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5122263 | /m/0d3ps6 | Doña Bárbara | Rómulo Gallegos | null | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | Santos Luzardo, a graduate lawyer of the Central University of Venezuela, returns to his father's land in the plains of Apure to sell the land but desists when he discovers that it is controlled by a despotic woman, Doña Bárbara, also known as the men's devourer; it is said that she uses seduction and pacts with demonic spirits to satisfy her whims and achieve power. Santos Luzardo meets his cousin Lorenzo Barquero and discovers that he was a victim of the femme fatale, who left him bankrupt and a daughter, Marisela, whom she abandoned and who became quickly a vagrant. Lorenzo lives in poverty in a miserable house consumed by his own constant drunkenness. Doña Bárbara falls in love with Santos Luzardo but he is charmed by Marisela, no longer living in abandonment and taken under Luzardo’s care. The novel ends with the “defeat” of Doña Bárbara, who is able to obtain neither the land nor Luzardo’s heart, and finally departs to an unknown location. |
5122434 | /m/0d3q20 | Catriona | Robert Louis Stevenson | 1893 | {"/m/01qxvh": "Romance novel", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/08sdrw": "Adventure novel", "/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | The book begins precisely where Kidnapped ends, at 2 PM on 25 August 1751 outside the British Linen Company in Edinburgh, Scotland. The first part of the book recounts the attempts of the hero, David Balfour, to gain justice for James Stewart (James of the Glens), who has been arrested and charged with complicity in the Appin Murder. David makes a statement to a lawyer and goes on to meet Lord Prestongrange, the Lord Advocate, to press the case for James' innocence. However, his attempts fail as he is once again kidnapped and confined on the Bass Rock, an island in the Firth of Forth, until the trial is over, and James condemned to death. David also meets and falls in love with Catriona MacGregor Drummond, the daughter of James MacGregor Drummond, known as James More, also held in prison, whose escape she engineers. He also receives some education in the manners and morals of polite society from Barbara Grant, the daughter of Prestongrange. In the second part, David and Catriona travel to Holland, where David studies law at the University of Leyden. David takes Catriona under his protection (she having no money) until her father finds them. James More eventually arrives and proves something of a disappointment, drinking a great deal and showing no compunction against living off of David's largesse. At this time, David learns of the death of his uncle Ebenezer, and thus gains knowledge that he has come into his full, substantial inheritance. David and Catriona, fast friends at this point, begin a series of misunderstandings that eventually drive her and James More away, though with David sending payment to James in return for news of Catriona's welfare. James and Catriona find their way to Dunkirk in northern France. Meanwhile, Alan Breck joins David in Leyden, and he berates David for not understanding women. It’s this way about a man and a woman, ye see, Davie: The weemenfolk have got no kind of reason to them. Either they like the man, and then a’ goes fine; or else they just detest him, and ye may spare your breath - ye can do naething. There’s just the two sets of them - them that would sell their coats for ye, and them that never look the road ye’re on. That’s a’ that there is to women; and you seem to be such a gomeral that ye cannae tell the tane frae the tither. Prodded thus, and at an invitation from James More, David and Alan journey to Dunkirk to visit with James and Catriona. They all meet one evening at a remote inn, and discover the following day that James has betrayed Alan (falsely convicted of the Appin murder) into the hands of a British warship anchored near the shore. The British attempt to capture Alan, who flees with David and Catriona, now reconciled and shamed by James More's ignominy. The three flee to Paris where David and Catriona are married before eventually returning to Scotland to raise a family. |
5128402 | /m/0d4206 | Curse of the Mistwraith | Janny Wurts | 1994-01 | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/03qfd": "High fantasy"} | Born on a splinter world, Lysaer and Arithon are half-brothers raised apart in enmity. Cast through a Worldsend Gate, they arrive in Athera, the ancient world of their ancestors cloaked in the fog of the malicious Mistwraith. Found by the Fellowship of Seven and urged to fulfill a prophecy which will free Athera from the Mistwraith and allow the clans of the Old Bloodlines to rule again. Putting aside their differences in the new world, the brothers find common cause and through paired gifts of light and shadow, succeed in binding the Mistwraith with help from the Fellowship. Unbeknownst to the brothers and their Sorcerer guides, one wraith escaped containment and seeks retribution against the two. During Arithon's crowning as Athera's first High King in more than five hundred years, the wraith binds Lysaer into irrational hatred of his half-brother, a curse he transfers to Arithon after the botched ceremony. Rather than succumb to the curse, Arithon flees into a winter storm, finding solace in the outlawed clans dwelling in the forest. Lysaer gathers an army to follow Arithon, led by the vicious bounty hunters who capture, kill and sell members of the clans. Though initially resistant to the idea of leading a guerilla war against the army, Arithon reluctantly assumes command upon realizing it is the only alternative to the extinction of the clans. The battles that ensue exact horrific slaughter on both sides, eventually resulting in a stalemate that forces Lysaer to withdraw without killing his brother. Arithon in turn has his mage-gift crippled through guilt. While Lysaer returns to the cities to muster a greater army and more support for his fratricidal war, Arithon becomes apprenticed to Athera's Masterbard, departing the clans in disguise. |
5131160 | /m/0d45h9 | The Tumbled House | null | null | null | At the heart of the novel is a libel case: however, despite the potential dullness of such a subject, the author weaves a suspenseful plot with many strands that drives the reader on in excited anticipation. Roger Shorn is a successful journalist. Elegant and clever, he has a way with the ladies. He introduces an old flame, Joanna, to his friend, Don Marlowe, and the two subsequently marry. One evening two years later Roger drives Joanna to the cottage of her deceased father-in-law, Sir John Marlowe. They are en route to London after visiting mutual friends, and they re-kindle their affair. However, they are seen by a woman who is viewed fleetingly by Joanna through the window. Don returns from a trip abroad, and before long his father's reputation is being attacked in a Sunday newspaper. The author goes by the name "Moonraker" and his identity is unknown. Don is unable to sue, as the attack is on a dead man. Don has a younger sister, Bennie, an air hostess. She meets Michael, Roger's only son, and he falls in love with her. Over the course of a few rather hectic dates, (in which it is evident Michael is mixing with the "wrong" crowd), Bennie discovers by chance that Roger Shorn is "Moonraker." This discovery allows Don to start libelling Roger, in the hope that he sues him. In that way, Don is able to at least attempt to clear his father's name. Roger will be forced to prove what he wrote was true. Unfortunately, Joanna realises that this could be the end of her marriage, especially when the fleetingly glanced woman proves to be a key witness. She also now understands why Roger wanted to go to the cottage, to obtain important papers that would help him write his article. Michael, meanwhile, is frustrated at his lack of money, and wants the best for Bennie. This leads him into crime, and a tragic outcome for both of them. Subsequently the case ends badly for both men, but they both lose far more than they could have imagined at the outset. |
5133061 | /m/0d485p | Miss Hickory | Carolyn Sherwin Bailey | 1946 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The protagonist is Miss Hickory, a doll made from a forked twig from an apple tree and a hickory nut for her head (hence her name). She lives in a tiny doll house made of corncobs outside the home of her human owners. Her world is shaken when the family decides to spend the winter in Boston, Massachusetts, but leave her behind. Miss Hickory is aided during the long cold winter by several farm and forest animals. Prickly and a little stubborn, she slowly learns to accept help from others, and to offer some assistance herself. |
5133421 | /m/0d48yt | The Country of the Pointed Firs | Sarah Orne Jewett | null | null | The narrator returns after a brief visit a few summers prior, to the small coastal town of Dunnet, Maine, in order to finish writing her book. Upon arriving she settles in with Mrs. Todd, a local elderly apothecary or herbalist. The narrator begins to work for Mrs. Todd when Mrs. Todd goes out, but this distracts the narrator from her writing. She rents an empty schoolhouse, so she can concentrate on her writing. After a funeral, Captain Littlepage, an 80-year-old retired sailor, comes to the schoolhouse to visit the narrator because he knows Mrs. Todd. He tells a story about his time on the sea and she is noticeably bored so he begins to leave. She sees that she has offended him with her display of boredom, so she covers her tracks by asking him to tell her more of his story. The Captain's story cannot compare to the stories that Mrs. Todd, Mrs. Todd's brother and mother, and residents of Dunnet tell of their lives in Dunnet. The narrator's friendship with Mrs. Todd strengthens over the course of the summer, and the narrator's appreciation of the Maine coastal town increases each day. |
5135300 | /m/0d4cmw | Harm's Way | James Bassett | 1962 | {"/m/098tmk": "War novel"} | A regular Naval officer in the Pacific theater is assigned to command an operation to seize a group of strategic islands from the Japanese. The attack on Pearl Harbor catches the United States Navy unawares. They include Captain Rockwell Torrey, commanding a heavy cruiser known only as Old Swayback (an obvious reference to the U.S.S. Salt Lake City - CA-25), which is off the Hawaiian coast near Pearl Harbor, running another set of exercises in a long string of them. Lieutenant (juniot grade) William "Mac" McConnell is assigned as Officer of the Day aboard the destroyer, USS Cassiday, tied up in a shallower channel of the harbor, not all that far from Battleship Row. When the attack comes, Lieutenant McConnell takes his ship out of the harbor, leaving his captain and executive officer behind, and eventually joins a scratch task group assembled around Torrey's cruiser. Torrey leads his task group on a seek-out-and-destroy mission. When the ships approach the end of their fuel, Torrey orders them to steer a straight course. That makes the group vulnerable to attack. A Japanese sub scores two torpedo hits on Old Swayback before Cassiday can sink the sub with depth charges. Back at Pearl Harbor, Torrey is relieved of his command and faces a Board of Inquiry that could lead to a Court-Martial, but when Admiral Chester Nimitz arrives to take command in the Pacific theater, he makes sure that Torrey will have a position on his planning staff. Torrey's officers scatter to various points in the Pacific theater, with his old exec, Paul Eddington, assigned to an unrewarding post at an old Free French base on the island of Toulebonne. Torrey drifts into a romance with a Navy nurse named Maggie Haynes; this romance is interrupted only briefly by the alert ordered during the Battle of Midway. Eventually, Torrey and his roommate, Captain Egan Powell, USNR, are invited to dinner at Nimitz's house, where Nimitz personally presents Torrey with the pair of Rear Admiral (lower half) stars Nimitz had worn before taking command as CinCPAC and announces that he is to go into the Pacific theater to take personal command of an operation, called Mesquite, that has ground to a halt because of the inept micro-management by the area commander. Torrey lands on the island of Gavabutu, about three hundred miles west of Toulebonne (where the area commander is headquartered), and immediately makes the area commander his enemy by planning an operation to drive the Japanese off Gavabutu immediately. This operation succeeds, and Torrey turns his attention to his next target: Levu-Vana, a much sought-after island having a central plain large enough to build runways for B-17 bombers. He learns that the Japanese want to stay on Levu-Vana. Torrey's repeated attempts to get more materiel for his mission end in failure, largely because the Navy is sending most of its heavy tonnage to the Solomon Islands to support General Douglas MacArthur. Torrey presses on anyway; during the battle, enemy fire sinks his ship, and falling wreckage strikes him and knocks him unconscious. He wakes up aboard a hospital ship under the care of his lover, Maggie Haynes, initially believing that he has lost the battle and sacrificed his ships to no good purpose, until the general commanding his landing forces informs him that he is in control of Levu-Vana, that Torrey's battle was a success, and that no less than Admiral Ernest King has praised him highly for his efforts. Torrey submits to the ministrations of Maggie Haynes—who, in the last scene, prepares to shave his face using his prized seven-blade set of German straight razors, which his rescuers preserved and returned to him. |
5137338 | /m/0d4gkp | Ender in Exile: Ganges | Orson Scott Card | 11/11/2008 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | One year after the Formics were defeated and the Battle School children have returned to Earth, Ender is still unable to go back to earth because there would be wars over which country would keep Ender to use for their own ends. Ender is offered the Governorship of the first human colony to be planted on one of the Formics' former worlds, a planet that will eventually become known as Shakespeare. His sister Valentine decides to accompany Ender on his journey because she is sick of being controlled by her older brother, Peter, and because she wants to restore the relationship with Ender that she had lost when he left to go to Battle School. On their way to the Shakespeare colony, Valentine begins writing her History of the Bugger Wars books while Ender has an unspoken power struggle with the Captain of the ship, Admiral Quincy Morgan. Once the ship lands on Shakespeare, Ender, who had spent much of his trip learning the names and lives of the colony's residents, takes charge of the colony and wins the colonists over. Ender resides as Governor for a few years in Shakespeare. Near the end of his time as governor, Ender and a young boy from the colony named Abra go to find a site for a new shipment of colonists. Ender wants the new settlement to be far enough away from the other settlements that there will not be competition between them right away, and so they can develop separately. In the process of finding a location for new settlement, Ender stumbles upon what seems to be the equivalent of a note from the Formics. It is a structure made to look like a game he used to play in Battle School. When Ender goes to investigate the structure, he finds the living pupa of a Formic Hive Queen that is fertilized and prepared to make hundreds of thousands of offspring upon its own maturation. The find leads Ender to write his first book as the Speaker for the Dead. It is a book titled The Hive Queen and it tries to look at the Formic wars and their eventual destruction from the point of view of the Formics. Later, Peter Wiggin, nearing the end of his life and knowing that Ender wrote the story, asks him to write one for him for when he dies. This book becomes known as The Hegemon. After this, Ender resigns as Governor of Shakespeare and leaves the colony for another called Ganges. The leader of Ganges is Virlomi. Here he encounters Randall Firth who believes himself to be the son of Achilles de Flandres, and even refers to himself by the name Achilles. Randall spreads propaganda accusing Ender of Xenocide in an attempt to discredit Virlomi and get revenge against Peter Wiggin, who he believes is responsible for his father's defeat. Randall tries twice to meet with Ender and discredit him somehow. On the second visit his plan is to cleverly provoke Ender into killing him so that people will see how violent and dangerous he is, but Ender does not attack. Instead Ender tries to convince Randall that he is not Achilles' son, but that he is in fact the son of Bean and Petra; hence where he gets his gigantism from. Eventually, Ender manages to convince Randall of his parents' identity by allowing Randall to brutally defeat him in a one-sided fistfight, the entire time asserting that he could never hurt his friends' child. Randall ends up changing his name to Arkanian Delphiki amidst his guilt for Ender's horrifying wounds. After Ender heals a bit, he, Valentine, and the Hive Queen pupa board a star ship to go to a new place. |
5137649 | /m/0d4h3n | See How They Run | Philip King | null | null | The play is set in 1943 for the original (or shortly after the end of World War II in the rewrite) in the living room of the vicarage at the fictitious village of Merton-cum-Middlewick (merging various actual village names, such as Merton and Middlewick, both in Oxfordshire, along with the old British usage of 'cum', meaning 'alongside' in the middle of a village name, as in Chorlton-cum-Hardy). The lead character is Penelope Toop, former actress and now wife of the local vicar, the Rev. Lionel Toop. The Toops employ Ida, a Cockney maid. Miss Skillon, a churchgoer of the parish and a scold, arrives on bicycle to gossip with the vicar and to complain about the latest 'outrages' that Penelope has caused. The vicar then leaves for the night, and an old friend of Penelope's, Lance-Corporal Clive Winton, stops by on a quick visit. In order to dodge army regulations, he changes from his uniform into Lionel's second-best suit, complete with a clerical 'dog-collar' in order to see a production of "Private Lives" (a Noël Coward play in which they had appeared together in their acting days), while pretending to be the visiting vicar Arthur Humphrey who is due to preach the Sunday sermon the next day. Just before they set out, Penelope and Clive re-enact a fight scene from "Private Lives" and accidentally knock Miss Skillon (who has come back unannounced) unconscious. Miss Skillon, wrongly thinking she has seen Lionel fighting with Penelope, gets drunk on a bottle of cooking sherry and Ida hides her in the broom cupboard. Then Lionel, arriving back, is knocked silly by a Russian spy on the run, who takes the vicar's clothes as a disguise. To add to the confusion, both Penelope's uncle, the Bishop of Lax, and the real Humphrey unexpectedly show up early. Chaos quickly ensues, culminating in a cycle of running figures and mistaken identities. In the end, a police sergeant arrives in search of the spy to find four suspects, Lionel, Clive, Humphrey and the Russian, all dressed as clergy. No one can determine the identity of the spy (or anyone else for that matter) and the Russian is almost free when he is revealed and foiled by the quick work of Clive and Ida. The scene calms down as the sergeant leads the spy away and Humphrey leaves. Miss Skillon emerges from the closet, and she, the Bishop and Lionel demand an explanation. Penelope and Clive begin to explain in two-part harmony, getting up to the scene from "Private Lives," when Miss Skillon again manages to catch a blow in the face. She falls back into Ida's arms as the curtain falls. |
5139818 | /m/0d4lk9 | All-Consuming Fire | Andy Lane | null | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | Sherlock Holmes finds himself united with the Seventh Doctor to solve the mystery of the theft of arcane tomes from The Library of St. John the Beheaded. Susan Foreman, the First Doctor, and the Third Doctor have cameo appearances. |
5140181 | /m/0d4mbv | Terminator Gene | Ian Irvine | 2003-04 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | - "Security knocks at the door and Irith Hardey's world is torn apart. - Her mother, Jemma, is arrested for an unspecified crime and disappears. Irith, a young gene researcher, is thrown onto the streets. With nothing but the clothes on her back, she fights to survive in a cruel and predatory world. - - The sexually inexperienced Irith soon falls prey to the mysterious Bragg. He spirits her away to a Britain slowly collapsing under the sanctions of the Global Congress. There she is flung into a violent battle between Security and a cabal of rebels, only to find herself caught up in the rebels' underground assault on a Congress data centre. They steal files containing the code for a deadly terminator virus, but no one can decipher it. - - Hunted through the flooded tunnels under the London Docklands, the group flees to New Orleans, slowly drowning under the rising seas, to destroy the laboratory where the virus is being made. As the hurricane of the century bears down on the sinking city, Irith struggles to crack the secret of the virus before it wipes out all humanity." |
5140206 | /m/0d4mdk | Endymion Spring: Open the Book that Unlocks the Secret | Matthew Skelton | 2006-08 | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature"} | Endymion Spring has a double storyline. The first story follows two children in current day Oxford, Blake and Duck Winters. Blake is twelve years old and his sister is a few years younger. The two happen to come across a strange book in a library in Oxford, which is entitled Endymion Spring. After finding out that it leads to a book of all the knowledge in the world, all the knowledge Adam and Eve tried to obtain from eating of that forbidden tree of knowledge but lost, they then embark on a quest to find it. However, when they do, the story then becomes a battle against the Person in Shadow, a person whose heart has turned black with evil and desire for the knowledge and power of the book. The second story line follows the journey of a young printer’s devil who works in Gutenberg’s workshop named Endymion Spring from his hometown in Mainz, Germany to Oxford, which was then a settlement of monks. The two story lines are about 600 years apart, with Spring's story taking place at the epoch of the printing press in 1453, and Blake's taking place in the late 20th or early 21st century. There are several themes throughout Endymion Spring. The first and foremost resonates throughout the book in the words "Bring only the insight the inside brings." These words appear to communicate a theme regarding knowledge, and how it should be used. |
5140212 | /m/0d4mdx | The Life Lottery | Ian Irvine | 2004-08 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | Irith Hardey's life is out of control. The world's climate is in chaos. Rising seas have flooded out half a billion people. Hundreds of millions of refugees are pouring into the west, the global economy is collapsing and democracies are being crushed by the anti-refugee Yellow Armbands. But there is worse to come. In a desperate attempt to avert the coming ice age that will wipe out civilisation, the Great Powers have agreed to embark on the most monumental gamble of all time 100 Days to Save the World. Climate scientist Irith Hardey is sure they've got it wrong. The U.S. President's pet scheme isn't going to save the world, but ruin it. Searching for the awful truth behind the 100 Days project, Irith is tormented by the Yellow Armbands, then hunted from blizzard-struck London to the Scottish Highlands and across the wild North Sea. In a United States terrorized by gun-toting militias trying to bring down the President, Irith is forced to confront the worst nightmare any 21st-century woman can face, as she struggles to uncover the ghastly secret of the Life Lottery before 100 days are up. |
5140895 | /m/0d4npx | It's Like This, Cat | Emily Neville | 1963 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | The main character of the story is Dave Mitchell, a 14-year-old who is growing up in mid-20th century New York City. Dave lives with his father and his asthmatic mother and her attacks worsen when Dave and his father have their frequent arguments. Dave's refuge after a clash with his father is with Kate, an elderly neighbor whose apartment is filled with the stray cats she loves. Dave adopts one of the cats, names it "Cat" and takes it home. "Cat" brings both joy and adventure into Dave's life. Cat's presence brings Dave into contact with several new people, including a troubled college-aged boy named Tom and his first girlfriend , Mary. While documenting Tom's growing maturity, the book also provides glimpses of a few of New York's neighborhoods and attractions, from the Fulton Fish Market to the Bronx Zoo and Coney Island. |
