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3949965 | /m/0b873f | The Face | Dean Koontz | 2003 | {"/m/01jfsb": "Thriller", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense"} | The main plot of the story follows Ethan Truman, an ex-cop who now works as the head of security for the most famous actor in Hollywood, Channing Manheim, a.k.a. "The Face." Ethan is trying to track down the sender of several gruesome "messages" that were received in black boxes. Ethan now has six black boxes to figure out what the contents of the boxes mean. After chasing down leads and tracking the "ghost" of his dead friend Duncan "Dunny" Whistler (technically, Dunny is not a ghost, as he came back to life in the morgue), Ethan finally uncovers the plot and races to stop the kidnapping of Manheim's son, Aelfric. |
3950240 | /m/0b87df | The Pupil | Henry James | null | null | Pemberton, a penniless graduate of Oxford, takes a job to tutor Morgan Moreen, aged eleven, a brilliant and somewhat cynical member of a wandering American family. His mother and father refuse to pay Pemberton as they jump their bills from one hotel to another in Europe. Pemberton grows to dislike all the Moreens except Morgan, including older brother Ulick and sisters Paula and Amy. Morgan, who is afflicted with heart trouble, advises Pemberton to escape his family's baleful influence. But Pemberton stays on because he has come to love and admire his pupil and he hopes for at least some eventual payment. Pemberton finally has to take another tutoring job in London simply to make ends meet. He is summoned back to Paris, though, by a telegram from the Moreens that says Morgan has fallen ill. It turns out that Morgan is healthy enough, though the fatal day arrives when his family is evicted from their hotel for nonpayment. Morgan's parents beg Pemberton to take their son away with him while they try to find some money. Morgan is ecstatic at the prospect of leaving with Pemberton, but the tutor hesitates. Morgan suddenly collapses with a heart attack and dies. In the story's ironic final note, James says that Morgan's father takes his son's death with the perfect manner of "a man of the world." |
3951107 | /m/0b88pc | Neighbors | Thomas Berger | 1980 | {"/m/059r08": "Psychological novel"} | Earl Keese is a middle-aged, middle-class suburbanite with a wife, Enid, and teenage daughter, Elaine. Earl is content with his dull, unexceptional life, but this changes when a younger, less sophisticated couple, Harry and Ramona, move in next door. Harry is physically intimidating and vulgar; Ramona is sexually aggressive, and both impose themselves on the Keese household. Their free-spirited personalities and overbearing and boorish behavior endear them to Enid and Elaine, but Earl fears that he is losing control of his life and his family. Over the course of one night, the antagonism between Earl and his new neighbors escalates into suburban warfare. |
3957825 | /m/0b8mtz | The Pumpkinification of Claudius | null | null | null | The work traces the death of Claudius, his ascent to heaven and judgment by the gods, and his eventual descent to Hades. At each turn, of course, Seneca mocks the late emperor's personal failings, most notably his arrogant cruelty and his inarticulateness. After Mercury persuades Clotho to kill the emperor, Claudius walks to Mount Olympus, where he convinces Hercules to let the gods hear his suit for deification in a session of the divine senate. Proceedings are in Claudius' favor until Augustus delivers a long and sincere speech listing some of Claudius' most notorious crimes. Unfortunately, most of the speeches of the gods are lost through a large gap in the text. Mercury escorts him to Hades. On the way, they see the funeral procession for the emperor, in which a crew of venal characters mourn the loss of the perpetual Saturnalia of the previous reign. In Hades, Claudius is greeted by the ghosts of all the friends he has murdered. These shades carry him off to be punished, and the doom of the gods is that he should shake dice forever in a box with no bottom (gambling was one of Claudius' vices): every time he tries to throw the dice they fall out and he has to search the ground for them. Suddenly Caligula turns up, claims that Claudius is an ex-slave of his, and hands him over to be a law clerk in the court of the underworld. |
3957858 | /m/0b8mwb | Galahad at Blandings | P. G. Wodehouse | 1/13/1965 | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | Galahad Threepwood is in residence at Blandings Castle, and finds his brother Lord Emsworth, the ninth Earl, beset by the usual collection of woes. His sister, Lady Hermione Wedge, has not only hired a secretary (Sandy Callender) to mind his affairs, but has also invited Dame Daphne Winkworth to stay and, as Galahad discovers, to reignite an old flame and take up permanent residence as the next Countess. Joining the house party are Tipton Plimsoll, a young multimillionaire who is engaged to Lady Hermione's daughter Veronica, and Lady Hermione's nephew Wilfred Allsop, a struggling young pianist who is in love with Emsworth's pig-girl Monica Simmons. Wilfred and Tipton had met in New York several days earlier for an evening of dinner, drinks, and imprisonment. Wilfred has also been engaged by Dame Daphne to teach music at her girls' school, a prospect that Wilfred cannot refuse but is also anxious about, as Dame Daphne is intolerant of drinking among her staff. Galahad's chief task at Blandings is to deal with sundered hearts, namely those of Sandy and her now-ex-betrothed Sam Bagshott. Gally has known Sandy for years, and was good friends with Sam's father "Boko" Bagshott, and is disturbed at their falling-out over a minor matter of a bet in the Drones Club marriage sweepstakes. Sam needs £700 to fix up his inherited family seat and sell it (to Oofy Prosser), and has drawn Tipton in the race for the next to be married. The other front-runners have dropped out, and Sam believes he has a sure winner, as Lady Hermione will not let Veronica lose her a multimillionaire son-in-law. Sandy, who knew Tipton from working for his uncle Chet Tipton in New York, believes that this engagement will go the way of all his others, and is upset at Sam for not selling his stake to a syndicate that has offered a firm £100. If Sam would come down to Blandings, Gally believes, and plead his case with Sandy, all would be resolved. But when Sam does so, his first accidental encounter with Sandy proves disastrous: he chases her, she eludes him, and in giving up the chase he is confronted by the local constabulary. Constable Evans informs him, and he discovers that he cannot dispute, that in leaving the Emsworth Arms he made off with Sebastian Beach's gold pocket watch. (Beach had left it with the barmaid Marlene to admire, and she had been showing it to Sam when he spied Sandy). Already grumpy from Sandy's rebuff, Sam deals with the accusation by punching Constable Evans in the eye and fleeing on the constable's bicycle. When Gally hears of this, he insists on bringing Sam into the Castle, and decides that he should enter under the name of Augustus Whipple, noted author of On The Care of the Pig, Emsworth's revered reference work for the care and feeding of his prize pig Empress of Blandings. On encountering Emsworth at the Empress' sty, Sam diagnoses her malady as not swine fever, but instead intoxication (from the contents of Wilfred's flask, intended to steel him for proposing to Monica Simmons but dropped when discovered by Dame Daphne's son Huxley.) In gratitude Emsworth invites Sam to stay at Blandings, while a boosted Wilfred wins wins his Monica. Meanwhile, Lady Hermione has learned from Emsworth that Tipton had lost all his money in the stock market crash and is now impoverished. She rushes up to London to instruct Veronica to break the engagement in a letter to be delivered by the next post. When Colonel Wedge receives Tipton, who is driving a Rolls-Royce and brandishing an £8000 necklace for Vee, he asks Gally to intercept the letter, which Gally is pleased to do. Gally goes a step further and gives the letter to Sam. On Hermione's return, when Beach informs her that the man who stole his watch is at the Castle impersonating Augustus Whipple, Gally threatens to deliver the letter to Tipton unless Hermione allows Sam to stay. Hermione tries searching Sam's room, but only succeeds in losing Wilfed his job with Dame Daphne, when her son Huxley discovers him singing in the corridor as a signal to his aunt. Sandy confronts Galahad, but ends up persuaded by him to take Sam back. They find him locked in the potting shed, where he has been imprisoned by Constable Evans. Sandy frees him from the shed and they are reconciled. But not all the couples remain happy: Emsworth discovers the fatal letter in his desk, where Gally had hidden it, and has it delivered to Tipton. Gally has hard work convincing Tipton that Veronica meant not a word of it, and Tipton phones Veronica and the rift is mended as quickly as made. Tipton takes Wilfred and Monica Simmons up to London to gather Vee and head to the registrar's for a double wedding. Not everything is wrapped up, though. Emsworth is still in peril of matrimony from Dame Daphne, Sam still has to collect on his winning ticket, and the Law still looms over Sam's shoulder. Sandy hears that another Drones Club member has won the sweepstakes, and Sam's stake is worthless. Lady Hermione, having discovered that the letter was delivered and nullified, now announces her intention to expose Sam; Gally leads her to the library where he claims Sam is, and locks her in. He rushes to Emsworth, to touch him for the thousand pounds before Lady Hermione can summon aid. He finds Emsworth rattled and deflated. In Monica Simmons' absence, young Huxley attempts to release the Empress from her sty. Having morning head after her bender, she responds by biting the lad's finger. Dame Winkworth deems her dangerous and demands that she be destroyed; Emsworth calls her a fool and telephones the veterinarian to find whether there was any risk of infection to the Empress. At that Dame Daphne leaves the household. Hermione, finding that Emsworth has driven away Dame Daphne, exposes Sam, declares Emsworth to be impossible to manage, and leaves as well. The ninth Earl is reluctant now to lend money to an impostor, but Gally reminds him that he has now been freed of the threat of marriage to Dame Daphne, and of the supervision of their sister Hermione, and that if he lends the money to Sam all his troubles will be ended, as Sam will take his secretary out of his life. Emsworth gladly does so, and peace reigns over Blandings once again. |
3958053 | /m/0b8n42 | House Mother Normal | B.S. Johnson | 1971 | null | The novel is set in a nursing home. It follows part of a typical day for a group of elderly people, both male and female. Their thoughts, memories and opinions of each other and the House Mother (head matron) are explored as they go about their activities, from playing pass-the-parcel to dancing. |
3958834 | /m/0b8p7z | Monica | null | null | null | The central character is a woman whose life is centred on sexual relationships. Because of its treatment of topics such as prostitution and sexually transmitted diseases, it caused great controversy in Wales, all the more so because Lewis was the son of a well-known Presbyterian minister. cy:Monica |
3958878 | /m/0b8pbr | Traed mewn cyffion | null | null | null | The action takes place in the period between 1880 and 1914 against the background of the slate quarries of north Wales, the region where the author was brought up. The main character, Jane Gruffydd, is a mother of six forced to overcome many hardships in order to bring up her family. cy:Traed Mewn Cyffion |
3959142 | /m/0b8q29 | Empire Star | Samuel R. Delany | 1966 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/0l67h": "Novella"} | As the narrative opens, we meet Comet Jo at eighteen years of age. He has spent his entire life in a "simplex" society on Rhys, a satellite of a Jovian planet orbiting Tau Ceti. (At first the reader assumes that "simplex" is a synonym for "simple," but after Jo's encounter with the "Geodessic Survey Station," Jo and the reader both realize that even "simplex" has some "complex" and even "multiplex" aspects to it.) Jo comes upon the wreckage of a spacecraft and encounters two survivors. The first is quickly dying and asks Jo to bring an important message to Empire Star moments before passing away. The other is a lifeform known as Jewel. Jewel is a tritovian in crystallized form, and in that state can easily view situations from several points of view, thus enabling narration from the point of view of the omniscient observer. Jo quickly leaves Rhys in an attempt to deliver the message to Empire Star, and on his journey he meets several other characters along with a race of creatures known as the Lll. The Lll are incredible builders—not merely of structures, but of ecosystems, societies, and ethical systems. As such, they have been enslaved. However, in order to protect the Lll, the Empire has created a phenomenon known as “the sadness of the Lll”—any being who owns the Lll suffers from a constant, overpowering sadness. This sadness increases geometrically with each Lll owned and with how much each Lll builds, so it is only possible to own a few Lll at a time. Indeed, just being in the presence of the Lll is a heartbreaking experience for even non-owners, a lesson that Jo learns early in his travels. The story then follows Jo over the next few months. Once he reaches a certain point in his maturity, knowledge, and ability to perceive events around him, the linear narrative stops and the reader is left with a few pages of important events not arranged in a strict order; by this point, the reader may have learned enough to sort out the tangle. Along the way, several questions are raised, either explicitly or implicitly. What is the message that Comet Jo must deliver? Who is coming to free the Lll? Will the Lll ever actually be freed? Is the story a closed loop, or is there indeed an end (or at least a point at which events move on past the ones mentioned in the story)? Who, exactly, entered the Empire Star? How many of the events of the story are arranged by those people? |
3959155 | /m/0b8q4f | Public Enemy Number Two | Anthony Horowitz | 3/14/1991 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The story starts when Nick Simple is in detention and is visited by police officers Snape and Boyle. They request that Nick go to Strangeday Hall, a Juvenile Delinquent prison for young offenders and befriend the inmate Johnny Powers, a gang leader known as Public Enemy Number One, and through him find out about The Fence, a major gangster that controls all the buying and selling of stolen goods in London with whom Johnny is affiliated with. Nick refuses and the police leave. On a school field trip to Woburn Abbey, Nick is framed for attempting to steal the Woburn Carbuncles, and despite his attempts to evade police, arrested and sentenced to 18 months at Strangeday Hall. He has to share a cell with Johnny Powers, just as Snape and Boyle wanted. Soon after he arrives Snape and Boyle reveal that they arranged to have Nick framed. Nick manages to gain Johnny's trust after he saves him from being killed by henchmen of another gang leader, Big Ed. Nick and Johnny escape prison with the help of Tim Diamond, Nick's brother, and Ma Powers, Johnny's mother. They get in a car chase with the police but escape, but during the chase, Snape and Boyle are apparently killed, leaving Nick as the only person alive who knows he is innocent. Nick and Tim stay at Johnny's home for a while, until Nick overhears Johnny telling Ma that he is going to see Penelope. Believing Penelope to be related to the Fence, Nick follows Johnny into the Wapping Subway station but loses him there. He is then captured by henchmen of Big Ed, who tie him to a train track, intending for him to be run over by a train. Before Nick can be killed, a man approaches Nick and helps him from the tracks just before the train passes. Nick knows that he had seen that man before, but doesn't know where. To prove his loyalty to Johnny, and take revenge on Ed, Nick burns the train car they reside in with petrol and matches. Nick decides that he must go back to Johnny and Tim, as they will surely be wondering where is by now. But he is still determined to find the Fence, in the hope of using him to barter his freedom. Nick realises that Palis, his French teacher, could have seen Snape and Boyle on the afternoon that he was serving a detention. He heads for Palis' flat in Chelsea but is nearly caught by the Police there. Palis saves him, and Nick explains his mission to him. He stays the night at Palis’ flat. Palis drives Nick back to Wapping the following morning and tells him to get in touch if he needs anything. At the hideout, Nick sees a doorbell. Not recalling one, he sneaks into the house and rescues Tim from a bomb rigged to go off if the newly-installed bell had been rung. Tim then explains that Johnny had come back the previous afternoon from wherever he had been to find Nick gone. Suspicious, Johnny tied Tim up and rigged the bomb. Nick and Tim discover that "Penelope" is actually a boat, and decide to keep a watch on the Penelope from a nearby derelict house. After seeing men storing objects aboard the Penelope, Nick remembers that Johnny 'went to Penelope' through Wapping Tube Station. Nick and Tim go there and discover a secret entrance to a tunnel, which Johnny lost Nick through. The tunnel leads under the River Thames to the Fence's hideout where the brothers see many valuable stolen articles. Soon afterwards they are captured by Johnny, who is aware that Nick is working for the police, tied up with rope, and thrown into a room, but they soon escape. Nick has brought the bomb with him in his backpack, and uses it to destroy the door to the room they are locked in. After a confrontation with Johnny's men, the police, with Snape, who had survived the earlier chase, leading them, appear intending to arrest Powers. Ultimately, Nick and Tim survive, Ma Powers is arrested, but Johnny and the Fence escape, although their operation is destroyed. Nick is subsequently cleared of all charges. Nearing the end of the lesson, Palis has Nick translate a French paragraph. While doing so, Nick realises Palis is the Fence, and that Palis had told the truth of him to Johnny. At the end of the lesson, Palis announces to the class that he is leaving. He dismisses the whole class except Nick, who realises that Palis wants to kill him. Palis chases Nick to the school's roof with a gun, but wastes all his bullets trying to kill him. Palis attempts to grab Nick, but jumps off the building, and dies when he impales himself on a fence. With Palis dead, the story ends with Nick's troubles over. |
3959849 | /m/0b8rfz | Niels Klim's Underground Travels | null | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | The novel starts with a foreword that assures that everything in the story is a real account of the title character's exploits in the Underworld. The story is set, according to the book, in the Norwegian harbor town of Bergen in 1664, after Klim returns from Copenhagen, where he has studied philosophy and theology at the University of Copenhagen and graduated magna cum laude. His curiosity drives him to investigate a strange cave in a mountainside above the town, which sends out regular gusts of warm air. He ends up falling down the hole, and after a while he finds himself floating in free space. After a few days of orbiting the planet which revolves around the inner sun, he is attacked by a gryphon, and he falls down on the planet, which is named Nazar. There he wanders about for a short while until he is attacked once again, this time by an ox. He climbs up into a tree, and to his astonishment the tree can move and talk (this one screamed), and he is taken prisoner by tree-like creatures with up to six arms and faces just below the branches. He is accused of attempted rape on the town clerk's wife, and is put on trial. The case is dismissed and he is set by the Lord of Potu (the utopian state in which he now is located) to learn the language. Klim quickly learns the language of the Potuans, but this reflects badly on him when the Lord is about to issue him a job, because the Potuans believe that if one perceives a problem at a slow rate, the better it will be understood and solved. But, since he has considerably longer legs than the Potuans, who walk very slowly, he is set to be the Lord's personal courier, delivering letters and suchlike. During the course of the book, Klim vividly chronicles the culture of the Potuans, their religion, their way of life and the many different countries located on Nazar. After his two-month long circumnavigation on foot, he is appalled by the fact that men and women are equal and share the same kind of jobs, so he files a suggestion to the Lord of Potu to remove women from higher positions in society. His suggestion is poorly received and he is sentenced to be exiled to the inner rim of the Earth's crust. There he becomes familiar with a country inhabited by sentient monkeys, and after a few years he becomes emperor of the land of Quama, inhabited by the only creatures in the Underworld that look like humans. There, he marries and fathers a son. But again he is driven from hearth and home due to his tyranny and as he escapes he falls into a hole, which carries him through the crust and back up to Bergen again. There, he is mistaken by the townsfolk to be the Wandering Jew, mostly due to a lingual misunderstanding (he asks a couple of young boys where he is in quamittian, which is Jeru Pikal Salim, and the boys think he is talking about Jerusalem). He learns that he has been away for twelve years, and is taken in by his old friend, mayor Abelin, who writes down everything Klim tells him. He later receives a job as principal of the college of Bergen, and marries. |
3960212 | /m/0b8s0p | The Real Thing | Henry James | 1892-04-16 | null | The narrator, an unnamed illustrator and aspiring painter, hires a faded genteel couple, the Monarchs, as models, after they have lost most of their money and must find some line of work. They are the "real thing" in that they perfectly represent the aristocratic type, but they prove inflexible for the painter's work. He comes to rely much more on two lower-class subjects who are nevertheless more capable, Oronte, an Italian, and Miss Churm, a lower-class British woman. The illustrator finally has to get rid of the Monarchs, especially after his friend and fellow artist Jack Hawley criticizes the work in which the Monarchs are represented. Hawley says that the pair has hurt the narrator's art, perhaps permanently. In the final line of the story the narrator says he is "content to have paid the price—for the memory." |
3961777 | /m/0b8vmy | The Middle Years | Henry James | 1893-05 | null | Dencombe, a novelist who has been seriously ill, is convalescing at the English seaside town of Bournemouth. He is sitting near the water and reading his latest book entitled, of course, The Middle Years. A young physician named Dr. Hugh comes over to Dencombe and begins to talk about his admiration for the novel, though he doesn't realize that he's speaking to the book's author. The weakened Dencombe suddenly loses consciousness. When he revives, he finds that Dr. Hugh has recognized him, and that the physician is also attending a wealthy woman referred to only as the Countess. Over the next few days Dr. Hugh pays more attention to Dencombe than to the Countess, and he is warned about this by the wealthy woman's companion, Miss Vernham. A few days later Dencombe relapses. Dr. Hugh tells Dencombe that the Countess has died and left him nothing in her will. Close to death Dencombe whispers to Dr. Hugh the eloquent words quoted above. The tale's final sentence tells how Dencombe's first and only chance at life and art has ended. |
3961878 | /m/0b8vrc | The Witch of Edmonton | William Rowley | 1621 | null | (This synopsis corresponds to the act and scene divisions in Arthur F. Kinney, ed. The Witch of Edmonton, (London: A&C Black, 1998). Act 1, Scene 1: Sir Arthur Clarington’s estate Frank Thorney has just married Winifred, who is pregnant with Sir Arthur Clarnington’s child (but Frank thinks the child is his). Winifred says she is happy with the marriage, but she thinks it is strange they will not live together. Frank tells her that he has to keep the marriage a secret to placate his father, who will disown him if he finds out about it. He promises to make the marriage public as soon his father has given him his inheritance. Sounding a keynote for the play, he says that they must think about their financial security in order to protect their child from "the misery of beggary and want / Two devils that are occasions to enforce a shameful end" (17–19). Winifred agrees to follow to Frank’s plan and asks where she will live. Frank says he will send her to live in Waltham Abbey with his Uncle Selman, who will take good care of her. She says that she will miss him. He promises to visit once a month. She reluctantly acquiesces, but warns him to stay away from other women. Frank vows to be faithful. As is typical for this sort of tragedy, his vow foreshadows his eventual fall: "whenever / The wanton heat of youth by subtle baits / Of beauty, or what woman’s art can practice, / Draw me from only loving thee; let heaven / Inflict upon my life some fearful ruin" (63–67). Winifred kisses him and exits. Sir Arthur Clarington enters and scolds Frank for bringing dishonor to his house (Frank and Winifred both work as Clarington’s servants). He says that Frank must repair the damage he has caused by marrying Winifred (in fact, it was Clarington who got Winifred pregnant). Frank asks how much money Clarington will give him if he goes through with the wedding. Clarington promises £200. Frank agrees to these terms and reveals that he has already married Winifred and sent her to live with his Uncle. Clarington is satisfied. Frank asks Clarington to send his father a letter of assurance that he and Winifred are not wed (he is afraid that his father will hear news of the marriage). Clarington says he will sign the letter if Frank writes it. Frank exits to write the letter. Winifred enters, dressed in her riding suit and ready to travel. Clarington kisses her and asks when he should visit to have sex with her again. Winifred is scandalized. She vows to remain a faithful wife to Frank. Clarington curses her and says she will change her mind when she runs out of money. Winifred vows never to take money from him again and exits. Clarington curses her again and says that he will not pay Frank the £200 he promised. Act 1, Scene 2: Old Carter’s property Old Thorney (Frank’s father) makes arrangements to marry his son to the elder daughter of Old Carter (a wealthy farmer). Thorney flatters Carter by referring to him as "Master Carter," but Carter points out that he is not a gentleman, and should therefore be referred to simply as "John Carter" (he is notably self-conscious about his social standing, which is signified by his continual use of proverbs and straightforward style of speech). Hoping to improve his social status by marrying his daughter to a gentleman, he tells Thorney that he will provide the marriage dowry without a surety, thereby enabling Thorney to remain solvent and provide his son with an inheritance. He says that Susan has other suitors but she prefers Frank, so as long as Frank likes her too, he sees no reason why they should not be married. Carter’s daughters, Susan and Katherine, enter with Warbeck (suitor to Susan) and Somerton (suitor to Katherine). Carter tells the suitors that he intends to let his daughters choose their husbands for themselves. Warbeck says Carter is a kind father and asks Susan if she will marry him. Susan says she will not—Warbek is too scholarly for her taste, and uses too many big words. Somerton asks Katherine if there is any hope that she will marry him. Katherine slyly remarks that there might be a chance and encourages him to continue trying. Old Carter chuckles at his daughters’ use of their suitors. He tells Old Thorney that Warbeck is an "arrogant rake" (81), but Somerton is a "civil fellow" (80) with a fine estate near Essex. He says that he only puts up with Warbeck because he is Somerton’s friend. (His distaste for Warbeck seems to derive from the suitor’s lack of property.) Warbeck offers Susan joint ownership of his £300/year income if she will marry him. Susan refuses, once again remarking on his stuffy personality. Frank Thorney enters and greets everyone cheerfully. In an aside, Warbeck complains to Somerton that Susan might reject him in favour of Frank, a mere servingman. Old Carter invites everyone to go inside for dinner. Everyone exits except Frank and his father. Old Thorney tells Frank that he must marry Susan because all of his lands are mortgaged against his debts—without Old Carter’s marriage dowry, he will not be able to pass his lands to Frank. Frank says he will do as his father wishes. Old Thorney asks if Frank truly loves Susan and intends to marry her. Frank says he does. Old Thorney calls Frank a villain and asks if it is true that he has already married his fellow servant Winifred. Protesting, Frank says he would not risk his eternal soul for money. Old Thorney calls Frank a dissembler and orders him to get out of his sight. To prove his innocence, Frank produces the (false) letter from Sir Arthur Clarington (see 1.1). Old Thorney reads the letter. Convinced by the ruse, he apologizes. Old Carter enters with Susan. Arrangements are made for Susan to marry Frank on the following day. Old Carter promises to get the dowry money to Old Thorney right away. Frank worries about the mischief he has gotten himself into: "No man can hide his shame from heaven that views him. / In vain he flees, whose destiny pursues him" (231–32). Act 2, Scene 1: Old Banks’ property Mother Sawyer (‘the Witch of Edmonton’) gathers sticks and delivers a soliloquy that emphasizes her social isolation. She says that everyone in Edmonton abuses her and calls her a witch because she is old, poor, and decrepit. Despite her class and professed ignorance, however, her lines are written in poetry rather than prose—an indication of the authors’ attempt to make her sympathetic. Old Banks—whom Mother Sawyer refers to as one of her chief adversaries—enters. He calls Mother Sawyer a witch and tells her to get off of his land. She begs him to allow her to pick up a few rotten sticks so she can make a fire to warm herself. Banks tells her to put the sticks down and go away. Mother Sawyer throws the sticks to the ground and calls him a "cut-throat miser" (24). Banks begins to beat her. She curses him. Banks exits. Cuddy Banks (Old Banks’ son, a Morris-dancing yokel) enters with his fellow Morris-dancers. (Morris-dancers make music by dancing vigorously while wearing bells strapped to their legs). As they discuss plans for an upcoming production, the dancers notice Mother Sawyer. Cuddy is frightened, but in a show of bravery, he pulls off his belt to defend himself. The other dancers superstituosly warn him not to cross Mother Sawyer’s path. They exit cursing her. Mother Sawyer says she is shunned and hated like a sickness. Blaming Old Banks for all her troubles, she calls on "some power good or bad" (106) to help her get her revenge. A devil appears in the form of a black dog and says that he will help her to get her revenge in exchange for her soul. Mother Sawyer agrees to these terms and allows him to suck her blood to seal the deal. Thunder sounds and lightning strikes! Mother Sawyer orders the Devil-Dog to murder Old Banks. The Devil-Dog says he can’t go quite that far, but says he will mildew Banks’ crops and kill his cattle instead. He teaches her a spell she can recite to summon him at any time and exits to begin work on Banks’ cattle and corn. Cuddy Banks enters and gives Mother Sawyer some money. Apologizing for his father’s treatment of her, he asks her to use witchcraft to make Katherine Carter (Old Carter’s younger daughter) fall in love with him. After summoning the Devil-Dog to demonstrate her power, Mother Sawyer tells Cuddy that if he waits in his father’s pea field until sunset and follows the first living thing he sees, it will lead him to his love. Cuddy agrees to follow these instructions and exits. Mother Sawyer laughs and says she will get her revenge on Old Banks by tormenting his son. Act 2, Scene 2: Old Carter’s property Old Carter speaks with Warbeck and Somerton. Warbeck is disgruntled because Susan has chosen Frank over him. Old Carter and Somerton try to cheer him up. Warbeck warns Somerton that Katherine will also prove to be untrustworthy. Frank and Susan enter, now husband and wife (Frank now has two wives). Warbeck bitterly derides the new couple in an aside. Warbeck and Somerton exit, and Old Carter follows. Susan asks Frank why he looks unhappy (he is of course uncomfortable about the bigamous predicament he has gotten himself into). After a bit of cajoling, he tells her that a palm-reader once told him that he will have two wives. Susan assumes from this that his somber mood thus arises from a fear that she will die (and be replaced by a second wife). She tries to cheer him up. He tells her that he will have to leave for a long time (he is planning to flee with Winifred and the dowry money). Suspecting that he will go off to fight a duel with Warbeck, Susan refuses to let him go. Despite his assurances to the contrary, she accuses him of making up the story about the palm-reader in order to cover for his anxiety over the duel. He kisses her and makes promises of his faithfulness in order to calm her down. Act 3, Scene 1: Old Banks’ property The Morris-dancers beg Cuddy to stay, but Cuddy says he has some private business to attend to (he wants to wait in his father’s pea field as Mother Sawyer instructed). With Mother Sawyer in mind, he says that he loves witches and suggests that they work a part for a witch into their act. One of his fellow dancers says that witches are not hard to find: "Faith, witches themselves are so common now-a-days, that the counterfeit will not be regarded. They say we have three or four in Edmonton, besides Mother Sawyer" (12–14)—an indication of the authors’ skepticism regarding contemporary accusations of witchcraft. Another dancer mentions that the troupe is scheduled to perform at Sir Arthur Clarington’s estate soon. Cuddy says that they should perform at Old Carter’s place soon, too (remember that he is in love with Old Carter’s daughter, Katherine). One of the Morris-dancers guesses that the reason Cuddy wants to go wandering off by himself is because he is in love. After a bit of teasing, the Morris-dancers exit, leaving Cuddy alone onstage. He walks to his father’s pea field and wonders aloud about the sort of creature that will appear to lead him to Katherine. The Devil-Dog appears and leads him to a spirit in the form of Katherine. In an aside, the spirit explains that he has assumed the form Katherine in order to torment Cuddy, as Mother Sawyer commanded. Cuddy tries to follow the Spirit-Katherine and ends up running into a pond (offstage). He re-enters soaking wet, and starts talking to the Devil-Dog, whom he clownishly mistakes for an actual dog. The Devil-Dog tells him that Katherine prefers another suitor (Somerset). He promises to torment the rival suitor during the upcoming Morris-dance at Sir Arthur Clarington’s estate. Cuddy thanks him and promises to give the dog some bread in exchange for his troubles. Act 3, Scene 2: Old Carter’s property With the dowry money from his bigamous second marriage now in hand, Frank prepares to flee to another nation with Winifred (his first wife), who is disguised as his servant boy. Winifred says that the dowry money is poor recompense for the sin Frank has committed. Frank urges her to put her regrets behind her and focus on the future. Susan (Frank’s second wife) enters, gives the ‘servant boy’ (Winifred) a jewel, and bids ‘him’ to serve Frank faithfully