a lawsuit and Mr Harding is advised by the indomitable Dr Grantly, his son-in-law, to stand his ground. Bold attempts to enlist the support of the press and engages the interest of The Jupiter (a newspaper representing The Times) whose editor, Tom Towers, pens editorials supporting reform of the charity, and presenting a portrait of Mr Harding as selfish and derelict in his conduct of his office. This image is taken up by commentators Dr Pessimist Anticant, and Mr Popular Sentiment, who have been seen as caricatures of Thomas Carlyle and Charles Dickens respectively. Ultimately, despite much browbeating by his son-in-law, the Archdeacon, and the legal opinion solicited from the barrister, Sir Abraham Haphazard, Mr Harding concludes that he cannot in good conscience continue to accept such generous remuneration and resigns the office. John Bold, who has appealed in vain to Tom Towers to redress the injury to Mr Harding, returns to Barchester where he marries Eleanor after halting legal proceedings. Those of the bedesmen of the hospital who have allowed their appetite for greater income to estrange them from the warden are reproved by their senior member, Bunce, who has been constantly loyal to Harding whose good care and understanding heart are now lost to them. At the end of the novel the bishop decides that the wardenship of Hiram's Hospital be left vacant, and none of the bedesmen are offered the extra money despite vacancy of the post. Mr Harding, on the other hand, becomes Rector of St. Cuthbert's, a small parish near the Cathedral Close, drawing a much lesser income than before. |
2830260 | /m/02wv9gs | Across the Nightingale Floor | Gillian Rubinstein | 2002 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | Across the Nightingale Floor is set in a fictional feudal Japan, and follows the story of a sixteen-year-old boy named Tomasu and fifteen year old girl named Kaede. Tomasu, a member of The Hidden by birth, returns from exploring the mountains to find members of his family slaughtered. Trying to escape he unhorses Iida Sadamu, leader of the Tohan, who led the slaughter of The Hidden. Chased by Iida's men, Tomasu is rescued by Lord Shigeru of the Otori. Shigeru takes Tomasu with him to protect, and later adopt him. However he deems his name unsuitable because of its Hidden roots and renames him Takeo. On the road Takeo loses his voice temporarily and his hearing becomes superhuman. On the journey to Shigeru's home, the two stop at an inn where they meet Maruyama Naomi, a powerful female ruler from the Seishuu. Lady Maruyama is found that she was against the persecution of the Hidden and urged Takeo to tell her about the slaughter. At night, when Takeo was in his room, he overhears Lady Maruyama and Shigeru expressing their love for one another. Eventually, the pair reach Lord Shigeru's home in Hagi, where Takeo is received with astonishment by an old maid named Chiyo and Shigeru's ex-instructor, Ichiro. Takeo is slowly accepted by the household and is later is adopted Shigeru's son, under the condition that Shigeru gets married to Shirakawa Kaede, the most beautiful maiden in the Three Countries. However, Takeo was under the threat of Shigeru's uncles' sons, who tried to murder him during practice everyday. Later, Takeo meets Muto Kenji (also known as the Fox), the master of the Muto clan, who reveals to him that Takeo's father was the most skilled assassin of the Kikuta, the greatest family of the Tribe. Kenji, after informing Takeo, starts to train him in the arts of the Tribe. Around autumn of that year, Takeo sneaks out of the house one day and explores Hagi, where he meets a merchant who he'd saved when he was one of the Hidden. The merchant, recognising him, called out to him by his real name. Takeo denied that that was his name and fled. When the time came, Shigeru and Takeo and others started preparing their trip to Tsuwano where they would meet Shigeru's future wife, Shirakawa Kaede. At Tsuwano they meet Kaede (who had been held hostage by the Noguchi since she was seven and forced to sleep in the maid's rooms. She was constantly harassed by the guards who wanted to have her. Not long before she reaches Tsuwano, a guard tried to rape her, only to be stabbed with a knife). She is under the protection of her kinswoman Lady Maruyama (with whom Shigeru has had a secret relationship for almost 10 years), and is accompanied by Kenji's niece, Shizuka, who is half Muto and half Kikuta. But it is Takeo and Kaede who immediately find a connection between them. They stop at the shrine at Terayama, at the time of the Festival of the Dead, to visit Shigeru's brother's grave, and for Shigeru to discuss war plans with the Abbott. As an army headed by Lord Arai musters from the west, they arrive at Inuyama in the 9th month. Shigeru plans for Takeo to assassinate Iida that night, but the Tribe, not wanting to risk Takeo (and appreciating the stability that Iida brings), abducts him so that his training can be finished. Thus the treachery plays itself out: Shigeru is crucified on the castle wall, and Lady Maruyama and her daughter drown whilst attempting to escape. Takeo makes a deal with the Tribe that allows him to bring Shigeru's body down in return for joining them. Takeo, together with Kenji and Yuki sneak into the castle at night and bring Shigeru down from the wall. Shigeru, dying from his wounds, asks Takeo to bury him at Terayama. During the invasion of the castle at Inuyama, Takeo discovers Kaede with the corpse of Iida Sadamu, whom she killed when he attempted to rape her. After carrying out Shigeru's wishes, Takeo honours his promise to the Tribe and departs with them, leaving Kaede unconscious from his Kikuta Stare and in the care of Muto Shizuka. |
2830266 | /m/02wv9h4 | Grass for His Pillow | Gillian Rubinstein | 2003 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | Kaede slowly recovers from the Kikuta sleep given to her by Takeo, with dreams of the White Goddess: Be patient. He will come for you. Afterwards she travels towards home, accompanied by Shizuka. Arai is furious that Takeo has gone off with the Tribe, and realizes that he had underestimated them. He sends his men to search for him, and to assassinate Shizuka, his ex-lover whom he now fears because of her association with the Tribe. However, the attempt fails. Kaede is pregnant with Takeo's child, but Shizuka creates the notion of a secret marriage with Shigeru before his death to explain the coming child. Meanwhile Takeo is kept hidden inside a Tribe house in Yamagata. Kikuta Akio, one of his abductors, is charged with teaching him, despite their mutual hatred. Under the disguise of traveling acrobats, they head north to Matsue. Yuki, Kenji's daughter, enters a relationship with Takeo as directed to by the Tribe, though she has genuine affection for him. One day she leaves suddenly, pregnant with his child, whom the tribe hope will inherit Takeo's extraordinary abilities. Kaede returns to her childhood home to find the estate in disrepair, her mother dead, and her father in despair after losing a battle to Arai and not having the courage to take his own life. She determines, despite her gender, to take over Shirakawa. She attracts the interest of an Imperial noble who lives nearby, Lord Fujiwara, who assists her in return for hearing her secrets. Makoto, a monk from Terayama, visits and accidentally reveals that there was no marriage between Kaede and Shigeru. In disgrace, her father decides their whole family must take their lives, and attacks Kaede. Shizuka and Kondo (a retainer, and member of the tribe) rescue her by killing him. Kaede goes into labour, miscarries her child, and becomes gravely ill. The Tribe become frustrated with Takeo's disobedience, and send him on a mission as a last chance. They believe Shigeru compiled records on the Tribe, so Takeo goes to his old house with Akio to retrieve them—Takeo being the only one who could get across the nightingale floor without being detected. Takeo discovers the records are at Terayama, but decides to escape from the Tribe. He shakes off Akio, and makes his way south, with winter closing in. On the way he is taken to a blind woman who delivers the prophecy that would haunt him: "Your lands will stretch from sea to sea...Five battles will buy you peace, four to win and one to lose. Many must die, but you yourself are safe from death, except at the hands of your own son." He reaches Terayama the last day before the pass is closed by snow. Once Spring thaws the snow, Kaede excuses herself from Fujiwara, stating her intention to visit Arai, her overlord, to discuss her future. He reluctantly agrees, and she travels via Terayama, as she has heard that Takeo is there. They meet, and as Takeo is under a death sentence from the Tribe, Kaede sends Shizuka and Kondo away. Against advice, Takeo and Kaede marry at Terayama. |
2830275 | /m/02wv9hj | Brilliance of the Moon | Gillian Rubinstein | 2004 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | Soon after Kaede and Takeo's marriage, messengers arrive at Terayama from his Uncles with a threat, and the head of Ichiro, his old teacher. The Otori army lies in wait to ambush him, so Takeo leads them over the mountains, and across the river near Kibi, with the assistance of a bridge made by Jo-an and some outcasts. After a minor skirmish with some bandits, they lead the army to Maruyama, the domain that Lady Maruyama left to Kaede. Lady Maruyama's son-in-law, Iida Nariaki, a cousin to Iida Sadamu, has marched in to Maruyama just ahead of them, but Iida's army gets caught between the Maruyama and Takeo's armies, and are defeated. Meanwhile Shizuka and Kondo Kiichi arrive at the hidden Muto village, and are reunited with her uncle, Kenji, and her two sons. She fears the consequences that will come from Kaede's rash marriage. From Kenji she learns of the Kikuta's belief in the existence of records on the tribe compiled by Shigeru before his death. They decide to send Kondo to Arai, to gauge his reaction to Kaede's marriage, and his feeling towards his sons by Shizuka. Kenji also tells her how his daughter Yuki was recently married to Akio, but was forced to take her life after her son by Takeo was born. The child will remain with the Kikuta, who have their own plans concerning the boy and Takeo's futures. In Maruyama, they start restoring the land and estates. Takeo is threatened by the local Tribe members, so using Shigeru's records, he has them rounded up and the adults executed. His mind turns to Hagi, and he concocts a plan to invade it by sea. He travels to Oshima island to meet his childhood friend Terada Fumio, whose family have now become pirates, to seek an alliance. Kaede wants to accompany him, but he tells her to stay. On the way he meets Ryoma, an illegitimate son of his Uncle, Masahiro. He makes an agreement with Fumio's father, but his return is delayed by typhoons, and he almost drowns in a storm. Despite Sugita's objections, Kaede rides to Shirakawa with Hiroshi, and finds that Shoji, the Shirakawa retainer, had given up her sisters to Fujiwara, and returned her hostage to his family. Shocked, she hides the records on the Tribe at the nearby Shrine, and rides to demand her sisters return. Fujiwara abducts her, and only Hiroshi escapes to later bring the news to Maruyama. Fujiwara declares her marriage to Takeo to be illegal, and he forces her to marry him. Their marriage is celibate: he is not interested in her as a woman, but as a treasure, to be locked away. Takeo returns and hears the news of Kaede's abduction. His army marches towards Shirakawa, but discovers not only Fujiwara's army, but Arai's. They retreat to the coast as Maruyama surrenders to Arai's men, hoping for Fumio to come by boat, but the weather delays him. Takeo submits to Arai, but rather than killing him, they enter into an alliance against the Otori lords (Shigeru's uncles), but to dispel rumors about him being one of the hidden, Takeo is forced to kill the outcast Jo-an. Kenji, turned against the Kikuta because of the murder of his daughter, comes to Takeo and brings a truce, and an alliance on behalf of the Tribe, save the Kikuta. Before they leave, Fumio demonstrates to Takeo the use of a firearm, an invention obtained from the white barbarians. Arai's army marches north, and Takeo sails around the coast to Hagi. With Kenji and Taku, Arai and Shizuka's younger son, they sneak into the castle, and kill the lords and their families. When Arai's army arrives, he betrays Takeo. Fumio shoots Arai dead with the firearm, and at that moment a huge earthquake rocks the entire three countries. It destroys Arai's army, and in Shirakawa it destroys Fujiwara and his household in an example of Deus ex machina. The Kikuta master, Kotaro, sneaks into Takeo's house to assassinate him, as he did to his father years before. With Kenji and Taku's help, they defeat him, but Takeo loses 2 fingers, and goes into a delirium from the poisoned blade that cut him. After he recovers, and despite the onset of winter, he rushes south to find what happened to Kaede. They come to the shrine to find Kaede, Shizuka, and her new husband Dr Ishida alive, with the tribal records safe. But Kaede's hair is shorn, terrible burns marring her neck. As it starts to snow, Takeo prays the spring would bring healing to his land. |
2831217 | /m/085h8h | Dragoncharm | Graham Edwards | 1995-02 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The story begins with the destruction of the dragon settlement, South Point, home to Fortune, a young Natural dragon. Fleeing, he joins with the Charmed dragon Cumber on a desperate quest to reach the fabled citadel of the Charmed at Covamere. As they journey, the two dragons witness the growing conflict between the Charmed and the Naturals, which threatens to culminate in all-out war between the two species. They encounter signs everywhere that magic is leaving the world: trolls lie dying beneath the landscape, giants build enigmatic stone circles and faeries are evolving into proto-humans. The two dragon armies come together. Leading the Naturals is an insane dragon named Shatter, while the Charmed commander is a military monster called Wraith. Wraith's ambition is to breach the Maze of Covamere, at the very centre of which lies the ultimate power of the Seed of Charm. Fortune and Cumber, along with a growing band of companions from both races (including Gossamer, Brace, Scoff, Velvet, and others), thread their way through the conflict, seeking a way to unite both dragon species to face the greater threat that faces them all: the world is turning its back on magic and all dragons are facing extinction. When Fortune finally faces Wraith inside the Maze of Covamere, both dragons learn a dark secret from their shared past. When the ancient, immortal basilisk Ocher enters the fray, even Fortune is tempted by the power offered by the Seed of Charm. Dragoncharm ends in the aftermath of the turning of the world, the very moment when magic departs, leaving in its wake the natural world we humans know today. The story, following the lives of the surviving dragons, is picked up in Dragonstorm. |
2832333 | /m/085kz9 | Deathstalker | Simon Green | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | - --> <!- |
2833878 | /m/085n_2 | Junk | Melvin Burgess | 11/14/1996 | {"/m/026llv5": "Literary realism", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature"} | The novel is told in the first person from various points of view; much of the narration is by Gemma and Tar, and takes place over the course of a few years in their lives. At the beginning of the story, Gemma is spending time with Tar, a gentle teenager who is planning to run away from home after suffering abuse at the hands of his father. Gemma is a rebellious 14 year old and, despite having loving parents, decides to leave home and join Tar in Bristol. In Bristol, Tar is introduced to Richard through Skolly, the tobacconist that took pity on Tar. Richard is a nervous, vegetarian anarchist, and he and his friends Vonny, a motherly character, and Vonny's boyfriend Jerry break into an abandoned house to squat there and invite Tar to stay with them. Tar is eager for them to meet Gemma as she arrives in Bristol; they are less pleased because they think Gemma is young and impulsive and would be better off at home with her parents. Gemma and Tar experiment smoking marijuana while they are living in the abandoned house. Tar phones his mother to let her know he's safe. However she makes him feel guilty for leaving her alone with his father, upsetting Tar greatly. Richard holds a party in the abandoned house and Tar and Gemma meet Lily, who enchants Gemma with her confidence and carefree attitude. Gemma and Tar leave to stay the night with Lily and her boyfriend Rob. While they are there, Lily and Rob encourage Gemma and Tar to smoke heroin with them, and they do, believing that only smoking it won't get them addicted. Tar and Gemma live with Lily and Rob for a long time, their heroin smoking habit turning into long-term addiction. They are joined by Sally, another heroin addict. Lily becomes pregnant and this inspires them into attempting to quit by going cold turkey, however they fail after only a day. Lily continues to inject heroin while pregnant. Lily, Gemma and Sally work as prostitutes in a massage parlour to fund their addiction. After getting arrested, Tar is sent to a rehabilitation centre. Once out, he declares himself clean, but after going back to the flat with Gemma, Lily and Rob, he takes heroin again. The catalyst comes after Tar and Gemma are found with heroin again; Tar takes the blame and this time is sent to prison. Gemma, now pregnant with Tar's baby, allows Vonny to get in touch with her mother, who asks Gemma to come home and have the baby with the help of her parents. She agrees, and after 3 and a half years she is back at home. Her story ends with her clean and heroin-free, bringing up the baby without Tar because she doesn't trust him to stay off the drugs. Tar, once out of prison, slowly weans himself off methadone and settles down with a girlfriend, visiting his and Gemma's daughter every few months. |
2833953 | /m/085p6k | Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall | Charles Major | 1902 | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | The story is narrated by Sir George Vernon's 35-year-old cousin, Malcolm François de Lorraine Vernon. Raised in France, he became enamored of Mary, Queen of Scots, when she was a youth there, and followed her to Scotland. Historically speaking, Mary was captured, imprisoned, and forced to abdicate the Scottish throne in July 1567, but in the novel, Malcolm receives word of Mary's capture in the Fall. He immediately flees to England, and heads to Haddon Hall to take refuge with Sir George. On the way, he meets and becomes friends with John Manners, son of Sir George's hated enemy Thomas Manners (Lord Rutland). Years earlier, Sir George had suggested that Malcolm marry George's daughter Dorothy as a way to keep the Vernon properties held by Vernons. Dorothy at the time had been an awkward adolescent; she now is a mature, strong-willed, red-headed beauty. On his way to Haddon Hall, Malcolm (still in the company of John Manners) encounters Dorothy, her aunt, and her friend Madge, all of whom live at Haddon Hall. Catching glimpses of each other, John Manners and Dorothy instantly begin to be attracted to each other. Malcolm, by contrast, sees his cousin as too beautiful and strong-willed to make a good wife. As the book progresses, Dorothy and John develop a secret romance, aided by Malcolm and hidden from her father, who first presses her to marry Malcolm, and then the son of the Earl of Derby. Various dramatic elements include a chapter in which Dorothy is imprisoned in her bedroom, but manages to disguise herself as Malcolm to escape and meet John; John fails to recognize her, thinking her a male stranger, and makes some embarrassing remarks about his previous love affairs, and then when he realizes she is a woman, fails to recognize her as Dorothy, but attempts to kiss her, causing her to reveal herself. Later, John disguises himself and takes a job as a household servant at Haddon Hall to be able to spend time with Dorothy; she fails to recognize him for days until he reveals himself. This ruse ends when Dorothy quarrels with her father, who attempts to strike her. John jumps in the way and is struck unconscious, and a distraught Dorothy reveals that this is the lover her father suspected her of having. Her father orders him imprisoned in the dungeon, to be hanged the next day if the blow to his head does not kill him, but Malcom, aided by Dorothy's Aunt (also named Dorothy), arrange for his escape. Subsequently, Queen Mary escapes from Scotland and takes secret refuge at Lord Rutland's estate. Queen Elizabeth arrives to visit Haddon Hall. Sir George brings the Stanlys (the Earl of Derby and his oafish son) to ratify the marriage contract before the Queen, but Dorothy publicly humiliates the Stanlys, ruining the arrangements and amusing the Queen. Meanwhile, her father has already begun to nurse a hope she might marry the Queen's favorite, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester. Unable to see John for an extended period of time, and knowing that the seductive Queen Mary is staying at his home, Dorothy becomes crazed with jealousy and tells Queen Elizabeth of Queen Mary's location. Elizabeth rouses a troop of soldiers to arrest Mary. Remorse-stricken, Dorothy attempts to arrive at Lord Rutland's before the troops, but fails, and John, his father, and Queen Mary are all arrested, and Dorothy's father finds out John's identity. Malcolm shares a carriage with Queen Mary and a sleeping, exhausted, Dorothy for the return to Haddon Hall, and during the trip Mary manages to regain his allegiance and romantic interest (despite his being engaged to Madge) and he promises to help her escape to France. Mary also attempts to gain the allegiance of the Earl of Leicester, but he betrays her to Elizabeth, resulting in Malcolm's arrest. Queen Elizabeth tells Dorothy she will free John and Lord Rutland if Dorothy can prove that they planned only to get Mary out of Scotland, and had no part in any conspiracy to place Mary on the throne of England. By speaking with him in the dungeon, which is equipped with a speaking tube for eavesdropping, Dorothy exonerates John and his father, and they are set free. Elizabeth decides Malcolm may go free as well, provided he leaves England and returns to France. Sir George, furious at Malcolm's part in aiding Dorothy and John's romance, tells him to leave Haddon Hall, so Malcolm gathers his belongings and apologizes to Madge and prepares to head to Lord Rutland's estate, where he will await the passport allowing him to leave England. As he leaves, Madge joins him, forgiving him, and they plan that she will accompany him to France as his wife. In the final chapter of the novel, during a party in Queen Elizabeth's honor, Dorothy tricks her father into letting her steal away for a few crucial minutes, supposedly to court the Earl of Leicester's affections. Instead, she is met by John, who literally carries her off despite her last-minute uncertainty, and they elope to his father's hall where they bid farewell to Malcolm and Madge, who move to France and don't see them again (as of the close of the novel, forty years later). |
