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Chasm City | Alastair Reynolds | 2,001 | Chasm City is framed and largely written in the voice of Tanner Mirabel, a security expert who has come to Chasm City to avenge the death of his former client's wife at the hands of a "postmortal" noble named Argent Reivich. Tanner arrives to find that Yellowstone, the most advanced civilization in human history, has descended into squalor; an alien nanotech virus known as the Melding Plague has wreaked havoc throughout the system. Chasm City, a dense forest of mile-high shapeshifting skyscrapers, has melted into a slum. The Glitter Band, a sparkling diorama of ten thousand orbital habitats, has been reduced to a "Rust Belt" of a few hundred survivors, mostly primitive and pre-nanotech antiques. In this chaos of plague and desolation, Tanner seeks his prey, only to discover that Reivich is more clever than he originally thought. In the midst of his hunt, he begins experiencing virus-induced flashbacks from the life of Sky Haussman, the founder of his home world, Sky's Edge, who is both revered and reviled for the crimes he committed for his people. From the depths of the gas plume at the heart of Chasm City, to the aristocratic canopy spanning what remains of the skyscrapers, Mirabel begins to unravel the mystery of the Melding Plague. |
Diary | Chuck Palahniuk | 2,003 | Diary takes the form of a "coma diary" telling the story of Misty Marie Wilmot as her husband lies senseless in a hospital after a suicide attempt. The story is not exactly told by Misty but through a third-person perspective instead. Once she was an art student dreaming of creativity and freedom, but now, after marrying her husband Peter while they were both still at school and then giving birth to their daughter shortly after, she is eventually brought back to Waytansea Island, a place that was once-quaint but is now tourist-overrun. Misty has been reduced to the lowly condition of a mere waitress within a common resort hotel. Peter, before falling into his coma, was building hidden rooms within the houses he was remodeling and scrawling vile messages all over the walls; this is an old habit of builders but it's been dramatically overdone in Peter's case. Angry homeowners are suing Misty left and right and her dreams of artistic greatness have been ruined. But then, as if she was possessed by the spirit of the fabled Waytansea artist Maura Kincaid, Misty begins painting again, excessively and compulsively. Misty discovers that the islanders, including her father-in-law (previously thought to be dead) are involved in a conspiracy which repeats every four generations. A young artist (in this case Misty) is lured to the island by an old piece of jewelry, she becomes pregnant and has her child within the community. It is implied that this old jewelry works to lure and entrap Misty because it was hers in a past life, during which these same events played out before. During middle age, her husband dies, followed by all her children, resulting in a wave of great artistic creativity, the product of which is mesmerizing to the observing audience. The islanders create an exhibition of Misty's art work at the local hotel where a fire is started by Misty's daughter, who is revealed to be alive after a previous point in the book when she was thought to have drowned, and all the hotel's occupants are burned to death due to their being mesmerized by her painting. The result is a huge insurance claim which leaves the remaining island citizens wealthy enough to support their luxuriant lifestyles for the next four generations, at which point a new young artist will be found to repeat the cycle. Peter, Misty's husband, attempted to warn her of this plot using his hidden writing and it is revealed that his suicide attempt was in fact a murder attempt. It is never revealed in the end whether Peter recovered from his coma, but from Misty's descriptions of his state of health, he more than likely died. |
Only You Can Save Mankind | Terry Pratchett | 1,992 | Twelve-year-old Johnny receives a pirate edition of the new video game Only You Can Save Mankind from his friend Wobbler. However, he hasn't been playing for long when the ScreeWee Empire surrenders to him. After accepting the surrender he finds himself inside the game in his dreams, where he must deal with the suspicious Gunnery Officer as well as the understanding Captain, and work out exactly what they're all supposed to do now. This might all be the result of an over-active imagination except that the ScreeWee have disappeared altogether from everyone else's copy of the game. With the help of another player, Kirsty, who calls herself "Sigourney" (as in Weaver), Johnny must try to get the ScreeWee home. |
Johnny and the Dead | Terry Pratchett | 1,993 | The story starts with Johnny going through the cemetery as a shortcut to reach his home. His best friend, Wobbler, thinks it's spooky. In the cemetery, Johnny meets Alderman Thomas Bowler (one of the dead). Johnny then realizes that he can see, talk to, and hear the dead. Later, Johnny then meets all the dead and then Johnny and the gang (including the dead) are discussing the council's sale of Blackbury's neglected cemetery to a faceless conglomerate who plan to build offices on it. Various dead citizens, led by a former town counciller, ask Johnny, the only person who can see them, to help stop it. While Johnny, helped by his semi-believing friends, tries to find evidence of famous interees and speaks out at community meetings, the Dead begin to take an interest in the modern day, and realise they are not, as they believed, trapped in the cemetery. By the end of the book the council is forced to back down, but the Dead no longer care because the day of judgment comes. However, the town's living residents have, thanks to the campaigning of Blackbury volunteers, rediscovered the cemetery as a link to their past. As one of the Dead puts it "The living must remember, and the dead must forget." |
Going After Cacciato | Tim O'Brien | 1,978 | Typical of many stories that deal with themes of psychological trauma, Going After Cacciato contains distinct ambiguities concerning the nature and order of events that occur, which often requires readers to look beyond superficial appearances conveyed by the narrator's language. Its chronology is nonlinear, for most of the book. The main idea of the story is, by O'Brien's estimation, that being a soldier in Vietnam for the standard tour of duty entails constant walking; if one were to put all the walking in a straight line, one would end up in Paris, where Cacciato is going. It is important to note that Cacciato is always portrayed as self-sufficient and happy. It is Cacciato who is pursued throughout the imagined story of the book. The final pages feature the juxtaposition of two statements, by Sarkin Aung Wan and Paul Berlin, which contrast the early American view (think Emerson and Thoreau) of independence and happiness against the modern view of obligations placed on the individual to conform to society. The obligations lead to complicity in atrocities. Cacciato marches to the beat of a different drum, and is freer and happier in a cavalier, ignorant kind of way. His actions are sometimes portrayed as those of a man who is not particularly bright or gifted, but who is sunnily untroubled by the larger questions of the war itself. Paul Berlin, the main character, is a frustrated soldier who during the entire novel focuses on every minor detail he encounters, whether in the past or in the would-be chase. In the chapter "Tunneling Toward Paris", the characters escape the endless tunnels by "falling out" just as they fell in; this allusion to Alice In Wonderland helps to reveal the story as surrealistic fiction. This surrealism in the novel also appears earlier in the novel when Cacciato flies off a mountain. |
Vice Versa | Thomas Anstey Guthrie | 1,882 | Set in Victorian times, the novel concerns business man Paul Bultitude and his son Dick. Dick is about to leave home for a boarding school which is ruled by the cane wielding headmaster Dr. Grimstone. Bultitude, seeing his son's fear of going to the school, foolishly says that schooldays are the best years of a boy's life, and how he wished that he was the one so doing. At this point, thanks to a handy magic stone brought by an uncle from India which grants the possessor one wish, they are now on even terms. Dick, now holding the stone, is ordered by his father to turn him back into his own body, but Dick refuses, and decides instead to become his father, and so the fun begins. Mr. Bultitude has to begin the new academic term at his son's boarding school, while Dick gets a chance to run his father's business in the City. In the end, they are both restored to their own bodies, with a better understanding of each other. |
Memoirs of a Geisha | Arthur Golden | 1,997 | At the age of nine, Chiyo Sakamoto is taken from her poverty-stricken fishing village of Yoroido on the coast of the Sea of Japan with her older sister Satsu and sold to an okiya (geisha boarding house) in Gion, the most prominent geisha district in Kyoto. Satsu is not sold into the okiya with her and is instead forced into becoming a prostitute in Kyoto's pleasure district. Chiyo lives in the okiya alongside another young girl named Pumpkin, elderly and grumbling Granny, money-obsessed Mother and Auntie, a failed geisha. Also living in the okiya is the famous ill-mannered geisha Hatsumomo who promptly takes to disliking Chiyo, who she sees as a possible rival. Despite Pumpkin and Auntie's warnings, Chiyo plans to leave the okiya and escape the city with Satsu, but is caught when she falls off the roof and breaks her arm. Enraged at her for dishonoring the okiya, Mother stops investing in Chiyo and makes her pay off her increasing debts as a slave. Several years later, a downtrodden Chiyo is given money and a handkerchief in the street by a strange but kind man known at this point only as the Chairman. She donates the money to the Yasaka Shrine in Gion, praying to become a geisha in the hopes of seeing him again, keeping the handkerchief as a memento. Chiyo is envious of Pumpkin, who is on her way to becoming a geisha under Hatsumomo's tutelage, but soon after visiting the shrine, she is taken in as a protégé by Mameha, a rival of Hatsumomo and the owner of a kimono she previously made Chiyo ruin. Mameha persuades Mother to reinvest into Chiyo's training, and Chiyo adopts the new name of Sayuri, with Mameha acting as her "older sister" and mentor. Mameha mentions that despite Hatsumomo's popularity, she was in fact a failure due to once angering the mistress of her principal teahouse. As a result, she could never obtain a danna to sponsor her independence, which is why she has stayed in the okiya under Mother. Hatsumomo goes out of her way to destroy Sayuri by tarnishing her reputation in Gion, forcing Mameha and Sayuri to devise a plan to push Hatsumomo out of the Nitta okiya lest Sayuri's career ultimately die, and so arranges for her mizuage (portrayed as a deflowering "ceremony" for maiko as a step to becoming full-fledged geisha) to be bidden upon by several influential men, namely mentor Nobu Toshikazu, the president of Iwamura Electric; and reputed mizuage specialist "Dr. Crab", dubbed so by Sayuri due to his appearance. Unfortunately, Hatsumomo learns of the plan and tells Dr. Crab that Sayuri has already been deflowered. However, after gaining back the respect of Dr. Crab by convincing him that Hatsumomo is a known liar, he ultimately wins the bid for Sayuri's mizuage and she uses his payment to cover all of her fees. This leads Mother, who had already been considering adopting Pumpkin as her heiress, to adopt Sayuri instead, which ultimately destroys the two girls' friendship. This change enrages both Pumpkin and Hatsumomo for different reasons: Pumpkin was looking forward to the adoption so that she could have some kind of security in her old age, while Hatsumomo was looking forward to Pumpkin's adoption so she could secure her own position as head geisha. Hatsumomo's behaviour begins to worsen and she is eventually thrown out of the okiya, with Pumpkin leaving soon after. As it turns out, Dr. Crab was actually bidding against the Baron, Mameha's danna, for Sayuri's mizuage. The Baron had previously undressed Sayuri against her will at a party, which Mameha had warned against. Nobu instead bids to become Sayuri's danna, but loses out to General Tottori. At this time, Japan is on the brink of entering World War II and many Geisha are evacuated to other cities to work in factories, which require hard labor and are primary bomb targets. The General is demoted and is unable to use any influence to send Sayuri somewhere safer but Nobu, despite losing respect for Sayuri, is able to send her far north to live with Arashino, a kimono maker. At the end of the war, Nobu visits Sayuri and asks that she return to Gion to help entertain the new Deputy Minister Sato, whose aid can be instrumental in rebuilding Iwamura Electric, the company which the Chairman and Nobu run. Sayuri, Mameha and Pumpkin entertain the Minister together regularly and within time, Nobu formally begins proposals to become Sayuri's danna. Sayuri still maintains strong feelings for the Chairman and doesn't want Nobu to become her danna, so on a weekend trip to the Amami Islands with Iwamura Electric, she plans to seduce the Minister and be caught in humiliation by Nobu. She asks Pumpkin to bring Nobu to a theater while she is with the Minister. Pumpkin still harbors resentment towards Sayuri for being adopted by Mother and noticing her feelings towards the Chairman, purposely brings him to the theater instead. Nobu finds out about Sayuri and the Minister in any case and decides not to become her danna. Sayuri eventually meets the Chairman again and reveals that her acts in Amami were for personal reasons. He reveals to Sayuri that he had always had feelings towards her, despite her thinking he didn't, but explains that he felt it disrespectful to take away the woman his friend had showed so much interest in, especially considering Nobu had once saved the Chairman's life. Sayuri and the Chairman kiss, which she feels is her first kiss expressing true love. Sayuri eventually retires from being a geisha and the Chairman becomes her danna. It is revealed that they have an illegitimate son together. Foreseeing the consequences this could have regarding the inheritance of Iwamura Electric, she relocates to New York City in later life. Here she opens her own small teahouse for entertaining Japanese men on business in the United States, which Mother takes a financial interest in, but Sayuri severs her links to the Nitta okiya and in effect, Japan. The Chairman remains her danna until his death and the story concludes with a reflection on her life. |
Blindness | José Saramago | 1,995 | Blindness is the story of an unexplained mass epidemic of blindness afflicting nearly everyone in an unnamed city, and the social breakdown that swiftly follows. The novel follows the misfortunes of a handful of characters who are among the first to be stricken and centers on "the doctor's wife," her husband, several of his patients, and assorted others, thrown together by chance. This group bands together in a family-like unit to survive by their wits and by the unexplained good fortune that the doctor’s wife has escaped the blindness. The sudden onset and unexplained origin and nature of the blindness cause widespread panic, and the social order rapidly unravels as the government attempts to contain the apparent contagion and keep order via increasingly repressive and inept measures. The first part of the novel follows the experiences of the central characters in the filthy, overcrowded asylum where they and other blind people have been quarantined. Hygiene, living conditions, and morale degrade horrifically in a very short period, mirroring the society outside. Anxiety over the availability of food, caused by delivery irregularities, acts to undermine solidarity; and lack of organization prevents the internees from fairly distributing food or chores. Soldiers assigned to guard the asylum and look after the well-being of the internees become increasingly antipathetic as one soldier after another becomes infected. The military refuse to allow in basic medicines, so that a simple infection becomes deadly. Fearing a break out, soldiers shoot down a crowd of internees waiting upon food delivery. Conditions degenerate further, as an armed clique gains control over food deliveries, subjugating their fellow internees and exposing them to rape and deprivation. Faced with starvation, internees do battle and burn down the asylum, only to find that the army has abandoned the asylum, after which the protagonists join the throngs of nearly helpless blind people outside who wander the devastated city and fight one another to survive. The story then follows the doctor's wife, her husband, and their impromptu “family” as they attempt to survive outside, cared for largely by the doctor’s wife, who still sees (though she must hide this fact at first). The breakdown of society is near total. Law and order, social services, government, schools, etc., no longer function. Families have been separated and cannot find each other. People squat in abandoned buildings and scrounge for food; violence, disease, and despair threaten to overwhelm human coping. The doctor and his wife and their new “family” eventually make a permanent home and are establishing a new order to their lives when the blindness lifts from the city en masse just as suddenly and inexplicably as it struck. |
The Bat Man | Jo Nesbø | 1,997 | The story revolves around the Norwegian police officer Harry Hole, who is sent to Sydney by the Royal Norwegian Police Directorate to serve as the Norwegian attaché for the Australian police's investigation into the murder of a young female Norwegian B-celebrity, Inger Holter, who was residing in Australia. Initially trying to adapt to the great differences in time, temperatures, environment, and cultures of Oslo and Sydney, Harry is introduced to Andrew Kensington, an aboriginal and homicide detective for the Sydney police, his nominal partner in the investigation. Hole is informed that Holter's body was found dashed on coastal rocks just under some cliffs north of the city, and that the police believe that she was raped before her death. However, her body was severely cut during her fall from the cliffs, and any DNA remains from the assailant that would previously have been present are now washed away. At first, her boyfriend, Evans White is approached as a suspect. Andrew informs Harry that Evans immigrated to Australia with his divorced mother in the 1970's and eventually became a local drug lord in the town of Nimbin. Through their insertion into the drug world in Nimbin and their meeting with reluctant White, Harry grows confident that White is responsible for Holter's death. Harry and Andrew visit the Albury, the Sydney pub where Inger Holter worked as a bartender. While there, Harry meets the witness Birgitta Enquist -- a Swede -- and unprofessionally but successfully asks her on a date. Andrew takes Harry to a local boxing tournament in a small town, organized by the Jim Chivers boxing team. Harry is introduced to Robin Toowoomba after the match, the match champion and protege of Andrew. Harry's investigation under chief inspector Larry Wadkins, a keen, but arrogant man, turns to data analysis of rape victim records in New South Wales, specifically with respect to white, blond-haired strangle victims. No culprit is identified, however, the team discovers a string of rape cases fitting those parameters which leads back years. In the process of attempting to interview a drug lord in Sydney, Harry ends up in a visceral fight. Andrew comes to his rescue, but receives a bad concussion in the brawl and is consequently hospitalized. Harry's growing suspicion that Otto Rechtnagel, a homosexual clown that frequented the Albury and knew Inger well, was responsible for her death based on his Circus's appearance near every location and time of the death of all of the blonde rape cases over the past years. He confronts Andrew with this information at the hospital, hoping to drag something out of him that might be useful for the impending police raid on the circus event to capture the clown, knowing that Andrew knew Rechtnagel well. Andrew desperately attempts to dissuade Harry from taking Rechtnagel, suggesting it is a matter of life or death. Just as Rechtnagel's act ends and he leaves the stage, Harry and his associates search the backstage, but cannot find the man. They search everywhere until they find his dismembered body in the steaming shower room. With Rechtnagel's death, Harry works under the assumption that his killer was associated with the rape cases but that the clown could still have been the serial rapist/killer and that his alleged homosexuality was only a cover for his true hetero/bisexual tendencies. The day after the murder, Harry and another associate Sergei Lebie discover Andrew's body hanging from the electrical cord of a ceiling light in his apartment. Harry also discovers a small stash of used and unused syringes for heroin injection in the apartment, but conceals this from Lebie. With this discovery, Harry interviews Evans again, only to find out that Andrew was one of his clients, but that he had established a respectable reputation for buying small doses at a constant rate and for always being able to pay. Harry interviews a prostitute -- whose pimp Andrew introduced him to -- back at his hotel room under the pretense of wanting to have sex with her. Breaking down and having reverted to his unrestrained alcoholism, Harry poorly mismanages the situation when Birgitta attempts to surprise him by coming by. Finding him drunk, naked, and with a prostitute, she storms out, giving Harry reason to believe that their 'relationship' is over. The next morning, the hungover Harry is expelled from the hotel for the noise made during the argument and his resulting rampage against the objects in the hotel room, however, the ultimate cause lay with letting a prostitute into his room. For several days, Harry wanders about the city and tries to act out detective while continually debilitated by his heavy intoxication. He is consequently kicked out from night clubs where he tries to pry information out of strongmen in the Sydney underworld. Finally recovered from his binge, Harry contacts Birgitta. Under Harry's urging, Birgitta offers to bait Evans by offering to meet him to buy dope. The plan is for her to press him to reveal information about the murders by threatening to go to the police with hearsay information she had allegedly obtained from Inger. The operation falls apart when Birgitta disappears and the police are incapable of tracking down Evans in the vicinity of the planned meeting point or of the place that they last had contact with her. Harry later interrogates Evans once the police finds him back in Nimbin. He claims that he was immediately suspicious of Enquist, and that she failed to meet him at the time and place agreed upon. Harry still doubts White. Through another meeting, the prostitute reveals to Harry that Toowoomba was a client of hers and that he had frequently requested her to service him while wearing a blond wig. He had also mock-strangled her. Harry confronts Toowoomba over the phone, who coldly admits to having committed all of the crimes. Toowoomba had for a time been in a relationship with Rechtnagel and the poor clown had eventually discovered his evil antics. Given Andrew's hopes for Toowoomba's career, Andrew had attempted to partially lead Harry off track until he was sent back to Norway. Once it became clear that Otto would spill the beans to the police, he became a loose end for Toowoomba. Harry and the police break into Toowoomba's apartment. Although they cannot find Birgitta there, they find a picture of a sailboat and discover a sailboat registered to Toowoomba in Sydney. The sailboat is empty, but they find Birgitta's body chained to the bottom of the docks. All hell breaks loose when Harry and the police pursue Toowoomba to the Sydney Aquarium. There, Toowoomba nearly escapes on the roof, but Harry coldly shoots the man once in the leg and once in the back. He falls into the tank containing a large predatory fish that wrenches his body to the bottom. |
The Redbreast | Jo Nesbø | 2,000 | The novel begins with a reference to a fable about how the robin first got the red feathers on its breast, when one of their number removed a thorn from the brow of the "crucified one" and drops of blood landed on the breast of the small bird. The timeline of the novel moves forwards and backwards from the Nazi-led Norwegian front against the Soviet army in late 1944 to the modern day, culminating on 17 May 2000, during the first half of the novel. However, once most of the WWII back story has been told, the novel concentrates on the modern day events. President Bill Clinton comes to Norway for a Middle Eastern Peace Conference with Yasser Arafat and Ehud Barak. Policeman, Harry Hole is assigned to security detail and mistakes a Secret Service agent in a toll booth for an assassin. He shoots the Secret Service agent - who is wounded but survives due to wearing a bullet-proof jacket - but the event is later covered up and Harry is promoted to the rank of Inspector. In reality, there had been no such Middle East Summit in Oslo in October 1999. While back in 1993 Norway had a major role in launching the Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Agreements, by 1999 the Norwegian role had been sidelined by the US. In fact, Clinton had invited Arafat and Barak to the ill-fated 2000 Camp David Summit which was held in the US with no Norwegian involvement. The Nazi occupation of Norway is entering the final stages, though none of the Norwegian soldiers fighting on the German side are willing to accept that this is the case. During the Siege of Leningrad a small group of Norwegian Waffen SS volunteers who have been together for some time are manning trenches just a short distance from the Western limits of the Soviet army. Details of their lives are given, mostly in conversation between the soldiers. One of their number, a man called Daniel Gudeson, claims to have shot a Russian sniper in no man's land and goes into no man's land to bury him. This endears him to some of his colleagues, but causes others to dislike him. However, at the point of midnight on New Years' Eve, when Daniel - on watch with one of his colleagues - stands up to celebrate the New Year, he is shot through the head and killed. His body and face are covered up and he is laid to wait for a burial committee who take the body away later that day. On the same night, another soldier, Sindre Fauke, disappears and is reported by his Watch colleague to have defected to the Russians. Oddly, a couple of days later a body appears in the trench, covered and waiting for the burial committee. When the soldiers investigate, it is the body of Daniel Gudeson which was known to have been removed earlier. This mystery remains unexplained until the climax of the novel. A hand grenade lands in the trench and explodes, and, although the soldiers survive, they are wounded and hospitalised. Taken to a hospital in Vienna, one, who calls himself Uriah, falls in love with a nurse, who is being blackmailed by her supervisor. They elope, but are forced to return when they realize that they do not have the papers required to go to their initial destination; Paris. Their love somehow survives the war, but they are separated and eventually will live separate lives. New Inspector, Harry Hole investigates a crime in which a very expensive Märklin rifle has been purchased and is being tested. In addition, a group of Neo-Nazis is suspected of plotting trouble, one member of which - Sverre Olsen - has recently had a trial against them collapse on a legal technicality, Harry himself having been involved in the investigation. An elderly drunk is found murdered, his throat having been slit with almost surgical precision at the back of a bar where the Neo-Nazis are known to congregate. During the investigation, a man known only as "the Prince" is mentioned and Harry and his colleague, Ellen Gjelten, try to find out the identity of the Prince. Harry, meanwhile, has met a work colleague called Rakel with whom he has become infatuated. At a work party, he and Rakel talk openly and it becomes obvious that they are interested in each other. However, Rakel does not take the matter further as she is concerned by a custody battle of her son, Oleg, who is wanted by his Russian father, a matter that has actually been orchestrated by Rakel's superior who also wants to sleep with her. Ellen, meanwhile, accidentally discovers the identity of the Prince, tries to call Harry, but fails to get through. She leaves a message on his answer phone but crucially neglects to name the Prince himself. On the way to her boyfriend's flat she is beaten to death with a baseball bat. Her murderer, Sverre Olsen, is soon discovered by Harry and his new assistant, Halvorsen. However, when they prepare to arrest him, they discover that another senior Inspector, Tom Waaler, has tried to do so. Apparently, Olsen tried to shoot Waaler, prompting Waaler to kill Olsen in self defence. Harry's only link to the Prince has been lost. Nevertheless, the murder of Rakel's superior - shot with the Märklin rifle at close range, along with an elderly woman - Signe Juul, the wife of a friend, also shot with the rifle - leads Harry to investigate the events of the Norwegian/Nazi collaborators, many of whom were imprisoned after the war as traitors. He is also led to follow a lead that suggests that the murderer has a split personality and that one personality is doing the killings - possibly without the knowledge of the other, such as in the story The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde As Rakel's father tells Harry that Signe Juul's husband, Even, was obsessed with Daniel Gudeson, other clues lead Harry to believe that he has discovered the murderer: Even Juul. However, when he goes to arrest Even Juul, he discovers that Even has apparently committed suicide, and Harry believes that Even discovered that his "other personality", Daniel Gudeson, had been committing the murders and that he had committed suicide in order to stop Daniel. However, Harry realises that he was wrong when he stumbles across the journal of the actual murderer. He sees that the split personality route of his investigation was correct, but the murderer is not Even Juul. The murderer is obsessed with revenge after believing that the Norwegian Royal Family had betrayed the country by fleeing to England during the Nazi occupation, and then later condemning those who fought for the Nazis during the war. The murderer also reveals the details behind the mysterious reappearance of Daniel Gudeson's body in the trenches during the war and the truth behind the defection of Sindre Fauke. Finally, the murderer makes it clear in his journal that he intends to assassinate the Crown Prince of Norway at the Norwegian Constitution Day celebrations later that day (17 May). Harry rushes to prevent the assassination, managing to stop the attempt at almost the last second in a hotel room. To keep the assassination attempt out of the press - and to prevent any problems for the assassin's surviving family - Harry's success is covered up, much as his actions at the start of the book were. The true identity of the Prince is revealed during the novel, although not to Harry, and the Prince continues to be a thorn in Harry's side in later books. In effect, this major theme makes the present book and the following two, "Nemesis" and "The Devil's Star", into a distinct 'trilogy' within the larger Harry Hole series. The book has major implications for the series in introducing Rakel, who would become the great love of Harry's life, and her son Oleg who would come to regard Harry as his father, rather than his biological father in Russia from whom Rakel separeated long ago, and to whom Harry would for his part become deeply attached. The ups and downs of Harry's relationship with Rakel would become a major theme in later books, often impacting substantially on the murder mysteries he investigates. In one of the book's subplots, Harry travels to South Africa to meet a dealer in clandestine arms, a white South African who is imprisoned and faces the death punishment for having killed two young black girls at a black township. The man is willing to provide vital information in exchange for Norway - which is on very good terms with South Africa's post-Apartheid government - bringing diplomatic pressure to bear on his behalf. Harry - who is nauseated by the man's manifest racism and whose entire investigation is concerned with the dark deeds of young neo-Nazis and old Nazi collaborators in Norway itself - takes the information but fails to keep his side of the deal. At the end of the book Harry gets a phone call from a black South African policeman which he befriended, telling that the arms dealer had been sentenced to death with no possibility of reprieve and thanking Harry for not having done anything to impede this outcome. In fact, the above is contrary to the actual situation of post-Apartheid South Africa. Capital punishment in South Africa had been suspended already in 1990 and definitely abolished in 1995, and the last execution carried out by a South African government had been in 1989. Thus, in reality the arms dealer would not have faced capital punishment in 1999. |