5142729 | /m/0d4rgz | Stormed Fortress | Janny Wurts | 11/5/2007 | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/03qfd": "High fantasy"} | Though Athera may be free, the fight is far from over… The heartstopping conclusion to the Alliance of Light series brings Lysaer's army of Light to besiege the great citadel of Alestron. Master of Shadow, Arithon, with barely a moment's recuperation from his victory over the necromancers, has discovered that young Jeynsa s'Valerient whom he has sworn to protect, has joined the ranks of his disowned allies within the threatened citadel. Worse, following a failed rescue attempt, his beloved Elaira, his double, Fionn Areth, and the spellbinder Dakar are also trapped within Alestron's walls. The chancy wiles of Davien the betrayer must spirit Arithon across the enemy lines to attempt a bold and perilous rescue mission. Arithon must seek the heartcore of his talent, even while embroiled in a savage battle against those he has vowed to protect. But treachery strikes from deep within the duke's ranks. Lysaer's fanatics will be unleashed to claim their bloody revenge. With the Fellowship Sorcerers in mortal danger, and all under threat from a collapsing grimward, Davien the betrayer is unable to intercede to save his colleagues and so will be forced to invoke the dire terms of an ancient and most secretive bargain. Arithon stands alone at the hour of reckoning as the true purpose of the Koriani enchantresses becomes, at long last, fully unveiled – with the covetous Prime Matriarch now poised to snatch a prize, a prize beyond that of merely integrity and life… |
5142779 | /m/0d4rk1 | How late it was, how late | James Kelman | 1994 | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | Sammy awakens in a lane one morning after a two day drinking binge, and gets into a fight with some plainclothes policemen, called in Glaswegian dialect, 'sodjers'. When he regains consciousness, he finds that he's been beaten severely and, he gradually realises, is completely blind. The plot of the novel follows Sammy as he explores and comes to terms with his new-found disability, and the difficulties this brings. Upon being released Sammy goes back to his house and realizes that his girlfriend, Helen, is gone. He assumes that she took off because of the fight they had before Sammy last left his house, but makes no attempt to find her. For a while, Sammy struggles with the simple tasks that blindness makes difficult. Soon, Sammy realizes he will need something to indicate his blindness to other people. He cuts the head off an old mop and, with the help of his neighbor, Boab, paints it white. He also purchases a pair of sunglasses to cover his eyes. Eventually, Sammy finds himself at the Central Medical waiting to get checked out for his blindness. He is instructed to the Dysfunctional Benefits floor and is questioned by a young lady who asks Sammy questions about his blindness. Sammy tells her 'about being beaten up by the cops, but immediately regrets telling her this and tries to take it back. She informs him that she cannot remove his statement from the record, but he can clarify if he wishes to. This upsets Sammy and he leaves the Central Medical without finishing filing for dysfunctional benefits. Once home Sammy decides to calm down by taking a bath. While in the bathtub Sammy hears someone enter his apartment. When he goes to investigate he is cuffed by police and taken to the department. They question him about the Saturday before Sammy went blind, and about the Leg (an old friend/associate). Sammy can’t remember much about that Saturday but admits to having met up with his friends Billy and Tam. Sammy says he can’t remember anything else, so they throw him in a cell. Later Sammy is released for his doctor appointment. The doctor asks Sammy a series of questions about his vision, and in the end refuses to diagnose Sammy as blind. Upon leaving the doctors office, a young man, Ally, approaches Sammy. He seems to know all about how the doctor will not give out diagnoses and persuades Sammy that he should be his representation for a commission payment. Bored at home Sammy decides to go down to Quinns bar, the bar Helen worked at. Sammy gets his neighbour, Boab, to call him a taxi to take him to the city centre. At the door of Quinns bar Sammy is told by two men that there is a promotion going on inside and Sammy cannot go in. Sammy gets upset at this and asks about Helen. The men tell Sammy that no one by the name of “Helen” has ever worked there. Upset, Sammy walks to Glancy’s bar—his favourite hang out—and is approached by his old friend Tam. Tam is upset because Sammy gave his name to the police and now his family is being affected by it. Angry, Tam leaves Sammy who wonders what is going on. Later, Ally sends over Sammy’s son, Peter, to take pictures of the marks Sammy has from being beaten by the soldiers. Peter arrives with his friend, Keith, and offers to give Sammy money. Sammy refuses the money but Peter keeps pestering him about it. Eventually Sammy agrees to take the money and meets with Peter and Keith at a nearby pub. After Peter leaves Sammy takes the money, flags a taxi, and leaves. |
5143235 | /m/0d4r_k | Killing Ground | Steve Lyons | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | The Doctor returns his companion Grant to Agora, the human colony planet where he was born, and upon arrival discovers that Agora has been conquered by the Cybermen, who have enslaved the population and return every three years to take the five hundred fittest humans for conversion in order to add to the Cybermen's galactic army. At the same time, Agora plays host to another time traveller, ArcHivist Hegelia, and her novice research partner, Graduand Jolarr. Hegelia is obsessed with the Cybermen and intends to become one, and she has used the sanctioned excursion of Jolarr as an excuse to meet them and arrange the fulfilment of her ambition. Agoran rebels plan an attack on the Population Control building set up by the Cybermen as a herding centre for conversion selectees with the assistance of Grant, but the Doctor is trapped in a cell inside the building, and the Cybermen are due to return in person within a matter of days. |
5143917 | /m/0d4t0m | Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day | Judith Viorst | 1972-06 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | From the moment Alexander wakes up, things just don't go Alexander's way. When Alexander gets out of bed, he trips on the skateboard and drops his sweater into the sink while the water was running. At breakfast, Alexander's brothers, Anthony and Nick reach into their cereal boxes and find amazing prizes, while Alexander ends up with cereal. On the way to school, he doesn't get the window seat in the carpool. At school, his teacher, Mrs. Dickens doesn't like his picture of the invisible castle (which is actually just a blank sheet of paper), criticizes him for singing too loud and leaving out 16. His friend, Paul deserts him to his third best friend and there is no dessert in his lunch. At the dentist's, the dentist, Dr. Fields tells Alexander he has a cavity, the elevator door closes on his foot, Anthony pushes him in the mud, Nick says he is a crybaby for crying, and Mom punishes him in the act of punching Nick. At the shoe store, they're sold out of Alexander's choice of sneakers (blue ones with red stripes), so Mom has to buy him plain white sneakers, which he refuses to wear. At Dad's office, Alexander makes a mess of things when he fools around with everything there (the copying machine, the books, and the telephone) getting to the point where Dad tells him not to pick him up from work anymore. At home, the family has lima beans for dinner (which he hates), there is kissing on TV (which he also hates), bath time becomes a nightmare (too much hot water, soap in his eyes, and losing a marble down the drain) and he has to wear his railroad train pajamas (he hates his railroad train pajamas). At bedtime, his nightlight burns out, he bites his tongue, Nick takes back a pillow, and the family cat chooses to sleep with Anthony. No wonder Alexander wants to move to Australia. The book ends with Mom's assurance that everybody has bad days, even for people who live in Australia. In the Australian and New Zealand versions he wants to move to Timbuktu, not Australia. |
5144014 | /m/0d4t58 | Original Sin | Andy Lane | null | null | Benny and the Doctor land on Earth in the late 30th century, in order to find out more information about a missing alien space ship. They are eventually arrested for murder by Adjucator Roz Forrester and her partner/squire Chris Cwej. The Doctor discovers that the person behind his arrest, and also responsible for supporting the Earth Empire, is none other than Tobias Vaughn, the former head of International Electromatics and collaborator with the Cybermen. Just prior to his "death" (in The Invasion), Vaughn transferred his memories and consciousness into a robot body. Since then, he has been manipulating Earth history in order to trap the Doctor and gain the secret to time travel. The Doctor manages to trap Vaughn in the TARDIS, cutting him off from transferring his mind to a new body; he later removes Vaughn's brain crystal and installs it in a food machine. Roz and Chris, now framed by corrupt Adjucator officials, agree to travel with the Doctor rather than face trumped-up charges. |
5144721 | /m/0d4vbl | The Tartar Steppe | Dino Buzzati | 1940 | null | The plot of the novel is Drogo's lifelong wait for a great war in which his life and the existence of the fort can prove its usefulness. The human need for giving life meaning and the soldier's desire for glory are themes in the novel. Drogo is posted to the remote outpost overlooking a desolate Tartar desert; he spends his career waiting for the barbarian horde rumored to live beyond the desert. Without noticing, Drogo finds that in his watch over the fort he has let years and decades pass and that, while his old friends in the city have had children, married, and lived full lives, he has come away with nothing except solidarity with his fellow soldiers in their long, patient vigil. When finally arrives the attack by the Tartars, Drogo gets ill and the new chieftain of the fortress dismisses him. Drogo, on his way back home, dies lonely in an inn. |
5153200 | /m/0d577z | Obsidian Butterfly | Laurell K. Hamilton | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | In Obsidian Butterfly, Anita travels to New Mexico to repay the favor that she promised Edward at the end of The Killing Dance. Edward wants Anita to assist in a set of apparently supernatural attacks that have left numerous victims dead, and has skinned alive many survivors. In the course of the investigation, Anita learns more about Edward's personal life than she ever has before. She meets Donna, Edward's fiancee (in his civilian identity of legal bounty hunter "Ted Forrester") and Donna's children, Peter and Becca. She and Edward also come into conflict with a number of mercenaries who work for Edward's former boss, "Van Cleef," allowing Anita to learn a few clues about Edward's former life. Anita also comes into contact with a number of possible suspects and sources for information: the Aztec vampire and purported goddess Itzpapalotl; her priest and human servant Pinotl; local Ulfric, Roland, and Roland's necromancer/vargamor and local tough guy Nicky Baco. Ultimately, Anita learns that a second Aztec vampire/god, Red Woman's Husband, is awakening in New Mexico. After sleeping for centuries, Red Woman's Husband began awakening when Riker, (Harold's boss) raided his tomb, stealing several jade idols. In order to finish his awakening, Red Woman's Husband's priest and his animal servant have been skinning and killing the people who bought the idols stolen from his tomb, animating the skinned corpses as servants. Riker takes Becca and Peter hostage in an attempt to force Anita to protect him from Red Woman's Husband, but Anita, Edward, and Edward's associates Bernardo and Olaf rescue Edward's family and kill everyone involved with their kidnapping. Anita is captured by Red Woman's Husband, who plans to consume her life energy to complete his awakening, but with Itzpapalotl's help, she is able to kill the vampire instead. Realizing that Edward loves his soon-to-be family in some way, Anita leaves them without interfering and returns to St. Louis to begin work on her own romantic relationships. |
5153333 | /m/0d57k8 | Two women | Alberto Moravia | 1958 | {"/m/098tmk": "War novel", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | A daughter and her mother fight to survive in Rome during the Second World War. Cesira, a widowed Roman shopkeeper, and Rosetta, a naive teenager of beauty and devout faith. When the German army prepares to enter Rome, Cesira packs a few provisions, sews her life savings into the seams of her dress, and flees south with Rosetta to her native province of Ciociara, a poor, mountainous region famous for providing the domestic servants of Rome. For nine months the two women endure hunger, cold, and filth as they await the arrival of the Allied forces. But the liberation, when it comes, brings unexpected tragedy. On their way home, the pair are attacked and Rosetta brutally raped by a group of Goumiers (Moroccan allied soldiers serving in the French Army). This act of violence so embitters Rosetta that she falls numbly into a life of prostitution. In his story of two women, Moravia offers up an intimate portrayal of the anguish and destruction wrought by war, as devastating behind the lines as it is on the battlefield. |
5155087 | /m/0d5b6g | Dragon Ultimate | Christopher Rowley | 2/1/1999 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | Picking up where the previous novel ended, Waakzaam the Great has attacked Ryetelth again, this time striking against the Sinni, the golden beings sometimes mistaken as the Ryetelth gods, who have been fighting against Waakzaam on the Sphereboard of Destiny from time immemorial. Waakzaam has taken control of an army of the Masters of Padmasa, who have been unable to reorganize themselves since the death of the Master Heruta Skash Gzug and has begun a full-scale invasion of the Argonath. To defeat the evil wizard, Relkin and Bazil must journey across time and space to battle a giant golem on the Sphereboard of Destiny. Once they accomplish this task, by taking control of giant constructs designed by the Sinni just for them, Waakzaam is finally defeated and oppressed peoples across the Sphereboard rise up in liberation. They then leave the Legions with Eilsa to finally begin their dream of owning their own land together. |
5155156 | /m/0d5bb9 | A Dragon at Worlds' End | Christopher Rowley | 1997 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | Trapped and alone on the dark continent of Eigo, Bazil and Relkin learn to fight and live off the dinosaurian wildlife that inhabits the land. During their journey of survival they encounter Lumbee, a female member of the tailed Ardu race. When they find her tribe, Relkin discovers he is in love with the tailed woman, a state that causes great distress to the members of her tribe. He is betrayed by the Ardu and sold to slavers who carry him off the to the city of the Elf Lords, Mirchaz. To save his dragonboy, Bazil leads the Ardu in an attack on the slaver’s base, then marches on Mirchaz itself. Relkin has been trapped in a dream world created by an evil Elf Lord. When Bazil comes to the dragonboy’s rescue the pair manages to bring down the Great Game that occupies the Elf Lords and end their rule of Mirchaz. After their victory they return to Argonath from Og Bogon bearing much treasure from an appreciative king. |
5156373 | /m/0d5d68 | A Fan's Notes | Frederick Exley | 1968 | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | A Fan's Notes is a sardonic account of mental illness, alcoholism, insulin shock therapy and electroconvulsive therapy, and the black hole of sports fandom. Its central preoccupation with a failure to measure up to the American dream has earned the novel comparisons to Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Beginning with his childhood in Watertown, New York, growing up under a sports-obsessed father and following his college years at the USC, where he first came to know of his hero Frank Gifford, Exley recounts years of intermittent stints at psychiatric institutions, his failed marriage to a woman named Patience, successive unfulfilling jobs teaching English literature to high school students, and working for a Manhattan public relations firm under contract to a weapons company, and, by way of Gifford, his obsession with the New York Giants. Exley's introspective "fictional memoir", a tragicomic indictment of 1950s American culture, examines in lucid prose themes of celebrity, masculinity, self-absorption, and addiction, morbidly charting his failures in life against the electrifying successes of his football hero and former classmate. The title comes from Exley's fear that he is doomed to be a spectator in life as well as in sports. |
5160255 | /m/0d5lhm | Wild Magic | Tamora Pierce | 12/1/1992 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The reader is introduced to Veraldaine, (who goes by Daine), a thirteen year old girl who can speak to animals. Daine meets Onua, the woman in charge of the horses for the "Queen's Riders," (the group of warriors who ride with and for the Queen), and is hired to help bring up a group of new ponies to the capital of Tortall. Along the way, Daine and Onua are attacked by strange creatures called Immortals, which are mystical beings including monsters such as spidrens, (huge, carnivorous spiders with human heads), and Stormwings, (metallic birds with human faces that feast on the dead). They later learn that nearly all of Tortall, Scanra, Galla, Tusaine, Maren and Tyra are being plagued by these Immortals, despite the fact that they were supposed to have been locked away years ago. As it turns out, the Immortals that attacked them had been on the chase of a hawk, which Daine rescues using her powers. With the help of Alanna of Trebond, Dainie turns him back into a human, and he turns out to be Numair Salmalin, the most powerful mage in Tortall and one of the few black-robe mages in the world. Upon reaching Corus, she continues as the assistant horsemistress, teaching Rider trainees such as her friends Miri and Evin and learning more about her own powers of "wild magic" from Numair, who becomes her teacher. She discovers the true depth of her power and learns of its advantages and dangers. During a journey to Alanna's home, Pirate's Swoop, Daine tells Onua and Numair about how she had lost her mind after the murder of her family and joined a pack of wolves to kill the bandits who had killed her family. The townspeople of Snowsdale then realized what was happening and tried to kill her, so she fled. After a time spent wild with the wolves, she regained her humanity and sanity with the help of Cloud, her pony. Relieved that her friends still like her after her confession, and after Numair enacts a spell so she will not lose her mind once again, she begins to hone her powers and soon learns to heal animals. She is visited frequently by the male badger god, who tells her that he promised her father he'd look after her. The badger god gives her a claw to wear around her neck that will allow him to contact her, and is very angry after she nearly kills herself by accidentally stopping her heart in order to hear dolphins. She finds out that she is able to talk to certain Immortals as well, and manages to convince several griffins not to harass the people of Pirate's Swoop. Towards the end of the book, she saves Pirate's Swoop from an attack of pirates and Immortals who are under orders from Carthak, a neighboring country. She defeats them by calling a kraken from the far away ocean floor. She's also left in charge of a dragonet, whose mother Flamewing has died in the battle to help save Tortall. Daine nicknames the dragonet Kitten, despite her real name being Skysong, and raises her much as a close pet. |
5160607 | /m/0d5m3f | Primary Inversion | Catherine Asaro | 5/15/1996 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Primary Inversion is set in a future where three star-faring civilizations vie for control of human-settled space. Fighter pilot Sauscony (Soz) Valdoria commands a squadron of four Jagernaut pilots, neurologically enhanced empaths who have been bio-engineered as weapons. Jagernauts have extensive biomech throughout their bodies, allowing for enhanced speed and reaction, and an embedded artificial intelligence (AI) in their spinal cords. They are pitted against the legions of the Trader empire, in particular the Aristo ruling class, a race that derives pleasure from the amplified pain and anguish of empaths—especially Jagernauts, as Soz knows from personal experience. Soz is also an Imperial Heir and may someday become the military commander of the Skolian Empire, the bitter enemies of the Traders. The book is divided into three sections. In the first, Soz and her squadron are taking shore leave on a planet that has remained neutral in the hostilities between the warring empires. It is there that Soz meets the Highton Heir, Jaibriol Qox the Second, the Aristo who will someday rule the Trader empire. She discovers he secretly possesses the same empathic abilities that she wields. The two link mentally and fall in love against their own wishes. From Jaibriol, Soz learns that his father is going to commit genocide against the inhabitants of a planet who have joined together to rebel against their Aristo rulers. She goes in with her squadron to warn and evacuate the planet. After a desperate space battle, they barely escape with their own lives, but are able to save some of the planet's inhabitants. In the second section, Soz is sent by her brother, Kurj, the Imperator of the Skolian Imperialate, for rest and recuperation on the planet Foreshires Hold. Emotionally drained and suffering from post traumatic syndrome, she refuses to acknowledge she needs help. She wants to fight the Traders, to avenge Rex, her second in command and long time friend, who was crippled in the battle. Her condition continues to deteriorate, until she almost shoots herself with her own gun. Finally acknowledging she needs help, she seeks the counsel of a heartbender, a psychologist specifically trained to treat Jagernauts. In part three, Soz's brother calls her back to HQ. He has captured Jaibriol Qox and wants Soz to interrogate him. Knowing that if her brother discovers her secret meeting with Jaibriol, he will probably have her executed for treason, Soz undertakes a daring rescue and frees Jaibriol. With the help of her stunned father Eldrinson, she and Jaibriol escape in a star ship accident that appears to kill them both. They hide on an isolated planet, with only Soz's father and the president of the Allied Worlds of Earth aware of their true situation. The book ends with their knowledge that they will someday have to return to deal with their respective empires, but for the time being they are safe. |
5162233 | /m/0d5pfq | A Great and Terrible Beauty | Libba Bray | null | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Gemma Doyle, the series' protagonist, is forced to leave India after the death of her mother to attend a private boarding school in London. On her sixteenth birthday, Gemma and her mother are walking through the Bombay market when the two encounter a man and his younger brother. The man relays an unknown message to Gemma’s mother about a woman named Circe, and Gemma's mother panics and demands that Gemma return home. Becoming angry at her mother’s secrecy, Gemma runs away, and has a vision of her mother committing suicide while searching for her, which she later learns is true. Gemma becomes haunted with the images of her mother’s death. With her mother dead and her father’s growing addiction to laudanum, Gemma is shipped off to a finishing school near London, Spence Academy for Young Ladies. At first, Gemma is an outcast at the school; however, she soon finds the most popular and influential girl in school, Felicity, in a compromising situation that would ruin Felicity’s life. Gemma agrees not to tell Felicity’s secret and the girls soon form a strong friendship, along with Gemma’s roommate Ann, and Felicity’s best friend, Pippa. But Gemma is still tormented with her visions and is warned by the young man from the market, Kartik, a member of an ancient group of men known as the Rakshana, dating all the way back to Charlemagne, that she must close her mind to these visions or something horrible will happen. During one of her visions Gemma is led into the caves that border the school grounds. There, she finds a diary written 25 years earlier by a 16-year-old girl named Mary Dowd who also attended Spence Academy and seemed to suffer from the same visions as Gemma, along with her friend, Sarah Rees-Toome. Through this diary, Gemma learns of an ancient group of powerful women called the Order and becomes convinced that her visions are linked to it. Members of the Order could open a door between the human world and other realms, help spirits cross over into the afterlife, and also possessed the powers of prophecy, clairvoyance, and what was considered the greatest force of all, the ability to weave illusions. Gemma, Felicity, Pippa and Ann decide to create their own Order in the caves to escape from the monotonous lives that they are expected to lead. As the girls read further and further into the diary of Mary Dowd they realize that the actual Order existed at Spence Academy and that Mary was a part of it along with her best friend Sarah and the original Headmistress Eugenia Spence, who all died in a fire at the school in the East Wing. Gemma tells her friends the truth about her powers and together they travel to the realms. There Gemma finds her mother alive and well, and the girls find that they can achieve their hearts’ desires. Gemma wishes for self-knowledge, Felicity for power, Pippa for true love and Ann for beauty. The girls continue to sneak out to the caves in the middle of the night and visit the realms. However, Gemma’s mother warns them not to take the magic back into their own world, for if the magic leaves the realms, the evil sorceress Circe will be able to find Gemma and will kill her, leaving the realms unguarded. After Gemma confronts her mother, she confesses that she was once a member of the Order and escaped the fire thinking the others had died, she also discovers that her mother was Mary Dowd and Circe was her friend Sarah Rees-Thoome. In Mary Dowd's diary, Mary says that she has sacrified Mother Elena's little girl to get back the decreased power of Sarah, after reading this, Gemma thinks of her mother in a different way and hates her for what she had done. The only way for her to ever be at peace is for Gemma to forgive her. When Gemma and the other girls go back to the realms, they realize that something has changed. Before they can leave, the creature that killed Gemma’s mother appears. Frightened, Pippa runs off and Gemma does not have time to bring her back. Gemma takes Ann and Felicity back to Spence, leaving Pippa trapped underwater. As the three friends awaken, they see Pippa seizing on the ground. They run to get help from the headmistress and Kartik. After, Gemma goes back to the realms to save Pippa, but Pippa choses to stay in the realms because she lacks the strength to fight for what she wants. While attempting to save Pippa, Gemma defeats the creature and destroys the runes. When Gemma returns, Pippa is dead. |