as his "servant, friend, and wife" (73). The ‘servant’ promises to do as Susan has asked. Frank tells ‘him’ to ride ahead a bit and wait for him further down the road. The ‘servant’ exits. Frank tries to say good-bye to Susan, but she is reluctant to let him go and insists on following him for awhile. Act 3, Scene 3: A country road, not far from Old Banks’ property The Devil-Dog sees Frank and Susan coming down the road and looks forward to tormenting them: "Now for an early mischief and a sudden. / The mind’s about it now. One touch from me / Soon sets the body forward" (1–3). Frank enters with Susan following. He scolds her for burdening him and tells her to go home. She asks why he has suddenly taken such an angry tone and notes that their fathers are likely close behind because they were quite alarmed when she told them about Frank’s sudden departure. The Devil-Dog (who is invisible to all characters except Frank and Mother Sawyer) rubs Frank. Noting the trouble Susan has caused for him, Frank suddenly decides to kill her (a decision influenced, it seems, by the Devil-Dog’s touch). He pulls out a knife and tells Susan that he is going to send her to heaven. Rather than running away in fear, Susan stands in place and passively asks Frank to at least give her an explanation for his actions. He tells her that, because he was already married to someone else, she is not in fact his wife, but a whore, and must therefore die. He admits that the sin is his and not hers, but goes ahead and stabs her in the stomach anyway. Susan says she is happy to die rather than live in adultery. She continues to profess her love for Frank. Frank stabs her a few more times to shut her up. When she is finally dead, he gives himself a few superficial wounds and ties himself to a tree to make in look as though they were attacked by murderers. The (invisible) Devil-Dog helps him secure the ropes. Old Carter (Susan’s father) and Old Thorney (Frank’s father) enter and discover Susan’s corpse. They fear that Frank is almost dead as well. They ask Frank who the murderers were. Frank says that the murderers forced him to swear an oath not to reveal their identities. Instead, he offers a physical description strongly suggesting the murderers were Warbeck (his rival suitor) and Somerton. Old Thorney and Old Carter resolve to hunt Warbeck and Somerton down and make them answer for their crimes. Act 3, Scene 4: Sir Arthur Clarington’s estate Warbeck and Somerton are at Sir Arthur Clarington’s estate. Clarington tells them that the Morris-dancers have arrived, and that the performance will begin shortly. Warbeck says that Morris-dancing is absurd. Somerton says that he isn’t feeling well (a result, perhaps of the torment the Devil-Dog promised Cuddy in 3.1). The Morris-dancers enter. Cuddy follows in his hobby-horse costume, accompanied by the Devil-Dog (who is invisible to all characters except Cuddy and Mother Sawyer). The dancers begin to perform, but the fiddler cannot get any sound out of his instrument. He says that the fiddle must be bewitched. Cuddy says he will play the fiddle and dance at the same time. The Devil-Dog plays the fiddle (but it somehow seems as though Cuddy is playing) and the dance recommences. When the dance is finished, a constable enters with some officers. He produces an arrest warrant for Warbeck and Somerton. In an aside, Cuddy notes that the Devil-Dog has done a good job of causing mischief for Somerton, as he promised (3.1). Warbeck and Somerton make earnest declarations of their innocence. Act 4, Scene 1: A public setting Old Banks tells some fellow countrymen that his horse is sick. He blames the illness on Mother Sawyer. One of the countrymen says he found his wife having sex with a servant in a barn. He also blames his misfortune on Mother Sawyer. The men all agree that they must get rid of Mother Sawyer before the town is ruined. Another countryman enters chanting, "burn the witch" (15). He is carrying a handful of straw from Mother Sawyer’s hovel. He claims that, if Mother Sawyer is indeed a witch, she will come running when he lights the straw on fire. The other countrymen encourage him to burn the straw. As soon as the straw is ablaze, Mother Sawyer enters and curses the countrymen for defacing her home. Convinced that she is in fact a witch, the countrymen seize her and make plans to burn her at the stake. Sir Arthur Clarington enters with the local Justice of the Peace, who orders the countrymen to calm down. Old Banks tells the Justice that Mother Sawyer is a witch, as the burning straw trick has proven. The Justice says that a charge of witchcraft will require better proof. Old Banks says that Mother Sawyer has put a curse on him: ten times an hour, he has an uncontrollable urge to run to his cow in the backyard, lift up her tail, and kiss her behind. The Justice says that he still does not have enough proof for a conviction. Old Banks and the countrymen exit. The Justice and Sir Arthur Clarington interview Mother Sawyer, who responds to most of their questions with disdain, but admits that she made a deal with the Devil in order to get revenge on her neighbors. She defends herself by arguing that there are many people in the world worse than her, and that she is unfairly persecuted because she is old and poor: "A witch? Who is not? / Hold not that universal name in scorn then. / What are your painted things in princes’ courts? / Upon whose eyelids lust sits blowing fires / To burn men’s souls in sensual hot desires. / Upon whose naked paps a lecher’s thought / Acts sin in fouler shapes than can be wrought" (111–17). The Justice and Clarington tell Mother Sawyer to pray. They exit. The Devil-Dog enters and gives Mother Sawyer an update on his recent activities: He has made a horse lame, pinched a baby, and prevented cream from turning to butter (even though a maid churned it for nine hours). He also tells how he has driven a woman named Anne Ratcliffe mad. Anne Ratcliffe enters on this cue, spouting crazy nonsense. At Mother Sawyer’s command, the Devil-Dog touches Anne, which makes her even crazier: "Oh my ribs are made of paned horse, and they break. There’s a Lancashire hornpipe in my throat. Hark how it tickles it, with doodle, doodle, doodle, doodle. Welcome sergeants: welcome Devil. Hands, hands; hold hands, and dance around, around, around" (198–202). Old Ratcliffe (Anne’s husband) enters with Old Banks, Cuddy, Banks, and other countrymen. Old Ratcliffe is distraught to see the condition his wife has been reduced to. Blaming Mother Sawyer, he and the other countrymen carry her offstage, but return moments later to report that she went wild and beat out her own brains. Old Banks says that Ratcliffe’s death proves that Mother Sawyer is a witch. He tells his fellow countrymen that they should procure a warrant for her arrest and ship her off to Newgate Prison. Mother Sawyer curses him. Old Banks says that, according to rumor, Mother Sawyer has a spirit who comes to her in the likeness of a dog and performs mischief for her (the provenance of this rumor is unclear: the only characters who can see the Devil-Dog are Mother Sawyer and Cuddy Banks). He says that if anyone ever sees the Devil-Dog, it will be sent to prison along with her. Young Banks says that he has seen and befriended the Devil-Dog. The countrymen worry that Cuddy has been bewitched as well. The Devil-Dog enters and barks, scaring everyone. Old Banks, Old Ratcliffe, and the other countrymen all exit to procure a warrant for Mother Sawyer’s arrest. Cuddy greets the Devil-Dog warmly and exits. Mother Sawyer tells the Devil-Dog to attack Sir Arthur Clarington next. Act 4, Scene 2: A bedroom in Old Carter’s home: Frank in bed, Katherine at his bedside Frank Thorney wakes up with Susan’s sister Katherine at his bedside. Katherine encourages him not to despair over the loss of his wife (she thinks that Susan was murdered by Warbeck and her fiancée, Somerton). She brings Frank a plate of chicken. The Devil-Dog enters (invisible). He shrugs for joy and dances—an indication that he is responsible for Frank’s impending misfortune. Katherine says she needs something to cut the chicken with and begins searching through Frank’s clothes. Frank suddenly realizes that the knife he murdered Susan with is still in his pocket. He tells Katherine that he has lost his appetite. Katherine finds the knife but doesn’t say anything about it. She exits to get her father, but pretends that she is only going to find something to cut the chicken with. Frank searches his pockets, finds the knife, and realizes that his ruse is ruined. The Devil-Dog exits. The spirit of Susan enters and stares at Frank. He tries to turn away from her, but she re-appears wherever he turns his head. Winifred enters, still disguised as Frank’s servant boy. The spirit vanishes. Frightened, Frank sits upright and mistakenly assumes that the spirit was Winifred playing some sort of trick on him. Winifred swears that she did not move from the spot where she is standing since she entered the room. She tells Frank that all his misfortune is a result of his bigamous second marriage. Brushing these concerns aside, Frank confesses that he murdered Susan and begs Winfred to help him cover the crime up. Katherine re-enters with her father (Old Carter) and subtly points out the bloody knife in Frank’s pocket. Old Carter is immediately convinced of Frank’s guilt, but rather than saying anything right away, he tells Frank that he will send for a surgeon. He exits for a moment and re-enters with servants carrying Susan’s body in a coffin. Forcing Frank to look at the massacred body, he accuses him of murder and calls on him to confess. Katherine exits to summon officers. Winifred begs Old Carter to leave Frank alone. Old Carter says that Winifred (the ‘servant boy’) is a rogue and Frank’s accomplice. Frank tells Old Carter to leave the "woman" (Winifred) alone. When Old Carter asks why Winifred is dressed like a man, she tells him that she is Frank’s first wife. She also tells him that Frank has confessed to Susan’s murder. Katherine re-enters to report that the officers have arrived. Frank exits to meet the officers, hoping that his judges will treat him leniently. Act 5, Scene 1: A public setting Mother Sawyer says she has not seen the Devil-Dog for three days. She repeats her spell to summon him. When it doesn’t work, she curses him. The Devil-Dog appears, now white instead of black. He tells her that his term of service to her is now up and that she will soon be tried and executed. Mother Sawyer says that she will never confess. Old Banks enters with Old Ratcliffe and other countrymen. They drag Mother Sawyer away as she begs the Devil-Dog for help. Left alone on stage, the Devil-Dog laughs over his work: "Ha, ha, ha, ha! / Let not the world, witches or devils condemn, / They follow us, and then we follow them" (82–84). Cuddy Banks enters. The Devil-Dog tells him that Mother Sawyer will be executed soon. He also says that the ‘Katherine’ Cuddy followed into the pond (in 3.1) wasn’t actually Katherine at all, but a spirit in disguise. Cuddy asks if spirits can change into any form they please. The Devil-Dog says they can, but they usually assume the form of coarse animals such as dogs or toads. Mimicking conventional Puritan doctrine, he adds that anytime a person curses or lies, he opens up an opportunity for demonic possession. Cuddy says that he pities the Devil-Dog because he has to go around causing mischief for witches rather than doing more pleasurable dog things, such as hunting ducks (he still hasn’t caught on that the Devil-Dog isn’t the same as a regular dog). The Devil-Dog asks Cuddy if he would like to be his new master, now that Mother Sawyer is out of the picture. Cuddy refuses. He says that he never wants to see the Devil-Dog again. The Devil-Dog calls Cuddy a fool. Cuddy chases him off-stage. Act 5, Scene 2: A court The Justice fines Sir Arthur Clarington for his role in Frank's misfortune (Clarington got Winifred pregnant then pushed Frank to marry her—it is not clear how his guilt was discovered). Old Carter says that Clarington ought to be hanged in Frank’s place. The Justice also sets Warbeck and Somerton free. Act 5, Scene 2 (and Epilogue): A place not far from the gallows where Frank and Mother Sawyer will be executed Winifred weeps as she waits for Frank to be brought to the gallows. Old Thorney tries to comfort her. Old Carter says he pities Frank as well. Winifred faints. Mother Sawyer is brought in. Old Carter and other countrymen encourage her to confess, but she refuses. She does, however, warn the assembly against making deals with the Devil. Officers take her off to be executed. Other officers enter holding Frank as prisoner. They are followed by the Justice, Sir Arthur Clarington, Somerset, and Warbeck. Frank delivers a penitent speech, apologizes to everyone present, and asks the assembly to look after Winifred and his father. The officers take him away to be executed. Old Carter tries to console Frank’s father (Old Thorney). Somerton says that he and Katherine have agreed to get married. The Justice tells Winifred that Sir Arthur Clarington has been ordered to pay her one thousand marks (a fairly large sum). Old Carter takes pity on Winifred and invites her to live with his family. In a short epilogue, Winifred ends the play on a relatively optimistic note: "I am a widow now, and must not sort / A second choice, without good report; / Which though some widows find, and few deserve, / Yet I dare not presume, but will not swerve / From modest hopes. All noble tongues are free; / The gentle may speak one kind word for me" (1–5). |
3962493 | /m/0b8wgq | Battleaxe | Sara Douglass | 5/7/1995 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | The land of Achar has prospered for centuries under the care of the one god, Artor the Ploughman. Now, however, disturbing rumors have reached the ears of Jayme, Brother-Leader of the Seneschal, head of the worship of Artor. Evidence suggests that the Forbidden, who were driven out of Achar long ago, have returned. Jayme is relieved to find that Axis, the leader of the Axe-Wielders, an elite force under the command of the Seneschal, has returned from his latest assignment. Others are not as welcoming, because Axis is the illegitimate son of the Princess Rivkah, sister of King Priam. Rivkah is thought to have died while giving birth to Axis, and he has been a thorn in the King's side ever since. Meanwhile, Faraday, the beautiful daughter of Earl Isend, is also at court for the King's nameday celebration. The Earl manages to get a betrothal for her to Borneheld, Rivkah's legitimate son and Priam's likely heir. Unfortunately, Faraday is far more interested in Borneheld's half-brother, Axis. Axis embarks on an assignment to support the towns that may be facing the Forbidden. Faraday rides with him, but she is separated from Axis along the journey. Faraday and her companions now travel to Gorkenfort, where her betrothed lives. She is unsettled by ideas and people she encounters, both along the way and by her husband's side. Though in love with Axis, she is told that it is vital to the future that she marry Borneheld. Even more confusing, she seems to have some kind of relationship with the forest, which all Artor-fearing Acharites hate. As Axis continues his journey, he begins to encounter strange things that call into question everything he has devoutly believed all his life. In Smyrton, he meets two of the Forbidden who have been cruelly treated by the villagers. Touched by pity, he sings to the little girl, who is near death, and mysteriously saves her life. Even more disturbing than this, he is told that his fate is intertwined with a prophecy about a world in which the human and the Forbidden live side by side, and that he may be the one to defeat Gorgrael, who is mounting a campaign to take over Achar. fr:Tranchant d'acier |
3962673 | /m/0b8wnb | The Game of Sunken Places | Matthew Tobin Anderson | null | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | The book follows the story of two 13-year old boys named Brian and Gregory (who are friends, but total opposites) who visit a mansion in Vermont owned by Gregory's Uncle Max. Uncle Max is a strange character who uses complicated words from the past such as "effluents" and "insalubrities" and acts very much like an Edwardian-era aristocrat. The two boys uncover the board of the Game of Sunken Places in the nursery and unintentionally set the game into motion. They also meet Gregory's cousin Prudance, a girl from the area. Thus they become involved in an age-old ritual conflict between enchanted supernatural races. Once they go out into the woods and begin playing the game, they meet unlikely allies such as Kalgrash the troll and work together to accomplish all the challenges using the game board as a map. In the final challenge, Gregory is about to win and Brian is being strangled by Jack Stimple. By believing that Jack was their opponent, the two almost fell into his trap. Jack was not playing the game at all. Gregory was the player for the Thusser Hordes and was about to win when Brian stopped him. Jack Stimple was meanwhile being dragged away by monks for strangling Brian. Gregory trusts Brian, and lets him win the game and so another battle had been won in the name of the Norumbegans. |
3963238 | /m/0b8xvm | Avenger | null | null | null | The Federation must contain a plague that is killing plant life, damaging animal young, and killing people on several vital systems that collectively supply food for the entire Federation. Avenger opens with the Federation trying to maintain a strict quarantine to contain the spread of the disease while the Federation's reserves run low. The Enterprise-E are assigned to a blockade of the Alta Vista system, home to the Gamow Station, a research facility designed to house about 60 scientists that is temporarily being used as a refugee camp for 1400 people. Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his crew attempt to stop a shuttlecraft, piloted by a Vulcan called Stron and a pregnant human woman, from fleeing the quarantined system, but the two appear to commit suicide by trying to jump into warp while caught in the Enterprise's tractor beam. Picard is unconvinced that the couple actually died in the warp core explosion, because Vulcans do believe suicide is logical. Meanwhile, on the once-verdant planet of Chal, a mysterious stranger walks through the desolation towards a Starfleet medical outpost. He meets with the commanding officer, Christine McDonald, and requests the location of the burial place of a native woman named Teilani. He discovers, with Christine's help, that Teilani is not dead yet, but will be soon—the disease is quickly working through her body. He goes to her and prepares a curious herbal tea with dried leaves and hot water, while Commander McDonald and the doctor, Andrea M'Benga, look on in amazement as Teilani begins to miraculously recover. The stranger reveals to M'Benga that the leaves are Trannin leaves, native of the Klingon home planet. Christine determines to send a message to Starfleet, to announce that a way to combat the virogen has been found. Christine's suspicions of the stranger's identity are aroused when Teilani calls the stranger "James." Her suspicions are further confirmed when she finds a plaque that the stranger had used as a tray for the tea, emblazoned with the name and number of the first Enterprise. Christine confronts the stranger with her belief that he is James T. Kirk, and he does not deny it, but insists that she only call him "Jim," and that she reveal his real identity to no one. As it turns out, Kirk was saved by a last minute beam out made by creatures and people who were able to release themselves of Borg assimilation. The Borg nanites that had been killing Kirk were cleansed out of him, and after two years of work aiding the survivors, he stumbled upon a Borg scout ship that he used to return. Jean-Luc Picard sends out a search party onto an asteroid that was nearby to the explosion of the shuttle to find out if Stron and his wife really died there. Commander Data confirms that there are no traces of organic particles in the area, proving that Stron and his mate somehow escaped the shuttle before its demise. However, the manner of their escape remains a mystery. Picard reports his findings personally to the commander of the Gamrow Station, Chiton Kincaid, by beaming down alone to speak with her. He realizes with horror as their conversation goes on that she was already, in fact, aware that Stron and the woman did not die in the explosion. Before he can react, she attacks him with a disruptor and he blacks out. Back on Chal, Teilani is almost fully recovered, but still weak. Kirk cares for her faithfully, and is in the process of building a home. However, their peaceful life is jarringly interrupted when a wing of Orion pirates begin mercilessly attacking the medical base. Jim begins running towards the base, only to be beamed up to Christine McDonald's ship, the U.S.S. Tobias. Christine insists that he take charge of the situation and take out the Orion fighters. Reluctantly, Jim agrees on the condition that Teilani be beamed up immediately. Once he knows she is safe, he takes a course of action: sending the Tobias into the atmosphere and successfully outmaneuvering the pirate ships. To Christine's dismay, he insists on destroying all of the pirates, rather than letting the survivors flee. Jim explains that Orions are pirates for hire, with no reason to attack Chal if there's no money in it—therefore someone must have intercepted Christine's message to Starfleet about the Trannin leaves, and sent the Orions to ravage the base. Kirk's suspicions are aroused: there's no way in his mind that the rapid spread of the virogen is an accident. It is soon discovered that this outbreak was created intentionally by the Symmetrists, a group of eco-terrorists who have links to Captain James T. Kirk's past. The resurrected Kirk, along with Captain Jean-Luc Picard, and their respective crews, must unite to uncover the conspiracy that caused this before it undermines the Federation. Ambassador Spock is on a mission of his own, and a deeply personal one at that. He is determined to find the murderer of his father Sarek, for that is what he believes the true fate of his father was. He and Kirk reunite to avenge Sarek's death. During this time, Spock lets go of all the self-control that makes him Vulcan. It is later said that his insides were sabotaged by the Vulcan Bendii disease, the one that supposedly killed his father. Kirk and Spock find out that the people who killed his father are now after him, infecting him with a disease very much like Bendii—the same thing that killed Sarek. It is revealed that a personal aide to Sarek's father and later Spock was the killer of Sarek by use of a poison precisely similar to the Bendii syndrome. In the end, it is Kirk who avenges Sarek's death, while Spock is taken away for further treatments. |
3963401 | /m/0b8x_x | The Ashes of Eden | Judith Reeves-Stevens | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The novel opens with Ambassador Spock on planet Veridian III following the events of Star Trek Generations. He is standing at the site where Captain Jean-Luc Picard had buried Captain James T. Kirk, paying final respects to his fallen friend. The story then flashes back six months before Kirk was believed to have been 'killed' on the maiden voyage of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-B. Kirk is having trouble coping with retirement on Earth as the Enterprise-A is decommissioned for war games. Kirk is having a difficulties finding ways to spend his spare time and finds it distasteful that Starfleet cadets are using holodeck simulations of his 'adventures' in training, insisting "they were just my job." Kirk later attends a party at Starfleet Headquarters with his old friends Spock and 'Bones' McCoy, where they are disappointed to learn that the post of Supreme Commander-in-Chief has been awarded to Admiral Androvar Drake(a former colleague of Kirk who has no qualms about cruelly mocking him). Kirk spots a mysterious young alien woman at the party, but doesn't get a chance to talk to her. Meanwhile, Chekov and Uhura are working undercover with a Starfleet Intelligence operative named Jade in Klingon territory. When Jade manages to obtain some information about something called the "Chalchaj 'Qmey", she betrays Chekov and Uhura, leaving them to die in a shuttle bay. Luckily, they are rescued by Sulu aboard the Excelsior (who have been secretly monitoring them during their mission)and, feeling they can no longer trust Starfleet Intelligence, return to Earth to report to Drake. Kirk returns to his parents' farm in Iowa, which he intends to sell soon. He is surprised to be reunited with the woman from the party, who gives her name as Teilani and explains that her world needs a hero. Suddenly, they are attacked and Teilani is shot. Kirk and Teilani manage to defeat and apparently kill their attackers, who Teilani explains are anarchists disrupting the peace of her homeworld. This world is called Chal and was originally colonized by both Klingons and Romulans (the inhabitants are all Klingon/Romulan hybrids), but both empires have now abandoned them. Chal apparently has fountain of youth properties, which seem proven when Teilani's wound miraculously heals, and the anarchists want to sell it. Kirk accepts Teilani's offer to help protect Chal, seeing it as a second chance. Despite protests from Spock and Bones, Kirk resigns from Starfleet and goes to Chal aboard the Enterprise, which Teilani got from the Federation as a 'goodwill gesture', being reunited with Scotty. When Sulu and the others report to Drake, he informs them about Kirk's resignation. The Chalchaj 'Qmey is believed to be some kind of doomsday weapon and Drake warns that there is a conspiracy within Starfleet trying to undermine peace talks with the Klingon Empire. Kirk and the Enterprise may be intended to help use this weapon against the Federation, so the group (now joined by Spock and Bones) are dispatched to find Chal and the weapon. After they leave, it is revealed that 'Jade' is actually Drake's daughter Ariadne, and that Drake is manipulating Kirk, his former crew and Teilani to get the Chalchaj 'Qmey for himself. Kirk arrives on Chal and quickly learns why its name is Klingon for 'heaven' - he starts feeling younger and more alive. The anarchists attack the power station in the center of Chal's only city and Teilani reveals that they are the older generation of her people - her group are fighting their own parents. Scotty puts down the attack from orbit, but starts to question the morality of the situation, so Kirk tells him about Chal's rejuvenation powers. However, Scotty does not believe him, leaving Kirk wondering if his revitalization and love for Teilani is just him denying his age. Later that night, Kirk leads a raid on the anarchists' camp and, having somehow survived being shot at point-blank range, takes a prisoner to the Enterprise brig for questioning. The prisoner, named Torl, explains that the people themselves are the Chalchaj 'Qmey, the 'Children of Heaven', and that the anarchists want to destroy their world's legacy, not sell it. Torl is shot dead by Teilani before he can tell Kirk more. Kirk realizes that things aren't how they seemed and confronts Teilani. The 'attackers' from the farm actually work for Teilani (they stopped their hearts to fake death) and Teilani faked her wound. She also secretly equipped Kirk with a force field emitter to prevent him being shot. Kirk declares he only came to Chal for the challenge of saving a world and he is not in love with Teilani, breaking her heart. They are suddenly called to the Enterprise as the Excelsior (now joined by Drake and a Klingon escort) arrives in orbit. Despite being equipped with only outdated Klingon disruptors (Starfleet stripped down the Enterprise prior to giving it to Chal) Kirk engages and manages to destroy one of the Klingon ships, causing Drake to angrily order the destruction of Kirk's ship. However, Kirk and his former crew agree that Drake's orders are against Starfleet protocol and the Excelsior withdraws for a general inquiry. Kirk and Teilani transport to the power station to find out the true secret of Chal. Lights and information displays are activated by Teilani's life signs, revealing that the power station actually contains weapons and that the Chalchaj 'Qmey were genetically created from not only Klingons and Romulans, but also stolen human tissue samples. Teilani is horrified, believing her people are little more than weapons themselves, but Kirk (who is shocked by a display depicting monstrous Starfleet agents brutally murdering Klingons and Romulans), discovers that they were actually created to be able to survive the contaminated environments the two empires believed would become the norm if the Federation conquered them. He comforts Teilani, assuring her that no-one can be held responsible for the world they are born into and that the important thing is to work to make the future better. Ariadne suddenly transports in, revealing that she and her father hope to make use of the Chalchaj 'Qmey by using them as living donor banks, using transplants from them to make immortality available to the Federation. She also tries to turn Teilani against Kirk, telling her that Kirk only came to Chal to gain immortality, but Kirk (who insists that his 'rejuvenation' was all in his mind)convinces Teilani to stop her heart. This puts the lights out, allowing Kirk to steal Ariadne's gun and use it to destroy the items and information so it can never fall into the wrong hands. Drake then arrives, explaining his intent to secure the future of the Federation by provoking them into all-out war with the Klingon Empire and devastating the latter. Refusing to accept Drake's vision of the future, Kirk and Teilani transport back to the Enterprise and are surprised to find all the old crew there awaiting Kirk's orders (having figured out Drake is the true head of the 'conspiracy'). Drake returns to the remaining Klingon ship, but instead of engaging in a fair fight orders it into a slingshot maneuver around Chal's sun, hoping to go back in time and destroy Kirk the day he arrived. With Sulu at the helm, the Enterprise manages to prevent this, but both ships get trapped in the sun. Drake refuses to attempt escape until Kirk is dead, gleefully watching as the Enterprise explodes. However, Kirk and the others actually survived by transporting to the Excelsior at the last minute. Kirk advises Drake to drop his ship's shields so he and his crew can be saved, but Drake refuses and his ship is destroyed as they try to escape. Teilani is confused, noting that Drake believed Kirk and wondering why he refused help. Kirk explains "He was once a starship captain. And starship captain believe they're invincible . . . they have to be. It's their job." Kirk visits Chal one last time, giving Teilani the Enterprises dedication plaque (which he had ripped off the wall of the exploding bridge prior to its destruction) for safekeeping and advising her to tell her children about him. Back in Federation space, Kirk, Spock and Bones watch the construction of a new Enterprise and note how Drake's position will probably now be offered to Kirk. Kirk laughs at this, insisting that the adventure they've just had is proof he's not suitable. Bones reminds Kirk of how he's a living legend and how simulations of his adventures will be seen by Starfleet cadets for centuries to come. Kirk comments "I only hope they enjoy those adventures as much as I did", realizing that this way, he really will live forever. The novel then flashes 80 years into the future. Spock is still at Kirk's grave site when the bright flash of phaser fire illuminates the night sky directly above him, where the U.S.S. Farragut is orbiting the planet, leading salvage operations of the crashed remains of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D. One stream of phaser fire is consistent with starfleet-type weaponry, and the other is green, clearly alien in origin. Spock conjectures that the Farragut is engaged in combat. Suddenly a strong gust of wind envelops the grave site, and Spock hears the unmistakable sound of a transporter beam activating, as Kirk's grave glows through the rocks from within. The grave then collapses in on itself, and the gust of wind stops. Spock looks up towards the stars, unsure of what has just transpired, or why. |
3963845 | /m/0b8yqz | Bracebridge Hall | Washington Irving | 1822 | {"/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | As this is a series of character sketches, the most effective way currently to describe this book is to list the contents. # The Author # The Hall # The Busy Man # Family Servants # The Widow # The Lovers # Family Reliques # An Old Soldier # The Widow's Retinue # Ready Money Jack # Bachelors # Wives # Story Telling # The Stout Gentleman # Forest Trees # A Literary Antiquary # The Farm-House # Horsemanship # Love-Symptoms # Falconry # Hawking # St. Mark's Eve # Gentility # Fortune Telling # Love-Charms # The Library # The Student of Salmanaca # English Country Gentleman # A Bachelor's Confessions # English Gravity # Gipsies # May-Day Customs # Village Worthies # The Schoolmaster # The School # A Village Politician # The Rookery # May-Day # The Manuscript # Annette Delarbre # Travelling # Popular Superstitions # The Culprit # Family Misfortunes # Lovers' Troubles # The Historian # The Haunted House # Dolph Heyliger # The Storm-Ship # The Wedding # The Author's Farewell |
3965342 | /m/0b9012 | Rosmersholm | Henrik Ibsen | null | null | The play opens one year after the suicide of Rosmer's wife, Beata. Rebecca had previously moved into the family home, Rosmersholm, as a friend of Beata, and she lives there still. It becomes plain that she and Rosmer are in love, but he insists throughout the play that their relationship is completely platonic. A highly respected member of his community, Rosmer intends to support the newly elected government and its reformist, if not revolutionary, agenda. However, when he announces this to his friend and brother-in-law Kroll, the local schoolmaster, the latter becomes enraged at what he sees as his friend's betrayal of his ruling-class roots. Kroll begins to sabotage Rosmer's plans, confronting him about his relationship with Rebecca and denouncing the pair, initially in guarded terms, in the local newspaper. Rosmer becomes consumed by his guilt, now believing he, rather than mental illness, caused his wife's suicide. He attempts to escape the guilt by erasing the memory of his wife and proposing marriage to Rebecca. But she rejects him outright. Kroll accuses her of using Rosmer as a tool to work her own political agenda. She admits that it was she who drove Mrs. Rosmer to deeper depths of despair and in a way even encouraged her suicide--initially to increase her power over Rosmer, but later because she actually fell in love with him. Because of her guilty past she cannot accept Rosmer's marriage proposal. This leads to the ultimate breakdown in the play where neither Rosmer nor Rebecca can cast off moral guilt: she has acknowledged her part in the destruction of Beata but she has also committed incest with her supposedly adoptive father while suspecting that he was in truth her natural parent. Her suspicion is harshly confirmed by Kroll when he attempts to come between her and Rosmer; they can now no longer trust each other, or even themselves. Rosmer then asks Rebecca to prove her devotion to him by committing suicide the same way his former wife did--by jumping into the mill-race. As Rebecca calmly seems to agree, issuing instructions about the recovery of her body from the water, Rosmer says he will join her. He is still in love with her and, since he cannot conceive of a way in which they can live together, they will die together. The play concludes with both characters jumping into the mill-race and the housekeeper, Mrs. Helseth, screaming in terror: "The dead woman has taken them". The actions of Brendel and Mortensgaard do not take the plot forward, although Mortensgaard reveals to Rosmer that Beata sent his newspaper a letter denying any rumors that her husband was unfaithful with Rebecca: the suggestion that his wife even considered such unfounded suspicion, which may have contributed to her decision to kill herself, upsets Rosmer greatly. Brendel, returning for the first time in many years, calls at Rosmersholm before going on to preach political freedom and reform in the town, but his audience, somewhat drunk, beats him up and leaves him in the gutter. Returning to the house after the incident, he acknowledges that his ideals have not survived the encounter. He now recommends the approach of the pragmatic Mortensgaard, who demonstrates his own lack of ideals by urging Rosmer to support the reform movement while still professing to be Christian, though in reality Rosmer has lost his faith. Mortensgaard needs Rosmer's public support to show that there are prominent, respectable, pious citizens who agree with his policies. |