The Devil's Star | Jo Nesbø | 2,003 | Pursuing his suspicions during the Nemesis investigation, police inspector Harry Hole attempts to convince the Chief Inspector that his colleague, Tom Waaler is a smuggling kingpin known as the Prince, who has been involved in smuggling weapons into Oslo, as well as the murder of a number of witnesses (including Harry's former partner) who threaten his position. Due to a lack of evidence, the response is less than positive and Harry retreats onto an alcoholic binge. His superior reluctantly sends termination of employment papers to the Chief Inspector, but Harry gets a short reprieve as the Chief is on holiday for three weeks and cannot sign them. Meanwhile, a murder victim is discovered, dead in her shower on the fifth floor, shot in the head. Tom Waaler is appointed to lead the investigation, but Harry and his partner, Beate Lønn are attached to Waaler's team. Harry, investigating the murder scene, discovers a small, red five-pointed diamond under the eyelid of the victim and that a finger is missing from her left hand. Another murder is presumed when the director of a musical, My Fair Lady, reports that his wife has gone missing. Her finger is later sent to the National Criminal Investigation Service; it has a ring on it with a small, red five-pointed diamond. The director, Wilhelm Barli, is most upset, especially since his wife, Lisbeth, was due to take the lead in My Fair Lady, a role he later gives to his wife's sister. A few days later a third victim is found, this time in the female toilets at a local law firm. She is found on her hands and knees, with her head also on the floor and a five-pointed red diamond on the body. Yet again a finger has been removed. Meanwhile, Tom Waaler – who has heard about Harry's investigation of him – has offered Harry a position in his illegal dealings, especially as Harry's police career seems to be over. He informs Harry that, should he – Harry – wish to join, he will be given a specific task to prove his loyalty. Tom dangles the large financial benefits of his criminal activities as an inducement. Harry is initially confused as to why Waaler is effectively admitting his guilt, but is reminded that, as an alcoholic, Harry's evidence would not be sufficient to convict him if he went to his superiors. Harry agrees to think about the offer. A chance sighting of a pentagram brings Harry a flash of inspiration. The five-pointed diamonds found on the victims are in a similar shape – known as a Devil's Star – and Harry remembers having seen the same symbol at the murder scenes. The further significance of the pentagram soon becomes apparent to Harry, and provides a major clue as to the next possible murder locations, which are kept under surveillance. One is in a student residence hall and the other a house on the outskirts of the city, owned by Olaug Sivertsen. While investigating this house, Beate Lønn discovers that the likely murderer is Olaug's son, Sven. She informs Harry by phone as he and Tom Waaler are checking out the other prospective crime scene, the student residence. Harry lets the information slip to Waaler, who immediately leaves to assist Lønn. Harry, using recently installed CCTV cameras, notices another pentagram on a student's door. Eventually, the body of a fourth victim is found. Meanwhile, Tom Waaler apprehends Sven Sivertsen, although his threats to shoot him ultimately lead to the realisation by Lønn that he intended to murder Sven instead of arresting him. Now Harry is given his initiation task by Tom Waaler: get a confession from and then kill Sven Sivertsen in custody using poison. Waaler's influence is such that he apparently can guarantee Harry will get away with this. But Harry is persuaded by Sven that he is innocent of the crimes and, Instead of killing him, secretly removes him from the custody cells and goes into hiding. Harry is now a hunted man, his future in the police - and quite possibly his life - depending on his being able to prove Waaler's misdeeds. Sivertsen is willing to testify against Waaler, but his price is that Harry will exonerate him from the multiple murder charges he faces. Harry is faced with the daunting task of discovering and apprehending the true murderer in a single day. However, a clue is provided by a seemingly irrelevant photograph which Sivertsen shows Harry, and a very minute but precise piece of forensic evidence points to a completely unexpected perpetrator. Leaving Sivertsen chained up, Harry goes to confront his new suspect - and encounters him in the immediate aftermath of his committing yet another murder. Harry comes very near to being killed himself - but eventually the killer commits suicide. Just as Harry feels all is over bar clearing up, his phone rings and Tom Waaler informs him that he had kidnapped Oleg, the son of Harry's girlfriend Rakel, to convince Harry to meet him and trade Oleg for Sivertsen. Waaler is aware that it is Harry whom Oleg regards as his father – rather than his biological father in Russia, from whom Rakel is long separated – and that Harry is deeply attached to the boy and would do virtually anything in order to save him. Harry arranges a meeting in the student Hall of Residence. Using the CCTV cameras as a bargaining chip, Harry tries to convince Waaler that his position is hopeless. More and more outrageous stories are proposed by Waaler to explain how he intends to cover up what has happened, but eventually Harry manages to overpower Waaler and rescue Sven and Oleg. In the final climax of the story, Waaler ultimately loses his life. Harry, meanwhile, has worked out who the murderer is, and the case is satisfactorily concluded. Having exposed Tom Waaler and solved the case, Harry's termination of employment is rescinded and he returns to the force. As would become clear in the next book, "The Redeemer", Harry's professional success was achieved at a high personal price. Despite being deeply in love with Harry, Rakel decides to terminate their relationship; Oleg's being kidnapped by Waaler and coming very close to death led her to feel that Harry's profession – and his utter dedication to that profession – would make life with him too disruptive and dangerous. However, though Harry would become in some ways attracted to other women, Rakel would remain the great love of his life, and for her part she would also find it impossible to completely cut off contact. |
The Bourne Supremacy | Robert Ludlum | 1,986 | In the first book, The Bourne Identity, Jason Bourne suffered amnesia. Over the course of the book he regained his memory with the help of a Canadian economist, Marie, and later found that he was previously an operative of the Central Intelligence Agency in an elite project in Southeast Asia and Vietnam codenamed Medusa. Following the American forces withdrawal from Vietnam he joined Project Treadstone 71, where he was used as bait for the infamous European assassin, Carlos the Jackal. Bourne took credit for various kills in China and the rest of Asia, acting as a rival to the Jackal, in order to draw him out of hiding. At the beginning of The Bourne Supremacy, Bourne has recovered from most mental and all physical injuries and is teaching Asian studies at a university in Maine under his real name of David Webb. He is also living happily on campus with Marie and is getting regular psychological tests from his doctor, Morris Panov. Meanwhile, high-ranking U.S. officials discuss an increasingly alarming situation in the People's Republic of China, where a popular Communist official is planning a hostile takeover of the country, using a Bourne imitator to eliminate his political rivals. The officials decide to use Webb to kill the Chinese official, but know of his mistrust of the U.S. government. Aware of Webb's deep-seated emotional instability due to the loss of his first wife and children in Vietnam, they hatch a plan to abduct Marie and throw Webb back into the default state under which he operated for Medusa. It is then that a representative of the U.S. Government arrives and informs Webb of an imitator in Asia, someone who is killing under the name of Jason Bourne, a name feared in Asia because of the accredited kills during his work with Treadstone 71. Webb is told he requires a more visible security force because there is evidence someone wants him dead. Soon thereafter, Marie is abducted by unknown men while Webb is at the University. Webb returns to the house, finds clues to her abduction, and immediately phones government officials, threatening to leak information about Treadstone and Medusa in an attempt to get assistance. He finds out information has been manipulated in order to make him seem crazy and delusional, and that his only course of action is to follow the instructions left for him by the kidnappers. He turns to the only person he thinks will be able to help him, Alexander Conklin. Conklin is convinced there is government involvement but that they have lost control of the situation and the hired guns holding Marie are no longer in their control. Webb who now has transformed back into his hated persona of Jason Bourne now has no choice but to go to Hong Kong and play out the scenario to get Marie back. There he meets with a wealthy Tai-Pan who wants Bourne to bring back the imposter Jason Bourne because the imposter killed his wife. Marie, held captive in a British hospital, fakes an illness and escapes, taking refuge with Catherine Staples, a former colleague employed at the Canadian consulate in Hong Kong. She is later contacted by Conklin, who confronts Under-Secretary MacAllister and Ambassador Havland, the orchestrators of the plan to manipulate Webb. Webb, tracing the impostor Bourne through Kowloon and Macau, tracks him to mainland China, where he encounters Echo, another former Medusa operative, who is also tracking down the impostor Bourne, who he personally trained. They track Bourne to a meeting in a bird sanctuary, where Echo is captured, and executed by Sheng Jo Yang, the Chinese nationalist leader that Havland has been desperately trying to eliminate. Webb captures the impostor Bourne, but in attempting to swap the impostor for Marie, is misled by MacAllister, as Marie is still held in secret by Conklin. Without Marie, Webb has stated clearly he will kill the impostor, whom Havland and MacAllister need to track down Yang. Thinking Marie has been killed, Bourne assaults Havland's "sterile house" estate, where the impostor is killed and Bourne nearly as well, saved only by the timely arrival of Marie and Conklin. Bourne is then told of the whole plan and why Havland had to abduct Marie. Since Bourne has seen what Sheng is capable of, he says that he must go back into the fray and kill Sheng. McAllister goes with Bourne, and during their search for Sheng, McAllister explains that he must be the one to kill Sheng, that was his plan from the start. The meeting between Sheng and Bourne and McAllister takes place on the Chinese border, and during the meeting McAllister is shot before he can make the kill, so Bourne has to kill Sheng instead. They escape with Sheng's helicopter. The story is set during the British negotiated handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China on the expiration of its ninety-nine-year lease on the New Territories. |
Brewster's Millions | George Barr McCutcheon | 1,902 | Monty Brewster finds that spending so much money within the course of a year is incredibly difficult, especially with the strict conditions imposed by the executor of his uncle's will. Brewster is required to demonstrate business sense by obtaining good value for the money he spends, limiting his donations to charity, his losses to gambling, and the value of his tips to waiters and cab drivers. Moreover, Brewster is sworn to secrecy, and cannot tell anyone why he is living to excess. Working against him are his well-meaning friends, who try repeatedly to limit his losses and extravagance even as they share in his luxurious lifestyle. Brewster's challenge is compounded by the fact that his attempts to lose money through stock speculation and roulette prove to increase his funds rather than decrease them. Lampooned by the press as a spendthrift, he throws large parties and balls and charters a cruise lasting several months to Europe and Egypt for his large circle of friends and employees. Nonetheless, despite his loose pursestrings, Monty repeatedly demonstrates a strong moral character. At one point, he uses his funds to bail out a bank to save his landlady's account, despite risking his eligibility for the will. At another, he jumps overboard to save a drowning sailor from his cruise even as his rich friends choose not to. Monty's would-be wife Barbara Drew turns down his marriage proposal early in the year, believing him to be financially irresponsible and bound to a life of poverty, and his attempts to win her back repeatedly fail as Monty's attention is entirely absorbed by the requirement to spend so much money. At the conclusion of the year, Monty succeeds in spending the last of his funds, which he has meticulously documented, and confesses his love to another woman, Peggy Gray, who has been sympathetic to his lifestyle despite knowing nothing about his challenge. Tragedy strikes the night before Monty's deadline, as his lawyers inform him that the executor of his uncle's will has vanished after liquidating all of the assets. Monty convinces himself that he is doomed to poverty, but marries Peggy Gray, who accepts him despite the lack of wealth. Shortly after the wedding, the executor of his uncle's will arrives to inform him that he has successfully met the challenge and that he had simply come to deliver the money to Monty in person. |
City | Clifford D. Simak | 1,952 | As the tales unfold, they recount a world where humans, having developed superior transportation, have abandoned the cities and moved into the countryside. Hydroponic farming and decentralized power allow small communities to become self-sufficient. In the beginning the driving force for dispersion is the fear of nuclear holocaust, but eventually humans discover they simply prefer the pastoral lifestyle. The tales primarily focus around the Webster family, and their robot servant, Jenkins. The name Webster gradually becomes "webster", a noun meaning a human. Themes familiar to Simak readers recur in these stories, notably the pastoral settings and the faithful dogs. Each successive tale tells of further breakdown of urban society. As mankind abandons the cities, each family becomes increasingly isolated. Bruce Webster surgically provides dogs with a means of speech and better vision. The breakdown of civilization allows wandering mutant geniuses to grow up unrestrained by conventional mores. A mutant called Joe invents a way for ants to stay active year round in Wisconsin, so they don't start over every spring. Eventually the ants form an industrial society in their hill. The amoral Joe, tiring of the game, kicks over the anthill. The ants ignore this setback and build bigger and more industrialized colonies. A later tale tells of a research station on the surface of Jupiter. (This story, first published as Desertion in 1944, was one of the first stories about pantropy.) Simak's version of Jupiter is a cold, windswept, and corrosive hell where only advanced technology allows the station to exist at all. A scientist is accompanied by Towser, his tired and flea-bitten old dog. But there is a problem. Men permanently transformed to survive unaided on Jupiter's surface leave the station to gather data and inexplicably fail to return. Finally the scientist transforms himself and his canine companion into the seal-like beings that can survive the surface. They leave the station in their new form and experience Jupiter as a paradise. Towser's fleas and irritations are gone and he is able to talk telepathically to his former master. Like the previously transformed station personnel, the scientist decides never to return. He eventually does return, to share with all humankind what he has discovered. It seems impossible - how can he show them the wondrous Jupiter that he and Towser perceive? Joe steps in again, once more out of sheer mischief. He knows a mind trick to allow people to broadcast meaning to others' minds as they speak. By means of a kaleidoscope-like instrument, he can twist the minds of other people so they can perform the mind trick. Thus all humanity learns the truth about Jupiter, and most elect to leave Earth, give up their physical humanity and live transformed on Jupiter's surface Simak's vision of human apocalypse is unusual, not one of destruction, but simply of isolation. Much of humankind becomes so lonely that it eventually dies off. Some favor starting over as a completely different species capable of experiencing on Jupiter the simple bliss that humans have otherwise lost. Ten thousand years in the future, Jenkins is provided with a new body so he can better serve the few remaining "websters". By then, the dog civilization has spread all around the Earth, including the rest of the animals whom, little by little, the dogs introduce to their civilization. All of them are significantly intelligent, and Simak appears to mean that they were so all the while even though humans were not able to notice it. This civilization is a pacifist and vegetarian one. The dogs intervene in nature and distribute food to wild animals, managing to virtually end all predation. Besides, they also look for doors between dimensions through which some beings from different worlds are able to pass. At this point, a wraithlike creature called a cobbly appears, having traveled from another world on the time thread. Before it is driven away, Jenkins's new telepathic sense enables him to read the creature's mind to discover how it moves from world to world. Realizing that humanity cannot peacefully coexist with the Dogs and the other animals, Jenkins uses the knowledge to take his human charges to one of the other worlds. Eventually the human race dies out on the new world. However, returning to the initial Earth in the final tale of the book, Jenkins finds the dogs dealing with the ever-growing Ant City, which is taking over the Earth. Jenkins travels to Geneva, where a last small group of humans sleep in suspended animation. He asks his former master, a Webster, how to deal with the ants. The answer is typically human - poisoned bait, enough to kill but not before the bait is taken back to the ant colony, so it is fed to the queen. Jenkins is saddened because he realizes the Dogs will never accept this solution. He tells the dogs that the "websters" had no answer. He and the Dogs leave Earth for one of the other worlds. The stories were written in the post-World War II world, and reflect the attitude that humans are unable to live at peace with their fellow beings. There is an underlying theme throughout the book that humans possess a fundamental aggressive flaw they will never be able to overcome. The ninth (and last) tale in the City saga was penned by Simak in 1973, twenty-two years after he wrote the previous episode. Jenkins is on the original Earth, living at the old Webster home, surrounded on all sides by the Ant City. He comes to realize that the Ant City is dead, just as a spaceship returns to take him to the robot worlds. Breaking through the wall of the city, he sees nothing but infinitely repeated versions of a single sculpture; a human boot kicking over an anthill. |
The Wild Duck | Henrik Ibsen | null | The first act opens with a dinner party hosted by Håkon Werle, a wealthy merchant and industrialist. The gathering is attended by his son, Gregers Werle, who has just returned to his father's home following a self-imposed exile. There, he learns the fate of a former classmate, Hjalmar Ekdal. Hjalmar married Gina, a young servant in the Werle household. The elder Werle had arranged the match by providing Hjalmar with a home and profession as a photographer. Gregers, whose mother died believing that Gina and her husband had carried on an affair, becomes enraged at the thought that his old friend is living a life built on a lie. The remaining four acts take place in Hjalmar Ekdal's apartments. The Ekdals initially appear to be living a life of cozy domesticity. Hjalmar's father makes a living doing odd copying jobs for Werle. Hjalmar runs a busy portrait studio out of the apartment. Gina helps him run the business in addition to keeping house. They both dote on their daughter Hedvig. Gregers travels directly to their home from the party. While getting acquainted with the family, Hjalmar confesses that Hedvig is both his greatest joy and greatest sorrow, because she is slowly losing her eyesight. The family eagerly reveals a loft in the apartment where they keep various animals like rabbits and pigeons. Most prized is the wild duck they rescued. The duck was wounded by none other than Werle, whose eyesight is also failing. His shot winged the duck, which dove to the bottom of the lake to drown itself by clinging to the seaweed. Werle's dog retrieved it though, and despite its wounds from the shot and the dog's teeth, the Ekdals had nursed the duck back to good health. Gregers decides to rent the spare room in the apartment. The next day, he begins to realize that there are more lies hanging over the Ekdals than Gina's affair with his father. While talking to Hedvig, she explains that Hjalmar keeps her from school because of her eyesight, but he has no time to tutor her, leaving the girl to escape into imaginary worlds through pictures she sees in books. During their conversation, Gregers hears shots in the attic, and the family explains that Old Ekdal entertains himself by hunting rabbits and birds in the loft, and Hjalmar often joins in the hunts. The activity helps Old Ekdal cling to his former life as a great hunter. Hjalmar also speaks of his 'great invention', which he never specifies. It is related to photography, and he is certain that it will enable him to pay off his debts to Werle and finally make himself and his family completely independent. In order to work on his invention, he often needs to lie down on the couch and think about it. During a lunch with Gregers and Hjalmar's friends Relling and Molvik, Håkon arrives to try to convince Gregers to return home. Gregers insists that he cannot return and that he will tell Hjalmar the truth. Håkon is certain that Hjalmar will not be grateful for Gregers' intervention. After he leaves, Gregers asks Hjalmar to accompany him on a walk, where he reveals the truth about Gina's affair with his father. Upon returning home, Hjalmar is aloof from his wife and daughter. He demands to handle all future photography business by himself with no help from Gina. He also demands to manage the family's finances, which Gina has traditionally done. Gina begs him to reconsider, suggesting that with all his time consumed he will not be able to work on his invention. Hedvig adds that he also will not have time to spend in the loft with the wild duck. Embittered by Gregers' news, Hjalmar bristles at the suggestion and confesses that he would like to wring the duck's neck. Indulging his mood, Hjalmar confronts Gina about her affair with Håkon. She confesses to it, but insists that she loves Hjalmar intensely. In the midst of the argument, Gregers returns, stunned to find that the couple are not overjoyed to be living without such a lie hanging over their heads. Mrs. Sørby arrives with a letter for Hedvig and news that she is marrying Håkon. The letter announces that Haakon is paying Old Ekdal a pension of 100 crowns per month until his death. Upon his death, the allowance will be transferred to Hedvig for the remainder of her life. The news sickens Hjalmar even further, and it dawns on him that Hedvig may very well be Haakon's child. He cannot stand the sight of Hedvig any longer and leaves the house to drink with Molvik and Relling. Gregers tries to calm the distraught Hedvig by suggesting that she sacrifice the wild duck for her father's happiness. Hedvig is desperate to win her father's love back and agrees to have her grandfather shoot the duck in the morning. The next day, Relling arrives to tell the family that Hjalmar has stayed with him. He is appalled at what Gregers has done, and he reveals that he long ago implanted the idea of the invention with Hjalmar as a "life-lie" to keep him from giving in to despair. The pair argue as Hjalmar returns to gather his materials to work on the invention. He is overwhelmed by the number of details involved in moving out of the apartment. Hedvig is overjoyed to see him, but Hjalmar demands to be 'free from intruders' while he thinks about his next move. Crushed, Hedvig remembers the wild duck and goes to the loft with a pistol. After hearing a shot, the family assumes Old Ekdal is hunting in the loft, but Gregers knows he has shot the wild duck for Hedvig. He explains the sacrifice to Hjalmar who is deeply touched. When Old Ekdal emerges from his room, the family realizes he could not have fired the gun in the loft. They rush in to see Hedvig lying on the ground. No one can find a wound, and Relling has to examine the girl. He finds that the shot has penetrated her breastbone and she died immediately. Given the powder burns on her shirt, he determines that she shot herself. Hjalmar begs for her to live again so that she can see how much he loves her. The play ends with Relling and Gregers arguing again. Gregers insists that Hedvig did not die in vain, because her suicide unleashed a greatness within Hjalmar. Relling sneers at the notion, and insists that Hjalmar will be a drunk within a year. |
Hawksbill Station | Robert Silverberg | 1,968 | Hawksbill Station is a penal colony in the pre-Cambrian era created by the authoritarian United States government, using time travel as a means to exile rebels and political dissidents into the past. The colony houses only male exiles (a female settlement supposedly exists later in the Silurian era), who are sent there as a "humane" alternative to execution. The machine only works one way, so the prisoners are hopelessly marooned in the past. The distant prison is in a barren coastal area prior to the colonization of land by sophisticated life, and evokes a Tsarist Siberia or a Soviet Gulag. The personal relationship of the main character, the de facto leader of the colony, and both his government torturer/prosecutor and Dr. Hawksbill, each of whom had been members of the dissidence movement, as well as explication of the picayune ideological differences among the prisoners, and the confused circumstances leading to the establishment of the authoritarian government, further parallel Russian history. As the novel opens, the prisoners, all of them middle-aged or elderly, are surprised by the arrival via the time machine of a much younger prisoner. Their surprise increases when they question the newcomer, ostensibly an economist, about economic theory and political ideology, and his answers reveal his essential ignorance of either. His ignorance and youth cause the prisoners to wonder if he is fact a political prisoner at all or a "common" criminal who would only have been exiled for a heinous crime. When the newcomer arrives via the Hawksbill time machine a second time, it is revealed that he is a police officer of a new government which overthrew the authoritarian regime but was unrelated to the dissident movements of which the Hawksbill exiles were members; upon the overthrow, the new government discovered both the existence of Hawksbill Station and that means had been discovered to effect time travel from past to future, making it possible to retrieve prisoners from the colony. The newcomer has been sent to evaluate the prisoners and to recommend whether they are mentally stable for retrieval. With return now possible, the leader of the exiles realizes that he is a time traveler of a different sort: the struggle against the authoritarian regime, his life's work, is over; his closest friends in the movement (and his bitterest enemies, who left the movement to join the authoritarian government) are irretrievably dead; and even those who finally did overthrow the government have little connection with or regard for his brand of dissent (as demonstrated by the newcomer's ignorance of their ideologies). He is now somewhat inclined to visit the newcomer's future, but staying at Hawksbill Station is now the only existence he knows. |
The Royal Book of Oz | Ruth Plumly Thompson | 1,921 | The Scarecrow is upset when Professor Woggle-bug tells him that he has no family, so he goes back to the corn-field where Dorothy Gale found him to trace his "roots." Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion search for him, eventually meeting with a knight, Sir Hokus, the Doubtful Dromedary and the Comfortable Camel. In this novel the Scarecrow discovers that, in a previous incarnation, he was human. To be precise, the Scarecrow was the King of the Silver Islands, a quasi-Chinese kingdom located underground beneath the Munchkin region of Oz. When Dorothy first discovered the Scarecrow (in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz) he was hanging from a scarecrow-pole in a cornfield; it now develops that this pole descended deep underground to the Silver Islands, where it penetrated the king's grave. After spending some time in his former kingdom among the Silver Islanders, the Scarecrow decides to return to Oz and continue his current existence. The Royal Book of Oz acknowledges that an Oz character can die. |
Niebla | Miguel de Unamuno | 1,914 | The plot revolves around the character of Augusto, a wealthy, intellectual and introverted young man. He falls in love with a young woman named Eugenia as she walks past him on the street, and he sets about trying to court her. He is aided in his efforts by the other members of Eugenia's household. Her aunt is particularly keen for a relationship to evolve, so that Augusto might help with her niece's financial troubles. Nevertheless, Eugenia rejects his advances, since she is already in a relationship with the down-and-out Mauricio. Augusto pays off Eugenia's mortgage as a goodwill gesture without her knowing, but this only serves to insult Eugenia, rather than endear her to him. In the meantime, Augusto becomes involved with another girl, Rosario, and he begins to question if he is really in love with Eugenia at all. After talking with various friends and acquaintances, Augusto decides he will propose to Eugenia in any case. To his surprise, Eugenia accepts the engagement. A few days before the marriage is to occur, Augusto receives a letter from Eugenia. The letter explained that she was leaving him for Mauricio. Augusto, heartbroken, decides to kill himself. However, because everything he does involves a lengthy thought process, he decides that he needs to consult Unamuno himself (the author of the novel), who had written an article on suicide which Augusto had read. When Augusto speaks with Unamuno, the truth is revealed that Augusto is actually a fictional character whom Unamuno has created. Augusto is not real, Unamuno explains, and for that reason cannot kill himself. Augusto asserts that he exists, even though he acknowledges internally that he doesn't, and threatens Unamuno by telling him that he is not the ultimate author. Augusto reminds Unamuno that he might be just a character in one of God's dreams. Augusto returns to his home and dies (although whether or not he is killed by Unamuno or commits suicide is a subject of debate and is mostly down to the reader's opinion). The book ends with the author himself debating himself about bringing back the character of Augusto. He establishes, however, that this would not be feasible. The title, Spanish for 'fog', is a reference to how Augusto sees his life. In one of his philosophical ponderings, he describes his world as full of small and almost imperceptible occurrences, some of them good some of them bad, and all of them serve to obscure his vision. (chapter 7) |
The Other Side of Midnight | Sidney Sheldon | 1,973 | The story focuses on two women: the first is the beautiful Noelle Page, who is born to a fisherman in Marseilles; the second is well-read but shy wit Catherine Alexander, whose father had big dreams he was never able to fulfil. Catherine is embarrassed about the fact that she is a virgin. Noelle was born as a result of an extra-marital affair in Marseilles, France, but her mother never told her husband the truth. Her foster father always called her his 'princess' and decided to exploit her beauty by taking money from dress shop owner Auguste Lanchon in exchange for letting Noelle sleep with him. Noelle falls in love with RAF pilot Larry Douglas when she escapes to Paris. He promises to marry her but disappears from Paris and does not return. Noelle, distraught, finds she is pregnant and terminates at five-and-a-half months along in grisly fashion. Catherine is an American born to a father who always had big dreams, but could never fulfil them. Because she is an aloof virgin, the people in her university call her a lesbian. She finds a job with a man called Bill Fraser with whom she begins a relationship, but falls in love with Larry Douglas instead. Larry and Catherine marry, unaware of Noelle's plans for vengeance against the man who jilted her so carelessly. Larry's lies gradually entwine the lives of these two women in a dazzling story of passion, vengeance, power and greed. es:Más allá de la medianoche fr:De l'autre côté de minuit he:מעבר לחצות ne:द अदर साइड अफ मिडनाइट ja:真夜中は別の顔 pt:The Other Side of Midnight ru:Оборотная сторона полуночи (роман) vi:Phía bên kia nửa đêm |
Slan | A. E. van Vogt | 1,946 | Slans are evolved humans, named after their alleged creator, Samuel Lann. They have the psychic abilities to read minds and are super-intelligent. They possess near limitless stamina, "nerves of steel", and superior strength and speed. When Slans are ill or seriously injured, they go into a healing trance automatically. There are two kinds of Slans. One has tendrils and can read the minds of ordinary humans and telepathically communicate with other Slans. The tendrils are golden in colour, making it easy to spot a slan. These Slans are hunted to near extinction. The other type of Slan is tendrilless. They are still super intelligent but do not have psychic capabilities, only the ability to hide their thoughts from the first type of Slan. Kier Gray is the leader of the human society and promises to exterminate the Slans. As the novel begins, Jommy Cross (a telepathic Slan of the first type) is brought with his mother to the capital, Centropolis. They are both discovered, and Jommy's mother is killed. Jommy is only nine years old and manages to escape. Jommy Cross is not only the heir to the brilliant inventions of his father, but he represents the last hope of his race to save it from genocide. Because of the importance of his mission, he is opposed by various enemies. Jommy seeks to destroy Kier and in confronting him discovers an astonishing secret: Kier Gray is also a Slan. |
The Garden of Rama | Gentry Lee | 1,991 | The book picks up the story nine months after the end of Rama II. The book follows the story of three astronauts from the expedition in Rama II who were trapped aboard the cylindrical alien spacecraft, Rama II, heading out towards deep space. Along the journey, five children were born. Simone Tiasso Wakefield, Catharine Colin Wakefield, Eleanor Joan Wakefield, Benjamin Ryan O'Toole and Patrick Erin O'Toole, were born by Nicole Des Jardins from her relationships with Richard Wakefield and Michael O'Toole. These children later become major characters in Rama Revealed. After a twelve-year journey, they arrive in the vicinity of the star Sirius, where all eight rendezvous with a Raman Node. At the Node they are subjected to physiological tests for a year while Rama is refurbished, and they are eventually sent back to the solar system, this time to collect two thousand more representatives of humanity. An Earth agency, known as the ISA, receives the message from Rama requesting two thousand humans. Upon its reception, the message is kept secret and, under the guise of a new Martian colony, the ISA starts acquiring its payload. The ISA selects a handful of their own representatives; meanwhile, they selectively gather convicts and promise them freedom if they are chosen to be a colonist. The payload is subdivided into three ships the Nina, Pinta, & Santa Maria (names based on Christopher Columbus' ships Niña, Pinta, and Santa María) that arrive sequentially at Rama. At this point the colonists believe everything is a hoax (despite the colossal size of Rama) created by the ISA. With that discontent as the tone upon their arrival, Rama III heads back to deep space with its new payload. Soon an aggressive group of humans, led by a mob boss, seizes control of the human colony and begins a war of annihilation and propaganda against one of the other races occupying the massive spacecraft. The original astronauts and their children find themselves powerless to prevent the genocide. However, the aggressive behavior of the human species does not go unnoticed: Another species, unknown to the humans, observe their behavior and start considering a possible counterattack. Meanwhile, Rama III determines that total escalation of the conflict is imminent and transmits an emergency signal to its ancient constructors... The book ends with a cliffhanger, on the eve of the execution of one of the original astronauts. |