5162603 | /m/0d5q3p | Toxin | Robin Cook | 12/31/1998 | {"/m/01jfsb": "Thriller", "/m/05hgj": "Novel", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The book opens with a scene showing a couple of farmhands who are entrusted with disposing of a diseased cow. However they instead take it to a nearby slaughter house and sell it. The story then moves to the protagonist Dr. Kim Reggis who is going through a bad divorce. On a night out with his daughter Becky, he takes her to the nearby fast food chain, OnionRing Burgers. There she eats a rare steak burger. The beef in the burger is revealed to have come from the cow mentioned at the start of the book. The next day Becky begins having loose motions and severe body pain. Kim and his estranged wife Tracy rush her into the emergency care unit of the hospital he works in. However he is ignored there which infuriates him. The doctors confirm that she has been infected by E Coli's renegede strain O157:H7 which is resistant to most antibiotics. Becky's condition begin to deteriorate rapidly. Feeling helpless at his inability to save his daughter's life, Kim makes it his mission to trace out how she contracted the disease. He first makes a visit to the restaurant they ate at, only managing to create a ruckus there. However he learns that the beef came from Mercer Foods. He traces the slaughterhouse and manages to take a US FDA in his confidence. The next day Becky dies of multiple organ failure leaving him in sorrow and strengthening his resolve for justice. He infiltrates the slaughterhouse with the help of his ex-wife by changing his appearance to make him look like a jobless neo-Nazi. He accepts a job as a janitor. On his first day at work, he gets into the records room and finds out the truth about the diseased animal. They are attacked by an assassin. Tracy appears and kills the assassin. They then escape from the slaughterhouse and flee the country after making public the malpractices committed by the slaughterhouse. |
5163298 | /m/0d5r3n | 1634: The Galileo Affair | Eric Flint | null | {"/m/0mz2": "Alternate history", "/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | Following Grantville's alliance with Gustavus Adolphus and their military successes, texts of modern day history books of the seventeenth century have became very popular among the powerful personages of Europe and made dramatic effects and turmoil on the continent. Among those that are affected are the Holy Roman Catholic Church with their religious holdings. Father Lawrence Mazzare started the controversy by allowing Father Fredrich von Spee to read his own entry in the Catholic Encyclopedia, thereby stiffening the Jesuit's resistance to the Inquisition. Also Mazzare provided copies of the papers of the Second Vatican Council and other documents to Monsignor Giulio Mazarini, which led Pope Urban VIII to request a summary of Catholic theological reforms over the following centuries in the original timeline. The newly formed USE acts to open a trade corridor with the Middle East via Venice to insure supplies of materials unavailable within Western Europe; gaining political allies within these regions; and religious allies to spread the doctrines of religious tolerance and the separation of church and state. Michael Stearns selects Lawrence Mazzare to lead the delegation to Venice because of his current fame (or notoriety) among Catholics. Mazzare asks Simon Jones, the Methodist minister, to accompany him as a sign of religious tolerance and Father Augustus Heinzerling. Jones goes along as Mazzare's assistant. Stearns also sends Tom Stone and his family to assist with the production of pharmaceuticals, Sharon Nichols to aid in medical education (and to give her something useful to do while she is grieving over Hans Richter's death in 1633), and Ernst Mauer to advise on public sanitation. Lieutenant Conrad Ursinus is sent as the naval attaché and advisor on shipbuilding and Scottish Captain Andrew Lennox is assigned as the military attaché and commander of the Marine Guard. Lieutenant Billy Trumble is sent as XO of the Marine escort as well as sports advisor. However, the delegation is opposed by the French embassy in Venice led by Claude de Mesmes, comte d'Avaux, who is given orders by Cardinal Richelieu to disrupt trade negotiations between the USE and Venice. |
5163341 | /m/0d5r50 | 1635: The Cannon Law | Eric Flint | 9/26/2006 | {"/m/0mz2": "Alternate history", "/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02p0szs": "Historical fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Following the events of 1634: The Galileo Affair, Pope Urban VIII had been won over to the actions of the Americans after being saved from his attempted assassination and his subsequent pardon of Galileo Galilei. However, Pope Urban's relations with the Americans and their allies earned the scorn of his historical enemy Cardinal Gaspar Borja y Velasco, who had been loudly critical of the actions, or inactions, of the Holy See in regard to Gustavus Adolphus, Galileo, and now Cardinal Larry Mazzare, and had been briefly banned from Rome by Urban. Cardinal Borja returned to Rome, though living in the outskirts of the city, and having cultivated allies with the Spanish element of the Vatican and acquiring the aid of Francisco de Quevedo y Villega, a mercenary agent provocateur, is ordered by King Philip IV of Spain to stir up trouble within Rome with the efforts of discrediting Urban and turning him into a lame duck pope after Urban failed to support Spain in her war against the United States of Europe (USE). Borja exceeds these orders, orchestrating a military coup to overthrow Urban, which also caused the deaths of Urban's political allies including his cardinal-nephew Antonio Barberini, and replace him with a Spanish puppet. Fortunately, Urban escaped from his second attempted death with the help from the American Roman embassy, leading to Borja being declared an Anti-Pope, with only Spain and its satellites recognizing his authority as the new Pope. |
5163774 | /m/02p8_3d | Rider at the Gate | C. J. Cherryh | 1995-08 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | Three riders arrive at the Shamesey town gates to inform border rider Guil Stuart that his partner, Aby Dale and her nighthorse Moon, were killed in a truck convoy accident on Tarmin Height. The accident, they say, was caused by a rogue nighthorse. Stuart heads up the mountain to hunt down and kill the rogue. Danny Fisher, a junior rider and friend of Stuart, follows him. Another rider, Ancel Harper, who blames Stuart for the earlier death of his brother, also pursues Stuart. With winter approaching, journeys up the mountain at this time of the year are ill-advised and dangerous. Stuart first goes to the industrial town of Anveney where he meets businessman Lew Cassivey. Dale had been working for Cassivey, and her last job, escorting the truck convoy down the mountain, included delivering a shipment of gold to him. The truck that crashed had the gold in it, and Cassivey wants Stuart to retrieve it and pays him in advance. In Tarmin village, in the highlands near Tarmin Height, 13-year old Brionne Goss responds to the <call> of a nighthorse in the Wild by going out the village gates on her own. It is a rogue nighthorse and it finds and adopts Brionne. During her absence, riders go out looking for her, and her older bothers, Carlo and Randy, are arrested in the village for the death of their father, the blacksmith. Their father had belittled and abused the boys for most of their lives and when he now accuses them of pushing Brionne out the gate, Carlo shoots him. Later Brionne and the rogue return to the village and her mother insists that the gates be opened to let her daughter in. Tarmin is then overrun by swarms of predators and scavengers and everyone in the village is killed, except for Tara Chang, a rider out of the village at the time, and the Goss brothers who are locked in jail. Fisher arrives at Tarmin to find the gates wide open! The village is decimated, but Fisher finds and frees the Goss brothers. Stuart reaches Tarmin's gates (now closed) where he is shot at by Harper who is waiting near the gates to ambush him. Stuart retreats to a rider shelter and is later joined by Chang who is lost after the fall of Tarmin. Then the rogue with Brionne on its back arrives at the shelter. The rogue, whom Stuart recognises as Dale's horse Moon, has found Stuart in the ambient, recognising him as Dale's partner. Stuart tricks Moon by approaching her as a friend and then shoots the horse dead. He rescues Brionne, but the loss of "her nighthorse" causes her to slip into a coma. Stuart realises that Moon could not have died with Dale and went rogue only after her rider fell off the cliff. Moon must have sent images to the ambient of Moon and Dale together in the gorge below because that is what Moon would have wanted. What the other riders saw and reported were Moon's sendings. Then Harper arrives at the shelter and shoots and wounds Stuart. Chang responds by shooting and killing Harper, and Harper's nighthorse runs away, riderless and another potential rogue. Fisher and the Goss boys leave Tarmin village to search for Stuart and find him at the shelter. Because of the danger Brionne now poses if she wakes up with another rogue in the vicinity, Fisher agrees to escort her and her brothers to another village further up the mountain. Stuart and Chang remain behind in the rider shelter because Stuart cannot ride and needs to recover from his injury. :... continued in Cloud's Rider. |
5163776 | /m/02p8_3s | Cloud's Rider | C. J. Cherryh | 1996-09 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction"} | :... continued from Rider at the Gate. Fisher and Cloud escort the Goss children halfway up Rogers Peak to Evergreen village with Harper's riderless nighthorse, Spook, in pursuit. Fisher tells the local riders about the fall of Tarmin village and the presence of Spook, but does not reveal the arrest of the Goss brothers nor the role Brionne played in Tarmin's demise. Fisher is lodged in the rider camp, the unconscious Brionne with Darcey Schaffer, the village doctor, and Carlo and Randy with Van Mackey, the village blacksmith. The news of Tarmin's fall is devastating to Evergreen because all its supplies come from there, but many of the villagers see the disaster as an opportunity to seize and occupy the vacant property in Tarmin village in the spring. One night Spook enters the ambient and disturbs the horses and riders in the rider camp. Fisher knows that Brionne has woken up and is <calling>. The next morning Ridley takes Fisher out the gates to find Spook, but when they are some distance from the village, Ridley points his rifle at Fisher and demands the truth. Fisher is relieved to be able to finally unburden himself and tells Ridley everything he knows. Earnest Rigs, a miner, arrives at the doctor's house for treatment and sees and is entranced by Brionne. That night Schaffer and Brionne are awoken by a noise on the roof and a banging at the door. The next day, Schaffer finds blood splattered outside her house, and Rigs is missing. A crowd gathers, including the Goss boys and the village marshal. Carlo is accused of murdering Rigs and, scared that his arrest in Tarmin will become known, runs away. The marshal orders that Carlo be stopped, and a group of miners pursue him. When Carlo reaches the village gate, his only escape is out the village. Spook finds Carlo in the Wild and immediately adopts him. Fisher and Cloud begin searching for Carlo and see him riding Spook. Suspecting that Spook may have gone rogue, Fisher pursues them. When he catches up with them he sees a threatening shadow in the trees above them and shoots it. At the same time, Stuart and Chang, out looking for Fisher and the Goss children, find Fisher and Carlo. They search for the creature Fisher shot but find instead a large nest in which appear to be human bones. No creature of this size and ability had ever been encountered before, and they conclude that it must have come from the unexplored side of the mountain, probably attracted by the noise in the ambient from the swarm that overran Tarmin. Then the riders hear Evergreen's bells calling for help, and set off for the village. At Evergreen, the breakthrough bells are ringing and the riders enter the village to investigate. They find the gate man ripped to shreds in his watch tower and track the intruder to the houses. When the riders hear Brionne <calling> they realise that she is controlling the beast. They go to Schaffer's house where, through the door, they try to persuade the doctor to drug the girl. Inside Brionne opens the underground passage door to reveal a huge ape-like creature. It picks up Brionne and when Schaffer tries to intervene, it hurls the doctor against the wall, killing her. Like a rider and a nighthorse, Brionne and the beast connect. They climb to the roof and disappear over the wall. All the riders spend the rest of the winter in the rider camp and discuss their plans for the spring. Stuart reveals the presence of the gold in the crashed truck, and Fisher and Carlo agree to go to Anveney to request supplies from Cassivey to retrieve the gold. Stuart and Chang take on the responsibility of escorting villagers down to Tarmin. Of Brionne and the beast there is no sign, not even in the ambient. Clearly they have returned to the other side of the mountain. |
5165487 | /m/0d5vg8 | The Fatal Equilibrium | null | null | {"/m/02n4kr": "Mystery"} | The narrative focuses on the stories of several Harvard Professors as they deliberate whether tenure should be imparted on assistant professor Dennis Gossen. Gossen is an up-and-coming economics figure, who is hopeful that the Promotion and Tenure Committee will find him of adequate qualification to receive tenure at Harvard University—a very prestigious accomplishment. The P and T Committee is headed by celebrated anthropologist and Harvard Dean Denton Clegg and consists of distinguished sociologist Oliver Wu, chemist Sophia Ustinov, English professor Calvin Weber, psychology professor Valerie Danzig, mathematics professor Morrison Bell, Classicist Foster Barrett and dominant economics professor Henry Spearman. Dennis somehow shows up at the door of Henry Spearman, who is not home, and let in by Henry’s wife, Pidge. Because Dennis appears so distraught, Pidge calls her husband and tells him to come home early, which he does. However, Spearman refuses to discuss anything with Dennis on the basis that he is not allowed to converse with tenure candidates. P and T Committee meetings proceed to take place, and Dennis Gossen is turned down for tenure with a 3-3 vote. Oliver Wu, Sophia Ustinov and Calvin Weber all vote in favor of promotion, while Valerie Danzig, Morrison Bell and Foster Barrett all vote that Dennis Gossen is not cut out for Harvard. Dean Clegg is naturally placed in the role of tie breaker, and votes against advancement, as is his policy with ties. Because of his failure, Dennis Gossen seemingly commits suicide. Within the next week, Morrison Bell and Foster Barrett, two of the people who voted against Gossen’s promotion were murdered, and Dennis’s fiancé, Melissa Shannon, is arrested for the crime. The prosecution charged that she murdered them because she felt that they were responsible for her fiancé’s suicide, and the Melissa’s defense argued that the evidence was merely circumstantial; Shannon is eventually convicted by the jury and sentenced to a life in prison. Economist Henry Spearman is skeptical, however. Applying economic analysis, he could not fathom how the benefits of suicide could have outweighed the emotional cost that Gossen—a very rational person—was paying for his failure. He also did not think it rational that Melissa Shannon was so upset that she would kill two Harvard professors. With Melissa Shannon in jail, the Harvard Alumni are all aboard a cruise to Europe. This is where Spearman finally uses economic reasoning to deduce who really murdered Dennis, Morrison, and Foster: Dean Clegg. His theory is proven when Clegg, knowing that Spearman is on to him, leaves behind a note explaining everything; Clegg coveted academic distinction, and went to an island to write a book he hoped would be revolutionary in his field of anthropology. However, he had been absent from his field as Dean for a couple of years and was having trouble. That was when he conceived the idea to forge data for his book. It turned out that Dennis Gossen read his book and found economic inconsistencies in the data Clegg had made up and realized that Clegg was a fraud. Gossen blackmailed Clegg to vote in favor of his promotion, which Clegg happily agreed to. However, Clegg wanted to secure his secret, and so he killed Gossen and made it look like suicide. He then killed two of his colleagues who he thought might find out his dirty secret and framed Melissa Shannon. |
5166492 | /m/0d5x08 | The Palace of Love | Jack Vance | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | Kirth Gersen is on Alphanor with Alusz Iphigenia Eperje-Tokay, a woman he had rescued in the previous novel of the series. It is plain that their short-lived relationship is nearing an end, as she cannot understand why Gersen, made extremely wealthy by his epic defrauding of Interchange, still feels the need to exterminate the remaining Demon Princes himself, instead of hiring others to do the job, but most of all, she cannot accept his cold and singleminded pursuit of vengeance. Gersen notices a newspaper article announcing the forthcoming execution of a prominent Sarkoy venefice, Kakarsis Asm, not for selling poisons to the Demon Prince, Viole Falushe, but for violating a Guild-mandated pricing policy. He accordingly hastens to Sarkovy to pursue this lead. There he learns from Kakarsis Asm (in exchange for bribing his way to a swift and painless execution) that Falushe visited Sarkovy, at the beginning of his criminal career many years before, with a shipload of slaves, two of whom he sold to Asm and whom he subsequently resold. While they are on Sarkovy, Gersen’s relationship with Alusz Iphigenia finally ends, though he ensures that she will want for nothing in the future. After visiting his new financial advisor, Jehan Addels, to check how the program to invest the proceeds of his swindle is proceeding, Gersen locates a surviving slave, whom he buys and frees in exchange for further information concerning his enemy. He learns that Falushe was born Vogel Filschner, an Earth boy of disgusting appearance and habits who, to satisfy his obsession with a female classmate, Jheral Tinzy, had kidnapped the entire girls’ choral society at his school. Fortunately for Jheral, she had not attended choir practice that day. Gersen follows the trail to “Rolingshaven” in the Netherlands, to the people who knew Filschner as a youth. The most direct link is the mad poet Navarth, who was Filschner’s mentor and who later enjoyed a brief relationship with Jheral; after the kidnapping, she had attracted a share of the blame for having teased Filschner and turned to Navarth for comfort. However, she was later abducted by Falushe. Navarth has custody of a young girl, variously known as Drusilla Wayles or “Zan Zu from Eridu,” who was given to him as a child by Falushe to nurture and protect. She resembles the young Jheral to a disturbing extent. With the erratic assistance of Navarth, Gersen tries to engineer a meeting with Falushe. To this end, he buys the failing, but respected Cosmopolis magazine and authors a lurid article that paints the young Falushe in extremely unflattering terms. He is able, through Navarth, to contact Falushe by telephone and secures an invitation to Falushe's legendary Palace of Love in his guise as a reporter in return for writing a more flattering article. He is transported to Falushe’s planet, where he sees that the Demon Prince has built an entire civilization acknowledging him as its supreme ruler. The inhabitants pay tribute to him, including their first-born children (the most beautiful going to staff the Palace). In the company of a party of invitees including Navarth, Gersen visits the Palace. Eventually, he discovers Falushe’s lifelong ambition: to create a copy of Jheral Tinzy who will be brainwashed into loving him. Navarth's Drusilla Wayles was bred parthenogenically from the original Jheral, and there are at least two others on the planet. Jheral herself had succeeded in committing suicide some years into the forced breeding program. Gersen, guessing correctly that Viole Falushe is among the guests, intent on gaining Drusilla’s affections, narrows the possibilities down to three men and finally identifies his prey with the aid of a critical error by Falushe: he has an implanted telephone, which can be heard ringing when Navarth calls him. By this time, Gersen has rescued two Jheral copies and, along with Drusilla Wayles, they leave no doubt that they find Falushe repellent; the Demon Prince bitterly realizes that his life's work has been an abject failure. As Gersen is about to throw him out of an airboat hovering ten thousand feet above the sea, Falushe breaks his bonds, but loses his balance and falls to his doom. Gersen frees the servants at the Palace, informs the planet’s inhabitants that they need pay taxes no more, and entrusts the various Drusillas to Navarth’s eccentric care. Some months later, he meets yet another, more mature Drusilla, plainly the oldest, and is about to read her some of Navarth’s poetry as the story closes. |
5168526 | /m/0d5_fc | The Prophet | Khalil Gibran | 1923 | {"/m/017k4z": "Prose poetry"} | The prophet, Almustafa, has lived in the foreign city of Orphalese for 12 years and is about to board a ship which will carry him home. He is stopped by a group of people, with whom he discusses topics such as life and the human condition. The book is divided into chapters dealing with love, marriage, children, giving, eating and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, houses, clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion, and death. |
5172337 | /m/0d65gs | King Dork | Dr. Frank | 4/11/2006 | {"/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature"} | Outcast Tom Henderson begins his sophomore year of high school in as quiet way as possible but is set upon by the school’s many bullies and administration. Through a series of chance circumstances he soon finds himself investigating his father’s death, trying to put together a decent rock band with his only friend, searching out the identity of a mystery girl he met and made out with at a party, struggling to keep out of the way of the school’s psychotic “normal” kids bent on cruelly punishing him for existing. The myriad plot strands are brought together during and after a climatic battle of the bands in the school where he inadvertently is the cause of the disappearance of at least one teacher, earns the wrath of a new group of students, and the surprising admiration of some of those who previously despised him. |
