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3685616 | /m/09vc7j | The Penelopiad | Margaret Atwood | 10/11/2005 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/02p0szs": "Historical fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/0fr3y1": "Parallel novel", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The novella recaps Penelope’s life in hindsight from 21st century Hades; she recalls her family life in Sparta, her marriage to Odysseus, her dealing with suitors during his absence, and the aftermath of Odysseus' return. The relationship with her parents was challenging: her father became overly affectionate after attempting to murder her, and her mother was absent-minded and negligent. At fifteen, Penelope married Odysseus, who had rigged the contest that decided which suitor would marry her. Penelope was happy with him, even though he was mocked behind his back by Helen and some maids for his short stature and lesser developed home, Ithaca. The couple broke with tradition by moving to the husband’s kingdom. In Ithaca, neither Odysseus’ mother Anticleia, nor his nurse Eurycleia, liked Penelope but eventually Eurycleia helped Penelope settle into her new role and became friendly, but often patronising. Shortly after the birth of their son, Telemachus, Odysseus was called to war, leaving Penelope to run the kingdom and raise Telemachus alone. News of the war and rumours of Odysseus’ journey back sporadically reached Ithaca and with the growing possibility that Odysseus was not returning an increasing number of suitors moved in to court Penelope. Convinced the suitors were more interested in controlling her kingdom than loving her, she stalled them. The suitors pressured her by consuming and wasting much of the kingdom's resources. She feared violence if she outright denied their offer of marriage so she announced she would make her decision on which to marry once she finished her father-in-law’s shroud. She enlisted twelve maids to help her unravel the shroud at night and spy on the suitors. Odysseus eventually returned but in disguise. Penelope recognised him immediately and instructed her maids not to reveal his identity. After the suitors were massacred, Odysseus instructed Telemachus to execute the maids who he believed were in league with them. Twelve were hanged while Penelope slept. Afterwards, Penelope and Odysseus told each other stories of their time apart, but on the issue of the maids Penelope remained silent to avoid the appearance of sympathy for those already judged and condemned as traitors. During her narrative, Penelope expresses opinions on several people, addresses historical misconceptions, and comments on life in Hades. She is most critical of Helen whom Penelope blames for ruining her life. Penelope identifies Odysseus’ specialty as making people look like fools and wonders why his stories have survived so long, despite being an admitted liar. She dispels the rumour that she slept with Amphinomus and the rumour that she slept with all the suitors and consequently gave birth to Pan. Between chapters in which Penelope is narrating, the twelve maids speak on topics from their point-of-view. They lament their childhood as slaves with no parents or playtime, sing of freedom, and dream of being princesses. They contrast their lives to Telemachus’ and wonder if they would have killed him as a child if they knew he would kill them as a young man. They blame Penelope and Eurycleia for allowing them to unjustly die. In Hades, they haunt both Penelope and Odysseus. |
3687844 | /m/09vhjk | The Dogs of War | Frederick Forsyth | 1974 | {"/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/098tmk": "War novel", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | 1970: The prologue shows "Cat" Shannon and his fellow mercenaries leaving a West African war they have lost, saying 'good-bye' to the General, who employed them for six months. Subsequently, a prospector named Mulrooney, employed by British-based company Manson Consolidated, sends mineral samples from the "Crystal Mountain" in the remote hinterland of the African republic of Zangaro. When they are analysed, ruthless British mining tycoon Sir James Manson realises that there is a huge platinum deposit in Zangaro. As the president of Zangaro, Jean Kimba, is Marxist, homicidal and insane, and under Soviet influence, any public announcement of the findings would benefit only the Russians. Confiding only in his top assistants, security chief Simon Endean and financial expert Martin Thorpe, Manson plans to replace Kimba with a puppet leader who, for a pittance, will sign over Zangaro's mining rights to a "shell company" secretly owned by Manson. When Manson Consolidated later acquires the shell company for a fair market price, Sir James Manson and his aides will pocket £60 million. On recommendation from a freelance writer, Endean hires Anglo-Irish mercenary soldier "Cat" Shannon to reconnoitre Zangaro, and to investigate how Kimba might be deposed. After visiting the country posing as a tourist, Shannon reports that the army has little fighting value and that Kimba has concentrated the national armoury, treasury and radio station within the presidential palace in Clarence, the Zangaran capital city and principal port. If the palace is stormed and Kimba is killed, there will be no opposition to any new regime. Because there is no organised dissident faction in Zangaro, the attacking force will have to be organised outside the country and land near Clarence to launch the attack. Shannon prices the mission at £100,000, with £10,000 for himself. Although Shannon has dealt only with Endean who is using a false name, he has had Endean tailed by a private investigator and has discovered his true identity and his involvement with Sir James Manson. Although Manson has taken steps to silence the few people aware of the Crystal Mountain platinum deposit, the left-wing chemist who analysed the samples has inadvertently revealed his findings to the Soviets, who assign a KGB bodyguard to Kimba while they prepare to send in their own geological survey team. Manson learns from a Foreign Office bureaucrat that the Soviets have got wind of the deposit. He commissions Shannon to organise and mount the coup, to take place on the eve of Zangaro's independence day, one hundred days hence, although he does not tell Shannon of the Soviet involvement. Shannon assembles the team who will execute the attack on Kimba's palace: German ex-smuggler Kurt Semmler, South African mortar expert Jan Dupree, Belgian bazooka specialist "Tiny" Marc Vlaminck, and Corsican knife man Jean-Baptiste Langarotti. Semmler travels Europe looking for a suitable cargo ship to transport them and their equipment to Zangaro. Dupree stays in London and buys all their uniforms, boots and camping equipment. Langarotti travels to Marseilles to buy inflatable boats for the amphibious assault. Vlaminck accompanies Shannon to Belgium to buy one hundred MP 40 "Schmeisser" machine pistols from a former member of the SS. Shannon then travels to Luxembourg to establish a holding company to handle the purchase of the ship, to Spain to buy 400,000 rounds of 9mm ammunition for the Schmeissers with a forged end user certificate, and walkie talkies and flares, and to Yugoslavia to buy bazookas, mortars, and ammunition for them. He also finds time for a brief sexual liaison with Julie Manson, Sir James's daughter, from whom he learns the bare essentials of Manson's true plan. Martin Thorpe has meanwhile secretly bought the controlling share in Bormac Trading, a mining and plantation-owning company which has long ceased trading, from Lady MacAllister, the ailing widow of the company's founder. His and Manson's involvement is concealed behind the names of several fictitious shareholders. Endean has obtained the agreement of Colonel Bobi, a former commander of the Zangaran Army who fell out with Kimba and is now in exile, to participate in Manson's scheme. Once installed as president, the venal and illiterate Bobi will sign over the mineral rights to the Crystal Mountain to Bormac Trading for a nominal price but a large bribe for himself. Semmler has acquired a nondescript tramp cargo ship, the Toscana, for the operation. Hidden in oil drums, the Schmeisser sub-machine guns are smuggled across the Belgian border into France and loaded aboard the Toscana at Marseilles, along with the uniforms and Zodiac speedboats, which are supposedly for watersports in Morocco. They then sail to Ploče in Yugoslavia to load the mortars and rocket launchers bought legitimately from an arms dealer, without telling the Yugoslav authorities that they already have arms aboard. These weapons are then hidden below deck and the ship sails to Spain to collect the ammunition (supposedly sold to the Iraqi police force). The ship then sails to Sierra Leone to pick up six African mercenaries, disguised as casual stevedores, who will also participate in the attack, and Dr Okoye, an African academic. The assault on President Kimba's palace takes place as planned. In the early hours of the morning, foghorns and flares disorient the defenders while Dupree bombards the interior of the palace compound and a nearby army camp with mortars, eliminating the palace guard. Vlaminck destroys the compound gates with anti-tank rockets. As the attackers burst in, Kimba's KGB bodyguard escapes and shoots Vlaminck in the chest. Vlaminck kills him with his last rocket before he dies. Semmler shoots Kimba as he tries to escape through his bedroom window. Dupree and two African mercenaries attack the nearby army camp. A Zangaran solder throws a grenade at them as he flees and Johnny, one of the African mercenaries, throws it back but accidentally mortally wounds Dupree with it. Around midday, Endean arrives in Clarence to install Colonel Bobi as the new Zangaran president. He has his own bodyguard, a former enforcer and London East End gangster. Shannon casually kills both Bobi and Endean's bodyguard, and introduces Dr Okoye as the new head of government. Dr Okoye permanently refuses the Soviet geology survey team's request to land in Zangaro. As Shannon drives Endean to the border, he explains that Endean's otherwise comprehensive research failed to note the 20,000 immigrant workers who did most of the work in Zangaro, but were politically disenfranchised by the Kimba government. A hundred of them, in new uniforms and armed with Schmeissers, have already been recruited as the nucleus of the new Zangaran Army. When Shannon tells Endean that the coup was really conducted in behalf of the General, Endean is furious, but Shannon points out that this government will be at least be fair, and if Manson wants the platinum, he will have to pay the proper market price. Endean threatens revenge if he ever sees Shannon in London but Shannon is not fazed by this. In the novel's epilogue, it is revealed that Dupree, Vlaminck and Johnny, one of the African soldiers who also died in storming Kimba's palace, were buried in simple graves near the shore. Semmler, having sold the Toscana to its captain, died while on another mercenary operation in Africa and Langarotti's fate is ambiguous; the novel only tells that after he took his pay and share of the sale of the Toscana, he is last heard of going to train a new group of Hutu partisans in Burundi against Michel Micombero, telling Shannon "It's not about the money — it was never about the money." The final scene of The Dogs of War reveals that before embarking on the Zangaro operation, Shannon was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer (skin cancer in some American editions). He posts most of his earnings to the surviving family members of his fallen teammates, and also sends a manuscript (presumably outlining the entire plan) to a journalist in London. Later, Cat Shannon walks into the African bush, humming a favourite tune ("Spanish Harlem"), to end his life on his own terms with "a bullet in his chest and blood in his mouth". |
3687898 | /m/09vhm0 | Think | null | null | null | Think begins as a critique of the decline of critical thinking in America. LeGault briefly mentions Blink as the height of this irrationality, but moves on to other failures in government, schools, media, and industry. LeGault offers several examples of irrationality and mediocrity throughout the book: * Poor decision-making at General Motors and the decline of the American auto industry. * The politically correct reaction to remarks by Lawrence Summers, regarding gender differences. * The failures of affirmative action to close the achievement gap. * Sensationalist journalism, and the decline of newspaper readership. * Over-emphasis on stress relief in marketing and media. * The banning of DDT by the Environmental Protection Agency, in reaction to the book Silent Spring. * The rise of relativism, as described by Allan Bloom in his book, Closing of the American Mind. Much of the book deals with examples of failures or anomalies in American achievements. LeGault often attributes these shortcomings to a growing attitude or influential group. On page 93, he describes the problem of over-medicating children with Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: In view of LeGault's description of the problem, he closes the book by offering solutions. Specifically, he calls for higher standards, especially among parents and schools. |
3688015 | /m/09vhvm | The Wizard's Dilemma | Diane Duane | 2001 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | Nita and Kit start to fight about the solution to the pollution in Jones Inlet, leading Nita to start to work on her own for a while. In the meantime, Nita's mother falls ill and is taken to the hospital with a brain tumor. Meanwhile, Kit finds out that his dog, Ponch, is able to create universes out of nothing, bringing in a lot of research possibilities where they can explore. Nita begins to practice with kernels - magical "software" that describes and reflects the surrounding area- in order to try to save her mother's life. While practicing, Nita meets a wizard named Pralaya who might be able to join her in saving her mother's life. She then discovers that the wizard may be overshadowed by the Lone Power, making it a dangerous prospect for them to work together. She discusses it with Kit, who decides to help her as well. While her mother is in surgery, Nita enters her body with Pralaya and begins to search for the kernel in order to kill the cancer, leaving Kit behind. Kit, using the universes Ponch creates, is able to also enter Mrs. Callahan's body to aid Nita and her mother. He helps her undo the deal she was in the process of making with the Lone Power for her mother's life, but she is still unable to eliminate all of the cancer. As the Lone Power is gloating in his anticipated victory, Nita's mother is able to take control of the kernel and defeat the Lone Power. She realizes that if she were to cure herself, she would be starting down a path at the end of which nothing would matter to her except extending her life, so she chooses to live out what life is left to her in love. |
3688067 | /m/09vh_h | A Wizard Alone | Diane Duane | 2002 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | After the events of The Wizard's Dilemma (her mother's death) Nita is depressed. She has also been having some strange dreams concerning a lone character refusing any help. She has some trouble understanding the lone character's Speech. Meanwhile, Kit is asked by Tom and Carl to help find Darryl McAllister, an autistic boy who is on his Ordeal - and has been for the past three months but Darryl is not all that he seems. He is an Abdal: a figure of tremendous power and a conduit for goodness from The One who limits the power of the Lone One in the Universe and can exist in more than one place at once. Utilizing Ponch's ability to "walk" through universes, Kit enters Darryl's mind to assist him in the Ordeal where he sees Darryl tortured, but overexposure causes Kit to exhibit antisocial tendencies and mood swings picked up from Darryl himself. He begins to take on Darryl's autistic traits and becomes trapped in Darryl mind. As Nita looks into strange dreams she begins to understand the lone character who she realizes is the boy Kit is looking into, Darryl. When she realizes that Darryl is an Abdal and that he is actually tricking the Lone One she enters his mind in an attempt to save both Kit and Darryl. Darryl, meanwhile, has created in his mind a trap in which he traps the Lone One and forces him to experience the autism that he deals with daily. This is the trap Kit becomes stuck in and Nita is forced to enter. In the end Nita breaks the trap and frees Darryl, Kit and the Lone One. Darryl force the Lone One to Accept a deal in which Darryl remains in his own universe if the Lone One will return to it someday. However Darryl escapes this deal through his ability to exist in more than one place and leaves his autistic self behind in the universe while he returns to his body free of autism. |
3688115 | /m/09vj1y | Wizard's Holiday | Diane Duane | 2003 | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | When Nita's sister Dairine signs up for an intragalactic exchange program without permission, their local advisors transfer the mission to Nita and Kit. The destination seems to be an ideal planet, and they are hoping for a vacation. Meanwhile, the aliens who arrive at Dairine's house appear to be very "alien". However, Nita's dreams become nightmarish and the planet Alaalu turns out to be hiding a dark secret: an avatar of the Lone Power has been trapped in this dystopia since their people refused Its gift of entropy. While this may have prevented deterioration to war, crime and natural disasters, among other things, it also prevented such change as evolution, and the Alaalu people are trapped in their current stage of existence when they have the potential to be free of it. It becomes the young wizards' job to convince the Alaalu wizard and her people to accept this change, inevitably setting the Lone Power free. On Earth, the wizards at Dairine's place have become aware that their Sun is in danger of flaring up to the point of scorching their planet. However, one of the visitors comes from a planet where he is a guardian against the recurrence of such a disaster, and recognizes it in time for them to save the Earth. |
3688576 | /m/09vjx7 | El estudiante de Salamanca | José de Espronceda | 1837 | null | Don Félix seduces Elvira, who dies of love for Don Félix after he leaves her. Her brother then comes to avenge her. Don Félix and the brother die in their duel. The work culminates in Don Félix's descent into hell. |
3694432 | /m/09vvg3 | Uncle Tom's Children | Richard Wright | null | {"/m/0707q": "Short story"} | "The Ethics of Living Jim Crow" describes Wright's own experiences growing up. The essay starts with his first encounter with racism, when his attempt to play a war game with white children turns ugly, and follows his experiences with the problems of being black in the South through his adolescence and adulthood. It describes his experience of prejudice at his first job. While working at an optical factory, his white fellow employees bully and eventually beat him for wanting to learn job skills that could allow him to advance. Wright also discusses suffering attacks by white youths and explores the many hypocrisies of white prejudice against blacks. These include black men being allowed to work around naked white prostitutes while having to pretend they do not exist. Whites have exploitative sex with black maids, and yet any sexual relations between a black man and a white woman, even a prostitute, is cause for castration or death. Wright also delves into the more subtle humiliations inherent in the Jim Crow system, such as being unable to say "thank you," to a white man, lest he take it as a statement of equality. Big Boy was chosen to be the leader of his friends. One day, Big Boy and friends Bobo, Lester, and Buck decide to go swimming in a restricted area. They take off their clothes and proceed to play in the water. Soon, a white woman comes upon them and the boys are unable to get their clothes without being seen. After reacting to the boys with shock and disgust, she calls for "Jim". Jim quickly appears and, feeling threatened, proceeds to kill Lester and Buck. After a short struggle between Big Boy and Jim, Big Boy takes control of the rifle and shoots Jim, seemingly killing him. The remaining two members of the group quickly gather their clothes and flee the scene. The story moves with Big Boy as he makes his way back home. He relates the story to his family. All the while, Big Boy is terrified that the white people will form a mob and lynch him. The family has an acquaintance who drives a truck and can help Big Boy escape. Big Boy is sent off with some food while he waits for the acquaintance to leave with the truck at 6:00 AM the next morning. As he finds a place to settle for a while, he overhears some white men discussing the search situation and learns that they've captured Bobo, the other surviving boy of the original group of four. Bobo is burned at the stake. Later, the acquaintance, Will, finds Big Boy and they head off in the truck. The story ends in bittersweet fashion as Big Boy thinks about the slaughter of his friends in the new sunny day. "Down by the Riverside" takes place during a major flood. Its main character, a farmer named Mann, must get his family to safety in the hills, but he does not have a boat. In addition, his wife, Lulu, has been in labor for several days but cannot deliver the baby. Mann must get her to a hospital - the Red Cross hospital. He has sent his cousin Bob to sell a donkey and use the money to buy a boat, but Bob returns with only fifteen dollars from the donkey and a stolen boat. Mann must take the boat through town to the hospital, even though Bob advises against this, since the boat is very recognizable. Rowing his family, including Lulu, Peewee, his son and Grannie, Lulu's mother, in this white boat, Mann calls for help at the first house he reaches. This house is the home of the boat's white owner, Heartfield, who immediately begins shooting. Mann, who has brought his gun, returns fire and kills the man, while the man's family witnesses the act from the windows of the house. Mann rows on to the Red Cross hospital but is too late; Lulu and the undelivered baby have died. Soldiers take away Grannie and Peewee to safety in the hills, and Mann is conscripted to work on the failing levee. However, the levee breaks, and Mann must return to the hospital, where he smashes a hole in the ceiling at the direction of a colonel - who then directs Mann to find him once everything's over saying he'll help Mann if he can - allowing the hospital to be evacuated. Mann and a young black boy, Brinkley, are told to rescue a family at the edge of town, who turn out to be the Heartfields. Inside the house, Heartfield's son recognizes Mann as his father's killer and Mann raises his axe thinking to kill the children & their mother but is stopped when the house shifts in the rising flood waters. Despite his terror that he might be fingered as Heartfield's murderer and accordingly facing the possibility of a brutal and torturous death, Mann takes the boy, the boy's sister and his mother to "the hills" and safety. There, Mann tries to blend with "his people", hoping he might find his family, until the white boy identifies Mann as the killer of his father. Armed soldiers take Mann away after tribunal with the general and then the colonel he'd helped at the Red Cross. Knowing he's doomed and vowing to "die fo they kill [him]" Mann runs and the soldiers shoot him dead by the river's edge. ===Fire and Clou right and Morning Star=== "Bright and Morning Star" concerns an old woman, Sue, whose sons are communist party organizers. One son, Sug, has already been imprisoned for this and does not appear in the story. Sue waits for the other son, Johnny-Boy, to arrive home when the story begins. Though she is no longer a Christian, believing instead in a communist vision of the human struggle, Sue finds herself singing an old hymn as she waits. A white fellow communist, Reva, the daughter of a major organizer, Lem, stops by to tell Sue that the sheriff has discovered plans for a meeting at Lem's and that the comrades must be told or they will be caught. Someone in the group has become an informer. Reva departs, and Johnny-Boy comes home. Sue feeds him dinner, and they discuss her mistrust of white fellow-communists. Then, she sends him out to tell the comrades not to go to Lem's for the meeting. The sheriff shows up at Sue's looking for Johnny-Boy. The sheriff threatens Sue, saying that if she does not get him to talk, she had best bring a sheet to get his body. Sue speaks defiantly to the sheriff, who slaps her around but starts to leave. Then Sue shouts after him from the door, and he returns, this time beating her badly. In her weakened state, she reveals the comrades' names to Booker, a white communist who is actually the sheriff's informer. Sue realizes that she is the only one left who can save the comrades, and she dedicates herself completely to this task. Remembering the sheriff's words, she takes a white sheet and wraps a gun in it. She goes through the woods until she finds the sheriff, who has caught Johnny-Boy. The sheriff tortures Johnny-Boy before her eyes, but she does not relent or try to get Johnny-Boy to give up. Then Booker shows up, and she shoots him through the sheet. The sheriff's men shoot first Johnny-Boy and then Sue dead. As she lies on the ground, she realizes she has fulfilled her purpose in life. |
3698129 | /m/09v_tz | Sharpe's Gold | Bernard Cornwell | 1981-12 | {"/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | Major Michael Hogan orders Sharpe to find out what happened to Claud Hardy, one of his exploring officers, who was sent to locate the gold thought to be in the fictional hamlet of Castejeda. Sharpe sets off with the men of his small company as his sole military support and links up with Major Kearsey, another of Hogan's exploring officers. It becomes clear to Sharpe that Kearsey believes that the gold belongs to the Spanish and should only be returned to them, and that that is the purpose of the mission they are on. However Sharpe has secret orders that the gold must be taken to British lines and begins to doubt Kearsey is aware of them. We meet the local partisan commander El Catolico, who is engaged in a bitter struggle with local French cavalry. Kearsey is captured by the French and Sharpe decides to go into the town and liberate him and ascertain the location of the gold. They succeed though suffer some losses in personnel but succeed in freeing not only Kearsey but also Teresa Moreno and her brother Ramon who were to be tortured by the French. The Spanish guerillas soon enter the town. El Catolico is intensely suspicious of Sharpe being so far behind the French lines and suspects the British desire the gold so they can take it when they leave Portugal. We see Sharpe develop an attraction to Teresa who is betrothed to El Catolico. Her father is his second-in-command. Kearsey appears in awe of El Catolico and the Spanish generally. Sharpe decides to leave him out of future decisions. El Catolico claims there is no gold and that the French took it. Having been escorted from the town by partisans Sharpe and the men double back later that night to undergo a further search of the town. Sharpe is captured by El Catolico but is freed by Patrick Harper who discovered the gold hidden in a manure patch. Sharpe's men surround the Spanish and they take Teresa as a hostage. Kearsey is utterly disapproving of what Sharpe has done but follows the other British soldiers. It seems Hardy was murdered by El Catolico. They head for the fortress of Almeida and are harried by both the partisans and by French troops en route to the siege. Sharpe and Teresa consummate their relationship and fall in love. Sharpe and the men are saved from the French by a unit of German cavalry under Captain Lossow who was sent by Hogan to locate them and take them to Almeida. The officers meet with the commander of the fortress, the English Brigadier Cox. Cox has had no orders from General Wellington to let them pass unheeded and is suspicious of the lack of orders. Kearsey gives no help and it transpires that El Catolico and his men entered the fortress on the same night and lodged a claim on behalf of the Spanish government to take back the gold. Efforts to contact Wellington are in vain as the telegraph is blown up. Cox orders the gold be returned and that Sharpe and his men enlist in the garrison to resist the siege. That night we have a showdown between Sharpe and El Catolico on the roof above Sharpe's bedroom window. Sharpe is victorious, but, realising that his opponent was superior, impaled his leg on the Spaniard's sword so he could render the coup de grace. Demonstrating his ruthlessness, Sharpe ignites an explosion in the magazine of the fortress, which causes a great deal of casualties and considerable damage to the fortress walls. It becomes clear that the fortress will fall much sooner than expected and Sharpe and Lossow are allowed take their men away. Teresa returns to the partisans, taking the name La Aguja (the Needle). It transpires that the gold was needed to develop the enormous defensive Lines of Torres Vedras which held up the French invasion of Marshal André Masséna. Sharpe takes the opportunity of some leave to renew his acquaintance with Josefina, his love interest from Sharpe's Eagle, prompting the reader to speculate on the degree of attraction between himself and Teresa. The lines of Torres Vedras are better described in Sharpe's Escape. |