3966403 | /m/0b91lt | Wing Commander: Fleet Action | null | null | null | In 2668, the Kilrathi find themselves in a logistical emergency. Though their military outnumbers the Terran Confederation's on a two-to-one basis, the humans' percentage of trained personnel (100%) far outstrips that of the Cats', and the Kilrathi hardware is worn and undermaintained. This is attributable directly to two factors: 1) a successful raid on the Kilrathi home planet by the TCS Tarawa, which destroyed a number of dry docks and the nearly-finished carriers within them (see End Run), as well as similar raids in other locations; and 2) a sudden shortage of transports, forcing Kilrathi carriers to return to base for supplies and putting further light-years on already-overworked spaceframes. Between the two, the Kilrathi military, and thus the Empire itself, is on the verge of defeat. Crown Prince Thrakhath nar Kiranka, and his grandfather the Kilrathi Emperor, reveal to the leaders of the eight Kilrathi hrai (clans) the reason behind the transport shortage: a sizable percentage of the transport fleet, several sixty-fours, has been assigned to transporting raw materials to the former territory of the Hari Empire, a race the Kilrathi had already extinguished and who had lived on the other side of the Kilrathi in relation to the Terrans. There, a new breed of carrier, the Hakaga-class heavy carrier, is under construction. Encased in incredibly thick armor, with six redundant launch-and-recovery bays and space and armaments for almost three hundred fighters, these eight-and-four ships will win the war when they come online within the year... But only if material attrition doesn't lose it first. With this in mind, Baron Jukaga nar Ki'ra presents an anathematic solution to the warrior Kilrathi: present an armistice and sue for peace. The Emperor, to the surprise of all present, accepts Jukaga's terms, and appoints him the primary Kilrathi ambassador to the "hairless apes" of the Confederation. The Emperor will have to play a delicate balancing act: the Kilrathi are extremely prone to violence, and with nowhere else to vent their frustrations, they might rebel against the Kiranka dynasty—especially since Jukaga is known to have imperial aspirations (his clan, the Ki'ra, once almost asserted dominion over the Kilrathi, and regard it as a historical accident that they failed) and is adept at sowing discontent. Conversely, however, a long armistice will only weaken the Confederation, and a glorious victory over them would put to rest any support for the Ki'ra. The Emperor's only choice is to finish their new fleet as quickly as possible. On Earth, the situation is just as dire; the Terran-Kilrathi War has been raging for over forty years, and the human population is weary. The Terran Confederation accepts peace terms. Both fleets are demobilized and many assets secured for cold storage, despite fervent protests from the military that the armistice must be a ruse. The Tarawa is one of the deactivated ships, and Jason "Bear" Bondarevsky, Ian "Hunter" St. John and Etienne "Doomsday" Montclair, among hundreds of thousands of others, find themselves jobless and destitute. Rear Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn has it worse: despite receiving news of the armistice and orders to stand down from hostilities, he launched an attack on a Kilrathi carrier in the Munro System, successfully destroying it at the loss of only two Broadsword bombers and a "Strike Sabre" from the Tarawa. For this action he is stripped of rank and dishonorably discharged from the fleet that has been his only family for over two decades. Bondarevsky and his friends make do as they could on Luna, trying to find jobs, griping about the stupidity of the civilian government, and drinking at the Vacuum Breathers' Club, a Fleet-centric bar. The proceedings are interrupted by a surprise visitor: released POW Kirha, once Ralgha nar Hhallas's retainer, but sworn to serve Ian St. John in the events of the novel Wing Commander: Freedom Flight. Many of the bar's patrons are initially hostile to him, but when Ian and his friends make it clear that Kirha is their friend, they come to accept him. Kirha confirms their doubts: the Kilrathi armistice must be a sham, because there is no such thing as "peace" in Kilrathi ideology, only total victory against a weaker foe or honorable defeat against a stronger one. In response, a stranger—a non-soldier—stands up and denounces both Terran and Kilrathi militaries for conspiring to keep the war going and retain power. His name is David Torg, a PhD in sociology, and the ex-Fleet patrons of the bar, both Terran and Kilrathi, unite in defense against a common enemy: snobbish extremists who have lost sight of the us-or-them realities of a fight to the death. "We want it to end too," says Jason, "But we want it to stop after we know it's really over, and that we or our kids after us don't have to go back out and fight it all over again." The chapter also serves to underline the bonds of war: Bear, Hunter, Doomsday and even total strangers step up to defend and befriend Kirha, acknowledging that, on the front lines, they would have tried to kill each other without a second thought—a fact that makes them, not enemies, but brothers. Finally, Kevin "Lone Wolf" Tolwyn arrives on a recruiting mission. Admiral Tolwyn, in his disgraced and impoverished position, has struck a deal, selling five Wake-class escort carriers (including the Tarawa) to the Free Republic of the Landreich on the Human-Kilrathi frontier, where the war is still very much going. This commercial venture is simply a cover story, though; Tolwyn's real objective is to confirm the construction of the Hakaga carriers, whose existence the Confederation have suspected for some time. Under the supervision of Landreich president Hans Maximillian Kruger, they launch a reconnaissance mission into the depths of Kilrathi territory. The Tarawa is equipped with a new deep-space radio surveillance system and outfitted with some of the Confederation's best signal analysts and cryptologists. James "Paladin" Taggart, in the meanwhile, with Hunter as his co-pilot, is sent out as point man in the Bannockburn, a light freighter equipped with a captured Kilrathi cloaking device. The Tarawa successfully penetrates and then crosses the entirety of Kilrathi-controlled space, positioning itself to receive signals from Hari territory. Paladin and Hunter succeed in penetrating the system where the Hakaga carriers are being built. Their frantic retreat to the Tarawa is complicated when the carrier is forced to hide from a Kilrathi surveillance force, preventing them from sending assistance. Finally the Bannockburn is able to rendezvous with the Tarawa, but not before Hunter is killed in action, sacrificing himself to save Bannockburn from a missile attack. Geoffrey and Kevin Tolwyn, in the meanwhile, return to Earth, and broadcast a phony radio signal, announcing that a key missile plant on Luna has been destroyed in an accident. Soon, Kilrathi transmissions begin to fly that an installation on the moon of their next target, nak'tara, is no more. (Tolwyn admits to stealing this trick from the Battle of Midway.) This, combined with Tarawa's sensor data of the new Kilrathi Hakaga fleet—active, not secured for cold storage, and ready to attack—sends humanity into a panic. Complicating the matters, a Kilrathi ambassador smuggles in, and detonates, a bomb at a meeting with much of the Confederation's top brass, wiping them out. Finally, Tolwyn's actions in the Munro System are revealed to have been a direct order from ConFleet's Chief of Staff, to allow him his reconnaissance mission into Hari space; by dishonorably discharging him, ConFleet could claim plausible deniability if he was caught. Tolwyn is reinstated and placed in command of the Third Fleet, with orders to stop Kilrathi incursions in any way possible. Human carriers and fleets are hastily mobilized, but to get most of them up to full speed will take over a month, and to get their crews back will take twice that. The Kilrathi fleet is due in less than thirty days. Jason, aboard the Tarawa in the Landreich system, is itching to return to Confed space, but Kruger forbids him. The Landreich President was convicted of desertion after he mutinied and ran off with the destroyer he was commanding, to defend Landreich territory, which was being abandoned by Confederation forces "of strategic necessity." Described by Ian St. John as "either a genius improviser of irregular small-unit tactics or a barbarian" Kruger proves both by using his remaining four escort carriers (which are little more than transports with guns and a flight deck glued on) and several other capital ships to savage three Kilrathi fleet carriers. He refuses to join the main battle against the Hakaga carriers, however—a fact that might doom humanity to extinction. Prince Thrakhath attacks on with five new Hakaga carriers and nineteen "old" ones, plus over seventy support ships (heavy cruisers, destroyers, etc.) and over three thousand fighters. Against this, Geoffrey Tolwyn's Third Fleet consists of four "old" carriers, an unknown number of lesser capital ships, and four hundred eighty strike craft. The advantage in training still lies with the humans; Thrakhath's Hakagas are staffed by his best flyers, but his older ships have not fared so well. But this was the Terrans' only advantage. The human edge in maneuverability and shielding will probably not be enough to counter Thrakhath's numbers; and with the bulk of his best flyers concentrated in the formidable Hakagas, Thrakhath can afford to deploy his old carriers to the rear, where their weakness could not be exploited. And finally, Tolwyn is forced to play defensively; with such a tiny fleet, he cannot afford to absorb losses, and he retreats from a number of smaller colony worlds. At this point, the Kilrathi deploy their trump card: thermonuclear missiles loaded with strontium-90, set for airborne explosion. The resulting radiation sterilizes the entire planet, rendering it uninhabitable to all life—even the Kilrathi, who (theoretically at least) want humanity's planets for themselves. Baron Jukaga, aboard one of the Hakagas, argues with Thrakhath against this step, claiming (rightly) that it will only incite the Terrans into a frenzy, but Thrakhath has lost all respect for the humans by now. To him, victory is inevitable. At Sirius Prime, the first of the Confederation's inner colony worlds, Tolwyn makes his stand. He loses. One Hakaga carrier is crippled by four torpedo strikes (enough to kill a conventional carrier twice), and another significantly damaged, but none are destroyed; in return, Tolwyn loses most of his Broadsword bombers and Sabre fighter-bombers, two of his carriers, and almost his flagship, the TCS Concordia. Worse, he fails to save Sirius; both inhabited planets in the system are sterilized, a loss of almost two billion lives. The Kilrathi lose an old-style carrier and an appalling number of fighters (nearly 600), but that will probably not make a difference. The Third Fleet retreats to Earth, ready to save it... Or die trying. Thrakhath, always a warrior, does not bother to consolidate his holdings before plunging straight in on Terra. The humans have managed to get three more carriers online—or, at least, to push them out of the docks and let them float in towards the Kilrathi—and have arranged a number of other distractions as well. Thousands of civilian pilots, flying unarmed and often unshielded craft from single-seat trainers to enormous spacegoing liners, volunteer to go up as chaff. Trainee pilots, some not yet out of flight academy, are rushed into combat wings to do whatever they can. Hidden behind this insanity are over two hundred Marine landing craft, packed with men, demolition equipment and Brigadier General "Big" Duke Grecko, who leads the attack on the Kilrathi head-on: by boarding them. While Geoff's navy fights and dies, the Marines do their thing; none of the Kilrathi pilots, and in fact none of the Kilrathi at all except for Thrakhath's on-board tactical analysts, ever catches on to their intent. Those Marines that infiltrate the new Hakaga carriers discover, much to their delight, that the redundant armor is designed only to resist exterior attacks; explosions from the inside will be much, much worse. All but one Hakaga are destroyed in the resulting chaos, as well as a large number of smaller ships, and Thrakhath is forced to retreat. A single wing of Kilrathi cruisers, nominally commanded by Baron Jukaga, are able to break through to Earth itself, wrecking a number of heavy Earth factories and cities (a fitting revenge for the raid on Kilrah), but do not launch their thermonuclear warheads because Jukaga, in an incomprehensible betrayal, prevents them from firing; a moment later, the Tarawa arrives, Kruger having finally decided to join the party, and destroys the remaining cruisers. Humanity, against all odds, has won through. After the battle, the utter depletion of material and hardware combined with new revolutions in material sciences to usher in a new generation of fighters; all previous designs were retired and new ones (the ships of Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger) entered service. |
3967120 | /m/0b9340 | Grim Tuesday | Garth Nix | 1/1/2004 | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Arthur has returned home when the telephone that the first part of the Will (now known as Dame Primus) gave him starts ringing. Dame Primus informs him that in the six months of House Time that have passed since he left, Grim Tuesday, the second of the Morrow Days, has found a loophole in the agreement not to interfere with the other Trustees. This allows him to take control of the Lower House, which Arthur obtained from Mister Monday. Dame Primus tells Arthur that there is a way to overcome this loophole if he returns to the House, but the phone is cut off before she can tell him its nature. Arthur then travels to the Far Reaches (Grim Tuesday's section of the House) with some difficulty, where he is mistaken for an indentured worker and forced to work. He then meets Japeth, a former Thesaurus. His work gang is forced to walk to another location, but Arthur and Japeth fall behind. A vehicle arrives suddenly, containing Suzy Turquoise Blue. She tells them that she brought equipment to break into Grim Tuesday's Treasure Tower, so as to retrieve the second part of the Will and the Second Key. The three decide that Japeth should catch up with the work gang on Suzy's vehicle while Arthur and Suzy break into the tower. They reach the tower by crossing the ceiling of the Far Reaches, to find that the tower is surrounded by a giant glass pyramid. A large mass of Nothing which claims to be Grim Tuesday's former eyebrow, called Soot, gives them a diamond to cut through the glass pyramid, in exchange for helping it into the treasure tower. Arthur and Suzy break into the treasure tower, where they meet Tom Shelvocke the Mariner, the second son of the Architect and the Old One, who is currently Tuesday's servant as a result of blackmail. The Mariner, when requested, provides them with transport to a worldlet inside a bottle, in which the second part of the Will is located. They manage to retrieve the Will, which is in the form of a bear, and return to the treasure tower. Grim Tuesday arrives and chases them through a weirdway (a type of distance-defying portal) into another part of the glass pyramid. They are then notified by one of Grim Tuesday's servants that the East Buttress of the Far Reaches is giving out, and that if not attended soon, it shall fall. Its fall will then lead to the destruction of all of them. Tuesday, whose power over the Far Reaches and his namesake day has been revoked by the Will, demands the Key to solve this problem; the Will, however, declares a contest between Arthur and Tuesday of creating something original with the Second Key, of which the Mariner is judge. The second key takes the form of two silver gauntlets, which can be used to form objects and creatures out of Nothing. Whoever wins the contest could claim the Second Key and the Far Reaches. Tuesday creates a beautiful tree of precious metals; Arthur, knowing he cannot compare in respect to physical beauty, creates a xylophone and plays a tune he composed. The Mariner, as judge, declares that while the tree is a great work, it was copied from a Secondary Realms sculptor; thus Arthur is the winner for having made something of his own. Arthur goes to mend the eastern buttress, where he encounters a high-ranking Denizen, presumed to be Superior Saturday's Dusk. A fight ensues, wherein Arthur stabs his opponent, revealing that this figure, unlike most Denizens, has golden rather than blue blood. Arthur manages to mend the wall, stopping the buttress from collapsing. Once he returns, he is appointed Lord of the Far Reaches; as with the Lower House, he appoints Dame Primus (who now consists of parts 1 and 2 of the Will) his Steward and returns home. Dame Primus reverses the effects of the First Key on him before he left (to slow the process of him becoming a Denizen), at his request, and so he is in very ill health when he returns, and is sent to the hospital. When he wakes up, he finds an invitation from Drowned Wednesday under his pillow. fr:Sombre Mardi th:อังคารอหังการ |
3968621 | /m/0b9640 | Full Moon | P. G. Wodehouse | 5/22/1947 | {"/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/02yq81": "Comic novel", "/m/01z4y": "Comedy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Lord Emsworth is aghast to learn that his younger son Freddie is back in England from America, sent over to push "Donaldson's Dog-Joy" to the English dog-owning public. He is less worried to hear that his niece Prudence Garland is being called a "dream rabbit" by unknown men over the telephone. Freddie meets Prudence, and learns her caller was none other than Bill Lister, an old pal of Freddie's and godson of his uncle Galahad, with whom Prudence plans to elope. The elopement is scuppered, however, when Prudence's mother Lady Dora has her sent to Blandings to cool off. Freddie and Galahad arrange for Lister to be near her, getting him a job painting Lord Emsworth's pig, Empress of Blandings. Freddie's wealthy American friend Tipton Plimsoll, after a lengthy binge celebrating his new-found wealth, decides to lay off the booze after mistaking Lister's gorilla-like face for an apparition, and heads down to Blandings with Freddie, who hopes to sell dog-biscuits to Tipton's stores. At Blandings, Colonel and Lady Hermione Wedge are excited by the prospect of their beautiful daughter Veronica meeting such a wealthy man, even more so when the two hit it off immediately. Plimsoll, however, is thrown off by the reappearance of the face (Lister having come to gaze up at his beloved's window), and by Veronica's intimacy with Freddie, to whom, he learns, she was once engaged. Lister's style fails to please Lord Emsworth, and the two fall out, but Freddie, at Gally's suggestion, smuggles him back into the castle disguised as a false-bearded gardener, having paid off Angus McAllister. Lister soon ruins things, however, when after scaring Plimsoll once more and terrifying Veronica, he mistakes her mother for the cook and tries to bribe her to pass a note to Prudence. Gally heads to Blandings himself, for Veronica's birthday, and soon brings her and Plimsoll together by the simple expedient of putting the Empress in her bedroom. He also brings Lister with him, inroducing him as another artist by the name of Landseer, counting on Emsworth's poor memory and the thick false beard to keep him from being recognised, but Freddie blows the gaff to Lady Hermione, while Gally is off bribing Pott the pig man to keep quiet, and Lister is asked to leave. Also thanks to Emsworth's distracted nature, Freddie accidentally gives Veronica his wife's expensive diamond necklace (while the pendant he had bought for her was sent to Aggie in Paris). Gally smooths over a resurgence of jealousy in Plimsoll on seeing Vee in the necklace, by claiming it is false, and Plimsoll gives it to Prudence for the church jumble sale. With Freddie desperate to get the necklace shipped over to his increasingly irate wife, and threatening to distrupt Plimsoll and Vee's happiness, Gally proposes to hold the family to ransom, getting the family's blessing for Prudence and Lister's marriage in return for the jewels. Lister, lurking in the gardens, glimpses an overjoyed Prudence on a balcony, but cannot catch her attention, so he fetches a ladder and climbs to the balcony. He is spotted by Colonel Wedge, who mistakes him for a burglar and fetches footmen and his revolver. Lister, hearing the Colonel, tries to flee along a ledge to a drainpipe. He climbs down the drainpipe safely, but lands on Pott the pig man, who keeps him there until Wedge arrives. When Wedge hears Lister's story from Gally, he is impressed with the man's spirit and leaves him. Gally reveals he has lost the necklace, but hopes to bluff his sister. Plimsoll arrives to confront his nemesis, and is delighted to learn Lister is real. Hermione approaches, and Gally successfully fools her into thinking he still holds the necklace; Emsworth, hearing his son is in danger of getting divorced and returning home for good, hurriedly pays for Lister's business. When Gally tells Hermione where the necklace is (in the flask taken from his room by Plimsoll), she is annoyed to realise she had it all along, Plimsoll having handed it to her when he still thought Lister was an hallucination. |
3968975 | /m/0b9716 | Black Coffee: A Hercule Poirot Novel | Charles Osborne | 1998 | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | Hercule Poirot and his friend Hastings are called upon to visit the home of the famous physicist Sir Claud Amory, who has devised the formula for a new type of explosive; but they learn that he has been poisoned (in his black coffee, hence the title) the night of their arrival. Poirot is now confronted with the challenge of figuring out which of the array of other people gathered at the Amory residence is the murderer. He questions every single person that was present at the night of the murder. he then concludes his investigations by the help of a long friend from the Scotland yard. |
3971732 | /m/0b9ctp | Jitney | August Wilson | null | null | Regular cabs will not travel to the Pittsburgh Hill District of the 1970s, and so the residents turn to each other. Jitney dramatizes the lives of men hustling to make a living as jitneys—unofficial, unlicensed taxi cab drivers. When the boss Becker's son returns from prison, violence threatens to erupt. What makes this play remarkable is not the plot; Jitney is Wilson at his most real—the words these men use and the stories they tell form a true slice of life. |
3974913 | /m/0b9jmw | Onion John | Joseph Krumgold | 1959 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Life turns upside-down for John when Andy's father decides to get the Rotary Club to build Onion John a new modern home, complete with electricity, running water, stove, and only one bathtub. The whole town signs on, committees are created, and the house goes up on the site of John's old stone hut. Almost immediately after moving in, John, unused to modern appliances, leaves newspaper on the stove. The ensuing fire destroys the house. Mr. Rusch is determined to rebuild the house, never noticing that Onion John was uncomfortable and unhappy in his new surroundings. He wants to fumigate the whole town. Andy suggests to Onion John that for the people of Serenity to leave him alone, he should run away from town. However, Andy wants to run away with him. |
3977224 | /m/0b9nws | The Stars Look Down | A. J. Cronin | 1935 | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | The novel centres on three very different men: * David Fenwick comes from a mining family but is drawn towards politics, aspiring to help his people, and becomes a strong supporter of nationalisation. Initially, he finishes up his baccalaureate degree and is a teacher at a school for the children of miners. * Joe Gowlan begins as a miner, drifts and then becomes upwardly mobile as a bookie's assistant and a war-profiteer. * Arthur Barras is the son of Richard Barras, the unscrupulous owner of the Neptune Colliery. He is unhappy with his father's values but also feels too weak to do much about it. Reactions to the failure of industrial action on safety issues in the coal mines are crystallized in the characters of Davey and Joe, who take vastly different routes in escaping from the working class. While Davey becomes an MP in order to fight for nationalisation of the mines, Joe essentially joins the mine owners. Jenny Sunley is Davey's indifferent wife who craves social status, and other characters have short but distinct tales of their own. Cronin shows a broad sympathy for the workers and a dislike of the bosses, but also allows that at least some of the bosses can be decent at a personal level. Central to the story is the Neptune coal mine and a catastrophe that occurs there. The Great War is also a factor: do you volunteer to fight, volunteer for non-military duties, use trickery to evade service or openly defy the system by refusing call-up? There is a brief description of one of the tribunals that examined conscientious objectors, often refusing to accept their objection as valid. There is also a clear commitment to the idea of nationalising the mines, replacing the mass of small private owners that existed at the time. The novel ends with most of the men much changed, and it is an excellent description of working-class life in the North of England during that period. |
3978574 | /m/0b9rm_ | Money in the Bank | P. G. Wodehouse | null | null | George, 6th Viscount Uffenham, a typically impecunious and absent-minded Wodehousian aristocrat, mislays his Aunt's fortune in diamonds, and is forced to let his family pile, returning there disguised as a butler named Cakebread to seek the gems. The story also features the crooks Alexander "Chimp" Twist and "Dolly" and "Soapy" Molloy, who had earlier appeared in Sam the Sudden (1925) and Money for Nothing (1928). |
3978727 | /m/0b9rz7 | Joy in the Morning | Betty Smith | null | null | Annie is only eighteen and Carl is twenty. Her family is against their marriage, but the couple weds anyway. They move to Carl's college campus to start their life as a married couple, only to quickly discover that it is hard to keep up with school while trying to entertain a spouse. Annie is able to make friends with anyone, even the grumpiest people. However, she is naive and full of childlike spirit. She tries to fit in with the college girls, and is even offered a free class because of her talent as a playwright. Life seems to be going perfectly until Annie learns that she is pregnant. She is scared of what Carl will say and what her mother-in-law and mother will think. Eventually, this couple proves that love endures hardships. |
3978942 | /m/0b9scg | Joy in the Morning | P. G. Wodehouse | null | null | Bertie is persuaded to brave the home of his fearsome Aunt Agatha and her husband Lord Worplesdon, knowing that his former fiancee, the beautiful and formidably intellectual Lady Florence Craye will also be in attendance. What ensues will come to be remembered as The Steeple Bumpleigh Horror, with Bertie under constant threat of engagement to Craye, violence from her oafish suitor Stilton Cheesewright, the unfortunate interventions of her young brother Edwin and unnamed peril from the acid tongue of Aunt Agatha. Only the masterful Jeeves can save the day. |
3979425 | /m/0b9t4h | Sunwing | Kenneth Oppel | 8/12/1999 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | Following the events of Silverwing, Shade, Marina, and Shade's friends in the Silverwing colony fly in the middle of the winter in hopes of finding Shade's father Cassiel. The bats find a Human building, and fly inside, thinking that Cassiel might be there. Inside, they find an artificial forest filled with many other bats. The Silverwings discover that they cannot escape and that Cassiel is not there. Panic arises when several bats disappear, including Shade's friend, Chinook, though Arcadia assures everyone that they are heading to a better place and are "chosen" to do so. Shade discovers a way through the river that runs through the forest. Joined by Marina, who convinces Shade that he would never make it on his own, they escape through the river. They find another artificial forest, this one filled with owls. The owls awaken and attempt to kill both bats, who find temporary refuge in a tree hollow. The owls try to flush them out, but are stopped when a soporific vapor spreads through the forest. Several owls are captured by the humans, while Shade and Marina manage to escape to yet another identical forest through the river. A Boreal owl, Orestes, son of the Owl King, also follows them. Shade and Marina talk to Orestes and try to convince him to believe in what is happening. Afterwards, Goth (who has been recaptured by military scientists) attacks Shade. Goth almost kills Orestes, but Shade uses an image generated by echoes to give the owl enough time to escape. Goth chases the two through the forest, but is thwarted by humans, who capture him and Orestes. Shade and Marina sneak into the core of the building. They eventually reach a room of bats that are being used for an unknown purpose. When Shade gets closer to investigate, he is captured. Shade is put into one of a series of metal troughs. There, the humans shave a patch of fur from his skin. A metal disc attached to a string is stitched into his belly, and a metal stud is placed into his ear. Shade is then put into a container, where he finds Chinook and other bats. Shade questions Chinook about the purpose of the studs and discs, but he is unable to respond. The container is placed on an airplane flying south. Marina is clinging to the plane, but is soon thrown off by the turbulence. Concerned for her friend's safety, she flies to the entrance to bring Freida, Ariel, and the rest of the bats out of the building for their own safety and helping Shade. Before going in, she jams a stick into the entrance to prevent it from closing. As she explains, Arcadia tells the bats not to believe her. As a result, only Freida, Ariel, and two other Silverwings escape through the door. They then encounter a Graywing colony, led by one Achilles Graywing. The Silverwings inform them not to enter the building and are told that the owls have located and laid siege to Hibernaculum, killing several bats as what the owls believe as punishment for Goth and Throbb's action in the previous book. Devastated at this news, they decide to follow the Graywings to Bridge City, which is possibly the only safe haven left for bats. Marina decides to there recruit some bats to help her go south and rescue Shade. In the plane, Shade and Chinook unlock the door, only to find another one. As Shade opens it, he finds it leads into another cage, which contains Goth. With the help of the other bats, Shade and Chinook manage to close the door. As a result of their activity, they are released into the air. Shade finds out that they are on the outskirts of a city beside a massive jungle. He sees with terror that this is Goth's homeland. The metal tracker in each bat's ear induces them to fly into a certain building. Shade, for his part, reels back in horror as the bats who meet the building trigger the disks, which explode on impact, leading them to a terrible death. Shade manages to stop Chinook from crashing. Chinook realizes his parents, Plato and Isis, were caught in the explosions. Shade manages to remove Chinook's disk; however, when Chinook tries to remove Shade's disc, they both fall into a river, where a pike rips off Shade's disc and eats it. Consequently, an explosion occurs underwater, sending up a large waterspout. The two drenched bats make it to shore, where Chinook saves Shade's life by killing an attacking mantis the size of Shade himself. They then meet a bat by the name of Caliban, who shows them a place where survivors of the bombing are hiding from the bloodthirsty Vampyrum spectrum, a cannibal race now ruled by Goth upon his father's death. Shade begins to learn more about the Vampyrum Spectrum from a weakened bat named Ishmael. Goth, reaching his home in an ancient Mayan pyramid, is anointed king and told of a prophecy by his priest. According to the prophecy, if a hundred hearts are offered to their god Camazotz, the coming solar eclipse will last forever, allowing Zotz to rule both the Upperworld and Underworld. This privilege has been withheld, says the priest, by Nocturna, Zotz's twin sister, who is worshipped by the Northern bats. If Goth makes the sacrifices, Zotz may overcome Nocturna forever. Meanwhile, the Silverwings make their way to Bridge City. There, a council of war is held about the rumored threats to the bats. There is some relief when the northern rat King Romulus (who became the ruler after his brother Remus fled the kingdom, convinced that a plot to poison him was afoot) comes and pledges his help to them. Shade hastens to rescue his father, who they discover is now a captive of Goth's clan. On the way, both Chinook and the owl prince Orestes are captured by a small group of Vampyrum spectrum. Later, Shade is alerted by the oracle Zephyr of the dark prophecy. Though reluctant, Shade plays into fate's hands through his attempts to complete his quest. Meanwhile, Marina and the survivors of the Silverwing colony are led to the Southern rats, led by Cortez via waterways. After some negotiation, the rat General Cortez agrees to help the Silverwings, because his own son is a captive of the Vampyrum spectrum. At Statue Haven, Shade is contemplating the loss of Chinook and Orestes when he notices something burrowing into Statue Haven. To his joy, he finds himself reunited with his mother and Marina. Shade, Marina, Shade's mother Ariel, and a group of Rats led by General Cortez enter the pyramid to free the rat prisoners. Shade manages to convince Cortez to free the owls. In the midst of the confusion, the tunnel collapses, and the Spectral Bats attack. Cortez and his rats retreat; later, Cortez decides to return at the insistence of Marina. A battle ensues between Vampyrum spectrum and their intended victims, with help from the freed prisoners. During the battle, Goth chases Shade, intending to kill him, but Shade is able to protect himself with sound. Subsequently, Shade discovers his father, Cassiel. At this point, the high priest Voxzaco realizes that there is no way by which to sacrifice 100 hearts before the brief eclipse ends, except by use of the explosive disc Goth had brought with him. He therefore attempts to drop it on the pyramid. Inside the pyramid, the battle is still raging; Ishmael is shown sacrificing himself to save his trapped brother. The battle appears to be shifting in the northerners' favor when Shade notices the disc falling towards the pyramid. Realizing that it would be catastrophic if it dropped while the eclipse was still active, he uses sound waves to keep in place. He manages to keep it aloft long enough for most of the northern bats to escape; exhausted, he lets it drop, destroying the pyramid and killing all inside. Victorious, the northern group returns to Bridge City, where a war platoon of owls led by Orestes' father, King Boreal, are approaching. Meeting for a truce, Shade and the elders attempt to negotiate. With Orestes' help, Boreal relents and gives the bats the right to fly in the daylight. Afterward, Frieda, the eldest of the Silverwings, dies peacefully. Later, in the northern forests, a new Tree Haven is being built for the Silverwings. Shade's mother Ariel is selected as a new elder. Chinook is adopted, at Shade's suggestion, by Ariel and Cassiel. Cassiel and Shade are helping to make the new echo chamber, wherein the history of bat-kind will be kept in the form of pictures formed by sounds in the bats' minds, when Cassiel remarks that Shade wanted to be made an elder, despite being barely a year old. Shade replies that Cassiel did as well, and says that hotheads like themselves do not make good leaders. Shade then leaves to find Marina. She races him to a stream, eventually winning herself and curling up before Shade can find her. She states that Chinook had offered to make her his mate, but reveals (to Shade's astonishment) that she has refused, and intends to be Shade's mate instead. Ariel arrives soon afterward, already knowing Marina's intentions. Shade and Marina then fly to see the sunrise, concluding the book. |