2834123 | /m/085pq8 | Millennium People | J. G. Ballard | null | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | When a bomb explodes on a baggage carousel at Heathrow Airport, killing his ex-wife, David Markham tries to unravel the mystery surrounding her seemingly pointless death. But with unresolved questions about himself, his job, and his loving but adulterous wife, he soon finds himself immersed in the deeper waters of middle class revolution. When a protest at a cat show turns ugly and he is beaten up by angry cat lovers, then arrested and tried, Markham enlists in the cause of the rebellious Chelseans - imagining he will uncover the persons and causes responsible for his ex's murder. Slowly, he succumbs to the call of subversion and gradually finds himself a terrorist functionary. Along the way we meet an assortment of wonderfully ballardian characters: Markham's wife, who continues to use her arm canes though her leg injuries from an accident with a tram have completely healed. A sociopathic, college film studies lecturer/terrorist cell leader who takes Markham for a lover; a troubled priest and his Chinese girlfriend; a former MI5 bombmaker turned revolutionary. And a kindly pediatrican cum terrorist mastermind. Ultimately, Markham learns the reasons behind his former wife's murder have a very different logic than he had imagined. |
2834215 | /m/085pxz | The Dream Master | Roger Zelazny | 1966 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction"} | The Dream Master is set in a future where the forces of overpopulation and technology have created a world where humanity suffocates psychologically beneath its own mass while abiding in relative physical comfort. This is a world ripe for psychotherapeutic innovations, such as the "neuroparticipant therapy" in which the protagonist, Charles Render, specializes. In neuroparticipation, the patient is hooked into a gigantic simulation controlled directly by the analyst's mind; the analyst then works with the patient to construct dreams—nightmares, wish-fulfillment, etc.--that afford insight into the underlying neuroses of the patient, and in some cases the possibility of direct intervention. (For example, a man submerging himself in a fantasy world sees it utterly destroyed at Render's hands, and is thus "cured" of his obsession with it.) Render, the leader in his field, takes on a patient with an unusual problem. Eileen Shallot aspires to become a neuroparticipant therapist herself, but is somewhat hampered by congenital blindness. Not having experienced visual sensation in the same way as her patients, she would be unable to convincingly construct visual dreams for them; indeed, in a case of eye-envy, her own neurotic desire to see through the eyes of her patients might prevent her from treating them effectively. However, she explains to Render, if a practicing neuroparticipant therapist is willing to work with her, he can expose her to the full range of visual stimuli in a controlled environment, free of her own attachments to the issue, and enable her to pursue her career. Despite his better sense and the advice of colleagues, Render agrees to go along with the treatment. But as they progress, Eileen's hunger for visual stimulation continues to grow, and she begins to assert her will against Render's, subsuming him into her own dreams. |
2836377 | /m/085vd7 | Spiral | Koji Suzuki | 1995 | {"/m/03npn": "Horror"} | The events in the story occur a day after the events of the first book. It introduces us to Ando Mitsuo who is assigned to do the autopsy of Ryuji. He and his colleague, Miyashita, find a benign tumor in Ryuji's throat which is believed to be his cause of death. They are puzzled because the tumor they found appeared much like a tumor with smallpox, which was eradicated 30 years prior to the story. Ando, with his colleague, Miyashita, find out that an organism called "Ring Virus" caused this tumor. The virus is transferred to the body via the tape and begins to grow a tumor in the viewer's throat. When the charm is not performed, the tumor grows to block the airways and kills the person. To stop this, the tape must be copied and shown to another person. They also found a cryptic message inside his stomach with the word RING and a series of other cryptic messages. This discovery further perplexes Ando. In search for the message's meaning he came to meet Ryuji's assistant and lover, Mai Takano. Mai seems to know something about the videotape and tells Ando the curse, but does not know how Ryuji died. As a scientist, Ando laughed at Mai's explanation. He also went to talk to Kazuyuki, but found that he and his family were involved in a car accident. It is discovered that Kazuyuki's wife and child were dead before the crash. Kazuyuki is in critical condition and unable to talk, and at the accident's site lies a crushed videotape. When Mai was suddenly lost which further motivates Ando to investigate until he stumbles upon Kazuyuki's files with the title THE RING. He is uncertain because it contains supernatural events and contradicts scientific explanations. After reading the report, Ando and Miyashita visited the well where Sadako died. They discovered that the virus has mutated and now uses the report as a medium. Ando also found out that Kazuyuki's older brother, Junichiro Asakawa is planning to publish his brother's report as his own horror novel. Days after Mai's disappearance, he met a beautiful woman named Masako who introduced herself as Mai's older sister. He fell in love with her. They made love one night. The day after that he discovers Masako and Sadako are one and the same. Later he receives a parchment from Sadako/Masako explaining how Mai Takano gave birth to her as well as warning Ando not to interfere with the publication of Kazuyuki's files, which now contain the deadly virus. In exchange for his co-operation, Sadako offered to resurrect Ando's son, whose death through drowning two years previously cast a shadow over his life. Ando realized that Ryuji was the master-mind behind the resurrection of Sadako as he lured Mai Takano into watching the video tape, as well as giving out clues to Ando, hoping he would discover the Ring Report and therefore distribute the virus. Ryuji is then brought back to life by Sadako. The epilogue shows Ando playing with his son on the beach, planning to reintroduce him to his wife. Unlike the first book where the focus was mainly on the supernatural and revealing more about the past of the origins of the virus, here we see the virus less as a supernatural event and more as a scientifically explainable one. |
2837809 | /m/085y6g | Life Against Death: The Psychoanalytic Meaning of History | null | 1959 | {"/m/05qfh": "Psychology", "/m/0dh4n": "Literary theory"} | Brown offers what Robinson sees as a unique analysis of the problems associated with sexuality and human mortality, and equally distinctive solutions to them. Brown expounded "the underlying ambivalence of Freud's late instinctual dualism", in which "Eros and Death were seen as antagonistic psychological principles which constantly threatened to collapse into one another." Unlike Marcuse, however, who emphasized the antithetical nature of the two instincts, Brown stressed their underlying unity, since this approach suggested a way of escaping Freud's conclusion that aggression was inevitable. Brown argued that Freud did not consider aggression a basic psychological fact, but rather a secondary manifestation of a more fundamental instinctual force, the death instinct: it was "the external expression of an impulse originally directed against the self". In Brown's interpretation of Freud, aggression becomes a problem "because Eros could carry out its project of creating life only when the death instinct was frustrated in its original enterprise. In order that men might live (and love), they were inevitably forced to destroy, to direct the energies of the death instinct away from themselves onto their fellowmen." Freud's analysis of the dynamics of Life and Death was mistaken, according to Brown, since Freud's discovery of the ultimate identity of the two instincts implied that there is no necessary antagonism between Eros and Thanatos: they exist in harmony at a deeper level of psychic life and aggression was therefore not inevitable. Brown believed that the death instinct need not be externalized in the form of aggression if "men could recapture the original undifferentiated harmony of Life and Death." Brown therefore called for an end to the "repression of death" that perpetuated aggression. People had to learn "how to die" or, more concretely, to learn "how to grow old." Robinson calls Brown's argument "daring", and stresses that it is a very different solution to the problem of aggression than that proposed by Marcuse, since it was a psychological solution that involved adopting a new attitude toward death and did not involve political or economic revolution. Robinson compares Brown and Marcuse's treatment of Reich: both criticize him for "misrepresenting the problem of repression as one of genital sexuality" and advocated polymorphous perversity instead, but Brown again provided an exclusively psychological argument. Brown concluded that if undifferentiated sexuality is the ultimate measure of human happiness, then any form of sexual organization is already repressive. While Marcuse had in general "complained only of the tyranny of genital sexuality" and suggested that "the pregenital libidinal had to be reactivated in a nonrepressive civilization", Brown maintained that the pregenital organizations were "just as tyrannical as adult sexuality" and that the earlier organization of libidinal energy into oral, anal, phallic syndromes was "as foreign to the undifferentiated eroticism of early infancy" as genital sexuality. Brown thus did not accept Marcuse's "characterization of the sexual deviant as a prophet of polymorphous perversity". In a truly nonrepressive civilization, "sexuality would be completely undifferentiated" and even the distinction between the sexes would become insignificant. Brown did not accept Freud's theory of an innate biological dynamic leading from undifferentiated sexuality to adult genitality, and suggested instead that the explanation of how mankind abandoned the "primeval happiness" of polymorphous perversity was to be found through an analysis of social history. Robinson comments that Brown in fact offered no such analysis, and instead produced an "exclusively ontogentic explanation", one he finds inconsistent with "the prophetic intentions" of Brown's larger argument. Brown explained repressive differentiation in terms of Freud's revised theory of anxiety, according to which anxiety produces repression rather than the reverse. Brown, like Róheim, saw the basic form of anxiety as separation anxiety, and also identified separation with death, a breakdown of the union of mother and child that he saw as "the essence of life." Robinson finds the identification of life with union and death with separation neither easy to understand nor essential to Brown's argument. Brown's crucial point according to Robinson is that anxiety can be identified with separation, and that separation causes anxiety because the union between mother and child had been so long and lovingly indulged. Children respond to the anxiety caused by separation through various projects to reestablish the original unity, projects Brown identified as "flights from death", but which Robinson believes could have been described more simply as flights from separation. These projects involve various organizations of the libido that Brown characterizes as repressive and which required abandoning the polymorphous perversity of earliest infancy. Examples are the oral project, in which children try to overcome separation through "the hypercathexis of the act of sucking", reuniting themselves with their mothers through the mouth (and in fantasy, ingesting them entirely), the anal project, in which children engage in "symbolic manipulation of feces as a magic instrument for restoring communion with the mother", and the phallic project, which is the attempt to reunite with the mother through the penis, identified with the entire body. These projects all involve reorganization of the libidinal economy, transferring sexual energy from the entire body to particular organs, and in all of them repression is self-imposed. The differentiation of sexuality occurs not because of an external force such as social or economic exigency, but because of "self-repression." |
2838055 | /m/085ytd | This Happy Breed | Noël Coward | null | null | ;Scene 1 – June 1919 The Gibbons family has just moved into 17 Sycamore Road in Clapham in South London. Ethel expresses her relief that her husband Frank has survived army service in World War I and her pleasure at moving into their new home. Their new next-door neighbour, Bob Mitchell, introduces himself. He turns out to be an old army colleague of Frank's, and the two reminisce. ;Scene 2 – December 1925 After Christmas dinner, the grown-ups, Frank and Ethel, Ethel's mother Mrs Flint and Frank's sister Sylvia, have retired to another room to leave the young people alone. These are Frank and Ethel's children, Vi, "a pleasant nondescript-looking girl of twenty", Queenie, "a year younger... prettier and a trifle flashy", Reg, aged eighteen, "a nice-looking intelligent boy", Reg's friend Sam and Queenie's friend Phyllis. Sam indulges in a spot of socialist preaching against capitalism and injustice. The young women fail to accord him the respect he thinks he deserves, and he and Reg leave. Bob Mitchell's son Billy visits the house. He is left alone with Queenie, and there is a short love scene between them. Queenie baffles him by saying that she so hates suburban life that she would not make him a good wife. She rushes out. Frank enters and encourages Billy. After Billy leaves, Ethel and Frank chat together, partly to avoid Sylvia's singing in the room next door and partly for the pleasure of each other's company. ;Scene 3 – May 1926 It is the time of the General Strike of 1926. The women of the household bicker. Frank and Bob are strike-breaking as volunteer driver and conductor of a London bus. Reg, encouraged by Sam, is backing the strikers and has not been seen for some days. Frank and Bob enter, singing "Rule, Britannia!" at the top of their voices, having had a few drinks to celebrate their successful strike-breaking. Sam and Reg enter, the latter slightly injured from a fracas connected with the strike. Vi confronts Sam for leading Reg astray and throws him out. Left alone together, Frank and Reg exchange views, Frank's being traditionalist and Reg's idealistic. They bid each other good night on good terms. ;Scene 1 – October 1931 On Reg's wedding day, Frank gives him paternal advice. The women of the household bicker. Queenie again complains of the tedium of suburban life. The family all leave for Reg and Phyl's wedding ceremony. ;Scene 2 – November 1931, midnight Queenie tip-toes downstairs in street clothes, carrying a suitcase. She puts a letter on the mantelpiece and leaves. Frank and Bob arrive after a convivial evening at a regimental dinner and amiably discuss the world in general. Ethel, woken by their noise, tells them off. Bob leaves. Frank and Ethel see Queenie's letter and open it. She has been having an affair with a married man and has run off with him. Ethel disowns Queenie as a member of the family. Frank is shocked at Ethel's intransigence. They retire to bed unhappily. ;Scene 3 – May 1932 The older members of the family discuss a letter they have received from Queenie in France. They are interrupted by the news that Reg and his wife have been killed in a road accident. ;Scene 1 – December 1936 The family have been listening to ex-king Edward VIII's abdication broadcast. Mrs Flint is no longer alive, Vi and Sam, now married, have become comfortably middle-aged. Billy enters with the news that he has run into Queenie in Menton. Her lover had left her and returned to his wife, leaving Queenie stranded. After some prevarication Billy says that Queenie is with him and indeed is now his wife. Queenie enters, and there is an awkward but loving reconciliation between her and Ethel. ;Scene 2 – September 1938 It is the time of Neville Chamberlain's return from Munich and the false hopes of averting war. Sylvia is as delighted by the Munich agreement as Frank is bitterly opposed to it. Bob comes in to say goodbye. He is moving to the country. He and Frank reminisce and look forward to the future anxiously. ;Scene 3 – June 1939 Frank and Ethel are about to move to the country. The house is now almost empty of furniture as they prepare to leave. Frank is left alone with his youngest grandchild, also called Frank. He talks to the baby philosophically, in a long monologue about what it means to be British. Ethel calls him to supper. |
2838088 | /m/085yx9 | Cast of Shadows | Kevin Guilfoile | 3/1/2005 | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The book's plot is set in the near future at a time when cloning has been legalised in the United States of America. It is based around a Chicago-based cloning doctor, Davis Moore, whose daughter is brutally raped and killed. The doctor uses the DNA of the murderer to clone him. The resulting clone is a boy called Justin Finn, which Moore follows throughout his life, hoping that the boy will offer him a glimpse into the psyche of the killer and perhaps enable him to find the identity of his daughter's murderer. |
2838649 | /m/085_9l | Beard's Roman Women | Anthony Burgess | 1976 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | Ronald Beard jets off to Hollywood and meets Paola Lucrezia Belli, an Italian photographer and descendant of the Roman dialect poet Giuseppe Gioacchino Belli. Various comic adventures ensue as the narrative switches to the Eternal City. The book is an interesting companion piece to Burgess's next novel, Abba Abba (1977): the Roman setting (some 150 years apart), references to the poet Belli, and the focus on the Romantic poets. In Abba Abba John Keats is the main character; here it's Byron and Shelley as the subject of a screenplay by the main character. |
2839535 | /m/0861dl | Asterix and Son | null | null | null | A baby boy inexplicably appears at the porch of Asterix's house one morning. While taking care of him - a horrifying task for two single men - Asterix and Obelix along with Dogmatix, set out to discover who left the baby there and who are its parents, following a lead left with the baby's wrappings. Curiously, they find that the Romans seem to be very inquisitive about the child, too - and all in the interests of Marcus Junius Brutus, Caesar's adopted son. Asterix finds out that some people suspect the baby is his illegitimate child, causing shock for him. As the Romans are using deceptive methods to try getting the baby, it is decided the baby needs protection from the Romans. While in the village, the baby twice drinks a great deal of magic potion (the second time, he falls in a nearly-empty cauldron, prompting Obelix to remark that he 'really take[s] to [the baby]), after which he becomes a "terrible little monster" to every door in the neighborhood and every spy sent to capture him, including a legionnary disguised as a peddlar selling rattles, and a centurion disguised as a nursemaid, driving both up the centurion's tent pole. Finally, Brutus, who is keeping his presence secret from Caesar, takes matters into his own hands, attacking the village with his own legions and burning it to the ground, while he himself goes after the baby. He demands the baby from the Women, who think he still has superhuman strength, but it turns out the potion has worn off, and Brutus manages to kidnap him temporarily - with the help of the ever-present pirates -, but soon Asterix and Obelix catch up with him and give him a taste of why they are considered the terror of the Romans, while the Pirates leap overboard. Just as the Gauls try to make Brutus reveal the truth, the unexpected arrivals by Caesar, and then Cleopatra resolve the child's mystery; he is none other than Ptolemy XV Caesarion (born 23 June 47 BC), the son of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra VII of Egypt. Brutus had been attempting to kill the baby while Caesar was away on campaign so that he could guarantee his accession to the throne, so Cleopatra had the boy sent to the village to protect him on the grounds that the village was the one place she could guarantee the child's safety from Brutus's soldiers. Brutus is sent away by Caesar. The story ends with the banquet on Cleopatra's royal barge where even Caesar joins in, having promised to rebuild the village in thanks for the Gauls' efforts to protect his son. |