3698358 | /m/09w07k | Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse | Lee Goldberg | 1/3/2006 | {"/m/02n4kr": "Mystery"} | Adrian Monk and Natalie Teeger stop by the University of California to investigate an open-and-shut self-defense murder. Professor Jeremiah Cowan was giving a class when a gunman burst into the room and pointed a gun at him. Cowan shot the intruder before the intruder could get a shot. The shooter's name is Ford Oldman, who apparently made several threats at Cowan in the past. Monk explains to Captain Stottlemeyer and Lieutenant Disher how Cowan staged the scene, but before he can explain Cowan's motive, Natalie cuts him off, since the department hasn't paid Monk for his consulting. Later that day, Stottlemeyer calls Natalie to say that he has Monk's check at the station. Arriving at the station, they notice that the San Francisco Police Department is making large budget cuts. It starts when Disher asks if they can break a $20 so he can get a cup of coffee from the machine, which Monk isn't exactly willing to do. Stottlemeyer asks Monk to accompany him to the Conference of Metropolitan Homicide Detectives, which this year is being held in San Francisco. At the conference, Stottlemeyer reveals several things like Monk's high 120% clearance rate. Afterwards, the captain thinks that Paul Braddock, the moderator (and a detective from Banning, California), was simply asking questions that the other cops were thinking. He is humiliated, and states that Braddock used to work for the SFPD until Stottlemeyer threatened to expose his abusive methods to Internal Affairs. While having coffee with Natalie, Stottlemeyer asks her and Monk to come with him to Mill Valley, where he is planning on checking in on a police informant he once worked with. The man's name is Bill Peschel. They travel out later that day to meet Peschel, who lives with his daughter Carol, her husband Phil, and their two children. He motions them to sit down at his bar. It becomes clear that Peschel is diagnosed with dementia because he keeps thinking that he is running his bar. Keeping the part, Stottlemeyer acts like Monk is his rookie partner and they are seeking information. Peschel first starts by saying that Hy Conrad was in here bragging about a smash-and-grab, but then gets to the point when he tells them that a fancy lady came in asking someone to kill her rich husband and make it look like an accident. Leaving Peschel, Natalie is convinced that he is crazy and has Alzheimers, and additionally dementia, since he thinks that this is still the tavern he owned. Talking to Carol Atwater, Monk takes an obsession in the Diaper Genie diapers she uses. Carol mentions that most cops her father used to know now hang up on him when he calls in late at night with his tips. Peschel has also invested big in stock of InTouchSpace, a social networking site. When Monk and Natalie arrive at the police station the next day, Stottlemeyer explains that due to the budget issue, Monk's contract as a private consultant has been officially declared void. Natalie is infuriated, since she can't get paid unless Monk is paid. Disher walks in, informing them that Judge Clarence Stanton was just gunned down in Golden Gate Park. Hearing this, Monk prepares to go to the scene, even if no longer a consultant. Examining the area outside the crime tape, Monk finds several clues that tell them that the killer is a woman. Judging from the impression of the killer's bike, it has a different distance from the seat to the handlebars, and the frame's top tube is at an angle, consistent with that of a woman's bicycle. The treads also match those of female running shoes. Back at the apartment, Monk (desperate to use his Diaper Genies) "accidentally" creates several messes to prove that the Diaper Genies are great for trash bags. Natalie empties the Diaper Genie and walks back in to find Monk talking to the police hotline under assumed names with tips about Judge Stanton's shooting death. In the next morning's issue of the San Francisco Chronicle, the article about the shooting explains that Stanton was about to preside over the trial of Salvatore Lucarelli, the West Coast Godfather. Monk happens to open to an article about a hit-and-run and calls the police hotline anonymously again. This is too much for Natalie, who unplugs the phone suggesting Monk look through the Help Wanted ads. As Monk is about to consider becoming a taxicab driver, Stottlemeyer calls to tell Monk to stop sending in anonymous tips, since their caller ID systems traced the calls back to him. Just then, someone knocks at the door. The man's name is Nicholas Slade, and he is looking to hire Monk and Natalie at his private detective agency, Intertect. Slade explains how he used to be a vice detective on the force until ten years ago when he went private and started his agency. His agency is essentially a "private eye" in many ways. He was at the conference when he witnessed Monk's interview, knowing that Stottlemeyer was about to change the consulting agreement. Natalie goes down to the office to fill out paperwork and meets her new office assistant, Danielle Hossack. Danielle describes how wonderful Slade is, having made some strategic investments in the stock market and used the profits to start Intertect. She even describes the fact that her loyalty is as Slade has instructed her to both Monk and to Natalie. She is on their back and on call at any time. In short, Natalie is disturbed to find that she is effectively getting what she calls "her own Natalie", since after all Danielle's loyalty is to both of them, although Natalie is still loyal to Monk even though Intertect is now paying her. That afternoon, Monk is at work solving the open case files. He quickly proves a missing diamond case to be an inside job, and that a spy at a helicopter manufacturing company is using a wheelchair to smuggle secrets to the competition. Natalie also trades her Buick Lucerne for a Lexus company car. As part of their employment at Intertect, both Monk and Natalie have their own benefits. With regards to Monk, Intertect is now paying for his sessions with Dr. Bell. Natalie has a new company car and a new dental plan. When Natalie goes into work the next morning, Monk is still there, trying to solve the death of a man who has been stabbed in the chest. It's a six-month-old case involving Lou Wickersham, who was killed during a burglary. As Natalie informs Danielle that she can't be wheeling in case files to Monk like this, Danielle explains that the police have caught a break in the Stanton case. They are focusing on violent offenders Judge Stanton sent to prison and who have been recently released. They also pursuing a theory that Salvatore Lucarelli had him killed to avoid trial. Going back on the Wickersham case, Monk realizes that the circumstances around where Wickersham's body was found and the lack of defensive wounds don't add up. He realizes that it was a suicide, and explains that Wickersham ransacked his own house to hide the fact that he had sold his wife's jewelry and everything valuable to pay off loans. He only was able to buy some time. The best thing possible for him was to stage a home invasion, and stage his suicide as a murder to guarantee his wife a more comfortable life. As Danielle, Monk and Natalie try to debate how to find proof that Wickersham's death was a suicide, Natalie receives a call from Slade. Another judge, Alan Carnegie, has been shot dead and the new client has asked specifically for Monk. The name of this client is Salvatore Lucarelli. Although Natalie says that he would never do that, Slade says that Lucarelli and Monk have met. As they are driving towards the jail, Monk explains to Natalie the events of his encounter with Salvatore Lucarelli in the season 3 episode "Mr. Monk Meets the Godfather". A man named Phil Bedard (who was played in the episode by Devon Gummersall), who worked for the US Mint, walked into a barbershop that was a front for Lucarelli's gambling and protection racket. He had stolen some money from his employers, and hidden it in the gumball machine at the shop. When the barbershop client tried to intervene as Bedard attempted to retrieve the pennies, Bedard grabbed his gun and fired like a maniac, killing everyone in the room in what was known as the Barbershop Massacre. Lucarelli and his men wanted revenge, but as he didn't want to spark a mob war, he pressed Monk and his first assistant Sharona Fleming to clear his name. Monk only took the job because the FBI and ATF saw an opportunity to get a man on the inside. Although Lucarelli was cleared of any charges, the feds were angry at Monk because he washed and ironed his wired tie, ruining it. Now, with Stanton dead, Carnegie was to be the next in line to preside over Lucarelli's trial. Carnegie was shot while walking his dog. In the interview, Lucarelli says that he only kills lobsters at his restaurant, just like before in the episode. When Monk and Natalie arrive at the scene of Judge Carnegie's murder, they find Stottlemeyer and Disher there. At first, Stottlemeyer does not understand what Monk is doing looking at the body, since as Monk is no longer working for the SFPD, he shouldn't be crossing the police line. Natalie tries explaining otherwise, when Slade arrives. Slade suggests that Stottlemeyer reconsider his decision about not joining Intertect, and even tells him that Lucarelli had Monk come out to help. He even says that Monk, Natalie and Stottlemeyer would make a great team (which Natalie refers to as the Odd Squad). Disher points Monk over to Carnegie's house. No one heard any screams or cars screeching away, which allows Monk to close up the murders of Judges Stanton and Carnegie. At Carnegie's house, Monk explains to Alan's widow Rhonda that her husband was the alternate to hear the case against Salvatore Lucarelli should something happen to Stanton. She wanted her husband's murder to look like a mob hit. It is the fact that the Carnegies' dog only barks to strangers that pointed Monk to the widow: If Alan Carnegie was shot dead by a stranger, why didn't the dog bark madly at the shooter? The answer can be that Rhonda, who is not a stranger to the dog, shot him. After Disher arrests Rhonda Carnegie for the murders, Stottlemeyer thanks Monk for just happening to show up, since otherwise he would have exhausted himself for weeks trying to track down every connection to Lucarelli. Unfortunately, they can't rehire Monk as a consultant. As soon as Stottlemeyer finishes thanking Monk, Carol Atwater calls the captain to say that Bill Peschel is dead. She had left her father to drop off her son at school and drop off her daughter at a pediatrician's appointment. Peschel apparently had jumped into the pool and banged his head badly. But Monk starts to think otherwise at the crime scene. Natalie ditches Monk at Dr. Bell's office. That night, Monk calls Julie to deliver some files to his apartment. Natalie convinces her not to. When the papers the next morning show the article about Rhonda Carnegie's arrest, Natalie finds it too painful to read all the way through, although she is pleased at the way Slade has twisted the article to improve Intertect's reputation. Walking in the door, she finds Monk reviewing more case files. Monk just says that he thought Natalie went on vacation, a not-so-smart remark considering how everywhere Natalie goes, Monk goes, and murder follows them (as the novels Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii, Mr. Monk Goes to Germany and Mr. Monk is Miserable demonstrate). When the phone rings, Natalie half expects it to be Slade calling with another case. Rather, it is Carol Atwater. At the crime scene, Monk and Natalie encounter Carol, Stottlemeyer, Slade and Paul Braddock, the moderator from the conference. Natalie finds it odd that Carol married someone with a name similar to her father (Bill being short for William, and Phil being short for Phillip) and asks Monk about it. Carol comes over, explaining that Braddock and Slade happened to know her father in the 1990s. Stottlemeyer and Braddock's conversation, pleasant to start off, transitions into a brawl when Braddock attacks the captain. Slade prevents Stottlemeyer from taking the fight too far. Afterwards, Monk observes grass stains on the captain's pants. He remembers how Peschel's socks were clean and white, meaning he couldn't have walked across the grass. Monk has Natalie stand on the plastic chair that Peschel allegedly stood on. When she does, the legs of the chair sink into the grass under her weight. The chair Peschel stood on didn't sink its legs into the ground, even when he was twice Natalie's weight. Slade uses this claim to snag himself another client. They suspect that someone Peschel sent to prison with his tips got released and exacted revenge. Meanwhile, Stottlemeyer figures that his career is at risk, since Braddock will probably go back to the convention and he will have to explain his injuries, and he might also twist the story to make Stottlemeyer look like a raging psychopath. Monk calls up Danielle to ask her to do some research into Peschel's career. She says that he was an early investor into InTouchSpace, the social networking site. Natalie explains to Monk that InTouchSpace works like Facebook and MySpace in that you can communicate with other people without leaving the comfort of your house, and that she, Julie, and Adrian's agoraphobic brother Ambrose use it. Since Danielle doesn't call back, they take the afternoon off. Natalie drops Monk off at Dr. Bell's place and runs several errands while Monk squeezes in his sessions. Of course, Dr. Bell isn't entirely happy about Monk trying to squeeze in five-minute sessions between his other patients, and suggests to Natalie that she get Danielle to find more open cases for Monk to work on. The next morning, Dr. Bell's hunch comes true when Natalie finds Monk with a cartload of cases that an Intertect employee gave to him. Infuriated, she confronts Danielle, but Danielle claims innocence and says that only one person has the authority to send these files over. Natalie confronts Slade that what he is doing to Monk is much like killing the goose that laid the golden egg – giving him too much work. Returning to Danielle (whom Natalie claims is working not for her but for Slade), Danielle states that Mill Valley's police have confirmed Monk's finds. From when Danielle tells Natalie that the death of Bill Peschel has been confirmed by police as a homicide up until Stottlemeyer is arrested, the novel continues to follow Natalie and Monk with Natalie narrating, but also follows a third-person narrated subplot that pursues Lieutenant Disher. Randy has given himself the nickname Bullitt, after the film starring Steve McQueen. He has started calling Jack Lansdale, a new transfer into the homicide division, "Jackal". Stottlemeyer calls to Randy from his office. The captain's mood has been getting much worse since the reduced operating budget and the conference. Now, Slade has grabbed all of the glory for Rhonda Carnagie's arrest and humiliated the department, and Randy has heard about how Stottlemeyer attacked Braddock. The captain tells Randy that he has a new homicide to investigate that will test his ability to lead: it's Braddock himself. He was found dead in his hotel room this morning. As Disher and Lansdale drive towards the crime scene, Disher reviews the instances of abuse and statements from Braddock's victims. Reading the files causes Disher's nausea to reach a point that he vomits into the street in front of a Japanese tour group. Examining the crime scene, the medical examiner tells Disher that Braddock died of strangulation. Lansdale is a little curious when Disher tells Dr. Hetzer to look for traces of the comforter. Disher explains that things look as though Braddock was being strangled but fought back. The killer then pushed Braddock onto the bed and suffocated him. At the hotel where Braddock was murdered, Disher has found no surveillance footage of the killer. He stops by Stottlemeyer's office to ask him exactly why the file says he was at the Dorchester Hotel the night before. Stottlemeyer explains that he was there at 9:30 PM because a cop said that Braddock was taking bribes from gang members running meth labs from their mobile homes in the desert. The cop never showed up. Disher explains that Braddock died around 10:00 PM, and whoever did it also turned up the air conditioning to prevent anyone from knowing the exact time of death. In the meanwhile, Monk has been going through the new case files when Danielle shows up with background information about Bill Peschel. Monk was right in that Carol and Phil Atwater aren't a prosperous upper-middle-class family. Phil apparently lost his job months ago - he leaves the house each morning with a jacket and a tie but sits in a chair at a Barnes & Noble doing crossword puzzles. It seems possible that Carol and her husband planned the murder of her father. By posing as an obituary writer, Danielle has gotten more information from Carol about her father's early life. He took over the tavern in 1970, and became respected within the police department when he gave them tips to track the people who killed his friend. Natalie picks Monk up as they head to the Barnes & Noble where Phil Atwater is sitting during the day. Phil is just about to leave when Natalie informs him that they know he was fired months ago. It is possible that he murdered his father-in-law for the money, but he quickly is proven to have not been involved. However, he is guilty of shoplifting. Monk has observed Phil removing many of the anti-theft devices on a Murder, She Wrote novel. Phil may not be the killer, but he does provide a rather important tip: ten years ago, Peschel made a lot of money through investment in InTouchSpace. Disher finds a file from Forensics on his desk that morning. Polyester found on Braddock's neck has been traced back to the Continental, a type of tie sold at Walmart stores. Disher remembers seeing that tie before somewhere. Feeling nauseous, Disher tells Lansdale to round up several officers and head to Stottlemeyer's apartment to wait for Disher to bring a search warrant. As Lansdale and his team search Stottlemeyer's apartment, Disher sits wracked with the guilt of betraying his friend and mentor. A detective from Wichita staying in the room next to Braddock's recalls hearing someone enter the room and break a glass. The tie found in the trash at the captain's apartment matches the fibers at the crime scene. Stottlemeyer still states that he never killed Braddock even with a motive. However, it's the captain's fingerprints that are on the glass, and so Disher arrests Stottlemeyer. Meanwhile, Monk and Natalie are pursuing the mystery of Steve Wurzel. He was motorcycling from San Francisco to Mendocino in the fog, but he never arrived in Mendocino. He went missing on the coastal road. Natalie finds several strange clues like Wurzel buying Peschel's business and both investing in InTouchSpace. It's clear that Monk is suffering from case overload. As they drive along, Natalie calls Danielle asking to arrange an appointment with Linda Wurzel. Back at the apartment, Monk finishes his Intertect cases while Natalie hones her detective skills by reading Murder, She Wrote. The captain calls asking them to come to the jail. At first, they think that Lucarelli asked for them, so they are shocked to see Stottlemeyer in a jumpsuit. Stottlemeyer explains his situation, asking for Monk to clear his name. At police headquarters, Randy has been promoted to Acting Captain and has moved into Stottlemeyer's office. Natalie is tempted to slap him, although Disher says he was following the evidence and hopes to clear the captain's name. He tells them that they are not allowed to look at the Braddock file, but Monk and Natalie immediately head to the scene of the crime. At the hotel, Monk immediately proves that Stottlemeyer is innocent. There are four identical drinking glasses in the room, but in the crime scene photos, there are five. The fifth glass, the one Stottlemeyer's fingerprints were on, was obviously planted there later. As they leave the hotel, they run into Slade in the lobby. Slade says they need to talk about how with the way Monk is working, he is eventually going to destroy himself. Back at the jail, Stottlemeyer suggests that they look at Braddock's arrest records. He tells Monk and Natalie that a closer look at some of these arrests will bring up note that they came with the help of a confidential informant. Natalie calls Danielle and has her meet them at Monk's apartment. When Danielle enters (and Monk spends 30 minutes washing his hands), Natalie tells Danielle that she has realized how Slade has been using the GPS systems to track her and Monk around on their cases. But Danielle also has the information they need on Linda Wurzel and Dalberg Enterprises. Linda Wurzel is Dalberg Enterprises - Dalberg being her maiden name. She has an office downtown and an estate in Sea Cliff, and three days a week has a standing appointment at JoAnne's beauty salon. They meet Wurzel, but after Monk freaks out about the skin cell eating fish, he and Natalie explain how Braddock's murder and Peschel's murder might be connected. The use of these creatures to eat dead skin cells is too much for Monk, who borrows Natalie's cell phone and places a call. Soon, the Department of Homeland Security arrives, and Monk solves the case. However, in a most unusual way, it turns out that Natalie has also solved the case - all she has been in need of is for Monk to tighten all the loose ends. Peschel sold his business ten years ago, around the same time that Steve Wurzel vanished on the road. Linda Wurzel was their connection. At that same time, Slade quit the SFPD, and started Intertect by using the money of his InTouchSpace investment. Monk also remembers that on the day that he and Natalie first became private eyes at Intertect, Danielle told them how Slade used his investment money to start the company. It is here that Monk is on the same page as Natalie: Slade killed Steve Wurzel, Bill Peschel, and Paul Braddock. Monk remembers how Peschel told them, and infers that he probably also told Braddock. It proves that Slade killed both of them and framed Stottlemeyer for Braddock's murder. As they already know, Peschel worked a tavern in the Tenderloin for several years. He was a confidential informant who sold tips to Paul Braddock (who was working with the SFPD then), Nicholas Slade and Leland Stottlemeyer. Ten years ago, he sold his place to Linda Wurzel and retired with an InTouchSpace stock investment. Natalie remembers how when she, Stottlemeyer and Monk went to see Peschel, he was living in his daughter's house and diagnosed with dementia. He thought he was still running his tavern, and that Stottlemeyer and Monk were cops who had come to him seeking information. She also remembers Peschel mentioning something about a smash-and-grab and about a rich woman who came in to hire a hit man to kill her husband and make it look like an accident, and she realizes who exactly he was talking about: he was talking about Linda Wurzel. In 1998, Linda Wurzel went to Bill's Tavern, seeking a hit man to kill her husband. She probably figured that she would increase her odds of getting someone at the tavern. Peschel gave the tip to Slade. Slade, who was still a detective with the police department, posed as a hit man and met her. But instead of arresting her, he realized that this was too good a tip to pass up. He ran Steve Wurzel off the road somewhere between San Francisco and Mendocino. His body drifted out to sea and was never found. Whether or not Peschel helped him, they both got paid. Linda Wurzel bought Peschel's bar and gave both of them InTouchSpace stock. Slade used the investment to start Intertect. Everyone was happy, that is until Peschel became senile and started calling his police friends with ten year old tips. Slade could not take the risk that Stottlemeyer or Braddock would piece together what Peschel was telling them. He realized that they had seen too much, so he had to silence them by any means possible. Taking care of Peschel was the easiest part, but then Slade had to get Stottlemeyer and Braddock out of the way. He was incredibly worried, until he saw Braddock humiliate the captain at the conference. He stole Stottlemeyer's glass, being careful not to put his own fingerprints on the glass. Slade's luck improved when Monk got fired and Braddock attacked Stottlemeyer at Peschel's wake. Knowing how well Monk could break cases without even looking at them, Slade hired him and Natalie and set them to work. He was trying to keep them busy and prevent them from knowing what was going on. Just before meeting Monk, Natalie and Stottlemeyer at the Alan Carnegie murder scene, Slade killed Peschel. He killed him in the house, and threw his body in the pool, and staged the scene to make it look like an accident. Braddock was the next on Slade's list of people to be eliminated. The night after Stottlemeyer attacked Braddock at the wake, Slade dressed himself in a beefeater suit, and took the elevator up to the seventh floor. Intertect was the company responsible for security, so people naturally thought that he could have been there for some other matter. He brought with him the glass carrying Stottlemeyer's fingerprints, and a tie of the same type and color as the captain's. He entered Braddock's room, talked with Braddock for a few minutes, and then strangled him with the Continental tie. Braddock, however, fought back, and Slade suffocated him on the bed. The sounds that the Wichita detective was hearing from his room were the sounds of the struggle behind the wall. Slade planted the glass at the crime scene to frame Stottlemeyer. He knew very well that the Captain had thrown out his previous tie earlier that afternoon after Braddock had attacked him - he knew that the blood on the tie would match 100% and that the fibers would match as well. He knew very well that Stottlemeyer would have an obvious motive, and even lured him to the hotel by faking the phone call, that way, the Captain would have an alibi for the time of the murder. No one in the department, not even Disher, would suspect Slade as being involved. Monk realizes however that they cannot prove any of this. Natalie realizes that either Linda Wurzel will talk to Slade and say they met her, or that Slade is tracking them. Natalie explains how she discovered the tracking devices in the GPS and the keylogger programs of their computers, and the possibility that the phones have wiretaps placed on them. Not wanting Slade to know where they have been, Monk tells Natalie to call Julie and have her meet them at his apartment. He instructs Julie to drive the Lexus across town so that Slade will be distracted. In the meanwhile, Monk and Natalie will switch out the Lexus for Natalie's own car. He also has Danielle meet them in her own car. Monk, Natalie and Danielle make their way to Linda Wurzel's street for what will be Danielle's first stakeout. Shortly after they park, Wurzel arrives. During the stakeout, Natalie turns her attention to the Braddock case. It's clear that Slade was the guy in the beefeater suit on the elevator tape, but it doesn't prove he was at the hotel at the same time that Stottlemeyer was. After all, Slade could have created a false pretense as to why he was at the hotel that night, since Intertect is responsible for the hotel's security, and he could have erased himself from the tapes. When Wurzel pulls out heading towards Danielle's car, Natalie gives her a call. They follow Wurzel across town to Mission Bay and an abandoned warehouse. Parking a short distance away, Monk and Natalie sneak into the warehouse, Natalie muting her cell phone and setting it on speed dial so that they won't be seen. They observe Wurzel talking to Slade. When Slade pulls a gun with a silencer, Monk steps out to confront him. Slade asks them who is driving his Lexus all over Berkeley, which causes Natalie to forget about the case and ask herself what Julie is doing that far away in the middle of the night. Monk explains to Slade that killing Steve Wurzel was his undoing. He was the only person who attended the conference who knew Peschel, Braddock and Stottlemeyer. Slade turns his gun at them and is about to shoot when Danielle leaps from a pile of bricks and knocks the gun out of his hand. Natalie snatches up the gun, aiming it at Slade, who now threatens to break Danielle's neck. Slade taunts Natalie, saying that she can't shoot a gun, although Natalie has been trained in firearms and met Monk after she killed an intruder in her house. Slade releases Danielle just as Disher and the police arrive to arrest him and Wurzel for their crimes. Disher congratulates Monk for his work and clearing Stottlemeyer's name. The open 9-1-1 call is as good as any confession. Monk disinfects the Captain's office before it is put to use. Stottlemeyer is exonerated and goes back at work. He is constantly repeating some of the things Natalie said on the open 9-1-1 call, and says that she'll be soon called "Dirty Natalie". He accepts Disher's apologies, but tells him that he was just doing his job. Later, Stottlemeyer shows up later at Monk's apartment to officially say that Monk is back on their payroll as a consultant. He got the chief to reconsider by using political blackmail, threatening to explain his story to the TV stations if Monk wasn't rehired and the old budget brought back. With regards to the trial, Slade happened to be wearing a wire when he met Linda, and he has kept a recording of their conversation ever since for insurance. Monk prepares to return to being a consultant to the San Francisco Police Department, the position he really belongs in. |
3698502 | /m/09w0kp | The Ashram | Sattar Memon | 2000-04 | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | Dr. Jonathan Kingsley, traveling to a Himalayan spiritual hermitage, tries to save himself from suicidal thoughts after the death of his wife. This hermitage, known as an Ashram, was meant to provide him peace even as he sought to rehabilitate others through volunteer work. But he never expected the practices and rituals he would discover, or imagined himself trying to save one woman from her unwanted future. As the doctor searches for an excuse to keep on living, Seeta struggles to keep her own husband alive, not only out of love, but for her own safety. The townspeople of Baramedi, bowing to the wishes of a local landowner (nicknamed Satan), have decided that when her husband dies, Seeta should climb atop a burning pyre to burn with his body. This practice of suttee, out of use for many years, brings Jonathan to her town in an effort to save her, but when he arrives at the pyre, he realizes there is more to his journey and that—unbeknownst to him—the woman’s safety is intricately tied with his own spiritual salvation. A woman's emancipation from oppressive culture and fear of men; a man's overcoming of inability to cope with death and learning to love—again! |
3699793 | /m/09w2l7 | The Grass Harp | Truman Capote | 1951 | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | The story begins with Collin Fenwick losing his mother, and then his father, and moving into his aunts' (Dolly and Verena) house. Catherine, the servant, also lives in the house and gets along, for the most part, only with Dolly. Dolly is famous for her medicine, which she makes by going out into the woods with Catherine and Collin and randomly picking plants. They then got to an old treehouse, which is propped up in a Chinaberry tree. One day, after Dolly has an argument with Verena (Verena wants to mass produce Dolly's medicine), Dolly, Collin, and Catherine leave their home and start walking. They go to the treehouse in the Chinaberry tree, and decide to camp out there. Verena, meanwhile, informs the sheriff of her sister's disappearance; the Sheriff organizes a search party, and eventually arrests Catherine. During the course of the novel, others come to live in the treehouse, such as Judge Cool and Riley Henderson. In a climactic event, a confrontation among the search party and the residents of the tree house leads to Riley getting shot in the shoulder. After Judge Cool discusses the situation, everyone agrees that it was a pointless struggle, and old relationships are invigorated once again. Many people leave as friends. The story ends with how a "grass harp, gathering, telling, a harp of voices remembering a story." |
