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3206427 | /m/08z8x1 | Deenie | Judy Blume | 1973 | {"/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature"} | Deenie chronicles the life of thirteen-year-old Wilmadeene "Deenie" Fenner, whose mother is determined to have her become a model. At the same time, Deenie's 16-year-old sister, Helen, who is academically proficient, is being pushed by their mother to keep her grades up so that she can eventually become a doctor or lawyer. One day, Deenie is diagnosed with scoliosis, and is prescribed a body brace to wear for the next four years. At the same time, Helen has fallen in love with Joey, a charming and romantic young gentleman who works for the family business (a gas station). Mrs. Fenner, upset that her plans for her daughters are coming undone, has Joey fired and still exhorts Deenie to pursue a modeling career once she stops wearing the back brace. Though fearful that Helen will hate her because Mrs. Fenner said that Joey was let go because of the family's doctors' bills, Deenie is astonished to learn that Helen refuses to blame her for Joey's departure, and the sisters close ranks. Though initially upset at having to wear the body brace, Deenie eventually resigns herself to her fate. She finds herself at peace with the idea of not becoming a model, and, inspired by her experience, begins to ponder a future career as an orthopedist, concluding that she never really wanted to be a model herself. The book concludes with Deenie asking her father to not wear the brace to a party, and though her mom is surprisingly relaxed about it, her father, who until now was rather mute about everything, firmly says 'no', rightfully pointing out that she'd want to not wear it for every special occasion if he gave in. In defiance, she brings a bag with clothes that fit her without the brace with the intention to change once she got to the party, but once there, Deenie changes her mind and leaves the brace on. Other story arcs include Deenie's friendship with a girl whose eczema alienates her, and Deenie's anxiety over whether her crush will still like her in spite of her back brace. Deenie is named after the character Natalie Wood played in Splendor in the Grass. The movie itself was mentioned in description in the book, though the name of the movie was not, possibly due to copyright reasons. |
3207099 | /m/08zbch | Woman In Mind | Alan Ayckbourn | null | null | Susan awakes to a man tending to her speaking apparent gibberish, actually misheard English (such as “Squeezy cow, squeezy” really meaning “Easy now, easy”). He is Dr. Windsor (or “octer bin sir”), and Susan suggests she's died and gone where no-one speaks English, and when Bill says “December bee” (“Remember me”), Susan retorts that there are no bees in December. When Bill's language starts to make sense, he explains she knocked herself out with a garden rake. After Bill leaves to fetch a cup of tea, Susan's husband (Andy), lovingly tends to her, joined by daughter Lucy and brother Tony,fresh from the tennis courts. All show concern for her welfare and tease her about the rake. Lucy and Tony fetch the ice, and Andy goes to cancel the ambulance Bill has ordered. When Bill returns, however, it is apparent something is not right. Bill sees a tiny garden, whilst Susan insists her garden is massive, complete with rose-beds, swimming pool, tennis courts and lake. Susan also denies having a sister-in-law or son and becomes more confused when Bill says that her husband has not yet come home. When her real husband (Gerald) and sister-in-law (Muriel) enter, Susan faints. The following day, Susan, dozing in the garden, is woken by Gerald. Now back in tune with the real world, she openly discusses the deadness of their marriage, something Gerald insensitively glosses over. Muriel serves “coffee”: ground coffee prepared as one would do instant. Indignantly Muriel points out she tended to her late mother, then late husband (or finished off, as Susan sees it) before digressing into her deluded conviction that her late husband's ghost will return with a message. When Gerald reminds Susan that their son, Rick, is coming for lunch, it transpires that he joined a sect two years ago that forbids members from talking to their parents. He writes, but only to Gerald. Susan, hurt by this, blames this (and Rick's fear of women) on the public school scholarship Gerald bullied him to take. Susan is momentarily distracted by glimpses of Tony and Lucy, before Bill returns to check on Susan, only to be drawn into Gerald's account of the book he's writing on the history of the Parish. Susan therefore takes the opportunity to talk to Lucy, who praises her for her status as a historical novelist, and then informs her (naturally Susan is the first to know) that she is getting married. In the real world, Bill agrees to stay for lunch (Muriel's “omelette surprise”, where she mistakes the tea tin for herbs). Gerald makes excuses for the sect, until confessing that Rick is coming to sell the possessions in his room – something that horrifies Susan as this is all she has left of him. Bill offers to act as a go-between so that Gerald and Susan can communicate with their son. When Rick arrives, even Gerald has trouble bringing himself into the house. But before Susan can enter, her imaginary family brings her a sumptuous outdoor banquet, and persuades her to dine with them instead. Rick then comes into the garden and, to Susan's surprise, asks her to come inside. As she goes to her son, she collapses again. Susan wakes to find Rick still speaking to her, explaining that he has left the sect he and now has a girlfriend. Her joy, however, is short-lived when she learns they are already married and they are moving to Thailand – her to do nursing, and him to do “odd jobs”. He will not even allow Susan to see her, because Rick is embarrassed by the way she acted around past girlfriends. Rick leaves a stung Susan to explain this to Gerald, who says “it's not fair to lay all the blame at your door”. They get into a fierce argument, with Susan egged on by Tony and Lucy (by now sitting in on most of Susan's conversations). Lucy tries to console Susan by praising her status as a brilliant heart surgeon. This time, Susan snaps at Lucy to shut up. Lucy runs off in tears, and Susan tries to apologise only for it to be accepted by Gerald. In the sunset of her imaginary world, Andy caresses Susan and forgives her for being angry with Lucy. Susan, now worried by the increasing influence that Lucy, Tony and Andy have on her real life, tries asks Andy to leave her alone. Andy says they will go when she asks, but stays when Susan does so, suggesting she didn't really mean it. The scene becomes unreal, with Andy anticipating everything Susan says, then the voices of Susan and her imaginary family coming out of both their mouths. Back in reality, Susan find Bill beside her (who fled on mention of a dessert, but has now returned). Susan confides to Bill about her hallucinations, and when asked about Rick, tells him a semi-fantasy where he is getting married, and she has met her daughter-in-law to be. Having previously hinted over his own family life – two daughters married to wheeler-dealer stockbrokers and a wife probably cheating with another doctor – Bill reveal how he feels about her, and his about to kiss her when Susan points to Lucy. Bill tries to humour Susan by talking where Susan pointed, but Lucy has already moved away. Tony and Andy arrive, and suddenly, Bill become part of her fantasy – now a wheeler-dealer stockbroker poaching rabbits. His is thrown into the lake, leaving Andy and Susan to reminisce on their own wedding day. As he kisses her, Susan weakly protests with “Oh dear God! I'm making love to the devil!” At an indeterminate time overnight, Gerald and Rick find Susan sprawled out on the middle of the lawn during a thunderstorm. Gerald tries to bring Susan inside, but she mocks him with an offer of a quiet divorce. It appears that Susan has burnt Gerald's precious book of the Parish, something Susan has no memory of. Then Muriel comes out screaming, having read a message of “Knickers off Muriel”. She refuses all pleas to come inside, denouncing Gerald for narrow-minded meanness, Rick as a priggish brat, and Muriel for wanting a phantom pregnancy. Tony appears and opens an umbrella and the storm ends in time for what initially appears to be Lucy's wedding, but Tony and Andy appear to be some sort of race stewards, and Lucy, although dressed as a bride, seems to be taking part in a “brides race”. Meanwhile, Bill becomes a clichéd bookie, Muriel is a heavily pregnant French maid, Gerald is an Archbishop and Susan's real son Rick (now an odd-job man), to her horror, seems to be the groom for her imaginary daughter Lucy. All kinds of snippets relating to her real life mesh together as a surrealistic nightmare. Ignoring Susan's protests, they all toast her, acclaiming Susan as precious to them all, demanding a speech. The final shred of reality is when Muriel says “The ambulance is on its way”, and a blue light flashes. Susan's speech descends into she same gibberish Bill used at the beginning of the play, and, with a desperate request to "December bee", she collapses a final time. |
3207665 | /m/08zcgw | A Dweller in Two Planets | null | 1905 | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | In its introduction, Oliver claims that the book had been channeled through him via automatic writing, visions and mental "dictations", by a spirit calling himself Phylos the Tibetan who revealed the story to him over a period of three years, beginning in 1883. |
3208132 | /m/08zd4x | A Day with Wilbur Robinson | William Joyce | 1990 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | A Day With Wilbur Robinson follows the story of a boy (13 years old) who visits an unusual family and their home. While spending the day in the Robinson household, Wilbur's best friend joins in the search for Grandfather Robinson's missing false teeth and meets one wacky relative after another. |
3208774 | /m/08zfdj | The Man Who Went Up in Smoke | Per Wahlöö | 1966 | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction"} | Beck leaves his holiday and travels to Hungary to search for a missing journalist called Alf Matsson. After intersecting with the Budapest police and the criminal underground, he begins to wonder if Matsson ever entered the country. |
3211116 | /m/08zks1 | The Book of Three | Lloyd Alexander | 1964-08 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The youth Taran lives at Caer Dallben with his guardians, the ancient enchanter Dallben and the farmer and retired soldier Coll. He is dissatisfied with his life as a farm laborer, longing to become a great hero like High Prince Gwydion and others he knows from his studies with Dallben. Dallben discourages Taran's daydreaming and tells him of a new threat beside Arawn: a warlord known as the Horned King. He forbids Taran from leaving the farm or the care of Hen Wen, the oracular white pig. Coll, attempting to mollify Taran by conferring upon him the title of Assistant Pig-Keeper. The responsibility does not please Taran nor can he fulfill it when Hen Wen flees the farm in evident terror, following the bees and chickens. Dallben and Coll hope to ask Hen Wen about the animals' unrest. Before they can do so, she overwhelms Taran who follows her into the forbidden forest. After a long chase and losing her trail, he watches a host of horsemen gallop toward his home, led by one who must be the Horned King himself. One warrior spots him but he escapes with a glancing blow from one sword hurled at distance, and runs again until he drops. He awakes to find his wound treated by none other than Gwydion, the crown prince in Prydain's ruling House of Dôn, who has been traveling to Caer Dallben to consult Hen Wen himself. One of Taran's heroes, he does not fit expectations. Learning the Horned King has passed that way and the pig this way, he determines to follow the pig and takes Taran along. They encounter Gurgi, a hairy humanoid living in the forest, who has seen Hen Wen cross the river Avren northward, who is also able to lead them to the Horned King's camp. There under cover of darkness they observe a ceremonial sacrifice of captives by the local warlords who have joined with the Horned King. Gwydion surmises that their target will be Caer Dathyl far to the north, the home castle of the House of Don. He determines to ride that way in warning rather than look for the pig. (He explains much Prydain geography to Taran.) Gurgi flees when four scouts discover the companions. Gwydion captures one by enchantment and slays another, so the horsemen fall back, but a pair of undead footsoldiers remorselessly approach: the Cauldron-Born. Gwydion orders Taran to flee for his life on the horse Melyngar, but Taran stands his ground. The Cauldron-Born are deathless and powerful; fortunately, their goal is capture. Both men are wounded as they and Melyngar are taken ... to Queen Achren in Spiral Castle. The sorceress asks Gwydion to join her in the overthrow of Arawn, once her consort, and to join her in ruling Prydain together. He and Taran are separately taken below when he refuses. In his dungeon cell, Taran is visited by Princess Eilonwy. She lives in Spiral Castle to learn enchantment from her self-proclaimed "aunt" Achren. She knows all the castle's secrets including how to come and go anywhere. Taran suspiciously tells her little but asks her to free his companion, then himself, and bring weapons. Eilonwy agrees, perhaps to spite Achren. She returns without weapons and leads Taran out of his cell, through the labyrinth of tunnels. Suddenly Taran falls thru a collapse to a lower level she does not know, but she joins him nevertheless. They find the evident barrow of a lord with many guards. (It is the death chamber of High King Rhitta, the last to wield the legendary sword Dyrnwyn.) They take weapons and continue through the catacombs and breaches to an exit in the words. As they emerge Spiral Castle is sheathed in blue light and they see it collapse. Perhaps owing to Taran's secrecy, the man who waits with Melyngar is not Gwydion but Fflewddur Fflam, a king by birth but a wandering, story-telling bard by choice. The three search the ruins, salvage some weapons and other equipment, and mourn Gwydion's death. Eilonwy is now homeless and will travel with them, naturally. (She has taken the king's sword from the tomb, legendary Dyrnwyn, and its departure has destroyed the castle.) Gurgi rejoins Taran with news of a great army nearby. Taran chooses to take up Gwydion's task, to warn Caer Dathyl, rather than to search for the pig. (Fflewdur gives more geography lesson.) Unfortunately, they spotted and pursued by Cauldron-Born, whom they flee day and night. They have no food and finally stop for Gurgi to scrounge. He falls from a tree and breaks his leg, asks Taran to kill him rather than let him be a burden or leave him alive. Taran refuses and a long friendship begins. Gurgi's leg becomes infected, and fatigue induces a fever in Eilonwy. They carry both on horse but slowly. Barely they outlast or outdistance the deathless warriors, who weaken with time and distance away from Annuvin. They turn from pursuit, but they have driven the companions far east of their northward course Gwydion's horse Melyngar intervenes and leads them to valley of Medwyn, which is hidden from humankind. Medwyn heals Gurgi while Taran discovers the bees and chickens of Caer Dallben, but not the pig. Nor does Medwyn know of Hen Wen's flight. Medwyn respects Taran's manner and welcomes the orphan to stay; Taran loves the valley and is tempted to leave worldly responsibilities but still feels obligation to warn Caer Dathyl. Medwyn gives them provisions and directions. Their way is mountainous. When they encounter a lake of black water, Taran think to take an easier route by wading through shallows rather than clambering around. Instead they find themselves drawn away from the shore and finally swept underwater, to the realm of the Fair Folk. Gurgi escapes but guards take the others to King Eiddileg, who treats them gruffly, but softens when Eilonwy expresses rare gratitude for all that the Fair Folk have done for humankind. Gurgi finds them with news that he has spotted Hen Wen. The Fair Folk rescued her, but Eiddileg grudgingly agrees to let Taran have her, to re-equip their party, and to provide a guide. The guide is Doli, a red-haired dwarf. He leads them on a good pace to Caer Dathyl, until they encounter an injured fledgling gwythaint, one of the great birds of prey that Arawn has enslaved. Doli would kill "the eyes of Arawn" and Fflewdur agrees, but Taran determines to save it and deliver it alive to Caer Dathyl; he takes time to build a cage and tend its wounds. The gwythaint recovers quickly and escapes overnight, much to Doli's fury. Later that same day, Hen Wen also escapes and flees, just before the scouts of the Horned King's army spot them all. The companions repel the scouts and continue to Caer Dathyl, but can now hope to reach it only barely ahead of the army. In fact, before they see the castle, vanguard troops approach them. Fflewddur orders Taran and Eilonwy ahead on Melyngar while he, Doli and Gurgi stand to fight. Melyngar carries Taran and Eilonwy straight through a party of foot soldiers, but the Horned King sees them and gives chase himself. He catches them at the top of a hill, and breaks the boy's sword on the first blow. Taran seizes Dyrnwyn from Eilonwy, but lacks the "noble birth" needed to draw it. Exposing only a part of the blade, white flame burns his arm but throws him to the ground and momentary safety. Just before losing consciousness, he sees another man in the trees and hears an unintelligible word. The Horned King's mask melts and he bursts into flame. Taran wakens in bed, in a room with Hen Wen and Eilonwy. She tells him of the Horned King's death and his army's defeat. The man on foot was Gwydion, who had been with Achren at another stronghold, for his torture, when Spiral Castle fell. Having survived the haunted(?) Oeth-Anoeth, he understands the hearts of all creatures, which enabled him to communicate with the gwythaint Taran had saved, and then with Hen Wen. The fledgling led him to the pig, who had run away because she sensed him. From the oracular pig he learned what could destroy the Horned King, his secret name, and was led to Taran by the fledgling again. Eilonwy has given Dyrnwyn to him, recognizing his nobility. The companions are given treasures from Caer Dathyl in recognition of service to the House of Don. Eilonwy gets a ring made by the Fair Folk, Gurgi a wallet of food that cannot be depleted, Fflewddur a golden harp string that can never break, Doli the ability to turn invisible (which he unusually lacks). In the course of his adventures, Taran realizes more and more that Dallben was right, and that Caer Dallben is where he most wants to be, living the quiet life of an Assistant Pig-Keeper. He asks only to return home, for he has learned its value, and Gwydion accompanies him personally, along with Eilonwy and Gurgi who are now homeless. |
3211341 | /m/08zl92 | Auriol | William Harrison Ainsworth | 1844 | {"/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | Prologue (1599): Auriol Darcy is surprised attempting to remove the heads of two traitors from the Southwark Gateway of Old London Bridge. He is injured by the warder, Baldred, and carried to the house of Dr Lamb, an alchemist and Auriol Darcy's grandfather, who is assisted by his faithful dwarf Flapdragon. Lamb, on the point of discovering the elixir of life, has a seizure and dies as his ungrateful grandson consumes the draught. Book the first 'Ebba' (1830): Two varmints, Tinker and Sandman, waylay a gentleman in a fantastical ruined house in the Vauxhall Bridge Road in London, but they are surprised and he is carried unconscious to the house of Mr Thorneycroft, a scrap-iron dealer. While he convalesces and falls in love with Ebba, the iron-dealer's daughter, Tinker and Sandman and their associate Ginger (a 'dog-fancier' who steals dogs and resells them) discover in the gentleman's pocket-book the private diary of a man who has lived for over two hundred years, and has committed nameless crimes. Auriol (for it is he) seeks to dissuade Ebba from her love, for he bears an awful doom. A tall sinister stranger has Auriol in his power, and employs a dwarf (who is Flapdragon) to recover the pocket-book. The stranger confronts Auriol and informs his that Ebba must be surrendered to him according to their contract. Auriol refuses, but Ebba is snatched from him, and he is imprisoned, during a nocturnal assignation at a picturesque ruin near Millbank Street. Tinker, Sandman and Ginger offer their services to Mr Thorneycroft to attempt her rescue. Ebba is conveyed to a mysterious darkened chamber where the stranger demands that she sign a scroll surrendering herself body and soul to him. She calls to heaven for protection: in the darkness a tomb is revealed and opened by menacing cowled figures, and Auriol is brought forth. Ebba hurls herself into the tomb to precede him and save him, but then re-emerges silent and cowled to sign the scroll. Intermean (1800): Cyprian Rougemont visits a deserted mansion at Stepney Green, where he finds the portrait of his ancestor (of the same name), a Rosicrucian brother of the 16th century, one of the Illuminati. Satan has appeared to him in a dream and promised him an ancestral treasure, the price for which is his own soul, or that of Auriol Darcy. Cyprian strikes the portrait and a plaque falls away, revealing the access to the ancestral tomb. There in a seven-sided vault lit by the ever-burning lamp and painted with kabbalistic symbols he finds the uncorrupt body with a book of mysteries, a vial of infernal potion, and a series of chests filled with gold, silver and jewels. With use of the potion, he lures Auriol into a compact whereby he is given a magnificent mansion in St James's Square and £120,000, in exchange for a female victim whenever Rougemont requires one from him. Thus Auriol can win the woman he loves, Elizabeth Talbot; but Rougemont, once the contract is signed, demands Elizabeth Talbot as his first victim, in a week's time. Auriol seeks to defy him and to marry her within the week, but he is thwarted and Elizabeth is abducted on the seventh night. Book the Second, 'Cyprian Rougemont' (1830): Thorneycroft, Sandman and Tinker (with Ginger) continue their pursuit led by another, who is the brother of Rougemont's second victim, Clara Paston. They enter a mysterious mansion, and becoming trapped in a chamber and locked into enchanted or mechanically-contrived chairs three of them are muffled by bell-masks which descend from the ceiling, and then plunged through traps in the floor. Flapdragon appears and attempts to help them find Ebba, while Paston, Ginger and Thorneycroft find Rougemont and confront him with pistols, but Rougemont is impervious to the bullets. Thorneycroft, Tinker and Sandman are trapped in a pit over which an iron roof closes by a giant mechanical contrivance, and Ebba is never found again. Auriol, meanwhile, awakes to find himself in Elizabethan costume, chained in a vaulted dungeon. The voice of Rougemont addresses him, telling him that he has been mad, but that he has given him a potion to heal him, and is his keeper. James I is now the King of England. Old Dr Lamb is still living, and his dwarf Flapdragon, and Auriol is taken to him, where they begin to hope that Auriol's cure has been effected. He becomes convinced that he has lived centuries in a few nights and has awakened from a delusion... but even in the last sentence, addressing Dr Lamb, the author relates what he says to his supposed grandsire. |
3213886 | /m/08zrpv | JPod | Douglas Coupland | 5/9/2006 | {"/m/02ql9": "Epistolary novel", "/m/06nbt": "Satire", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | JPod is an avant-garde novel of six young adults, whose last names all begin with the letter 'J' and who are assigned to the same cubicle pod by someone in human resources through a computer glitch, working at Neotronic Arts, a fictional Burnaby-based video game company. Ethan Jarlewski is the novel's main character and narrator, who spends more time involved with his work than with his dysfunctional family. His stay-at-home mother runs a successful marijuana grow-op which allows his father to abandon his career and work as a futile movie extra. Ethan's realtor brother Greg involves himself with Asian crime lord Kam Fong who serves as the plot's crux of character connection. The JPod staff are required to insert a turtle character based on Jeff Probst into the skateboard game that they are developing as 'BoardX'. The marketing manager, Steven Lefkowitz, mandates the turtle's addition to the game because he is trying to please his son during a custody battle. JPod is then drastically challenged and changed when Steve goes missing and the new executive replacement declares that the game will be changed yet again. Upper management decides to change Jeff the turtle for an adventurous prince who rides a magic carpet. The game is then renamed "SpriteQuest". The JPodders, upset that they would not be able to finish their game, decide to sabotage SpriteQuest by inserting a deranged Ronald McDonald. They do this by creating a secret level where Ronald works malevolence, thus creating, in their opinion, a culturally-suitable game for the target market. Ethan begins to date the newest addition to JPod, Kaitlin, and their relationship grows as she discovers that most of the members of the team, including herself, are mildly autistic. Kaitlin develops a hugging machine after researching how autistic people enjoy the sensation of pressure from non-living things on their skin. Douglas Coupland, as a character, is inserted into the novel when Ethan visits China to bring a heroin-addicted Steve back to Canada. This Google-version of Douglas Coupland consistently bumps into Ethan and manages to weave himself into the narrator's life. JPod finds itself in a digital world where technology is everything and the human mind is incapable of focusing on just one task. |
3215597 | /m/08zwwz | Lord Foul's Bane | Stephen R. Donaldson | 1977 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | Thomas Covenant is a young, best-selling author with a wife (Joan) and an infant son (Roger), whose world is turned upside-down when he is diagnosed with leprosy. After six months' treatment and counselling in a leprosarium, he returns home to find himself divorced, alone and an outcast in the community. On a rare trip into town, he is accosted by a beggar who makes a number of cryptic pronouncements. The beggar refuses Covenant's offers of charity, including his white gold wedding band, leaving Covenant with the admonition to "be true." Confused and disturbed by the encounter, Covenant stumbles into the path of an oncoming police car and is rendered unconscious. He wakes to find himself in the Land, a classic fantasy world. He first meets the evil Cavewight Drool Rockworm, wielding the magical power of the Staff of Law, who summoned him to the Land. Drool is guided (manipulated) by a malevolent, incorporeal being who calls himself "Lord Foul the Despiser." Foul reproaches Drool for his arrogance and transports Covenant to Foul's demesne. Addressing Covenant as "groveler", Foul taunts him with a prophecy that he (Foul) will destroy the Land within 49 years; however, if Drool isn't stopped, this doom will come to pass much sooner. He tells Covenant to deliver this message to the rulers of the Land, the Council of Lords at Revelstone, so that they can make preparations to combat Drool Rockworm and recover the Staff of Law. Once again, Covenant is somehow transported and wakes on Kevin's Watch, a tall finger of rock attached to a mountain overlooking the Land's southernmost region. He meets Lena, a young girl who uses a special mud called hurtloam to heal some minor cuts caused by his fall. To his astonishment, Covenant discovers (albeit somewhat later on) that the hurtloam has also cured his leprosy. This is only the first example Covenant will see of the Earthpower: a rich source of healing energy present throughout the Land. Covenant's loss of two fingers on his right hand (a consequence of the failure to promptly diagnose his leprosy) causes him to be identified by Lena as the reincarnation of Berek Halfhand, an ancient Lord who saved the Land from Lord Foul during a war which occurred in the Land's distant past. His special identity is seemingly confirmed when Lena's mother Atiaran identifies Covenant's white gold ring - in his world a plain wedding band, which he had been emotionally unable to discard notwithstanding the breaking of his marriage - as a token of great power in the Land. Believing that he is unconscious from his collision with the police car, and therefore experiencing a fantastical dream or delusion, Covenant refuses to accept the reality of the Land. Appalled and indignant at the expectations the people of the Land have for him as their new-found savior, he gives himself the title of "Unbeliever." He is also unprepared for the sudden restoration of his health, which cures the impotence brought on by his leprosy. This, and his mental turmoil over the reality he feels but does not believe, drives him into a frenzy, causing him to rape Lena, an act which will be pivotal to all that follows. When Lena's friends and family learn of what happened to her, they are barely able to comprehend the enormity of or reasons behind this crime, but the Oath of Peace to which they are sworn forbids them from taking vengeance. Atiaran, with great chagrin, guides Covenant to the Hills of Andelain, a region of the land where the Earthpower is especially strong. There she entrusts Covenant to the care of Saltheart Foamfollower, one of the Unhomed Giants, who are allies of the people of the Land. The Giants, a seafaring people who live on the eastern coast of the Land, have a strong understanding of the Earthpower, especially as it relates to the Sea and other waters. Foamfollower is able to sail his stone boat up one of the great rivers of the Land to Revelstone, the Lords' mountain fortress. Covenant delivers the message of Lord Foul to the Lords. He is invited into their council as an "ur-Lord" because of his connection to Berek, and his white gold ring, which the Lords recognize as having the power to unleash the "wild magic" which may be the key to defeating Lord Foul. Despite the obvious danger, the Lords decide to make an effort to wrest the powerful Staff of Law from Drool's evil grasp. Rather than waging an all-out war, the Council sends four Lords and a band of forty warriors to attempt to infiltrate Drool's base at Mount Thunder. Led by High Lord Prothall, and accompanied by the Lords' sleepless and ageless protectors the Bloodguard, and the Giant Foamfollower, the Lords' party sets out eastward. Covenant joins them in the hope that the recovery of the Staff of Law will somehow assist in his return to his "real" world. Along the way, Covenant attempts to come to terms with whether or not to believe in the reality of the Land. He also attempts to redeem himself for his outrage against Lena by commanding one of the Ranyhyn, the wild, free and intelligent horses of the eastern Plains of Ra, to do homage to her yearly. The Ramen, a tribe of humans who dedicate their lives to care and protection of the Ranyhyn, though repulsed to see their equine companions under Covenant's compulsion, agree to assist the quest on the last leg of its journey. In the end, at the cost of the deaths of many of their companions, the Lords succeed in penetrating Mount Thunder and seizing the Staff, temporarily securing peace for the Land. Covenant destroys Drool Rockworm and saves the surviving members of the party by using the wild magic of his ring to summon the Fire-Lions, creatures of living lava which issue from the peak of Mount Thunder, although he does not fully control or even understand his power. After the death of Drool, who had used the Staff of Law to summon Covenant to the Land, Covenant feels his physical body fading away, loses consciousness, and wakes up in his own world, a leper once more. |
3215874 | /m/08zxlz | The Hamlet | William Faulkner | 1940 | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | CHAPTER ONE Part 1 (which is the only part) (pp. 3–26) Frenchman's Bend/The Old Frenchman Place introduced: lawlessness; socioeconomic background of settlers. Will Varner, Jody Varner introduced. Ab Snopes rents a place from Jody; is discovered via gossip to be an alleged barn-burner. First glimpse of Eula (p. 11). Jody plans to force Ab out after getting work out of him. Ab is discovered to be mixed up in a second incident of barn-burning, over a dispute with de Spain over his wife's expensive French carpet. Jody agrees to take on Flem as a clerk in the Varner store to keep Ab happy. CHAPTER TWO Part 1 Ratliff is introduced, claims he knew Ab a long time ago. Part 2 Ratliff discusses Ab's past, before he was "soured." Ab trades horses with Pat Stamper. Ab's motive: to recover the eight Yoknapatawpha County dollars that Stamper had acquired from Beasly. Ab picks up his wife's milk separator; trades Pat Stamper several teams, and comes out much the worse. Part 3 Ratliff takes Ab a bottle of McCallum's whiskey. CHAPTER THREE Part 1 Flem settles in to clerking at Varner's store. Ratliff is established as a gossipmonger, a speculative capitalist, a traveler. Flem disrupts the normal business practices of the Varner store by insisting on payment up front and always calculating the bill correctly. Flem has a bow tie (64). Flem quickly establishes himself as upwardly mobile. Flem establishes a cow-trading sideline; I.O. and Eck Snopes appear on the Frenchman's Bend scene. The old blacksmith, Trumbull, is forced out. Jody wonders how much he'll have to pay in order to keep himself safe from the rumor of Ab's barn-burning. Part 2 Ratliff is recovering from an operation; catches up on local gossip. Flem is making usurious loans to Negroes; I.O. is to be the new schoolteacher. Mink Snopes appears for the first time; he trades a note bearing the name "Ike Snopes" for a sewing machine. Ratliff tells the story of the goat-scarcity caused by the Northerner's goat-ranching plans. Ike Snopes turns out to be an idiot; Flem redeems his note; Mrs. Littlejohn watches after Ike, as she can communicate with him somehow. Part 3 Flem "passes" Jody Varner at the store; apparently, he means to pass Will Varner, as well. CHAPTER ONE Part 1 (which is the only part) Eula's childhood described; she is the last of 16 children and is immediately established as a symbolic-mythological figure who has a privileged childhood. Refuses to walk or otherwise take action. Insofar as this is problematic for her parents, the solution is immediately seen in inserting her into the economy of marriage. She is supra-feminine, immediately noticeable when she is in public. Labove's recruitment as schoolmaster is described. Labove is the first person described as caught within Eula's orbit, even though she is only 11. Labove drawn back to teaching at the Frenchman's Bend school even after he receives his university degree. Labove tries to assault Eula (133); Eula is unafraid. Labove worries about retribution until he realizes that Eula does not even see the event as important enough to complain to her older brother. CHAPTER TWO Part 1 Eula, now 14, is the center of teenage masculine attention in Frenchman's Bend; and though she is assaulted by proxy (resulting in attention paid to other girls in her social circle) none of the boys manages to gain access to her. Flem becomes closely acquainted with the Varner family. The background of Hoake McCarron is given. McCarron courts Eula. McCarron/Eula fight off a group of local boys determined to keep McCarron from deflowering Eula. McCarron's arm is broken; set by Varner; Eula then arranges to be deflowered by him. Eula turns out to be pregnant; Jody is furious but Will is unsurprised. The suitors flee Yoknapatawpha County. Flem reappears and is married to Eula, so that her bastard can have a name; he receives (a) money; (b) the old Frenchman place; (c) Eula's hand. Part 2 The history of Eula's relationship to Flem before marriage is recapped. Ratliff's knowledge of Frenchman's Bend is analyzed. Eula and Flem depart for a honeymoon in Texas. Ratliff's fantastic allegory of the Flem's sale of his soul. CHAPTER ONE Part 1 Varner tells Ratliff the story about Mink's attempt to retrieve his yearling. They wander down to Varner's store, where the verdict against Mink is discussed and the peep show in Mrs. Littlejohn's barn begins again. Ratliff's fantastic fable about Flem and the illiterate field hand. Part 2 Ike Snopes rises early and pursues Houston's cow; there are misadventures and he is chased off. Seeing fire in the direction of the cow, he becomes concerned and returns; he gets the cow out and travels with her, then is caught again by Houston, who curses him. When Houston leaves again, Ike abducts the cow and leaves. They travel together for several days, and Ike steals feed for the cow. They get rained on. Part 3 Houston comes home and finds the cow missing. At first he believes that he forgot to fasten the gate, but soon discovers that the cow has been led away. He gets his horse and waters it at Mrs. Littlejohn's house, The unnamed vicious farmer from whom Ike takes feed is described; he searches for Ike, the feed-thief; he captures the cow and Ike follows him home. Houston sells the cow to Mrs. Littlejohn; she purchases it with Ike's money. The establishment of the peep-show, presided over by Lump Snopes. Ratliff determines to stop the peep show; gets the other Snopeses involved, as they are concerned for the Snopes name. Whitfield Snopes, preacher, explains his plan to break Ike away from his perversion. CHAPTER TWO Part 1 Houston's backstory: Early childhood, later schooling; meeting his future wife, who pushes him through school, and from whom he flees; his flight to the Texas railyard and abduction from a whorehouse of a prostitute with whom he lives for seven years. Houston is drawn back to Yoknapatawpha County; he marries his wife, and they move into the house he has built for her; his stallion kills her. Houston kills the stallion. Mink kills Houston. Part 2 Mink kills Houston; he strikes his wife and she leaves him, taking the children. Mink attempts to cover up the evidence; he kills Houston's hound and hides the body. Mink doesn't run because he doesn't have any money. Cousin Lump doesn't believe he didn't check Houston's body for money, claiming that Houston was carrying at least $50. Mink's wife gives him money; Lump Snopes keeps him company and won't be shaken off, hoping to collect some of the money that Houston was carrying. Mink is arrested trying to recover the money from Houston's body, which he had placed in a hollow oak. Mink injures his neck trying to escape from a moving carriage after his arrest, but is treated and placed in jail. Part 3 Mink is in jail; his wife and children stay with Ratliff. She makes money by keeping house at a boardinghouse and by prostituting herself. Mink refuses bond and counsel. I.O. Snopes is revealed as a bigamist. Mink hangs his hopes on being saved by Flem. CHAPTER ONE Part 1 Flem Snopes comes back into town, along with a Texan and his wild ponies. The ponies are continually demonstrated to be vicious. Flem's superiority as a trader is acknowledged by Ratliff, who is himself no mean trader. The ponies are auctioned off, with the townspeople nervous at first but gradually led into trading when the Texan offers Eck Snopes a pony for free just to make a bid. Henry Armstid bids his wife's last five dollars on one of the spotted ponies. Flem accepts the money for the pony that Henry had (arguably) bought from the Texan. Flem swaps a carriage for the last three Texan ponies. The men who purchased ponies attempt to get their purchases, but the wild ponies break free. One of Eck's ponies breaks into Mrs. Littlejohn's house; she breaks a washboard over its head and calls it a "son of a bitch." Henry is badly injured when the horses break free. Tull is injured when the horses surprise his mules on a bridge. Ratliff and Varner speculate about fertility while watching the horses spread out over the county. Lump inadvertently admits the horses belonged to Flem (although no consequences seem to follow from this admission). The men in front of the Varner store discuss the Armstids' lack of luck. Flem refuses to refund Mrs. Armstid the money for the horse, despite the fact that the Texan had assured her that he would. St. Elmo Snopes steals candy from the Varner store. Part 2 The Armstids and Tulls sue the Snopeses over the matter of the ponies. Flem declines to appear. Lump perjures himself, claiming that Flem gave Mrs. Armstid's money to the Texan, and that therefore he was not responsible for refunding it to Mrs. Armstid. Eck is held blameless in the injuring of Vernon Tull because, technically, he never owned the horse that injured him. Mink Snopes is brought to trial for killing Jack Houston, but fails to participate in the trial itself; he declines even to enter a plea because he is waiting for Flem to solve his legal problems. When Flem fails to appear, Mink is convicted and sentenced to life in prison; he promises to kill Flem. CHAPTER TWO Part 1 Ratliff, Armstid, and Bookwright go out to the old Frenchman place at night and find Flem digging in the garden. Armstid is emphatic that his previously broken leg is fine now, and quite touchy about the subject. Speculation about what is out in the garden at the old Frenchman place: local legend has it that Confederate treasure was buried there when the Union army came through. They agree to get Uncle Dick Bolivar, a local diviner, out to the property the next night, after Flem has gone to sleep. Uncle Dick manages to locate three cloth bags with money buried in the earth; the three men confederate to purchase the property. Ratliff rides out to find Flem and purchases the old Frenchman place from him; Flem refuses to negotiate and the three men own the property; they move out to find the treasure and discover that it is a "salted gold mine" when they finally examine the dollars that inspired them to purchase the property in the first place (none were manufactured before the Civil War). Part 2 Flem and Eula depart for Jefferson. The men outside Varner's store speculate on Flem's next move; his "horse-trading" has become proverbial. |