2839541 | /m/0861fp | Asterix in Belgium | null | null | null | After fighting the Belgians in the northern part of Gaul, Caesar states that they are the bravest enemies he's ever faced (historically this statement really was made by Caesar). His soldiers agree with him, to the point when they consider being posted to the camps outside Asterix' village as a period of leave. Chief Vitalstatistix is aghast at the idea that his village, which has been the terror of the Romans for years, is now looked upon as relatively harmless. He is further outraged when he hears of Caesar's remarks. He claims that his villagers are in fact the bravest men of Gaul, and travels to Belgium to prove his point. A reluctant Asterix and Obelix go with him after Getafix tells them not doing so could make the story come to a sticky end. After crossing the border, they encounter a village of Belgians who rely on brute strength (and a regular diet of meat and beer) to successfully scare off Caesar's troops. These Belgians are led by two chiefs, Beefix and Brawnix (though Brawnix comes across mainly as a second-in-command). To prove that the Gauls are the bravest, Vitalstatistix proposes a competition. The contest consists of raiding and destroying Roman camps on either side of the village. The Belgians and Gauls destroy the camps, telling the soldiers who they are. By the end they have destroyed an equal number of camps, and word is sent to Rome. Meanwhile the Pirate's ship is wrecked when Obelix throws a boulder catapulted at him too high, causing the Captain to complain, saying he and his men are neutrals. Word is sent to Rome, though the facts are exaggerated, talking about vast hordes of Gauls, a savage pack of hounds, and a mysterious fleet of neutrals. Caesar goes to Belgium himself to restore order unaware of the fact that the whole thing is to get him to decide once and for all which side is the bravest. Outraged at being reduced, in the eyes of the Gauls and Belgians, to a mere umpire (as opposed to emperor), Caesar furiously declares that he will meet them in battle. The Belgians tell the Gauls to stay away as it is now a purely local issue. Through the use of catapults the Romans get their way in the early stages of the battle. But then the three Gauls, and their magic potion, join the Belgians after they thwart an attempted attack on the Belgian lines from behind through a forest, and, by combining their efforts, the Gauls are the final victors. Caesar decides to leave for Rome. On his way he comes across the Gaulish and Belgian chiefs. Caesar proudly announces that he will lay down his life, but they say that they are there to remind him of their competition and want to know who is the bravest. Caesar angrily declares them simply all crazy and leaves. Vitalstatistix and Beefix laugh the incident off. They have to face the fact that they are all equally brave and, after a victory feast, part on good terms. |
2839568 | /m/0861jj | Obelix and Co. | null | null | null | After Obelix single-handedly defeats the newly-arrived Romans from the camp of Totorum (as a birthday present), Caesar once again ponders with any possibility to take down the rebellious Gaulish village. A young Roman know-it-all called Preposterus, who has been studying economics, proposes to integrate the Gauls into the stream of capitalism, pointing out that Caesar's once-brilliant officers are now corrupt, venal politicians in Rome. For that purpose, he moves into the camp of Totorum and proceeds to make the acquaintance of Obelix, who is carrying a menhir through the forest. Preposterus claims to be a menhir buyer, and buys every menhir Obelix can make, on the pretext that a rich man is a powerful man. Obelix begins by making and delivering a single menhir a day, but when Preposterus demands more menhirs in exchange for more money, Obelix hires other villagers to help him make menhirs, and an equal number to hunt boar for him and his sculptors. Although he tries to include Asterix in this, Asterix will have no part of Obelix's growing corporation. This corporation later includes a cart-and-oxen from a travelling salesman with which to deliver half-a-dozen menhirs to the camp in one go. Obelix's workload also means that he neglects Dogmatix. Obelix's increasing wealth causes problems for the village men, whose wives reproach them for not matching his success. Obelix himself shows off this wealth by wearing ostentatious clothes, hiring Mrs Geriatrix to be his tailor. Deciding that the time has come to teach Obelix a lesson, Asterix encourages the other villagers to start building menhirs, selling them to the Romans and putting their subsequent wealth on display. Getafix agrees to dole out magic potion for anyone who makes menhirs, in spite of nobody knowing what menhirs are for. Because the menhir makers can no longer spend time hunting wild boar, they hire the other half of the male village populace to do it for them. Only Asterix, Getafix, Cacofonix and Vitalstatistix are not engaged in the new economic system. Asterix estimates that it is only a matter of time before things come to a head, explode and get back to normal. With Preposterus buying up every menhir at ever-increasing prices, it is not long before the camp of Totorum is filled with menhirs, and Caesar's finances heavily in debt. This abundance of rock reaches Rome where Preposterus sells them to the patricians. He does this by making out that a menhir is a symbol of great wealth and high rank, therefore prompting insecure people to buy them. But before he can go further, a Roman businessman jumps onto the bandwagon and sells Roman menhirs at a cheaper rate. Anxious to sell off his stock of Gaulish menhirs and recover the money that was paid to the Gauls for them, Caesar imposes a ban on the sale of Roman menhirs. In protest the unemployed Roman menhir makers (actually slaves) block the Roman roads with menhirs. A slaveowner meets with Caesar and demands a lift of the ban saying that his employees are out of work because of the ban. A confused Caesar points out that it's ridiculous because the "employees" are slaves. The slaveowner replies: Exactly! The right to work is the only right a slave has. He must not be deprived of it! The ban is lifted in the face of a possible civil conflict and Preposterus suggests a price war to deal with the competition. But then menhirs from other countries such as Egypt and Greece start pouring in. Even the pirates are faced with the growing Menhir Crisis since (as revealed in the French version) every ship they attack contains nothing but menhirs and taking these stones away as loot causes their own ship to sink. Soon, even free menhirs are unwanted. Facing financial ruin, an angry Caesar then orders Preposterus back to Gaul to stop the menhir trade before it goes one stone further. Preposterus fears that the Gauls will not take this news lightly but Caesar tells him that if he does not comply with the order, he will find himself thrown to the lions in the arena. The Gaulish village meanwhile is unaffected by the Menhir Crisis since the centurion at the local camp has continued buying their menhirs in order to keep the peace. Obelix however is quite miserable: he has had too much of this tomfoolery with menhirs, markets, money, meat and mayhem, which he never understood at all. All the other menhir makers are now wearing garish clothes and he is demoralised. He wants to go back to the easy days of having fun with Asterix and Dogmatix and eating (an obvious comment on the dullness of corporate life). Asterix agrees to go hunting boar with him if he changes back into his old clothes, rather than the fancy ones he has been wearing. Asterix and Getafix then exchange winks: the next stage of the plan is approaching. Preposterus returns to Gaul and announces that he is not buying another menhir if his life depends on it (as it does). He thus turns down Unhygienix's delivery of menhirs. Although Fulliautomatix is apt to blame this on the fact that Unhygenix's menhirs have an odour of rotten fish, it becomes clear that even menhirs made by a cynical blacksmith do not suffice. When the men of the village notice that Obelix has himself called a halt, they criticize him on the wrongful grounds that he knew that the Romans were no longer buying menhirs and did not tell them. Annoyed by these accusations, Obelix starts a fight between the villagers. Asterix and Getafix are glad to see their friends back to their old ways. Asterix then ends the fight with the suggestion that they turn their anger on the Romans, since they started the whole thing. In gratitude for their earlier present, Obelix for once takes no part in the fight, allowing the other villagers to attack the Romans on their own. The Roman camp is wrecked, and so is Preposterus. Asterix wants to know what his neighbours will do with all their money. Getafix tells him that due to certain events in Rome the sestertius has devalued; in other words, the villagers are now stone-broke. But they hold a traditional banquet to celebrate the return to normality and a menhir proves useful in literally holding Cacofonix down. |
2839582 | /m/0861ky | Asterix and the Great Crossing | null | null | null | Unhygienix is out of fresh fish (as always), which is carted overland in ox-drawn carts from Lutetia (Paris), and causing it to get unhealthy on the long trip, and Getafix says that he needs some for his potion. Asterix and Obelix borrow a boat from Geriatrix and go fishing. After a storm, they get lost, but despite Obelix's concerns, they do not reach the edge of the world; instead- following a brief encounter with the pirates-, they arrive on an island (which is actually North America) with delicious birds that the Gauls call "gobblers" (turkeys), bears and "Romans" with strange facial paintings (Indians). Soon they earn the "Romans"' affection, but they decide to leave after the "centurion" chooses Obelix as his rather rubenesque daughter's fiancé. They go to a small island. Seeing a boat coming, Asterix climbs a cairn of rocks holding a torch and a book like the Statue of Liberty to attract it. The crew are anachronistic Vikings (with names like Herendethelessen, Steptøånssen, Nøgøødreåssen, Håråldwilssen, Irmgard, Firegård, and their Great Dane, Huntingseåssen) - who managed a Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact and take the Gauls, who they thought to be the local natives, to their homeland as proof that there are continents beyond Europe. Their mutual desperation, the Gauls wanting to return home, and the Vikings' eagerness to prove their story of a new world, results in a trip back to Europe to the Vikings' homeland. The Vikings' chief, Ødiuscomparissen, greets them and is skeptical of their stories, until he sees the Gauls. They plan a celebration, then attempt to sacrifice the "natives", much to the chagrin of the other Vikings ("Why? They haven't done anything!"). Before this can be carried out, a Gaulish prisoner called Catastrofix, who can understand both Gallic and Norse, stirs up Ødiuscomparissen's suspicion that Herendethelessen is a liar, causing a fight between the Vikings with the assumption that Herendethelessen has simply gone to Gaul rather than to a new world. Meanwhile, the Gauls escape. This escape is conducive to their original purpose, since Catastrofix is a fisherman and hence able to procure some fish for the magic potion. Unhygenix, however, prefers the scent of his own stock; a preference that explains why his product is such a delicate and filthy topic. |
2839587 | /m/0861l9 | Asterix and Caesar's Gift | null | null | null | Having completed twenty years of service in the Roman Army, Veteran legionaries Tremensdelirious and Egganlettus await their honesta missio (Latin:honorary discharge) for the morning but that night Tremensdelirious expresses his opinion on Julius Caesar in his drunken state and gets arrested. The following morning Caesar is informed of Tremensdelirious's mishap the night before. Caesar suggests playing a practical joke. He will receive his honorary discharge after all but Caesar has a "special" gift for him. In the ceremony, Egganlettus receives a share in Nicaea and the still drunk Tremensdelirious receives his special gift: a Gaulish village in Armorica, the only territory of Gaul not yet conquered by the Roman legions. The village is inhabited by Asterix and his friends. Tremensdelirious sees little merit in a gift he cannot drink and attempts to sell his land share immediately, but Egglanlettus refuses, wanting to grow salad in Nicaea. A few days later Tremensdelirious is drunk again and is unable to pay the innkeeper. So, he offers his land share. The innkeeper, Orthapedix agrees to the bargain. Soon Orthapedix, his wife Angina and Influenza, their daughter, arrive at "their" new village only to be disappointed to find it already inhabited but hope the seal of Julius Caesar will convince the villagers to leave. They request a meeting with Vitalstatistix and state their claim. The village chief bursts into laughter and is soon joined by Asterix, Obelix and a number of villagers. Vitalstatistix dismisses their claim as absurd. Angina berates her husband for selling their inn to travel to Armorica. Vitalstatistix, decides to offer Orthapedix a chance to get out of his situation and informs him that their village has no inn and offers him a building for him to use next to the fish-stall. Obelix helps the new family and soon has a crush on Influenza. Geriatrix doesn't like Orthapedix, saying he isn't against Foreigners but he doesn't like ones that don't come from the Village. The opening night of the new inn, the villagers are invited to attend but the merriment seems to end when Vitalstatistix and his wife Impedimenta arrive. Impedimenta and Angina greet each other coldly and soon the two women enter an argument about who owns the village. Meanwhile a comment by Impedimenta about the smell of fish has set off Unhygienix and Fulliautomatix's rivalry. A fight starts with all the villagers present. The morning finds the inn abandoned except for the bruised Orthapedix, a sobbing Angina and Influenza. Orthapedix is ready to quit and return to Lutetia, but Angina wants to have revenge on Impedimenta and makes a claim to the leadership of the village on behalf of her husband. Vitalstatistix is shocked to have his long-held position challenged but soon has Cacofonix obtain an opinion poll of the villagers and the results are disappointing for Vitalstatistix. Soon both candidates and their families search for supporters by offering their markedly insincere voice of support to the individual concerns of each villager. The villagers become very involved in the political race. Geriatrix originally supports Vitalstatistix due to his distrust of Orthapedix, but then thinks the Chief is weak and tries to stand for Chief himself. Asterix, however, becomes worried that internal conflict could benefit the Romans. Meanwhile, Tremensdelirious arrives at the village to visit Orthapedix and explains that since their last meeting he unsuccessfully tried all kinds of trade. Thus he wants to claim his land share saying that veterans are not allowed to sell their shares to Gauls. The family attempts to throw him out but he draws the sword on the family. Meanwhile Astrix arrives and the two proceed in a demonstration of their swordsmanship. Asterix wins. Influenza is impressed by the diminutive Gaulish warrior and Tremensdelirious leaves. Tremensdelirious visits one of the four Roman camps surrounding the village and finds his old friend Egganlettus serving as an aide-de-camp under the local centurion, as he found retirement boring and signed up for another 20 years. With his support Tremensdelirious makes an official request on the centurion to restore a stolen land share to a veteran soldier. The centurion is rather reluctant to face the Gauls but the veterans threaten to report him to Caesar who would not like the Gauls taking advantage of his veterans. He agrees to prepare a military attack but Egganlettus has clearly fallen out of favor and his rank is reduced to Legionary second class. The following day, Influenza expresses her admiration to Asterix. A jealous Obelix feels betrayed by both his best friend and his love interest. Asterix attempts to express his concerns about the mysterious Roman from the previous day but it falls on deaf ears. Hence, Asterix decides to investigate the forest area himself and soon finds that in one of the Roman camps they are preparing siege weapons for an extended campaign. He listens to their plans but lacks the magic potion needed to end their preparations. The Romans see him, but are afraid to attack, enabling him to escape. However his escape means the Romans become convinced that the Gauls can no longer resist the Romans, thus Roman morale rises. Egganlettus is given his position back. Asterix returns to the village and attempts to sound the alarm, but the village pays no attention to him. Everybody is gathered to witness the public debate between Vitalstatistix and Orthapedix, with Cacofonix serving as a referee. When Vitalstatisix questions the impartiality of Cacofonix his allotted time is ended abruptly. While the debate is in progress, they are interrupted by rocks thrown into the village by the Roman catapults outside. Vitalstatistix begs for Getafix to give them magic potion but the druid refuses even though he must know the village is under attack. He is just too disgusted by the Gaulish in-fighting. There is a change of attitude in Orthapedix and Vitalstatistix and they stop fighting each other. Getafix approves of this and agrees to help them. Obelix single-handedly attacks the Romans and delays their attempts to enter the village. His efforts provide enough time for the potion to be prepared. The rival factions of villagers combine their efforts against the Romans and counterattack, demolishing the war machines. Orthapedix himself confronts Tremensdelirious and returns the stone tablet that claims ownership of the village and smashes it on Tremensdelirious' head. Egganlettus realizes his friend's treacherous nature and is furious and follows this up with a blow with a stick. This results on Tremensdelirious falling into unconsciousness with a very pronounced lump on the head. Both Gauls and Romans seem to want nothing more to do with him and his body is left on the field. The centurion has Egganlettus demoted to second-class legionary and assigns him to clean up the remains of the war machines with a mere broom. The Gauls are reconciled following their victory. A much more confident Orthapedix befriends his former rival who says he will make a good Chief, but he decides to withdraw his claim for leadership and return to Lutetia. Angina is about to object, but Orthapedix angrily puts her in her place, making it clear that the decision has been made and there is no room for argument. Now he has something to brag about to his brother-in-law. Impedimenta and Angina have nothing left to fight about. They exchange recipes and addresses of their relatives in Lutetia. Obelix mourns the loss of Influenza but is reconciled with Asterix, as they are no longer rival suitors. There is a victory celebration at night and everyone takes part. The narration claims that the events happened long ago, when such matters were not considered so important. |
2839602 | /m/0861nz | Asterix in Corsica | null | null | null | In most editions of this book the map that is shown before the story begins does not present Gaul and a close-up of the village with the four surrounding Roman camps. Instead the reader is shown a map of Corsica and a multiple of camps around the coast-line. The story begins with a banquet celebrating the anniversary of Vercingetorix's victory at the Battle of Gergovia. As part of the celebrations, the indomitable Gauls attack the local Roman camps. As a result, most of the Roman soldiers go on special manoeuvres to avoid the punch-up. On this particular year various people who have helped the Gauls against the Romans in previous books have been invited along with their wives (this may be because this was the last story published in Pilote magazine, or because this was the 20th album). They include: *Petitsuix from Helvetia (Asterix in Switzerland), *Huevos Y Bacon and son Pepe from Hispania (Asterix in Spain), *Instantmix, the Gaulish restaurateur from Rome (Asterix the Gladiator), *Anticlimax from Britain alongside Dipsomaniax the tavern-keeper, McAnix the Scotsman, O'veroptimistix the Irishman, and Chief Mykingdomforanos (Asterix in Britain), *Drinklikafix of Massalia, Jellibabix of Lugdunum, Seniorservix from Gesocribatum (Asterix and the Banquet), *Winesanspirix and his wife from Gergovia (Asterix and the Chieftain's Shield). The Roman camp of Totorum, too, has visitors: three Roman soldiers escorting the Corsican leader Boneywasawarriorwayayix, exiled by Praetor Perfidius. He is left to spend the night in the Centurion's tent, to its owner's dismay. While the other camps are deserted, the Romans of Totorum have no option but to stay and be decimated by the Gauls and their friends, who discover Boneywasawarriorwayayix awakening from a long siesta (meaning sleep). The proud Boneywasawarriorwayayix attends the Gaulish banquet and leaves the next day for Corsica with Asterix, Obelix and Dogmatix accompanying him. At Massalia, he hires a ship crewed by none other than Captain Redbeard and his pirates. When the passengers go aboard it is too dark for the captain and the Gauls to recognise each other. But when, in the middle of the night, the pirates attempt to rob the Corsican and his three companions, they recognize the sleeping Gauls and the entire crew vacates the ship in a rowboat. The following morning the passengers awake to find to their astonishment that the ship is deserted. Boneywasawarriorwayayix then invites the Gauls to share a pungent Corsican cheese. Not used to the strong smell, they feel unwell, but then the Corsican realises that they are off the coast of his native island, abandons the cheese and excitedly swims ashore. The arrival of the three men and dog is noticed by a Roman patrol. The Romans go to investigate the ship for anything suspicious, but find nothing. As they leave, the pirates arrive to reclaim their vessel. Unfortunately, the presence of a burning torch ignites the fumes from the Corsican cheese, blowing up the ship. A keen young Roman called Courtingdisastus captures the pirate captain and takes him as a prisoner before Praetor Perfidius in the Roman city of Aleria. From him the Romans learn that Boneywasawarriorwayayix, a known revolutionary leader, has returned from exile. Perfidius announces that he must be recaught and appoints Courtingdisastus leader of the party sent to recapture Boneywasawarriorwayayix. But in fact Perfidius has few illusions that the mission will be successful, and starts making his own plans to flee Corsica, leaving his men in the lurch and sailing away with all the loot he has purloined from the Corsicans. Courtingdisastus and his men go to Boneywasawarriorwayayix' village, but are faced by his second-in-command Carferrix, who intimidates them into fleeing. Meanwhile the Corsican leader and the Gauls travel through the maquis to a rendezvous where several clan chieftains are to gather and plan their attack on Aleria to recover the wealth the Praetor has extracted from them. The attack begins before Perfidius can make his escape. Boneywasawarriorwayayix then makes a proud and defiant speech stating that Corsica will never be ruled by an Emperor unless he is a Corsican himself. After the victory over the Romans, a vendetta between the clans of Boneywasawarriorwayayix and Olabellamargaritix, fought over various but complicated age-old issues, is settled by the diplomatic Asterix; though, when the Gauls leave, there are strong hints that other Corsican chieftains will resume the feud with Olabellamargaritix even if Boneywasawarriorwayayix has called his off. The Gauls return home with fond memories of their trip. |
