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7686901 | /m/0268wz_ | A Far Sunset | Edmund Cooper | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | The starship Gloria mundi, built and manned by the United States of Europe, lands on the planet Altair Five in the year 2032. Most of the crew mysteriously disappears soon after touchdown, leaving only the psychiatrist Paul Marlow, the book's protagonist. The planet is inhabited by primeval humanoids. A central theme in the novel is the clash between Marlowe's rational worldview and the natives' superstitious and often brutal culture. Paul Marlow (pronounced Poul Mer Lo by the Bayani tribe he lives amongst) gains a leading position in the primitive society. He uses that power to educate the alien race, enabling them to make inventions that improves their society, such as the wheel, the ball-bearing and the axle. Paul Marlow also demystifies the Bayanis' religion, by discovering its factual origin — thereby uncovering that the humans of Altair Five share their ancestry with humans of Earth and other worlds in the Milky Way. While Marlow adapts to the simplicity and naivety of the Bayani lifestyle, he starts seeing the complex and advanced culture of the Earth as absurd. When after two Bayani years he is contacted by a starship come to his rescue, he considers staying on Altair Five. |
7688307 | /m/0268y54 | Gift | null | null | null | Gift is a story that revolves around high school student Haruhiko Amami and his strong connection to Gift's mysterious power. The town of Narasakicho, where Gifts story takes place, has two distinguishing characteristics: a rainbow that seems permanently fixed in the sky no matter the weather, and an ability known as Gift possessed by all its inhabitants. Gift's power can only be evoked by each person once in a lifetime, and is able to grant a single miracle. To be successful, a Gift must reflect the shared feelings of both the giver and the receiver. If the feelings are not mutual, the Gift is distorted and has the ability to wreak havoc on the surrounding area. When this happens, a black streak appears in the rainbow above town until Gift is used correctly. The story begins as Haruhiko's younger sister, Riko Fukimine, returns home after several years away. Beginning with her appearance, Haruhiko's life starts to change very quickly and feelings of the past begin to surface once more. |
7688547 | /m/0268y9m | Darkly Dreaming Dexter | Jeff Lindsay | null | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The novel's protagonist, Dexter Morgan, works for the Miami-Metro Police Department as a forensic blood spatter pattern analyst. In his spare time, Dexter is a serial killer who kills murderers, rapists and other undesirables he believes have escaped justice. Dexter's murders are directed by an inner voice he refers to as the "Dark Passenger", who keeps prodding Dexter to kill something. Once he has done so, the voice is satisfied for a while, but always comes back. Flashbacks reveal that his foster father, a police detective named Harry Morgan, recognized early on that Dexter was a violent sociopath with an innate need to kill, and taught him how to kill people who have gotten away with murder as a way to channel his homicidal urges in a "positive" direction. Harry also taught the boy to be a careful, meticulous killer, to leave no clues, and to be absolutely sure his victims are guilty before killing them. Dexter calls these rules "the code of Harry." Dexter manages his double life reasonably well for years, but his idyll is disturbed when he becomes involved in the investigation of a series of killings of prostitutes. As the "Tamiami Slasher" rampages through the city, he begins sending messages to Dexter, who finds the series of terrifying crimes engrossing and fascinating. Meanwhile, his adoptive sister Deborah sees the case as her ticket out of the Vice unit and into Homicide. Dexter is torn between helping her catch the killer and a desire to sit back and admire the artistry and skill of a fellow killer's work. |
7690055 | /m/0268zpr | One Hand Clapping | Lise Leroux | 1961 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | Howard has an unusual talent: he has a photographic memory. He uses his talent to enter, and win, a mega-money TV quiz show. He then discloses another gift: he is clairvoyant and can predict racing results. He gambles his winnings on race horses and the couple become extremely wealthy and travel the world, staying in luxury hotels. On their return, however, Howard, disgusted by the corruption of the world they have seen - and troubled by prophetic glimpses of a coming decline in civilisation - declares that they must commit suicide together by barbiturates. Janet resists, killing Howard with a coal hammer. Janet flees with the remainder of their money, to begin a new life abroad, taking her husband with her in a chest. |
7691126 | /m/0268_v6 | Barren Ground | null | null | null | Dorinda Oakley, daughter of a land‐poor farmer in Virginia, at 20 goes to work in Nathan Pedlar's store. She falls in love with Jason Greylock, weak‐willed son of the village doctor, and forgets her purpose of helping her father to rebuild the farm, but the day before their planned wedding Jason is forced to marry a former fiancée. Bitterly disillusioned and pregnant, Dorinda seeks work in New York, where she is injured and miscarries in a street accident. She is attended by Dr. Faraday, who later employs her as a nurse for his children. A young doctor proposes to her, but she refuses him, determined to “find something else in life.” After her father's death, Dorinda returns to the family farm, which is impoverished and overgrown with broomsedge. Having studied scientific agriculture in New York, she introduces progressive methods, gradually returning the “barren ground” to fertility and creating a prosperous dairy farm. Her mother becomes an invalid, after her brother Rufus is questioned for murder, so that Dorinda must carry on with only the aid of a few farm laborer. After her mother's death she marries Nathan Pedlar, to provide a home for his children, and after he dies she shelters Jason, now penniless and ill from excessive drinking. He soon dies. |
7693496 | /m/02692j8 | Through Violet Eyes | Stephen Woodworth | 8/31/2004 | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction", "/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | The novel is set in an alternate present-day setting where a small percentage of people are born with violet irises and the ability to channel the dead. Naturally, the government has stepped in and regulated their lives, using them as tools in murder trials. When it becomes clear that a serial killer is targeting the Violets themselves, FBI agent Dan Atwater is paired with Natalie Lindstrom, a Violet, to investigate. Moments after dying, the victims take over Natalie's consciousness, bringing their tale of the Faceless Man who killed them and their suspicion that he may be working with someone on the other side. |
7693679 | /m/02692pf | With Red Hands | Stephen Woodworth | 12/28/2004 | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction", "/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | Society has accepted the idea that death is not the end, and courtrooms regularly employ Violets to introduce testimony from murder victims. When a teenage boy is put on trial for shooting his wealthy parents, a well-known Violet takes the stand and channels the dead parents to confirm that it was someone other than their son who pulled the trigger. Meanwhile, Natalie Lindstrom, a Violet who has retired from the job and is working hard to prevent her daughter, Callie, from entering it, examines the case and discovers that the Violet on the stand might be falsifying the postmortem testimony, something previously thought impossible. Natalie's also grappling with her mother, a Violet institutionalized years ago; her mother says she has been visited by the Thresher, a ruthless killer who refuses to stop his ghoulish work even though he has been executed. The separate stories collide by way of the "Needlepoint killer," whose viciousness makes Hannibal Lecter seem like a Sunday School teacher. (1) |
7693730 | /m/02692qt | In Golden Blood | Stephen Woodworth | 10/25/2005 | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction", "/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | Natalie Lindstrom has a gift: the power to speak to the dead, to solve crimes by interviewing murder victims. But now Natalie wants to escape. Escape from the voices that fill her head. Escape from the organization that has used her as a crime-solving tool...and now wants to recruit her daughter. So Natalie takes a job as far from crime and punishment as she can get: with an archaeologist in the mountains of Peru. Her job: to find a trove of priceless artifacts — by channeling those who lived and died at an ancient Incan site. But in the towering Andes, Natalie enters a 500-year-old storm of betrayal, murder, greed, and rage — and she cannot silence the voices of the dead. The slaughtered reach out to her. The slaughterers boast of their crimes. Alone, cut off from her family, Natalie faces a chilling realization: every truth she uncovers is leading her one step closer to a terror beyond imagining. (1) age requirement 13+ |
7693831 | /m/02692vl | From Black Rooms | Stephen Woodworth | 10/31/2006 | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction", "/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | Natalie Lindstrom has finally left the underworld behind for a new career in the art world. As a former Violet, an elite crime-fighter with the power to channel murder victims, Natalie is now using her paranormal gift to summon the spirits of legendary painters. A deadly man from her past has escaped from prison, and he is being targeted against Natalie. But first he must help contact a deceased geneticist whose most intriguing experiment was brutally interrupted: an attempt to manufacture Violets. To protect her young daughter and herself, Natalie must search for the scientist’s only living test subject — a handsome but tortured artist to whom she is dangerously attracted. For he is caught in the grip of two opposing forces, one that wants his survival, another that wants him — and anyone connected with him — destroyed. |
7694517 | /m/02693ng | I Am a Barbarian | Edgar Rice Burroughs | 1967 | {"/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | The story is pitched as a free translation of the memoirs of Britannicus, 25 years the slave of Caligula, emperor of Rome from AD 37 to 41 who is historically known for being insane. |
7696829 | /m/02696cv | Firebird | null | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction"} | Firebird is the third daughter of the Queen of Naetai and a military pilot. Because she is a wastling, an unwanted heir to the throne, she is considered expendable. Leading her tagwing fighter group of wastlings on a suicide mission as part of a venture to capture a Federate world outpost, she is captured by Federate colonel Brennen Caldwell, a telepathic intelligence officer seeking to capture an enemy fighter for interrogation. She attempts honorable suicide by poison for her failure, but Caldwell thwarts her medically. Under telepathic duress, her military and political knowledge is used by Caldwell to save the Federate outpost. Firebird begins to see the dishonorable tactics of her mother's government for what they are. Caldwell, in addition to being the most powerful Ehretan telepath of his generation, is the most senior telepath in a government that mistrusts them for their abilities. In addition to the government's mistrust of his people, Caldwell is questioned by his own people for his deep connection with Firebird. In her, he sensed a strong possibility of connaturality, a deep personality congruity that is essential for telepaths to have a successful relationship in marriage. Among his people there is a strong belief that, as the strongest telepath among them he should not marry outside his people, diluting the genes that allow their telepathy. Caldwell rejects his people's attitudes towards non Ehretans and continues his growing friendship with his prisoner, offering life and a future to one who believed herself as good as dead. Following Netaia's failure on Veroh, the queen is forced to honerable suicide and Firebird's sister Carradee ascends the throne. Caldwell is assigned to Naetai as the Federate representative and brings Firebird with him. While Carradee favors a conciliatory posture with the Federacy, their other sister, Phoena, secretly plots the overthrow of Federate occupation along with members of the nobility, by secretly building an ecological weapon of great power. After several political and military dangers are overcome by Caldwell and Firebird, they ignore his orders and carry out a special ops mission to destroy Phoena's research lab. Once all is settled, Firebird and Caldwell accept their relationship (over the continued objection) of his people and become engaged. Firebird is a military pilot assigned to a risky venture to capture a Federate world outpost. Because she is a wastling, she is considered expendable. Leading her tagwing fighter group, she is captured by Federate colonel Brennen Caldwell, a telepath who senses something special about her. She attempts honorable suicide by poison for her failure, but Caldwell thwarts her medically. Under duress, her military knowledge is used by Caldwell to save the Federate outpost. Firebird begins to see the dishonorable tactics of her people for what they are. Caldwell, in addition to being the most powerful Ehretan telepath of his generation, is also heir to religious prophecies among his people, and the most senior telepath in a government that mistrusts them for their abilities. Caldwell is promoted to general for his victory in the Veroh battle, as well as his diplomacy with the captured Firebird. In her, he sensed a strong possibility of connaturality, a deep personality congruity that is essential for telepaths to be married. As he has strong convictions against marrying outside his faith, and being barred from proselytizing, much of the book revolves around Caldwell trying to bridge the gap to Firebird by demonstrating the goodness of his spirit to her, offering life and hope to one who believed herself as good as dead. Following Netaia's failure on Veroh, Firebird's sister Carradee ascends the throne after their mother is forced to honorable suicide. She favors a conciliatory posture with the Federacy. Their other sister, Phoena, secretly plots the overthrow of Federate occupation along with members of the nobility, by secretly building an ecological weapon of great power. After several political and military dangers are overcome by Caldwell and Firebird, they ignore his orders and carry out a special ops mission to destroy Phoena's research lab. During the climactic battle, when Caldwell has been incapacitated and his telepathic powers are not available, Firebird casts her faith to the Great Speaker who sung the universe into existence, and strengthened by this, overcomes great odds to successfully neutralize the weapon. The religious differences thus settled, the story ends with Caldwell proposing pair bonding (marriage) to Firebird. |
7697505 | /m/026971j | Fusion Fire | Kathy Tyers | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The story opens about a year after the events of Firebird with Firebird and new husband Brennen Caldwell being attacked in the middle of the night by someone with telepathic powers, thus of Ehretan heritage. As Sentinels (telepaths aligned with the Federacy) follow a strict moral and ethical code regarding their powers, it is assumed that the Shuhr are behind it. This assumption is strengthened when Caldwell's brother's family is found murdered in their beds—the Shuhr are attempting again, for the third time in three generations, to wipe out the bloodline associated with the old religious prophecy. The aftermath of the attack reveals Firebird's pregnancy, which they had kept secret for months. The Shuhr assassins are keenly interested, and the Netaian nobility is largely shocked by the thought of a wastling producing offspring, though the news is received warmly by Queen Carradee. Firebird continues her study of Netaian political simulations, hoping to stave off societal collapse of her dysfunctional homeworld. She also studies her new religion and telepathy, having accidentally discovered that the Angelo bloodline carried Ehretan genes (and hence Ehretan powers). Attempting the turn, the most basic mental gesture, repeatedly ends in frustration and failure. Using a suicide attack on a city to distract Caldwell, another attack on her life, by a minor Sentinel officer coopted by the Shuhr, prompts her to success for the first time—but the experience is unlike any telepath has experienced before, killing the assassin who was in contact with her mind at the time and leaving her in deep shock. A second successful turn, during labor, nearly kills her as well. As this uncontrolled ability threatens any telepath that might be near her, she is quarantined—even from her newborn sons. Meanwhile, Phoena Angelo continues to chafe while Netaia is under Federate occupation, and her latest scheme involves asking the Shuhr for assistance. However, they mentally dominate her and reduce her to an unwitting pawn, using her as a source for exploring the lost Ehretan gene sequences, as well as pillaging the material wealth of Netaia. Phoena's foppish husband, Tel Tellai, humbles himself by asking Caldwell's assistance in rescuing her, despite the impossible odds. Ongoing diplomatic and military developments force the issue of Phoena's rescue, but Caldwell finally accepts the mission only after a divine vision. Using new technology to amplify his mental abilities, he sets out to infiltrate the Shuhr homeworld of Three Zed in a rescue attempt. He finds Phoena, but is captured. She is tortured to death while the Shuhr enjoyed her psychic screams of pain, at last realizing she'd been played for the fool, and only Brennen is there to mourn her death. The Shuhr leaders extract DNA samples from him for their cloning efforts, and try to force secrets from him. To thwart them, Caldwell gives himself amnesia blocks. Tel, exposed to non-Netaian ideas for the first time, begins to doubt Phoena's character and motives, though he remains fiercely devoted to her. He also comes to a healthy respect for Caldwell, and the Sentinels and Federacy in general. When Ellet Kinsman, a Sentinel officer and Firebird's romantic rival for Caldwell's affections, shows her how she can pursue and rescue Brennen, Firebird (also after divine guidance) seizes the chance, and takes the matured Tel was her copilot. On Netaia, Queen Carradee's rule and reforms are seen as ineffectual and even harmful to the ruling class, who force her to abdicate after her chambers are bombed, almost resulting in the death of Prince Consort Daithi Drake-Angelo. Carradee and Daithi are welcomed to Hesed House, the Sentinel retreat, and Daithi is given better medical care than is available on Netaia. As he begins to recover, the two of them also begin to see the Federacy, especially the gentle faith of the Sentinels, in a new light. Upon arrival at Three Zed, Firebird and Tel are discovered, but she is allowed to free Caldwell before they are both captured again. Tel remains in the shuttle, and is mentally incapacitated by the monitoring Shuhr. Caldwell is a wreck, having faced physical and psychic torture for days, and his self-imposed amnesia has progressed to the point where he cannot even remember who Firebird is. Moreover, his mental powers are chemically blocked. Confronting the most powerful Shuhr telepaths together, Firebird manages her painful turn, and Caldwell latches on to it to jumpstart his own powers temporarily. The fusion of their two epsilon carriers together is more powerful than anyone has experienced before, and they triumph before Firebird faints. Through amnesia and phobia, Caldwell hauls Firebird to the spacecraft, where Tel's mostly untested piloting abilities get them away safely. Upon their return and Caldwell's psi-healing, the Federacy discovers the Shuhr were developing their own psi-amplification and fusion technologies, which would have allowed them to dominate every world in that arm of the galaxy. |
7699151 | /m/02698cj | Linda and Morris Tannehill | null | 1970 | null | Chapter 1, If We Don't Know Where We're Going..., notes the growing dissatisfaction among youth; the many problems society faces; and the need for a clear goal rather than just an adversary (e.g. the state). It claims that the authors are not advocating any type of utopia that depends on the infallibility of man in order to function. It contends that if the present system is brought crashing down without valid ideas having been disseminated about how society can function without governmental rule, people will demand a strong leader, and a Hitler will rise to answer their plea. Chapter 2, Man and Society, argues that the nature of man is such that he must think and produce in order to live; and that in order to reach his full potential, he must have the right not only to do these things but to enjoy the rewards of his productive actions. It defines a laissez-faire society as one that "does not institutionalize the initiation of force and in which there are means for dealing with aggression justly when it does occur." It notes that only the possessor of a right can alienate himself from that right. If one does $100 of damage to a taxicab, for instance, then he alienates himself from his right to that $100. The cabbie then has a moral right to use force to collect it. Chapter 3, The Self-Regulating Market, states that state interference causes the buyer, the seller, or both, in a transaction to lose; and that only a voluntary trade can be a completely satisfactory trade. It notes that markets clear; that taxation is economic hemophilia; regulation amounts to slow strangulation; that market monopolies can only attain and maintain monopoly status through excellence and low prices; and that without freedom of the market, no other freedom is meaningful. It criticizes the government for red tape which denies entrepreneurs opportunities to rise out of poverty. Chapter 4, Government – An Unnecessary Evil, states that government is a coercive monopoly; that democratic governments decide issues largely on the basis of pressure from special interest groups; and that the notion of "a government of laws, not of men" is meaningless because laws must be written and enforced by men, and therefore a government of laws is a government of men. It argues that the eternal vigilance which is held to be the price of liberty is a constant non-productive expenditure of energy, and that is it grossly unreasonable to expect men to keep expending their energy in such a way out of unselfish idealism. It also argues that because of the danger of one interest group using the government to impose laws favoring itself or crippling its opponents, people are constantly in fear of different interest groups. Thus, blacks fear suppression by whites; whites worry about blacks gaining too much power; and any number of other groups, such as labor and management, urbanites and suburbanites, etc. are pitted against each other. Government is identified as a cause of strife. The checks and balances of government are also recognized as a source of waste that is no substitute for external checks such as competition. This chapter identifies many tools by which the government convinces people that government is necessary, such as state schools that brainwash the young into accepting pro-State ideas; investing government with tradition and pomp and identifying it with "our way of life." It also blames people for having a fear of self-responsibility. Chapter 5, A Free and Healthy Economy, begins by noting the difficulties people have in picturing a society radically different than their own. It concludes that poverty would be better addressed by a laissez faire society for many reasons, including the fact that unemployment is caused by the government; that untaxed businesses would have more profits to reinvest in productivity-enhancing technology; that private charities are more efficient than government; that parents would be more likely to avoid having excess children in the absence of social safety nets; etc. It argues that a plethora of choices in education would emerge in a free market. It also notes that the focus of media in a laissez faire society would shift from covering government to covering business and individuals, and that abuses would be checked by reporters looking for stories on aggression or fraud. The chapter argues that the quality of health care could be more efficiently kept at an adequate level through reputation, standards instituted by insurance companies, etc. It also discusses how currency could be provided without government. Chapter 6, Property – The Great Problem Solver, argues that most social problems could be solved through an increase in the amount and type of property owned. It claims that taxation is theft and that regulation by initiated force is slavery. It argues that it should be possible to claim ownership over the ocean floor, the surface of other planets, corridors of airspace, radio wavelengths, and so on, by being the first to occupy them or otherwise clearly stake out territory. It also argues that all public property should be privatized in order to reduce crime and pollution. Chapter 7, Arbitration of Disputes, argues that it is not necessary for there to be governmental arbiters, since a man who agrees to the settlement of disputes by a third party and then breaks the contract would suffer harm to his reputation and be ostracized, thus solving the problem of noncompliance. It notes that the government's judges will tend to be biased in favor of government, since that is the entity from which they receive their salaries and power. It promotes the concept of insurance companies as a substitute for government as the institution used to pursue claims; in the event a person were defrauded, they could file a claim with their insurance company, and the insurer would obtain the right of subrogation. Insurers who, themselves, committed abuses would suffer loss of reputation and be at a competitive disadvantage to more reputable insurers. Chapter 8, Protection of Life and Property, asserts that a person has the right to defend his life against aggression; and that he therefore has the right to defend his possessions as well, since they are the results of his investment of parts of his life and are, thus, extensions of that life. It