3216507 | /m/08zzbh | What a Piece of Work I Am | Eric Kraft | null | {"/m/02yq81": "Comic novel", "/m/01z4y": "Comedy"} | We are told at the beginning of the novel that Ariane is a figment of his imagination, yet we learn her life story in intimate detail and the lines between reality and imagination are blurred throughout the story. Named for Ariadne, the heroine of Greek myth who helps Theseus escape the Minotaur, Ariane begins as the promiscuous beauty of the fictional town of Babbington, Long Island. We follow as she tries to escape her demeaning job at a clam shack and bad-girl reputation, going through several phases of personal examination and reinvention. Ariane is an energetic storyteller, and she relates her story to Leroy and the reader through a series of funny and poignant episodes that explore the power of personal fantasy. In one sequence, Leroy's grandfather, with Ariane's help, comforts his dying wife by pretending their home is a ship making the journey to the tropical destination of Rarotonga. Later, we learn that much of Ariane's life has been a public exhibition in a very literal way. As Ariane weaves her story, Leroy acts as a foil and guide, often finishing her sentences and filling in details. |
3218710 | /m/08_451 | Kydd | Julian Stockwin | 2001-04 | {"/m/02p0szs": "Historical fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | The story: The year is 1793. Europe is ablaze with war. The Prime Minister, Pitt, is under pressure to make an active move at sea, and despatches a squadron to appear off the French coast. To man the ships, ordinary people must be press-ganged. Thomas Paine Kydd, a young wig-maker from Guildford, is seized, taken across the country to Sheerness and the great fleet anchorage of the Nore to be part of the crew of the fictional 98-gun line-of-battle ship Duke William. The ship sails immediately and Kydd quickly has to learn the harsh realities of shipboard life fast; but despite all that he goes through in danger of tempest and battle he comes to admire the skills and courage of the seamen — taking up the challenge himself to become a true sailor. |
3223450 | /m/08_gnb | The Normal Heart | Larry Kramer | null | null | During the early 1980s, Jewish-American writer and LGBT activist Ned Weeks struggles to pull together an organization focused on raising awareness about the fact that an unidentified disease is killing off an oddly specific group of people: gay men largely in New York City. Dr. Emma Brookner, a wheelchair-bound physician and survivor of polio, who is the most experienced with this strange new outbreak, bemoans the lack of medical knowledge on the illness, encouraging the abstinence of gay men for their own safety, since it is unknown yet even how the disease is spread. Ned, a patient and friend of Brookner, calls upon his lawyer brother, Ben, to help fund his crisis organization; however, Ben's attitude toward his brother is to give merely passive support, ultimately exposing his apparent homophobia. For the first time in his life, meanwhile, Ned falls in love, beginning a relationship with New York Times writer Felix Turner. The increasing death toll raises the unknown illness, now believed to be caused by a virus, to the status of an epidemic, though the press remains largely silent on the issue. A sense of urgency guides Ned who realizes that Ben is more interested in buying a two-million-dollar house than in backing Ned's activism. Ned explosively breaks off ties to his brother until Ben can fully accept Ned and his homosexuality. Ned next looks to Mayor Ed Koch's administration for aid in financing research about the epidemic that is quickly killing off hundreds of gay men, including some of Ned's personal friends. Ned's organization elects as its president Bruce Niles, who is described as the "good cop" of gay activism, in comparison to Ned; while Bruce is cautious, polite, deferential, and closeted, Ned is vociferous, confrontational, incendiary, and supportive only of direct action. Tensions between the two are clear, though they must work together toward the promotion of their organization. Felix, meanwhile, reveals to Ned his belief that he is infected with the mysterious virus. Although he continues to try to strengthen interactions with the mayor, Ned ruins his chances when his relentless and fiery personality appalls a representative sent by the mayor. Dr. Brookner gradually takes the role of activist herself, noting the epidemic's appearance in other countries around the world and even among heterosexual couples. Although she desperately asks for government funding for further research, she is denied; the rejection releases in her a passionate tirade against those who allow the persistence of an epidemic that is taking the lives of the homosexual individuals already marginalized by the government. In the meantime, Ned's conflict with Bruce comes to a head, and their organization's board of directors ultimately expels Ned from the group, believing his unstable vehemence to be a threat to the group's attempts at more calm-mannered diplomacy. As Felix’s condition worsens, he visits Ben Weeks in order to make his will and with a hope of reconciling Ben with his brother. Felix soon dies and Ned blames himself for Felix’s death, lamenting that he did not fight hard enough to have his voice heard. The mortality rate from HIV/AIDS is shown to continue increasing as the stage fades to black. |
3223688 | /m/08_h5j | Kailashey Kelenkari | Satyajit Ray | null | {"/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/028v3": "Detective fiction"} | Super Sleuth Feluda goes after a gang of smugglers - who steal and smuggle out the country's valuable treasure, the unique stone figures that adorn ancient temples of India. In the bait, he has to take up multiple disguises, encounter many shady characters, all in the land of Kailash Temple in Ellora. He does however get a little help from his able assistant & cousin Topshe and best friend Lalmohan Ganguly. He gets the culprits buy calling ooo ooo o ye baba which he heard while travelling around the temples. |
3228071 | /m/08_t0w | Innocent Blood | Graham Masterton | null | {"/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | A young woman, Philippa Palfrey, finds out that her father and mother are actually her adoptive parents. Her adoptive father, Maurice, is a lecturer at a school. He is also a spokesperson for the Young Socialists party and a writer of textbooks on sociology. Philippa's adoptive mother, Hilda, is a magistrate with a local Juvenile court and an amateur cook. At the age of 8 years old, Philippa suppresses memories of her biological parents and in the intervening years, creates an idealised version of her parents. Upon learning of her biological parents, Philippa conducts a rudimentary investigation of her biological parents and discovers the truth of the crime: her biological parents were convicted ten years ago for the rape and murder of a young girl, Julie Scase, which caused her to be put up for foster care and eventual adoption by the Palfreys. She discovers her father died in prison a few years after the conviction and her birth mother is still alive, due to be released after 10 years in an English women's prison. She returns home after the discovery and confronts Hilda, who is shocked and dismayed to learn the adoption order was unsealed. It is after a strained dinner party with three guests where Philippa places her adoptive family in a position where the elder Palfreys have a contentious argument with Philippa. When her mother, Mary Ducton, is released from prison, Philippa looks her up, decides to live with her in a small flat in London and try to recreate the mother-daughter relationship. They rent a small flat in Central London and have a menial job at a fish and chips shop to supplement Philippa's meager savings. Mary Ducton provides Philippa with an account of the murder/rape and a bit of background information on the rapist, Martin. It is revealed later that the account was written recently, presumably for Phillipa's benefit. Norman Scase, the father of the murder victim, has sworn vengeance and prepares to track down Mary and kill her as Julie's mother and Scase's wife lie dying in a hospital. Through deception, his own methods of surveilling the Palfrey residence, a clever call to the Palfrey residence, and the use of a shady private investigator, Norman Scase discovers the murderess and Philippa. At the same time Norman Scase is conducting his own search, a school friend of Philippa's has other intentions: he intends to blackmail Philippa and Mary Ducton for his own reasons. He too manages to trick Hilda into revealing the location of the rented flat and tips off one of his paramours, a young reporter. The novel reaches its climactic ending when Scase breaks into the flat after Mary Ducton commits suicide and Scase stabs her. Philippa orders him out and she takes the blame for the murder, but it is Maurice who has the strings pulled so she is not connected to the stabbing. The last chapter ends with Philippa meeting Norman Scase in a church and the revelation she has published a book under her new name, Philippa Ducton. |
3228413 | /m/025sn9k | Daggerspell | Katharine Kerr | 1986 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Events are listed here not in chronological order, but in the order they were originally presented in the novel. ; Year 1045 The sorcerer Nevyn sees an omen indicating that a person whose Wyrd, or destiny, is intertwined with his own has been reborn, and sees the infant Jill in a vision. ; Year 1052 Jill, a seven-year-old girl who sometime has precognitive dreams, loses her mother Seryan to a fever. Because her father, Cullyn, is a mercenary soldier — known as a “silver dagger” for the weapon he carries — and visits irregularly, Jill is taken in by a local tavern owner. Cullyn arrives in Jill’s village a month later. Finding Seryan dead, he decides to take Jill with him on his wanderings, which he calls “the long road.” For seven years, Nevyn has been searching for Jill, with nothing more than luck and intuition to guide him. He finds a clue when he meets the ten-year-old lord Rhodry Maelwaedd, and sees that the boy’s destiny is linked with his and Jill’s. ; Year 643 Galrion, a prince of Deverry, has secretly begun studying dweomer. He begins to fall in love with dweomer power, and out of love with Brangwen of the Falcon clan, his betrothed. Galrion considers breaking his betrothal so that he will have more time to devote to his dweomer studies. Galrion’s father, King Adyroc, is infuriated when he discovers that his son has been studying dweomer, and puts Galrion under house arrest, though the prince escapes by a ruse. Adyroc soon finds his son and sends him into exile, taking from him all his rank, titles, and property. He even takes Galrion’s name from him, and gives him a new name, Nevyn, meaning “no one.” Adyroc also breaks Nevyn’s betrothal to Brangwen, who then falls into an incestuous relationship with her brother Gerraent, and the two promise to end their lives together when autumn comes. When Gerraent’s sworn friend, Blaen of the Boar clan, discovers the incestuous relationship, Gerraent kills him. Gerraent is in turn killed by Blaen's brother. Nevyn takes Brangwen away from the Falcon lands, but the distraught girl drowns herself. Overwhelmed by guilt and grief, Nevyn rashly swears an oath that he will not rest until he sets things right. Thunder booms from a clear sky — the Great Ones have accepted Nevyn’s oath. ; Year 1058 When Jill turns thirteen, Cullyn, who has been teaching his daughter swordcraft, buys Jill a silver dagger like his own for a birthday present. Otho, the smith who made the dagger, notices that Jill can see spirits called Wildfolk, and tells her a riddle. “If you ever find no one (nev yn), ask him what craft to take.” Some time later, Otho tells Nevyn about Jill. Unable to find her, Nevyn returns to his home province of Eldidd, where he saves the life of Rhodry Maelwaedd, earning the gratitude of his mother Lovyan, the local tieryn (an intermediate rank of nobility). Nevyn receives a prophecy about the boy — Rhodry’s destiny is somehow bound to that of the entire province. ; Year 696 Nevyn comes to Deverry province to banish an unnatural drought. Here he finds the bard Gweran (Blaen reborn), his wife Lyssa (Brangwen reborn), and a rider called Tanyc (Gerraent reborn). When Tanyc angers Gweran by his behavior towards Lyssa, Gweran takes his revenge by subterfuge. He provokes Tanyc into attacking him — but as a bard, Gweran’s life is sacrosanct. Tanyc is hanged for his crime. While this is happening, Nevyn meets Lyssa’s elder son, Aderyn. He teaches the boy a little herbcraft, and eventually takes him as his dweomer apprentice. ;Year 1062 Lovyan discovers that Rhodry has fathered a bastard child on a common-born girl, and decides to put the child into fosterage with one of her noble servitors when it is born. In the meantime, Lovyan, is having trouble with some of her vassals. A number of minor lords are sitting on the edge of rebellion over matters of succession and taxes. Lovyan’s own overlord, Rhys, the Gwerbret of Aberwyn (who is also her eldest son), makes it very clear that he won’t intervene unless she disinherits Rhodry. Cullyn, meanwhile has taken a hire guarding a caravan heading toward the kingdom’s western border to trade with the mysterious Westfolk. On the way, Jill sees the errie Loddlaen, a councilor to Lord Corbyn of Bruddlyn. At the trading camp, Jill meets Aderyn, an old Deverrian man who lives with the Westfolk. She also learns that Loddlaen is both half-human/half-Westfolk and a fugitive murderer. At the conclusion of the trading, Aderyn and several of the Westfolk accompany the caravan back to the city of Cannobaen, to begin legal proceedings against Loddlaen in Lovyan’s malover, or court. On the way to Cannobaen, the caravan is attacked by bandits, and flees to an abandoned dun fort to make their stand. Aderyn transforms himself into an owl to spy on the bandits. He discovers that they aren’t bandits at all, but warriors from several different lords, including Corbyn. Cullyn sends Jill to beg the tieryn for aid. By a stroke of luck, Jill comes across Rhodry and his entire warband on the road, in the midst of a day-long training exercise. Meanwhile, the attacking army has reached the dun. The defense is thin: two swordsmen, two archers, and six stavemen. Albaral, a man of the Westfolk, is slain, but the attackers are defeated when Rhodry and his warband arrive. |
3228756 | /m/08_vl8 | Maria's Wedding | null | null | null | Maria's Wedding is a comedy-drama about a wedding at a large Italian family, the first traditional wedding since the family was split into bickering sides over a gay wedding. Maria's cousin Frankie, whose brother had married another man, has vowed to tell off the family members who were against that wedding, and the family wonders if he will destroy Maria's wedding in the process of carrying out that threat. Complicating matters is the fact that no-one likes Maria's groom, and that Frankie may be more interested in rekindling his romance with Maria's bridesmaid, Brenna. |
3228767 | /m/08_vlz | The Tomb | null | null | null | Jessica Parrish is a down-on-her-luck archaeologist whose last hope of glory is to lead a team of explorers into a tomb that is buried in the most unlikely place — the basement of a New England mansion. The team discover that the house is booby-trapped like an ancient Egyptian tomb. It is also seemingly haunted by ghosts condemned by King Tut's curse. |
3229504 | /m/08_x3c | Ligeia | Edgar Allan Poe | 1838-09 | {"/m/039vk": "Gothic fiction", "/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/0707q": "Short story", "/m/01qxvh": "Romance novel"} | The unnamed narrator describes the qualities of Ligeia, a beautiful, passionate and intellectual woman, raven-haired and dark-eyed, that he thinks he remembers meeting "in some large, old decaying city near the Rhine." He is unable to recall anything about the history of Ligeia, including her family's name, but remembers her beautiful appearance. Her beauty, however, is not conventional. He describes her as emaciated, with some "strangeness." He describes her face in detail, from her "faultless" forehead to the "divine orbs" of her eyes. They marry, and Ligeia impresses her husband with her immense knowledge of physical and mathematical science, and her proficiency in classical languages. She begins to show her husband her knowledge of metaphysical and "forbidden" wisdom. After an unspecified length of time Ligeia becomes ill, struggles internally with human mortality, and ultimately dies. The narrator, grief-stricken, buys and refurbishes an abbey in England. He soon enters into a loveless marriage with "the fair-haired and blue-eyed Lady Rowena Trevanion, of Tremaine." In the second month of the marriage, Rowena begins to suffer from worsening fever and anxiety. One night, when she is about to faint, the narrator pours her a goblet of wine. Drugged with opium, he sees (or thinks he sees) drops of "a brilliant and ruby colored fluid" fall into the goblet. Her condition rapidly worsens, and a few days later she dies and her body is wrapped for burial. As the narrator keeps vigil overnight, he notices a brief return of color to Rowena's cheeks. She repeatedly shows signs of reviving, before relapsing into apparent death. As he attempts resuscitation, the revivals become progressively stronger, but the relapses more final. As dawn breaks, and the narrator is sitting emotionally exhausted from the night's struggle, the shrouded body revives once more, stands and walks into the middle of the room. When he touches the figure, its head bandages fall away to reveal masses of raven hair and dark eyes: Rowena has transformed into Ligeia. |
3230926 | /m/08_zyb | Five Point Someone - What not to do at IIT | Chetan Bhagat | 2004 | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The novel is set in the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, in the period 1991 to 1995. It is about the adventures of three mechanical engineering students (and friends), Hari Kumar (the narrator), Ryan Oberoi, and Alok Gupta, who fail to cope with the grading system of the IITs. Ryan is a bit smart and outspoken, whereas Alok and Hari are mildly cry babies. The three hostelmates – Alok, Hari and Ryan get off to a bad start in IIT – they screw up the first class quiz. And while they try to make amends, things only get worse. It takes them a while to realize: If you try and screw with the IIT system, it comes back to double screw you. Before they know it, they are at the lowest echelons of IIT society. They have a five-point-something GPA out of ten, ranking near the bottom of their classes. The book is narrated in the first person by Hari, with some small passages by his friends Ryan and Alok, as well as a letter by Hari's girlfriend Neha Cherian. It deals with the lives of the three friends, whose elation on making it to one of the best engineering colleges in India is quickly deflated by the rigor and monotony of academic work. Most of the book deals with the numerous attempts by the trio to cope with and/or beat the system as well as Hari's fling with Neha who just happens to be the daughter of Prof. Cherian, the domineering head of the Mechanical Engineering Department. Their most important attempt was "C2D" (Cooperate to Dominate). While the tone of the novel is humorous, it takes some dark turns every now and then, especially when it comes to the families of the protagonists. Most of the action, however, takes place inside the campus as the boys, led by the ever creative Ryan, frequently lamenting how the internationally lauded IIT system has stifled their creativity by forcing them to value grades more than anything else. Uninspiring teaching and numerous assignments add to their woes, though the boys do find a sympathizer in Prof. Veera, the new fluid mechanics professor. |
3231048 | /m/08__4b | The Lady in the Morgue | Jonathan Latimer | null | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense"} | Throughout the novel the true identity of the young, attractive woman found hanging dripping wet from a rope in her hotel room remains a mystery. Neither her clothes nor the conspicuous lack of any shoes provides the police with any clue as to what has happened, and they assume the woman has committed suicide. At the same time a young woman from a prominent New York family goes missing, but when the stolen body is retrieved by Crane her relatives assert that these are not her human remains. Only in the final pages is it found out that a case of switched identities is at the bottom of the riddle. The Lady in the Morgue is remembered for its frank treatment of drug addiction among artists, for its frequent references to contemporary jazz and swing music, and for its bizarre setting (morgues, cemeteries). |
3231788 | /m/0900vc | The Tenth Man | Graham Greene | 1/1/1985 | {"/m/01jfsb": "Thriller", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The story begins in a prison in Occupied France during World War II. It is decreed that one in every ten prisoners is to be executed; lots are drawn to decide who will die. One of the men chosen is a rich lawyer. He offers all his money to anyone who will take his place. One man agrees. Upon his release from prison the lawyer must face the consequences of his actions. The story comprises four parts. In Part I, set in prison, the occupying German guards issue a decimation order to the thirty inmates. One of the three chosen by drawing lots is a rich lawyer named Chavel. Chavel becomes hysterical and desperately offers his entire wealth to any man willing to die in his place. A young man, known as Janvier, accepts his offer and is executed. In Part II, the war is over and Chavel is alive and free, but virtually destitute. He returns to the house he sold for his life and finds it occupied by Janvier’s mother and sister, Thérèse. Assuming the false name Charlot, he becomes their servant. Part III sees the arrival of an impostor, named Carosse, who claims to be Chavel. Carosse attempts to denounce Charlot, win the favour of Thérèse and stake a claim on the property. Finally in Part IV, Charlot, having fallen in love with Thérèse, must save her from Carosse, as a means of redemption from his earlier cowardice. |
3231954 | /m/090151 | A Matter of Honour | Jeffrey Archer | 7/1/1986 | {"/m/01jfsb": "Thriller", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense"} | In 1966 disgraced British colonel bequeaths a mysterious letter to his only son. The "item in question" that Adam's father's letter leads him to acquire from a safe deposit box in Switzerland is a precious Russian Orthodox icon made long ago for the Russian czars which by misadventure came into the possession of Hermann Göring sometime in the 1930s. Göring wanted Scott's father (one of his jailers at Nuremberg) to have it in token of his kind treatment and because Göring realized Scott's father would be unfairly blamed for his pre-execution suicide. But the icon contains something that even Göring did not dream of: the only official Russian copy of a secret codicil to the Alaska Purchase treaty by which the United States purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867. "Seward's Folly" turns out to have not been a true purchase at all, but a 99-year lease akin to the British hold on Hong Kong, with a right of return to Russia (now the part of the Soviet Union) if they can only retrieve their copy before the lease deadline, only days away. |
3232513 | /m/0902kj | Flush | Carl Hiaasen | 2002 | {"/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature"} | This takes place in the Florida Keys up to Miami. It is placed in modern day time. This story happens in the summer. This book is about a pre-teen boy (Noah) whose dad doesn't always think about what he does before he does it. His dad used to work with a man name Dusty "Money Man" Muleman who said that one day he was going to form a new business. Dusty owns a gambling facility that was parked in Indian Territory and made a deal with the Indians that he could gamble on their waters and pay them a part of the profit. Since his ship, the Coral Queen, never leaves the dock, passengers do not get seasick and continue to gamble and spend money. In order to save money, he dumps his waste from the holding tanks into the ocean at night when nobody is looking. Noah's dad is a person who stands up for the environment and sinks Dusty's boat and is then put in jail. Noah and his sister decide to try and find a way to stop him. They talk to their dad and he tells them that he also worked with a man called Lice Peeking. He says that he also worked on the boat and he could testify on the fact that Dusty really did dump his waste into the ocean. He wanted Lice to sign a paper saying that Lice saw Dusty "Money Man" Muleman dumping wastes into the lake. It then looks like Lice is kidnapped and is unable to testify. They meet his girlfriend, Shelly, who tells them that she will help them stop Dusty's casino scam. She tells them that she used to work as a bartender on Dusty's Boat. She tells them that one night she stayed late and saw Dusty dumping the waste from the ship. A few days later, he goes to a popular beach and sees a park ranger putting up signs that say the water is contaminated from human waste. Since there are many boats docked in the harbors, it's impossible to see which boat the waste is actually coming from. They then get the idea to color the waste with a very bright dye to help identify the culprit. Then they go into a food store and purchase 34 bottles of Fuchsia dye and tell Shelly their plan. They tell her that Noah will hide in an empty rum box and wait till it is picked up and placed on the ship he then will go into a restroom and Shelly will tack on an out of order sign. He will then take his sack full of dye and squeeze it out into the toilets. After that he will leave the ship and go home. Since kids are not allowed on the ship he will need to be very careful. The plan has some problems and they barely make it off. A guard catches him and threatens to shoot if he does not explain everything. Then a strange old guy that resembles a pirate attacks the guard. Noah swims and says the emergency code word he and Abbey came up with but she couldn't start the boat to get to him. Noah then sees the boat and gets on board. He and Abbey drift away into the deeper ocean. They fall asleep, and in the morning they see a tow boat. Their dad is driving, and the same fat guy is on board the tow boat. Once they get on board the other boat, they find out he is their grandpa who disappeared a long time ago that they thought was dead. They call the coast guard and Dusty gets fined. Noah's dad is mad that he didn't get arrested then they find out that Dusty's son Jasper was messing with fireworks and accidentally set the boat on fire. |
3232569 | /m/0902pb | Sword at Sunset | Rosemary Sutcliff | 1963 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | The action of the novel continues that of The Lantern Bearers. Artos (Sutcliff's version of Arthur) recalls his life as he lies near death, from when he served under his uncle, the British high king Ambrosius. He has gathered a core cavalry group that will become Artos' Companions, and win a major victory. During this activity, he meets a girl who drugs and seduces him. He is unaware that the girl is his sister, and that her seduction was a deliberate plan from her mother to gain revenge against their father: Ygerna, the girl, like Artos, is Uther's child. Artos' seduction and the conception of Medraut is Ygerna's means of bringing ruin to Artos. Artos marries Guenhumara in order to bolster his forces with much needed troops, and his best friend Bedwyr (combining both the roles of Bedivere and Lancelot) eventually betrays Artos by his involvement with Artos' wife. Sutcliff presents a more realistic story than some Arthur legends, removing Merlin and many of the fantastic elements, and grounding Artos and his followers as clinging to Roman ways after Rome has left Britain to fend for itself. The battles in particular are described realistically, and show her knowledge of Roman fighting techniques. |
3233299 | /m/0904gc | The Silver Branch | Rosemary Sutcliff | 1957 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | The story is set in 3rd-century Roman Britain, when Carausius, the military commander, has rebelled against Rome and named himself the emperor of Britain and northern Gaul. After a series of naval victories, he is temporarily recognized by Rome's ruler Maximian. Justin, a shy young army surgeon, is posted to Britain for the first time although his family has been connected with the isle for years. He meets his cousin Flavius there and both become fast friends. Upon overhearing a plot against Carausius by his finance minister Allectus, they try to warn the emperor but are instead reposted to the Northern Wall in disgrace. By luck, they meet Evicatos of the Spear who convinces them that the danger is real. They attempt to race back to warn Carausius but it is already too late by then. Faced with the prospect of capital punishment for desertion, the two cousins go into hiding with the help of a rebel leader. When he is betrayed, the two young men must take over the banner of rebellion and continue his work of protecting and smuggling away people who are disenchanted with Allectus or are in danger from his cruel edicts. Finally, Constantius and his aide Asclepiodotus sail to Britain to attempt to put an end to Allectus' misrule. Flavius and Justin assemble a ragtag group of people prepared to fight on their behalf but are much derided for their shabby appearance. When they are hiding at their Grand-Aunt Honoria's place, they discover the lost eagle standard that was buried by their ancestor, Aquila, and which entitles them to call themselves a Roman legion. Despite their looks, the new 'legion' helps the main Roman force find their way and defends the helpless inhabitants of Calleva from the fighting. In recognition of their help, the cousins are pardoned by Constantius and praised for their efforts. The motifs of the lost eagle standard and dolphin signet ring reoccur in this book. |
3234286 | /m/0906gp | The Rivers of Zadaa | D.J. MacHale | 6/28/2005 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | As in the other Pendragon books, this book covers Bobby's adventure and those of Mark and Courtney, his friends on Second Earth. Bobby's adventures are chronicled as an epistolary novel and those of his friends in the third-person narrative. The story starts after Bobby Pendragon has spoken with Loor, who explains to him, the lead Traveler and main character, the situation on Zadaa, introduces Bobby to her sister and her acolyte Saangi and her friends, Bokka and Teek. Soon afterwards, Saint Dane, who is disguised as a Batu warrior, beats Bobby up with a wooden staff. Bobby is almost killed but is rescued by Pelle a Zinj, the kind prince, and recovers quickly in a Batu hospital. After Bobby has recovered, he decides to start training to be a warrior. Alder, the Traveler from Denduron, joins Loor and Saangi to help train him. For a month, Bobby works hard in a deserted training camp. Finally, at the end of the month, they all celebrate his successful training but are interrupted by an attack by a group of Rokador, who shoots Bokka with an arrow and flee. As Bokka dies, he gives Bobby and Loor a map to the underground city Kidik, and tell them that Saint Dane is there. Loor and Bobby decide to attend the Batu Festival of Azhra first, because Pelle a Zinj has invited them personally. At the festival, Pelle a Zinj is killed by a Rokador. After this, it rains, but still there is no ready supply water for the Batu. This convinces the Batu that the Rokador are indeed holding back the water and they start making preparations for war. Meanwhile, Bobby and Loor begin their journey to the city of Kidik. There, they find an underground ocean of fresh water. They take a boat across this, arriving on an island where Saint Dane captures them and puts them in a prison-like room. Bobby and Loor later escape and learn that after an epidemic virus had killed most of the Rokador, Saint Dane was able to convince the survivors to attack the Batu. The plans was to hold back the water, making the Batu starve; when the Batu attacked, the Rokador would flood the entire village, drowning all. Saangi and Alder join Bobby and Loor. As the Rokador prepare to flood the underground, the protagonists foil their plans by flooding it prematurely, presumably to the ruin of both tribes. Rather than abandon one another, warriors of both tribes co-operate to escape the flood. The heroes escape from the floods by riding a 'dygo', the machine that the Rokador use for making tunnels. All the water shoots out from the underground and creates a river which flows by the city of Xhaxhu, providing water for both people. Bobby then returns to Loor's house, where he attempts to share a kiss with her. She refuses him, arguing that to become lovebirds would distract them from their purpose of preventing the destruction of Halla. Bobby accepts this without complaint. Bobby goes back to the flume to try to return to Second Earth (Earth in modern-times), whereupon Saint Dane comes out of the flume in a fury and kills Loor with a sword. He then tries to kill Bobby, but Bobby uses his training to disarm him. Bobby then raises the same sword that killed Loor as Saint Dane jumped on top of him, impaling him in a way that should have killed him. However, Saint Dane disappears and reappears at the entrance to the flume, proving the suggestion given in earlier books that he cannot be killed. Saint Dane then travels to a territory called Quillan. Bobby goes back to Loor. His own desire that she live rather than die appears to resurrect or revive her, in that her wound closes of its own accord while she resumes full faculty, memory, and mobility. Moments later, Bobby gets a message from Quillan from people named Veego and LaBerge; to investigate this, he embarks for Quillan. The story ends with him writing his record in what is revealed to be the residence of those who sent him the message. The story begins when Mark and Courtney have realized that they have accidentally destroyed the flume to Eelong trying to help Bobby. Courtney therefore becomes severely depressed and stops coming to school. Eventually she decides to go to summer school for six weeks in order to recover, so that Mark is left to read Bobby's journals alone. Throughout the summer, Mark collects Bobby's journals and reads them, and begins to have conversations with Andy Mitchell, the former school bully. Mark soon realizes that Mitchell is an adept in mathematics and became a bully for having been a misfit. Gradually Mark and Mitchell become friends. At her summer school, Courtney meets a boy named Whitney Wilcox, whom she befriends and of whom she begins to entertain romantic thoughts. Before long, he invites her out for pizza. En route, she is struck down by a black car which seems to have been following her. From the car emerges Whitney, who is here revealed to be Saint Dane. Looking upon Courtney, he remarks cryptically "I give, and I take away" and departs in the form of a raven. As Courtney loses consciousness as a result of her injuries, she sends a cellphone message to Mark, who upon inferring that she is in danger convinces Andy Mitchell to drive him to Courtney's summer school. There they find Courtney, badly injured and unconscious. They call the local ambulance and hurry Courtney to the hospital. Courtney slowly begins to recover. In the last scene of the book, Courtney's heart rate suddenly begins to slow, whereupon Andy Mitchell, unseen, brings it to normal by a means, implied, to be the same kind of "thing" used by Bobby to revive Loor. This suggests that Andy Mitchell is another alter-ego assumed by Saint Dane. |