2839609 | /m/0861pc | Asterix and the Soothsayer | null | null | null | One stormy day, the Gauls — with the exception of Getafix, who is at his annual druid meeting — are huddled in the chief's hut, fearing for their lives. But then, a man enters the hut in a burst of lightning - it is a soothsayer, who promptly proceeds to see the future for our superstitious Gauls. He predicts that "when the storm is over, the weather will improve" and that there will be a fight (Revealed to be caused by the typical argument of Unhygenix's poor-quality fish, which he had provided for the soothsayer to examine the entrails). But not all are impressed; Asterix alone dares question the qualities of this soothsayer, who is in fact a fraud. Although Asterix can see this, not everyone is convinced, most notably Impedimenta, the chief's wife. Partly out of superstition and partly out of personal ambition, she convinces the soothsayer (known also by the name "Prolix") to remain in official hiding near the village, where she and the other villagers may question him at will. The only two whom she will not permit into the forest are Asterix and Obelix. Obelix in particular has a grudge against the soothsayer, who has threatened to kill Dogmatix in order to examine his guts for predictions of the future. When Obelix finally thwarts Impedimenta and enters the forest, he finds Prolix there and chases him up a tree. When he threatens to uproot it, Prolix puts him off by claiming to see a vision of a beautiful woman who loves warriors matching Obelix' description. Obelix returns to the village and almost instantly falls for Mrs. Geriatrix. Prolix meanwhile is arrested by a strictly rule-abiding Roman Optio (a senior officer). The Optio brings Prolix before the Centurion, who decides to make use of the imposter's persuasive voice. Back in the forest Impedimenta and Asterix have within moments of each other discovered the absence of the soothsayer, causing consternation among the villagers who were told by the soothsayer that the gods would put a curse on them if anything untowards happened to him. Being that Obelix has been beguiled by Prolix's ironically accurate description of Mrs. Geriatrix (not mentioned by name), Asterix finds himself standing alone. Prolix returns at that moment, claiming dramatically that soon the air in the village will become polluted by a divine curse. Terrified, most of the villagers leave their home, to wait on a nearby island for the curse to run its course, as if it were a quarantined virus. Asterix, Obelix, and Dogmatix stay behind (Although Obelix only remains when Dogmatix goes to join Asterix). The Romans soon arrive to claim the village, while Asterix and Obelix hide in the local undergrowth. Getafix the druid suddenly returns from his conference (which seems to be a facsimile of a twentieth-century scientific conference). Hearing of the situation, he concocts a witty plan by which to drive out the Romans and teach the villagers a lesson. Using a number of unidentified ingredients in his cauldron, the Druid literally raises such a stink that even the powerful Obelix is affected. The fumes spread to the village, expelling the Romans, Prolix, and Cacofonix the Bard who had sneaked back to find his lyre. He returns to the other Gauls on the island and for them his story confirms the soothsayer's genuineness. Prolix is baffled: the seeming fulfilment of his prediction has set him to wondering if he is becoming a real soothsayer. On the other hand, the appearance of the foul air has cemented the Centurion's faith in his oracle. He sends word to Caesar that all of Gaul is now conquered ("All?" "All."). But, like Crismus Bonus of Asterix the Gaul, he begins to desire the Imperial Throne for himself. To pass the time, therefore, he has the soothsayer tell him exaggerated stories of the luxuries emperors enjoy. Meanwhile, Getafix, Asterix and Obelix join the other villagers on the island. Here we see a reference to the priestly role of the Druid, when Vitalstatistix begs Getafix to "appease the anger of the Gods, which has fallen upon our poor village." To which Getafix replies "Nonsense!" and proceeds to demonstrate where the stinking fumes came from. Inspired by this, the villagers go home, while the Romans deal with their own problems. The Optio is himself confused, because even though the Centurion is convinced that Prolix is a genuine soothsayer, the Optio's own observations tell him otherwise. Though upright and law-enforcing, he is no intellectual and finds himself thoroughly perplexed by the simplest of contradictions. Even his inferior officers regard him as an "idiot". In the village, trouble is still present. Impedimenta and her fellow women are not convinced that Prolix was a cheat, partly because he only foretold pleasant things for them, such as a business partnership between Vitalstatistix and Impedimenta's brother Homeopathix, each of whom considers the other an arrogant dope. Asterix has an idea: to take the soothsayer by surprise and thus prove that his predictions are not genuine. To this end the Gaulish men and women attack the Roman camp together and when the Centurion demands to know why Prolix did not warn him of this, the fraudulent soothsayer admits that he had no idea that they were coming. This convinces Impedimenta who beats the Centurion and the soothsayer with a rolling pin, causing her husband Vitalstatistix to look on her with an almost patronizing pride. Returning to the village, the Gauls meet an envoy of Caesar's who has come to check on the Centurion's claim that the village is conquered. They beat him and his escort up. The envoy, Bulbus Crocus, goes to the camp and faces the Centurion: "AND LOOK WHAT YOUR CONQUERED GAULS DID TO US, BY JUPITER!" He reduces the centurion to a common soldier who is then commanded by the Optio to sweep out the camp alone, under orders to speak properly to a superior officer. Prolix, who has been taking a lot of yelling from the now-ex Centurion over being a fraud, leaves the camp swearing to give up soothsaying at the risk of having the sky fall on his head, whereupon Rain-God Taranis sends down a thunderstorm. The Gaulish village, however, is soon at peace, enjoying themselves for the present and not worrying about the future — with the exception of Cacofonix, who still dreams about being a famous singer. |
2839614 | /m/0861qg | Asterix and the Laurel Wreath | null | null | null | The story begins in Rome where Asterix and Obelix are talking. Asterix is angry and frustrated and vents his annoyance on Obelix. To explain why they are in Rome, the story flashes back to Lutetia where Asterix, Obelix, Chief Vitalstatistix and his wife Impedimenta are on a shopping trip. The men are loaded with parcels and packages. Furthermore they are visiting Impedimenta's brother Homeopathix. Vitalstatistix dislikes Homeopathix, a rich, crass businessman who immediately shows off his wealth. Impedimenta is always reproaching Vitalstatistix for not matching this wealth or getting on with her brother. At dinner, Vitalstatistix quickly gets drunk and boasts that as a Chief he can obtain for Homeopathix something money cannot possibly buy: a stew seasoned with Caesar's laurel wreath. An equally drunk Obelix declares that Vitalstatistix is "ferpectly right" and volunteers himself and Asterix to fetch the wreath. The story now returns to Rome. Asterix and Obelix see a man coming out of Caesar's palace. Discovering that he is a slave there, they decide to offer themselves as slaves and go to the slave trader Typhus, who has only the best slaves to offer and who also supplies Caesar's palace. Typhus' other slaves are a rather snobbish, arrogant lot and their attitude soon provokes the Gauls into a fight. A man, whom Asterix believes is Caesar's major-domo, is amused and offers to buy them. However, he turns out to be Osseus Humerus, a wealthy patrician who has nothing to do with Caesar's household. The Gauls are placed under the supervision of Goldendelicius, Humerus' chief slave. Goldendelicius soon expresses his intense dislike of the two Gauls because they come from Typhus — which is a mark of distinction — and he does not and he is worried about his position as head slave. Disappointed that they have not made it into the palace, Asterix and Obelix make several disruptive attempts to have Humerus give them back to Typhus; they cook a very volatile stew, which accidentally cures Humerus' heavy-drinking son Metatarsus of his constant hangovers; and disturb the sleeping family by making a lot of noise, which only inspires them to throw a wild party. Humerus was due to go to Caesar's palace for a meeting with an official there. As a result of the party he has a bad hangover and tells the Gauls to go and tell the official that he cannot attend. Goldendelicius is still concerned that Asterix and Obelix will take over his job, so he slips away to the palace himself and tells the guards that the Gauls are planning to kill Caesar. As a result, Asterix and Obelix are thrown into the palace cells upon arrival. Under this advantageous situation, they break out during the night and comb the palace in search of the laurel wreath but to no avail. Frustrated and tired, they return to their cell, much to the confusion of the palace guards. Asterix decides that the only option is to find Caesar himself, since the laurel wreath is usually on his head. The next morning a lawyer comes to defend Asterix and Obelix, who are to face trial for the "attempt" on Caesar's life. It is already taken for granted that they will be found guilty and thrown to the lions in the Circus Maximus, which Caesar himself might attend. Since it is a show trial anyway, the lawyer decides to take advantage to show off his oratory skills. When the prosecutor announces that he is going to make the same speech, the defence lawyer calls for a suspension in proceedings. Anxious to be sentenced to the Circus in order to catch Caesar, it is Asterix himself who makes a passioned speech for the prosecution, outlining all the wrongdoings committed by himself and Obelix: the wrecking of Typhus' slave stand, the chaos in the Humerus household and the "plot" against Caesar. The whole audience, including Typhus and the Humeruses, is moved by this plea of guilty and the Gauls are sentenced to death in the Circus. In the cells, they are treated to first-class meals, and gifts are even sent by Typhus and Humerus. However, as they are about to enter the arena, Asterix and Obelix learn that Caesar is actually not present, having gone off to fight pirates. Stubbornly, the Gauls refuse to go into the arena until he returns, which results in the big cats in the arena eating each other, a mass riot of the audience, and everyone (including Asterix and Obelix and the last remaining lion) getting evicted from the circus. That night, Asterix and Obelix sleep inside a doorway, where they are spotted by a group of brigands. The latters' attempt to rob the two Gauls results in a thrashing for the bandits. Impressed, their chief Habeascorpus offers Asterix and Obelix a place to stay in return for their participation in their raids. The next night, the gang runs into a drunk who turns out to be Metatarsus. Refusing to allow them to attack an innocent, Asterix and Obelix thrash the bandits again. From Metatarsus the two Gauls learn that he has just been celebrating with Goldendelicius in a nearby tavern. Goldendelicius has been appointed as Caesar's personal slave, and Caesar himself is due to hold a triumph the very next day for his victory over the pirates. Asterix and Obelix corner Goldendelicius in the tavern (where he has fallen into a drunken sleep) and coerce him to exchange Caesar's laurel wreath for one made of parsley. The next morning, just before the triumph, Asterix and Goldendelicius secretly switch wreaths. The next day, during the triumph, Goldendelicius holds the wreath over Caesar's head, nervously worried that he'll notice that it is made of parsley. The dictator does not notice the switch, though he is puzzled as to why he secretly "feels like a piece of fish". Upon Asterix and Obelix's return, Homeopathix arrives in his brother-in-law's village in order to eat the stew with Caesar's laurel wreath. Vitalstatistix even states that a wealthy man like him would never be able to eat such a meal in his own house. Homeopathix "agrees" by sarcastically pointing out that it is overcooked and the meat in not up to the quality he expects at home. This causes Vitalstatistix to punch him sky-high in a fit of rage. Homeopathix lands in front of Cacofonix, who wonders if he was also banned from the feast because of singing. The novel also ends with the note that, with Asterix's cure for drunkenness now available to the Romans, it has begun a series of ever-increasing parties that will eventually result in the collapse of the empire. |
2839622 | /m/0861r6 | The Mansions of the Gods | null | null | null | With the intent to wipe out the Gaulish village by any means necessary, Caesar concocts a plan to absorb the villagers into Roman culture by having an estate built next to the village to start a new Roman colony. The colony is to be called the Mansions of the Gods. The project is led by the architect Squaronthehypotenus, who begins by getting an army of slaves of various races and countries to pull down the trees in the forest. With the help of Getafix's magic, Asterix and Obelix sabotage the plan by planting instant-growth trees, magically enhanced by one of druid Getafix's potions, thus repairing the damage. Obsessed with getting the work done, an increasingly erratic Squaronthehypotenus threatens to work the slaves to death. Taking this remark literally, Asterix gives them magic potion with which to fight back. Although the slaves, led by a Numidian called Flaturtha, do rise up in rebellion, they do not stop work and leave, as Asterix intended. Instead they insist on better working conditions, regular pay and being freed with the consent of their masters after completing the first building of the Mansions of the Gods (the negotiations seem similar to that of modern-day employers and trade unionists). Upon hearing that the slaves are getting better pay than they are, the Roman legionaries also go on strike demanding similar and better conditions for themselves (a common occurrence among French strikers). Since the freedom of the slaves depends on constructing at least one building, the Gauls allow the work to proceed after Flaturtha complains and Getafix says they should let the slaves proceed. After their release the slaves "float a company" with their wages and become the (almost) luckless pirates of other adventures. Finally, the first building of the Mansions of the Gods is built and inhabited by Roman families. One couple is forced to go, after the husband wins an apartment in a competition at the arena under coercion of getting eaten by lions if he refuses. These Romans then go shopping at the village which, before too long, turns into a market town with the inhabitants opening a variety of shops, antique and fish, to cater to the Romans. In addition, they start to engage in price wars, literally since there is an actual fist-fight over the issue. The villagers are in disunion and some are adapting to Roman ways, which was Caesar's intention. Bashing Roman soldiers is one thing, but Getafix insists that civilians are not to be attacked since they are in fact innocent pawns in Caesar's scheme. Thus Asterix comes up with an alternative plan to get the Romans to leave. He asks Sqaronthehypotenus for an apartment, but is told they are full up. Then the unlucky Roman couple mentioned earlier is continuously harassed by Obelix, who is acting like a rabid monster, with Asterix holding him back. This is enough for the terrified husband, and the next day the couple leaves and returns to Rome. No sooner have they gone that Asterix arranges for Cacofonix the bard to move into the vacated apartment. As a result of the bard's night-time practising, the rest of the Roman inhabitants are quick to return to Rome as well. Squaronthehypotenus tries to keep the place in business by bringing the local Roman soldiers in as tenants, and naturally expels Cacofonix from the building. The Gauls take this as an insult to their pride and bring the building down to the ground. The Mansions of the Gods are no more, and Squaronthehypotenus goes to Egypt to build pyramids in the desert. That evening the Gauls hold their usual celebratory banquet (in which Cacofonix takes part) and the ruins of the mansion ending up as picturesque parts of the woodland due to Getafix's treated seeds. |
2839626 | /m/0861rz | Asterix in Switzerland | Albert Uderzo | null | null | Roman governor Varius Flavus of Condatum has been "setting aside for himself" (i.e.embezzling) a large majority of the taxes he collects in order to finance a debauched lifestyle of never-ending parties, sending only a pittance to Rome. Quaestor Vexatius Sinusitus is sent by Rome in order to investigate. Flavus finds that the stiff, no-nonsense Quaestor will not be easy to corrupt so, while pretending to co-operate, he serves him food laced with poison and provides an inept team of doctors who make absurd guesses at the cause of Sinusitus' distress. Realizing his life is in danger, Sinusitus sends for the druid Getafix. Getafix, who identifies the malady as attempted murder by poison, agrees to brew an antidote for Sinusitus. However, he requires an essential ingredient, a flower called the silver star (edelweiss), which only grows on the highest mountains of Helvetia. Getafix sends Asterix and Obelix to Helvetia (Switzerland) to retrieve the flower. He also insists that Sinusitus remain in their Gaulish village as a hostage as, he claims, in order to guarantee Asterix and Obelix's return. This is actually a ruse to get Sinusitus away from Flavus, whom Getafix understands is the would-be killer. Asterix and Obelix reach Helvetia but soon run into difficulties set by the Romans, as Varius Flavus has warned his colleague in Helvetia, the equally-corrupt Curious Odus, of their arrival. Thus the Gauls find themselves continually chased by the Romans, but they manage to get help from some courageous Helvetians, including the hotel manager Petitsuix (who has to dirty his hotel floor to cover up the Gauls' presence), Zurix the bank manager (Asterix and Obelix spend a night in one of his safes, though they break it and have to hide in another one) and some Helvetian veterans who hold a celebration at Lake Geneva. After some difficulties — including Obelix passing out from draining a whole cask of plum wine — the two Gauls manage to secure an edelweiss. A few days later, Varius Flavus comes to the village and asks how Sinusitus is doing, dropping hints that he should be executed. But Asterix and Obelix have returned to the village and made Getafix's antidote. Now cured, Sinusitus confronts Flavus and with the aid of some magic potion punches Flavus into the sky, announcing that he will now expose the corruption and that Flavus and Odus will be facing the lions in the Circus in Rome. The story ends with the usual banquet, with Sinusitus being the first Roman ever to participate. |