The Water-Method Man | John Irving | 1,972 | The novel revolves around the mishaps of its narrator, Fred Trumper, a floundering late-twenty-something graduate student with serious commitment and honesty issues that earn him the nickname "Bogus." The novel shows Irving beginning to develop a blend of comedy and pathos, as well as a penchant for fashioning quirky characters. It follows a non-linear narrative in the form of a sort of 'confession' authored by Trumper, who humorously recounts his various failures in life and love, from his New England childhood through his experiences on foreign study in Vienna, Austria, and as a graduate student in Iowa, leading up to the present-action setting, early-1970s New York, where Trumper is attempting to sever himself from his adolescent past. 'I want to change,' Trumper says at the end of Chapter one. The phrase seems to be the novel's central theme. The title refers to a method prescribed to Trumper for the treatment of non-specific urological disorders relating to his abnormally narrow urinary tract. Trumper's urologist, Dr. Jean Claude Vigneron, offers him three options for the treatment of his disorder: abstinence from sex and alcohol, a painful operation to widen the urinary canal, or the Water Method, which consists simply of consuming abnormal quantities of water before and after sex to flush bacteria out of the urinary tract. Trumper opts for the Water Method, suggesting both his generally comical cowardice and lack of self-discipline. Trumper's narration meanders through flashbacks revolving around his relationships with the novel's two primary female characters: Sue 'Biggie' Kunft, a former championship downhill skier whom Trumper courts, impregnates, and marries in Vienna while still a student, and Tulpen, Trumper's present day live-in girlfriend, a documentary film editor in New York, where he lands after losing Biggie. Though the two relationships function chiefly as a means of demonstrating Bogus Trumper's tendency to repeat his mistakes, Irving is often regarded for his strong, independent female characters, and Tulpen and Biggie can be seen as markers in the development of the strong women in his more popularly successful novels, particularly The World According to Garp (1979). Other characters include Trumper's best childhood friend Couth, a still-photographer; Merrill Overturf, an alcoholic and diabetic loon Trumper befriends in Vienna; Ralph Packer, a pretentious documentary filmmaker who employs Trumper as a sound editor; and Colm, Trumper's young son from his first marriage to Biggie. Trumper is a graduate student at the University of Iowa in comparative literature whose dissertation is to be a translation of an ancient, 'Old Low Norse' epic called 'Akthelt and Gunnel'. Irving employs the 'Akthelt and Gunnel' poem as a means for allowing Trumper to poke merciless fun at himself through analogously inventing the story of the poem according to his own life's mishaps. de:Die wilde Geschichte vom Wassertrinker fr:L'Épopée du buveur d'eau lt:Vandens metodas pl:Metoda wodna |
The Night of the Triffids | Simon Clark | 2,001 | The story starts 25 years after The Day of the Triffids ended. Pilot David Masen has grown up in a community on the Isle of Wight, safe from the venomous and carnivorous triffid plants which have dominated the world since most human beings were blinded by a meteor shower (as related in the original book). As the sequel begins, a mysterious darkness falls — something is blotting out the sun. Masen takes to the air to determine if a high cloud is to blame but he loses contact with his home base and crash-lands on a floating island populated by triffids. There, he meets an orphaned young girl, and the pair are subsequently rescued by an American ship and taken to Manhattan island in New York City. Manhattan, a secure and self contained community like the one on the Isle of Wight, appears at first glance to be a utopia; but David soon realises that it is in fact a dictatorship run by an old enemy of his father's. David and his young friend are soon being used by both the dictator and a band of rebels who oppose the dictator's tyrannical rule, while the triffids — now evolved into even more dangerous forms — are trying to take deadly advantage of the slowly lifting darkness. |
The Woman Warrior | Maxine Hong Kingston | 1,975 | The book is divided into five interconnected chapters, which read like short stories. In the first part of this chapter, the narrator of The Woman Warrior (Maxine Hong Kingston) is recounting how her mother once told her the story of the No-Name Woman. The chapter essentially opens as a vignette told from the mother’s point of view. "You must not tell anyone," my mother said, "what I am about to tell you. In China your father had a sister who killed herself." After this opening line, the narration continues in the mother’s voice. She tells the story of the No Name Woman, her husband’s deceased sister. In 1924 China, with her husband already emigrated to the United States, No Name Woman became impregnated through participating in an adulterous relationship. The rural villagers violently rampaged the family house in disapproval of the deed. No Name Woman ultimately gave birth in a pigsty and drowned both herself and the newborn child in a well. The middle portion of this chapter is Kingston’s retelling of the No Name Woman Story. Kingston uses her own experiences with Chinese tradition and culture to substantiate alternate “versions” of the tale. For instance, she questions No Name Woman’s agency in her own pregnancy. She first proposes that No Name Woman must have been raped, since “Women in the old China did not choose.” When she later tries to imagine a more sexually liberated No Name Woman, her own experiences interject: Imagining her free with sex doesn’t fit, though. I don’t know any women like that, or men either. Unless I see her life branching into mine, she gives me no ancestral help. Kingston finally settles on a version of the story in which No Name Woman is portrayed as someone who embraces her feminine sexuality to quietly attract a lover. She contrasts from the other Chinese villagers who “efface their sexual color and present plain miens.” She also differs from Kingston, who prefers being “sisterly, dignified, and honorable” to any expression of attractiveness. In the end, the villagers’ raid is interpreted as a reaction to the break in community equilibrium caused by No Name Woman’s efforts to be attractive and therefore individualistic. At the end of “No Name Woman”, Kingston reflects on the importance of her mother's story. She concludes that the real lesson is not how No Name Woman died; rather, why she was forgotten: The real punishment was not the raid swiftly inflicted by the villagers, but the family’s deliberately forgetting her. Kingston goes on to suggest that the act of writing out her mother’s talk-story serves as an act of remembrance to No Name Woman. A sympathetic reception of this story, however, is complicated by Chinese tradition, which will forever banish the No Name Woman to her well. In the first part of “White Tigers,” Kingston recounts her mother’s talk-story of Fa Mu Lan, a woman warrior who took her father’s place in battle. "[My mother] said I would grow up a wife and a slave, but she taught me the song of the warrior woman, Fa Mu Lan. I would have to grow up a warrior woman." Kingston tells the story in the first-person perspective, essentially morphing into Fa Mu Lan. She follows a bird up “around and around the tallest mountain, climbing ever upward” After this offer, she begins the first of her training: mimicking animals and scavenging for food. In her seventh year (age 14), the old couple leads her “blindfolded to the mountains of the white tigers.” Here, she is left barehanded and fasts for days. "When I get hungry enough, then killing and falling are dancing too." After she returns, the old couple trains her in “dragon ways” for eight years and then lets her look inside a water gourd. The first scene she sees is of her marriage to a childhood friend; the second is of her husband and youngest brother being conscripted into the army. She grows angry and wishes to help them, but only until she “point[s] at the sky and make[s] a sword appear, a silver bolt in the sunlight, and control[s] its slashing with [her] mind” does the old couple allow her to leave. “I have been drafted,” my father said. “No, Father,” I said. “I will take your place.” Her parents carve revenge on her back- their oaths and names. Her mother tells her, “We’ll have you with us until your back heals.” She dons the guise of a man and becomes a great warrior while creating a massive army. She defeats a giant who is actually a snake, and his army pledges their loyalty to her. Soon after she is joined by her husband, becomes pregnant, and orders her husband to leave with the baby. Unaccompanied, she travels home to battle the baron who took her village’s sons. With her quick swordsmanship, she slashes him across the face and cuts off his head. At last, she resumes her duties as a wife. "My American life has been such a disappointment." Kingston reverts to talking about her life in America and compares it to the story of Fa Mu Lan. She is told, “There’s no profit in raising girls. Better to raise geese than girls.” that Fa Mu Lan found and expresses her disappointment in having “no magic beads [or] water gourd sight.” She cannot gather the courage to speak up against her racist boss, let alone save her people in China. In the end, Kingston decides that she and Fa Mu Lan are similar: "What we have in common are the words at our backs." Using her mother’s old diplomas and photos from her years in China, Kingston recounts the story of her mother’s life as a lady scholar. “Not many women got to live out the daydream of women—to have a room, even a section of a room, that only gets messed up when she messes it up herself” – the To Keung School of Midwifery made this all possible. Her mother “quickly built a reputation for being brilliant, a natural scholar who could glance at a book and know it.” Her schoolmates are all afraid of the ghosts that lurk in the building. To show that there is nothing to be afraid of, she sleeps in the ghost room of the dormitory. She fights and ultimately ignores a Sitting Ghost, which has “thick short hair like an animal’s coat.” With the help of her peers, she lights buckets of alcohol and oil on fire and sings a song to banish the Sitting Ghost: “Run, Ghost, run from this school. Only good medical people belong here. Go back, dark creature, to your native country. Go home. Go home.” Brave Orchid, the name of Kingston’s mother, returns home after two years of study. She buys a slave to train as a nurse. Kingston remarks, “My mother’s enthusiasm for me is duller than for the slave girl; nor did I replace the older brother and sister who died while they were still cuddly.” Her mother also complains that she had to pay two hundred dollars to the doctor and hospital for her while “during the war […] many people gave older girls away for free.” As a midwife in her village, Brave Orchid never treated those about to die; however, she could not choose which kinds of babies to deliver as with the old and sick: “One child born without an anus was left in the outhouse so that the family would not have to hear it cry.” The villagers would attribute baby defects to ghosts while Brave Orchid would say “the baby looked pretty.” Kingston was born in the middle of World War II and grew up with her mother’s talk-stories. Her mother taught her that all white people around her were “ghosts”: “Once upon a time the world was so thick with ghosts, I could hardly breathe; I could hardly walk, limping my way around the White Ghosts and their cars.” Though Kingston was frightened by the ghosts she knew, she was more terrified of the ghosts entirely unfamiliar to her. For this reason she did not want to go to China. She said, “In China my parents would sell my sisters and me. My father would marry two or three more wives [who] would give food to their own children and rocks to us. I did not want to go where the ghosts took shapes nothing like our own.” When Kingston visits her mother, they chat about “ghosts” and how Brave Orchid can never go back to China now that the family’s land has been taken over. “I don’t want to go back anyway,” she says: “When you’re all home, all six of you with your children and husbands and wives, there are twenty or thirty people in this house. Then I’m happy.” Kingston tells her that she gets sick so often when she is home and can barely work. Brave Orchid understands her daughter and tells her she can come for visits instead. Affectionately, she calls Kingston “Little Dog,” an endearment she has not called her for years. “At the Western Palace” opens with Brave Orchid, her two children, and her niece at San Francisco International Airport. Brave Orchid is waiting for her sister Moon Orchid to arrive from Hong Kong. Moon Orchid is emigrating to the United States after being separated from her sister for 30 years. While she waits, Brave Orchid sees Vietnam War soldiers, who remind her of her own son who is fighting abroad. This causes anxiety in Brave Orchid, for she is not sure of his actual whereabouts. The description of the Vietnam War is important in that it places the setting of the chapter in the contemporary 1970s during which The Woman Warrior was written. Brave Orchid also contemplates the ways that immigration has modernized over the years, comparing her own experiences at Ellis Island to the “plastic” of the airport. Like the other chapters of The Woman Warrior, Brave Orchid labels all non-Chinese people in the airport as “ghosts”. When Moon Orchid’s plane finally arrives, Brave Orchid cannot recognize her sister. She consistently mistakes her for much younger Chinese women. Once the two sisters are reunited, they likewise cannot believe how old they each have grown. They argue the entire ride back home, with scenes such as this: You’re an old woman,' said Brave Orchid. 'Aiaa. You're an old woman.' 'But you’re really old. Surely, you can’t say that about me. I’m not old the way you’re old.' 'But you really are old. You’re one year older than I am' The sisters arrive back at Brave Orchid’s house in the Valley. They are greeted by Brave Orchid’s husband, who has aged significantly in Moon Orchid’s eyes. Moon Orchid then bestows gifts from China to all of Brave Orchid’s children. One of these gifts includes a paper cut-out of Fa-Mu-lan, the Woman Warrior. Brave Orchid grows disillusioned at what she presumes to be her children’s lack of gratitude for the gifts, and goes outside to “talk to the invisibilites”, or curse her children in the name of Chinese tradition. After a traditional family dinner in silence, Brave Orchid pressures Moon Orchid into coming up with a plan to reclaim her Chinese husband. Moon Orchid’s husband emigrated to the Los Angeles 30 years prior, and had since been remarried and fathered children in America. Although he sent monetary remittances to Moon Orchid, he had no intention of actually resuming a relationship with her. Now, he has no idea that Moon Orchid and his daughter are in the U.S., for it was Brave Orchid that arranged for both of their emigration papers. Brave Orchid spends the night desperately trying to convince Moon Orchid of the righteousness of seeking out her husband, saying things like: "You have to ask him why he didn’t come. Why he turned into a barbarian. Make him feel bad about leaving his mother and father. Scare him. Walk right into his house with your suitcases and boxes. Throw her stuff out of the drawers and put yours in. Say, ‘I am the first wife, and she is our servant’." Moon Orchid is still hesitant about Brave Orchid’s proposition. In the meantime, she spends the summer in Brave Orchid’s house. The gap between the second-generation children’s behavior and Moon Orchid’s expectations is immense. To Moon Orchid, the Americanized children seem “unhappy, immodest, rude, quiet, and savage-like”. It is important to note that one of these children includes Maxine Hong Kingston herself, who is indirectly referenced when the omniscient narrator describes Brave Orchid’s oldest daughter. Moon Orchid attempts to work at Brave Orchid’s laundry, but finds the work too challenging and the heat too uncomfortable. Her frailty and inability to handle the laundry leads readers to notice a sharp contrast between her and the tough persona of Brave Orchid. Since Moon Orchid is inefficient at the laundry, when she has time, Brave Orchid takes her to Chinatown. Moon Orchid comments on the assimilated Chinese, calling them “Americans”, and the two of them snicker at gambling women they encounter in a restaurant. Nevertheless, the summer lags on. With all of her curious pestering of the children and unsuccessful attempts to work the laundry, Brave Orchid becomes more and more anxious to reunite Moon Orchid with her husband. Brave Orchid, her oldest son, Moon Orchid, and Moon Orchid’s daughter drive South to Los Angeles. They are on a mission to find Moon Orchid’s husband. Upon leaving, Brave Orchid’s husband begs Brave Orchid to leave Moon Orchid’s husband "out of womens' business," to which Brave Orchid passive aggressively responds to her children: 'When your father lived in China, he refused to eat pastries because he didn’t want to eat the dirt the women kneaded from between their fingers.’ The drive consists of Brave Orchid giving Moon Orchid many different pep talks to encourage her to confront her husband. In one of these talks, Brave Orchid uses Chinese myth as validation for Moon Orchid’s cause, invoking the story of the Western Palace. She compares her struggle to that of the “Good Empress of the East”, who had to compete for her husband (“The Emperor”) against his other wife, the “Empress of the West.” Brave Orchid urges Moon Orchid to: “…come out of the dawn and invade her land and free the Emperor. You must break the strong spell she has cast on him that has lost him the East.” Upon arrival in Los Angeles, they realize that the husband’s “residence” is really a metropolitan high-rise office building. Moon Orchid is too scared to approach it, so Brave Orchid takes on the task. She enters the doctor’s office (he is a neurosurgeon) and speaks with the receptionist, who turns out to be his wife. Brave Orchid struggles to speak English while the young, Americanized receptionist struggles to speak Chinese, which leads to an even more awkward interaction. Brave Orchid returns to her car, having been stymied by the medical bureaucracy that requires an appointment for all those who wish to speak with the doctor. Brave Orchid then comes up with a plan. She forces her son to return to the office, tell the doctor that a woman has a broken leg, and require that he come provide medical assistance. The son complies, and the doctor comes to the vehicle where Moon Orchid and Brave Orchid are waiting. When he sees the two women, he addresses them as “Grandmothers”, clearly pointing out the age gap between them and himself. When he finally recognizes Moon Orchid, he tells her: 'It’s a mistake for you to be here. You can’t belong. You don’t have the hardness for this country. I have a new life... You became people in a book I had read about long ago.' Brave Orchid, who was the main one speaking during this entire interaction, resigns herself to the doctor’s explanation, but still demands one thing out of him: that he take the two women out to lunch. The doctor agrees. When they return, he and the women part ways, never to see each other again. Moon Orchid stays in Los Angeles with her daughter. At the end of the chapter, Moon Orchid declines in mental health and is forced to return to live with Brave Orchid. Moon Orchid believes has developed a paranoia of “Mexican Ghosts”, or Mexican people, thinking that they are after her. Moon Orchid tries in every possible way to shut out the outside world, demanding lights be turned off, windows be closed, and reeling in fear whenever someone left the house. Eventually, Moon Orchid is institutionalized. Before her death, Brave Orchid visits Moon Orchid, and Moon Orchid tells her: 'I am so happy here…we are all women here…we speak the same language, the very same. They understand me, and I understand them.' The chapter ends with Brave Orchid’s daughters pledging to never let their men run astray. In this story, Kingston reveals that her mother cut the membrane under her tongue. When asked why, her mother responds: “I cut it so that you would not be tongue-tied. Your tongue would be able to move in any language. You’ll be able to speak languages that are completely different from one another. You’ll be able to pronounce anything.” Kingston believes that her mother should have cut more or should not have cut it at all, because she has “a terrible time talking.” She spoke to no one at school, “did not ask before going to the lavatory, and flunked kindergarten.” After American school, Kingston would go to Chinese school. Here, children were not mute: “Boys who were so well behaved in the American school played tricks on [the teachers] and talked back to them. The girls […] screamed and yelled during recess.” One day, a delivery boy accidentally delivers a box of pills to the laundry owned by Kingston’s parents. Her mother insists that Kingston go to the drugstore and demand reparation candy. When the druggists and clerks give candy, Kingston’s mother exclaims, “See? They understand. You kids just aren’t very brave.” However, Kingston knew that they did not understand and thought that her family was a bunch of beggars without a home who lived behind the laundry. Kingston despises a Chinese girl who is a year older than she is because she refuses to talk. One day, she finds herself alone with the girl in the lavatory. Kingston tells the girl, “I am going to make you talk, you sissy-girl.” No matter what she does—screams at her, pulls her hair, squeezes her face—the girl remains silent. Even when the girl is crying, Kingston continues to berate her: “Look at you, snot streaming down your nose, and you won’t say a word to stop it. You’re such a nothing. […] Talk!” Afterwards, Kingston spent the next eighteen months sick in bed with a mysterious illness with no pain and no symptoms. The mental illness suddenly disappears when her mother, the doctor, tells her, “You’re ready to get up today. It’s time to get up and go to school,” and she does. Kingston writes about other eccentric stories in “A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe.” Crazy Mary, a daughter of Christian converts, was left behind in China for twenty years while her parents came to America. By the time she came to America, she was crazy and “pointed at things that were not there.” Her condition never improved, and she was eventually locked up in the crazyhouse. Pee-A-Nah, the public, “village idiot” witchwoman, would chase Kingston and the other children through the streets. She was probably locked up in the crazyhouse as well. Kingston’s mother desperately tries to be a matchmaker and brings a FOB (Fresh-off-the-Boat) home to meet her. Kingston does everything in her willpower to appear unladylike, unattractive, and unskilled. A mentally disabled Chinese boy begins following her around and Kingston is afraid her mother will try setting them up together. After Kingston screams to her mother and father that she does not want to be set up with the mentally retarded boy, she launches into a laundry list of things she is and is not going to do, regardless of her mother’s opinion: “So get that ape out of here. I’m going to college. And I’m not going to Chinese school anymore, […] the kids are rowdy and mean. […] And I don’t want to listen to any more of your stories; they have no logic. […] Ha! You can’t stop me from talking. You tried to cut off my tongue, but it didn’t work.” Kingston’s mother shouts back, “I cut it to make you talk more, not less, you dummy,” Ho Chi Kuei is a term immigrants frequently use for Chinese Americans, and it literally means "like - ie. similar to (Ho Chi) - a ghost (Kuei)". Kingston cannot figure out the exact translation, but she muses that Hao Chi Kuei means “Good Foundation Ghosts”: The immigrants could be saying that we were born on Gold Mountain and have advantages. Sometimes they scorn us for having had it so easy, and sometimes they’re delighted. In the final part of “A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe,” Kingston tells the story of Ts’ai Yen, a poetess born in A.D. 175. After captured by the Southern Hsiung-nu barbarians, she brings her songs back from the savage lands and passes down “Eighteen Stanzas for a Barbarian Reed Pipe,” a song that “Chinese sing to their own instruments.” |
Sanditon | Jane Austen | 1,817 | The people of “modern Sanditon”, as Austen calls it, have moved out of the “old house – the house of [their] forefathers” and are busily constructing a new world in the form of a modern seaside commercial town. (The town of Sanditon is probably based on Worthing, where Austen stayed in late 1805 when the resort was first being developed, or on Eastbourne.) The town is less of an actual reality than it is an ideal of the inhabitants – one that they express in their descriptions. These inhabitants have a conception of the town’s identity and of the way in which this identity should be spread to, and appreciated by, the world: :"My name perhaps… may be unknown at this distance from the coast – but Sanditon itself – everybody has heard of Sanditon, – the favourite – for a young and rising bathing-place, certainly the favourite spot of all that are to be found along the coast of Sussex; – the most favoured by nature, and promising to be the most chosen by man.” (Sanditon) However, the founders of Sanditon must create the town within their own circle of intimate acquaintances before it may be spread to the world. Each time these townsfolk meet, their “conversation turn[s] entirely upon Sanditon, its present number of visitants and the chances of a good season”. Thus, these people are the founders and supporters of the town by means of the images that they share through conversation; they build the town by means of words with greater facility than it is built in reality. Mr. Parker, one of the founders and most eager creators of the town demonstrates this oral formation when discussing the relation between the building of streets and the arrival of lodgers: “if we have encouragement enough this year for a little crescent to be ventured on… then, we shall be able to call it Waterloo Crescent – and the name joined to the form of the building, which always takes, will give us the command of lodgers”. Later, events demonstrate that there is not likely to be such an abundance of lodgers, and that the town is therefore unlikely to grow so rapidly as Mr. Parker expresses; yet, in his mind and in his communications, the town thrives. From these conversations amongst intimates, Sanditon’s fame spreads through letters and by word of mouth. Mr. Parker’s sister sends him a letter in which she states that she has “secur[ed]… two large families… I will not tell you how many people I have employed in the business – Wheel within wheel”. This letter provides a perfect description of the epistolary and oral communication that furthers the creation of the town by means of reputation. But Austen develops a sense of the artificial foundation of the town by undermining the gossip with which she built it in the first chapters of the story: the two families turn out to be one – exaggerated in number by the multiple “intermediate friend[s]” who had relayed the information – “Mrs. Charles Dupuis lives almost next door to a lady, who has a relation lately settled at Clapham, who actually attends the seminary and gives lessons on eloquence and Belles Lettres”. Austen allows the reader to imagine the development of the town’s reputation as it spread from mouth to mouth in one direction and the way in which the number of families was augmented in the other. Thus, Sanditon is a text that demonstrates Austen's interest in the practical results of communication — an issue with which she had experimented since she used the epistolary novel form in such early works as Lady Susan. |
Lady Susan | Jane Austen | null | This epistolary novel, an early complete work that the author never submitted for publication, describes the schemes of the main character—the widowed Lady Susan—as she seeks a new husband for herself, and one for her daughter. Although the theme, together with the focus on character study and moral issues, is close to Austen's published work (Sense and Sensibility was also originally written in the epistolary form), its outlook is very different, and the heroine has few parallels in 19th-century literature. Lady Susan is a selfish, attractive woman, who tries to trap the best possible husband while maintaining a relationship with a married man. She subverts all the standards of the romantic novel: she has an active role, she's not only beautiful but intelligent and witty, and her suitors are significantly younger than she is (in contrast with Sense and Sensibility and Emma, which feature marriages of men who are sixteen years older than their wives). Although the ending includes a traditional reward for morality, Lady Susan herself is treated much more mildly than the adulteress in Mansfield Park, who is severely punished. |
Goodnight Mister Tom | Michelle Magorian | 1,981 | In September 1939, as Britain stands on the edge of World War II, many young children from the cities are sent into the countryside to escape the German bombardment. William "Willie" Beech, a boy from London who is physically and emotionally abused by his mother, arrives at the home of Mr. Thomas Oakley, a widower in his sixties who lives in the village of Little Weirwold. The boy is thinly clad, underfed and covered with painful bruises, and believing he is full of sin, a result of his upbringing by his mother. "Mister Tom", as Willie christens his new guardian, is reclusive and bad-tempered, and as such is avoided by the community. Willie lives with him as his Mother wants him to live with someone who is either very religious or lives next to a Church. Though initially distant, he is touched after discovering William's home-life and treats him with kindness and understanding, helping to educate him. Under his care, William begins to progress, forming a small circle of friends at school among his classmates including fellow-evacuee Zach. He also becomes proficient in drawing and dramatics. As William is changed by Tom, so is Tom transformed by William's presence in his home. It is revealed that Tom lost his wife and baby son to scarletina some 40 years previously, and he has become reclusive because of this. The growing bond between William and Tom is threatened when William's mother requests that the boy return to her in the city, telling him she is sick. At first, William thinks this will be a good thing, as he can be helpful to his mother. However his mother is not pleased to learn the details of his time with Tom, feeling that he has not been disciplined properly. While William has been away, she has become pregnant and had a girl, but is neglecting the baby. After a bad reunion, where his mother becomes furious upon learning the details of her son's life with Tom, abhorring his association with the Jewish Zach among other things, she throws William against a bookcase, knocking him out. She then ties and gags him and locks him, with the baby, in a cupboard under the stairs. Back in Little Weirwold, Tom has a premonition that something is not right with William. Although he has never travelled beyond his immediate locality, he ventures into London and eventually locates William's neighbourhood of Deptford and his home. He persuades a local policeman to break down the door of the apparently empty home, and finds William in the closet holding his dead half-sister. William is malnourished and badly bruised as he had been locked under the stairs for a number of days. William is hospitalised, but whilst there suffers horrific nightmares and is drugged simply to prevent his screams from disturbing the other children. Tom is warned that it is likely that William will be taken to a children's home, and, unable to observe William's distress any longer, kidnaps him from the hospital and takes him back to Little Weirwold. Back with Mister Tom, William is much damaged by his ordeal, blaming himself for the death of his sister as he had not been able to provide enough milk to feed her whilst locked away, and becomes very depressed. Later, when his favourite teacher Annie Hartridge has a baby, William is shocked to learn from Zach that a woman cannot conceive a child on her own, and realises that his mother was having a relationship with a man, even though she had previously told him that it was wrong for unmarried couples to live together or have children together. Tom is traced by the authorities, who have come to tell William that his mother has committed suicide and offer him a place in a children's home, as they've been unable to trace any other relatives who may have been able to take care of him. Luckily the authorities realise that William has already found a good home and allow Tom to adopt him. Tom, William and Zach enjoy a holiday at the seaside village of Salmouth, where they stay in the house of a widow whose sons have been sent out to war. Zach then receives news that his father has been injured by a Luftwaffe bomb in London and he hurries home on the next train saying farewell to all his friends. This is the last time they hear from him. William later learns that Zach has been killed and is grief-stricken for some time. Eventually, Doctor Little, the village doctor, who was Zach's guardian while he was evacuated, gives William Zach's bike. Through learning to ride it, William realises that Zach lives on inside him. In the ending scene William finally learns to ride Zach's bike down a steep hill and sees Mr. Tom waiting for him. They both embrace and William, happily, calls him Dad. |
Gorboduc | Thomas Norton | null | At the play's beginning, the argument gives the following summary of the play's action: "Gorboduc, King of Britain, divided his realm in his lifetime to his sons, Ferrex and Porrex. The sons fell to dissention. The younger killed the elder. The mother that more dearly loved the elder, for revenge killed the younger. The people, moved with the cruelty of the fact, rose in rebellion and slew both father and mother. The nobility assembled and most terribly destroyed the rebels. And afterward for want of issue of the prince, whereby the succession of the crown became uncertain, they fell to civil war in which both they and many of their issues were slain, and the land for a long time almost desolate and miserably wasted." |