3699819 | /m/09w2m8 | Avenger | Frederick Forsyth | 2003 | {"/m/01jfsb": "Thriller", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | The first act of the novel introduces Calvin Dexter, the main character of the story. Dexter is described as a lawyer in his early fifties with a passion for running triathlons to keep in shape. The book digs into his past and reveals that he is a highly decorated Vietnam War veteran, and that his last tour of duty was as a tunnel rat, an extremely élite and secret task force that climbed deep into the underground catacomb of Vietcong tunnels to hunt down the enemy in their own lairs. He was married and had a daughter who at the age of 16 was lured away and forced into prostitution by Latino gang members and eventually murdered. Dexter hunts down his daughter's killers in Panama and executes them, then returns home only to discover that his beloved wife couldn't deal with the death of their only child, and committed suicide during his absence. He moves away, and becomes only a small town lawyer in his public face. But when the reason and price is right, he transforms himself into the "Avenger" and delivers justice by 'rendering' foreign criminals to the United States (not killing them), so that they will stand trial for their crimes against Americans. Intertwined into the backstory of Calvin Dexter is the narrative of a young American volunteer from a very privileged family who was murdered while delivering aid in Bosnia during the Bosnian War. As the second act kicks into gear, the boy's grandfather, a Canadian billionaire named Stephen Edmonds, hires a tracker to discover the identity of his sole son's killer and eventually learns him to be Zoran Zilic, a sadistic hitman for Slobodan Milošević's Serbian regime. The CIA had followed the movements of Zilic during the war, but let him slip off the radar after the fall of Milošević. Edmonds then learns of the services provided by the Avenger and hires him to pursue Zilic and bring him to trial. It is then revealed that a secret section in the CIA, headed by Paul Devereaux III, a dedicated patriot, has been working with Zilic in recent months with plans to use him as bait to eliminate another terrorist threat — Osama bin Laden himself. From the CIA’s point of view, Zilic, despite his horrific crimes, had been marginalized as a result of the end of hostilities in Bosnia and could be used to eliminate a much larger threat to the American way of life. The third act details the actions of the "Avenger" as he tracks Zilic to his palatial and fully self-sufficient farm/compound in South America. Meanwhile, the CIA operatives work furiously to prevent the "Avenger" from nabbing Zilic. The Avenger is tipped off by an unknown source that the CIA is onto him and evades them at every turn. He successfully manages to transport Zilic to Key West and into police custody. Just as the story ends, the date is stated to be September 10, 2001. |
3701817 | /m/09w64v | Voices From The Gathering Storm: The Web of Ecological-Societal Crisis | null | null | {"/m/05h83": "Non-fiction"} | A collection of essays that discuss social, cultural, and technological factors contributing to our environmental predicament. It proposes the need for a change in the religion of consumption, a change in our definitions of progress and success from increased consumption to increased stewardship of our diminishing resources and shrinking planet. |
3703253 | /m/09w872 | The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan | null | null | {"/m/06c9r": "Role-playing game"} | The player characters explore a stepped pyramid deep in the heart of a tropical jungle—the Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan. The characters must penetrate this Mayan-style temple, which is full of tricks and traps. Some of the traps include cursed items, firebombs, and triggered statues. |
3706019 | /m/09wddh | Norstrilia | Cordwainer Smith | 1975 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Rod McBan is the last male descendent of one of the oldest Norstrilian families, and is the last heir to one of the best ranches, the Station of Doom. As such, he has been spared the culling three times, though he is generally considered unfit, as his ability to communicate telepathically with other Norstrilians is erratic and unreliable. After his last test — which he finally passes with the aid of a Lord of the Instrumentality and his own freak telepathic talents — he learns that an envious former friend, who suffers from an allergy to stroon and so is condemned to live a mere 150 years or so, seeks to kill him, using the pretext that the test was biased and administered unfairly. Rod survives one assassination attempt. To escape the danger, he amasses an immense fortune overnight by playing the futures market in stroon, following a plan formulated by his ancient computer (which has certain more-or-less illegal quasi-military capabilities) which was passed down to him by an eccentric ancestor. By the next day, he is the wealthiest person in history. Noticing this, the Instrumentality changes the rules so it cannot happen again, but in typical fashion, lets him keep his money to see what he will do with it. Wild rumors begin to circulate about him. He is believed to have "bought Old Earth" (the home planet of mankind), though the reality of his convoluted financial deals and investments is considerably more complex. For his safety, Rod is sent to Earth, where his unprecedented fortune quickly makes him a magnet for all manner of crooks and revolutionaries. After a series of adventures among the "underpeople" (animals genetically modified to resemble humans and possessing intellects that sometimes surpass their masters, used as slaves and generally despised) in the company of the bewitching Cat-woman C'mell, he meets their leader, E'Telekeli, an experimental creature of bird origin with enormous psychic powers. In exchange for most of Rod's immense fortune (to be used to campaign for the rights of the underpeople), he and Lord Jestocost, a Lord of the Instrumentality who is sympathetic to the underpeople's cause, send Rod safely back to Norstrilia, after fixing his telepathic disability and providing a psychological remedy for Rod's enemy. |
3706043 | /m/09wdfj | Only Revolutions | Mark Z. Danielewski | 9/12/2006 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/0488wh": "Literary fiction"} | The story alternates between two different narratives: Sam and Hailey, and Hailey and Sam, wild and wayward teenagers who never grow old. With an evolving stable of cars, the teenagers move through various places and moments in time as they try to outrace history. As the story proceeds, one can note that many events are perceptual and not certain. By reading both stories some sense can be made from this poetic styled puzzle. The words written are a vague mix of poetry and stream of consciousness prose. Both Hailey and Sam depict their feelings as well as ideas and thoughts towards one another. It is truly difficult to summarize the plot as most readers will understand the parts of story in different ways. It can also be noted that the end very much leads into the beginning. It is possible, after finishing the book, to continue the story from the beginning a la James Joyce's Finnegans Wake. |
3708005 | /m/09whnm | Sharpe's Battle | Bernard Cornwell | 5/8/1995 | {"/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | The book opens with an encounter near the Spanish Portuguese border between Sharpe and his company and a group of French soldiers in grey uniforms, caught in the act of raping a young Spanish villager. Their leader, Brigadier-General Guy Loup arranges a parlay to retrieve his men, but Sharpe, appalled by the rape and massacre of all the other villagers, including children, orders the French prisoners shot. Loup swears revenge against Sharpe. Back at headquarters, Sharpe is informed by Major Michael Hogan that the Real Compania Irlandesa, the royal bodyguard of the captive King of Spain have escaped from Madrid to enlist with the native Spanish armies. As the British wish for Wellesley to be made Generalissimo of the Spanish Armies, it is imperative that the Compania be treated with honour, but as the Royal Guard are drawn entirely from Irish exiles bitterly opposed to the British occupation of their homeland, they pose a risk to the security of the British army. Sharpe is ordered to take them to a far away fort and drill them mercilessly in order to encourage desertion, while the Wagon Master-General Colonel Claude Runciman, a monstrously fat and idolent man, is appointed to soothe the pride of the Compania's Spanish and Irish officers. Unfortunately Pierre Ducos, a French intelligence officer, has placed an agent within the Compania Irlandesa, Dona Juanita de Elia, a Spanish noblewoman, the mistress both of the Compania's commander, Lord Kiely, and of Loup. Rumours of British atrocities in Ireland, backed up by forged American newspapers, seem to ensure the Compania will desert, as planned, but Sharpe finds it hard to resist his instincts to turn the demoralised exiles into real soldiers. He persuades Runciman to divert arms and ammunition to the Compania, and conspires with a local partisan, El Castrador, to kill and mutilate a party of deserters to deter the rest. The Compania are joined at the fort by a Portuguese infantry battalion. Sharpe, concerned by the threat posed by Loup's personal vendetta against him, is forced to confess to the illegal execution of Loup's men. That night, Loup attacks the fort, massacres the Portuguese, and is only driven off by the explosion of the ammunition wagons, set alight by Sharpe's friend, Tom Garrard who sacrifices himself in the process.. Sharpe's earlier confession and the imminent enquiry into the disaster threaten to end Sharpe's career. To avoid this, Sharpe attacks Loup's hideout but finds it deserted, except for the Dona Juanita, who is exposed as the enemy agent, and courier of the forged newspapers. Sharpe sleeps with Juanita, and lets her go the following morning, thus frustrating Hogan's hopes of uncovering her accomplice in the Compania. The disgraced Kiely commits suicide, and his funeral is presided over by the Regiment's chaplain, Father Sarsfield. In a private conversation over the open grave, Hogan informs Sarsfield that he is aware of his treachery, but lacks proof. Sarsfield attempts to kill Hogan, but is shot by Sharpe, and buried with Kiely. The French, led by Marshal André Masséna, prepare to draw Wellington into battle and cut the British off from their only route of retreat. Wellington concentrates his forces on the village of Fuentes de Onoro. Still in disgrace, Sharpe, Runciman and the Real Compania Irlandese are left guarding the ammunition wagons. Concentrated French assaults push the British out of the village and back steadily up the hill. Wellington releases his reserves, the 74th, 45th and the 88th Connaught Rangers, who beat back the French into the village. However, the British are in turn counter-attacked by the Loup Brigade. With Sharpe's encouragement, Runciman "offers" to lead the Spanish Regiment to reinforce the Highlanders and Connaught Rangers. They are successful, and as the Loup Brigade falters the French fall back, and Wellington sends the line forward, winning the battle. Loup and Sharpe duel in the ford over the river. At a crucial moment in the fight, Sharpe is shot and wounded by the Dona Juanita, who is in turn killed by Harper. Despite his wound, Sharpe disarms and drowns Loup. The Real Compania Irlandese are sent to the Spanish Junta in Cadiz with honour and Wellington becomes Generalissimo of the Spanish armies. The case against Sharpe and Runciman is dropped, in light of their bravery, and lack of evidence. |
3708485 | /m/09wj_s | The King's Fifth | Scott O'Dell | 1966 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | The story takes place in a time when the Spanish adventurers known as Conquistadors roamed the New World of the Americas in search of the mythical gold treasures of the dethroned Native Americans. Estéban is a teenage cartographer of the Spanish Conquistador Army. The story starts when he is imprisoned, is awaiting trial for tax evasion. More specifically, he is suspected of finding a treasure without submitting the Quinto Real, also known as the "King's Fifth", a tax levied by the King of Spain on precious metals. However, every authoritative figure in his trial or his jail wants one thing - to get Estéban to reveal the location of the gold he found. Estéban agrees to draw his jail guard a map, but uses the provided writing materials to write a secret journal. In this journal Estéban describes how he joined a small army band of Spaniards to seek the "Seven Golden Cities of Cíbola". Their guide on this dangerous journey was a volunteering younger teenage Native American girl, Zia. She was brought along by Estéban, who met her while in the army from which the band was divided. Being the only one in the group without any political agenda (although Estéban does realize her personal agenda eventually), Zia was also the only one to eventually preserve both her life and freedom. |
3709550 | /m/09wln3 | Indiscretions of Archie | P. G. Wodehouse | null | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/01qxvh": "Romance novel", "/m/09kqc": "Humour"} | The book tells the story of impoverished, embarrassment-prone Drone Archibald "Archie" Moffam (pronounced "Moom"), and his difficult relationship with art-collecting, hotel-owning millionaire father-in-law Daniel Brewster, father of Archie's new bride Lucille. Archie's attempts to ingratiate himself with Brewster only get him further into trouble. |
3709628 | /m/09wlpy | The Swineherd | Hans Christian Andersen | 1841-12-20 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | A poor prince wants to marry the Emperor's daughter and sends her two beautiful gifts, a nightingale and a rose. The princess rejects the humble gifts because they're real and natural, rather than artificial. The prince then disguises himself and applies for the position of swineherd at the palace. Once on the job, he creates a musical pot. The princess slogs through the mud to the swineherd's hut and pays ten kisses for the pot. When the swineherd follows the pot with the creation of a musical rattle, she pays one hundred kisses for it. The Emperor, disgusted that his daughter would kiss a swineherd for a toy, casts her out. The prince, having found the princess unworthy of his love, washes his face, dons his royal raiment, and spurns the princess as her father did. The princess is left outside the palace door singing dolefully. |
3711183 | /m/09wpgx | Tunes for Bears to Dance To | Robert Cormier | 1992 | {"/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature"} | Henry’s family moves to a new town to run away from the memories of their recently passed son, Eddie, who was hit by a car in which the driver instantly drove away, never to be seen again. Henry’s father is traumatized by Eddie's death and becomes very quiet and no longer works, while Henry's mother works long hours in order to support their family. Another problem Henry faces is that there is no stone to mark Eddie's grave. Henry also contributes to his family by working at a grocery store for a man named Mr. Hairston, a deceptive old man who makes rude comments about the townsfolk that would walk by his store. He is a perfectionist, which is why he insults many people, including his wife and daughter. He appears to have a special liking to Henry. Every day, Henry watches a curious old man leave the 'crazy house' near his apartment and disappear down the street. Henry follows him one day to an art center, where he meets him in person and learns his name is Mr. Levine and he is a holocaust survivor who lost his family to the SS. He goes to the art center every day to carve out a model of his old hometown town. One day, Henry tells Mr. Hairston about Mr. Levine, who becomes strangely interested. Later, Henry asks Mr. Hairston if he can somehow find him a good gravestone to put over Eddie's grave, which he, surprisingly, agrees to buy for him. However, Mr. Hairston one day tells Henry that he'll be fired at the end of the week for no reason. Further into the week, Mr. Hairston tells Henry that he'll let him keep the job and the sculpture at one condition: destroy Mr. Levine's model village. He also said he had close relationships with Henry's principal and his mother's boss and threatens to have his mother fired and his school reputation collapse if he was not to do what Mr. Hairston wants. The reward, if Henry was to destroy the replica village would be: raise his mom's pay, let him keep his job, and give him the grave sculpture. Not knowing what he should do, he stays at the art center overnight just in case and was about to destroy the village with a mallet. Henry decides not to smash it, but a rat startles him and he drops the tool on the village, destroying part of it. On his way home, Mr. Hairston waits for him somewhere on the street and explains why he wanted the village destroyed: "Because he's a Jew" and to torment Henry by taking away his title of 'good boy'. Henry then says that he does not want the rewards Mr. Hairston offers. A few weeks afterwards, Henry and his family move back to the town they lived in previously. |
3711351 | /m/09wprz | Somnium | Johannes Kepler | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | The story is the tale of Duracotus, who was the son of an Icelandic witch named Fiolxhilda. During his youth she banished Duracotus to Denmark for five years. Upon his return, she decided to share some of her secrets with him. She explained that her instructor had been a demon who dwelt on the Moon. During a Solar Eclipse, the lunar demons were able to travel between the Earth and the Moon via a bridge of darkness. The son decided he wanted to make this journey, and so he was transported to the Moon by demons. To ease his journey he was given a drowsing draught and moist sponges to hold under his nose. He was carried to the Lagrangian point between the Earth and Moon, then allowed to drift down to the lunar surface. Thus the author understood some of the effects of gravity and the need for environmental protection above the atmosphere. |
3712953 | /m/09wrs0 | The Gates of Rome | Conn Iggulden | 1/6/2003 | {"/m/0mz2": "Alternate history", "/m/02p0szs": "Historical fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | It tells of the harsh realities of life in the Ancient Rome, not only for the nobilitas but also for the slave population, who revolt and kill Gaius' father during a siege on their villa. As the two boys begin their careers (Gaius as a senator and Marcus as a legionary), a political war is being played out in the senate, between two powerful Generals: Cornelius Sulla and Gaius' uncle Gaius Marius. |
3713371 | /m/09ws61 | The Gods of War | Conn Iggulden | 1/2/2006 | {"/m/0mz2": "Alternate history", "/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | Having crossed the Rubicon (the southern border of one of the provinces he controlled, Cisalpine Gaul) Julius Caesar leads his veterans of the Gallic Wars toward Rome, aware that the dictator Pompey has declared him an enemy of the state and his actions will likely end in Civil War. During the journey, his army encounters mild resistance; however, the legions are no match for veterans of Gaul, and Caesar forces the surrender without a single man being killed. He then pardons the legion - the first of many acts of propaganda in the coming war. The speed of his journey south catches Pompey by surprise, who consequently flees to Greece along with the majority of the Roman Senate. This leaves Rome free for Caesar to enter. He installs Mark Anthony as governor of Rome - much to the disgust of Caesar's lifelong friend Marcus Brutus. Brutus' anger forces him to betray his friend and defect to Pompey, a move which stuns Caesar. Caesar eventually takes his army to Greece to face an increasingly ill Pompey, who has a much larger force with reinforced supply lines and defended towns. As Pompey's illness takes hold, he begins to make mistakes - including missing the chance to rout Caesar's forces following a failed night-raid on a fort, fearing it to be a trap. Eventually the armies meet at the Battle of Pharsalus, with Caesar emerging victor from the jaws of defeat. Caesar finds the injured Brutus and forgives his lifelong friend for his betrayal - much to the anger of his general and nephew Octavian. Pompey flees the field, forcing Caesar to chase him; first to Asia Minor and finally to Alexandria in Egypt. It is here that Caesar is presented with the head of Pompey by representatives of boy-king Ptolemy XIII, much to his anger. While in Egypt, Caesar is introduced to Cleopatra, queen of Egypt and sister of the king. She asks him for help in returning her to the throne after Ptolemy's advisors had her banished. Caesar raids the royal palace and captures the king, returning him to a defended house. He then engages in a romance with his ally Cleopatra. They then make a number of demands in return for the release of her brother. When Ptolemy is released he immediately unleashes his army on the house, besieging Caesar's army. Caesar breaks the siege, by starting a fire in Alexandria port as a distraction, and Ptolemy and his advisors are killed. Cleopatra and Caesar have a son together, Ptolemy Caesarion. Caesar takes them back to Rome, and begins to announce his plans to create an Empire and rule the world as king. This does not sit well with the Roman public, who were promised a reintroduction of the Roman Republic after the years of dictatorship following Cornelius Sulla and Pompey. Most unhappy with this change in heart is Brutus, who joins a plot to have the Rex(They were afraid he would be another rex) killed. At this time, Caesar had been planning a campaign in Parthia in an attempt to expand the Roman lands and in a small way to possibly avenge the death of the old Consul Crassus, who had been a possible friend and a major character in The Death of Kings and The Field of Swords. Crassus had died whilst commanding a legion Caesar and Pompey had trained for him. On the Ides of March Caesar is led to the Theatre of Pompey, and is assassinated by many of the Senators and Marcus Brutus. The date had been prophesized as his death by his companion Cabera in The Field of Swords shortly before he died. |
3719648 | /m/09x2ks | The Scarlatti Inheritance | Robert Ludlum | 1970 | {"/m/01jfsb": "Thriller", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | In Washington during World War II, word is received that an elite member of the Nazi High Command is willing to defect and divulge information that will shorten the war. But his defection entails the release of the ultra-top-secret file on the Scarlatti Inheritance— a file whose contents will destroy many of the Western world's greatest and most illustrious reputations if they are made known. From there, the book takes itself back a few decades, and tells the story of a corrupt American soldier, his billionaire mother, and an agent working for one of the smallest secret service departments in the world. |
3720275 | /m/09x41t | The Ill-Made Mute | Cecilia Dart-Thornton | 2001-05 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | Isse Tower is a House of the Stormriders. Stormriders, also known as Relayers, are messengers of the air for people of the high status. The Stormriders fly on winged steeds called eotaurs, and Windships that levitate above the ground because of sildron. Sildron is one of the most valuable metals in the empire of Erith. The metal sildron has the property of repelling the ground, thus, lifting objects. This metal is used to make the shoes of the Eotaurs and in the building of the Windships to sail the skies. There is only one other metal that can abolish the effect of sildron; andalum. The foundling has no memory of who he was before he was found, but knows only that he is different from all others. Soon, he becomes sick of being treated badly and plans to escape to a city to find a cure for his paradox-ivy poisoning. He stows away on a Windship to escape, but shortly after he is discovered, the ship is attacked by pirates. He is captured by the pirates, and makes friends with one of them: Sianadh, who names the mute, Imrhien ("Butterfly"). During this time he discovers that he is really a she, and when danger threatens is rescued by Sianadh by jumping off the wind ship together. They travel through the forest following a map of Sianadh's, which points them towards a sildron mine. Through the forest, they encounter magical creatures called wights. There are two different types of wights: seelie, mischievous and unseelie, evil. Much to Imrhien's surprise, they actually find the mine. Due to an injury Sianadh has sustained, Imrhien is the only one who can climb the side to an entrance to the cave. Once in the mine, Sianadh and Imrhien find that they are immensely wealthy. They decide to sail down the river to the major city to meet up with Sianadh's family. Imrhien's mind is still set on finding a cure for the facial deformity. When in the city, a wizard promises to cure the deformity, but instead makes it even worse. This coupled with Sianadh's vow to get revenge on the wizard causes his family to be closely watched. When Sianadh and his nephew go back to the mine, Imrhien and Sianadh's niece are kidnapped. They are eventually saved, but then hear that Sianadh is killed. Ethlinn sends her children (Diarmid and Muirne) and Imrhien on a caravan to Caermelor. The caravan is attacked by the Wild Hunt and any survivors scattered. Diarmid, Sianadh's nephew, and Imrhien find each other and travel together in a hope to find Muirne, Diarmid's sister. Along the way they are discovered by one of the King Emperor's Dainnan rangers, Thorn. Everything about Thorn seems perfect. At first, Diarmid is jealous, but he comes to marvel at the Dainnan's knowledge and skill. Imrhien falls in love with him, but is ashamed of her face and knows that no one could love someone so ugly. With Thorn's help, the trio easily traverse the wilderness. Through a series of adventures, Muirne is found and Imrhien continues the journey with the Dainnan, Thorn, to find the Carlin who might heal the deformities. Before they part, Thorn takes three of Imrhien's hairs and wraps them around his finger in a ring. When he asks Imrhien what she wants (since she won't return to court with him) she signs to him saying that she would like to wish him a safe journey with her voice. He unexpectedly kisses her and leaves. Imrhien travels the last part of the road leading to the Carlin's house and receives treatment for the facial scars caused by paradox ivy. The book ends with two of Imrhien's afflictions healed, though not all. |
3721827 | /m/09x765 | A Fate Totally Worse than Death | Paul Fleischman | 10/2/1995 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | is a parody of young adult horror fiction. It is about three high school girls, Danielle, Brooke and Tiffany, popular, privileged and malicious. They are known as the Huns of Cliffside High. A beautiful foreign exchange student from Norway named Helga steals their spotlight and grabs the attention of the school stud Drew. They become insanely jealous and accuse Helga of being a ghost because of her pale skin and light hair. Determined to win their popularity back, the girls conjure up numerous ways to torture Helga. However, every time the girls try to "mess up" Helga in some way, a strong force holds them back. For example, when she tries to cut off Helga's hair, Brooke becomes completely paralyzed and limp. The paralysis does go away, but they soon begin to notice other changes. Tiffany complains of severe pain in her knuckles and also develops a bladder problem, forcing her to wear diapers, and Danielle is slowly losing all of her teeth while Brooke is losing her hair. The girls also complain of getting liver spots on their skin. Eventually they realize that although they are only in high school, they are aging rapidly and suffering complaints typical of septuagenarians. The horrified girls believe Helga is doing this to them. They think that if they kill Drew, he will become a ghost just like Helga, making her happy enough to grant them mercy. They arrange for Drew and Helga to meet at the park the next night. However, in their attempt to shoot Drew, the girls accidentally shoot Helga instead. Danielle winds up in a hospital bed, plugged into many tubes and practically dying. Mrs. Witt, an elderly woman that she used to visit, talks to her for a while, and then reveals the reason for the girls' problems. Mrs. Witt tells her that Charity Chase, a girl killed by Danielle, Brooke and Tiffany not too long ago because Drew was interested in her, was her granddaughter. She says her friend's husband injected a potion into the girls, making it so the faster their hearts beat, the older they became, as punishment for killing her wonderful granddaughter. Mrs. Witt taunts Danielle for not being able to move, and finally does the same thing Danielle did in the nursing home when she thought Mrs. Witt was asleep—eats all of her cherry truffles. |
3724608 | /m/09xd23 | The Way West | Alfred Bertram Guthrie, Jr. | 1949 | {"/m/025txgl": "Western fiction", "/m/0hfjk": "Western"} | Former senator William Tadlock leads a wagon train along the Oregon Trail from Missouri with the help of hired guide Dick Summers. After several accidents which cost settlers lives, a mutiny of sorts develops and his position is overtaken by Lije Evans. Soon, different factions develop amongst the people of the train as they try to survive their trek to Oregon. |
3724832 | /m/09xdc0 | Absolute Midnight | Clive Barker | 9/27/2011 | {"/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature"} | Candy Quackenbush begins her adventures by visiting Lagunna Munn and asking the witch to remove Princess Boa's soul from her body. Boa is immediately revealed to be an evil character, and tries to kill Candy herself. Later in the novel, Boa is seen looking for Christopher Carrion on Gorgossium and capturing Finnegan Hob, her old fiancé, during a duel with a dragon. Candy spends the next third of the novel finding out who she is without Boa's soul. She fights her father, Bill Quakenbush, who tries to kill her by stealing all of her memories. She befriends Christopher Carrion and, later, his father, Zephario Carrion, before reuniting them both. Candy also falls in love with a boy named Gazza who immediately loves her as well. Gazza finds out that Malingo the Geshrat is also in love with Candy. Absolute Midnight takes a darker turn compared to the previous two in the "Abarat" series, and in this installment Mater Motley, the Queen of Midnight, releases the Sacbrood from the Pyramids of Xuxux who in turn block out the light in the sky and give the book its name. The Hag is also in league with the Nephauree, a new enemy to both Candy and the Abarat. They are pure evil creatures that come from the darkness behind the stars. During the war, Mater Motley fights the Requiax in Commexo City, who have possessed Rojo Pixler during one of his jaunts undersea. The book climaxes with a large battle on the edge of the Abarat, and readers are introduced to the Void. A Nephauree makes an appearance, Candy uses a piece of the Abarataraba to form a huge glyph to save all of the prisoners, Christopher Carrion and Malingo both prevent Mater Motley from killing Candy, and all of Christopher Carrion's siblings are released from the dolls on Mater Motley's dress. The book ends with Candy, Malingo and Gazza falling through the Void and seemingly climbing up into a new world. |
3725127 | /m/09xdxw | Blood and Fog | Nancy Holder | 5/1/2003 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Spike and the current Slayer of 1888 form an alliance to battle the Jack the Ripper, a prostitute-murdering madman. It is learned Jack is not at all human. The alliance fails and Jack survives to come to Sunnydale in the modern day. He has plans, and using a mystical fog, he desires to kill more of the human race, which he hates. Soon, the fog does arise, which is used as cover as a demon army rampages through the streets of Sunnydale. The threat is neutralized; unfortunately there are heavy citizen casualties. |