notes, "Pacifism encourages every thug to continue his violent ways, even though the pacifist may devoutly wish he wouldn't (wishes don't create reality). Pacifistic behavior teaches the aggressor that crime does pay and encourages him to more and bigger aggressions. Such sanctioning of injustices is immoral, and because it is immoral it is also impractical." It argues that self-defense is a personal responsibility, which one can fulfill by hiring an agent to protect him, such as a private defense agency. It distinguishes initiated force from retaliatory force, noting that the former is not a market phenomenon because it acts to destroy the market; but the latter is a market phenomenon because it restrains aggressors who would destroy it and/or exacts reparations from them. It notes that government creates a social environment which breeds crime through its prohibitions on gambling, prostitution, drugs, and so on. It argues that the main role of police is to protect the government, rather than the citizens. It contrasts the police to private defense agencies, which would focus on preventing aggression and whose officers would lack immunity for any offenses they might commit. It also notes that insurance companies might sell policies covering the insured against loss resulting from any type of coercion; and that these insurers could bring unruly defense agencies to their knees through ostracism and boycotts. Yet, at the same time, the insurers would seek to avoid taking such action without cause, since it could be costly and result in boycotts against the insurer itself. Chapter 9, Dealing with Coercion, argues that punishment in the form of eye for an eye vengeance does nothing to compensate the victim, and therefore opposes justice. It argues that an aggressor should repay the victim for his loss and for all expenses occasioned by the aggression, such as the cost of apprehending the offender. It further states that when an offender could not pay the restitution for a crime in his lifetime, the additional expenses could be paid by the insurance company. Chapter 10, Rectification of Injustice, notes that some criminals of a particularly untrustworthy nature might need to work off their debt in workhouses. To insure against refusal to work, the reparations payments would be deducted from each pay before room and board costs, and those who refused to work would not eat or would have only a minimal diet. A variety of degrees of confinement would exist. The argument that the rich would buy crime is refuted by the argument that even a wealthy man could be killed in self-defense if he attempted a violent act; and that he would risk his reputation as well. Chapter 11, Warring Defense Agencies and Organized Crime, asserts the falsity of the assumption that government is necessary to prevent the initiation of force by arguing that government, as a coercive monopoly, must initiate force in order to survive. It notes several factors that would make a private defense agency avoid aggression. It would put itself at risk of retaliation and would lead its customers to fear that, in the event of a falling-out, it would turn its aggressive force against them. Moreover, insurers would consider the company to be a poor risk. Its employees would also be liable for any damages they caused, which would cause problems between the companies and its employees if it ordered unjustified attacks. It also speculates that a mafia-style agency would be unlikely to survive since there would be no black market to support it. The chapter argues that a tyrant would have more difficulty rising to power under a system of competing private defense agencies than under a governmental system, because customers oppressed by their company could simply switch to another company and obtain protection from the tyrant. Chapter 12, Legislation and Objective Law, argues that free men, acting in a free market, would manage their affairs in accordance with natural law. It calls statutory law a clumsy, anachronistic, and unjust hindrance. It also argues that government judges have no market signals to guide their decisions, in contrast to free-market arbiters, who have profit and loss as a built-in correction mechanism. Chapter 13, Foreign Aggression, notes that governments obtain the resources used for defense from the people; and those same resources can be used by private defense agencies to protect the people from aggression. It argues that governments aggravate or threaten other governments to the point of armed conflict, and then coerce their citizens into protecting them. It notes that the ability of aggression insurers to pay claims would be enhanced by the limited damage resulting from the fact that foreign aggressors would need to use conventional warfare in wars of conquest, to avoid destroying the property and slaves they seek to gain. It notes that in a laissez faire society, there would be no government that could surrender to the enemy; defenders would fight as long as they perceived it was in their best interest. Chapter 14, The Abolition of War, argues that government, not business, is responsible for the formation of the military-industrial complex. It notes that the burden of supporting wars falls heavily on business, since taxes are taken out of the pocket of the consumer. Moreover, businesses are a society's producers, and it is a society's producers who pay the bills. Business also suffers from wars because of the disruption of trade and the ruin and poverty that result. Government, however, gains from wars because it is left with more power, more money, and more territory. War also helps unite the people behind the government in the face of a "common enemy." The authors conclude that all that is needed to abolish war is to abolish government. Chapter 15, From Government to Laissez Faire, argues that first and foremost, the economy should be provided with media of exchange to replace the dollar. It states that possession of public property should be taken by individuals who, simply by clearly marking their claims, become the rightful owners. It argues against disposing of public property at auction, since bureaucrats would figure out ways to divert the proceeds into their own pockets, and the system would be biased toward the rich, many of whom obtained their wealth through political pull. The process of auctioning off the property would also prolong the politicians' power. Chapter 16, The Force Which Shapes the World, argues that it is immoral to destroy the private property or life of an individual who has not aggressed against one. It argues that violent revolution is not only destructive, but actually strengthens the government. It also notes that a revolution's leaders could then become the next rulers. Because of the people's desire for a leader to get them out of chaos, the chapter opines that a violent revolution would pave the way for a new Hitler. This chapter calls for people to share ideas related to freedom, which can eventually lead to widespread non-cooperation with government. |
7708732 | /m/0269j9_ | The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game | Michael Lewis | 2006 | {"/m/05h83": "Non-fiction"} | The book features two dominant storylines. The first is an examination of how offensive football strategy has evolved over the past three decades in large part due to Lawrence Taylor's arrival in the 1980s and how this evolution has placed an increased importance on the role of the left tackle. The second storyline features Michael Oher, the former left tackle for the Ole Miss football team, and later right tackle for the Baltimore Ravens. Lewis follows Oher from his impoverished upbringings through his years at Briarcrest Christian School, his adoption by Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy and on to his position as one of the most highly coveted prospects in college football. |
7708912 | /m/0269jg3 | Katrina | Sally Salminen | 1936 | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | A young Ostrobothnian woman named Katrina marries a young man from Åland, Johan, who promises her an affluent life on Åland. Upon arriving on Åland, however, Katrina discovers Johan has greatly exaggerated his standing in society, and she enters a life of poverty and constant struggle against difficult circumstances and unsympathetic people in power. |
7712361 | /m/0269my4 | The First Intimate Contact | null | 1998 | null | The protagonist (who shares the same name as the author) meets and falls in love with a girl, FlyNDance, on the Internet. They eventually meet up in real life and become a couple, going out by day and chatting online by night. After some time together, however, FlyNDance is diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus (erroneously translated as erysipelas in the English translation), which symbolically causes a butterfly-shaped rash to appear on her face. The disease proves to be fatal, and the novel ends with the protagonist finding and reading a letter FlyNDance had written for him before she died. |
7713595 | /m/0269p62 | Pegasus in Space | Anne McCaffrey | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Peter Reidinger, the telepathic and telekinetic Talent introduced in Pegasus in Flight, proves to be one of the most important psychic Talents in human history; his ability to tap into outside sources of energy gives him potentially unlimited power, but there are ruthless enemies of all Talent who must be stopped, or all mankind will pay the price. |
7713618 | /m/0269p73 | The Satanic Mill | null | null | null | Set in the late 17th century, the story follows the life of Krabat, a 14-year-old Wendish (i.e. Sorbian) beggar boy living in the eastern part of Saxony. For three consecutive nights, he is called to a watermill near the village Schwarzkollm through a dream. Upon heeding the call and arriving at the mill, he begins his apprenticeship as a miller's man. He soon joins the secret brotherhood, composed of journeymen and apprentices, and discovers that the skill he is meant to learn through this apprenticeship is Black Magic. The first magic powers Krabat acquires are rather harmless, such as the ability to turn himself into a raven. Other peculiarities of this watermill include the lack of any outside visitors, including farmers who would have brought grain. The only visitor to the mill is one Goodman, who may be the devil, although this is never made explicit. The senior apprentice Tonda, Krabat's best friend and older brother figure, dies, ostensibly of an accident, on New Year's Eve in Krabat's first year at the mill. Tonda offers strangely little resistance to his own death. Krabat's suspicions of foul play are further reinforced when another journeyman and friend, Michal, dies the following New Year's Eve. He soon realizes that the master is bound in a pact to the Goodman: the master must sacrifice one journeyman every year on New Year's Eve, or perish himself. Wishing to take revenge for his friends' death, Krabat secretly trains to increase his magical strength so he can fight the master. His quest is aided by a girl from the nearby village, a church singer, “Kantorka”, whose name is never mentioned (“Kantorka” meaning just ‘little chorister’). Krabat learns that to end the spell, his lover must challenge the master for him; then whoever loses the challenge, the master or the two lovers, will die. The master offers Krabat another solution: He will retire and let Krabat inherit the mill, along with the pact to the Goodman; but Krabat refuses to perpetuate the evil pact. So the challenge goes ahead, and the girl's task is to distinguish Krabat from the rest of the journeymen, all dressed identically and standing motionless in a lineup, while she is blindfolded. She manages to pick him out by the fact that he fears mainly for her life, while the others fear mainly for their own. Ultimately, she rescues Krabat from death, and they and the journeymen escape the mill. The master is left to die in the burning mill on New Year's Eve, while the survivors lose all their magic powers and are now simple millers who have to provide for themselves through normal hard work. |
7719386 | /m/0269vk2 | Ruby Holler | Sharon Creech | 3/26/2002 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0127jb": "Magic realism"} | The novel starts in the Boxton Creek Home, an orphanage run by a strict couple, George and Marjorie Trepid. Thirteen-year-old Dallas Carter, an imaginative young teenager, and his twin sister Florida Carter, a sassy and bold girl, are long-time residents of the Home, and they have been punished many times for their breaking of the rules that the Trepids post all over the House. They've been adopted many times and then returned for various reasons, often by fault of the adopters. Because of this, they have been dubbed the "trouble twins." They have a plan to run away and board a train. Outside of Boxton, in a plot of land called Ruby Holler, Tiller and Sairy Morey, a very old couple whose children have grown up and left, are sitting and discussing about their plain lives, that they want a new adventure. The two decide to foster care for children, and they adopt Dallas and Florida. Although Sairy, a very kind and trusting old lady, is very excited about the idea, Tiller, a "crotchety old boot", is doubtful of the kids in Ruby Holler. Even though the twins enjoy the freedom and adventure in the holler, they're still suspicious and think that Tiller and Sairy will mistreat them like others before, although their suspicions are soon proven false. Tiller and Sairy tell Dallas and Florida that they are planning on each going on separate trips, and they want the twins to come on each: Dallas with Sairy onto an island, and Florida with Tiller on a rafting trip. All of them are uneasy about leaving their partner, but they don't reveal it. Tiller and Sairy use their "understone funds," underground savings that they've kept for years, for the trips. Elsewhere, Mr. Trepid, who has heard about the understone funds from Dallas and Florida as they ran into each other in Boxton while getting supplies for the trips, asks a shady man called Z, Tiller and Sairy's neighbor, to map out Ruby Holler, but doesn't say why. Z feels uneasy doing so because he likes Tiller and Sairy, but does so anyway, stalling with the assistance, as well as helping with the Ruby Holler family prepare for their trips. Dallas and Florida, however, still think that Tiller and Sairy are still trouble, so they take the supplies for the trips and run away, but don't go far from their cabin. Sairy and Tiller think that the twins did so because they were testing the supplies, and they suggest practice trips closer to home. While on the trips, Tiller and Sairy learn about the twins' past and realize that the Trepids were horrible people. While on their trips, Z continues to stall with production of Mr. Trepid's map, as he probably feels more protective of the Moreys because he believes that Dallas and Florida are his biological children because the Dallas' mother named on his birth certificate was his wife. Eventually he gives Mr Trepid a map with possible hiding places, but takes the understone funds to prevent them from being stolen from Mr. Trepid. On Tiller and Florida's small trip while rafting down a river, their boat capsizes and Tiller suffers a heart attack. Luckily, Dallas, Sairy, and Z find them and Tiller is taken to a hospital where he recovers. Z starts bonding with the twins and they set up traps for Mr. Trepid while he looks for the understone funds and fails to find them. In the end, two of Tiller and Sairy's biological children visit the holler to check on Tiller's health and suggest they send the twins back to the Boxton Creek Home. Dallas and Florida hear their conversation and run away again before hearing Tiller and Sairy's denial. In the morning, Dallas and Florida smell food from the cabin and return to Ruby Holler. |
7719756 | /m/0269vv0 | The Pinhoe Egg | Diana Wynne Jones | 2006 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Marianne Pinhoe's family tries to keep their magic a secret. They don't want the "Big Man", or Chrestomanci, interfering, as he tends to do when people misuse magic. And the Pinhoes certainly are guilty of that. Gammer, the head of the Pinhoe clan, has ostensibly gone mad, but Marianne doesn't believe that she's completely 'round the twist. She's sure that Gammer's the one sending plagues to the Farleighs, a related clan that also wishes to stay out of the sights of the "Big Man". Until recently, the Farleighs and the Pinhoes had been working together, but it seems that Gammer has started a war, and it'll be hard to keep their operations under wraps for long. Meanwhile, up at the Castle, Cat acquires a horse. He also meets the man who was bootboy at the Castle when the current Chrestomanci was a lad, Jason, and helps him and his new wife choose a house. They finally settle on Woods House, Gammer's old place, and Marianne, while showing Cat around, gives him an old egg from the attic, an egg with strong "Don't Notice" spells placed on it. An egg that is sure to arouse the interest of the "Big Man" up at the castle – something the rest of the Pinhoe clan, and Gammer in particular, doesn't want at all. |
7720196 | /m/0269wfn | Tracks | Louise Erdrich | 1988 | {"/m/0488wh": "Literary fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Tracks alternates between two narrators: Nanapush, a jovial tribal elder, and Pauline, a young girl of mixed heritage. In Nanapush’s chapters the point-of-view is that of Nanapush telling stories to his grand-daughter, Lulu, several years after the main events in the novel occur. When Lulu was ten years old, her mother, Fleur Pillager, sent her away to a government school. Because of this, Lulu is now estranged from Fleur. Nanapush, therefore, attempts to reconcile mother and daughter by telling Lulu about the events between 1912 and 1924 that led Fleur to her decision. Nanapush first meets Fleur in 1912 when he rescues her in the middle of winter and nurses her back to health from consumption – a recent epidemic among the Ashininaabe. Because of their shared grief at losing so many from their community, Nanapush and Fleur develop a friendship and begin to see one another as family. The next year, Fleur goes to the nearby town of Argus and takes a job at a butcher’s shop, where she meets Pauline Puyat – the novel’s second narrator. After beating a group of men from the shop one night at a game of poker, Fleur is beaten and raped. She leaves town, but the next day a tornado strikes Argus. Mysteriously, no one in town is harmed in the storm with the exception of the men who raped her – whose bodies are found locked in the freezer of the butcher shop, where they had taken cover. Fleur returns to her family home on the reservation, where she meets Eli Kashpaw while hunting in the woods one day. Much to his mother’s dismay, Eli falls in love with Fleur and moves in with her. Soon, Fleur begins to show signs that she is pregnant and, although the true paternity is unknown, Eli takes responsibility of the child as his own. A new family unit begins to form at the Pillager home – Fleur, Eli and their daughter, Lulu, as well as Eli’s mother, Margaret, and her second son, Nector. Throughout the novel, Margaret and Nanapush, whom Fleur regards as a father, also develop an intimate relationship. Together, the family faces trials of hunger, tribal conflict, and ultimately the loss of their land to the government. In the meantime, Pauline has also left Argus and is staying with a widow named Bernadette Morrissey, from whom she learns the art of tending the sick and dying. Pauline serves as a midwife to Fleur and begins to spend time at the Pillager home. She becomes increasingly jealous of Fleur and her relationship with Eli and goes to desperate measures to break them up. Claiming to have received a vision, she decides to join a convent, where she only delves further into obsession. She devotes herself to the cause of converting Fleur and the others, but is generally regarded as a nuisance. She develops several unusual habits as a means of self-inflicting suffering to remind herself of Christ’s suffering. Her behaviors are frowned upon by the superior nun and she is eventually sent away to teach at a Catholic school. Pauline's narratives deal with her own personal story and also provide a second perspectives on many of the same events described by Nanapush. |
7720434 | /m/0269wz5 | Tea with the Black Dragon | R. A. MacAvoy | 1983 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | Tea with the Black Dragon is about Martha MacNamara, called west to San Francisco by a message from her daughter, Elizabeth, a computer programmer. When she arrives, however, Elizabeth has disappeared. Mayland Long, an Asian gentleman, who is skilled in languages, including those used for computer programming (he settles down to read Donald Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming with a “contented sigh”) and who may be a transformed 2,000 year old Chinese dragon, aids Martha in her search for her daughter. As they search for clues to Elizabeth's disappearance, they discover hints that Elizabeth is involved in a dangerous crime. |
7722901 | /m/0269z4w | Collected Works | null | null | null | Following on from the events of The Crystal of Cantus, Collected Works details a year in the life of the Braxiatel Collection following its founder's disappearance. The staff of the Collection have to cope with their new place in the universe, and a visit from a team of post-human scholars from the future, called the Quire. As the year progresses, it becomes clear that even though he has left them, Braxiatel's influence can still be felt on the Collection. |
7723262 | /m/0269zbf | New Boy | null | null | null | The book is set in 1986 and is narrated by a Jewish student at the school, Mark, who does not have much success with girls. He finds himself drawn to Barry, who is incredibly handsome. The two become friends, and the book tells of the course of just over a year during which Barry discovers sex with girls and has an affair with a teacher. Mark struggles with his attraction to Barry, but has a relationship with Barry's sister, Louise. Barry, meanwhile, realises that he is, in fact, gay, and enters into a relationship with Mark's brother, Dan, which Mark is unaware of. The four all go on holiday together, and Dan and Barry tell Mark of their relationship. He reacts badly, and accuses them of not being normal. This leads to Barry storming off and Louise dumping Mark. Mark and Barry do have a rapprochement of sorts at the end of the book, but their friendship is over. Mark ends the book contending that he can't be homophobic, because he made it up with his brother. |
7723826 | /m/0269zzq | Mortal Error: The Shot That Killed JFK | null | null | null | Donahue first became interested interested in the story of the JFK assassination after being invited to participate in a recreation of the shooting as one of eleven invited marksmen and sharpshooters. Donahue eventually decided that the bullet that struck Kennedy in the head had in fact been fired by agent George Hickey from an AR-15 carried in a secret service car following the President's vehicle. However he also decided that a previous shot had already mortally wounded Kennedy before the head shot was fired. |
7729327 | /m/026b4yy | The Fabulous Clipjoint | Fredric Brown | 1947 | {"/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/028v3": "Detective fiction"} | When teenaged Ed Hunter's alcoholic father is murdered, Ed is for all intents and purposes orphaned, as he feels no affection whatsoever for his mean-spirited stepmother and hypersexual stepsister. The police dismiss the case as nothing more than the random murder of a back-alley drunk, and so Ed decides to investigate the crime on his own. Ed enlists the help of his father's brother, Ambrose Hunter, an itinerant carny, who he has not seen in many years, and the two of them set out to solve the crime. Together they wade through a swamp of unseemly characters of the Chicago underworld to expose the real murderer of their father and brother. Along the way, with Am's guidance, Ed comes to realize that his father was not the hapless, pathetic man he had always believed him to be. |
7729654 | /m/026b5b9 | The Cry of the Wolf | null | null | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | : Tagline: : Always before, he had been the Hunter. Now he had been the prey and he had survived. He would live. He would kill again. The book tells the story of a man who tries to kill the last wild wolves in England, and the wolf, raised among humans, who will try to strike back. What if there were still wolves in England and only a few people knew it? What if one of those people was an obsessive, half-mad, extremely able hunter who was determined to have the honor of killing the last wolf in England? We are with the last wolf cubs as they are born short minutes before the slaughter begins. The female survives, wounded by The Hunter, only long enough to teach her sole surviving cub a few skills before she too is killed by the man. The cub, Greycub, is reared by Ben and his family and, being a social animal, waits in vain for the sound or scent of a remaining wolf. This is not to be for he is the last wolf in England. Regretfully leaving his human friends, he roams for years searching for sign of his species. In a bizarre but very fitting climax to the story, Greycub becomes the hunter and The Hunter knows, too late, the feeling of the prey. This is a raw and brutal book and, to be sure, a cautionary tale about extinction. However, the focus is on obsession verging on madness. Ben, the boy who rears Greycub, becomes an innocent betrayer of the wolves for it is he who first alerts The Hunter to the presence of the wolf pack. The book reads like non-fiction with an almost detached manner but the brutality is so compelling that detachment on the part of the reader is nearly impossible. In fact, the feelings of readers would make for a fascinating discussion. At which point did they become engaged? Did they ever feel any sympathy for The Hunter? How did the author do that? Also, there is some anthropomorphism present. Could Burgess have done the book without it? |
7729746 | /m/026b5gf | Give A Boy A Gun | Todd Strasser | null | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction"} | The main characters are Brendan Lawlor and Gary Searle, they go to Middletown High School and are constantly being bullied by the football players. Their problems get worse and worse as their lives go by and both boys seem to get darker and darker. They take their problems to the limit and having stress in their lives makes everything much worse. So Brendan and Gary bring guns to their school dance and hold everyone hostage for a while. They open fire on some students injuring them badly. Then after a long while a few boys sneak around and tackle Brendan disarming him, while Gary had already committed suicide. Then Brendan is beaten into a coma by the football team. It is not said if he survives. The story is written as a series of interviews conducted by a narrator, later revealed to be Gary's stepsister. |