If I Forget Thee Jerusalem | William Faulkner | 1,939 | Each story is five chapters long and they offer a significant interplay between narrative plots. The Wild Palms tells the story of Henry and Charlotte, who meet, fall in forbidden love, travel the country together for work, and, ultimately, experience tragedy when the abortion Henry performs on Charlotte kills her. Old Man is the story of a convict who, while being forced to help victims of a flood, rescues a pregnant woman. They are swept away downstream by the flooding Mississippi, and she gives birth to a baby. He eventually gets both himself and the woman to safety and then turns himself in, returning to prison. |
The Misfortunes of Virtue | Donatien Alphonse François de Sade, Marquis de Sade | 1,791 | The plot concerns Justine, a 12-year-old maiden ("As for Justine, aged as we have remarked, twelve"...) who sets off, to make her way in France. It follows her until age 26, in her quest for virtue. She is presented with sexual lessons, hidden under a virtuous mask. The unfortunate situations include: the time when she seeks refuge and confession in a monastery, but is forced to become a sex-slave to the monks, who subject her to countless orgies, rapes, and similar rigours. When helping a gentleman who is robbed in a field, he takes her back to his chateau with promises of a post caring for his wife, but she is then confined in a cave and subject to much the same punishment. These punishments are mostly the same throughout, even when she goes to a judge to beg for mercy in her case as an arsonist, and then finds herself openly humiliated in court, unable to defend herself. Justine (Therese) and Juliette were the daughters of Monsieur de Bertole. Bertole was a widower banker who fell in love with another man's woman. The man, Monsieur de Noirseuil, in the interest of revenge, pretended to be his friend, and made sure he became bankrupt and eventually poisoned him, leaving the girls orphans. Juliette and Justine lived in a nunnery, where the Abbess of the nunnery corrupted Juliette (and attempted to corrupt Justine too). However, Justine was sweet and virtuous. When the Abbess found out about Bertole's death she thre both girls out. Juliette's story is told in another book, and Justine continues on in pursuit of virtue, beginning from becoming a maid in the house of the Usurer Harpin, which is where her troubles begin anew. In her search for work and shelter Justine constantly fell into the hands of rogues who would ravish and torture her and the people she makes friends with. Justine was falsely accused of theft by Harpin and sent to jail expecting execution. She had to ally herself with a Miss Dubois, a criminal who helped her to escape along with her band. In order to escape they had to start a fire in the prison, in which 21 people died. After escaping the band of Dubois, Justine wanders off and accidentally trespasses upon the lands of The Count of Bressac. These are described in true Sadean form. However, unlike some of his other works, the novel is not just a catalogue of sadism. The story is told by "Therese" in an inn, to Madame de Lorsagne. It is finally revealed that Madame de Lorsagne is her long lost sister. The irony is that her sister submitted to a brief period of vice and found herself a comfortable existence where she could exercise good, while Justine refused to make concessions for the greater good and was plunged further into vice than those who would go willingly. The story ends with Madame de Lorsagne relieving her from a life of vice and clearing her name. Soon afterward, Justine becomes introverted and morose, and is finally struck by a bolt of lightning and killed instantly. Madame de Lorsagne joins a religious order after Justine's death. |
The Godmakers | Frank Herbert | 1,972 | It explores the concepts of war and peace, good government and religious belief. It can be seen as a bridging novel between the all-human Dune universe and the ConSentiency universe series. It is a novel expanded from four short stories: * "You Take the High Road". Appeared in Astounding Science Fiction, May 1958 * "Missing link". Appeared in Astounding Science Fiction February 1959 * "Operation Haystack". Appeared in Astounding Science Fiction, May 1959 * "The Priests of Psi". Appeared in Fantastic Science Fiction Stories, February 1960 The story focuses on Lewis Orne, an agent for a government agency which develops "lost planets." After correctly identifying a warlike civilization on the planet Hamal, he is drafted into Investigative Adjustment (I-A), which manages dangerous planets. Under the auspices of I-A, he travels to various planets in order to maintain peace throughout the galaxy. At the same time, the priests of the planet Amel, who practice "religious engineering," set about creating the first human god in their history. After resolving a number of dangerous situations, Lewis is injured and has a near-death experience. Following this, his psychic powers develop, and after passing a series of tests he becomes a god. |
Epileptic | David Beauchard | null | The book tells the story of the artist's early childhood and adolescence, focusing on his relationship with his brother and sister. His brother develops severe and intractable epilepsy, causing the family to seek a variety of solutions from alternative medicine, most dramatically by moving to a commune based on macrobiotic principles. As the epileptic brother loses control of his own life, the artist develops solitary obsessions with cartoons, mythology and war. The book's graphic style becomes increasingly elaborate as the children's fantasy life takes over, with their dreams and fears (including epilepsy itself) appearing as living creatures. In brief interludes, the children appear as adults when the artist begins the process of writing the story. |
Market Forces | Richard Morgan | 2,004 | In 2049, Chris Faulkner is recruited by Shorn Associates, an investment firm in London.There he befriends Mike Bryant, a fellow junior executive in the "Conflict Investment" division. During a social gathering in Zones, the ghetto areas of London, Mike introduces Chris to journalist Liz Linshaw, who is also Mike's former mistress. Before they leave the Zones, Mike kills several gang members in a failed robbery. Back at work, Mike brings Chris into a project regarding propping up the ageing Colombian dictator General Hernan Echevarria by providing military resources in exchange for a portion of the country's gross domestic product. With Shorn's contract due for renewal they are challenged by competing agencies Nakamura and Acropolitic. The challenge is settled by a driving duel in which the Shorn team eliminates the two competing teams. As Chris becomes famous for his driving performance, he begins an affair with Liz Linshaw. With Echevarria's son, Francisco, who is aligned with a competing American firm, preparing to take over, Chris recruits a Colombian rebel group, led by Vincente Barranco, to overthrow Hernan before Francisco takes over. However, other Shorn executives sabotage Chris's efforts by arranging Barranco to overhear a Shorn executive negotiate with the Echevarrias. Chris reacts by spontaneously beating Hernan to death. Meanwhile, the demands of his new job stress Chris's relationship with his wife, Carla, who is uncomfortable with the brutal competition among firms and the violence they incite in other countries. With the help of her father, who lives in the London Zones, and her mother in Sweden, they secure a position at the United Nations for Chris on condition he bring insider information with him. As Chris resists and their marriage ends. In jail, Chris is offered a choice: stand trial for murder or participate in the cover-up by saying he had legally issued a challenge for a senior position in the firm. Knowing murder merits capital punishment, Chris agrees to the cover-up but must face Mike in a driving duel for the senior position. Mike is the superior driver but Chris forces Mike to drive off a bridge and into the Zones. Chris finds the badly injured Mike and kills him just before a gang, who had watched the duel on television, finds them. The gang beats Chris but he survives. The story ends with Chris, as the new senior executive, giving the new dictator Francisco Echevarria 48 hours to flee his country in favour of installing Barranco. |
Orlando: A Biography | Virginia Woolf | 1,928 | Orlando tells the story of a young man named Orlando, born in England during the reign of Elizabeth I, who decides not to grow old. He is briefly a lover to the elderly queen, but after her death has a brief, intense love affair with Sasha, a princess in the entourage of the Russian embassy. This episode, of love and excitement against the background of the Great Frost, is one of the best known, and is said to represent Vita Sackville-West's affair with Violet Trefusis. Following Sasha's sudden, unwarned departure and return to Russia, the desolate, heartbroken Orlando returns to writing The Oak Tree, a poem started and abandoned in his youth. He meets with a famous poet, Nicholas Greene, with whom he joyfully entertains, but who criticises Orlando's writing, later making Orlando feel betrayed when he finds himself made the foolishly-depicted subject of one of Greene's subsequent works. This period of contemplating love and life leads Orlando to appreciate the value of his ancestral stately home, which he proceeds to furnish lavishly and then plays host to the populace. Ennui sets in and the harassment of a persistent suitor, the Archduchess Harriet, leads to Orlando's fleeing the country when appointed by King Charles II as British ambassador to Constantinople. Orlando performs his duties well, until a night of civil unrest and murderous riots. He falls asleep for a lengthy period of days while in Turkey, resistant to all efforts to rouse him. Upon awakening he finds, unsurprised, that he has metamorphosed into a woman—the same person, with the same personality and intellect, but in a woman's body. The now Lady Orlando covertly escapes Constantinople in the company of a Gypsy clan, adopting their way of life until its essential conflict with her upbringing leads her to head home. Only on the ship back to England, with her constraining female clothes and an incident in which a flash of her ankle nearly results in a sailor's falling to his death, does she realise the magnitude of becoming a woman; yet she concludes the overall advantages, declaring 'Praise God I'm a woman!' Back in England, Orlando is hounded once again by the archduchess, who now reveals herself in fact to be a man, the Archduke Harry. Orlando evades his marriage proposals, instead living a life switching between gender roles, dressing as both man and woman. Orlando soon becomes caught up in the life of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, holding court with the great poets (notably Alexander Pope), including Nick Greene who appears to be as timeless as she, now promoting her writing and promising to help her publish The Oak Tree. Orlando wins a lawsuit over her property and marries a sea captain, Marmaduke Bonthrop Shelmerdine. In 1928, she publishes The Oak Tree centuries after starting it, winning a prize. As her husband's ship returns, in the aftermath of her success, she rushes to greet him. |
An Ideal Husband | Oscar Wilde | null | An Ideal Husband opens during a dinner party at the home of Sir Robert Chiltern in London's fashionable Grosvenor Square. Sir Robert, a prestigious member of the House of Commons, and his wife, Lady Chiltern, are hosting a gathering that includes his friend Lord Goring, a dandified bachelor and close friend to the Chilterns, his sister Mabel Chiltern, and other genteel guests. During the party, Mrs. Cheveley, an enemy of Lady Chiltern's from their school days, attempts to blackmail Sir Robert into supporting a fraudulent scheme to build a canal in Argentina. Apparently, Mrs. Cheveley's dead mentor and lover, Baron Arnheim, convinced the young Sir Robert many years ago to sell him a Cabinet secret, a secret that suggested he buy stocks in the Suez Canal three days before the British government announced its purchase. Sir Robert made his fortune with that illicit money, and Mrs. Cheveley has the letter to prove his crime. Fearing the ruin of both career and marriage, Sir Robert submits to her demands. When Mrs. Cheveley pointedly informs Lady Chiltern of Sir Robert's change of heart regarding the canal scheme, the morally inflexible Lady, unaware of both her husband's past and the blackmail plot, insists that Sir Robert renege on his promise. For Lady Chiltern, their marriage is predicated on her having an "ideal husband"—that is, a model spouse in both private and public life that she can worship: thus Sir Robert must remain unimpeachable in all his decisions. Sir Robert complies with the lady's wishes and apparently seals his doom. Also toward the end of Act I, Mabel and Lord Goring come upon a diamond brooch that Lord Goring gave someone many years ago. Goring takes the brooch and asks that Mabel inform him if anyone comes to retrieve it. In the second act, which also takes place at Sir Robert's house, Lord Goring urges Sir Robert to fight Mrs. Cheveley and admit his guilt to his wife. He also reveals that he and Mrs. Cheveley were formerly engaged. After finishing his conversation with Sir Robert, Goring engages in flirtatious banter with Mabel. He also takes Lady Chiltern aside and obliquely urges her to be less morally inflexible and more forgiving. Once Goring leaves, Mrs. Cheveley appears, unexpected, in search of a brooch she lost the previous evening. Incensed at Sir Robert's reneging on his promise, she ultimately exposes Sir Robert to his wife once they are both in the room. Unable to accept a Sir Robert now unmasked, Lady Chiltern then denounces her husband and refuses to forgive him. In the third act, set in Lord Goring's home, Goring receives a pink letter from Lady Chiltern asking for his help, a letter that might be read as a compromising love note. Just as Goring receives this note, however, his father, Lord Caversham, drops in and demands to know when his son will marry. A visit from Sir Robert, who seeks further counsel from Goring, follows. Meanwhile, Mrs. Cheveley arrives unexpectedly and, misrecognized by the butler as the woman Goring awaits, is ushered into Lord Goring's drawing room. While she waits, she finds Lady Chiltern's letter. Ultimately, Sir Robert discovers Mrs. Cheveley in the drawing room and, convinced of an affair between these two former loves, angrily storms out of the house. When she and Lord Goring confront each other, Mrs. Cheveley makes a proposal. Claiming to still love Goring from their early days of courtship, she offers to exchange Sir Robert's letter for her old beau's hand in marriage. Lord Goring declines, accusing her of defiling love by reducing courtship to a vulgar transaction and ruining the Chilterns' marriage. He then springs his trap. Removing the diamond brooch from his desk drawer, he binds it to Cheveley's wrist with a hidden device. Goring then reveals how the item came into her possession. Apparently Mrs. Cheveley stole it from his cousin years ago. To avoid arrest, Cheveley must trade the incriminating letter for her release from the bejewelled handcuff. After Goring obtains and burns the letter, however, Mrs. Cheveley steals Lady Chiltern's note from his desk. Vengefully she plans to send it to Sir Robert misconstrued as a love letter addressed to the dandified lord. Mrs. Cheveley exits the house in triumph. The final act, which returns to Grosvenor Square, resolves the many plot complications sketched above with a decidedly happy ending. Lord Goring proposes to and is accepted by Mabel. Lord Caversham informs his son that Sir Robert has denounced the Argentine canal scheme before the House. Lady Chiltern then appears, and Lord Goring informs her that Sir Robert's letter has been destroyed but that Mrs. Cheveley has stolen her letter and plans to use it to destroy her marriage. At that moment, Sir Robert enters while reading Lady Chiltern's letter, but as the letter does not have the name of the addressee, he assumes it is meant for him, and reads it as a letter of forgiveness. The two reconcile. Lady Chiltern initially agrees to support Sir Robert's decision to renounce his career in politics, but Lord Goring dissuades her from allowing her husband to resign. When Sir Robert refuses Lord Goring his sister's hand in marriage, still believing he has taken up with Mrs. Cheveley, Lady Chiltern is forced to explain last night's events and the true nature of the letter. Sir Robert relents, and Lord Goring and Mabel are permitted to wed. |
Tuesdays With Morrie | Mitch Albom | 1,997 | Newspaper columnist Mitch Albom recounts time spent with his 78-year-old sociology professor, Morrie Schwartz, at Brandeis University, who was dying from Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS). Albom, a former student of Schwartz, had not corresponded with him since attending his college classes 16 years earlier. The first three chapters incorporate an ambiguous introduction to the final conversation between Albom and Schwartz, a brief flashback to Albom's graduation, and an account of the events Albom experienced between graduation and the reunion with his professor. Albom is a successful sports columnist for the Detroit Free Press despite his childhood dream of being a pianist. After seeing Schwartz on Nightline, Albom called Schwartz, who remembered his former pupil despite the lapse of 16 years. Albom was prompted to travel from Michigan to Massachusetts to visit Schwartz. A newspaper strike frees Albom to commute weekly, Tuesdays, to visit with Schwartz. The resulting book is based on these fourteen Tuesdays they meet, supplemented with Schwartz's lectures and life experiences and interspersed with flashbacks and allusions to contemporary events. |
Shardik | Richard Adams | 1,974 | Kelderek is a young hunter nicknamed "Play-with-the-Children" because of his simple nature and love of small children. In the forest near his home on the river island of Ortelga, he sees an enormous bear. When a tremendous fire ravaged the forest, the bear managed to flee, to be found almost dead by Kelderek. The Ortelgans worship the bear-god Shardik and once ruled the entire territory now known as the Beklan Empire, but their territory and religion are now limited to a small barony of river-islands on the empire's outskirts. Convinced that this bear is an incarnation of Shardik, Kelderek communicates this belief to the local priests and barons, eventually resulting in a military campaign to retake Bekla. The bear is sedated and caged by the priestesses to be carried forward with the Ortelgans but awakens from his slumber during a battle they are losing; as if in divine intervention, he breaks free, crushing the opposing army. Shardik's worship is restored to central prominence in Bekla with Kelderek as the high priest to the recaged bear, but temporal power is held by the military barons. Still idealistic and unworldly, Kelderek is dismayed by the brutality and corruption that quickly surrounds him. When the bear escapes and flees again, it is Kelderek alone who follows in pursuit. The two of them stagger through the wilderness for a long time. Behind them, the capital city is torn apart by factions of rebels, and lawless chaos spreads through the entire empire. On the brink of madness after days alone with no sleep, Kelderek follows the bear to a mysterious place called the Streels of Urtah. Here, Shardik enters one of the ravines comprising the Streels, and is presumed dead. A shepherd (later revealed as a guardian of the Streels) informs Kelderek that any who enter there are beings of great evil who are destined to die, with one past exception: a woman who entered the Streels but was able to climb out again, doomed to die horribly but by her death bring about greatness. This woman gave birth to a son as she left the Streels, a son who later grew to be a great hero who led the ancient overthrow of the Ortelgans from Bekla. As this story is told, Shardik emerges from the ravine and flees again into the woods. Kelderek continues to follow Shardik, meeting many foes along the way, until he reaches Zeray, an outlaw town beyond the borders of civilisation. Here he re-encounters Melathys, a former priestess of Shardik. Having lost Shardik and his faith, Kelderek is captured by Genshed, a cruel slave-trader who already has a large group of children to eventually sell but is meanwhile tormenting them for his own amusement. Treating the children with his customary kindness, Kelderek is mocked and threatened by Genshed, who is on the point of killing him when Shardik erupts from the woods, mad and half-starved. The bear attacks Genshed, mortally wounding him before itself collapsing in the river. Kelderek, his faith and kindness restored but now tempered with knowledge of the world, returns to the town of Zeray with the children and attempts to re-establish a lawful society. The epilogue skips forward a number of years. It is told from the perspective of a newcomer from Zakalon, a distant kingdom to the east of Bekla. This man, Siristrou, is the leader of the first embassy from Zakalon sent to reciprocate the first visit of a Beklan to their country. The formerly lawless border town is now the home of hundreds of orphans and refugees working together to build a better future. Kelderek is its mayor, widely regarded as a fair and wise leader, and is married to his love, Melathys. Kelderek takes the traveller into his home and tells him of the bear Shardik, now known as a great animal who taught the people of the land the meaning of both kindness and hardship. In the final passages, Siristrou stirs the logs in the fireplace and plays a game of spotting images in the flames: an island, a glowing knife, a barred cage, an old woman, a deep ravine, a shaggy bear; he recognises these images in turn, and finally remarks "That's a beautiful fire." |
Wild Swans | Jung Chang | null | The book starts by relating the biography of Chang's grandmother (Yu-fang). From the age of two, she had bound feet. As the family was relatively poor, her father schemed to have her taken as a concubine to a high-ranking warlord General Xue Zhi-heng, in order to gain status, which was hugely important in terms of quality of life. After a wedding ceremony to the General, who already had a wife and many concubines, the young girl was left alone in a wealthy household with servants, and did not see her "husband" again for six years. Despite her luxurious surroundings, life was tense as she feared the servants and the wife of the General would report rumors or outright lies to him. She was not even allowed to visit her parents home. After his six year absence, the General made a brief conjugal visit to his concubine, during which a daughter, Chang's mother, was conceived. General did not stay there for long, even to see his daughter but he named his daughter Bao Qin meaning precious zither. During the child's infancy, Chang's grandmother put off persistent requests for her to be brought to the General's main household, until he became very sick and it was no longer a request. Chang's grandmother had no choice but to comply. During her visit to the household, the General was dying. The general had no male heir, and Chang's mother was very important to the family. Realizing that the General's wife would have complete control over her life and her child's, when he would die, Chang's grandmother fled with her baby to her parents' home, sending false word to her husband's family that the child had died. With his last words, the General unexpectedly proclaimed her free at age twenty-four. Eventually she married a much older doctor (Dr. Xia) with whom she and her daughter, Chang's mother, made a home in Jinzhou, Manchuria. She was no more a concubine, but a true, beloved wife. The book now moves to the story of Chang's mother (Bao Qin/De-hong), who at the age of fifteen, began working for the Communist Party of China and Mao Zedong's Red Army. As the Revolution progressed, her work for the party helped her rise through the ranks. She met the man who would become Chang's father (Wang Yu/Shou-yu), a high-ranking officer. The couple were soon married but Communist Party dictates meant they were not allowed to spend much time together. Eventually, the couple were transferred to Yibin, Chang's father's hometown. It was a long and arduous trek. Chang's mother traveled on foot because of her rank, while her father rode in a Jeep. He was not aware that Chang's mother was pregnant. After arrival at Nanjing, Chang's mother undertook gruelling military training. After the strain of the training coupled with the journey, she suffered a miscarriage. Chang's father swore to never again be inattentive to his wife's needs. In the following years Chang's mother gave birth to Jung and four other children. The focus of the book now shifts again to cover Jung's own autobiography. The Cultural Revolution started when Chang was a teenager. Chang willingly joined the Red Guards though she recoiled from some of their brutal actions. As Mao's personality cult grew, life became more difficult and dangerous. Chang's father became a target for the Red Guards when he mildly but openly criticised Mao due to the suffering caused to Chinese people by the Cultural Revolution. Chang's parents were labeled as capitalist roaders and made subjects of public struggle meetings and torture. Chang recalls that her father deteriorated physically and mentally, until his eventual death. Her father's treatment prompted Chang's previous doubts about Mao to come to the fore. Like thousands of other young people, Chang was sent down to the countryside for education and thought reform by the peasants, a difficult, harsh and pointless experience. At the end of the Cultural Revolution Chang returned home and worked hard to gain a place at university. Not long after she succeeded, Mao died. The whole nation was shocked in mourning, though Chang writes that: "People had been acting for so long they confused it with their true feelings. I wondered how many of the tears were genuine". Chang said that she felt exhilarated by Mao's death. At university Chang studied English. After her graduation and a stint as an assistant lecturer, she won a scholarship to study in England and left for her new home. She still lives in England today and visits mainland China on occasion to see her family and friends there, with permission from Chinese authorities. |
Tin Woodman | David Bischoff | 1,979 | A young psychic boy is taken aboard a starship at the request of the government. The boy is considered both a misfit and dangerous because he has the ability to read minds on earth. However, once aboard he travels into deep space where he comes into contact with a sentient starship. The mission of the crew is to somehow communicate with the alien craft and bring it back to earth. However, things don't go to plan when the young psychic makes contact and decides to take matters into his own hands. *1979, USA, Doubleday ISBN 0-385-12785-5, Pub date 1 April 1979, Hardback *1980, UK, Sidgwick & Jackson, ISBN 0-283-98602-6, Pub date 1980, Hardback *1980, UK, Readers Union/The Science Fiction Book Club [UK], Pub date 1980, Hardback *1982, USA, Ace Books, ISBN 0-441-81292-9, Pub date, Feb 1982, Paperback *1982, UK, Sidgwick & Jackson, ISBN 0-283-98813-4, Pub date 1980, Omnibus Hardback *1983 France, Les Enfants du Voyage, Opta (OPTA - Galaxie Bis #96), ISBN 2-7201-0182-6, Cover: J. L. Verdier, 206pp, Pub date Dec 1983, Paperback *1985, USA, Ace Books, ISBN 0-441-81293-7, Cover: Walter Velez, Pub date, Dec. 1985, Paperback The name Tin Woodman is derived from the The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Tin Woodman character. The name is used as a euphemism for the alien, the subject of the novel, who like the Woodman seeks happiness by having its heart restored. |
The Magic Goes Away | Larry Niven | null | The Warlock, whose actual name is both unknown and unpronounceable, is a powerful sorcerer in excess of 200 years of age. He observes that when he stays in one place too long, his powers dwindle and will return only when he leaves that place. Experimentation leads him to create an apparatus (now known as the Warlock's Wheel) consisting of a metal disc enchanted to spin perpetually. The enchantment eventually consumes all the mana in the vicinity, causing a localized failure in all magic. The Warlock realizes that magic is fueled by a non-renewable resource, which would cause great concern among the magicians, as it was through their magic that nations enforced their wills both internally and abroad. The widespread diminishing of magical power in The Magic Goes Away triggered a quest on the part of the most powerful of the magicians of the time to harness a new source of magic (the Moon), resulting in the events described in the book. It was eventually discovered (in The Magic May Return) that mana was originally carried to Earth and the other bodies of the solar system on the solar wind, replenishing mana slowly over time. However, at some point in the "recent" past (a few thousand years ago) a god created an invisible shield between Earth and Sun that intercepted the solar mana and caused the eventual decline of magic on Earth. Traditional fantasy creatures inhabit Niven's Magic universe, but devolve to normal animals when deprived of mana. For example, a unicorn becomes a simple horse. *The Warlock - One of the world's foremost magicians. He devised a simple experiment to explain why a magician's power would fade over time, a device called the Warlock's Wheel. *Clubfoot - The Warlock's apprentice. A Native American named after a deformity of his foot that he could have cured long ago but it would have cost him half his power. *Wavyhill - The first Necromancer. Exploiting the mana inherent in murder, he invented necromancy. His name comes from his practice of building his houses under magically supported overhangs; when the local mana is depleted by a battle, the hillside collapses, trapping his foe and eliminating the evidence at the same time. *Orolandes - A Greek soldier, survivor of the sinking of Atlantis. *Mirandee - A powerful witch, formerly Warlock's lover. *Aran - A werewolf who assisted the Warlock in defeating the necromancer Wavyhill. *Roze Kattee - The God Of Love And Madness. Its power lies in the taking away of love or madness. Enemy Berzerkers are suddenly rendered sane, those who do not worship Roze Kattee never find mates, etc. *The World Worm - Its spine composes all the world's mountain chains, the Andes, Himalayas, Rockies, etc. It consumes its own tail, along with anything that might be living on it. *Yangin-Atep - A fire god. *Coyote, Loki, etc. - A trickster god for many cultures. *Zoosh - Once a powerful patriarch. *Left-Handed Hummingbird - A Mesoamerican god (Huitzilopochtli). |
Gods and Generals | Jeffrey Shaara | 1,996 | Copying his father's approach of focusing on the most important officers of the two armies (General Robert E. Lee, Major General Winfield Scott Hancock, Lt. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, and Lieutenant Colonel Joshua Chamberlain), Shaara depicted the emotional drama of soldiers fighting old friends while accurately detailing historical details including troop movements, strategies, and tactical combat situations. General Hancock, for instance, spends much of the novel dreading the day he will have to fire on his friend in the Confederate Army, Lewis "Lo" Armistead. The novel also deals with General Lee's disillusionment with the Confederate bureaucracy and General Jackson's religious fervor. In addition to covering events leading up to the war, the book details the events of First Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. The film version provides only cursory coverage of immediate pre-war events, focusing primarily on Lee and the secession of Virginia, and omits the Battle of Antietam. |
'Tis: A Memoir | Frank McCourt | 2,000 | The book begins as McCourt lands at Albany, New York, and quickly makes his way to New York City. Friendless and clueless about American customs, he struggles to integrate himself into American blue-collar society. He is then drafted into the US Army, sent to Europe, and rises to the rank of corporal. On his stay in Germany, he has confrontations with many people who try to show Frank how to get a Russian refugee girl to have sexual intercourse with him by giving her coffee or cigarettes. He is granted leave from the army as compensation for his exceptional service as a clerk-typist and goes back home to Ireland to see his family. He then decides to return to the US, where he attends New York University – despite never having graduated from high school. He falls in love with and eventually marries a middle-class American-born girl, Alberta Small, whom he meets at college. After graduating from NYU, he teaches English and social studies at McKee Vocational and Technical High School on Staten Island. There, he is forced to deal with apathetic, indifferent students. Eventually, he moves on to teaching at the prestigious Stuyvesant High School. At Stuyvesant, he revises his teaching style to end his reliance on books and other teaching resources, to become an effective teacher. 'Tis examines Frank's relationship to his family and his wife during this time (all his siblings and his mother move to America over the course of the book). Eventually, Frank's relationship with his wife turns sour, and they stay together as long as they do only because of their daughter, Margaret Ann (named after Frank’s sister who died in infancy, and his grandmother, who is described in Angela's Ashes). Nonetheless, Frank finally leaves them, an action he compares to that of his father leaving his family. Frank's mother, Angela McCourt, is in increasingly bad health due to emphysema and dies in New York around the same time as Frank's father, Malachy McCourt, Sr., dies in Ireland. Frank goes to Ireland to bury his father and scatter his mother's ashes. The book ends after Frank and his brothers scatter Angela's ashes over the graves of her family. "'Tis" was the final and only word of the last chapter of Angela's Ashes, while Tis ends with the spreading of Angela McCourt's ashes in Ireland. Frank McCourt has remarked in several interviews (perhaps joking) that he originally intended for each book to have the other's title. Frank McCourt followed this book with another memoir, Teacher Man. ms:'Tis |