5176633 | /m/0d6cnm | The Casino Murder Case | S. S. Van Dine | null | {"/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense"} | Philo Vance receives an anonymous letter alerting him to the possibility that violence will soon be done within a well-known family, and the letter also suggests that something of interest will take place that night at the casino. Vance attends and witnesses the collapse of the son and heir to the family fortune, a heavy gambler, due to his having been poisoned—immediately after he drinks a glass of water from the casino manager's private decanter. At approximately the same time, across town, the son's wife, a former Broadway musical star, dies from poison. The curious factor is that the medical examiner cannot identify the way in which the poison was administered to the wife, except to say that no traces were found in the stomach (and no marks of a hypodermic are found). Vance attends the son's home and investigates the wife's death—later that evening, the sister of the son and heir is also poisoned. When he recovers, the son suggests that his mother may have been responsible for the poisoning, but Vance also finds a note that suggests that the wife committed suicide. There are other characters connected with the family upon whom suspicion falls, including the sister's two suitors, one of whom is the family physician and the other the chief croupier at the family casino, and the children's uncle, who manages the casino. Vance must determine the method by which the poison was administered and at the same time follows a trail that leads to one of the character's research into the production of deuterium, or "heavy water", which had just been discovered in 1934. Having worked out the murderer's plot and identity, Vance puts himself at the mercy of the murderer, who is holding Vance at gunpoint, in order to hear a confession—then the murderer is killed in an exciting climax. |
5177162 | /m/0d6dcv | Kissing the Gunner's Daughter | Ruth Rendell | 1992-01 | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery"} | Four members of a well-to-do family in Kingsmarkham are shot during dinner, and only Daisy survives with minor injuries. Daisy is the teenage granddaughter of Davina Flory, a popular crime fiction writer much like Agatha Christie. Wexford wishes to protect her in a fatherly way, as he is with his own daughter Sheila, whose new boyfriend Augustine Casey is a post-post-modernist novelist who has already published a novel devoid of any characters. Daisy had never met her father. Wexford finds that Daisy's father is a former football player nicknamed "Gunner" because he played for Arsenal Football Club. |
5177439 | /m/0d6dzk | Checkers | John Marsden | 1996 | {"/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature"} | The main plot of Checkers is told in flash back, first-person narration which takes the form of a diary. The author of this diary is a nameless teenage girl, who is a voluntary patient in a Psychiatric Ward. She refuses to talk about why she's there and does not say a word during her Group therapy sessions. Before she admits herself into hospital, she lived with a grimly dysfunctional and uncommunicative family of four, whose father was a co-owner of a company named Rider Group receives a multi-million dollar business contract. As part of the celebration, the girl's father buys her a pet dog, which she names Checkers, for his odd fur pattern. Soon, however, her father's company begins being attacked by the press, who accuse him and his business partner of gross corruption, allegedly involving the Premier of the State. The Premier continually denies having ever met the girl's father, but these accusations and negative media attention escalate over a period of months. The pressure drives the girl further into isolation and cements the bond she has with Checkers. Reporters continue to hound the family and the girl is under strict instructions not to discuss any personal matters. However, one day when returning from a walk with Checkers, she strikes up a conversation with a young reporter waiting outside her house. The reporter is intrigued by Checkers, seemingly by his unusual appearance and asks to take a photo of him. The following day, the newspapers are claiming Checkers is the missing link between the Rider Group and the Premier. Two photos are published; one of Checkers and one of the Premier's dog, and it is revealed The Premier gave Checkers to her father as a gift. The girl returns home from school to discover the story, and finds her father has murdered Checkers with a carving knife. The events between that day and her admittance to the hospital are never revealed. At the end of the novel, the girl seems to have resigned herself to being in hospital forever, and she continues to blame herself for the death of her beloved dog. The novel also has many sub-plots which takes place in the psychiatric ward in real time. These sub-plots are mostly descriptions and backstories of the other teenagers in the ward, who all suffer from various types of mental defection. These characters include Daniel, who has Obsessive–compulsive disorder, Cindy, an emotionally damaged girl who self-injures and who tries to commit suicide towards the end of the book, Esther, a heavily medicated but honest and friendly "query psychotic" who believes there is an animal living inside her head, Ben, a boy with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Oliver, an anorexic and Emine, a Turkish-Australian girl who was driven to mental breakdown by the pressure of strict, Turkish parents. Each character is given considerable text and attention, up until the final chapter when the last of them leave the ward and return to normal life, leaving only the unnamed narrator, who suggests she means never to leave. |
5178145 | /m/0d6g0t | Owlflight | Larry Dixon | null | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Darian, the black sheep of his village, is blamed for every misdemeanour of the village children. The villagers, who feared the woods they were surrounded by, were afraid his parents' trips into the woods would bring death to them in the form of a monster formed by the Mage Storms. When his parents died and on the verge of being abandoned, Darin is apprenticed to the village hedge wizard - Justyn. However, this makes Darian unhappy and the villages feel he is ungrateful causing them to be hostile. The mage tries his best, though he's not very good with children. Darian just doesn't want to learn to use the magical ability inside him. Then one day the village is unexpectedly attacked by barbarians from the north - the Bear Clan - who take over the village. In the fight Justyn is killed and Darian flees. During his flight Darian is almost caught by two of the barbarians chasing him when he is unexpectedly rescued by a Hawkbrother scout called Snowfire, who has some magic of his own. Snowfire takes Darian back to the temporary camp where they set out to find out what happened, However, Darian is very upset with the realisation that Justyn only ever tried to help him – even when Darian was outrageously rude. Mixed with suppressed feelings for his parents who he believes are not dead and distaste for the villagers, Snowfire, along with the mages Starfall & Nightwind and the gryphon Kel, they gradually help him come to terms with his Justyn’s death and the attack on the village. Darian is adopted by the Hawkbrothers and becomes Snowfire’s little brother. However, he cannot leave the villagers to their fate as slaves—even if they have treated him wrongly in the past. He helps the Hawkbrothers infiltrate the village and attack and drive out the Bear Clan. In the process Darian almost gets killed by their Shaman but kills him instead. In the end Darian is faced with either staying with the villagers as their mage or going off with the Hawkbrothers. In the end he compromises—he will travel with the Hawkbrothers for a few years to learn magic and then return as the village mage. Pleased with Darian's maturity, Snowfire gives Darian his bond bird, a fledgling owl named Kuari. |
5178956 | /m/0d6hd1 | The Harmony Silk Factory | Tash Aw | 7/4/2005 | {"/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | From the bookjacket "The Harmony Silk Factory is the textiles store run by Johnny Lim, a Chinese peasant living in rural Malay in the first half of the twentieth century. It is the most impressive and truly amazing structure in the region, and to the inhabitants of the Kinta Valley Johnny Lim is a hero-a Communist who fought the Japanese when they invaded, ready to sacrifice his life for the welfare of his people. But to his son, Jasper, Johnny is a crook and a collaborator who betrayed the very people he pretended to serve, and the Harmony Silk Factory is merely a front for his father's illegal businesses. Centering on Johnny from three perspectives-those of his grown son; his wife, Snow, the most beautiful woman in the Kinta Valley (through her diary entries); and his best and only friend, an Englishman adrift named Peter Wormwood-the novel reveals the difficulty of knowing another human being, and how our assumptions about others also determine who we are. " |
5181905 | /m/0d6mpy | Cotillion | Georgette Heyer | 1953 | {"/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/02p0szs": "Historical fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/01qxvh": "Romance novel"} | Heroine Kitty Charing has been brought up in rural isolation by her rich and eccentric guardian, Matthew Penicuik (pronounced PENNY-cook), whom she calls Uncle Matthew. Uncle Matthew makes the whimsical decision to name Kitty as his heiress, but only if she marries one of his extensive collection of great-nephews, the offspring of his assorted and much-loathed sisters' children. Uncle Matthew expects that Kitty will marry Jack Westruther, his favourite great-nephew, and Kitty would be only too happy to comply: she has adored Jack for years. But Jack, while he intends someday to wed Kitty (believing that Uncle Matthew's money must be willed either to her or to him), prefers to lead a rakish lifestyle as long as possible. Confident that Kitty will not accept any of his cousins, Jack declines to attend the family party at which Uncle Matthew intends for his great-nephews to propose to Kitty. Kitty, greatly upset by the absence of Jack and by the possibility of becoming destitute should she not accept one of the great-nephews, is further dismayed by the proposals she receives. First, there is doltish Lord Dolphinton ("Dolph"), an impoverished Irish peer under his mother's thumb. Dolph is clearly proposing because his mother wants Uncle Matthew's money. Then there is Reverend Hugh Rattray, who assures Kitty that he is very fond of her, and that she will make a very suitable wife when her youthful levity has been tempered, for he pities the fact she is a destitute orphan, to her scorn. When another great-nephew arrives, Kitty hails him with relief. Freddy Standen is rich, good-natured, unaware of Uncle Matthew's intentions, and has no intention of marrying. Nevertheless, Kitty begs him to propose to her and invite her to London to reintroduce her to his parents, whom she has not seen for some time. She assures Freddy that once she has visited London for a month, she will break off the engagement and live quietly thereafter. When she threatens to cry, Freddy is too mortified to do anything but agree. She does not tell Freddy that she really hopes to make Jack jealous and force him to propose to her. Freddy suspects she has something up her sleeve but does not know what. Uncle Matthew, unconvinced by the announced engagement, guesses exactly what Kitty is up to; since it falls in with his own wishes, he allows Kitty to go to London. At the same time, he assures her that he will not tolerate being left for more than a month with "that Fish"—Miss Fishguard, Kitty's governess, who will stand in as housekeeper during Kitty's absence. The complications that ensue are reflected in the title: a cotillion was originally a dance for four couples. |
5182186 | /m/0d6n8p | Arc Light | Eric L. Harry | 1994-09 | {"/m/017rf8": "Techno-thriller"} | The novel opens with the invasion of the Korean Demilitarized Zone by North Korea. Next is the phone call from Russian General Yuri Razov to U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Andrew Thomas, informing him of Russia's intent to recapture land lost to China in a previous conflict. The beginning of this invasion will be the use of tactical nuclear weapons to clear the way for the army. Meanwhile, a radical Russian general, Zorin, seizes control of the Stavka and gains access to Russia's nuclear launch codes. As China retaliates against Moscow, Zorin launches a counterforce nuclear strike against the U.S. missile silos, bomber bases, submarine pens, and command centers. The U.S. responds in kind, and though no cities in either country were intentionally targeted in the exchange, roughly four to seven million people are killed. A political crisis erupts as war is declared and President Walter Livingston is impeached. The novel follows Greg Lambert, the National Security Advisor to the President, in the inner governmental circles as the war begins and the Vice President is sworn in. The United States Army Reserves are called up, and Major David Chandler reports to March AFB in California, leaving behind his pregnant wife Melissa, an attorney. As the novel follows him from his leave to his assignment as a tank battalion commander, Melissa gives birth and deals with fallout and fear back home. The novel proceeds along as conventional war begins as NATO is dissolved, and the U.S. and its new allies begin the invasion of Eastern Europe and Russia. Marines land in eastern Russia and push west. But Russia has not launched all of her nuclear weapons, and threatens to launch submarine-based missiles at the quickly emptying 304-largest U.S. cities. President Paul Constanzo and the joint chiefs must wrestle with the failing economy, failing support, and all-out nuclear war, while the Army continues its advance into the heart of Russia. |
5182384 | /m/0d6nll | Verdigris | Paul Magrs | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Orbiting above London is a mysterious ship, a duplicate of the St. Pancras railway station. The Doctor, with the aid of the adventurerer, Iris Wildthyme bargains to stop creatures determined to infiltrate the 1970s in the guise of characters from nineteenth century novels. The Doctor is cut off from many of his friends and allies. Iris and her companion Tom reappear in the audio adventures Wildthyme at Large and The Devil in Ms Wildthyme, and the anthology Wildthyme on Top. Iris Wildthyme would later be played in Big Finish audio dramas by Katy Manning, who played Jo Grant in Doctor Who. |
5182671 | /m/0d6p1g | Il Filostrato | Giovanni Boccaccio | null | null | Calcas, a Trojan prophet, has foreseen the fall of the city and joined the Greeks. His daughter, Criseida, is protected from the worse consequences of her father's defection by Hector alone. Troilo sees the lovelorn glances of other young men attending a festival in the Palladium. But almost immediately he sees a young widow in mourning. This is Criseida. Troilo falls in love with her but sees no sign of her similar feelings in him, despite his efforts to attract attention by excelling in the battles before Troy. Troilo's close friend Pandaro (Pandarus), a cousin of Criseida, senses something is distressing him. He calls on Troilo, finding him in tears. Eventually Pandarus finds out the reason and agrees to act as go-between. Troilo, with Pandaro's help, eventually wins Criseida's hand. During a truce, Calcas persuades the Greeks to propose a hostage exchange: Criseida for Antenor. When the two lovers meet again, Troilo suggests elopement, but Criseida argues that he should not abandon Troy and she should protect her honour. Instead she promises to meet him in ten days' time. The Greek hero Diomedes, supervising the hostage exchange, sees the parting looks of the two lovers and guesses the truth. But he falls in love with Criseida, and seduces her. She misses the appointment with Troilo who dreams of a boar which he recognises as a symbol of Diomede. Troilo rightly interprets the dream to mean that Cressida has switched her affections to the Greek. But Pandaro persuades him that this is his imagination. Cressida, meanwhile, sends letters that pretend a continuing love for Troilo. Troilo has his fears confirmed when his brother Deífobo (Deiphobus) returns to the city with the clothes that he has snatched in battle from Diomedes; on the garment is a clasp that belonged to Criseida. Troilo, infuriated, goes into battle to seek out Diomedes, killing a thousand men. He and Diomedes fight many times, but never manage to kill each other. Instead Troilo's life and his suffering are ended by Achilles. |
5182899 | /m/0d6pcy | Historia Caroli Magni | null | null | null | The Chronicle recounts the following incidents : At the request of Saint James who appears to him in dream, Charlemagne embarks on four wars to wrest Spain from the Saracens. In the first war, he takes his army to Santiago de Compostela and conquers all of Spain. A second war is brought on to battle the African king Agolant who, briefly, reconquers the country. (During this war, several miracles occur, including flowers sprouting from the lances of the knights.) A third war has Argolant invading south-western France and sieging the city of Agen, but he is forced to retreat to Pamplona. In the fourth war, Charlemagne's great army sieges Pampeluna. After the death of Argolant, Charlemagne's troops pursue the Saracens through Spain. In a story modeled on David and Goliath, Roland battles the Saracen giant Ferracutus, who is holding the city of Nájera. They fight for two days, taking truces to rest at night, but during the second night the courteous Roland places a stone beneath the head of the giant as a pillow, and upon waking the giant reveals to Roland that he is only vulnerable in one spot: his navel. In the subsequent battle, Roland's sword finds the spot and the giant is killed. Once the last Saracen leaders are defeated, Charlemagne invests Santiago de Compostela with considerable powers and begins the return to France. The chronicle then tells The Song of Roland material: at Roncevaux Pass, Charlemagne's rearguard, which includes Roland, is ambushed by the troops of brothers Marsile and Baligant, kings of Zaragoza, who have bought off the traitor Ganelon. Roland kills Marsile, but is mortally wounded and blows his horn to recall Charlemagne's army. After routing the Saracens, Charlemagne oversees the trial and execution of Ganelon, and the heroes' bodies are brought back to France. Charlemagne invests Basilique Saint-Denis with considerable prerogatives and dies. The chronicle ends with several appendices, including the purported discovery of Turpin's tomb by Pope Calixtus II and Callixtus' call to crusade. |
5183504 | /m/0d6q8s | A Fortress of Grey Ice | Julie Victoria Jones | 8/1/2003 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | A Fortress of Grey Ice represents a greater division of storylines than was present in the first book. The novel opens rather dramatically with new characters and settings, then moves quickly to Ash March's abrupt and covert departure from Raif in order to join the Sull. Left with the Listener, Raif finds himself alone, now abandoned by clan and friend, cut off from everyone and everything that he loves. Embittered and resentful of the lore that claims him as Watcher of the Dead, Raif will wander the edge of the Want until he finds the only group willing to accept an outcast and renegade, the outlaw Maimed Men. Elsewhere Ash, already leagues away from Raif, will become initiated into the mysterious blood lettings of the Sull, all the while riding in haste to reach the safety of the Sull lands, guarded by her two Far Riders and pursued by the maeraith she has been unintentionally released. |
5184863 | /m/0d6s6c | The Quiet Gentleman | Georgette Heyer | 1951 | {"/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/02p0szs": "Historical fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/01qxvh": "Romance novel"} | Gervase Frant, 7th Earl of St Erth, returns to his family seat at Stanyon, having inherited from his father while abroad with the army against Napoleon. Also residing at Stanyon are his stepmother the Dowager Lady St Erth, Gervase's younger half-brother Martin, his cousin Theo and his stepmother's young friend, Drusilla, who is on a long-term visit. Lady St Erth and Martin rapidly make plain to Gervase, in ways verging on the highly anti-social, that they are rather disappointed to see him home. They had expected him to die, as the officer death rate was high, and had wanted him to die, as Martin would have inherited instead. Gervase had not spent much time at Stanyon as a child; his maternal grandmother had taken him in instead; Theo, his cousin and the steward, is therefore the only person at Stanyon with whom he has had much contact. The two are good friends. Out riding one day, Gervase happens upon an extremely beautiful young lady who has fallen off her horse, and discovers her to be Marianne, the daughter of another member of the local gentry, Sir Thomas. Sir Thomas is a Baronet who inherited unexpectedly from his older brother; he had been sent to India to seek his fortune and achieved success. Consequently he is called in the area the Nabob. Gervase being rather taken with Marianne finds that Lady St Erth is less impressed with his new acquaintance; while she is extremely fond of Marianne in her self-centred way, she had hopes of her making a match with Martin. Having made Marianne's acquaintance, Gervase resolves that there should be a Ball, an idea which Martin throws himself into with enthusiasm, although it is to Theo and Drusilla who must organize it. Martin's sister arrives with her husband and two children, to attend Gervase's first big function at Stanyon; so too does "Lucy" (short for Lucian), an old Army friend of Gervase's who is the heir to a fairly rich peerage. The ball is a resounding success; particularly successful is the meeting between Lucian and Marianne. This upsets Martin, although Gervase receives it with more equanimity; his passion for Marianne was short-lived, despite her charm and beauty. After the Ball and as life settles back into a routine, however, some alarming things begin to happen. Gervase, who sleeps in the panelled and ancient master bedroom at Stanyon wakes thinking someone is in his room. Someone appears to have sabotaged a bridge he is about to cross which has been damaged by flooding, someone sets up a tripwire for his horse. The person who is behind all these incidents appears to be Martin, whose handkerchief is found after Gervase wakes up, and who also attempted to fight Gervase without a button on his fencing foil. Later someone shoots him. The injury proves not fatal, but dramatic, and Gervase is ill for some time. Meanwhile, Martin disappears, and people assume he fled to avoid the shooting. When he reappears, he does so with a fishy story about being attacked and tied up in a ditch. Everyone is sceptical about this story except for Gervase. As soon as he is fairly well recovered, Gervase rides out to see Theo, and he is hotly pursued by Martin. Before the police can arrive, Martin is able to tell Gervase that he believes Theo is behind the attempts on both their lives, and Gervase agrees with him. Theo finally admits it, and Gervase gives him control of a plantation in the West Indies rather than firing him and causing a scandal. All ends happily as the unromantic, practical Drusilla and Gervase are engaged. |
5185172 | /m/0d6snt | The Toll-Gate | Georgette Heyer | 1954 | {"/m/028v3": "Detective fiction", "/m/08sdrw": "Adventure novel", "/m/02p0szs": "Historical fiction", "/m/01qxvh": "Romance novel", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense"} | After acting as an aide-de-camp at the Battle of Waterloo, Jack Staple is finding civilian life tedious. Following a formal (and somewhat boring) dinner party in honour of his cousin's engagement, Jack sets out by himself on horseback to visit a more congenial friend some 60 miles away. After getting lost in the dark and rain he reaches a toll-gate where a frightened 11-year old lad is acting as toll collector in the absence of his father. A combination of curiosity, compassion, tiredness, and dampness lead him to stay at the toll house overnight with a view to sorting out the situation in the morning. Over the next few days Jack's circle of acquaintances rapidly expands to include a highwayman, a Bow Street runner, and the local gentry plus their devoted retainers. Other complications include a dead body, stolen treasure, and some masked villains. In the process of preventing a scandal, Jack also manages to identify the murderer, deal with the villains, retrieve the treasure, satisfy the law, provide for his friends, and resolve his own romance. |