3234309 | /m/0906j1 | Moonchild | Aleister Crowley | 1929 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | A year or so before the beginning of World War I, a young woman named Lisa la Giuffria is seduced by a white magician, Cyril Grey, and persuaded into helping him in a magical battle with a black magician and his black lodge. Grey is attempting to raise the level of his force by impregnating the girl with the soul of an ethereal being — the moonchild. To achieve this, she will have to be kept in a secluded environment, and many preparatory magical rituals will be carried out. The black magician Douglas is bent on destroying Grey’s plan. However, Grey's ultimate motives may not be what they appear. The moonchild rituals are carried out in southern Italy, but the occult organizations are based in Paris and England. At the end of the book, the war breaks out, and the white magicians support the Allies, while the black magicians support the Central Powers. |
3234640 | /m/090772 | The Wright 3 | Blue Balliett | 2006 | {"/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | Calder's friend Tommy Segovia, who moved away a year before, has moved back to Hyde Park, Chicago. He is immediately jealous of Calder and Petra as they received the "glory" of saving a Vermeer painting in the previous book (Chasing Vermeer). Tommy feels that he deserves something as well. In his first new day of class, Ms. Hussey announces that the world-famous Robie House is soon to be demolished, which she considers to be murder. The class takes a field trip to the house, and both Calder and Petra discover that there are many secrets concerning the building that they were not aware of. After Tommy learns to tolerate Petra, the three (who call themselves 'The Wright 3') work to save the house, even breaking into it toward the end. Tommy finds a fish talisman in the Robie House garden and realizes it is worth a lot of money. Finally, after saving their own lives against a band of robbers in the Robie house, they manage to save that of the house. In almost every illustration, there is a drawing of a fish (referring to Frank Lloyd Wright's lucky talisman) that is usually hidden by nature. They appear in each chapter with the fibonacci sequence. On one of the last illustrations, a dragon can be found, expressing the change from carp to dragon in the story. Toward the bottom of the last picture there are footprints from the invisible man. In several images, a face can be spotted. |
3237183 | /m/090dlp | The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King: Inside the Richest Poker Game of All Time | Michael Craig | 2005 | {"/m/05h83": "Non-fiction"} | The book tells about the highest stakes poker match of all time, over the course of a few years, between Andrew Beal and a group of professional poker players called "The Corporation." It begins as Ted Forrest, a professional poker player, is driving outside of Las Vegas when he calls the Bellagio poker room. The personnel in the poker room tell him the highest game is $10,000-$20,000 (which, at the time, was more than two times larger than any cash game ever played). He decides to go straight to the poker room, sit down with his last five hundred thousand dollars, and play against the other two men sitting at the table (Chip Reese and Andy Beal). Forrest had lost $400,000 without playing a single hand, and questions why he is there. The book then flashes back to February 2001, when Beal first visited the Bellagio poker room. He enjoys the atmosphere and the players, and meets many professional poker players, like Todd Brunson. He ends up winning over $100,000 dollars, and thinking it was luck, trains intensely to face the top players. Andy returns to Las Vegas, and wants to play heads-up with a professional for the highest stakes. Because they are in a casino, nothing can prevent other players from sitting down at the game, so the top professional poker players decide to pool their money with everybody who they thought would sit down at the game. Then Beal starts his match with Chip Reese. Beal and Reese play their match, and then Ted Forrest sits down. (Forrest was unreachable, so he was not originally part of the group.) Down to his last $100,000, Ted makes a stand and ends up winning $1.5 million. He is then asked to join the group, and for the rest of the book, nobody else sits down besides Beal and his selected opponent, who alternates throughout the story. The book then chronicles the three years of matches between the professionals and Beal, with the professionals winning most of their matches, but Beal occasionally coming out on top. It also delves into personal stories of the pros and Beal. In March 2004, Beal loses 16 million dollars in two days, and vows to give up poker, which ends the book. |
3237968 | /m/090gbc | Prince of Foxes | Samuel Shellabarger | 1947 | {"/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | The novel begins with Andrea on the verge of embarking from Venice on his first non-military mission for Borgia, to induce Alfonso d'Este, the heir of Ferrara, the "brightest court in Italy," to marry Lucrezia Borgia, lately widowed, despite the numerous objections against the match on the grounds of state and taste. Orsini meets with an instrument maker and humanist to sell a certain painting he claims was taken during the fall of one of the cities of the Romagne. There he meets Camilla Varano, the wife of the lord of the fictional Citta del Monte, both of which have been promised to him by Borgia. There is a definite attraction between the two. The d'Estes, forced by Borgia to accept Andrea's service, do not wish to kill him in their demesne, and delegate the matter to their ambassador to Venice. He uses Mario Belli (Marius de Bella, lately of Savoy), erstwhile nobleman, traitor, and assassin of some repute. Mario fails, but, a true "modern," turns his coat and offers information. Finding him intriguing and useful, Orsini spares him and offers him a place in his retinue. By force of his personality, Orsini overawes the d'Este ambassador and makes his way to Ferrara. On the journey, Belli secretly discovers Andrea's true heritage. In Ferrara, despite the interference of Duke Ercole d'Este and his impetuous son Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, and the resistance of the cannon-happy Alfonso d'Este, he accomplishes his mission, securing the Alfonso's promises. Meanwhile, Orsini makes an enemy of the cardinal, befriends Belli's enemy Pierre de Bayard, paints a monastery, and falls deeper in love with Camilla, a guest of the d'Estes. Without knowledge of Andrea's success, the duke and cardinal send him to bring to Ferrara a living saint, Lucia Brocadelli of Narni, a woman whose stigmata are the talk of the region. Despite the Duke's earnest inducements and her willingness to go, the people of Viterbo will not release her. After a pleasant sojourn at the Citta del Monte, Orsini meets the saint, whose obvious piety deeply affects both himself and Belli. In making his attempt to free her, Andrea is captured, but Belli succeeds, and Andrea talks his way out of the fracas. In Rome, the pope grants his niece, Angela, lady in waiting to Lucrezia, a betrothal to her former lover, Orsini, and reveals his plot against the Varanos, who will come to Rome for the Jubilee. Cesare, thinking his father's actions precipitous, arrives in Rome to stop the arrest and the betrothal. Orsini attempts to detach himself from the favor of his former lover, and has himself knifed for his trouble. Belli, distrusting the sovereigns and potions of the medicos and dottores, tends to the wound himself. With his contacts in the underworld, Belli interrupts Angela's attempt to assassinate her rival for Andrea's affection, and, in an unnerving interview with Cesare, he secures Camilla's safety. Borgia can only gain Citta del Monte through treachery, as low taxes and the love Varano's people bear him leave no obvious angles to stir up unrest as he has done elsewhere, and Borgia cannot afford protracted warfare in the Marches. With Ferrara in alliance, he recalls his spy in Varano's court so that Orsini may take his place as captain of the guard, to suborn its people and assassinate its prince. At Citta del Monte, Orsini falls further from Cesare's orbit, taking Varano as his new role model. Varano is a man of noble character and vast military experience, having in his youth made his fortune as a captain in the mercenary army of the prince of Urbino, serving the Papal interest. This wealth has allowed him to adorn his court without oppressing his domain. With a new understanding of leadership and foregoing his dreams of an Italy united under a single personality, Orsini sets about to strengthen Citta del Monte against Cesare. When the ultimatum finally arrives, Varano asks his people whether he should stay and bring his city the miseries of protracted siege, or take himself into exile. They overwhelmingly reject Borgia and acclaim him. The Varanos also reject Borgia's claim that Orsini is the impostor Zoppo, embarrassing him. Belli, according to their contract, informs Orsini that he will leave his service for Borgia's. Despite a spirited defense of several months, Citta del Monte is left battered and bereft of its lord Varano, who dies of wounds incurred in the first attack. The walls breached beyond repair, the city prepares itself for its last defense, when Borgia, impatient, offers terms through his lieutenants. The terms are generous for a people so stubbornly set against him, but for one point: Zoppo must surrender himself. Despite Camilla's rejection of the terms, Orsini gives himself up in order to save her and the city. Borgia keeps his terms, stripping the valuables from the court, but leaving the city under Camilla and one of his Catalan adventurers. However, to embarrass the young widow, he parades Orsini before her after having starved him for weeks, proves his Zoppo identity by means of his peasant mother, and plans his execution. Belli, now a favored lieutenant of Borgia, is outraged: after all the losses Orsini has inflicted on Borgia, is mere execution to suffice? He offers to gouge out his former master's eyes before Camilla, Borgia, and the assembled captains, and, given leave, does so. Borgia, feigning pity, sends the blind peasant and his mother to wander the countryside, but sends Belli after them to "hurry them along." Belli catches up to them, whereupon Orsini reveals the trick to his mother: Belli simulated the gouging using grape innards and blood from his hands. They plot to recover Citta del Monte. Belli returns to Camilla for funding, warning her that Borgia has granted the new city prefect the chance to win her through whatever means he deems necessary, including the torture of her townsfolk. She is to pretend madness to discourage these plans. Despite their careful plans, Orsini is recognized by Angela Borgia and the Cardinal d'Este while recruiting Swiss mercenaries and Pierre de Bayard. They reveal the plot to Borgia's captain, and spying on Orsini's interview with Camilla in the madhouse, discover how to stop the plot. Having suspected them, Orsini reveals that they have actually set the attack in motion. Peter and the Swiss gain the walls as the city rises in revolt. Camilla gives the Catalan prefect to the people to avenge themselves upon, and Angela and d'Este are sent away. Months later, the pope is dead and Cesare, ill and left without patronage, has been captured and exiled by his enemies. Orsini is acclaimed by all as the model man of the Renaissance, married to Camilla, whose (anonymous) paintings excite the envy of Mantegna himself. |
3237972 | /m/090gbq | Call It Courage | Armstrong Sperry | 1940 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The whole book being 95 pages, it is about a boy who tries to overcome his fear of the sea. The summary is below. Call It Courage is a story set in the Pacific Islands. It chronicles the journey of Mafatu, the son of the chief of Hikueru Island, Tavana Nui. Mafatu is afraid of the sea due to witnessing his mother die as a young child, which makes him a shame to his father, and referred to as a coward among his tribe. One night Mafatu takes a dugout canoe and sets sail into the ocean without knowing where he will end up. He is caught in a storm and the canoe is lost. He lands on a deserted island and learns to hunt and fish for himself, along with his companions Uri, a yellow dog, and Kivi, an albatross. Soon Mafatu finds a sacrificial altar built by cannibals from a neighboring island. Mafatu realizes his days on the island are numbered and he begins designing his escape by making a canoe. He gathers things he will need to survive a trip across the ocean. He finds a spear point on the terrible altar and uses it to hunt. After a number of encounters with natural foes, including a shark, a wild boar and an octopus, all of which he successfully kills, he realizes he is gaining courage and learning to deal with the things that have frightened him. The cannibals return and he makes a daring escape from them, returning home at last to his village. He has become transformed by the experience into an imposing figure. His father does not recognize him at first, then proudly accepts him on his return.This is the main summary. |
3241257 | /m/090n_k | His Family | Ernest Poole | 5/16/1917 | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | The story begins in the spring of 1913 with Roger Gale, a New York businessman and a widower, reflecting on the changes that have come to New York since his arrival in the city as a young man from a New Hampshire farm somewhere near the time of the Civil War. He is driven by his wife's dying request to remain close to their three daughters, yet he feels very distant from them—this despite the fact that the younger two (Deborah, a school principal, and Laura) live in the family home with him, and Edith, who is married with four children, visits him regularly. The early conflicts within the family largely surround Laura's sudden announcement of her engagement to Hal Sloane, a young businessman who is generally unknown to the family, and Edith's pregnancy, as her fifth child arrives weeks before his due date, endangering her life. After the baby's birth and Laura's wedding (and subsequent honeymoon to Europe), Roger's concerns turn to the one daughter remaining at home. Deborah works constantly at her school, and spends her free hours agitating for reforms and financial support to help the families living in the tenements. Roger is disturbed by this, especially given his prejudices against the immigrant families Deborah works with, but a visit to Deborah's school changes his perspective. He takes a crippled Irish boy named John into his care, providing him with lodging and a job in Roger's news clipping office downtown. When summer arrives, the family goes to spend most of it on the old family farm in New Hampshire. At the farm, Edith's oldest son, George, is happiest, pursuing his interest in becoming a farmer someday; Edith's husband, Bruce Cunningham, spends most of his time racing around the backroads on his brand-new automobile. That following winter, Roger becomes concerned about his daughter, Deborah, whose suitor Allan Baird, a doctor and friend of the family, seems to be giving up hope of marriage. Roger conspires with his daughter Edith and her husband Bruce to pressure Deborah, and she eventually accepts Allan's proposal (with the caveat that they wait until the end of the school year, so that a long honeymoon in Europe can be enjoyed). Before the date of the wedding is reached, Bruce is struck by a taxi while standing next to his car in the street. After his death, Edith and her children are forced to return to the family home, until Roger arranges for their return to New Hampshire and the family farm. Deborah's wedding to Allan is delayed as a consequence—she asks him to wait until August. The end of July, however, brings the onset of World War I, and Roger's business loses many of its clients. As a result, he can barely afford to support the family, taking out a mortgage on the home to make ends meet, and Deborah chooses to delay her wedding again until the spring. Given the family's financial straits, Edith's children have to be removed from their expensive private school and tutored from home by Edith herself. After weeks of this, Edith resolves to sell most of her possessions, and use the money for the children's school tuition. Edith also discovers that John, the Irish boy living in the home, has tuberculosis and orders Roger to send him away, which Deborah arranges for her father. Laura, who has been largely absent from family affairs, returns suddenly to the house, arriving with luggage and refusing to see anyone but her sister, Deborah. Her husband, Hal Sloane, has made a large amount of money through war profiteering, but she has fallen in love with his business partner, an Italian, and Hal intends to divorce her, publicly or privately, as a detective has brought him "proofs" that Laura has been unfaithful to him. Roger, who initially resists the divorce, relents when he learns of his daughter's indiscretions, and she elopes with her lover soon thereafter. As their money troubles worsen, Roger is forced to sell his antique ring collection to cover the family's bills, and tensions increase between Deborah and Edith over money: Deborah raises large amounts of money for "her family" of tenement schoolchildren, and Edith feels it's wrong of her not to devote her energies to the care of her niece and nephews. Edith is also very hostile to Deborah's "modern" ideas about women's suffrage, and the resulting arguments are very stressful on Roger. When Roger learns that Deborah has ended her engagement to Allan Baird, he intervenes, informing her that he is fatally ill, and pleading with her to make a life for herself beyond her school. He intends to sell the family home, use most of the funds to set up the family farm in New Hampshire so that George (now 17) can become a farmer and support his mother and siblings, and prepare for death. After she agrees to marry Allan, Roger finds good fortune at last: John, the Irish boy who works for him, discovers a new source of clients and saves the business (and with it, the family home). Roger lives out the end of his days watching Deborah and Allan settle down happily together and have their first child. John, who a doctor had said would never live past 30, falls ill and passes away suddenly, and soon thereafter, Roger falls ill for the final time himself. All of his daughters return to him to make their peace (even Laura, whose new husband allows her to find and reacquire Roger's prized collection of rings), and Roger dies feeling finally connected to his family, as his wife had hoped. |
3244679 | /m/090xbl | Voss | Patrick White | 1957 | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | The novel centres on two characters: Voss, a German, and Laura Trevelyan, a young woman, orphaned and new to the colony of New South Wales. It opens as they meet for the first time in the house of Laura's uncle and the patron of Voss's expedition, Mr Bonner. Johann Ulrich Voss sets out to cross the Australian continent in 1845. After collecting a party of settlers and two Aborigines, his party heads inland from the coast only to meet endless adversity. The explorers cross drought-plagued desert then waterlogged lands until they retreat to a cave where they lie for weeks waiting for the rain to stop. Voss and Laura retain a connection despite Voss's absence and the story intersperses developments in each of their lives. Laura adopts an orphaned child and attends a ball during Voss's absence. The travelling party splits in two and nearly all members eventually perish. The story ends some twenty years later at a garden party hosted by Laura's cousin Belle Radclyffe (née Bonner) on the day of the unveiling of a statue of Voss. The party is also attended by Laura Trevelyan and the one remaining member of Voss's expeditionary party, Mr Judd. The strength of the novel comes not from the physical description of the events in the story but from the explorers' passion, insight and doom. The novel draws heavily on the complex character of Voss. |
3245853 | /m/090_7r | Variable Star | Spider Robinson | 9/19/2006 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Eighteen-year-old aspiring musician and composer Joel Johnston, a Ganymedean on Earth for his education, falls in love with fellow college student Jinny Hamilton. Both are orphans, and virtually penniless. When Jinny decides their relationship is ready for marriage, she reveals that she is actually Jinnia Conrad, a granddaughter of humanity's richest man, Richard Conrad. Joel learns that Conrad has already mapped out his future; he is to be groomed for a role in the family business and to produce children to continue the dynasty. Preferring to pursue his own destiny, he flees the Conrad estate with the help of Jinny's cousin, seven-year-old Evelyn. To escape the Conrads and their vast reach, Joel joins the crew of the RSS Charles Sheffield. The ship is headed to a distant star on a 20-year voyage to establish a colony, one of several scattered dozens of light-years from Earth. With experience from his family farm, Joel works as a farmer for the ship's crew of 500 and as a part-time musician. He regularly corresponds with Evelyn through the twins on board who maintain contact with Earth via telepathy with their siblings. Six "relativists" are essential to the voyage, controlling the ship's quantum ramjet drive with their minds. The drive has to run continuously; at relativistic speeds, it is nearly impossible to restart it, and then only for a short period after it has stopped. Each relativist can only stand the strain reliably for six hours a day. Five years into the voyage, one is killed and another mentally incapacitated, leaving only four and no margin for error. The next year, the Sheffield learns through its telepaths that the Sun has gone nova, killing everyone in the solar system. A wavefront of deadly gamma radiation is expanding at lightspeed, threatening the colonies that are all that is left of humanity. The crew is only able to warn one in time; the rest are doomed. The Sun going nova is contrary to all astrophysical theories, and because over 90% of the sun's mass was converted into energy, it is speculated that an alien species caused the disaster. Unable to bear the catastrophe, one of the relativists commits suicide. Despite the other three's efforts, the quantum ramjet drive soon shuts down. The Sheffield will not be able to stop; it will coast by its intended destination at 97.6% of the speed of light. A vessel overtakes the ship, however; Jinny married a genius scientist who has developed a revolutionary faster-than-light drive. Only one experimental ship exists, capable of carrying ten people; aboard are several Conrads, including the domineering Richard, Jinny, her husband, and Evelyn, who has aged faster than Joel because of time dilation. She is now 19, and explains that she persuaded her grandfather into coming to get him. Conrad proposes an evacuation plan, shuttling people to their destination planet nine at a time. Joel realizes that Conrad is lying; he only contacted the Sheffield to obtain needed supplies and has no intention of returning. The businessman needs to establish control of the colonies and cannot spare the time. Conrad is defeated and the faster-than-light engine is transferred to the Sheffield. Joel and Evelyn marry, then join the mission to warn the other colonies of the coming radiation wave. Joel decides to stay in space with his wife and child, rather than becoming planet-bound. |
3246263 | /m/09104m | Lord of the Shadows | Darren Shan | null | {"/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Along with the Cirque Du Freak, Darren Shan returns to his home town, the place where it all began. He was still having nightmares about the Lord of the shadows. While the Cirque Du Freak rests at an old abandoned football stadium, Darren walks through his old home. After spotting his sister, Annie Leopard, living a happy life with her son at their old house, Darren decides not to disturb them. One night before the freak show starts a boy shows up hoping to get a ticket to attend the freak show. The boy, Darius, asks many questions and acts strangely, leaving Harkat and Darren curious. The freak show starts, Darren and Harkat wait for Darius but he doesn't attend, instead, he sees his old friend Tommy Jones. Jekkus Flangs, a performer of Cirque Du Freak, introduces him to Tommy Jones who is now a famous footballer. Tommy is shocked that Darren was alive after he was proclaimed dead eighteen years ago when he became a vampire assistant, Darren tells him that he had a rare disease that prevented him from aging normally and they had to fake his death to leave home and travel with a physician so he could be helped. Tommy gives Darren a ticket to the semi final. After the soccer match ends, Darren witnesses RV and Morgan James kill Tommy. Thus, he goes on a hunt for them. He finds them in an old dark-end ally and edges out to the road where Gannen Harst and Steve Leonard had been waiting for him too. Darren also finds out that Darius is Steve's son and that Steve has blooded him. Trained by Steve, Darius shoots Darren using his father's arrow-gun where it strikes him high in his right shoulder. By luck, Darren manages to flee to safety even though he is badly hurt. Later, he is found by two hobos that take him to their leaders who turn out to be Debbie and Alice, recruiting for the vampire version of the Vampets called Vampirites. Reuniting with Vancha March, Debbie, Evra, and Alice, the group go ahead on their final hunt for the Vampaneze Lord, Steve Leonard. Darren finds Steve at the abandoned cinema theatre. They plan to make a trade between Shancus,Evra's son, who Steve had captured earlier and Darius. However, before the trading proceeds, Steve breaks Shancus' neck, killing him, and challenging Darren to do the same with Darius. Darren thinks it over and accepts the challenge, but it doesn't end there. Darren was going to stab Darius in the heart but Steve told him that he didn't know who he was killing. Sensing something dark and secret in Steve's tone, Darren hesitates. When Steve asks Darius to tell Darren his mother's name, Darius gawps at his father. Infuriated, Steve asks him to say his mother's name again. He tells him: Annie Leopard, Darren's younger sister, is the mother of Darius. But the Sons of Destiny has more to give... cs:Pán Stínů fa:ارباب سایهها |
3246609 | /m/0910t1 | Dirt Music | Tim Winton | 2001 | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Georgie, the heroine of the book, becomes fascinated in watching a stranger attempting to smuggle fish in an area where nobody can maintain secrets for very long; disillusioned with her relationship with the local fisherman legend Jim Buckridge, she contrives a meeting with the stranger and soon passion runs out of control between two bruised and emotionally fragile people. The secret quickly becomes impossible to hide and Jim wants revenge, whilst the smuggler decamps to the farthest outback to escape a confrontation. His subsequent struggles to survive in the hostile environment and, knowing that he must try to literally cover his tracks, give this book its gripping denouement. |
3247092 | /m/0911t1 | The Island on Bird Street | Uri Orlev | 1985 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | Alex (the main character) is an 11-year-old Jewish boy living in a Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II with his father and their friend, Boruch. German soldiers come into the Ghetto and send people onto trains to be taken away (most likely to concentration camps). Alex and his father get separated, and soon Alex has to learn how to survive in the empty ghetto by himself. As it turns out the ghetto is not entirely empty, and that is where he comes across various people, from neighbors to robbers, some of whom even try to help him. He finds himself in an abandoned, bombed out building on Bird Street (Ptasia street) where he seeks refuge. The only thing he has to pass the time away with is his pet mouse Snow, the novel Robinson Crusoe and other books, and a small window overlooking the town. He has to hunt for food on his own and still stay hidden from soldiers. It is a great test for Alex to see if he can make it through tough conditions, and also wait for the arrival of his father. |
3247367 | /m/09127g | The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil | George Saunders | 9/6/2005 | {"/m/06nbt": "Satire", "/m/05qt0": "Politics", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | The story focuses on the border disputes between the countries of Inner and Outer Horner, the former of which is "so small that only one Inner Hornerite at a time could fit inside, and the other six Inner Hornerites had to wait their turns to live in their own country while standing very timidly in the surrounding country of outer Horner." Phil, an embittered Outer Hornerite, decides that the puny Inner Hornerites do nothing but stand around very close together solving math proofs all day, and have to stretch one at a time every morning; Seen as an evil threat to the leisure of the five Outer Hornerites, they are understood as abusing the vast good will that they have received courtesy of the Outer Hornerites. As they stand in the short-term residency zone in Outer Horner, they wait their turn to reenter their country. So Phil, gaining the support of the other Outer Hornerites and hiring two giants as his personal policy enforcers, begins to tax the Inner Hornerites for staying in his country. He settles in the end to accept the disassembling of the Inner Hornerites as sufficient payment. The story chronicles Phil's tyrannical rise to power and his attempted Inner Hornerite genocide. |
3247527 | /m/0912k5 | Cryptid Hunters | Roland Smith | 12/27/2004 | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | Marty and Grace O'Hara were very different twins. After their journalist parents were lost in a helicopter crash, they went to their uncle's island. Dr. Laurel Lee arrived with a Mokélé-mbembé egg, a dinosaur thought to have gone extinct but is believed by some to still exist in the Congo. Laurel explained how she'd given the egg to Dr. Noah Blackwood, an evil man who collects rare and unique animals, but is portrayed as a sweet and caring person. Laural stole the egg back, but Blackwood was on the trail of Mokélé-mbembé. Wolfe and his team depart to the Congo, to protect his friend Masalito and Mokélé-mbembé. The twins where to be left at their boarding school until afterwards. But on the plane, Grace and Marty had to catch a run-away chimp in the supply shoot. They fell out when the luggage drop over Congo takes place. While they were stranded in the wilderness, Wolfe contacted them and told them to travel to a safe place, the Skyhouse, by Lake Télé and to wait for them, and explained that he needed to avoid Butch McCall, Blackwood's number one guy. The children forgot what Wolfe had said about Butch. Butch saw the children and spied on them, sending information back to Blackwood. Blackwood told him to find the girl. The children found the Skyhouse and Marty left shortly, leaving Grace behind. She climbed upstairs and knocked herself unconscious while Butch and his men kidnapped her and took her to their camp. Marty signaled Masalito and Marty realizes Butch must have kidnapped Grace. The twins realized that Grace was actually the daughter of Rose, Blackwood's daughter, and Wolfe, and that Wolfe had handed her to her cousin Marty's parents, the O'Haras. Marty and Masalito went to find Grace, and Wolfe and Laurel saw a note through a video feed in the Skyhouse. Grace's captors fell asleep, and Grace escaped. Grace and Marty met up and hurried into a tunnel in the trees and saw the body of Mokélé-mbembé, setting it on fire and collecting two eggs. Blackwood and Butch arrived. Marty had went upstairs and Grace was about to come up also. Butch tied Grace up, about put her into Blackwood's helicopter, and went to get Marty and the eggs. Marty forced Butch and Blackwood to hand out Grace. In the meantime, Dr. Lee and Wolfe has arrived at the cleaning. With Blackwood's helicopter, they fly out of the clearing. |
3248537 | /m/0914np | Drowned Wednesday | Garth Nix | 2005-02 | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | Drowned Wednesday is the first Trustee among the Morrow Days who is on Arthur's side and wishes the Will to be fulfilled. She appears as a leviathan/whale and suffers from Gluttony. The book begins when Leaf is visiting Arthur and they are discussing the invitation that Drowned Wednesday sent him. Arthur had been admitted to hospital because of the damage done to his leg when he attempted to enter Tuesday's Treasure Tower. Suddenly, the hospital room becomes flooded with water as the two are transported to the Border Sea of the House. Leaf is snatched away by a large ship with green sails, known as the Flying Mantis, while Arthur remains in his bed. When the Medallion given him by the immortal called the Mariner apparently fails to summon help, Arthur is without hope. Eventually, a buoy marking the pirate Elishar Feverfew's treasure floats toward him. As soon as Arthur opens it, his hand is marked with a bloody red colour. Arthur now has the Red Hand, by which Feverfew marks whoever has found his treasure, so that he can identify them later. Not long after, a scavenging ship called the Moth rescues Arthur. On board, Arthur (going by the name of Arth) is introduced to Sunscorch, the First Mate, and to Captain Catapillow. Their journey brings them through the Line of Storms and into the Border Sea, where they are later pursued by Feverfew's ghostly ship, the Shiver. The damage inflicted on the Moth is serious; therefore Sunscorch commands an Upper House Sorcerer, Dr. Scamandros, to open a transfer portal to elsewhere in the Secondary Realms. Scamandros claims that Arthur is carrying something that interfered with his magic, and tells Sunscorch to throw him overboard. As a last resort, Arthur shows them the Mariner's Medallion, which stops Scamandros saying that they must get rid of Arthur. After going through the transfer portal (with Arthur's help), the ship is grounded on a beach. When Arthur wished to learn what happened to Leaf, Dr. Scamandros applies his sorcery to make it possible. She is revealed to be aboard the ship Flying Mantis. Arthur joins Catapillow for supper, later to reveal his identity. At first, Propaganda issued by Dame Primus (Arthur's Steward) makes them skeptical of this, but they eventually become convinced. A few days later, Wednesday's Dawn takes Arthur to meet Wednesday for her 'luncheon of seventeen removes'. As they approach, Wednesday shrinks into her human form to meet Arthur. During their lunch, Wednesday tells Arthur that after Part 3 of the Will has been released, she will surrender the Third Key to Arthur. Arthur is then taken by Wednesday's Dawn to a place called the triangle in search of his friend Leaf. He learns that Leaf has been forced to work on the Mantis, but is otherwise intact. Arthur later makes a deal with the Raised Rats, a group of anthropomorphic rats brought to the House by the Piper, to take him to Feverfew's hideout, which they believe is inside a miniature world located within Drowned Wednesday's stomach. On the Raised Rats' ship, Arthur opens a gift from Dr. Scamandros, which proves to be a golden transfer watch. With this, he communicates with and rescues Dr. Scamandros. He then uses a scrying mirror Dr. Scamandros gave him to watch Leaf. A rat watches him during the scry, and later saves him from a battle with Feverfew. Later, the Rats bring Arthur onto their submarine, where he meets with Suzy Turquiose Blue. In contrast to Suzy's former cockney attitude, she has assumed a more "ladylike and proper" demeanor on the orders of Dame Primus. Only when they are no longer on the Border Sea, but under it, does she resume her customary ways of speech and dress. They are, with navigational difficulty, able to enter the stomach of Lady Wednesday and the worldlet therein. There, Arthur and Suzy, disguised as rats, find escaped slaves, professed followers of the Carp. These exiles take them to the Carp, who is the third part of the Will. They are halted in their attempt to escape by Feverfew, who proposes that each of them will try to kill the other by means of one strike only. Arthur fails his first try, then dodges Feverfew and severs his head. Leaf, who is Feverfew's prisoner, then kicks it into a mud puddle containing Nothing, which consumes it. Upon his death, the worldlet begins to collapse. Via the Moth, Arthur and all his friends (with the exception of the reluctant Catapillow) are able to escape. Lady Wednesday recovers from her gluttony, then dies as a result of being poisoned by the worldlet, which had opened a void to Nothing. Arthur, now Duke of the Border Sea, appoints Sunscorch as his Noon and Scamandros as his Dusk. fr:Mercredi sous les flots th:พุธเพชฌฆาต |