3979496 | /m/0b9t77 | Not Forgotten | Nancy Holder | 4/1/2000 | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Los Angeles is being struck by a crime wave. There seems to be no link between the victims and their cause of death - burning from the inside out. Supernatural powers seem to be involved. Angel investigates the deaths, and Cordelia tries to find a band of child thieves. Both searches lead in the same direction - a rich slumlord who is imprisoning the children's immigrant parents. Angel, Doyle, and Cordelia all have difficulties in L.A., but they realize it's much harder for these immigrants. Angel hopes to help before it is too late. |
3979513 | /m/0b9t99 | Close to the Ground | Jeff Mariotte | 8/1/2000 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | After saving a young woman from her rogue bodyguards, Angel is hired by a big Hollywood studio head, Jack Willitts, to guard the girl in question; his daughter, Karinna. Angel is persuaded when his co-workers point out there is rent to deal with, and Cordelia even convinces Jack to give her a job (Unfortunately, it is as a tour guide rather than an actress). Angel takes Karinna to several popular nightspots, writing her off as a spoiled brat. Cordy believes Angel is getting too close to the case, but the situation soon worsens. Karinna gets into trouble while Angel and company are being tracked by an unknown creature, trying to destroy anything getting in its way. Angel eventually finds himself trapped in a supernatural struggle for power and immortality, as an Irish magician, Mordractus, reveals that he has been tracking Angel. Mordractus is attempting to summon a powerful demon, but the spells are draining his life energy, and he will soon die unless a way of surviving is found. Knowing that Angel is immortal, yet retaining a soul, Mordractus attempts to steal Angel's 'essence' to allow him to duplicate that feat, but Angel escapes and Mordractus is banished to Hell. |
3979521 | /m/0b9tbb | Soul Trade | Thomas E. Sniegoski | 5/1/2001 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03npn": "Horror"} | Angel, better than most, understands the importance and meaning of the soul. Angel's soul have driven him on his journey of redemption. Now Angel discovers those who would pay for a soul. Doyle, Cordelia, and Angel find a girl whose soul has been taken away from her. It seems a soul trade is developing its own black market; the soul is an item of wealth to gamblers, junkies, and others in L.A.'s vast underworld. The soul of an innocent girl is a desirable item... until Angel appears on the scene, with a soul that is- literally- one-of-a-kind. |
3979527 | /m/0b9tcc | Redemption | Mel Odom | 6/1/2000 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03npn": "Horror"} | A wealthy actress, Whitney Tyler, requests the help of Angel, Cordelia, and Doyle. She plays a vampire on a popular TV show, and a small number of viewers seem to believe she is actually a real vampire and have made attempts to kill her. Doyle is pleased the case isn't relying on painful visions and Cordelia is starstruck, but Angel is confused; Whitney resembles someone he knew two centuries earlier. The attempts to kill Whitney continue, while Angel, Doyle and Cordy discover a symbol that links the attackers to an ancient battle. Angel must put the pieces together. |
3979535 | /m/0b9tdd | Shakedown | Don DeBrandt | 11/1/2000 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03npn": "Horror"} | Doyle has a vision of a seismic shift, and everyone's guard goes up. After investigation, Angel is led to a group of Serpentine demons who live locally in a wealthy and private community. Despite close associations with telemarketing, this group of 'monsters' seems harmless and has no enemies, yet it has become the target of a clan of underground quake demons. The quake demons can reduce living things to a crushed mess. Cordy and Doyle are dubious of their new clients, but Angel soon finds out he has much in common with this community. |
3979547 | /m/0b9tff | Hollywood Noir | Jeff Mariotte | null | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | A decayed corpse at a Hollywood construction site appears to be a harbinger of more supernatural evil. Meanwhile, Doyle has a vision which leads him to a strange address. He, Angel and Cordelia start tracking a cigarette girl, Betty McCoy. Mike Slade, a new P.I. in town, is also tracking this girl. He dresses and acts behind the times, yet his agenda is modern, and he opposes local officials. Angel and his team soon find their research leads them to Slade. They must piece together a story involving the cigarette girl, a water commissioner, and a host of disappearing demons. |
3979558 | /m/0b9tgg | Avatar | John Passarella | 3/1/2001 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | Cordelia suggests beginning a Web site for their detective agency, but Angel is hesitant—as Doyle points out, "people in trouble want to interface with a face." Meanwhile the police discover a trail of corpses across the city. The only connection between these victims (apart from the cause of death) is their hobby of online chatting. It seems a techno-savvy demon must be on the prowl, hoping to complete a ritual going even beyond a World Wide Web. |
3979861 | /m/0b9v39 | From Here to Eternity | James Jones | 1951 | {"/m/098tmk": "War novel", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Set in the summer and autumn of 1941 at the Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, the story follows several members of G Company, including Captain Dana “Dynamite” Holmes and First Sergeant Milt Warden, who begins an affair with Holmes's wife Karen. At the heart of the novel lies a struggle between former bugler Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt, an infantryman from Kentucky and self-described "thirty-year man," (a career soldier) and his superiors. Because he blinded a fellow soldier while boxing, the stubborn Prewitt refuses to box for his company’s outfit and then resists the "Treatment," a daily hazing ritual in which the non-commissioned officers of his company run him into the ground. The central characters are essentially similar in all three of Jones's World War II novels, though their names are somewhat altered. From Here to Eternity features Warden and Prewitt, who become Welsh and Witt in The Thin Red Line and Mart Winch and Bobby Prell in Whistle. Similarly, Corporal Fife in The Thin Red Line reappears as Marion Landers in Whistle, as does the cook, Maylon Stark, who becomes Storm, then Johnny "Mother" Strange. |
3981316 | /m/0b9xhp | Ruled Britannia | Harry Turtledove | 2002 | {"/m/0mz2": "Alternate history", "/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | Shakespeare is a modest upstart playwright just coming into his own when he is contacted by Nicholas Skeres on behalf of members of an underground resistance movement who are plotting to overthrow the Spanish dominion of England and restore Elizabeth I to the throne. To do this, they employ Shakespeare himself, tasking him to write a play depicting the saga of Boudicca, an ancient Iceni queen who rebelled against the Roman invasion of Britain in the 1st century A.D. The conspirators hope that the play will inspire its audience, Britons once again under the heel of a foreign enemy, to overthrow the Spanish. The plan is complicated by the Spaniards who, also recognizing Shakespeare's talents, commission him to write a play depicting the life of King Philip II of Spain and the Spanish conquest of England. Now Shakespeare must write two plays—one glorifying the valor of Britain, the other glorifying its conquest and return to the Catholic Church—at the same time. There is also a subplot of the exploits of the skirt-chasing Spanish playwright and soldier Lope de Vega, who is tasked by his superiors in the Spanish military hierarchy to keep an eye on Shakespeare (in fact, de Vega even has a part in Shakespeare's King Philip) and while he does so flits from woman to woman. Despite danger at every turn from both the Spanish Inquisition and a home-grown English Inquisition, the secret play comes to fruition, and despite qualms from Shakespeare and his fellow players it is performed. As the conspirators had hoped, the audience is roused into an anti-Spanish fury and rampages through London, killing any Spaniard they see and freeing Elizabeth from the Tower of London. Despite this victory and England's reclaimed freedom, there is considerable loss of life on both sides. Shakespeare is rewarded by the reinstated Queen Elizabeth with a knighthood and an annulment of his unhappy marriage to Anne Hathaway, which frees him to marry his longtime mistress. The queen also grants his daring request that his King Philip play, which he considers to contain some of his best work, be staged. At the end of the story Shakespeare uses his new status to facilitate the release of Lope de Vega from English captivity. |
3981359 | /m/0b9xlf | The Tristan Betrayal | Robert Ludlum | 10/28/2003 | {"/m/06wkf": "Spy fiction"} | In the fall of 1940, the Nazis are at the height of their power - France is occupied, Britain is enduring the Blitz and is under constant threat of invasion, America is neutral, and Russia is in an uneasy alliance with Germany. In this dark time, Stephen Metcalfe is living the high life in occupied Paris. The younger son of a prominent American family, Metcalfe is a handsome young man who is a notable guest at all the best parties, has been romantically linked to the elite's most desirable women, and is in great demand in the upper echelons of Paris society. He is also a minor asset in the U.S.'s secret intelligence forces in Europe, cavalierly playing the Great Game like so many socially connected young men before him. However, what has been largely an amusing game becomes deadly serious - the spy network he was a part of is suddenly dismantled in the midst of war-torn Europe and he is left without a contactractual orders, or a contingency plan. With no one else in place, it falls to Metcalfe to instigate a bold plan that may be the only hope for the quickly dwindling remains of the free world. Using his family's connections and relying on his own devices, he travels to wartime Moscow to find and possibly betray a former lover - a fiery ballerina whose own loyalties are in question - in a delicate dance that could destroy all he loves and honors. With his opponents closing in on him and the war itself rapidly approaching an irreversible crisis point, Stephen Metcalfe faces both a difficult task and an impossible decision, where success will have unimaginable consequences far into the future and failure is unthinkable. |
3982821 | /m/0b9zk6 | House | Ted Dekker | 2006 | {"/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense"} | Jack and Stephanie Singleton, a married couple struggling through the death of their daughter and on the verge of a divorce, are driving to a counseling session when they find themselves lost on a deserted road in Alabama. Taking the advice of a highway patrolman, they head down a long dirt road, where they run over spikes, flattening all of their tires and stranding them. Fortunately, they are near an old Victorian house in the backwoods of Alabama, occupied by a family of three and being used as an inn. They check in and have a strangely mysterious dinner with them, as well as another dating couple, Randy and Leslie. Things begin to go bitter, however. One of the family, Pete, begins staring down Leslie, stating that he wants her as his "wife." Betty, another one of the family members, keeps hounding Stephanie to get her more ice. Then, to make matters worse, the lights turn off, and a serial killer named Barsidious White locks them inside of the House. He throws a soup can down through the chimney with a message scrawled on it. The message states that he has killed God and will murder all seven of them unless they kill one of their own by dawn. All the people frantically move through the house, but just get trapped in each new room while trying to avoid the man in the mask. |
3983954 | /m/0bb093 | .hack//AI buster 2 | null | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction"} | Haruka Mizuhara, whose name was misspelled in the translation of the chapter title, is the player behind the wavemaster Hokuto. All the naiveness is a guise so she could find out more about the mysterious Divine Spear of Wotan. Hokuto is really a poor, 30 year-old translator who is interested in Celtic mythology. She lives in a two bedroom apartment, alone. She is depressed because Celtic mythology is first translated into English and then into Japanese. Haruka is haunted by her deadlines which scare her because of her procrastination. Her first avatar in The World, created when Haruka was one of the beta testers, is W.B. Yates, a Wavemaster of unknown level. Hokuto is Haruka's second character that she uses to avoid work and escape from reality. Hokuto was only made to play freely in The World, so Haruka's boss wouldn't find out she was procrastinating. Haruka Muzuhara's Situation is the first .hack//AI buster novel told from Haruka's perspective. It also is used to explain the way that Haruka lives and her feelings for Albireo. This is the sequel to .hack//AI buster and takes place during the first four episodes of .hack//Sign. A few months after the Lycoris event, Albireo, Saki Shibiyama, and the Cobalt Knight Brigade are assigned a case to find and deal with Macha, a catlike NPC; and to monitor Tsukasa, a Wavemaster who is attacking players with a mysterious dumb-bell shaped monster. He meets up again with his partner from .hack//AI buster who he pumps for information: Hokuto, who he now knows is the mysterious web poet W.B. Yeats. During this case, Albireo has begun to suffer a mental breakdown since meeting Lycoris, questioning what he knows about the system and reality itself. He eventually tries to confront Tsukasa when his Guardian attacks four female players (episode 4 of .hack//Sign). The four PKK (Player Killer Killers) that were hunting Tsukasa are Long Arm, but were mistranslated as Heavy Axes in the novel. Their names are taken from the suits in a deck of playing cards and are Hearts, Spades, Diamonds, and Clubs. The names were given by Decipher in the .hack//Enemy trading card game. The subtitles shown while the language is set to Japanese from the English release of .hack//Sign has one of the girls' name as Yossan. Macha stops and warns him to stay away from Tsukasa, but Albireo attacks Macha to get to Tsukasa. Macha calls on another creature and destroys Albireo's Spear of Wotan before Data Draining him, causing his real self to get hospitalized. After the Twilight Incident, Watarai is forced to take blame for it, and retires from CC Corp much to the sorrow of Saki, who cannot understand why he left. At the end of the story, he meets with Hokuto's real-life player after he recovers. He accepts the results of his breakdown as the road that led to Haruka and decides to begin a relationship with her; one that she is equally pleased to pursue. Four years after the Twilight Incident, Saki is the new head of the Cobalt Knights. She has to deal with a vagrant AI that one of her direct subordinates has interacted with. The AI, Lin, tries to defend himself using the philosophy that everything in The World has been granted a chance to live, AI and player character. In the end, Kamui deletes Lin and fires the knight that was playing with him. Rena is using her first avatar, Brigit, who has been fooled by a twin blade who failed to revive her, causing her friend to leave The World for good. Brigit then began to play solo until she is saved by a Wavemaster who talks about the rumors of the .hackers. The story then zooms to approximately the middle of Volume 1 of the .hack//Legend of the Twilight manga, when Rena is meeting with Ouka and Mirelle. Shugo logs on and they head for their new adventures. "Firefly" takes place prior to .hack//Legend of the Twilight and focuses on Hotaru's character. It is the story of how she met the .hacker Sanjuro and how they became friends. With her parents out for the night, a young half-Irish, half-Japanese girl sets up a character on the Japanese server of The World. This character is Hotaru. She enters the game and becomes involved with a fairy NPC that won't leave Hotaru alone until she gives a correct answer to her riddle. She cries for help and meets Sanjuro, who offers to help her on the event. This leads the pair to a new area where they encounter a group of Player Killers which Sanjuro dispatches easily. Hotaru, Sanjuro and two players they saved are treated to a magical firefly display where Hotaru solves her riddle and the fairy NPC flies off to join in the display. Sanjuro and Hotaru exchange member addresses before Sanjuro heads off, wishing that Hotaru's future adventures will be "one of a kind". fr:.hack//AI buster 2 |
3984433 | /m/0bb0z0 | From the Files of the Time Rangers | Richard Bowes | null | {"/m/01rvlb": "Science fantasy", "/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | Greek gods are posing as humans and pulling humanity's strings in this mosaic novel about time travel, alternate worlds, and the making of a president. The Time Rangers, Apollo's chosen servants, are in charge of preserving the peace and harmony along the Time Stream, the pathway between various worlds and times. But Apollo has given the Rangers a new task: to protect Timothy Garde Macauley, the chosen one, who must become the president of the United States to avoid the destruction of humankind. Standing in the Rangers' way are other gods: Mercury, who's working his wiles in the world of public relations; Diana, cruising New York City in the guise of an NYPD detective; Pluto, who is in the process of grooming his successor; and Dionysus, who has caused the annihilation of an alternate world. Nonstop action keeps the story rolling from the 1950s to the present day, through this world and others. |
3985231 | /m/0bb243 | The Altar of the Dead | Henry James | null | {"/m/0707q": "Short story"} | Aging George Stransom holds sacred the memory of the great love of his life, Mary Antrim, who died before they could be married. One day Stransom happens to read of the death of Acton Hague, a former friend who had done him a terrible harm. Stransom starts to dwell on the many friends and acquaintances he is now losing to death. He begins to light candles at a side altar in a Catholic church, one for each of his Dead except Hague. Later he notices a woman who regularly appears at the church and sits before his altar, and they become friends. He eventually finds out that Hague had also wronged her but that she has forgiven him. Stransom can never absolve Hague, so this knowledge splits them apart. When Stransom, now dying, visits his altar one last time, it seems that Mary Antrim is asking him to forgive. He turns and sees his unnamed woman friend, who has become reconciled to him. There is a strong suggestion that Stransom is ready to forgive Hague—he feels how, "the descent of Mary Antrim opened his spirit with a great compunctious throb for the descent of Acton Hague." But the story ends with his face showing "the whiteness of death." |
3989442 | /m/0bb9pl | The Mating Season | P. G. Wodehouse | null | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/09kqc": "Humour"} | Bertie Wooster and Gussie Fink-Nottle swap their identities, while Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright pretends to be the faux-Gussie's valet Meadowes and Jeeves pretends to be the faux-Bertie's valet, before complications ensue. Together, they find themselves at the Aunt-ridden Deverill Hall, Hampshire, seat of the imposing Dame Daphne Winkworth, where Gussie's on-off engagement to Madeline Bassett is once again in danger, leaving Bertie at risk of becoming reattached to her. Bertie must also defend his friend Catsmeat's girl Gertrude Winkworth, daughter of Dame Daphne, from the attentions of the attractive Esmond Haddock, while avoiding fulfilling his Aunt Agatha's wish that he marry her himself... All of Jeeves' considerable powers are required to bring things to a satisfactory conclusion. The story was adapted during the 1990-1993 British TV series Jeeves and Wooster (episode #15 "Right Ho! Jeeves", fourth of season three, aired 19 April 1992 in the UK). The story contains a synopsis of Mervyn Keene, Clubman which is the most complete example of the works of Rosie M. Banks ever given in the works of Wodehouse. Its recitation by Madeline Basset leaves hearer Bertie Wooster in a state of dazed horror. At the time of writing there was bad blood between Wodehouse and fellow author A. A. Milne. The book included several satirical jibes aimed at Milne, for instance after Bertie (pressured by Madeline Basset) agrees to recite Christopher Robin poems at the village concert, he laments: "A fellow who comes on a platform and starts reciting about Christopher Robin going hoppity-hoppity-hop (or alternatively saying his prayers) does not do so from sheer wantonness but because he is a helpless victim of circumstances beyond his control." |
3989524 | /m/0bb9vs | Bruja | Mel Odom | 8/1/2001 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | L.A. is shocked when a woman attacks a priest. The woman had just confessed to the priest that she had murdered her own son. Meanwhile, Angel and Co. get reports of a woman fighting with teens across L.A. The woman appears to be everywhere, a 'bruja' - a witch. She may be an embodiment of "La Llorona," known in Spanish lore as the "Weeping Woman." The priest soon goes into a coma, but Angel Investigations is busy with other matters: Doyle has a vision of a young mother and her son in danger at the docks. Meanwhile, Cordelia's looking for a big-shot producer's missing wife. Angel must find the connections between the missing wife and recent events. |
3989528 | /m/0bb9wg | The Summoned | Cameron Dokey | 12/1/2001 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03npn": "Horror"} | Doyle's at the supermarket when his latest vision comes. He sees images of fear, fire, death, and an ornately engraved old amulet. The Powers That Be are not being too specific. When Doyle awakens an anxious young woman named Terri Miller is helping him. Terri is a shy woman from a small town, and new to L.A.. Soon after meeting Doyle, who disappears without saying thank-you, a charismatic man invites her to meet him at a club to which he belongs. Meanwhile, Angel and his team are investigating a murderer who seems to be burning his victims beyond recognition. Several of the dead are connected to Terri's newfound friends, and Cordy suddenly finds herself with an amulet that seems very familiar. |
3989578 | /m/0bb9_9 | Image | Mel Odom | null | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Cordelia Chase has a vision of a child being attacked by a squidlike demon. Meanwhile, Gunn is trying to rescue a young artist; the artist's studio is being attacked by vampires. Cordelia goes to investigate the mansion from her vision. She soon finds herself surrounded by baby products, portraits, and chased by a tentacled monster. When Angel arrives on the scene, he is surprised to discover that he recognizes some of the portraits. He holds distant memories of him and Darla spending a night with storytellers and artists. Angel reveals that he and Darla were present at the party where Mary Shelley was inspired to write Frankenstein; indeed, they witnessed the event that gave Mary the initial idea. An old evil is trying to use a painting to preserve the life of its body, which, in the terms of the story, inspired the novel The Picture of Dorian Grey. In their efforts to save a child the villain is focused on, Team Angel will learn not to judge everything by its image. |
3989583 | /m/0bbb0b | Haunted | Jeff Mariotte | 2/1/2002 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | Cordy's finally getting a big break—she will be a contestant on some "reality programming". She must spend five days and four nights in an apparently haunted house. Living with a ghost and catching demons for a living, she sees this as an easy challenge. However, there is more going on than Cordy knows. In a vision on her first night, she sees one of the applicants who didn't make it to the show. She secretly communicates the scenario to Angel and Co., who are instantly on the case. Angel, Wesley and Gunn search for the missing actress as supernatural activity at the house increases. Soon, Wolfram and Hart also get involved and Cordelia is forced to consider her priorities. |
3989586 | /m/0bbb10 | Stranger to the Sun | Jeff Mariotte | 6/1/2002 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | Wesley opens a strange package that arrives by special delivery, which instantly sends him into a slumber. It seems likely he is the victim of a spell. Angel leaves with Gunn to investigate. They discover that other people who might be able to assist, such as magick-shop owners, have also fallen victim exactly like Wesley. Meanwhile Cordy is struggling to research without Wes available. She soon begins to uncover a plot to plunge Earth into eternal darkness, so that vampires might rule over humans. Wesley is in the midst of a horrifying nightmare. If he cannot awaken, humankind may be in for a struggle. |
3989587 | /m/0bbb1c | Vengeance | Scott Ciencin | 8/1/2002 | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03npn": "Horror"} | L.A. is divided between the haves and the have-nots. Those in luck seem to have tanned good looks, toned bodies, riches and more. Some have-nots are beginning to grow tired of it. Lily Pierce is a motivational speaker who founded New Life Foundation, an organization sweeping across the country. Its mantra is: "Erase doubt. Erase fear. Become pure of purpose. Perfect in execution. Attain your dreams." Cordy's not impressed with Lily's message, but she doesn't suspect Lily is holding a secret of epic proportions. Wolfram and Hart puzzlingly soon want Angel's help to stop the insanity, but is Lily's hope of a perfect world tempting to Angel? |
3989594 | /m/0bbb1q | Endangered Species | Jeff Mariotte | 8/1/2003 | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03npn": "Horror"} | Cordelia has become used to being shaken by visions of horror, thanks to the Powers That Be. However, she is especially disturbed to see a vision of Faith being hunted in prison by the supernatural. Chaz Escobar, a game hunter, soon arrives at Angel Investigations looking for his wife Marianna, a vampire. He had hoped to cure her vampirism on a distant small island, but she escaped. He thinks she might be the monster harassing Faith. When Faith's out of jail it seems she may fall into Marianna's claws, but Angel's team and Chaz are off to the island to save her. Chaz's goal is to rid the world of all vampires, and Angel realises this may be a chance to right all his wrongs. This novel features a flashback to shortly after Angel fled from Darla when she attempted to make him feed on an innocent baby to prove himself. Making contact with a sorcerer, Darla attempted to have him remove Angel's soul, but the man refused, sensing that Angel's soul didn't want to be separated from his body, and noting that he had the potential to become a good person despite his vampire status. |
3989606 | /m/0bbb2d | Impressions | Doranna Durgin | 2/1/2003 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | It seems a quiet day at Angel Investigations until a desperate man arrives, chased by a demon. The gang kills the monster, which decomposes as soon as it dies. The man seems to have fallen victim to a stolen identity scam; he's been approached by a false Angel and is now distrustful of the real thing, so does not want to give up the ancient stone he's found. Angel's worried by the notion of an impersonator, but Cordy's just curious why he didn't impersonate more worthy celebrities. Meanwhile Lorne reports some bad mojo from Caritas, and needs help. Something is getting under local demons' skins, and even bothering Angel, heightening the aggression of normally rather pacifistic demons. As their research continues, Cordelia and Fred learn that the Angel-impersonator- a photography student called David who saw Angel in action during his early days in Los Angeles- is impersonating Angel for no reason other than the power trip he gets when defeating demons, and doesn't truly understand the reasons why Angel does what he does. The stone that David's client possesses is later revealed to be the burial stone of a race of demons whose nature causes them to disintegrate upon death caused them to start using the stones as a memorial, the stones 'recording' their feelings at the moment of death. The stone the client possesses contains the rage and hostility of an honoured warrior who recently died in battle; in their home dimension, the stone's 'emissions' would normally be controlled by various spells, but without those spells the emotions are spilling out and 'infecting' every demon in the area. In the final confrontation, as Angel and his associates attempt to aid the stone's owners in acquiring the stone while holding off a mass of demons, Angel nearly surrenders to his rage, but David's act of sacrifice during the battle, giving his life to save Angel's, gets through Angel's rage and allows him to focus long enough to allow the stone to be destroyed, thus ending the wave of hostility. |
3989613 | /m/0bbb2r | Fearless | Doranna Durgin | 10/1/2003 | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The characters of Angel Investigations are shocked to find themselves euphoric after a long night they cannot remember. Their clothes are bloody and torn, their bodies bruised, but their memories of the previous evening are hazy. They soon determine that they've been affected by demon pixie dust. Angel, however, finds his superhuman healing failing him, and seems to be recovering at the rate of an average human. Unable to confide in his friends, Angel finds himself keeping secrets and collaborating with demons. If his friends go looking for another high in a battle of fearlessness, Angel is unsure if he can protect them. Characters include: Angel, Cordelia, Wesley, Gunn, Fred, and Lorne |
3989616 | /m/0bbb32 | Sanctuary | Jeff Mariotte | 4/1/2003 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Angel and Co. are enjoying some downtime at the karaoke bar Caritas when a loud explosion occurs. The gang and the rest of the bar are attracted outside. A building nearby is on fire. It seems that it may have been a diversionary tactic to distract from a drive-by shooting. When the smoke clears, Fred has gone missing. It seems Fred has been kidnapped, so Team Angel questions everyone nearby. Around a dozen demons were direct eyewitnesses, but each one has a different story. Whether it was gangs, monsters, or a runaway Fred, the team soon realize demons do not make the most reliable eyewitnesses. |
3989624 | /m/0bbb43 | Dark Mirror | Diane Duane | 5/25/2004 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03npn": "Horror"} | A series of perfect clones of members at Angel Investigations are lurking in the city, planning to kill the originals. Team Angel must find out where the replicas are coming from and why, before the murder spree hits the whole city. Thanks to Wesley's research, the gang realise that they are facing the 'Seven Sinners', dimension-jumping demons who travel to other worlds, steal the negative aspects of the souls of some of the greatest heroes of that world, and subsequently gain power by killing the originals and absorbing their souls into their power source. Once they have been copied, only the original can kill 'their' Sinner, with other attempts simply incapacitating the Sinners until they can regenerate. The Sinners have targeted Angel Investigations with the intention of duplicating Angel, as they feel that only Angelus would possess the necessary skills to lead them in their destruction of this world. However, the final seven clones- consisting of Angelus, Lorne, Wesley, Connor, Fred, Gunn, and Lilah- are all killed by their templates, Angel subsequently destroying their power source. |
3989782 | /m/0bbbh4 | Solitary Man | Jeff Mariotte | 12/1/2003 | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The widow Mildred Finster has been a fan of "cozy" mystery novels for years. At the age of seventy-one she decides she would like to become a real private detective. She finds a business card for Angel Investigations and likes the name. Team Angel is busy with its own personal problems, and has little time to deal with Mildred offering her services. Later a truckload of valuable antiquities is stolen and they assume a simple theft. The arrival of ruthless killers from afar soon gets the attention of the gang. They must cope with being followed everywhere by a well-meaning old lady, fight off poltergeists, and try to set aside their personal differences (at least temporarily) so that they can overcome the supernatural foe which is responsible for a centuries-old mystery. |
3989789 | /m/0bbbhh | Love and Death | Jeff Mariotte | 9/28/2004 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Huge numbers of demon-killers are descending upon L.A., provoked by outspoken radio host Mac Lindley. They plan to rid the city of demons as rapidly and violently as possible. Angel Investigations is finding these angry mobs more of a hindrance than a help. Cordy knows bits and pieces but Angel Investigations is focusing on solving a case of a family who came to L.A. from Iowa; they were murdered together as Angel raced to try to save them. Soon Lorne is attacked and Connor goes missing. Angel realizes that the demon-hunters cannot tell the difference between a good demon and a bad one. None of them are safe from the crazy pack of do-gooders. |
3989796 | /m/0bbbj5 | Monolith | John Passarella | 5/25/2004 | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Like other parents, Angel wishes he could understand his son, Connor. But father-son bonding time is short because Angel is overworked, Connor is embarrassed by his father's blood-drinking, Hyconian demons are running rampant across L.A. - and a huge monolith suddenly appears on Hollywood Boulevard. Nobody understands this massive rock. It has two demon faces carved into it. The news stations assume it is a clever publicity stunt for a newly-released movie, and religious extremists worry that it might be a sign of the impending apocalypse. As the staff of Angel Investigations tries to understand what the rock means, it soon becomes clear that Connor and Angel will have to work together for survival. Characters include: Angel, Cordelia, Wesley, Gunn, Fred, Lorne and Connor. |