Patriot Games | Tom Clancy | null | In London, Jack Ryan saves the Prince and Princess of Wales, along with their infant firstborn son, from an Irish terrorist group called Ulster Liberation Army (ULA) during a kidnapping attempt on the Mall. Sean Miller, a ULA terrorist captured by Ryan, is sentenced to life imprisonment for killing the royal driver. However, he is freed by ULA members while being transported to prison. The ULA later goes after Ryan and his family, partially as an act of revenge, but primarily because they seek to reduce American support for the rival Provisional Irish Republican Army. The assassin sent to kill Ryan is intercepted before he manages to complete his task, but his expectant wife, Cathy, and daughter, Sally, are injured when Miller causes their car to crash on a freeway. They are flown by helicopter to the University of Maryland Medical Center. After the attack on his family, Jack accepts an offer from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to start working as an analyst at the agency's headquarters. Later, the Prince and Princess of Wales come to visit Ryan in America. This gives the ULA another opportunity to conduct another operation—they plan to kill Ryan and his family and kidnap the Royal Family. The attack ultimately fails: after a firefight and a flight, Ryan, his friend Robby Jackson, and the Prince, with the help of Marines and sailors from the U.S. Naval Academy and local police, manage to apprehend and subdue the terrorists. The ultimate fate of the terrorists is not stated in the book. Ryan arrives at Bethesda after the final arrest to be with Cathy for the birth of their son, who will be godparented by Robby Jackson and his wife, as well as the Prince and Princess of Wales. In Clancy's later novel The Sum of All Fears, it is mentioned in passing that Miller and his colleagues were sentenced to death and executed for their crimes. Jack Ryan, Jr., the son born at the novel's close, follows his father into the CIA, and becomes a central character in Clancy's first post-President-Ryan novel, The Teeth of the Tiger. |
Changing Places | David Lodge | 1,975 | Changing Places is a comic novel with serious undercurrents. It tells the story of the six-month academic exchange between fictional universities located in Rummidge (modelled on Birmingham in England) and Plotinus, in the state of Euphoria (modeled on Berkeley in California). The two academics taking part in the exchange are both aged 40, but appear at first to otherwise have little in common, mainly because of the differing academic systems of their native countries. The English participant, Philip Swallow, is a very conventional and conformist British academic, and somewhat in awe of the American way of life. By contrast the American, Morris Zapp, is a top-ranking American professor who only agrees to go to Rummidge because his wife agrees to postpone long-threatened divorce proceedings on condition that he move out of the marital home for six months. Zapp is at first both contemptuous of, and amused by, what he perceives as the amateurism of British academia. As the exchange progresses, however, both Swallow and Zapp find that they begin to fit in surprisingly well to their new environments. In the course of the story, each man has an affair with the other's wife. Before that, Swallow sleeps with Zapp's daughter Melanie, without realizing who she is. She, however, takes up with a former undergraduate student of his, Charles Boon. Swallow and Zapp even consider remaining permanently. The book ends with the two couples convened in a New York hotel room to decide their fates. The novel ends without a clear-cut decision, though the sequel Small World: An Academic Romance, reveals that Swallow and Zapp returned to their respective countries and domestic situations. |
Beneath the Wheel | Hermann Hesse | 1,906 | Beneath the Wheel is the story of Hans Giebenrath, a talented boy sent to a seminary in Maulbronn. However his education is focused on increasing his knowledge and neglects his development as a person. His close friendship with Hermann Heilner, who is less hard-working and more liberal than he, is a source of comfort for Hans. In the end, Heilner is expelled from the seminary and Giebenrath is sent home after his performance decreases when he shows symptoms of mental illness. Back home, he finds coping with his situation difficult, as he has lost most of his childhood to scholastic study and thus never had time to form lasting personal relationships with anyone in his village. He is apprenticed as a blacksmith and seems to enjoy the work; it is visceral and concrete, as opposed to the intellectual abstraction of scholarly work. However, he never fully adjusts to his new situation. On a pub crawl in a neighbouring village, he and his colleagues get drunk. Giebenrath leaves the group to walk home early. Later, he is found to have drowned in a river. Beneath the Wheel is one of Hesse's first novels and severely criticises education that focuses only on students' academic performance. In that respect the novel is typical of Hesse. There are also autobiographical elements in the story, as he attended and was expelled from the seminary described. |
Small World: An Academic Romance | David Lodge | 1,984 | The book begins in April 1979 at a small academic conference at the University of Rummidge. It is the first conference that Persse McGarrigle, (a reference to Percival the grail knight), an innocent young Irishman who recently completed his master's thesis on T. S. Eliot, has attended. He teaches at the fictional University College, Limerick, after having been mistakenly interviewed because the administration sent the interview invitation to him instead of someone else with the same last name. Several important characters are introduced: Rummidge professor Philip Swallow, American professor Morris Zapp, retired Cambridge professor Sybil Maiden, and the beautiful Angelica Pabst, with whom McGarrigle falls immediately in love. Much of the rest of the book is his quest to find and win her. Angelica tells Persse that she was adopted by an executive at KLM after she was found, abandoned, in the washroom of an airplane in flight. Persse professes his love for her, but she leaves the conference without telling him where she has gone. Morris Zapp and Philip Swallow, who are seeing each other for the first time in ten years after the events of Changing Places, have a long evening talk. Since the previous novel, Swallow has become a professor and head of the English Department. Zapp has discovered deconstructionism and reinvented himself academically. Swallow tells Zapp about an incident a few years before, when after almost dying in a plane crash he spent the night at a British Council official's home and slept with the official's wife, Joy. Soon after, Swallow read in the newspaper that Joy, the official, and their son had died in a plane crash. Part II of the book begins by going around the world, time zone to time zone, showing what different characters are doing all at the same time: Morris Zapp travelling; Australian Rodney Wainright trying to write a conference paper; Zapp's ex-wife Désirée trying to write a novel; Howard Ringbaum trying to convince his wife Thelma to sleep with him on an airplane so he can join the Mile High Club; Siegfried von Turpitz talking to Arthur Kingfisher about the new UNESCO chair of literary criticism; Rudyard Parkinson plotting to get that chair; Turkish Akbil Borak reading William Hazlitt to prepare for a visit by Swallow; Akira Sakazaki translating English novelist Ronald Frobisher into Japanese; Ronald Frobisher having breakfast; Italian Fulvia Morgana (a reference to Morgan le Fay) meeting Morris Zapp on a plane; and more.` Cheryl Summerbee is also introduced. She is a check-in clerk for British Airways at Heathrow and plays a small but very important role in helping, or hindering, other characters as they travel around the world. She loves reading romance novels, especially the kind published by "Bills and Moon" (a fictionalized Mills & Boon). People continue to move around from conference to conference around the world in Part III. Persse continues to pursue Angelica. At a meeting in Amsterdam, Persse hears the German literary scholar Siegfried von Turpitz speaking about ideas that he submitted in an unpublished book, and all but accuses von Turpitz of plagiarism. Zapp rises to defend Persse from von Turpitz. Later, Persse sees someone who looks like Angelica, and thinks she has appeared in pornographic movies and worked as a stripper. In Turkey, Phillip Swallow meets Joy, the woman he thought was dead. She explains that only her husband had been on the plane that crashed. They begin an affair, and Swallow plans to leave his wife. Events and characters move along in Part IV, often with direct reference to the genre of romance, such as Sybil Maiden (who at one point acts as a sibyl) saying that grail knights "were such boobies... All they had to do was ask a question at the right moment, and they generally muffed it." Zapp is kidnapped by an underground left-wing movement, but is later released after pressure from Morgana. Persse, who has won an award and got a credit card, has enough money to continue to chase Angelica but never manages to catch up with her. She does leave him a clue referencing The Faerie Queene and he discovers that she has an identical twin, and it is the twin, Lily, who made the pornographic movies. When Persse meets Cheryl Summerbee again, she is now reading not romance novels but romances such as Orlando Furioso and critics such as Northrop Frye after Angelica has passed through her line. Persse is happy to learn this, but Cheryl is shaken to see that Persse is infatuated with Angelica, because she loves him herself. Persse continues to chase Angelica around the world, to conferences in Hawaii, Tokyo, and Hong Kong, and Jerusalem, but he never catches up with her. At that Jerusalem conference, Philip Swallow is with Joy, but after he sees his son there he becomes psychosomatically ill, which people think might be Legionnaires' Disease in a moment of panic. This stops the conference, and leads to the end of Philip and Joy's affair. Part V takes place at the Modern Language Association conference in New York at the end of 1979. All of the characters in the book are there. Arthur Kingfisher oversees a panel discussion about criticism where Swallow, Zapp, Morgana, and others present their opinions on what literary criticism is. Zapp's kidnapping experience has cured him of his interest in deconstructionism. Persse (contrary to what Sybil Maiden had said about knights not asking the right question at the right time) asks, "What follows if everyone agrees with you?" Kingfisher is inspired by this question, and recovers from his mental and physical impotence. Persse finally finds Angelica and hears her read a paper about romances that directly reflects the structure of Small World itself: "No sooner is one crisis in the fortunes of the hero averted than a new one presents itself; no sooner has one mystery been solved than another is raised; no sooner has one adventure been concluded than another begins... The greatest and most characteristic romances are often unfinished - they end only with the author's exhaustion, as a woman's capacity for orgasm is limited only by her physical stamina. Romance is a multiple orgasm." After this talk, Persse runs through the hotel and sees a woman he takes to be Angelica, kisses her and declares that he loves her. She takes him up to her hotel room where they make love, in Persse's first sexual experience. However, after this encounter, she reveals that she is not Angelica, but the twin sister, Lily. Persse feels ashamed, but Lily convinces him that he was "in love with a dream". Later in the evening, Arthur Kingfisher announces that he will offer himself as a candidate for the UNESCO chair. Right afterwards, Sybil Maiden steps forward and announces that she is Angelica and Lily's mother and Kingfisher is their father, which throws the entire meeting into a joyous uproar. Angelica introduces Persse to her fiancee, Peter McGarrigle, the person whose job Persse was interviewed for back in Ireland. However, Peter is not angry, because as a result, he went to America and there met Angelica. Swallow has returned to his wife, saying "Basically I failed in the role of a romantic hero." All of the narrative threads of the novel wrap up but for one: Persse realizes that Cheryl Summerbee, not Angelica, is the woman for him, and he flies to Heathrow to see her. He arrives at the airport on New Year's Eve, but learns that Cheryl no longer works there, having been fired the day before Persse arrives. The new attendant tells Persse that Cheryl wanted to travel anyway at some point, and took this as her chance. No one knows where she has gone. The novel ends with Persse wondering "where in the small, narrow world he should begin to look for her." |
A Lost Lady | Willa Cather | null | The novel is written in the third person, but is mostly written from the perspective of Niel Herbert, a young man who grows up in Sweet Water and witnesses the decline of Mrs. Forrester, for whom he feels very deeply, and also of the West itself from the idealized age of noble pioneers to the age of capitalist exploitation. |
Sans Famille | null | null | Jerome Barberin lives with his wife in a little French town, Chavanon. He usually isn't home, since he works in Paris as a mason. One day he finds a baby boy. The boy wears very fine clothes, so apparently his parents are rich. Barberin offers to take care of the child, hoping to get a good reward. He gives the boy to his wife, and calls him Remi. Afterwards, Barberin gets injured in an accident. He blames his employer and hopes to receive financial compensation in a trial. The trial costs a lot of money, and Barberin tells his wife to sell her cow (her main source of wealth) and to get rid of Remi. She does the former. When Rémi is eight years old, and this is where the story starts, Barberin comes home unexpectedly. He sees that Rémi is still there and decides to lose no time getting rid of him. The next day Barberin meets a travelling artist in the local pub. His name is Signor Vitalis, and he travels through France with three dogs - Capi, Zerbino and Dolce - and a monkey, Joli-Cœur. Vitalis offers to take care of Rémi and Rémi leaves his childhood home, without even a chance to say goodbye to his foster mother (who would have done anything to prevent the transaction) and starts a journey of the roads of France. It turns out that Vitalis is a kind man, certainly better company than Barberin. Vitalis teaches him to play the harp and to read. Often Rémi is hungry and has no roof over his head; but in the animals, especially in Capi, he gains dear friends, and in Vitalis he finds the father he lacks. Together they travel through France, and they earn a living by giving musical and stage performances. When they are in Toulouse, a sad incident, which reflects the unjust social structure of 19th Century France, puts Vitalis into jail. It is not easy for a ten-year-old to feed himself and four animals under his care, and they nearly starve, when they meet the "Swan" - a little river ship owned by Mrs. Milligan and her ill son Arthur. They take Rémi in to entertain the sick boy, but soon start seeing a person in Remi, and he becomes part of the family. He learns that Arthur used to have an elder brother, who disappeared before Arthur was born, and Mrs. Milligan's brother-in-law, James, has attempted in vain to find him back. This was advantageous for James Milligan, since, by the English law, he was to inherit all of his brother's fortune if he died childless. This did not work, because soon Arthur was born. After two months Vitalis is released from jail, Remi and the Milligans like to stay together, but Vitalis wants Rémi back, and so they say goodbye. However, Mrs. Milligan judges that Vitalis is a very kind and honest man. Vitalis tells Rémi that he has done a good choice: one must eat his own bread. But on the way to Paris in a snowstorm Zerbino and Dolce are eaten by wolves in the woods, and Joli-Cœur catches pneumonia. In an attempt to raise money for the doctor, Remi and Vitalis give a performance and Vitalis sings. Remi has never before heard Vitalis sing so beautifully. And not only Rémi is bewildered: a young, and apparently rich lady tells Vitalis that she is amazed to hear his wonderful voice. Vitalis reacts angrily. He explains his skill to the lady by telling that he used to be a singer's servant. The lady explains he has a resemblance to the singer Vitalo Pedrotti from the Scala di Milano who is disparated. He even shows no gladness when the lady gives a gold coin to Capi. They return to Joli-Cœur with the money, but it's too late, Joli-Cœur is dead. They now continue their journey to Paris. Vitalis decides to leave Rémi with a "padrone" for the winter, while he trains other animals. Another institution of 19th Century France, a "padrone" was a man who kept a group of boys, sold by their poverty-stricken parents, who worked for him. Vitalis brings Remi to a "padrone" he knows - Garofoli. Garofoli isn't home, and Vitalis tells Rémi to wait there, and that he will be back soon. Rémi passes there two horrible hours - waiting for Garofoli and talking to an ill-looking boy, Mattia, who keeps houseworking because Garofoli believes him too stupid and incapable of working outside, but keeping the soup pot locked so that Mattia could not eat from it. When the other boys and Garofoli return, Rémi witnesses how terribly Garofoli abuses those who do not bring home the amount of money required: he beats and starves them. When Vitalis comes back and sees how the boys are being flogged, he tells Garofoli that he could go to the police, but Garofoli threatens back to tell "some people just one name which will make Vitalis red from shame". Vitalis takes the wondering and grateful Rémi not to return to Garofoli ever. But this act of love costs Vitalis his life. That night, unable to find a place to stay, Vitalis and Rémi collapse in the snowstorm under a fence. Rémi wakes up in a bed, with people standing around him: a man, two boys and two girls. The little girl, of about 5–6 years old, watches Rémi with talking eyes. Then Rémi learns the terrible truth: Vitalis is dead. In an attempt to discover his identity, the policemen take Rémi to Garofoli, who reveals the truth: Vitalis used to be the famous Italian singer Carlo Balzani. When he got older, his voice got worse, and he was so ashamed for this that he decided to disappear. He changed his identity to Vitalis. The family take Rémi and Capi in. Rémi gets a real father, the gardener Pierre Acquin, two brothers, Alexis and Benjamin, and two sisters, Étienette and little mute Lise. Rémi especially adores Lise. He teaches her to read and plays the harp for her. Lise loves a Napolitan song in particular. Rémi becomes a gardener, and years of hard work and merry Sundays follow. But after two years a terrible hailstrom ruins the glass in the greenhouse, and Acquin is in debts which he cannot pay and has therefore to enter a debt jail. The children are to go to uncles and aunts, in several French towns. Although the children insist that Rémi also belongs to the family, none of the uncles and aunts is willing to take care of Rémi. Broken-hearted again, vowing to his brothers and sisters to visit them on his way and bring father news from them, Rémi takes his harp and Capi and leaves to the big roads. He hasn't gone long until he meets a companion. Mattia, the boy from Garofoli, is starving on the streets of Paris. Garofoli is in prison for beating a boy to death. Mattia pleads Remi to take him into his troupe. Remi is scared: with him, Mattia might die of hunger as much as alone. But Mattia convinces him that two will never die of hunger because one helps the other. Thus, "Remi's troupe" consists now of two twelve-year-olds and a dog. Mattia is a gifted violinist, he plays other instruments too, and he worked some time in a circus, where they had two English clowns, so he knows some English. First the boys turn to visit Alexis, who now lives with his Uncle Gaspard (Father Acquin's brother) in the mining town Varses, where he works in the mine with his uncle. When Alexis is wounded and unable to work for a while, Remi volunteers to replace him. One of the miners is nicknamed magister, he is an old and wise man. He becomes a good friend and he explains the history of coal. One day the mine is flooded, probably by the river which flows overhead. Seven miners, including Uncle Gaspard, the magister and Remi, find shelter, but are trapped. They are waiting to be rescued, but don't even know if the rescue works are taking place. One of the men confesses a crime, blames himself for the disaster and commits suicide. The others spend a fortnight underground, hungry, beaten, but optimistic - and at last are saved. Capi is mad of happiness; Mattia is in tears. He says he never believed that Remi could be dead, and Remi is proud of his friend's strong belief in him. This incident shows the terrible state of child labour in 19th Century France but it also serves to bring closer Remi and Mattia: since that incident they are friends for life and death. Remi wants Mattia to learn music and they visit a musician. Mr. Espinassous is shocked by Mattia's great talent and tries to convince him to stay and learn, but Mattia never wants to leave Remi. The boys now head for Chavanon where they hope to meet Remi's foster mother Barberin. During the trip they saved their money, hoping to buy a cow for mother Barberin. When they pass through Ussel, not far from Chavanon, they buy a cow, to replace beloved Rosette, who was sold when Barberin had his accident. To make sure that they will not buy a bad cow, they ask a vet for help. The vet is very friendly and the boys buy a wonderful cow. In the next town the boys are accused of stealing the cow. Why would two street musicians have a cow, after all? They explain their story to the mayor. The mayor knows Mother Barberin, he heard about the accident in the mine, and he is willing to believe that the boys are honest. To make sure, the vet is called to testify, and the boys can continue their journey. Remi and Mother Barberin finally meet. Mother Barberin tells Remi that Barberin is in Paris in search of Remi, because his real parents appear to be in search of him. However, Mother Barberin knows very little, because Barberin never told her any details. Remi is eager to know his real parents. Remi and Mattia decide to return to Paris and see Barberin. On the way to Paris, they pass through Dreuzy, where they pay a visit to Lise Acquin. Remi and Lise are very fond of each other. When the boys arrive in Paris, they learn that Barberin has died. Remi writes a letter to Mother Barberin. Mother Barberin replies and she encloses a letter that was sent by Barberin before he died. It mentions the address of a lawyer's office in London, which is in charge of the search for Remi. So the boys go to London, where they are led straight to Remi's parents. Their name is Driscoll. Remi is terribly disappointed: the Driscolls are cold to him, his father keeps the boys locked. They turn out to be thieves and use Capi to help them in their work. The Driscolls have a visitor. It is a man who seems to be interested in Remi, but Remi does not understand English well enough. The visitor does not meet Mattia, but Mattia overhears their conversation. The visitor is James Milligan and he appears to be Arthur's uncle. He hopes that Arthur will die, so that he will inherit the fortune of his late brother. The boys agree that Mrs. Milligan must be warned, but they have no idea where to find her. Mattia meets someone he knows. It is Bob, a clown from the circus where Mattia used to work. Bob turns out to be a very fine friend. When Remi is accused of a robbery committed by his parents, Bob and Mattia help him escape from prison. With the help of Bob's brother, a sailor, they return to France. They go and search for Mrs. Milligan, to warn her for her brother-in-law. This is easier than it seems, since her boat, the "Swan", is a remarkable boat, and they soon hear that people have seen her. They only have to follow the rivers and canals. On their way they pass through Dreuzy where they hope to meet Lise again. However, they hear that Lise's uncle has died, and that a kind English lady, who journeyed on a boat, has offered to take care of Lise. That must have been Mrs. Milligan. Of course that is another incentive to go and find the "Swan". Remi and Mattia trace the "Swan" across France to Switzerland. They find the boat, but she is deserted. They inquire, and they find that the boat was unable to journey further up the river, and that the family continued their journey by coach, probably to Vevey. When they get to the town where "the English woman with the ill boy and the mute girl" are supposed to be, they start singing under every fence. It takes several days before they find the family. One day, when Remi sings his Napolitan song, he overhears a scream and a weak voice that continues the song. They run to the voice and find Lise, whose voice has returned to her when she heard her long-lost Remi. The boys now find that James Milligan is there too, and Remi is afraid to meet him, so he hides. Mattia is not afraid - James does not know Mattia. Mattia immediately tells Mrs. Milligan their story. Mrs. Milligan presumes that Remi must be her lost eldest son, but she tells Mattia that this should not be told to Remi until she is sure about it. She arranges that the boys can stay in a hotel, where they can have plenty of food, comfortable beds, and where they are visited by a barber and a tailor. After a few days Mrs. Milligan invites the boys, where they meet Mother Barberin. Mrs. Milligan has apparently sent for her. Mother Barberin shows Remi's baby clothes. Mrs. Milligan recognises these as the clothes her boy wore when he was stolen. Mrs. Milligan happily declares that Remi is her son, to join his "mother, brother and those - she pointed at Lise and Mattia - who loved you in your misery". It is clear that Mr. Driscoll has stolen the boy as a job for James Milligan. This story has a happy ending: Remi finds his family, and discovers he is the heir of a fortune. Mattia's dearest little sister Cristina is sent for from Italy and they all grow up together. Arthur gets well and becomes an athlete. Mattia becomes a famous violinist. Remi marries Lise and they have a son named Mattia, whose babysitter is Mother Barberin. The book ends with the score of the Napolitan song. |
No One Writes to the Colonel | Gabriel García Márquez | 1,961 | The novel, written between 1956–1957 and first published in 1961, is the story of an impoverished, retired colonel, a veteran of the Thousand Days War, who still hopes to receive the pension he was promised some fifteen years earlier. The colonel lives with his asthmatic wife in a small village under martial law. The action opens with the colonel preparing to go to the funeral of a town musician whose death is notable because he was the first to die from natural causes in many years. The novel is set during the years of "La Violencia" in Colombia, when martial law and censorship prevail. |
Young Goodman Brown | Nathaniel Hawthorne | 1,835 | The story begins at dusk in Salem, Massachusetts, as young Goodman Brown leaves Faith, his wife of three months, for an unknown errand in the forest. Faith pleads with her husband to stay with her but he insists the journey into the forest must be completed that night. In the forest he meets a man, dressed in a similar manner to himself and bearing a resemblance to himself. The man carries a black serpent-shaped staff. The two encounter Mistress Cloyse in the woods who complains about the need to walk and, evidently friendly with the stranger, accepts his snake staff and flies away to her destination. Other townspeople inhabit the woods that night, traveling in the same direction as Goodman Brown. When he hears his wife's voice in the trees, he calls out to his Faith, but is not answered. He then seems to fly through the forest, using a maple staff the stranger fashioned for him, arriving at a clearing at midnight to find all the townspeople assembled. At the ceremony (which may be a witches' sabbath) carried out at a flame-lit rocky altar, the newest converts are brought forth—Goodman Brown and Faith. They are the only two of the townspeople not yet initiated to the forest rite. Goodman Brown calls to heaven to resist and instantly the scene vanishes. Arriving back at his home in Salem the next morning, Goodman Brown is uncertain whether the previous night's events were real or a dream, but he is deeply shaken, with the belief he lived in a Christian community distorted. He loses his faith in his wife, along with all of humanity. He lives his life an embittered and suspicious cynic, wary of everyone around him. Hawthorne concludes the story by writing: "And when he had lived long, and was borne to his grave...they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone, for his dying hour was gloom." |
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby | Charles Dickens | 1,838 | Nicholas Nickleby's father dies unexpectedly after losing all of his money in a series of poor investments. Nicholas, his mother and his younger sister, Kate, are forced to give up their comfortable lifestyle in Devonshire and travel to London to seek the aid of their only relative, Nicholas's uncle Ralph Nickleby. Ralph, a cold and ruthless businessman, has no desire to help his destitute relations and hates Nicholas on sight. He gets Nicholas a low-paying job as an assistant to Wackford Squeers, who runs the school Dotheboys Hall. Nicholas is initially wary of Squeers (a very unpleasant man with one eye) because he is gruff and violent towards his young charges, but he tries to quell his suspicions. As Nicholas boards the stagecoach for Greta Bridge, he is handed a letter by Ralph's clerk, Newman Noggs, a once-wealthy man who has lost all of his money and has become an alcoholic. The letter expresses concern for the innocent young man and offers assistance if Nicholas ever requires it. Once he arrives in Yorkshire, Nicholas comes to realise that Squeers is running a scam: he takes in unwanted children (most of whom are illegitimate, crippled or deformed) for a high fee, and starves and mistreats his charges while using the money sent by their parents to pad his own pockets. Squeers and his monstrous wife whip and beat the children regularly while spoiling their own son rotten. While he is there, Nicholas befriends a simple boy named Smike, who is older than the other “students” and now acts as an unpaid servant. Nicholas attracts the attention of Fanny Squeers, his employer's plain and shrewish daughter, who deludes herself into thinking that Nicholas is in love with her. She attempts to disclose her affections during a game of cards, but Nicholas doesn't catch her meaning. Instead he ends up flirting with her friend Tilda Price, to the consternation of both Fanny and Tilda's friendly but crude-mannered fiancé John Browdie. After being accosted by Fanny again, Nicholas bluntly tells her he does not return her affections and wishes to be free of the horrible atmosphere of Dotheboys Hall, earning her hatred. One morning, Smike runs away, but is caught and brought back to Dotheboys. Squeers begins to beat him, but Nicholas intervenes. Squeers strikes him across the face and Nicholas snaps, beating the schoolmaster violently. Quickly packing his belongings and leaving Dotheboys Hall, he meets John Browdie on the way. Browdie finds the idea that Squeers himself has been beaten uproariously funny, and gives Nicholas money and a walking staff to aid him on his trip back to London. At dawn, he is found by Smike, who begs to come with him. Nicholas and Smike set out towards London. Nicholas seeks out the aid of Newman Noggs, who shows him a letter that Fanny Squeers has written to Ralph viciously exaggerating the events of the beating. Noggs tells Nicholas, who is intent on confronting his uncle, that Ralph is out of town and advises him to find a job. Nicholas goes to an employment office, where he encounters a strikingly beautiful girl. His search for employment fails, and he is about to give up when Noggs offers him the meagre position of French teacher to the children of his neighbours, the Kenwigs family, and Nicholas is hired under the assumed name of “Johnson” to teach the children French. Meanwhile, Kate and her mother are forced by Ralph to move out of their lodgings in the house of the kindly portrait painter Miss LaCreevy and into a cold and drafty house Ralph owns in a London slum. Ralph finds employment for Kate working for a milliner, Madame Mantalini. Her husband, Mr Mantalini, is a gigolo who depends on his wife to supply his extravagant tastes and offends Kate by flirting with her. Kate proves initially clumsy at her job, which endears her to the head of the showroom, Miss Knag, a vain and foolish woman who uses Kate to make herself look better. This backfires when a client prefers to be served by the young and pretty Kate rather than the aging Miss Knag, who blames Kate for the insult. As a result, Kate is ostracised by the other milliners and left friendless. Ralph asks Kate to attend a dinner he is hosting for some business associates, and when she arrives she discovers she is the only woman in attendance. The other guests include the disreputable nobleman Sir Mulberry Hawk and his friend, Lord Frederick Verisopht. Hawk humiliates Kate at dinner by making her the subject of an offensive bet. After one too many drinks he attempts to force himself on her but is stopped by Ralph. Ralph shows some unexpected tenderness towards Kate but insinuates that he will withdraw his financial help if she tells her mother about what happened. Several days later, Nicholas discovers that his uncle has returned. He visits his mother and sister just as Ralph is reading them Fanny Squeers’s letter and slandering Nicholas. He confronts his uncle, who vows to give no financial assistance to the Nicklebys as long as Nicholas stays with them. His hand forced, Nicholas agrees to leave London, but warns Ralph that a day of reckoning will one day come between them. The next morning, Nicholas and Smike travel towards Portsmouth with the intention of becoming sailors. At an inn, they encounter the theatrical manager Vincent Crummles, who hires Nicholas (still going under the name of Johnson) on sight as his new juvenile lead and playwright with the task of adapting French tragedies into English and then modifying them for the troop’s minimal dramatic abilities. Nicholas and Smike join the acting company and are warmly received by the troupe, which includes Crummles’s formidable wife, their daughter, “The Infant Phenomenon”, and many other eccentric and melodramatic thespians. Nicholas and Smike make their debuts in Romeo and Juliet, as Romeo and the Apothecary respectively, and are met with great acclaim from the provincial audiences. Back in London, Mr Mantalini’s reckless spending has bankrupted his wife. Madame Mantalini is forced to sell her business to Miss Knag, whose first order of business is to fire Kate. She finds employment as the companion of the social-climbing Mrs Wittiterly. Meanwhile, Sir Mulberry Hawk begins a plot to humiliate Kate for refusing his advances. He uses Lord Frederick, who is infatuated with her, to discover where she lives from Ralph. He is about to succeed in this plot when Mrs Nickleby enters Ralph’s office, and the two rakes switch their attentions from Kate’s uncle to her mother, successfully worming their way into Mrs Nickleby’s company and gaining access to the Wittiterly house. Kate goes to her uncle for assistance, but he refuses to help her, citing his business relationships with Hawk and Verisopht. It is left to Newman Noggs to come to her aid, and he writes to Nicholas, telling him in vague terms of his sister’s need for him. Nicholas immediately quits the Crummles troop and returns to London. When he arrives, he searches the city for Noggs, Miss La Creevy and his family to discover what has occurred. This search proves unsuccessful until he accidentally overhears Hawk and Lord Frederick