2839630 | /m/0861t3 | Asterix and the Roman Agent | null | null | null | The resistance of the Gaulish village against the Romans causes friction between dictator Julius Caesar and the Roman Senate, whose power has been reduced by Caesar. With their Magic Potion which gives them superhuman strength and is known only to their druid Getafix, they easily stand up against Rome and her laws. At a meeting with his associates it is suggested to Caesar that causing internal conflict between the Gauls will lead to their breakdown. He is then told by another Official about Tortuous Convolvulus, a natural troublemaker who used to live in an Insula owned by the Official and can cause dissension and stir up fights between anyone. These include the lions which were to devour him in the circus the other tenants got him sent to, which ended up eating each other. His mere presence even causes an argument and a fight between Caesar's associates. Impressed by his abilities Caesar sends him to deal with the Gauls. On the way Convolvulus causes fighting on the ship. The Pirates try to attack the ship, but are surprised the people on the ship are more occupied with fighting among themselves then the Pirates. Convolvulus then says he gave one of the Pirates a bag of gold in Rome and was told they would not attack. This causes the Pirates to fight which ends with the ship being scuttled. Meanwhile in the Gaulish village, unaware of all this, things are being organised for Chief Vitalstatistix's birthday, a celebration of friendship all round. One who is not looking forward to it is his own wife, Impedimenta, who complains about all the eating and drinking that will go with it as well as the burden of useless and non-valuable presents including a mounting collection of swords, shields, stuffed fish and menhirs with huge ribbons. Arriving in Gaul, Convolvulus moves into the nearby Roman camp of Aquarium and gets a description of the village inhabitants. He then goes to the village and quickly stirs up distrust between the Gauls: he gives a valuable vase to Asterix whom he describes as the "most important man in the village", to the outrage of Chief Vitalstatistix who considers himself the most important. The other villagers take this announcement seriously with Impedimenta having fights with the other women on the subject of who is the most important and then privately dismissing her husband as a failure. Further gossip and rumours lead to the belief by many in the village that Asterix, who is close to Getafix the druid, has sold the secret of the druid's Magic Potion to the Romans. Suspicion and paranoia becomes part of everyday life to the point that the banquet to celebrate the Chief's birthday is held in sullen silence. Leading this atmosphere of distrust are Fulliautomatix the blacksmith, Geriatrix the oldest inhabitant and their wives, one of whom goes so far as demanding to leave the area entirely. Convolvulus does not have the Magic Potion, but his whole plan rests on making the Gauls believe that he does. Through other tricks and deception, Convolvulus convinces the Gauls that their suspicions are well founded and that the Romans have the Magic Potion. His Psychological Warfare is misinterpreted by the large Legionary Magnumporus as hitting people with clubs. When Fullautomatix and Unhygenix go to the camp to check, they see 'potion' being given to Romans. Realising the Gauls are spying on them from Unhygenix giving of a smell of fish, Convolvulus has a small Legionary pretend to knock out Magnumporus, causing the two Gauls to flee back to the village. However his plan works a little too well when even the Roman troops of Aquarium believe that they have the Magic Potion and insist on drinking it, even though it is not actually available to them. The real turning point in his ruse however occurs when some of the deceived villagers openly voice their suspicions that Asterix and Getafix gave the secret of the Magic Potion to the Romans. This provides Asterix and Getafix with the excuse they need to announce a self-imposed exile and they leave the village with their heads held high. Obelix goes with them; he is himself confused as to whether or not the Romans have the Potion, but loyally sticks by his two best friends. They in fact intend to expose Convolvulus and teach the other Gauls a lesson in trust. The shock of their departure and their seeming helplessness against Roman attack has the villagers thinking they have acted foolishly. Asterix and Getafix confront Convolvulus and announce that they are leaving the area with Obelix and the Magic Potion. Taking them at their word, Convolvulus persuades the Roman commander, centurion Platypus, to attack the village. At first the Legion arms themselves with clubs, thinking this is Psychological Warfare, but Platypus orders them to arm properly. The Gauls take the Roman's fake potion back to the village, smashing through a row of Romans to get through. As the villagers suspect their folly, it is easy for Asterix, Getafix and Obelix to prove to them that the idea of the Romans having the Magic Potion was all due to trickery and deceit on Convolvulus's part. Convolvulus sees this and realises his trick has been discovered, causing him to tell Platypus. Getafix makes some Magic Potion while Platypus summons for reinforcements after Asterix and Obelix beat back his garrison. After drinking the real Magic Potion, the Gaulish villagers engage in a major battle with all four of the Roman garrisons that surround them. After winning the fight, they turn the tables on Convolvulus in an ingenious move: they thank him, treating him as one of their own, and give him the vase he gave Asterix earlier on. This tricks the Roman troops into believing that Convolvulus is a traitor who deliberately engineered their defeat and the vase is smashed as they arrest him. He is sent back to Rome for punishment, though that may be a case of easier said than done given that he retains his cunning and deceitful skills. Despite this, he has made no further appearances to date. In the village there are apologies all round and it is agreed to hold another birthday for Vitalstatistix and make up for the previous one which was held in moody silence. Asterix however decides that he is entitled to a little of his own back after being suspected of being a traitor himself. The next day he is seen being proudly carried on a shield by Obelix in the same way that Vitalstatistix usually goes about his business. In a manner that Convolvulus would be proud of, this leads to gossip that Asterix has been appointed Vitalstatistix's successor and an argument and a fight between the wives as to which of their husbands would make the better chief. The men soon join in and peace is only restored when Asterix claims that he was simply testing the shield that he intends to give to Chief Vitalstatistix. Getafix says that they can't be blamed, they are only human, and Obelix exclaims "These humans are crazy!". The story ends with the traditional banquet which doubles for a better celebration of Vitalstatistix's birthday. |
2839632 | /m/0861tj | Asterix in Spain | null | null | null | A group of Iberian resistance fighters are holding out against the Romans, very much like Asterix's village, so the Romans kidnap Chief Huevos Y Bacon's son, Pepe. As the Romans are taking him to a garrison in Gaul (as it happens, it is one of the garrisons close the Gaulish village), Asterix and Obelix beat up the Romans under the command of the Roman officer Spurius Brontosaurus and take Pepe to their village. Obelix is assigned to take care of Pepe, but the boy proves to be highly taxing (especially in Obelix's opinion when Pepe and little Dogmatix take a shine to one another), so Asterix and Obelix are assigned to take him back home. Asterix, Obelix, Pepe and Dogmatix travel to Spain, but little do they know that Spurius Brontosaurus — who has returned to Iberia in the meantime — has spotted them and is now accompanying them in disguise to take Pepe back to Gaul. If Brontosaurus fails, it would mean being fed to the lions in the circus for him. Brontosaurus sees Asterix and Obelix beat up some bandits, so he plans to steal the magic potion. That night, when they are asleep, Brontosaurus steals the potion but is caught red-handed by Asterix, and in the subsequent chase both run into a group of Roman legionaries. The legionaries take Asterix and Brontosaurus to the commander-in-chief, who throws Asterix and Brontosaurus in the dungeon. In the circus of Hispalis they are both pitched against an aurochs. A woman drops her red cloak, so Asterix gets it. The aurochs keeps on charging at him, so he gets the cloak out of the aurochs's way to keep it from getting dirty, thereby introducing bullfighting. With his victory, Asterix is released, and Spurius Brontosaurus, discharged from the army, gladly decides to make his living as a bullfighter. Obelix has meanwhile brought Pepe back to his village. Asterix arrives at the village which is being besieged by Romans. In his eagerness to be re-united with Asterix, Obelix rushes through the Roman lines, scattering them all over the place. They then say a tearful goodbye to Pepe and the Iberians and return to Gaul for the usual banquet, Obelix giving a demonstration of Spanish dancing and singing that, it is hinted by Fulliautomatix (by muttering "A fish, a fish, my kingdom for a fish!") will lead to one of the typical internal fights in the Gaulish village. |
2839651 | /m/0861w_ | Asterix and the Secret Weapon | null | null | null | The story begins when a female bard named Bravura comes to the village to teach the children. She has been hired by the women of the village who think that Cacofonix, the current teacher of the village, is giving the children a poor education. Upon hearing this, Cacofonix leaves the village. When Bravura arrives, the women are stunned by her singing and the men laugh at it (the only difference between Bravura's singing and Cacofonix's is that when Bravura sings it does not rain). Bravura is insulted and wonders how the women put up with them. The next day Bravura asks Impedimenta about this, and tells her not to let her husband boss her around. Impedimenta then tells Vitalstatistix that since she is the chief's wife, she has as much power as he does. They both lose their tempers and Impedimenta hits Vitalstatistix. He then leaves the village, joining Cacofonix in the forest. Impedimenta is then made chief by majority vote (all the women vote for Impedimenta, but the men do not dare vote or even speak up against their wives). Meanwhile, Julius Caesar has another plan to take over the village of indomitable Gauls. His special agent for the task, Manlius Claphamomnibus, swears to bring the "secret weapon" over the ocean discreetly. Back at the village, the "woman dominance" has caught on to every family, basically destroying the village. Asterix, troubled by all of this from the start, is met by Bravura who tells him that if both of them settle down together they could become chiefs of the village. Asterix accuses her of coming to the village to do just that and loses his temper. Bravura picks Asterix up and kisses him, and Asterix hits her out of reflex, though he feels shame and regret immediately after. Asterix is brought before the new chief for breaking their laws by striking a woman, and is given temporary exile. Getafix objects to this, but Bravura argues with him, getting him angry and causing the druid to leave the village also. And not only does Obelix join them, but every other village man as well. The men actually have a good time in the forest, drinking beer and eating wild boar. Claphamomnibus's ship lands at Gaul, and he unleashes the secret weapon: female legionaries (strongly resembling amazons). Claphamomnibus's reasoning for the forming of this strange unit is that because of the Gaul warriors' code of chivalry, they cannot fight women and thus could be easily defeated. Asterix, while scouting the Romans, learns of the arrival of Claphamomnibus and his female legionnaries and is sent as an ambassador to warn the village women of the threat (they worriedly send clothes to their husbands via Asterix and Obelix, in case it gets cold at night in the forest). Bravura tries to meet the women as an ambassador, claiming that since they are all women, they are sisters. The Roman sentry pounds her and Claphamomnibus insults her. Asterix watches it all; he also sees her slapping Clapharmomnibus which gives the Gaul hero a new perspective about the lady bard. Asterix approaches Bravura with a plan to get rid of this new problem. Part of his plan is to have Cacofonix sing songs in the forest, causing it to rain and scaring off all animals such as rabbits and snakes (and in one scene even a dragon). This scares the female Roman scout parties, causing them to retreat many times. (Humorously Asterix' departure to talk to Bravura was misinterpreted by the men, who by their passed comments assumed he was proposing marriage.) The rest of the plan involves the women of the village setting up a mall with the latest styles and accessories from Lutetia, and thus when the Roman women arrive to attack the supposedly undefended village they immediately become absorbed in shopping. In the meantime, the men of the village take out the fortified camps filled with male legionaries; Obelix is even allowed to destroy one of the camps single-handedly, as acknowledgment that he has not been much involved with the storyline until that point. Finally, Cacofonix sings once again as the Roman women leave the village with their shopping, and the terrified women (along with the dragon) flee Gaul on their ship with Claphamomnibus left behind. The story ends with the Gauls in a good mood, and there seems to be a good mood in Rome as well, for Julius Caesar is the laughing stock of his nation for having had to hire women to defeat the Gauls, and, on top of this, it is again a failure. Bravura and Asterix settle their original angst and develop a regard for one other. |
2839658 | /m/0861xq | Asterix and Obelix All at Sea | null | null | null | A band of one direction band gallery slaves under leadership of Spartakis (a parody of Spartacus) have taken over Julius Caesar's personal galley - much to its possessor's irking, for which he insults, then sends his no-good admiral Crustacius to recover the ship. After some arguing about a safe place to disembark, the slaves decide to set sail for the only place safe from the Romans: Asterix' small Gaulish village, as one of the slaves heard about it from a relative in Britain. Crustacius, hot in pursuit and ignorant of the Gauls' reputation, prepares to attack the village. The Gauls prepare for battle, but Obelix is yet again denied a drop of Getafix's magic potion. As the Gauls return triumphant from battle, they find Obelix has drunk the remaining cauldron of magic potion- Getafix having made two cauldrons just in case- and that this overdose has turned him into stone, which has also proven that it would be dangerous to drink more magic potion. The former galley slaves are granted refuge, and Getafix tries desperate measures to return Obelix to his normal state. He tries potions and things that stimulate his emotion (wild boar cooked by Impedimenta and a kiss from Panacea), and finally Obelix recovers from his stone state - but as a child. Obelix has also lost his old strength, leaving him feeling useless as he now cannot lift menhirs or eat boars in the same quantity that he is used to doing so. He is kidnapped by Roman soldiers while trying to run away to the forest, and made a slave by the Officer. The former slaves travel with Asterix, Dogmatix and Getafix to rescue Obelix who is en route to Rome by galley under Crustacius' supervision. When they recover Obelix on the high seas, Getafix proposes Atlantis as their next destination in order to help Obelix recover his adult shape. After dropping off Crustacius and his adjutant with the ever-returning pirates- who are also offered Caesar's galley to bring back to Rome for a reward, as a compensation for Asterix having (this time, accidentally) sunk their ship-, Getafix brings them to the remnants of Atlantis (the Canary Islands), where the Atlantides have found eternal youth, in the hope that they can restore Obelix's true appearance. Unfortunately, the Atlantides have no means to help, only knowing how to make someone younger, not older, so the Gauls head back to the village, while the freed slaves decide to live at Atlantis as children forever, finally being free from Rome. On their way back, the Gauls are intercepted by yet another Roman galley. Asterix is incapacitated by a catapult stone, and when the Romans want to feed him to the sharks after throwing the gourd of potion into the Ocean all seems lost. Seeing his friend in danger provokes so much emotion that it triggers Obelix to transform within seconds to his former self. With all his conserved aggression from being bossed around the entire album, he first drives off the attacking Roman galley (causing surprise to Getafix when he climbs back onto the boat having dived in to recover the potion), then smashes the Roman outpost near the village before returning for the traditional village feast. As for Crustacius, the story ends like this: When swapping Caesar's galley with the pirates for another ship, Asterix and Getafix had accidentally left the magic potion they had taken along for the trip aboard. When Crustacius gets a sip of it just before Ostia, he easily gets rid of the pirates. But when he realizes the nature of his drink and plans to overthrow Caesar, he commits the same mistake as Obelix and is turned into a statue himself, and his adjutant's dream of getting a promotion for bringing back the ship is dashed when some over-eager soldiers fire flaming ballista bolts against the supposed pirate vessel. The statue of the admiral ends up in the Circus Maximus for the lions- with the adjutant and the soldiers reduced to sweeping the arena-, with Caesar expressing his hopes to a baffled Cleopatra that one day the lions may actually develop a taste for granite after all... |
2839667 | /m/0861ys | Asterix and the Actress | null | null | null | For Asterix and Obelix' birthday party, their parents have decided to come from Condatum. Their mothers have already arrived, bringing a fabulous Roman sword and helmet as presents, and they immediately fuss about why their sons are still single; their methods to rectify the situation, however, bring little happiness to their offspring. Meanwhile, however, Asterix and Obelix' fathers - who run a 'modernities' store in Condatum - have inadvertently got themselves into a tight spot: an alcoholic legionary veteran (Tremensdelirius from Asterix and Caesar's Gift) has pawned a helmet and a sword in their shop - the personal weapons of Pompeius, Caesar's enemy, which are now in Asterix and Obelix's possession. Of course, their rightful possessor wants them back, and to this end he employs one of his agents, Decurion Fastandfurious, and a gifted tragic actress named Latraviata. Disguised as Panacea, Obelix's love interest, who is allegedly suffering from amnesia, Latraviata is to infiltrate the Gaulish village and retrieve Pompeius's weapons. However, the real Panacea and her husband Tragicomix soon discover that Asterix and Obelix's fathers have been imprisoned by Pompeius, and they immediatedly travel to their village to warn their friends. On their way they run into Latraviata and Fastandfurious, who have left the village with Asterix and Obelix (who have not yet realized what was going on) in pursuit, and the game is exposed. Fastandfurious is "menhired", Pompeius's weapons are returned to the two friends (with some "slight" damage from menhir pressure), and Asterix and Obelix race to Condatum to free their fathers and to give Pompeius a run for his money. At the end of the story Latraviata is the first actress ever to receive an award for Outstanding Performance, which is believed to how the César Award was born. |
2843754 | /m/086b3p | The Mystery of the Fire Dragon | Carolyn Keene | 1961 | {"/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | Nancy Drew is called to New York by her Aunt Eloise to solve a missing-person case. The granddaughter of her elderly Chinese author neighbor, Mr. Soong, has been kidnapped. The search is on, first by disguising Nancy's friend George Fayne as the missing Chi Che, and then pursuing a lead at Chi Che's place of employment, a book store, where Nancy encounters its suspicious owner. Nancy decides to visit the store again but as she goes along the sidewalk, Nancy is knocked-out by a falling vase which hits her on the head. While Nancy is unconscious, Bess and George take up the mystery and a red haired man is quickly arrested. A series of clues lead the girls to Hong Kong, where Nancy's boyfriend, Ned Nickerson, joins the action. Nancy foolishly follows "Chi Che" on board a plane, and is herself kidnapped. Ingenious Nancy uses her lipstick to signal for help on the plane windows. After her rescue, she follows more clues to an international smuggling ring, and, utilizing a disguised George once again, forces the thieves out of hiding and has the chance to finally locate the missing girl. |
2844257 | /m/086cd6 | The Chequer Board | Nevil Shute | null | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | It is a multi-part story telling of the experience of one John (Jackie) Turner, whom the doctors have given just one year to live due to injuries sustained in a wartime plane crash. Turner decides to use his remaining time to trace the men he got to know while recovering in hospital. The men were: *Flying Officer Phillip Morgan - the plane's British pilot. *Corporal Duggie Brent - a young British Commando, accused of murder. *Pfc Dave Lesurier - a black American serviceman, accused of attempted rape, in hospital after cutting his own throat while being pursued. As the story unfolds, we learn that charges against Lesurier were dropped after an Army investigation and that he later returned to the English town near which he was stationed during the war. He marries the girl he was courting and becomes a draughtsman. Brent is also acquitted of murder but served six months for manslaughter after a brilliantly defended court-martial - he is later found living close to Lesurier and working as a meat vendor. Morgan relocates to Burma and becomes a successful businessman, married into a strong local community. Turner is contented by the thought that each man, who had helped with his recovery after the plane crash, had managed to make a good life in his own way. The novel ends with what will be his last visit to the medical specialist. Underlying the novel is the Buddhist belief in reincarnation and redemption. Although a thief and someone with a shady past, it is indicated that Turner, through his attempts to help his fellow passengers and his acceptance of his death, has attained Nirvana. |
2845808 | /m/086g6h | The Simulacra | Philip K. Dick | 1964 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Set in the middle of the twenty-first century, The Simulacra is the story of several protagonists within the United States of Europe and America (USEA), formed by the merger of (West) Germany and the United States, where the whole government is a fraud and the President (der Alte, "the Old Man") is a simulacrum (android). As well as the USEA, other global superpowers are the French Empire, People's Republic of China and Free (Black) Africa. There is some mention of a World War Three, which may have involved some tactical nuclear weapons, and a possibility that the Soviet Union exists. Communism still exists, but Poland has become its global centre of authority, with its administrative centre now based in Warsaw. Society is stratified into 'Ges' (German Geheimnisträger, "bearers of the secret" (the elite)) and 'Bes' (German Befehlsträger, "implementers of instruction" (professional and artisanal)) classes, and there is conspicuous consolidation of political and broadcast media power. The Democratic and Republican Parties merged into a single party, the 'Democrat-Republican Party' and the 'United Triadic Network' presumably resulted from an amalgamation of NBC, CBS and ABC. In addition, actual political power has devolved to a permanent First Lady, Nicole Thibodeaux, whose consorts are a series of male presidents – die Alten. While the current der Alte, Rudi Kalbfleisch, is a simulacrum, "Nicole" is human, although the original Nicole Thibodeaux died several decades ago. Since the death of the original, her role has been portrayed by four consecutive actors, and the latest such figure is Kate Rupert. This is a Geheimnis (secret), and insider possession of this secret is enough to insure elite membership through conferral of Ges status. A secretive governing council controls the USEA, although 'Karp und Söhne Werke', as manufacturers of the current der Alte-simulacrum, exerts some power. The next simulacrum contract, for Dieter Hogbein, however, will be given to 'Frauenzimmer Associates', and Karp und Söhne is unhappy about this new contractual arrangement. One subplot involves the Karp und Söhne Werke threatened exposure of what has been a state secret over the last five decades. Nicole dislikes Kalbfleisch, although inbuilt obsolescence means that he is about to suffer an obligatory heart attack and he will be replaced in his turn. Kalbfleisch only momentarily appears in this novel. Doctor Egon Superb encounters additional difficulties because A. G. Chemie, the leading USEA psycho-pharmaceutical drug cartel, has engineered the prohibition of psychotherapy under the "MacPhearson Act." However, the USEA is willing to let him continue to practice, and treat Richard Kongrosian, a well known pianist who performs in the White House. Richard Kongrosian believes that his body odor is lethal; this belief is delusional, he has no such body odor. Kongrosian has telekinetic abilities: he can play piano using only his mind. Nicole Thibodeaux is anxious to keep his abilities under control, as are Wilder Pembroke, head of the National Police, and members of the covert national governance council. Bertold Goltz (an alleged neofascist) is seemingly trying to overthrow the government, and runs the 'Sons of Job', a religious paramilitary organisation, although he is not what he seems, and is secretly head of the covert USEA governing council. In addition, there is a subplot that involves Charles (Chic) Strikerock, Vince, his brother and a cut-price colonisation spacecraft sales firm (known as "Loony Lukes") involved in Martian colonisation. Mars boasts insectoid life, the sentient and empathic 'papoola', while Ganymede is inhabited by multicellular primitive life forms. Nothing is as it seems, and the novel ends inconclusively. The der Alte-simulacrum has been revealed as an android and Kate/Nicole has been disclosed as an impostor- therefore undoing the Geheimnis (secret) raison d'etre for ges/bes class stratification. Bertold Goltz is killed by a National Police detachment, as is the rest of the covert governing council. Using telekinesis, Kongrosian kills Pembroke before he can overthrow Nicole in a coup d'etat and teleports her to safety at his secluded Northern US home. Karp und Sohnen rebel against the abortive coup, however, and soon the National Police and USEA armed forces are engaged in civil war, with active use of low-yield nuclear weapons. Recrudescent Neanderthals (or "chuppers") seem happy at this turn of events, as they gather near Kongrosian's home: the imminent self-destruction of Homo sapiens might give them another opportunity to dominate Earth. |