3989798 | /m/0bbbjj | Nemesis | Scott Ciencin | 2/10/2004 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03npn": "Horror"} | One of Fred's old friends from graduate school contacts her for help at a big scientific facility. Fred has conflicted feelings about her past, and the life she might be able to lead independent of demons. However on the night they are supposed to meet, her friend is shot down, a seemingly innocent victim of a misdirected hit. Angel and the others wish they could help Fred, but are needed to investigate a series of murders among a group of wizards. The wizards are the only ones standing against an apocalyptic breach; they are literally holding the walls of reality together from more-deadly worlds. Fred leaves the investigation and takes the place of her friend as researcher to try to uncover her murder. Soon the supernatural and the scientific research collide, and Fred realizes she might be the only one who can stop the coming end-time. |
3989801 | /m/0bbbjw | Book of the Dead | Ashley McConnell | 7/27/2004 | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Wes has loved books since childhood. When a former colleague, Adrian O'Flaherty, arrives in town and invites him to a secret auction of rare occult books, Wes immediately agrees. However Adrian wants more than dusty old books at the auction. He wants revenge. Before the Watchers' Council was blown up (seen in 'Never Leave Me'), Rutherford Sirk took a number of rare books from the Council's libraries and killed the librarian who was Adrian's father. Wes buys a number of old books at the auction including one of the most famous books of magick, The Red Compendium, which is infamous for absorbing those who read it. Wes has always been a sucker for literature and soon finds he can't put it down even if he wants to. |
3989961 | /m/0bbby0 | Disquiet | Boris Strugatsky | null | null | The novel is set on the planet Pandora which is famous for its animated biosphere. Humans have built a base on it that serves as a biological laboratory and a hunting resort. The base is located at the top of 2 km high crag on a continent otherwise covered by forest. Biologists do not understand most of the processes occurring in the forest. Humans hunt in the forest for sport in the face of serious dangers. The novel is divided into two parts: life in the base and life in the forest. The director of the base is Paul Gnedykh. He is responsible for overall safety, supply, and communication with Earth. He replaced the previous director after several deaths occurred on the base. One of the deaths was the biologist Mikhail "Athos" Sidorov, Gnedykh's childhood friend. Some biologists claimed they saw people in the forest, but nobody took them seriously (partially because such visions were seen when the bioblocade of the observer was weakened or expired). The forest is rapidly changing, such that maps completely obsolete in two years. Some trees move from place to place, while others show signs of feeling the "pain" of other trees. Leonid Gorbovsky stays on Pandora believing that the forest is dangerous. He wants to be near when the forest "starts acting" to be able to influence the process. Gorbovsky is upset because the base staff are being negligent about the forest, not taking the forest seriously enough. One day a female hunter and gamekeeper becomes stranded in the forest and calls Paul Gnedykh for help. She calls from the same forest sector where Athos sent his last bearing signal. When Gnedykh and Gorbovsky arrive at the site, they see a mysterious organism that caused the helicopter crash. The organism is attracting trees and animals and eating them. It gives birth to several "children" every 87 minutes. The children are amorphous white creatures that move by means of pseudopods. The children first move from the parent uniformly in one direction. Gnedykh and Gorbovsky follow the children until they reach a lake and drown themselves. While observing the lake, Paul thinks he sees a human in the water, and records a video of the scene. In the forest segment of the novel, Athos attempts to return to the base after living in a village in the middle of the forest. The villagers are in foggy states of mind but have abilities to "grow" themselves food, clothes, and houses; and control the flora around them. Athos was brought to the village seriously ill by Hurt-Martyr and Broken Leg - two village natives - and given a wife named Nava. Athos too has troubles with his memory. He encourages two villagers, Fist and Broken Leg, to make a trip to The City, a mysterious place, where Athos hopes to get information about how to return back. Hurt-Martyr went to The City before, but never returned. The tribe tries to talk Athos out of his journey, citing the rumored Dead Ones walking around in the forest. Slightly before the planned trip, he goes on reconnaissance, and Nava follows him. They are attacked by a group of bandits, and after a brief fight they escape. They end up in another unfamiliar village where Athos meets people he recognizes as Karl and Valentine, other biologists from the base. He is unable to talk to them, as some uncontrollable fear compels him and Nava to run away from the village, now engulfed in violet fog. When Nava wakes up the next morning she finds a scalpel in her hand. She is afraid of it, and Athos hides it in his clothing. Athos wants to return to the unfamiliar village, but when they do, they find it sinking into the water, the process referred to as Overcoming. After the trip to the sinking village, they meet three women, one of whom is Nava's mother who was captured by the Dead Ones before. Athos and Nava realize that the Dead Ones who capture women from the villages are actually droids that serve women who live in The City. These women (calling themselves Glorious Helpmates) consider men (and many other biological species) as useless, a "mistake", since the woman are able to breed non-sexually without men. These women profess control over "little ones", and control the violet fog, which is made up of bacteria that can be used for diverse purposes including communication and assassination. The Glorious Helpmates are participating in a battle with unspecified enemy. The front of this battle separates Athos from the base. The front is allegedly so biologically active that any living creature (even the Glorious Helpmates, who are protected) are likely to die there. The women take Nava from Athos. During the conversation he remembers several important experiences. Athos is attacked by a Dead droid, which he kills with his scalpel and flees. He returns to his village, where he again encourages Fist and Broken Leg who unite and travel to the base at Devils Crag. Athos now understands that the villages will disappear because of Overcoming (the process led by the Glorious Helpmates) and wants to prevent this mass murder. Broken Leg does not want Athos to go since he believes Athos will die. In the entire section of the novel, there is almost not a single object in the forest that is not a mutable living thing. One can grow clothing from the forest, eat the ground itself as a meal, and so on. The origin of people in the forest is unknown. |
3990141 | /m/0bbc6j | The Law and the Lady | Wilkie Collins | 1875 | {"/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense"} | Valeria Brinton marries Eustace Woodville despite objections from Woodville's family leading to disquiet for Valeria's own family and friends. Just a few days after the wedding, various incidents lead Valeria to suspect her husband is hiding a dark secret in his past and she discovers that he has been using a false name. He refuses to discuss it leading them to curtail their honeymoon and return to London where Valeria learns that he was on trial for his first wife's murder by arsenic. He was tried in a Scottish court and the verdict was 'not proven' rather than 'not guilty' implying his guilt but without enough proof for a jury to convict him. Valeria sets out to save their happiness by proving her husband innocent of the crime. In her quest, she comes across the disabled character Miserrimus Dexter, a fascinating but mentally unstable genius, and his devoted female cousin, Ariel. Dexter will prove crucial to uncovering the disturbing truth behind the mysterious death. |
3990770 | /m/0bbd5_ | Ghoul Trouble | John Passarella | 10/1/2000 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | A new vampire arrives in town who walks outside during the day and yet does not seem to be affected by the sun's rays. The vampire, called Solitaire, is here to challenge the Slayer. He wants to reassure himself that he can beat a Slayer in physical combat. He is an old vampire and Giles struggles with his research. At the same time a band called Vyxn arrives at the Bronze and plays for four nights straight. Vyxn is made up of four girls who appear to be not quite human, especially when they seem to be turning all the males at the Bronze into slobbering idiots and bending them to their will. Xander is especially taken by them and would do anything to help them out. Buffy and the gang need to figure out what Vyxn is in town for, and why Solitaire can walk in the sun. It is later discovered that Vyxn are a group of ghouls that can seduce men (and it is hinted vampires) at will through their voice. Giles and the others rescue Xander from them just prior to Buffy's final fight with Solitaire. Solitaire it is discovered is immune to sunlight because he is not actually a vampire, he is a full-blooded demon, that can shift forms between human and demon, and the halfway mark looks remarkably like a vampire. Buffy decapitates him with an axe. |
3992900 | /m/0bbhpj | The Satan Bug | Alistair MacLean | 1962 | {"/m/01jfsb": "Thriller", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | The story revolves around the theft of two germ warfare agents, botulinum toxin and the indestructible "Satan Bug" (a laboratory-conceived derivative of poliovirus), from the Mordon Microbiological Research Establishment (similar to Porton Down). There is no vaccine for the Satan Bug and it is so infectious that any release will rapidly destroy all human life on Earth. With these phials of unstoppable power, a mad "environmentalist" threatens the country's population unless Mordon is razed to the ground. Like other of MacLean's works, the plot involves layers of deception, both of the nominal antagonists and of the reader. The first-person narrator, Pierre Cavell, is initially presented as an embittered figure who has been successively fired for insubordination from the Army, the Metropolitan Police and from Mordon itself. Cavell is called in by former colleagues at Special Branch after being "tested" with a bribe to ensure that he is still honest. The novel gradually reveals that for the past 16 years Cavell has in fact been working for "the General", apparently a senior intelligence director and Cavell's father-in-law, and that these thefts are the culmination of a series of security breaches at Mordon that Cavell and the General have been investigating for at least a year. During the theft the current head of security is killed with a cyanide-laced sweet presumably given to him by an insider he trusted. A variety of scientists and support staff come under suspicion, and it emerges that several of them have been coerced by blackmail or kidnapping to help the principal villain without knowing his identity. The villain releases botulinum toxin over an evacuated area of East Anglia, killing hundreds of livestock and proving that his threat to use the Satan Bug should be taken seriously. He takes Cavell's wife Mary hostage and sets off to London to blackmail the British government by threatening to release the Satan Bug in the City of London financial district. The villain uses his hostage to capture Cavell and several police officers en route and attempts to kill them with botulinum toxin. Cavell escapes, though one constable is poisoned and dies rapidly (for dramatic purposes this is from convulsions like nerve agent or strychnine poisoning rather than the slower paralysis and respiratory failure usually associated with Botulism). Cavell uses Interpol to discover the villain's true identity and infers that the villain's London plan is really to cause the City to be evacuated, allowing a criminal gang time to break into and rob major banks and then escape by helicopter. After losing a fight on board the aircraft the villain explains his motives and jumps to his death, leaving the remaining phials of agent unbreached. |
3996407 | /m/0bbnzt | The Defense | Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov | 1930 | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | The plot concerns the title character, Aleksandr Ivanovich Luzhin. As a boy, he is considered unattractive, withdrawn, and an object of ridicule by his classmates. One day, when a guest comes to his father's party, he is asked whether he knows how to play chess. This encounter serves as his motivation to pick up chess. He skips school and visits his aunt's house to learn the basics. He quickly becomes a great player, enrolling in local competitions and rising in rank as a chess player. His talent is prodigious and he attains the level of a Grandmaster in less than ten years. As his obsession with chess grows, he becomes socially detached and physically unhealthy. At a resort, he meets a young girl, never named in the novel, whose interest he captures. They become romantically involved, and Luzhin eventually proposes to her. Things turn for the worse when he is pitted against Turati, a grandmaster from Italy, in a competition to determine who would face the current world champion. Before and during the game, Luzhin has a mental breakdown, which climaxes when his carefully planned defense against Turati fails in the first moves, and the resulting game fails to produce a winner. When the game is suspended Luzhin wanders into the city in a state of complete detachment from reality. He is returned home and brought to a rest home, where he eventually recovers. His doctor convinces Luzhin's fiancée that chess was the reason for his downfall, and all reminders of chess are removed from his environment. Slowly however, chess begins to find its way back into his thoughts (aided by incidental occurrences, such as an old pocket chessboard found in a coat pocket, or an impractical chess game in a movie). Luzhin begins to see his life as a chess game, seeing repetitions of 'moves' that return his obsession with the game. He desperately tries to find the move that will defend him from losing his chess life-game, but feels the scenario growing closer and closer. Eventually, after an encounter with his old chess mentor, Valentinov, Luzhin realizes that he must "abandon the game," as he puts it to his wife (who is desperately trying to communicate with him). He locks himself in the bathroom (his wife and several dinner guests banging on the door). He climbs out a window, and it is implied he falls to his death, but the ending is deliberately vague. The last line of the (translated) novel reads: "The door was burst in. 'Aleksandr Ivanovich, Aleksandr Ivanovich,' roared several voices. But there was no Aleksandr Ivanovich." |
3996780 | /m/0bbpgh | Swallowdale | Arthur Ransome | 1931 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/08sdrw": "Adventure novel"} | Returning to Wild Cat Island for their second summer holiday by the Lake, the Swallows find the Amazons and Captain Flint suffering from "native trouble". Great Aunt Maria has come to stay, and she is a stickler for "proper" behaviour; demanding that the Amazon pirates act like "young ladies", and restricting their time. Despite this, Nancy and Peggy escape the Great Aunt and arrange a rendezvous, but on the way the Swallow hits Pike Rock and sinks. All are saved and the boat salvaged, but she needs repairing, so camping on the island is impossible."Captain" John of the Swallows learns some valuable life lessons about following his instincts while commanding a ship, and has time to reflect on the accident while he fashions a new mast for Swallow. Fortunately an alternative appears to replace camping on Wildcat, as Roger and Titty find a beautiful hidden valley, Swallowdale, up on the moors above the lake. The Swallows discover a secret cave in Swallowdale, a trout tarn, the "knickerbockerbreaker", and enjoy new adventures of lakeland life. They meet local woodcutters and farmers, see a hound trail, and trek across the moors. The Amazons are only able to escape at intervals, and are punished for getting home late by being made to memorize and recite poetry. Eventually the Great Aunt leaves and the Swallows and Amazons mount an expedition to sleep under the stars on the "summit" of nearby commanding hill "Kanchenjunga". Next morning, Roger and Titty return to Swallowdale following trails through the bracken across the moor, while the elders ferry the Amazons' camping gear by boat. Both parties get lost in a thick and sudden fog. After it lifts the elders arrive only to find an empty camp. Titty arrives late after hitching a ride with some woodsmen, and explains that Roger sprained his ankle, and will be spending the night with Old Billy, the charcoal burner. The next day the injured Roger is carried back to the camp on a stretcher. The Swallow is finally repaired, and the book ends with a race and a feast, followed by a return to Wild Cat Island. |
3997366 | /m/0bbqft | A Time to Run | Mary-Rose Hayes | 2005-11 | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The story is set in the present day, with significant flashbacks to times beginning in the early 1970s. The protagonist is Ellen Fischer, a liberal senator from California. She is preparing for a difficult legislative battle over the conservative president's nomination of a deeply conservative female judge to the Supreme Court. Amid numerous particulars of the informal and formal governmental process in the United States, Boxer unfolds her heroine's dilemma and her past simultaneously. The dilemma is presented by a journalist, Greg Hunter, with pronounced right-wing views. Hunter is a figure from the senator's past. They had been lovers while he was in college; he lost her to his roommate, Joshua Fischer. Joshua later dies in the middle of a campaign for Senate; Ellen steps into his place and wins, launching her political career. Now, Hunter has returned, bringing with him information that could derail the judicial nominee's appointment. Fischer is buffeted by new revelations about Hunter and a well-founded distrust of his motives. |
4000671 | /m/0bbwrl | The House of Sixty Fathers | Meindert DeJong | 1956 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | The story is set during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Japan has invaded China, and the Japanese attack the village where young Tien Pao and his family live. The family flees upriver in an abandoned sampan to the town of Hengyang. While the boy's parents go to a nearby American airfield to seek work with his younger sister, Tien Pao spends the day taking care of the sampan as well as three ducklings and the family pig, named Glory of the Republic. During a rainstorm, while Tien Pao is asleep, the sampan breaks loose from its moorings. Tien Pao is swept down the river. After a night in the raging waters, the storm abates, and Tien Pao finds himself floating in the area where his village used to be. He releases the ducklings in the river and heads for higher ground with his pig. He must travel over high mountains and through dangerous Japanese occupied territory to reach Hengyang. As he journeys home, Tien Pao begins to starve and suffer from exhaustion. He witnesses terrifying scenes of violence. Once, he sees a plane strafe a Japanese military convoy, only to be shot down over the forest. Sitting on a big rock, Tien Pao watches the entire skirmish. He later comes upon the injured American pilot (whom he had met before during his stay at Hengyang river) and helps the man return to his unit. The American pilot is a member of the Flying Tigers, and the sixty men in the unit become the "sixty fathers" who care for Tien Pao. Tien Pao exhibits a strong will to continue to try to find his parents, an incredibly difficult task; with the help of the American pilot he finds an airfield similar to the one his parents once worked on. The pilot only wishes to show Tien Pao an airfield but Tien Pao finds his mother and is at last reunited with his family. |
4001950 | /m/0bbzkd | Master of the Void | null | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction"} | In the post-war galaxy, ruined civilizations regain bygone greatness. Earth's cleaning ship reaches the planet, whose inhabitants rejected technology long ago, living in small forest settlements and practicing handicrafts and hunting. Not noticing them, the crew drops 50 autom-cleaners, self-conscious mechanisms consisting of active mass, which are supposed to carry out cleaning on their own or by emerging simpler mechanisms — plain cleaners. But this cleaning, being a full destruction of the biosphere and covering the continent with an envelope of active mass,means death for all residents. However, only one of them, called the Smartest, understands this. The main character, also known as Zach Denton, is said to be a renowned scholar. Based on analysis of his dialogue in the novel, it is estimated that his IQ is 154, which places him among the most intelligent people in the world, hence the name Smartest. The post-war setting complements the protagonist's presence in the novel, and increases the intensity as he masters the void and all dark matter. Actually, he is a former commando who dramatically arrived on this planet fifty years ago. In this critical situation he sees the only way out in rapid technological progress, but local authorities, female Keepers of knowledge, disagree with him. "You want to save people. To do it you'll have to change them. Answer me, what are people without customs worth? They are worse than savages, worse than you..." To get the attention of Earth's ship crew, one of the autonom-cleaners has to be destroyed... Smartest understands this as well as he knows it would require a strong leader, whom people will follow. He chooses a shooter, Leon, who has managed to bring down a plain cleaner which fired his village. Drunkard and poet Kirreyn begins to propagandize Leon as the Hero and the Great Shooter. Soon several boys become Leon's "personal guards". Using violence, a group headed by Smartest captures technology data sheets and Leon calls all people to join him to manufacture weapons. At first, they don't believe in technology, but the first tank convinces all to the contrary, after its crew, headed by Leon, shoots down two plain cleaners... All adore Leon; he overworks and goes to battle first... A lot of "plants" are built; and people who joined Leon defend only some necessary area where they live and work... Food becomes scarce and it's the reason to establish war police... Now it exhibits many features of a state. But Leon's plane is shot down beyond the border, where the former rule of the Keepers still holds and he is captured by them. Keepers have deified the autonom-cleaners (Iron Beasts) and try to counteract Leon's "state". He meets J-Fron, the lest valuable member of crew of Earth ship, who has deserted. When he luckily returns home with J-Fron's aid (plain cleaners fired the prison, but left J-Fron alive due to a telepathic password implanted in his brain), he finds that his former position is hold by another man. Leon can't find an occupation that would suit him; he remembers too well all the shouting crowds... And he doesn't want to be Lord of the void, an alive memorial of himself. Leon sends his "guards" to kill the new Leader, after he conducted the operation of destroying one autonom-cleaner (with the aid of J-Fron's password; however this operation involved more than a thousand people killed). This becomes a sort of point of no return for Leon, both his failure to be a normal person and his affirmation as the great Leader. He doesn't realize this; The Smartest does, "Please, don't call me a Teacher any longer; now you can teach by yourself." But as the autonom-cleaner is destroyed, the crew of the Earth ship realizes the situation and leaves the planet alone... with 49 working autonom-cleaners. According to their notion of fairness, the society must have a chance to survive... but it is worth nothing if it doesn't manage to do so. Leon moves his nation (now less than one tenth of the original population) under the shelter of mountains, into the ancient Capital, a system of caves... The Smartest and J-Fron decided to cover the retreat... In their last talk before probable death, Smartest tells J-Fron, that when he got to this planet 50 years ago, he met a "happy and somewhat sleepy society. Such it was, you were too late to see it. Society not changing for a thousand years, fine people who I, a cretin, couldn't stand... By the way, the best society, without experiencing shocks now and then is threatened with banal degeneration. It was my point, and it holds. It's fun — I wanted one time to be that man, who would wake this world up..." "I have never thought that in the end I will become an adversary of progress." The old man struck the crag with his yellow venous fist, struck once more and more. "But why?!" shouted he, "Why are people constructed in a so way, that for them the only way to survive in a critical situation is THIS? Why?!" |
4001995 | /m/0bbzmj | The Great Good Place | Henry James | 1900-01 | null | After a long night of unfinished work, the morning dawns for George Dane, a writer whose life has grown too busy with his career and relationships. An expected breakfast guest appears and suddenly Dane is transported to a new environment, the great good place of the title. James does not describe this place as an unreal paradise. Guests even have to pay for service. The place seems more like a retreat or getaway resort, where Dane eventually recovers his peace of mind. Dane spends three weeks at the place, and tells a Brother of his former life and the mysterious breakfast guest. Back in his usual world, Dane is eventually awakened by his servant after eight hours' sleep, and he realizes that his vision is gone. But the mysterious guest has straightened up his study, and Dane's life seems clearer and more manageable. |
4002070 | /m/0bbzqd | Warlord of the Air | Michael Moorcock | 1971 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/0mz2": "Alternate history", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/06www": "Steampunk"} | The novel is transcribed by 'Michael Moorcock' (the author's fictional grandfather) in 1903. Holidaying at the remote Rowe Island, he befriends Oswald Bastable, an ex-soldier stowaway who seems confused and disoriented beyond what could be explained by his opium addiction, and who is tormented by great guilt from an action he performed in his past. Bastable agrees to tell Moorcock the story, and begins his narrative with his experiences in North East India in 1902, sent as part of a British expedition to deal with Sharan Kang, an Indian high priest at the temple of Teku Benga, a mysterious and seemingly supernaturally powerful region. After a confrontation with Kang and his men, Bastable finds himself lost and alone in the caves around the 'Temple of the Future Buddha', where he is assaulted by a mysterious force and knocked into unconsciousness. When he awakes, and escapes the caves, the Temple is in ruins, as if a great amount of time has passed. He is soon found and picked up by a massive airship, where he learns that it is in fact the year 1973, but not the one that the reader would recognise. In this alternate future, the First World War never happened, and the colonial powers continue to assert dominance over their empires—for example, India remains a British territory, though Winston Churchill had been viceroy in this alternate future as well as in Bastable's own. At first, Bastable marvels at the wonders that await him in his 'future' — London is a clean and peaceful city, and the world seems to be a utopia, held in balance by the great empires. Gaining employment amongst the great airship armadas, however, he soon comes into contact with a troop of anarchists — among them a mysterious woman named Una Persson, and an ancient Russian revolutionary named Ulianov. He initially maintains a patriotic resistance to their activities, but gradually discovers the truth: life is peaceful for the dominant empires but the seeming utopia of the empires' home countries is based on decades of unimpeded and unopposed colonial oppression, brutality and domination of their territories. As the First World War never happened to bankrupt the colonial empires and begin the gradual liberalisation and freedom of the colonies, imperialism remains unchecked and the world is greatly unfair and unjust. Great Britain, France, the Tsarist Russian Empire, the German Empire, Japan, the Italian Empire and the United States ruthlessly dominate this world and suppress anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist dissent. Bastable, a fair and honorable man, is outraged by the cruelty, injustice and horror revealed to him, and begins to fight for the oppressed peoples of the world (opposing, amongst others, his former friend in the airship service, Major Enoch Powell). Tragically, his actions result in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima at the hands of the anarchists. The atomic blast knocks him loose from the alternate 1973, sending him to a new 1903. Wracked with guilt over his part in the destruction of countless millions of innocent lives, and dreading the 'future' of science and imperialism gone mad, Bastable makes his way to the caves of Teku Benga and returns to 1903, but alas, not his own original time. His experiences have altered him too much to settle into life in this new alternate universe; both his experiences and this sense of dislocation have driven him to opium. The novel ends with Bastable disappearing mysteriously, much to the 1903 Moorcock's amazement; and a postscript from the modern author Moorcock, establishing his grandfather's death on the Western Front in 1916. |
4005561 | /m/0bc40p | The Land That Time Forgot | Edgar Rice Burroughs | 1924 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/0d6gr": "Reference", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/08g5mv": "Lost World"} | The novel is set in World War I and opens with a framing story in which a manuscript relating the main story is recovered from a thermos off the coast of Greenland. It purports to be the narrative of Bowen J. Tyler, an American passenger with his Airedale terrier Nobs on a ship sunk in the English Channel by a German U-boat, , in 1916. He is rescued by a British tugboat with another survivor, Lys La Rue. The tug is also sunk, but its crew manages to capture the submarine when it surfaces. Unfortunately, all other British craft continue to regard the sub as an enemy, and they are unable to bring it to port. Sabotage to the navigation equipment sends the U-33 astray into the South Atlantic. The imprisoned German crew retakes the sub and begins a raiding cruise, only to be overcome again by the British. A saboteur continues to guide the sub off course, and by the time he is found out it is in Antarctic waters. The U-33 is now low on fuel, with its provisions poisoned by the saboteur Benson. A large island ringed by cliffs is encountered, and identified as Caprona, a land mass first reported by the (fictitious) Italian explorer Caproni in 1721 whose location was subsequently lost. A freshwater current guides the sub to a stream issuing from a subterranean passage, which is entered on the hope of replenishing the water supply. The U-boat surfaces into a tropical river teeming with primitive creatures extinct elsewhere; attacked, it submerges again and travels upstream in search of a safe harbor. It enters a thermal inland sea, essentially a huge crater lake, whose heat sustains Caprona’s tropical climate. As the sub travels north along the island’s waterways the climate moderates and wildlife undergoes an apparent evolutionary progression. On the shore of the lake the crew builds a palisaded base, dubbed Fort Dinosaur for the area’s prehistoric fauna. The British and Germans agree to work together under Tyler, with Bradley, the mate from the tug, as second in command and Von Schoenvorts, the original sub commander, in control of the Germans. The castaways are attacked by a horde of beast men and take prisoner Ahm, a Neanderthal. They learn that the native name for the island is Caspak. Oil is discovered, which they hope to refine into fuel for the U-33. As they set up operations, Bradley undertakes various explorations. During his absence Lys disappears and the Germans mutiny again, absconding with the submarine. Tyler leaves the other survivors to seek and rescue Lys. A series of adventures ensues among various bands of near-human primitives, each representing a different stage of human advancement, as represented by their weaponry. Tyler rescues Lys from a group of Sto-lu (hatchet men), and later aids the escape of a woman of the Band-lu (spearmen) to the Kro-lu (bowmen). Lys is lost again, and chance discoveries of the graves of two men associated with Bradley’s expedition leaves Tyler in despair of that party’s fate. Unable to find his way back to Fort Dinosaur, he retreats to the barrier cliffs ringing Caspak in a vain hope of attracting rescue from some passing ship. Improbably reunited with Lys, he sets up house with her, completes the account of his adventures which he has been writing, and casts it out to sea in his thermos. |
4009179 | /m/0bc8lr | The Closed Circle: An interpretation of the Arabs | David Pryce-Jones | null | null | This book discusses the tribal roots of Arab society which form the basis of its cultural traditions. The author documents the cultural forces which drive the violence and mayhem that, in his view, is characteristic of Arab societies in their dealings with each other and with the West. The author argues that the Arab world is stuck in an age-old tribalism and behavior from which it is unable to evolve. In tribal society, loyalty is extended to close kin and other members of the tribe. In the Arab world those who seek power achieve it by plotting secretly and ruthlessly eliminating their rivals. |