rudely toasting Kate in a restaurant. He is able to glean from their conversation what has happened, and confronts them. Hawk refuses to give Nicholas his name or respond to his accusations. When he attempts to leave, Nicholas follows him out, and leaps onto the running board of his carriage, demanding his name. Hawk attempts to strike him, and Nicholas loses his temper, beating the nobleman and spooking the horses, causing the carriage to crash. Hawk is injured in the crash and vows revenge, but Lord Verisopht, remorseful for his treatment of Kate, tells him that he will attempt to stop him. Later, after Hawk has recovered, they quarrel over Hawk’s insistence on harming Nicholas, and Verisopht strikes Hawk, resulting in a duel. Verisopht is killed, and Hawk flees to France. As a result, Ralph loses a large sum of money owed to him by the deceased lord. Nicholas collects Kate from the Wittiterlys, and with their mother and Smike, they move back into Miss LaCreevy’s house. Nicholas pens a letter to Ralph refusing, on behalf of his family, a penny of his uncle’s money or influence. Returning to the employment office, Nicholas meets Charles Cheeryble, a wealthy and extremely benevolent merchant who runs a business with his twin brother Ned. Hearing Nicholas’s story, the brothers take him into their employ at a generous salary and provide his family with a small house in a London suburb. Ralph encounters a beggar, who recognises him and reveals himself as Brooker, Ralph’s former employee. He attempts to blackmail Ralph with a piece of unknown information, but is driven off. Returning to his office, Ralph receives Nicholas’s letter and begins plotting against his nephew in earnest. Wackford Squeers returns to London and joins Ralph in his plots. Smike has the misfortune to run into Squeers on a London street, who kidnaps him. Luckily for Smike, John Browdie is honeymooning in London with his new wife Tilda and discovers his predicament. When they have dinner with Squeers, Browdie fakes an illness and takes the opportunity to rescue Smike and send him back to Nicholas. In gratitude, Nicholas invites the Browdies to dinner. At the party, also attended by the Cheerybles’s nephew Frank and their elderly clerk Tim Linkinwater, Ralph and Squeers attempt to reclaim Smike by presenting forged documents that he is the long-lost son of a man named Snawley (who, in actuality, is a friend of Squeers with children at Dotheboys Hall). Smike refuses to go, but the threat of legal action remains. While at work, Nicholas encounters the beautiful young woman he had seen in the employment office and realises he is in love with her. The brothers tell him that her name is Madeline Bray, the penniless daughter of a debtor, Walter Bray, and enlist his help in obtaining small sums of money for her by commissioning her artwork, the only way they can help her due to her tyrannical father. Arthur Gride, an elderly miser, offers to pay a debt Ralph is owed by Walter Bray in exchange for the moneylender’s help. Gride has illegally gained possession of the will of Madeline’s grandfather, and she will become an heiress upon the event of her marriage. The two moneylenders convince Bray to bully his daughter into accepting the disgusting Gride as a husband with the promise of paying off his debts. Ralph is not aware of Nicholas’ involvement with the Brays, and Nicholas does not discover Ralph’s scheme until the eve of the wedding. He appeals to Madeline to cancel the wedding, but despite her feelings for Nicholas, she is too devoted to her dying father to go against his wishes. On the day of the wedding, Nicholas attempts to stop it once more but his efforts prove academic when Bray, guilt-ridden at the sacrifice his daughter has made for him, dies unexpectedly. Madeline thus has no reason to marry Gride and Nicholas and Kate take her to their house to recover. Smike has contracted tuberculosis and become dangerously ill. In a last attempt to save his friend’s health, Nicholas takes him to his childhood home in Devonshire, but Smike’s health rapidly deteriorates. On his deathbed, Smike is startled to see the man who brought him to Squeers' school. Nicholas dismisses it as an illusion but it is later revealed that Smike was right. After confessing his love for Kate, Smike dies peacefully in Nicholas’s arms. When they return to Gride’s home after the aborted wedding, Ralph and Gride discover that Peg Sliderskew, Gride’s aged housekeeper, has robbed Gride, taking, amongst other things, the will. To get it back, Ralph enlists Wackford Squeers’s services to track down Peg. Noggs discovers this plot, and with the help of Frank Cheeryble, he is able to recover the will and have Squeers arrested. The Cheeryble brothers confront Ralph, informing him that his various schemes against Nicholas have failed. They advise him to retire from London before charges are brought up against him, as Squeers is determined to confess all and implicate Ralph. He refuses their help, but is summoned back to their offices that evening and told that Smike is dead. When he reacts to the news with vicious glee, the brothers reveal their final card. The beggar Brooker emerges, and tells Ralph that Smike was his own son. As a young man, Ralph had married a woman for her fortune, but kept it secret so as to not forfeit her inheritance. She eventually left him after bearing him a son, whom he entrusted to Brooker, who was then his clerk. Brooker, taking the opportunity for vengeance, took the boy to Squeers’ school and told Ralph the boy had died. Brooker now repents his action, but a transportation sentence kept him from putting the matter right. Devastated at the thought that his only son died as the best friend of his greatest enemy, Ralph commits suicide. Squeers is sentenced to transportation to Australia, and, upon hearing this, the boys at Dotheboys Hall rebel against the Squeers family and escape with the assistance of John Browdie. Nicholas becomes a partner in the Cheerybles' firm and marries Madeline. Kate and Frank Cheeryble also marry, as do Tim Linkinwater and Miss LaCreevy. Brooker dies penitent. Noggs recovers his respectability. The Nicklebys and their now extended family return to Devonshire, where they live in peace and contentment. |
The Partner | John Grisham | 1,997 | Patrick Lanigan, a junior partner in a law firm in Biloxi, Mississippi, gets wind of a plan masterminded by Benny Aricia to defraud the U.S. government over a shipbuilding overcharging scheme. His firm is deeply involved in the scam and the firm stands to gain $90 million. However, they're planning to keep Patrick from sharing in the profits, despite his status as a partner in the firm. He bides his time, secretly collecting evidence. He knows that simply stealing the money and running won't work, so he feigns his own death in an automobile accident. When the body is found, it is identified as Patrick, though it is badly burned, and subsequently cremated. Patrick watches his own funeral from a safe distance. His wife Trudy received $2.5 million in life insurance. Although he pretended not to know, Trudy had been cheating on him throughout their marriage, and his daughter was the result of that relationship. Six weeks later, $90 million vanishes from the law firm's off-shore bank account. The associates know that only an insider had the knowledge to pull it off and eventually they start wondering if Patrick is really dead after all. Without the money, the associates and Benny Aricia are in deep financial trouble. Benny hires specialist Jack Stephano to track down Patrick. Over four years later, Patrick is finally discovered living a new life in Ponta Porã, Brazil, a small town on the border of Paraguay under the name Danilo Silva. His girlfriend is Brazilian lawyer Eva Miranda. Patrick is kidnapped and tortured by thugs hired by Jack Stephano. They try to get him to reveal the location of the money, which, conveniently, Lanigan doesn't know. Before he is tortured more or even killed the FBI intervenes, tipped off by Eva. The FBI leans on Jack Stephano to hand over the fugitive and Patrick is repatriated. After arriving back in Biloxi in custody of the FBI, a series of legal battles ensue. The insurance companies Monarch-Sierra and Northern Case Mutual that paid $2.5 million to Trudy, who has subsequently been a complete spendthrift as well as openly resuming her once-adulterous relationship, immediately sue and block access to the insurance money. Trudy is now in a difficult position, as she can no longer afford even the most basic trappings of her extravagant lifestyle. She sues Patrick for divorce, in hopes of receiving some financial compensation. The federal government sues Patrick for theft and fraud on charges of stealing the $90 million. The state charges Patrick with murder, because a dead body was found in Patrick's car. One by one he defeats his opponents. He defeats the insurance companies by revealing that they colluded with Benny Aricia to find and torture Patrick. He blackmails Trudy with her adultery. He convinces the federal government by revealing that Benny Aricia defrauded them. Finally he defeats the state lawsuit by revealing that he didn't murder, but stole the body of a dead client. He makes a deal with the federal government to pay back all the money he stole, plus interest. In the years that he was on the run he had instructed Eva to invest the money. Even after paying back the federal government there are still millions left. In the end, Patrick is defeated by his own clever scheme. As he knew they would torture him if he ever was found, he gave Eva control over the bank accounts. When he goes to their pre-arranged rendezvous she does not show up. Finally he realizes that she has betrayed him. A broken man, he starts looking for her knowing that he will never find her. |
Skipping Christmas | John Grisham | 2,002 | The story focus on how Luther and Nora Krank try to avoid the frenzy traditionally experienced during the Christmas holiday. On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, the two bring their daughter Blair to the airport, where she departs for a year-long assignment in a remote area of Peru with the Peace Corps. Nora bemoans the fact the upcoming Christmas will be their first time they are separated as a family, prompting her husband to calculate how much they spent celebrating the holidays the prior year. When he realizes they have little to show for the $6,100 they invested in decorations, gifts, and entertaining, he decides to skip all the hubbub at home and surprise Nora by booking a ten-day Caribbean Cruise aboard the Island Princess. Nora at first is skeptical but accepts the idea under one condition to still give a donation to the church and Children's Hospital of $600. At first Luther refuses, but when she refuses the idea otherwise he agrees and they begin to plan the trip. It doesn't take long for Nora to adjust to the idea of no Christmas shopping, no Christmas tree, and no Christmas Eve party they host every year. To the couple's amazement, their neighbors on Hemlock Street strongly object to their decision to boycott the holiday, because their decision not to decorate their home will jeopardize their winning the coveted prize for best decorated block in the neighborhood. The local Boy Scout troop is dismayed when the Kranks refuse to support them by purchasing a tree, the police are angered when they decline to buy a calendar, the fruitcakes salesmen are shocked to find that they will not be buying a fruitcake this year, and the stationer is upset when he loses their annual order of engraved greeting cards. Luther and Nora find themselves the objects of derision and anxiously await their departure on Christmas Day. Without warning, Blair calls on Christmas Eve to tell them she's at Miami International Airport, en route home with her Peruvian fiancé as a surprise for her parents. She's anxious to introduce Enrique to her family's holiday traditions, and when she asks if they're having their usual party that night, a panicked Nora says yes, much to Luther's dismay. Comic chaos ensues as the couple finds themselves trying to decorate the house and coordinate a party with mere hours to spare before their daughter and future son-in-law's arrival. When the Boy Scouts are sold out of Christmas trees, Luther arranges to borrow the tree of a neighbor leaving for the holidays. He and Vic Frohmeyer's son Spike try to transport it across the street, but the neighbors notice and think that Luther is stealing the family's Christmas tree and they phone the police, leaving Luther to barely escape arrest. At the end Luther attempts to set up a Frosty the Snowman decoration on his roof, but fails and barely escapes possible death. After noticing the scene, the Kranks admit the truth and are rescued by everyone they've alienated, who pull together and provide the Christmas celebration Blair is expecting. Blair calls before the party can be started saying she has arrived. After successfully keeping Blair and her fiance busy so the party can get started, Luther gives in to celebrating Christmas and gives the cruise package to a neighbor who he doesn't get along with very well, and who is having a very bad Christmas because his wife may have a terminal disease. |
Fevre Dream | George R. R. Martin | 1,982 | Abner Marsh, a remarkably unattractive but highly skilled steamboat captain, is grappling with a financial crisis in 1857 when he is contacted by Joshua York, a rich, soft-spoken gentleman. They become unlikely business partners, with Joshua winning Abner over by promising to finance the construction of a magnificent new steamboat that will be larger, faster, and more opulent than any other riverboat ever constructed: the pride of the Mississippi River. When finally completed, she is everything Abner has ever dreamed of piloting. The large white, blue, and silver paddle steamer is christened Fevre Dream, for Abner's previously-failing company, the Fevre River Packet Company; Joshua and Abner co-captain the new vessel, with Abner being solely responsible for her actual command and navigation. Many questions are soon raised by both the crew and passengers about Joshua York and his circle of unusual friends, who hardly ever venture out of their cabins during daylight hours. Abner's own suspicions about his mysterious partner begin to grow when he finds scrapbooks in Joshua's cabin containing newspaper clippings detailing many mysterious, unexplained deaths. He confronts Joshua, who reveals that he and his friends are vampire hunters; they are using the Fevre Dream as their base of operations to investigate a trail of unusual deaths and disappearances along the mighty river. In time, however, Joshua finally reveals the whole truth: he and his friends are themselves vampires, very humanlike living beings specialized to and recurrently dependent upon hunting humans, characterized by Joshua as "... a different race." Many of Joshua's kind consider him the "Pale King" lord (or "bloodmaster") to all vampires, and all of his traveling companions have submitted to him as such. Joshua has developed a potion, using ancient alchemy and the rudiments of the chemistry of the day, which controls the blood-fever of all vampires; he is on a personal crusade to free his people of their need to feed on the warm, living blood of humanity. The evil and amoral Damon Julian, a rival bloodmaster, formerly of New Orleans, soon learns of Joshua's efforts; he boards the Fevre Dream with his own entourage of vampire followers and manages to overpower and depose Joshua, becoming the new Pale King of all vampires aboard the riverboat. Damon forces Abner out and begins to use the Fevre Dream for his own nefarious purposes, eventually disappearing down the river, never to be seen or heard from again. Abner becomes obsessed with his lost, now demonic ship, and spends his remaining fortune searching up and down the Mississippi and its tributaries, until he is finally forced to give up the search. Marsh later serves as a naval officer during the American Civil War, all the while being haunted by the memory of his lost riverboat. Some years later, after receiving a surprising letter from Joshua, a much older Abner Marsh returns and vows to help Joshua finally depose of the evil bloodmaster who has ruined both of their dreams. But this proves to be a very difficult task; the vampires eventually square-off, and with Abner's aid, Joshua finally overpowers Damon and becomes the Pale King once again. In the process, Marsh finally discovers the horrible fate that has befallen his beloved Fevre Dream. The novel closes many decades later by suggesting that all vampires, though still effectively immortal, were eventually freed from their blood addiction by Joshua's potion and Abner's brave efforts on their behalf; they make nighttime pilgrimages to Abner's grave overlooking the Mississippi, continuing to honor his heroic contribution to their cause of freedom. |
The Firm | John Grisham | null | Mitchell Y. "Mitch" McDeere graduated in accounting from Western Kentucky University, passed his Certified Public Accountant exams on the first attempt, and graduated third in his class from Harvard Law School. Mitch is married to his high school sweetheart, Abby Sutherland. They also attended college together. His brother Ray is serving a prison term, and his other brother, Rusty, died in Vietnam. Mitch has offers from law firms in New York and Chicago but eventually decides to join Bendini, Lambert and Locke, a small tax law firm based in Memphis. The firm seduces him by offering him a large salary, a lease on a new BMW automobile and a low interest mortgage on a house. Soon after he joins, his new colleagues help him study and pass his bar exam--the first priority for new associates. Mitch is assigned to partner Avery Tolar, the firm "bad boy," but a highly accomplished attorney. Two of Mitch's colleagues, Marty Kozinski and Joe Hodge, die in a scuba diving accident in the Cayman Islands a few days before he starts at the firm. On his first scheduled day of work, Mitch attends their funerals. Mitch finds the deaths unsettling, but focuses on his goal of becoming a successful employee of the firm. During a memorial service at the firm for the two deceased attorneys, Mitch notices plaques commemorating three other attorneys who died while working at the firm. Suspicious, he hires a private investigator, Eddie Lomax, an ex-cell mate of his brother Ray, to investigate the deaths of the attorneys. Lomax discovers that all five of the deceased attorneys died under questionable circumstances: two in the diving accident, and the other three in a car accident, a hunting accident and a suicide, respectively. Lomax cautions Mitch to be careful. Soon after delivering his report to Mitch, Lomax is murdered. Shortly after Mitch passes his bar exam, Wayne Tarrance, an FBI agent, confronts Mitch. Mitch gradually learns from the FBI that the firm is actually part of the white collar operations of the Morolto crime family of Chicago. The firm's founder, Anthony Bendini, was actually the son-in-law of old man Morolto. He founded the firm in 1944, and since then it has lured new lawyers from poor backgrounds with promises of wealth and security. Although a large part of the firm's clientele is very real, the partners and senior associates are actively involved in a multi-million dollar tax fraud and money laundering scheme. By the time a lawyer is aware of the firm's actual operations, he cannot leave. No lawyer has escaped the firm alive; the five who tried to leave did so after finding out about the firm's ties to organized crime and were killed to keep them from talking. Kozinski and Hodge were actually in contact with the FBI at the time of their murders. The takedown of the Moroltos is such a high priority that the FBI's director, F. Denton Voyles, is personally involved in the case. Mitch learns that his house, office and car are bugged. Mitch and Abby are also routinely followed, making his meetings with the FBI dangerous. Pressure from both the firm and the FBI, which warns him he will almost certainly go to prison if he chooses to ignore them, forces Mitch to make a decision quickly. Desperate to find a way out and stay alive in the process, Mitch makes a deal with the FBI. He promises to collect enough evidence to indict the firm in return for $2 million and the release of his brother, Ray, from prison. Mitch tells Tarrance that he can obtain enough evidence to indict half the firm right away. However, this evidence will also prove that the firm is part and parcel of a criminal conspiracy. This will give the government probable cause to obtain search warrants for the firm building and files, which in turn will provide the evidence to completely destroy the firm and the Morolto family with a massive RICO indictment. In order to do so, however, Mitch must disclose information about his clients, and thus end his career as a lawyer (though in truth, the attorney–client privilege in most U.S. states, including Tennessee, does not apply to situations where a lawyer knows that a crime is taking place). Working with Lomax's secretary and lover, Tammy Hemphill, Mitch begins to copy confidential documents and makes plans to deliver them to the FBI as planned, eventually copying 10,000 documents. At the same time, Mitch and Abby secretly plan to flee once Mitch turns over the files, since they don't completely trust the FBI to protect them. Meanwhile, the firm becomes suspicious of Mitch. With the assistance of Tarry Ross, alias "Alfred", a top FBI official who is actually a mole for another crime family, they discover Mitch is indeed working with the FBI. Once Mitch learns of this, he runs from both the FBI and Mafia with his brother and wife. He steals $10 million from the firm's Grand Cayman bank account. Mitch manages to escape to the Caribbean with the help of Barry Abanks, a scuba diving business owner whose son died in the incident where the Moroltos killed Kozinski and Hodge. Armed with Mitch's evidence, the FBI indicts 51 present and former members of the Bendini firm, as well as 31 alleged members of the Morolto family, for everything from money laundering to mail fraud. At the end, Mitch, Abby and Ray go into hiding and are quietly enjoying their newfound wealth in the Caribbean region. |
A Fine Balance | Rohinton Mistry | 1,995 | The book exposes the changes in Indian society from independence in 1947 to the Emergency called by Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Mistry is generally critical of Gandhi in the book. Gandhi, however, is never referred to by name by any of the characters, and is instead called simply "the Prime Minister". The characters, from diverse backgrounds, are brought together by economic forces changing India. Ishvar and Omprakash's family is part of the Chamaar caste, who traditionally cured leather and were considered untouchable. In an attempt to break away from the restrictive caste system, Ishvar's father apprentices his sons Ishvar and Narayan to a Muslim tailor, Ashraf Chacha, in a nearby town, and so they became tailors. As a result of their skills, which are also passed on to Narayan's son Omprakash (Om), Ishvar and Om move to Mumbai to get work, by then unavailable in the town near their village because a pre-made clothing shop has opened. A powerful upper-caste village thug, Thakur Dharamsi, later has his henchmen murder Narayan and his family for having the temerity to ask for a ballot. Ishvar and Omprakash are the only two who escapes the killing as they lodged with Ashraf in the nearby town. At the beginning of the book, the two tailors, Ishvar and Omprakash, are on their way to the flat of widow Dina Dalal via a train. While on the train, they meet a college student named Maneck Kohlah, who coincidentally is also on his way to the flat of Dina Dalal to be a boarder. Maneck, from a small mountain village in northern India, moves to the city to acquire a college certificate "as a back-up" in case his father's soft drink business is no longer able to compete after the building of a highway near their village. Maneck and the two tailors become friends and go to Dina's flat together. Dina hires Ishvar and Om for piecework, and is happy to let Maneck stay with her. Dina, from a traditionally wealthy Parsi family, maintains tenuous independence from her brother by living in the flat of her deceased husband, who was a chemist. Dina grew up in a wealthy family. Her father was a medical doctor who died when she was twelve. Her mother was withdrawn and unable to take care of Dina after her father's death, so the job fell to Nusswan, Dina's elder brother. Nusswan was rather abusive to Dina, sticking her with all the housework, forcing her to do all the cooking, cleaning, and drop out of school, hitting her when she misbehaved. Dina rebelled against Nusswan and his prospective suitors for her when she became of age, and found her own husband, Rustom Dalal, a chemist, at a concert hall. Nusswan and his wife Ruby were happy to let her marry Rustom and move to his flat. Dina and Rustom lived happily for three years until Rustom died on their third wedding anniversary, after being hit by a bus while on his bicycle. Dina became a tailor under the guidance of Rustom's surrogate parents to avoid having to move in with Nusswan. After twenty years her eyesight gave out from complicated embroidery and she was once again jobless. She eventually met a lady from a company called Au Revoir Exports (Mrs Gupta), who would buy ready-made dresses in patterns. She agrees to let Dina sew the patterns. But since Dina has very poor eyesight, she decides to hire tailors. She also decides to have a paying guest to generate more income for her rent. The tailors rent their own sewing machines, and come to Dina's flat each day for nearly two weeks before the first round of dresses is completed. The three get along fairly well, but Dina and Omprakash don't see eye to eye all the time. Omprakash is angry that Dina is a middle-person and he wants to sew for Au Revoir directly. Maneck was born in a mountain town to loving parents, Mr and Mrs Kohlah. His father owned a grocery store that had been in the family for generations. The store sold household necessities and manufactured the locally popular soda, Kohlah Cola. Maneck spent his days going to school, helping at the store, and going on walks with his father. When he was in the fourth standard, Maneck was sent to boarding school to help his education, much to his dismay. After this, his relationship with his parents deteriorates because he does not wish to be separated from them and feels betrayed. His parents sent him to a college and picked his major, refrigeration and air-conditioning. Maneck goes to college and stays at the student hostel. Maneck becomes friends with his neighbor, Avinash, who is also the student president and who teaches him how to get rid of vermins in his room. Avinash also teaches Maneck chess and they play together often. Avinash later becomes involved in political events, for which Maneck has little interest, and their friendship is no longer a priority for Avinash. They start seeing each other quite infrequently. But when the Emergency is declared in India, political activists had to go into hiding in order to be safe, Avinash included. Maneck, after a humiliating ragging session by fellow hostel students, has his mother arrange a different living situation for him, and he moves in with Dina Dalal. Dina and the tailors' business runs fairly smoothly for almost a year, but effects of the Emergency bother them often. The shantytown where the tailors live is knocked down in a government "beautification" program, and the residents are uncompensated and forced to move into the streets. Later Ishvar and Om are rounded up by a police beggar raid and are sold to a labor camp. After two months in the camp, they bribe their way out with the help of the Beggarmaster, a kind of pimp for beggars. Ishvar and Om are lucky and Dina decides to let them stay with her. The tailors and Dina find trouble from the landlord, because she is not supposed to be running a business from her flat. She pretends that Ishvar is her husband and Om their son and also get protection from the Beggarmaster. Ishvar and Om return to their village to find a wife for Omprakash, who is now eighteen. Maneck returns home, finished with his first year in college (he has received a certificate but not a degree), but has stiff relations with his family and finds that his father's business is failing due to the invasion of cheap commercial sodas. He takes a lucrative job in Middle Eastern Dubai to escape the conditions. Dina being alone now, and her protector the Beggarmaster having been murdered, has no protection from the landlord who wants to break her apartment's rent control and charge more rent, so she is evicted. Dina is forced to again live with her brother, Nusswan. Omprakash and Ishvar return to their old town to find that Ashraf Chacha is an elderly man whose wife died and daughters were all married off. He gives them a place to stay while they search for marriage prospects for Om. While they walk around the village, they run into the upper-caste Thakur Dharamsi. Omprakash recognizes him and spits in his direction. Thakur in turn recognizes Om, and decides to somehow pay Om back for his disrespect of an upper caste member. When Ashraf Chacha Ishvar, and Om are in the village, they run into herders from the Family Planning Centre. As the Centre in this city did not fill its quota, they took random people from the street and forced them into a truck that drove them to the Family Planning Centre. All three are beaten into the truck and since Ashraf Chacha is so old, he is gravely injured and later dies on the street. Ishvar and Omprakash beg to escape the forced sterilization, but the vasectomy takes place. As they lie in an outside tent recovering, Thakur Dharamsi comes by and coerced the doctor to give Om a castration. Ishvar's legs become infected due to the vasectomy and must be amputated. However, Ishvar and Om have nowhere to go now that Ashraf Chacha has died. His son-in-law sells his house and they are forced to leave town. Eight years later, Maneck returns home for the first time from Dubai for his father's funeral. Maneck is repulsed by the violence that follows after the Prime Minister's assassination, for which Sikhs are killed. He returns home and attends the funeral, but cannot bring himself to truly miss his father, only the father of his young childhood. While at home he reads old newspapers and learns that Avinash's three sisters have hanged themselves, unable to bear their parents' humiliation at not being able to provide dowries for their marriages. Shocked and shaken, he decides to visit Dina in Mumbai for better news. He learns from Dina the horrific lives that Ishvar and Om – one disabled and the other castrated – have led as beggars after their village visit. As Maneck leaves, he encounters Om and Ishvar on the street. The two former tailors are nearly unrecognizable because of their filth, and don't appear to recall him. They say "Salaam" to him, but he doesn't know what to say and walks on. Maneck goes to the train station, his world shattered. He walks out on the tracks as an express train approaches the station and commits suicide by letting the train run over him. It turns out that Om and Ishvar were on their way to visit Dina. They are still friends, and she gives them meals and money when the house is empty. Dina and the beggars discuss their lives and how Maneck has changed from a pleasant and friendly college student to a distant refrigeration specialist. Om and Ishvar leave, promising to visit after the weekend. Dina washes up their plates, and returns the plates to the cupboard, where they are to be used later by Nusswan and Ruby. |