3725744 | /m/09xfvg | After Image | Pierce Askegren | 1/24/2006 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03npn": "Horror"} | Sunnydale Drive-In reopens with a dusk-to-dawn festival of classic B movies. Xander has free tickets after working there as a gopher for the construction crew, but as Buffy, Willow, and Cordelia show little interest, he ends up going with Jonathan. Jonathan, like many of the patrons of the drive-in, falls asleep during the night and cannot be re-awakened. Meanwhile Buffy and Angel fight off attacks from a wolf-man and a gang of chain-wielding bikers who seem solid one minute and fade into thin air the next. Other vanishing figures are seen around town, leading Giles and Willow to research ectoplasm. Xander recognizes a picture in one of Giles' old books as the man behind the re-opening of the drive-in: Mr Balsamo, otherwise known as the eighteenth-century occultist Cagliostro. When Giles is kidnapped, Buffy, Angel and Willow head to the drive-in to confront the villain, while Xander and Cordelia stay at the hospital with his victims. |
3725750 | /m/09xfvt | Carnival of Souls | Nancy Holder | 4/3/2006 | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | A traveling carnival arrives in Sunnydale. It seems the carnival might be another victim of Sunnydale's weirdness. Nobody seems to be able to remember it arriving despite the many old-style wagons, the numerous performers, and horse-drawn carts. The creepy calliope music seems almost to beckon out to people. Also nobody who goes into Hall of Mirrors comes out exactly the same as they were to start with. Inspired by a pair of once-homely twins now parading around the school like divas, the Scoobs decide to investigate the carnival. It's soon clear that entering comes at a cost above the price of admission. Willow becomes consumed by envy, Cordelia gets greedy, and Xander finds himself overtaken with gluttony. Angel is revealing a dangerous new persona, whilst anger rises in Rupert Giles. More serious still, Buffy's pride starts to threaten those she cares about. |
3725788 | /m/09xfz7 | Colony | Melinda Metz | 9/27/2005 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03npn": "Horror"} | Mayor Richard Wilkins III invites a woman named Belakane to speak at the local Sunnydale High School. She has a program, "Be the Ultimate You!". It aims to build self-esteem in teenagers. However she is a demon ant-like queen and her so-called self-esteem program is actually a test to find workers to build her colony, and to find mates to expand her populace. She soon reduces students to single trait beings, for example Buffy is reduced to 'aggressive slayer'. |
3727530 | /m/09xlh_ | Night Train | Martin Amis | 10/2/1997 | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | This book is told from the perspective of Detective Mike Hoolihan, a female detective who is charged with the task of finding the motivation for Jennifer Rockwell's suicide. Jennifer, a beautiful astrophysicist with a seemingly perfect life seems to have had no reason to kill herself. Thematically this book touches on cosmology and chaos theory, and their relation to the human condition as a possible motive for suicide. Hoolihan is a recovering alcoholic and former homicide detective who lives with an obese man named Tobe in an unnamed American city (presumably based on Seattle or Portland). She reveals that she had been sexually abused as a child, revolted violently against the abuse at the age of ten, and then pursued a number of affairs with abusive or unworthy men. Despite her disadvantages, she becomes a successful detective before her illness forces her to accept less demanding work seizing assets from criminals. Her experiences lead her to examine gender roles in police work. Her former boss, mentor, and personal friend 'Colonel' Tom Rockwell asks that she investigate the apparent suicide of his daughter Jennifer who, as a beautiful, intelligent, cheerful, popular woman has no obvious reason for taking her own life. Rockwell suspects Jennifer's lover Trader Faulkner, a distinguished academic, of murdering Jennifer. Hoolihan attempts to pressure Faulkner into confessing, but fails. She discovers that Jennifer was taking lithium, met a philandering salesman in the bar of a local hotel, and made uncharacteristic mistakes at work shortly before her death. Hoolihan then deduces that these factors are merely 'blinds' - or clues - deliberately planted by Jennifer for the benefit of an investigation at the behest of her father. Hoolihan concludes that these blinds are meant either to provide the less astute investigator with a sense of 'closure', or to indicate a greater bleakness, or nihilism. After breaking down while attempting to communicate her findings to Rockwell - who immediately expresses his concern - Hoolihan heads for the nearest bar, knowing that the alcohol will kill her. |
3727714 | /m/09xlyl | Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness | null | null | null | The story of Good Apollo takes a step outside the science fiction narrative of the first three chapters and examines the life of the Writer, a character who is crafting the lives of the protagonist Claudio and his companions in the form of a fictional story. The graphic novel alternates between the two different worlds of Claudio the Writer and Claudio the Character, which can be confusing for one unacquainted with the concept as the Writer and Character are similar in appearance. The novel opens with a dream taking place in the mind of Claudio the Character, in which he sits in priest's garb in the Writer's study looking upon the phrase "God Only Knows" scrawled in front of him in blood (a line repeated in the song "Mother May I"). He is approached by several skeletal figures begging for Claudio to save them. As their protests become more emphatic and they begin to overwhelm Claudio, he realizes he is dreaming and forces himself to awaken by stabbing himself in the hand with a screwdriver. Aboard his uncle Jesse's ship, the Grail Arbor, he explains the dreams to Jesse and his daughter Chase as the enslaved souls of the Keywork pleading for liberation. Jesse and Chase (who appears to have some prophetic power) believe the only way to free them is by destroying Heaven's Fence and that Claudio is a messiah-like figure called the Crowing who has the power to do this. Claudio, however, is having trouble accepting this daunting role. The novel's focus now shifts to the Writer, who resides in Rockland County, New York. He is haunted by memories of a former lover, Erica Court, who had been unfaithful. The Writer suffers a series of delusions involving the death of Erica at his hands. These visions make up the song "Welcome Home" on the Good Apollo album. Suddenly, the Writer's window is broken and then someone apparently steals his ten-speed bicycle. As the Writer walks off to investigate, the novel re-enters the story with an exchange between the story's villains, Supreme Tri-Mage Wilhelm Ryan and his General, Mayo Deftinwolf, in which they vaguely speak of Claudio's role as the Crowing and their plans to crush him and the rebellion his uncle Jesse has been leading against the Mages of Heaven's Fence. Back aboard the Grail Arbor, Claudio is awakened from a nightmare about his lost family by the Prise Ambellina. They discuss a plan formulated by Jesse to penetrate the defenses of Apity Prime, a planet in the Omega star system, by landing in the city of Kalline, which is adjacent to Wilhem's lair, the House Atlantic. Claudio needs to get there to fulfill his destiny as the Crowing, however he points out that the opening in the defenses is likely a trap and argues further with Chase and Ambellina about his role, which he still doubts. Jesse explains the plan to the pilot of the Grail Arbor, who also expresses doubts, and the group prepares for the final assault on the forces of Wilhelm Ryan. In the Writer's world, he has wandered off into deeper hallucinations, arriving at the house of Newo Ikkin, a fictional character from his story and his character's former love interest, and witnessing Claudio the character speak to Newo's dog Apollo, as he had written in his story before (Claudio utters the phrase "Good Apollo, where shall I begin?" At the end of the first track on In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3, The Ring In Return, one can hear a voice quietly saying "Hello Apollo. Where shall I begin?" It's believed the slight differentiation was accidental). In Newo's place is Erica Court, and the Writer's bicycle has taken on a demonic persona, Ten Speed of God's Blood and Burial, and begins speaking with him. The Writer is seeking a way to end the story, which Ten Speed claims he can provide if he kills Ambellina (though the Writer thinks Ten Speed wants him to kill Erica). Exact quotes of their bickering can be heard during part of the song, "Ten Speed (Of God's Blood and Burial)," from the Good Apollo album. The exchange ends with Claudio saying "You say a lot of things. And how's that work? You're a bicycle." Meanwhile, a rebel strike team has disabled the generator on Kalline, allowing the Grail Arbor to land. Mayo springs his trap, destroying the strike force by unleashing one of the beast-like Priests upon them. As the Arbor prepares to land, more of the Writer's delusions are portrayed, including Erica's murder at the hands of the Writer using the same poison Mayo gave to Coheed to kill his children in the Second Stage Turbine Blade. This delusion makes up the song "Once Upon Your Dead Body" on the Good Apollo album. While Mayo prepares for the rebel's ground assault, Ten Speed explains that he doesn't actually want the Writer to murder Erica, but rather to exact his vengeance metaphorically by killing Ambellina, who represents Erica's good side in the story, which will in turn cause Claudio to accept his destiny as the Crowing and destroy the Keywork; an ending for the story. Mayo's trap comes to full fruition as a planetary defense cannon called a Jackhammer is fired into the Grail Arbor when it tries to land, damaging it. The Arbor retreats while Claudio, Ambellina, Jesse, Chase, and Jesse's other IRO-bot children abandon ship and land on the surface of Apity Prime. Ambellina and Claudio split off from the group while Jesse and his children stay behind to confront Mayo. As Ten Speed and the Writer further argue about the fate of Ambellina, Jesse delivers a final goodbye to his children who proceed to mutate into monstrous forms and attack Mayo's forces. Jesse confronts Mayo and is killed by him in hand-to-hand combat when Mayo rips Jesse's heart out of his body. Claudio and Ambellina arrive at a mirror (the Willing Well) in which they can see the Writer's argument with Ten Speed take place. Claudio and Ambellina then combat a Priest in front of the mirror, resulting in Ambellina being injured. As the battle takes place, the Writer is swept further into his delusion by the skeletal figures the Character dreamt of earlier, who, apparently at the behest of a hallucinated Erica Court, take him to a large, winged guillotine and have him beheaded. Erica hauntingly says "This is no beginning. This is the final cut"--a phrase repeated as the chorus of the song "The Willing Well IV: The Final Cut" on the Good Apollo album. The Writer awakens from this delusion, once again finding himself at the house of Newo Ikkin, and decides to take Ten Speed's advice. Passing through the mirror into his own story, the Writer sees Claudio has made the transformation into his powerful role as the Crowing after witnessing Ambellina's injury at the hands of the Priest. Ignoring the Writer's command to stop, Claudio kills the Priest and proceeds to confront the Writer. The Writer explains he must kill Ambellina for his own peace of mind, so that the story may have an ending. The Crowing furiously declares, "My God is a coward!" The Writer kills Ambellina, easily overwhelming Claudio's resistance despite his new found power as the Crowing. As Ambellina dies in Claudio's arms, she professes that she would have loved Claudio had she been able. The Writer walks off into the distance with his bicycle, leaving Claudio with the cryptic message "You're Burning Star IV." He also tells Claudio to listen to the Vishual (Chase) and that "all worlds from here must burn," implying that it is the Crowing's duty to destroy the Keywork. |
3728834 | /m/09xpdl | Blackout | Keith R. A. DeCandido | 8/29/2006 | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | It is 1977, the summer of a brutal blackout, the time of the Son of Sam murders, and a period of brutal fiscal disaster for New York. The slayer Nikki Wood fights against the forces of darkness and also tries to protect her son, Robin. Meanwhile Spike and Drusilla arrive in the city hoping to hunt down a slayer, not without the local vampire community soon discovering of their arrival. |
3729322 | /m/09xqjs | The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists | Gideon Defoe | 8/26/2004 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01z4y": "Comedy"} | The book is set in 1837, and follows the adventures of "The Pirate Captain" and his crew of unorthodox pirates. They meet a young Charles Darwin and Mister Bobo, a highly trained and sophisticated "man-panzee", who have been exiled from London by a rival scientist. Having sunk the Beagle, which he believed was a Bank of England treasure ship thanks to a tip-off from Black Bellamy, the Pirate Captain agrees to take Darwin home and help him defeat his enemies. |
3730327 | /m/09xscq | The Dying Days | Lance Parkin | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | In the year 1997, Bernice Summerfield is recovering from the breakdown of her marriage at the Doctor's house on Allen Road in Kent. To her surprise, when the TARDIS arrives it is the Eighth Doctor that steps out. Before Benny can come to terms with the change, a helicopter crash lands nearby, carrying soil samples from Mars and a prisoner, astronaut Alex Christian, who has been incarcerated since he killed the crew of a British Mars mission. Or so everyone thought. In reality, his crew were killed by Ice Warriors and his imprisonment was part of a deal negotiated between the British government and the Martian authorities. Since then, there have been no further missions to Mars, but now Britain has sent a new mission back to the planet. British astronauts land on Mars where they intrude on the tomb of an Ice Lord. The Ice Warrior Xznaal arrives on Earth with the pretence of vengeance, but is secretly in league with the British Science Minister, Lord Greyhaven. When the Eighth Doctor interferes with their plans, Xznaal releases a deadly weapon known as the Red Death. This apparently kills the Doctor, leaving Bernice and the Brigadier to deal with the invading Ice Warriors… |
3733081 | /m/09xz1z | Big Trouble | Dave Barry | 1999-09 | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/01z4y": "Comedy", "/m/09kqc": "Humour", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense"} | The story follows a large cast of people as they go about their lives. A boy named Matt is involved in a high school game called Killer, where he must squirt a girl named Jenny with a water gun, but with only one witness. Attempting to sneak into her house at night, Matt takes everyone completely by surprise, causing Jenny and her mother, Anna, to attack him, and Jenny's mean stepfather, Arthur, to fall over - just missing being hit by two hitmen who also showed up. The housemaid, a young Mexican immigrant named Nina, panics and runs from the house towards the hitmen. She is rescued by a young homeless man named Puggy, who was living in a tree on the property. After the hitmen leave, the two talk and instantly fall in love. Two police officers, Monica and Walter, arrive and call Matt's divorced father, Eliot, who comes over and becomes instantly attracted to Anna, while Matt becomes attracted to Jenny. The police dismiss Matt and Eliot and question Arthur about whether or not he has any enemies. Arthur denies this; however, he is actually guilty of embezzling money from the less-than-honest company that he works for to pay off gambling debts. Realizing that his life is on the line, Arthur wants to turn in the company to save himself, and decides at the last minute to get a bomb so that the police will take him seriously. Later, Jenny, Matt, and Andrew (the one witness and Matt's friend at school) agree to meet at the back of a nearby mall for Matt to "kill" Jenny. Just as he's about to squirt her, a police-wannabe thinks that Matt is using a real gun on Jenny and opens fire with his own gun. Matt and Jenny, frightened, head to Jenny's house to call the police. Andrew runs away and is caught by the same two police officers who investigated the shooting at Arthur's house. After confiscating the man's gun, they decide to head to Jenny's house to find Jenny and Matt. Meanwhile, Arthur goes to a nearby bar and grill which is actually a cover for two Russian arms dealers. He is about to buy a bomb from them when he, the two Russians, and Puggy (who got a job at the bar) are held up by Snake and Eddie, two criminals who were kicked out of the bar for being disorderly and who held a grudge against the place. After stealing the bomb, they mistake Arthur for a kingpin and force him and Puggy to take them to Arthur's house. After they leave, two FBI agents come to the bar, demanding to know where the bomb is. After experiencing an "extremity shot" to the foot, the Russians tell them. Eddie and Snake arrive at Arthur's house and tie Matt, Eliot (who came after Matt called him), and Jenny up with telephone cords. Monica and Walter come to the house and enter to question Matt and Jenny about the shooting at the mall. The criminals tie Monica up as well, and use her handcuffs to attach Walter and Arther to a large metal rack. Jenny is kidnapped, and lifted onto the shoulder of one of the criminals. They leave for the Miami airport with Jenny, Puggy and the bomb. Nina unties everyone and they all leave for the airport (leaving Walter and Arthur, who they can't free from the handcuffs). Arthur and Walter attempt to escape and find help, and instead Arthur gets squirted in the face with a hallucinogen from a toad, which causes him to think his dog is possessed by Elizabeth Dole. Four different groups of people reach the airport. Eddie, Snake, Puggy, and Jenny board a plane for the Bahamas, but Puggy escapes at the last minute. Eliot, Anna, Matt, Nina and Monica find him and he leads them to the airplane they boarded. Meanwhile, the two hitmen enter the airport around the same time. One of them is nearly suffocated by an escaped pet python that a man was trying to bring onto an airplane. The other hitman rescues his partner by shooting the snake in the head, but in turn is arrested by the local security. The final group consists of the two FBI agents and Officer Baker, Monica and Walter's superior. The agents tell Baker that in order to save innocent lives from being killed because of the bomb (which they find out was accidentally turned on during the airport security check), they are ordering fighter planes to shoot down the plane carrying the bomb. Monica and Matt both manage to board the airplane just as it's taking off. Eddie, fed up with being pushed around by Snake through all of this, turns on him and tosses the suitcase overboard. Snake, unwilling to lose his "kingpin suitcase," jumps out after it. The bomb explodes in the water, killing no one except for Snake and the fish population. The story ends describing the aftermath of the incident, as well as what happens to the main characters. de:Jede Menge Ärger – Big Trouble |
3734515 | /m/09y0q_ | Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books | Azar Nafisi | 2003 | {"/m/016chh": "Memoir"} | The book is a memoir of the experience of the author who returned to Iran during the revolution (1978-1981) and lived and taught in the Islamic Republic of Iran until her departure in 1997. It narrates her teaching at the University of Tehran after 1979, her refusal to submit to the rule to wear the veil and her subsequent expulsion from the university, life during the Iran-Iraq war, her return to teaching at the University of Allameh Tabatabei (1981), her resignation (1987), the formation of her book club (1995–97), and her decision to emigrate. Events are interlaced with the stories of book club members consisting of seven of her female students, who met weekly at Nafisi's house to discuss works of Western literature including the controversial 'Lolita' and the texts are interpreted through the books they read. === Structure === The book is divided into four sections: "Lolita", "Gatsby", "James", and "Austen". "Lolita" deals with Nafisi as she resigns from The University of Allameh Tabatabei and starts her private literature class with students Mahshid, Yassi, Mitra, Nassrin, Azin, Sanaz and Manna. They talk not just about Lolita, but One Thousand and One Nights and Invitation to a Beheading. The main themes are oppression, jailers as revolutionary guards try to assert their authority through certain events such as a vacation gone awry and a runaway convict. "Gatsby" is set about eleven years before "Lolita" just as the Iranian revolution starts. The reader learns how some Iranians' dreams, including the author's, became shattered through the government's imposition of new rules. Nafisi's student Mr. Nyazi puts the novel on trial, claiming that it condones adultery. Chronologically this is the first part of Nafisi's story. The Great Gatsby and Mike Gold's works are discussed in this part. The reader meets Nassrin. Nafisi states that the Gatsby chapter is about the American dream, the Iranian dream of revolution and the way it was shattered for her; the James chapter is about uncertainty and the way totalitarian mindsets hate uncertainty; and Austen is about the choice of women, a woman at the center of the novel saying no to the authority of her parents, society, and welcoming a life of dire poverty in order to make her own choice. "James" takes place right after "Gatsby", when the Iran–Iraq War begins and Nafisi is expelled from the University of Tehran along with a few other professors. The veil becomes mandatory and she states that the government wants to control the liberal-minded professors. Nafisi meets the man she calls her "magician", seemingly a literary academician who had retired from public life at the time of the revolution. Daisy Miller and Washington Square are the main texts. Nassrin reappears after spending several years in prison. "Austen" succeeds "Lolita" as Nafisi plans to leave Iran and the girls discuss the issue of marriages, men and sex. The only real flashback (not counting historical background) is into how the girls and Nafisi toyed with the idea of creating a Dear Jane society. While Azin deals with an abusive husband and Nassrin plans to leave for England, Nafisi's magician reminds her not to blame all of her problems on the Islamic Republic. Pride and Prejudice, while the main focus, is used more to reinforce themes about blindness and empathy. Throughout the whole novel Nafisi tackles the question of what is a hero and a villain in literature. Each independent section of the book examines notions of heroism and villainy by connecting characters from books such as Invitation to a Beheading or The Great Gatsby to others. The basis of her definition of heroism and villainy is the connection between characters who are "blind to other's problems" such as Humbert Humbert in Lolita and characters who can empathize. This theme is intertwined with that of oppression and blindness. |
3735591 | /m/09y2gn | The Divine Canary | null | null | null | The book opens with the quotation from Brazilian novelist Roberto Drummond ”Our Father, who art in Heaven, let all Women of this world abandon this Sinner, but do not allow, my Lord, that Cruzeiro scores the equalizing goal.”. August Willemsen, a professional translator of Portuguese, writes about the history of soccer in Brazil, not only in terms of games and statistics, but as the quotation shows, also about how it is experienced by Brazilian fans: simultaneoulsy a feeling of joy, and of torture, and about the sometimes supernatural role of soccer in Brazilian society. |
3735617 | /m/09y2jd | Fragrant Harbour | null | null | null | Set in Hong Kong, the story is told through the eyes of several people. Dawn Stone is an ambitious young woman who wants to make as much money as quickly as she can. Tom Stewart is an Englishman who had been in Hong Kong since 1935 and made his fortune in business. Sister Maria, whom Tom wants to love, is a devout nun and tends to the territory's poor and needy. Their stories all converge in the end when Hong Kong is passed from British to Chinese rule. |
3736171 | /m/09y3hn | Wizard | John Varley | 1980 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | Wizard takes place in 2100, seventy-five years after the events in Titan. Cirocco has become an alcoholic, apparently due to the strain of being the Wizard. Gaby Plauget has taken up the slack, carrying out special projects for Gaea such as building the Circum-Gaea Highway, in return for which she gets some of the benefits Cirocco enjoys, including apparently perpetual youth. Gaea herself is bored. She arranges for streams of people looking for miracle cures to come to her from Earth, and then sets them a task: do something "heroic" (for example, travel once round the circumference of the great wheel), and their wishes will be granted. This is her way of ensuring an enduring supply of entertainment, as she arranges hazards for them to overcome or die trying. It also serves as a way for her to be useful to Humanity by providing cures for diseases, so that they do not turn on her and destroy her. Meanwhile, she sits in the hub with her sycophants and watches old movies. Chris Major and Robin the Nine-Fingered are two such pilgrims. Chris suffers from psychotic episodes. Robin, a member of a group of latter day witches, has a strange epilepsy that only manifests itself in gravity higher than the Moon's. With Gaby, Cirocco and four Titanides they set out on a heroic trek. Gaby and Cirocco have a hidden agenda: they want to canvass the regional brains in order to overthrow Gaea, whom they see as being irretrievably insane. During the trip, we begin to learn what drove Cirocco to her alcoholism. As the price for the discontinuation of the Angel/Titanide War, Gaea has made the Titanides dependent on Cirocco to have children. Only her saliva can activate the eggs they produce, so that they can be implanted in a host mother to grow. The responsibility for an entire race's survival is more than Cirocco can bear; with resignation from her position as Wizard impossible and suicide ruled out by her love for the Titanides, her only release is alcohol-fueled oblivion. The hazards of the trip include buzz-bombs, living creatures with jet engines that live high up on the support cables. They attack living beings, including humans and Titanides, attempting to capture them as food, and present a particular threat to pilgrims with their barbed noses and razor-sharp wings. Slowly the journey reduces the crew, killing first one of the Titanides and then, in an attack plotted by the crazed crewmember Gene, Gaby. All are separated. Cirocco and her Titanide companion Hornpipe are left on the Rim surface, while Robin and Chris are trapped underground, with the Titanide Valiha, who is not only pregnant but has been badly injured. Eventually Robin has to leave Chris to tend Valiha, and climb back to the surface for help. She finds herself in one of the Arctic cold zones of the habitat, and almost dies before being rescued. Cirocco undergoes a complete transformation. She musters her considerable powers to rescue all the remaining expedition members. Robin and Chris go to confront Gaea, only to be told she has cured them anyway, and they can get lost. Cirocco eventually destroys the body Gaea had been using to talk to people. As she is in reality an intelligence living in the hub, itself, the death of this body does not kill Gaea; but it is Cirocco's way of resigning. Hereinafter, she is no longer the Wizard; she is the Demon. |
3736372 | /m/09y3y7 | Demon | John Varley | 1984 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | Demon takes place in the years 2113 through 2121, thirteen to twenty-one years after the events of Wizard. Cirocco Jones has become a combination fugitive and resistance leader, staying alive in spite of the forces of Gaea by virtue of her unusual abilities, and with the help of friends and allies. These include the race of Titanides, who remain loyal to the Captain, as they call Jones, rather than to Gaea; and the race of Angels, who call her the Wing Commander. The militant creations of Gaea, once limited to the buzz-bombs, have expanded to include horrifying beings called Priests, each one made by Gaea from parts of her human victims. The Priests, named after significant religious figures from the past, carry out her dirty work as a class of undead field commanders, supported by bands of zombies. These are made from the corpses of humans who die in the wheel and — unless cremated — become infested with creatures called deathsnakes and arise to walk again as zombies. The increasingly demented and film-obsessed Gaea has replaced the Avatar that Jones destroyed at the end of Wizard with a new one, a replica of Marilyn Monroe. She spends her time in a travelling film festival of her own making, called Pandemonium, where she is attended by various humans, zombies, and many bizarre creatures of her own creation, such as living film cameras. Earth meanwhile is in the grip of a slow nuclear war, possibly started by Gaea herself. Some survivors are rescued by mysterious pods called mercy flights that bring them to Gaea. They are cured of all their physical ills, and then, still mentally damaged, dumped in the twilight city of Bellinzona, an anarchic place run by criminals. All this means that humankind's future is now in the wheel, and at the mercy of its senile ruler. More of Gaea's earlier plotting comes to light when it is revealed that all the captured Ringmaster crew were fitted with a parasitic, worm-like spy right inside their brains, which broadcast their every thought and perception to Gaea. Records of all these experiences and perceptions have been kept in the hub and nerve-center of the habitat — as a result of which Gaby's personality has survived her physical death, and she now exists as a rogue intelligence. She is able to communicate with Cirocco, and together they hatch plans for the future of the wheel. Cirocco's own brain parasite is extracted by a Titanide surgeon and emprisonned in a jar. Nicknamed Snitch, it is both a creature in its own right, which can talk, feel pain, and apparently recover from any injury, and is a part of Gaea's fragmented and disintegrating mind. As such, it becomes a source of information on her schemes, which Cirocco ruthlessly exploits through a mixture of torture and bribery: Snitch has emerged from her alcohol-addled brain with an addiction to liquor. Chris Major has stayed in Gaea, where he is mutating into a Titanide. Robin of the Coven had returned to her people in the interim, and now returns to Gaea, along with her two children: a 19 year old daughter named Nova, and an infant son, Adam Having a son is anathema in her female-only community. It is revealed that the children weren't planned, but are offspring of herself and Chris, owing to genetic material somehow planted in her when she last was on Gaea and triggered to implant at later times. Robin, along with her children, is reunited with Chris and Cirocco, whereupon the distraught Nova immediately develops a crush on Cirocco. They also meet a friend and lieutenant of Cirocco's, Conal, originally a none-too-bright bodybuilder from Canada and a descendent of Ringmaster crew member Gene. After a short period of peace, Gaea's agents kidnap Adam. Cirocco becomes aware that the infant boy shares her ability to activate Titanide eggs, and therefore represents the race's future, as well as a means of controlling them. Gaea has apparently arranged his birth so he can be Cirocco's successor, and his kidnapping to force her into a confrontation. After a failed rescue attempt by the group, Chris decides to take his chances by surrendering to Pandemonium, so that he can be near Adam. Some months pass while Cirocco's forces regroup and make a new plan. Now desperate to recover Adam, who is beginning to see Gaea as a mother figure, Cirocco uses her influence among the Titanides to conquer Bellinzona, imposing law and order with the intent of eventually raising an army to attack Pandemonium. In time, through her unusual mixture of charisma and ruthlessness, she manages to transform the inhabitants' disorganized chaos into a genuine community. When Cirocco finally launches her attack, she has to guide nearly 40,000 human soldiers and several thousand Titanides some 600 kilometers across the wheel, while fending off attacks from the Gaean Air Force, the successors to the old buzz-bombs. These new creatures are armed with rocket bullets, missiles, and bombs, forcing Cirocco to enlist the Angels in a preemptive strike to help destroy the GAF's refueling bases. When the army finally reaches Pandemonium, Cirocco's attack is a mixture of display and deadly force. Whistlestop the blimp, with the aged and dying Calvin inside, attempts to immolate Gaea in a Hindenburg-like blaze. Eventually Gaea is lured out of the city, enabling part of the army to rescue Adam while Cirocco and Gaea face off. At that moment Gene, old and addled, and living next to one of the former regional brains, sets off the final blow (instigated by Gaby) by destroying one of Gaea's major nerve-centers. Gaea is disoriented enough for Gaby to force her out of the hub, leading to the destruction of the giant Marilyn Monroe avatar in a scene reminiscent of the climactic battle in King Kong. The last fragment of Gaea's mind, in the shape of Snitch, dies in Cirocco's hand. Gaby, now the new divinity of the wheel, reveals to Cirocco that Gaea was in fact an entity distinct from it and that those changes of 'management' are a regular occurrence in the enormously long life-cycle of those entities. All the plotting perpetrated by Gaea throughout the trilogy was aimed at securing her demise and replacement in a manner entertaining and flamboyant enough to suit her. Gaby invites Cirocco to share the position with her, but the former Wizard declines, choosing instead to simply live free for the first time in nearly a century. As she ponders her new and free future, she wonders what she will do next. She leans over, falling from the top of the spoke toward the ground 600 kilometers below, leaving her fate to chance — she is now finally free to live only for herself. |