3249201 | /m/0915xw | The Spook's Apprentice | Joseph Delaney | 2004 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | The story begins after the arrival of the Spook, who will be taking Tom Ward, the narrator, as his apprentice. The Spook is a cloaked old man carrying a wooden staff in his left hand, who travels the county fighting troublesome creatures such as Boggarts, Ghosts/Ghasts, and Witches, for the people who need these things gone. However the religious world hates them, for they are thought to be meddling in the dark powers themselves, which is against the Christian church. Tom knows that his parents have agreed to make him the apprentice of the Spook. He will have to learn how the Spook fights "The Dark", as it's referred to in the book. He can use practice, reading or listening to learn about all creatures that feature in the dark. The Spook is actually a person, and looks after Tom well. He explains that most of his other apprentices have failed, due to them being cowardly, disobedient, or deceased. It is revealed that one of the deceased was Billy Bradly, who whilst fighting a particularly dangerous boggart had his finger bitten off and died from loss of blood. The Spook's staff is not what it appears. It has a retractable knife at the end of it and the wood is very uncomfortable to witches. Later on Tom Ward realizes it is very useful to defeat witches. The Spook lives in a house at Chipenden. This house is protected from unwanted visitors by a boggart, whom the Spook has made a servant of sorts. The Spook has promised the boggart that as long as the house is standing, the boggart must cook for them, do the dishes, and do their laundry. The boggart happily complies with these tasks, because this is what boggarts do best. After learning what the Spook does, Tom is sent out on an errand to pick up some food for the house. He is given a strict warning - do not talk to women wearing pointy shoes. On his way home, some boys about the same age as Tom come up and threaten to beat him unless he gives them some food. Tom refuses and the boys are about to beat him up, when suddenly a girl in pointy shoes shows up and scares them away by telling them a certain person is back. She has an ungodly amount of strength for a girl of her age. The mysterious girl's name is Alice, and she is a relative of some of the most dangerous witches in the world: Mother Malkin and Bony Lizzie. Bony Lizzie uses bone magic, a type of necromancy involving the bones of dead enemies. Mother Malkin was one of the most sinister witches, who uses blood magic, a type of witchcraft that involved draining the blood of anyone she thought could have useful features. She was called Mother Malkin for her strategy of welcoming young runaway women into a care home, and then sucking the blood of every girl there to make her more youthful. Over time she had developed a taste for children. A long time ago the Spook had bound Mother Malkin to a pit in the ground with 13 iron bars on top, so she could never escape to terrorize anyone again. Soon Tom is tricked by Alice to give Mother Malkin three cakes, one every night at midnight for three days, which (Tom doesn't know) is filled with blood. Mother Malkin becomes stronger and breaks out of her pit prison in two days. Tom then tries to find a way to deal with Mother Malkin, because the Spook is not at home. A horrible monster-like boy, who is Mother Malkin's son, as well as Bony Lizzie, try to kill Tom. Alice first tricks Tom, but as Bony Lizzie sharpens her knife to kill him, she pulls him out of the pit he was thrown in. The Spook returns home, kills Mother Malkin's son with his staff, then tests Alice to see whether she is good or evil. She passes the test, then they put Bony Lizzie into her pit. Tom returns home, to realize that Mother Malkin has followed him. She possesses the body of the pig killer of Tom's farm, using terrible dark magic, but is thrust out of his body with the help of Alice, who runs and kicks the pig killer hard when his possessed body is about to murder Tom. The three then kill Mother Malkin by having her escape into the lair of the hungry pigs, who eat her alive, including her heart. This ensures that she cannot return to the world again after death. Tom, the Spook and Alice decide that Alice should go to Staumin to escape the dark influence of her witch relatives and Tom escorts her there. Tom then returns to Chipenden to resume his training as a Spook. |
3249286 | /m/091634 | The Hairy Ape | Eugene O'Neill | 1922 | null | The play tells the story of a brutish, unthinking laborer known as Yank, as he searches for a sense of belonging in a world controlled by the rich. At first Yank feels secure as he stokes the engines of an oceanliner, and is highly confident in his physical power over the ship's engines. However, when the weak but rich daughter of an industrialist in the steel business refers to him as a "filthy beast," Yank undergoes a crisis of identity. He leaves the ship and wanders into Manhattan, only to find he does not belong anywhere—neither with the socialites on Fifth Avenue, nor with the labor organizers on the waterfront. Finally he is reduced to seeking a kindred being with the gorilla in the zoo and dies in the animal's embrace. The play is divided into 8 scenes. Scene 1 takes place in the fireman's forecastle of a cruise ship, where they sleep. Their racks resemble the bars of a cage. They are sailing from New York, where Yank and the other firemen are talking and singing drunkenly. Yank is shown to be a leader among them. Other featured characters are Long, a socialist, and Paddy, a particularly drunken Irishman. Scene 2 takes place on the deck, where Mildred Douglas (the rich girl) and her aunt are talking. They are almost constantly arguing. Scene 3 takes place in the stokehold. Yank and the other firemen take pride in their work. When Mildred comes to visit the stokehold, Mildred hears Yank cursing. When he turns around and she sees him, she is so shocked by him she calls Yank a filthy beast and faints. Scene 4 also takes place on the ship. Yank is very depressed and the other men try to understand why. In scene 5, Yank and Long go to 5th Avenue in New York. Yank argues with Long about how best to attack the upper class. Long leaves, fearing arrest, and Yank is arrested after attacking a Gentleman. Scene 6 takes place at the prison at Blackwell’s Island. Yank tells the prisoners his story and one of the prisoners gives him an article about the Industrial Workers of the World. Yank tries to escape. Scene 7 takes place at the IWW office that Yank goes to after his month in jail. They are happy to have him at first because there are not many ship firemen in the union - but he is thrown out after he says that he wants to blow up things, and they think he is a spy. Scene 8 takes place at the zoo, when Yank is crushed after trying to talk to an ape and releasing it from its cage. |
3251094 | /m/09191h | Ice | Shane Johnson | 2002-07 | {"/m/0mz2": "Alternate history", "/m/06n90": "Science Fiction"} | In February 1975, Apollo 19 lands near the Aitken Basin near the lunar south pole (called "Marlow" in the novel) following a discovery of a vast quantity of water ice at that location. (Observation data from the 1994 unmanned spacecraft Clementine has indicated the existence of subsurface water ice mixed with lunar soil, as confirmed by Lunar Prospector and subsequent missions, but exposed water ice on the moon's surface has not been recognized by the scientific community.) There the crew tests an experimental heavy Lunar rover, launched to their location earlier by a Saturn 1B and delivered to the Moon using a stand-alone LM descent stage called the "LM Truck." (Both of these vehicles might have been actually used on the Moon, according to Johnson, had not Project Apollo been cut short.) All goes well until the astronauts are ready to lift off to return to the orbiting Apollo CSM. Unfortunately, their LM ascent engine fails to fire. Repeated attempts to restart that engine—the only part of the LM system without a backup—all end in failure. Finding themselves stranded, the mission commander and LM pilot say goodbye to their wives. The commander peremptorily orders his CM pilot, in orbit around the Moon, to return home. He and the LM pilot then abandon the LM and strike out on their own, driving their rover to the limit of its remaining driving range "to see what we can see." In their last message to Earth, they ask their colleague and Capsule Communicator to help their returning crewmate understand that he must not blame himself for their deaths. Before their oxygen runs out entirely, they find a vast and incredible Out-of-place artifact that might save their lives - or kill them. It is an ancient, abandoned, but fully functioning Lunar base - which they find immediately before the last seconds of their air run out. The base contains technology far beyond the reach of human science and engineering, best exemplified in the "war room" that they find immediately upon entry. This leads the two men to argue whether extrasolar visitors built it. LM Pilot Charlie Shepherd, a fundamentalist Christian, refuses to admit the possibility, because the Bible contains no warrant for it. Both men agree, however, that whoever the base builders are (or were) would be able to conquer Earth easily, had they chosen to attack—though why they never did attack remains a mystery. The two men soon find EVA suits that are one-third again as tall as human EVA suits are. Shortly thereafter, they find many members of the base crew—dead of various acts of violence, and in at least one case, a suicide. The suicide's living quarters contains multiple artworks depicting various scenes of torture, indicating that the base builders were a thoroughly evil people whose mania for causing suffering is incomprehensible. Subsequently Mission Commander Gary Lucas vanishes into an apparent journey into the past—specifically to the builders' home world. His friend, left on the base, searches it in vain for his friend, not realizing that his friend has entered a machine that can simulate events stored in its historical memory, based on input from a base-wide and planet-wide surveillance system. Shepherd finds a means of sustenance, and then finds a hangar—which turns out to be empty. Angered and desperate, Shepherd activates all the base' systems in the war room, except for one system that refuses to activate. In the process, he activates the base computer system, which regards him as non-human and starts broadcasting a distress signal to Earth. That signal will turn out to be the salvation of the two astronauts—because Congress, on the point of cancelling Project Apollo completely, reverses itself and authorizes Apollo 20 in direct response to the signal, which clearly is coming from the Marlow Basin. They cannot read the message, but—at least subconsciously—they realize that its activation after the men of Apollo 19 were supposed to have died cannot be coincidental. Gary Lucas has many perilous adventures in the "home world" simulation, which he accepts as entirely real. They begin with his rescue of a woman being assaulted, and continue with his capture by men bent on offering him as a human sacrifice and by his rescue by the woman's husband and brother-in-law. In gratitude, Lucas offers to join the workforce that is now applying the finishing touches to a vast granary that his hosts have been building and stocking. Meanwhile, Shepherd tries again to activate the last war-room system—and realizes, too late, that he has in fact started a self-destruct sequence. One by one, various base systems—gravity, climate control, and ultimately the food dispensary—begin to shut down. Lucas is injured during the storehouse construction project and, after the householders have an apparent argument concerning him, is given a sedative. He awakes to find himself in an empty house and steps outside in time to hear the roar of an onrushing wall of water, which lifts the storehouse off its foundations (incredibly, without damaging it) and threatens to sweep Lucas to his death. But then Lucas finds himself back on the base, in time to watch its crew destroy one another in mutiny, mayhem, murder, human sacrifice, and the eventual suicide of the base commander, who is the crew's last survivor. Following this, Lucas experiences an attack of vertigo. In fact the simulator machine has run its program, sounds three piercing alarm tones, and ejects him into the waiting arms of Shepherd just as the crew of Apollo 20 arrive to rescue them. That rescue is just in time—because after Apollo 20 completes trans-Earth injection, the self-destruct sequence runs its course, and the base destroys itself, apparently in a thermonuclear detonation. Back on Earth, the mission commander studies the Bible—and realizes that he actually witnessed the Noachic Flood and even ate at Noah's table. Also, the base builders never attacked Earth, because they were from Earth originally—from Antediluvian Earth. He and Shepherd further realize that God has entrusted him with a warning, which he must convey to anyone who will listen. |
3251656 | /m/091b3c | The Ferguson Rifle | Louis L'Amour | 1973 | {"/m/0hfjk": "Western"} | The main character, Ronan Chantry, who is of Irish ancestry, is going into the West away from his troubles. Chantry's wife and son are dead, burned to death in the fire that consumed his home, for which he is blamed. He takes with him a Ferguson Rifle, given to him by Major Ferguson himself. He meets up with an outfit of trappers after crossing the Mississippi River. Although never stated directly, Chantry quickly becomes the leader of the group. Main members of the group are an Irishman, Davy Shanagan, and Solomon, who by the end of the book is revealed to be very well known throughout the wilderness. Early on the outfit's journey west, they encounter the Spanish Captain Fernandez accompanied by Ute Indians. The Captain attempts to arrest the outfit for trespassing on Spanish colonies. The outfit informs him that the land was bought under the Louisiana Purchase. That night it is believed that Captain Fernandez attacks them but fails with two Utes being killed. The outfit presses on. Another night Chantry hears gunshots ring out in the distance after being awakened by a wolf who was trying to steal bacon. The next morning Chantry discovers the dead body of a man in a Mexican uniform. He searches the body and recovers a medallion. Chantry and Walks-by-Night back-track him and come to the realization that he was with a woman and boy and they had been chased and he had been killed. Chantry goes off by himself and encounters the girl and the boy. |
3251977 | /m/091btg | The Witches of Karres | James H. Schmitz | 1966 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Captain Pausert, a well-intentioned, but inexperienced merchant traveler voyaging solo on the old pirate chaser Venture from the planet Nikkeldepain, is induced to purchase three young witches (Maleen, Goth, and the Leewit) who had been enslaved on the Imperial planet of Porlumma. The sisters were captured in a raid by Imperial slavers while visiting another planet on a jaunt of their own. In getting clear of Porlumma, the Venture escapes belated pursuit with the use of the witches' klatha (psionic) Sheewash drive, which enables far faster transit of distance than is possible with primary or secondary space drives available either in or outside the Empire. This draws the unwelcome attention of both the Imperium and other governments to both Captain Pausert and the elderly Venture. After returning the witch sisters to their homeworld, Karres, Captain Pausert attempts to return to Nikkeldepain, but is arrested before he can obtain permission to land. The Captain is informed that he faces a barrage of criminal charges, many relating to his encounter with the witches and his brief stay on the prohibited planet of Karres. And they want the Sheewash drive. Avidly. Captain Pausert escapes the Nikkeldepain police and military with the help of the middle witch sister, Goth, who had stowed away on the ship. From that point, he and Goth find themselves becoming more and more embroiled in wild adventures involving interdimensional alien invaders, space pirates, many more of the Karres witches, and assorted other characters. |
3254026 | /m/091gg8 | The Boy Who Followed Ripley | Patricia Highsmith | 1980-04 | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | A 16-year-old American boy calling himself Billy approaches Ripley in the village, asking for a job. Ripley agrees to give him a small amount of gardening work and puts him up in the guest room, but he believes that he recognizes the youth from a newspaper. Further investigation reveals that 'Billy' is actually Frank Pierson, the son of a recently deceased American tycoon, who has fled the United States. Frank soon confesses to Tom that he did in fact murder his own father by pushing him off a cliff. Ripley's interest thereby increases as he now recognizes a kind of kindred spirit in young Pierson. He also discovers that Frank deliberately sought him out for advice after learning of his questionable reputation. Ripley commissions a false passport for Frank and they travel to Germany, ending up in West Berlin, where they stay with a friend of Ripley's erstwhile partner in crime, Reeves Minot. Frank is kidnapped while strolling through a wooded area in West Berlin. Ripley communicates with the Pierson family and with a private detective the family has sent to Paris. The Piersons wire the ransom to Berlin, and Ripley takes it to the appointed drop-off point where he impulsively kills one of the kidnappers. The other three drive off. Ripley returns with the money and arranges a rendezvous at a gay bar, which he infiltrates by dressing in drag. He identifies the kidnappers, who again leave empty-handed, and follows them back to the flat where they are keeping the boy. Ripley scares the amateur thugs into dashing out of the apartment, and he single-handedly rescues the semi-conscious hostage. Ripley then dispatches the money back to the Pierson family, encourages Frank to return to his family in New England and accompanies him there besides. Despite Ripley's coaching and reassurances, Frank is overwhelmed by guilt as well as by his unrequited love for a teenaged girl named Teresa, and eventually commits suicide by throwing himself over the same precipice from which he pushed his wheelchair-confined father. Shaken and, much to his own surprise, saddened by Frank's death, Ripley returns to Belle Ombre after securing a former possession of the boy's as a memento. |
3254430 | /m/091h68 | Halfway Across the Galaxy and Turn Left | Robin Klein | 1985 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | The novel tells the tale of the planet Zyrgon, ruled by the galactic police called The Law-Enforcers. They are after Mortimer, who has cheated the government lottery for the 27th time in a row. His family is governed by the youngest daughter, 12-year old X, who wants to save her father from the detention centre. The family also includes Mother, who would rather design clothing and leave all worries to her daughter X. The oldest sister Dovis is a cosmic flier who writes poetry and levitates. The youngest is a boy genius, Qwrk who is a professor at age 5. X is the lead character: a stressed girl who has to balance between strange Earth customs such as school and her duty to take care of her family. Zyrgonians have special powers such as levitation, simulations, and kinetics. They love gambling and live on an ultra-modern and dystopian planetoid. |
3254821 | /m/091j7z | At All Costs | David Weber | 2005 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01smf2": "Military science fiction"} | Due to the actions of the High Ridge government in War of Honor, which led to a successful attack on key Alliance shipyards by the Republic of Haven, the Star Kingdom of Manticore finds itself decidedly on the short end of the strategic balance between the two warring star nations. Admiral Honor Harrington is placed in command of Eighth Fleet, the Manticoran Alliance's primary offensive force, which is the sole heavy formation available for operations against Haven. Queen Elizabeth and her senior advisors project it will be at least two "T-years" (Terran years, i.e. Earth years) before they can expect any significant numbers of new construction to begin bolstering their thin wall of battle; this while Haven's progress under Admirals Theisman and Foraker have given them an even larger force advantage, and smaller technological disparity, than Haven suffered before the beginning of hostilities in Short Victorious War. Strategically, the goal of Honor and Eighth Fleet is to instill enough operational caution and sensitivity to losses in Haven to force redeployments; this would have the desperately needed effect of reducing the available number of ships of the wall Haven would then be able to concentrate for offensive action against the Star Kingdom and its allies. Despite the grave circumstances, the Star Kingdom finds itself spread dangerously thin against its security commitments; to itself and the Alliance. At All Costs climaxes with the largest and most critical battle of the entire series, the Battle of Manticore, as Havenite forces attack the Manticoran home star system. Haven comes close to winning the battle, until Admiral Harrington's Eighth Fleet intervenes, giving Manticore a hard-won victory. Both sides suffer heavy losses, and they are temporarily stalemated. Honor continues to work closely with Hamish Alexander, now First Lord of the Admiralty, on the military and political challenges facing the Alliance. Their professional respect for each other's abilities, and their need for mutual support as they navigate the precarious political landscape in the Star Kingdom, has led them into the very romantic embrace the High Ridge government tried to insinuate during War of Honor. While this is not the dire political crisis it was during the prior Star Kingdom government, it still offers numerous personal and professional difficulties for them. Unfortunately, they find themselves trapped between their emotions and their responsibilities to each other, to the loved ones in their lives, and to the Star Kingdom and the Alliance. The dilemma is resolved when the Reverend of Grayson engineers a polygamous marriage of Honor to Hamish and his crippled wife. |
3254859 | /m/091jcr | The Light Bearer | Donna Gillespie | 10/6/1994 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | The fictional protagonists are a proto-Germanic tribeswoman, Auriane, daughter of a Chattian war leader; and Marcus Arrius Julianus, a Roman senator and imperial advisor whose character and circumstances are loosely based on the Roman philosopher Seneca, as well as another contemporary in the reign of Nero, Stoic philosopher and statesman Helvidius Priscus, a man much praised by his contemporaries for his outspokenness in public life. Rome’s interference in tribal affairs compel Auriane to take the warrior’s oath and lead her father’s retinue after his untimely death. In Rome, Stoic humanist Marcus Julianus reaches the highest pinnacles of government, where he is taken into the confidence of the Emperor Domitian. Through political maneuvering, he strives to check the murderous whims of the increasingly corrupt Emperor Domitian. Auriane is captured in Domitian's Chattian War and taken to Rome. As Domitian's reign of terror begins, Julianus orchestrates a plot to assassinate the Emperor; here the author has inserted a fictional character into a gap left by history. The Emperor Domitian, who according to Suetonius, was fond of pitting women against dwarfs in the arena, condemns Auriane to a gladiatorial school. Here Auriane discovers the tribesman who betrayed her people in war. As Julianus’ assassination plot rushes to its conclusion, Auriane must carry out the tribal rite of vengeance in the Colosseum. |
3255341 | /m/091krc | The Damnation of Theron Ware | Harold Frederic | 1896 | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | The congregation of The First Methodist Episcopal Church of Tecumseh sits in their exquisite sanctuary, awaiting the decision of whom they are going to appoint as the new pastor for their church. The members of the congregation regard their time at the church with such high importance that they pay hundreds of dollars to rent the front pews. When the new pastor is announced, Abram G. Tisdale, members of the congregation began leaving upset and selling their pews for sixty dollars. The man they wanted to be appointed, Theron Ware, was appointed to the church in Octavius. After the ceremony, Theron and his wife are disappointed, but Theron tells her there is nothing more they can do. In their new home in Octavius, the Wares are surprised that the milk delivery boy informs them that they will be pressured by the congregation to not have milk delivered on Sundays. Theron reminisces about how he arrived in Octavius. A young minister who changed his first parish in Tyre into an over-capacity congregation, met his wife Alice in Tyre and had a quick marriage. However, the Wares found themselves eight hundred dollars in debt, not knowing how to budget the church and their own lives. As they trimmed down the spending both in the church and in their personal lives, by selling possessions and their piano, the clergy once again began to dwindle. Their third year at Tyre, a man named Abram Beekman gave them a loan. Theron, determined to show that he could do better in a bigger congregation, went to the conference at Tecumseh to prove his abilities, only to be placed in Octavius. Theron meets with three trustees from the church - Pierce, Winch, and Gorringe - in his house. Pierce tells Ware that he is not to use "dictionary words" because he does not want people to be redirected to one of the two Catholic churches in Octavius. They discuss the church finances and they try to make him take a pay cut and pay for his gas bill. Theron refuses, and Gorringe is the only level headed of the trustees as they get angrier and nearly threaten him. They agree to bring in a "debt-raiser" to reduce the church's debt, and after the meeting Theron tells his wife that he nearly thought he should go out and learn a trade. After a good first sermon at his church in Octavius, Theron ponders his next move as minister, and how to help his overworked wife, as he takes a walk. While on his way back home, he comes upon a procession of people carrying a man. The man, Mr. MacEvoy, is injured and is taken to his house where the people await for the Catholic priest Father Forbes to give the man his last rites. Theron observes the man and other people chanting in Latin and is intrigued. After the last rites, Father Forbes introduces himself to Theron while they walk away from MacEvoy's house. Forbes leaves and Celia Madden, also at the last rites, introduces herself to Theron. She is the daughter of the owner of the wagon shop where MacEvoy worked, and explained that if she did not attend the last rites, Mrs. Ann MacEvoy would no longer speak to her. She also tells Theron that she is an organist at Forbes' church. When she leaves, Theron ponders how he has never interacted with Catholics before, but that they are not as foreign as he originally thought. That night at dinner, Theron and his wife talk about their new estate and that it is adequate, but not as nice as they'd like. Theron forgets to tell Alice his thoughts about hiring an aide for her, but talks to her about Father Forbes and asks her why she thinks there is a separation between the Methodists and the Catholics. Alice expresses her dislike for Catholics. The next day, Alice tells Theron that she won't need a hired girl until winter. Theron goes out to buy a piano for the church and a book for himself, and is upset at the store Thurston's which only carries the most recently popular books and has such low prices that it is putting specialty stores out of business. At the piano store, Theron realizes he is not qualified to pick out a piano and decides to ask Celia to help him pick one out. Back at home, Theron struggles to begin writing a book of his own and is distracted by the fact that he does not own very many books. He suddenly leaves his dinner with Alice to go ask Father Forbes for help. Theron admires the new, yet-unfinished Catholic cathedral, which he remarks is the finest building in Octavius. When he arrives at Father Forbes' residence, he is greeted by an ugly helper, who leads him into a dimly lit dining room, where Forbes and a stranger are eating. The stranger is Dr. Ledsmar, an elderly man who is nonreligious. Theron talks about his book which he hopes to write about Abraham, and Father Forbes seems to know quite a bit more about Abraham than Theron can comprehend. Alone, Theron and Dr. Ledsmar talk about why Father Forbes rarely gives a sermon at his church, and Theron discovers it is because the parish need him to participate in the traditions of the church rather than preach. Theron hears organ music from the church, and Ledsmar tells him that it is Celia Madden practicing. Ledsmar doesn't seem to be moved by the music, and he reveals to Theron that he thinks all art is "decay." He invited Theron over to see his collection of books, and Theron finds out that he has a Chinese servant living with him. When Theron leaves, he passes the Catholic Church and the organ music makes him walk inside the church, something he has never done before. The narration of the novel takes a different turn in the ninth chapter by giving the back story of Celia Madden and her father Jeremiah Madden. Jeremiah, a very rich man, has had multiple wives and multiple children. Celia had been quite the talk of Octavius for her past actions, but Theron knew none of this when he first met her and decided to enter the Catholic Church, where Celia notices him and approaches him to talk. Celia tells Theron that she hates Dr. Ledsmar for disliking art. She inquires Theron if he likes music, poetry, and books, and he says that he does. Celia tells Theron that she won't like him as a person if he likes Dr. Ledsmar, and that she is upset that Ledsmar is friends with and has influence of Father Forbes. Theron continues to walk Celia home, and she reveals that she is not religious at all, but subscribes to the Greek philosophy of her ancestors, claiming to be Greek herself. Theron forgets to ask her about the piano until after she is inside her house. At the Ware household, Theron wakes up Alice who was sleeping in a chair. He tells her about Ledsmar, whom Alice is very wary of. Alice also complains about their neighbors who are playing the piano so late at night, but Theron enjoys it. Theron had not seen Forbes, Ledsmar, or Celia for several weeks because of various events with his church, including the advent of automobiles, a circus, and the scorn from some of the trustees over his style of sermons. Overall, he has been getting good reviews from the parish, but he still wants to improve the church. Alice seems to be more depressed in Octavius than previously. The Wares discuss Gorringe, and how Theron wishes he were a more active member in the church because of his understandings of Theron's activities and motivations. Finding a spare moment four days before another Methodist conference, Theron gets around to reading some books he borrowed from Dr. Ledsmar. He reads nearly all day long, and when Alice enters the room she is surprised to find him researching his book on Abraham that she thought he abandoned. He tells her that he has a headache, and she is concerned that he is getting sick. When she leaves, he is pleased by his solitude and ability to read the books. He suddenly has a realization that he envies Forbes and Ledsmar, who are able to live with their own theories and ideas, and that Forbes can still work in the religious field. He contemplates leaving his job as a pastor when Alice returns home and introduces him to Sister Soulsby, a debt-raiser whom she hired so the congregation would not take away from the Ware's income and so they can possibly afford a new house. Sister Soulsby talks with the Methodists in Octavius and after a couple of days proposes a "love-feast" for the congregation. Her idea is confirmed when her husband, Brother Soulsby, arrives. Alice and Theron disagree that springing a debt-raiser on the congregation after a festival is an appropriate way to make money, but the Soulsby argue that they have been raising funds for churches and organizations for a long time, and that they know what they are doing. All the while, Theron worries about his wife. He doesn't seem to care for her as much, and thinks that Forbes and Ledsmar wouldn't regard her very well. He does take note that she has made good friends with Gorringe. The love-feast occurs at 9:00AM on the next Sunday. The feast includes singing, praying, and speeches. Sister Soulsby gives a particularly good speech that motivates the people of the Methodist church. The presiding elder also speaks, and Alice gets up from her pew to kneel at the front of the sanctuary in prayer, and is joined by the lawyer Gorringe. Theron reads the list of stewards is upset that Gorringe's name is not on the list and feels alienated from the church. Theron awakes inside his home and remembers that he fainted inside the church due to the heat. He goes outside and finds that the Soulsbys are threatening to "close down" the church until funds are raised to get the church out of debt and a little extra for things that need money. In the end, they raise enough money to give the Wares an extra $100 per year and for themselves to be paid. Later, Theron talks with Gorringe, who is now religiously invested in the church as well as financially. The trustees must vote to see if Erastus Winch will have to pay what he pledged to the church after going bankrupt. The vote comes down to Theron, who votes that he should have to pay. Sister Soulsby and Theron discuss Erastus Winch's case and how Theron feels bad about forcing him to pay what he cannot afford. Sister Soulsby notes that it is not her place to be moral, but that she did what she was hired to do. Theron and her continue to talk about separating people from their money, and Sister Soulsby tells Theron that he would be terrible at conning anyone. Theron and Alice take a walk and Alice wonders what the congregation will think that they are not at a prayer. She leaves and Theron begins to think about what Sister Soulsby said about Catholics, and he finds himself nearby the Catholic Church, and realizes that he probably ended up there because he wanted to run into Celia. He hears her voice and they meet and talk. She invites him into the church so she can play the organ for him. Later, he walks her home and she invites him in. She shows him her workroom and a private room that is "[her] very own." Celia's room was full of candles, sculptures, art, and a piano. Celia offers Theron a cigarette, which he usually does not smoke, and he accepts. She plays him songs on the piano and later slips into a robe. After she plays more and more songs on the piano, Theron stands up and walks closer to her. They talk softly, and Theron tells her that he want to experience her Greek philosophy, hinting toward her bedroom. It is late so he has to leave, but Celia knows he will be back and laughs at the situation when he is gone. The next morning, Theron Ware recognizes that he has in fact gone though an illumination and will never be the same again. Alice notices it too, at breakfast, but thinks that it is because he is overworked by the new parish. Theron decides to write a letter to Celia, but at the end of it cannot think of a good enough word to close his letter. He visits the specialty book store and buys a book entitled George Sand which included information about Chopin, one of Celia's favorite composers. He then hurries off to meet Celia at the piano store where she helps him pick out a piano. He agrees on a cheaper model than Celia originally recommends. They part ways. Theron meets with Dr. Ledsmar at the doctor's house. He is surprised that the doctor greeted him at the door instead of his "Chinaman". Dr. Ledsmar and Theron talk about women, and Theron thinks of Celia during their conversation. Ledsmar discusses how men have been studying women for ages and that sex is relatively not understood. They talk about the use of flowers, Ledsmar looking at them scientifically instead of aesthetically. Ledsmar then shows Ware his Chinaman, who the doctor is doing experiments on. The doctor claims that his shoulder is hurting and bids Ware farewell. Time has passed and Theron is starting to look healthier due to his new outlook on life. His church is thriving because he is following Sister Soulsby's advice. It is time for a conference at the Methodist church in Octavius, and people have come and are camping out for the event. Theron walks among the tents. He continues walking into the woods and comes out at a Catholic picnic. They are drinking beer and he is interested in trying it but doesn't want to approach the bar for himself. Father Forbes and Celia walk up to him as he thinks about how to get a beer. A young man fetches Theron a beer, and Theron, Forbes, and Celia discuss their respective religions. Forbes convinces Ware that their beliefs aren't too different. After more drinks of lager and talking about how one day there may be one "Church of America", Celia introduces Ware to her brother Michael. Theron and Celia excuse themselves from their company and decide to talk a way in the woods away from the party. As Celia and Theron walk through the forest, Celia falls to her knees and begins crying. She quickly stops and explains that she doesn't want people to think she is being improper for spending time with Theron. They sit and he comforts her, but their conversation quickly turns to Theron's desire to be free from what holds him down. Celia claims he will never be truly free as he fiddles with a ribbon on her dress. He proclaims himself a Catholic, at which Celia laughs. They get up and leave, but the garden boy for Theron's garden sees them walking together in the woods and Theron and Celia are frightened of what gossip might happen. Celia allows Ware to give her a brief goodbye kiss. The kiss haunts Theron throughout the next weeks. He contemplates leaving his job, but knows that it is currently safe for him to occupy it. He wonders if Celia loves him. He overhears some women talking about how Gorringe bought $30 worth of flowers for his garden. He meets with him and asks him about the flowers, but their conversation becomes coded and Theron attempts to find out if the boy had told Gorringe about Theron and Celia in the forest. Eventually, Theron leaves but not before asking Gorringe if he knows of any scandal about Alice, which the lawyer does not understand due to Alice's purity. Theron has convinced himself that Gorringe and Alice are having an affair or are somehow conspiring against him. He has dinner with Father Forbes, and tells Forbes that he has decided that he won't be a minister for much longer. The conversation turns to Michael, who is deathly ill, and then to Celia. Forbes doesn't seem to find her as interesting as Ware does, but Theron falls victim to how articulate of a speaker Forbes is. The priest retires for the night and Theron leaves. The next morning at breakfast, Theron attempts to get a confession out of his wife about her relationship with Gorringe. Nothing arises, but Alice gets very upset and claims that she doesn't like how Theron has changed ever since they moved to Octavius. Theron blames it on the book he is writing, but Alice doesn't fully believe him. He leaves breakfast, and she cries. Theron starts thinking about why Father Forbes always has pleasant things to say about Celia even though she makes it clear that she is not Catholic. Theron puts the pieces together in his head and thinks that Celia and Father Forbes are sexual partners. He decides to talk to Celia and figures she is with her brother. He visits Michael, who is doing quite well, but warns Theron that if men seek what they want it doesn't always work out best for everybody. Theron then learns from a maid that Celia is heading to New York, and Forbes happens to be there as well. He contemplates going to Albany himself. Theron boards a train to Albany and is intrigued by the sights he sees outside of his car. He is surprised that a yacht can voyage across the ocean, and thinks that he should travel across the ocean with Celia one day. In New York, Theron is surprised at how much of a hurry some people are in just in their normal lives. He follows Father Forbes meets Celia at the station and Theron follows them to a hotel and to a restaurant for breakfast without detection. Sitting in the lobby of the hotel, Theron goes up to Celia's room after he sees Forbes leave. She greets him and tells him that she knew he was following her. She tells him to go away but eventually invites him when he is stubborn. Celia reveals that the kiss they shared was meant as a good-bye kiss, and that Dr. Ledsmar and Father Forbes are upset that Theron has constantly talked about Celia with them and attempting to find out something scandalous. During the conversation, Theron imagines killing Celia but he is not disturbed by the thought. There is a knock at the door and Forbes enters and tells Theron that they came to New York so he could introduce the upset Celia to a friend to calm her down. Reverend Ware has been in New York for two days now, and shows up at the residence of the Soulsbys at five in the morning. They welcome him in tiredly, and urge him to get some sleep. He would rather explain his situation to them than sleep, and after explaining why he is in New York, tells them that he stole money from the church to pay for his experience in the city. Theron eventually falls asleep and Brother Soulsby goes to telegraph Alice. Back in Octavius, Candace and Alice talk about the changes that are happening in the Ware's lives. Just one year ago they moved to Octavius, and Alice blames the town for changing Theron but Sister Soulsby disagrees. Alice has convinced Theron to leave the ministry and Brother Soulsby has arranged a job in real estate for him in Seattle. As he is ready to leave his house in Octavius for the last time he mentions that he might get in politics and become a senator, of which Alice replies that she has no intention of being a part. |