The Night Watch | Sergey Lukyanenko | null | The book comprises three stories, each one seemingly independent at the first glance, but they are in fact connected. A reluctant mage recently reassigned to field work, Anton Gorodetsky tracks vampires by drinking blood and channeling them. As he follows a young boy (Egor), who has been called by two vampires through the Metro, he notices a young woman, Svetlana, who has a huge vortex of damnation above her. Anton finds the vampires who have been calling Egor with their power and, as they don't have a special license, kills one of them, while the other (a female) gets away. He returns to the Night Watch headquarters, where his boss, Boris Ignatievich, informs him that he could be in danger as Zabulon (head of the Day Watch) might want revenge for his actions in killing Dark Others and gives him a stuffed owl called Olga (who later transforms into a woman), for his protection. Anton initially rejects the offer, then finds Olga in his apartment and reluctantly agrees. The next day he illegally uses his powers for good (by changing a person's morality, a spell called "remoralization") and clashes with a Dark Other from the Day Watch, Alisa Donnikova. They agree that Alisa can use her power to do a minor evil act as an exchange for her silence about this matter. He then discovers that Olga can speak and is a sorceress trapped in an owl's body as a punishment. Anton goes to Egor's apartment to protect him from the vampire, then nearly loses him as Egor inadvertently slips in the Twilight for the first time. Surprisingly, he remains unaffiliated both to Light or to Dark. Meanwhile, Boris Ignatievich sends an incubus, Ignat, to the cursed woman, Svetlana Nazarova, to help her relax and say who could have cursed her, but to no avail. Finally, Anton is reassigned to visit Svetlana, and in the meantime, the vampiress calls to Egor and he joins her on the roof. Anton manages to find out that Svetlana is a powerful Other who inadvertently cursed herself with her guilt (for what she did to her mother). Anton then gets back to Egor's roof to find the vampiress and Egor, as well as many other Light and Dark operatives, including Anton's neighbour, Kostya Saushkin, who is a vampire. Zabulon joins them and attacks Anton. But when he does, one of the Light Mages, Ilya, reveals himself to be Boris Ignatievich, who'd swapped their bodies. While Zabulon's plans seem compromised, and Egor considering his choice for Light, in a last shot, Alisa uses her agreement with Anton to make him tell Egor everything. Anton reveals to Egor that he was a pawn used by Boris Ignatievich and Zabulon in their intrigues. Angered, Anton leaves the roof, feeling misused. A Dark Other, Galina Rogova, is killed by Maxim, a mysterious murderer using an enchanted wooden dagger, referring to himself as "The Judge". The next day, Boris Ignatievich announces that the Day Watch suspects one of the Night Watch operatives. Everyone seems to have an alibi, except Anton. Boris Ignatievich thinks that Anton has been set up by the Day Watch, and uses his powers to swap Anton and Olga's bodies (Olga being now temporarily weaker). In Olga's body, Anton then goes with Svetlana to her apartment to hide, and, after he gets there, reveals that he is in fact Anton, making Svetlana furious as she just told "Olga" she loved Anton. They go to a restaurant later in the evening where they spot an inoffensive Dark Other with his family. The Dark Other goes to the toilet, where Maxim was waiting and kills him. Anton, curious why the Dark Other had not returned from the toilet, briefly leaves Svetlana and discovers the body. Boris Ignatievich then reveals himelf and asks Svetlana to give him anything that could help to recognize the killer, and Svetlana telepathically sends him the image of Maxim's wife's aura. Zabulon then comes over and recognises Anton in Olga's body, charging him with the murder. Anton flees while Zabulon tries to hit him with an effective destructive power, and manages to hitch a car. What he doesn't know is that the couple in the car are Maxim and his wife. Walking home, Anton calls Olga and asks to switch bodies back. Waiting in the subway for Olga, Anton stumbles upon Egor and has a brief conversation with him. Olga arrives and Anton and Olga switch their bodies back using an incantation that reveals Boris Ignatievich's real name as Gesar. While talking to Olga, Anton realises that the Day Watch is only chasing him in order to make Svetlana mad and use her powers illegally, which would allow them to dispose of her, or at least incapacitate her. Anton then takes a ride in the metro and when he goes off at a station, chased by a dark Other, a twilight figure, a departed mage, indicates that Anton should go to the Ostankino Tower. He kills the Dark mage chasing him and uses his appearance to mask himself. He arrives at the tower to find that the Day Watch has established their temporary headquarters in the Tower. Secretly penetrating inside, he sees Tiger Cub as an inspector from the Light and a bunch of incompetent Dark mages directing his search. Leaving the Tower, Anton goes by Egor's house and thinks Zabulon is taking revenge on him by setting him up. Meanwhile, Maxim feels the presence of a Dark being and goes on a hunt. He finally finds the Dark being and is astonished when he discovers it is young Egor. Anton spots them and talks with Maxim, explaining the Treaty between Light and Dark, but Maxim doesn't comply, pointing out that Egor will grow up to be a dark mage, and it's better to kill him now. Anton intervenes when Maxim tries to kill Egor, and they fight in the twilight. Anton realizes that killing Maxim would mean that all witnesses showing his innocence would be dead, and is stabbed by Maxim. Gesar then comes over, suggests that Maxim should become a member of the Inquisition, and when Anton brags about how he outwitted Zabulon again, Gesar reveals that Zabulon has nothing to do with it and that all that was planned by the Night Watch to raise Svetlana's magical level. An old man arrives from Uzbekistan and is intercepted by a team of Dark Others led by Alisa, who attacks him thinking he possesses a coveted artifact. As they fight, his son slips away unnoticed with the artifact. All of the Night Watch operatives go to Tiger Cub's house to relax, but Anton doesn't manage to have fun, as he is concerned with Svetlana's growing powers influencing their relationship and the reason Gesar sent them off. He finally leaves and when he comes back to his apartment, he discovers Zabulon calmly reading a newspaper and waiting for him. Zabulon reveals that Alisher, the young man from Uzbekistan, brought with him an artifact, a piece of chalk. Anton's research suggests that the Chalk of Fate and that it could be used by the Light to rewrite destiny, allowing someone to change the world to establish a new world order. Discussions with Olga and later Gesar reveal that Svetlana in fact is to use the Chalk to rewrite a destiny. Walking outside, Anton drains the Light power from all of the passers-by he sees, taking their joy away. Anton joins Gesar, Svetlana, Zabulon, Egor, and Maxim on a rooftop where Svetlana prepares to rewrite a destiny, while a storm is gathering around them. Svetlana then opens the book of destiny. Gesar supposes Anton could use all the energy he has drained to stop the storm, but Anton uses it instead on himself via a simple remoralization spell. Astonished, Svetlana stops rewriting Egor's destiny and asks Anton for advice, but Anton says that she must decide what to write herself. The Book disappears, and Gesar notices she didn't write anything, she only erased things. Egor reverts from a potential Dark Other back to an unaffiliated state. Zabulon notices that their planned operation failed because of Svetlana's indecisiveness and, triumphant, leaves. Anton then notices the Chalk Svetlana used is not whole. Gesar reveals that Svetlana rewriting Egor's destiny was just a distraction, and in the mean time, Olga rewrote the destiny of someone later revealed. Gesar reveals the true nature of this plan was to save his love of Olga. Without her full powers, their love was doomed. |
The Cobweb | George Jewsbury | 2,005 | When Clyde Banks, an Iowan Deputy with a newborn baby and a wife in the first Gulf War, starts looking into odd events in his town, he discovers a plot involving a new Triangle Trade of terrorists, chemical warfare, and training. Mixing the events staged in Washington, D.C. and those happening in the Gulf, a strange thread of deceit appears to be winding its way back to Iowa. Although fictional in its narrative, the story includes appearances by Tariq Aziz and George H. W. Bush. |
Interface | Neal Stephenson | 1,994 | The novel opens with the governor of Illinois, William Cozzano, suffering a stroke, and in a separate subplot, a trailer park inhabitant, unemployed African-American, Eleanor Richmond, discovering her husband dead after having committed suicide in their repossessed former home. As events progress, an underground business coalition, the Network, is arranging for Cozzano to have a biochip implanted and for him to run for President of the United States. The Network is made up of a number of large fictional companies, with parallels in real business entities. Eleanor Richmond, after publicly attacking a local cable TV Public-access television talk show personality who was running for Senate, has since found herself working in the offices of a Republican Colorado senator, and after an event where she accused the citizens of Colorado of being welfare queens, finds herself in the public eye as one of the candidates for Cozzano's running mate. The Network's ability to perceive public opinion, skewed on the night of the vice presidential debate by a twist of fate, makes them select Richmond as vice presidential candidate, and a canny act of public relations work rescues Cozzano's campaign, getting him elected as President. However, Cozzano gets shot at his inauguration by a psychotic former factory worker who has somehow figured out the Network's plans almost entirely, killing him almost instantly. Richmond ends up as the first black and first female President of the United States. |
Tipping the Velvet | Sarah Waters | 1,998 | Nancy "Nan" Astley is a sheltered 18-year-old living with her working-class family and helping in their oyster restaurant in Whitstable, Kent. She becomes instantly and desperately enamoured with a "masher", or male impersonator, named Kitty Butler, who performs for a season at the local theatre. They begin a friendship that grows when, after Kitty finds an opportunity to perform in London for better exposure, she asks Nan to join her. Nan enthusiastically agrees and leaves her family to act as Kitty's dresser while she performs. Although Kitty and Nan acknowledge their relationship to be sisterly, Nan continues to love Kitty until a jealous fight forces Kitty to admit she feels the same, although she insists that they keep their relationship secret. Simultaneously, Kitty's manager Walter decides that Kitty needs a performing partner to reach true success, and suggests Nan for the role. Nan is initially horrified by the idea, but takes to it. The duo become quite famous until Nan realises she is homesick after being gone from her family for more than a year. Her return home is underwhelming, so she returns to London early to find Kitty in bed with Walter. They announce that the act is finished and they are to be married. Astonished and deeply bruised by the discovery, Nan wanders the streets of London, finally holing herself in a filthy boarding house for weeks in a state of madness until her funds run out. After spying the male costumes she took as her only memory of her time with Kitty, Nan begins to walk the streets of London as a man and easily passes. She is solicited by a man for sex and begins renting, but dressed only as a man for male clients, never letting them know she is a woman. She meets a socialist activist named Florence who lives near the boarding house, but before she can get to know her, Nan is hired by a wealthy widow with licentious tastes named Diana. Although realising—and initially enjoying—that she is an object to Diana and her friends, Nan stays with her for over a year as "Neville", dressed in the finest men's clothes Diana can afford. The relationship erodes, however, and Diana throws Nan into the streets. Nan stumbles through London trying to find Florence, which she eventually does; Florence is now melancholy, however, with a child. Nan stays with Florence and her brother Ralph, working as their housekeeper. Nan and Florence grow closer during the year they live together, and Nan learns that the previous boarder with Florence and Ralph had a child and died shortly after giving birth. Florence was deeply in love with the boarder but her affections were not returned. During an outing to a women's pub, Nan is recognised by former fans, to Florence's astonishment, and Nan divulges her own spotty past to Florence. Cautiously, they begin a love affair. Putting her theatrical skills to use, Nan assists Ralph in preparing a speech at an upcoming socialist rally. At the event Nan jumps onstage to help Ralph when he falters, and is noticed once more by Kitty, who asks her to come back so they can continue their affair in secret. Realising how much shame Kitty continues to feel, how much of herself was compromised during their affair, and that her truest happiness is where she is now, Nan turns Kitty away and joins Florence. |
Darkover Landfall | Marion Zimmer Bradley | 1,972 | Darkover Landfall concerns the crew and colonists of a spaceship that is forced to crash land on Cottman IV, an inhospitable planet in orbit around a red giant. The crew become accidental colonists when the ship loses contact with Earth and they realize rescue is impossible. The book introduces surnames, religious and cultural themes that echo throughout the Darkover series of books. This series spans millennia, as the ship's descendants populate the world and develop unique cultures and psi abilities. Though Darkover Landfall is not the first book written in the series, in the Darkover timeline its events are the beginning for all that follows. |
Stormqueen! | Marion Zimmer Bradley | 1,978 | The novel is set in Darkover's Ages of Chaos where feuding families, the Elhalyn and the Ridenow, are engaged in a breeding scheme to develop children with frightening psychic powers, called laran. The main protagonist is Dorilys Aldaran, the heir to the Rockraven line who develops a fearsome power to alter the planet's weather patterns. |
Pompeii | Robert Harris | 2,003 | Marcus Attilius Primus arrives in the Bay of Naples from Rome to take charge as aquarius (hydraulic engineer) of the Aqua Augusta, the aqueduct that supplies water to the many towns in a region encompassing the Bay of Naples and Mount Vesuvius. The nine important towns are, in sequential order, Pompeii, Nola, Acerrae, Atella, Naples, Puteoli, Cumae, Baiae, and Misenum. Attilius' predecessor as aquarius, Exomnius, has mysteriously vanished as the springs that flow through the aqueduct begin to fail, lowering the supply of water available to the region's reservoir, the Piscina Mirabilis in Misenum. Then, dramatically, the flow of water stops entirely. Attilius concludes that the aqueduct must be blocked somewhere close to Mount Vesuvius, since reports claim a shut down of the system just before Nola, meaning that towns from there through Naples and Misenum are without any water supply. With aid from Pliny the Elder, whose fleet is docked at Misenum, Attilius assembles an expedition to travel to Pompeii, the only town not connected to the water grid, and then on to the blocked section of the Aqua Augusta. While Attilius' expedition is there, the aquarius himself becomes embroiled as part of a plot of the former slave and land speculator Numerius Popidius Ampliatus. Ampliatus is planning on offering a cheap water supply to Pompeii, which Exomnius, the previous aquarius, had helped him do while stealing from the imperial treasury. Attilius' questions and studies make Ampliatus suspicious of what Pliny the Elder and his nephew later discover—thousands of Roman sesterces at the bottom of the reservoir that should have gone to Rome and which Attilius' predecessor had intended to retrieve once he'd emptied the reservoir. Ampliatus' daughter Corelia gets Attilius the proof he needs from her father's written records when he is performing repairs to a collapsed section of tunnel in the region around Mount Vesuvius. The eruption of Mount Vesuvius on August 24 overwhelms Pompeii, Oplontis, and Herculaneum. Attilius risks his life and comes back to Pompeii to find Corelia. Attilius and Corelia dig their way through the aqueduct tunnel, which the springs are beginning to fill—which carries a high risk of drowning. Ampliatus is killed when he refuses to evacuate the city, and Pliny dies from the effects of fumes on a corpulent body when he tries to evacuate the citizens. At the end of the book Attilius and Corelia enter the aqueduct just as the waters are coming back to full flow. The last sentence of the novel reports a local legend that a man and woman had emerged from the aqueduct after the eruption—implying that Attilius and Corelia likely survived the trip up the aqueduct. The incident of Ampliatus feeding a slave to his eels is based on the actual historical case of Vedius Pollio. |
The Leaky Establishment | David Langford | null | Roy Tappen works for the Robinson Heath Nuclear Utilisation Technology Centre, a nuclear weapons facility in Britain. He fights bureaucracy while trying to use it for his purpose, which is to undo the potentially disastrous results of a practical joke gone wrong. Smuggling plutonium out of a nuclear research centre turns out to be surprisingly easy. The difficult part is smuggling it back in again without getting caught. |
Pnin | Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov | 1,957 | The book's eponymous protagonist, Timofey Pavlovich Pnin, is a Russian-born professor living in the United States. Pnin, a refugee in his 50s from both Communist Russia and what he calls the "Hitler war", is an assistant professor of Russian at fictional Waindell College, possibly modeled on Wellesley College or Cornell University, at both of which Nabokov himself taught. At Waindell, Pnin has settled down to an uncertain, untenured, but semi-respectable academic life, full of various tragicomic mishaps, misfortunes, and difficulties adjusting to American life and language. Characters in the book include his departmental supervisor, various professors and university staff, his landlord, his ex-wife, and her son. The book's seemingly unreliable narrator identifies himself as one 'Vladimir Vladimirovich N---' and bears similarities to Nabokov himself, such as his interest in lepidoptery and his landed-gentry Russian émigré past. Pnin is last glimpsed fleeing Waindell College, jobless, for an unknown destination. |
Digital Fortress | Dan Brown | 1,996 | When the United States National Security Agency's code-breaking supercomputer (TRANSLTR) encounters a new and complex code—Digital Fortress—that it cannot break, Commander Trevor Strathmore calls in Susan Fletcher, their head cryptographer, to crack it. She discovers that it was written by Ensei Tankado, a former NSA employee who became displeased with the NSA's intrusion into people's private lives. Tankado intends to auction the code's algorithm on his website and have his partner, "NDAKOTA", release it for free if he dies. Essentially holding the NSA hostage, the agency is determined to stop Digital Fortress from becoming a threat to national security. When Tankado does indeed die in Seville, of what appears to be a heart attack, Strathmore asks David Becker (Susan's fiancé) to travel to Seville and recover a ring that Tankado was wearing when he died. The ring is suspected to have the code that unlocks Digital Fortress. However, Becker soon discovers that Tankado gave the ring away immediately before his death. Each person he questions in the search for the ring is murdered by Hulohot, a mysterious assassin. Meanwhile, telephone calls between "North Dakota" and Numataka (chairman of a large computer company in Tokyo) reveal that North Dakota hired Hulohot to kill Tankado in order to gain access to the passcode on his ring and speed up the release of the algorithm. At the NSA, Fletcher's investigation leads her to believe that Greg Hale, a fellow NSA employee, is North Dakota. Phil Chartrukian, an NSA technician who is unaware of the Digital Fortress code breaking failure and believes Digital Fortress to be a virus, conducts his own investigation into whether Strathmore allowed Digital Fortress to bypass Gauntlet (NSA's virus/worm filter). However, Chartrukian is murdered in the sub-levels of TRANSLTR by an unknown assailant. Since Hale and Strathmore were both in the sub-levels, Fletcher assumes that Hale is the killer; however, Hale claims that he witnessed Strathmore killing Chartrukian. Chartrukian's death by falling off a balcony also damages TRANSLTR's cooling system. Hale holds Fletcher and Strathmore hostage to prevent himself from being arrested for the murder. It is then that Hale explains that the e-mail he supposedly "received" from Tankado was actually in his inbox because he was snooping on Strathmore, who was also watching Tankado's e-mail account. After the encounter, Hale's name is cleared when Fletcher discovers through a tracer that North Dakota and Ensei Tankado are actually the same person, as "NDAKOTA" is an anagram of "Tankado". Strathmore's role as the primary antagonist is revealed when Strathmore fatally shoots Hale, and arranges it to appear as a suicide. Susan later discovers through Strathmore's pager that he is the one who hired Hulohot. Becker later kills Hulohot in a violent confrontation. Chapters told from Strathmore's perspective reveal his motives. By hiring Hulohot to kill Tankado, having Becker recover his ring, and at the same time arranging for Hulohot to kill him, would help facilitate a romantic relationship with Fletcher, regaining his lost honor, and enable him to unlock Digital Fortress. By making phone calls to Numataka impersonating as "North Dakota", he thought he could partner with Numataka Corporation to make a Digital Fortress chip equipped with his own backdoor Trojan so that the NSA can spy on every computer equipped with these chips. However, Strathmore was unaware that Digital Fortress is actually a computer worm once unlocked, "eating away" at the NSA databank's security and allowing "any third-grader with a modem" to look at government secrets. When TRANSLTR overheats, Strathmore commits suicide by standing next to the machine as it explodes. The worm eventually gets into the database, but soon after Fletcher figures out the password, and is able to terminate the worm before hackers can get any significant data. The NSA allows Becker to return to the United States, reuniting him with Fletcher. At last it is revealed that Numataka is Ensei Tankado's father. Numataka left Tankado the day he was born since Tankado was a deformed child. |
Slow River | Nicola Griffith | 1,995 | Lore Van de Oest was born in one of the mightiest families on earth. However, she suddenly loses everything. |
Mr. Adam | Pat Frank | null | After a nuclear power plant in Mississippi explodes, it's soon realized that a previously unknown form of radiation is released. The radiation has caused all men on Earth to become sterile, even boys that are still inside the mother's womb. However, ten months after the explosion in Mississippi, a doctor delivers a perfectly healthy baby girl. It's soon discovered that the child's father, who has the surname Adam was more than a mile under the surface of Earth inside an old silver and lead mine during the explosion. It would appear that this Mr. Adam is humanity's only hope to stave off extinction. |
Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception | Eoin Colfer | 2,005 | The book begins with the pixie Opal Koboi faking a coma inside an asylum to avoid incarceration by the Lower Elements Police (LEP) after her failed rebellion and attempt at world domination (which took place in Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident). Opal Koboi, who was under 24-hour surveillance and had DNA tests done every 4 hours by the LEP to ensure that Opal was actually in the asylum cell, with help from the Brill Brothers manages to replace herself with a clone, which is identical to herself (the only difference being that the clone is brain dead). Opal lures Commander Julius Root and Captain Holly Short into a lava chute alone. Koboi then kills Commander Root of the LEP (framing Captain Holly Short as the murderer), and launches a bio-bomb at Artemis Fowl, which fails to kill him and his bodyguard Domovoi Butler. Opal then proceeds with her plan to help Italian environmentalist Giovanni Zito send a probe downward, which, at least in Koboi's plan, will cause the humans to find the fairies and start an inter-species war, leading to fairy genocide. Artemis Fowl was mindwiped in the third book of the series, Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code and has no memory of meeting the fairies. This has also caused him to revert back to his former self- the one cruel enough to kidnap a fairy. But he has a conscience, the difference is he chooses not to listen to it. Artemis is rescued from the scene of the bio-bomb attack by Holly. She tells him who she is, in hopes to ignite his memory. He does not regain his memories of the past adventures, but agrees to help her for a fee. They are then recaptured by Koboi and thrown into a troll-infested abandoned fairy theme park known as the Eleven Wonders of the Human World (containing scale-models not only of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World but also the additions of Abu Simbel, Borobodur, Rapa Nui and the Throne Hall at Persepolis). After a desperate battle against the troll hordes on a model of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, they are rescued by former criminal Mulch Diggums and Butler. Holly and Artemis become friends "bonded by trauma" and Artemis says he feels that he doesn't need money to help a friend. After being rescued, Mulch gives Artemis the disk that had been passed off as a gold medallion, which Butler was given earlier in the book. Artemis views the disk and regains his memories. He is overcome with guilt of what he had done to the fairies but to Holly the most and for the first time, he apologises for kidnapping her. He realises that Holly, Butler, and Mulch were the only friends he had. Together, the four friends take on Opal Koboi, knowing that they are the only ones that know she's escaped. It becomes a more difficult task with the LEP on their tail, who still thinks Holly is the one who killed the Commander. The new Commander refuses to believe anything, despite the fact that everyone knows Root was like a father to Holly. Afterward, the story follows the struggle over the probe, which is closing in on the E7 chute. The probe eventually misses the chute, Koboi is detained by the LEP, and Holly is cleared of all charges over Commander Root's murder. However, she is frustrated by Commander Root's replacement, Ark Sool, so she resigns and starts a private investigation firm with Mulch Diggums. It is also apparent that Artemis has had a change of heart, as he anonymously donates the famed painting The Fairy Thief, which he had stolen directly before Koboi's bio-bomb attack, to the Louvre museum. |
The Paper Chase | John Jay Osborn, Jr. | null | The story centers on Hart, a young law student from Minnesota who attends Harvard Law School and becomes obsessed with one of his teachers, Professor Charles W. Kingsfield, Jr. Hart becomes an expert on Kingsfield's subject, contracts; he reads everything about the subject, including all of Kingsfield's papers, most of which are not on the reading list. He goes so far as to break into the law library to read Kingsfield's original law school notes. Hart becomes such an expert that Kingsfield asks him to contribute to a paper. At the same time, he begins a relationship with Susan Field, who turns out to be Kingsfield's daughter. Susan stands aloof from the law-school rat-race and dismisses all the things Hart cares about most. At the end of the term, Professor Kingsfield really means something to his students, but he still does not know their names; indeed, he appears to be unable to smile. For him, the class is only a group of people, the students simply names on a paper. He does not even recognize Hart after several encounters and classroom debates. After one incident, wherein Kingsfield asks Hart to leave the class, Hart says in front of the lecture hall, "You are a son of a bitch, Kingsfield," to which Kingsfield merely responded with "Mr. Hart! That is the most intelligent thing you've said all day. You may take your seat." After much effort preparing for the final exam, Hart's grade is delivered to him, but he simply makes a paper airplane out of his final report card, and sends it sailing into the Atlantic Ocean without looking at it. |
Prague: A Novel | Arthur Phillips | 2,002 | Prague opens on the afternoon of May 25, 1990 with five North American expatriates living in the city of Budapest. The expatriates are, for the most part, optimistic about their prospects in the Central European city. John Price seeks a reconciliation with his older brother, Scott, who has come to Budapest to separate himself from his earlier life in the United States. Emily Oliver, an idealistic worker at the American Embassy, hopes to begin a distinguished diplomatic career. Mark Payton, a Canadian researching a history of nostalgia, relishes the chance to be immersed in a place with interesting history. Only Charles Gábor, a Hungarian-American venture capitalist who resents his co-workers and has contempt for his fellow Magyars, displays any pessimism at the story's outset. The five young expatriates enjoy the nightlife and new opportunities in the historic city. John is instantly attracted to Emily, and plots to win her love, but she ignores him. He finds a job as a columnist for an English-language newspaper, BudapesToday. Still a virgin at the age of 24, he is initiated by his co-worker Karen, but finds the experience to be quite anticlimactic. He later commits "fradultery" with his brother's future wife, Mária. Part II presents the complex history of the Horváth Kiadó (Horvath Press), a family-run publishing company – which also serves as a history of Budapest from the early nineteenth century to the present day. Presently, the head of the publishing house is Imre Horváth, who until recently had been exiled in Vienna. During the Communist regime, the Horváth Kiadó was a state-owned business; after the fall of communism, it is due to be privatized. Imre seeks an investment from Charles' venture capital firm in order to buy the press's assets and restart it in Budapest. John frequently fraternizes with an elderly jazz bar pianist named Nádja. He is entranced by the romantic stories she tells of her past, but his friends are less than convinced of their veracity. In particular, John is dismayed by Emily's dismissal of Nádja as an "amazing liar". He is also dismayed that Emily pulls away when he tries to kiss her. John becomes involved with Nicky, a photographer and artist who wants a physical, but not an emotional, relationship. Charles' firm rejects his proposal to fund the Horváth Kiadó. With the help of John, who writes supportive newspaper columns and serves as Charles' aide, Charles secures independent funding for this venture. He resigns from his firm and becomes a partner in the new Horváth Kiadó. Mark Payton's research into nostalgia becomes a personal obsession. He takes an inordinate interest in gramophone music and riding in a funicular carriage. He later becomes preoccupied with the contemporary Gulf War and its continuous coverage on CNN. In September 1990, Mark leaves Budapest suddenly, due to his declining mental health. In autumn 1990, Scott marries Mária and moves to Romania with her, telling John that he never wants to see him again. John continues to desire Emily and be jealous of other men she talks to. Charles and John learn that other parties may want to bid for the Horváth Kiadó assets. In January 1991, Imre Horváth suffers a stroke and goes into a coma. Charles Gábor effectively becomes sole head of the publishing company. He accepts a takeover bid by a multinational media corporation, headed by the Australian billionaire Hubert Melchior (a parody of Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation). Horváth recovers, but not in time to prevent his historic publishing firm from being absorbed into the multinational publishing empire. In March, John says that he loves Emily, even though he knows she is a "spy." The next day, John is fired from his job for having accused an embassy employee of being a spy. Emily, who was having a lesbian relationship with Nicky, leaves the city to escape the accusation. Charles returns to America. Finally, John leaves Budapest as well, traveling by train to the more promising city of Prague. |
Cloudstreet | Tim Winton | 1,991 | Precipitated by separate personal tragedies, two families flee their rural livings to share a "great continent of a house", Cloudstreet, in the Perth suburb of West Leederville. The two families are contrasts to each other; the Lambs find meaning in industry and in God’s grace; the Pickles, in luck. The Lambs’ God is a maker of miracles; the Pickles’ God is the ‘Shifty Shadow’ of fate. Though initially resistant to each other, their search and journey for meaning in life concludes with the uniting of the two families with many characters citing this as the most important aspect of their lives. As a novel, Cloudstreet is tightly structured, opening and ending with a shared celebratory family picnic - a joyous occasion which, ironically, is also the scene of Fish’s long sought-after death or return to the water. The novel is narrated effectively by flashback "in the seconds it takes to die" by Fish Lamb, or the 'spiritual' omniscient Fish Lamb, free of his restricting retarded state. As such the novel gives a voice to social minorities, the Australian working class and the disabled. (However, its treatment of Fish Lamb as somebody incomplete in his physical existence may also be interpreted as demeaning towards the intellectually disabled, depending on the reading position adopted.) |
The Hollow | Agatha Christie | null | The charming and eccentric Lucy Angkatell has invited the Christows, along with a number of other members of the extended family. John is already having an affair with Henrietta Savernake, a talented sculptor and, as is demonstrated by what follows, brilliant improviser. He has always remembered with nostalgia an early love, Veronica Cray, who suddenly appears in the house on Saturday night asking to borrow a box of matches. She is living at one of the two nearby cottages, the other of which is currently occupied by Hercule Poirot, who has been invited for lunch on Sunday. Veronica and John go off together, and he returns much too late: at 3 am. The next day, Poirot arrives at the house to witness a scene that seems strangely staged. Gerda is standing with a gun in her hand above the body of John, who is bleeding into the swimming pool. Standing, seemingly transfixed, are Lucy, Henrietta, and Edward. John's last word, in a note of urgent appeal, is "Henrietta". It seems cut and dried that Gerda is the murderess, but in taking the revolver from her hand Henrietta apparently fumbles and drops it into the swimming pool, destroying any evidence. Later, however, it is discovered that the pistol that Gerda had been holding was not the pistol with which John had been shot. None of the witnesses has actually seen Gerda shoot John, and it seems difficult to build a case against any of the other potential suspects. At first Lucy herself seems to be a strong suspect, when it is discovered that she had kept a pistol concealed in her basket of eggs, but the pistol seems to be of the wrong calibre. Henrietta is also implicated, not least by the leaving of an unusual doodle in the pavilion, apparently at the time that John had been killed. When the murder weapon turns up in Poirot's hedge, it has fingerprints on it that match none of the suspects. These are all pieces of deliberate misdirection on the part of the family. They know in fact that Gerda is indeed the murderess, and are attempting to avoid her imprisonment. As it happens, the murder, with a motive of jealousy, was planned, in that she had taken with her two pistols, planning to be discovered with a pistol in her hands that would later be discovered to be the wrong weapon. Henrietta, who says that John asked her to help Gerda when he said her name, destroys the evidence of the first weapon instinctively, and later goes back and retrieves the second weapon. She hides it in a clay sculpture of a horse in her workshop, then gets it handled by a blind match-seller, and places it in Poirot’s hedge. There is a romantic subplot in the novel. Midge is in love with Edward, but Edward has always been in love with Henrietta and Henrietta had refused several times his marriage proposals. Besides, she is now deeply in love with John Christow. During the course of the novel, Edward realises that Henrietta is not anymore the Henrietta he used to love and begins to stop seeing Midge as "little Midge". Therefore, he asks her to marry him. During a walk to an area where Edward has walked with Henrietta, Midge believes that he is too deeply in love with Henrietta still, and she calls off the wedding. Edward who does not know that she loves him, misunderstands her decision and later that night, he attempts suicide by putting his head in a gas oven but he is saved by Midge. With this rather dramatic proof of his need for her, she relents and the wedding is on again. With all the evidence apparently destroyed, the family believe that they have saved Gerda, but there is one final clue: the holster in which the murder weapon was kept. Gerda has cut this up and placed it in her workbag. When Henrietta attempts to retrieve it in order to destroy the final means of proving Gerda's guilt, Poirot arrives and prevents her from drinking tea that Gerda has poisoned. Gerda herself accidentally drinks the poisoned tea and escapes justice by this means. Henrietta who, along with Lucy, has emerged as an attractive and well-characterised heroine throughout the book, ends it by visiting in hospital one of John's patients who now has little hope of a cure but still shows a resilient spirit. Leaving the hospital, she reflects that there is no happy end for her, but she resolves to embark on a sculpture of herself as Grief. |