2846264 | /m/086h70 | HMS Ulysses | Alistair MacLean | 1955 | {"/m/02p0szs": "Historical fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | The novel features HMS Ulysses, a light cruiser that is extremely well armed and among the fastest ships in the world. (Ulysses is similar to the real Dido-class cruisers. MacLean had served in of that class.) Her crew is pushed well beyond the limits of endurance and the book starts in the aftermath of a mutiny. Ulysses puts to sea again to escort FR-77, a vital convoy heading for Murmansk. (The fictitious convoy FR-77 is based on the ill-fated convoy PQ-17.) They are beset by numerous challenges: an unusually fierce Arctic storm, German ships and U-boats, as well as air attacks. All slowly reduce the convoy from 32 ships to only five. The Ulysses' is sunk in a failed attempt to ram a German cruiser after all her other weapons had been destroyed. This echoes events in which British G-class destroyer and HMS Jervis Bay, an armed merchant cruiser, sacrificed themselves by engaging larger opponents. The book uses a set of events to paint moving portrayals of the crew and the human aspects of the war. His heroes are not especially motivated by ideals, they rarely excel at more than one task and they are outfoxed by a respectable enemy. It is only their resilience, as they redefine the word, that pushes this bunch of seamen to genuine acts of heroism. The realism of the descriptions, the believable motivations of the characters and the simplicity of the line of events make the story all the more credible, though the number of coincidental accidents that plague the crew are startling, robbing them of any real victory. |
2846537 | /m/086hyp | Tunnel Through the Deeps | Harry Harrison | 1972 | {"/m/0mz2": "Alternate history", "/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | In an alternative history, the United States lost the American Revolutionary War, George Washington was shot as a traitor, and America is still, in 1973, under the control of the British Empire. The divergence point between this world and our own occurred far earlier, however, when the Moors won the battle of Navas de Tolosa on the Iberian peninsula, on July 16, 1212. Thus it was that Spain was unable to become unified, owing to the survival of an Islamic presence in its territory, and therefore could not finance the expedition of Christopher Columbus in 1492. Instead, it was John Cabot who discovered America, just a few years later. The protagonist, Captain Augustine Washington, is a direct descendant of George Washington, and labors in his 'traitorous' shadow. Captain Washington and Sir Isambard Brassey-Brunel (descendant of Isambard Kingdom Brunel) get together to link the heart of the British Empire with its far-flung Atlantic colony in North America, although they fall out over Augustine's wooing of Isabard's young daughter, Iris, and as a result of disputes over engineering techniques. However, the two are reconciled on Sir Isambard's deathbed, and the lovers later marry. Detective Richard Tracy also makes an appearance, as do 'Lord' Amis and 'Reverend' Aldiss. |
2846549 | /m/086hzq | Herr Lehmann | Sven Regener | 2001 | null | Frank Lehmann will soon turn 30 years old which is why all his friends tease him by calling him by his last name, Herr Lehmann. He works in a bar in Kreuzberg and drinks a lot of beer. Episodes in the story include his daily life in Kreuzberg; his parents' visit to Berlin; his love affair with Katrin, the beautiful cook; taking care of his best friend Karl, who slowly goes insane; and the fall of the Berlin Wall. |
2847098 | /m/086jz0 | Two Steps From Heaven | Mikhail Evstafiev | null | null | The events of the novel take place in the mid-1980s during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and soon after the troop withdrawal, back in the then Soviet Union. It is a stirring account of the trials of Lieutenant Oleg Sharagin, a platoon commander in the elite Soviet airborne forces, his fellow officers and soldiers. It also portrays the ordinary Afghans who suffered enormously under the Soviet occupation. Sharagin survives many combat operations but is critically wounded just a few months before the end of his tour of duty when his platoon is ambushed in the course of a major offensive against the Mujahideen. He is evacuated to a hospital in Kabul, undergoes surgery, and finally finds himself reunited with his family. But back home he realizes his military career is over. The war haunts Sharagin and the pain caused by the wound turns his life into a nightmare, leading to a dramatic finale. The novel is a good example of Russian "accurate fiction." It puts a human face on the Soviet soldier without sparing the gory details, like the hard to comprehend top-down authority and license for physical punishment and humiliation within the Russian army, the mental suffering which young soldiers and officers endured during their catastrophic experience in Afghanistan, or the gruesome killings of innocent Afghan civilians. The novel first came out in Russian in 1997 in an abridged version. In 2006, it was published by Eksmo, one of the largest publishing houses in Russia. The Russian and English versions can also be found on "Art of War" http://artofwar.ru/e/english/, a project dedicated to the soldiers of the recent wars, which was created in 1998 by Afghan war veteran Vladimir Grigoriev. It features short stories, novels, poetry and essays by veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya, as well as in the Middle East, Nagorno-Karabakh, Yugoslavia and contributions from veterans of the Vietnam and Korea wars. ru:В двух шагах от рая (роман) |
2847572 | /m/086l0b | And Having Writ… | Donald R. Bensen | 1978 | {"/m/0mz2": "Alternate history", "/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | According to the novel, the Siberian explosion was originally caused by the crash landing of the spaceship Wanderer. In this alternate reality, however, the alien astronauts are able to commandeer their failing vessel so that it lands in the Pacific Ocean, just outside of San Francisco. Shortly after landing, the quartet of spacemen are rescued from the sea by an American ship and taken to California. The Wanderer sinks into the ocean, and the team reasons that they must find a way to accelerate Earth’s technological advances so that they can get back home. The eventual conclusion they arrive at is that they must provoke the planet into what Ari says as an inevitable global conflict, one that, through weaponry innovations, will result in boom of new science and industry. |
2848492 | /m/086n1r | Space Opera | Jack Vance | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | On Earth, audiences are entranced by the musical entertainments staged by an alien troupe, the Ninth Company of the planet Rlaru. Dame Isabel Grayce (one of a long line of formidable society matrons in Vance’s works) has sponsored the entertainments; when the Ninth Company disappears without a trace, she proposes to recoup her losses and bring culture to the wastes of space by forming an opera company which Adolph Gondar (the discoverer of Rlaru) will pilot on a tour of suitable planets, with Rlaru as ultimate destination. Singers, orchestra, a British conductor (Sir Henry Rixon) are engaged; an argumentative critic, Bernard Bickel, who thinks the Ninth Company were fakes, is hired as musical consultant. Dame Isabel’s indolent and aptly named nephew Roger Wool (one of a long line of Vancian put-upon nephews) tags along also, smuggling his new girlfriend Madoc Roswyn, who claims to be a simple girl from Merioneth in Wales, aboard the ship as a stowaway. Like many of Vance’s works, the novel is a picaresque; Gondar has his own reasons for not returning to Rlaru, and diverts the company half way round the galaxy, with various adventures or humiliations occurring on the different planets they touch down on. (There are some similarities with Vance’s later novel Showboat World, which has a travelling company presenting performances of Shakespeare’s Macbeth to generally uncomprehending audiences along an immense river on a distant planet.) Over the course of the voyage, the company stages several celebrated works, such as Beethoven’s Fidelio, Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Così fan tutte, Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, and Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde and Flying Dutchman. These are performed before various human or non-human audiences, the libretti and costumes sometimes having to be adapted to become understandable to alien cultures. On the whole, due to such cultural disparities, their reception is far from that expected by Dame Isabel: on a penal colony planet, for instance, the performances are made the cover for a jail-break; on a planet inhabited by a race priding themselves on their musical talents, the productions are vetted by an artistic inspector and the company is fined for every unresolved dissonance in the scores performed; on still another, the performance is mistaken for a trade exhibition and the aliens attempt to buy some of the singers. While Gondar is confined to his cabin, apparently insane, Madoc Roswyn induces his deputy to take the ship to the distant planet Yan. It emerges that her remote ancestors inhabited a land now sunk beneath the Bay of Biscay whose people had colonized that planet and there developed a high civilization. (Here we detect the germ of Vance’s later major fantasy trilogy Lyonesse, the heroine of whose third volume is named Madouc.) A group had returned to Earth thousands of years later, but their spacecraft was destroyed and they were forced to settle in Wales, ever intending to return to Yan. Madoc is their last descendant. She is disappointed by what she finds: Yan’s cities are dust and its folk have reverted to barbarism, hiding in the forests. Although the company present Debussy's Pelléas to try to establish communication with the unseen inhabitants, they barely escape with their lives. Eventually the voyage ends at Rlaru. It turns out that Gondar had abducted the Ninth Company from the planet; he is suitably punished by the natives, who demonstrate a capacity to creatively manipulate illusion and environment far beyond anything their Earth visitors can achieve. They listen to several operas with mounting boredom, but are utterly entranced by an impromptu washboard jazz band formed by some members of the crew, which has been a source of annoyance to the opera-lovers throughout the voyage. (Vance was at one time a jazz musician.) Dame Isabel returns to Earth, chastened but determined not to admit it; Roger marries Madoc Roswyn and begins writing a book describing the voyage. |
2849115 | /m/086pns | In the Wet | Nevil Shute | null | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The story is opened by its initial narrator - an Anglican priest named Roger Hargreaves - who describes his ordinary circumstances in a large parish of the Australian outback in 1953. As part of his duties, he has to minister the dying and this brings him into contact with an aged, alcoholic, opium smoking, diseased, ex-pilot and ex-ringer named Stevie. Caught in Stevie's squalid cabin in a heavy rainy season, Hargreaves struggles with recurring malaria whilst on deathwatch for Stevie. As both men are in altered mental states the story shifts and Stevie becomes David 'Nigger' Anderson, a decorated member of the Royal Australian Air Force, telling his story to Hargreaves. But this is a story yet to happen - in 1983, to be exact. 'Nigger' (the name is used quite unselfconsciously and in a manner which may make the modern reader uncomfortable) is a quadroon, of mixed European and Aboriginal ancestry. As a first rate pilot he is chosen by his country to be a member of an elite test pilot team in the UK. Although of humble origins, Nigger has advanced quickly in the RAAF and is soon offered a position commanding one of two aircraft of the Queen's Flight. The England of the 1983 in the story is a technically advanced country that has been abused and bled dry by Socialism. Austerity is the watchword, and rationing is still in force. It is an England in which the Royal Family is both revered, and abused - revered by the common people, and abused by politicians who use them as whipping boys for the economic woes of England. When the politicians attempt to control the foreign travel of the monarch by curtailing her use of government aircraft, the Canadian and Australian governments each donate a modern jet transport to the Queen's Flight, provide for operating expenses, and furnish crews. Nigger is chosen as the captain of the Australian plane. Both Canada and Australia are heavily royalist countries, and Nigger is shocked at one point by the suggestion that Australia could become a republic. Both are democracies, though subject to the "multiple vote"--everyone gets one vote, but other votes can be earned by individuals, up to a maximum of seven. Nigger himself has three votes in Australian elections. At first absorbed by the job, Nigger slowly becomes aware of what is going on around him. He sees the Secretary of State for Air, Lord Coles, inspect the advanced aircraft, and insist that a signal gun be placed in the radio-equipped aircraft in case it needs to land in a field. The Prime Minister, Iorweth Jones, is more intelligent, but only interested in scoring political points. The Royal family, though, is delighted at the gift of the aircraft, and the middle-aged Queen and Consort come down to inspect them. Nigger repeatedly meets, and slowly falls for, a junior secretary to the Queen, Rosemary, daughter of an Oxford don, who is assigned to help streamline the administrative aspects of the Commonwealth aircraft joining the Queen's Flight. Nigger learns of the difficult political situation the Queen is faced with. The Queen's visit to Canada in the Canadian craft coincides with another attack on the Royal Family by Labour politicians. The Prince of Wales has Nigger fly him to Ottawa so he can meet with the Queen. It is later made clear that the Prince carries an ultimatum from himself and his sister (the Queen has only two children)--they will not take the job of monarch as it now stands. Nigger is ordered to fly the Queen and her entourage, including Rosemary not back to England, but on to Australia to meet with politicians there. En route, they have a lengthy refueling delay on Christmas Island, allowing the Queen to relax a bit—until local officials show up with their wives, in formal dress. Nigger, struck with food poisoning, dreams of the scene with Hargreaves and Stevie in the cabin in the wet. After he recovers, the party move on to Australia. The Queen meets not only with current Australian politicians but with elder statesmen Sir Robert Menzies and Arthur Calwell. After the meetings, the Queen is flown back to England but ground control diverts the flight hundreds of miles to Yorkshire on the pretext that the Australian airmen are not qualified to land at a commercial airport - Heathrow - in poor weather. In reality the Australian and Canadian crews which have been trained by BOAC are well qualified to make the landing and the diversion to Yorkshire is apparently for no other purpose than to cause the Queen inconvenience. After Royal intervention the crews are all granted accreditation as civil aviators without further ado. Nigger asks Rosemary to marry him, but she refuses so long as the Queen needs her. Rosemary arranges for Nigger to meet her father, a political scientist, who inadvertently spills the beans of what the Queen is contemplating doing to make the monarchy bearable for her and her family—Britain is to have a Governor General who will deal with the politicians, while the monarch devotes herself to Commonwealth affairs. The Queen announces this on her Christmas broadcast, and makes it clear that she and her family will not return to Britain without the country having undergone political reforms, meaning the multiple vote. Though David takes every precaution to protect the aircraft, which takes off with the Queen soon afterwards, a sixth sense, deriving from his Aboriginal heritage, tells him something is wrong. He searches the party's luggage, and finds a sealed metal box, obviously a bomb. It seems impossible to get the box outside due to winds, but through skilled flying, he is able to create the right conditions. The Queen swears all to secrecy, and awards David the Seventh Vote, given only by Royal commission. The party makes it to Australia safely. Meanwhile, in Britain, the new Governor General has summoned Parliament to debate the multiple vote. Prime Minister Jones' government falls, and a new government, still Labour, is expected to institute the political reform. Now that the Queen is no longer in a crisis situation, Rosemary can leave the royal employment and marry David. In an epilogue, the framing story resumes. Stevie has died peaceably and an exhausted Hargreaves tries to separate dream from reality. This becomes more difficult when the child who will grow to be Nigger is presented to him for christening. |
2853892 | /m/086_55 | Zeno's Conscience | Italo Svevo | 1923 | null | The novel is presented as a diary written by Zeno (who claims that it is full of lies), published by his doctor. The doctor has left a little note in the beginning, saying he had Zeno write an autobiography to help him in his psychoanalysis. The doctor has published the work as revenge for Zeno discontinuing his visits.The diary, however, does not follow the chronological order; instead, it is structured in large chapters, each one developing a particular theme (The smoke addiction, My father's death, History of my marriage and so on). Only the last chapter is a real diary, with pages related to single dates in the period of the First World War. Zeno first writes about his cigarette addiction and cites the first times he smoked. In his first few paragraphs, he remembers his life as a child. One of his friends bought cigarettes for his brother and him. Soon, he steals money from his father to buy tobacco, but finally decides not to do this out of shame. Eventually, he starts to smoke his father's half-smoked cigars instead. The problem with his "last cigarette" starts when he is twenty. He contracts a fever and his doctor tells him that to heal he must abstain from smoking. He decides smoking is bad for him and smokes his "last cigarette" so he can quit. However, this is not his last and he soon becomes plagued with "last cigarettes." He attempts to quit on days of important events in his life and soon obsessively attempts to quit on the basis of the harmony in the numbers of dates. Each time, the cigarette fails to truly be the last. He goes to doctors and asks friends to help him give up the habit, but to no avail. He even commits himself into a clinic, but escapes. When Zeno reaches middle age, his father's health begins to deteriorate. He starts to live closer to his father in case he passes away. Zeno is very different from his father, who is a serious man, while Zeno likes to joke. For instance, when his father states that Zeno is crazy, Zeno goes to the doctor and gets an official certification that he is sane. He shows this to his father who is hurt by this joke and becomes even more convinced that Zeno must be crazy. His father is also afraid of death, being very uncomfortable with the drafting of his will. One night, his father falls gravely ill and loses consciousness. The doctor comes and works on the patient, who is brought out of the clutches of death momentarily. Over the next few days, his father is able to get up and regains a bit of his self. He is restless and shifts positions for comfort often, even though the doctor says that staying in bed would be good for his circulation. One night, as his father tries to roll out of bed, Zeno blocks him from moving, to do as the doctor wished. His angry father then stands up and accidentally slaps Zeno in the face before dying. His memoirs then trace how he meets his wife. When he is starting to learn about the business world, he meets his future father-in-law Giovanni Malfenti, an intelligent and successful businessman, whom Zeno admires. Malfenti has four daughters, Ada, Augusta, Alberta, and Anna, and when Zeno meets them, he decides that he wants to court Ada because of her beauty and since Alberta is quite young, while he regards Augusta as too plain, and Anna is only a little girl. He is unsuccessful and the Malfentis think that he is actually trying to court Augusta. He soon meets his rival for Ada's love, who is Guido Speier. Guido speaks perfect Tuscan (while Zeno speaks the dialect of Trieste), is handsome, and has a full head of hair (compared with Zeno's bald head). That evening, while Guido and Zeno both visit the Malfentis, Zeno proposes to Ada and she rejects him for Guido. Zeno then proposes to Alberta, who is not interested in marrying, and he is rejected by her also. Finally, he proposes to Augusta (who knows that Zeno first proposed to the other two) and she accepts, because she loves him. Very soon, the couples get married and Zeno starts to realize that he can love Augusta. This surprises him as his love for her does not diminish. However, he meets Carla, a poor aspiring singer, and they start an affair, with Carla thinking that Zeno does not love his wife. Meanwhile, Ada and Guido marry and Mr. Malfenti gets sick. Zeno's affection for both Augusta and Carla increases and he has a daughter named Antonia around the time Giovanni passes away. Finally, one day, Carla expresses a sudden whim to see Augusta. Zeno deceives Carla and causes her to meet Ada instead. Carla misrepresents Ada as Zeno's wife, and moved by her beauty and sadness, breaks off the affair. Zeno goes on to relate the business partnership between him and Guido. The two men set up a merchant business together in Trieste. They hire two workers named Luciano and Carmen (who becomes Guido's mistress) and they attempt to make as much profit as possible. However, due to Guido's obsession with debts and credit as well as with the notion of profit, the company does poorly. Guido and Ada's marriage begins to crumble as does Ada's health and beauty. Guido fakes a suicide attempt to gain Ada's compassion and she asks Zeno to help Guido's failing company. Guido starts playing on the Bourse (stock exchange) and loses even more money. On a fishing trip, he asks Zeno about the differences in effects between sodium veronal and veronal and Zeno answers that sodium veronal is fatal while veronal is not. Guido's gambling on the Bourse becomes very destructive and he finally tries to fake another suicide to gain Ada's compassion. However, he takes a fatal amount of veronal and dies. Soon thereafter, Zeno misses Guido's funeral because he himself gambles Guido's money on the Bourse and recovers three quarters of the losses. Zeno describes his current life. It is during the Great War and his daughter Antonia (who greatly resembles Ada) and son Alfio have grown up. He spends his time visiting doctors, looking for a cure to his imagined sickness. One of the doctors claims he is suffering from the Oedipus complex, but Zeno does not believe it to be true. All the doctors are not able to treat him. Finally, he realizes that life itself resembles sickness because it has advancements and setbacks and always ends in death. Human advancement has given mankind not more able bodies, but weapons that can be sold, bought, stolen to prolong life. This deviation from natural selection causes more sickness and weakness in humans. Zeno imagines a time when a person will invent a new, powerful weapon of mass destruction and another will steal it and destroy the world, setting it free of sickness. |