3257921 | /m/091r7c | Arthur & George | Julian Barnes | 7/7/2005 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | Set at the turn of the 20th century, the story follows the separate but intersecting lives of two very different British men: a half-Indian solicitor and son of a Vicar George Edalji, and the world-famous author of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Roughly one-third of the book traces the story of Edalji's trial, conviction, and imprisonment for a crime he did not commit. About one-third of the book traces the story of Doyle's life and his relationships with his first wife Louisa Hawkins and his platonic lover Jean Leckie. Roughly one-third of the book concerns Doyle's attempt to clear the name of Edalji and uncover the true culprit of the crime. Julian Barnes called it ' a contemporary novel set in the past' and the book does not aim to stick closely to the historical record at every point. |
3258018 | /m/091rgp | Lady Friday | Garth Nix | 2007-02 | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | At the beginning of Lady Friday, a cleaner tells Leaf that everybody has become infatuated with a "Dr. Friday", because she is so beautiful and refined; as a result, every member of the staff calls her Lady Friday. Lady Friday, a Denizen and Trustee of the House, is in command of the Middle House. It is later revealed that Lady Friday has kidnapped thousands of people and taken them to Avraxyn, the world that is mentioned in Sir Thursday as the world from which the Skinless Boy's mind-controlling mould originated. There, Lady Friday drains from them their emotions and memories, which she then drinks in order to experience them (being a House Denizen herself, she cannot have these emotions herself, but must take them from others). Arthur, the Piper, and Superior Saturday all receive messages from Lady Friday, saying she has abdicated the rule of the Middle House and that the first of the three who can reach her Scriptorium in the Middle House can claim the Fifth Key and her domain as their own. Along with each message is sent a Transfer Plate that sends whoever touches it straight to the Middle House (which is a giant, terraced mountain). Arthur accidentally takes the plate and is sent to the Middle House; he still retains the Fourth Key. While the Piper is contemplating what to do with his Plate, the Piper's Children Suzy Turquoise Blue and Fred Initial Numbers Gold, along with their loyal New Nithling bodyguard Ugham, grab it and are transferred to the Middle House. In the Middle House, Arthur takes refuge in a Manuscript-Gilding workshop, where he fights off some Fetchers and eventually meets Fred and Suzy. At first, he does not trust them, fearing their allegiance to the Piper; however, they and his own inclinations convince him that they can be trusted. Around their necks are bindings that bend them to the Piper's will; these are removed by Arthur with the power of the Fourth Key, at Suzy's behest. While on the way to the Scriptorium, they meet some of the Middle House's Winged Servants of the Night, who are fighting several of Saturday's elite forces, known as Artful Loungers. Arthur singlehandedly defeats four of the latter, earning the friendship of the Servants. While flying to the pinnacle of the mountain, on which stands the Scriptorium, Arthur is guided to the Fifth Part of the Will, which is chained within the lair of the Winged Servants. This part of the Will (shown on the British cover), a bizarre creature having the head of a fox, the upper torso of a bat, the lower body of a blue dragon, and four legs, is much more likable than the other parts; it is stated that this part, presumed to embody the virtue of moderation, is the part without which the Will has no self-control. When Arthur reaches the Scriptorium, he finds that the Piper has apparently killed Saturday's Dusk. The Piper orders Ugham to pick up what is supposed to be the Fifth Key; when Ugham does so, a trap from Lady Friday, in the form of an entrance to the Void of Nothing, is sprung. Ugham is instantly dissolved; as the breach gets bigger, Arthur decides to use the Fourth Key, even if it turns him into a Denizen, to close the hole. One Key alone is not sufficient to accomplish this task; therefore the Will advises him to call upon the power of the remaining Keys in his possession; the Keys appear with him, and he fixes the breach. To return to the Lower House, Arthur uses the Improbable Stair, the Architect's own personal transport, to transport himself, Suzy, and Fred to Monday's Dayroom. There, the butler Sneezer uses the Seven Dials to transport Suzy, Fred, Arthur, and their friend Dr. Scamandros to Friday's hideout. They find that Friday has lost her self-control and is about to "experience" thousands of people at once. Arthur arrives just as Friday transfers their beings into the Key; having obtained mastery of the Middle House, he returns their experiences. He finds that his friend Leaf was among the people, but that his own mother is not. It is confirmed thereafter that Arthur's mother is not in the Secondary Realms, and is therefore deduced to be in the Upper House. Arthur gives all the keys to the Will, except for the Fifth, and decides to go to Earth to settle matters there before going after Saturday. As the book closes, Suzy gives Arthur a note that Ugham gave her before he died. It appears to be a piece of a letter sent from Sunday to Saturday or vice versa. It reads "For the last time, I do not wish to intervene. Manage affairs in the House as you wish. It will make little difference in the end. S". The sender of this message, 'S', is presumed to be either Saturday or Sunday and is later revealed to be Sunday in Superior Saturday. The final sentence may remind readers of the suggestion raised in Sir Thursday by Dame Primus that the Trustees are wittingly or unwittingly part of a plan to destroy the House, and itself makes the suggestion that the sender believes the House to be doomed. |
3258281 | /m/091s35 | Laches | null | null | null | Lysimachus, son of Aristides, and Melesias, son of Thucydides (not the historian Thucydides), request advice from Laches and Nicias on whether or not they should have their sons (who are named after their famous grandfathers) trained to fight in armor. After each gives their opinion, one for and one against, they seek Socrates for council. Socrates questions what the initial purpose of the training is meant to instill in the children. Once they determine that the purpose is to instill virtue, and more specifically courage, Socrates discusses with Laches and Nicias what exactly courage is. The bulk of the dialogue is then the three men (Laches, Nicias and Socrates) debating various definitions of courage. Nicias argues in favor of an education in fighting in armour for young men. He mentions that it promotes physical fitness, prepares a man for military duties, gives an advantage over untrained opponents, helps one understand military strategy, makes one braver, and gives one a martial appearance. Laches argues against the need for fighting in armour by claiming that the Spartans do not practice it; the instructors that Laches has seen are not brave soldiers and so have not benefitted from this knowledge; and it causes cowards to take foolish and damaging military risks. Melesias and Lysumachus ask Socrates to decide which side is correct. Socrates begins by trying to clarify what the actual topic is. He determines that the issue is the care of young men's character and asks if there are qualified teachers for this. Socrates confesses not to be skilled in this and assumes that Laches and Nicias are either versed in character building or else know of experts in that field. Socrates proposes to question them about this to see if they have qualified expertise. Nicias warns about Socrates' philosophical methods of getting the interlocuter to examine their own conscience. Laches states that he likes to hear discussions that are "musical", when a person's discourse is in tune with their actions. Paraphrasing Solon, Laches agrees to participate in Socrates' inquiry because he likes to learn from good men. Socrates uses a medical analogy to help define goodness: If eyes can be improved by adding sight to them, then a boys' character can be improved by adding goodness to it. As knowledge of what sight is necessary before it can be considered as an improvement, so too it is necessary to have knowledge of what good is before it is used to improve a character. Rather than try to define what the whole of goodness is, Socrates thinks it would be easier to define an aspect of goodness that is relevant to the question - bravery. Laches advances that to be brave is to be a soldier who can hold his position in combat without running away. Socrates explains that his definition is very specific to military infantry and what he was really looking for is a notion of bravery that pertains to all military situations and extends to all situations in life. Laches offers an opinion that courage is "a certain perseverance of the soul". However, Socrates challenges this idea by arguing that there are many instances in battle when the prudent thing to do is to withdraw or flee. Since courage is a virtue, Socrates argues, it cannot contradict prudence, and therefore the idea that courage always demands perseverance must be false. Laches is forced to admit this contradiction. Socrates expresses his perplexity in trying to account for bravery. Laches wishes to pursue the conversation, saying that he has a sense of what bravery is, but is not able to express it properly. Socrates states that like a good huntsman pursuing a trail, they must persevere in the search for their quarry. They invite Nicias to give his definition of bravery. Nicias then offers another definition. He suggests that courage is "knowledge of what is to be feared and hoped for both in war and in all other matters". Since bravery is the knowledge of what is fearful and encouraging, Socrates asks if a pig could be brave. Nicias denies that animals can be brave as he believes that a certain amount of wisdom is necessary for bravery and that very few people can be considered brave. Socrates playfully suggest that Nicias is being influenced by a sophist named Damon and offers to respond to Nicias' assertion. Nicias agrees that something 'fearful' is the expectation of a future evil and something 'hopeful' is the expectation of a future good. Socrates then argues that full knowledge of any subject involves an understanding not only of future matters, but also of past and present. Thus if courage is the knowledge of future evils and goods, it must also necessarily be the knowledge of those of the present and past too. He then asserts that Nicias' definition actually amounts to a definition of all virtue (since it implies knowledge of all good and evil) and therefore, since courage is in fact only a part of virtue, a contradiction arises and the definition must be false. And so, in the end, Socrates finds both his companions' theories to be unsatisfactory, and the dialogue ends in aporia, the Greek term for philosophical confusion. |
3259568 | /m/091vfx | The Man on the Balcony | Per Wahlöö | 1967 | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction"} | Martin Beck and his team realize that a pedosexual murderer may have been seen by an unidentified serial robber who was watching for prey in the area, at the time. The pressure is turned up when more child murders begin to occur. |
3260842 | /m/091xzq | Night Probe! | Clive Cussler | 1981-08 | {"/m/017rf8": "Techno-thriller", "/m/08sdrw": "Adventure novel"} | It is 1989 and the United States is in an economic freefall caused primarily by the world’s dwindling supply of energy. CIA estimates put the depletion of the Middle East oilfields at just two years away. The total worldwide demand for oil is more than 50% of estimated supplies and while nuclear and other alternative energies are trying to make up the difference they are coming up short. Canada is now the exclusive supplier of electricity to 15 states in the northeast after investing billions in a massive new hydro-electric power plant in Quebec. To make matters worse, a top-secret experimental sub developed by NUMA has recently discovered a stratigraphic trap, potentially the richest kind of oil deposit, which lies just across the border in the territorial waters of Quebec. Radicals in Quebec resembling the FLQ, secretly led by Canadian MP Henri Villon, are pushing for a referendum on independence from Canada. Newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Charles Sarveux fears that if Quebec declares independence Canada will disintegrate as the other provinces either follow Quebec into independence or possibly petition the U.S. for statehood. Heidi Milligan, a U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander, is working on her PhD in history by researching the naval policies of President Woodrow Wilson between assignments. She stumbles across a reference to a "North American Treaty" in a long forgotten letter and is intrigued when she finds out that all traces of the treaty appear to have been erased from the National Archives. The North American Treaty, it is later revealed, was a landmark agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom. In 1914, the U.K. finds itself in economic hard times with war looming on the horizon. Fearing that the nation will not survive without a large infusion of capital, the Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith, with the cooperation of King George V, quietly approach the United States and offer, for the sum of one billion dollars, to sell Canada to the United States. President Wilson quickly agrees and pays a down payment of $150 million to seal the deal. Tragedy strikes when, on the same day in May 1914, the American copy of the treaty plunges to the bottom of the Hudson River when the steam locomotive Manhattan Limited attempts to cross a downed railroad bridge and the British copy plunges to the bottom of the St. Lawrence River when the liner RMS Empress of Ireland is accidentally rammed by a Norwegian collier. With both nation's copies of the treaty lost and the British cabinet outraged at having Canada sold off without their knowledge, Wilson orders all records of the treaty destroyed and records the $150 million payment as a war loan. Now that knowledge of the treaty has once again emerged, the President of the United States orders NUMA and Dirk Pitt to attempt to recover the copies of the treaty, which have both lain submerged for more than 70 years. The treaty becomes the cornerstone in the President’s plan to save the United States from national bankruptcy by proposing an audacious plan, to merge the United States and Canada into one nation, "the United States of Canada." The British see the loss of Canada to the United States as the start of the unacceptable and unthinkable disintegration of their Empire. If Canada is allowed to leave the Empire, so too might Australia, or even Wales and Scotland. The British Secret Intelligence Service recalls one of their best former agents, Brian Shaw, from retirement and orders him to keep an eye on the American salvage efforts and to ensure the destruction of the North American Treaty at all costs. The salvage team decides to try for the St Lawrence copy of the treaty on the grounds that this copy would have been packed in waterproof material to guard against the risk of damage on the sea voyage. Despite efforts by Shaw and hired thug Foss Gly to sabotage the project, the treaty is recovered, but it transpires that the waterproof covering was unable to withstand several decades of immersion and the document has turned to pulp. They then try to recover the Hudson copy hoping that some freak of chance will have saved it from a similar fate. The atmosphere becomes increasingly panicked as extensive searches fail to discover any trace of the wrecked train, either in the wreckage of the bridge or elsewhere in the river. Extra suspense is provided by the mystery of the "ghost train" which on stormy nights howls up the abandoned trackbed and suddenly vanishes on reaching the site of the bridge. Pitt solves this particular mystery by chance - walking along the trackbed one night the "ghost train" passes him and he sees that it is faked by means of a locomotive headlight and a PA playing locomotive sounds running along a cableway strung above the trackbed. This gives him the clue as to the whereabouts of the real train - it was in fact the victim of an elaborate scheme to rob it of a cargo of bullion. One group of robbers demolished the bridge with black powder charges, then staged a holdup of the nearest station; while one of them kept the stationmaster at gunpoint on the floor, another, who remained outside, played a gramophone record of train sounds and flashed a lantern through the windows to give the impression of a passing train, misleading the stationmaster into thinking that he had failed to prevent the train tumbling off the downed bridge. In fact another group of robbers had hijacked the train further up the line, diverted it along a disused spur into an abandoned underground quarry, and then blown up the entrance to the quarry concealing the train and allowing them to remove the heavy load of bullion at their leisure through the quarry's old ventilation tunnels. Pitt locates the quarry and discovers that the robber gang had failed to ascertain whether the ventilation tunnels were actually passable; in fact they were flooded, trapping both robbers and train passengers in the quarry to starve to death. Pitt passes through the tunnels by means of diving equipment and finds the train. Shaw, meanwhile, has mined into the quarry from above and arrives at almost the same moment. There is a fight for the possession of the treaty - which is intact - and Pitt is victorious. Pitt races desperately to deliver the treaty to the President before he delivers a crucial address in which possession of the treaty will be decisive. He makes it by the skin of his teeth. The President receives the treaty, announces that from now on Canada and the US will be united as "The United States of Canada". |
3261065 | /m/091yh8 | The Burning City | Larry Niven | null | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The first and last parts of the novel are set in Tep's Town, on the site of modern Los Angeles. The town consists of three classes: the Lords, the ruling class, who live in a separate area of the town; the kinless, essentially a slave class forbidden to carry weapons, descendants of a people conquered by the allied ancestors of the Lords and the Lordkin; and the Lordkin, proud, uneducated, undisciplined and indolent knife fighters organised into street gangs, who live by "gathering" whatever they wish from the kinless. The Lords supervise the kinless and placate the Lordkin. The kinless are unarmed and untrained in the use of weapons, and cannot resist the Lordkin. Some leave the town, but the surrounding vegetation is malevolent. The town is the base of a fire god, Yangin-Atep, who possesses the Lordkin every few years to burn the town down and rape any kinless woman they can catch. The main character, Whandall, is an 11 year old Lordkin boy severely beaten unto scarring and broken bones by Lordsmen (police) for associating with a Lord girl and illegally entering the segregated Lord's Hills. As an adult he becomes a product of his culture - a thief, a rapist, and a murderer, but, strangely, not without regret, not without honor, and not without the reader's sympathy. He teams up with an ex-Atlantis wizard and some kinless and they escape from the city. Beyond the city they find traders and Whandall founds a successful trading empire. Eventually, he returns to the city to establish a trade route there, and defeats Yangin-Atep. In the epilogue the authors add further information to the timeline of the described reality - long after the described events, the savage people who became the "so-called Native Americans" appear on the stage and wipe out the existing civilization, including horses (and presumably cats and wheels) in their conquest of the Americas. |
3261210 | /m/091ysw | Dragonquest | Anne McCaffrey | 1971 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | As it opens, tensions are rising between the Oldtimers, those dragonriders who came forward in time 400 turns (Pernese years) to help the undermanned contemporary dragonriders protect the planet Pern and its inhabitants from the destructive Thread. F'nor attempts to mediate, but things escalate to the point that an Oldtimer, T'reb (who is disturbed by his green dragon being in heat), stabs F'nor. F'nor is sent to the Southern Continent to recover, where he falls in love with Brekke and discovers the wicked deeds of Weyrwoman Kylara. F'lar, F'nor's half-brother, is eventually forced into a duel with T'ron, the leader of the Oldtimers, which ends in banishment for the Oldtimers who will not accept F'lar's leadership and in a grave injury for F'lar. Brekke's queen dragon (Wirenth) rises in mating flight but is attacked by Kylara's queen dragon (Prideth), and both dragons die, leaving their riders in near-catatonic states. Only Brekke recovers, mostly because she can hear other dragons (besides her own queen, Wirenth). With the Lord Holders adamant that the dragonriders attempt to eliminate Thread at its source, F'nor attempts to direct himself and his dragon, Canth, to the Red Star, but they find the atmosphere inimicable, and they fall back to Pern, badly injured. Brekke's cry for F'nor not to leave her was also the inspiration for a song by Menolly, after she found that a certain guitar chord sounded amazingly like Brekke's voice when she screamed. This is chronicled in Dragonsinger. |
3261311 | /m/091z13 | All the Weyrs of Pern | Anne McCaffrey | 9/19/1991 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The story follows immediately from the final scene of Renegades of Pern, in which the Admin building from Pern's first generation of colonists is discovered, along with an advanced computer called AIVAS (Artificial Intelligence Voice Address System), at the Landing site that is being excavated. AIVAS has remained undisturbed since the events of Dragonsdawn some 2500 years earlier and, in addition to holding a huge volume of stored information long since lost to the Pernese society, claims to be able to eliminate the threat of Thread forever. The Weyrs, led by Lessa and F'lar, enthusiastically embrace this possibility, and with the support of the Holds (led in particular by Jaxom) and the Crafthalls (championed by Masterharper Robinton) proceed to implement the ambitious plan under the careful guidance of AIVAS. Aivas itself had been programmed to speak with a masculine-analogue, inquisitive, somewhat humorous personality, which gave the impression of a light-hearted counsellor to the Pernese, who have no real concept of what artificial intelligence entails. Over the course of the next four years, Pernese society systematically regains much technology that was lost to the colonists in early attempts to survive Threadfall, including marvels such as electricity, plastics manufacture, heating & cooling, printing presses, and surgery. Although most technological development focuses on the tools and knowledge needed to eliminate the threat of Thread, there are huge developments in the areas of Medicine and Science, and along the way new Crafthalls are created, including the Print Hall, Paper Hall, Computer Hall, and Dolphin Hall (this last occurs in a parallel story later in the series The Dolphins of Pern). The phenomenal advancements in technology lead to a kind of culture shock, manifesting in certain traditionalist elements among the Pernese who label AIVAS an "Abomination" that is corrupting their society. This dissenting opinion results in attempts to sabotage AIVAS itself and the projects it initiates, culminating in the kidnapping of the beloved Masterharper Robinton in an attempt to ransom his life for the destruction of AIVAS. When the conspirators responsible for the kidnapping are brought to justice, two Lords Holder and a Craftmaster are among those sentenced to exile for the crime. The Weyrs, Holds, and Halls are successful in carrying out AIVAS's plan to transfer the anti-matter engines from the ships used to colonize Pern to the Red Star, and detonate them. The explosion alters the Red Star's orbit, eliminating the configuration that allowed Thread to land on Pern. AIVAS earlier reveals to Jaxom that in order for the project to succeed, he must lead the other Dragonriders into using the lesser-known Draconic capability to transfer between time to deposit two of the three engines 1800 and 600 years in the past. Only the cumulative effect of three interspersed explosions will provide sufficient force to alter the planet's orbit. Jaxom's Ruth, who has an unusually precise ability to know exactly his location in time, is the only Dragon capable of performing this feat. In parallel to the primary task to alter the Red Star's orbit, a team of medical researchers led by Masterhealers Oldive and Sharra develop an improved parasitic vector which is capable of infecting the space-born Ovoids that are the precursors to Thread. During the course of the three engine-transfer missions, Green Dragons are deployed to seed the surface of the Red Star with these infected Ovoids so that they can be dragged back to infect the Oort Cloud, which is the origin of Thread in the Pernese system. The combination of Jaxom's time travel and this infestation is responsible for the two Long Intervals in the history of Pern wherein Thread failed to appear. The book concludes with the peaceful death of Masterharper Robinton, whose health has declined since the kidnapping, and his fire-lizard Zair. "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven." Thereafter AIVAS deactivates itself, presumably to prevent Pernese society from idolising the facility as an all-knowing Oracle and thereby stifling the society. |
3263860 | /m/092318 | Description de l'Egypte | null | null | null | Approximately 160 civilian scholars and scientists, many drawn from the Institut de France, collaborated on the Description. Collectively they comprised the Commission des Sciences et Arts d'Égypte. About a third of them would later also become members of the Institute of Egypt. In late August 1798, on the order of Napoleon, the Institute of Egypt (l'Institut d'Égypte) was founded in the palace of Hassan-Kashif on the outskirts of Cairo, with Gaspard Monge as president. The structure of the institute was based on the Institut de France. The institute housed a library, laboratories, workshops, and the savants' various Egyptian collections. The workshop was particularly important, supplying both the army as well as the servants with necessary equipment. Many new instruments were constructed as well, to replace those lost during the sinking of the French fleet in August 1798 at Aboukir Bay (Battle of the Nile) and the Cairo riot of October 1798. One of the goals of the Institute was to propagate knowledge. To this end, the savants published a journal, La Decade Egyptienne, as well as a newspaper, the Courier de L'Egypte, which disseminated information about the French occupation and the activities of the French army, the Commission des Sciences et Arts d'Égypte, and the Institute itself. The vision of a single comprehensive publication amalgamating all that the French discovered in Egypt was conceived already in November 1798, when Joseph Fourier was entrusted with the task of uniting the reports from the various disciplines for later publication. When the French army left Egypt in 1801, the savants took with them a large quantities of unpublished notes, drawings, and various collections of smaller artifacts that they could smuggle unnoticed past the British. In February 1802, at the instigation of Jean Antoine Chaptal, the French Minister of the Interior, and by decree of Napoleon, a commission was established to manage the preparation of the large amount of data for a single publication. The final work would draw data from the already-published journal La Decade, the newspaper Courier de L'Égypte, the four-volume Mémoires sur l'Égypte (an expansion of the La Decade journal, published by the French government during and after the Egyptian campaign) and an abundance of notes and illustrations from the various scholars and scientists. The huge volume of information to be published meant adopting an apparently haphazard modus operandi: when sufficiently many plates or text on a particular subject were ready, the information was published. Despite this, publication of the first edition took over 20 years. The first test volumes of engravings were presented to Napoleon in January 1808. Initially published by order of the emperor (Napoleon Le Grand), successive volumes would be published by order of the king, and the last simply by order of the government. A second edition (known as the Panckoucke edition) was published by Charles Louis Fleury Panckoucke. The text was expanded in more volumes and printed in a smaller formats, new pulls were taken from the plates, and these were bound with many of the large format plates folded in the smaller format volumes. |
3264774 | /m/03bx9v7 | The Battle of Dorking | George Tomkyns Chesney | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/090ts5": "Invasion literature"} | The story is told as a narrative by an unnamed veteran who participated in the Battle of Dorking and is recounting the final days before and during the invasion of Britain. It is addressed to his grandchildren as an event fifty years past. Beginning sometime after an event similar to the Franco-Prussian War, concerns grow with the mobilisation of armed forces near Holland. The Royal Navy is destroyed by a wonder-weapon ("fatal engines"), and an invasion force suddenly lands near Harwich, Essex, England. Demilitarisation and lack of training means that the army is forced to mobilise auxiliary units from the general public, led by ineffective and inexperienced officers. The two armies ultimately converge outside Dorking in Surrey, where the British line is cut through by the advancing enemy, and the survivors on the British side are forced to flee. The story ends with the conquest of Britain and its conversion into a heavily-taxed province of the invading empire. The British Empire is broken up, with only Gibraltar and Malta being kept by the victorious Germans. Canada and the West Indies are ceded to the United States, whilst Australia, India and Ireland are all granted independence, with Ireland entering a lengthy civil war as a direct result. |
3265260 | /m/0925n7 | The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters | Robert Lewis Taylor | 1958 | {"/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | The novel alternates between Jaimie describing his journey by wagon train to California with commentary by his father, a Scottish doctor with an effervescent personality whose judgment is often clouded by his weakness for gambling and strong drink. The novel contains, in graphic detail, some intense Native American customs, especially rite of passage. |
3266354 | /m/0927y8 | Miss Wyoming | Douglas Coupland | 1999 | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | The novel is the story of John Johnson and Susan Colgate. It begins with a meeting between Susan and John after their yearlong absences from the world, and then progresses to tell the stories of their disappearances through flashbacks. The flashbacks have no temporal order. Each chapter is a different flashback, intermixed with chapters of temporally present plot. ; Susan Colgate : A former child pageant star, an 1980s television family daughter, a closeted rock star's wife, and a B movie actress. She was on a plane heading across the United States that crashed, but she survives without a scratch. She takes this opportunity to disappear into the night, leaving behind her identity. ; John Johnson : A decadent film producer. His life is composed of drugs and women. He dies from the flu, but his death is only temporary. While dead, he has a vision of Susan Colgate. Once revived, Johnson decides to give away his decadent lifestyle and to live on the road like Jack Kerouac. The novel tells their stories, the stories of the characters that they encounter, and the story of their lives after they meet. The novel is written in the third person. |
3266629 | /m/0928g0 | Kinderseele | Hermann Hesse | 1919-11 | null | One day Hermann Hesse, an eleven-year-old boy, returns from school and as nobody is at home he goes upstairs into his father’s room where he steals sugared and dried figs out of his dad’s chest of drawers. Although he has pangs of conscience and thinks a lot about his deed, he does not confess it to his father. Hermann pretends to have bought the figs at the cake shop in Calw. That is why his father punishes him by taking him there; but before entering the shop, the boy tells that he did not get them there. At home he finally admits that he stole the figs. The book ends with the phrase: “Als ich im Bett lag, hatte ich die Gewissheit, dass er mir ganz und vollkommen verziehen habe – vollkommener als ich ihm.” Hesse himself made a comment on his book in a letter to his sister Adele, in which he stated that the way described in Kinderssele was one of extremely straight psychology and love of truth. |