3737085 | /m/09y57h | The Wayward Bus | John Steinbeck | 1947 | null | No single character dominates The Wayward Bus. The viewpoint shifts frequently from one character to another, often taking the form of internal monologue so that we are experiencing a given character's thoughts. Much of the novel's length is simply devoted to establishing and delineating the various characters. This novel takes place firmly within "Steinbeck country": most of the narrative occurs at Rebel Corners, a crossroads 42 miles south of San Ysidro, California. Juan Chicoy (half-Mexican, half-Irish) maintains a small bus, nicknamed "Sweetheart". He earns his living as a mechanic, and by ferrying passengers between Rebel Corners and San Juan de la Cruz. The larger Greyhound Bus Company serves both of those locations on separate routes, but does not have service connecting the two. Juan and his wife Alice also own a small lunch counter at Rebel Corners. The Chicoys supplement their income by selling food, coffee and candy to people who pass through on the bus route. Rebel Corners is such an obscure place that nobody actually lives there except for the Chicoys and their employees of the moment. Alice is devoted to her marriage but is in all other ways a deeply unhappy woman, who despises and distrusts all other women. The Chicoys have two employees: one is a teenager named Ed Carson, who works as Juan's assistant mechanic and general helper. Carson claims to be descended from the famous frontiersman Kit Carson, and he wants to be called "Kit", but he is usually called "Pimples" because of his extreme facial acne. Pimples Carson (as he is identified through most of the novel) is constantly helping himself to cake or candy from the lunch counter, telling Alice to deduct it from his wages. Alice, deeply suspicious of everyone but her husband, asserts that Carson's "tab" for the food and sweets he consumes has exceeded what her husband is paying him; she also accuses Carson of stealing food. The lunch counter's other employee is Norma, a young waitress. Because of Alice's bad temper and misogyny, waitresses tend not to last long at Rebel Corners: Norma is merely the latest in a long series of waitresses. Norma is obsessed with film star Clark Gable. She writes long fan letters to Gable which she mails to him at his studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, but these are never answered. Norma maintains a semi-paranoid delusion that there is an employee at MGM who maliciously intercepts Norma's letters so that Gable will never find out she is in love with him. At one point, Norma claims to be Gable's cousin. A family of three, on vacation, have been forced to spend the night at Rebel Corners because the bus, named 'Sweetheart', needed repair. Juan, Alice, Norma and Pimples gave up their beds to the travelers and spend the night sitting up in the diner. The family now hopes to travel to San Juan on Juan Chicoy's bus: these are self-important businessman Elliott Pritchard, his wife Bernice and their daughter Mildred, a college student. The novel's description of Mr. Pritchard is an example of Steinbeck's concise character delineation: "One night a week he played poker with men so exactly like himself that the game was fairly even, and from this fact his group was convinced that they were very fine poker players." Two more transients are waiting for the bus. One of these is Ernest Horton, a traveling salesman for a novelties company. Horton makes a very colorful entrance in this novel: he limps into the lunch counter, claiming to have injured his foot in a road accident. He then takes off his shoe, revealing a bloody sock. He removes the sock, exposing a badly maimed foot. As soon as this gets the desired response, Horton peels off the "injury": it's actually one of the gag novelties made by his company. Horton is a frustrated man who hopes to launch one or more of his many get-rich ideas, but lacks the funding to put them into practice. His favored project is a kit for men who cannot afford formal attire: a set of satin lapels and satin trouser stripes that can convert a black business suit into a tuxedo. The other transient is a young blonde woman whose face and curvaceous figure attracts male attention. This woman's real name is never disclosed: she is always passing through somewhere on the way to somewhere else, and so she uses a series of false names in her encounters with men she never expects to meet again. Shortly after she arrives at Rebel Corners, she sees an advertisement for Camel cigarettes near an oak tree, so she introduces herself as Camille Oaks. (She is identified by this alias through the rest of the novel.) Later, seeing an advertisement that reads "Chesterfields: They Satisfy", she claims to be a dental nurse employed by Dr. T.S. Chesterfield. In fact, she is a stripper who earns her living performing at stag functions. Camille Oaks has a low opinion of men, possibly stemming from the type of men she meets. She respects the very few men who are honest enough to offer her a sexual proposition right away, but she has no patience for the men who more typically waste her time by trying to be "friends" with her, and who only gradually reveal their true intent. One chapter of the novel is a sympathetic depiction of George, a low-paid Negro who works as a "swamper" at the Greyhound bus depot, cleaning the buses and retrieving lost property. George finds a wallet containing $100, a windfall by his standards. He schemes to keep the money, but is seen handling the wallet by another employee. Louie, a white bus driver, returns the wallet to its owner, promising to split any reward money evenly with George. Louie receives a decent reward but then cheats George, telling him that the owner's reward was only a dollar ... all of which Louie "generously" gives to George. As George never interacts with the characters at Rebel Corners, it is interesting that Steinbeck made room for this vignette which is irrelevant to the main narrative. Very little actually happens in The Wayward Bus. Norma discovers Alice reading her letter to Clark Gable and after a lifetime of mistreatment she stands up for herself by quietly packing her cardboard suitcase ignoring Alice's defense, Norma collects some money from the register and walks out to embark Sweetheart for the next trip to San Juan. Juan has made this bus run many times, and he is bored with the dull routine. This time, however, the heavy rain that has fallen makes a bridge unsafe, and so he asks the passengers to decide whether to return to Rebel Corners or attempt to reach their destination via an old dirt road. They choose the road. En route, he deliberately runs the bus into a ditch, telling the passengers it was an accident. The symbolism here is, by Steinbeck's standards, unusually heavy-handed: Juan, whose life is trapped in a figurative rut, escapes it by driving into a literal rut. The "accident" has temporarily stranded Juan and his passengers in a remote area. While they are waiting for Juan to seek help on foot, a walk of four miles, Pritchard engages Camille in conversation and expresses interest in helping her in her "career": she recognizes this as the opening gambit a seduction, and she turns him down venomously. Pritchard assaults his own wife, partly in anger at her and partly to regain his self-importance after Camille's rejection. Juan, who has no intention of returning to the bus, plans to escape his life and marriage by returning to Mexico. He soon walks off the road to seek shelter in a deserted farmhouse, where he falls asleep in a barn. Pritchard's daughter Mildred, strongly attracted to him already, follows him and they have sex, but it ends up lacking in fulfillment and pleasure for both characters. Their distant focus on the experience along with awkward and dismissive dialogue implies personal regret soon afterward. Eventually Juan and Mildred return, the bus is driven out of the rut, and everyone gets back on. The novel ends with San Juan de la Cruz visible in the distance. |
3740300 | /m/09ydt4 | The Book of Ultimate Truths | Robert Rankin | 1993 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | The book begins with Cornelius hired by the mysterious Arthur Kobold, who claims to represent a publishing firm wishing to print a complete copy of The Book of Ultimate Truths, a set of great secrets discovered by Hugo Rune, but suppressed by unknown forces. Cornelius and his schoolfriend Tuppe set out to find the book. They encounter the evil Campbell, who is also seeking to retrieve the lost book, to allow him to return to the Forbidden Zones, areas of the world hidden from humanity (excepting London taxi drivers). The two heroes retrieve the book and return to the Murphy home in Brentford, only to find the Campbell is waiting there for them. It is revealed the Campbell is Cornelius' half-brother, and that their father is Hugo Rune. The Campbell escapes with the key to the Forbidden Zones, a re-invented ocarina. Cornelius and Tuppe pursue him to the nearest entrance to the Zones, but the Campbell's plans are foiled by the arrival of a large gathering of a cult devoted to Hugo Rune. The ocarina is destroyed, as is the Campbell. Arthur Kobold presents Cornelius with a large cheque as an advance against royalties from the publication of the book. The cheque is revealed to be a trick - Arthur Kobold was in fact working for the denizens of the Forbidden Zones all along. Seemingly foiled, Cornelius then realizes that the map of their journey forms a schematic for the creation of another re-invented ocarina, and along with a London A-Z map showing the locations of the entrances to the Forbidden Zones the heroes are left plotting their next adventure into the unknown. |
3740598 | /m/09yfh6 | Servant of Two Masters | Carlo Goldoni | null | null | The play opens with the introduction of Beatrice, a woman who has traveled to Venice disguised as her dead brother in search of the man who killed him: her lover, Florindo. Her brother forbade her to marry Florindo, and died defending his sister's honor. Beatrice disguises herself as Federigo, (her dead brother), so that he can collect dowry money from Pantalone, the father of Clarice, her brother's betrothed. She wants to use this money to help her lover escape, and to allow them to finally wed. But thinking that Beatrice's brother was dead, Clarice has fallen in love with another man, Silvio, and the two have become engaged. Interested in keeping up appearances, Pantalone tries to conceal the existence of each from the other. Beatrice's servant, the exceptionally quirky and comical Truffaldino, is the central figure of this play. He is always complaining of an empty stomach, and always trying to satisfy his hunger by eating everything and anything in sight. In one famous scene, it is implied that he eats Beatrice's beloved cat. When the opportunity presents itself to be servant to another master (Florindo, as it happens) he sees the opportunity for an extra dinner. As Truffaldino runs around Venice trying to fill the orders of two masters, he is almost uncovered several times, especially because other characters repeatedly hand him letters, money, etc. and say simply "this is for your master" without specifying which one. To make matters worse, the stress causes him to develop a temporary stutter, which only arouses more problems and suspicion among his masters. To further complicate matters, Beatrice and Florindo are staying in the same hotel, and are searching for each other. In the end, with the help of Clarice and Smeraldina (Pantalone's feisty servant, who is smitten with Truffaldino) Beatrice and Florindo finally find each other, and with Beatrice exposed as a woman, Clarice is allowed to marry Silvio. The last matter up for discussion is whether Truffaldino and Smeraldina can get married, which at last exposes Truffaldino's having played both sides all along. However, as everyone has just decided to get married, Truffaldino is forgiven. Truffaldino asks Smeraldina to marry him. The most famous set-piece of the play is the scene in which the starving Truffaldino tries to serve a banquet to the entourages of both his masters without either group becoming aware of the other, while desperately trying to satisfy his own hunger at the same time. |
3741370 | /m/09yh36 | Surrender the Pink | Carrie Fisher | 1990-08 | {"/m/01qxvh": "Romance novel"} | Surrender the Pink is a story about screenwriter Dinah Kaufman. Although Dinah is successful at her job, she is a failure in her relationships with men. She then meets someone she believes to be the man of her dreams, Rudy Gendler. Rudy is successful and sophisticated, and he asks her to marry him. She soon discovers, however, that he is not exactly what she believed him to be and their marriage is over. Dinah then realizes that she still loves Rudy and wants him back. |
3742773 | /m/09yl25 | Dogs Don't Tell Jokes | Louis Sachar | 1991 | {"/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature"} | Gary Boone (who calls himself "Goon") is the self-proclaimed clown of his seventh-grade class. He never stops joking, despite the fact that nobody laughs much, and he has no real friends at school. Entering a talent contest as a stand-up comedian forces him to look more closely at the effect his humor has on others and on himself. His old friends support him and help him with his routine. Throughout the book, he is deciding whether or not he should compete. At one point he even quits, but then rejoins.=http://www.amazon.com/Dogs-Dont-Jokes-Louis-Sachar/dp/0679833722#reader_0679833722 Later, Gary becomes upset with his image and tries to change himself. He befriends Joe, a popular kid in his class, and spends time playing football with him. He also starts to collect baseball cards. He tells his parents about this and instead of telling him to be himself, like he expected, they encourage the change and offer him $100 if he doesn't tell a joke for three weeks which is the night of the talent show. Gary is a nervous wreck on the night of the talent competition. He is not in the program because he quit (then rejoined). His friend Joe makes sure he can compete, but he is placed last. When it is Gary's turn, he wets his pants due to his nervousness and excitement. He makes a mistake during the beginning, and soon he forgets his routine. Luckily, two kids who have picked on Gary (referred to as his "fan club"), come and spray water and throw pies at him. This allows Gary to start over, not to mention earning a few laughs. His comic routine runs smoothly and he manages to surprise the audience by showing them his newly shaved head. Gary wins $100 and is respected by his classmates. |
3744486 | /m/09yp09 | The Longest Night | J. N. Williamson | 12/2/2002 | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03npn": "Horror"} | It's December 21, and hour by hour Angel and his crew must survive the longest night of the year. * Written by: Pierce Askegren * Setting: December 21, 2002, 6pm–7pm A quest for a missing child taken by his father leads Angel to a house where the father has made a pact. In return for a human sacrifice each winter solstice, both father and son could live forever. * Written by: Jeff Mariotte * Setting: December 21, 2002, 7pm–8pm A group is killing Santas and replacing them with their own people so that the sound of their bells can open a rift in space-time and allow a demon to eat the Earth. * Written by: Christopher Golden * Setting: December 21, 2002, 8pm–9pm Angel needs help from Cordelia - 4 days before Christmas and he still hasn't done his shopping. But he really is planning a surprise gift for her. They must deal with demonic chaos. !-- This section is linked from Wesley Wyndam-Pryce --> * Written by: Scott Ciencin and Denise Ciencin * Setting: December 21, 2002, 9pm–10pm Wesley meets two ghosts from the early Hollywood era who lead him to a better understanding of his life. * Written by: Emily Oz * Setting: December 21, 2002, 10pm–11pm Cordelia is invited to become a model, but there is a catch. * Written by: Nancy Holder * Setting: December 21, 2002, 11pm–12pm The title is a pun on Have Gun — Will Travel, a popular Western TV series which ran in the 1950s and 1960s. The entourage of the prince of a small middle eastern country-who turns out to be a demon in disguise- is worried for his safety. They ask Gunn to impersonate him for an important gathering. Naturally, things don't go as planned. * Written by: Yvonne Navarro * Setting: December 21, 2002, midnight–1am Having Lilah Morgan send presents was a good idea. Lilah sends Christmas presents to all, but of course she is not playing nice - it's a ploy to test their resolve. * Written by: Nancy Holder * Setting: December 22, 2002, 1am–2am A group of wannabe Druids builds a stone circle to sacrifice a virgin. Time-traveling adventures ensue. * Written by: Doranna Durgin * Setting: December 22, 2002, 2am–3am Something is killing the down-and-outs, and Angel and Co. go undercover to save the day (or night in this case). * Written by: Yvonne Navarro * Setting: December 22, 2002, 3am–4am An ice demon shows up in the hotel and plays with people's memories. * Written by: Doranna Durgin * Setting: December 22, 2002, 4am–5am Christmas carolers are being taken as hosts for a demon race. After freeing the singers and defeating the demons, Angel feels like singing - and does. * Written by: Christie Golden * Setting: December 22, 2002, 5am–6am The creatures of the night are trying to prevent the new day from starting, and only Angel can ensure the new dawn. |
3746980 | /m/09ytc1 | Decipher | Stel Pavlou | 2001 | {"/m/01jfsb": "Thriller", "/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel", "/m/06bvp": "Religion", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Set in the year 2012, a series of seemingly unrelated events take place, which during the course of the story all become interconnected. In Antarctica, an oil drilling venture is taking place by fictitious oil company Rola Corp. It is an unstable time in the region because the US and China are at loggerheads over mineral and oil rights, and the geopolitical landscape is dicey. The drill ship does not strike oil, but does discover a very hard form of diamond which turns out to be Carbon 60. Not only that, but the samples they retrieve have hieroglyphic writing on them. Meanwhile, the US military has been monitoring unusually high solar flare activity and are worried about its effect on their fleet of satellites. While observing Chinese military maneuvers in Antarctica, the spy satellite picks up a highly unusual energy signal emanating from two miles beneath Antarctica's ice sheet. When the US military and Rola Corp. pool their resources it is discovered that not only is the diamond-type material reactive to the sun, but the time of the energy pulses under the ice in Antarctica, match the timing of flare activity from the Sun. A team of scientists are assembled to unravel the mystery. From Richard Scott, a linguistic Anthropologist, to Jon Hackett a Complexity Physicist. The team soon discover that the same energy signature from Antarctica is being detected by satellites from ancient monuments all over the Earth. From the Amazon jungle to Egypt and China. Inspired by stories of the ancient flood of Noah, Scott embarks on the mammoth task of deciphering the mysterious language found on the material, and comparing what it has to say with the ancient myths and legends of floods from all around the world. The myths all have similar themes. They talk about the Sun, the destructive power coming from the sky, a flood, and a mythical lost city, known more famously as Atlantis. More than that, the myths talk of the cyclical nature of this destruction and point to an event that happened 12,000 years ago that may well be happening all over again. The story climaxes with the discovery of Atlantis under the ice in Antarctica and the team's expedition to reach it and find any crumb of help that may save the Earth from the impending disaster that the Sun is about to unleash as it reaches the maximum in its cycle. |
3747604 | /m/09yvjp | Our New West. Records of Travel between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean | null | null | null | American Memory note: Bowles, editor of the The Republican (Springfield), was one of a party that traveled across the Continent in the summers of 1865 and 1866 to explore the Western United States. Several books resulted from the trips. The detailed subtitle of Bowles's book shows clearly how at the time interests in natural and man-made wonders and in exploitable resources were combined. Bowles sees the railroads as the key that will unlock the region. In addition to his enthusiasm for the West, Bowles urges the preservation of Niagara Falls (probably influenced by Frederick Law Olmsted, whom he met in Yosemite Valley) and of regions of the Adirondacks and Maine (pp. 384-85). West, The--Description and travel--1860-1880. American Memory note: Bowles, editor of the The Republican (Springfield), was one of a party that traveled across the Continent in the summers of 1865 and 1866 to explore the Western United States. Several books resulted from the trips. The detailed subtitle of Bowles's book shows clearly how at the time interests in natural and man-made wonders and in exploitable resources were combined. Bowles sees the railroads as the key that will unlock the region. In addition to his enthusiasm for the West, Bowles urges the preservation of Niagara Falls (probably influenced by Frederick Law Olmsted, whom he met in Yosemite Valley) and of regions of the Adirondacks and Maine (pp. 384-85). |
3751582 | /m/09z22h | A Fine Night for Dying | Jack Higgins | 1969-08 | {"/m/01jfsb": "Thriller", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/06wkf": "Spy fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense"} | Weighted down by chain, the body of gangland boss Harvey Preston is dragged out of the English Channel in a fisherman's net. British Intelligence suspects a connection with a minor cross-channel smuggling ring, and sends dogged undercover agent Paul Chavasse to find answers. Chavasse soon discovers that this is no small-time operation; it reaches throughout the world and leads to the doors of some very ruthless and powerful men. Men who aren't about to let Chavasse interfere with the delivery of their precious cargo... |
3752042 | /m/09z2w0 | Live Flesh | Ruth Rendell | 2/27/1986 | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery"} | The novel's protagonist is Victor Jenner, sent to prison for shooting and crippling a police officer after an attempted rape. At his trial and afterwards he claims that his actions were unintentional and somehow provoked by his victim. But there may have been other reasons for his attack of which even he was unaware. Ten years later, Jenner is released from prison and has to find himself a new life, with the reduced resources produced by ten years' incarceration and the handicap of a significant criminal record. He discovers that it is all too easy to slip back into the old one. |
3752418 | /m/09z3dt | A Fatal Inversion | Ruth Rendell | 1987-03 | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery"} | In the hot summer of 1976, a group of young people are camping in Wyvis Hall. Ten years later, the bodies of a woman and child are discovered in the Hall's animal cemetery. Which woman? Whose child? |
3752927 | /m/09z433 | The Sirian Experiments | Doris Lessing | 1980 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | The Sirian Empire, centred in the Sirius star system, has advanced technology that made their citizens effectively immortal (barring accidents) and sophisticated machines that did almost everything for them. But this technology came at a price: many Sirians became afflicted with "the existentials", a debilitating malady that left them feeling worthless and with no reason to exist. To overcome this problem and give its people "something to do", Sirius embarked on a conquest of space and colonised many planets. But they also encroached on territory of the superior Canopean Empire that led to a costly war, which Canopus won. As a gesture of reconciliation, Canopus returned all the captured Sirian territory and invited Sirius to jointly colonise a new and promising planet called Rohanda (an allegorical Earth). Canopus took the northern continents and gave Sirius the southern continents. Ambien II, one of the Five who run the Sirian Colonial Service and also govern the Sirian Empire, represents Sirius on Rohanda. She sets in motion a series of bio-sociological and genetic experiments where large numbers of primitive indigenous people from Sirian colonised planets are space-lifted to Rohanda and adapted there for work elsewhere in the Empire. In the north, Canopus nurtures Rohanda's bourgeoning humanoids and accelerates their evolution. They also put a Lock on the planet that links it to the harmony and strength of the Canopean Empire. Canopus keeps Ambien II updated with reports of all their work, but she is suspicious of Sirius's former enemy, seeing them as a competitor rather than a partner, and is unable to correctly interpret them. Then an unforeseen "cosmic re-alignment" breaks the Lock and Shammat of the malicious Puttiora Empire begins exploiting the situation by corrupting Rohanda's Natives. Canopus, seeing Rohanda decline, renames the planet Shikasta (the stricken). Sirius, unconcerned about Canopus's troubles in the north, continue to refer to the planet as Rohanda. In an attempt to foster better relations with Sirius, Klorathy, a senior Canopean Colonial administrator, invites Ambien II to observe events in their territory. Ambien II, eager to learn more about Canopus, agrees. As Rohanda evolves and civilisations come and go, Ambien II and Klorathy meet several times to watch Rohanda's degeneration. Canopus does what it can to help communities, but with Shammat's evil and a broken Lock, they make little progress. From time to time Klorathy requests Ambien II's help and while working on the planet, she meets Nasar, another Canopean official. She also encounters Tafta, the Shammat commander on Rohanda, and at one point nearly succumbs to his corruption. Ambien II eventually abandons the Sirian Experiments in the south when they are overrun by Shammat. The Five want her to abandon Rohanda altogether, but she has become too attached to the planet and is warming to Canopus and seeing the error of her (and Sirius's) ways. The Five question her ties to their former enemy, but when she tries to explain herself, they do not hear what she is saying, just as she initially could not hear what Canopus was saying. The Five then send her to Planet 13 on "corrective exile" to write a report on what has happened (this book). When she later releases the report, the Five issues a statement denying the authenticity of Ambien II's work. |
3753018 | /m/09z47c | The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five | Doris Lessing | 1980 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | The story opens when the Providers, the invisible and unidentified rulers of all the Zones, order that Al•Ith, queen of the peaceful paradise of Zone Three, marry Ben Ata, king of the militarized and repressive Zone Four. Al•Ith is repulsed by the idea of consorting with a barbarian, and Ben Ata does not want a righteous queen disturbing his military campaigns. Nevertheless, Al•Ith descends to Zone Four and they reluctantly marry. Ben Ata is not used to the company of women he cannot control, and Al•Ith has difficulty relating to this ill-bred man, but in time they grow accustomed to each other and gain new insights into each other's Zones. Al•Ith is appalled that all of Zone Four's wealth goes into its huge armies, leaving the rest of its population poor and underdeveloped. Ben Ata is astounded by the fact that Zone Three has no army at all. The marriage bears a son, Arusi, the future heir to the two Zones. Some of the women of Zone Four, led by Dabeeb (wife of Jarnti, Ben Ata's commander-in-chief), step in to help Al•Ith. Suppressed and downtrodden, these women relish being in the presence of the queen of Zone Three. But soon after the birth of Arusi, and just when Al•Ith and Ben Ata are growing fond of each other, the Providers order Al•Ith back to Zone Three and Ben Ata to marry Vahshi, the queen of the primitive Zone Five. Both are devastated by this news. Back in Zone Three, Al•Ith finds that not only have her people forgotten her, her sister, Murti• has taken over as queen. Disturbed by the changes she sees in Al•Ith, Murti• exiles her to the frontier of Zone Two. Al•Ith, drawn by its allure, tries to enter Zone Two, but finds an unworldly and inhospitable place and is told by invisible people that it is not her time yet. At the frontier of Zone Five, Ben Ata reluctantly marries Vahshi, a tribal leader of a band of nomads who terrorise the inhabitants of Zone Five. But Ben Ata's marriage to Al•Ith has changed him and he disbands most of his armies, sending the soldiers home to rebuild their towns and villages and uplift their communities. He also slowly wins over Vahshi's confidence and persuades her to stop plundering Zone Five. When Arusi is old enough to travel, Dabeeb and her band of women decide to take him to Zone Three to see Al•Ith. This cross-border excursion is not ordered by the Providers and Ben Ata has grave misgivings about their decision. In Zone Three the women are shocked to find the deposed Al•Ith working in a stable near Zone Two. While Al•Ith is pleased to see her son, she too has misgivings about Dabeeb's action. The bumptious women's travels through Zone Three evoke feelings of xenophobia in the locals. After five years of silence, the Providers instruct Ben Ata to go and see Al•Ith. But at the border he is surprised to find a band of Zone Three youths armed with crude makeshift weapons blocking his way. Clearly they want no more incursions from Zone Four. Ben Ata returns with a large army and enters Zone Three unchallenged. While he is not well received, he discovers that Al•Ith has a small but growing band of followers who have moved to the frontier of Zone Two to be close to her. When Ben Ata finds Al•Ith they are reunited like old lovers. He tells her of the reforms he has introduced in Zone Four and his taming of the "wild one" from Zone Five. One day, and not unexpectedly, Al•Ith visits Zone Two and does not return. But the changes set in motion by the two marriages are now evident everywhere. The frontiers between Zones Three, Four and Five are open and people and knowledge are flowing between them. Previously stagnant, the three Zones are now filled with enquiry, inspiration and renewal. |