5185461 | /m/0d6t2h | April Lady | Georgette Heyer | null | {"/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/02p0szs": "Historical fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/01qxvh": "Romance novel", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense"} | April Lady is the story of Nell Cardross the young beautiful wife of the Earl of Cardross. She is of a "good family", one that is accepted by high society, but nonetheless her father and brother spend freely and the family is known to be impoverished. Cardross, on the other hand, is significantly older and has been out in society for some time. Rich and handsome he could have his pick of the season's débutantes. He falls for Nell on sight and, in spite of the warnings of his friends who are concerned about the gambling habits of her family, he proposes to her at once. Nell's mother, who has "more hair than wit", tells Nell that Cardross wants an heir and wishes to marry into a good family. She also tells her that she must be a conformable wife and not trouble Cardross. Consequently Nell, who fell for her husband in the same instant he fell for her, keeps him at arm's length until he starts to doubt her appeal. The couple dance at this misunderstanding for many months ably assisted by Cardross' half-sister, her fiancé Jeremy, Nell's brother Dysart and Cardross' cousin Felix. Naturally the resolution is happy. |
5185679 | /m/0d6tb1 | Dreadnought | Robert K. Massie | 1991 | {"/m/05h83": "Non-fiction"} | Massie begins with the birth of Queen Victoria and follows the chronology of the royal families of Europe, culminating in the unification of Germany by Bismarck and the crowning of Kaiser William II. With the stage set, Massie describes the series of people and events that contributed to the outbreak of war, including Alfred von Tirpitz and his plan for German naval superiority, the Kruger Telegram, Boer War and Boxer Rebellion. |
5187172 | /m/0d6wvc | Narcissus in Chains | Laurell K. Hamilton | null | {"/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01qxvh": "Romance novel", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | * Narcissus in Chains takes place shortly after the events of Obsidian Butterfly, and approximately one year after the events of Blue Moon. At the beginning of the novel, Anita Blake has been out of contact with Jean-Claude, Richard, and the vampires and werewolves that follow her two lovers. After the events in the last novel, Anita is determined to renew her connections to Jean-Claude, Richard, and their followers, but she encounters several new problems as a result of "marrying the marks" that Jean-Claude has placed on Richard and herself. ** First, Jean-Claude feeds his ardeur, a rare power seen only in vampires of Jean-Claude's bloodline, through Anita. Shortly afterward, Anita develops the power herself. Although this power allows Anita to draw energy from lust, it also requires her to "feed" on this sexual energy every day, sometimes multiple times a day. ** Second, in Anita's absence, Damian, a vampire linked to her after she raised him from true death, has become a feral killing machine and has been locked away by Jean-Claude, and Richard has attempted to substitute democracy for the strictly hierarchical nature of the local werewolf pack, threatening to destroy the pack. A new werewolf in town, Jacob seeks to take advantage of this chaos to raise to third in the pack; to become Ulfric, he would need to first take out second-in-command Sylvie, and then Richard himself. ** Third, a new alpha wereleopard, Micah has arrived with his pard of wereleopards, and seeks to merge groups with Anita and consequently becomes her Nimir-Raj and mate. ** Fourth, a new group of shapeshifters has arrived in town, and attempts to capture Nathaniel and several swanmanes. In the fight against those shapeshifters, Gregory accidentally claws Anita, potentially infecting her with wereleopard lycanthropy. ** Fifth, Anita eventually learns that several of the weaker werespecies in town have had their alpha weres mysteriously disappear. * Ultimately, Anita resolves each of these issues with help from her various allies. ** Anita helps Damian to regain his sanity, assuming her position as Damian's master and rendering him the first "vampire servant" in centuries. She becomes the bolverk for the werewolves, performing the acts too evil for Richard to do them himself, and inspires Richard to reorganize the werewolves' power structure by showing him how close the wereleopard pard has become under her own dominance. ** Anita learns that the conflict in the shapeshifter world is due to the arrival of Chimera, a panwere who seeks to dominate shapeshifters by finding weak groups and eliminating their alphas. Both Jacob and Micah arrived in town as agents of Chimera, intended to deliver the local werewolves and wereleopards to his control. Micah, however, switched his loyalty to Anita and was nearly killed as a result. In order to save Richard and Micah's lives, Anita uses her powers to draw the life from Chimera and share that energy with them, killing Chimera and making allies of Narcissus and his werehyenas. The ease with which Chimera played the various species against one another inspires Anita to begin forming a coalition of all the shapeshifter species in St. Louis headed by herself, at least for the moment. ** Anita comes close to reconciling with Richard, but Richard ultimately leaves her after she uses the ardeur to feed on him, declaring that, like Anita herself, he will not allow himself to be used as food. Anita accepts Micah as her lover and Nimir-Raj. Micah, who appears willing to accommodate any desire of Anita's, becomes part of a menage a trois with Jean-Claude, allowing Jean-Claude to feed on him. * In the epilogue, Anita mourns Richard, but explains that she believes that their romantic relationship is finally over. She is no longer the lupa of the Thronos Rokke clan, but has become its bolverk. She is not herself a wereleopard, but her affinity with the leopards apparently means that they are her animal to call as if she were herself a master vampire. Anita and Micah are happily leading their wereleopards, and she, Micah and Jean-Claude are a happy threesome, but, being Anita, she doubts that happiness can last long. |
5189343 | /m/0d6zrw | Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square | Arthur La Bern | null | null | The novel and film tell the story of Bob Rusk, a serial killer in London who rapes and strangles women. Because of circumstantial evidence, however, the police come to suspect Rusk's friend Richard Blamey. |
5189402 | /m/0d6zt_ | Hannibal | Thomas Harris | 6/8/1999 | {"/m/01jfsb": "Thriller", "/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense"} | Seven years after rescuing Jame Gumb's last victim, Clarice Starling witnesses her career crumble around her when a drug raid goes wrong and she kills an armed meth dealer named Evelda Drumgo, who was carrying her child at the time, in self-defense. Hannibal Lecter, who has been living in Florence, Italy, under an assumed name since escaping custody, sends her a letter of condolence and requests more information about her personal life. Desperate to catch Lecter, the FBI finds a use for Starling once again. She meets with Barney Matthews, former orderly of Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. He tells her what Lecter said about her and that he said he would never go after him if he escaped. Meanwhile, Mason Verger, a wealthy, sadistic pedophile who was left horribly disfigured after a "therapy session" with Lecter, plans to get revenge by feeding Lecter to wild boars, using Starling as bait. He is aided by corrupt Justice Department agent Paul Krendler, Starling's personal nemesis. A disgraced Florentine detective, Rinaldo Pazzi, also pursues Lecter in the interests of collecting Verger's bounty on him. However, Lecter kills one of Pazzi's men and hangs Pazzi where his ancestor, Francesco de Pazzi, was hanged in 1478. Lecter waves at a camera, the footage of which is later seen by Verger. Lecter kills one of Verger's men and escapes to the United States, where he begins pursuing Starling. The novel briefly touches upon Lecter's childhood, specifically the death of his beloved younger sister, Mischa. The two were orphaned during World War II, and a group of German deserters found them on their family estate and took them prisoner. Lecter watched, helpless, as the deserters killed and ate Mischa. Barney briefly works for Verger, and gets acquainted with Verger's sister and bodyguard Margot, a lesbian bodybuilder whom Verger molested and raped as a child. Their friendship is briefly strained when he makes a pass at her, but they eventually reconcile, and Margot tells him that she stays in her hated brother's employment because she needs Mason's sperm to have a child with her partner, Judy. Lecter is captured by Verger's men, and Starling pursues them, determined to bring Lecter in herself. One of Verger's men is able to shoot her full of tranquilizer as she releases Lecter. The wild boars break through the barricade separating them from Lecter, but they lose interest in their intended prey when they smell no fear on him, instead going after Verger's men. In the confusion, Lecter carries the unconscious Starling to safety, and escapes with her. At the same time, Margot forcibly obtains Mason's sperm by sodomizing him with a cattle prod, and then kills him by shoving his pet Moray eel down his throat. Lecter, who had briefly treated Margot after her brother abused her, has urged her to blame the murder on him, which she does by leaving one of his hairs at the scene. Using a regimen of psychotropic drugs and behavioral therapy, Lecter attempts to brainwash Starling, hoping to make her believe she is Mischa, returned to life. She ultimately proves too strong, however, and tells him that Mischa will have to live on within him. Lecter kidnaps Krendler and lobotomizes him, and he and Starling dine on his still-living brain before killing him. The two then become lovers, and disappear together. Three years later, on July 9, 2000, Barney and his girlfriend go to Buenos Aires to see a Vermeer painting. At the opera, Barney spots Lecter and Starling; terrified, he flees with his girlfriend, reasoning that "we can only see so much and live." |
5189952 | /m/0d6_cv | The Golden Egg | Tim Krabbé | 1984 | {"/m/01jfsb": "Thriller", "/m/05hgj": "Novel", "/m/059r08": "Psychological novel"} | Two lovers, Rex Hofman and Saskia Ehlvest, have traveled to France for a bicycling vacation. One night they have a minor argument but quickly make up, and Rex pulls over at a convenience store to refuel. He and Saskia bury coins to mark the spot, then she goes into the station to buy drinks and is never seen again. Eight years later he is still haunted by her disappearance. He is now in a relationship with another woman named Lieneke, who is both sympathetic to, and frustrated by, the hold that Saskia's disappearance has over him. Despite her misgivings, however, they become engaged. It is at this point that the reader is introduced to Raymond Lemorne, the man responsible for whatever happened to Saskia. The novella reveals that Lemorne once saved a young girl from drowning; having proven to himself that he is capable of great goodness, Raymond then begins to wonder if he is capable of an act of pure evil. He then comes up with an idea to murder someone in the most horrible fashion he can imagine. The book follows his meticulous preparations, and his long months of trying to find a suitable victim. This section of the novella ends with him abducting Saskia, but we are still not told what happens to her, though the book does provide clues. At this point the narrative switches back to Rex. His obsession with discovering what happened to Saskia has grown to such an extreme that he has taken out a large loan to post advertisements in papers throughout France, hoping that someone might be able to provide him with information. His quest has also driven a wedge into his relationship with Lieneke. One night he is approached by Lemorne, who reveals that he is the one who abducted Saskia, and in a bizarre show of sympathy he offers to satisfy Rex's determination to discover her ultimate fate, but only if Rex agrees to undergo the same ordeal that Saskia suffered. After a long discussion between the two men, Rex agrees to Lemorne's proposal, and proceeds to drink a cup of coffee laced with a sedative. He awakens sometime later to find himself buried alive, and suffocates while imagining himself finally to be reunited with Saskia. In the epilogue it is revealed that several newspapers commented upon Rex's mysterious disappearance and its eerie similarity to Saskia's. Their fates are never discovered; it is as if they vanished from the face of the earth. |
5191112 | /m/0d70t9 | The Siege of Krishnapur | James Gordon Farrell | 1973 | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | The story is set in the fictional town of Krishnapur and tells of a besieged British garrison which holds out for four months against an army of native sepoys. Among the community are the Collector, who is an extremely Victorian believer in progress and father of small children and who can often be found daydreaming of the Great Exhibition; the Magistrate a Chartist in his youth but who sees his youthful political ideals destroyed by witnessing the siege; Dr Dunstaple and Dr McNab who row over the best way to treat cholera; Fleury, a poetical young man from England who learns to become a soldier and Lucy a "fallen" woman rescued from a bungalow who eventually runs a tea salon in the despairing community. By the end of the novel cholera, starvation and the sepoys have killed off most of the inhabitants, who are reduced to eating dogs, horses and finally beetles, their teeth much loosened by scurvy. "The final retreat of the British, still doggedly stiff-upper-lipped through the pantries, laundries, music rooms and ballroom of the residency, using chandeliers and violins as weapons, is a comic delight". The Siege of Krishnapur is part of Farrell's "Empire Trilogy", which concerns the British Empire and its decline in three locations. Other books in the series are Troubles, about the Easter 1916 rebellion in Ireland, and The Singapore Grip, which takes place just before the invasion of Singapore by the Japanese in World War II, during the last days of the British Empire. |
5191594 | /m/0d71s7 | Midshipman's Hope | David Feintuch | null | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | Nicholas Seafort is a seventeen-year-old midshipman who boards the UNS Hibernia on his first space assignment, a three-year interstellar voyage to the colonies of Hope Nation and Detour. He beats back a challenge to his authority as senior midshipman by Vax Holser, the next most senior. During the trip, he strikes up friendships with Third Lieutenant Harv Malstrom and an attractive passenger, Amanda Frowel. A disastrous rescue of a passenger injured while sightseeing on the wreck of the another ship results in the deaths of Captain Haag and his two senior lieutenants, elevating Malstrom to the captaincy and Seafort to second-in-command of Hibernia. When Maelstrom falls ill with a quick-acting cancer, Seafort, believing himself to be unqualified to command, begs him to promote Holser to lieutenant, but Maelstrom dies without doing so. The other surviving officers (outside the chain of command) share Seafort's opinion of his leadership abilities and try to get him to relieve himself, but he cannot find any regulations that permit it. They back down when Seafort points out the penalty for mutiny. Seafort is immediately faced with a difficult decision. Malstrom had condemned three crewmen to death for assaulting the sergeant-at-arms in an attempt to conceal their drug-making operation. Their punishment was extremely unpopular with the rest of the crew. However, despite the danger of a revolt, Seafort has two of the men hanged; the third's sentence is commuted to several months confinement. His resolute handling of the situation quells the unruly crewmen. This action estranges him from Amanda, who feels the executions to be barbaric. Other dangers follow. By thoroughness and sheer stubbornness, Seafort discovers that the ship's sentient computer, Darla, has been corrupted by careless naval programmers and would have sent the ship hopelessly off-course on the next leg of their journey. Darla was also responsible for the explosion that killed Captain Haag. To fix the problem, Seafort has a backup restored. When the ship arrives at its next stop, Miningcamp, a small mining colony in an otherwise uninhabitable system, mutineers from the space station try to take over the ship. Seafort single-handedly holds them off until the crew can regroup and deal with the intruders. Eventually, Seafort ends the rebellion and finds out the cause. An ore barge and the starship Telstar are long overdue, which resulted in the panic that led to the trouble. When the Hibernia reaches Hope Nation, Seafort expects to be relieved, but discovers that not only has the admiral in command of the naval garrison died in a strange viral epidemic, but a captain has deserted, leaving a Hope Nation commanding officer who is junior to Seafort. Seafort finds himself in charge of all naval forces in the system. During a tour of the planet, Seafort, Amanda (with whom he has reconciled) and one of his officers run into the officer who had deserted. He is hiding in the mountains with his wife because he believes he saw meteors spraying something in the sky shortly before the epidemic broke out. Believing the man to be mad, Seafort dismisses his story as fantasy, but does not force the couple to return to civilization. Seafort recruits several officers from the local personnel, then continues on to the next stop, Detour. He finds that two of the new men are poor officers, dumped on him by their former commanders. However, he manages to deal with the situation. Then Hibernias sensors detect the Telstar, adrift in space with massive rents in her hull. Seafort leads a boarding party to investigate and, to his horror, encounters a strange alien life form resembling an amoeba in the ship's corridor. When it attacks, it becomes clear that it was responsible for the disabling of the Telstar and the death of its crew. Fortunately, Seafort is able to escape unharmed. After a stop at Hope Nation to warn the residents, Seafort takes Hibernia back to Earth to report the news. |
5191717 | /m/0d71zw | Challenger's Hope | David Feintuch | null | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | Nicholas Seafort, newly assigned commander of UNS. Challenger and part of Admiral Geoffrey Tremaine's task force, has his ship taken from him when the Admiral decides to make Challenger his flagship, under the command of Captain Hasselbrad. Seafort is given command of the Admiral's far smaller original flagship, UNS Portia. Tremaine's task force has the task of reaching Hope Nation, and eliminating any aliens found on the way. Portia is given the task of transporting a group of Lower New York 'transpops' - uneducated and often violent street children - to the colony of Detour beyond Hope Nation. Seafort initially sees the transpops as simply a danger to his ship (drugging or imprisoning them were considered as solutions). The squadron is attacked by Fish that board Portia, releasing their lethal virus into the ship and killing dozens of her crew and passengers, including Seafort's baby son. Shortly after this Amanda Seafort, driven insane by grief, commits suicide, and Nicholas suffers a temporary breakdown as a result. After his recovery, Portia encounters Tremaine's flagship Challenger, crippled by a Fish attack. Seafort is transferred to the ship and is left alone, save for passengers and crew that Tremaine hates, including the transpops, and abandoned in space. After overcoming a mutiny, Seafort sets about preparing Challenger for an eighty-year voyage back to Earth, conscripting passengers into the Naval Service and scavenging what is possible from the wrecked sections of the ship. Barely weeks into the trip radiation from the ship's damaged propulsion systems attracts the aliens, leading to a series of desperate battles in which Challenger is further damaged, and more of her already tiny crew killed. Ultimately Seafort uses his dying ship to ram an alien, only for it to Fuse (accelerate to faster than light speed) taking Challenger with it. For sixty days Challenger remains lodged in the alien, her crew dying of malnutrition until, almost miraculously the Fish Defuses in the solar system itself. In the aftermath of the voyage, Seafort meets his father in a naval base on the moon, and is given command of his old ship, Hibernia, to return to Hope Nation. |
5191940 | /m/0d72cc | Reality Dust | Stephen Baxter | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction"} | The plot begins not very long after the Third Expansion began (the First Expansion ended when humanity was conquered by the Squeem; the Second Expansion ended with the conquest of humanity by the Qax, and the Third Expansion, ~5400 CE, began after the events of Timelike Infinity, pursuant to Jim Bolder's destruction of the Qax home-system). The protagonist, one "Hama", an investigator for Earth's Truth Commission, is investigating the surviving Qax-collaborators (as the Qax restricted access to AS- anti-senescence technology - to collaborators, they are rather old, and are known as "Pharaohs"); he follows one renegade Pharaoh to Callisto. It is collected in the anthology Resplendent. |
5192029 | /m/0d72kp | Firstborn | Stephen Baxter | 12/26/2007 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The novel's action switches stage frequently between the Earth of 2069, the 'jigsaw-planet' Mir 31 years after its creation, and various settlements on Mars. Firstborn opens with Bisesa Dutt waking up after 19 years of suspended animation, only to be informed of the fact that a 'bogey' has entered the Solar System. Further investigation of the object reveals that it is a "cosmological-weapon" (called a Q-bomb by scientists) capable of destroying matter by engulfing it into a small 'pocket universe', which is then quickly destroyed in a Big Rip-like event. Bisesa, her now-divorced daughter Myra, and a young spacer called Alexei Carel quickly leave the Earth via a space elevator, in order to escape what Alexei views as an inefficient and corrupt government. Meanwhile, on Mir, a young astronomer named Abdikadir (son of one of the main characters of Time's Eye), while making observations on what appears to be planet Mars covered in oceans, is interrupted by Bisesa Dutt's old mobile phone ringing. Back on Earth, the Space Council is preparing to launch an antimatter-fueled spacecraft to intercept the Q-bomb, while Bisesa arrives at a research station located at Mars' North Pole. The team there had discovered a gravitational "trap" that contained one of the Firstborn's Eyes. This is proof that not only did intelligent Martians exist in the distant past, but that they had been exterminated (probably with another Q-Bomb) by the Firstborn, but not before they had captured one of the Eyes. As she approaches the Eye, Bisesa is promptly sucked into a gateway and finds herself back on Mir, in the Temple of Marduk. Babylon has been completely changed by Alexander the Great after his victory over the Mongols, becoming the center of his new empire and one of only two large cities on the planet (the other being a nineteenth-century Chicago). After a failed assassination attempt on Alexander, Bisesa is forced to leave Babylon and head for Chicago. On the way, her phone's AI determines that the universe containing Mir and the habitable version of Mars is rapidly decaying, and has only another 500 years left before it ends in a Big Rip. Myra, after losing her mother once again on Mars, is contacted by the AI Athena, who had been the managing intelligence behind the storm shield in Sunstorm. After being copied and transmitted to nearby star systems in 2042, in an attempt to save a small bit of humankind should the shield project fail, she and another two AIs had reached a distant, inhabited planet, who had itself been almost sterilized by the Firstborn. From there, with the help of the planet's last inhabitant, they witnessed humanity's survival through the Sunstorm. Athena was promptly re-transmitted to Earth, to aid against the alien menace. Athena informs Myra and the Mars researchers of a plan to stop the Q-bomb by communicating to the Martians from Mir's universe. Back on Mir, Bisesa reaches a frozen-over Chicago, the climate having been heavily disrupted by the Discontinuity (the moment of Mir's creation). There she receives a transmission from Myra in the "real" universe, informing her of Athena's plan to communicate with the Martians; a pattern of geometrical shapes was to be transmitted to Blue Mars, which would prompt the Martian survivors to somehow act. At the suggestion of Thomas Alva Edison, the residents of Chicago dig vast trenches in the shapes required in Mir's North American icecap, filling them with oil and setting them ablaze; the pattern is observed by the sole remaining inhabitant of Blue Mars, at the Martian North Pole, who promptly reconfigures its version of the gravity trap to crush the Eye it contained. Athena's hypotheses was that all the Eyes were connected, and the destruction of one on Blue Mars would attract the Q-bomb to real-Mars, thereby destroying the planet completely but sparing Earth. The scheme is successful, and the Q-bomb is diverted. It strikes Mars, and the planet slowly begins to leave the universe. Myra decides to stay at the Martian North Pole as the planet dissolves. On Mir, Bisesa travels back to Babylon, activating the Eye and returning to real-Mars at the very moment of the Big-Rip. The novel ends with Myra and Bisesa reunited on the planet shown to Bisesa during her very first trip through an Eye. A portal opens behind them, and Myra's estranged daughter, Charlotte, invites them through. It is revealed that in Charlotte's future, humanity alone or with other sentient allies, calls itself the Lastborn as they are at war with the Firstborn. |