4011320 | /m/0bccyk | The Octoroon | Dion Boucicault | null | null | George, the nephew of plantation owner Mrs. Peyton, returns from a trip to France to find that his aunt's plantation is in dire financial straits as a result of his late uncle's beneficence. Jacob McClosky, the man who ruined the late Judge Peyton, has come to inform them that their plantation will be sold and their slaves auctioned off separately. Salem Scudder, a kind yankee, was Judge Peyton's business partner; though he wishes he could save Terrebonne, he has no money. George is courted by the rich Southern belle heiress Dora Sunnyside, but he finds himself falling in love with Zoe, the daughter of his uncle through one of the slaves. Dora, oblivious to George's lack of affection for her, enlists Zoe's help to win him over. McClosky desires Zoe for himself, and when she rejects his proposition, he plots to have her sold with the rest of the slaves, for he knows that she is an octoroon and is legally part of the Terrebonne property. He plans to buy her and make her his mistress. McClosky intercepts a young slave boy, Paul, who is bringing a mailbag to the house which contains a letter from one of Judge Peyton's old debtors. Since this letter would allow Mrs. Peyton to avoid selling Terrebonne, McClosky kills Paul and takes the letter. The murder is captured on Scudder's photographic apparatus. Paul's best friend, the Indian Wahnotee, discovers Paul's body; he can speak only poor English, however, and is unable to communicate the tragedy to anyone else. George and Zoe reveal their love for each other, but Zoe rejects George's marriage proposal. When George asks why, Zoe explains that she is an octoroon, and the law prevents a white man from marrying anyone with the smallest black heritage. George offers to take her to a different country, but Zoe insists that she stay to help Terrebonne; Scudder then appears and suggests that George marry Dora. With Dora's wealth, he explains, Terrebonne will not be sold and the slaves will not have to be separated. George reluctantly agrees. George goes to Dora and begins to propose to her; while he is doing so, however, he has a change of heart and decides not to lie to her. He and Zoe admit to their love of each other; a heartbroken Dora leaves. The auctioneer arrives, along with prospective buyers, McClosky among them. After various slaves are auctioned off, George and the buyers are shocked to see Zoe up on the stand. McClosky has proved that Judge Peyton did not succeed in legally freeing her, as he had meant to do. Dora then reappears and bids on Zoe – she has sold her own plantation in order to rescue Terrebonne. McClosky, however, outbids her for Zoe; George is restrained from attacking him by his friends. The buyers gather to take away the slaves they have purchased on a steamship. They have realized that Paul is missing, and most believe him dead. Wahnotee appears, drunk and sorrowful, and tells them that Paul is buried near them. The men accuse Wahnotee of the murder, and McClosky calls for him to be lynched. Scudder insists that they hold a trial, and the men search for evidence. Just as McClosky points out the blood on Wahnotee's tomahawk, the oldest slave, Pete, comes to give them the photographic plate which has captured McClosky's deed. The men begin to call for McClosky to be lynched, but Scudder convinces them to send him to jail instead. The men leave to fetch the authorities, but McClosky escapes. Stealing a lantern, he sets fire to the steamship that had the slaves on it. Wahnotee tracks him down and confronts him; in the ensuing struggle, Wahnotee kills McClosky. Back at Terrebonne Zoe returns but with a sad heart as she knows that she and George can never be together. In an act of desperation she drinks a vial of poison, and Scudder enters to deliver the good news that McClosky was proven guilty of murdering Paul and that Terrebonne now belongs to George. Despite the happiness Zoe stands dying and the play ends with her death on the sitting room couch and George kneeling beside her. |
4012160 | /m/0bcfbk | The Praise Singer | Mary Renault | null | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | The book follows the life of Simonides from the point of view of his older self. As a boy, silent and lacking confidence due to his extreme ugliness, he is brought up with strict discipline by his father, Leoprepes. He finds comfort in the love of his handsome older brother Theasides, and in music. When a travelling singer, Kleobis, visits Keos to perform at a wedding, Simonides begs to be taken on as an apprentice. This, Kleobis does, and they leave together on their travels. Under Kleobis' tutelage Simonides becomes a talented composer and performer, but remains physically ugly. This proves a severe disadvantage when, after the fall of Kleobis' native city of Ephesos to the Persians, Kleobis and Simonides attempt to find a patron at the court of Polycrates of Samos. Polycrates is a conoisseur of beauty, in boys as much as in music or art, and Simonides' appearance is not a recommendation. Kleobis and Simonides find themselves out of fashion at court, and scrabbling for work. Simonides travels back to Keos to enter a music contest, leaving Kleobis behind in Samos nursing a slight illness. He wins the contest, but discovers, on returning, that Kleobis has died. Simonides now finds a patron in Pisistratos, the tyrant of Athens. He becomes a successful musician in that city, and after Pisistratos' death, his sons Hippias and Hipparchos continue the family's patronage. Through Hipparchos, Simonides is introduced to the hetaira Lyra, whose lover he becomes. Hipparchos himself is sexually oriented to boys, not women, and Simonides witnesses his eventual downfall, when Hipparchos uses his political power to punish the family of a young boy who rejects his advances, and the boy and his lover retaliate by murdering him. Here Renault draws on the tale of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, also known as the Tyrannicides (τυραννοκτόνους), whose attack against the Peisistratid tyranny made them the iconic personages of the Athenian democracy. |
4014568 | /m/0bcl16 | Barabbas | Pär Lagerkvist | 1950 | {"/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | Jesus is crucified on Mount Golgotha. To the side of the crowd stands Barabbas. Being a violent man, a brigand and a rebel, he cannot muster much respect for the resignation of the man who died in his place. He is skeptical about the holiness of Jesus too. Yet, he is also fascinated by the sacrifice and he seeks out the different followers of Jesus trying to understand, but finds that their exalted views of Jesus do not match his down to earth observation of the man. More importantly, since Barabbas had not ever been the recipient of love (the cornerstone of the Christian faith), he finds that he is unable to understand love and hence Barabbas is unable to understand the Christian faith. Barabbas says that he "Wants to believe," but for Barabbas, understanding is a prerequisite for belief, so he is unable. After many trials and tribulations he ends up in Rome where he mistakes the Great Fire of Rome as the start of the new Kingdom of Heaven and enthusiastically helps spread the conflagration. Consequently, he is arrested and crucified along with other Christians as a martyr for a faith he does not understand. |
4014803 | /m/0bcljc | Mrs. Medwin | Henry James | null | null | Mamie Cutter is an American living in London. She supports herself by getting questionable people into fashionable social circles, in return for a fee. Her worthless but personable half-brother Scott Homer turns up at her apartment looking for a handout. A particularly tough case for Mamie is a certain Mrs. Medwin, who is apparently beyond the pale even by the lax standards of current English society. But Scott comes to Mamie's rescue by charming the snooty Lady Wantrigde into inviting Mrs. Medwin to one of her exclusive parties. Mamie collects her fee and Scott becomes an unexpected social success. |
4016195 | /m/0bcnvx | The Wives of Bath | Susan Swan | 1993 | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | Mouse introduces herself, and mentions her involvement in Paulie's "weird, Napoleonic act of self-assertion", though she doesn't specify exactly what it was that Paulie did, or even who she is. Mouse speaks of her distracted father, Morley, and her critical stepmother, Sal. She also tells the reader of the hump she has in her left shoulder as a result of a childhood bout of polio, which developed into kyphosis. Mouse has named the hump Alice, after her dead mother, and says that the hump is like a friend to her. Throughout the novel, Mouse's conversations with Alice provide comic relief and exposition on the story's dark events. In the second chapter, Mouse pauses the narrative and recounts details from Paulie's trial, something she continues to do sporadically throughout the novel. It emerges that Paulie committed a murder of some kind. Mouse recalls how she was sent to the boarding school in Toronto- Bath Ladies' College- because her father had "an unfortunate inferiority complex about bringing up females" and because its headmistress, Vera Vaughan, was a distant cousin of Morley's. Mouse is nervous, keenly aware of her shyness and her physical shortcomings, and is bewildered by the strange atmosphere of the old-fashioned school. She meets the friendly janitor, Sergeant (who is a dwarf) and Paulie's brother, Lewis, whom she later catches shaving in her new dorm bathroom. Mouse meets Tory and Paulie that evening, immediately warming to the friendly Tory and taken aback by Paulie's brash manner. It is clear that, different as they are, the two have a very close friendship. Tory tells Mouse that Paulie's brother, Lewis, is her boyfriend, and that they are in love. Mouse settles quickly, but not comfortably, into the school, picking up the lexicon and the consensus regarding the staff of the school amongst the students. The intensity of her fixation with John F. Kennedy is evident in the long, familiar letters that she sends him on a regular basis. To both Mouse and Paulie's chagrin, Tory breaks her leg in a field hockey accident and is sent home for the rest of the winter term. Tiring of Paulie's volatile behaviour, Miss Vaughan orders Paulie to 'walk off' her frustrations at the school every evening after class, and assigns Mouse to accompany her. The two form a kind of bond, and Paulie soon reveals to Mouse that she doesn't have a brother named Lewis; it is actually her, masquerading as a boy, and that she has everyone fooled, even Tory. She takes Mouse to the shrine she has made to the 1933 film King Kong, and sets Mouse a series of bizarre tests to prove that she, too, can 'be' a boy. These include: eating six bowls of tapioca pudding without vomiting, letting a match burn to the skin without crying, and managing to urinate whilst standing up. After Mouse completes these 'preliminaries', she embarks upon three major tests: mastery over other men, mastery over women and mastery over nature; in the first, Mouse creates her male alter-ego 'Nick the Greek', and dresses as a boy for the first time. Mouse and Paulie pick a fight with boys from the nearby King's College, one of whom is Tory's elder brother, Rick. In the second, Paulie challenges Mouse to seduce an overweight girl from the local convent school, which she does, though the outcome borders on comical; the girl in question, Josie, is found to have known all along that 'Nick' was a girl, and bursts into tears when Mouse hesitates to caress her. In the third test, Paulie challenges Mouse to kill a pigeon. Mouse's reluctance to do these tasks emphasises that her wish to be a man is not founded on a genuine desire to become one, or even on an attraction to girls. Rather, Mouse longs for the freedom that the men of the time enjoyed, which she believes she will never be able to experience as a woman. In Tory's absence, teacher's pet Ismay Thom moves into Mouse and Paulie's dorm room. Her pushy presence aggravates Paulie, but Mouse warms to Ismay's eccentric but likeable character. Paulie leads Mouse in a break-in to Mrs Peddie's private quarters, where they stumble upon correspondence between Miss Vaughan and Mrs Peddie, written years before. The letters detail an incident in which Miss Vaughan was assaulted by a police officer, who had seen her kissing Mrs Peddie. Paulie steals them, and hides them in Mouse's bedside drawer. When Mouse checks on them in the morning, they have disappeared. In Tory's absence, Paulie's behaviour worsens, and she is banned from attending the Visitor's Luncheon at King's College. Mouse is taken there by her Uncle Winnie (her mother's brother) and his wife. Whilst there, she sees Tory with Lewis in the yard outside. Lewis is chased from the school, after being seen vandalising a statue. Amidst the uproar, the news is broken that President Kennedy has been assassinated. Mouse is devastated by the news of the President's death, but is cheered by letters from Jack O'Malley, a King's College student she met at the Luncheon. Paulie's behaviour becomes increasingly sinister; she instructs Mouse to beat her with an old cane, and when she hesitates, Paulie beats her with it instead, hard enough to draw blood. Mouse admits that she continued to go along with Paulie's tests because Paulie's evil character absolves her of all the things in her life that she cannot change (i.e., not being worthy of Morley's love, not having any friends) and makes her even more innocent. After performing in the Christmas show, Mouse is summoned to Miss Vaughan's office, where she is told that Morley has died from a sudden heart attack. Mouse returns to her home in Madoc's Landing to bury her father. Though she seems cold and distant to the reality of his death, it is obvious that she is devastated. Her stepmother Sal, who is frequently heard as Mouse's voice of conscience, is revealed to be an alcoholic. Miss Vaughan attends the funeral, bringing Paulie, who tells Mouse that Rick is trying to stop Tory from seeing Lewis. Miss Vaughan asks Mouse to keep what she has discovered in her and Mrs Peddie's letters to herself. Mouse resolves to never dress as a boy again, and meditates on her father's lack of affection for her. She concludes that he loved his work too much. Mouse returns to Bath College with keepsakes of his, one of them being a book on anatomy (he was a surgeon) and his old doctor's bag. On returning to school, Mouse discovers that Paulie has been removed from her dorm room, replaced by Asa Abrams, and that Tory has returned. To her surprise, she receives quiet sympathy from her peers as well as her teachers, and is particularly touched by Tory's gift of a New Testament bible. Paulie has been forced to take Asa's old cubicle. Her exile makes her noticeably friendlier to Mouse. Paulie discloses that she (as Lewis) got into a fight with Rick and injured him with a knife, and that Tory was upset with her for doing it. Ismay tells Mouse that Paulie has been carving lurid stick figures on her bedstead and stealing her music scores, which Paulie laughingly denies. Lewis drives Mouse to King's College on the evening of the Christmas dance, to pick up Jack O'Malley. The two make awkward conversation as Lewis drives to Canon Quinn's house to pick Tory up. Mouse sees Rick and Lewis arguing and scuffling at the door of the Quinns' house; Lewis returns to the van noticeably upset and without Tory. Once alone, Lewis reveals to Mouse that Rick had challenged Lewis to prove he was a boy by showing him his penis, and begins to cry. Mouse eventually leaves Paulie, and joins Jack inside. They become involved in the festivities, drinking gin and "fooling around for the longest time standing up". Toward the end of the evening, Mouse breaks away and searches for Paulie, finally finding her in the tower washroom, her hair shorn and her face cut and bleeding. Paulie angrily brushes Mouse away when she tries to comfort her, and says that she's not giving up on Tory. They are distracted by Sergeant, who has dressed up as the school's dead founder, Miss Higgs, for the evening, and is tearing round the school on an antiquated Victorian bicycle. The girls try to follow him, but Mouse loses Paulie in the darkness. She looks for her in her room, and discovers Ismay's musical scores in there, along with pages ripped from her father's Gray's Anatomy; the pages depict the male penis, and have been annotated by Paulie. Tired, and tipsy from the alcohol Jack gave her, Mouse goes to bed. Mouse wakes early the next morning and, worried by Paulie's prolonged absence, goes to look for her in the tunnels beneath the school. She finds Paulie distressed, saying that Sergeant has fallen against one of the heating pipes and hurt himself. She takes Mouse to his prone body, then sends her to get the Czech groundskeeper, Willy. Sergeant is unconscious, and badly burned from falling against the scalding pipes. When Mouse returns with him, she finds Sergeant dead, and Paulie gone. Remembering what she found the evening before, a horrified Mouse suspects what Paulie has done. Lifting his costume skirts, Mouse sees that Sergeant has been castrated. Mouse recalls details from Paulie's trial, and informs the reader what happened next; after removing Sergeant's genitals with one of Morley's scalpels, Paulie had stuck them to herself with tire glue, and presented herself to Rick Quinn in her chilling garb. She was arrested shortly after, and found to be too mentally unstable to take full responsibility for her actions; eluding jail, Paulie was sent to a mental institution for "rehabilitation". Tory was sent to another school (though the court heard that she continued to see Paulie whilst she was in custody), and Mouse was sent home to Madoc's Landing until the furor over her involvement in Paulie's crime had died down. She recalls a dream she had about Sergeant after his memorial service, and says she's glad that he didn't know it was his friend Lewis who had killed him, but Paulie. Now sixteen, Mouse looks back on her time at Bath's College, crediting the girls and women there who inspired her to be herself, and signs herself off as 'M.B.' |
4016325 | /m/0bcp1n | The Birthplace | Henry James | null | null | Morris Gedge is a librarian at a dull provincial library in England that is "all granite, fog and female fiction." He gets a welcome offer to become the custodian of the Shakespeare house at Stratford-on-Avon. Although Shakespeare's name is never mentioned in the story (James used the name twice in his Notebooks when he was planning the tale) it's obvious to whom "the supreme Mecca of the English-speaking race" is devoted. Once installed as the custodian, Morris begins to doubt the chatter he is forced to give to tourists who visit the home. He starts to qualify and hesitate in his spiel. This brings anguish to his wife and a warning from the shrine's proprietors. Gedge finally decides that if silliness is what's wanted, he'll supply it abundantly. The last section of the story shows him delivering a hilarious lecture on how the child Shakespeare played around the house. Of course, receipts from tourists increase and Gedge gets a raise. |
4018311 | /m/0bcs4p | The Two Princesses of Bamarre | Gail Carson Levine | 2001 | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | Princess Addie is fearful and shy. Princess Meryl is bold and brave. They are sisters, and they mean the world to each other. Bamarre is plagued by a fatal disease called the Gray Death, which has three stages: Weakness, Sleep, and then Fever. While the weakness may last for hours to weeks, the sleep always lasts nine days, and the fever always lasts three. Bamarre also has specters, which lure travelers to their deaths unless exposed, sorcerers, ogres, dwarves, elves, gryphons, dragons, and fairies, although the latter have not been seen since Drualt, Bamarre's greatest hero and subject of legends, went up to visit them after his sweetheart died and no one from a nearby town tried to help her. Die and Bella strike up a friendship with Rhys, the apprentice sorcerer helping her father, when Meryl is suddenly struck ill with the Gray Death. Addie has trouble coming to terms with the fact that Meryl is going to die, while Meryl tries in vain to prove Addie's theory that the Gray Death might be cured if the person who is ill refuses to be sick, running when weak, staying awake when tired, etc. Since a fabled prophecy from a specter states that the Gray Death will be cured when "Cowards find courage and rain falls over all Bamarre," Addie convinces her cowardly father to seek out a cure and prays for rain. When the king returns just as cowardly as before and no clouds are in sight, Addie determines to find the cure herself. Using a pair of seven-league boots and a magical spyglass from her deceased mother, a copy of Drualt, an invisibility cloak and magic tablecloth from Rhys, some of Milton's herbs and Meryl's sword, Addie successfully travels to the Mulee forest to find a specter, only to be tricked by one that took the form of Rhys. The real Rhys makes her realize the truth, and she learns from the specter that a dragon would be her best bet for finding the cure. Rhys has to leave for the Sorcerers' Citadel, but not before Addie realizes that there's more behind their friendship. After accidentally overcoming a pack of gryphons with her tablecloth, Addie is found by the dragon Vollys and taken to her lair. Although dragons are solitary creatures, they are also lonely, so Addie is forced to entertain Vollys to avoid a fiery demise in Vollys' stomach. She does this through her embroidery, which is her sole bold attribute. Although Addie is terrified of the dragon, she learns that Vollys is always sad when she eats her "guests" after they have angered her one time too many. Addie also learns the dragon version of Drualt's story, which portrays the hero as a villain who mercilessly kills noble dragons, including Vollys' mother. Vollys also tells Addie that the Gray Death came from her mother's corpse, a revenge for her death. Because she does not think Addie can escape, Vollys also tells Addie that the Gray Death can be cured by the water of a waterfall that flows from Mount Ziriat, the fairies' invisible mountain. She even tells Addie where the mountain is. Meanwhile, Addie learns through her spyglass that Meryl has entered the sleeping stage of the Gray Death, and later fever stage of the Gray Death. Addie manages to escape Vollys with her boots, and returns to the castle. After reuniting with Rhys, Meryl tells Addie that she has until the next dawn to live. Addie tells them about the cure, and she and Rhys uses the seven-league boots to carry Meryl to the mountain. They end up outside the same village that refused to help Drualt's sweetheart due to their cowardice. Upon questioning, the isolated villagers say that although they have heard of the Gray Death, no one in the village has ever had it. The three also learn that all the villagers drink from a waterfall that comes from a mountain so tall and shrouded in mist that no one has ever seen it. Realizing that they are talking about Mount Ziriat, and the villagers are never sick because they drink the water, Rhys and the Princesses manage to find a few villagers courageous enough and willing to show them the waterfall, which is a few hours away, despite the dark night and the threat of ogres and gryphons. While they walk, Rhys confesses his love to Addie, and she does the same. Just as they reach the waterfall, though, the party is attacked by ogres, gryphons and an enraged Vollys. The sky begins to lighten, and Addie tells Meryl, who is having the time of her life in battle, to run to the water and drink. While she is running, though, Addie is caught by an ogre unexpectedly and screams. Meryl runs back to rescue her when the first rays of sunlight come, just as rain begins to fall. Addie is knocked unconscious, Meryl falls to the ground, and shining beings of light fly down. When Addie wakes up, she learns from Meryl, who seems different somehow, that they were rescued by fairies and taken to the top of Mount Ziriat. The rain had fallen everywhere, curing all with the Gray Death except those who were too close to death to save. When Addie gained the courage to save her sister, and when the cowardly villagers redeemed themselves by helping Meryl and Addie, the fairies made water from their enchanted waterfall rain over all Bamarre. Meryl also tells Addie that she, too, was one of those on the brink of death when the rain came, so the fairies could not truly save her. However, they offered to transform her into a fairy and join them in an endless battle against fearsome, monstrous creatures, the outcome of which affects the world below. Meryl accepted the offer, and is now a fairy, unable to return with Addie. Addie also learns from Meryl that she is now with Drualt, who was also transformed after leaving Bamarre, and hat he had been the presence Addie felt in her darkest hours, cheering her up and giving her the strength to go on. Rhys and Addie marry and live happily ever after, with Meryl as Fairy Godmother to their children, the first after hundreds of years. |
4018377 | /m/0bcs63 | The Czar's Madman | Jaan Kross | 1978 | {"/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | The story is written in diary form, describing the impact of revolutionary thinking on the part of a family member. Aristocrat Timotheus von Bock (the diarist's brother in law) writes a letter to the Czar criticising the way in which the Czar's family runs the country. He justifies this act by an oath made to the Czar to give an honest appraisal of the situation. Von Bock is imprisoned as a traitor (although the reason for his imprisonment is kept secret, as is the letter) for 9 years before being released into house arrest on the basis that he is 'mad'. Is he mad? Was it madness to offer criticism which inevitably led to imprisonment? Is he mad not to flee his house arrest when the opportunity arises? These are some of the issues raised and discussed in this novel. |
4019771 | /m/02p7vb4 | Here Be Dragons | Sharon Penman | 1985 | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | Here Be Dragons (1985) is the first of Penman's trilogy about the medieval princes of Gwynedd and the monarchs of England. England's King John uses his out-of-wedlock daughter Joanna as a negotiating tool by marrying her to the Welsh king Llewelyn to avoid war between England and Wales. Joanna and Llewelyn's marriage is marred by resentment from Llewelyn's illegitimate son, Gruffydd. Joanna gives birth to two legitimate children, Elen and Davydd. Growing animosity between the English and Welsh results in Joanna having to act as a diplomatic intermediary between her husband and her father, and the situation deteriorates when Gruffydd is taken hostage by John and narrowly escapes execution. Joanna becomes determined that her own son, Dafydd, will be his father's heir as ruler of Gwynedd, disregarding the Welsh law that all sons should receive equal shares of their father's inheritance. Family disagreements lead Joanna into an affair with William de Braose, whom she has met earlier in the story when he was a hostage in Llewelyn's household. Their affair is discovered and William is executed. Joanna is placed in secluded captivity, but at the end of the book Llewelyn comes to find her and offers her forgiveness. |
4019796 | /m/0bcvm7 | The Nightmare Fair | Graham Williams | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | The Sixth Doctor and his companion Peri are lured in the TARDIS to Blackpool, where they discover something wrong in the local videogame arcade. The Doctor's adversary the Celestial Toymaker is behind it, and the Doctor and Peri must fight their way through his videogames in order to defeat him. |
4021390 | /m/0bcyk6 | Kushiel's Scion | Jacqueline Carey | 6/12/2006 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | To find his lost mother, the mission of his foster mother and his own personal quest, he must discover who trained Phèdre nó Delaunay's mentor, Anafiel Delaunay. The first book in this series begins with Imriel, at age fourteen, learning that his mother, Melisande Shahrizai has vanished from the Temple of the Asherat-of-the-Sea in La Serenissima. Instead of spending his summer at Montrève, he is summoned to court, where he meets his Shahrizai kin, who will foster with him come the following summer. The Queen, Ysandre de la Courcel, is convinced that Imriel has not been told or given any information from his mother as to where she is. His relationships with his nearest royal kin vary; Alais is as a sister to him but Sidonie de la Courcel, the Dauphine, is cold and untrusting of him. Imriel is also given a tour of his holdings, none of which he has ever seen and are run by the local factors on his behalf. One of his holdings, Lombelon, was inherited by his mother, who took it from Isidore d'Aiglemort. There he sees a beautiful young man a year or two older than himself cutting hedges. He learns that this young man is extremely bitter and asks him why. The boy, Maslin, replies that the territory should be his but was instead given to Imriel, the spawn of traitor. Imriel investigates his claims and finds that Maslin is the illegitimate child of Isidore d'Aiglemort. D'Aiglemort had no other children and was going to give his lands to Maslin, but died before he could do so at the Battle of Troyes-Le-Mont. Imriel then takes it upon himself to right this wrong; he gets all the necessary paperwork done and to give Lombelon to Maslin. Phèdre asks Imriel if he really wants to do this, warning him that this may not make Maslin happy and could still fester. Imriel still gives Lombelon to Maslin. Maslin does not know what to say but Imriel is just happy he could right a wrong wrought by his parents. In the summer, Mavros, Baptitse, and Roshana Sharizai come to foster at the Montreve estate, where Imriel learns more about the Kusheline side of himself. When Imriel turns sixteen, he spends a night at Balm House, at the urging of Phèdre, for the traditional celebration of a sixteenth birthday at the Night Court. The same year, Eamonn mac Grainne, son of Grainne and Quintilus Rousse, comes to foster at the Montrève residence, where he and Imriel become good friends. Imriel becomes close enough to Eamonn to tell him the horrors of Daršanga. When Eamonn leaves, he makes Imriel promise to come visit him in Tiberium, where he will be studying at the university. At a royal hunting party all of the family and most nobles are in attendance. They are hunting a wild boar when Sidonie's horse rears and charges off, carrying Sidonie. Imriel follows and when Sidonie is thrown from the horse, he dismouts to help her up. Imriel hears rustling in the bushes and fears it is the angry boar. He dives on top of Sidonie to save her life, only to have the animal that leaves the bushes to turn out to be a deer. Sidonie is exceptionally shocked but breaks out in laughter at Imriel's face and the fact that it turned out to be a deer. During this exchange, much changes between Imriel and Sidonie. The coldness is almost instantly replaced by an extremely intense, forbidden attraction. Alais' beloved dog, however, is badly hurt by the boar. Imriel stitches the dog right there and ends up saving her life. He then affectionately jokes that he is "Imriel: saviour of dogs, protector from deer." This event causes a change in Sidonie as she realizes that she can trust Imriel and that he does not desire the throne over her. When Imriel turns eighteen, many things change. Drustan mab Necthana and Prince Talorcan, his nephew and heir apparent, come to visit, bringing Princess Dorelei with them. It becomes apparent that as much as Drustan would like to name Alais as his heir, he cannot without risking another civil war. If Alais were to wed Talorcan, she would rule at his side but their children wouldn't inherit the throne as Alba works by matrilineal succession. However, if Imriel were to wed Dorelei, his son would become Cruarch and Terre d'Ange's influence in Alba would not wane. When Imriel learns this, he confides in Mavros. Meanwhile, it seems that Sidonie is beginning to get a crush on Imriel. While he makes no active moves and she is very covert in her desires, both know and feel them. They also know that a relationship between them can never be, given Imriel's parents and recent history. Maslin who loves Sidonie, dislikes Imriel as he suspects Imriel of coveting the throne through Sidonie. Maslin and Imriel dislike each other, and they must struggle to remain cordial to one other and not get into a fight. Imriel begins to feel lost and confused between Sidonie's crush on him, his dislike for Maslin, and his duty to Terre d'Ange by wedding Dorelei. So Mavros and his cousins decide to braid Imriel's hair and take him to Valerian House, where he finally releases his long-held and feared desires for kinky pleasures. This throws him all into turmoil but is not a negative experience. After returning home though, he can no longer look at Phèdre because she is an anguissette, and leaves the house to drink himself into a stupor. Joscelin Verreuil goes with him as more of a protector than a comfort. This lasts for at least a couple of days. Imriel then decides he needs some distance and decides to follow in Eamonn's footsteps by studying at the University of Tiberium. After packing lightly, Imri and Gilot, his man at arms, travel to Tiberium to seek knowledge and learning. Imriel decides that he doesn't want to be known as a prince of the realm, and is known only as Imriel nó Montreve. He shares his building with many families and there is a friendly homeless philosopher, Canis, who lives in front of his place. Canis gives Imriel a necklace with the symbol of a lamp which signifies a school of philosophy, the Cynics, telling him to wear it, which Imriel humours him by wearing. Imriel and Gilot find Eamonn by chance, and Imri studies with him under Master Piero. Imriel also asks around the University where one might learn the arts of covertcy. Lucius, a fellow student, invites Imriel to a play, where he meets his sister, Claudia Fulvia and her husband, Deccus Fulvis (a Tiberian senator). During the play, Claudia toys with Imriel and seduces him, promising him more in the future. This leads to a heady affair between the two, with the revelation of the Unseen Guild. Claudia reveals to him that she has the status of journeyman in the Unseen Guild and that her job is to try to get him to join the Guild. During the following months, while Claudia and Imriel conduct their affair, Claudia slowly teaches Imriel the arts of covertcy. She reveals that Delaunay had been asked as well but that he had refused because he would have to swear loyalty to the Guild, which would supersede his loyalty to Prince Rolande. A riot ensues after the senate declares that the funding to the University is to be cut off, and Imriel, Eamonn, Brigitta (a Skaldic fellow student and love interest of Eamonn), Lucius da Lucca, and Gilot get trapped in it. An attempt is made on Imriel's life, and Gilot is trampled. Gilot is taken to the Temple of Asclepius, where the priests would heal his broken and battered body. There he is told that the necklace that Canis has given him has secret writing on the side of it, indicating that he is protected. He also learns that the symbol on it is in fact that of the Unseen Guild and not that of the Cynics. When Imriel returns to his apartment Canis can not be found. Imriel also discovers that Bernadette de Trevalion hired a hit man to kill him during the riots. Imriel decides to go to Bernadette's agent, Ruggero Caccini, and acquires enough information that he could blackmail the Trevalion household if he wanted later on. While visiting Gilot at the Temple of Asclepius, a priest approaches Imriel and asks him to stay the night, to let Asclepius guide his dreams. In his dream, Asclepius tells him that the power to heal lies within himself, and that "even a stunted tree reaches for sunlight". When Imriel awakens, a revelation comes to him, and he decides to go home after Lucius' wedding to Helena (the daughter of the Prince of Lucca) and marry Dorelei. Before departing for Lucca, Imriel and Gilot travel to the isle of Asclepius to unbind Gilot's splintered hand, and get a final health assessment (Gilot had some ribs broken, and if he was to engage in physical exertion, a bone fragment may puncture his lung). Upon reaching Lucca, disaster had struck. The bride-to-be had been kidnapped, her lover killed, and Lucius becomes possessed with the ghost of his great grandfather, Gallus Tadius (Leader of the Red Scourge, a mercenary company). Imriel manages to rescue the bride but cuts off the assailant's hand in the process. While all of Imriel's friends manage to leave Lucca on the grounds of non-combatants and foreign citizens, Imriel can not. The leader of the attackers insists that if Imriel wants to leave he must pay the same price, the loss of his hand. The D'Angeline host that is negotiating on his behalf refuses and Imriel himself refuses. So Lucca comes under siege with Imriel trapped inside. During the ensuring battle for control of Lucca, Gilot dies trying to protect Imriel and the townsfolk. Canis also bizarrely appears and helps with the forces fighting the siege. During the siege, Canis saves Imriel's life by jumping in the way of a thrown spear that would have surely killed Imriel otherwise. While dying, Canis whispers to Imriel "Your mother sends her love" with his dying breath. Imriel takes this to confirm that Canis was not really a philosopher but a member of the Unseen Guild sent by Melisande to guard Imriel. Under the command of Gallus Tadius, Lucca emerges victorious and Imriel is escorted to Terre d'Ange safely. It is here, at home, where it is most evident just how much Imriel has grown up throughout the novel. He visits with Bernadette de Trevalion and tells her that as long as she acquits all attempts on his life and the blood feud between Bernadette and Melisande Shahrizai, the letter he has containing the proof of her guilt of her attempt on his life will never come to light. After learning that she actually loved him with Canis' final words, Imriel also finally faces his mother somewhat and finally reads her letters to him. |