3267292 | /m/0929rm | A Hazard of New Fortunes | William Dean Howells | 1890 | {"/m/026llv5": "Literary realism", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The book, which takes place in late 19th century New York City, tells the story of the dispute between a self-made millionaire and a social revolutionary, with a third man futilely attempting to mediate the tense situation. The main character of the novel, Basil March, is a neutral character from whose viewpoint the reader experiences much of the story. He resides in Boston with his wife and children. The March family is persuaded by March's idealistic friend Fulkerson to move to New York to help him start a new magazine, where the writers benefit in a primitive form of profit sharing. After some deliberation, the Marches move to New York and begin a rather extensive search for a perfect apartment. After many exhausting weeks of searching, Basil finally settles on an apartment full of what he and his wife refer to as "gimcrackery"--trinkets and decorations that do not appeal to their upper-middle-class tastes. Work at the new magazine, entitled Every Other Week begins. The magazine is bankrolled by a millionaire named Dryfoos, who made it rich after discovering natural gas on his farm in the Midwest, and who is now making money on Wall Street. Dryfoos' son, Conrad, becomes the business manager of the magazine. An illustrator by the name of Angus Beaton, an old friend of Fulkerson's, is chosen to head the art department. Beaton chooses Alma Leighton, for whom he has feelings, to illustrate the cover of the first issue. Berthold Lindau, an old friend of Basil March's and a veteran of the American Civil War, becomes the translator. He knows many languages, so he selects and translates Russian, French, and German stories to publish in the magazine. Lindau lost his hand in a Civil War battle, fighting for the north because he was a strong abolitionist and an idealistic American immigrant. Colonel Woodburn, a wealthy Southerner, and his daughter move to New York and become involved with the newspaper when their social circle connects with the magazine's; they board with Alma Leighton and her mother. Fulkerson decides that he would like to publish some of Colonel Woodburn's pro-slavery writings in Every Other Week, because he believes it would sell more copies of the new magazine. At a dinner banquet, the personalities of Dryfoos the capitalist, Lindau the socialist, and Colonel Woodburn the pro-slavery advocate clash. Lindau fiercely criticizes Dryfoos, expressing his harshest feelings in German to March, because he does not think anyone else at the table speaks German. Later we learn that Dryfoos speaks German, and he was insulted by Lindau's comments. In the end of the book, the New York City streetcar drivers strike. The strike, similar to the Hay Market Square Riot, turns into a riot. Conrad Dryfoos, already a humanitarian helping the poor and working class, is charmed by the lovely Margaret Vance, who shares his values of charity. She encourages Conrad to try to end the strike by telling all sides to desist. While attempting to stop a policeman from beating the aged and disabled Lindau, Conrad is fatally shot. March emerges from a streetcar to see the fallen men lying on the street next to each other. Dryfoos grieves the loss of his son. After further amputation of his already disabled arm, Lindau dies with Margaret Vance at his side. Dryfoos, who has always used money to separate himself from pain, sells the magazine to Fulkerson and March for an extremely low price and takes his remaining family to Europe. |
3267449 | /m/092b58 | The Haj | Leon Uris | null | null | The novel begins in 1922 with a depiction of traditional life in the Arabic village during the British Mandate of Palestine: Ibrahim al Soukori al Wahhabi asserts his inherited position as leader of the town, takes the pilgrimage to Mecca, and starts a family, but suffers humiliation in that his wife does not bear him a son before his third child. The family had settled in the area about 100 years previously, still maintains contact with their Beduin relatives, and sets great value in their traditions and values. In 1936 their youngest son, Ishmael, is born. As youngest son his expected lot in life is to become the family shepherd, but his mother Hagar protects him and helps give him opportunities to develop his skills. He seeks out continued opportunities through use of his natural resourcefulness and drive, two qualities generally lacking in his brothers. Only his sister Nada seems to share these traits with him, and they have a close bond. Traditional life is altered permanently with the establishment of a kibbutz nearby on land sold to Jewish farmers by Effendi Fawzi Kabir, a rich Palestinian "absentee landlord" who owns a great deal of land in the region, including the town of Tabah, but lives in Damascus. One of the settlers is Gideon Asch, who helps establish a tenuous but workable co-existence with the residents of Tabah through the leadership of Haj Ibrahim. Their struggles lead to reciprocal trust and eventually friendship, but these continue to be tested throughout the novel. The villagers feel compelled by the history of brave warriors in Arabic culture to destroy Kibbutz Shemesh. The villagers attack the kibbutz on its first night but are repelled. Haj Ibrahim secretly acknowledges this failure, which he expected. But his defeated villagers come back to Tabah proudly proclaiming that they killed many Jews, despite the obvious evidence to the contrary. Haj Ibrahim gradually develops a personal friendship with Gideon Asch, and he even visits the kibbutz from time to time. But Ibrahim's tolerance of and even friendship with Jews does not fit in with the general mood during the 1930s and 1940s. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Mohammad Amin al-Husayni whips up emotions against the Jews with his fiery speeches. The Egypt-supported Muslim Brotherhood, as represented by Mr. Salmi, Ishmael’s school teacher, infuses their classrooms with hatred of Jews. Radio broadcasts in the village coffeehouse heard on the radio given to the villagers by the kibbutz (along with the electricity to run it) promise the Arab locals revenge against the Jews. And Transjordan’s well-trained Arab Legion stands ready to move in and claim the land in the name of a Greater Syria for King Abdullah I. Against the background of the United Nations General Assembly passage of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine (United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181) on 29 November 1947, Haj Ibrahim is summoned to Damascus to talk with Effendi Fawzi Kabir at his luxurious home. Also at the meeting are Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni and General Fawzi Al-Qawuqji, who Haj Ibrahim has made an enemy of when he repulsed his attempt to overtake the village of Tabah as a strategic military position. The three try to convince Ibrahim that as leader of his people, he should evacuate Tabah, and they give him promise of financial support. He is wary of their offer, and makes no firm promise. Al-Qawuqji expresses his lust for revenge against Ibrahim after the Haj has left the meeting. Tensions in the village rise to fever pitch as a result of the Battle of Deir Yassin, and Haj Ibrahim can no longer keep his followers from abandoning Tabah; he leads them to Jaffa, where he plans to hire a boat to take them to the Gaza Strip. They find themselves in the Manshiya neightborhood with little money, caught between Al-Qawuqji’s troops and the rival Jewish forces, Haganah and Irgun. Haj Ibrahim and a business contact in Jaffa, Bassam el Bassam, manage to strike a deal with a Greek Cypriot ship owner, but Ibrahim and family are unable to meet the boat on account of pursuit by Al-Qawuqji, and hide in St. Peter’s Church. Ishmael is able to reach Gideon Asch, who had offered the family help in a crisis, if ever they need it. Asch helps them escape to Tulkarm in Samaria on the West Bank, in the triangle which includes Jenin and Nablus. While in Jaffa, al-Qawuqji's men search for and discover the family's women, whom they summarily gang-rape. Ishmael witnesses the rape of his mother, stepmother, and sister-in-law, but does not tell his father until the book's climax. The family continues on to Nablus where they are able to live more reasonably, and eventually Ibrahim contacts Clovis Bakshir, the city’s mayor. Bakshir introduces Ibrahim to Farid Zyyad, who is undercover at the meeting, but who is actually a colonel in Abdullah’s Arab Legion. The two try to persuade Ibrahim to give his support to their political aims, but Ibrahim maintains his distance. While accepting the gifts they offer him, Ibrahim plans an escape for the family from Nablus to a cave in the desert around Qumran by the Dead Sea. They enlarge their family group with teenager Sabri Salama, a clever auto mechanic who helps keep their stolen truck in operating condition for the journey, and sees to it that it can be sold afterwards. Life in the desert is difficult at times, but also satisfying to the family as it gave them a chance to find strength in their isolation and in their desert traditions. However as the weather worsens during early 1949 they abandon their cave in Qumran and wander further to Jericho where they settle into refugee camp Aqabat Jaber at the foot of the supposed Mount of Temptation. In Jericho they make contact with a disfigured archeologist, Dr. Nuri Mudhil, in the hope of using him to make contact with their old friend Gideon Asch. They guess correctly that he has contact with Jews in Jerusalem, and they are able not only to contact Asch but also to arrange a sale of some valuable artifacts they had found in Qumran. Asch encourages Ibrahim to become involved as a moderating representative of the refugees in the conferences being arranged to discuss the Palestinian situation. He travels to Amman where he meets like-minded moderates, Charles Maan, a Palestinian Christian, and Sheik Ahmed Taji, who like Ibrahim are willing to negotiate with the new State of Israel for the return of Palestinians to their homes. They arrange an alternative conference in Bethlehem, where they manage to pass a resolution whereby they would represent the plight of the Palestinians at an international commission in Zurich later that year. The conference ends in disaster when Zyyad’s Arab Legion makes a mass arrest of the three ringleaders and the youth gang members they brought to protect the conference building, one of these being Ibrahim’s son, Jamil. In spite of threats against his son by Arab leaders threatened by his moderate pragmatism, Ibrahim travels to Zurich along with Maan and Taji. Their participation credentials are constantly challenged by the rest of the Arabs at the conference, and the commission’s committee work is stifling and unproductive. Charles Maan negotiates with the Vatican for a modest low-key solution that would return many Christian Palestinians to their homes, and Sheik Taji is bought off by the opulent Fawzi Kabir, who represents a Saudi Arabian prince in Zurich. Ibrahim gives up hope for a solution at the Zurich conference, revenges himself on Kabir, and returns to the refugee camp to face the dissolution of his life, traditions and values, the murder of his son Jamil, continued disappointment by Arab national leaders, his family’s loss of respect for him, his community’s passivity and inability to face reality. He brutally takes the life of his daughter, Nada, after she dishonors him by cursing him and telling him that she is no longer a virgin, the biggest possible disgrace to an Arab father. Ishmael becomes crazy after this, and "talks his father to death." (Ibrahim dies of a heart attack after his son graphically informs him of the gang rape in Jaffa.) The novel ends with Ishmael going insane and becoming delusional. |
3267728 | /m/092brn | No Promises in the Wind | Irene Hunt | 1970-01 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | Josh's main talent lies in the piano, having been taught by his mother. He and his friend Howie were praised by their teacher, Miss Crowne. However, while living with the continuous ridiculing and temper of his father, he sets upon the decision to leave Chicago and find a living on his own. His mother, Mary, supports his decision against her will, realizing that Josh's conflicts with his dad, Stefan, and their entire family's lack of food would eventually lead to deeper problems. Despite Josh's reluctance to accept Joey, Howie convinces Josh to bring him along, which later turns out to be a good decision. With the hope that their musical talents could earn them a living, they set out. Howie brought his banjo, and Joey was a great singer. On the first day, Joey's singing combined with Howie's talented playing allowed the trio to gain 78 cents. Josh realizes Joey's importance and no longer regrets bringing him along. However, while trying to get to Nebraska by riding on a freight train, a tragedy fell upon the trio. Howie, while running alongside a train which the brothers had already boarded, was struck by a train coming from the opposite direction. Though quite grieved, Josh and Joey continued, even declining the hospitality of a kind man. The two managed to survive by begging, despite Josh's humiliation at doing such a thing. Finally, in a stroke of luck, the two received the warmth of a woman who persuades Joey to write home to their mother. They also become acquainted with Lon Bromer a.k.a. Lonnie, a truck driver. Lonnie lost a child named David who would be as old as Josh, if he were alive. Lonnie brought the brothers to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. There, Josh and Joey received a job at a carnival run by Pete Harris. Lon leaves the two with his address and they promise that they would write to him. At the carnival, Josh befriends a dwarf named Edward C., who helps Josh by introducing him to the other carnival people. Josh took a special interest in a clown named Emily. Josh finds Emily extremely attractive despite the differences in their ages; he was 15 years old and she was 30. Josh felt certain desires towards her, and accompanied her whenever possible. When he discovered that Emily was engaged to Pete Harris, he almost completely throws away any relations with her. They later reconcile. Unfortunately, the carnival burns down, so Josh and Joey leave Baton Rouge with $18 Josh saved up and $2 that Pete Harris gives them. The pair ends up traveling with a bootlegger named Charley, who is transporting beer in his car. Charley gives Josh a $20 bill in exchange for his smaller bills. Josh passes a store that sells shoes and he goes in, planning to buy some overshoes for Joey. He tries to pay for the $1.50 shoes with the twenty dollar bill, but the shopkeeper takes all of it, instead of giving him the change. Once the money is gone the two then resorted to begging again. One of the women they meet at first refuses to help them, but then changes her mind out of guilt and invites the two to have soup. Joey repays her the next day by offering her half of a loaf of bread he had gained while begging. Furious at Joey for giving away their hard-earned food, and hampered by his own sickness of pneumonia, Josh strikes Joey. Joey vows to leave him, and indeed does leave, taking along Howie's banjo. When Josh is unable to find him, he falls unconscious from the cold and sickness. He is discovered with Lonnie's contact information in his wallet. When Josh wakes up, he finds himself at Lonnie's home in Omaha, Nebraska. Josh discovers that Joey has not been found, and describes to Lonnie what happened. Josh also meets Janey, Lonnie's niece. The two soon become fond of each other and fall in love. Josh finds renewed hope in the new President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Lonnie, worried about Joey and sends postcards to Mary and Emily. When Mary responded, Josh was surprised that Stefan is having sleepless nights over Josh and Joey. Joey is found after being described in a radio announcement and a happy reunion occurs. They find a new job working at a restaurant as a pianist and singer, and immediately become popular, despite Joey's occasional offtune singing. Josh and Janey part ways, leaving sorrow in their hearts. Josh and Joey return to Chicago and back to their father, who, surprisingly, comes to meet them at the train station and breaks down into tears, after which Josh notices he and his dad share many things in common. |
3269646 | /m/092fq8 | Burning Tower | Jerry Pournelle | 2/1/2005 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | The three main characters are Sandry, a Lord of Tep's Town, Sandry's cousin Regapisk, also a Lord, and Burning Tower, a daughter of Whandall, the main character of the previous book. Regapisk is an incompetent Lord and his family arrange for him to be shanghaied to become an oarsman on a coastal ship. Sandry and Burning Tower are romantically linked throughout the book. Large flightless birds attack trading caravans, but Sandry fights them off. He is sent by the Lords with the caravan, of which Burning Tower is also a part, to discover the source of the birds. They travel to the southern city of Condigeo and then to Crescent City, defeating terror bird attacks along the way. In Crescent City, they are joined by Regapisk, who has escaped from his ship. The three of them travel on to the high-magic city of Aztlan, where Regapisk redeems himself. The authors researched Aztec culture for the book, and many aspects of the culture depicted in the book are based on that research. This is explained in a brief note at the end of the book. Also mentioned is that within the described timeline, the terror birds continued to exist until long after humans spread through the Americas; this is based on the North American phorusrhacid Titanis walleri (but see McFadden et al. 2007). |
3269932 | /m/092g3t | Warday | Whitley Strieber | 1984 | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | The novel opens with Strieber's account of a nuclear attack on New York City in October 1988. He is on a bus when he experiences the initial blast. Strieber also witnesses the flooding of the subway system due to a tsunami that was triggered by a nuclear detonation at sea. Strieber makes his way to his son's school, where he is reunited with his family and shelters there. During this period, Strieber survives an attack of radiation sickness. Upon his recovery, he and his family leave New York for San Antonio which they soon discover was destroyed as well. They eventually settle in Dallas, where he becomes a news reporter for the Dallas Times Herald. Five years later, Strieber and Kunetka decide to document the effects of Warday on the United States. They travel through devastated southeastern and southwestern Texas, then the newly formed nation-state of Aztlan in the former American Southwest, and conduct interviews with the Aztlanian foreign minister and citizens. From Aztlan, they sneak into California which was unattacked and became a self-governing, authoritarian, police state. In Los Angeles, they conduct interviews while trying to evade the omnipresent police. They go to San Francisco where they reunite with an old friend of Streiber's, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, and are ultimately captured, arrested, and sentenced to years of hard labor and imprisonment. While en route to prison they escape, and flee California by train. By train, they travel and conduct interviews across the Midwest, taking refuge whenever highly radioactive duststorms—caused by dustbowl conditions as a result of the nuclear bombings of the Dakotas—happen. After visiting Chicago, they continue east into Pennsylvania and into what remains of New York City, where Strieber, overcome with emotion and at great personal risk to himself, visits what remains of a very dangerous Manhattan to visit his old apartment. The book ends with Strieber and Kunetka back in Texas facing an uncertain future. |
3271148 | /m/092hyy | The Power of Sympathy | null | null | null | The opening letters between Harrington and Worthy reveal that Harrington has fallen for Harriot, despite the reservations of his father. Harriot resists Harrington's initial advances, as he intends to make her his mistress; readers also find that Worthy encourages Harrington to abandon his licentious motives in favor of properly courting Harriot. However, when Harrington and Harriot become engaged, Mrs. Holmes becomes alarmed and exposes a deep family secret to Myra: Harriot is in fact Harrington and Myra’s illegitimate sister. Mr. Harrington's one time affair with Maria Fawcet resulted in Harriot's birth, which had to be kept a secret to maintain the family’s honor. Thus, Eliza’s mother-in-law, the late Mrs. Holmes, took Maria, thomas and Harriot into her home. After Maria’s death, Harriot was raised by a family friend, Mrs. Francis. Upon receiving the news of this family secret, Harriot and Harrington are devastated, as their relationship is incestuous and thus forbidden. Harriot falls into a grief-stricken consumption, a condition now referred to as tuberculosis, from which she is unable to recover. Harrington spirals into a deep depression and commits suicide after learning of Harriot's death. |
3271344 | /m/092j65 | Tool of the Trade | null | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction"} | In the waning years of the Cold War, Nicholas Foley, a Soviet sleeper agent and a survivor of the World War II siege of Leningrad, is a scientist and technological genius quietly working in American academia. He develops an ultrasonic gadget with which he can indetectably control the minds of others. His wife knows his secrets, but loves him too much to turn him over to Federal authorities. When both the Americans and the Soviets find out what Foley has invented, his wife is kidnapped, and he is forced to flee the CIA and the KGB. He must save his wife, elude capture in a massive manhunt and, at a summit meeting between the President of the United States and the Soviet premier, make a daring masterstroke for peace in our time, and for all time. fr:Hypnose (roman) |
3271870 | /m/092k8j | The Story of an African Farm | null | null | null | The first section of the book deals with the lives of protagonists as children and teenagers. It reveals some of the events that proved formative in the life of the children. Waldo is initially presented as a deeply devout Christian, a philosophy he appears to have inherited from his widower father Otto, the kindly German farm-keeper. As the narrative progresses, Waldo becomes increasingly disillusioned with his faith, a crisis brought on by a series of traumatic events, as well as his growing interest in wider philosophical works. Lyndall has no such qualms. Apparently a freethinker, she seems uninterested in religion as a whole. Instead, her focus is more on the status of women in the late nineteenth century. A seeker after knowledge and autonomy, she is frustrated by the limited choices offered to her as a woman. Lyndall is a skeptic by nature, a strong-willed and independent child who does not hesitate to disobey even her adult supervisors whenever she deems them unworthy of respect. Em, the stepdaughter of Tant (Aunt) Sannie and cousin to Lyndall is presented as a cheerful, friendly but somewhat ignorant child. Em serves as a character foil to Waldo and Lyndall; she is content to believe whatever she is told by the adults in her life. Em often becomes the scapegoat for Lyndall's rebellion. The Englishman Bonaparte Blenkins is an inveterate liar and confidence trickster. He arrives at the farm spinning a tale of woe, presenting himself as a successful businessman who has fallen on hard times. Tant Sannie reluctantly agrees to allow Bonaparte to remain on the farm, under the care of Otto. Bonaparte welcomes the opportunity - he is, after all, only interested in winning the heart of Tant Sannie, and thereby her farm. Bonaparte's cruelty towards the children borders on sadism. He is especially hard on Waldo whom he seems to despise. Bonaparte's actions towards Waldo provide a number of the events that lead to his crisis of faith. On the other hand, Bonaparte appears to be unsure of Lyndall, and even somewhat cowed. When Lyndall directly confronts Bonaparte regarding one of his many lies, he punishes Em in Lyndall's place. Bonaparte's true intentions and chicanery are eventually discovered, and Tant Sannie ejects him from the farm. Otto, the German farm-keeper and Waldo's father, is a deeply religious person. He is unceasing in his efforts to convert the native farm workers, much to their amusement. Otto is gregarious, compassionate and friendly, unwilling to think ill of anyone. He even defends Bonaparte on more than one occasion. Bonaparte repays him by contriving to have Tant Sannie terminate Otto's employment as the farm-keeper. Bonaparte succeeds, but Otto succumbs to a heart attack and dies before leaving the farm. Although technically the first chapter of Part II of the book, 'Times and Seasons' differs in style and narrative from those that surround it. This section deals with Waldo - his name appears just once in the chapter - in the first sentence. 'Times and Seasons' follows the journey of faith from infancy through adulthood. Although ostensibly revolving around Waldo, the frequent use of plural pronouns may indicate that the author is including herself in Waldo's journey, making this section the most personal of the book. The first year, infancy, is marked by an innominate thirst for something to worship and a wonder at the beauty of nature. This is followed by the beginnings of a coalescence of dogma - Angels - but the wonder at the beauty of nature remains and indeed appears to increase. The next section is marked by a specific age - seven years old. The Bible has become the primary focus, and it is read avidly. New concepts are found in its pages. These are brought to the attention of adults, who appear uninterested. At the same time, the beginnings of doubt begin to creep in. Questions are answered in a diffident manner, and the answers reluctantly accepted. Two years pass, and in that time the natural world recedes, to be replaced by a bittersweet relationship with God and the Bible. The concept of Hell looms ever larger; doubt in the form of the Devil assails the child. He asks difficult questions - and the superifcial answers of the supposedly wise adults no longer suffice. And yet at the same time, a sense of ineffable peace, the feeling of sins forgiven is felt. But this feeling does not endure - before long, the Devil again appears with snide questions and the threat of Hell and Damnation looms again. And so the cycle continues - alternating doubt and serenity. There is no indication of how much time has passed, but the next section finds the child apparently at ease with a Universalist concept of God. There is no threat of wrath, no Hell, no Damnation. The 'Mighty Heart' loves all its children, regardless. The old, questioning Devil has been silenced. The dream cannot continue - reality rudely awakens the dreamer. He sees the World as it really is, unjust, evil - no evidence of a supernal, all-consuming love. As a consequence, the one-time believer becomes the Atheist. An allusion is made here to the grave of a loved one - whether this refers to Otto or Lyndall (or both) is not clear. The Realist now goes through life uncaring, finding some measure of peace in manual labour and the Sciences. The wonder and beauty of Nature again reasserts itself, greatly increased. The rationalist becomes enamoured with the natural world, taking delight in its many mysteries and revelations. In a sense, the old worship of musty religion is replaced by a new and vital worship of nature in all its intricacy. With this worship comes the realization that all is interconnected, and the section ends with Waldo beginning to live again, at ease with his new world and his place in it. The third section of the book (technically the second chapter of Part II) opens with Waldo on the farm, making a wood-carving. Contextual clues place the time somewhere after the end of Chapter 1 ('Times and Seasons'), when Waldo has entered his rational-universalist phase and appears to be content. Em (who is said to be sixteen years old) visits Waldo with tea and cakes, and announces that the new farm-keeper has arrived, an Englishman (the book later reveals) by the name of Gregory Rose. Sometime after she leaves, a stranger on horseback appears and converses with Waldo. After inquiring about the nature and meaning of Waldo's carving, the stranger relates the Hunter's Allegory. The Hunter's Allegory is somewhat similar to 'Times and Seasons' in theme, tracing the journey from blind superstition to the painful search for Truth, this time using the literary device of Allegory. Once done with his tale, the stranger leaves after handing Waldo an unnamed book of Philosophy. This is followed by a recounting of a letter which the new Farm-Keeper, Gregory Rose writes to his sister. From the contents of the letter, Rose is revealed as something of an arrogant misogynist, believing himself destined for higher things than farming, but denied his calling by circumstances beyond himself. Gregory also reveals that he fas fallen in love with Em, and intends to marry her. Upon taking the letter to the farm, Gregory proposes and Em, after some misgivings, accepts. Em also reveals that Lyndall will be returning from Finishing School in six months time, and is eager to introduce Gregory to her cousin. The following chapter picks up with Lyndall having returned from boarding-school. Em shares her news, but is surprised to discover that Lyndall seems unmoved, even pitying. A little later, Lyndall accompanies Waldo as he performs his chores about the farm. It is here that Schreiner inserts something of a Feminist Manifesto - she discourses at length upon her experiences at school, and rails at the limited status that Society expects of her as a Woman. Waldo is her foil - he asks trenchant questions of her which lead to still further expositions. With some irony, Lyndall ends her diatribe with the observation that Waldo is the only person with whom she can converse - others simply bore her. With Tant Sannie engaged to yet another husband, a Boer-wedding is planned. Gregory takes some time off to write another letter, in which he apparently denigrates Lyndall and her independent ways. From the tone of the letter, however, it is clear that Gregory somehow finds Lyndall fascinating. At the Wedding, Gregory contrives excuses to be near Lyndall, she acknowledges him, but appears diffident. It is evident that Gregory is now deeply infatuated with Lyndall. For her part, when Lyndall finds herself in need of company, she seeks out Waldo and again converses with him beneath the stars. However, when Gregory offers to take her back to the farm, she unexpectedly accepts his invitation. Waldo drives Em home, where, we are told, she sits in the dark. Some time passes, and Waldo has decided to leave the farm to find work. Em says her goodbyes, and then seeks out Gregory. She finds him at his usual occupation: with Lyndall, pretending to read a newspaper. Lyndall hardly acknowledges him. Once Lyndall leaves, Em tells Gregory that she wants to end their engagement. Gregory half-heartedly attempts to change her mind, but quickly agrees. He leaves Em, whistling to himself. It is Lyndall's turn to bid farewell to Waldo. She tells him that she will never forget him, and muses upon what they may have become when they are reunited. Waldo leaves the farm; Lyndall watches him go until he is out of sight. The next vignette finds Gregory Rose wandering the farm. It is clear that he is trying to find Lyndall, but is taking great pains to appear nonchalant. Having located Lyndall, he attempts to strike up a conversation, akin to the discourses that Lyndall and Waldo would share. Lyndall answers him, but it is clear that she is subtly mocking Gregory. After enduring no small amount of verbal abuse, Gregory confesses that he loves Lyndall, and would like nothing more than to serve only her, expecting nothing in return. Lyndall agrees to marry him, if he promises to remember his vow - he is to serve her completely, with no expectations of anything in return. From Gregory, Lyndall wants only his name - nothing else. The once-proud Gregory Rose has been shattered against the force of Lyndall's will. The following chapter reveals some of Lyndall's motivations. A stranger has come to the farm - Lyndall suggests that he be put up in Otto's old cabin for the night. The man is, in fact, Lyndall's lover, who has come in answer to a letter that she sent to him stating that she intends to marry Gregory Rose. She refuses the offer of marriage from her lover because, she explains, she does not consider him to be a fool, as she does Gregory. She fears losing herself if she were to marry the stronger man, whereas a marriage to Gregory Rose would leave her autonomy intact. It is here that the author hints that some other matter may be pressing—it is explicit in later parts of the story: Lyndall is pregnant. Lyndall then offers her paramour an alternative - she will leave the farm in his company, that very night, on the condition that he releases her whenever she asks. They plan to go to the Transvaal. Lyndall returns to her room to gather her belongings. On the way there, she stops at Otto's grave to bid him farewell. It is here that she reveals that she is tired and lonely - aching for something to love. After much weeping, she returns to her room and prepares to leave the farm forever. Time passes: Gregory is performing chores about the farm. He is a broken man - meekly accepting whatever menial work Em assigns to him. While cleaning out the loft, he comes across a chest of women's clothing. He surreptitiously tries on one of the dresses and a kapje (hooded bonnet). He appears to reach some sort of decision. Gregory descends from the loft, finds Em and tells her that he can no longer live on the farm - everything reminds him of Lyndall. He states that will search for her, whatever it may take. Gregory is under no illusions. He is fully aware that Lyndall would more than likely throw him aside should he find her. He wants only to see her again; to stand where she once stood. Gregory leaves the farm. Seven months later, Em is startled when Waldo returns without warning one windy night, some eighteen months after he had left. While Em prepares a meal for Waldo, he begins to write a letter to Lyndall. He tells of his experiences and changes that he has undergone in his travels. Waldo continues to write throughout the night, until Em awakes and stops him. Em explains that Waldo cannot write any longer: Lyndall is dead. Some time later, Gregory returns to the farm, alone. He relates his tale to Em. At first, the search was without difficulty, from Bloemfontein and North to the Transvaal, from farm to farm he traced the path left by Lyndall and her lover. Eventually, however, the trail runs cold - it has not occurred to Gregory that Lyndall and her stranger may have parted ways. Unwilling to give up, Gregory travels from hotel to hotel, always without success. Nearing the end of his options, he finds himself at yet another unnamed hotel. He overhears a conversation between the landlady and a Mozambiquian nurse. The Nurse must leave - her husband wants her back home. The landlady frets that 'the lady' is still unwell. While watching the half-closed door of the patient, Gregory catches a glimpse of Doss - Waldo's dog which he bequeathed to Lyndall. Asking the landlady for more information, Gregory is told that a young, delicate lady arrived at the hotel six months earlier. A few days after her arrival, she gave birth, but the infant died less than two hours later. The Mother, herself extremely weak, sat near the grave in the cold rain for hours. When she retired to her bed, the hotel doctor declared that she would never again rise from it. Gregory hatches a plan. Fetching his belongings, he changes into a dress and a kapje. He shaves himself. Later that day, he returns to the hotel, hoping that the landlady will not recognise him. She does not. Gregory tells her that he is a nurse looking for work. The landlady leads him into the room where he finds Lyndall and Doss. Lyndall agrees that Gregory will be her new nurse. She is very weak. While Gregory watches over Lyndall, she grows weaker by the day. Although she makes a few half-hearted attempts to eat, or read or leave her bedroom, she never quite manages to shake off the pain that plagues her. Eventually, Gregory and Lyndall agree to return to the farm. Gregory makes the arrangements, although he knows that Lyndall will not survive the journey. His fears are realised: a few days into the journey, Lyndall wakes one night to find that the fog has lifted from her mind. She sees clearly for the first time. She knows what is about to happen to her. There, under the stars with her eyes fixed on her reflection in a hand-mirror, Lyndall dies. The news devastates Waldo. Throughout the following night, he searches desperately for some philosophy, some tenet of some religion that will assure him that he and Lyndall will one day be reunited. He can find none - none but the cold, unsatisfying realisation that both he and Lyndall will one day be absorbed into the great universal whole from which they sprang. With this he must be content. The final vignette takes place at some unspecified point after Gregory's return. Tant Sannie is visiting the farm with her new husband and baby. She relates that she almost caught hold of Bonaparte while attending Church, but the shyster slipped from her fingers. Gregory sits outside, absorbed in his own pain. In a leather bag hung around his neck, he carries the only letter that Lyndall ever wrote to him, just four words: 'You must marry Em.' After Tant Sannie leaves, Em visits Waldo - he is in his old cabin, building a table for Em. She tells him that she and Gregory are to be married. She leaves Waldo to his work. Waldo packs away his tools for the day, and goes outside to sit in the sunshine. He carries one of Lyndall's old dancing-slippers in his breast pocket. He appears to be content, once again aware of the wide plains that surround him, and the warmth of the sun on his hands. Em finds him there, hat drawn low, apparently asleep. She leaves a glass of milk for him, thinking that he will be glad to find it when he awakes. But Waldo will not wake again. |