5192353 | /m/0d734t | Vulcan's Hammer | Philip K. Dick | 1960 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | In 2029 CE, the Earth is run by the Unity organisation after a devastating world war. Unity runs the planet, controlling humans from childhood education onwards through the Vulcan series of artificial intelligences, but is fought by the Healer movement. Unity Director William Barris discovers that the Vulcan 3 computer has become sentient and is considering drastic action to combat what it sees as a threat to itself. Vulcan 3 has been kept ignorant about information related to the Healer revolutionary movement by Managing Director Jason Dills, who is still loyal to its (also sentient) predecessor, Vulcan 2. Vulcan 2 fears that it will soon be superseded by Vulcan 3, and previously established the Healers as a movement to overthrow its successor. Dill and Barris begin to suspect one another, as Dill has received a letter that refers to Barris' previous contact with the Healers, but Vulcan 2 suffers partial damage in a terrorist attack. It advises Dill not to inform Vulcan 3 about the existence of the Healers, for fear that Vulcan 3 will order their mass execution. However, Vulcan 3 has already noticed the gap in available data about the rebels, and manufactured killer androids of its own. Barris and Dill resolve their differences and attack Vulcan 3, resulting in the destruction of the artificial intelligence, but Dill dies in the attempt. Finally, however, humanity is free from Unity and its technocratic dictatorship. |
5193582 | /m/0d74sc | The Lover | Laura Wilson | 6/17/2004 | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction"} | Set in World War II England, The Lover is a novel based on the real-life case of serial killer Gordon Cummins, also known as the Blackout Ripper. A 28-year old British airman, Cummins began strangling and mutilating female prostitutes in London during the bombing and subsequent blackout in the city. The novel looks at the events from three view points: a female prostitute with a young son who is a potential victim, a woman who met Cummings and became infatuated with him, and Cummins himself. |
5194222 | /m/0d75nl | Midworld | Alan Dean Foster | 1975 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Midworld is a planet entirely covered by a rain forest three-quarters of a kilometer (almost half a mile) tall. Born is a member of the primitive society that has lived peacefully on Midworld for hundreds of years, they keep the careful natural balance of the jungle so that all may live. The world is disrupted by the arrival of an exploitative human company from Earth whose representatives know nothing of the delicate stability of the planet. Born helps two of them, one of whom is a female botanist, by leading them safely through parts of the relentlessly hostile jungle. The portions of the jungle near the ground are full of bioluminescent growths. The natives live in a gigantic tree called the Home Tree. When one of them dies, they are ceremonially buried in the Home Tree. Most of the animals have six legs and three eyes. One flying creature, called a sky-devil, is a large reptile-like creature that has air intakes under its wings. Each of the locals forms a lifetime bond with a powerful predator called a furcot. The natives hunt with poison darts. All of the life on the planet is linked together in a vast neurological network centered on the plant life. The natives can sort of communicate with this network through a process they call "emfoling". Eventually Born realizes that he has made a grave error in assisting the aliens who have plans for life that will completely kill the jungle and Born's people. Enlisting the aid of native plant and animal lifeforms, and their furcots, he and a powerful warrior from his tribe named Losting (both of whom are in love with the tribe's most beautiful girl) destroy the invaders' base. In the course of the fight the other warrior is killed. |
5194768 | /m/0d76hr | One of Ours | Willa Cather | 1923 | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | While attending Temple College, Claude tried to convince his parents that attending the State University would give him a better education. His parents ignore his pleas and Claude continues at the Christian college. After a football game, Claude meets and befriends the Erlich family, quickly adapting his own world perception to the Erlichs' love of music, free-thinking, and debate. His career at university and his friendship with the Erlichs are dramatically interrupted, however, when his father expands the family farm and Claude is obligated to leave university and operate part of the family farm. Once pinned to the farm, Claude marries Enid Royce, a childhood friend. His notions of love and marriage are quickly devastated when it becomes apparent that Enid is more interested in political activism and Christian missionary work than she is in loving and caring for Claude. When Enid departs for China to care for her missionary sister, who has suddenly fallen ill, Claude moves back to his family's farm. As World War I begins in Europe, the family is fixated on every development from overseas. When the United States decides to enter the war, Claude enlists in the US Army. Finally believing he has found a purpose in life - beyond the drudgery of farming and marriage - Claude revels in his freedom and new responsibilities. Despite an influenza epidemic and the continuing hardships of the battlefield, Claude Wheeler nonetheless has never felt as though he has mattered more. His pursuit of vague notions of purpose and principle culminates in a ferocious front-line encounter with an overwhelming German onslaught. |
5194778 | /m/0d76j2 | Cachalot | Alan Dean Foster | 1980-04 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Cachalot is an ocean planet where humans have begun building floating cities. It is also the same planet where all of Earth’s cetaceans were transplanted six hundred years ago after the Covenant of Peace was enacted with all intelligence-enhanced ocean dwellers. Five of these cities have been destroyed when a middle-aged scientist and her late-teen daughter are dispatched to the planet to discover the source of the attacks. The novel title comes from the French word cachalot, meaning sperm whale. This word was applied to the sperm whale when the mammals were actively hunted in Earth’s oceans. The novel features a new musical instrument called "neurophon" producing not only tunes but also nerve sensations on human skin and irritating alien creatures found on the planet. |
5195037 | /m/0d771f | Voyage to the City of the Dead | Alan Dean Foster | 1984-07 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Scientists Eitienne and Lyra Redowl come to the planet Horseye to study the entire length the immense Skar River and its spectacular river chasm, the largest in the whole Humanx Commonwealth. On Horseye there are three separate sentient species, which all have different concerns about their planet. The Mai, traders from the river delta, are prepared to help the Redowls, but had their own agenda for doing so, for it was rumoured that at the head of the river was the City of the Dead and a great treasure. This treasure is eventually revealed to be not be material wealth, but an ancient artifact that is used to monitor the depths of space for an approaching evil. |
5195644 | /m/0d78dt | Sentenced to Prism | Alan Dean Foster | 1985 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Set in the Humanx Commonwealth, Prism is a unique planet because its ecosystem contains both silicon-based and carbon-based life. Evan Orgell, a management troubleshooter, sent to Prism to investigate the disappearance of a research group, finds himself fighting for his survival in this strange crystalline environment after his specialized environment suit succumbs to the local elements. Leaving behind his mechanized suit, Evan is for the first time in his life exposed to a hostile environment without the protection of his suit and must rely on the unexpected help of the native sentient life to survive. With the help of a caterpillar-like creature named A Surface of Fine Azure-Tinted Reflection With Pyroxin Dendritic Inclusions (which Evan chooses to call simply "Azure", much to his strange new friend's disappointment) he must grow to overcome his prejudices, his assumptions and his pre-occupations to re-learn what life, communication, companionship, government, and even his own bodily form mean to him. He and his new-found friends must overcome multiple treachery by his own race in order to survive and thrive on their beautiful, but deadly, planet. |
5196403 | /m/0d79sw | The Howling Stones | Alan Dean Foster | 1997 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Two scientists race against their vicious alien nemesis, the AAnn, to secure a treaty for mining rights on the newly discovered planet Senisran, an oddity of mostly ocean dotted with thousands of islands. The aboriginal natives' sacred stones are found to have an immense power that the humans and the AAnn will do almost anything to obtain. |
5196524 | /m/0d7b34 | Drowning World | Alan Dean Foster | 2003 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | On the distant planet Fluva, torrential rains that leave it barely habitable also make it a treasure trove of rare botanical specimens. When the human prospector Shadrach Hasselemoga crashes in a remote area, the only crew available to search for him is the warrior Jemunu-jah, one of the native Sakuntala, and the immigrant Deyzara trader, Masurathoo. This culturally different and physically repulsive to each other couple promptly crash also. While the rescuers and the rescued are all slogging it out of the ultimate rain forest, the reptilian AAnn empire is fomenting bloody trouble between the Sakuntula and the Deyzara. This leaves Commonwealth administrator Lauren Matthias in the hot seat, with refugees swarming in to her limited facilities and the bodies of the innocent piling up, with few resources to help. But it's the survivors of the rain forest who bring new knowledge that helps save Fluva, along with quick work by Matthias. |
5197098 | /m/0d7c6s | In a Free State | V.S. Naipaul | 1971 | {"/m/0707q": "Short story"} | The narrator is initially on a ferry to Egypt, and concludes many years later as a tourist in Egypt again. The first tale concerns an Indian servant from Bombay who, having no real alternative at home, accompanies his master on a diplomatic mission to Washington, D.C.. The two Indians suffer abominably from the poor value of Indian currency. The servant lives in almost a cupboard and inadvertently blows several weeks salary just buying a snack. However he gets to meet a restaurant proprietor who offers him an apparent fortune as a salary, so he absconds and works for him. Once he has his affairs in reasonable order, however, he starts to live in fear that his master will find him and order him back. He also learns that he is working illegally and liable to deportation. The only way of resolving the situation is to marry a woman who had seduced him but whom he had avoided ever since out of shame for his behaviour. The second story has an unreliable narrator. It concerns a rural West Indian family, a set of cousins, one of whom being in a better situation manages to humiliate the narrator. The richer family has a son who goes to Canada and is destined to do well, while the others can expect nothing. The younger brother of the second family then sets out for England to study engineering, while his elder brother does all he can to support him. Eventually the elder brother follows him to England with the aim of helping him further. He works all hours in demeaning jobs to keep him, but eventually makes enough money to set up his own business. However he discovers that the brother, despite appearances is doing no studying at all, while his restaurant is frequented by yobs. The narrator, in a fit of rage, murders one of these yobs, who is in fact a friend of his brother. The story ends when he attends his brother's wedding, with a prison guard for company. The story is set in an East African state that has recently acquired independence. The King, although liked by the Colonials, is weak, and is on the run while the President is poised to take absolute power. The level of violence in urban centres of the country is rising and there are rumours of violence in the countryside. There is mention of the Asian community being "deported". Bobby is an official who has been attending a conference in the capital city. He now heads back to the governmental Compound where he lives, and he has offered a lift to Linda, another colleague's wife. We learn early on that Bobby is homosexual. He is rebuffed by a young Zulu when he tries to pick him up at the Hotel bar. He soon discovers that Linda has plans of her own as they embark on the journey. The relationship between the two is complex from the outset; it seems Bobby is intent on aggravating the initially calm Linda. His previous history of mental illness is explored. Things go from bad to worse when they put up at a Hotel, run by an old Colonel who can not adapt to the new conditions in the country. There, they have dinner, and they witness a scene between the Colonel and Peter, his servant, who he accuses of planning his murder. Furthermore Bobby discovers that Linda was planning some extra marital activity with a friend along the way, and he becomes furious and hostile. The two reach their destination, but not before witnessing the site where the old King was recently murdered, a philosophical Muslim planning to move to Egypt and the beginnings of a genocidal wave of violence. Bobby is beaten by the army at a check point, where he and Linda experience first hand the growing violence. The story follows the conventions of a road trip with the reader becoming aware, as do Bobby and Linda, of the situation and how serious it has become. |
5197331 | /m/0d7cmm | Evil Star | Anthony Horowitz | null | {"/m/01jfsb": "Thriller", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/08sdrw": "Adventure novel"} | After the events of Raven's Gate, Matt goes to a new school which the Nexus are paying for, but is left friendless because of a bully named Gavin Taylor, causing Matt to injure Taylor by using his powers. Susan Ashwood and Fabian, members of the Nexus, ask him to help them acquire an old diary which could enable them to stop a second gate being opened. He refuses. Meanwhile, Gwendolyn, his aunt, has fallen under the influence of dark forces. She kills her spouse Brian, steals a petrol tanker, and drives it into Matt's new school in a desperate attempt to kill him. Fortunately, he uses his clairvoyance powers and manages to evacuate the whole school before it happens. Matt realizes that he must stop the gate from being opened and agrees to meet the bookseller, Morton, at St Meredithe's Church after a meeting with the Nexus. Morton affirms him to be one of the Five, but he is killed in the process and the diary is stolen by Diego Salamanda, another bidder who wants to use the diary to open the second gate. The Nexus persuade Matt and his carer, Richard Cole, to fly to Peru, find the second gate, and stay at a house belonging to Fabian. However, on their way to the planned rendezvous, the Hotel Europa, the car is ambushed and Richard is kidnapped but Matt manages to escape. With the help of a local Peruvian, Pedro, Matt manages to get to the meeting place but is captured by the Peruvian police at the hotel, led by the sadistic Captain Rodriguez, and brutally beaten. Pedro saves him. Then, they escape to the Poison Town, where Pedro lives. Strangely, while all the town is affected by diseases, the street where Pedro lives on seems unaffected. Here, they meet the man Sebastian (who can speak English, unlike Pedro), who agrees to help Matt. As night passes, Matt meets Pedro in a dream, revealing that he is one of the Five. Matt finds the markings of his previous beatings have all gone. Thinking Salamanda had Richard kidnapped, Matt and Pedro travel to his hacienda in Inca, but they are discovered. Salamanda reveals that he does not have Richard. An Inca, Micos, one of Richard's kidnappers, helps them escape, and he is killed in the process. He tells them to travel to Cuzco before he dies, and there, Matt manages to contact Fabian and the Nexus on their whereabouts. However, Rodriguez and the police arrive but Matt and Pedro escape with the help of several Incas, led by Atoc, Micos' brother. Then they are taken to the Mountain of the Sleeping God Mandingo. From there, they descend into the town of the last Incas, Vilcabamba, where Richard, having been staying there after being separated, is waiting for them. There, Richard reveals that the kidnapping was conducted to prevent Matt from reaching the Hotel Europa. Based on the Salamanda's knowledge of their movements, Matt and Richard deduce that there is a traitor in the Nexus tipping him off. At the village, it is learned that the gate is located somewhere in the Nazca Desert. They travel to the Nazca Desert with Professor Chambers, an expert on everything Peruvian, and Matt realizes that the Nazca lines are the second gate. The gate will only open once all the stars align with each of the drawings, however, the gate has been constructed such that the stars will never all align at once, and in this case, the star Cygnus is not in its proper position. However, Salamanda has sent a satellite as a substitute star, an evil star, to open the gate. Matt and Pedro break into Salamanda's headquarters with some help of the Incas in an attempt to stop his plan by destroying the radio mast controlling the satellite. At the control center, it is revealed that Fabian is the traitor in the Nexus, having believed it was pointless to try and stop the opening of the gate. Rodriguez then bursts into the room and shoots Fabian when he tries to stop Matt and Richard from being killed. The radio mast is destroyed and falls into the building, flattening Rodriguez. In his dying moments, Fabian reveals that Salamanda had taken control of the satellite once it was in range, using a different satellite dish out in the desert. Atoc takes Matt and Pedro on a helicopter to the dish, but the helicopter crashes, killing Atoc and breaking Pedro's ankle. Matt has no choice but to stop the gate from being opened alone. He manages to trigger his power, destroying the dish and trailer Salamanda is using, and kills Salamanda when he shoots at Matt by deflecting two bullets back to him. However, the satellite is revealed to still be continuing on its trajectory, opening the gate. The Nazca lines crack open and an army of demons arise, before the King of the Old Ones himself appears, and challenges Matt. Matt uses his powers to wound them but he over-exerts himself and falls into a coma. The Old Ones, biding their time, temporarily hide from the world. Matt is taken to Professor Chambers' house and a doctor examines Matt but does not think he will survive. But Pedro comes back from hospital early and insists on being alone with Matt. At this point, Pedro's power is revealed to be the power to heal. This explains the reason why the street Pedro lived in was the only place in in Poison Town that was unaffected by disease. Matt awakes from his coma thanks to Pedro and decides that the only way they can defeat the Old Ones is to find the other three Gatekeepers. |
5198712 | /m/0d7fcj | The Hunter | Donald E. Westlake | null | {"/m/01jfsb": "Thriller"} | The plot concerns a criminal, Parker who, having been betrayed, shot, and left for dead by his partner and wife, embarks on a relentless quest to retrieve his money and wreak revenge. The novel was written as a stand-alone crime novel, but when Westlake turned it in, his editor told him that if Westlake would rewrite the ending so that Parker escaped, he would be willing to publish up to three books a year about Parker. Though Westlake wasn't able to keep up that level of productivity, he did go on to write 23 more Parker novels over the next 46 years. The Hunter was re-issued by the University of Chicago Press in August 2008. |
5199081 | /m/0d7fy7 | Phoenix in Obsidian | Michael Moorcock | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | When the story begins, Erekosë has ended the war and found peace. Then the dreams of eternal struggle, that tormented him in The Eternal Champion, begin again. He finds himself transported into the body of Urlik Skarsol, driving a chariot pulled by polar bears across an ice sheet. He encounters a party of humans who take him to Rowernarc. There he meets the debauched Bishop Belphig and the ascetic Lord Shanosfane. Belphig eventually invites him on a hunt for the fearsome sea-stag. On the trip, Urlik begins dreaming of the Black Sword; then, while he is awake, a mysterious bell tolls, a Screaming Chalice appears, and a voice orders Urlik to take up the Black Sword. Finally they hunt the sea-stag to its island lair. Many of the hunters are killed and, though he succeeds in killing the stag, Urlik is left for dead. He is rescued by another party from the wholesome human settlement of the Scarlet Fjord, led by Bladrak. On the advice of the Lady of the Chalice, they have been ringing the bell that summoned him from his life as Erekosë. They have with them the Cold Sword, which he instinctively fears. During a raid to rescue prisoners from the Silver Warriors, Urlik learns that Belphig has been engaged in slave trade with them. Bladrak summons the Lady of the Chalice for advice. She tells Urlik to take the Cold Sword and rescue Shanosfane. Shanosfane reveals that Belphig commands the Silver Warriors because he holds their Silver Queen hostage; then he is killed by the Cold Sword. Soon Belphig places the Scarlet Fjord under siege and the situation becomes desperate. Again they consult the Lady, who tells them that the Silver Queen is held hostage on the Moon. Urlik rescues the Queen and learns that she is also the Lady, who was able to advise them remotely. They return to the Scarlet Fjord. When the Silver Warriors see that their Queen is free, they turn against Belphig. After the battle, she tells him of a legend that the chalice contains the blood of the sun. Suddenly Urlik understands his dreams. The two go out on the ice. While she summons the Screaming Chalice, he kills her. The Black Sword pours its blood into the Chalice, then the Chalice is taken up to renew the sun and the Sword vanishes. In The Quest for Tanelorn, Erekose learns more about the events that concluded Phoenix in Obsidian. Renewing the sun, an act that aided humanity, was so greatly counter to the nature of the entity Stormbringer that it was driven out of its habitation in the Black Sword and was forced to seek another body. |
5199767 | /m/0d7gvt | The Unknown Ajax | Georgette Heyer | 1959 | {"/m/02p0szs": "Historical fiction", "/m/01qxvh": "Romance novel", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/03xwcv": "Regency romance", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense"} | Hugo Darracott, an enormous figure of a young man, arrives at Darracott Place in Sussex to find his family waiting: his grandfather, Lord Darracott; his uncle, Matthew, a politician, his wife, Lady Aurelia and their sons Vincent and Claud; and his uncle Rupert's widow Elvira and her children Anthea and Richmond. They are, it is immediately apparently, expecting "a fellow who eats off his knife": that is, a working- or at best lower middle-class man. Hugo obligingly applies a Yorkshire accent and looks gormless. Lord Darracott puts pressure on his older grandchildren, Vincent, Anthea and Claud, to educate Hugo. He discourages Hugo from much contact at all with Richmond, who is young and army-mad - Richmond is Lord Darracott's favourite, and his grandfather has no desire to see him leave Darracott Place. All three of the older grandchildren oblige: Vincent because his grandfather bribes him financially, Claud because he is a dandy and wishes to be influential, and Anthea to ease her grandfather's bullying of her mother. It rapidly becomes apparent to Hugo that things are not all quite straightforward at Darracott Place; among other things he is disconcerted at the positive attitude towards smuggling that his family display. He is also unimpressed at the financial status of the family: while the lands are clearly rich, the tenants' farms are ill-maintained and so indeed are the family buildings (both Darracott Place itself and the Dower house which is reputed to be haunted and is maintained by a single servant). It emerges that Richmond, bored by being kept at home with nothing to do, has started joining in the smuggling . This ultimately results in a farcical scene in the family's pains to keep this discovery from the customs officers, choreographed by Hugo, with Claud and Richmond pretending to be drunk and playing cards in order to deceive the main customs officer into not realising that Richmond, not Claud, is actually suffering from blood-loss. Anthea, who is already half-falling for Hugo, is hugely impressed by his inventiveness and strength - and is as a result appalled when Vincent reveals that, far from being the impoverished man they had assumed, son of a weaver's daughter and having earned his Commission rather than bought it, is in fact a Harrow-educated grandson and heir of a wealthy mill-owner, since she fears being considered a gold-digger. Hugo feels this suggestion is ridiculous, and begs her to marry him to protect him from matchmaking mamas - an offer which Anthea ultimately accepts. |