7731288 | /m/026b6xj | The Little White Horse | Elizabeth Goudge | 1946-06 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | Maria Merryweather becomes an orphan at age 13, upon her father's death in 1842. She is sent to the Moonacre Manor somewhere in the west of England, accompanied by her governess Miss Heliotrope and dog Wiggins. There she finds herself in a world out of time. Her cousin and guardian Sir Benjamin Merryweather is one of the "sun" Merryweathers, and she loves him right away, as sun and moon Merryweathers do. Maria discovers that there is an ancient mystery about the founding of the estate. She is aided by wonderful people and magical beasts, but it is only by self-sacrifice and perseverance, too, that Maria is able to save Moonacre, right the wrongs, reunite lost loves and finally bring peace to the valley. |
7734089 | /m/026b9dn | The Phantom Blooper | Gustav Hasford | 1990-02 | {"/m/012jgz": "Autobiographical novel", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/098tmk": "War novel"} | The novel begins sometime after The Short-Timers left off and is divided into three parts. In "The Winter Soldiers", Joker (having been demoted from Sergeant to Private) is still at the Khe Sanh base, which is about to be abandoned by American Marines after withstanding a two-month siege. He believes most of his previous squad-mates are dead, even the seemingly indestructible Animal Mother. Joker blames their deaths on "The Phantom Blooper", supposedly an American, armed with an M79 grenade launcher, who fights alongside the Viet Cong against his countrymen. Joker is still haunted by the memory of his friend Cowboy, whom he killed in order to keep his squad from being cut down by a sniper. As a result, his behavior has become increasingly erratic and violent. He sets up one of his squad-mates to be killed in an attempt to draw the Phantom Blooper out of hiding, then forces an inattentive soldier on guard duty to hold a live hand grenade with the pin out. Later, as the Viet Cong attempt to overrun the base, he splits his platoon sergeant's tongue with a straight razor. The Marines turn back the attack, suffering heavy losses in the process. The next night, Joker ventures out in search of the Phantom Blooper, but is wounded and captured by the enemy. "Travels With Charlie" begins over a year later. Joker has been living and working in a small Viet Cong village, waiting for a chance to escape. He has not been tortured or sent to a POW camp, and his captors have begun to trust him to some degree. In Joker's mind, his best chance is to fool them into believing that he has converted to their cause, accompany them on an attack against an American position, then make his escape when the shooting starts. As time passes, however, he genuinely begins to side more and more with the Viet Cong, seeing them - the people he has been trained to kill - as ordinary human beings just like himself. When a team of Army soldiers arrives to rescue him, he is wounded in the ensuing firefight but manages to shoot down one of their choppers with a discarded M79 before passing out. In "The Proud Flesh", Joker spends time convalescing and undergoing psychiatric therapy at Yokosuka Naval Hospital in Japan. He quickly makes it clear that he does not regret any of his actions as a Viet Cong captive, and he expresses his disgust and outrage at having been sent by his country to fight in a futile war. Despite threats of a court-martial for treason, he is given a Section 8 discharge and sent home to the United States. Upon arriving in California, Joker finds that his squad radioman, Donlon, is alive and well and has become an antiwar protester. (Animal Mother, he also learns, was captured by the Viet Cong but escaped from a POW camp; he is still an active Marine.) They attend a demonstration that is quickly and forcefully broken up by the police, but Joker manages to slip away with the help of a cop who served with him at Khe Sanh. Next, Joker travels to Kansas, Cowboy's home, and has a brief and uneasy meeting with Cowboy's parents. Their son's body was never recovered from the jungle, and Joker does not tell them that he fired the shot that killed Cowboy. Finally, he reaches the family farm in Alabama, his disillusionment with the war and America growing all the time. Realizing at last that there is nothing left for him here, he sets out to return to Vietnam and his life among the Viet Cong villagers. |
7737689 | /m/026bdff | Prince of Ayodhya | Ashok Banker | 2003 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | The story begins with Rama's first encounter with the demon lord Ravana, King of the Asuras, a race of evil beings who represent everything against that which mankind stands for. As he dreams, he is filled with images detailing the destruction and rape of his home city, Ayodhya, the capital of Kosala, kingdom of Dasaratha, Rama's father. The prince frantically slices through his room, demonstrating considerable martial skill, fearful of his dreams. Meanwhile, the great seer Vishwamitra, one of the Seven Sages of Hindu theology, proceeds towards Ayodhya. As he travels, he becomes aware of some strange disturbance, and changes his form to that of a Shudra hunter, a low-caste marksman. As he walks, Jatayu, leader of Ravana's air force, tracks his movement and inspects the city of Ayodhya. Only a few seconds before Vishwamitra walks through Ayodhya's massive gates, however, a second being who looks exactly like him is seen proceeding through it... In the palace, First Queen Kausalya, Dasaratha's first wife and mother of Rama, is paid a visit by the King. At first, she spurns him for not having stepped into her palace for the past year and spending all of his time at the palace of the Second Queen Kaikeyi. Letting out her frustration and anger through sarcastic words, she describes the hurt that she feels. Dasaratha begs for her forgiveness, and tells her that in reality, he always loved Kausalya more as a wife and the mother of his eldest son. He tells her two pieces of information that shock her: the first, that her son Rama is to be crowned on his sixteenth birthday as the new King of Ayodhya, and the second being that he is terminally ill. Vashishta and Dasaratha both make arrangements to greet the illustrious visitor, but while performing the prescribed welcoming ritual (known as arghya), they are rudely interrupted by the shudra hunter. Despite Dasaratha's attempts to peaceably (and then forcibly) remove him from the location, the hunter ignores him, claiming that the Vishwamitra they were about to welcome is a demon. The hunter changes back to his real form as Vishwamitra and exposes the hunter as Kala-Nemi, the uncle of Ravana. They banish him to the netherworld, and Vishwamitra states that he needs to ask Dasaratha for a favor. He explains that Ravana has plans to invade the Indian subcontinent from Lanka, and has put spies in the court. He exposes the spies, who are locked away and interrogated. Meanwhile, the sons Rama and Lakshmana have returned from the nearby woods, where they had encountered a band of pahadi warriors led by Bearface, all of whom were arrested. They find their brothers Shatrughan and Bharata waiting for them at the gates, which have been inexplicably closed. They find out that the city has been completely closed off, cutting off the disappointed Holi revelers who have come from across all of India to celebrate, because of an attack in the palace grounds. Rama is allowed to enter along with his brothers, who feel immensely guilty, but do not argue. He stops a riot on the way between a number of crazed tantrics and palace guards. Upon entering the palace, he is introduced to Vishwamitra. Vishwamitra explains his predicament to Rama; his 200-year sacrifice is coming to an end but unless the demons of the Bhayanak-van, the forest in which he resides, are destroyed, it cannot be completed in time. He claims that Rama is the only person necessary for the task and is the only one who can accomplish it. Dasaratha vehemently refuses to give Rama away, pushing away all rational reasoning in the love for his son. Incensed, Vishwamitra moves to leave but is pacified by Vashishta, who then says the matter will be put to a popular vote as decreed by the rules of Manu, since it is a conflict between two dharmas. During the Holi parade, Dasaratha announces to the entire city that Rama will be crowned as crown prince and that he is to be his successor. The statement is met with an uproar of approval, after which Vishwamitra details the reasons for coming to Ayodhya. After demonstrating the potential effect of an invasion in Ayodhya to the people, he tells them that the only way to stop it is to allow Rama to be taken under his tutelage. The crowd roars their approval of the decision, saying in unison that Rama is the greatest champion of Ayodhya. Lakshmana is granted permission by his mother Sumitra to leave with Rama, who both travel with Vishwamitra and leave the city during the height of the Holi celebration while everyone is distracted. Dasaratha makes his way up to the top of the Seer's Tower, where he is attacked by an enraged Kaikeyi and saved in the nick of time by Bharat. Kaikeyi, who had spent the day fuming at Dasaratha's announcement of Rama's coronation, her rage fueled by Manthara, threatens to kill Kausalya. Rama and Lakshmana travel far from Ayodhya towards the Bhayanak-van without much delay (aside from being tailed by the Maharaja's personal guard) and stop for the night at an ashram in a location known as Kama's Grove, a small Saivite hermitage. Before arriving, Vishwamitra endows both Rama and Lakshmana with the powers of Bala and Atibala, the two most powerful brahmanic mantras which grant them super-strength, speed, and power beyond that of any normal mortal being. Their powers develop separately, with different effects, but with equally satisfying results. Unbeknownst to them, the rakshasi Surpanakha, the sister of Ravana, has witnessed the entire ritual, having followed them from Ayodhya. After reporting to Ravana, she is told to wait and follow them from a distance. Meanwhile, in Ayodhya, Vashishta and Prime Minister Sumantra enter the prisons to interrogate the spies exposed in the court, only to find that their bodies have been dismembered and ripped to shreds by Ravana's mayavic power. Joining their limbs and heads together in a mockery of his own body, he tells Vashishta and Sumantra that he will destroy Ayodhya utterly for defeating Lanka in the Asura Wars. Vashishta battles the possessed body while Sumantra flees. The boys and Vishwamitra leave in the morning and head towards the true Bhayanak-van, which Vishwamitra reveals runs through Narak, the lowest level of Hell, exposed by a portal ripped by Ravana. They encounter a foul environment worse than that of any other on the planet. Vishwamitra gives them a simple goal - destroy the five hundred monsters or so that inhabit the Bhayanak-van and kill Tataka and her sons Mareech and Subahu. When the battle begins, Rama and Lakshmana together kill more than two hundred monsters back-to-back with their bows and arrows. When the second, more powerful wave attacks, however, while Rama remains unscathed and continues to wipe out monsters, Lakshmana is brutally murdered and torn to pieces. Meanwhile, the King's guard, the elite Vajra regiment, has continued to tail Rama into the Bhayanak-van and enters the battle, at which point the remaining monsters are wiped out. Tataka, a beautiful yaksha rakshasi of towering height, arrives on the scene, entirely naked, distracting most of the soldiers. Rama realizes at this point that Lakshmana has been killed, and pleads with the Maharishi to revive him. Simultaneously he has qualms about killing Tataka because she is a woman, but Vishwamitra tells Rama that the only way to revive Lakshmana is to kill Tataka for her sins. Rama uses the power of the sun in his blood, and destroys her utterly. Lakshmana is revived, but is not informed that he had died upon the battlefield. He and Rama arrive at Vishwamitra's ashram, where they spend a vigil of seven days guarding the yagna after receiving the divine power of the deva-astras, weapons which have the ability to call upon the power of any deva at will. At the end of the seven days, Subahu and Mareech, Tataka's two sons, attack the yagna, but are both dispatched by Rama and Lakshmana. After the completion of the sacrifice, Vishwamitra tells Rama and Lakshmana that they are now to travel to Mithila in order to complete the next task - attending a marriage. Perplexed, Rama asks whose marriage they are to attend, and he cryptically replies "... Yours." The book finishes with the image of Jatayu flying over the massive navy of Lanka, which is preparing to invade the mainland in full force with the power of Ravana behind it. Meanwhile, in Ayodhya, Kausalya, Vashishta, and Sumantra all realize that the King's condition is most definitely fatal, but also find out that a spy exists in the royal family who may be destroying the country and court from within. |
7754704 | /m/026bxyv | The Lady's Not for Burning | Christopher Fry | null | null | The play takes place during the year "1400 either more or less or exactly," and the costumes are described as being "as much 15th century as anything else." The action of the play takes place in "a room in the house of Mayor Hebble Tyson." Thomas Mendip is a recently discharged soldier who is tired of the world and wants to be hanged. He enters the mayor's house and engages in brief conversation with Richard, the mayor's copying clerk. Alizon, the future wife of Humphrey, the Mayor's nephew, soon enters. She and Richard immediately feel a connection. Soon Nicholas, Humphrey's brother, enters, declaring that he has killed Humphrey in a battle over Alizon, and thus is deserving of her hand in marriage. Margaret, Nicholas and Humphrey's mother and Mayor Tyson's sister enter. Nicholas and Richard are sent to get Humphrey from the garden, where he is lying, quite alive, after the fight with Nicholas. Noises outside the house make a witch-hunt known, and Thomas repeatedly reminds everyone that he is there to be hanged, and asks why doesn't anyone do anything about it. The Mayor enters, declaring that Thomas shall not be hanged without reason, as there is absolutely no precedent for such an action. Thomas then says he has killed two people, so he is deserving of the gallows. The Mayor does not believe him. Jennet then enters. She is the accused witch. After recounting the wild tales they tell about her mystical powers, and laughing over their ludicrous nature, she is shocked to hear that the Mayor shares the crowd’s opinion that she is a witch. The mayor sends Richard to get the constable to have her arrested, but Richard does not get the constable; he does not think she is a witch. The Chaplain enters next, apologising for his tardiness to evening prayers, explaining that the world is so amazing, it is hard not to be distracted doing every day things. Thomas tells everyone that he is the devil, and that the world will soon end. The Mayor has both him and Jennet arrested. Later on, The Mayor and The Justice, Tappercoom, discuss the unusual reactions of the prisoners to the mild tortures they are being put through. Jennet will not admit to any crimes at all, and Thomas is continually admitting new crimes. Margaret rushes in in a panic, searching for the tongs to put a blazing log back in the fire. The Chaplain, woken, relates a dream he has had about the ladder to heaven. Margaret returns, horrified at the number of people clamouring in the street over the accusations of Thomas and Jennet. The Chaplain suggests that they invite Thomas to the party that the family is having that night in order to cheer him up and make him go away, but the family is shocked. The Justice considers it, though. In the mean time, Richard enters, somewhat drunk. He is depressed about Thomas and Jennet, and about his hopelessness over Alizon. He reveals that Humphrey and Nicholas had been sitting in the cellar with Jennet, not saying a word. The Mayor, still displeased for his refusal to fetch a constable, commands him to scrub the floor. Nicholas enters, ecstatic and bloody. Humphrey enters, complaining that Nicholas attempted to address the crowd and was hit by a brick. Margaret questions the boys on their contact with Jennet. Nicholas claims honourable intentions, but accuses Humphrey of being on "business of the flesh, by all the fires of Venus." Margaret takes Nicholas off to be cleaned up. The Mayor comes up with a plan to determine the guilt of the prisoners. He, Humphrey, Tappercoom, and the Chaplain hide upstairs and eavesdrop as Jennet and Thomas converse freely. Thomas talks about how awful humanity is, and Jennet tells why people think she's a witch. They claim that she had turned an old man into a dog, the same man that Thomas claims to have murdered. They grow closer as they talk, and Jennet finally declares that she loves him, whether he's the devil or not. The Mayor and his company re-enter, taking her statement as an admission of guilt. He demands she be burned the next day. Thomas is outraged both at the sentence and the fact that he's being ignored, but the Justice proclaims him guilty only of being depressing and depressed, and sentences him to attend the party that night. Thomas reluctantly agrees, on the terms that Jennet be also allowed to attend. The Mayor and Tappercoom discuss his request as he threatens to inform the whole countryside that they released a murderer if they don't agree. They do, as does Jennet, if somewhat despondently. That evening, Thomas, Humphrey, and Nicholas are bored together, waiting for Jennet to be ready for the party. Margaret, vexed over Jennet's continued presence in her house, urges Humphrey and Nicholas to return to the party, but they decline, and the three drink to boredom. Jennet finally arrives, and the three fight over who will take her to the party. Jennet goes with Humphrey, as he is the host. The Mayor comes into the room, and tries to get Thomas to go away. Thomas escapes into the garden, and Tappercoom enters as the Mayor as he complains about Jennet's beauty and charm tempting him. Tappercoom mocks him for lusting after her at his age, and reminds him that after she's dead they will possess her substantial property. The Chaplain enters, distraught. He laments over his failure to play a dance at the party. Tappercoom takes him back to the party to cheer him up. Richard enters, and tries to speak to the Mayor, but the Mayor proclaims that he's going to lock himself in his room and not leave until morning. Thomas re-enters and speaks with Richard over the sadness of the situation. Alizon enters, and Thomas quickly goes back to the garden to give them privacy. Alizon is distraught over the unfairness of the burning. Richard half-heartedly defends the laws, but Alizon tells him she doesn't love Humphrey. She loves Richard, and they agree to escape together. Richard rushes to get his savings, but Margaret stops him, looking for Alizon. They both rush off. Jennet, Humphrey, and Nicholas return from dancing. Nicholas stops Richard once again, and takes him to the cellar to get more wine. Humphrey attempts to seduce Jennet in exchange for her life, but he is stopped by Thomas. Jennet, upset, yells at Thomas, who admits his love for her. Nicholas returns, distraught because Richard locked him in the cellar. Margaret returns, very befuddled and unable to comprehend what has been going on in her house. Thomas and Jennet reconcile, and she tells him she doesn't believe him to be murderer. Richard and Alizon return with the old man that everyone claimed was dead or a dog, and Humphrey and Nicholas bring Tappercoom and the chaplain. Richard and Alizon slip off as everyone is distracted by the old man. Tappercoom is satisfied that there is no witch or murder, and Margaret sends Nicholas and Humphrey to take the very drunk old man home before leaving with the Chaplain. Tappercoom quietly suggests that Jennet and Thomas quietly leave town before morning before leaving as well. Thomas, despite his continuing disgust with mankind, agrees to accompany Jennet to whatever new place she goes to, and they slip off into the night. |
7760047 | /m/026c3w0 | The Deerslayer | James Fenimore Cooper | 1841 | {"/m/08sdrw": "Adventure novel", "/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | This novel introduces Natty Bumppo as "Deerslayer", a young frontiersman in early 18th-century New York. He is contrasted to other frontiersmen and settlers in the novel who have no compunctions in taking scalps in that his natural philosophy is that every living thing should follow "the gifts" of its nature—which would keep European Americans from taking scalps. Two such characters in the work who actually seek to take scalps are Henry March ("Hurry Harry") and floating Tom Hutter. In the dead of night Hutter and March sneak into the camp of the besieging members of the Huron tribe in order to kill and scalp as many as they can. Their plan fails, and Tom Hutter and March are captured. They are later ransomed by Bumppo, his lifelong friend Chingachgook, and Hutter's daughters, Judith and Hetty. Bumppo and Chingachgook come up with a plan to rescue Chingachgook's kidnapped betrothed Wah-ta!-Wah from the Hurons; but, in rescuing her, Bumppo is captured. In his absence, the Hurons invade Hutter's home, and Hutter is mortally wounded and scalped. After the death of Hutter his supposed daughters find out that they were not his natural daughters and he had been a notorious pirate. Bumppo's remaining allies and friends plan how to aid his escape from his Huron captors. |
7761126 | /m/026c4zt | Does My Head Look Big In This? | Randa Abdel-Fattah | 8/1/2005 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature"} | Sixteen year old Amal Mohamed Nasrullah Abdel-Hakin is an Australian Palestinian-Muslim girl who lives in Melbourne with her father, Doctor Mohamed, and mother, Dentist Jamila. During the winter break before her second semester at McCleans Preparatory School, Amal debates wearing the hijab (the religious Muslim head covering) as a full timer (meaning that she would have to wear it in front of males who weren't immediate family). While trying to make her decision, Amal misses Hidaya Islamic College (the school she spent grades seven to ten at), where wearing a hijab was mandatory as it was part of a girl's uniform. Amal takes advice from Yasmeen Khan (whose mom is British and dad is Pakistani) and Leila Okulgen (whose parents are Turkish), her best friends from Hidaya. Leila, who is already a full time hijab-wearer, thinks that Amal's decision is great and "cool", whereas Yasmeen, a part time hijab-wearer, says that she'll stick with Amal no matter what but thinks that Amal should be very sure before she takes a step. In her frustration, Amal makes a list titled "To Wear or Not To Wear List", writing down the names of the people she knows will be okay in the left column, and writing the names of the people "Not so OK" in the right column. When she introduces her idea of wearing the hijab to her father and mother, they ask her if she is sure that she wants to cope with such a big change in her life. As a test-run, Amal (while wearing a hijab) and her mother go to Chadstone Mall. After three hijab-wearing women say "Assalamu Alaykom" (the universal Islamic greeting which means, "peace be upon you") to Amal, she gets a sense that wearing a hijab binds Muslim women in some kind of universal sisterhood. The next day (the first day of second semester), Amal wears a hijab to school and visits Ms. Walsh, the principal, to discuss her decision. The principal is a little surprised, and tells Amal that she has "abandoned the school uniform and altered the policies of the school without authorization". She asks Amal to return to class and that they will "discuss this later". Everybody gives Amal "the stare" back in her class, but Eileen Tanaka and Simone (Amal's best-friends at McCleans) state that Amal looks great and that she's got a lot of guts. Tia Tamos, Claire Foster, and Rita Mason (three snobby girls) snigger and laugh whenever Amal passes them, but Amal simply doesn't care. Amal is very shocked when Adam Keane, the popular boy she has a crush on, says nothing and acts as if he doesn't know her. During dinner that night, Amal's parents tell her that Ms. Walsh has arranged for them to meet at five the following day. Although she doesn't care, Amal is nervous about Ms. Walsh's decision. While taking the garbage out, Amal tries to make small talk with Mrs. Vaselli (her elderly, Greek, and "crazy" neighbor) but Mrs. Vaselli blames Amal for throwing cigarettes on her lawn instead (even though Amal doesn't smoke). The following day Amal's parents tell her about their meeting with Ms. Walsh over dinner at a Japanese restaurant; apparently the principal agreed to let Amal wear the hijab, but she can only wear the color maroon to match her uniform. During lunch at school, Simone is imitating some of the teachers expertly when Josh Goldberg, a popular Jewish guy, walks in and praises her, leading her to blush. On a Monday morning, Amal's class finally decides to confront her about her hijab. More importantly, Adam starts to talk to her again, saying that he "gets her". Over time, Adam and Amal become closer "friends", Simone and Josh become a couple(although Simone keeps on trying different diets, thinking that she is "fat"), and Amal starts to feel more proud of her hijab. When Adam invites Amal to his birthday party, her mom reluctantly gives her permission to go (even though Amal lies and says there will be no alcohol). Adam tries to kiss her at the party, but Amal tells him that she (it's her religion too, though) does not believe in having any physical/personal relationships with a male before marriage. Adam argues but the discussion ends when he states that they are "too different" and "don't understand each other". At school, Amal notices that there is no "spark" between her and Adam anymore, but is proud that she put religion before her desires. On Leila's birthday, Amal and Yasmeen lie to Leila and Amal's parents, and take Leila for a birthday dinner. The three best friends encounter Hakan (Leila's older brother), who is with his girlfriend, there and in anger that Leila lied, he escorts Leila back home. Amal and Leila's parents are enraged that the girls lied and Amal is grounded. Leila, tired of pressure from her mother and angered, runs away from home the next day. Amal blames Leila's mother, Gulchin, and says that she didn't deserve Leila. Two months pass (between which Simone starts smoking to become skinny) before Leila shows up at Amal's house; she confesses that she ran away to a women's shelter, and couldn't bear the feeling of being unsafe. In the end, Amal realizes it is the different and imperfect immigrants who are her friends and family and who have shaped who she is and who she will become in the future. |