4021422 | /m/0bcyl7 | Kushiel's Justice | Jacqueline Carey | 6/14/2007 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | The novel begins with Imriel sitting down to read the letters that his mother, Melisande Shahrizai, has written him all these years. After the occurrences in Kushiel's Scion, especially with Canis in Lucca, he is now concerned with where she is and the influence she is trying to have on his life. The letters, while not exactly comforting, tell him much and help soothe some of his resentment. Phèdre nó Delaunay, his foster-mother, asks him if he wants to discuss them but he declines. When he presents himself to the Queen, he tells her his decision to wed the Alban Princess Dorelei. He met her when he was eighteen and Prince Talorcan, Drustan's nephew and heir apparent, came to visit\. While Drustan would like to name Alais as his heir, he cannot without risking another civil war. If Alais were to wed Talorcan, she would rule at his side but their children wouldn't inherit the throne, as Alba works by matrilineal succession. However, if Imriel were to wed Dorelei, his son would become Cruarch and Terre d'Ange's influence in Alba would not wane. For this reason, he is agreeing to wed her for the betterment of the kingdom. At the same time, however, he has discovered that he is attracted to his cousin, Sidonie de la Courcel. He knows that she feels the same. He is still the son of two infamous traitors and she is the dauphine. They cannot be together. Despite this, during the Midwinter Masque at the palace, Imriel and Sidonie kiss. Only Sidonie's lady-in-waiting, Amarante, and Imriel's best friend, Mavros, know of their relationship. They often assist them in being together and warn them if people are going to burst in and see them together. Also, Sidonie's private guards know but are extremely loyal to her. Maslin of Lombelon is her chief guard and also rumored to be her lover. Given the wedding, Imriel begins to take lessons with Alais on Alban history, law, religion, and linguistic nuances. After these classes he would meet Sidonie at her quarters and then have a few hours alone, often to make love. While Alais does not approve of their relationship, predominantly due to the necessary secrecy, she does nothing to stop them. During one of these lustful afternoons, Imriel tells Sidonie about what happened to him in Drujan (see Kushiel's Avatar). She listens calmly but is greatly saddened. She then asks whether he would still be willing to be cruel with her because she would very much like it. For once Imriel seems to be more comfortable and willing to try this, as long as it is with her. Their relationship continues as such for many months while being successfully hidden from nearly everyone. Imriel knows that his wedding is approaching though and begins to get very frustrated. He and Sidonie know they can not be together and believe that they only like each other because it is forbidden. To release this frustration, Mavros takes him to Valerian House once again. Given that Imriel has been drinking, however, Mavros books them a showing instead. This proves to be a wonderful idea and also helps Imriel to deal with his past and his Kusheline blood. That summer, Prince Talorcan and Princess Dorelei accompany Drustan on his annual trip to Terre d'Ange in the spring. Dorelei is sweet and kind-hearted, but Imriel is distracted with his love for Sidonie. He still agrees to wed Dorelei though, because, as Sidonie herself said, they are likely only in love with each other because it is forbidden. As well, Sidonie is not yet eighteen and therefore can not cross her mother's will, making any true relationship with Imriel impossible. Even still, Imriel is sad to be leaving her. Dorelei, sensing that he loves another, says she is willing to share him, as she knows D'Angelines do, but that she herself will be only with him, as is Alban custom. Imriel takes this to heart but assures her there is no one else. Before the wedding, Imriel and Sidonie meet secretly at a Temple of Elua. There the Priest vows to keep his silence but discourages the two from being so secretive and continuing a relationship that will inevitably hurt others. Nevertheless, he provides them with a private room for their final love-making. Mavros Shahrizai also takes him on a bachelor's party. Imriel is frustrated, angry, and rough, being in the perfect mood for Valerian House. Mavros, however, makes sure that Imriel does not get carried away and is always safe and sane in his play. The next morning is the wedding. This is a public affair with all persons of import in attendance. They are given many gifts, though Imriel's most cherished gift is that from Drustan's family: vambraces carved with the image of the Cullach Gorym, their family emblem (their diadh-anam). Thus he is welcomed into the royal house of Alba. Imriel puts a good face on it but inside he feels nothing but sadness and a hollow feeling. It is hot, he is uncomfortable, and Sidonie is right there the whole time, watching him wed someone else. During the ceremony, Sidonie throws rose petals upon the couple. Imriel knows the true meaning of this: there is a passage in the Trois-Mille Joies that says to cover your lover in kisses is like falling flower petals. Everyone else at the wedding are happy, making Imriel's brooding and moping all the more poignant, though well-hidden. Dorelei and Imriel make love that night, as Dorelei wishes to have a child, having lit a candle to Eisheth. In the following days, Imriel confesses to Dorelei that he is in love with someone else, to which she answers that she knows, but understands that theirs is a marriage of politics. Eamonn arrives at court from Skaldia after winning the favor of his Skaldic bride Brigitta's family. Imriel tells to Eamonn of his relationship with Sidonie. The party bound for Alba make preparations for their departure when Sidonie returns from her pilgrimage to Naamah's shrine. She and Imriel meet at a temple of Naamah for a last rendezvous before his departure. The following morning, Imriel departs for Alba with a large D'Angeline escort, Drustan's family, Phèdre nó Delaunay and Joscelin Verreuil. After the wedding, they travel across Alba to the Prince's new home, Clunderry, with Dorelei's family using the 'open roads' (the taisgaidh), those paths where no one is allowed to fight, be attacked or raided, and to where all Albans have access. On his first night on Alban soil, Imriel, missing Sidonie, fantasizes of her and pleasures himself, spilling his seed on the soil. During his sleep he is woken by an irresistible lustful pull. He gets up and follows it. It leads him to a lone Alban woman, Morwen, who seems to have the ability to control him and wants him to have a child with her. Though he tries to refuse, the spell she has cast on him strong. Suddenly, some of the Albans from the escort interrupt them and the woman flees. The Albans tell him he was stupid indeed. By spreading his seed, filled with his lust and love, on the common soil, this woman has been given the tools to ensnared him by making a small mannekin of him, allowing her to call on him whenever she wishes. They also tell him that the two claw tattoos on her face means she is of the Maghuin Dhonn. The spell is strong and his only help is to go to an Ollamh, a religious druid-like figure. The Ollamh casts a spell on him as well and binds each of his limbs with red ribbon. Imriel must also wear a croonie-stone around his neck to protect himself. If any of these are taken off or broken, the spell will be broken and he will be under the woman's control again. Imriel feels relieved and more clear-headed than he has been in months. There is a noticeable change in his mood; while still self-consumed, he does not seem as sad as he was before and is able to make love to Dorelei. Dorelei, however, loses her visions of the future, as if a giant grey cloud were covering them from her sight. Still, Clunderry is peaceful and typical of an Alban noble's home, filled with people who are the salt of the earth. He quickly makes friends with her guards and those under his command. Though new, he is respected by all, but many are still reserved about this new D'Angeline pretty-boy Prince. He earns their respect, however, when he stages a raid on a neighbouring lord, Leodan of Briclaedh. This lord is challenging him and wants to steal his cattle and horses, perceiving Imriel to be in a position of weakness. Imriel stuns everyone by instead staging a raid on him before Leodan can do the same. Such raids are done in fun and not of any true risk, merely to prove a ruler's mettle. Imriel manages to escape from multiple attackers with nearly no injuries, earning him praise and respect from all. This also garners him a great friendship with Urist, a guard of Clunderry of good renown and well liked by the troops. On the ride back, Imriel is elated. He finally feels he is accepted and respected, not because of his birth but because he has earned it. Then he feels the lustful pull. Without volition, he rides into a sheltered wooded area, where the woman is waiting. He tries to resist as much as he can, but his body responds to her regardless. They are disturbed before anything more can happen, and Imriel learns that, during the battle, one of his red ties has been cut off. Before even going to the celebratory feast, he goes to the local Ollamh, who recasts the spell. Life continues as it will in an Alban holding, and Dorelei and Imriel manage to have a working relationship, and in some way, love. Dorelei is most certainly in love with Imriel, but Imriel does not seem to feel anything strongly. While he respects her and sees her as very kind, he is ultimately wrapped up in his own personal emotions and issues, though he is able to forget about Sidonie most of the time. Dorelei has also become pregnant and Imriel can not wait for his child. This is his real bond of love with Dorelei, and his wonder at the life within her is filled with beauty. Imriel's cousin, Alais, also grows and matures significantly at Clunderry. She has been learning the arts of the Ollamh and loves it. Though she does not love Talorcan, she is leaving her doors open and does not refuse him. Talorcan is patient. Then one night, a letter arrives. Sidonie writes to him telling him that, despite the distance, she is still in love with him. She tells him to stay in Alba, however, for at least the first year. Dorelei had promised him that, if Imriel was not happy after the first year, he could leave her and move back to Terre d'Ange. They could be as Drustan and Ysandre and see each other half the year, or even less. While reading this letter, Imriel is shocked at his lack of emotions. He can barely even picture Sidonie's face, and all feelings for her are muted beyond comprehension. Thus he decides to take a risk. He removes the croonie-stone from around his neck and reads the letter. He is filled with sorrow and love. He misses her terribly and still loves her as well. After a short while and reading the letter a number of times, he returns the croonie-stone around his neck and returns to his bed with Dorelei. By spring, Dorelei is very large from her pregnancy, and she and Imriel are looking forward to their first child, who should be born soon. While love has grown between to the two, Imriel is still distracted by his love for Sidonie, though he is always caring and loving with Dorelei. A couple days after the Day of Misrule, however, Morwen appears out of the woods right in front of Clunderry's men. She remains on the taisgaidh roads, but demands to see Imriel. Imriel meets her with all of his guards, the Ollamh, Alais, and Dorelei who insisted on coming along. Morwen says she is willing to make a deal with Imriel: if he will come with her to the circle of standing stones and let her show him the future, she will give him his mannekin, thereby freeing him of her magic. The circle is not far away and is on taisgaidh lands. Imriel does not trust her but she says that if he wants to bring his troops he may, so long as they stay outside of the circle. Imriel then asks the advice of the Ollamh. She does not trust Morwen as well and asks that before the ceremony and in the stone circle, Morwen swear not to harm Imriel or any of his family. She agrees without hesitation and with none of the tell-tales of a lie. Imriel says he will take the day to decide and give her his decision at sunset. Morwen agrees and leaves as though she had melted into the woods themselves. Imriel and Dorelei discuss it that day and come to a decision. Imriel will take a large escort of the troops to the circle with him and be careful. Dorelei will not risk herself or the child by coming with him and will stay in Clunderry with the remaining guards. While it is dangerous, for the freedom of Imriel, the visions of Dorelei, and their unborn child, it will be worth it. They also finally decide on the name of the child: Aniel if it is a boy and Anielle if it is a girl. That evening, Dorelei helps Imriel put on his vambraces and prepare for his meeting with Morwen. At the edge of taisgaidh roads, Morwen waits. Upon Imriel's arrival, she leads them to the standing stones. Night has fallen, and though there are many of Imriel's men carrying torches, the circle still has an eerie look about it. Morwen tells him that he can not wear any metal within the circle and that the lights must be put out. He asks why and she only replies that that is how the spell works. To verify his safety, he asks her to make the pledge with the Ollamh first. Morwen and the Ollamh go into the circle. Morwen swears: ::"No harm will befall Imriel de la Courcel of Clunderry this night, nor any member of his household, nor any person dear to him. I swear it by the stone and sea and sky, by all the gods of Alba, and by the diadh-anam of the Maghuin Dhonn. If I lie, let my magic be broken and my life be forfeit. Let every man and woman's hand be raised against me, let my name be gall on their lips. Let the gods and the diadh-anam forsake me, and let the land itself despise my footfall. Let my spirit wander for ten thousand years without solace." The Ollamh is satisfied and departs for the outside of the circle. Morwen leads Imriel into the circle, after telling him to take off his shoes. She seemingly lifts one of the standing stones and takes out her things from under it, letting it fall back down behind her. On the stone table, she places her things and takes some tea, which she drinks first before giving it to Imriel. He asks her what it is. She says it is mushroom tea and a gift of the earth. She then paints her eyelids and his. Picking up the stone knife and a leather bag she passes the bag to him. He feels the mannekin inside it. Morwen then suddenly cuts his bindings and all his love, emotions, and reality comes flooding back. Morwen then cuts her wrists and holds his hands. Waiting, the tea starts to have an effect. Eventually he begins to see that the stones are telling him a story. He sees a boy who is obviously his unborn son, Aniel. He sees Dorelei dead with Aniel holding on to him. He sees his son with Alais and then, as a teen, yelling at Urist. Then there is a pause. Morwen says this is because he has left Alban shores. He returns, however, and Imriel can see the glitter of intelligence in his eyes and glee at the causing of arguments. These arguments lead to wars between the tribes of Alba and the death of Talorcan. He is then named Cruarch and brings hundreds of D'Angeline soldiers to Alba, crushing all resistance. He sees women and children taken out of their homes and their homes being torched. He sees Aniel kill a wounded man begging for mercy. Aniel burns the sacred groves and drags away the standing stones. He is a fearless and cruel leader who hunts down the Maghuin Dhonn until all are gone, and redesigns Bryn Gorrydum into a D'Angeline city. Finally, Imriel begs her to stop and she does, letting go of his hands. "Your son is a monster, Imriel," she says. Imriel asks why this is. She replies that she does not know, and at first the visions were of many possibilities. Dorelei would die before her second child is born and Imriel leaves Alban shores. At first there was Imriel and Morwen's daughter to balance Aniel, but now all that remained was this one vision. Imriel asks if she considered that her intervention caused this in the first place, and whether she considered not getting involved. With deep sorrow, she said she had considered it. Imriel hears horns and sees the flaws in Morwen. Realizing the cuts were deeper than he though he learns an awful secret. Morwen has lied, harm is coming to Imriel's family. Her life is sacrificed for the good of the Maghuin Dhonn. He rushes back to Clunderry, still under the effects of the mushroom tea. All is in a daze and blurry. The gates of the castle are open; Leodan of Briclaedh staged his counter cattle-raid on this night after hearing that the troops would be elsewhere. A giant bear is now trying to enter the castle. Imriel charges him, but is swiped by a giant claw and falls unconscious. When he wakes, he sees Dorelei lying on a table nearby, clearly dead. Imriel falls into a deep depression. He has been severely clawed by the bear, the Maghuin Dhonn shape-shifter leader Berlik. He is transported to Bryn Gorrydum and being treated by an Eisandine healer. Alais would keep him company most days, but vengeance was what kept him alive; he wanted Berlik's death. The hunt for Berlik in Alba was unsuccessful, but Hyacinthe, the Master of the Straits, saw a large bear swim to Azzalle, across the straits. While he could not be sure it was Berlik, Imriel was. Imriel swears he will bring back Berlik's head and bury it as Dorelei's feet, a traditional custom of Alba. Urist promises to help him, as do a number of Clunderry's men. When Imriel is finally deemed to be well enough to ride, he tells Drustan of the arrangements, says goodbye to Alais, and departs for Terre d'Ange. In Azzalle, Urist and Imriel destroy the mannekin and cut his bindings. Imriel tells him who it was he loved all this time and, while shocked, Urist still dedicates himself to Imriel's service: "So you were good enough for the Cullach Gorrym, good enough to marry Dorelei mab Beidaia, good enough to beget Alba a successor, but not good enough for the Queen's daughter?" They all ride for the City of Elua, dedicated to true love and the hunt for Berlik. Upon arriving at the Palace, Imriel immediately goes to Sidonie's quarters, sinks to his knees before her and wraps his arms around her waist. Ysandre walks in on the scene and is furious. Imriel walks out from the Palace, but not before Sidonie kisses him before the all those watching. Mavros offers the Shahrizai hunting estates outside of the City for Imriel and the Albans to stay out of the turmoil of the City. Sidonie comes to see him. After lovemaking, a royal escort led by Lord Amaury Trente come to take her back home. She refuses, saying she is a grown woman now over the age of majority, and that she will love who she loves freely. Imriel learns that Phèdre and Joscelin still are not back from their mysterious journey, but he visits the house and has a pleasant visit with all. Upon gathering all the supplies and funding he needs, including from the royal coffers despite Ysandre's opinion of his affair with her daughter, he and the Albans depart for the north. Their journey takes them through the Flatlands toward the new kingdom of Vralia. Imriel and Urist then book passage by boat to the capital of Vralia, following Berlik's trail. After being lost on an island for at least a month, they both make it to the capital Vralgrad. Urist is too injured to continue, however, and stays in Vralgrad. Imriel continues to follow rumours of Berlik south to the small town of Tarkov. Imriel has the unfortunate bad timing, however, to be in Tarkov for a Tartar raid. Seeing the scars on his behind left from Daršanga, the people think that he is a secret spy of the Tartars and put him in jail. He is stuck there for a long time with one other Tartar prisoner. He manages to escape through cunning, and helps free his Tartar companion so that he may be able to go back to the woman he loves. From there Imriel follows the long-stale path of Berlik, or what he thinks is Berlik's path. He stops at a small Yeshuite Temple in Miroslas, the last reaches of civilization, and learns that Berlik stayed there for a time, seeking forgiveness. They try to discourage him from hunting down Berlik, but Imriel departs, still dedicated to his quest. He spends many days and nights wandering the untamed forests in search of Berlik. He goes nearly mad with the silence, loneliness, and seemingly hopelessness of his mission. He is forced to send back his horse, hoping it will make it alive to a warm stable, for lack of sufficient food and fodder. Just before deciding that he must turn back before he starves, Berlik leaves him a sign. Following this trail he comes upon a small cabin that Berlik has built and obviously still lives in. There is a makeshift cross in his cabin and a fire still burning. Here, finally, Berlik appears. He is humbled and broken and asks only for his death, for only his death at the hands of Imriel can bring him atonement. Berlik tells him, "I prayed...I left a trail for you to follow, and I prayed that if you found me, the diadh-anam would accept my sacrifice as atonement, and not punish all of her people for my failure. When my magic returned to me, here in the woods, I knew it was so." Imriel asks why Berlik made it so hard for him. He replies, "Would you have come here with a humble heart if I had not?" Berlik admits his mistakes, his fears, and admits that he should have trusted his gods more instead of only himself. He apologizes to Imriel and calls him "my avenging angel." As Imriel raises his sword, he knows the true meaning that Kushiel, the punisher of god, loved his charges too well. Imriel says, "I'm sorry," cuts off Berlik's head cleanly, and weeps. After a day in Berlik's cabin, gathering more food and supplies, he departs back for his far-away home. After days of trudging, he is shocked to hear voices arguing in Rus and D'Angeline! They are not rescuers, however: they are soldiers from Tarkov, come to capture him. The D'Angeline they are arguing with is Maslin of Lombelon, sent by Sidonie to find Imriel. Maslin and Imriel manage to fight off the guards and make a truce of their once jealousy of each other. Maslin, it seems, has grown much in his travels as well. During their trek through the forests, Maslin ends up boiling Berlik's head for Imriel, in a sort of penance. It is disgusting work, but Maslin refuses to let Imriel do it. They then continue on their travels. They travel together back to Tarkov. They try to disguise Imriel but Tarkov is the closest port for ferries headed to the city and eventually home. When they arrive in Tarkov, however, they find Phèdre and Joscelin, come to search for Imriel and join him on his long trek. Phèdre is arguing with the guards, trying to explain he is a royal Prince of Terre d'Ange and not a Tartar. While they do not believe her, none want to challenge them and grudgingly "allow" them to leave. In the capital, Joscelin meets his once pupil and now leader of the Yeshuites and most trusted advisor of King Vral, Micah ben Ximon. As the weather improves, they take a boat back to the Flatlands and travel to Azzalle. Maslin chooses to stay in Vralia as a representative of Terre d'Ange, and because he has fallen in love with a local woman. Once they are back in Terre d'Ange, all are happy to report their arrival. (this material is obtained from the preview at the end of the paper-back edition of Kushiel's Justice) Imriel hurries back to Sidonie's side. The Queen has calmed down considerably but cannot countenance the relationship because of Imriel's parents. She cannot denounce it, however, because to do so would be to go against Elua's Precept. He, Sidonie, Phèdre, Joscelin, and his Alban escort return to Clunderry to bury Berlik's head, fulfilling Imriel's promise. On their return to the City of Elua, they are greeted by a large group of people with black armbands, the victims of Melisande and Benedicte's machinations, showing a thumbs-down (see Kushiel's Mercy). |
4023999 | /m/0bd178 | The Midwife's Apprentice | Karen Cushman | 1995-03 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | The plot about a young girl who who was found in a dung pile, who learns to be a midwife's appentice, and then soon learns how to be a midwife herself. This book is appropriate for the age group 8 or 9 to 13 or 14. |
4025023 | /m/0bd3cf | Prathapa Mudaliar Charithram | null | 1879 | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | Soon they get separated and the wife is found wandering in the forest. In order to safeguard herself, she dresses up as a man and roams through the jungle. Meanwhile, a nearby kingdom loses its heir to the throne and as per custom, requires that a new king be chosen at random by the royal elephant. The elephant wanders into the forest and decides to put the flower garland on the unsuspecting young lady. Soon, she is proclaimed the chief of the region and carried to the royal palace. The hero, meanwhile, is despondent after losing his wife and goes in search of her. En route to a city, the hero's sandals get torn, and he decides to repair them using the services of a cobbler. He promises the cobbler that if he stitches the footwear properly and the hero is satisfied, he will reward him with happiness. In a few minutes Prathapa's sandals are mended to his satisfaction and he in turn gives the cobbler one rupee (a princely amount in the era in which the novel is set). The cobbler, however, says he is not satisfied with the rupee and demands his "happiness", since that was the promise of Prathap. Perplexed at this sudden turn of events, a crowd soon gathers and no one is able to resolve the issue. Soon, the matter reaches the court of the new "King," who recognizes her husband despite his dishevelled and bewildered face. Prathap, however is unable to recognize the disguise of his wife and addresses her as the King. She decides to settle this dispute by asking the cobbler if he was happy to see the kingdom's new king. He responds positively, to which she replies that since this quarrel with the young man resulted in his visit to the new king, which ultimately made the cobbler happy, he should go back to his duties, since "happiness" was provided. The cobbler, finding that he has no other way of needlessly harassing the young hero, returns. The "King" soon reveals herself to her husband in private quarters and, after entrusting the kingdom to a young apprentice in the court, leaves the kingdom. Both return to their house and live happily ever after. |
4026130 | /m/0bd5dv | Home of the Gentry | Ivan Turgenev | 1859 | {"/m/01qxvh": "Romance novel"} | The novel's protagonist is Fyodor Ivanych Lavretsky, a nobleman who shares many traits with Turgenev. The child of a distant, Anglophile father and a serf mother who dies when he is very young, Lavretsky is brought up at his family's country estate home by a severe maiden aunt, often thought to be based on Turgenev's own mother who was known for her cruelty. Lavretsky pursues an education in Moscow, and while he is studying there, he spies a beautiful young woman at the opera. Her name is Varvara Pavlovna, and he falls in love with her and asks for her hand in marriage. The two move to Paris, where Varvara Pavlovna becomes a very popular salon hostess and begins an affair with one of her frequent visitors. Lavretsky learns of the affair only when he discovers a note written to her by her lover. Shocked by her betrayal, he severs all contact with her and returns to his family estate. Upon returning to Russia, Lavretsky visits his cousin, Marya Dmitrievna Kalitina, who lives with her two daughters, Liza and Lenochka. Lavretsky is immediately drawn to Liza, whose serious nature and religious devotion stand in contrast to the coquettish Varvara Pavlovna's social consciousness. Lavretsky realizes that he is falling in love with Liza, and when he reads in a foreign journal that Varvara Pavlovna has died, he confesses his love to her and learns that she loves him in return. Unfortunately, a cruel twist of fate prevents Lavretsky and Liza from being together. After they confess their love to one another, Lavretsky returns home to find his supposedly dead wife waiting for him in his foyer. It turns out that the reports of her death were false, and that she has fallen out of favor with her friends and needs more money from Lavretsky. Upon learning of Varvara Pavlovna's sudden appearance, Liza decides to join a remote convent and lives out the rest of her days as a nun. Lavretsky visits her at the convent one time and catches a glimpse of her as she is walking from choir to choir. The novel ends with an epilogue which takes place eight years later, in which Lavretsky returns to Liza's house and finds that, although many things have changed, there are elements such as the piano and the garden that are the same. Lavretsky finds comfort in his memories and is able to see the meaning and even the beauty in his personal pain. |
4026221 | /m/0bd5lr | Fingersmith | Sarah Waters | 2/4/2002 | {"/m/039vk": "Gothic fiction", "/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction", "/m/02p0szs": "Historical fiction"} | Sue Trinder, an orphan raised in 'a Fagin-like den of thieves' by her adoptive mother, Mrs. Sucksby, is sent to help Richard 'Gentleman' Rivers seduce a wealthy heiress. Posing as a maid, Sue is to gain the trust of the lady, Maud Lilly, and eventually persuade her to elope with Gentleman. Once they are married, Gentleman plans to commit Maud to a madhouse and claim her fortune for himself. Sue travels to Briar, Maud's secluded home in the country, where she lives a sheltered life under the care of her uncle, Christopher Lilly. Like Sue, Maud was orphaned at birth; her mother died in a mental asylum, and she has never known her father. Her uncle uses her as a secretary to assist him in compiling an Index of Erotica, and keeps her to the house, working with him in the silence of his library. Sue and Maud forge an unlikely friendship, which develops into a mutual physical passion; after a time, Sue realizes she has fallen in love with Maud, and begins to regret her involvement in Gentleman's plot. Deeply distressed, but feeling she has no choice, Sue persuades Maud to marry Gentleman, and the trio flee from Briar to a nearby church, where Maud and Gentleman are hastily married in a midnight ceremony. Making a temporary home in a local cottage, and telling Maud they are simply waiting for their affairs to be brought to order in London, Gentleman and a reluctant Sue make arrangements for Maud to be committed to an asylum for the insane; her health has already waned as a result of the shock of leaving her quiet life at Briar, to Gentleman's delight. After a week, he and Sue escort an oblivious Maud to the asylum in a closed carriage. However, the doctors apprehend Sue on arrival, and from the cold reactions of Gentleman and the seemingly innocent Maud, Sue guesses that it is she who has been conned: "That bitch knew everything. She had been in on it from the start." In the second part of the novel, Maud takes over the narrative. She describes her early life being raised by the nurses in the mental asylum where her mother died, and the sudden appearance of her uncle when she was eleven, who arrives to take her to Briar to be his secretary. Her induction into his rigid way of life is brutal; Maud is made to wear gloves constantly to preserve the surfaces of the books she is working on, and is denied food when she tires of labouring with her uncle in his library. Distressed, and missing her previous home, Maud begins to demonstrate sadistic tendencies, biting and kicking her maid, Agnes, and her abusive carer, Mrs Stiles. She harbours a deep resentment toward her mother for abandoning her, and starts holding her mother's locket every night, and whispering to it how much she hates her. Shockingly, Maud reveals that her uncle's work is not to compile a dictionary, but to assemble a bibliography of literary pornography, for the reference of future generations. In his own words, Christopher Lilly is a 'curator of poisons.' He introduces Maud to the keeping of the books—-indexing them and such—-when she is barely twelve, and deadens her reactions to the shocking material. As she grows older, Maud reads the material aloud for the appreciation of her uncle's colleagues. On one occasion, when asked by one of them how she can stand to curate such things, Maud answers, "I was bred to the task, as servants are." She has resigned herself to a life serving her uncle's obscure ambition when Richard Rivers arrives at Briar. He familiarises her with a plan to escape her exile in Briar, a plan involving the deception of a commonplace girl who will believe she had been sent to Briar to trick Maud out of her inheritance. After initial hesitation, Maud agrees to the plan and receives Sue weeks later, pretending to know nothing about the plot. Maud falls in love with Sue over time and, like Sue, begins to question whether she will be able to carry out Gentleman's plot as planned. Though overcome with guilt, Maud does, and travels with Gentleman to London after committing Sue to the asylum, claiming to the doctors that Sue was the mad Mrs Maud Rivers who believed she was a commonplace girl. Instead of taking Maud to a house in Chelsea, as he had promised, Gentleman takes her to Mrs Sucksby in the Borough. It was, it turns out, Gentleman's plan to bring her here all along; and, Mrs Sucksby, who had orchestrated the entire plan, reveals to a stunned Maud that a lady, Marianne Lilly, had come to Lant Street seventeen years earlier, pregnant and alone. When Marianne discovered her cruel father and brother had found her, she begged Mrs Sucksby to take her newborn child and give her one of her 'farmed' infants to take its place. Sue, it turns out, was Marianne Lilly's true daughter, and Maud one of the many orphaned infants who had been placed on Mrs Sucksby's care after being abandoned. By the decree of Marianne's will, written on the night of the switch, both girls were entitled to a share of Marianne Lilly's fortune. By having Sue committed, Mrs Sucksby could intercept her share. She had planned the switch of the two girls for seventeen years, and enlisted the help of Gentleman to bring Maud to her in the weeks before her eighteenth birthday, when she would become legally entitled to the money. By setting Sue up as the 'mad Mrs Rivers', Gentleman could, by law, claim her fortune for himself. Alone and friendless, Maud has no choice but to remain a prisoner at Lant Street. She makes one attempt to escape to the home of one of her uncle's friends, Mr Hawtrey, but he turns her away, appalled at the scandal that she has fallen into, and anxious to preserve his local reputation. Maud returns to Lant Street and finally submits to the care of Mrs Sucksby. It is then that Mrs Sucksby reveals to her that Maud was not an orphan that she took into her care, as she and Gentleman had told her, but Mrs Sucksby's own daughter. The novel resumes Sue's narrative, picking up where Maud and Gentleman had left her in the mental asylum. Sue is devastated at Maud's betrayal and furious that Gentleman double-crossed her. When she screams to the asylum doctors that she is not Mrs Rivers but her maid Susan, they ignore her, as Gentleman (helped by Maud) has convinced them that this is precisely her delusion, and that she is really Maud Lilly Rivers, his troubled wife. Sue is treated appallingly by the nurses in the asylum, being subjected to beatings and taunts on a regular basis. Such is her maltreatment and loneliness that, after a time, she begins to fear that she truly has gone mad. She is sustained by the belief that Mrs Sucksby will find and rescue her. Sue dwells on Maud's betrayal, the devastation of which quickly turns to anger. Sue's chance at freedom comes when Charles, a knife boy from Briar, comes to visit her. He is the nephew, it turns out, of the local woman (Mrs Cream) who owned the cottage the trio had stayed in on the night of Maud and Gentleman's wedding. Charles, a simple boy, had been pining for the charming attentions of Gentleman to such an extent that his father Mr Way had begun to beat him, severely. Charles ran away, and had been directed to the asylum by Mrs Cream, who had no idea of the nature of the place. Sue quickly enlists his help in her escape, persuading him to purchase a blank key and a file to give to her on his next visit. This he does, and Sue, using the skills learnt growing up in the Borough, escapes from the asylum and travels with Charles to London, with the intention of returning to Mrs Sucksby and her home in Lant Street. On arrival, an astonished Sue sees Maud at her bedroom window. After days of watching the activity of her old home from a nearby boarding house, Sue sends Charles with a letter explaining all to Mrs Sucksby, still believing that it was Maud and Gentleman alone who deceived her. Charles returns, saying Maud intercepted the letter, and sends Sue a playing card—the Two of Hearts, representing lovers—in reply. Sue takes the token as a joke, and storms into the house to confront Maud, half-mad with rage. She tells everything to Mrs Sucksby, who pretends to have known nothing, and despite Mrs Sucksby's repeated attempts to calm her, swears she will kill Maud for what she has done to her. Gentleman arrives, and though initially shocked at Sue's escape, laughingly begins to tell Sue how Mrs Sucksby played her for a fool. Maud physically tries to stop him, knowing how the truth would devastate Sue; a scuffle between Maud, Gentleman and Mrs Sucksby ensues, and in the confusion, Gentleman is stabbed by the knife Sue had taken up to kill Maud, minutes earlier. He bleeds to death. A hysterical Charles alerts the police. Mrs Sucksby, at last sorry for how she has deceived the two girls, immediately confesses to the murder: "Lord knows, I'm sorry for it now; but I done it. And these girls here are innocent girls, and know nothing at all about it; and have harmed no-one." Mrs Sucksby is hanged for killing Gentleman; it is revealed that Richard Rivers was not a shamed gentleman at all, but a draper's son named Frederick Bunt, who had had ideas above his station. Maud disappears, though Sue sees her briefly at Mrs Sucksby's trial and gathers from the prison matrons that Maud had been visiting Mrs Sucksby in the days leading up to her death. Sue remains unaware of her true parentage, until she finds the will of Marianne Lilly tucked in the folds of Mrs Sucksby's gown. Realizing everything, an overwhelmed Sue sets out to find Maud, beginning by returning to Briar. It is there she finds Maud, and the nature of Christopher Lilly's work is finally revealed to Sue. It is further revealed that Maud is now writing erotic fiction to sustain herself financially. The two girls, still very much in love with each other despite everything, make peace and give vent to their feelings at last. |