5199812 | /m/0d7gxk | Bad Bargain | Diana G. Gallagher | 12/26/2006 | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Having sealed the Hellmouth, the Scooby Gang do not realise that anything is odd when things to be sold at the first annual band fund-raising rummage sale are stored in the school basement, which is directly above the Hellmouth. The rummage sale begins, and the items on sale seem to be having an unexpected effect on those that buy them. Even Xander and Willow are soon affected. The situation gets more serious resulting in the school being quarantined leaving Buffy and Giles to sort things out before the items get sold elsewhere. |
5200046 | /m/0d7h7s | The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts | Louis de Bernières | 1990 | {"/m/0127jb": "Magic realism"} | The town of Chiriguaná is threatened with rape and murder by the caprices of the thuggish Capitan Figueras, and drought, thanks to the spoilt Doña Constanza's plan to divert the Mula river in order to feed her swimming pool. When Doña Constanza is kidnapped by communist guerillas and held for ransom, the unkindness she had shown towards her tenants leads them to celebrate a three-day long fiesta. Several chapters focus on individual characters, from those detailing the life of Aurelio, the magical Sierra-turned-Jungle Indian, to those involving Chiriguaná, to letters home to France from Antoine, and to those of the guerilla characters. In the capital of the nation, the handsome young Capitan Asado is promoted to Colonel and given orders from the highest positions in the military to eliminate subsersives and communists through whatever means necessary. After initial distress, Colonel Asado hardens, his objectives change, and thousands of ordinary civilians are kidnapped during the night and driven in Ford Falcons to army buildings where they are systematically tortured and killed. Journalists and relatives who report the kidnappings are abducted themselves, and the capital of the nation becomes lawless and fearful. The escapades and political in-fighting of the divided and deeply corrupt military drive the people of Chiriguaná to fight the army, and after the battle, to flee, en masse, in an exodus to the mountains. Guided by Aurelio, and accompanied by a mysterious host of cats, the townspeople travel away from the degenerate civilisation of Chiriguaná towards a new civilization rooted in past magic and majesty. Shortly after their departure, an earthquake triggers a great tsunami, which destroys a vast area of the Mula Basin jungles. Due to Aurelio's premonition of it, they observe the event from higher ground. The long journey takes the townspeople across high plateaus and through tropical jungles, and at its end Don Emmanuel and Aurelio traverse a glacier to navigate over a mountain. An avalanche occurs, which both men miraculously survive, and exposes hundreds of long-buried colonial Spanish conquistadors and their hundreds of Indian slaves, who had been perfectly preserved in ice for centuries. The earthquake earlier in the journey had burst the dam of a lake-filled valley, situated over the mountain Don Emmanuel and Aurelio climbed. The draining of the valley had exposed the remnants of an Inca town, partially buried in mud. At the valley end there is a cliff dropping down to the jungle below, which lies under deposited mud from the burst dam. The townspeople clear the mud from the buildings in the Inca town, and the new town is subsequently named Cochadebajo de los Gatos after the Inca stone statues of jaguars which line it. The mud deposited on the flattened jungle below the valley provides fertile farmland for the new town, and mud-brick terraces are built on which to grow crops. The conquistadores are brought back to life by Aurelio and, after initial rampant chaos, eventually adapt to their new lives alongside the main characters in the new town. |
5201210 | /m/0d7jw0 | Blast from the Past | Ben Elton | null | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | Polly Slade is a 34-year-old woman with no money, no love life and a boring, run of the mill job at the local town council. She has attracted the obsessive attention of Peter, an ex-client, who continues to harass and threaten her in breach of several court orders she has brought out against him. The novel frequently changes perspective, and we see the depth of his obsession with her as he plots to come to her house late at night in a last-ditch attempt to prove his "love" to her. Through a series of flashbacks we investigate Polly's relationship with Jack Kent, a soldier who was once the youngest captain in the US Army. They had a short affair during the summer when Polly was seventeen years old. She was at that time an activist and saboteur living in a "peace camp" in the countryside, whom Jack met at a motorway service station while he was positioned in England with his work. The relationship ended when he took her to a hotel and then walked out on her as she slept, leaving her with no way of contacting him. Polly's memories of him are extremely bitter for this reason, and Jack, who is trapped in an unhappy marriage, finds he cannot escape Polly's influence over his life. He has risen to the rank of a general, partly with her assistance, as his memories of her have kept him from becoming involved in a number of scandals which could have ruined his career. One night, Polly's phone rings in the small hours of the morning, and Jack unexpectedly announces his intention to come to visit her, despite the unsociable hour and the fact of them not having seen each other for sixteen years. Meanwhile, Peter is also making his way over to Polly's house, and he and Jack have a confrontation in a public phone booth. Jack arrives at Polly's house and they spend several hours talking about the past, both memories of their relationship and details of Jack's life since he left her. They argue about politics; Jack is very right wing and something of a male chauvinist, whereas Polly is a pacifist and feminist. Polly's beliefs oppose everything he stands for, and he tells her that people like her are what has brought America to ruin. When she complains that he cannot just reappear in her life after such a long absence, he comes to the point of his visit: he intends to kill her to prevent the details of his relationship with her becoming public. At the time they knew each other, Polly was an anarchist and below the legal age of consent for sex in America (at the time of their affair, Jack was stationed in England), and if Jack's involvement with her is found out, his career could be ruined. He is the top candidate to become the National Security Advisor and he has decided that nothing, not even the love of his life, can be allowed to stand in his way. At this point Peter breaks into the house, having killed a milkman he initially mistook for Jack. As Jack is about to murder Polly, Peter bursts into the room, shouting a string of obscenities and threats. Jack shoots him dead, allowing Polly a chance to activate her alarm, alerting the police who arrive in minutes. Rather than have his history with Polly, and the murder of Peter, made public, Jack shoots himself. When his body is found, there is a major press scandal over his involvement with Polly and the details of his death, exactly what he feared would happen to him in life. Polly is now free of the terror of her stalker, but she has been left with nothing, and decides to rebuild her life. At the very end of the novel, she is visited by Jack's recently divorced brother, who feels he cannot hate her for what has happened and wants to know more about her and her relationship with Jack. As she lets him into the house, she is calm and feeling positive about the future, and she notices how like Jack he is but with one noticeable difference: his voice is "kinder, somehow". |
5203663 | /m/0d7n_d | The City in the Autumn Stars | Michael Moorcock | 1986 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | Fleeing from the Reign of Terror in 1793, Manfred von Bek (the Ritter von Bek), once a valued revolutionary, leaves Paris and heads towards Switzerland, with the final destination of the Waldenstein city of Mirenberg in mind. Close to Vaud, von Bek, who is masquerading as a messenger carrying secret documents, meets Robert de Montsorbier. Following polite conversation, Montsorbier accuses von Bek of being a traitor, and von Bek flees towards the border. Shortly after crossing the border, although not knowing it at the time, von Bek meets a group of young revolutionaries on their way to Paris. As Montsorbier is not carrying any flags or standards, the revolutionaries believe him to be part of the Swiss Guard, and open fire. They wound Montsorbier and several of his men. Von Bek thanks them and, after explaining, to their dismay, that the men they opened fire on were enforcers of the Committee of Public Safety, he leaves them, also taking Montsorbier's horse. After spending the night at an inn—Le Coq D'Or—von Bek awakens to discover that Montsorbier, posing as a member of the Swiss Guard, is searching for him at the inn. Unable to locate the hiding Von Bek, Montsorbier accuses him of being a horse thief, and attempts to gain information on his heading. It is then that von Bek meets Libussa, the Duchess of Crete, who owns the carriage that he'd seen the previous night. She assists him in escaping from Montsorbier, and von Bek becomes smitten with her. Leaving, and intending to follow Libussa to Lausanne, von Bek meets Orkie Lochorkie, whose given name is Colin James Charles, better known as the Chevalier de St Odhran, an aeronaut, balloonist and confidence trickster. The two meet at the Hackmesser Pass, as von Bek has unknowingly caused a landslide while shooting a hare for his supper. St Odhran expresses his intent of heading to Mirenberg to do 'business'; von Bek, however, does not inform him that he also intends to travel to Mirenberg, but readily agrees to meet with St Odhran if their paths cross again. On arrival in Lausanne, von Bek discovers that the Libussa has already left, and a friend informs him that there is, in fact, no Duchess of Crete. There is, however, an unmarried Duke of Crete, who has been living in Prague for the last five years, though he dresses up as a woman as a flight of fancy. Von Bek resolves to travel to Prague, where a convention of alchemists has been called, and search for Libussa there. Not finding Libussa in Prague, von Bek journeys onwards to Mirenberg, where he once again meets St Odhran, and becomes involved in a confidence trick regarding the sale of shares in a new airship that he and von Bek will build. After several misadventures, the pair decide that they must flee Mirenburg, as the amount of money they have swindled is simply too much, and one of their major backers has turned up murdered. On the night of the escape, two mysterious figures board the airship. As the ship departs, it becomes evident that one of the passengers is indeed Libussa, Duchess of Crete. The other, is the villain Klosterheim, the same man who attempted to kill Ulrich von Bek more than 100 years previously. After traveling through the shadow land of Mittelmarch, this unlikely alliance arrives in the City in the Autumn Stars. Soon after meeting with Satan, he becomes involved in a quest to find the Holy Grail. |
5203688 | /m/0d7p0f | Houseboy | null | null | null | The story starts in Spanish Guinea with a Frenchman on vacation, who finds a man named Toundi. He has been injured and soon dies. The Frenchman finds his diary, which is called an "exercise book" by Toundi. The rest of the story is of the diary (exercise book) that the Frenchman is supposedly reading. There is no further discussion of the Frenchman after this point. The first "exercise book" starts with Toundi living with his family. His father beats him constantly, and one day he runs away from his home. He runs to the rescue of Father Gilbert, a priest who lives nearby. His father comes back for him, telling Toundi that everything will be alright if he comes back. He denies his father's offer and after this point he no longer acknowledges his birth parents. Toundi treats Father Gilbert as his new father. Father Gilbert teaches Toundi to read and write, and he teaches Toundi about Catholicism. Toundi believes in Catholicism, but as the story progresses he drifts from his beliefs until the end, when he does not believe in God. Father Gilbert dies in a motorcycle accident a few months after meeting Toundi. Toundi is eventually taken to live with the Commandant, the man in charge of the surrounding colony. He serves as the houseboy for the Commandant, and later Madame, the Commandant's wife. It becomes very clear that the events that go on in the house are more important to Toundi than his own life. After about six months since Toundi comes to live with the Commandant, Madame, the Commandant's wife arrives from France. She initially is a warm and caring woman, who is very beautiful. She catches the eye of almost every man in town, much to the Commandant's dismay. Soon after Madame arrives the Commandant leaves to go on tour again. Toundi is left with Madame to take care of the house. As time goes on, Madame becomes more and more hostile and disrespectful towards Toundi. When the Commandant returns, she is portrayed as a ruthless woman. While the Commandant was still on tour, it becomes obvious that she is bored with her life. She begins to have an affair with M. Moreau, the man in charge of the prison. M. Moreau is perceived to be ruthless against the Africans. One of Toundi's first experiences with M. Moreau had him whipping two other Africans nearly to death. The Second Exercise book begins. The Commandant returns from touring, and it is later discovered that he knew about his wife's affair and returns because of it. The Commandant has a terrible argument with her, but after a few days they are getting along again. Madame becomes very disrespectful towards Toundi, partly because she does not like being there anymore, but mostly because she knows that he knew about her affair. Sophie, the lover of the water engineer is accused of stealing his workers' salaries with the help of Toundi. He is taken to prison where he is tortured in order to confess a crime he had not committed. Toundi is held in a hut near the police headquarters. Fortunately he has a friend who works there named Mendim, who is described as a very muscular man. He is feared by most other people but he soon comes to be known as Toundi's ally. M. Moreau orders Mendim to beat up Toundi, but Mendim throws ox's blood on him to make it look like he is injured. They spend the rest of the day playing cards. Toundi becomes sick and Mendim takes Toundi to the hospital. They have to wait a very long time to see a doctor because the black doctor is the only doctor there, the other white doctor was promoted to captain. The doctor finds out that Toundi's ribs are broken and have punctured his bronchi. While still at the hospital, while Toundi is in a dazed state, M. Moreau returns with the white doctor. He talks about punishing Toundi some more. At this point, after M. Moreau has left, Toundi escapes the hospital, not knowing exactly where to go. At the end of the novel Toundi questions his faith enough to give up his belief in God. fr:Une vie de boy sv:En boys liv |
5204285 | /m/0d7pyt | The Lady from the Sea | Henrik Ibsen | null | null | This symbolic play is centred around a lady called Ellida. She is the daughter of a lighthouse-keeper, and grew up where the fjord met the open sea; she loves the sea. She is married to Doctor Wangel, a doctor in a small town in West Norway (in the mountains). He has two daughters (Bolette and Hilde) by his previous wife (widowed), and he and Ellida had a son who died as a baby. This put big strains on the marriage. Wangel fearing for Ellida’s mental health has invited up Arnholm, Bolette’s former tutor and now the headmaster of a school, in hope that he can help Ellida. However, Arnholm thinks that it is Bolette waiting for him and he proposes. She agrees to marry her former teacher, because she sees this as her only opportunity to get out into the world. Some years earlier Ellida was deeply in love and engaged to a sailor, but because he murdered his captain he had to escape. Nevertheless, he asked her to wait for him to come and fetch her. She tried to break the engagement but he had too great a hold over her. The sailor then returns all these years later to claim her. However she then has to choose between her love or her husband. Dr Wangel finally recognizes her freedom to choose since he understands that he has no other options. This goes in his favour as she then chooses him. The play ends with the sailor leaving and Ellida and Wangel taking up their lives together again. |
5205080 | /m/0d7rbm | The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas | John Boyne | 1/5/2006 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/0q9mp": "Tragicomedy", "/m/031mk": "Fable", "/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | Bruno is a 9-year-old boy growing up during World War II in Berlin. He lives in a huge house with his loving parents, his twelve-year-old sister Gretel (whom he refers to as a Hopeless Case) and maidservants. His father is a high-ranking SS officer who, after a visit from Adolf Hitler (referred to in the novel as "The Fury", Bruno's misrecognition of the word "Führer") and Eva Braun, is promoted to Commandant, and to Bruno's dismay, the family has to move away to a place called "Out-With" (which turns out to be Auschwitz). When Bruno gets there, he feels a surge of homesickness after leaving behind his grandparents and his three best friends. Unhappy with his new home, Bruno becomes lonely and has no one to talk to or play with. One day, Bruno notices a group of people all wearing the same striped pyjamas and striped hats or bald heads. He asks who these people are and his father tells him that these people are not real people at all, as they are Jews. Gretel has changed from a normal young girl into a strong Nazi with the help of her tutor, but Bruno does not seem to take the same stance as his sister. Bruno finds out he is not allowed to explore the back of the house or its surroundings. Due to the combination of curiosity and boredom, he decides to explore anyway. He spots a boy on the other side of the fence. Excited that there might be a boy his age, Bruno introduces himself and finds out the Jewish boy's name is Shmuel. Shmuel and his family were brought here, broken apart from each other and forced to work in Auschwitz. Almost every day, the two boys meet at the same spot. Soon, they become best friends, so similar, they are basically the same person in different circumstances, one a Polish Jew, the other a German. Over the course of the book, Bruno shows a great deal of naivety whilst Shmuel seems to have more knowledge, as he has felt the suffering first-hand. Bruno's mother persuades his father to take them back to Berlin (after what is presumed to be an romance between a young soldier called Lieutenant Kotler and Bruno's sister is broken up by the father) after a year at their new home, while the father stays at Auschwitz. With Bruno about to go back to Berlin with his mother and sister, as a final adventure, he agrees to dress in a set of striped pyjamas and go under the fence to help Shmuel find his father, who went missing in the camp. The boys are unable to find him, and are mixed up in a group of people going on a march. Neither boy knows where this march will lead. However, they are soon crowded into a gas chamber, which Bruno assumes is a place to keep them dry from the rain until it stops. The author leaves the story with Bruno pondering, yet unafraid, in the dark holding hands with Shmuel: "...Despite the chaos that followed, Bruno found that he was still holding Shmuel's hand in his own and nothing in the world would have persuaded him to let it go." In an epilogue, the book states that Bruno's family spent several months at their home trying to find Bruno, before his mother and Gretel return to Berlin, only to discover he is not there as they had expected. A year afterwards, his father returns to the spot that the soldiers found Bruno's clothes (almost the same spot Bruno spent the last year of his life) and, after a brief inspection, discovers that the fence is not properly attached at the base and can form a gap big enough for a boy of Bruno's size to fit through. Using this information, his father eventually pieces together that they gassed Bruno to death. Bruno's father then realizes what he was really doing, and thinks about his job as Commandant. Losing Bruno makes him greatly depressed, and he stops caring about his job. Several months later, the Red Army arrives to liberate the camp and orders Bruno's father to go with them. He goes without complaint, because "he didn't really mind what they did to him anymore". |
5207922 | /m/0d7wr5 | Taking Lives | Michael Pye | null | {"/m/01jfsb": "Thriller", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | A Dutch teenager, Martin Arkenhout, and an American college student, Seth Goodman, strike up a conversation on a bus in Florida, and on a whim they rent a car to better explore the rural area. But then the car breaks down and Goodman, trying to summon help on the roadside, is struck by a passing car and left critically injured. Arkenhout bludgeons Goodman with a rock, switches their wallets and papers, and continues Goodman's journey to college in New York. Arkenhout soon must give up the identity when Goodman's suspicious parents demand he comes home for Christmas. He has by now developed a taste for wealth and luxury, and so begins befriending and killing rich people, stealing their identities and living their comfortable lives for as long as he can before moving on. The novel soon shifts over to first narration James Costa, a museum curator who will track Arkenhout down and become his next victim. He wrestles with his troubled but passionate marriage, and is disturbed by his father's sudden decision to leave England and return to the family's former village in Portugal. When Costa and Arkenhout, still posing as Professor Hart, cross paths, Arkenhout is unaware that the real Hart had stolen rare manuscripts from a British museum. Costa, representing the museum, pursues the man he believes to be Hart as far as Portugal hoping to regain the missing manuscripts. As fate would have it, Arkenhout takes a vacation villa near the village where Costa's father had only just died. While settling family business and attempting to negotiate for the manuscripts, Costa makes increasingly unnerving discoveries about the identities of Hart and Arkenhout, and about his own father's involvement in political oppression during World War II. The book culminates with a blazing fire and an intriguing and an unanticipated plot twist. |
5208113 | /m/0d7x4q | If Beale Street Could Talk | James Baldwin | 6/17/1974 | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | This book is about a 19 year old girl named Tish, whose real name is Clementine. She is in love with a 22 year old sculptor named Fonny, whose real name is Alonzo. They become engaged and she becomes impregnated. However, he is falsely accused of raping a Puerto Rican woman, Victoria Rogers. He was set up by a racist police man (Officer Bell) and he soon goes to jail. This unfortunately halts their engagement. Ms.Rogers left the United States to go back to Puerto Rico and Tish's mother Sharon travels there to find evidence that will set Fonny free, which pushes them all through New York and San Juan. Baldwin narrates through Tish’s point of view as well as Fonny's. The tone of the story is both sad and sweet. This content is very explicit with mature scenes. This book describes what a strong family the Rivers family is and how they stuck together until the end of everything. Although Fonny's own mother and sisters didn't bother to save him, the Rivers family takes him in as their own. They work extra hours so that they could make the money to pay the lawyer and to try to pay for Fonny's bail if he gets out on bail. In the end, Fonny's father commits suicide. Furthermore, the baby is finally born. Throughout the whole story the author shows what a powerful family is and the troubles they went through. |