3274799 | /m/092rp8 | The Black Swan | Mercedes Lackey | 1999 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Odile von Rothbart is a young sorceress in training under her father's tutelage. She adores and respects him, at least in part because he has taught her that women are meant to be loyal to men. Living in the gardens is the "flock;" the group of young women Rothbart has ensorceled because they were unfaithful to their husbands or fathers. They are under a curse which compels them to become swans by day and women only during moonlit hours. The most beautiful and noble of these is Princess Odette, the Queen of Swans. Odile is restless because her father seldom praises her, even though (or perhaps because) she is growing to be his equal in magic. She has never seen much of the world outside her father's estate, but she knows she would like the company of other people. She has no interest in the swans because they seem to lack her intelligence, and because Rothbart has taught her to despise them. When Odette openly defies Rothbart, challenging him to give a convincing reason for his punishment of the flock, he offers her a deal; if she can capture and hold the loyalty of a man for an entire month, the curse which keeps the flock captive will be broken. A condition of the deal is that the young man must know exactly what Odette had done (refused the engagement her father had set for her and run away with a member of the court) and still pledge his loyalty to her. Rothbart then leads the flock, plus Odile, on a long journey to Siegfried's kingdom. In the secondary plot, Queen Clothilde is a competent but ruthless woman acting as regent for Siegfried. She does not want to surrender power to her son when he turns 18; an event mere months away. She plans a birthday celebration for him at which six beautiful princesses, all prospective brides, will attend, hoping to distract him from his kingship. Clothilde secretly hopes to kill Siegfried and either take the throne in right or continue as regent for a grandchild. She is aided in her scheme by Uwe, her minstrel and former lover. Siegfried himself is a womanizer and a scoundrel, but a religious experience convinces him to change his ways. Clothilde is dismayed, since the reformed Siegfried is winning the respect of her court. Baron Rothbart pays a visit to Clothilde and requests that his own daughter be allowed to attend the festival as a potential bride. She agrees, tempted by the prospect of having a sorcerer readily at hand. The flock arrives at a small lake. Odile, who has largely been in charge of their care, is getting to know the swan maidens and feels some sympathy for them. She wants Odette to succeed because she thinks she and her father would have more freedom to travel if the swan-maidens were no longer their burden. Siegfried, sent out hunting by his mother in search of swans, encounters Odette, and it is love at first sight. His friend Benno, returning to the lake by daylight to investigate, is quickly dismissed by Odile. When both men return to the lake at night, Odette is able to allay their suspicions that she is some sort of witch. She tells Siegfried why she has been cursed, and he agrees to marry her and thus break the curse. Happily, Odile tells her father that Odette has fulfilled her part of the bargain. The next day is the day of the fête where Siegfried will choose his bride. Odette leaves the flock in the morning to find him. Rothbart and Odile also attend, Odile having little idea what to expect. Her father casts a spell on her which makes her look like Odette and controls her with more magic, keeping her from warning Siegfried. The Prince declares his desire to marry "the daughter of Baron Rothbart," which breaks the vow he made to Odette. Worst of all, Odette arrives just in time to witness this. She flees, Siegfried follows, and Odile runs after them both. Rothbart reveals that his aim the entire time has been to deliver judgment on Clothilde, since he knew she was plotting to kill her own son. He brings part of the Great Hall down on her and Uwe, who lives just long enough to reveal the plot to Benno and the court. At the lake, Rothbart taunts Siegfried and Odette, while Odile watches from concealment. At a crucial moment, she kills him with his own dagger, then rescues Odette and Siegfried, who have jumped into the lake to drown together rather than be separated. When the sun rises, the girls remain girls, indicating that Rothbart's spell has died with him. Odette marries Siegfried and gives Odile a position on her council. Odile and Benno appear to be falling in love. |
3276363 | /m/092w2q | Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader | James Luceno | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader begins in the final hours of the Clone Wars, just before the implementation of Order 66 as depicted in Revenge of the Sith. When a contingent of clone troopers on the planet Murkhana refuses to open fire on Jedi Masters Roan Shryne and Bol Chatak, along with Padawan Olee Starstone, the Jedi with whom it has fought alongside during the war, Emperor Palpatine orders Vader to investigate the matter. Vader's query soon becomes a hunt for the fugitive Jedi, and takes him back to Coruscant, and from there on to Alderaan and Kashyyyk. During the course of Vader's search the whereabouts of several other characters from Episode III, including Bail Organa, R2-D2 and C-3PO, Chewbacca, and Obi-Wan Kenobi. The beginnings of Vader's partnership with Grand Moff Tarkin are also shown. Luceno devotes much of Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader to the internal conflict that Darth Vader undergoes as he tries to shed his former identity of Anakin Skywalker and relearn to master The Force. Palpatine intends for these early missions that he sends Vader on to be as much about learning what it means to be a Sith as they are about consolidating the rule of the nascent Empire. The final chapters of Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader depict the beginning of the Imperial enslavement of the Wookiees of Kashyyyk, an act that will eventually lead to the partnership between Han Solo and Chewbacca. The novel ends with Obi-Wan Kenobi learning of Vader's survival after their duel on Mustafar (depicted in Revenge of the Sith). Fearing for the infant Luke Skywalker's safety, he communes with the spirit of Qui-Gon Jinn, who tells him that Darth Vader will never return to Tatooine; as Qui-Gon explains, the planet is the whole of everything that was Anakin Skywalker, someone Vader wants to forget forever. It is revealed that the general public of the galaxy believes that Anakin Skywalker perished in the attack on the Jedi Temple (which, ironically, Skywalker led as Darth Vader). |
3280309 | /m/0930ms | Signal to Noise | Eric S. Nylund | 1998 | {"/m/01qpc": "Cyberpunk", "/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | The novel follows Jack Potter, a computer cryptographer tenured at the fictional Academe of Pure and Applied Sciences in Santa Sierra, California (a city assembled from the ruins of San Francisco.) The story details Jack's first encounter with an alien calling himself Wheeler who apparently wishes to trade information with humanity. Accompanied (for a while) by "gene witch" Zero al Qaseem and data paleontologist Isabel Mirabeau, Jack establishes a corporation based around one of the technologies he was traded by Wheeler, but soon finds that there may be more to his dealings with the alien than he bargained for. Traitorous alliances, deceitful propaganda, and shady business practices are frequent elements of the novel. |
3280531 | /m/093179 | The Yacoubian Building | ʻAlāʼ Aswānī | null | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | The novel described the Yacoubian Building as one of the most luxurious and prestigious apartment blocks in Cairo following its construction by Armenian businessman Hagop Yacoubian in 1934, with government ministers, wealthy manufacturers, and foreigners residing or working out of offices there. After the revolution in 1952, which overthrew King Farouk and gave power to Gamal Abdel Nasser, many of the rich foreigners, as well as native landowners and businessmen, who had lived at the Yacoubian fled the country. Each vacated apartment was then occupied by a military officer and his family, who were often of a more rural background and lower social caste than the previous residents. On the roof of the ten-story building are fifty small rooms (one for each apartment), no more than two meters by two meters in area, which were originally used as storage areas and not as living quarters for human beings, but after wealthy residents began moving from downtown Cairo to suburbs such as Medinet Nasr and El Mohandiseen in the 1970s, the rooms were gradually taken over by overwhelmingly poor migrants from the Egyptian countryside, arriving in Cairo in the hopes of finding employment. The rooftop community, effectively a slum neighborhood, is symbolic of the urbanization of Egypt and of the burgeoning population growth in its large cities in recent decades, especially among the poor and working classes. |
3281207 | /m/0932q8 | Prentice Alvin | Orson Scott Card | 1989 | {"/m/0mz2": "Alternate history", "/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | After being released from his time with Ta-Kumsaw, an Indian leader who taught Alvin the ways of Indian people, the young boy sets out to start his apprenticeship as a Smith in the town where he was born. While there he meets a young half-black boy by the name of Arthur Stuart, the son of a slave and a slave-owner who has been adopted by the owners of the local guesthouse. Another new friend comes in the form of Miss Margaret Larner, who he later discovers to be the "torch" who helped him to be born so many years ago, and with whom he has been strangely linked since that day. Eventually, Alvin is forced into helping Arthur to escape some slave-hunters, something that requires him to slightly change Arthur's DNA enough to prevent the hunters' knacks from identifying the runaway child. Alvin also creates a plow of living gold, which is bestowed with magical properties, as his journeyman piece to release himself from his apprenticeship as a Smith (and also as a Maker). The story ends with Alvin and Arthur leaving the town and returning to Alvin's home in the west. |
3284270 | /m/0938k5 | The Assistant | Bernard Malamud | 1957 | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | Morris Bober, the 60-year-old proprietor of an old-fashioned grocery store, faces destitution as his customers abandon him in favor of more modernized shops. The situation is aggravated late one night when he's held up at gunpoint in his deserted store by a pair of masked thugs. The gunman beats him, leaving Bober with a debilitating head injury. Just at this time, Frank Alpine makes his appearance: a 25-year-old vagrant from the West Coast, raised in an orphanage after his father abandoned him. Leaving an abusive foster home to live as a drifter, he makes his way East in hopes of finding opportunities to turn his life around. (Later he berates himself for having had many opportunities but inevitably doing something to botch them.) Frank begins to haunt Morris' store and offers to work without pay as his assistant, claiming that this will give him experience he can use in a future job search. The grocer, weakened by the assault and trying to recuperate without benefit of medical care, accepts and arranges for him to have room and board with the upstairs tenants, a young Italian-American couple, and provides him some pocket money. Only at this point is it revealed to the reader that Frank was the accomplice to the gunman in the holdup. Frank works industriously to improve the store's upkeep, and his attentive service wins customers. The resulting increased income is being supplemented by Frank's surreptitiously returning, in discreet amounts, his share of the holdup take. Simultaneously, however, he begins pilfering from the till. He justifies this to himself by claiming it as recompense for his contribution to the store's improved situation, and keeps an account of his petty theft with the intention of eventually returning it all. Morris and his wife Ida, the latter particularly uncomfortable with the gentile's presence, attribute the improvement to the customers' "preferring one of their own," and Morris insists on offering Frank more money. During lulls in the work day the men's conversations touch upon philosophical and personal matters, and Frank privately struggles with his own ethical quandary. While Morris is notably tolerant of others, Ida is worried by the young Italyeners proximity to the couple's 23-year-old daughter, Helen, single and living at home. Helen is courted by the sons of the only other two Jews in the neighborhood, both young men with good financial prospects, but her dreams of a better life include true love. She also aspires to higher education, but has set aside her own plans in order to take a job as a secretary, as her wages are needed to supplement the family's meager income from the store. Helen and Frank begin to notice each other, and a romance develops between them. They share an interest in books and discuss their dreams for the future. Their clandestine meetings grow in physical intimacy, yet at Helen's request stop short of intercourse. Just when she realizes she loves Frank and is committed to their relationship, Morris catches his assistant in the act of stealing. He dismisses Frank on the spot, despite the latter's confession and revelation that he "was paying it back." (His confession to Morris of his role in the holdup will follow.) When Frank arrives late to a rendezvous in the park initiated by Helen, he finds her being raped and rescues her. Helen is overcome by relief and clings to Frank, declaring her love for him. In his fear that he's bound to lose her when she learns of his thieving and dismissal, Frank forces himself upon her, despite her repeated protest. Disgusted with herself for ever having trusted him despite her initial misgivings, Helen curses Frank and refuses to see him again. Frank obsessively berates himself with remorse and contemplates ways to make things up to her. He apologizes to Helen profusely at every opportunity, smothering her with his need for redemption. Meanwhile, the prospects for the store have remained bleak due to several turns of events, and Morris considers desperate measures. When he is hospitalized after inhaling gas from a radiator he failed to light (claiming afterwards that this was not deliberate), Frank comes back to run the store over Ida's protests. Frank resolves to be a good person, stop stealing and somehow win back Helen's love. He takes on a second job at a diner. But, when Morris decides to leave his sick bed, he throws Frank out for good, or so he thinks. Morris grows anxious about his life—his wife is miserable, his daughter on her way to spinsterhood and his poor business no more than a prison. Morris turns down an arsonist's offer to burn his home and store for the insurance money, but then builds a fire himself. As the flames catch on his apron, Morris is saved by Frank. After being saved, Morris sends Frank away again. Then, through tragedy, things begin to look up for the Bobers. A competing grocer on the block falls on hard times, and Bober's store benefits. Then, one night, Ward Minogue breaks into the liquor store owned by Bober's rival, Karp. Minogue smashes liquor bottles, then he lights a cigarette. A tossed match starts a fire that burns the store and the apartment upstairs to the ground. Minogue dies attempting to escape the fire. Morris is ashamed that he wished for his rival's comeuppance. Even so, Karp, knowing that he will lose his business while it is being rebuilt, offers to buy out the Bobers. For a few brief days, they are happy. It is the last day of March and thick snow is falling. Morris, in a burst of energy, goes out to shovel the sidewalk, despite Ida's many objections. Still weak from the gas incident, he dies three days later of double pneumonia. Morris is remembered at his simple service as an honest man and a good Jew. But Frank and Helen are alienated. Frank returns to run the store while Helen and Ida mourn privately. Money from a second job allows Frank to pay rent to Ida but ruins his health. Frank then settles on a plan to clear his debt with Helen. He will give over all his earnings so that Helen can go to college. After several painful and awkward confrontations, Helen reinterprets the night that Frank sexually assaulted her, concluding that she would have given herself to Frank that night had not Ward Minogue attacked her. She softens towards Frank, forgiving him for raping her. As the book closes, Frank is working in the store. He studies Judaism. He gets a circumcision. And, after Passover, becomes a Jew. |
3284350 | /m/0938sk | The Berlin Stories | Christopher Isherwood | null | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | The two novellas are set in Berlin in 1931, just as Adolf Hitler was moving into power. Berlin is portrayed by Isherwood during this transition period of cafes and quaint avenues, grotesque nightlife and dreamers, and powerful mobs and millionaires. The Berlin Stories was the starting point for the John Van Druten play I Am a Camera, which in turn went on to inspire the film I Am a Camera as well as the stage musical and film versions of Cabaret. The character Sally Bowles is probably the best-known character from The Berlin Stories because of her later starring role in the Cabaret musical and film, although in The Berlin Stories, she is only the main character of one short story in Goodbye to Berlin. |
3284949 | /m/093b38 | Pet Peeve | Piers Anthony | 2005 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Goody Goblin, the only nice male goblin, goes to see the Good Magician Humphrey so he can get his question answered. As the Magician charges a year's service or the equivalent, Goody has to find a good home for a pet peeve. The pet peeve is a very annoying bird who can mimic the voice of the person carrying it. Goody starts out with the bird and Hannah Barbarian, whose service is to accompany the goblin on the quest and protect him. Throughout the journey, we discover that Goody is nice because he had to take reverse wood and disguise himself as a girl to avoid being captured by an invading goblin tribe. He was also married, but his wife is dead because she was fated to die young. On the trip, Goody and Hannah meet various people. They all refuse to adopt the pet peeve, or in the case of Princesses Melody, Harmony, and Rhythm, are not allowed to by their mother. Goody and Hannah travel to Robot World, one of the moons of Princess Ida, and bring back some robots to live in Xanth. Unfortunately, the robots decide to take over Xanth, which means all of Xanth must join together to fight the menace. Goblins, ogres, dragons, and other creatures come to combat the robots, which have been expanding, and the harpies feed the armies with lunch boxes from their lunch box plantation. Eventually the robots are defeated, In the process, Goody finally gets over his late wife's death and falls in love with Gwenny Goblin, the first female goblin chief. She in turn, falls in love with him, as her time spent with a family of winged centaurs cause her to like only polite goblins. The pet peeve finally gets a home with Grundy Golem, Rapunzel, and their daughter, Surprise Golem. |
3285543 | /m/093cdp | The Golden Notebook | Doris Lessing | null | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | The Golden Notebook is the story of writer Anna Wulf, the four notebooks in which she keeps the record of her life, and her attempt to tie them all together in a fifth, gold-colored notebook. The book intersperses segments of an ostensibly realistic narrative of the lives of Molly and Anna, and their children, ex-husbands and lovers—entitled Free Women—with excerpts from Anna's four notebooks, coloured black (of Anna's experience in Southern Rhodesia, before and during WWII, which inspired her own bestselling novel), red (of her experience as a member of the Communist Party), yellow (an ongoing novel that is being written based on the painful ending of Anna's own love affair), and blue (Anna's personal journal where she records her memories, dreams, and emotional life). Each notebook is returned to four times, interspersed with episodes from Free Women, creating non-chronological, overlapping sections that interact with one another. This post-modernistic styling, with its space and room for "play" engaging the characters and readers, is among the most famous features of the book, although Lessing insisted that readers and reviewers pay attention to the serious themes in the novel. |
3285752 | /m/093cwq | Sharpe's Havoc | Bernard Cornwell | 2003 | {"/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | Lieutenant Richard Sharpe, leading his men of the 95th Rifles in retreat from the French victory at Oporto, are unexpectedly saved by a small detachment of Portuguese soldiers led by Lt. Jorge Vincente, a law student who joined his country's army out of patriotism. Despite his bitter hatred of lawyers, Sharpe gradually comes to respect Jorge's bravery in combat. While the British Army is in retreat, Sharpe and his men are ordered to help retrieve a young Englishwoman, Kate Savage, the daughter of a prominent port merchant, recently deceased. For unknown reasons, she decided not to flee the city with her mother. In going to retrieve Kate, Sharpe and his men are caught up in the scheming of "Colonel" Christopher, a turncoat spy for the British Foreign Office. Initially sent to Portugal to investigate the possibility that Marshall Soult might decide to declare himself King of Portugal (and thus cut himself off from Napoleon), Christopher has instead decided to use the situation to his own enrichment. On the one hand, he acts as agent provacateur, encouraging rebellious officers of the French Army to conspire against "King Nicolas," and then, when the time is right, offers to expose all of them to Soult, demanding a monopoly on the port trade in return (Christopher confidently expects the French to win the war, and thus to be the permanent rulers of Portugal). On the other hand, he has seduced Kate and married her in a sham ceremony, for both her youthful beauty and her father's fortune. Seen openly collaborating with the French, he assures Sharpe that he is simply on a secret mission for Britain. Sharpe is temporarily duped, but realizes the truth when he and his men are ambushed by a French detachment. The Riflemen escape and rejoin the main British force, while Christopher makes his way to the French lines, and Kate, against her better judgment, goes with him. Acting as scouts for the Army, Sharpe spots a small group of boats overlooked by the French that can be used to cross the river at the one weak point in the French's defenses. A division crosses in secret and, by the afternoon, have entrenched themselves and sparked the French in a desperate attempt to push them out again. In the aftermath of the British victory and the desperate French retreat, Sharpe confers with General Wellesley and Foreign Office dignitary Lord Pumphrey, who says that Christopher has done no lasting harm, but is a traitor nonetheless and should be disposed of. Sharpe, Jorge, and their men accompany the British pursuit of the fleeing French forces, who have managed to force their way through the Portuguese barricade at a narrow bridge. Catching up with them during the retreat, Jorge rescues Kate and Sharpe kills Christopher. |
3285920 | /m/093d4s | Mama Flora's Family | Alex Haley | 1997 | null | The young Flora meets the wealthy Lincoln Flemming at a dance one night. Lincoln wants her to come care for his elderly grandmother Nana at his home, to which she agrees. Eventually Flora becomes sexually involved with Lincoln and believes the two of them to be romantically involved. After experiencing him shun and shame her in front of his rich contemporaries, Flora begins to feel used and refuses to sleep with him anymore. This prompts her to become evicted from the house. Flora later discovers that she was pregnant with Lincoln's child, which prompts his wealthy family to bribe her into leaving Mississippi to avoid scandal. Flora takes the offer, planning to go to Memphis, Tennessee. She gives birth to a boy and names him Luke, but is forced to give to the baby to the Flemmings to raise. Flora then travels by train to the city, but is instead directed by a fellow passenger to go to the small town of Stockton under the advice that a young woman such as her should not go into the city alone. Once there, she gains employment and shelter through the Reverend Jackson. While living in Stockton Flora meets and falls in love with Booker Palmer. The two marry, have a son named Willie, and Booker becomes a sharecropper soon after they marry. Booker experiences financial difficulties, which force him to steal cotton from other farmers. During one of his nightly runs, he is shot and killed. Flora later buries Booker, but only after remaining with his body all night. Shortly thereafter Flora receives news that her sister Jossie was ill and dying. Flora travels to her sister and ends up taking her niece Ruthana back with her to raise as her own daughter. Throughout the 1930s Flora raises both Willy and Ruthana in Stockton, but when Willie gets into a fight with some white boys he's forced to escape to Chicago where Ruthana's father lives. Once there, Willy stays with Georgy, who shows him the area and finds Willy a job. One night Willy ends up gambling and smoking marijuana, which causes him to lose his home. Willy moves into a basement with his friend Josh, who was later arrested for dealing drugs. During all of this time Willy continues to write his mother, cousin, and his girlfriend Ernestine, but lies and tells them that everything was fine. Later at the outbreak of World War II, Willy joins the army and upon his return he proposes to his girlfriend. The two marry, move to Chicago, and have three children. During the same time period Ruthana manages to gain a scholarship to Fisk University due to her good grades in school. While Ruthana is away in college, Flora returns to Mississippi to find her son Luke. She returns to the Flemming Mansion and gains her son's address from the mansion's cook. Flora writes to Luke, who comes to find her. She discovers that Luke has graduated from law school and was joining the army. Luke and Flora remain in touch. Upon his return from the war he opens a practice in Harlem. After Ruthana graduates she takes a job as a social worker in Harlem, only to discover that Ernestine was very sick. The doctors were unable to discover what was wrong with her and later has a heart attack in her sleep. Ruthana helps her cousin Willy raise the children.1however flora is only about to enter a dimension unknown. |
3286247 | /m/093dxw | Let the Circle Be Unbroken | Mildred Taylor | 1981 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | The Logan family goes through hard times, trying to raise their children the correct way. T.J. Avery, Stacey's friend, is accused of murdering a white man, Jim Lee Barnett. Although he is innocent, he is tried by an all-white jury and convicted. Stacey does everything in his power to help his friend, but in the end, T.J. is sentenced to death. A man tries to start a union to join blacks and whites together so the cotton will be sold for fair prices. The union does not succeed and the man who wanted to start it is beaten. Some people are told that they need to pull up the acres that were already planted because they planted too much. The plantation owners lied, claiming the government ordered it, but the plantation owners did it in order to receive money that was supposed to go to the sharecroppers. Mama's cousin Bud's daughter Suzella, who has a black father and a white mother, lives with the Logans. Suzella is exonerated for being attractive and mixed, making her seem like a prize to all the males in the town because she is technically black and therefore accessible, but still has the lighter skin, hair and eyes; she can be assumed as white. Suzella struggles with identity issues that put a strain on her relationships with others. She catches the eye of Stuart Walker, a white boy who flirts with pretty colored girls to start trouble. When Stuart approaches her he genuinely respects her, assuming she is white. This takes a great toll on Stacey; he believes he must take care of his family before they lose their land. He and his best friend Moe run away to a sugarcane field to work. With the help of Mr. Jamison, a white lawyer who is kind and fair to black people, Mama, Papa and Caroline Logan (Big Ma) contact police stations in the next couple of towns. They address the letters in his name so that when the sheriffs receive the letters they will respond. Mr. Jamison says that if they see a black family name on the letters they probably will not respond. Seven months later, they find Stacey several hours away, jailed in a small town in Louisiana. Stacey and Moe were accused of stealing which put them in jail, where they became ill. While Stacey was at the cane field a poll rolled over his foot and broke it. Before they drive home, they stop by the house of a lady who took care of Stacey and Moe while they were in jail and thank her. They stay the night there and the next morning return home. |
3286381 | /m/093f43 | Westmark | Lloyd Alexander | 1981-04 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | It is a complicated and politically dangerous period in Westmark. The country's ruler, King Augustine IV, has slipped into dementia, depression and illness since the supposed death of his only child, the Princess Augusta, over six years ago. Despite the efforts of the Queen, Caroline, and the court physician, Dr. Torrens, the King is increasingly manipulated by his chief minister Cabbarus, who has designs on the throne. While the ill king is kept distracted by a series of mystics and charlatans who claim to be able to speak to his dead child, Cabbarus increases his control over Westmark, restricting freedoms and abusing the king's powers. Young Theo, an orphan, has been raised by a small town printer named Anton. After the pair accepts a job from a travelling salesman they are investigated by Cabbarus' men, who declare their job illegal and proceed to destroy their press. In the ensuing scuffle and chase, Theo attacks a soldier and Anton is shot and killed. With no one else to turn to, Theo takes to the countryside, eventually meeting up with the men who hired him and Anton for the printing job: Count Las Bombas, a con artist, and his dwarf driver/partner Musket. Theo joins up with them, rather reluctantly, and ends up participating in their money-making schemes. They eventually discover a girl named Mickle, a poor street urchin, who has a talent for throwing her voice and mimicry. The Count builds a charade around Mickle, dressing her up as the Oracle Priestess and putting her on display, claiming that she can speak to the spirits of the dead. Theo, despite his growing affection for the bright but vulnerable Mickle, begins to find his new life too dishonest for his tastes and abandons the group, eventually falling in with Florian, an anti-monarchist and rebel who plans revolution with his band of loyal followers. Meanwhile, Mickle, Las Bombas, and Musket have been arrested for fraud, Cabbarus has attempted to have Dr. Torrens assassinated and a politically minded journalist, Keller, goes into hiding to save himself from Cabbarus' wrath. Events come to a head when Theo plots to break his old companions out of prison, with help from Florian and his allies. Their reunion, however, does not last long; Cabbarus has tracked them down and has them all arrested. He brings the group to the Old Juliana, the palace of King Augustine IV and Queen Caroline, where reveals his plans to the group and of how the "Oracle Priestess" will be his pawn to his uprising to the throne. While in Old Juliana, Mickle comes across a trapdoor leading to a water canal, and her memories race in her mind as she remembers her childhood. This leads to her high fever and Theo's worry of her having to act. Cabbarus presents the group to the King and Queen and the courtiers as the Oracle Priestess, and suddenly Mickle's long-repressed childhood memories come to the surface, revealing treason, attempted murder and corruption in the heart of the Westmark government. It is later revealed that Mickle is the long-lost Princess Augusta and that chief minister Cabbarus was responsible for her disappearance. Eventually, on the subject of Cabbarus's punishment, Theo, on behalf of his conscience, sends him into exile, instead of killing him. This decision will have a major effect on the final book of the Westmark trilogy, The Beggar Queen. |
3286919 | /m/093fnn | The Hollow Man | John Dickson Carr | 1935 | {"/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/028v3": "Detective fiction", "/m/0174gw": "Locked room mystery", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | One wintry night in London, two murders are committed in quick succession. In both cases, the murderer has seemingly vanished into thin air. In the first case, he has disappeared from Professor Grimaud's study after shooting the professor—without leaving a trace, with the only door to the room locked from the inside, and with people present in the hall outside the room. Both the ground below the window and the roof above it are covered with unbroken snow. In the second case, a man walking in the middle of a deserted cul-de-sac at about the same time is evidently shot at close range, with the same revolver that killed Grimaud and only minutes afterward, but there is no one else near the man; this is witnessed from some distance by three passersby—two tourists and a police constable—who happen to be walking on the pavement. It takes Dr Gideon Fell, scholar and "a pompous pain in the neck," who keeps hinting at the solution without giving it away, some 200 pages to finally condescend and minutely reconstruct the two crimes and thus solve the mystery. |
3286926 | /m/093fpc | Gaston de Blondeville | Ann Radcliffe | 1826 | {"/m/039vk": "Gothic fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | Set in the 13th century court of England's King Henry III the novel centers around the wedding of the title character. The wedding is interrupted by a merchant who claims to have been wronged by Gaston, in that Gaston murdered his kinsman. Henry is forced to hold a trial to determine the validity of the claims. The plot is further complicated by the machinations of an abbot who tries to suppress the truth, and by ghosts who want to expose the truth. |
3287516 | /m/093ghv | The Man Who Loved Children | Christina Stead | null | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | The novel tells the story of a highly dysfunctional family, the Pollits. The story centers on the father Sam, an idealistic buffoon who can't provide for his family, the situation made worse by the mother Henny's snobbish inability to budget for the household. Stead details the parents' marital battles and the various accounts of the blended family's affections and alliances. The character Sam is largely based on Stead's own father, marine biologist David Stead. The Man Who Loved Children was originally set in Sydney but the setting was altered to suit an American audience, to Washington, D.C., somewhat unconvincingly due to linguistic nuances. Unsparing and penetrating, Stead reveals, among other things, the danger of unchecked sentimentality in relationships and in political thought. |
3287555 | /m/093gl9 | Money | Martin Amis | null | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Money tells the story of, and is narrated by, John Self, a successful director of commercials who is invited to New York by Fielding Goodney, a film producer, to shoot his first film. Self is an archetypal hedonist and slob; he is usually drunk, an avid consumer of pornography and prostitutes, eats too much and, above all, spends too much, encouraged by Goodney. The actors in the film, which Self originally titles Good Money but which he eventually wants to rename Bad Money, all have some kind of emotional issue which clashes with fellow cast members and with the parts they've signed on for - the principal casting having already been done by Goodney. For example: the strict Christian, Spunk Davis (whose name is intentionally unfortunate), is asked to play a drugs pusher; the ageing hardman Lorne Guyland has to be beaten up; the motherly Caduta Massi, who is insecure about her body, is asked to appear in a sex scene with Lorne, whom she detests, and so on. Self is stalked by "Frank the Phone" while in New York, a menacing misfit who threatens him over a series of telephone conversations, apparently because Self personifies the success Frank was unable to attain. Self is not frightened of Frank, even when he is beaten by him while on an alcoholic bender. (Self, characteristically, is unable to remember how he was attacked.) Towards the end of the book Self arranges to meet Frank for a showdown, which is the beginning of the novel's shocking denouement; Money is similar to Amis' five-years-later London Fields, in having a major plot twist. Self returns to London before filming begins, revealing more of his humble origins, his landlord father Barry (who makes his contempt for his son clear by invoicing him for every penny spent on his upbringing) and pub doorman Fat Vince. Self discovers that his London girlfriend, Selina, is having an affair with Ossie Twain, while Self is likewise attracted to Twain's wife in New York, Martina. This increases Self's psychosis and makes his final downfall even more brutal. After Selina has plotted to destroy any chance of a relationship between him and Martina, Self discovers that all his credit cards have been blocked and, after confronting Frank, the stars of film angrily claim that there is no film. It is revealed that Goodney had been manipulating him - all the contracts signed by Self were loans and debts, and Goodney fabricated the entire film. He is also revealed to be Frank and responsible for the visions of Self's mother. He supposedly chose Self for his behaviour on the first plane to America, where Goodney was sitting close to him. The New York bellhop, Felix, helps him escape the angry mob in the hotel lobby and fly back to England, only to discover that Barry is not Self's real father. There are some hilarious set pieces, such as when Self wakes to find he has skipped an entire day in his inebriated state, the tennis match and the attempts to change Spunk's screen name. The writing is also full of witty one-liners and silly names for consumer goods, such as Self's car, the Fiasco, and the Blastfurters which he snacks on. Amis writes himself into the novel as a kind of overseer and confidant in Self's final breakdown. He is an arrogant character, but Self is not afraid to express his rather low opinion of Amis, such as the fact that he earns so much yet "lives like a student." Amis, among others, tries to warn Self that he is heading for destruction but to no avail. Felix becomes Self's only real friend in America and finally makes Self realise the trouble he is in: "Man, you are out for a whole lot of money." The novel's subtitle, "A Suicide Note", is clarified at the end of the novel. It is revealed that Barry Self is not John Self's father; his father is in fact Fat Vince. As such, John Self no longer exists. Hence, in the subtitle, Amis indicates that this cessation of John Self's existence is analogous to suicide, which of course, results in the death of the self. A Suicide Note could also relate to the novel as a whole, or money, which Self himself calls suicide notes within the novel. After learning that his father is Fat Vince, John realises that his true identity is that of Fat John, half-brother of Fat Paul. The novel ends with Fat John having lost all his money (if it ever existed), yet he is still able to laugh at himself and is cautiously optimistic about his future. |