7761142 | /m/026c4_v | Ten Things I Hate About Me | Randa Abdel-Fattah | 10/1/2006 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | The novel is the story of Jamie Towfeek, a teenager living in Sydney's western suburbs. Jamie wants to be the real thing. From the roots of her dyed blonde hair... There are a lot of things Jamie hates about her life: her dark hair, her dad's Stone Age Charter of Curfew Rights, her real name - Jamilah Towfeek. For the past three years, Jamie has hidden her Lebanese/Muslim background from everyone at school. It's only with her email friend John that she can really be herself. But now life is getting more complicated. The most popular boy in school is interested in her, but there's no way he would be if he knew the truth. Then there's Timothy the school loner, who for some reason Jamie just can't stop thinking about. As for John, he seems to have a pretty big secret of his own. To top it all off, Jamie's school formal is coming up. And her band at her Muslim school is performing at the formal. The only way she'll be allowed to attend is by revealing her true identity. But who is she ... Jamie or Jamilah? Various other stories also happen in this book. Her older sister Shereen is a human rights and anti-war protester, and their father wants her to settle down. She gets closer to her friend Amy, and tries to find the reason why she has suddenly become more secretive to her. She is the first person she tells that she is a Muslim and at the end, the two become best friends, and leave their other friend, Liz behind with the other discriminatory students at school. |
7762539 | /m/026c6bv | The Evil of the Day | Thomas Sterling | null | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction"} | The wealthy and wily Cecil Fox summons three old faces from his past to his villa in Venice to unwittingly take part in an elaborate charade inspired by Elizabethan literature. But when one of his guests is murdered in the night, Fox's production abruptly switches genres from comedy to full-blown murder mystery. |
7763140 | /m/026c6x3 | Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon | Jules Verne | 1881 | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/08sdrw": "Adventure novel"} | Joam Garral grants his daughter's wish to travel to Belém where she wants to marry Manuel Valdez in the presence of Manuel's invalid mother. The Garrals travel down the Amazon River using a giant timber raft. At Belém, Joam plans to restore his good name, as he is still wanted in Brazil for a crime he did not perpetrate. A scoundrel named Torres offers Joam absolute proof of Joam's innocence but the price that Torres wants for this information is to marry Joam's daughter, which is inconceivable to Joam. The proof lies in an encrypted letter that will exonerate Garral. When Torres is killed, the Garral family must race to decode the letter before Joam is executed. |
7764404 | /m/026c86f | North and South | John Jakes | null | null | Orry Main from South Carolina and George Hazard from Pennsylvania meet on their way to the United States Military Academy at West Point. They soon become close friends, frequently confronting their regional differences within the frame of their friendship. During their time at the academy, Orry and George are tormented by a sadistic Ohio cadet named Elkanah Bent, but in time are able to effect Bent's expulsion from West Point. The companions graduate and become officers in the United States Army during the Mexican-American War. On the way to Mexico, George courts a young Irish woman in Texas named Constance. George and Orry end up in the Battle of Vera Cruz, where Orry's arm is badly wounded and eventually amputated. He is sent home, but George stays. George is later released from the Army due to his father's death, and he and Constance return to George's home in Pennsylvania and marry. George and Orry eventually meet up again and resume their friendship as tensions strengthen between the North and South. Soon, Orry's younger sister Brett falls in love with George's younger brother Billy. Later, Billy is a classmate of Orry's cousin Charles at West Point. In 1858, as Orry is planning a trip to Pennsylvania, Brett begs him to take her with him so they can continue to St. Louis, where Billy is stationed with the Army Corps of Engineers. On the train back to South Carolina, the train is stopped by raiders under the command of the radical abolitionist John Brown in Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, then part of the state of Virginia. Brett and Orry are sent on their way to South Carolina unharmed. Two years after the Mains and Hazards rendezvous in Pennsylvania, Billy joins the U.S. Army as the American Civil War draws near. Stationed only a few miles away from the Main plantation at Major Robert Anderson's garrison at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, Billy is given leave and marries Brett the next day. A few nights later, Confederate forces under the command of Brigadier General P.G.T. Beauregard open fire on Fort Sumter, setting off the Civil War. Orry and George say their final good-bye before the war, hoping for the best for each other. |
7767805 | /m/02psljq | Fires on the Plain | Ooka Shohei | null | null | The story is told through the eyes of a Private Tamura who, after being thrown out by his own company, chooses to desert the military altogether and wanders aimlessly through the Philippine jungle during the Allied campaign. Descending into delirium, Tamura is forced to confront nature, his childhood faith, hunger, his own mortality, and in the end, cannibalism. |
7769597 | /m/026cgfd | Hawk of May | Gillian Bradshaw | 1981-05 | {"/m/035qb4": "Historical fantasy", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/03qfd": "High fantasy"} | Hawk of May is a bildungsroman centered around Gwalchmai ap Lot (Gawain in other literature). Gwalchmai is the middle child of Morgawse and Lot. He lives with his family in the northern Orcade isles located north of modern day Scotland. Gwalchmai struggles to learn the arts of war his brother, Agravain, so easily masters. During his training, a great war is going on to the south in Britain. The Saxons are encroaching upon British soil and the other kings are disorganized by blood feuds and the recent death of Uther Pendragon. In the midst of war there is one man, Arthur, who seems to be winning against both the unruly British kings and the Saxons. While his father, Lot, and Agravain go to war, Gwalchmai is frustrated by his failures and turns to his mother, Morgawse, to teach him to read and write as well as the secrets of dark magic. Where Gwalchmai struggled with war skills, he learned swiftly in the arts his mother taught him and quickly became enthralled by the darkness. He maintains his relationship with the dark until the eve of Samhain where he discovers his youngest brother, Medraut (Mordred ), has also committed to the darkness. Horrified by this revelation, Gwalchmai interrupts Morgawse’s ritual and flees the promised wrath of Morgawse and Medraut. After his escape, Gwalchmai begs the help of an ancient kin and deity called Lugh of the Long Hand. He is then transported to the Isle of the Blessed, a mystical land of unknown origin that keeps it’s inhabitants forever young. Here, Gwalchmai converts to the Light, obtains his sword Caledvwlch, and is then transported to an unknown area in the greater isle of Britain. During his stay in the Isle of the Blessed, Gwalchmai has aged three years. He is initially captured by the Saxons who believe him to be a British thrall, or servant. Under this cover, Gwalchmai is eventually able to escape the Saxons on the back of a powerful horse from the Isle of the Blessed named Ceincaled. He and Ceincaled flee towards Arthur’s domain where they split up and Gwalchmai earns a ride to Camlann with a farmer after helping fix his cart. On their way, however, Gwalchmai is met by some knights - namely Cei, Bedwyr and Agravain. The latter doesn’t initially recognize his younger brother until Gwalchmai addresses him by name. After the brothers reunite they go together to Camlann where Gwalchmai finally meets Arthur. Arthur, however, does not accept him. Instead, Gwalchmai is forced to try and try to gain Arthur’s trust. He goes with the ‘Family’ on many battles, helping even to win in some grievous affairs, but Arthur refuses to acknowledge him. It’s not until the final chapter where Gwalchmai finally proves himself at par with Arthur’s standards and is finally accepted into the Family. |
7769640 | /m/026cgh3 | Kingdom of Summer | Gillian Bradshaw | 1982-06 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/035qb4": "Historical fantasy", "/m/03qfd": "High fantasy"} | Rhys and his cousin encounter a mounted warrior named Gwalchmai. He accompanies them to their householding for shelter from the winter cold. There, he is recognized by the head of the clan (and Rhys' father), Sion ap Rhys, who had befriended Gwalchmai before he become renowned throughout Britain. This chance meeting changes the course of Rhys's life. He had aspired to be more than a simple farmer. Despite his parents' disapproval, he asks Gwalchmai to accept him as a servant. As a favor to his father, Gwalchmai agrees only to take him to Camlann, King Arthur's stronghold, where he can find himself a master. But first, Gwalchmai continues his search for a woman, to beg her forgiveness. He had been sent on an embassy to King Bran, an enemy of Arthur, to keep an eye on him. While there, he had fallen in love with and seduced Elidan, the king's sister. Bran found out and used it as an excuse to rebel. During the resulting battle, Gwalchmai killed Bran, though he had promised Elidan he wouldn't. As a result, her love turned to hatred and she disappeared. He is unable to find any news of her and he and Rhys travel to Camlann. When they arrive, Gwalchmai keeps Rhys as his servant, to their mutual satisfaction. Overall, despite the bullying of Gwalchmai's brother Agravain, Rhys finds the fortress a pleasant place to work; all there are caught up, to varying degrees, with Arthur's vision of uniting and bringing peace to the land. After a month's rest, Gwalchmai is sent as an ambassador to King Maelgwn, one of Arthur's greatest foes. Rhys and Rhuawn, one of Arthur's warriors, accompany him. Spies had reported foreigners visiting him and Arthur fears that he is allying with a king of Erin. When they arrive, Gwalchmai is shocked to find that his own mother, the infamous witch Morgawse, is the one plotting with Maelgwn. Also there are his father King Lot and his younger brother Medraut. During their stay, Rhys becomes attracted to Eivlin, one of Morgawse's servants. Meanwhile, Medraut begins to charm Rhuawn and Rhys, planting doubts about Gwalchmai's sanity, using the well-known fact that he becomes a berserker in battle. Rhuawn is won over, but not Rhys. Seeing this, Medraut changes tactics. Rhys is taken by force to Morgawse. She uses magic to try to break his will, but he resists stubbornly. Eivlin is a miserable witness to his struggle. When Medraut leaves the room, she follows and knocks him unconscious. Needing Medraut's assistance to break Rhys, Morgawse goes in search of him, giving Eivlin the opportunity to free Rhys and flee with him. The witch casts a spell to kill her disloyal servant. When Eivlin is struck down, Rhys does the only thing he can think of - he baptizes her by the roadside. Then, he takes her in search of help. He runs into a young boy named Gwyn, who takes them to his mother, a nun named Elidan. By chance, Rhys has found Gwalchmai's lost love - and their son. Medraut tracks Rhys down and takes him back to his mother, only to find Gwalchmai there as well. Gwalchmai tries to leave with Rhys, but Morgawse stands in his way. He prevails in a battle of magic, leaving her exhausted, but physically unharmed. Rhys takes his master to Eivlin, hoping he can cure her. Indeed, he is able to awaken her. Then he tries to reconcile with Elidan or at least gain her forgiveness, but she is unmoved. Rhys had reluctantly promised her not to reveal Gwyn's identity, so Gwalchmai departs with his misery unabated. They return to Maelgwn's fortress, where more tragic news awaits. Agravain had arrived to visit his father. In the middle of speaking together, Lot suddenly died for no apparent reason. While Gwalchmai was away, Agravain went to his mother and killed her for murdering Lot. In a rage, Medraut decides to go to Camlann, to see his father - Arthur - and to conspire against him. Arthur's downfall is set in motion. |
7769658 | /m/026cgjh | In Winter's Shadow | Gillian Bradshaw | 1983-07 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/03qfd": "High fantasy"} | After the murder of the feared sorceress Morgawse by her own son Agravain (as told in Kingdom of Summer), her youngest son Medraut goes to Camlann, the stronghold of his enemy, Arthur. Inasmuch as he is Medraut's uncle, Arthur has no excuse to send him away. Once there, Medraut begins to build up a faction loyal only to him among the warriors of the royal warband. Another newcomer is Gwynn, the young, illegitimate son of the abbess Elidan. He goes to work for Gwynhwyfar. Gwalchmai, Arthur's best cavalry fighter (and Medraut's other brother), takes an interest in the boy and helps him train to be a warrior. Medraut succeeds in sowing dissent and distrust in the warband; finally, there is a duel between one of his men and Bedwyr, Arthur's most valued advisor. Though Gwynhwyfar is able to effect a reconciliation, the situation continues to deteriorate. In desperation, she tries to poison Medraut at a banquet, but he is aware of her plan and denounces her at the gathering. To discredit him, Arthur takes the poisoned mead and pretends to drink it. However, the dishonorable plot drives a wedge between him and Gwynhwyfar. At least one good thing seems to come of the botched attempt - Arthur has an excuse to exile Medraut, sending him back to his homeland, where Agravain rules. Later, they receive news that Agravain has died and that Medraut has been made king. With her husband turned against her, Gwynhwyfar turns to Bedwyr for comfort. Before they have time to consider their actions, they become lovers. Meanwhile, Gwynn receives news from home. His mother has died. On her deathbed, she wrote a letter to Gwalchmai, in which she forgives him for seducing her and killing her brother when he rebelled against Arthur. She also reveals that Gwynn is their son. Gwalchmai is overjoyed and quickly has the lad legitimized. Arthur takes an interest when he realizes that Gwynn has a good claim to inherit his throne. In addition, the hatred for Arthur by Gwynn's mother's powerful clan would be eased. The next year, Medraut arrives for a visit. As a king in his own right, he is no longer bound by the exile imposed on him. During his stay, his realm revolts against his reign of terror, leaving Medraut stranded in Camlann, free once more to undermine his great enemy. Soon, Arthur's warband is split in two once again. In a master stroke, Medraut arranges to uncover Bedwyr and Gwynhwyfar's adultery in front of witnesses from both factions. Though the traditional punishment is death, Arthur exiles them instead, Bedwyr to his native Less Britain, Gwynhwyfar back to her clan, unaware that her clan's leader hates her. Gwynhwyfar is escorted by a number of warriors, among them Medraut and Gwynn. The party is intercepted by Bedwyr and his men and fighting breaks out. Gwynhwyfar sends Gwynn to try to stop it, but in the confusion, Bedwyr kills him by mistake. He then takes Gwynhwyfar with him to his homeland. When Gwalchmai is told of his son's death, he demands justice from Arthur. Macsen, king of Less Britain and no friend of Arthur's, refuses to return Bedwyr and Gwynhwyfar. Indeed, realizing that Arthur must now fight, he persuades Bedwyr to become his military commander. In the ensuing war, Arthur is unable to win a decisive battle; Bedwyr knows too well how he fights. In one clash, Bedwyr attacks Gwalchmai, half hoping to be slain, but instead he deals his former friend a serious wound to the head. Sickened by all that has happened, Gwynhwyfar steals away and returns to Arthur. He sends her back to Camlann for safety. But when she arrives, she is captured by Medraut. He had killed or imprisoned the men Arthur left to watch him and now controls the fortress. Gwynhwyfar escapes and begins gathering men and supplies for Arthur's return. When her husband hears of Medraut's revolt, he hurries back with his army. But Medraut has allied with King Maelgwn, and the opposing forces are nearly equal in strength. Gwalchmai is sent by Arthur to Gwynhwyfar, to arrange an ambush for Medraut's army. He dies shortly afterwards, of the wound Bedwyr inflicted; after his son was slain, he had neglected the injury, having lost the will to live. The ambush is only partly successful and the Battle of Camlann does not go exactly as Arthur had hoped, but he is victorious. However, most of his warband is killed. Arthur personally leads the final cavalry charge that breaks the rebels, but is then seen no more. In the aftermath, Medraut is mistakenly brought in with the rest of the wounded; Gwynhwyfar recognizes him and they converse for a short while before he dies. When days go by without word of Arthur, Gwynhwyfar finally admits to herself that he is dead. She becomes a nun in a northern abbey run by a friend. As the years pass, she eventually becomes the head of the abbey. While she despairs of the ruin of all that she and Arthur had tried to build, she finds a bit of solace from an unlikely source. While civilization and learning ebb among the Britons, monks from Ireland arrive and build a monastery on a little island called Iona, working to accumulate and preserve knowledge. |
7774146 | /m/026cn9c | Red Army | null | null | {"/m/0mz2": "Alternate history", "/m/017rf8": "Techno-thriller"} | Red Army was unique among military fiction published in the United States during the 1980s, in that it told its story exclusively from the perspective of officers and men in the Soviet Army. Even more uniquely, the Soviet Union prevailed over NATO forces thanks to a combination of rapid military success and political strategy. No other technothriller by the authors in the genre — such as Tom Clancy, Harold Coyle, Dale Brown, or Sir John Hackett — presented an opfor perspective for the entire book or victory at the end of the novel. It was also unique for the genre in that the author did not focus at all on detailed descriptions of the weapons and technology used, and instead concentrated on the characters and their respective stories in the conflict. ru:Красная армия (роман) |
7774225 | /m/026cnd3 | The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966 | Richard Brautigan | 3/23/1971 | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | The Abortion is a genre novel parody concerning the librarian of a very unusual California library which accepts books in any form and from anyone who wishes to drop one off at the library—children submit tales told in crayon about their toys; teenagers tell tales of angst and old people drop by with their memoirs—described as "the unwanted, the lyrical and haunted volumes of American writing" in the novel. Summoned by a silver bell at all hours, submissions are catalogued at the librarian's discretion; not by the Dewey Decimal system, but by placement on whichever magically dust-free shelf would, in the author's judgment, serve best as the book's home. One day a woman named Vida appears at the library's door. Although shy and awkward she is described as the most beautiful woman in the world, who American admen "would have made into a national park if they would have gotten their hands on her." Vida falls in love with the reclusive librarian and soon becomes pregnant, necessitating a trip to Tijuana, Mexico to secure an abortion. |
7777644 | /m/026cryh | The Fashion in Shrouds | Margery Allingham | 1938 | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense"} | Campion asks his sister, fashion designer Valentine Ferris, to introduce him to her best friend and most important client, Georgia Wells, a famous actress. Campion has been investigating the disappearance of Georgia's former fiance, barrister Richard Portland-Smith, three years previously. Now Campion has found Portland-Smith's skeleton. Campion meets Georgia and her entourage, including her unpleasant, possibly dangerous husband Raymond Ramillies, at the unveiling of the costumes Val has made for Georgia's new play. He also meets Alan Dell, the man Val is in love with, who admits to an admiration for Georgia. The event ends in a fashion disaster when it emerges that the design for the main dress has been leaked and copied. The house model Caroline Adamson, chosen for her resemblance to Georgia, is responsible. Georgia knows about Portland-Smith's death but she is shocked when Campion tells her it was suicide, not murder - she asks Dell to drive her home instead of her husband Ramillies. Several weeks later, Val tells Campion that Georgia has stolen Dell from her. Besides admitting that she wants Georgia dead, she is worried that Ramillies has been behaving unpredictably and might attack Dell. Then Lady Amanda Fitton (Sweet Danger), who now works as an engineer at Dell's aircraft factory, asks for Campion's help to find out why Dell is neglecting his work. Campion takes her to a restaurant where they see Dell with Georgia. Ramillies arrives with Caroline Adamson, dressed up exactly like Georgia, to provoke a confrontation. But the situation is miraculously defused by various friends of those concerned - stage-managed by Georgia's manager, Ferdie Paul. To distract Dell from the embarrassing situation, Amanda tells him she is engaged to Campion - to Campion's surprise. Ramillies is due to return to Ulangi, the African colony of which he is governor, in a gold-painted plane, a gift to a local ruler. He is leaving from Caesar's Court, a luxury resort outside London, run by Gaiogi Laminoff. Ramilies disappears after an official dinner and does not return until the afternoon of the next day - he says he has been drinking all night. When the flight is due to take off, he cannot be found - he is eventually found dead in the plane. The officials attempt to smooth over his death and a doctor is ready to give a certificate that he died of natural causes, but then Georgia mentions that she gave him a painkiller to take which Val had given her for herself. When a post mortem is carried out there is no evidence of unnatural death. However, the rumor that Val tried to poison Georgia because they fell out over Alan Dell becomes widespread society gossip. Caroline Adamson contacts Campion with information but fails to turn up for their appointment. Then Stanislaus Oates calls Campion in to Scotland Yard - Caroline has been stabbed and her body dumped in the countryside. Sinclair, Georgia's young son, tells Campion and Amanda that Ramillies was actually terrified of flying, but that he knew of an injection which would make him feel ill for four hours, then feel fine for the flight. Campion thinks this is how he was killed. As the police close in on Val because of the painkiller story, Campion tracks down the men who dumped Caroline's body. They run a restaurant which provides accommodation for various criminal activities - they are not saying who killed Caroline and they have destroyed all the evidence. Amanda gives a party to celebrate breaking off her engagement to Campion - she is calm about it, but he seems upset. Campion tells everybody what he has found out - that Portland-Smith was blackmailed by Caroline and an accomplice until he killed himself, that Ramillies was given an unknown drug which killed him, and that Caroline was murdered when she tried to blackmail her former accomplice. Then he argues with Amanda, throws her in the river, and leaves. Alan Dell apologises to Val and asks her to marry him - she accepts. Campion visits Ferdie Paul and explains that the crimes were carried out for Georgia's sake. Ferdie Paul leaves for Caesar's Court to confront Gaiogi Laminoff, who he says is Georgia's father. A message asks Campion to follow, but on the way he is knocked out and taken to Amanda's cottage where he is placed with his head in the gas oven to fake his suicide. But at the vital moment, the police burst in - Campion has arranged in advance for them to follow him. Ferdie Paul is revealed as the man who tried to kill him, and he was also responsible for the other deaths. Campion recovers. Now that the fake engagement is over, Amanda asks for her ring back - Campion says he will marry her if she wants. |