3753135 | /m/09z4fp | The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 | Doris Lessing | 1982 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | Planet 8 is a small world that was colonised by the benevolent galactic empire Canopus and populated with a new species created from the stock of four different species originating on several other Canopean planets. Planet 8 has a warm temperate climate and, under Canopus's skilled guidance, the inhabitants live comfortably and at peace with themselves and their world. One day Canopus instructs them to build a huge wall, to exact Canopean specifications, right around the girth of the planet. The construction takes the inhabitants years to complete, and when it is finished, Canopus tells the planet's representatives, leaders of each of the planet's main disciplines, to relocate all settlements north of the wall to the south. Canopus informs everyone that unfortunate interstellar "re-alignments" have taken place and that Planet 8 will soon experience an ice age. After a while temperatures start to drop and the climate begins to change. Glaciers form in the north and slowly advance towards the wall. Canopus, however, assures Planet 8 that Canopus has a new home for them, a peaceful and prosperous world called Rohanda (the subject of the first book in this series, Shikasta), and that when it has reached a certain level of development, Canopus will space-lift the inhabitants of Planet 8 to Rohanda. This fills the people of Planet 8 with hope as they are forced to adapt their lifestyles to cope with this new and unfamiliar climate. By the time the glaciers reaches the wall, much of the vegetation in the south has been destroyed by snow and ice and conditions grow worse. Conflict breaks out amongst the erstwhile peaceful villagers as food becomes scarce. But the wall holds the glaciers back and the people still remain resolute in their faith that Canopus will rescue them. Then Canopean agent Johor (first introduced in Shikasta) arrives on Planet 8 with the devastating news that disaster has struck Rohanda: it has been renamed Shikasta (the stricken) and is no longer available for re-settlement. But Johor does not leave Planet 8. He remains to endure the hardships with the villagers and does what he can to help them face their inevitable demise. In time, when the population is now faced with starvation, the wall, which was only a temporary barrier, gives way and the glaciers start overrunning settlements in the south. The senior representatives, at a loss as to what to do, head north over the wall and onto the glacier. Johor travels with them as they try to reach the pole, but they soon all succumb to cold and hunger. Their physical bodies perish, but their "beings" rise and merge into a single consciousness that becomes the Representative for Planet 8 and all its memories. After watching Planet 8 freeze over completely, the Representative departs for a place "where Canopus tends and guards and instructs." |
3753262 | /m/09z4nb | The Sentimental Agents in the Volyen Empire | Doris Lessing | 1983 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction"} | The Volyen Empire is a relatively weak interstellar empire situated at the edge of our galaxy. It comprises the planet Volyen, its two moons, Volyenadna and Volyendesta (also referred to as planets), and two neighbouring planets, Maken and Slovin. Intelligent life evolved independently on each of these five "planets", and over time unstable empires formed, where each planet for a period ruled the others. The Volyen Empire is the last of these empires and rules the region with force and repression. Although this system is at the edge of the Canopean Empire's sphere of influence, Canopus sends agents to the region because Volyen's colonization of Maken and Slovin provoked the Sirian Empire who had earmarked these planets for "possible expansion". In addition, Shammat, Canopus's enemy, had established a presence in the region. Disillusioned and oppressed, the citizens of Volyen and its colonies start speaking out against the Volyen government. Revolutionary groups form and counter the Empire's rhetoric with rhetoric of their own. Krolgul of Shammat, buoyed by the turmoil, encourages anti-government behaviour. Klorathy, a senior Canopean Colonial administrator, is sent to Volyen to observe the unfolding events, and to monitor Incent, one of his agents who has been caught up in the sentiment of the revolutionary rhetoric. Incent has also fallen prey to Krolgul's propaganda and is withdrawn from the field by Klorathy and placed in a Hospital for Rhetorical Diseases on Volyendesta. Sirius is now threatening to invade the region, and this is welcomed by the downtrodden in the Volyen Empire because they are sure that Sirius will set them free. Many citizens became Sirian agents and provide Sirius with information and support. But the Sirian Empire is itself in turmoil. A conflict on Sirius split the governing oligarchy into the Questioners, led by the Five who want Sirius's expansion program halted, and the Conservers, who believe Sirius should continue colonizing other planets. The Five were defeated and Sirius resumed its expansion, but this time with an uncontrolled brutality that turned the Sirian Empire into a tyranny. When the Sirian agents learn about Sirius's tyranny, their loyalties are divided between Sirius and Volyen, and they become known as "sentimental agents". Sirius invades the Volyen Empire with troops from nearby Sirian occupied planets. The troops, themselves colonial subjects of the now declining Sirian Empire, were told that Volyen is poor and deprived and needs Sirius's help. But when they land they discover that the Volyens are better off than they are, and return home and declare their own planets independent from Sirius. Volyenadna and Volyendesta, with Klorathy's help, become self-sustaining and declare their independence from the crumbling Volyen Empire. The change of circumstances in the region weakens Krolgul and his influence, and he returns to Shammat. Incent, now "recovered" from his illness, decides that he is going to help Krolgul. Klorathy, still Incent's custodian, follows him to Shammat. |
3753688 | /m/09z5b7 | Sidetracked | Henning Mankell | null | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense"} | In the sweltering Swedish summer of 1994, a sadistic serial killer begins preying on elderly, successful men, violently slaughtering them with an axe before collecting their scalps as trophies. Meanwhile, Wallander witnesses a young woman from the Dominican Republic set herself on fire, and must also cope with his increasingly despondent father, who's determined to make one final trip to Italy. As he investigates the two cases, the Ystad detective uncovers a sinister link to prostitution rackets and the white slavery trade. |
3755097 | /m/09z769 | Typhoon | Joseph Conrad | 1902 | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/08sdrw": "Adventure novel", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense"} | Typhoon is a classic sea yarn, possibly based upon Conrad's actual experience of seaman's life, and probably on a real incident aboard of the real steamer John P. Best. It describes how Captain MacWhirr sails the Siamese steamer Nan-Shan into a typhoon—a mature tropical cyclone of the northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean. Other characters include the young Jukes - most probably an "alter ego" of Conrad from the time he had sailed under captain John McWhir - and Solomon Rout, the chief engineer. The novel classically evokes the seafaring life at the turn of the century. While Macwhirr, who, according to Conrad, "never walked on this Earth" - is emotionally estranged from his family and crew, and though he refuses to consider an alternate course to skirt the typhoon, his indomitable will in the face of a superior natural force elicits grudging admiration. |
3755880 | /m/09z8yy | Angélique, the Marquise of the Angels | Anne Golon | 1956 | {"/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | In Mid-17th century France, a young Louis XIV struggles for his throne, beggars and thieves haunt Paris and brigands roam the countryside. Fifth child of an impoverished country nobleman, Angélique de Sancé de Monteloup grows up in the Poitou marshlands. Her logical destiny would be to marry a poor country nobleman, have children and spend her life fighting for a meager subsistence. Destiny has other plans in store for her. At 17, on returning from her education in a convent, she finds herself betrothed to the rich count, Jeoffrey de Peyrac, (Jeoffrey Comte de Peyrac de Morens d'Irristru, Lord of Toulouse and Aquitaine), 12 years her senior - lame, scarred and reputed to be a wizard. For the sake of her family, Angélique reluctantly agrees to the match but refuses the advances of her husband. Peyrac respects her decision and does not pursue his claim to conjugal rights, wishing to seduce her rather than use force. With the passing of months, Angelique discovers the talents and virtues of her remarkable husband - scientist, musician, philosopher - and to her surprise falls passionately in love with him. But Peyrac's unusual way of life is threatened by the ambitions of the Archbishop of Toulouse, and soon arouses the jealousy of King Louis XIV, who, in actual historical record, disliked nobles who were too powerful and independent of the monarchy. Jeoffrey is arrested and charged with sorcery. Angélique tries to single-handedly take on the might of the royal court. She survives several murder attempts and overcomes insurmountable odds in an effort to save Jeoffrey from being burned at the stake, but to no avail. Alone and desperate, Angélique plunges into the darkness of the Paris underworld, intent on revenge and fueled by her determination to survive. Angélique realizes that her underworld existence is unfair to her sons, who belong to one of the greatest noble families in France. She works to regain her family's rightful inheritance that had been stolen from them by the monarchy. She blackmails her cousin Philippe du Plessis de Bellière, a favourite Marshal of the king, into marriage. |
3756137 | /m/09z9fn | Baraka | null | null | null | The story involves a multinational oil company's attempts to gain oil rights in Vietnam by supporting an arms deal. |
3756184 | /m/09z9k3 | From Doon With Death | Ruth Rendell | null | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense"} | The police knew all about Margaret Parsons. She was a religious, old-fashioned and respectable woman, as unexciting and dependable as her marriage. But it wasn't her life that interested Wexford - it was her violent, passionate death. Inspector Wexford becomes interested in her death after finding a number of letters from the mysterious Doon. |
3756259 | /m/09z9qc | Life & Times of Michael K | John Maxwell Coetzee | 1983 | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | The novel is split into three parts. The novel begins with Michael K, an institutionalized simpleton who works as a gardener in Cape Town, South Africa. Michael tends to his mother who works as a maid to a wealthy family. Eventually, the city breaks out in a massive warlike riot, and Michael's mother becomes very sick. Michael decides to quit his job and escape the city to return his mother to her birthplace of Prince Albert . Michael finds himself unable to obtain the proper permits for travel out of the city so he builds a shoddy rickshaw to carry his mother, and they go on their way. Soon after escaping, Michael’s mother dies in a hospital. He lingers for some time, carrying his mother’s ashes around with him in a box. Finally, Michael decides to continue on his journey to Prince Albert to deliver his mother’s ashes. Along the way, though, he is detained for not having the required travel papers, thus being assigned to work detail on a railway track. After his job on the railway track is finished, Michael makes his way to the farm his mother spoke of on Prince Albert. The farm is abandoned and desolate. Soon, Michael discovers how to live off the land. However, when one of the relatives of the real owners of the farm arrives, he treats Michael like a servant. Michael dislikes this treatment so he escapes up into the mountains. In the mountains, Michael goes through a period of starvation while he becomes aware of his surroundings. In his malnourished state he finds his way down to a town where he is picked up by the police and is sent to work on a work camp. Here, Michael meets a man named Robert. Robert explains that the workers in the camp are exploited for cheap labor by the townspeople. Eventually, there is an attack on Prince Albert and the workers of the camp are blamed. The local police captain takes over and Michael escapes. Michael finds his way back to the farm but soon feels claustrophobic within the house. Therefore, he builds a shelter in the open where he is able to watch his garden. Rebels come out of the mountains and use his garden. Although Michael is angered by this he stays in hiding. Michael becomes malnourished and delirious again because he has not come out of hiding. He is found by some soldiers and is taken to a rehabilitation camp in Cape Town. At the rehabilitation camp, a doctor becomes interested in Michael. He finds Michael’s simple nature extremely fascinating and finds him to be unfairly accused of aiding rebels. Michael becomes very sick and delirious because he refuses to eat. The doctor tries to understand Michael’s stubborn ways while attempting to get Michael released. However, Michael escapes on his own. Upon his escape, Michael meets with a group of nomadic people who feed him and introduce him to a woman who has sex with him; later we see him attracted to women for the first time. He returns to the apartment where he and his mother lived in Cape Town, the same apartment and city he had tried to escape some time ago. Michael reflects on the garden he made in Prince Albert. Some commentators notice a connection between the character Michael K and the protagonist Josef K. in The Trial by Franz Kafka. The book also bears many references to Kafka, and it is believed, "K" is a tribute to Kafka. |
3758399 | /m/09zdtz | The Perilous Gard | Elizabeth Marie Pope | 1974 | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | The Perilous Gard takes place in England during the 1550s. The lead character, Kate Sutton, is a lady-in-waiting for Queen Elizabeth I of England when she is still a princess. Her sister, Alicia, inadvertently gets her exiled to a castle named Elvenwood Hall, also known as The Perilous Gard, where she finds that the daughter of Sir Geoffrey Heron, the master of the hall, vanished under mysterious circumstances that implicate his brother, Christopher Heron. She also finds that the local villagers fear the fairy folk who live under the hill and think they may be kidnapping children. Kate stumbles into the underground fairy world where she faces several challenges, which include saving herself and Christopher, who chose to offer himself as a sacrifice to the leader of the fairy folk, the Lady In Green. Kate detests the Lady In Green at first, but the two of them have much in common. Both are strong-willed, highly independent, and capable of enormous self-discipline. Kate's refusal to be drugged or manipulated in other ways soon gains her a measure of respect among the Fairy Folk. Little by little she gains knowledge of their underground lair, while the Lady In Green gradually changes from a cruel tormentor to a mentor and almost, at times, a friend. At the end Kate saves Christopher, who takes Cecily to London to live with his sister Jenny (Jennifer). When Christopher comes back he proposes to Kate, and she accepts. Kate is granted freedom when Queen Elizabeth I ascends the throne. In this book, faeries, or "the Old Ones", are cold, heartless creatures. They serve as a representation of the old pagan religions that were gradually driven out of England by Christianity. They are ruled by the GUARDIAN OF THE WELL and the QUEEN OF THE FAERIE FOLK. The story has references to Tam Lin and weaves in ballads, paganism, and Christianity. |
3759894 | /m/09zh6m | Grendel | John Gardner | 1971 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/0fr3y1": "Parallel novel"} | Grendel begins with the title character engaged in a twelve-year war against the human Danes. In the opening scene, Grendel briefly fights with a ram when frustrated with its stupidity. He then mockingly asks the sky why animals lack sense and dignity; the sky does not reply, adding to his frustration. Grendel then passes through his cave and encounters his mute mother before venturing out into the night where he attacks Hrothgar's mead hall, called "Hart" in Grendel. Later, Grendel reminisces about his early experiences in life, beginning with his childhood days of exploring the caves inhabited by him, his mother and other creatures with which he is unable to speak. One day, however, he arrives at a pool filled with firesnakes, which he enters. Upon exiting, he is greeted by moonlight. Exploring the mysterious outside world at greater length, he eventually becomes wedged and trapped in a tree. Helpless, he cries for his mother, but only a bull appears, wounding him. The bull's unchanging, unrelenting manner of attack leads him to conclude that the whole of reality is tantamount to the animal's senseless efforts (a nihilistic view). As he is able to evade its blows, he falls asleep, only to wake surrounded by humans. The armored men, thinking that he is a tree spirit, try to feed him. Although Grendel can understand the humans, they cannot understand him and they become frightened, which leads to a fight between Grendel and the Danish warriors, including Hrothgar. Grendel is barely saved from death at the hands of the humans by the appearance of his mother. The novel continues by elaborating on the colonization of the area by humans and their subsequent development from nomadic bands into complex civilizations with fine crafts, politics, and warfare. Grendel witnesses Hrothgar become the foremost in power amongst the human factions. During Hrothgar's rise to prominence, a blind poet appears at the doors of Hart, whom Grendel calls "the Shaper" (a literal translation of the word Scop) . He tells the story of the ancient warrior Scyld Shefing, which enraptures and seduces Grendel. The monster reacts violently to the power the beautiful myth has on him and flees, having seen the brutal rise of the Danes. Grendel continues to be enraptured by the tales, as does Hrothgar, who begins a widespread campaign of philanthropy and justice. After seeing a corpse and two lovers juxtaposed, he drags the corpse to Hart, bursting into the hall and begging for mercy and peace. The thegns do not comprehend his actions and see this as an attack, driving him from the hall. While fleeing the men, he curses them, yet still returns later to hear the rest of the Shaper's songs, half enraptured and half enraged. When Grendel returns to his cave, he attempts and fails to communicate with his mother, thus leaving him with a sense of total loneliness. He becomes filled with despair and falls through the sea, finding himself in an enormous cave filled with riches and a dragon. The omniscient dragon reveals to Grendel a totally fatalistic view of reality. The dragon explains the power of the Shaper as simply the ability to make the logic of humans seem real, despite the fact his lore possesses no factual basis. The dragon and Grendel cannot agree about the dragon's statements that existence is a chain reaction of accidents, and Grendel exits the cave in a mixed state of confusion, anger, and denial. While listening to the Shaper, he is spotted by sentries, who try to fight him off again, but he discovers that the dragon has enchanted him, leaving him impervious to weapons. Realizing his power, he begins attacking Hart, viewing his attacks as a perpetual battle. Grendel is challenged by a thegn named Unferth, to which he responds mockingly, leaving when Unferth runs away crying. Grendel awakens a few days later to realize that Unferth has followed him to his cave in an act of heroic desperation. Grendel continues to mock Unferth, leading the Dane to threaten Grendel with death, in the hope that his people would sing of his tale for years to come. When Unferth passes out from exhaustion, Grendel takes him back to Hart to live out his days in frustrated mediocrity. In the second year of the war, Grendel notes that his raids have destroyed the esteem of Hrothgar, allowing a rival noble named Hygmod to gain power. Fearing deposition, Hrothgar assembles an army to attack Hygmod and his people, the Helmings. Instead of a fight Hygmod offers his sister Wealtheow to Hrothgar as a wife after a series of negotiations. The beauty of Wealtheow moves Grendel as the Shaper had once before, keeping the monster from attacking Hart just as she prevents internal conflicts among the Danes. Eventually, Grendel decides to kill Wealtheow, since she threatens the ideas explained by the dragon. Upon capturing her, he realizes that killing and not killing are equally meaningless, and he retreats, knowing that by not killing Wealtheow, he has once again confounded the logic of humanity and religion. Later, Grendel watches as Hrothgar's nephew Hrothulf develops his understanding of the two classes in Danish society: thegns and peasants. He wrestles with his anarchist theories and then further explores them with a peasant named Red Horse, who teaches Hrothulf that government exists only for the protection of those in power. As the politics of Hrothulf, Hygmod, Hrothgar, and a thegn named Ingeld become more bitter and pathetic, Grendel defends his terrorizing of the Danes, claiming that his violence has resulted in great deeds and given the people humanity, thus making him their creator. While there had previously been foreshadowing of the death of Grendel, the character himself begins to feel an uneasy sensation that becomes fear. Grendel then watches a religious ceremony and considers the futility and role of religion. While sitting in the circle of the Danish gods, an old priest, Ork, approaches the monster. Thinking that Grendel is their main deity, the Destroyer, he talks to Grendel, who plays along, questioning Ork. The priest explains a theological system that borders on monotheism, bringing him to tears. While Grendel is puzzled by the fervent belief, three other priests approach and chastise Ork. Grendel flees at this opportunity, overwhelmed with a vague dread. Grendel again fights an animal in his lair, but gives up after even death will not stop its mechanical climb. Watching the Danes, he hears a woman predict the coming of an illustrious thegn and then witnesses the death of the Shaper. Returning to his cave, his mother seems agitated. She manages to make one unusual unintelligible word, which Grendel discounts, and then goes to the Shaper's funeral. The Shaper's assistant sings a song derived from the tale of King Finn (see the Finnsburg Fragment). Later, in the cave, he wakes up with his mother still making word-like noises, and once again feels a terrible foreboding. Grendel reveals that fifteen travellers have come to Denmark from over the sea, almost as though the way was set before them. He has a morbid exhilaration from these visitors, most especially from their huge and taciturn leader. The visitors, who reveal themselves to be Geats ruled by Hygelac, have an uneasy relationship with the Danes. Upon their arrival, Unferth mockingly claims that the leader of the visitors has lost a challenge to another champion. The Geat leader, Beowulf, calmly relates his version of the events, and then rebukes Unferth, who leaves on the verge of tears. Grendel notices the firm nature of Beowulf and the fact that his lips do not move in accordance with his words, as though he is dead or risen from the dead. He sees a great lust for violence in Beowulf's eyes, convincing Grendel he is insane. At nightfall, Grendel gleefully decides to attack. He breaks into the hall and eats one man. Grabbing the wrist of another, he realizes that it is Beowulf, and that he has grabbed his arm. They wrestle furiously, during which Beowulf appears to become a flaming dragon-like figure and repeats many of the ideas that the dragon revealed to Grendel. As Beowulf gains the upper hand, Grendel tells himself that were it not for a slip on a puddle of blood, Beowulf would not be in control of their battle. The Geat slams Grendel into the walls of the hall, demanding that Grendel sing about the hardness of walls. This is a continuation of Grendel's poetic exploration of philosophy. He then rips off Grendel's arm, causing the monster to flee in pain and fear. Grendel feels as though everything is unnaturally clear, leading him to toss himself into an abyss (whether or not Grendel jumps is left up to the perception of the reader). He notes as he dies that the only creatures attending his "funeral" are the animals he so despised. Grendel dies wondering if what he is feeling is joy, understanding what the dragon meant by the accident statement, and cursing existence. |
3760657 | /m/09zjrj | Storm Warning | Jack Higgins | 8/9/1976 | {"/m/01jfsb": "Thriller", "/m/098tmk": "War novel", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | A German merchant ship is attempting to return to Germany from Brazil at the end of August 1944 via a crossing of the Atlantic which is full of enemy shipping and warships. With a crew of twenty-two men and five nuns as passengers, the boat makes its remarkable journey, but after being severely battered by a storm, is wrecked off the coast of Scotland on the Washington Reef in the Outer Hebrides. The conclusion may sound familiar to some as Higgins has obviously taken some ideas (especially the ones regarding the shipwreck) from an earlier novel he wrote called 'A Game For Heroes', in which German soldiers and British citizens try to rescue the crew of a ship that has foundered off the coast of the Jersey islands. Once again, the protagonists are enemies that come together to help each other in time of need. |