2854751 | /m/087136 | Indian Ink | Tom Stoppard | null | null | In 1930, the year of Gandhi's Salt March, British poet Flora Crewe travels to India for her health. Flora is a thoroughly modern girl who has modeled for Modigliani, hobnobbed with communists, and been accused of obscenity for the racy book A Nymph and Her Muse. In India her portrait is painted by the Indian artist Nirad while she fends off the attentions of a dashing but dimwitted scion of the British Raj. But her bravado hides the knowledge that she is severely ill with tuberculosis. In the 1980s, American academic Eldon Pike seeks out Flora's younger sister Eleanor to discover the truth about the end of the poet's life — she died in India soon after meeting Nirad. Eleanor, who married an Englishman she met at Flora's grave and became a staunch Tory, reveals little to the scholar, sending him off on a wild goose chase tracing Flora's path through India. But she is more welcoming to Nirad's son Anish, who also comes looking for answers. Eleanor shows Anish a painting by Nirad done partly in a classical Indian style, and partly in the style of Western realism. The painting's erotic symbolism convinces him that his father and Flora were lovers before she died. |
2855787 | /m/0873wt | Shadowmancer | Graham Taylor | 2003 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | The story takes place in Whitby and concerns the evil sorcerer Reverend Obadiah Demurral who is seeking two powerful amulets, called the Keruvim, which he plans to use to control the elements and dominate the world. At the start of the book he purchases the first Keruvim (which takes the form of a golden statuette of a cherub) from an Ethiopian mercenary named Gebra Nubera. He then uses the Keruvim to destroy a ship upon which the next Keruvim is prophesied to arrive, but when he surveys the wreckage he finds nothing. The next day an Ethiopian boy named Raphah arrives searching for the Keruvim. He befriends the main character, an urchin named Thomas and reveals that he is a messenger from God (referred to as Riathamus here), and that Demurral is a Shadowmancer, a sorcerer who can control the dead. Despite not believing in God, Thomas agrees to assist Raphah in regaining the Keruvim because he wants revenge on Demurral for evicting him and his dying mother from their home. They pursue Demurral and the Keruvim with the assistance of Thomas's tomboy friend Kate and the mysterious smuggler, Jacob Crane. During the story, Thomas, Kate and Jacob Crane, who all for their own individual reasons did not believe in God, do come to believe in him. Eventually it is revealed that, in using the Keruvim, Demurral has unleashed a demonic race called the Glashan who were imprisoned at the dawn of time for rebelling against God. Led by the evil Pyratheon (the Devil), they join forces with Demurral so that they can find the other Keruvim and harness its power to overthrow God and rule the universe. It is eventually revealed that Raphah is the other Keruvim, so Demurral and Pyratheon try to capture him, so that they can kill him and turn him into an Azimuth (a slave spirit) in order to activate the Keruvim's full power. At the climax of the story Thomas, Kate and Raphah meet an angel referred to as a Seruvim (a play on the word Seraphim) named Raphael, who goes by the alias Abram Rickards. A showdown takes place in Demurral's church during which Raphah is killed and Pyratheon obtains the Keruvim. He recites the incantation to activate its power and the world is temporarily plunged into night. Pyratheon thinks he has succeeded in stealing the power of God and gloats. However Abram then reveals that while Raphah is dead it has no power and all Pyratheon has done is meddle with time. After Abram restores life to Raphah, the sun rises, Abram is revealed in his true form and Pyratheon and Demurral flee. Abram tells Thomas, Kate and Jacob Crane to take the Keruvim away to another land so they leave aboard Crane's ship, The Magenta. However, in the closing page of the book it is revealed that they are being stealthily pursued by sea-demons known as Seloth. |
2855953 | /m/08746l | The Homeward Bounders | Diana Wynne Jones | 1981 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | Twelve-year-old Jamie discovers a strange place in his hometown in which mysterious and demonic entities, known only as Them, are playing a board game with the entire world. Upon his discovering Them, They are forced to make Jamie a Homeward Bounder; this means he must constantly travel from world to world until he finds his home again. Homeward Bounders cannot die, and must not interfere with Play. If he can reach his home he may stay, and re-enter play. No-one is allowed to interfere directly with the Homeward Bounders; for example, if someone were to attempt to hurt or steal from Jamie, that person would die mysteriously. In his travels through the many worlds, Jamie meets the Flying Dutchman, with his ship and crew, and Ahasuerus, the Wandering Jew. In addition, he meets a strange entity chained to a rock by Them. Every day, a Vulture comes to peck at him. While he is never named, the entity is Prometheus (he states that his name means "foresight" and that, according to legend, he was punished for bringing fire to humanity). Jamie becomes skilled at travelling, learning to read the signs left by other Homeward Bounders, growing fluent in many languages and proficient in many unusual skills. So Jamie wanders through the worlds, time passing, never reaching his home, yet hardly aging at all, until he meets Helen Haras-Uquara, from the barbaric world of Uquar. She has a gift - she can change her right arm into anything at all (for instance, an elephant trunk or a snake). Helen has only recently become a Homeward Bounder, because she, like Jamie, has seen Them playing Their game with the worlds. Although she has no experience with anything much, having been shut in a temple for most of her life, she proves to be a resourceful and intelligent person; her knowledge of Them, which mainly comes from the teachings of Uquar, her god, turns out to be very useful. Helen and Jamie travel together until they meet Joris, another new Homeward Bounder, who was a slave and apprentice demon hunter from another world, separated from his master by a demon that showed him Them. The three travel together until they come to a world in which they meet Adam and Vanessa. This world is like our current world, and is also strongly reminiscent of Jamie's home world. He is sure that if they could just travel on one or two worlds more he would reach his Home. The Homeward Bounders convince Adam and Vanessa that They exist, when Konstam, Joris' demon-hunting-master arrives, and joins their party. Konstam is eager to fight this new kind of demon, if only because of the challenge that They present, and the six go and invade Their strange place and try and defeat Them. The attack goes awry, however, and all six of them are made into Homeward Bounders. This fills the Bounder circuits to their maximum capacity; in effect, this means that They cannot create any more Homeward Bounders. Even They must play by Their own rules. Jamie awakens, alone, and realizes that Adam and Vanessa's world is his Home, only 100 years too late - he recognizes a photo of Adam and Vanessa's grandmother when she was young; it was his little sister, grown up. He realizes that although he did not age during his time on the Bounder circuits, time was still passing on his Home world, and his family and his Home world have gone forever. They are cheating; his world is gone. He has no Home to go to. His hope of ever returning home crushed, he returns to the mysterious entity chained to a rock, and inadvertently frees him, as only one without hope can free him. With His help, Jamie rallies all the Homeward Bounders, and they make a frontal assault on the main base of Them, and destroy many of Them and also Their special place, known as "The Real Place". Everyone is returned to their respective home worlds, except for Jamie. Since his home is gone, he chooses to continue to wander through the worlds, so as to keep The Real Place in all the worlds, not just in one place, as They did. So, in the end, Jamie stops Them from returning for at least a few centuries, by giving up any hope of a normal life and having to endure watching his friends die while he stays young. |
2856954 | /m/087611 | A Darkling Plain | Philip Reeve | 3/20/2006 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/06www": "Steampunk"} | Theo Ngoni foils an attempt to murder the now Oenone Naga, General Naga's wife. Oenone suspects that the murder attempt was organized by factions in the Green Storm still loyal to the Stalker Fang. Theo is made commander of an airship that will secretly deliver Lady Naga back home to Batmunkh Gompa. While flying across the Sahara Desert it is revealed that one of Oenone's retinue is really Cynthia Twite, a secret agent for the Stalker Fang first encountered in Infernal Devices. After murdering the pilot, Twite attempts to kill Lady Naga but is foiled by Theo. She escapes from the airship before a bomb she planted explodes. Theo and Oenone are assumed dead. Meanwhile, Tom and Wren encounter a face from the past: Clytie Potts, a historian from London who Tom had assumed perished on the night MEDUSA exploded. She goes by a different name and claims to have never met Tom, but he is unsatisfied and follows her to the cities of the Traktionstadtsgesellschaft. Manchester has recently arrived and is encouraging the German cities to abandon the peace treaty and attack the Green Storm again. Here they also encounter Professor Pennyroyal, who assures them that nobody could have survived the destruction of MEDUSA. A young German soldier named Wolf Kobold, however, claims to have seen Potts' airship flying east towards the ruins of London. He tells them of how he once crash-landed in London and witnessed strange activity. Wolf suspects there are survivors living in the ruins of London, who are working on something secret. Tom and Wren agree to travel with him in his burrowing predator suburb Harrowbarrow to investigate. Meanwhile, Hester Shaw and Shrike (called Grike in US editions), who finds himself unable to kill any humans due to memories unlocked by Dr Zero, have been travelling the Sahara for six months, where they have a chance encounter with Theo. Following the crash, he and Oenone were taken as slaves by a desert town. Hester rescues Theo and shoots several guards. They escape on board Hester and Shrike's sand-ship, killing their pursuers. Theo tells them that Oenone Zero was taken north by a merchant called Napster Varley, and convinces the two to help him rescue her. They sell the sand-ship, buy an airship and travel north. The Stalker Fang is demanding that Fishcake take her east, back to Shan Guo, so she can activate ODIN. They steal a limpet from Brighton (which, after the events of Infernal Devices, is now ruled by warring gangs of Lost Boys) and travel east, eventually arriving at the mountain Zhan Shan in Central Asia. Throughout this journey, the Stalker faces an internal battle between its warlike side and the remnants of Anna Fang, resulting in a split personality. Fishcake comes to love Anna and hate the Stalker Fang. Eventually Anna gains the upper hand, and Fishcake is delighted. After meeting with Sathya in a hermitage on Zhan Shan, they travel to Batmunkh Gompa to try to find Dr. Popjoy (the Engineer who created her) and force him to remove the Stalker Fang personality permanently. Meanwhile Cynthia Twite has returned to Tienjing and informed General Naga of Oenone's supposed death. The General despairs and Twite becomes his own servant so that she can infiltrate his government and then topple it from within. Tom, Wren and Wolf travel across the Green Storm's frontline in Harrowbarrow. They are shocked by his violence when smashing through the line, but still take the Jenny Haniver westwards with him on board. In the ruins of London they make a startling discovery - survivors are indeed living amongst the ruins, including two people Tom knew from his life on London: Clytie Potts and Chudleigh Pomeroy, who is the new mayor. They are welcomed into the community suspiciously, but Wren thinks the Londoners are hiding something from them. Fishcake and Anna arrive at Popjoy's villa, but in killing his guards she reverts to her Stalker self, and the plan backfires as she makes Popjoy try and remove the Anna parts of her instead. He tells her he cannot, so she kills him and steals his airship to travel east to activate ODIN, accompanied by a miserable Fishcake. In the ruins of London, Wren and Wolf make a discovery - the Londoners are concealing a new city called "New London", built to float above the ground using the Ancients' magnetic levitation technology. Wolf escapes from London with this knowledge, intending to return and devour it with Harrowbarrow. Napster Varley arrives in Airhaven, which is floating above the Traktionstadtsgesellschaft, and makes cautious attempts to sell Oenone. Hester, Theo and Shrike arrive shortly afterwards and attempt to buy her back, but they do not have enough money. Hester then finds Pennyroyal hiding in Airhaven, in disgrace and debt after a newspaper exposed him as a fraud. She takes what remains of his money and heads to Varley's ship to buy Oenone back. Pennyroyal realises what she is doing and rounds up a group of troops from Manchester to try to get there first. Hester attempts to cheat Varley, but is discovered and has to fight her way out. He is killed by his wife and she escapes with Oenone when Pennyroyal and his troops challenge them. A fight ensues, and in the confusion Hester and her party manage to escape on their airship with Oenone. Pennyroyal falls from Airhaven, and is assumed killed, but instead lands in the rigging of Hester's airship and is begrudgingly taken on as a passenger. The five of them make it across no-man's land to a Green Storm airbase, where they are hailed as heroes. The airbase is soon attacked by the Traktionstadtsgesellschaft, however - at the urging of Manchester, the war has begun again. All of them manage to escape in an airship heading east except Theo, who turns back to recover a letter he had from Wren. Meanwhile the Stalker Fang and Fishcake arrive in Erdene Tezh, her old home. She begins to assemble a powerful radio station to send a signal to ODIN. Theo survives the attack on the airfield and, as the letter from Wren says she intended to explore the ruins of London, he treks east across the plains to find her. He is welcomed into the ruins by the community there and reunited with Wren, but brings bad news that the war has started again. The development of New London is pushed faster, the Londoners eager to escape before the cities of the west arrive. The Stalker Fang has activated ODIN, however, and turns it on the Traktionstadtsgesellschaft. Manchester and many other cities are completely destroyed, and the surviving cities flee west. In Tienjing, news of Oenone's survival reaches General Naga. He realises Cynthia Twite had deceived him and confronts her. She is about to kill him when ODIN fires upon the city. Twite is killed instantly but Naga survives. He takes the shattered remnants of his government and flees to Batmunkh Gompa. News of ODIN's destruction reaches the ruins of London. They have no idea it has been turned on Green Storm cities as well, and assume it is a new weapon of Naga's. Tom decides to take the Jenny Haniver east to talk to the General and tell him about New London, and how it will not damage the earth as the other Traction Cities do. He sneaks away in the dead of night, leaving a letter for Wren, confident that Theo and Chudleigh Pomeroy will look after her. In no-man's land, news comes to Harrowbarrow of the destruction of the Traktionstadtsgesellschaft. Wolf is determined to carry on to the ruins of London, and tells his second-in-command that after the Sixty Minute War, the creatures that survived best were cockroaches and rats. He believes that with the old cities gone, the time for creeping places like Harrowbarrow is at hand, and they continue east. On the same night that Tom slipped away, Chudleigh Pomeroy died in his sleep. The new mayor appointed is Mr. Garamond, the paranoid head of security who is convinced that Tom has gone to tell the cities about New London, and that Wren and Theo are traitors. He orders them locked up, but an Engineer (the mother of Bevis Pod) believes he is wrong and frees them in the night. They sneak away west through the debris fields. Tom arrives in Batmunkh Gompa and is taken prisoner by the Green Storm. General Naga speaks to him, but does not believe him about New London. He does, however, believe that something is going on in London's ruins, and becomes suspicious. Hester's party arrive in Batmunkh Gompa to discover that Tienjing has been destroyed. Shrike speculates that perhaps the Green Storm does not control ODIN; that it is instead in the hands of a third party, the Stalker Fang. Hester also learns that Tom is being held captive in the city, and goes to see him. Oenone meets General Naga but he no longer trusts her, and hits her. He still believes ODIN to be a weapon of the Traktionstadtsgesellschaft, and since Oenone wanted the peace treaty, tells her it is her fault. He has her imprisoned and flies to the ruins of London with a fleet of airships. Hester is awkwardly reunited with Tom. She frees him just as Pennyroyal comes back from the audience chamber with Naga; he tells them that Oenone has fallen from grace, and Naga intends to destroy London. Another blast from ODIN strikes just to the south, triggering the volcano of Zhan Shan. Shrike suggests they find ODIN's true ground station and destroy it before any more attacks occur. Leaving the debris fields of London, Wren and Theo encounter Harrowbarrow approaching. Theo runs back to warn the Londoners, as Wren stays and convinces Wolf to lead Harrowbarrow down 'Electric Lane' a clearing where anything metal is struck by lightning from the remnants of MEDUSA. The Green Storm's air fleet then arrive and the Londoners demonstrate New London's levitation to Naga. He decrees that it is not a city, just a "very large, low-flying airship" and decides to help defend them against the approaching predator suburb. Hester, Tom and Shrike fly towards Erdene Tezh, where ODIN's ground station is located. During the journey Hester confesses to Tom that she is Valentine's daughter, and he forgives her for betraying Anchorage. They fall in love again, but are interrupted by Shrike announcing that he has discovered a stowaway: Pennyroyal. As they decide what to do with him, the airship is attacked by Stalker-birds. Shrike defends the ship but falls from it, disappearing down into the mountains. The Jenny Haniver then crashes on the shores of the lake at Erdene Tezh, and the three escape as it burns to ashes. Hester ties up Pennyroyal and leaves him in the bushes as she and Tom approach the house where the ground station is. The Stalker Fang (whose personalities have fused back into one) confronts them. Fishcake is with her and, bitter about their betrayal in Infernal Devices, demands that Fang kill them. Tom has a heart attack, however, and she takes them into her house as prisoners. Meanwhile, Theo and Wren are engaged in a sword fight with Wolf on top of Harrowbarrow, as New London flees through the debris fields. Wolf is killed and they are rescued by General Naga, who takes them back to New London. Harrowbarrow still chases the young city, however, and the General sacrifices himself by flying his airship into its mouth in a kamikaze attack, destroying both of them. New London escapes across the plains. Shrike recovers from his fall into the mountains, and climbs out of a frozen lake, running towards Erdene Tezh. Fishcake discovers Pennyroyal in the bushes and frees him, telling him about the airship and how the keys are kept around the Stalker's