7780317 | /m/026cvk3 | Space Apprentice | Boris Strugatsky | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | The novel's main character is Yuri Borodin, a young space welder. His mother was sick and Yuri missed the spaceship that was to transport him to his new work site. He gets a ride to his destination on a ship piloted by some of the characters of The Land of Crimson Clouds. When the novel starts Yurkovsky and Grisha Bykov - Bykov's son - and Dauge say goodbye to Bykov senior and leave on a mission from international spaceport Mirza-Charle. Meanwhile, Yuri Borodin is also in the spaceport, trying to find a ride. Spaceport authorities direct him to the port director, but he is currently out of town. Disappointed Yuri wanders into a Capitalist-run bar, where the owner-cum-bartender is engaged in an ideological debate with a Russian Communist. Yuri befriends the Russian, Ivan Zhilin, and tells him of his problems. Ivan suggests Yuri to go to the spaceport hotel in the evening, and try to convince the astronauts who stay there to take him along. Yuri does so and meets Bykov and Yurkovsky. Yurkovsky, currently serves as a Chief Inspector. He plans to make a tour of several planets and planetoids. Bykov is piloting his ship. They agree to give Yuri a ride. Their first stop is Mars. The Russian colonists there are battling an alien life form the giant slug. As the colonists are planning a large-scale slug hunt, they realize that some of the buildings in the area are not human-made. Since the buildings look so much like the simple prefabricated structures set up by the colonists, everyone just assumed they were left there by previous expeditions. Some colonists lament the lack of initiative that has descended over the colony in recent years, and Yurkovsky agrees. The raid on slugs, carried out in part using the weapons brought by Yurkovsky, is reasonably successful, and the colonists cheer up. On the way to research station Einomia, the spaceship crew runs an emergency drill, and Yuri, while stressed and confused, holds up to the pressure. A lot of physicists want to work on Einomia due to the unique research opportunities that it provides. The station is severely overcrowded but the scientists gladly put up with the inconveniences such as food shortages or having to sleep in an elevator. Yurkovsky disapproves, but gives a part of his own food supply to the hungry physicists. He says that such scientists should be a role model for Yuri. Planetoid Bamberga has deposits of precious space pearls. Capitalists run a mine on Bamberga. In the drive to maximize profits the miners work more than six-hours a day despite health risks due to high levels of radiation in the mine. This causes illness and premature death. The local safety-inspector, a Hungarian Communist, protests. But he is ignored and harassed. After his arrival, Yurkovsky arrests the mine's director and tells the workers to elect a replacement. The miners emphatically protest. Despaired, Yurkovsky leaves the meeting with the miners. However, one of the miners returns the string of space pearls that Yurkovsky accidentally left behind. The returned pearls are worth a large sum of money and Yurkovsky thinks that there is still hope for the miners. Back on the spaceship, Yuri and Zhilin watch an action film about the heroes of space exploration, and the young Yuri becomes excited. Zhilin explains the movie overly simplifies the picture and the life is much more complicated and a lot less glamorous than how it is portrayed. He alludes to the events in The Land of Crimson Clouds. The next stop of the tour is Diona space observatory; the researchers there produce valuable scientific contributions. However, personal relationships deteriorate. Yuri gets into a fight with one of the young researchers. It turns out that two of the senior scientists were spreading rumors about the others to further their scientific careers. Yurkovsky orders them back to Earth and even suggests one of them to kill himself. He says that these two men managed to deceive the rest of the crew so successfully because many people in Communist society are not accustomed to others blatantly lying to them, and they are too proud to try to figure out the truth for themselves. Yurkovksy spaceship approaches Saturn and stops at Ring One space station. From there, Yuri is supposed to go to Ring Two: his worksite. Yurkovksy is getting too old for space travel. In all likelihood, this trip is the last of his space flights. He did a lot of research on the rings of Saturn and now he wants to see them close. The same is true for his navigator: Krutikov. Yurkovsky and Krutikov take a rocket to fly near the rings. As they approach the rings, Yurkovsky notices an unusual rock formation, and urges Krutikov to fly closer, despite the danger of a meteorite collision. Bykov orders them, over the radio, to stop. Yet, anxious to find out more about the discovery, Yurkovsky attacks Krutikov and breaks the radio. Krutikov yields and descends to the rock formation. Bykov is speeding toward them on a spaceship that is supposed to leave for Ring Two space station. Yuri is on board. The rocket of Yurkovsky and Krutikov gets hit but a meteorite and they die. Yuri is injured and hospitalized.. He ponders how people will think of the new discovery as very important, but they will not remember the people who made it; he wishes that no discovery were made and the two people were still alive. Bykov and Zhilin return to Earth and meet a sick Dauge. He tells Bykov that a new expedition to planet Transpluton, also known as Cerberus, is planned, and he is offered to lead it. Bykov agrees apathetically. Zhilin, however, thinks that he would prefer to stay on Earth, because "that is what is most important shall always remain on Earth." |
7780467 | /m/026cvn6 | The Late Christopher Bean | Sidney Howard | null | null | The story opens on a Thursday morning in a small village outside of Boston. Dr. Haggett arrives home after delivering a baby and has his breakfast. He is reminded by his daughter Susie that that day is the last day that their maid, Abby, will be working for them before going to Chicago to help her deceased brother's children. He then receives a telegram that an "admirer of the late Christopher Bean" will visit him that day at noon, signed by an art critic from New York named Maxwell Davenport. Putting it out of his mind, he is forced to cope with the petty quarrels of his family, namely the want of older daughter Ada and Mrs. Haggett to visit Florida, which seems unlikely thanks to their dwindling finances. The morning is interrupted when the village paper hander Warren Creamer visits, showing off his recently completed paintings and offering to paint Susie and Ada. Meanwhile, Dr. Haggett goes upstairs to shave, followed shortly by Mrs. Haggett and Ada being forced to go to the kitchen to greet the new maid from Boston. While the family is out, Warren proclaims his love for Susie and asks her to elope with him, but is caught kissing her by Ada. Outraged, Ada calls the rest of the family back in, evoking a tidal wave of fury from Mrs. Haggett, who hastily throws Warren out of the house. Dr. Haggett comforts Susie while Ada and his wife storm off, and finds himself rather unable to offer a solution to Susie's need to decide between staying and running off. He soon leads Susan upstairs so he can make his calls and so she can relax. Meanwhile, Tallant arrives at the house and is let in by Abby. His treatment of her appears friendly enough, but his sarcastic comments rub her the wrong way. Dr. Haggett then comes downstairs, and Tallant begins to explain that he has come to pay the debt of his friend, Chris Bean. Mistaking Tallant for Davenport, he shows Tallant the telegram he received that morning, which gives Tallant the idea to pose as Davenport. Tallant then pretends that Bean's work is trash, as the Haggetts previously believed, but requests to take the paintings away as "souvenirs." Dr. Haggett readily agrees, and gives Tallant two paintings that are in questionable condition. He also asks Abby to examine the attic for any other paintings, explaining to her that Tallant is Davenport, a friend of Bean's. This statement strikes her as suspicious, but she reluctantly agrees to search. She returns empty-handed, so Tallant decides to leave with what he has, mentioning briefly that he and Dr. Haggett might go into business together. Dr. Haggett becomes very excited by the small debt that Tallant paid him and the prospective business, but Abby warns him to keep an eye on Tallant, whose vast amount of knowledge she finds disturbing. Realizing his need to fool Abby as well lest she blow his cover, Tallant quickly returns to the Haggett home in the hopes of having a private conversation with her. She confronts him about his claim to be a friend of Chris Bean's, stating that the only friend Bean ever mentioned was Bert Davis. Thinking quickly, Tallant says that he is indeed Davis, using Davenport as a professional name. Abby then lightens up, and expresses the close relationship she shared with Chris and the things about art that he taught her. Pretending to be sympathetic, Tallant gently coaxes her into revealing that she still possesses a life-size portrait of herself, painted by Chris and whose existence is unknown to the world at large. He asks that she visit him that night at the hotel he's staying at and that she bring the portrait. She shoos him away, afraid the Haggetts will find them talking, and promises to contemplate his offer to buy the portrait from her. Susie then rushes in and confesses her dilemma to Abby, followed shortly by the arrival of Warren. The three conspire to leave that night after dinner, Abby going to Chicago and Susie and Warren eloping. Warren says that they must meet at four-thirty that day in order to catch Abby's five o'clock train, then leaves. Warren's departure is followed almost immediately by the arrival of Rosen, who like Tallant, succeeds in making Abby uncomfortable with his knowledge of her and the household. He greets Dr. Haggett by insisting on paying Chris Bean's debts, and asking if he could buy all of Bean's paintings for $1000. Stunned, Dr. Haggett admits that he gave the paintings away to Davenport. Rosen is dissatisfied with this story, knowing Davenport to be more honest than to take any painting without paying the proper price. They go into the doctor's office to discuss this problem, while the real Davenport arrives right on time at noon. He too knows a lot about Abby, who has now reached a breaking point in light of all the suspicious visitors of that day. Davenport quickly introduces himself to Dr. Haggett, who has now returned with Rosen. Rosen confirms that this is indeed the real Davenport, which frightens Dr. Haggett, who has no idea now who the first man was. Davenport explains that he is there to collect information on Bean for a biography. He explains that Bean is a revered artist in New York and that his letters have been published the latest issue of the "Atlantic Monthly." Dr. Haggett, finally realizing the meaning of the day's prior events, confesses that a third man simply took the paintings of which he knew. Stressed considerably now, he requests that Davenport and Rosen return later. As Abby prepares lunch for the Haggetts, he learns from his wife that she burned the other paintings left there by Christopher Bean. They also recall the portrait of Abby in her room and conspire on how to steal it, but to their dismay fail. Dr. Haggett's anger and stress are excerbated by numerous phone calls from New York requesting that he sell the Christopher Beans that he has. A confused Abby finally serves the distraught family their lunch. Act 3 opens with Davenport returning and Dr. Haggett having left to investigate the whereabouts of Tallant. Susie explains to Davenport her plans to elope and asks his opinion of Warren's paintings, afraid that if she marries him, they will run into financial trouble. She then offers to show Davenport around the village and give him details on Bean's life there. Dr. Haggett finally returns, having learned Tallant's name and that he's placed the stolen paintings in a bank vault. Desperate, he, Mrs. Haggett, and Ada try to persuade Abby to sell them her portrait. She brings it into the living room, but still refuses to part with it. Tallant finally returns to talk to Abby, who quickly brushes him off and goes upstairs to pack. Dr. Haggett now confronts Tallant, who requests that Mrs. Haggett and Ada leave them alone. Tallant explains that the business he had in mind was the forgery of paintings by dead artists, and reveals that he himself is an accomplished painter who simply signs his paintings with the name of a famous dead artist. Dr. Haggett agrees to join Tallant's scheme, but Rosen then arrives looking to purchase real Christopher Bean works. Ditching Tallant, Dr. Haggett single-handedly haggles with Rosen and sells him Abby's portrait. Meanwhile, Davenport returns to verify the authenticity of Abby's portrait and to try and deter Rosen from scamming the Haggetts. Warren arrives to help Abby pack, but Abby is distracted by the apparent sale of her painting, which Dr. Haggett forced her to sell to him. Her strong protests make him feel ashamed, but when she reveals that she saved the paintings that Mrs. Haggett claimed to have burned, he demands that she show them to him. Tallant, realizing his scheme to forge Chris Beans is now at an end, quickly leaves. Rosen and Davenport assess the paintings, while Abby miserably tries to say goodbye. Susie and Warren take her things out to Warren's truck, and Abby turns to go. Davenport catches her and begs her to consider donating her portrait to an art museum, where it'll be safe and near her so she can visit it. She confesses to him that she married Christopher Bean, which quickly ends Dr. Haggett's and Rosen's business dealings. Rosen, realizing that the portraits are rightfully hers and thus impossible to purchase (considering her attachment to them), gives up. Dr. Haggett, realizing that Abby now has legal claim to the paintings and her portrait, gives them to her and sits miserably in his chair, with Mrs. Haggett and Ada mourning their lost chance at fame and Davenport smiling widely at Abby's triumph. |
7781002 | /m/026cvzw | The Borgia Bride | Jeanne Kalogridis | null | {"/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | The book starts off with Princess Sancha remembering the thirtieth anniversary of her grandfather's ascension to the Neapolitan throne. Because Naples needed a blessing after many wars and natural disasters, the royal family was to beseech San Gennaro to witness a miracle. Inside a reliquary was believed to be ancient blood of the royals and if the blood became liquid once again, it is a good omen for the king. After the "miracle" is performed, the royal procession makes its way back to Castel Nuovo in Naples. A feast celebrating the anniversary of the king was held later that night, and out of boredom, seeks the chamber of the dead of her grandfather, King Ferrante. It is said here that the King had brought his enemies that he had killed, preserved and on occasion visited the dead. She quickly finds the legend of the chamber to be true, and meets her grandfather there. After discussing several matters with her grandfather, Sancha is told by her grandfather to watch over her brother, for he is considered by Ferrante to be "weak". As the pair return to the party, the Duke of Calabria, Sancha's father, sees them and discovers that she was in the chamber of the dead, and had not been invited. He tells her that he will speak to her later. Sancha then leaves to be comforted by her brother. Duke Alfonso returns later to tell Donna Trusia (Sancha's mother) that she will not be allowed to go on a picnic with the other children. He speaks to her in the study and denies her contact with her brother (also named Alfonso) for two weeks for her incorrigible behaviour, since that is the one thing she loves above all else. After two weeks pass, Sancha and Alfonso are reunited and Sancha swears that she would never give her father cause to punish her. Although a little more less than three years had passed, little had changed in the royal household. Sancha and Alfonso are still close, although they do not share a nursery any longer. A new pope was elected that year, one by the name of Rodrigo Borgia, Pope Alexander VI. In the beginning of this chapter, Sancha is summoned to the King's chambers. There, she finds that she is betrothed to the Count Onorato Caetani. His manner towards the royal family is described as jovial. The courtship between the count and the princess preceded rapidly. As a whim, Sancha went to see a strega (witch). When she reached the strega's house, she was surprised to find herself required to enter alone. Immediately, Sancha realizes that the news has a hint of foreboding. After spreading the tarot cards, Sancha chooses the card of a "heart, impaled by two blades, which together made a great silver X". The strega warns Sancha that if she does not resort to evil, she will "condemn to death those whom you most love". She also says that the princess will not marry the Count, but the son of the most powerful man in Italy, and that she will not love him, nor have any children by him. She ends by saying "Take great care, Sancha, or your heart will destroy all that you love. |
7781353 | /m/026cw6s | The Haunted Bridge | Carolyn Keene | 1938 | {"/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Nancy's father, Carson Drew is on the trail of an international ring of jewel thieves and asks her daughter, Nancy Drew to assist him. The trail leads to a summer resort area. Before Nancy has a chance to start work on her father's case, a golf caddy tells her a frightening tale. In the dense woods nearby is an old wooden footbridge guarded by a ghost! Intrigued by the caddy's story, Nancy decides to investigate. Several riddles confront the young detective as she attempts to solve the mystery of the haunted bridge and track down a woman suspected of being a key member of the gang of the jewelry thieves. |
7782185 | /m/026cwvq | Gideon the Cutpurse | Linda Buckley-Archer | 6/5/2006 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | The novel focuses on the adventures of Peter Schock and Kate Dyer in 1763 after they are accidentally transported there by an anti-gravity machine while chasing Molly, Kate's dog. They awoke in the eighteenth century to see their time machine being carted away by a dark character known as the 'Tar Man', or "Blueskin". Soon, they meet a man called Gideon Seymour, who helps them adjust to life in the eighteenth century. He takes them to the Byng residence where they stay until they are able to track down the lost anti-gravity machine. With the help of Gideon, Mrs. Byng, Sir Richard, Parson, Sidney, Hannah and Jack they are able travel to London. Although the Parson initially distrusts Gideon, he is eventually won over by Gideon's honor and courage when he saves the group from highway men. Gideon eventually tells the story of his association with Lord Luxon and the Tar Man. Gideon explains to Peter that he met with Lord Luxon shortly after his fifteenth birthday. His parents and some of his siblings had died many years ago leaving only Gideon and his younger brother, Joshua. Forced into a life of servitude in order to stay alive, Gideon finally made up his mind to run away and, thus earn enough money to send for his brother to join him. After he escaped Gideon found himself without any resources and decided to steal for food. When he is caught, his life is spared only by the wealth and influence of Lord Luxon. While in London they meet King George III and Queen Charlotte. Lord Luxon and The Tar Man (Blueskin) are in London trying to stop the children going home. To get the anti-gravity machine back from Tar Man, Gideon offers to race him to the Tempest House for the anti-gravity machine. The Parson fed the Tar Man's horse certain herbs to make it sick during the race, and the Tar Man attacked Gideon. Gideon won the race, but was forced to forfeit when he learned that the Parson had cheated though The Tar Man had also cheated. Lord Luxon had him accused of crimes he did not commit and sent him to Newgate Prison. While Kate and Peter try to help Gideon, Kate's father appears with her dog. While the children catch up with Dr. Dyer on events in both centuries, Gideon is tried and sentenced to death by hanging. Kate and Peter save him by pulling an unusual stunt and setting him free. They encounter the Tar Man once again and as Peter says good-bye to Gideon, The Tar Man runs toward the anti-gravity machine. The anti-gravity machine then leaves for the 21st century and The Tar Man and Peter switch places. Peter is now stuck in 1763 without Kate. |
7785913 | /m/026czrp | Thirteen Moons | Charles Frazier | 2006-10 | {"/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | Near the end of his life, frontiersman Will Cooper reflects on his formative experiences from the unfamiliar comfort of his twentieth-century house. A call, which could be from Claire, the love of his past with whom he has lost contact, plunges him into memory, the recollection of which comprises, save for this prologue and a brief epilogue, the novel's entirety. Will, as a twelve-year-old boy, is sold into indentured servitude, and in this capacity he travels alone to the edges of a growing United States of America and of the Cherokee Nation in order to manage a trading post. On the way to the trading post he suffers many misadventures and ends up losing his horse which is his only means of transportation. In tracking down his beloved horse "Waverley" he happens upon the formidable Featherstone, (A renowned horse thief) who Will beats at a game of chance which amounts to a large sum of money. Featherstone demands that Will give him a final chance to recoup all the money in a final hand against a girl that Featherstone claims to have many of. Will wins the girl and when he meets Claire, then aged 11, he instantly falls in love with her; however Featherstone is a bad loser and sends him running for his life into the wilderness. After some days of wandering Will stumbles upon the trading post. There, Will demonstrates, along with optimistic fatalism, an aptitude for entrepreneurship. He quickly learns to speak Cherokee, the language of many of his customers, he manages to communicate and trade with them. When he is sixteen the owner of the trading post dies and his son sells the business to Will. His financial success allows him to build a small library there. He has been befriended by the local Cherokee chief named Bear who adopts him as a son and he is adopted into the tribe as well. Will meets Claire for the second time at a party Bear hosts when she is 16. He comes across Cranshaw, where Claire is part of Featherstone's household, presumably his daughter. We learn that Featherstone brazened out his sentence of forfeiture which should have taken place after he murdered a member of another tribal group. He returns frequently to visit Claire and borrow books from Featherstone, who still has extra aces up his sleeves, but grudgingly accepts and eventually also adopts him. As the years go by, Will grows more and more attached to Claire and they consummate their affection after a long process of courtship, spending two romantic summers together. However, Will finds out that Claire is Featherstone's wife, not daughter, as she had been thrown into the deal when he married her older sister. Coupled with the fact that a white man can not legally marry a mixed blood in the state and Claire's insistence on 'all or nothing' they never become fully wed. He has also had a duel with Featherstone, who never seems able to leave Will's horse alone. Will and his 'father' Bear have been conspiring to legally buy the land occupied by the Cherokee Nation. Will takes up their cause and lobbies at the nation's capitol, arguing for the tribe's legal land rights and for a while is partly successful at keeping a large portion of the land for his tribes exclusive use. He had somewhat become drugged by his legal reading into over-complexity in the transactions and the portion gets drastically reduced. Eventually, however, the army comes in, displaces almost the whole of the Cherokee nation and forces them to the plains beyond their traditional home in the coves cut from the mountains; Claire is forced to move away. He visits her sometime later, but she is unenthused at his visit and has since had a child with Featherstone. Featherstone tells Will that he died and came back to life, and is determined to make his second death one of much more phenomenal proportions. Devastated by the loss of his love on top of the miseries his friends have suffered along the Trail of Tears, some self-conscious attempts to find another partner and finally the traumas he himself witnessed while fighting in the American Civil War, Will departs his only home and wanders the nation aimlessly. Will's final encounter with Claire takes place at the Warm Springs Hotel, when both are in their fifties. Will hears talk of a Woman in Black who keeps herself aloof from the other hotel residents and remains in the mourning black from the death of her husband long past any necessary period. He comes across her one afternoon after being knife-cut by the collectors of someone to whom he owes money. She informs him that Featherstone's final death was hardly more dramatic than the first, and that her child has died as well. The pair spends another summer together, during which time Claire rejects a marriage proposal from Will and decides to leave him again. After more years, Will retires to a lonely home following a deal with the railroad built on a tract of land which he had owned. The novel ends in elegy for lost opportunities, the frontier spirit, and the memory of a native people. |