3760670 | /m/09zjsx | Children of The Dust | Louise Lawrence | 1985 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/026ny": "Dystopia"} | When the air raid sirens go off, Sarah, a schoolgirl in England, runs home to help her stepmother, Veronica, prepare the living room to protect the family from nuclear fallout. Sarah and Veronica assemble living provisions, rudimentary sanitary supplies, and clothes and toys for Veronica's son William (aged five) and daughter Catherine (aged seven). The family then shelter inside as the bombs fall. Sarah realises that the water the rest of the family has been using has become contaminated with radioactive particles from the unblocked chimney, and all apart from Catherine are likely to contract radiation sickness. Veronica displays symptoms first and leaves the house several times to collect canned (safe) food for Catherine. She tells Sarah that community members have gathered in the church and a local farmer is giving away contaminated meat for free. Later, when her symptoms become worse, Veronica leaves, presumably to die. William also begins to suffer from radiation sickness, and when he is near death and Sarah begins to weaken she leaves the house, bundling Catherine up against contamination. She gathers food for her from the house of the town farmer and takes her to the remote home of Johnson. Johnson has been prepared for the war, and appears unaffected by radiation sickness. This section begins with a flashback to the day of the war, which reveals that Sarah's father, Bill, a lecturer at Bristol University, was driving to a meeting when a woman named Erica flagged him down. As a leading authority on cellular cloning, she had a pass granting her (and anyone accompanying her) shelter in a government bunker. Bill takes Erica to the bunker at Avon, but had mixed feelings about surviving when his wife and children did not. Within two months of the war, Britain is gripped by a nuclear winter. When the nuclear winter finally ends, the authorities send helicopters on reconnaissance missions, which reveal that against all odds, there are people still alive outside. They also learn that the ozone layer has been damaged, so anyone who goes outside must wear protective clothing. Erica feels it is her duty as a woman still of child-bearing age to help repopulate society, so she marries Bill and gives birth to a daughter, Ophelia. Bill is assigned to teach the bunker's teenagers, and, though he is officially meant to teach science-based subjects, introduces subjects such as English literature and politics into the curriculum. Ophelia spends the first sixteen years of her life in the bunker, where she calmly accepts the restrictions on her life. But other youngsters, in particular an Anglo-American youth named Dwight Allison, are not so accepting. Under the influence of Bill's teachings, Dwight has come to believe that General MacAllister, the man in charge of the bunker, has too much authority and, one day, spray-paints a slogan denouncing MacAllister as a "fascist pig". As a punishment, Dwight is sentenced to a year of hard labour and expelled from school. Some time later, a large herd of cattle is found in one of the outside communities. MacAllister orders Dwight's father, Colonel Jeff Allison, to bring the cattle to the bunker for "government protection". Dwight believes it would be wrong to take the cattle when the outsiders depend on them for survival and hurries to tell Bill. Bill and Dwight decide that the best course of action would be to leave the bunker and warn the community which owns the cattle; Ophelia accompanies them, but she does so because they are the people she is closest to, not because she feels they are doing the right thing. Outside, the world is recovering from the effects of the war and Ophelia is able to experience things she has previously only known about via her father's lessons. They discover the cattle owners are Johnson's community, and Bill is soon reunited with Catherine, who is heavily pregnant with her eighth child. She married Johnson when she was in her teens, but six of the children she has already given birth to have died in infancy due to genetic mutation. Since Johnson is old enough to be Catherine's father, Ophelia is disgusted, thinking the outsiders are uncivilised compared to the people in the bunker. Dwight retorts that the latter are like "dinosaurs", attempting to maintain pre-war standards of living and not adapting to the changed conditions in the world. During the course of the day, Ophelia meets Catherine's only surviving daughter, Lilith, who was born with white eyes and pale hairs all over her body; she also has a vocal cord defect which prevents her from speaking. Since there is no other community which can handle a herd the size of Johnson's, Bill and Dwight are unable to get the cattle away before Colonel Allison and his men come to collect them. Johnson attempts to compromise by offering Colonel Allison enough cattle to form the basis of a herd, but Colonel Allison says he is not in a position to negotiate. Realising the discussion is going nowhere, Dwight sabotages all but one of the Army trucks, making it impossible to take the cattle back to the bunker, and escapes into the wilderness. Ophelia wants to return to the bunker, even though doing so means she will never see Dwight again. The section ends with Ophelia in tears, as Lilith (with her newborn sister in her arms) smiles at her pityingly. Five decades after the war, the bunker is decaying and fuel supplies have run out, and the people in the bunker have been forced to seek sanctuary among outside communities. On one such expedition, Ophelia's son, Simon, sees a pack of wild dogs stalking a person who is searching the ruins of an old house. He fires his gun, killing one of the dogs and scattering the rest, then goes to help the person they were stalking. That person proves to be a mutant girl named Laura, who tells him that "weapons are evil" and that he has no right to kill a living thing. When Simon sees that Laura's body is covered with hair (which protects her skin from being damaged by ultra-violet radiation), he is repulsed by her, thinking she is an "ape". Shortly after meeting Laura, Simon injures his leg on a rusty nail. Since his people have no means to treat injuries, he is taken to Johnson's community, where Laura lives. Rather than having separate homes for each family, the community consists of a large "house" which reminds Simon of a Tibetan monastery. Seeing the well-ordered community where people have learned to make everything they need themselves, Simon begins to feel that his own people are "failures", having tried to restore pre-war standards at the expense of their children's futures. Simon meets Catherine, now known as "Blind Kate," blind after years of exposure to ultraviolet radiation and covered in festering sores. Simon sees in her a glimpse of his own future and, on learning that she is Laura's grandmother, is so repulsed at the thought of being related to a mutant that he can't bring himself to acknowledge it. Instead, when Laura asks if he has ever heard of the people who once came to the community to take the cattle, he claims not to know them. The next morning, Simon finds himself the topic of much discussion among the mutants. Unable to bear being the subject of pity, he storms out of the dining hall and, following a vitriolic lecture from blind Kate, leaves the settlement even though his leg is not fully healed. He plans to catch up with the rest of his party, but a pack of dogs chases him into a ruined church. While there, he sees a glider flying overhead. The glider's pilot alerts Laura's people to Simon's whereabouts. Laura rides to the rescue on her horse and uses her psychic powers to send the dogs away. She tells Simon that she and the rest of the mutants have developed telekinetic powers and the ability to communicate telepathically. She believes the mutants are a new species of humans, but they need the technical knowledge Simon's people have kept alive if they are to reach their full potential. Simon comes to terms with what his ancestors did to the world and realises that, though he can't change the past, he can do something positive with his own life by helping his people collaborate with the mutants. He comes to believe that the nuclear war was meant to happen, so that Laura (whom he finally acknowledges as his cousin) and the rest of her kind could be born. |
3761127 | /m/09zkp9 | Running Wild | J. G. Ballard | 1988 | {"/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/0l67h": "Novella"} | Pangbourne Village is an estate for the upper middleclass, protected by security fences and discreet guards. Its ten families are wealthy, respectable, 40-something couples with adolescent children on whom they lavish everything money can buy. One morning it is discovered that all the adult residents have been killed and the children have disappeared without trace. Dr Richard Greville of Scotland Yard puzzles over the scanty evidence: it gives no leads to the identity of the murderers and kidnappers. No demands for ransom are received. No terrorist group claims responsibility. The reader soon realizes that the missing children are also the missing murderers. Their controlled and materialistic upbringing has left them no way to establish their own identities except by rebelling into criminal savagery. However, in a tradition of obtuse policemen going back to Inspector Lestrade in the Sherlock Holmes stories, Greville resists drawing this obvious conclusion - until the children strike again. |
3761434 | /m/09zlfr | The Wild Swans | Hans Christian Andersen | 1838-10-02 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | In a faraway kingdom, there lives a widowed King with his twelve children: eleven princes and one princess. One day, he decides to remarry. He marries a wicked queen who was a witch. Out of spite, the queen turns her eleven stepsons into swans (they are allowed to become human by night) and forces them to fly away. The queen then tries to bewitch their 15-year old sister Elisa, but Elisa's goodness is too strong for this, so she has Elisa banished. The brothers carry Elisa to safety in a foreign land where she is out of harm's way of her stepmother. There, Elisa is guided by the queen of the fairies to gather nettles in graveyards; she knits these into shirts that will eventually help her brothers regain their human shapes. Elisa endures painfully blistered hands from nettle stings, and she must also take a vow of silence for the duration of her task, for speaking one word will kill her brothers. The king of another faraway land happens to come across the mute Elise and falls in love with her. He grants her a room in the castle where she continues her knitting. Eventually he proposes to crown her as his queen and wife, and she accepts. However, the Archbishop is chagrined because he thinks Elisa is herself a witch, but the king will not believe him. One night Elisa runs out of nettles and is forced to collect more in a nearby church graveyard where the Archbishop is watching. He reports the incident to the king as proof of witchcraft. The statues of the saints shake their heads in protest, but the Archbishop misinterprets this sign as confirmation of Elisa's guilt. The Archbishop orders to put Elisa on trial for witchcraft. She can speak no word in her defence and is sentenced to death by burning at the stake. The brothers discover Elisa's plight and try to speak to the king, but fail. Even as the tumbril bears Elise away to execution, she continues knitting, determined to keep it up to the last moment of her life. This enrages the people, who are on the brink of snatching and destroying the shirts when the swans descend and rescue Elise. The people (correctly) interpret this as a sign from Heaven that Elise is innocent, but the executioner still makes ready for the burning. Then Elise throws the shirts over the swans, and the brothers return to their human forms. The youngest brother retains one swan's wing because Elise did not have time to finish the last sleeve. Elise is now free to speak and tell the truth, but she faints from exhaustion, so her brothers explain. As they do so, the firewood around Elise's stake miraculously take root and burst into flowers. The king plucks the topmost flower and presents it to Elise and they are married. |
3762180 | /m/09zmw0 | Alchemy | Margaret Mahy | 11/4/2002 | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Roland, a 7th former who has been caught shoplifting, is given an unusual assignment: to spy on a mysterious girl in his class who is studying alchemy. However, an enemy from the boy's past wants the girl's power and is using him for information. Roland eventually finds out that he is not unlike Jess Ferret and her abilities, but gets them both into a situation which endangers their lives. Alchemy has similar themes to two other books by Mahy, The Changeover and The Haunting. The book won the senior fiction section of the 2003 New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards. |
3762499 | /m/09zncj | End in Tears | Ruth Rendell | 10/20/2005 | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense"} | When a lump of concrete is thrown from a bridge and into passing traffic one dark night, the wrong motorist dies. The killer soon rectifies his mistake, however, and Inspector Wexford finds himself under attack from the local press because of his 'old-fashioned' policing methods. Meanwhile, the difficult relationship he shares with his daughter Sylvia takes on new dimensions, as the case makes him ponder the terrible possibility of losing a child... |
3763549 | /m/09zpyt | Mem and Zin | Ehmedê Xanî | null | {"/m/01qxvh": "Romance novel", "/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | Mam, of the "Alan" clan, and Zin, of the "Botan" clan, are two star-crossed lovers. Their union is blocked by a person named Bakr of the Bakran clan. Mam eventually dies during a complicated conspiracy by Bakr. When Zin receives the news, she also dies while mourning the death of Mam at his grave. The immense grief leads to her death and she is buried next to Mam. The news of the death of Mam and Zin, spreads quickly among the people of Jazira Botan. Then Bakr's role in the tragedy is revealed, and he takes sanctuary between the two graves. He is eventually captured and slain by the people of Jazira. A thorn bush soon grows out of Bakr’s blood, sending its roots of malice deep into the earth between the lovers’ graves, separating the two even after their death. In 2002, the Kurdistan TV satellite channel produced a dramatised series of Mam and Zin, which was recognised as one of the best-directed dramas in Kurdistan. |
3765263 | /m/09zt4s | Las películas de mi vida | Alberto Fuguet | 2002 | {"/m/012jgz": "Autobiographical novel"} | The novel's protagonist tells the story of his life lived back and forth between Chile and California. He focuses first on his early youth spent in California, using the films that he saw as a way to characterize this time in his life. He rather suddenly has to return to Chile in his early teens, coming home to live under Augusto Pinochet's regime, a major culture shock for him. |
3765320 | /m/09zt88 | Aug-14 | Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn | null | {"/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | The plot primarily follows Colonel Vorotyntsev, a General Staff officer sent by the Grand Duke's (supreme commander, Russian Army) headquarters to the Russian Second Army invading East Prussia under command of General Alexander Samsonov. Vorotyntsev has been sent to find out exactly what is happening with the Second Army; a second General Staff colonel has been sent to the First Army with the same mission. Distances were so great, communications so poor, and the Russian Army so badly prepared for war, Voroyntsev was sent to find out all he could about conditions at the front and then report back to the Grand Duke. By August 26, the opening day of the 4-day Battle of Tannenberg, Vorotyntsev comes to realize that he cannot return to his headquarters in time to make any difference in the outcome of the battle, and stays with the Second Army to help out where he is able to. Numerous side plots involving other characters, both on the battlefield and elsewhere, fill out this great historical novel. The unprepared army's failures mirror those of the Tsarist regime. A famous episode in the earlier version of the novel narrates the state of mind and suicide of General Samsonov, the Russian commander. |
3765583 | /m/09ztpl | The Dying Animal | Philip Roth | 2001 | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | Kepesh is fascinated by the beautiful young Consuela Castillo, a student in one of his courses. An erotic liaison is formed between the two; Kepesh becomes obsessively enamored of his lover's breasts, a fetish developed in the previous novels. Despite his fevered devotion to Consuela, the sexually promiscuous professor maintains a concurrent affair with a previous lover, now divorced. He is also reluctant to expose himself to the scrutiny or ridicule that might follow from an introduction to Consuela's family. It is implied that he fears such a meeting would expose the implausible age gap in their relationship. Ultimately, Kepesh limits their relationship to the physical instead of embarking upon any deeper arrangement. In the end, Kepesh is destroyed by his indecisiveness, the fear of senescence, his lust and jealousy. Consuela never subsequently finds a lover who can show the same level of devotion to her body as Kepesh had. After some years of estrangement, she asks him to take nude photographs of her because she will be losing one of her breasts to a life-saving mastectomy. Most editions display a cover picture, Le grand nu (1919) by Amedeo Modigliani. In the novel, Consuela sends Kepesh a postcard depicting Le grand nu, and Kepesh surmises that the figure in the painting is her alter ego. |
3765923 | /m/09zvct | Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress | Daniel Defoe | 1724 | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | The novel concerns the story of an unnamed "fallen woman", the second time Defoe created such a character (the first was a similar female character in Moll Flanders). In Roxana, a woman who takes on various pseudonyms, including "Roxana," describes her fall from wealth thanks to abandonment by a "fool" of a husband and movement into prostitution upon his abandonment. Roxana moves up and down through the social spectrum several times, by contracting an ersatz marriage to a jeweler, secretly courting a prince, being offered marriage by a Dutch merchant, and is finally able to afford her own freedom by accumulating wealth from these men. |
3766150 | /m/09zvsg | Four to Score | Janet Evanovich | 6/15/1998 | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense"} | Stephanie Plum is back and she wants revenge, and this time she's on the trail of Maxine Nowicki, an ex-waitress accused of stealing her ex-boyfriend's car. Helping Stephanie is former-prostitute-turned-backup Lula, puzzle solving transvestite singer Sally Sweet, mentor Ranger, and vice cop Joe Morelli. This one won't be easy though, as Stephanie's competing with her arch nemesis Joyce Barnhardt. Oh, and she can't forget the little matter of someone trying to kill her. Again. Stephanie & Morelli resume their intimate relationship. |
3766159 | /m/09zvt4 | High Five | Janet Evanovich | 7/16/1999 | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense"} | Business is slow for Stephanie Plum, so when her Uncle Fred goes missing, Stephanie agrees to help look for him. Soon enough, Stephanie realizes that (once again) she's in over her head, and up to her neck in unanswered questions. Stephanie for the first time takes a job with Ranger at his company to make ends meet. Why are there pictures of body parts in Uncle Fred's house? Why is a nasty bookie following Stephanie around? Could her Uncle's disappearance have something to do with two dollars? Why can't she bring in the certified midget FTA Randy Briggs? Stephanie's stalker Benito Ramirez, from book one, is released and is back to irritate Stephanie some more. Stephanie's latest case is proceeding 'business as usual'. |
3766182 | /m/09zvwl | Seven Up | Janet Evanovich | 6/19/2001 | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense"} | Stephanie is assigned to bring in semi-retired mobster Eddie DeChooch when he fails to appear in court for selling contraband cigarettes. When two of Stephanie's burned-out high-school friends, Walter 'MoonMan' Dunphy and Dougie 'The Dealer' Kruper, get themselves mixed up in DeChooch's cigarette scheme -- and then vanish -- Stephanie calls the mysterious Ranger for help. With Ranger's assistance, plus the 'aid' of two (very polite) hoodlums with a talent for breaking-and-entering, it becomes apparent that DeChooch may have come out of retirement... To make things worse, Stephanie's perfect older sister Valerie divorces her cheating husband, and moves back in with her family, along with her two daughters. She then proclaims herself to be a lesbian, and adds more craziness to Stephanie's life. In short, life in the Burg hasn't changed a bit. |
3766194 | /m/09zvxm | Hot Six | Janet Evanovich | 2000-06 | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense"} | The book begins at the point at which High Five ended, revealing who Stephanie picked: Ranger or Joe Morelli. The story then jumps ahead five months, with Stephanie's friend Carol attempting to avoid jail-time by jumping off a bridge. Stephanie talks her down, and persuades the man who reported her not to press charges. In return, Stephanie must watch the man's dog, Bob, which she does. He never comes to take the dog back. Meanwhile, Stephanie must chase down Ranger, while being followed by two hit men (and getting four cars destroyed in the process). Stephanie's eccentric Grandma Mazur has moved in, as well, and to top it all off, Plum has to deal with a stoner named Mooner. In the end, it all works out. Stephanie even gains a proposal out of the deal. |
3766297 | /m/09zw2b | To the Nines | Janet Evanovich | 7/15/2003 | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense"} | Stephanie Plum, bounty-hunter. She's got all the normal concerns in life: the rent, her family, men; yet all of her concerns are topped by the minor fact that someone is usually trying to kill her. The title appears to come from the common phrase, 'dressed to the nines'. "My name is Stephanie Plum and I was born and raised in the Chambersburg section of Trenton, where the top male activities are scarfing pastries and pork rinds and growing love handles." Stephanie is a bounty hunter and amateur detective, who with a combination of luck and intuition usually gets the job done (though often by accident). Samuel Singh, an immigrant in New Jersey on a work visa, has been released on a visa bond by Stephanie's cousin and boss, Vinnie. When Singh goes missing, Vinnie is on the hook for the highly-publicized bond. Stephanie goes on the hunt to find him. She starts with TriBro, Singh's workplace, owned by three brothers, Andrew, Bart and Clyde Cone. While Andrew is helpful and Clyde is very enthusiastic about the case, Bart Cone gives Stephanie the creeps. In some background checks it turns up that Bart Cone was a suspect in the murder of Lillian Paressi, which only goes to further her suspicions. Meanwhile, Stephanie has been getting some unwanted attention in the form of white carnations, red roses and some rather creepy emails. She only gets more nervous when a number of deaths that have some tentative connections to the Paressi murder also have the flowers present. Before long, a tip-off leads Stephanie, along with her side-kick Lula and Connie Rossoli, out of the Burg and onto the glitzy streets of Las Vegas. The discovery of Singh's body at the airport and a series of unfortunate encounters with several of Ranger's operatives sends her back to Trenton, where Plum finally gets the answers she's been seeking. After an intense final showdown with the Roses and Carnations killer, Stephanie saves the day yet again. Stephanie's new niece, her older sister Valerie's daughter with Albert Kloughn, is born. She is named Lisa. |
3766318 | /m/09zw41 | Ten Big Ones | Janet Evanovich | 5/31/2004 | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense"} | In this installment of Stephanie Plum's bounty hunter adventures, Stephanie has no central FTA (Failure to Appear) to capture this time around, but is being hunted herself. The novel begins with Stephanie and her sometimes-partner Lula sitting outside in their car debating about food. They accidentally witness a Gang robbery and are swept up into the underground life of Trenton, New Jersey. She's accidentally destroyed a dozen cars. She's a target for every psycho and miscreant this side of the Jersey Turnpike. Her mother's convinced she'll end up dead...or worse, without a man. She's Stephanie Plum and she kicks butt for a living (well, she thought it would sound good to put it that way...) It begins as an innocent trip to the deli-mart, on a quest for nachos. But Stephanie Plum and her partner, Lula, are clearly in the wrong place at the wrong time. A robbery leads to an explosion, which leads to the destruction of yet another car. It would be just another day in the life of Stephanie Plum, except it makes her the target of a gang... and the target of an even scarier, more dangerous force that has come to Trenton. With super bounty hunter Ranger acting more mysterious than ever (and the tension with vice cop Joe Morelli getting hotter), Stephanie finds herself with a decision to make: how to protect herself and where to hide while on the hunt for a killer known as Junkman. There's only one safe place, and it has Ranger's name all over it, if she can find it... and if Junkman doesn't find her first. With Lula riding shotgun and Grandma Mazur on the loose, Stephanie Plum is racing against the clock in her most suspenseful novel yet. |
3766325 | /m/09zw4r | Eleven on Top | Janet Evanovich | 6/21/2005 | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense"} | Stephanie Plum has had enough. Enough of bounty hunting, enough of being constantly shot at, and enough of having her cars blown up on a semi-regular basis. So, she retires. But she's not done with the bounty-hunting business yet.. Someone is, once again, attempting to kill her. It's someone she knows, and someone who knows her too well. In between short, ill-fated periods working at a button factory, the Kan-Kleen Dry-Cleaning Service, and serving chicken at Cluck-in-a-Bucket, Plum must survive the various attempts on her life while trying to discover who wants to kill her this time. Adding to her troubles is a very protective on-and-off boyfriend, an only semi-functional family, and Lula, ex-prostitute-turned-bounty-hunter, who only barely has a grasp on the finer side of the job. All in all, she thinks it's a fairly normal day. |
3771032 | /m/09_399 | Radetzky March | Joseph Roth | 1932 | {"/m/02p0szs": "Historical fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | Radetzky March relates the stories of three generations of the Trotta family, professional Austro-Hungarian soldiers and career bureaucrats of Slovenian origin — from imperial zenith to First World War nadir. In 1859, the Austrian Empire (1804–67) was fighting the Second War of Italian Independence (29 April – 11 July 1859), against French and Italian belligerents: Napoleon III of France, the Emperor of the French, and the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. In northern Italy, during the Battle of Solferino (24 June 1859), the well-intentioned, but blundering, Emperor Franz Joseph I, and his cavalry cohort, are almost killed; to thwart snipers, Infantry Lieutenant Trotta topples the Emperor from his horse. In rewarding his saviour, the Emperor awards Lt. Trotta the Order of Maria Theresa and ennobles him. Elevation to the nobility ultimately leads to the Trotta family’s ruination, paralleling the imperial collapse of Austria–Hungary (1867–1918). Subsequently, and without his desiring it, Lt. Trotta, now Baron Trotta, is regarded by his family — including his father — as a man of superior social class. Although he does not assume the airs of a social superior, everyone from the new baron’s old life perceives him as a changed person, as a nobleman. The perceptions and expectations of society eventually compel his reluctant integration in the aristocracy, a class with whom he is temperamentally uncomfortable. As a father, the first Baron Trotta is disgusted by the historical revisionism that the national school system is teaching his son's generation; the school history textbook presents as fact a legend about his battlefield rescue of the Emperor — he finds especially galling the misrepresentation that infantry lieutenant Trotta was a cavalry officer. The Baron complains to the Emperor to have the school book corrected. The Emperor counters that such truth would yield an uninspiring, pedestrian history, useless to Austro–Hungarian patriotism; therefore, whether or not history textbooks report Infantry Lt. Trotta’s battlefield heroism as legend or as fact, he orders the story deleted from the official history of Austria–Hungary. Consequently, the subsequent Trotta family generations misunderstand the elder generation’s reverence for the legend of Lt. Trotta’s saving the life of the Emperor and consider themselves to be rightful aristocrats. The disillusioned Baron Trotta opposes his son’s aspirations to a military career, insisting he prepare to become a government official, the second most respected career in the Austrian Empire; by custom, the German son was expected to obey. The son eventually becomes a district administrator in a Moravian town. As a father, the second Baron Trotta (still ignorant of why his war-hero father thwarted his military ambitions) sends his own son to become a cavalry officer; grandfather’s legend determines grandson’s life. The cavalry officer’s career of the third Baron Trotta comprises postings throughout the empire of Austria-Hungary and a dissipated life of wine, women, song, gambling, and dueling, off-duty pursuits characteristic of the military officer class in peace-time. In the progress of his career, Baron Trotta’s infantry unit suppresses a local uprising against the imperial government; awareness of the aftermath of his professional brutality begins his disillusionment with empire. |
3772267 | /m/09_5g3 | One, No one and One Hundred Thousand | Luigi Pirandello | 1926 | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | Vitangelo discovers by way of a completely irrelevant question that his wife poses to him that everyone he knows, everyone he has ever met, has constructed a Vitangelo persona in their own imagination and that none of these personas corresponds to the image of Vitangelo that he himself has constructed and believes himself to be. The reader is immediately immersed in a cruel game of falsifiying projections, mirroring the reality of social existence itself, which imperiously dictate their rules. As a result, the first, ironic "awareness" of Vitangelo consists in the knowledge of that which he definitely is not; the preliminary operation must therefore consist in the spiteful destruction of all of these fictitious masks. Only after this radical step toward madness and folly in the eyes of the world can Vitangelo finally begin to follow the path toward his true self. He discovers, though, that if his body can be one, his spirit certainly is not. And this Faustian duplicity gradually develops into a disconcerting and extremely complex multiplicity. How can one come to know the true foundation, the substate of the self? Vitangelo seeks to catch it by surprise as its shows itself in a brief flash on the surface of consciousness. But this attempt at revealing the secret self, chasing after it as if it were an enemy that must be forced to surrender, does not give the desired results. Just as soon as it appears, the unknown self evaporates and recomposes itself into the familiar attitudes of the superficial self. In this extremely modern Secretum where there is no Saint Augustine to indicate, with the profound voice of conscience, the absolute truth to desire, where desperation is entrusted to a bitter humorism, corrosive and salvific at the same time, the unity of the self disintegrates into diverse stratifications. Vitangelo is one of those "...particularly intelligent souls ...who break through the illusion of the unity of the self and feel themselves to be multiform, a league of many Is..." as Hermann Hesse notes in the Dissertation chapter of Steppenwolf. Vitangelo's extremely lucid reflections seek out the possible objections, confine them into an increasingly restricted space and, finally, kill them with the weapons of rigorous and stringent argumentation. The imaginary interlocutors, ("Dear sirs, excuse me"..."Be honest now"..."You are shocked? Oh my God, you are turning pale"...), which incarnate these objections rather than opening up Vitangelo's monologue into a dialogue fracture it into two levels: one external and falsely reassuring, the other internal and disquieting, but surely more true. The plural you ("voi") which punctuates like a returning counterpoint all of the initial part of the novel is much different from the "tu" of Eugenio Montale, which is almost always charged with desperate expectations or improbable alternatives to existence; it represents, rather, the barrier of the conformist conceptions which the lengthy ratiociations of Vitangelo nullify with the overwhelming evidence of implacable reflections. Vitangelo's "thinking out loud", definitely intentional and rigorous, is, however, paradoxically projected toward a completely different epilogue in which the spiral of reasoning gives way to a liberating irrationalism. Liberation for Vitangelo cannot happen through instinct or Eros, as happens in the case of Harry Haller, the steppenwolf, who realizes his metamorphosis through an encounter with the transgressively vital Hermine. Vitangelo's liberation must follow other avenues; he must realize his salvation and the salvation of his reason precisely through an excess of reason. He seems to say to us: "Even reason, dear sirs, if it is alleviated of its role as a faculty of good sense which councels adaptation to historical, social and existential "reality", can become a precious instrument of liberation." This is not true because reason, when pushed to its ultimate limits, can open up to new metaphysical prospects, but because, having reached its limits, deliriously wandering around in cerebreal labrynths and in an atmosphere satured with venom, it dies by its own hand. The total detachment of Vitangelo from false certainties is fully realized during a period of convalescence from illness. Sickness, in Pirandello as in many other great writers, is experienced as a situation in which all automatic behavior is suspended and the perceptive faculties, outside of the normal rules, seem to expand and see "with other eyes." In this moment the ineptitude that Vitangelo shares with Mattia Pascal and other literary characters of the beginning of the 20th century demonstrates its positive potential and becomes a conscious rejection of any role, of any function, of any perspective based on a utilitaristic vision. The episode of the woolen blanket signals the unbrigeable distance which now separates Vitangelo from the rules of reality in which the judge who has come to interrogate him appears to be completely enmeshed. While the scrupulous functionary, completely absorbed in his role, collects the useful elements for his sentencing, Vitangelo contemplates with "ineffable delight" the woolen blanket covering his legs: "I saw the countryside: as if it were all an endless carpet of wheat; and, hugging it, I was beatified, feeling myself truly, in the midst of all that wheat, with a sense of immemorial distance that almost cause me anguish, a sweet anguish. Ah, to lose oneself there, lay down and abandon onself, just like that among the grass, in the silence of the skies: to fill one's soul with all that useless blue, sinking into it every thought, every memory!" Once cured of his illness, Vitangelo has a completely new perspective, completely "foreign". He no longer desires anything and seeks to follow moment by moment the evolution of life in him and the thing that surround him. He no longer has any history or past, he is no longer in himself but in everything around and outside of him. |