neck. Pennyroyal realises he has no other way to escape, salvages an electricity gun from the wreck of the Jenny Haniver, and creeps towards the house. Inside Tom has recovered from his heart attack, and Fang tells the two of them about her plans. She intends to fire ODIN on volcanoes across the world, blotting out the sky with volcanic ash and wiping out the Human race. She believes it is the only way to make the world green again. Tom pleads with the Anna side of her to destroy ODIN, and after an internal struggle the Stalker sends a new set of orders up to the orbiting weapon. Pennyroyal bursts into the house and attacks Fang with the electricity gun shortly after. He manages to kill her, but also sets the house on fire. Tom has another heart attack, and lies helpless in Hester's arms. She drags him outside as Pennyroyal runs to get the airship and get Tom to a doctor. On board the airship, however, Fishcake puts a knife to Pennyroyal's throat and forces him to fly away, abandoning Tom and Hester the same way they abandoned him on Brighton. Hester sees him fly away, and understands. Tom dies in her arms, and Hester peacefully commits suicide to be with him in death. Above them, ODIN follows Anna Fang's last order and turns its weapon upon itself, raining debris down on the planet. With the Green Storm's armies shattered and the Traktionstadtsgesellschaft smashed, Oenone is appointed the new leader of Shan Guo. New London prospers, and Wren and Theo become air-traders. Fishcake returns to the mountains to find Sathya; he grows old and has children, and finds in his later life that he regrets leaving Tom and Hester. Pennyroyal tries to publish a new book about what happened at Erdene Tezh, telling the truth this time. He cannot find a publisher for it, however, and lives out his last days with Minty Bapsnack, an old girlfriend in the Traction City of Peripetitiapolis. The final chapter deals with Shrike (called Grike in US editions), and how he arrives at Erdene Tezh too late. He finds Tom and Hester's bodies, and takes them up into the mountains where he lays them down together. Because of his everlasting being, He is able to watch as they decompose over a fairly long period of time, and new plants and trees grow from their remains. He then shuts down into hibernation, and sees hundreds of years go past like minutes, he sees a girl putting a ring of flowers around his neck, and starts to slow his hibernation. He sees another girl, who thought he was just an old statue, and put flowers around him for luck, she says that her family have been hanging the flowers since her mother's mother's time, showing that he took two generations to slow his hibernation. He follows her down into a valley where her village rests (built around the ruins of an old city), where he starts to decipher their language, and discovers that traction cities are considered a fairytale. Cities no longer move except in stories, showing that some knowledge of Municipal Darwinism has lived on, and airships still exist, powered by magnetic levitation. They ask if he is one of the machine men out of stories they have heard, again showing some memory of Stalkers. They ask Shrike what he is for, and he tells them he is a Remembering Machine. He says that he remembers the age of the Traction Cities, London and Arkangel, Thaddeus Valentine and Anna Fang, and Hester and Tom. The villagers gather round and ask him to tell them. He begins to tell them his story, beginning with the first line of Mortal Engines. |
2858180 | /m/08782v | The Soddit | Adam Roberts | 2003 | {"/m/0gf28": "Parody", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | The story starts with a peaceful Soddit called Bingo who is visited by a wizard and a party of dwarfs who ask Bingo to come with them on a quest to 'The Only Mountain' where 'Smug the Dragon' lives. After a few drinks, Bingo accepts, not knowing what they were actually searching for. "Gold, boyo gold, la, look you." On the way, they have many adventures and close shaves. Bingo finds a 'Thing®' that was created by the Evil Sharon and is potentially the most evil Thing® in the world. Bingo steals the Thing® and continues to escort the dwarfs and the hastily sickening wizard to the only mountain, where horror strikes. |
2859965 | /m/087cz_ | The Stone Angel | Margaret Laurence | null | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | In a series of vignettes, The Stone Angel tells the story of Hagar Shipley, a 90-year old woman struggling to come to grips with a life of intransigence and loss. "Pride was my wilderness, the demon that led me there was fear." |
2860088 | /m/087d5b | The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Eréndira and her Heartless Grandmother | Gabriel García Márquez | 1978 | null | A 14-year-old girl (Eréndira) is living with her grandmother when she accidentally sets fire to their home. The grandmother forces Eréndira to repay the debt by becoming a prostitute as they travel a road as vagrants. Men line up to enjoy Eréndira's services and eventually after several years, Ulises, one of her clients, falls in love with her. She returns his affection and eventually he becomes willing to help her to freedom; he formulates a plan to escape with her and live off a fortune from oranges which contain diamonds smuggled by his Dutch father. The only obstacle lies in her grandmother, whom Eréndira convinces Ulises to kill. Not being the homicidal type, he attempts poisoning and an explosive, but must eventually resort to stabbing her while she sleeps. After he regains his composure following the murder, Eréndira runs off into the night alone leaving him in the tent with the grandmother. Eréndira and her grandmother make an appearance in One Hundred Years of Solitude, another book by García Márquez. Also included in this story are characters from other Márquez works, such as the spider with the woman's head from "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" and Blacamán the Good from the story "Blacamán the Good: Vendor of Miracles". |
2860494 | /m/087dsy | The Parsifal Mosaic | Robert Ludlum | 2/12/1982 | {"/m/06wkf": "Spy fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Michael Havelock, (an anglicized version of Mikhail Havlíček), is an intelligence officer working for the US State Departments black operation division "Consular Ops". At the beginning of the novel he believes he has just witnessed the execution of his partner and the love of his life, Jenna Karas (anglicized version of Jenna Karasova) along an isolated stretch of the Costa Brava. Jenna had been marked for execution because she had been proved to be a KGB double agent. He immediately leaves the intelligence world, something he had been considering doing for some time and goes sightseeing in areas he had previously visited. In Athens, Pyotr Rostov, a senior director of the KGB forces a meeting with Havelock. Rostov denies that Karas is an agent of theirs. Later, in Rome, Havelock sees Jenna alive at a train station. She flees him, frightened, and he pursues her. He makes contact with a former source at the US Consulate called Colonel Baylor, and begins his search for Jenna throughout several countries. Meanwhile, strategists for Consular Operations in the US government decide that he is a paranoid schizophrenic and must be terminated, lest he compromise entire networks across Europe. All the evidence available to them indicates that Karas was a double agent, and was successfully terminated on the Costa Brava. So one of them, "Red" Ogivile sets up an ambush on the Palatine hill in Rome with the intention of taking Michael in. However, the two mercinares he hired are taken out by Michael, the gas grenade he uses only affects him when michael lashes out, and after being convinced of Havelock's innocence, he ends up taking an accidental bullet from Colonel Baylor who was sent to kill Havelock. Back in the United States, however, the US government has a problem of its own: Anton Matthias, Secretary of State, acknowledged by the entire world as a genius and trusted with powers far beyond those his office allow him, has gone completely insane. Before anybody realized that he was insane, he negotiated treaties with parties he believed to be representing the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the People's Republic of China, each agreeing to a nuclear strike against the third party, but in fact with a man who identified himself as Parsifal. Parsifal demands a huge ransom to keep the documents from being released, thereby triggering a nuclear war. Once the ransom is paid, however, he does not touch it, having confirmed how desperate Washington is. Havelock, who as a child had been one of the few survivors of the massacre at Lidice, has a special bond with Matthias, a fellow Czech who had advised him in graduate school. Somehow Matthias's insanity is linked to the order to terminate Jenna Karas. For her part, Karas has been told that Michael is a Russian spy and that he is trying to kill her. Consequently, she is not especially eager to meet him. When Michael finally traces Jenna to an isolated farm in Pennsylvania, they realize that they were both deceived and that each had been told that the other was an enemy. They then work together with the President of the United States, Charles Berquist, and several trusted advisors to find Parsifal and stop him. They are opposed by Arthur Pierce, a brilliant and murderous Soviet mole highly placed in the State Department. Pierce has ordered the murders of the strategists of Consular Operations ( two of them are crushed by a bulldozer in their car and driven off a cliff and another is shot), and then a string of successive killings - all in his own quest to gain evidence of Matthias's insanity. Pierce is working not for the regular KGB, but the VKR (Voennaya Kontra Razvedka), a fanatical branch of Russian intelligence identified as an offshoot of the OGPU. He is also, for that matter, a paminyatchik - an agent under deep cover, who has lived in the United States since infancy. For much of the novel, Pierce's true loyalties lie undiscovered. One of Havelock's allies, Undersecretary of State Emory Bradford, realizes that Pierce works for the VKR, but he is murdered by the ever-alert Pierce before he can warn anyone else. Pierce also solicits the murder of Rostov, who loathes the VKR and has tried to help Havelock. When Michael finally finds Parsifal, a friend of Anton and a Paminyatchik who is less fanatical than Arthur Pierce, he finds out that the documents were not produced to provoke nuclear war, but rather to demonstrate that no one man could be trusted with vast amounts of power. Pierce, however, has had his operatives murder Michael's bodyguards and breaks into Parsifal's house just as he agree's to burn the documents. However hearing that Rostov has been mudured, Prarsifal decides to sacrifice himself by using his body to block Pierce's gun allowing him and Jenna time to get out. Michael and Jenna then kill Pierce's operatives by stabbing them and Michael then flanks Pierce and guns him down. They conclude that the documentary evidence of Matthias's insanity is best destroyed. Havelock tells Berquist of this; he is informed, in turn, that Matthias has just died . Finally safe, he and Jenna move to New England, where Havelock accepts an academic position. |
2861858 | /m/087hs5 | Man, Woman and Child | Erich Segal | null | null | Robert is contacted one day by a friend in France, who tells him that Nicole, a woman with whom Robert had had an affair years ago, has died - and Jean-Claude, the son Robert never knew he had, is now an orphan. That evening, Robert explains the situation to Sheila, and they agree to take in Jean-Claude for the summer holidays; however, they also agree to keep Jean-Claude's true identity a secret. Later that summer, Sheila, a journalist, is tempted by the possibility of an affair with an author she has been interviewing. At the same time, Jessica and Paula discover Jean-Claude's true identity, through Davey Ackerman, Robert's friend's son. They refuse to speak to their parents. As the Beckwiths are bringing Jean-Claude to the airport to return to France, he suddenly falls ill and is hospitalized. After surgery, during which the Beckwiths become closer again, he makes a full recovery. At last, the whole family come to terms with Jean-Claude and would like him to live with them. However, Jean-Claude refuse politely, for he has to go to the school in France chosen by his mother years before. This ending is not wonderful, but thoughtful. |
2864563 | /m/087p8j | The Rover | Joseph Conrad | null | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/037mh8": "Philosophy"} | The story takes place in the south of France, against the backdrop of the French Revolution, Napoleon's rise to power, and the French-English rivalry in the Mediterranean. Peyrol (a master-gunner in the French republican navy, pirate, and for nearly fifty years "rover of the outer seas") attempts to find refuge in an isolated farmhouse (Escampobar) on the Giens Peninsula near Hyères. The story is about Peyrol's attempt at withdrawal from an action- and blood-filled life; his involvement with the pariahs of Escampobar; the struggle for his identity and allegiance, which is resolved in his last voyage. |
2866225 | /m/087sfw | Nor Crystal Tears | Alan Dean Foster | 8/12/1982 | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The story follows a Thranx, Ryozenzuzex (i.e. Ryo, of Family Zen, clan Zu, Hive Zex) who came from an odd numbered hatching (thranx offspring almost always come in multiples of two) immediately making him somewhat different from his brethren. Setting himself aside as different Ryo decides that he has to know what is the secret of the new space faring race that supposedly wear "their skeletons inside". To accomplish this un-thranxlike task Ryo travels from his home planet, Willow-Wane, to the ice caps of the Thranx home world, Hivehom with the aid of the wealthy Wuuzelansem, a poet in-search of inspiration. Once on Hivehom he is confronted with the "monsters" and comes to the conclusion that they must set them free, believing that an alliance between Thranx and these so-called "humans" is the only way to stop the aggressive advances of the AAnn Empire. Thranx military and scientists, by studying the contained humans tendency to fight amongst each other came to the conclusion that the entire species could be insane and would destroy Thranx society if they were to attempt any further contact. Ryo, after spending a good amount of time with the humans decides to aid in their escape from Hivehom. Once they escape they return to a human research station where the reaction to Ryo is worse than anticipated. When the scientists there decide to kill and dissect Ryo the crew he rescued from Hivehom returns the favor and helps him escape his death sentence. It is at this point Ryo and the crew come to the conclusion that they must start a long term program in order to properly integrate human and thranx society. With the scientists he befriended on Hivehom, Ryo brings a group of human children and researchers to interact with a group of Thranx larvae on his home of Willow-Wane in an attempt to build lasting race relations. The larvae and human children seem to get along well and the compatibility between the two races is confirmed. When an AAnn raiding party attacks Ryo's hive the militant humans take action which results in a formal first contact between both human and Thranx governments. By his risky actions, Ryo plants the seeds of what would become the Humanx Commonwealth. |
2866829 | /m/087ts2 | The Mysteries of Harris Burdick | Chris Van Allsburg | null | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | A fictional editor's note tells of an encounter between a children's book editor named Peter Wenders and an author and illustrator named Harris Burdick, who says he has 14 stories that he has written; he has brought one picture from each story with a caption. He leaves with a promise to deliver the complete manuscripts if the editor chooses to buy the books. The next day, Burdick didn't show up. Burdick never returned to Wenders' office. Over the years, Wenders tried to find out who Harris Burdick was, but he never found out. Burdick was never seen again, and the samples are all that remain of his supposed books. Readers are challenged to imagine their own stories based on the images in the book. In 1984, Chris Van Allsburg visited Wenders' office, and Wenders showed him Burdick's drawings. Van Allsburg decided that maybe if he published the drawings, they may find out who Harris Burdick was. Both Wenders and Van Allsburg were sure that someone would come with information about Burdick. Then, in 1993, a dealer in antique books, told them that he had purchased an entire library that had previously belonged to a recently deceased woman, including an antique mirror with portraits of characters from Through the Looking-Glass. The mirror fell from the wall and cracked open. Neatly concealed between the wooden frame and the mirror was an image identical to Burdick's other works; its caption identified it being from the Burdick story "Missing in Venice." As said on the Burdick website, Peter Wenders died in 2000 at the age of 91. |
2867874 | /m/087x45 | The Forest of Doom | Ian Livingstone | null | {"/m/03ff00": "Gamebook", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The player takes the role of an adventurer on a quest to retrieve a magical warhammer for the dwarves of the village of Stonebridge, which has apparently been stolen and hidden in separate pieces by goblins in Darkwood Forest. |
2868364 | /m/087y55 | City of Thieves | Ian Livingstone | null | {"/m/03ff00": "Gamebook", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The player takes the role of an adventurer on a quest to find and stop the powerful Night Prince Zanbar Bone, a being whose minions are terrorizing a local town. Hired by a desperate mayor, the player must as the adventurer journey to the dangerous city-state of Port Blacksand (the "City of Thieves"), and find the wizard Nicodemus, who apparently knows of Bone's one weakness. What follows is a series of challenges as the player must locate certain key items, escape Port Blacksand and eventually confront Bone. |
2869023 | /m/087zk8 | A Madman's Diary | Lu Xun | null | null | The story is allegedly a copy of the diary entries (in vernacular Chinese) of a madman who, according to the foreword written in classical Chinese, has now been cured of his delusive paranoia. After extensively studying Chinese history as outlined in the Four books and five classics of his culture, the diary writer, the supposed "madman", began to see the words "Eat People!" written between the lines of the texts (Lu Xun implies this figuratively, although in the story's context, this could be read literally). Seeing the people in his village as potential man-eaters, he is gripped by the fear that everyone, including his brother, his venerable doctor and his neighbors, who are crowding about to watch him, are harboring cannibalistic thoughts on him. It is anti-traditional in the sense that the other characters are portrayed as heartless, bound to tradition, and cannibalistic, yet the madman's fears are depicted as genuine. Despite the brother's apparent genuine concern, the narrator still regards him as big a threat as any stranger. The insanity of the narrator is never proven, however. Towards the end the narrator turns his concern to the younger generation, especially his late sister (who died when she was five) as he is afraid they will be cannibalized. By then he is convinced that his late sister had been eaten up by his brother, and that the narrator might have unwittingly tasted her flesh. The story ends with a famous line: "Save the children..." |
2869620 | /m/08801d | The 48 Laws of Power | Robert Greene | null | null | The 48 Laws of Power are a distillation of 3,000 years of the history of power, drawing on the lives of strategists and historical figures like Niccolò Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, Carl von Clausewitz, Queen Elizabeth I, Henry Kissinger, and P.T. Barnum. The book is intended to show people how to gain power, preserve it, and defend themselves against power manipulators. Each law is its own chapter, complete with a "transgression of the law," "observation of the law," and a "reversal." Those laws are: # Never outshine the master. # Never put too much trust in friends; learn how to use enemies. # Conceal your intentions. # Always say less than necessary. # Create a Sense of Urgency and Desperation: The Death-Ground Strategy. # Court attention at all costs. # Get others to do the work for you, but always take the credit. # Make other people come to you; use bait if necessary. # Win through your actions, never through argument. # Infection: avoid the unhappy and unlucky. # Learn to keep people dependent on you. # Use selective honesty and generosity to disarm your victim. # When asking for help, appeal to people's self-interests, never to their mercy or gratitude. # Pose as a friend, work as a spy. # Crush your enemy totally. # Use absence to increase respect and honor. # Keep others in suspended terror: cultivate an air of unpredictability. # Do not build fortresses to protect yourself. Isolation is dangerous. # Know who you're dealing with; do not offend the wrong person. # Do not commit to anyone. # Play a sucker to catch a sucker: play dumber than your mark. # Use the surrender tactic: transform weakness into power. # Concentrate your forces. # Play the perfect courtier. # Re-create yourself. # Keep your hands clean. # Play on people's need to believe to create a cultlike following. # Enter action with boldness. # Plan all the way to the end. # Make your accomplishments seem effortless. # Control the options: get others to play with the cards you deal. # Play to people's fantasies. # Discover each man's thumbscrew. # Be royal in your fashion: act like a king to be treated like one. # Master the art of timing. # Disdain things you cannot have: Ignoring them is the best revenge. # Create compelling spectacles. # Think as you like but behave like others. # Stir up waters to catch fish. # Despise the free lunch. # Avoid stepping into a great man's shoes. # Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter. # Work on the hearts and minds of others. # Disarm and infuriate with the mirror effect. # Preach the need for change, but never reform too much at once. # Never appear perfect. # Do not go past the mark you aimed for; in victory, learn when to stop. # Assume formlessness. |
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