7787854 | /m/026d085 | The Year of the Quiet Sun | Wilson Tucker | 1970 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | During a vacation on a Florida beach in the summer of 1978, Brian Chaney, a demographer and biblical scholar, is approached by a woman named Kathryn van Hise. Initially assuming her to be a reporter interested in a controversial book he just published on the Dead Sea scrolls, she informs him that she works for the federal Bureau of Standards and that she is recruiting him for a physical survey of the future via a secretly constructed "TDV" or time displacement vehicle. When Chaney demurs, she informs him that his contract has been purchased from the think tank where he works, leaving him little choice. The reluctant Chaney travels by armored train to a military installation south of Joliet, Illinois. There he is teamed with two diversely talented military officers, United States Air Force Major William Moresby and United States Navy Lieutenant Commander Arthur Saltus. Chaney soon finds that he shares with Saltus an attraction to Kathryn, who is their civilian liaison, but unlike Saltus, Chaney lacks the assertiveness to pursue her aggressively. Instead he focuses his attention on the project, which is soon ordered by the President of the United States to embark on their first mission, a trip two years into the future to discover whether he wins the 1980 presidential election. The three travel to the Thursday after the election on individual trips, with first Moresby and then Saltus going first according to military seniority. Chaney, as a civilian, is the last to leave, but arrives earlier than the others due to a temporal navigation instrument error. They discover that the president, whom Chaney despises as a weak man (in fact, his name is given as "President Meeks"), wins the election in a landslide as a result of his successful handling of ongoing race riots in Chicago, and that these riots have resulted in the building of a wall down the middle of Cermak Road dividing the north of the city from the south. They also learn that the nation is under martial law after a failed attempt by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to take over the government by coup d'état, one thwarted because of the advance knowledge the time travelers will bring back of it. While preparing for their return, Saltus informs Chaney of an additional discovery: a marriage license between him and Kathryn. With Saltus gloating in the knowledge of his inevitably successful courtship, Chaney concedes the pursuit to him. With the success of the initial mission, the three are authorized to travel further into the future. They plan to travel to dates of their own choosing within the coming two decades, with each trip to be separated by approximately a year in order to provide broader coverage. Moresby goes first and travels to July 4, 1999 ("It has significance, after all!" he says), only to emerge in the middle of a racial civil war in which Chicago had recently been attacked with a nuclear bomb launched from China on behalf of black guerrillas. Quickly getting involved in a battle between base troops and invading "ramjets", as the black guerrillas are called, Moresby dies in an attack on a ramjet mortar position. Saltus is the next to go, traveling to the date of his 50th birthday in 2000. Upon his arrival he discovers remnants of the battle, and is nearly killed by survivors hiding out on the base. Wounded, he is assisted back to the displacement vehicle by an unknown figure and returns to the present, taking with him a tape-recorded report that Moresby had made upon his arrival. Forewarned by Saltus's experience, Chaney travels further into the future. Not having chosen a date, and disillusioned by his experiences on the 1980 trip, he arrives at an indeterminate point in "2000-plus", by which time the power from the base's nuclear reactor has been disrupted, causing the chronometers set up for the travelers to shut down. Venturing outside the building, he finds the base to be long-neglected, apart from a cistern and a grave. While further investigating the grave (which is that of Saltus), he is approached by a young man and a woman who identify themselves as Arthur and Kathryn's children. They take Chaney to Kathryn, now elderly, who reveals to Chaney that civilization collapsed as an indirect result of the time travel project; with the information from the future, the president made a series of disastrous decisions that led to war with China, followed by the civil war and societal destruction. When Chaney asks how much of this information he reports, she informs him that he reported none of it, that with the loss of power the time displacement vehicle could no longer return to the past and that Chaney was forever trapped in the future. Although it is foreshadowed earlier in the book, only at this point is the reader explicitly told a fact that makes Chaney's predicament all the more tragic. He is black, the only such member of the project. "Everyone fears you; no one will trust you since the rebellion," Kathryn tells him. "I am the only one here who does not fear a black man." |
7795789 | /m/026d9p7 | A Pail of Air | Fritz Leiber | null | null | The story is narrated by a ten-year-old boy living on Earth after it has been torn away from the Sun by a passing "dark star". The loss of solar heating has caused the Earth's atmosphere to freeze into thick layers of "snow". The boy's father had worked with a group of other scientists to construct a large shelter, but the earthquakes accompanying the disaster had destroyed it and killed the others. He managed to construct a smaller, makeshift shelter called the "Nest" for his family, where they maintain a breathable atmosphere by periodically retrieving pails of frozen oxygen to thaw over a fire. They have survived in this way for a number of years. At the end, they are found by a search party from a large group of survivors at Los Alamos, where they are using nuclear power to provide heat and have begun using rockets to search for other survivors (radio being ineffective at long range without an ionosphere). They reveal that other groups of humans have survived at Argonne, Brookhaven, and Harwell nuclear research facilities as well as in Tanna Tuva, and that plans are being made to establish uranium mining colonies at Great Slave Lake or in the Congo region. The age of the narrator is not revealed until the last sentence, providing a twist. |
7800262 | /m/026dg3p | Fatal Passage: The Story of John Rae, the Arctic Hero Time Forgot | Ken McGoogan | 2002-04 | {"/m/017fp": "Biography"} | In 1854, the explorer John Rae found himself at the centre of one of the great controversies of the nineteenth century – the fate of the Franklin expedition. With the British hoping to be first in the race to discover the Northwest Passage, the news Rae brought of starvation and cannibalism among final survivors set off a firestorm that would eclipse his own incredible accomplishments. The true story of the remarkable John Rae – Arctic traveler and Hudson's Bay Company doctor – Fatal Passage tells a tale of imperial ambition and high adventure. When nineteen-year-old Rae set sail for Hudson Bay in 1833, he had little idea of what to expect at the edge of empire. Meeting his first winter at Moose Factory with equanimity, even as members of the crew were dying despite his best efforts, he discovered that the key to successful Arctic life was to learn the survival skills of the native peoples. The hardy Rae, raised in the windswept Orkney Islands of northern Scotland, and a gifted hunter and sailor, would become one of the greatest explorers of his generation. He would survey 1765 miles of uncharted territory, travel 6555 miles on snowshoes and sail 6700 miles in small boats. Building on the work of explorers who had gone before him and aided by only a handful of native people, Métis and Scots, Rae became the consummate Arctic explorer, as much at ease in the wilderness of ice as in London drawing rooms. Ultimately, he solved the two great mysteries of nineteenth century Arctic exploration. Rae discovered both the fate of the lost expedition of Sir John Franklin, which had sailed from England in 1845, and the last navigable link in the Northwest Passage. The first of these discoveries brought down upon him the wrath of the formidable Lady Franklin, who enlisted the help of Charles Dickens, and orchestrated the erasure of Rae from official Arctic history. In Fatal Passage, Ken McGoogan sets the record straight. |
7800354 | /m/026dg6s | Lady Franklin's Revenge | Ken McGoogan | null | null | Denied a role in Victorian England's male-dominated society, Jane, Lady Franklin took her revenge by seizing control of that most masculine of pursuits, Arctic exploration and shaping its history to her ends. The author, Ken McGoogan, tells two intertwined stories in this book. The first focuses on how Jane Franklin became the greatest woman traveler of the age. She rode a donkey into Nazareth, sailed a rat-infested boat up the Nile, climbed mountains in Africa and the Holy Land, and beat her way through the Tasmanian bush—all at a time when few Victorian women ventured beyond the security of the home, much less beyond the country's borders and the world's known frontiers. The second began when her husband, Sir John Franklin, disappeared into the Arctic in 1845. This book tells the story of how Lady Franklin orchestrated the ensuing twelve-year search, and so ended up contributing more to the discovery and mapping of the Canadian north than any explorer. |
7803000 | /m/026djzg | Icefire | null | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction"} | Icefire is an action/science fiction novel about an unknown group using the Ross Ice Shelf to create a soliton wave—much more powerful and destructive than tsunamis caused by seismic displacement—directed into the Pacific Ocean. Roughly the size of France, the Ross Ice Shelf is first broken free of its shoreline anchor points by tactical nuclear weapons detonated around its periphery. A larger nuclear device is then airburst above the Shelf, slamming the entire mass of loose ice into the Ross Sea beneath it and generating the monster wave. The EMP from the airburst warhead disables most electronics within its line of sight, blinding the worlds' satellites and silencing radio communication from the area. The main protagonists, Mitch Webber and Cory Rey, must escape the communication dead zone in time to tell the world what happened, warn everyone of the deadly wave racing towards it, discover who set it in motion, and find a way to catch the villains and stop the wave—if they can. The destruction caused by the bombs and peoples' understandable skepticism are working against them as, with every passing second, the wave gets closer to major cities and their unsuspecting populations. |
7805024 | /m/026dn0t | Strange Interlude | Eugene O'Neill | 1928 | null | The plot centers on Nina Leeds, the daughter of an Ivy League professor, who is devastated when her adored fiancé is killed in World War I, before they have a chance to consummate their passion. Ignoring the unconditional love of the novelist Charles Marsden, Nina embarks on a series of sordid affairs before determining to marry an amiable fool, Sam Evans. While Nina is pregnant with Sam's child, she learns a horrifying secret known only to Sam's mother: insanity runs in the Evans family and could be inherited by any child of Sam's. Realizing that a child is essential to her own and to Sam's happiness, Nina decides on a "scientific" solution. She will abort Sam's child and conceive a child with the physician Ned Darrell, letting Sam believe that it is his. The plan backfires when Nina and Ned's intimacy leads to their falling passionately in love. Twenty years later, Sam's "son" Gordon Evans is approaching manhood, with only Nina and Ned aware of the boy's true parentage. The meaning of the title is suggested by the aging Nina in a speech near the end of the play: "Our lives are strange dark interludes in the electrical display of God the Father!" |
7806341 | /m/026dpn2 | The House with the Green Shutters | George Douglas Brown | null | {"/m/026llv5": "Literary realism"} | *Chapter I. On a weekday morning at eight, Gourlay's twelve carts set off together, and are watched by all in the Square. *Chapter II. Describes how Gourlay dominates the carrying business in the town, and how his rights to the local quarry (due to expire in two years) were granted to him by the Laird of Templandmuir. Introduces Toddle, the Deacon, the Provost, and Coe. *Chapter III. Introduces his 12-year-old son, John Gourlay, and describes the House with the Green Shutters. *Chapter IV. Introduces Mrs Gourlay and her daughter Janet. The orra man, Jock Gilmour, hits John, then quarrels with his mother and father. He is dismissed. *Chapter V. Gilmour boasts to the "bodies" about the quarrel. They talk about how Gourlay was cheated by his builder Gibson. Later, when Gourlay passes, the bodies, led by the Deacon, ask him for access to his property in order to tap a spring, which would provide running water for the town. He refuses. *Chapter VI. After John passes on his way to school, the bodies start discussing him. Johnny Coe tells the story of the boy's birth, when Jock Gourlay's stubbornness endangered his life. *Chapter VII. At noon, John is hurt by Swipey Broon, and he runs away from school. *Chapter VIII. John runs home and hides in the attic. After Janet comes home from school, he goes downstairs to find his father showing off his new fender to Grant of Loranogie. *Chapter IX. James Wilson returns to Barbie after fifteen years' absence, during which he has become a successful businessman. He accosts Gourlay, who slights him. *Chapter X. James Wilson moves into town. He converts Rab Jamieson's barn into an Emporium. *Chapter XI. Wilson's business encroaches on Gourlay's. When Wilson spoils his bargaining, Gourlay is so angry that he accidentally breaks his own walking-stick. *Chapter XII. Templandmuir, on Wilson's request, asks Gourlay to attend a public meeting about the new railway. At the meeting, Gourlay is humiliated; after he storms out, Templandmuir takes the opportunity to tell him his lease of the quarry will not be renewed. Gourlay, furious, returns home and hits his wife. *Chapter XIII. Four years have passed since Wilson's arrival. Johnny Gibson helps Wilson lay a plan to keep Gourlay's carts busy, so that he will later miss a better opportunity which Wilson can make use of. This is done by having him sign a contract eight weeks in advance. Once Gourlay realises he has been tricked, he refuses to honour the contract. When Gibson remonstrates with him, Gourlay throws him through the window of the Red Lion Inn. *Chapter XIV. In order to keep up with the Wilsons, Gourlay has sent his son to the High School of Skeighan. John often plays truant; one day, when his father catches him, he drags him to the school and throws him at the headmaster. *Chapter XV. Gourlay's pony "Tam" dies. Forced to use the bus, he overhears that Wilson's son is to go to Edinburgh to study, and Gourlay resolves to send John there too. *Chapter XVI. John takes the train to Edinburgh. A description of his impressionable character. *Chapter XVII. John and young Jimmy Wilson are invited to dinner by Jock Allan, where they meet Tarmillan, Logan, Tozer and old Partan. The conversation turns to Bauldy Johnston, an acquaintance, and his skill at phrase-making. *Chapter XVIII. In his second year at Edinburgh, John wins the Raeburn Prize for his essay on "An Arctic Night." *Chapter XIX. John returns home at night, very proud. He notices that his mother is perhaps not well. *Chapter XX. He struts around Barbie, smoking cigarettes. During his summer holidays, he acquires a habit of drinking to excess. *Chapter XXI. John is scandalously drunk. *Chapter XXII. John leaves for Edinburgh, slighting the Deacon as he goes. Gourlay is forced to dismiss his last worker, Peter Riney. *Chapter XXIII. John is expelled from the University. What with the serious illnesses of Janet and Mrs Gourlay, the family is on the brink of financial ruin. *Chapter XXIV. Gourlay receives a letter informing him of his son's disgrace. On his way to borrow £80 from Johnny Coe, the "bodies" of Barbie watch him and make veiled insults. *Chapter XXV. Gourlay confronts his son and there is a ferocious brawl. John takes momentary refuge at the Red Lion, but gets into a fight with Brodie. On his return, they grapple again, and John hits his father with the huge poker, killing him instantly. *Chapter XXVI. They send for the doctor, claiming that Gourlay fell from the ladder. John starts to go insane. Mrs Gourlay discovers that their mortgage is to be foreclosed. John is sent to Glasgow to see if anything can be done. *Chapter XXVII. John returns, without success. He poisons himself. After discovering his body, both Janet (who has tuberculosis) and Mrs Gourlay (who has breast cancer) poison themselves. Their corpses are discovered the next morning. |
7806911 | /m/026dqb2 | Blood Knot | Athol Fugard | null | null | There are only two characters in the play, a pair of brothers named Morris and Zachariah. Both were raised by the same black mother, but had different fathers, and Morris is much more fair-skinned than Zachariah. Morris can pass for white, and has done so in the past, but now he has returned to live with Zachariah in a small, miserable shack in the "colored" section of Port Elizabeth. Morris keeps the house, while Zachariah works to support them both. They're saving money in hopes of buying a farm of their own some day. Both Morris and Zachariah have rich imaginations, and have taken part in role-playing games together since they were small boys. The lonely Zachariah has struck up a pen-pal relationship with a white girl, and entertains fantasies that she might fall in love with him. The more level-headed Morris tries to disabuse Zachariah of such notions, and warns him that in segregated South Africa, such a relationship can only mean trouble, especially since the girl has indicated in letters that she has a brother who's a policeman. Morris' fears are soon realized, as Zachariah's pen-pal writes to say that she's coming to visit Port Elizabeth, and wants to meet Zachariah. Zachariah must face the tragic truth that he can never have a future with her, that she can never love him, and that she would be horrified to see who he really is. To avoid having her meet Zachariah, the brothers agree to have the white-looking Morris meet her, and pass himself off as Zachariah. To prepare for the date, Morris buys some fine "white" clothes with the money that he and his brother had been saving. When he puts on the clothes, he begins to adopt the white mannerisms and speech patterns that he'd learned years earlier, when trying to "pass" in white society. As he does so, he begins to treat his brother like an inferior, as any middle-class white South African would treat a black servant. When a letter arrives, indicating that the girl will not be coming for a visit after all, Zachariah and his relieved brother Morris begin a new role-playing game. This time, the game take bizarre twists. It becomes evident that Morris secretly holds his brother in disdain, and Zachariah secretly harbors thoughts of killing Morris. The play ends with no real resolution. Morris and Zachariah will, apparently, remain together for many unhappy years to come, needing each other, but unable to bridge the gap brought about by their respective skin tones. |
7807538 | /m/026dqqt | Jack & Jill | James Patterson | 1996 | {"/m/01jfsb": "Thriller", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction"} | A man named Sam Harrison or Jack (not his real name) and a woman Sara Rosen or Jill set-up a United States Senator. They kill him and videotape it. On the other side of Washington D.C. a different killer kills a child named Shanelle Green using a baseball bat. Cross is awoken by his partner, John Sampson at the dead of the night and is promptly told there is a new case for them. Cross and Sampson drive to Sojourner Truth School in Southeast where the mutilated body of Shanelle Green was found. Alex then starts an investigation to find the child killer. He was informed by one of his informants of someone who would do such a thing, Emmanuel Perez, aka Chop-It-Off Chuckie. Alex and Sampson go to question the suspect and a police-suspect foot chase occurs. It ends when the suspect falls off a building after trying to evade Cross and Sampson. After the death of their suspect another child murder is committed. This proves that the "real" child killer is still alive and it is not the work of Chop-It-Off-Chuckie. One day the police commissioner and the Chief of Detectives Pittman visit Alex's house. They inform him that he was requested to work on the Jack and Jill case because of his famous encounters with psychopathic killers and expertise in psychology. He declines by saying that he has connection with the Truth School killer and he wishes to solve it instead. In the end he has no choice but to leave the child killer case and work on the Jack and Jill murders. later a confrontation arises between Pittman and him in which he physically abuses Pittman at a crime scene. Jack and Jill kill another two famous people. With Cross on the investigation and his obsession with the child killer case lingering, he asks for the help of a group of fellow detectives to work secretly on the Truth School Murders so that the case won't get cold. With Sampson and the other detectives solving the child murders, Alex concentrates on trying to solve the Jack and Jill case. He becomes part of a group formed in the white house to solve the Jack and Jill case. Cooperating with FBI, Secret Service and the CIA, the case begins to show signs of cracking. But still it wasn't enough to solve the case. On the other hand Jack and Jill ask for the help of another killer, Kevin Hawkins, but without Kevin Hawkins' knowledge that he was just a patsy. He was being used by Jack to elude the cops. Hawkins then kills a woman. At first the investigation team thought they made a mistake by killing a not famous person, but they soon found out that the woman is the American president's mistress. It was revealed that Jack and Jill's main target was to kill the president. Using the other murders to show that they are good at what they do, and they are really serious about it. Sampson is informed that someone was admitting to the murders of Shanelle Green and Vernon Wheatley. With Alex Cross's help Sampson and Alex went to the address that was given to them. They found out that the child killer is also a child (13 years old). Sumner Moore. 'Sumner' is on the run. He spends the day on the streets, then goes home in the middle of the night and kills his parents in a fit of rage. Alex continues to work with the Jack & Jill case. Without enough evidence and mistakes by Jack & Jill the case is still unsolvable. Alex then with the help of the general inspector of the CIA, Jeanne Sterling locates Kevin Hawkins, but Hawkins was able to escape. Sampson is called to the murder of another child. This time it is Sumner Moore; the real child killer is not him. The killer is revealed as another boy who suffers from depression and is on medication, the taking of which he has stopped. The president decids to resume schedules as normal. He goes to address the people of New York. At the Madison Square Garden, with enough security, Kevin Hawkins was waiting, dressed as an FBI woman. After a while a bomb explods and the auditorium is plunged into chaos. The president and his wife are protected by the Secret Service, and try to escape to the alternate escape route. What they don't know was that Kevin Hawkins was waiting. Hawkins was shot and died at the hospital but he successfully kills the president . Another murder is reported and Alex rushes to the scene where a woman was found dead. Sara Rosen. Later on Alex using his profiling knowledge starts to look for evidence. He finds a tape in Sara Rosen's/Jill's apartment that contains the footage of the first victim's murder, by accident the camera caught Jack as he shot the US senator. Alex thought that the tape was some kind of revenge by Sara Rosen for if Jack betrayed her. The next day Alex and Jay Grayer a CIA Agent followed 'Jack' and arrest him. It was Brett Sterling, a CIA contract killer (ghosts) and husband of CIA Inspector General Jeanne Sterling. A while later they arrested Jeanne at their home. She tried to escape but was unsuccessful as Cross stopped her. The real Jack and Jill are imprisoned in Lorton where Gary Soneji was imprisoned. A few days later the two of them are found dead due to poisoning. A flesh and blood was found in under Jeanne's fingernails, meaning that they were murdered and that they fought whoever it was. Alex theory was that they were contracted by someone with money who will benefit if the president died, but they don't know and can't find out who. All the while the real child killer takes hostage Christine Johnson, the principal of the Sojourner Truth School and kills her husband George at their home. The killer, Danny Bordreaux, a 13 year old, requests Alex Cross for negotiations. After Cross enters the house, a confrontation happens and Danny is apprehended. After all the cases were solved Alex is visited by Christine Johnson at his home and they talk. A day later while arranging the Christmas tree Gary Soneji calls and tells him he will come for him and he's the one who left Rosie the Cat at their home. Alex hangs up and goes back to do the tree. Kyle Craig continues to help Alex Cross throughout the book. it:Jack and Jill (romanzo) |