3287848 | /m/093h12 | Play It As It Lays | Joan Didion | 1970 | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The novel begins with an internal monologue by the 31-year-old Maria Wyeth, followed by short reminiscences of her friend Helene, and ex-husband, film director Carter Lang. The further narration is conducted from a third-person perspective in eighty-four chapters of terse, controlled and highly visual prose typical for Didion. The protagonist, an unfulfilled actress, recounts her life while recovering from a mental breakdown in an exclusive Neuropsychiatric Institute. The reason for her confinement is purportedly having participated in the suicidal death of a befriended bisexual movie producer, BZ (an abbreviation for benzodiazepines, sedative drugs). The “facts” from Wyeth’s childhood include being raised in the small town of Silver Wells, Nevada, to a gambling, careless father and a neurotic mother who used to “croon to herself” of chimeric yearnings. After graduating from a high school in Tonopah, encouraged by her parents, she leaves for New York to become an actress. In the Big Apple, Maria works temporarily as a model and meets ex-boyfriend, Ivan Costello, as is later insinuated, a domineering psychological blackmailer who has no scruples using the money and the body of his acquiescent girlfriend. During her stay in the city, Maria receives the news about the death of her mother, possibly a victim of a self-provoked car accident. Her father dies soon afterwards, leaving useless mineral rights to his business partner and friend, Benny Austin. Maria withdraws from acting and modeling to get over the shock of her mother’s death, splits up with Ivan, moving to Hollywood with the newly met Carter. We learn that she and Carter have a 4-year-old daughter Kate, undergoing mental and physical “treatment” for some “aberrant chemical in her brain.” Maria truly loves her daughter, as indicated by her tender descriptions of the child, frequent visits to the hospital, and a determination “to get her out.” She seems to be the only significant person in Wyeth’s life. The love for the girl obviously means more than her marriage to despotic Lang and affairs with men, including his Hollywood acquaintances, Les Goodwin and BZ. In the course of the novel, Maria becomes pregnant, plausibly by Les, and is coerced by Carter to abort. The traumatic procedure leaves her mentally shattered and haunted by nightmares of dying children. Looking for oblivion, she plunges into her routine of compulsive driving on the roads and freeways of southern California, wandering through motels and bars, drinking and chancing sexual encounters with second-rate actors and ex-lovers. She spends a night in jail for car theft and drug possession, after a one-night stand with a minor film star, Johnny Waters. Eventually she involves herself in a perverse love quadrangle with Carter, BZ and his wife Helene, abruptly ended when BZ overdoses on sedative barbiturates (specifically, Seconal) in Maria’s hotel bedroom. The book concludes with reclusive Maria planning a new life with Kate, resolved to “keep on playing,” despite her past. |
3288030 | /m/093h9g | The Sot-Weed Factor | John Barth | 1960 | null | The novel is a satirical epic of the colonization of Maryland based on the life of an actual poet, Ebenezer Cooke, who wrote a poem of the same title. The Sot-Weed Factor is what Northrop Frye called an anatomy — a large, loosely structured work, with digressions, distractions, stories within stories, and lists (such as a lengthy exchange of insulting terms by two prostitutes). The fictional Ebenezer Cooke (repeatedly described as "poet and virgin") is a Candide-like innocent who sets out to write a heroic epic, becomes disillusioned and ends up writing a biting satire. The novel is set in the 1680s and 90s in London and on the eastern shore of the colony of Maryland. It tells the story of an English poet named Ebenezer Cooke who is given the title "Poet Laureate of Maryland" by Charles Calvert. He undergoes many adventures on his journey to Maryland and while in Maryland, all the while striving to preserve his innocence (i.e. his virginity). The book takes its title from the grand poem that Cooke composes throughout the story, which was originally intended to sing the praises of Maryland, but ends up being a biting satire based on his disillusioning experiences. |
3288399 | /m/093hyt | The Ant Bully | John Nickle | null | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | A young boy is bullied all his life and decides to bully ants because they are the only thing smaller than him that he can beat up. The ants make a potion with special crystals in their hill and pour it in his ear ,when he is sleeping, so that he will turn into the size of an ant. He is forced by the queen ant to spend time as an ant, and learn their hard ways of the hill. When he finally understands, after many trials and classes, he gets bigger by an antidote and never hurts the ants again. He makes friends with the followers of the cruel boy who bullies him, and they chase off the bully for good. |
3288741 | /m/093jn3 | Eros and the Mysteries of Love | null | null | null | Evola sets out in this book to investigate the metaphysics of sex. He uses the term “metaphysics” in two ways. First, metaphysics means the “first principles” of a thing. Second, metaphysics means the “science that goes beyond the physical” (from the Introduction). Sex in the Modern Era :Evola argues that sexuality in the modern age has become depraved. His primary reference for this conclusion is the state of research on sex. He criticizes biological, sociological, psychological and sexological approaches to understanding sexuality as essentially shallow. Each discipline focuses on only one aspect, a lower aspect, of sexuality. Biologically deterministic arguments about sex -- that sexuality can be explained by the need to reproduce -- come under especially harsh criticism. Evola argues that the need to reproduce is one of the lowest aspects of and is in fact tangential to sexuality. He criticizes sexologists and investigators of sexuality from other disciplines for starting with lower, easier to understand aspects of sexuality (ie: reproduction) and deducing the higher aspects, the first principles, from them. Evola seeks instead to explain sexuality starting from first principles. The Metaphysics of Sex :Evola sets out to deduce the first principles of sexuality. His starting point is Plato’s ‘’Symposium’’ and the myth of the hermaphrodite. A myth in which mankind, in its pure form is a “hermaphroditic” form and was only later divided into two sexes, as the result of a fall. Sexuality, however, is not a “purely” spiritual act. Instead, the sexual act brings the spirit and the body closer together in order to attain unity. Evola, therefore, criticizes theories which overemphasize love and beauty to the extent that the physical side of sexuality is excluded or even found profane. He criticizes the ideal of platonic love in this way. A final myth which Evola explores is that of the birth of Eros to Poros and Penia, which, Evola argues, makes the point that Eros is the product at once of rationality and irrationality, being and emptiness. Thus sex has the ability to make one both (either) full and (or) empty. It is both the unity of man and woman and the driving force behind the never sated impulse to procreate. Transcendental Aspects of Profane Love :Drawing on numerous literary and mythological sources, Evola describes the manifestations of the transcendental state described in Part One in what he calls “Profane” love. Profane love is love (and sex) which does not have transcendency or unity as its object. This obviously includes sex for pleasure, but also sex for love. Evola describes how the language of lovers implicitly includes references to the transcendental. In other ways too, modern manifestations of love show their roots in the divine, transcendental metaphysics of sex. Perhaps the most important of these is the way that lovers use references to death during courtship (as well as coitus). For example, saying “I would die without you” or referring to the orgasm as the “little death.” This language refers back to the contradiction in the myth of Poros and Pennia, in which sex is both life and death and therefore hints at the true nature of eros. Man and Woman :In this section Evola describes the archetypes of absolute man and woman according to his traditional outlook. Man is represented by the sky, godliness, and form. Woman is represented by the earth and the waters, nature, and matter. Perhaps the two most important analogies are those of form and matter. The male principle is active and abstract, and (especially during copulation) gives form to the concrete and passive matter that is woman. Evola goes into considerable detail describing basic characteristics of the absolute male and absolute female that these paradigms encompass and their effects on relations between the sexes. Evola is careful to point out that all men and all women contain aspects of the absolute woman and man. Contrary to modern theory, however, Evola casts this as the failure of individual men and women to embody their divine character and as a result of the fall. Evola further argues that the “true difference between the natures of man and woman in no way implies a difference of worth” -- in other words that which is divine in woman is profane in man and vice versa, but is, in fact, divine in its proper place. Transcendent Sexuality :The second half of the book is devoted to historical examples of the kind of transcendental sexuality Evola describes in the first half. He considers Tantric sexuality, chastity as a means of transforming the sexual drive into higher forms, and pagan orgiastic rites among others. The Table of Contents below provides a good summary of the topics he broaches. |
3289597 | /m/093l00 | Prophet | null | null | {"/m/03npn": "Horror"} | The main character in "Prophet" is John Barrett, a television news anchor. Upon his pro-life father's accidental death, he is encouraged to investigate and report on problems at an abortion clinic. This only comes about after John catches his producer attempting to fabricate a story. Soon his colleagues are begging to stop him from finding out more, and he begins to hear mysterious and scary "voices". As John Barrett goes through the abortion investigation with Leslie Albright, he soon finds God and Truth, along the way. |
3290351 | /m/093mkr | Topdog/Underdog | Suzan-Lori Parks | null | null | The play chronicles the adult lives of two African American brothers, Lincoln and Booth, as they cope with women, work, poverty, gambling, racism, and their troubled upbringings. |
3290448 | /m/093msq | Rally Cry | William R. Forstchen | 1990 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The 35th Maine sets up a camp inside the land of Rus, outside a boyar's city, Suzdal. They are thrown into an intricate network of political feuds where the boyar, Ivor, struggles against the church for power. Both sides wish to exploit Keane and his men. The men of the 35th befriend peasants and the ideas of liberty, democracy and freedom spread. Most of the 35th are ardent supporters of Lincoln and many abolitionists among them wish to change the order of the feudal society. The men learn of the human-eating enemies called Tugars, seeing them depicted in a church. Keane allows for a vote to either stay and fight with Rus or to leave and try and mass strength elsewhere while avoiding the horde. The church's prelate, Rasnar, convinces Ivor to attack Keane and steal the guns on the night of the vote. The peasants revolt and are led particularly by one man, Kalencka (Kal), who befriends the Maine men and becomes an interpreter for Ivor. On the night Ivor masses his armies to crush Keane, Kal starts the rebellion. As the peasants are crushed, Keane calls off the vote instead letting the men place their votes by choosing whether or not to march to the aid of the peasants. Keane manages to come to the aid of peasants in time, and shortly after Rasnar and Ivor kill each other. The peasants are now free, but trouble looms. The Tugars are a horde of alien humanoids that devour humans as "cattle", circling the world and devouring one-fifth of the people in each city-state roughly every 20 years. However the men of the 35th have a substantial advantage over the beings of this world: guns. The Tugars are biologically very close to humans, and can contract some of the same diseases. They evolved on another world and resemble humans due to convergent evolution. They spread from world to world by "tunnels of light", which are wormholes their ancestors built. They are proportioned like humans, but are eight- to ten-feet (2.4–3.0 m) tall. Their bodies and almost noseless faces are covered with short hair and they have large canine teeth. Though their faces are somewhat apelike and in other ways resemble the wolfman, their bodies are Herculean in build and of handsome appearance. They ride horses of very large breed due to their stature. Tugar society is ruled by males with their females taking no significant social, political, or military role, quite unlike human nomads. They are very good mounted archers, shooting four-foot-long (1.2 m) arrows. It is revealed that the Tugars are a fallen race that once had a great interstellar civilization. The Tugars no longer understand how their ancestors invented the "tunnels of light", of which Earth seems to have several that operate sporadically, one Tugar in the series jokes to a human that he will show him the location of one, "for a price." There are other hordes of the same aliens, called the Merki and Bantag. Many humans just call all the aliens "Tugars" by definition. They received their horses and perhaps some of their nomad culture from the Earth. The Tugars say that in the past they have visited the Earth, and they vaguely resemble the Bigfoot. The Tugars do not understand why Colonel Keane wants to fight them; in a conference the Tugar ruler told Keane that they protected the "cattle" when they first were settled on Valennia, and in any event the Tugars eat only 20% of the humans before they move on. The Tugars rely on humans for all the food and manufactured goods to maintain their nomadic way of life. Human "pets" follow the Tugar hordes, and are expected to eat what their masters do, and fight alongside their masters while seeing men, women, and children butchered and devoured as a routine matter. Most Tugars think that humans are simply inferior and have no souls, and cannot imagine that they would revolt rather than accept the status quo. The Tugars are very conservative. They know they rely on the human "cattle" for all their needs, make nothing by themselves and are far outnumbered by humans. Some think their dependence on the human "cattle" threatens them with eventual extinction, but the rank-and-file Tugar would rather keep matters exactly as they are. The Tugars have encountered at least two other alien races on Valennia, brought there via the tunnels of light. One was a human-sized, Tugar-like hairy humanoid, and became "cattle" like humans; the other was non-humanoid with very advanced weapons. Once the Tugars destroyed the advanced aliens by force of numbers they refused to copy their weapons and threw them into the sea. The Tugars also encountered two human pirate ships brought through the tunnel of light. They captured one and said "they killed many Tugars before we feasted on them" but likewise refused to copy the pirate's guns. In book two, Keane and his men prepare for the coming of the Tugars. Kal estimates that there are hundreds of thousands compared to only one regiment of the 35th. They estimate years before the Tugars arrive, but unknown to them, the Tugars are force-marching across the northern lands because a small pox epidemic is killing off their "cattle". The Maine men, being of many skills and crafts, set about trying to create a modern industry in only a year or so. They work to train and arm Rus soldiers and militia. Factories are created and a railroad is built. They fortify the city, but soon the Tugars come. A Tugar agent, called the "Namer of Time" is the first alien leader to show up, with his escort and some Rus "pets" who have not seen their homes for twenty years. He knows about the Yankees and demands they disarm and provide 20% of their men as food. He tells them that other humans in the past have revolted, only to be totally exterminated. A confrontation ensues in which a Union soldier and Tugar warrior are killed. Keane tells the Namer of Time that the only tribute he will pay will be in lead. They defeat an advance force of Tugars by setting up an ambush, but the bulk of the army is not far behind. The 35th and their Rus counterparts are battling for their lives. Many men sacrifice themselves, particularly the train conductor, Malady, who blows himself up taking hundreds of Tugars with him. The Tugar losses are staggering but they begin to overwhelm the city. The Qar Qarth of the Tugars, Muzta, faces opposition within his horde so he does not listen to the advice of his advisor Qubata to draw out the attack and starve the Yankees into submission. They make a suicidal charge, which begins to work as they break into the city. With little hope left, some of the men abandon the rest on the Ogunquit and sail away. By now Keane finds that the Tugars have become a little less conservative and are forcing their human pets and slaves to make guns for them. However, the Tugars themselves still will do no labor of any kind and remain warriors. The remaining men of the 35th Maine form near the center of the city. Keane prepares his men for the onslaught as they had at Gettysburg. They fix bayonets and prepare to charge. At the last minute, Keane's protegee, Vincent Hawthorne, commandeers their scouting balloon and daringly flies it to the dam the men constructed. Hawthorne sets the dam to blow and Qubata sees Hawthorne's intent and tries to stop him. Qubata is blown away in the explosion trying to save the horde, but it is futile. A torrent of water envelopes the city and drowns the horde. The remaining Tugars are captured or retreat. What is left of Suzdal is saved and the Tugar horde is decimated, a skeleton of its former self. The Tugar horde makes peace with the Union soldiers and rides away. |
3290811 | /m/093ngl | The Simoqin Prophecies | Samit Basu | 1/15/2004 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | The story begins in the expected year of the rakshas Danh-Gem's return. Asvin, prince of Avranti is sent on an Aswamedh, a journey supposed to bring him fame and glory. But as soon as he reaches the forest, his guards turn on him and tell him that he would be executed at sunset. This is in accordance with the laws of the secret brotherhood, which ensured that all younger princes of Avranti who were too eager for glory would be dealt with this way. However he is rescued by the Silver Dagger and his men, on the orders of the Chief Civilian of Kol, who wanted him to be the prophecised hero. In Kol, the Chief Civilian is very worried about the sudden emergence of the danavs of Imokoi along with their city asur cousins. Also the skuans under their lord Bjorkun are planning something. Manticores have been seen in the forest. It is later revealed that this is a plot to bring back Danh Gem, instigated by Bjorkun and Bali, later on joined by the asur king Leer, and Omar of Artaxerxeia. This group is called the secret Brotherhood of Renewal, dedicated to bring Danh-Gem back. The spellbinders notice that magical levels all over the world are rising. Maya, a powerful spellbinder discovers that her best friend Kirin is in fact a ravian. Kirin himself had discovered this fact only a short while back and remembers that he is actually over two hundred years old. He recalls his memories back from his earlier days when he lived in the forest with a roving band of ravian warriors. The he remembers the day the ravians had departed from the world. Somehow he was turned into stone at that time and didn't remember anything until Spikes, a pashan unlike any other, caused him to wake up. This is a great mystery which Maya is determined to solve. Bali is convinced that the pashans are the key to Danh-Gem's return after learning about the secret of pashan birth from the storks. He tries to steal books called Untranslatables from the library of Enki, as they were written by Danh-Gem and are sure to have information on how to bring the rakshas back. He succeeds, and nearly kidnaps Maya as well, but Maya escapes by setting fire to his tail. Snow trolls under the orders of Bjorkun try to abduct the pashan Yarni, but they fail. Many including the vanar lord Bali, are looking for Spikes. The Chief Civilian sends Asvin to study with Mantric, best of the Koli spellbinders, who was now on a vacation on the island of Bolvudis. He is accompanied by Maya, Kirin, Spikes, the Dagger(under the name of Amloki), a centauress Red Pearl, and a vaman Gaam. During this journey they are attacked by a nundu. They also meet Sir Cyr who seemed to be a harmless knight of Ventelot. Kirin discovers a book in the library of Kol which is full of magic and purported to be written by Narak. This book speaks to him and reveals that his task was to slay Danh Gem when he rises again, but until then, he would have to work with the followers of Danh-Gem. The book convinces him to leave the others as he will bring danger to them. Kirin leaves with Spikes. Red pearl follows him. Bali catches up with Kirin while on the trail of Spikes. During the confrontation, Bali kills Red Pearl from behind. Kirin is furious but remembers what the book said remains silent. He thus joins the Brotherhood of Renewal feigning to be a Karisman. Kirin translates the Untranslatables that Bali had stolen earlier. It mentions five objects to be brought together for Danh-Gem's return. Kirin steals the Tear of heaven from Avranti and the Gauntlet of Tatsu. Asvin goes on a series of quests, earning renown as well as many magical objects. The two most remarkable were his visit to the rakshasi Akarat, which earned him the ring of Akarat and the sword of Raka, and his journey through the pyramid of Elaken to get the armour of the scorpion man. On the day of Danh Gem's arising, the brotherhood meets in the circle of Imokoi and lays down the five things needed. All but Kirin are turned to stone. Danh Gem materializes as a ghost like form Kirin tries to kill him but cannot as he is not in material form. Danh Gem reveals to him, in style reminiscent of star wars, that he is actually Kirin's father. Kirin understands he is being offered a choice, between becoming a dark lord and trying to put things right in this world, or to let the brotherhood create havoc by starting the war. Kirin chooses the former as he decides the latter is too heroic. He ascends to the throne as Dark Lord. |
3290819 | /m/093ngy | The Manticore's Secret | Samit Basu | 2005 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | The book begins initially by showing the return of the ravians to the world, which they now call Obiyalis. The vamans loyal to the ravians (called the rebel union of marginal labour) and Manticore open the ravian portal to this world. Three champions of the ravians, Myrdak, Peori and Behrim, promptly kill the vamans so as to make sure there are no traitors to inform the world of the return of the ravians. Meanwhile in the newly constructed dark tower of Izakar, Kirin is facing trouble. Most of his council of rakshases are issuing mad orders in his name, while all he wanted was to stop the war. Aciram warns Kirin of the return of the ravians and their plan to take over the earth. It seems that they are more dangerous to the humans now than to the dark lord. Nasud, a cousin of Kirin, grows tired of Kirin's peace efforts and declares a kin strife. Kirin kills him with a lightning bolt. Meanwhile in Kol, a secret society of the shapeshifters, called the Rainbow Council, prepare to battle against the mind-controlling foes who threaten history. Many Hero and villain guilds are formed in Kol in the wake of Kirin's acsension as dark lord. Arathognan (or Thog the barbarian) was one of these. In one of these encounters, Thog kills four jaykinis who were trying to eat children. However he notices that he is being followed by a mysterious girl, later revealed to be Peori. Asvin and Maya have fallen in love. Maya is now having doubts about Kirin, who was her former best friend. Asvin, however is eager to battle the hordes of the dark lord and still believes the ravians to be noble heroes who would save humanity. Red, the shapeshifter, is part of the rainbow council.She had named two voices in her head and was never able to make up her mind about anything. It is also revealed here that the heart of Kol and the seven Hero mirrors where actually created by the shapeshifters although earlier they had been credited to lord Simoqin. The ravians Myrdak and Peori attack the palace of Kol one night with the intention of kidnapping Maya and using her to get rid of Kirin. They encounter the Silver Dagger and battle with the shapeshifters but finally manage to escape with Maya. Asvin and Red (in the guise of Rukmini) follow her to the great forest of Vrihataranya. Red falls in love with Asvin on the way (although this may be because of the alter ego Rukmini she had named in her mind). In the meanwhile Behrim, whose task had been to assassinate the dark lord is shocked to learn that the dark lord is in fact Kirin. In an attempt to talk to Kirin, he is detected by the rakshases but barely managed to escape.However he is then caught by the werewolves who nearly kill him. He is healed within the dark tower, where he tells Kirin that it is his destiny to become a great leader of the ravians. Peori visits Ararthogorn and reveals to him that he is a descendant of the kings of Kol. She points out that he had the amulet that proved it so.She told him of the existence of a third Simoqin prophecy, that when the dark lord rose, the true king of Kol would return and with his hands strike down the evil powers which ruled Kol. She convinces him to assassinate Lady Temat. Thog tries to infiltrate the labyrinth but is easily caught. Meanwhile, Maya has managed to escape from Myrdak and is lost in the forest. She comes across some little fat men,whom she initially suspected to be dangerous but turned out to be harmless. They arrive at the temple of the black Star, where Myrdak recaptures her. Myrdak challenges dark lord Kirin to a duel, knowing he would come to rescue the girl he loved. Kirin seeks the advice of Behrim, who states flatly that he could not be defeated in an open duel as he was the greatest ravian warrior alive.Behrim rather suggests that they go to Asroye and seek help from the ravian council. Kirin agrees to this and leaves on a dragon along with Behrim, ignoring pleas by Aciram .As soon as Kirin leaves, Aciram, who probably aspired for the throne of Danh-Gem himself, takes on Kirin's face. Rakshases in the forest attack Myrdak and Maya manages to escape from the manticore. She takes shelter in Vanarpuri but Myrdak finds her. She escapes again with the help of Djongli and arrives at a peculiar place guarded by knights of Ventelot, called the Desolate Gard. Myrdak finally catches up with Maya and tells her that it was a ravian portal, and the nundu would give its blood to activate it. Maya then meets the unwaba, who tells her about the gods playing with this world. Myrdak leaves for his duel with Kirin. Kirin and Behrim arrive at the ravian outpost of Epsai, only to find it deserted. Behrim realizes that Myrdak and Peori are traitors to the council and the ravians had not yet returned in their numbers. Both of them feel very tired and want to play with some apparently harmless little fat men. However these creatures turn out to be monsters, who eat only ravian. Behrim is devoured by them but Kirin is saved by Qianzai,mother of dragons. It is revealed that these creatures are these world's response to the arrival of the ravians. He then goes along to the duel. Meanwhile in Kol, Peori has successfully infiltrated the labyrinth but runs into some minotaurs. She underestimates them and one of them gashes her. The Dagger appears and tells her they have some scores to settle. Peori raises the splintered glass to kill the dagger but Steel-bunz, who was small enough not to figure as dangerous nipped her from behind. This momentary distraction enabled the Dagger to throw his dagger and kill her. Asvin is guided by a firebird to the temple of the black star.Red keeps a watch on him. when he is attacked by the manticore, she changes it into a frog. Kirin's duel with Myrdak, which lasted for many hours resulted in Myrdak getting the upper hand, even though Kirin was armed with his shadowknife and his rakshas powers. After some time Asvin appears. He initially decides to fight against Kirin as he was the son of Danh Gem, however he realized that Myrdak was only interested in getting his armor and turned upon him. Myrdak whirled his sword in a blur and cut off his head. The duel continued. Myrdak then pushes Kirin into a state of trance duel, in which Kirin had no experience at all. He wins the trance duel, but as he emerges back into the real world intending to strike Kirin down, the shapeshifter Red kills him with his own sword. |
3291184 | /m/093p6m | Sword Stained with Royal Blood | Louis Cha | 1956 | {"/m/08322": "Wuxia"} | Set in the late Ming Dynasty, the story centers on Yuan Chengzhi, the son of Yuan Chonghuan, a patriotic military commander who was wrongly put to death by the Chongzhen Emperor. An orphan, Yuan Chengzhi is sent to the Mount Hua Sect, where he is tutored in martial arts by Mu Renqing. He grows up to become a fine young pugilist and he leaves Mount Hua in search of adventure. Serendipitous incidents lead him to discover the Golden Serpent Sword and a martial arts manual, which once belonged to Xia Xueyi, a long dead enigmatic swordsman. Yuan Chengzhi inherits Xia Xueyi's possessions and skills and becomes more powerful than before. Yuan Chengzhi wanders around the land and meets Wen Qingqing, a young maiden from a family of brigands. Wen Qingqing is actually Xia Xueyi's daughter and she follows Yuan Chengzhi after being expelled from her family. Yuan Chengzhi initially wanted to seek redress for his father, but decides to join Li Zicheng's rebel force to overthrow the corrupt Ming government. He helps the rebels retrieve the gold robbed by the Wen family, sabotages a battery of cannons supplied to the Ming army by foreigners, and finances the rebellion with part of the treasure he discovered in Nanjing. Yuan Chengzhi also befriends several pugilists, who pledge allegiance to him out of respect for his heroism. Yuan Chengzhi organises his followers to form an army and they pledge to serve and defend China from invading Manchu forces in the northeast. Eager to prove his loyalty to his countrymen, Yuan Chengzhi infiltrates Mukden and attempts to assassinate the Manchu ruler Hong Taiji but fails. Later, despite harbouring a grudge against the Chongzhen Emperor for his father's death, he saves the emperor from a coup led by a treacherous noble called Prince Hui. During that time, he meets He Tieshou, one of Prince Hui's allies and the leader of the Five Poisons Cult. Yuan Chengzhi succeeds in reforming her and accepts her as his student. He also develops romantic relationships with Wen Qingqing and a maiden called A'jiu, who is actually the Chongzhen Emperor's daughter Princess Changping. Yuan Chengzhi's decision to support Li Zicheng eventually makes him regret, because after overthrowing the Ming government, Li not only fails to fulfill his promises to restore peace and stability, but also condones his followers' brutality towards the common people. Yuan Chengzhi is disappointed with Li Zicheng and decides to leave. A former Ming general called Wu Sangui later defects to the Manchus and allow them to pass through Shanhai Pass and overrun the rest of China. When Yuan Chengzhi learns that China has fallen to the Manchus, he realises that he is unable to do anything to reverse the situation and decides to leave for good and he sails to a distant land with his companions. |
3291764 | /m/093qdt | Jamaica Inn | Daphne du Maurier | 1936 | {"/m/08w0_f": "Albino bias"} | Jamaica Inn tells the story of 23-year-old Mary Yellan, who was brought up on a farm in Helford but had to go and live with her Aunt Patience after her mother died. Patience's husband, Joss Merlyn, a great big bully who is almost seven feet tall, is the keeper of Jamaica Inn. On arriving at the gloomy and threatening inn, Mary finds her aunt in a ghost-like state under the thumb of the vicious Joss, and soon realizes that something unusual is afoot at the inn, which has no guests and is never open to the public. She tries to squeeze the truth out of her uncle during one of his benders, but he tells her, "I'm not drunk enough to tell you why I live in this God-forgotten spot, and why I'm the landlord of Jamaica Inn." Against her better judgement, Mary becomes attracted to Joss's younger brother, Jem, a petty thief, but less brutal than his big brother. After Mary realizes that Joss is the leader of a band of wreckers and even overhears Joss ordering the murder of one of their member, she is unsure whether to trust Jem or not. She turns to Francis Davey, the albino vicar of the neighbouring village of Altarnun, who happened to find Mary when she got lost one day on the moor. Mary and Jem leave the moors for Christmas Eve and spend a day together in the town of Launceston, during which Jem sells a horse he stole from Squire Bassat back to the squire's unwitting wife. When it comes time to return to Jamaica Inn, Jem leaves Mary to go get the jingle, but never returns. Mary hires a coach to take her home wherein she meets Francis Davey, but they are waylaid by her uncle's band of wreckers, and the coach driver is killed. Mary is then forced to watch as the wreckers trick a ship into steering itself on to the rocks and then murder the survivors of the crash as they try to swim to shore. A few days later, Jem comes to speak with Mary, who is locked in her room at the inn. Mary uses Jem's help to escape and goes to Altarnun to tell the vicar about Joss' misdeeds, but he isn't at home. She then goes to the squire's home and tells his wife her story, but Mrs. Bassat tells Mary that her husband already has the evidence to arrest Joss and has gone to do so. Mrs. Bassat has her driver take Mary to Jamaica Inn, where they arrive before the Squire's party. Mary goes inside to find her uncle stabbed to death; the lawmen arrive soon thereafter and discover Aunt Patience similarly murdered. The vicar arrives at the inn, having received a note Mary left for him that afternoon, and offers her refuge for the night. The next day, Mary surreptitiously sees a drawing by the vicar which she found in a drawer of the desk in her room at the vicar's cottage; she is shocked to see that the vicar has drawn himself as a wolf while the members of his congregation have heads of sheep. The vicar returns, tells Mary that Jem was the one who informed on Joss. Realizing that she has seen the drawing, the vicar then reveals that he was the true head of the wrecker gang and the murderer of Joss and her Aunt Patience, and he tries to escape with Mary as his hostage. The vicar goes on to explain that he tried to find faith in the Christian Church but did not, setting his faith instead in the ancient Druid following. As they flee across the moor to try to reach a ship to sail to Spain, Squire Bassat and Jem lead a search party that closes the gap, eventually coming close enough for Jem to shoot the vicar and rescue Mary. Mary has an offer to work as a servant for the Bassats, but instead plans to return to Helford. One day as she walks on the moor, she comes across Jem, leading a cart with all of his possessions, headed in the other direction from Helford. After some discussion, Mary decides to abandon Helford to go with Jem. |
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