3775596 | /m/09_c6m | The Parasite | Arthur Conan Doyle | null | null | The main character is a young man known as Austin Gilroy. He studies physiology and knows a professor who is studying the occult. The young man is introduced to a middle-aged woman known as Miss Penclosa, who has a crippled leg and psychic powers. She is a friend of the Professor's wife. The skeptical Gilroy's fiancée, Agatha, is put into a trance to prove Miss Penclosa's powers. This succeeds and Gilroy begins to go to the Professor's house where Miss Penclosa practices her powers on him (one of the many things she tells him is that her powers vary with her strength). This is so Gilroy can look at the physical part of the powers. Miss Penclosa (who has done this before) 'falls in love' with the unfortunate Gilroy. She starts to use her powers on him to make him caress and utter sweet nothings to her. He loses his temper, rejects her love, and she begins to play tricks on him with her powers. The series of cruel tricks ends with him in his Agatha's room carrying a small bottle of sulphuric acid. He notices that it is half-past three. He rushes to Miss Penclosa's home and demands for her presence at the door. The nurse there answers in a frightened tone that she died at half-past three. |
3775648 | /m/09_ccw | I Left My Sneakers in Dimension X | Bruce Coville | 1994 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | I Left My Sneakers in Dimension X continues the adventures of Rod and the crew of the Galactic Patrol ship Ferkel. When villainous BKR's friend Smorkus Flinders crosses over from Dimension X, he captures Rod and his bratty cousin Elspeth, taking them back to his home to use as bait for the crew of the Ferkel as revenge for them imprisoning BKR. Rod and Elspeth are rescued by Captain Grakker and his crew, but during the escape from Castle Chaos, the Ferkel is damaged enough that all must abandon ship. Without their spacecraft, our heroes are stranded. Following the strange disappearance of their friend Snout, the seven remaining gain help in the form of Galuspa, one of the race of Shapeshifters that are native to Dimension X. With his help, they are taken to the Valley of the Shapeshifters to see the Ting Wongovia. During their journey, Rod gains a new companion: a furry little creature called a Chibling, which bonds to him. Also during this time, and the time spent waiting in the Valley, Rod sees that another of the crew, Tar Gibbons, is watching him. Later, the Tar asks Rod to become his "Krevlik", or apprentice. Rod accepts, and begins training under his new teacher in the ways of martial arts. During the wait, Rod learns that BKR was handed off to the Merkel, one of the Ferkel's sister ships, to be delivered to prison, and that the crew of the Ferkel readily jumped in to save them despite knowledge that they were headed into a trap. Finally, the Ting Wongovia agrees to see them. They find out that he is actually the egg brother of their missing comrade Snout, and that Smorkus Flinders was once a good person, but, when he was slightly older than Rod, he was caught in a horrific Reality Quake that permanently transformed him into a monster. Banished to the Valley of the Monsters, he became their king, but the Reality Quake's effects also drove him partially insane. They then learn the plans of Smorkus Flinders and BKR: they intend to create a permanent hole between Dimension X, home of the dangerous Reality Quakes, and Dimension Q, home of the planet Earth and the Galactic Patrol. This would cause the Reality Quakes to leak over to our world, and the two dimensions would eventually fuse into a single dimension where reality can shift like sand; Smorkus Flinders sees this plan as an opportunity to get revenge on life for what it did to him, while the sadistic BKR simply wants to make others suffer, even with the knowledge that the Reality Quakes will affect him just as much as anyone else. To stop him, the crew of the Ferkel are joined by the Shapeshifters, the Ting Wongovia, and (to their dismay) Elspeth. Returning to Castle Chaos (in part with help from Spar Kellis, a gigantic blue monster who works for the Ting Wongovia by spying on Smorkus Flinders), they make their stand. In the resulting confrontation, Rod is forced to grow to a gigantic height so he can defeat Smorkus Flinders. During the battle, he is contacted by Snout (by way of a direct telepathic link between the two), and learns that his old friend is being held captive by the "Ferkada". He also finds that Smorkus Flinders knows something about Rod's father. When Rod himself questions the monster, Smorkus Flinders cries out to ask BKR. About then, Rod blacks out. Soon after he wakes up, Rod learns that Smorkus Flinders is now their captive, and that when the Ferkel crashed into his room, they were really looking for another alien… his own father. With these revelations on his mind, Rod prepares to go home. But first, he winds up giving his new sneakers to Spar Kellis as a gift. But with all that has happened, telling his mother that he left his sneakers in Dimension X is the least of his worries. |
3775676 | /m/09_cfz | The Search For Snout | Bruce Coville | 1995 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The Search For Snout picks up where the previous book left off. Introducing the crew of the Galactic Patrol vessel Ferkel to his earthling mother proves to be as difficult as predicted, and explaining that he's going with them to find his semi-alien father is an even harder task. But the real trouble starts when they find out that BKR (the pain-loving alien psycho antagonist) is on the loose, having taken control of the Ferkel's sister ship Merkel while the ship was delivering him to prison. The crew of the Ferkel has been ordered to seek out their enemy and recapture him. After they question Smorkus Flinders (a muscle-bound alien from Dimension X) and learn something of BKR's current plan, Rod is contacted again by his friend Snout, master of the mental arts. Partly inspired by this contact, Grakker (the ship's commander) decides to break off from the Galactic Patrol and head for the Mentat instead, the school where Snout became a master of the Mental Arts (incidentally, the building is one big PLANT). There, he hopes to find a clue that could lead them to their fallen friend. During the journey, Grakker reveals some of his past, including how he got to know both Snout and BKR. Smorkus Flinders, having escaped from his suspended animation pod, manages to capture the entire crew... except for Elspeth (Rod's all-human cousin), who stowed away and was also in suspended animation as punishment. She manages to stop Smorkus and rescue the others. Also as a result of the battle, Rod's chibling (a small furball from dimension X) is injured from being thrown into a wall. Later that night, Rod learns that his friend was forced into his third stage of life: a two-part animal. The first half, which is then named Seymour, resembles a squashed, hairless blue cat with four (later six) legs, a long tail, and a similar neck with a gigantic eyeball at one end. The other half is named Edgar, and looks the same as before. While both appear to have separate minds, Seymour is the half that is truly sentient, holding their shared brain in his body. Soon after, they arrive at the Mentat and meet with the 'Head' Council, who are unable to help. However, they do reveal that all the messages which came from Snout are, in part, due to a direct link between Rod's mind and Snout's, created by an incident involving direct brain-to-brain training in the first book. They also question Smorkus Flinders, and through him contact BKR. Though they cannot help in regard to the Ferkada that Snout mentioned, they do agree to try and cure Smorkus Flinders, reverting him from a monster to a Normal (the species he used to be until he was caught in a nasty Reality Quake and turned into a monster). Later that day, the Mentat's security force (led by an insectoid woman named Arly Bung) arrests Rod, Elspeth and the crew after being contacted by the Galactic Patrol. Imprisoned in the lowest regions of the Mentat, they are soon rescued by Selima Khan, another of Snout's kind who also attended the Mentat in his year. During their escape into the caves below the Mentat, Rod sees an ancient carving of his father. Selima Khan also reveals the plans of BKR and Smorkus Flinders: they intend to use a black hole to detonate a bomb that will disrupt the space-time continuum and eventually bring the flow of time itself to a complete stop, but require Rod's brain to do so, for an unknown reason. Later, he is contacted again and leaves the group to follow the message. Along with Seymour and Edgar, Rod winds up in the belly of a gigantic stone beast, and the trio journey deep into its bowels. Finally, they reach a chamber where Snout is laying, fading away into nothingness. But he is not alone, as Rod is reunited with his father (alias the Ferkada, one of the ancient founders of the Mentat) at last. Rod's father (Ah-Rit Alber Ite, or Arthur "Art" Allbright) reveals the truth about where he came from (the lost civilization of Atlantis, circa 35,000 years ago), and his personal history with BKR. He also reveals that he once fled with the crucial bit of information that BKR needs for his current plans and stored them in a safe place: Rod's brain. During this last part, BKR arrives with Smorkus Flinders, revealing part of his side of the story. He also arrives to get the information that he needs. Just in time, the Ferkel arrives as well, and the resulting battle ends with a stalemate: BKR has Ah-Rit in his grasp, and threatens to kill him if Rod (and the crucial information) aren't handed over to him. Fortunately, there's a solution. Ah-Rit is released to the Ferkel, while Rod is handed over to BKR, and Snout transfers the contents of Rod's mind (including the crucial information) into Seymour, resulting in two minds living in one body. After the swap, BKR leaves with Rod's body. Afterward, Snout (now fully recovered from his coma-like state) reveals exactly what happened to him after he vanished from Dimension X. He was probing the dimension for something, and connected with something extenuatingly hostile, possibly Smorkus Flinders himself. |
3775689 | /m/09_ch2 | Aliens Stole My Body | Bruce Coville | 1998 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Aliens Stole My Body concludes the four-book series. After the departure of Selima Khan, the group characters from The Search for Snout splits up into three groups, Rod and Seymour head for the planet Kryndamar, along with Snout, Elspeth, and Madam Pong (the Diplomatic Officer of the Ferkel). Meanwhile, Grakker and Phil (the sentient plant who serves as the Ferkel's science officer) leave to reestablish contact with the Galactic Patrol, and Ah-Rit heads off with Tar Gibbons in an attempt to reclaim Rod's body from BKR. While on Kryndamar, Rod begins training his mind with Snout, and later gains a few new allies: the intergalactic pet trader Mir-Van; his family; and his business partner Grumbo. They also encounter one of BKR's henchmen; from him, they learn that BKR has already discovered their deception: Rod's brain is empty. BKR still plans to use it as bait, and he intends to capture Rod's mom and younger twin siblings from Earth, to serve as more bait. After arriving on Earth and locating Rod's family, the entire group (sans Grumbo, Mir-Van and his family) are captured by BKR and his gang (including the traitorous Arly Bung) in the Merkel. The captives, along with Grakker, Phil, and Selima Khan, who are captured shortly before they were to leave the solar system, are taken to BKR's headquarters. There, the entire group is joined by Ah-Rit and Tar Gibbons. With all his enemies in one place, BKR delivers an ultimatum: reveal where they've hidden Rod's mind, or die. Rod tells Snout to send him back to his own body. Using the skills that he's learned from both Tar Gibbons and Snout, Rod is able to take out all of BKR's crew, and finally BKR himself. Following the defeat and capture of their enemies, Rod and his family are returned to Earth, though Rod will be able return to space in the future. BKR and his gang are locked up and await trial. After a final goodbye to his teacher and friends, Rod watches as the Ferkel and its crew depart for GP headquarters so they can deliver BKR and his gang to stand trial. Ferkel and its crew must also stand trial, since they did break the law by going renegade instead of following orders. |
3777723 | /m/09_h0t | The Devil's Arithmetic | Jane Yolen | null | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | Hannah Stern is a young jewish girl living in the present day. She is bored by her relative's stories about the past and not looking forward to the Passover Seder and is tired of her religion while at it She says she is tired of remembering. When Hannah symbolically opens the door for the prophet Elijah, she is transported back in time to 1941 in Poland of World War II. At that time and place, the people believe she is Chaya Abramowicz, who is recovering from cholera, the fever that killed Chaya's parents a few months ago. The strange remarks Hannah/Chaya makes about the future and her inability to recognize her "aunt" Gitl and "uncle" Shmuel are blamed on the fever. At her uncle's wedding, the Nazis come to transport the entire population of the village to a concentration camp near Donavin, and only Hannah knows all the terrors that they will face: starvation, mistreatment, forced labor, and finally execution. She struggles to survive at the camp, with the help of a girl named Rivka. At the concentration camp, Aunt Gitl, Hannah, Uncle Shmuel, and some other men try to escape. The men are caught and are shot in front of the inmates, except for Gitl and Hannah who return to their barracks and Yitzchak who escapes. Fayge, Shmuel's girlfriend, is also killed because she runs to Shmuel when he is about to be shot. Later, when Hannah and the girls from Viosk are talking, while waiting for water, they are caught by a new Nazi soldier, who sends Esther, Shifre, and Rivka to the gas ovens. As Rivka is about to leave, Hannah takes Rivka's place and tells her to run, since the guard doesn't know their faces. Then, after she walks into "Lilith's Cave" to be gassed, she is transported back to her family's Seder. She notices Aunt Eva's number was the same as Rivka's, and while recounting her experience to her aunt, the aunt reveals that when she was in the concentration camps, she was called Rivka (and her brother was called Wolfe, which was Grandpa Will) and was saved by a girl named Chaya Abramowicz while in a consentration camp. |
3779553 | /m/09_kqb | Lord of the Dance | null | null | null | She becomes obsessed with her uncle, Danny Farrell, who has always been a black sheep of sorts in the family. Danny is believed to have died in an airplane flying over China while working for the CIA. Roger's mother, Brigid, is a powerful widow with a lot of dirty secrets. The family is an example of an Irish Catholic family's ascent into the upper middle class, perhaps even the upper class, after a few generations, reflecting a common theme of sociologist Greeley. However, aside from Danny, there have been other mysterious deaths in this family, and Noelle courageously probes this dark side of her ancestry, leading to the truth about who she really is. Noelle is clearly the most significant character in the book. Greeley has said that she is meant to embody the Church. She is a spunky girl who once takes over a church service with her guitar-playing rendition of the hymn "Lord of the Dance", much to the dismay of her folk group leader, and gives a spontaneous, powerful homily about life being a dance where God chooses the partners. Sometimes, however, God wants to dance alone, with just us. |
3782493 | /m/09_qkg | The Red Shoes | Hans Christian Andersen | null | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/0bxg3": "Fairy tale"} | A peasant girl named Karen is adopted by a rich old lady after her mother's death. She grows up vain. Before her adoption Karen had a rough pair of red shoes, and now she tricks her adoptive mother into buying her a pair of red shoes fit for a princess. Karen repeatedly wears them to church, without paying attention to the service. She ignores the anger of her adopted mother and disapproving stares that even the holy images seem to express at her wearing red shoes in church. Her adoptive mother becomes ill, but Karen deserts her, preferring to attend a party in her red shoes. A mysterious soldier appears and makes strange remarks about what beautiful dancing shoes Karen has. Soon after, Karen begins to dance and she can't stop. The shoes take over; she cannot control them and they are stuck to her feet. The shoes continue to dance, through fields and meadows, rain or shine, night and day, and through brambles and briars that tear at Karen's limbs. She can't even attend her adoptive mother's funeral. An angel appears to her, bearing a sword, and condemns her to dance even after she dies, as a warning to vain children everywhere. Karen begs for mercy but the red shoes take her away before she hears the angel's reply. Karen finds an executioner and asks him to chop off her feet. He does so but the shoes continue to dance, now with Karen's amputated feet inside them. The executioner gives her a pair of wooden feet and crutches, and teaches her the criminals' psalm. Thinking that she has suffered enough for the red shoes, Karen decides to go to church in order for the people to see her. However her amputated feet, still in the red shoes, dance before her, barring the way. The following Sunday she tries again, thinking of herself at least as good as the others in church, but again the dancing red shoes bar the way. Karen gets a job as a maid in the parsonage, but when Sunday comes she dares not go to church. Instead she sits alone at home and prays to God for help. The angel reappears, now bearing a spray of roses, and gives Karen the mercy she asked for: it is as though the church comes home to her and her heart becomes so filled with sunshine, peace, and joy that it bursts. Her soul flies on sunshine to Heaven, and no one there mentions the red shoes. |
3784892 | /m/09_ws6 | L'Esclusa | Luigi Pirandello | null | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | The story itself is set in a small village in Sicily. The protagonist Marta Ajala feels "excluded" from the society in which she lives because of having catastrophically lost the position and status that she had been assigned in the order of things: the position of a submissive and bored housewife who never quite felt at ease in her role, but who had achieved respect in society because of it. It is a role which she does not regret losing, but whose sudden and violent loss has thrown her into a dramatic situation: she has been kicked out of her home by her husband who caught her by surprise in the act of reading a letter from someone who has been courting her but whose advances she has always rejected. The precipitous decision of the husband overwhelmed with rage; the attitude of Marta's father who, even while knowing that his daughter is innocent, totally supports her husband's decision out of a misbegotten sense of masculine spiritual solidarity and ends up dying of shame; the submissive suffering of the mother and sister, constantly ready, in order to conform to traditional convictions, to counsel her surrender and obedience; the choral malevolence of the villagers, taking advantage of a religious procession that is passing by under their windows to publicly jeer and shout names at her, are the elements of a minutely described painting, in the manner of realism, which illustrate the closed mentality of the village. But Marta's reaction is only partly similar to that of the typical characters of the naturalistic novel. She reveals a much more complex psychology which begins with a petit bourgeousie self-satisfaction for the letters of Gregorio Alvignani and gradually develops into an obstinate struggle against all of society for a moral and economic revenge which she will finally end up obtaining, but joylessly. The cruel game of chance prevails over the objectivity of the narrative, according to an unexpected logic, expressed in a series of coincidences which betray their own hidden meaning. The father dies at the same time that Marta's baby, which she had been carrying in her womb with so much repulsion, is born, as if to signify a repudiation and detachment from the past. Meanwhile, in the streets of the village, the people are celebrating the victory of Alvignani in the elections, a premonitory sign of Marta's eventual redemption and revenge. The singularity of circumstances bursts wide open in the final scene: Marta's husband takes her back when she has actually become guilty of the sin of which she was falsely accused and is now carrying her lover's baby in her womb, after having kicked her out of her home, having made her suffer, and having compromised the birth of his own son. In giving herself to Alvignani, who helped her in dealing with the injustices of the scholastic authorities, she seems to adapt herself to the role of his lover which has been imposed on her by society. But her state of mind is never one of passive surrender, even if her restless struggle against circumstances dominated by an unfathomable force will turn out to be in vain. In the end what defeats her is not the society by which she is rehabilitated, but life itself which brings with it a suffering which no success can cancel. It is significant, in fact, that the author uses the word "l'eslusa" precisely at the opening of the second part of the novel, where, in an atmosphere redolent of spring, Marta seems to be on the verge of resurrection. Her tenacious struggle against everyone and against resignation has allowed her to obtain the much-desired teaching position that has permitted her to remove her mother and sister from extreme poverty. But the happiness of these two women, of which she is secretly proud, is what forces her to recognize her own spiritual isolation and her inability to reinsert herself into society. "She alone was the excluded, she alone would never again find her place." |
3785248 | /m/09_xfk | This Other Eden | Ben Elton | 1993 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/026ny": "Dystopia"} | The bulk of the book focuses on a British writer, Nathan, who is attempting to sell an idea for a Claustrosphere commercial to Plastic Tolstoy, owner and chief marketer of the company which builds them. The commercial represents a change in emphasis for the advertising campaign; up to now Claustropheres have been sold as a kind of fall back insurance, just in case the environment collapses. However, now that virtually everybody owns at least a basic model, sales are falling and the company is having to try and sell upgrade and improvement packages instead. The new advertising, therefore, attempts to convince people for the first time that the environment truly is doomed and they are inevitably going to have to live in their Claustrospheres. Tolstoy accepts Nathan's idea and assigns him to work with Max, a shallow and pretentious young actor. During a subsequent meeting with Tolstoy, Nathan makes a joking suggestion that it would be ironic if his company actually covertly sponsored the Eco-Terrorism movement led by Jurgen Thor, which despises the Claustrosphere company since it represents, in their eyes, an abrogation of mankind's responsibility to care for the environment. Nathan is subsequently murdered as he plays a virtual reality game with Max. Max sets out to investigate the murder, falling in with Rosalie Connolly, an Eco Terrorist working for Thor's organization. Max ultimately discovers that Thor and Tolstoy are in fact partners. The eco-terrorists raids, whilst highly successful, never present more than a minor problem to the vast Claustrosphere company, but do grab headlines and bring awareness of the looming eco disaster into the public mind - prompting them to buy more Claustrospheres. Tolstoy confesses that he has even geared his advertising campaign to work in perfect sync with the terrorists, with new commercials ready to roll out instantly after each attack. After a confrontation between Max, Rosalie and Jurgen in which Jurgen is killed, Tolstoy decides to evade justice by leaking news indicating that the ecology is finally collapsing. The news is suddenly full of stories of environmental catastrophe, and people are told that they need to lock themselves in their Claustrospheres for several decades. The "rat run", as it is termed, removes the large bulk of humanity from the world, effectively ending the current civilization. In one of the novel's great ironies, one of the by-products of the vanishing of global society is that all industry ceases, ending further pollution of the environment. Freed of this burden Earth begins to gradually recover from the damage inflicted so far. |
3785815 | /m/09_yns | Adam and Eve and Pinch Me | Ruth Rendell | null | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction"} | A handsome con man with numerous aliases, including Jerry Leach and Jock Lewis, manipulates three vulnerable women into handing over large sums of money. After he supposedly dies in the Paddington train crash, they realise his deception and find themselves in serious debt. However, one of his many victims, ex-fiancée Minty, thinks she has seen his 'ghost' wandering around and begins carrying a knife so she can exact revenge on his 'spirit'... |
3786846 | /m/09__nf | Gateway | Frederik Pohl | 1977 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | Gateway is a space station built into a hollow asteroid (or perhaps the dead heart of a comet) constructed by the Heechee, a long-vanished alien race. Humans have had limited success understanding Heechee technology, although the promise is enormous and Gateway is a highly sought-after destination for many researchers. Notable among the abandoned technology are nearly a thousand small starships. Unable to understand how they work, a small level of functionality has been recovered simply by trial and error. Occasional attempts at reverse engineering to find out how they work have ended only in disaster. The controls for selecting a destination have been identified, but nobody knows where a particular setting will take the ship or how long the trip will last - starvation is a major danger. Once in flight, no one who has changed the settings has ever been heard from again. Most settings take the ship to useless or lethal places. A few, however, lead to Heechee artifacts and habitable planets, making the passengers (and the Gateway Corporation, which administers the asteroid on behalf of a cartel of countries) wealthy. The vessels come in three standard sizes, which can hold a maximum of one, three, or five people, crammed in with equipment and (hopefully) enough food to last the trip. Each ship includes a lander to visit a planet or other object if one is found. Robinette Stetley Broadhead—known as Robin, Rob, Robbie, or Bob, depending on circumstances and his state of mind—is a young food shale miner on Earth who has won a lottery, giving him just enough money to purchase a one-way ticket to Gateway. Once there, he loses his nerve, putting off going on a mission as long as he can. Eventually he starts running out of money, and although he is terrified, he goes out on three trips. The first draws a blank. On the second, he makes a discovery through unauthorized experimentation, but this is balanced by the fact that he has to pay a hefty penalty for the ship he managed to incapacitate in the process. On his third trip, the Gateway Corporation tries something different: sending two five-person ships, one slightly behind the other, to the same destination. Bob signs up in desperation, along with Gelle-Klara Moynlin, a woman he had gradually come to love on Gateway, and who was struggling with her own fears. When they reach the end of their journey, they find to their horror that they are in the gravitational grip of a black hole, without enough power to break free. One of the others comes up with a desperate escape plan—to cram all the people into one ship and eject the other toward the black hole, thus gaining enough velocity to escape. Working frantically to transfer unnecessary equipment to make room, Bob finds himself stuck alone in the wrong ship when time runs out, so he attempts to sacrifice himself and closes the hatch. However, his ship is the one thrown away, leaving the rest of the crew falling into the black hole. He returns to Gateway and becomes wealthy when, as the sole "survivor", he receives the bonuses for the entire group. He feels enormous survivor guilt for deserting his crewmates, especially Klara, so he seeks therapy from an Artificial Intelligence Freudian therapist program which he names Sigfrid von Shrink. He finally comes to terms with his guilt despite the realization that, due to the gravitational time dilation resulting from proximity to the black hole, time is passing much more slowly for his former crew mates and none of them have actually died yet, leaving him with the dread that Gelle-Klara believes he betrayed them to save himself. The novel is divided between chapters of dialogue between Bob and Sigfrid and chapters covering the main action. Also embedded are various mission reports (usually with fatalities), technical bulletins, and other documents Broadhead might have read, adding to the verisimilitude of the narrative. |
3787889 | /m/0b0188 | The Moon's Shadow | Catherine Asaro | 2003-03 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | After ascending the Carnelian throne, 17-year-old Eubian Emperor Jaibriol III is busy accomplishing many different goals — beginning peace talks with Skolian Imperialate, escaping death during several assassination attempts and marrying his beautiful, tricky and dangerous finance minister Tarquine Iquar. Above all, he has to hide from his Aristo fellows, that he is in fact a Rhon psion, for if his secret is ever revealed, he would face the fate of an enslaved provider. This novel overlaps with Ascendant Sun which tells the events after Radiance War from the point of view of new Skolian Imperator Kelric Valdoria and Spherical Harmonic which tells the events after Radiance War from the point of view of Pharaoh Dyhianna Selei. The Radiant Seas tells the story of Jaibriol's childhood on the planet Prizma and the course of Radiance War. |
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