7810140 | /m/026dtr1 | The Caine Mutiny Court Martial | Herman Wouk | null | null | The action takes place in The General Court-Martial Room of the Twelfth Naval District, San Francisco and in the banquet room of the Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco in February, 1945. Lieutenant Stephen Maryk of the Naval Reserve is on trial for mutiny, because he relieved Lt. Commander Philip Francis Queeg of duty, as captain of the U.S.S. Caine, during a typhoon on December 18, 1944. Maryk insists that Queeg was insane, and that his paranoid delusions were putting the ship in danger. Maryk took command, applying Article 184 of Navy Regulations, and steered the Caine directly INTO the storm—the opposite of what Queeg had wanted. The Caine and her entire crew survived, which Maryk thinks is proof that he acted appropriately. Maryk's lawyer, Lt. Barney Greenwald, indicates that he thinks Maryk, whom he would much rather have prosecuted in the court-martial, was guilty. But he is determined to offer a strong defense nonetheless. Philip Francis Queeg is the first witness for the prosecution, being conducted by Lt. Commander John Challee. Queeg states that, while the Caine was going through a typhoon, Steve Maryk, a disloyal and digruntled officer, rebelled against him and relieved him of command without justification. At this stage of the court-martial, Queeg seems like a typical tough military disciplinarian—perhaps a bit too tough, but there is no good reason to believe he has psychological problems. He is confident and articulate, and seems to be in full possession of his faculties. Young signalman Junius Urban, who was present on the bridge at the time Maryk took control, is called to testify about what happened. Urban provides a measure of comic relief, as he is poorly educated, extremely nervous, and confused about exactly what happened. His testimony tells the jury very little, but on cross-examination he lets slip that Queeg was "a nut" on numerous small matters of discipline and tidiness. Captain Randolph Southard, an experienced naval officer called as an expert on destroyer ship-handling, testifies that, under the weather circumstances described on the night of the mutiny, Queeg took all the proper measures, and did exactly what a commanding officer should have done. Thus, in Southard's view, Maryk's actions were completely unjustified. However, under cross examination from Greenwald, Southard concedes that there are rare, extreme circumstances under which sailing directly into the storm would be the only way to avoid sinking. Two psychiatrists who have examined Queeg, Dr. Forrest Lundeen and Dr. Allen Bird, testify that, while Queeg is far from being an ideal officer (he can be arrogant, overly defensive, nervous, and a bit of a bully), he is not mentally ill. Under cross-examination from Greenwald, however, each of them, Dr. Lundeen in particular, acknowledges that some of Queeg's traits do come close to the textbook definition of paranoia. Willis Keith, a friend of Maryk's, testifies as to the events leading to the mutiny. Keith says that Queeg was a coward, that he was giving panicky, conflicting orders during the typhoon, requiring Maryk to take action. During cross-examination, Greenwald gets Keith to tell numerous stories of Queeg's ineptness, vanity, dishonesty, pettiness and seeming cowardice; indeed, one such incident led the Caine's officers to give Queeg the nickname "Old Yellowstain." Lt. Thomas Keefer, another friend of Maryk's, is a much less helpful witness from the defense standpoint. Keefer, an intellectual who was a writer in civilian life, having published some of his short stories in national magazines, indicates that Queeg was not insane, and that Maryk was ill-advised to relieve him of command. Maryk is stunned by Keefer's betrayal, since to a large extent, Keefer was the one who convinced Maryk that Queeg might be insane in the first place, and Maryk wants Greenwald to cross-examine him vigorously. Instead, Greenwald has no questions for Keefer, explaining to Maryk, "Implicating Keefer harms you." He wants one hero, not two mutineers. As the trial adjourns for the day, Maryk expresses dissatisfaction with Greenwald's defense. Greenwald explains that he has good reasons for not asking Keefer any questions, and states once again that he thinks Maryk is guilty. Even if Queeg was far from an ideal officer, Greenwald believes, Maryk's first duty was to carry on fighting the war, and doing his best to keep the Caine in action. All authority figures tend to look like irrational tyrants to their subordinates, Greenwald says, whether they are or not. As Greenwald begins his defense the following morning, he calls Steve Maryk as the first of his two witnesses. Maryk explains in great detail what a petty, vindictive, isolated and paranoid commanding officer Queeg was. In particular, Maryk dwells on "The Strawberry Incident," which convinced much of the crew that Queeg was insane. (The mess stewards on board the Caine had eaten some strawberries from the kitchen, the remains of a whole gallon of these that the Caine had received from another ship. When Queeg discovered that some of the strawberries were missing, he deduced that this was a repeat of a peacetime incident on another ship when cheese had been stolen, for the catching of whose thief he had earned a letter of commendation, and launched a full search of the ship for a secret duplicate pantry key that Queeg imagined the thief must have created. However, no such duplicate key had actually existed.) Finally, Maryk describes the events of the night of the mutiny itself. Maryk says the Caine was foundering, on the verge of sinking, and that Queeg was too frightened and paranoid to take the proper steps to save the ship. Only at this most desperate moment did Maryk see fit to take command. After the ship was out of danger, Maryk wrote a full account of his actions in the ship's log. He claims that Queeg came to him and proposed erasing this embarrassing incident from the log—a serious breach of Naval ethics. Maryk refused to do so, electing instead to take full responsibility for his actions. The prosecuting attorney, John Challee, asks Maryk about his background. Maryk answers that he is a fisherman's son, and has been around boats his whole life. However, Maryk confesses that he was only an average student in high school and a poor student in college. It becomes clear in Challee's cross-examination that, while Maryk uses words like "paranoid," he really knows little about psychology, and was not truly qualified to judge anyone's mental health. At this point, Greenwald calls Queeg as his second and final defense witness. Under intense cross-examination, Queeg is asked to justify each and every one of his questionable actions as commanding officer of the Caine. He becomes nervous and testy, and starts playing with a pair of steel balls that he uses to control his nerves. He tells a few small lies to cover up petty offenses. When his lies are revealed, his demeanor changes, and he becomes angry and combative. When asked about Maryk's charge that Queeg had wanted to alter the ship's log, an enraged Queeg rants that he was surrounded by disloyal officers, and looks exactly like the panicky paranoid that Maryk had described. When the defense rests, Queeg is a broken man, and everyone else present knows that Maryk will be acquitted. Maryk is relieved if not totally ecstatic, and invites Greenwald to a celebration party that Tom Keefer is hosting later that evening. (Keefer has written a novel about the war, titled Multitudes, Multitudes, and even though it is still not finished, he has received a big advance from a publisher.) Greenwald looks dejected and far from triumphant, but he reluctantly agrees to attend the party. At the party, Keefer, Keith, Maryk and their friends are celebrating both Maryk's acquittal and the large advance that Keefer has received on Multitudes, Multitudes, when Greenwald walks in, heavily intoxicated from a number of drinks he and Challee (the two men had been law-school classmates, and good friends, before both had enlisted) had shared before he showed up to the party, over which they had discussed details Greenwald had left out of the case. Greenwald proposes a toast to "Old Yellowstain." Unlike the Caine's junior officers, Greenwald feels deep regret over what he did to Queeg on the witness stand. To Greenwald, though Phil Queeg was a weak man, perhaps he was still an admirable one, and Queeg and career military men like him are actually heroic figures, since they were the ones putting their lives on the line to defend America—something none of the others were doing because they knew they could never truly enrich themselves financially in the armed forces. Greenwald, who is Jewish, understands what the consequences would have been had the Axis won World War II. He refers to Nazi atrocities, declaring, at one point, that it is men like Queeg who have saved his own mother, Mrs. Greenwald, from having been "melted down to a bar of soap." He points out to Maryk, "Steve, this dinner's a phony. You're guilty. 'Course you're only half guilty. There's another guy who's stayed very neatly out of the picture." Greenwald feels sorry for Queeg, because he sees that Queeg was not wrong about being surrounded by disloyal officers. Greenwald believes that Tom Keefer is the guiltiest party in the whole affair. Maryk, after all, really knew very little about psychology or psychiatry, so where would he have obtained any of his half-formed ideas about paranoia and mental illness, if not from Keefer? Greenwald had defended Maryk to the best of his abilities, which had led him to destroy Queeg on the witness stand, because he had seen that Maryk was essentially a decent man trying to do the right thing. He views Keefer, on the other hand, as an upper-class intellectual snob who had regarded himself as superior to Queeg, the career military man, and had helped turn Maryk and the rest of the crew against him. Greenwald suggests that Maryk could even have reasoned with Queeg during the typhoon had Keefer not poisoned the atmosphere in the first place. Greenwald denounces Keefer, and throws a glassful of yellow wine into his face, before walking out of the party, an act which ruins it. |
7812244 | /m/026dx5v | Awake and Dreaming | Kit Pearson | 1996 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Theo is an avid reader who lives in the slums of Vancouver with her young mother Mary-Rae, who is irresponsible and frequently mistreats Theo. She often fantasizes about an alternate life, her dreams fueled by the huge quantity of books she reads about perfect families. Rae starts dating a man named Cal, and eventually moves in with him, sending Theo to live with her aunt, Rae's sister Sharon, in Victoria. While she and her mother are on the ferry to Victoria, Theo meets a "perfect" family,by the name of the Kaldors. She and the Kaldor children instantly make friends and play together on the ferry. Theo and the children see a new moon while on the ferry and each make a wish. Theo desperately wishes she belonged to the Kaldor family and then faints. Theo wakes up mysteriously and inexplicably living with the Kaldors. Theo originally believes there must be a mistake, but is delighted to find that the Kaldors simply accept her as a member of the family. Theo quickly begins to believe that as long as she remains with the Kaldors, nothing will ever go wrong again. Several months pass and then suddenly, Theo's life begins to fade away - literally. Quickly after this, Theo blacks out again. Theo wakes up and finds herself back on the ferry with her mother, at the exact moment she left, much to her unhappiness. She begins to live with her aunt Sharon, but she cannot enjoy it as she keeps wondering if the Kaldors were real or just a dream. Theo eventually discovers that the Kaldors do exist, but is instantly disappointed when they do not remember her. She befriends them, but is frustrated that they aren't "perfect" - they too have normal family issues. Theo is also frustrated that they simply view her as a friend, not as a member of the family. Meanwhile, Theo discovers a shadowy presence in the Kaldor's house - the restless spirit of a dead author, Cecily Stone. Cecily lived in the house her entire life and remains there while she tries to settle the past. She feels she cannot die until she has created an idea for her 'great novel' which she never wrote. Theo is stunned to find that Cecily's idea consists of Theo coming to live with the Kaldors. Cecily explains that she first saw Theo on the ferry to Victoria, imagined a better life for Theo, but her idea faded when she could not come up with a conclusive ending. It appears that Theo's longing for a family and Cecily's idea for a book came together and made Theo's dream, but when Cecily's idea faded, so did the dream. Rae's relationship with Cal fails, so she comes to live with Sharon and Theo in Victoria. Theo begins to enjoy her real life, not just her imaginary one. This is thrown into chaos when Rae decides to go back to Vancouver, much to Sharon's refusal. Theo is so upset that she goes to Cecily for advice. Cecily sympathizes but knows there is nothing she can do, and instead gives Theo advice on how to continue with her life. Cecily now feels that she is able to move on and face the next stage of her journey. Theo returns home and stands up for herself, refusing to leave Victoria. She insists that Rae pull her act together and take care of her properly. Rae is stunned, but agrees. The novel skips forward several weeks to Theo's tenth birthday. She and Rae now live together in a clean and comfortable apartment. Rae has a decent job and is taking care of Theo. It appears that Theo's life is beginning to work out. She enjoys a birthday party with her friends, the Kaldors, and her family. She accepts that she doesn't know if this life will last, but she will enjoy it while she can. |
7820172 | /m/026f5jn | Chamber Music | James Joyce | 1907 | {"/m/05qgc": "Poetry"} | Although it is widely reported that the title refers to the sound of urine tinkling in a chamber pot, this is a later Joycean embellishment, lending an earthiness to a title first suggested by his brother Stanislaus and which Joyce (by the time of publication) had come to dislike: "The reason I dislike Chamber Music as a title is that it is too complacent", he admitted to Arthur Symons in 1906. "I should prefer a title which repudiated the book without altogether disparaging it." Richard Ellmann reports (from a 1949 conversation with Eva Joyce) that the chamberpot connotation has its origin in a visit he made, accompanied by Oliver Gogarty, to a young widow named Jenny in May 1904. The three of them drank porter while Joyce read manuscript versions of the poems aloud - and, at one point, Jenny retreated behind a screen to make use of a chamber pot. Gogarty commented, "There's a critic for you!". When Joyce later told this story to Stanislaus, his brother agreed that it was a "favourable omen". In Ulysses, Leopold Bloom reflects, "Chamber music. Could make a pun on that." In fact, the poetry of Chamber Music is not in the least bawdy, nor reminiscent of the sound of tinkling urine. Although the poems did not sell well (fewer than half of the original print run of 500 had been sold in the first year), they received some critical acclaim. Ezra Pound admired the "delicate temperament" of these early poems, while Yeats described "I hear an army charging upon the land" as "a technical and emotional masterpiece". In 1909, Joyce wrote to his wife, "When I wrote [Chamber Music], I was a lonely boy, walking about by myself at night and thinking that one day a girl would love me." |
7824051 | /m/026fbhh | Rescuing Da Vinci: Hitler and the Nazis Stole Europe's Great Art - America and Her Allies Recovered It | Robert M. Edsel | 2006 | {"/m/03g3w": "History", "/m/05h83": "Non-fiction", "/m/05wkw": "Photography"} | This book focuses on an aspect of World War II that is largely ignored in many history books – the Nazi looting of Europe and Russia and the Allied recovery and repatriation of stolen art. Little known to the general public, Hitler diverted his attention from the prosecution of the war to the systematic theft of Europe’s great art. His dream was to build the world’s greatest collection – The Führermuseum – in his hometown of Linz, Austria. European museum officials took extraordinary measures to protect art from Hitler and the ensuing war. When U.S. forces prepared to enter Europe, they assembled a special force of largely American and British museum directors, curators, and art historians known as the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program (MFAA) section, attached to the Allied armies. These “Monuments Men” attempted to minimize damage to European monuments and architecture, then track down stolen works of art. Their effort would become one of the greatest “treasure hunts” in history. In the end, Allied forces located more than 1,000 repositories in mines and castles across Europe, many of which were filled with art, sculpture, furniture, archives, and other cultural property stolen by the Nazis. Edsel points out that thousands of pieces are still missing, such as Raphael’s Portrait of a Young Man from the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków, Poland. Rescuing Da Vinci tells this story through brief text and more than 460 photographs, 60 of which are in color. This group of photographs has never been published in a single book, and many have not been seen in decades. Images such as Michelangelo’s David entombed in brick for protection or a Rembrandt Self Portrait sitting atop crates in a salt mine, capture the story better than words could describe. |
7824473 | /m/026fbyy | The Atom Station | Halldór Laxness | 1948 | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | Ugla, an uneducated girl from the countryside, moves from an outlying area of Northern Iceland to the capital city of Reykjavík in order to work for Búi Árland, a member of parliament, and to learn how to play the organ. She’s met with a world that’s completely foreign to her: politicians and the military move freely about the city, and she views city residents as spoiled, snobbish and arrogant. In contrast, she comes from a rural area where the Icelandic Sagas of the Middle Ages constitute the majority of what people discuss and ponder and are viewed as more important than reality. These historical backgrounds are certainly important and provide crucial patterns. The prime minister subsequently carries out secret dealings with the Americans and “sells” the country. Ugla, however, also confronts other current issues, above all in the organ player’s house. There, she comes in contact with communist and anarchist mindsets and likewise protests the construction of an atom station in Iceland. After a short relationship with Búi Árland, Ugla decides to return to the “selfconscious policeman”, who is the father of her recently born child. |
7828649 | /m/026fhrp | The Life Eaters | David Brin | null | null | The history of the comic follows ours, until one night during the winter of 1943, when a number of bright lights appeared over Nazi-occupied Europe. Intentionally or otherwise, the slaughter of the death camps has somehow been used to summon the Aesir, Norse gods. Quickly allying themselves with the gods, the Nazis are able to push aside their mortal foes. The extended war has an amazing effect on human technology - by the fifties, the American military has a manned spy satellite. The trickster, Loki, works against his fellow Aesir. On the night they arrived, Loki used his magic to whisk hundreds of thousands of death camp internees to safety in Persia. Loki reveals the secret of how the Aesir were brought into being, the Nazis used death camps to fuel necromancy on a never before seen scale to summon them, but he makes sure to tell this only to a OSS Captain sent on a suicide mission, knowing fully well that he would never have the chance to let anyone else know the truth. Before, the American government had assumed the Aesir were alien invaders. (This is a reversal of roles from the The Mighty Thor series of Marvel Comics, which partially inspired Brin, and where Loki is the unquestioned villain). As the Nazis continue to conquer the world, with the help of their Japanese allies (and their Shinto gods), necromancy spreads in use throughout the globe. As a result of "Asian faith and African desperation... and all the madness of the tropics", the multiple gods of the developing world are given form through human sacrifice, band together and fight the Aesir (who have to keep to colder regions). As the Tropicals advance, they burn the Arabian oilfields, leading to global warming. With the potential of the Aesir creating a nuclear winter to counter the global warming, the remaining free Americans must race against time to prevent the gods from destroying the world as Loki schemes to fulfill the Ragnarok prophecy. |
7829182 | /m/026fjh2 | Quatre aventures de Spirou et Fantasio | André Franquin | 1950 | null | In The Robot Drawings, Spirou and Fantasio have a hunch they need to protect the world from criminals getting their hands on mad Professor Samovar's blueprints for a robot with doomsday potential. This is the sequel to Radar le robot from 1947. In Spirou in the Ring, Poildur, a neighbour bully, challenges Spirou to a boxing match, who nobly accepts and asks Fantasio to coach him. An entire Brussels working class community turns out for the big event, and an epic boxing match of courage against cheating tactics is played out. On this occasion, Spirou's weight is revealed to be 40.8 kg. In Spirou Rides a Horse, Fantasio attempts to mix it up with the upper class by playing the equestrian dandy gentleman, and Spirou reluctantly joins him to go horseback riding. Fantasio is given a very noble steed named Artaban, while Spirou's horse, Plumeau, is ridiculously unhorselike. In Spirou meets the Pygmies, a leopard escaped from the zoo assaults Spirou and Spip during a forest picnic trip, but they manage to become friendly. Unable to adopt and keep it in the apartment, Spirou and Fantasio must take it home to an African island, leading to adventures with pygmy tribes and arms-dealing villains. |
7830061 | /m/026fkd0 | Spirou et les héritiers | André Franquin | 1952 | null | In Spirou and the Heirs, Fantasio is told he must compete against his cousin Zantafio to inherit from a long-absent uncle. The deceased has devised three trials for the two men: creating an original and useful invention, achieving a top 6 Grand Prix race position, and finally capturing a mysterious animal, the Marsupilami in the Palombian jungle. The dishonest Zantafio uses extreme tactics to win, and the two cousins are tied after the second task. The third task proves the hardest, as the creature's prodigious reflexes and abilities make it impossible to capture, until it accidentally drinks a gallon of heating oil. Spirou and Fantasio nurse it and put it in a cage. On their way back, they are ambushed by hostile natives, but Zantafio, who has seen the errors of his ways and decided to drop out of the race, rescues them. Back home, Fantasio is declared the winner but learns that his impoverished uncle devised the race because he had nothing to leave his young relatives. The inheritance is the lessons in life learnt in the course of the competition. Fantasio declares himself satisfied. |
7830558 | /m/026fkxj | La mauvaise tête | André Franquin | 1957 | null | In A Head for Crime, due to a few missing passport photos, Fantasio finds himself a victim of a conspiracy to frame him as the thief of an invaluable Egyptian gold mask. Appearing completely guilty, he is forced to flee from the law, attempting escape from the city disguised as a competing bicyclist in the 6 day mountain endurance race Tour de Midiville, leaving Spirou alone with the tough task of exposing the real villains, and clearing Fantasio's name. The accompanying short story, Don't Touch the Robins, describes the Marsupilami's close relationship with little birds, while vacationing in The Count of Champignac's castle park (presumably during the events of the Marsupilami-free story La mauvaise tête). |
7830579 | /m/026fkyk | The Cobra Event | Richard Preston | 1998 | {"/m/01jfsb": "Thriller", "/m/05hgj": "Novel", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense"} | The book is divided into 6 sections. The first section, named "Trial", starts with a teenage girl named Kate Moran who violently dies one day in school. The next section, titled "1969", describes tests done in the sixties by the U.S. government involving weaponized viruses. The third section, "Diagnosis", describes the autopsy of Kate Moran and, introduces the key characters of Dr. Alice Austen, Mark Littleberry, and Will Hopkins. The book describes these three characters' journey to discover the source of the lethal virus Cobra, in the other three sections, "Decision", "Reachdeep", and "The Operation". |
7831418 | /m/026flnl | Le gorille a bonne mine | André Franquin | 1959 | null | In Le gorille a bonne mine, Spirou and Fantasio journey to Molomonga in central Africa, on a journalistic expedition to seek out the rare gorillas of Mount Kilimaki. In a setting of uneasy atmosphere amidst questionable characters and unlikely accidents, their efforts become increasingly difficult, justifying the suspicion that someone tries to prevent the reporters from reaching their goal. In Vacances sans histoires, the heroes take a road-trip south to the French riviera. This leads to an encounter with Ibn-Mah-Zoud, an abundantly wealthy sheikh and allegedly the worst motorcar driver in the world, and who tries out their Turbotraction:Turbot-Rhino I. |
7831661 | /m/026flyj | Le nid des Marsupilamis | André Franquin | 1960 | null | In The Nest of the Marsupilamis, Seccotine invites Spirou and Fantasio to a screening of her new documentary film, revealing what she has been doing since last seen in Palombia (in Le dictateur et le champignon). The film follows a Marsupilami in the wild, as he discovers and courts a mate, and they form a family in need of care and protection. In The Gangsters' Fair, Spirou and Fantasio are unexpectedly assaulted by a small martial arts-expert, Soto Kiki, who wants to train them in judo in order to act as bodyguards for the European visit of oil tycoon John P. Nut, a man with gangster enemies. All changes as the gangsters attempt to assassinate Soto Kiki, and kidnap the millionaire's infant son. |
7831847 | /m/026fm2p | Middle Passage | Charles R. Johnson | 1990 | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | The protagonist is Rutherford Calhoun, a freed slave, who flees from New Orleans on a ship called the Republic to escape being blackmailed into marriage by Isadora Bailey, a schoolteacher who convinces Calhoun's creditor to whom he owes large sum of money, Papa Zeringue, to demand Calhoun pays him all he owes if he will not consent to marry Isadora. After meeting the drunken cook of the Republic while drinking to forget his troubles, Calhoun stows away aboard the ship (and is later found after the voyage begins). The ship travels to Africa to capture members of the Allmuseri tribe to take back to America to sell as slaves. Although an educated man, Rutherford is at first self-absorbed and thus initially unable to grasp the hardships of slave life. During the voyage, Rutherford becomes humbled, learning lessons that teach him to value and respect humanity which includes identification with his own country, America. The ship eventually sinks due to various factors, including the sailing inexperience of the ship's passengers, following the Allmuseri take over. There are many survivors, and a nearby ship named the Juno rescues them. Rutherford discovers that Isadora is aboard the Juno and is about to marry Papa Zeringue, who has partial ownership of the Republic. Papa learns that Rutherford has the ship's log, documenting Papa Zeringue's immoral and illegal dealings,and he bargains with Rutherford to get possession of it. Rutherford brings up the fact that the ship was illegally dealing in slave trade and uses his Santos', Papa's black servant, ties to the Allmuseri to get what he wants, namely Isadora in marriage. Isadora, who is knitting booties for her cats and dogs whom Papa is making her give up, leaves Papa and marries Rutherford. |
7831895 | /m/026fm41 | Le voyageur du Mésozoïque | André Franquin | 1960 | null | In The Traveller from the Mesozoic Era, The Count of Champignac sensationally returns from an Antarctic expedition with an intact dinosaur egg believed to be from the Jurassic period. Back in Champignac, the Count's closest professor friends arrive (along with unpleasant atomic science genius, Sprtschk) and proceed to plan ways to hatch the egg. With the interference of a free-roaming Marsupilami, and Fantasio acting out of sorts due to a cooling incident with an ice truck, control is soon lost, and the village of Champignac has a big dinosaur problem on its hands. In the included story, La Peur au bout du fil, the Count continues to develop concoctions from mushrooms, but in a thoughtless moment he mistakes the toxic X4 residue from his cup of coffee, causing him to undergo big changes. His usually benevolent personality is inversed into pure evil, and Spirou, Fantasio and "the Biologist" must act to protect the village from this new, unlikely terrorist. |
7832034 | /m/026fm9k | Le prisonnier du Bouddha | André Franquin | 1960 | null | In The Prisoner of the Buddha, Spirou and Fantasio arrive in Champignac to find great changes in the Count's mansion park. A Russian scientist, Nicolas Inovskyev, the co-inventor of a revolutionary and powerful device named the G.A.G., is in hiding fearing the same fate as his American partner Harold W. Longplaying. Longplaying has been kidnapped by the Chinese army, who want his technology, and is being held captive in one of a series of giant statues of the Buddha which line up a valley. Armed with the new invention, the heroes set out to rescue the prisoner, and save the world. |