4027787 | /m/0bd81f | Moderato Cantabile | Marguerite Duras | 1952 | {"/m/0l67h": "Novella"} | The plot is initially the banal daily routine of a rich woman taking her son to piano lessons, and conversing with a working class man in a café, drinking wine all the way, then reaches a scandal at a dinner party in chapter 7, followed by a denouement in the final chapter. The story concerns the life of a woman, Anne Desbaresdes, and her varying relationships with her child, the piano teacher Mademoiselle Giraud and Chauvin. Chauvin is a working-class man who is currently unemployed and whiles away his time in a café near the apartment where Anne Desbaresdes' child takes piano lessons with Madame Giraud. After the fatal shooting of a woman in the café by her lover, Anne and Chauvin imagine the relationship between the lovers and try to reason why it occurred. Anne frequently returns to the café, before returning to her comfortable home, the last house on the Boulevard de la Mer, which itself represents the social divide between the working- and middle-classes. In the climactic 7th chapter, she returns home late and drunk to a dinner party, then causes a scandal (and is subsequently ill, vomiting) whose consequences are seen in the final 8th chapter. |
4028737 | /m/04ggf79 | Computer Lib | Ted Nelson | null | {"/m/03g3w": "History"} | Nelson writes passionately about the need for people to understand computers deeply, more deeply than was generally promoted as computer literacy, which he considers a superficial kind of familiarity with particular hardware and software. His rallying cry "Down with Cybercrud" is against the centralization of computers such as that performed by IBM at the time, as well as against what he sees as the intentional untruths that "computer people" tell to non-computer people to keep them from understanding computers. In Dream Machines, Nelson covers the flexible media potential of the computer, which was shockingly new at the time. |
4031607 | /m/0bdghc | Cirque Du Freak | Darren Shan | 1/4/2000 | {"/m/0kflf": "Vampire fiction", "/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/0fdjb": "Supernatural", "/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Young Darren Shan has been fascinated by spiders from an early age. His best friend, Steve "Leopard" Leonard has grown up reading horror comics and stories about werewolves and vampires. Steve, Darren, and their friends find out about a freak show called Cirque du Freak and plan on buying tickets. Their teacher finds out about the freak show and tries to shut it down by ripping up the address . Steve memorizes the address and is there, but when he finds no one he gets ready to leave when Mr. Tall, arrives from nowhere, the ring master, hands him two tickets. Darren gets the other ticket. After viewing the "Cirque du Freak" Darren and Steve are mesmerized by the fantastic and disturbing show, especially by the act of the mysterious Mr. Crepsley and his giant, deadly, poisonous spider, Madam Octa. When the show ends, Steve goes back to talk to Mr. Crepsley about turning him into a vampire. He takes a taste of his blood and says that Steve's blood is bad. In horror, Steve flees the theater and tells Mr. Crepsley he will get him back for this. Darren, also horrified, turns away and decides to tell Steve that he got lost on his way back to the house, and decided to go home, which Steve half-believes. Darren steals Madam Octa, and plays with her. Steve comes over and lets her crawl around him. Annie, Darrens younger sister, walks in and screams. Darren gets distracted, and Madam Octa bites Steve paralyzing him. Darren convinces Annie to keep it secret that Darren caused Steve to get bitten. They send Steve to the hospital, the doctors have no idea what caused it and how to cure it. Darren decides the only person with a cure is most likely Mr. Crepsley. Darren goes home and observes Madam Octa. He becomes enraged and pitches her out the window. Darren then sees Mr. Crepsley taking her back. Darren goes to meet Mr. Crepsley at the theater and gives Darren a cure. But in exchange, Darren must become half vampire and give up his entire life as a human. |
4033704 | /m/0bdklg | Bec | Darren Shan | 10/2/2006 | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03npn": "Horror"} | When a "simple child" named Bran who can run incredibly fast comes to Bec's demon-besieged rath, she and a small consignment of warriors go with him, including the chief's son, Connla, who is "largely untested" in battle; Goll, an old warrior; Lorcan and Ronan, two teenage twins; Fiachna the blacksmith; and Orna, a female warrior. During the journey, the group is attacked by demons, but luckily manage to hide near some ancient lodestones which protects them with powerful Old Magic. Eventually, Bran leads them to a crannóg, where everyone is dead except a druid, Drust. The druid tells them about a tunnel to the demons' world, and how he aims to destroy it. They go with him. During their journey, they encounter many demons, including the terrifying Lord Loss, with whom Bec engages in a battle. She appears to absorb power from him, and after the encounter begins to learn magic at a phenomenal rate. Drust gets worried, and asks her for permission to go into her mind (like Dervish Grady asks Grubbs in Slawter). He discovers that Lord Loss had given Bec part of his power,(later revealed to the power given by Lord loss is the power of the kah gash.) opening up her magical side, though no one knows for what purpose. Eventually they arrive at a village, where Bec learns about her heritage and that she is part of a clan prone to lycanthropy (this is a link to the Garadexes, Grubbs' ancestors). After a long journey, they arrive at the cliffs. Lord Loss appears, intrigued by a chessboard Drust got from the Elders. He is then thrown out magically, and places a geis (a demon curse) on them. Although dismissing it as untrue, the group are immediately affected by the geis; Orna is killed by her undead children. They arrive at the coast, where they share a small battle with some demons, and, according to Connla, Ronan is forced over into the sea and Fiachna is fatally infected with demon poison. That night Bec and Drust use magic to go down into an underwater cave, and they meet the mystical Old Creatures, who tell them where the tunnel is and how to destroy it. It emerges that a druid or priestess must be sacrificed, which reveals why Drust needs Bec. Back on dry land, while Bec and Drust are talking about the sacrifice, Bran overhears. The group find some horses which help them reach their destination in time, but Fiachna is soon abandoned after his wound becomes life-threatening. When they arrive at the demon-guarded tunnel, they find Drust's brother Brude trapped and part of the entrance. Brude opened the tunnel and let the entire demon race loose on the Earth to prevent all of Ireland converting to Christianity. It transpires that Drust was motivated because he knew his brother had unleashed the demons. Connla betrays the group, revealing he was working for Lord Loss all along and it was he who caused all the deaths of the others of their party. Bec pushes him under a waterfall, breaking his protective spell of demonic blood and allowing the demons to slaughter him. Lorcan and Goll are also attacked and die in battle. When Bec is about to be sacrificed, Drust is knifed in the back by Bran and Bec realizes Bran wouldn't let her die. Drust tells her to use him as the sacrifice, as he is about to die anyway. When the tunnel is destroyed, Brude's mouth starts to close. Bec manages to force Bran through the closing tunnel at the last moment with the last of her magic, but is trapped as a result. Soon after, Lord Loss appears and tells Bec that when she appeared to absorb power from him several days earlier, Lord Loss had actually intended for that to happen so that she could close the tunnel. This is because Lord Loss is unique among demons, in that instead of wishing to slaughter all the humans in the world as quickly as possible, he actually prefers to prolong the suffering for as long as possible. If the tunnel had remained open, countless other demons would have passed through and destroyed all of mankind within a matter of weeks, which would have ruined Lord Loss' "sport". After telling Bec this, Lord Loss reminds her that of the geis that he had placed on her, and that he is bound by his word to kill her. Lord Loss sets his familiars upon Bec, and without any magic to defend herself with, she is utterly defenceless. This book has the same first and last words "Screams in the Dark." |
4036742 | /m/0bdsk9 | Sharpe's Sword | Bernard Cornwell | 1983 | {"/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | The novel opens with Colonel Philippe Leroux and Captain Paul Delmas fleeing from the King's German Legion toward Sharpe's Light Company. Leroux has just learned the identity of El Mirador, Britain's most important spy in Spain. Leroux kills Delmas and assumes his identity as a ruse to disguise his own identity and then allows himself to be captured by Sharpe's company. Sharpe, on handling Leroux's sword, a Klingenthal sabre, covets it as a finely crafted and superbly balanced fighting sword. As Captain Delmas, Leroux gives his parole to Major Joseph Forrest. Whilst he is being escorted back to Wellington's headquarters, he kills his escort, Ensign MacDonald and escapes on horseback towards Salamanca. Sharpe attempts to shoot him but is blocked from taking the shot when Lieutenant Colonel Windham pursues Leroux on horseback. Leroux successfully defends against Windham's charge and kills Windham. He is then chased by Sharpe and the Light Company but manages to gain sanctuary in one of the three French controlled forts outside Salamanca, after Father Curtis protects him from the Salamancan populace. Sharpe confronts Curtis who explains that he is not Captain Delmas but is in fact Colonel Leroux and that he was protecting the city's population against Leroux's revenge if the city were to be recaptured by the French. Sharpe forms an instant dislike of Curtis who he thinks is sympathetic to the French. In Salamanca Sharpe is introduced to Hélène, La Marquesa de Casares el Grande y Melida Sadaba and to Captain Lord Jack Spears. Wellington's army arrives at Salamanca as part of their manoeuvring with Marshal Marmont's French army and Major Michael Hogan debriefs Sharpe on his encounter with Leroux, discovering that Leroux had a list of payments made by Hogan to his pecuniary spies, many of whom had recently been tortured and killed. Frustrated at Marmont's unwillingness to give battle, Wellington finally sends two Battalions, including the South Essex against two French Battalions in an effort to provoke Marmont to action. The set piece action that follows flows like clockwork for Sharpe and his Light Company and is watched closely by La Marquesa. Following the battle, Sharpe is called to see Wellington who confirms that he has seen Leroux and places him under Hogan's command to ensure Leroux does not escape from the French held forts. Sharpe gains Wellington's permission to use his Light Company for this task as they have also seen Leroux. The Sixth Division attempts to storm the forts by surprise and without the usual preparations. However, the French have been tipped off and defeat the attack. Sharpe has been invited to a party by La Marquesa, which had been planned to celebrate the attack’s success, but decides not to attend, nevertheless Lord Spears later persuades him to come in. As he prepares to leave the party, one of the servants takes him to a private garden for a private meeting with La Marquesa. Sharpe comes to the conclusion that she is El Mirador, which she readily confirms and begs Sharpe to protect her from Leroux of whom she claims she is afraid. They then become lovers. After several days of preparation, the forts are assaulted again and quickly surrender. Sharpe and his men search the forts several times thoroughly but can't locate Leroux. After searching the wounded, Sharpe allows them to be taken to the hospital in Salamanca. After Harper discovers a disemboweled French soldier who doesn't appear to have a full complement of intestines, Sharpe realises that Leroux has disguised himself as a French soldier with a severe stomach wound. Leaving his jacket behind (he had taken it off due to the heat), Sharpe and Harper race back to Salamanca without telling the remainder of the Company that they are going and ascertain that Leroux has probably arrived at the hospital established in the Irish College. Leroux is indeed in the hospital and is waiting to be met by a contact who will provide him with a cloak and a horse to help him escape. Whilst searching the hospital, Harper discovers Leroux and a struggle ensues. Leroux causes Harper to fire his volley gun before he has a chance to bring it to bear and Harper ends up being pushed down a staircase, knocking himself out when his head hits the steps hard. Sharpe, hearing the gunshot, comes running and engages in a sword duel with Leroux until Leroux breaks Sharpe's sabre with his Klingenthal sabre. Before Leroux has time to kill Sharpe, a sentry comes to Sharpe's aid and Leroux flees. Both the sentry with his musket and Sharpe with his rifle miss Leroux. With both men effectively disarmed, Leroux shoots Sharpe with a rifled dueling pistol. Sharpe attempts to evade but is shot in the stomach and loses consciousness as Leroux escapes. The Light Company eventually realise that Sharpe and Harper are missing and Major Hogan is alerted. A search of the hospital finds Harper still unconscious, but Sharpe cannot be found amongst the living nor the British or French dead. When his discarded trousers are found, he is believed to have been mistaken for a dead French soldier and buried in a mass grave already. His death is mourned by the entire South Essex Battalion, Major Hogan and General Wellington, however while it is not yet realised, he has actually been taken to the death ward run by Sergeant Connolley in the dank basement of the Irish College. Sharpe, unrecognised, drifts in and out of consciousness but refuses to die from a wound that is fatal in all but the most exceptional of cases. Hogan hears a story of a mad man digging up the French graves, then when on the streets of Salamanca he finds Harper held in chains by the provosts. He persuades the provosts to let Harper go and finds out that Harper has searched all the recently buried French corpses and not found Sharpe. Hogan and Harper return to the hospital to search again and Harper tells Hogan that Sharpe had not been wearing his jacket and that with his flogging scars he would most likely have been mistaken for a soldier. They realise that there is one place that has not been searched - the soldier's death ward. When they find Sharpe, he is barely alive. He is moved to his own room in the hospital officers’ ward, where he fights to stay alive against infection and fever. While the army moves on, Harper and Isabella (the peasant girl Harper rescued in the Battle of Badajoz} minister to Sharpe's needs. In the meantime, Hogan has assigned Lord Spears to protect El Mirador when he is in public. Harper realises that Sharpe has lost his French cavalry overalls (destroyed by the surgeons), his rifle (stolen) and his sword (broken) - many of the symbols of his sense of identity as a soldier and recognises that he needs to help provide something for Sharpe's spirit to cling onto. He sets about procuring another set of rifleman's trousers, a sword and a rifle. He is unsuccessful in obtaining a rifle, and the sword he obtains, a heavy cavalry sabre, is not quite suited for Sharpe to use as foot infantry. Undeterred, he sets about remaking the sabre to what he knows will be Sharpe's requirements - once finished, it is totally transformed. As he goes to present the sword and trousers to Sharpe, Isabella tells him that not only has Sharpe turned the corner and is in full recovery, but La Marquesa had visited and was taking all three of them to stay in one of her houses by the river. Sharpe is visited by Lord Spears and suggests that Lord Spears is protecting El Mirador. Sharpe's knowledge of this surprises Spears and makes him uncomfortable but he nevertheless confirms Sharpe's hunch. As Sharpe recuperates, Harper, now recovered and confident of Sharpe's progress, returns to the Light Company. A month later, Hogan sends Sharpe a letter telling him that the French will soon be returning to Salamanca and that he must pack and leave. Sharpe prepares to depart the following morning and is surprised in the evening by Father Curtis who is pointing a rifle at him. Father Curtis it turns out is returning Sharpe's own rifle that had been stolen by one of the stonemasons at the College. Curtis tells Sharpe that one of his correspondents in Paris has discovered that Leroux has a multi-lingual sister, Hélène. Curtis believes that this must be La Marquesa and relays a message from Hogan asking Sharpe to give her false information that Wellington's is intending to retreat to the Portuguese border and that he will leave one division as a rearguard to delay the French. The penny drops and Sharpe realises that Curtis is El Mirador, not Hélène. Whilst hoping that she is not a French spy, he agrees to pass on the message, doing so later that evening. Sharpe, still not fully healed, rejoins Wellington's army, riding on a horse that was a gift from La Marquesa. He watches events unfold from the Army headquarters. Marmont, suspecting already that Wellington is racing for the border, has these suspicions confirmed by a message from La Marquesa and he swings his army into pursuit, playing into Wellington's hands and the Battle of Salamanca begins. The French left is destroyed by a British cavalry charge. Marmont and his deputy are injured by case shot and play no further part in the battle instead, General Clausel assumed command. The British Fourth Division (including the South Essex) attack the French centre but are repulsed by a French counterattack using Clausel's reserves. Sharpe seeing the South Essex being pushed back and realising that they need to stay firm in order to channel the French columns into a killing ground for the Sixth Division, can't resist joining the battle. He rides to the Light Company, dismounts, assumes command from Lieutenant Price and orders Harper to shoot the next person who falls back. The Company, back under Sharpe's firm hand, respond and the French column is channelled away from the vulnerable British rear into a the Sixth Divisions killing ground. The column's advance is crushed and the French withdraw under the protection of their still undefeated right, hoping to cross the bridge at Alba de Tormes and thus escape. Wellington, believing that a Spanish garrison held the bridge at Alba de Tormes was slow to follow up, believing the French to be trapped and available for him to defeat in detail at his leisure. Unknown to him though, the Spanish garrison, believing that the British would be defeated had already fled and the French retreat was unopposed. Lord Spears conducts a solo charge against the fleeing French and is shot. Sharpe comes to his aid and they talk. Spears is dying and he wants Sharpe to tell his sister that he died honourably and he tells Sharpe that he wants to die because he has the Black Lion (syphilis) and that he prefers to die whilst he still has his sanity and reputation. He tells Sharpe that he knew that Hélène was a French spy and that he had told Hogan this some time ago. Sharpe realises that he is lying and suspects that he is the traitor in the British headquarters. He threatens to kill Spears by stabbing him in the back with his sabre (as if he were killed whilst running away) and to destroy his reputation with his sister. Spears relents and confesses that he had not escaped Leroux but had been paroled and given money for his gambling habit. He had not sold out Curtis because Leroux already knew but he did give Leroux the book in which Curtis had hidden the details of all the agents in his network. Spears had been hoping that in exchange Leroux would give him a night with his sister, instead, he gave him back his parole and promised to provide his sister with a dowry when he returned to Paris. Spears begs Sharpe to kill him swiftly and to preserve his reputation. Sharpe promises to do so and shoots him so that it looks like he was shot whilst charging the French. He reports the coded book to Hogan who quizzes him on Spears. Sharpe refuses to confirm that Spears was a traitor, but he reads between the lines and understands that while spears was the traitor that Sharpe wants Spears reputation left intact and Hogan is prepared to honour this position. Sharpe, Harper and Hogan pursue the retreating French through the night in an effort to find Leroux. In the morning, they catch up to him, but he is able to outrun them and gains the protection of a French infantry square. The infantry squares subsequently ambush a British cavalry charge against the French cavalry. Against all conventional expectations, the cavalry succeed in breaking the squares, although with heavy casualties. Sharpe wades into the defeated square in which Leroux had been seeking protection, but Leroux shoots at him, missing Sharpe but killing his horse. Dismounted, Sharpe shoots Leroux, wounding him in the leg and causing him to be thrown from his horse. Leroux refuses to fight, preferring to surrender and take his chances at escaping later. Sharpe forces him to fight threatening to kill him if he doesn't. A duel ensues in which Sharpe kills Leroux and then recovers Leroux's Klingenthal sabre and the coded book. Hélène leaves Salamanca, although as a member of the Spanish aristocracy it is not in the British interest to create a scandal by pursuing her as a French spy. She encounters Sharpe as he is leaving and seeing her brother's sword, she asks if Sharpe killed him. Sharpe confirms this and that her brother had killed her horse. Sharpe initially carries both sabres, Harper's present and the Klingenthal, but when he is questioned about this by Hogan, he throws the Klingenthal into the river. |
4037957 | /m/0bdw3k | Ludmila's Broken English | D. B. C. Pierre | 3/2/2006 | {"/m/0vgkd": "Black comedy", "/m/01z4y": "Comedy", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | The novel follows two initially separate narratives set in the United Kingdom and Eastern Europe. Recently separated - at the age of 33 - conjoined twins Blair Albert and Gordon-Marie "Bunny" Heath struggle to cope with life in a post-globalisation and fully privatised London. Meanwhile, Ludmila Derev, an impoverished young woman living in the war-torn Southern Caucasus, leaves her mountain home to meet up with her boyfriend in the region's major town and send money back to her family. However, things start to go wrong and she ends up with her picture on a Russian Brides website. Slowly her life and those of the twins are drawn together. |
4038449 | /m/0bdx4q | The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm | Nancy Farmer | 1994-04 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | In the year 2194, in Zimbabwe, the Chief of Security, General Matsika, leads a battle against the many gangs which terrorize the nation. His three children, Tendai, Rita, and Kuda are kept in a fortified mansion to ensure their security. This soon bores the children, who are seeking adventure, and they escape the house with the help of the Mellower, a retainer whose function is to make people feel good about themselves. The children then find themselves in the busy streets of Mbare Musika, where they are kidnapped and taken to Dead Man's Vlei, the lair of the She Elephant. There, they have to work in the plastic mines. The parents are extremely worried, so they enlist the help of the Ear, the Eye, and the Arm, three "mutant" detectives from a slum called the Cow's Guts. They all have special abilities: Ear has very powerful, but sensitive, hearing; Eye has equally powerful but sensitive vision. Arm has extremely long arms and legs, like a spider's, and has psychic and empathic powers; he can sense other people's feelings and see into the souls of others. Meanwhile, Tendai realizes that the She Elephant is planning to sell them to the Masks, a dangerous gang who have evaded General Matsika's efforts to combat crime. The siblings escape to Resthaven, an independent country within Zimbabwe which aims to retain traditional African culture. Eventually, the children are banished from Resthaven. The children end up in Borrowdale, a suburb created by the English tribe, where the Mellower's mother, Mrs. Horsepool-Worthingham, takes them into her care after they catch chickenpox. Tendai discovers that the Mellower's mother is holding them for ransom, and before what would have been a conflict between the woman and the children, the She Elephant captures them again and takes them to one of the Masks' secret lairs, and the Masks take the children to the Mile-High MacIlwaine, a skyscraper which houses the Gondwannan Embassy, the real headquarters of the Masks. While the Masks attempt to sacrifice Tendai as a messenger to the gods, Arm is possessed by a mhondoro, a holy and legendary spirit of the land, who helps him to find the children. When Arm is knocked out, the mhondoro (and a group of staff and diners from the restaurant downstairs, led by Mrs Matsika) helps Tendai and his friends to temporarily destroy the Big-Head Mask, which had been going to kill Tendai. When the children's parents arrive, General Matsika crushes the Mask and the mhondoro revives Arm. The gang is destroyed and their stolen wealth is redistributed among the poor; while General Matsika finally realizes that his children need more freedom. |
4038926 | /m/0bdy1n | Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World | null | null | null | Hagarism begins with the premise that Western historical scholarship on the beginnings of Islam should only be based on historical, archaeological and philological data rather than Islamic traditions which it finds to be dogmatically-based, historically irreconcilable and anachronistic accounts of the community's past, and of no historic value. Thus, relying exclusively on historical, archaeological and philological evidence, the authors attempt to reconstruct and present what they argue is a more historically accurate account of Islam's origins. In summary: Virtually all accounts of the early development of Islam take it as axiomatic that it is possible to elicit at least the outlines of the process from the Islamic sources. It is however well-known that these sources are not demonstrably early. There is no hard evidence for the existence of the Koran in any form before the last decade of the seventh century, and the tradition which places this rather opaque revelation in its historical context is not attested before the middle of the eighth. The historicity of the Islamic tradition is thus to some degree problematic: while there are no cogent internal grounds for rejecting it, there are equally no cogent external grounds for accepting it. In the circumstances it is not unreasonable to proceed in the usual fashion by presenting a sensibly edited version of the tradition as historical fact. But equally, it makes some sense to regard the tradition as without determinate historical content, and to insist that what purport to be accounts of religious events in the seventh century are utilizable only for the study of religious ideas in the eighth. The Islamic sources provide plenty of scope for the implementation of these different approaches, but offer little that can be used in any decisive way to arbitrate between them. The only way out of the dilemma is thus to step outside the Islamic tradition altogether and start again. According to the authors, 7th century Syriac, Armenian and Hebrew sources depict the formation of Islam as a Jewish messianic movement known as Hagarism which migrated into the Fertile Crescent, drawing considerable influences from the Samaritans and Babylonian Judaism. Around 690 AD the movement shed its Judaic identity to morph into what would later become Arab Islam. The surviving records of the period describe the followers of Muhammad as Hagarenes, because of the way Muhammad invoked the Jewish god in order to introduce an alien monotheistic faith to the Arabs. He is reported as doing this by claiming biological descent from Abraham through his slave wife Hagar for the Arabs in the same way as the Jews who claimed descent from Abraham through Sarah and thus as their ancestral faith. During this early period the Jews and the Hagarenes united, into a faith the authors loosely describe as Judeo-Hagarism, in order to recover the holy land from the Christian Byzantines. In their analysis, the early manuscripts from eye witnesses suggest that Muhammad was the leader of a military expedition to conquer Jerusalem, and that the original hijra actually referred to a journey from northern Arabia to that city. As time went on, the Hagarenes concluded that the adoption of Judaism and Christian Messianism did not provide them with the unique religious identity that they aspired for. They also feared that leaning on Judaism too much, might result in outright conversion and assimilation. Thus the hagarenes contrived to create a religion of their own and decided to splinter off from their Judaic practices and beliefs. Driven by a quest for theological legitimacy they devised a version of Abrahamic monotheism, that evolved from a blend of Judaism, Samaritanism and Christianity, which became what is now Islam. The authors propose that Islam was thus born and fashioned from Judaic mythology and symbology, that is; the creation of a sacred scripture similar to the Jewish Torah - (the Qur’an), and a Moses like prophet; along with a sacred city of Mecca modeled on the Jewish holy city of Jerusalem adjacent to a holy mountain. |
4039762 | /m/0bdzjs | The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do | Judith Rich Harris | 1998 | {"/m/05h83": "Non-fiction"} | In this book, she challenges the idea that the personality of adults is determined chiefly by the way they were raised by their parents. She looks at studies which claim to show the influence of the parental environment and claims that most fail to control for genetic influences. For example, if aggressive parents are more likely to have aggressive children, this is not necessarily evidence of parental example. It may also be that aggressiveness has been passed down through the genes. Indeed, many adopted children show little correlation with the personality of their adoptive parents, and significant correlation with the natural parents who had no part in their upbringing. The role of genetics in personality has long been accepted in psychological research. However, even identical twins, who share the same genes, are not exactly alike, so inheritance is not the only determinant of personality. Psychologists have tended to assume that the non-genetic factor is the parental environment, the "nurture". However, Harris argues that it is a mistake to use "'nurture' ... [as] a synonym for 'environment.'" Many twin studies have failed to find a strong connection between the home environment and personality. Identical twins differ to much the same extent whether they are raised together or apart. Adoptive siblings are as unalike in personality as non-related children. Harris also argues against the effects of birth order. She states: Birth order effects are like those things that you think you see out of the corner of your eye but that disappear when you look at them closely. They do keep turning up but only because people keep looking for them and keep analyzing and reanalyzing their data until they find them. Harris' most innovative idea was to look outside the family and to point at the peer group as an important shaper of the child's psyche. For example, children of immigrants learn the language of their home country with ease and speak with the accent of their peers rather than their parents. Children identify with their classmates and playmates rather than their parents, modify their behavior to fit with the peer group, and this ultimately helps to form the character of the individual. Contrary to some reports, Harris did not claim that "parents don't matter". The book did not cover cases of serious abuse and neglect. Harris pointed out that parents have a role in selecting their children's peer group, especially in the early years. Parents also affect the child's behavior within the home environment and the interpersonal relationship between child and parent. |
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