5208465 | /m/0d7xmz | Time and Again | Jack Finney | 1970 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | In November 1970, Simon Morley, an advertising sketch artist, is approached by U.S. Army Major Ruben Prien to participate in a secret government project. He is taken to a huge warehouse on the West Side of Manhattan, where he views what seem to be movie sets, with people acting on them. It seems this is a project to learn whether it is feasible to send people back into the past by what amounts to self-hypnosis—whether, by convincing oneself that one is in the past, not the present, one can make it so. As it turns out, Simon (usually called Si) has a good reason to want to go back to the past—his girlfriend, Kate, has a mystery linked to New York City in 1882. She has a letter dated from that year, mailed to an Andrew Carmody (a fictional minor figure in history, who was associated with Grover Cleveland). The letter seems innocuous enough—a request for a meeting to discuss marble—but there is a note which, though half burned, seems to say that the sending of the letter led to "the destruction by fire of the entire World", followed by a missing word. Carmody, the writer of the note, mentioned his blame for that incident. He then killed himself. Si agrees to participate in the project, and requests permission to go back to New York City in 1882 in order to watch the letter being mailed (the postmark makes clear when it was mailed). The elderly Dr. E.E. Danziger, head of the project, agrees, and expresses his regret that he can't go with Si, because he would love to see his parents' first meeting, which also occurred in New York City in 1882. The project rents an apartment at the famous Dakota apartment building, which did not actually exist in 1882. (It was completed two years later, but Finney explains that he took a few liberties with the timeline due to his fascination with the building.) Si uses the apartment as both a staging area and a means to help him with self-hypnosis, since the building's style is so much of the period in which it was built and faces a section of Central Park which, when viewed from the apartment's window, is unchanged from 1882. Si is successful in going back to 1882, at first very briefly, and then a second time he is able to take Kate with him. They travel by horse-drawn bus down to the old post office, and watch the letter being mailed by a man. They follow him, and learn that he lives at 19 Gramercy Park. Then they return back to their base at the Dakota apartments and return to the present. Si is debriefed and carefully examined after each trip to the past, and as far as the project organizers can tell, his activities in the past are making no difference to the present. He is encouraged to go back again. He presents himself at 19 Gramercy Park as a potential boarder. He is accepted, begins living there and learns that the man who mailed the letter is named Jake Pickering. He explores the Manhattan of the past for several days, sketching all the while—he is an illustrator, and Finney inserts illustrations from the period into the book as Si's own. He goes on to learn that Pickering is blackmailing Carmody. Si finds himself falling for the landlady's niece, Julia Charbonneau. But he has a rival—Pickering. Eventually, Pickering makes a scene, having tattooed the name "JULIA" on himself, and Si soon leaves, to return to the present. Things aren't going as well in the present. One of the other participants in the project, having gone back to Denver some seventy years in the past, has made some unknown change in the past and thus a friend, whom he remembers, was never born. Danziger insists that the project be stopped. When he is overruled, he resigns. After Prien talks to him, Si sees no alternative other than to return to the past again, though he is troubled by Danziger's resignation. He is accepted back at Gramercy Park cheerfully, with even the dour Pickering happy. It seems Pickering and Julia are now engaged. Si (casting himself as a private detective) tells Julia that Pickering is a blackmailer. They go to Pickering's office and conceal themselves to watch the blackmail money being turned over by Carmody. Carmody brings only $10,000, rather than the demanded million dollars for the incriminating files. After knocking him out, Carmody ties up Pickering and sets out to look for the papers. He realizes they are concealed amid many other files. He patiently thumbs through the files, as Si and Julia agonize as the hours pass. Finally, Carmody decides on a scheme—burn the files. He does so. Pickering tries to save the files, but burns himself badly in the process. To the pair's astonishment, Si and Julia burst forth, urging them to flee, and flee themselves. It is a huge fire, and Si and Julia find themselves trapped. They barely escape. Si learns that the building used to house the newspaper the New York World and one piece of the puzzle fits in—the missing word in Carmody's note was "Building". After watching the efforts to fight the fire, in which many die, the shaken couple returns to Gramercy Park. There is no sign of Pickering. [The burning of the New York World building is a factual historical event]. Two days later, the two are picked up by Police Inspector Thomas Byrnes, and then taken to Carmody's house. The terribly burned man there accuses them of murdering Pickering and starting the fire. After they leave, Byrnes expresses indecision and lets them walk away—only to yell "The prisoners are escaping" to the sergeant who accompanies him. It is a set-up, the two are to prove their guilt by "attempting to escape". As it turns out, police all over the island have already been provided with their description and photographs. They are able to flee, but have no money and nowhere to go. They shelter in the as-yet-unassembled Statue of Liberty's arm, then standing in Madison Square. (Again, the arm standing in Madison Square Park prior to the statue as a whole being erected is a factual event). Si tells Julia the whole story, but she takes it as entertaining fantasy. She is soon convinced otherwise, as Si brings them both into the present, and she observes the dawn from high inside the long-assembled statue, seeing a totally strange New York. They spend a day in the present, with a shocked Julia observing the things that have changed in ninety years, from clothing to television. At last, they settle into Si's apartment. He is ashamed to tell her the history of what has happened in the past ninety years, the horrible wars and the fact that there are areas of the city where no law abiding citizen can safely go. Julia must return home. The two realize that the man whom they met at Carmody's house was in fact Pickering—Carmody died in the fire. Armed with that fact, Julia can keep Pickering from having her arrested, lest he be exposed. As 1882 is far more real to her than 1970, she returns to the past without needing any help from Si. Si goes to report in, and tells most of the story, concealing Julia's visit to 1970. They then give him an assignment—to intentionally alter the past. Research has confirmed that Carmody (actually Pickering) was an acquaintance of Grover Cleveland's--and talked Cleveland out of buying Cuba from Spain. The military men now in effective control of the project conclude that if Pickering is exposed, he might never have influence with Cleveland, and the U.S. might never have to worry about Fidel Castro. But after talking with Danziger, Si worries about the other effects the change might have, and Danziger makes him promise not to carry out the scheme. Si returns to 1882. Having been told how Danziger's parents met, he aborts the meeting. Danziger will never be born, and the project will never happen. Si walks away sadly—towards Gramercy Park and Julia and away from 1970. |
5208727 | /m/0d7y20 | Cerulean Sins | Laurell K. Hamilton | null | {"/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense"} | * Cerulean Sins apparently takes place some time after the events of the previous novel, Narcissus in Chains. Anita is happily living with Micah and Nathaniel and dating Micah and Jean-Claude. However, as usual, Anita is confronted by a series of simultaneous problems. ** First, she appears to be attracting the attention of a number of spies, including "Leo Harlan", a professional assassin who claims to want Anita to reanimate one of his ancestors to assist in genealogical research and two mercenaries who Anita arrests via her Federal Marshal status after noticing them following her. ** Second, Jean-Claude is unpleasantly surprised by an early visit from Musette and her entourage, all of whom are representatives of the founder of Jean-Claude's bloodline, Belle Morte and represent an attempt by Belle Morte to test and possibly punish or capture Jean-Claude and his followers. ** Third, Anita learns of a series of shockingly brutal rapes and murders, apparently committed by a shapeshifter serial killer. However, because of her deteriorating relationship with Dolph, Anita is unable to get cooperation from the police in solving the crimes. * As usual, Anita resolves each of these conflicts with a combination of ruthlessness, magical power, and the loyalty of her friends and lovers. ** Anita ultimately learns that the mercenaries have been spying on her to consider recruiting her for a secret mission overseas. (As Agent Bradford warned Anita in Obsidian Butterfly, Anita has come to the attention of one or more secret agencies within the US government). Luckily for Anita, at her mentor Marianne's insistence, Anita had stopped using animal sacrifices to raise zombies. Without the additional power granted by an animal sacrifice, Anita's zombies were sufficiently "zombie-looking" to convince the mercenaries that she would not be able to perform the job, arguably validating Marianne's belief that the animal sacrifices would result in bad karma. ** Anita confronts, outmaneuvers, or defeats Belle Morte several times. First, she and Jean-Claude take Asher to their (cerulean) bed in a menage a trois, making Asher their lover and therefore immune to most of Belle Morte's advances. Second, Anita, with help from Richard, Jean-Claude, and her wereleopards, is able to block Belle Morte's attempts to make Anita her human servant. Third, Anita is ultimately able to trap Musette in their game of courtly politics, proving that Belle Morte and her proxy Musette has violated the terms of her invitation and forcing Musette and her people to leave. ** More alarmingly, Anita begins to believe that Belle Morte is planning a war against the Mother of Darkness, the oldest and most powerful of the world's vampires. Although Anita and Jean-Claude do their best to avoid that conflict, the Mother of Darkness is beginning to awaken from a millennia-long sleep, and seems interested in Anita. ** Finally, Anita helps Zerbrowski track down the shapeshifting serial killer, who turns out to be a werewolf member of the mercenary team sent to observe Anita herself. After a confrontation in which several police officers are killed, Anita tracks down the werewolf a second time and executes him. * In the epilogue, Anita explains that she is continuing to date Micah and Jean-Claude, and that she has also added Asher to her list of lovers. She and Richard are still broken up, but Richard appears to be overcoming his death wish. Two of Belle Morte's vampires have received permission to remain in St. Louis, both to repair the damage done by their visit and to attempt to stay out of the way of any conflict between Belle Morte and the Mother of Darkness. |
5213100 | /m/025tdg9 | Zabibah and the King | Saddam Hussein | null | {"/m/01qxvh": "Romance novel"} | The plot is a love story about a powerful ruler of medieval Iraq and a beautiful commoner girl named Zabibah. Zabibah's husband is a cruel and unloving man who rapes her. The book is set in 7th or 8th century Tikrit, Hussein's home town. Although the book is on the surface a romance novel, it is (and was intended to be read as) an allegory. The hero is Hussein and Zabibah represents the Iraqi people. The vicious husband is the United States and his rape of Zabibah represents the U.S. invasion of Iraq at the end of the Gulf War. |
5217168 | /m/0d8bt2 | Blood Harvest | Terrance Dicks | null | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | While the Seventh Doctor and Ace team up with a hard bitten PI in 1929 Chicago, Bernice is stranded on a vampire-infested world with the Doctor's former companion Romana. The chief monster is a supernaturally powerful creature called Agonal, an elemental who feeds on agony and death and so seeks as much of such as he can. Rassilon traps Agonal in his tomb, just as he trapped Borusa in the television story, "The Five Doctors." |
5217290 | /m/0d8b_8 | Iceberg | null | null | null | In Antarctica in the year 2006, scientists frantically work to prevent the inversion of the Earth's magnetic field, while the Seventh Doctor faces one of his oldest and deadliest foes, the Cybermen. |
5218369 | /m/0d8dpd | A Demon in My View | Ruth Rendell | 5/3/1976 | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense"} | A rigid man of fifty leads a solitary, apparently respectable life, as clerk and bookkeeper for a small business and part-time rent collector for his landlord. He has rented a flat in the building for twenty years because deep in its cellar, unbeknownst to anyone else, is a mannequin that he periodically "strangles" in order to satisfy his homicidal urges. The figure's location in the cellar, the darkness, the furtiveness, all are essential to the solitary man's satisfaction. The tenuous mental equilibrium he has been able to maintain is threatened when a young man, healthy in mind and body, a doctoral candidate in psychology, becomes a roomer in the house. Danger the older man senses from the moment the new tenant appears is horribly realized for him when the young man finds the mannequin and uses it as the figure in the bonfire at the Guy Fawkes Night celebration he has organized for the local children. The respectable fifty-year-old now must go back to the streets to find flesh more yielding than a mannequin's... |
5222113 | /m/0d8m9v | Athyra | Steven Brust | 1993 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | Vlad has traveled through Dragaera for over two years. He now wears normal clothing, has discarded most of his assassin arsenal, and has lost a finger. While entering the village of Smallcliff, he meets Savn, a Teckla boy apprenticed to the local physicker. The two strike up a brief conversation, and Savn is often confused by Vlad's behavior, as he has never seen an Easterner before. Vlad's arrival in town is concurrent with the mysterious death of Reins, a former servant of the Baron of Smallcliff. Vlad shows up again at the local inn, causing a stir. He talks to Savn and becomes interested in Reins's death. While most of the village assumes that Vlad killed Reins, Vlad begins to believe that the death did have something to do with him. After some questioning, Vlad determines that the Baron of Smallcliff is still Loraan, an Athyra wizard he killed during the events of Taltos. The time Savn spends with Vlad in public alienates him from his friends in the village. Savn takes Vlad to some nearby caves at his request and begins learning about witchcraft, sorcery, and thinking for himself. Vlad tells him that Loraan is an undead necromancer who killed Reins to draw Vlad out for a Jhereg assassin. Savn also becomes acquainted with Vlad's two jhereg, who are on constant lookout for assassins. Recurring sections from the point-of-view of Rocza reveal that she obeys the "Provider" only out of obligation to her mate, Loiosh. Vlad describes his plan to tunnel into Loraan's manor and use the caves' "dark water" to kill him. Before he can put his plan in action, however, he is attacked at the inn by Loraan's men. Vlad fights them off but becomes seriously wounded before teleporting away. Using Vlad's comments about sorcery as a guide, Savn locates Vlad and treats his injuries, which include a pneumothorax. While the rest of the village searches for Vlad, Savn recruits the master physicker and they fight off Vlad's infection. While recuperating, Vlad confirms Savn's growing suspicion that Vlad has been manipulating him in order to get his help. Savn goes to Loraan's manor and discovers that Vlad's allegations about him are true. Savn is thrown into a cell with his master, who has already been tortured into revealing Vlad's location. Savn treats his master and kills the guard to escape and warn Vlad. He contacts Rocza and summons Vlad into Loraan's cellar, where Loraan and the Jhereg assassin Ishtvan suddenly appear. Savn realizes that Vlad is still too wounded to fight off his attackers. Remembering Vlad's lesson about thinking for himself, Savn dispels his irrational fear of his Baron and uses the caves' "dark water" to menace the undead Loraan. Vlad uses the distraction to kill Ishtvan, but collapses immediately afterward. Robbed of his power, Loraan simply begins throttling Savn until Rocza slips Ishtvan's Morganti dagger into Savn's hand. Savn kills Loraan with the dreaded dagger, but the horror of the ordeal, and a subsequent head injury, snaps his mind. After reaching safety and healing completely, Vlad resolves to take responsibility for Savn's near catatonic state and seek out treatment for the boy he used. |
5222504 | /m/0d8n80 | If I Had One Wish | Jackie French Koller | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | One day an old woman grants Alex one wish for his kindness to her. Alex uses it to wish that his little brother Stevie had never been born; to his horror, it comes true. Although no one else remembers Stevie, and Alex's life is in some ways better now, he is still guilt-stricken, and desperately tries to find a way to reverse his wish. |
5223686 | /m/0d8p_c | Noisy Nora | Rosemary Wells | 1994 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Now one old Wells friend, Nora, that noisy mouse, returns with all her middle-child problems still on display. What's a mouse to do when little brother and big sister take up all mom and dad's time? Yup. Plenty of noise. Look at these new pictures and you can almost hear the racket. With all that clatter, it might be better to read this one before dinner, not before bed! |
5225382 | /m/0d8sdr | Doing It | Melvin Burgess | 5/6/2004 | {"/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature"} | The plot revolves around a group of British teenagers, Dino (the most popular guy at school) and his two best friends Ben and Jonathon. Dino really likes beautiful in shape Jackie - the girl he sees as an equal, the most popular girl at school - but she won't give him what he wants. This gives Dino the chance to get it from other girls behind Jackie's back. Yet problems arise in Dino's family that causes him to see maybe sex isn't what he needs. Jonathon likes Deborah, but she's overweight; fearing condemnation from his friends and because of a disgusting looking bump on his penis, he fears showing his true feelings. Ben's been secretly seeing his teacher, Miss Young, the typical teenage fantasy. He used to love it, but now it overwhelms him. Ben tries to break it off for a girl his own age but it causes big trouble for him, Miss Young and his new girlfriend. |
5227351 | /m/0d8wf5 | Toccio the Angel | null | 2003-02 | null | The story is about a lovable and grumpy angel named Toccio (who heavily resembles Fat Buu). He is in Heaven and loves to play, but hates to study. The Big Boss gets tired of his antics, and commands him to help people out or he will lose his place in Heaven. |
5227875 | /m/0d8x5r | The Family Trade | Charles Stross | 2004-12 | {"/m/0mz2": "Alternate history", "/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Miriam's adoptive mother gives her a shoebox filled with items that belonged to Miriam's birth mother, a Jane Doe who died mysteriously when Miriam was only a baby. Among other items, Miriam finds a locket. Inside is a design not unlike a Celtic knot, and when she focuses on it, she is transported to a parallel world that never developed beyond the Dark Ages—except for the men on horses who try to kill her with machine guns. Miriam quickly finds herself caught up in the feuds of her estranged family, which calls itself the Clan. The Clan has used the genetic ability to travel back and forth between the two worlds to build a lucrative import/export trade. However, one of their main sources of income is transporting drugs into and out of the United States which bothers Miriam for ethical and other reasons. Miriam finds a kindred soul in Roland, a distant relation who would also like to be free of the Clan's machinations. |
5228811 | /m/0d8yvg | The Probability Broach | L. Neil Smith | null | {"/m/0mz2": "Alternate history", "/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Edward William "Win" Bear is a Ute Indian who works for the Denver Police Department in a version of the United States projected (by 1986) to be controlled by an anti-business, ecofascist faction complete with a new Federal Security Police (FSP, or "SecPol" as it is more commonly known) reminiscent of the Gestapo. Called to investigate the unusual murder of physicist Vaughn Meiss, Bear eventually finds himself projected into the NAC by means of the "Probability Broach," an interdimensional conduit originally developed as a means for interstellar travel in the NAC by the dolphin physicist Ooloorie Eckickeck P'Wheet and her human compatriot, the gorgeous Dr. Dora Jayne Thorens. Win encounters his NAC counterpart, Edward William "Ed" Bear, and Ed's neighbors, most notably the beautiful "healer" Clarissa Olson and the incorrigible Lucy Kropotkin, who is later revealed to be 135 years old. Lucy's life becomes the vantage point by which Win is acclimated to life in the NAC and Laporte (the NAC equivalent to Denver). Win and Ed unravel the mystery of the Meiss murder, learning that he was killed to hide an effort by SecPol to conquer the NAC with the help of Hamiltonian forces on the NAC side, led by John Jay Madison, a.k.a. the infamous Prussian expatriate and 1918 war hero Manfred von Richthofen, known here as the Red Knight of Prussia. Win, Ed, Lucy and Clarissa lead the effort to notify the nascent NAC government of the threat. En route to the meeting of the Continental Congress, Ed & Clarissa are kidnapped, leaving Win & Lucy to reveal the plot. After fighting (and winning) a duel with a SecPol agent, Win & Lucy rescue their friends, and track the Madison and the Hamiltonians to a small town outside Laporte. Win sets off an explosion that eliminates all of the Hamiltonians. Win elects to remain in the NAC and marries Clarissa. Ed marries Lucy (who at the time of the story was awaiting a delayed "regeneration" due to an accident involving massive radiation exposure) and sets out for the asteroid belt to build a new life for themselves on the NAC frontier. The Continental Congress agrees to begin a massive propaganda campaign to force Win's United States (and the rest of the globe) towards a similar Gallatinist revolution. |
5229672 | /m/0d8_55 | The Military Philosophers | Anthony Powell | 1968 | {"/m/06nbt": "Satire", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | In the Spring 1942 Jenkins is working in Whitehall as Pennistone's assistant, looking after the Poles in Allied Liaison under Finn. He attends a Cabinet Office meeting, chaired by Widmerpool, where he finds Sunny Farebrother and a dejected Peter Templer. Jenkins visits the Polish HQ in Bayswater, which turns out to be the Ufford Hotel. His driver on this occasion is Pamela Flitton, Stringham's niece. Pamela brings the news that Stringham was captured at the fall of Singapore. Jenkins is living in a flat in Chelsea in early 1943 and is promoted in his liaison duties to supervising the Belgians and Czechs. One night during the Summer 1944 Jenkins, sheltering in the flats from a flying bomb attack, encounters Pamela Flitton with her current lover Odo Stevens. Following prophecies into their futures by Mrs Erdleigh there is a row between Stevens and Pamela. Promoted to major, Jenkins escorts a party of Allied military attachés on a tour of Normandy and Belgium led by Finn. A meeting in Brussels with Bob Duport brings news of Templer's death in the Balkans. Summer 1945 sees Widmerpool engaged to Pamela Flitton and Miss Weedon affianced to Sunny Farebrother. Pamela accuses Widmerpool of murdering Templer. The victory thanksgiving service at St Paul's Cathedral is attended by the military attachés, including a Latin-American, Colonel Flores. Nick fails to recognise Flores's wife, who proves to be Jean. Finally Jenkins is demobbed. *Adapted in part from material published by the Anthony Powell Society with consent |
5232628 | /m/0d94mr | Undercover Cat | null | null | null | Pancho, also known as Darn Cat or DC, is in the habit of prowling the neighborhood at night. One night he returns home with a wristwatch round his neck. It is determined that the watch belongs to a bank teller who is being held hostage by bank robbers. The FBI put surveillance on the cat in the hope he will lead them to the kidnappers. They are helped and hampered by Pancho's human family and their neighbors. |
5232804 | /m/0d94zp | Bruges-la-Morte | null | null | null | It tells the story of Hugues Viane, a widower overcome with grief, who takes refuge in Bruges where he lives among the relics of his former wife - her clothes, her letters, a length of her hair - rarely leaving his house. However he becomes obsessed with a dancer he sees at the opera Robert le diable who bears a likeness to his dead wife. He courts her, but in time he comes to see she is very different, coarser, and their relationship ends in tragedy. |
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