7832586 | /m/026fmr9 | QRN sur Bretzelburg | André Franquin | 1966 | null | In QRN over Bretzelburg, trouble stems from Fantasio's amazingly small transistor radio which gets wedged stuck inside the Marsupilami's nose. Apart from the grief and restlessness caused to all nearby by the unstoppable radio, the device jams the transmissions received by Marcelin Switch, a neighbour and radio enthusiast, who claims that this puts the life of King Ladislas of Bretzelburg in grave danger. While Spirou and Switch take Marsupilami to the clinic for nose surgery, Fantasio wearing a bathrobe and slippers in the wrong place at the wrong time is abducted by secret Bretzelpolizei who mistake him for Switch. Leaving the Marsupilami to recover in the hospital, Spirou, Spip and the nervous Switch travel to the dictatorial state of Bretzelburg, determined to rescue Fantasio, currently being tortured by the enthusiastic Dr.Kilkil. There, the team, reunited with the Marsupilami who has recovered uncannily fast and followed them across Europe, deal with a very unusual political situation... |
7833518 | /m/026fnl4 | Tembo Tabou | André Franquin | 1974 | null | In Tembo Tabou, Spirou and Fantasio find themselves on another expedition travelling upstream an African river, in search of vanished American author Oliver Gurgling Thirstywell. Events become increasingly more strange when they discover red elephants, befriend a pygmy tribe, learn of Marsupilami's love of eating warrior ants, and confront a gang of "protection racket" thugs who cultivate meat-eating plants. The story The Cage cronicles an awful day at work for intrepid poacher Bring M. Backalive, obsessed with capturing a living sample of a baby Marsupilami, who learns the cost of angering a Marsupilami father. |
7835100 | /m/026fpz4 | The Tin Flute | Gabrielle Roy | 1945 | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The story takes place in Montreal, principally in the poor neighbourhood (at that time) of Saint-Henri, between February 1940 and May 1940, during the Second World War, when Quebec is still suffering from the Great Depression. Florentine Lacasse, a young waitress at the "Five and Ten" restaurant who dreams of a better life and is helping her parents get by, falls in love with Jean Lévesque, an ambitious machinist-electrician. Wanting to satisfy his withered ego, he agrees to date Florentine. Quickly tiring of the relationship, Jean introduces her to a friend, Emmanuel Létourneau, who is a soldier on leave. Emmanuel falls in love with Florentine. Despite this, Florentine's attraction towards Jean will have important consequences in her life. A parallel thread in the novel is the Lacasse family life, made difficult by their poverty. |
7836669 | /m/026fq_w | Le faiseur d'or | null | 1970 | null | In The Gold Maker, The Count of Champignac reveals on television that he knows the location of a coveted book revealing the secrets of ancient alchemist Nicolas Flamel, which Spirou fears may tempt many a criminal. Upon visiting Champignac they find his friend Zorglub unconscious, and the Count abducted. When Zorglub comes to, he suspects having recognized Zantafio as one of the kidnappers. The Clandestine Christmas is the story of a small, very wealthy boy Henri who prefers to spend Christmas with his unlikely friend, the much older, unwealthy Jean Babtiste. The two move outdoors to find someone to share the affluence of cake they have, and by chance join Spirou and Fantasio in celebrating a special Christmas. in The Japanese Mushroom, Spirou and Fantasio travel to Japan, and are introduced to the Count's Japanese counterpart, Itoh Kata, and a new arch-villainous syndicate of global crime, "The Triangle". The story ends as a teaser for the following album, Du glucose pour Noémie. |
7836681 | /m/026fr0k | Panade à Champignac | André Franquin | 1969 | null | In Babysitting in Champignac, Spirou and Fantasio, the latter stressed by the pressures of work and the aggravating presence of Gaston Lagaffe - take a break at the estate of Champignac. Upon arrival, they learn that the Count's life has changed dramatically since the conclusion of L'ombre du Z, as he now spends his time taking care of Zorglub who has regressed to the mental age of 8 months. To make things worse, one of Zorglub's "zorglmen", Otto Paparapap, has not been healed, and lurks nearby, armed with the paralyzing zorglonde and obsessed with liberating his former leader... Bravo Les Brothers, takes a small step back in time to illustrate the hectic working conditions at Dupuis publishing house prior to Spirou and Fantasio's much needed vacation. The influence of Gaston in the pursuit of having De Mesmaeker sign contracts is a well-explored theme in Gaston albums, but in this instance, there is the added element of "Les Brothers", a circus act of performing chimpanzees that Gaston gifts Fantasio for his birthday. |
7836696 | /m/026fr17 | L'ombre du Z | André Franquin | 1962 | null | As The Shadow of Z, begins, Spirou, Fantasio and the Count of Champignac return from Zorgland, to find the population of Champignac have been paralyzed by a "zorglman" they left behind sedated, the abducted policeman Jérôme, who awoke and went on a stunning spree. After the ordeal of pacifying the rogue zorglman and restoring the people of Champignac to normal, time passes until Zorglub's sinister schemes again become evident. Without remorse (despite the conscience-burdened act during the conclusion of Z comme Zorglub) Zorglub continues to work for world domination from Palombia, with increased ambition, and allied with Fantasio's evil nemesis cousin Zantafio. |
7838286 | /m/026fsyd | Z comme Zorglub | André Franquin | 1961 | null | In Z is for Zorglub, Fantasio receives a hair dryer as a gift from a secret admirer, but its unexpected hypnotic abilities announce a new ominous presence in the Spirou universe. Zorglub, an old acquaintance of the Count of Champignac, appears from the past and offers the Count the chance to join him in seizing world domination, but it is firmly rejected. In response, Zorglub proceeds to demonstrate his powers by manipulating the township of Champignac to storm the Count's mansion, which nearly leads to the destruction of his laboratory. As this just barely fails, Zorglub decides to kidnap Fantasio, to "zorglhomize" him into a zorglhomme (zorglman), forcing Spirou and the Count to travel to the village of Zorgland, and attempt to outwit the criminal mastermind. |
7838335 | /m/026fs_t | Les pirates du silence | André Franquin | 1958 | null | In The Pirates of Silence, Fantasio gets an assignment from Le Moustique to write a story about Incognito City, a highly modernized city inhabited by wealthy celebrities and where security is tight and photography strictly forbidden. Fantasio gets around this by hiding miniature cameras in everyday items such as his pipe. But before he and Spirou leave, the Marsupilami surprisingly appears at their home, having somehow traveled alone from the Count's mansion in Champignac. Unable to reach the Count by phone, they drive to Incognito City and have an unpleasant traffic encounter with Juan Corto Dos Orejas, leaving them with a bad impression and a small object found on the ground. Further encounters with thugs and suspicious events slowly expose a fiendish plot, involving the kidnapping of the Count of Champignac. In The Quick Super, Fantasio sets out to test-drive a "Quick" (a large car manufactured by Genial Motors) for the week-end, in order to write a review for Spirou Méchanique. There are mysterious elements however, as all previously test-driven Quicks have ended up stolen, and this one is no exception. As the events unfold, old acquaintances from Circus Zabaglione (from Les voleurs du Marsupilami) reappear. |
7842197 | /m/026fy4j | Tora Torapa | null | 1973 | null | In Tora Torapa, Spirou, Fantasio, The Count, Itoh Kata and Zorglub are all gathered at Champignac, when The Triangle appears again, this time to kidnap the scientist with a dubious past, Zorglub. The heroes manage to shoot a tracking device into their abducted friend, and eventually trace the movements of the kidnappers to the island of Tora Torapa, in the past the location of an old base used by the Zorglub network. There, Triangle number one Papa Pop (cf. Papa Doc), actually one of Spirou's arch-enemies Zantafio in disguise, is waiting with evil plans for world domination, but which he needs Zorglub to set into effect. |
7842249 | /m/026fy56 | Spirou et les hommes-bulles | André Franquin | 1964 | null | In Spirou et les hommes-bulles, memories of Le repaire de la murène are invoked as John Helena, "the Moray", escapes from captivity, and Spirou, Fantasio and the Count suspect he is going after the gold that is still in the wreckage of Le Discret. A sudden trend of mini-submarine sabotage prompts the heroes to investigate, and the mystery becomes no more clear when Helena is discovered barely conscious, with gold, feebly warning of an attack by the "Bubble Men". In The Miniatures, Marsupilami playfully exposes Fantasio's unused film, forcing him to go to Mr.Flashback's photo store to buy replacements. When Spirou next meets Fantasio, he is reduced to a palm-sized, paralyzed miniature statue, which causes Spirou to question his own sanity. In a setting of other similar incidents involving Mr.Flashback, and a suspicious collector of miniatures, Spirou is set on a desperate mission to somehow restore his friend back to normal. |
7842295 | /m/026fy67 | L'abbaye truquée | null | 1972 | null | Spirou, Fantasio and their guest Itoh Kata are visited by Charles Atan and his henchman Renaldo, members of The Triangle, who abduct the Japanese magician as a means of forcing his friends to join their organisation. The trail leads them to an old abbey located in an abandoned village. There, Spip, their pet squirrel, also disappears. During this time, Kata's kidnappers are unable to keep him captive very long due to his conjuring tricks, no more than Spip who rejoins Spirou and Fantasio. When Spirou and Fantasio finally find Kata, he has just locked up all the men of the Triangle in a cell, with the exception of their leader, Charles Atan, and his assistant Renaldo. Continuing their search, they prevent the self-destruction of the abbey and capture Atan. But Renaldo frees his boss and the two gangsters flee. |
7842359 | /m/026fy8_ | Du glucose pour Noémie | null | 1971 | null | In Glucose for Noémie, the story continues where Le champignon nippon of the previous album left off. Ito Kata, a well-known Japanese conjuror, has entrusted Spirou and Fantasio with a special mushroom which he wants them to take back to their friend the Count of Champignac, a leading mycologist. The mushroom is also coveted by the Triangle, a SPECTRE-like, world-spanning criminal organization. Having escaped the Triangle's agents, Spirou and Fantasio stand stunned at Tokyo airport when they find the parcel they were transporting empty... In A False Departure, Spip is determined to run away from home. |
7843761 | /m/02pcx0p | Le gri-gri du Niokolo-Koba | null | 1974 | null | In The Gri-Gri of Niokolo-Koba, a native of Senegal throws himself in the taxi of Spirou and Fantasio in their asking to carry the contents of a bag that it leaves them in Mansa Moussa, in Niokolo-Koba, before disappearing in a dazzling flash. The two heroes leave then for Africa, and are joined by strong Sété Bagaré, which binds friendship with them. Once in Senegal, they learn that Mansa Moussa also disappeared, and that what they transport in the bag is not other than the grigri of the individual. Arrived at the park, they are informed of the disappearance of most of the animals of the reserve. Ororéa, which inquired in the reserve, occurs then with the photographic proof that the animals disappeared under the effect of diamond of Koli, also responsible for the evaporation of the individual met in Europe, which is not other than the nephew of Mansa Moussa. After some adventures, they end up finding the gangsters. The diamond of Koli is replaced in its sheath and all those that disappeared return, just like the animals. Mansa Moussa privately explains to Spirou that the grigri contained the plans of a diamantiferous vein under the park that the gangsters coveted. Those having disappeared following an imprudence with diamonds of Koli, alone Mansa Foamed and Spirou know the truth from now on. <!-- |
7843840 | /m/02pcx10 | Du cidre pour les étoiles | null | 1976 | null | In Cider for the Stars, while en route to Champignac, Spirou and Fantasio are confronted with strange events: the villagers see extraterrestrials and animals panic. When they arrive at the castle, the Count tells them that he is, in fact, housing three extraterrestrials ("Ksoriens"), enrolled in a mycology training program, but that their love for cider had led them to become careless. One of them is wounded in the town and manages to regain the castle, but its saucer is stolen by foreign secret agents. A whole patrol of Ksoriens then proceeds to land in order to retrieve the saucer, but one of them is in turn kidnapped. The Ksoriens threaten to put the whole area to sleep in order to help them in their task, but the Count opposes the plan. In the nick of time Spirou and Fantasio find the saucer and the Ksorien, and the extraterrestrials capture the secret agents. The Mayor, as is his wont, suspects that the Count is conducting secret experiments and orders the castle to be searched, forcing the Ksoriens to leave. <!-- |
7843910 | /m/02pcx1c | L'Ankou | null | 1977 | null | In L'Ankou, Ororéa invites Spirou and Fantasio to join her at a congress of magicians in Brittany. When they arrive, they meet strange L'Ankou, who objects to the presence of a nuclear thermal power station on his land. They then save Ororéa from an aggression, but the gangsters manage to escape. At their arrival at the hotel, they find out that Itoh Kata is amongst the magicians invited. The others are telepath Al Kazar, hypnotist monk Capuccino and telekinesist Rethros Athana. Those are currently developing a magic trick based on teleportation. Fantasio is used as guinea-pig during the first representation but is abducted by the gangsters. Ankou reappears and suggests to Spirou and his friends not to try anything against the kidnappers. The latter exert blackmail on the magicians: they are to deliver a revolutionary product developed at the power station in exchange for Fantasio. Kata decides not to say anything to his friends and together, the magicians steal the product. Meanwhile, Fantasio manages to escape and warns the police with Spirou and Ororéa. The gangsters are arrested but the product stolen by the magicians threatens to explode. Fortunately, Spirou warns the magicians in time and Itoh Kata makes the product vanish. This event leads to the power station closing down. L'Ankou is thus grateful towards Spirou and his companions. <!-- |
7843947 | /m/02pcx1q | Kodo le tyran | null | 1979 | null | In Kodo the Tyrant, Spirou and Fantasio are in Burma and try to enter the small close country, Catung, a dictatorship closed abroad. Thanks to a drunk pilot, John Madflying, they that point reach but are separate. Fantasio meets the inspector general of the Mafia, his quasi-double, who controls really Catung, and this one the nap arms with the fist to take its place, because the inspector for submission to taking his retirement. Fantasio thus joined the capital and takes a certain pleasure to ridicule Jataka Kodo, the dictator. Spirou, it, are found in company of the rebels of Ava Savati. Those learn thanks to the pigeon from Prabang, a mole infiltrated in the palate, that the inspector general and Kodo intend to go to inspect the warehouses of Kuor Lang, they will thus pass on the bridge of Pagor Tevat, that Savati decides to make jump. However, Kodo meets with its lieutenants Chop Suey and Matteo and also proposes to blow up the bridge in order to eliminate Fantasio, which imposes restrictions of its capacity to him. Little time after the departure of Savati, spirou discovers with horror the identity of the inspector general, but it is too late… <!-- |
7844014 | /m/02pcx21 | Des haricots partout | null | 1980 | null | In Beans Everywhere, the attack on the bridge of Pagor Tevat fails, fortunately. Fantasio is therefore able to inspect Kuor-Lamb and collect information on the way that the harvests of Kodo function. Spirou manages to contact with him thanks to the pigeon of Prabang; the rebels attempt to remove Spirou from the scene. United at last, Fantasio and Spirou develop a plan to overthrow the dictator. Benefiting from the departure of Matteo, the rebels make leave Spirou the country; this brings the Count de Champignac back in line with their cause. With the assistance of the WHO, where the Count has relations, they finally manage to unseat the dictator, who then flees the country. <!-- |
7844115 | /m/02pcx2r | La ceinture du grand froid | null | 1983 | null | In The Belt of Great Cold, Fantasio made the eccentric purchase of an old ship on which he, Spirou and Spip go on a journey by sea. They end up arriving in a zone in which the climate resembles the North Pole, but the three scientists living the close island explains to them that this “belt of cold” is caused artificially and that the island is fictitious also. Thus, these scientists build an interplanetary vessel in order to flee the Earth, whose great powers try to exploit their genius with fine soldiers. Mercenaries occur, with the orders of the commander Alexander, in order to take them along, but Spirou and Fantasio manage to slow down them sufficiently a long time and the scientists flee in their making believe that they all are died. <!-- |
7844186 | /m/02pcx32 | La boîte noire | null | 1983 | null | In The Black Box, Fantasio opened the mysterious box that Jefferson, Boris and Karl left them (see La ceinture du grand froid), and he discovers there the plans of thousands of inventions. When he tests one in company of Spirou, it draws the attention of the commander Alexander, who removes it with Kalloway. Spirou is obliged to yield to them the block box in exchange of Fantasio. Thanks to Jefferson, they discover that the gangsters hid in a stronghold of the Sahara, where they are protected by natives. They go there and succeed in taking again the box to them, while being made pass for deaths. <!-- |
7844251 | /m/02pcx3f | Les faiseurs de silence | null | 1984 | null | In The Silence Makers, Fantasio ask Spirou to join him. Spirou understands quickly that it again used the block box (of the two preceding albums). It discovers with him its invention: the aspison, which with the capacity to swallow any sound around the zone where it is used. Alas, it involves problems rather quickly and their two enemies, the commander Alexander and his Kalloway assistant, find themselves on their traces. They seize the machine and make use of it to make hold-ups, however, caught up with by their owner, they must find the block box and go to Fantasio, where they discover with horror that the machine must be discharged after a certain number of use of the absorptive sounds, like a vacuum cleaner. Taken of panic by seeing the level of filling of the machine, they flee by leaving it on the spot. While returning, Spirou and Fantasio discover it and decide to release it in the ocean, so that nobody can press on the button of unloading. <!-- |
7844437 | /m/02pcx44 | Virus | null | 1984 | null | An icebreaker has unexpectedly moored in the port of Le Havre where it has been put into quarantine. Suspecting a connection with Isola Red, a research base set in Antarctica and which has been out of touch from some time, Fantasio goes to investigate only to encounter an old enemy, John Helena, nicknamed “the Moray”, who has fled the ship. Looking extremely ill, Helena explains that following his release from prison he got a job working at Isola Red where tests are conducted on some of the deadliest diseases known to man. One day, however, one such disease became loose and the staff at the base all fell ill. The disease appears to be only transmitted by actual physical contact. Helena fled, got aboard a ship bound for Europe and now intends to contact the Count of Champignac whom he believes to be the only man who can save him. Spirou and Fantasio take him to see the Count. Spip, their pet squirrel, goes with them but, unaware of the situation, bites Héléna and is thus contaminated with the virus. The Count knows of a cure to the virus affecting Helena and the men at the base but requires an extra toxin to make it effective, and it is only available at the base itself. Spirou and Fantasio set off for the South Pole along with Spip and Helena who are dressed in special outfits which reduce the risks of infection. They arrive at a Russian base where they are given guides and snowcats for the journey to Isola Red. They set off, unaware that some men are tracking them from a distance with the intention of killing them before they reach the base. Meanwhile, back in Europe, Champignac goes to the Ministry for Research in order to organise a larger-scale rescue operation. However, an adviser at the ministry, Basile de Koch, blocks his attempts to see the minister. At that moment a horde of reporters led by the editor of the monthly current affairs magazine Action bursts in. One of the Actions journalists has been working undercover in de Koch's company which owns the polar base. Isola Red has actually been used to produce illegal biological weapons and as part of a cover-up de Koch has sent henchmen to kill Spirou and his companions and prevent them from reaching the stricken area. De Koch is arrested thanks to a file put together by the journalist working undercover among his men. Meanwhile, Spirou and his friends are attacked by de Koch's killers but are saved by Volene, the undercover journalist. They then proceed to Isola Red where they find the toxin needed to complete the cure. The killers also arrive, but Spirou and his friends fight back using the very weaponry they were not supposed to discover. The biological weapons cause those affected to go crazy and engage in disco-like dancing. At that moment, the Count and the editor of Action also arrive, along with military commandos. The remaining killers thus flee. It appears that the virus does not affect animals — animals used for testing are found to be fine, so it is with great relief that Spip the squirrel is freed from his outfit. Helena and the other patients are cured. Isola Red is then destroyed by bombers and some time later Helena becomes a tour guide, showing the remains of the base off to tourists. |
7844579 | /m/02pcx4h | Aventure en Australie | null | 1985 | null | In Adventure in Australia, the Count of Champignac, accompanied by a young professor, Walker Donahue, thinks he has made an extraordinary discovery in Australia, namely an immense indigenous monolith in the surroundings of a mining village. He asks Spirou and Fantasio to join them. Thus, the two go to the Australia, accompanied by Seccotine, which was essential. When they arrive, Donahue informs them that the Count was killed by miners. After investigation, they discover that the Count did not die but the heroes find him in bad shape, face to face with Sam, a gangster who grows rich by holding prospectors to ransom. Sam ends up dying when his truck explodes because of a bottle of nitroglycerin. Thanks to the aboriginals, of which they were allies, Spirou, Donahue and the Count put in rout Sam's men who are trying to eliminate Fantasio and Seccotine. Finally, the monolith is discovered and the aboriginals make an agreement to share resources with the prospectors, who are grateful to them for getting rid of Sam. |
7844640 | /m/02pcx4v | Qui arrêtera Cyanure? | null | 1985 | null | Swindled by a shopkeeper, Fantasio finds himself in the possession of a strange automaton able to take photographs. Apparently intelligent, the machine quickly escapes from its new owner. Spirou and Fantasio follow it to Champignac, where the automaton stops in an old unused railway station. There, they discover a bound and gagged young woman, whom they untie. She appears hostile and flees after destroying the station's interior. The owner of the place, Caténaire, a former station master, discovers the chaos when he returns and explains everything: the robot that Fantasio bought, Télesphore, was his first invention, while the woman which they freed is a more advanced android, Cyanure, evil and endowed with powers to control electrical machines. Cyanure tries to invade the village with an army of robots built in the nearby factory Roboc Inc.. Spirou and Fantasio mobilise a resistance, made up of the children of Champignac, and together they defeat the android and her army. <!-- |
7844701 | /m/02pcx55 | L'horloger de la comète | null | 1986 | null | In The Comet's Watchmaker, The Count de Champignac goes to visit his great nephew and entrusts the castle to Spirou and Fantasio, who both hope to relax. However, a strange vessel crashes in their garden and an individual resembling the Count de Champignac, accompanied by a strange creature, Snouffelaire, disembark. The individual proves to be the descendant of the Count, Aurélien, come from the future to look for the seeds of some plants that are extinct in his time in order to preserve them, located in the forest of Palombia. Knowing about the hostile environment of the Palombian jungle, Spirou proposes that he and Fantasio accompany Aurélien. However a malfunction sends the vessel to the sixteenth century during the Portuguese colonization of Palombie. Spirou, Fantasio and Aurélien are confronted by the hostile cannibals and the colonists who take them for French spies. Finally, Aurélien's vessel disintegrates, but strange individuals come from even further in the future to save them and to bring them back to their respective times. <!-- |
7844830 | /m/02pcx5j | Le réveil du Z | null | 1986 | null | In The Awakening of Z, after the extraordinary temporal adventure that they have just lived at the sides of Aurélien de Champignac, Spirou and Fantasio resume their journalistic activities. Fantasio is confronted with the skepticism of his new director of information, Kakeukh, who refuses to publish his article about the adventure. Being drunk, Fantasio is victim of an accident in the staircase of the Dupuis Editions, which obliges him to remain at the house with Spirou. The same evening, Snouffelaire appears in the house and it is suddenly transported to 2062, the time of Aurélien. They quickly discover, in company of So-Yah, the assistant of Aurélien, that the world is at the mercy of the descendant of Zorglub. Captured by Zorglhommes, they rejoin Aurélien but succeed in escaping before breaking the Zorgloge, the heart of Zorglub Jr's power. Aurélien, grateful, returns them to their own time. <!-- |
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