The Shoes of the Fisherman | Morris West | null | Set during the height of the Cold War, The Shoes of the Fisherman opens as protagonist Kiril Pavlovich Lakota (Anthony Quinn), the Metropolitan Archbishop of Lviv, is unexpectedly set free after twenty years in a Siberian labor camp by his former jailer, Piotr Ilyich Kamenev (Laurence Olivier), now the premier of the Soviet Union. He is sent to Rome, where the elderly fictional Pope Pius XIII (John Gielgud) raises him to the cardinalate in the title of St. Athanasius. Lakota initially declines, but reluctantly accepts the promotion. When the Pontiff suddenly collapses and dies, the process of a papal conclave begins, and Cardinal Lakota participates as one of the electors. During the sede vacante, two cardinals in particular, Cardinal Leone (Leo McKern) and Cardinal Rinaldi (Vittorio De Sica) are shown to be papabile. After seven ballots of deadlock, Lakota finds himself elected Pope as a compromise candidate (suggested by Cardinal Rinaldi) by acclamation after the Cardinals, unable to decide between the leading candidates, interview him and are impressed by his ideas and his humility. Lakota takes the name of Pope Kiril (using his baptismal name). Meanwhile, the world is on the brink of nuclear war due to a Chinese-Soviet feud made worse by a famine caused by trade restrictions brought against China by the United States. The evening after his election, Pope Kiril, with the help of his personal aide Gelasio (Arnoldo Foà), sneaks out of the Vatican and explores the city of Rome without being recognized. Later, the Pope returns to the Soviet Union to meet privately with Kamenev and Chairman Peng (Burt Kwouk) of China to discuss the ongoing crisis. Pope Kiril realizes, however, that if the troubles in China continue, the cost would be a war that could ultimately rip the world apart. Knowing this, he must seek to convince the West as well as the Catholic Church to open up its resources to aid. At his papal coronation, Kiril removes his tiara (in a gesture of humility) and states this intent, much to the delight of the crowds in St. Peter's Square below. A major secondary plot in the novel and the film is the Pope's relationship with a theologian and scientist, Father Telemond (Jean Telemond in the book, David Telemond in the film). The Pope becomes a close personal friend of Telemond (Oskar Werner). To his deep regret, in his official capacity, he must allow the Holy Office to censure Telemond for his heterodox views. To the Pope's deep grief, the shock of the censure, combined with his chronic medical problems, eventually kills Father Telemond, who has been slowly dying all this time from a cerebral aneurysm. |
Knife of Dreams | Robert Jordan | 2,005 | The opening epigram of the book is: "The sweetness of victory and the bitterness of defeat are alike a knife of dreams. — From Fog and Steel by Madoc Comadrin" This volume of The Wheel of Time ties up a number of loose ends exposed during the course of the series. Elayne gains the throne of Andor and also manages to root out the Black Ajah sisters in Caemlyn. Egwene, captured by the Tower Aes Sedai and reduced to novice white, begins undermining Elaida's control of the White Tower from within. Rand escapes a trap by the Forsaken Semirhage while at the same time capturing her and losing his left hand. Mat and Tuon get married after their party reaches the edge of Seanchan controlled territory. Tuon then returns to Ebou Dar where she learns about a civil war in the Seanchan empire and the deaths of all of the Imperial family except her, which will make her the new Empress of Seanchan. Perrin defeats the Shaido in Malden with the help of the Seanchan and rescues his wife Faile. Unusual Trolloc attacks, the dead walking, ripples in the fabric of the world and other events seem to indicate that the Last Battle is drawing near; several characters using different evidence confidently state that Tarmon Gai'don is close at hand. The prologue deals with: *a confrontation between Galad Damodred, half-brother of Elayne Trakand and Gawyn Trakand on his father's side and half brother of Rand Al'Thor on his mother's side, and Eamon Valda, Lord Captain Commander of the Whitecloaks ends with Galad obtaining a Heron-mark sword and rank of the slain Lord Captain Commander. *General Rodel Ituralde's campaign in Tarabon and Arad Doman against the Seanchan. *the High Lady Suroth of the Seanchan being informed of the death of the Seanchan Empress, implicitly by the hand of the Forsaken Semirhage *Aes Sedai plots in the White Tower *Perrin Aybara's meeting with Black Ajah Aes Sedai Galina Casban and his plan of attack on the Shaido Aiel *the immediate aftermath of Egwene al'Vere's capture by Aes Sedai loyal to Elaida Mat's thread of the novel is peppered with battles and world-rocking events as he travels into Altara with his cadre from the last novel. The contents of the letter Thom Merrilin received from Moiraine Damodred are finally revealed; it seems that the Blue Sister is in fact not dead, but in the custody of the Aelfinn and Eelfinn. Though at first reluctant, Mat agrees to go to her rescue. While attempting to escape Altara, Mat meets his supporter and comedic foil Talmanes, who has brought a large number of Mat's personal army the Band of the Red Hand south after working briefly for the King of Murandy. Mat is surprised to learn that the Band has grown in size considerably since he left it. The group finds itself in multiple skirmishes against an enormous Seanchan force sent to kill Tuon. Mat and the Band of the Red Hand successfully mount a guerrilla campaign against the enemy forces, making good use of fireworks-turned-artillery. Thanks to foreknowledge provided by Banner-General Furyk Karede, Mat's army is able to finally destroy the Seanchan forces sent after Tuon. The book also sees somewhat of a closure for Mat and Tuon's 'romance'. After pitting each other in a series of psychological duels lasting this leg of their travels, Tuon, to the bewilderment of all present, completes the marriage Mat inadvertently started, giving him the Seanchan title Prince of the Ravens. While Mat harbors feelings for her that border on love, Tuon maintains it is strictly a marriage of convenience. The two part ways, expressing their mutual alliance, but firmly placing the needs of their constituents first. Tuon returns to Ebou Dar to dispense with the treacherous Darkfriend High Lady Suroth, and assume command proper of the Seanchan in wake of the death of the Empress. Rand's portion of the novel deals with his preliminary preparations for Tarmon Gai'don. Realizing that he cannot possibly mount an offensive on the Dark One with his forces fighting the Seanchan, he arranges a meeting with the Daughter of the Nine Moons to negotiate a peace, or, lacking that, a truce. In the meantime, a large-scale battle against a horde of 100,000 Trollocs and Myrdraal ends almost disastrously, when Lews Therin manages to seize control of saidin in a moment of broken concentration on Rand's part. Sensing the madman's attempt to end the both of them by drawing too much of the Power, Rand forges a truce with Lews Therin, asking his cooperation while agreeing to let the both of them die at the Last Battle. Presumably this is the army which, according to Moridin, has been ordered in the Ways by someone posing as Sammael or Sammael himself. The meeting with 'Tuon' also comes to a grisly end, upon Rand and crew discovering that the Daughter of the Nine Moons about to meet with them was Semirhage in disguise. In the ensuing battle, Semirhage is captured at the cost of Rand's own left hand, lost when he failed to wrestle saidin from Lews in time. As an act of defiance, Semirhage delivers a revelation on Rand's condition. According to Semirhage, via Graendal's knowledge, Rand is afflicted with a mental disorder that allows him to communicate with his past self, a condition that is almost universally fatal. This only proves to steel Rand further, as he amasses his people around him to prepare for the coming, terrible storm. Perrin disperses the Shaido threat and rescues his wife Faile using an alliance with Seanchan Banner-General Tylee Khirgan. To overcome the large number of Shaido Wise Ones, they lace the Shaido water supply with Forkroot herbs, which impedes channeling the One Power. Rand's father Tam has an appearance when he arrives with reinforcements from the Two Rivers. It is revealed that Tam does not believe in rumors of Rand's messianic role. In the course of the battle, Perrin's "pupil" and longtime companion Aram dies while attempting to kill him, having been convinced by Masema that Perrin's golden eyes are a sign of the Shadow. In the process of the rescue of Faile, the Aiel Rolan is unfortunately killed by Perrin, although he and other "brotherless" Aiel had helped Faile and her friends several times during captivity, which was unknown by Perrin, and which Faile chooses to not subsequently reveal. Sevanna is captured and the Shaido, defeated and disgraced, are led by Therava back to the Aiel Waste - with the Black Ajah Aes Sedai Galina Casban in tow. Galina struggled unsuccessfully throughout the book to escape the Wise Ones' captivity, and betrayed both Perrin and Faile in the course of her attempts. Egwene is captured in the White Tower after last book's attempt to seal off the harbor of Tar Valon. She holds contact with the rebel Aes Sedai using her ability to visit the dream world Tel'aran'rhiod and forbids her rescue from captivity. Despite harsh disciplining she manages to spread rumors and doubt in the White Tower about Elaida's suitability as Amyrlin and maintain her dignity. Both the rebels and the White Tower send Aes Sedai to the Black Tower to bond Asha'man (the rebels as an offer from Rand to counter the number of Aes Sedai bonded to Asha'man). Loial finally gets married and decides that he is going to speak to the Ogier at the Great Stump in his stedding, telling them that they must fight or perish as the Shadow covers the land. Loial and Elder Haman both take up axes during the Trolloc attack. Rand asks Loial to close all of the waygates, but since he is going to the Great Stump, Elder Haman agrees to do it in his stead. Lan makes a decision to ride to Shienar to fight. Nynaeve tricks him by making him pledge to take on any who wish to ride with him, and go to Fal Moran first. She then takes him to the coast of the Aryth Ocean at World's End in Saldaea, so he has to travel hundreds of miles to reach his destination. She then Travels ahead of him through the Borderlands to find the scattered remnants of Lan's Malkieri countrymen, asking them to join Lan on his ride to the Blight. Galad confronts Eamon Valda, the leader of the Whitecloaks, for allegedly killing his mother Queen Morgase of Andor. Galad kills Valda in a duel and in the process becomes the leader of the Whitecloaks. He then decides to pledge his newfound following to the defeat of the Dark One at Tarmon Gai'don regardless of who the Whitecloaks must fight alongside. Elayne manages to finally become Queen of Andor, but only after she overcomes being kidnapped by the Black Ajah, internal strife, and raids from other contenders to the throne. Mazrim Taim meets with a group of Red Ajah sisters from the White Tower, and agrees to their proposition: since Sisters were taken and bonded against their will by certain Asha'man, an equivalent number of Black Tower initiates should be bonded by sisters in fairness. In response to the sisters' surprise to the agreement, Taim says, darkly and cryptically: "Let the Lord of Chaos rule", a phrase which was an instruction by the Dark One to the Forsaken. |
The Great Explosion | Eric Frank Russell | 1,962 | The Blieder drive, a faster-than-light drive system, has permitted the population of Earth to colonize the galaxy. Each planet has become the home for a particular social group. Four hundred years after the diaspora, a spaceship from Earth visits three of the planets, the first steps to unifying the galaxy under a new Empire. Things do not go entirely as hoped, as the incompetent military authoritarians of the ship encounter three very different societies. The first planet was a penal colony; it is now many independent kleptocratic despotisms preying on each other. The second planet, Hygeia, is populated by health and fitness fanatic nudists. The third planet, Kassim, was colonized by a religious group, but when the ship arrives, they can't find any human life, only empty villages overgrown by jungle. They decide not to land on the planet, because the captain fears that the colonists could have been killed by a disease and he doesn't want to endanger the crew. The final planet, K22g, has developed an unusual social system. The population call themselves Gands (after Gandhi) and practise a form of classless, philosophically anarchic libertarianism, based on passive resistance ("Freedom - I won't!" and "Myob!"); and a moneyless gift economy based on barter and favor-exchange, using "obs" (obligations). To perform a service for somebody "lays an ob" on them; they can then "kill the ob" by returning the favor. |
Widowers' Houses | George Bernard Shaw | null | The play comprises three acts: In Act I a poor but aristocratic young doctor named Harry Trench and his friend William Cokane are vacationing at Remagen on the Rhine. There, they encounter fellow travelers: Mr Sartorious, a self-made businessman, and his daughter Blanche. Harry and Blanche fall in love and become engaged. Act II opens with everyone back at home in London: Sartorius, is talking to Mr Lickcheese, whom he employs as a rent-collector, reveals himself to be a slumlord. He discharges Lickcheese for dealing too leniently with tenants. Trench and Cokane arrive to visit, but when Trench discovers that Sartorius makes his money by renting slum housing to the poor, he is disgusted and refuses to allow Blanche to accept money from her father after they are married and insists they must live on Harry's small income. They break up over this, after a bitter argument. Sartorius reveals that Trench's income depends on interest from mortgaged tenements and, therefore, is as dirty as the money made by Sartorious, but the lovers do not reconcile: Blanche utterly rejects Harry because of her wounded feelings. In Act III, Trench, Cokane and Lickcheese return to Sartorius' house to plan a shady business venture (Trench, disillusioned and coarsened by knowing his income is tainted by its source, no longer takes the moral high-ground). In the final scene, notable for its erotic tension, Harry and Blanche reunite. =In performance= http://www.shawfest.com/Home/About-The-Shaw/History Shaw Festival, 2003 On 3 July 2011, a radio adaptation directed by Martin Jarvis was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 starring Ian McKellen as Sartorius, Charles Dance as William Cokane, Honeysuckle Weeks as Blanche, Dan Stevens as Harry Trench and Tim Pigott-Smith as Lickcheese. |
Over Sea, Under Stone | Susan Cooper | null | Over Sea, Under Stone features the Drew children Simon, Jane, and Barney on holiday with their parents and their great uncle Merriman Lyon, in the fictional fishing village of Trewissick on the southern coast of Cornwall. In the attic of the big Grey House they are renting, owned by Merriman's friend Uncle Toms, the children find an old manuscript. They recognize a drawing of the local coastline that may be a kind of map, with almost illegible text, but Barney realises the map refers to King Arthur and his knights. The children decide to keep the discovery to themselves. The family are visited at the Grey House by a very friendly Mr. Withers and his sister Polly, who invite them to go fishing on their yacht. The boys are thrilled, but Jane feels suspicious and declines to join them. While Jane is alone in the Grey House, she finds a guidebook to Trewissick in an old trunk, written by the local vicar. She realises that the map in the guidebook is similar to the secret map, but also different somehow, so she decides to visit the vicar. The man at the vicarage is not the writer of the guidebook, but he offers to help Jane. He asks some probing questions which arouse Jane's suspicions again, and she decides to return home. Soon the house is robbed with attention only to the bookshelves and wall hangings, and the children guess someone else knows of and seeks the manuscript. The children decide it is time to confide in Great-Uncle Merry. Up on the headland they show him the map and he tells them that it is a copy of an even older map which shows the way to a hidden treasure and that the children are now in great danger. He explains that some British artefact may have been stashed here long ago, and to confirm that they will have dangerous grown-up rivals in its pursuit. And so begins their quest for the Grail on behalf of the Light, which they have to achieve while being harried by Mr Withers and his sister, who are agents of the Dark, desperate to stop them at any cost. Mother usually paints outdoors, and father goes boating, or both travel out of town. Meanwhile the children investigate the meaning of the "map", encouraged, yet warned and sometimes "guarded" by Great Uncle Merry. They learn to read the diagram, and work out the clues on the map but they must work out of doors, where each child has a nasty encounter with the Dark, and their progress is easy to observe. While looking for the first clue Simon is chased by Mr. Hastings and Bill Hoover Jr.. After the second clue leads them to the headland at night, Simon, Jane, and Great Uncle Merry are ambushed and almost caught by Dark followers. Merriman is misdirected out of town, but the children anxiously follow their ancient guide "over sea and under stone" without him. Barney is kidnapped by Mr. Withers and his sister Polly, and must be rescued. The children eventually follow the clues to a cave off the headland and discover the grail. Unfortunately they lose an important metal case that was lodged inside the Grail, which contained a coded manuscript that is the key to deciphering the markings on the outside of the grail. The children present the grail to the British Museum and are given a check for it. The grail is an object of hot debate among the scholars there because of the unknown markings. |
Dune: The Butlerian Jihad | Brian Herbert | 2,002 | The Butlerian Jihad introduces a generation of characters whose families will later become the most significant in the universe: the Atreides, the Corrinos and the Harkonnens. Serena Butler, daughter of the viceroy of the League of Nobles, is a strong voice for the human rebellion. Her paramour Xavier Harkonnen leads the military force on the current League capital world of Salusa Secundus. As the story begins, Xavier is repelling an attack on the planet by Omnius' army of cymeks. The cymeks are former humans whose brains have been implanted in preservation canisters, which in turn can be installed into a variety of fearsome mechanical bodies, to extend their lives indefinitely and make them nearly unstoppable. The original twenty cymeks (calling themselves the Titans) had conquered the complacent universe by exploiting humanity's reliance and dependency on machines, yet the Titans were later overthrown themselves by Omnius, an artificial intelligence of their design. Seeking to replace human chaos with machine order, Omnius thus ignited the war between machine and humanity. Vorian Atreides is, ironically, the son and subordinate of the leading cymek Titan Agamemnon (whose last name, Atreides, originates with House Atreus, from the ancient Greek epic the Iliad). Meanwhile, the Sorceresses of Rossak, a matriarchal order, are perfecting their destructive psychic powers for use against the machines, and maintaining a breeding program to create more powerful telepaths. Pharmaceutical magnate Aurelius Venport is about to discover an interesting new substance, the spice melange, and the famous inventor Tio Holtzman accepts the diminutive genius Norma Cenva into his employ. Serena is captured by the Titan Barbarossa and put under the watch of Erasmus, an independent robot who seeks to understand humans completely so that the thinking machines may be truly superior. His methods of study often entail human vivisection and torture in his slave pens. Erasmus takes a liking to Serena, as does the young Vorian Atreides. Serena realizes she is pregnant with Xavier's child, and later gives birth to a baby boy whom she names Manion (after her father). Erasmus finds this distraction inconvenient, and not only removes Serena's uterus but kills her young son in front of her. This single event incites the entire Jihad, and young Manion is soon labelled the first martyr, Manion the Innocent. Vorian, learning about the murder and realizing the lie he lives as a machine trustee, betrays his machine masters and flees with Serena. They are joined by another trustee, Iblis Ginjo, a slave leader who masterminds the rebellion on Synchronized Earth. The first human victory of the so-called Butlerian Jihad is the destruction of Earth and the Earth Omnius using atomics. Iblis (now Grand Patriarch of the Holy Jihad) and Serena (Priestess of the Jihad) are the religious leaders of the human rebellion, and Xavier and Vorian its two generals. The brutal Titans are desperate to break free of their machine masters and wage their own techno-misanthropic war, and Omnius and Erasmus are determined to conquer and destroy all of mankind once and for all. And on a lonely desert planet known as Arrakis, the seeds of legend are sown with Selim Wormrider, an outcast from his tribe, who sees the future of Shai-Hulud and makes it his mission to save his God from those who would wish to take the spice. |
Earth Abides | George R. Stewart | 1,949 | While working on his graduate studies in biology in the mountains, Ish is bitten by a rattlesnake. As he heals from the bite, he gets sick with a disease that looks like measles. He recovers and makes his way back to civilization, only to discover that most people died from the same disease. He goes to his home in Berkeley. As he travels, he observes the world in the light of ecology, watching it adapt to the loss of humans. In the city near his home Ish meets few human survivors — a man drinking himself to death, a couple who seem to have lost their sanity, and a teenage girl who flees from him as someone dangerous. He comes across a dog, friendly and eager to join him. The dog, now named Princess, swiftly adopts Ish as her new master and sticks by him for much of the book. Wondering if his observations are typical of humanity in general, he sets out on a cross country tour, traveling all the way to New York City and back, scavenging for food and fuel. As he travels, he finds small pockets of survivors, but he doubts that they will survive the loss of civilization. He returns to his home in California, and finds a woman, Emma (Em), living nearby. They agree to consider themselves married and have children. They are joined by other survivors. Over time the electricity fails and the comforts of civilization recede. As the children grow, Ish tries to instill basic academics, teaching reading, arithmetic and geography. During this period of time, Ish and Em meet many other people such as Ezra, George, and many others. This section goes all the way to the end of Year 21. The community, within this time period, started to call the years by events that happened in the Year. Many children were born in these years and within them was Joey, Ish's favorite son. Joey is Ish's favorite son because not only is Joey very similar to Ish, but Ish believes that Joey is the key to the future. Twenty-two years later, the community flourishes. The younger generation adapts easily to the more primitive world. They come to have a better grasp of the natural world than the adults, and when running water fails, the younger generation comes to the rescue, knowing where flowing streams may be found. The children see no need for structured academics and Ish isn't a natural teacher. Only one child, his son Joey, seems to be able to grasp and use academic skills. Ish increasingly sees Joey as the future leader and brains of the community. Ish turns his attention from ecology to his newly forming society. One thing that he notices is that the children are becoming very superstitious. One day Ish asks for his hammer, an antique miner's tool found in the mountains, which he habitually carries around, and finds the children are afraid to touch it. It is a symbol for them of the old times. The long-dead Americans are now like gods—and Ish is too. Ish becomes disturbed at his community's lack of ambition to learn and work. He tries to motivate them so often with speeches that the kids think this is simply his line, safe to be ignored. In an attempt to motivate them, Ish mentions the idea of a cross country exploration, and his son Robert and another boy Richard start out in a jeep. Robert and Richard return from their trip. They explored east across the country until they met impassable roads near Toledo, Ohio. They reported meeting two societies in their travels, including an unwelcoming religious group in Los Angeles and an agrarian society, likely of American Indians, living in Pueblo ruins near Albuquerque, New Mexico. They brought back a man named Charlie, who gives Ish a bad feeling. Soon it is obvious that Charlie is after Evie, a girl the community regards as outside the acceptable gene pool—she has an adult body and the mind of a small child. Ish confronts Charlie and is intimidated; he feels alone and lost about what to do. Em takes control, calling a meeting of the adults. Ish isn't alone—they are a tribe. Under Em's insistence, the tribe's four adults vote on Charlie's fate. Em insists that they cannot wait until harm is done, that they have responsibility to protect their children. They unanimously vote to execute him. The incident with Charlie makes Ish reflect that he is really not a nation builder, but he keeps trying. He begins practical lessons, such as planting corn. Then, typhoid fever erupts among them, perhaps carried by Charlie. Joey dies of typhoid, and this devastates Ish. With Joey gone, Ish decides teaching academic topics will be a fruitless effort. He worries what will become of his people when ammunition and matches are gone. He decides instead to teach his people to survive. He begins by inspiring the children to build bows and arrows. The years flow by. Ish's lessons begin to take — and the community begins to grow corn and make and play with bows and arrows. Ish presides at meetings, his hammer a symbol of his status. He is given respect, but his ideas are ignored by the younger men. The Tribe merges with another nearby group. The "Americans" (those born before the Great Disaster) die off, until only Ezra and Ish are left, two old men. After Ezra dies, Ish becomes a sort of god, the last American, to whom the young men go to demand answers. Ish spends most of his elderly life in a fog, unaware of the world. Superstition has set in; the tribe has reverted to a primitive lifestyle, hunting with dogs (the descendants of Ish's first dog) and bow and arrow. Occasionally the fog in his mind lifts. During one such time, he finds himself aware of his great-grandson Jack, who stands before him. Jack shows him that the bow and arrow have become more reliable than the gun, whose cartridges don't always work. The children of the world are taking the toys of their youth and improving them on their own. During his last lucid moments, Ish realizes that the former civilization is now totally gone. But he also wonders if the new world is that much worse off than the old world, and finds himself hoping that the new world will not rebuild civilization and its mistakes. |
Lucifer's Hammer | Larry Niven | 1,977 | The story details a cometary impact on Earth, an end to civilization, and the battle for the future. It encompasses the discovery of the comet, the LA social scene, and a cast of diverse characters whom fate seems to smile upon and allow to survive the massive cataclysm and the resulting tsunamis, plagues, famines and battles amongst scavengers and cannibals. When wealthy soap company heir and amateur astronomer Tim Hamner co-discovers a new comet, dubbed Hamner-Brown, documentary producer Harvey Randall persuades Hamner to have his family's company sponsor a television documentary series on the subject. Political lobbying by California Senator Arthur Jellison eventually gets a joint Apollo-Soyuz (docking with the second flightworthy Skylab) mission into space to study the comet, dubbed "The Hammer" by popular media, which is expected to pass close to the Earth. Despite assurances by the scientific community that a collision with Earth is extremely unlikely, the public, fueled with religious fervor by the evangelist Henry Armitage, begins to hoard food and supplies in anticipation. Eventually, to the shock of scientists at JPL in Pasadena who could not track the trajectory accurately enough due to the comet's constant outgassing, the Hammer does fall, breaking up into several smaller comets that impact around the world with devastating results, striking parts of Europe, Africa, the Gulf of Mexico, and both the Pacific and Atlantic. The strikes trigger several volcanoes and earthquakes around the world, including the San Andreas fault, heavily damaging the Southern California region and the rest of California, causing millions of casualties. Several of the fragments land in the ocean, causing further damage by the resulting tsunamis (which destroy several major coastal cities around the world, including Los Angeles, killing millions) and long-term climate problems due to the massive quantities of vaporized seawater. Immediately following the Hammer's impact, anticipating the coming ice age and the inevitable southward migration of Russian survivors into Chinese territory, China launches a preemptive nuclear attack on major Russian cities. The Russians are able to respond in time and, with American assistance, China is effectively destroyed, though not without devastating losses for Russia. Within hours of the comet strike hundreds of millions are dead and much of the world is left in ruin. As the survivors contend with weeks of non-stop rain, flooding destroys practically every dam and levee, leaving the search for food a top survival priority. Civilization crumbles as people use the few remaining weapons to protect themselves from each other. Surviving "Hammerfall" is shown to be primarily a matter of random chance, with preparation being a distant second factor. Hamner goes from being a dilettante astronomer to a determined survivor, with his new wife Eileen. Randall shows true leadership abilities under fire, while Jellison and other land owners, farmers and ranchers become lords over their fiefdoms and the serfs they employ to provide labor, skills and security. Jellison forms the centerpost of these fiefs, dubbed "the Stronghold", where he presides over a small population of survivors who wish to retain civilization. The tone of life after "Hammerfall" is one where those who do not have valuable professions for a world without power or civilization are relegated to being manual laborers, regardless of their socioeconomic status or profession before the Fall. While doctors and farmers are still valuable, lawyers are unnecessary—but if civilization is to be rebuilt, scientific knowledge is the most valuable skill of all. Soldiers and police are diminished and provide security alongside gang members and bikers, both within the Stronghold and within the New Brotherhood Army, the legions of Reverend Henry Armitage, who indoctrinates his followers into cannibalism to shame them into loyalty. Jellison's stronghold is located slightly east or northeast of Springville, California, where the North Fork and the Middle Fork of the Tule River meet. West of this stronghold, the city of Porterville has been destroyed by the collapse of the dam at Lake Success. Massive and sustained rainfall has turned the former San Joaquin Valley into a swampy lake. Other small enclaves of civilization exist in this area, until a band of cannibalistic zealots led by Reverend Armitage and an army of heavily armed soldiers begin a rampage through the area, culminating in a series of battles with the inhabitants of Jellison's stronghold. |
Dune: The Machine Crusade | Kevin J. Anderson | 2,003 | Dune: The Machine Crusade moves forward into the center of the Butlerian Jihad, described in the first book of the trilogy, Dune: The Butlerian Jihad. Leading the movement is the ex-slave and ex-machine trustee Grand Patriarch Iblis Ginjo. However, Iblis appears more interested in politics and his own personal legacy than in the Jihad. Vorian Atreides, despite the long life given to him by his father, the Titan Agamemnon, begins to show the vestiges of wanting to settle down after visiting the planet Caladan, and meeting Leronica Tergiet, who is to become his long-term concubine. Xavier Harkonnen manages to free Ix from the thinking machines and must eventually make the ultimate sacrifice that will tarnish his name. The robot Erasmus continues with his enlightening human experimentation, and makes a curious bet with the Omnius entity on Corrin, where he claims he can raise a human being to be orderly and civilized like a machine. This child is Gilbertus Albans, the first true Mentat. Omnius himself suffers badly from a computer virus created by Vorian and spread unwittingly by his old companion Seurat. On Ginaz, the aging Zon Noret is killed in a training accident by a mek called Chirox, a captured and reprogrammed fighting machine. Though Noret did not live to pass on his skills to the other Ginaz mercenaries, Chirox remained to train them into the greatest of all mercenaries, the Swordmasters, who will be the ultimate fighting force against the thinking machines. On the planet of Poritrin, Norma Cenva leaves the world just in time to avoid a slave uprising during which a slave, unaware of the consequences, fires a lasgun into a Holtzman personal shield. The resulting explosion wipes out Tio Holtzman's labs; the slave revolt is eventually brutally crushed. Meanwhile Norma, due to her heritage as daughter of the main Sorceress of Rossak Zufa Cenva, finally taps into her latent powers under great pressure (precipitated by her capture and subsequent torture by the Titan Xerxes) to become the spearhead of humanity. She envisions a future in which massive ships transport goods and humans instantaneously across the universe, using the Holtzman effect to fold space. Norma's ships are the first of what will later be known as heighliners, and her family uses their monopoly on such travel to found the Spacing Guild. As for the slaves on Poritrin, a small band of Zensunnis steal the first space-folding ship and flee to a lonely desert planet called Arrakis, where they will join the followers of Selim, and become the Free Men of Arrakis. Finally, the remaining Titans take their chance becoming independent from their machine master Omnius on the planet of Bela Tegeuse. |
Casanova's Chinese Restaurant | Anthony Powell | 1,960 | The book opens with reminiscences of the late-20s/early-30s, concerning Nick's first meetings with Mr Deacon, Maclintick, Gossage, Carolo, Moreland and others, culminating at the point of Nick and Isobel's marriage, of which little is revealed. 1936 sees Nick lunching with various of the Tollands at Lady Warminster's. Erridge leaves for the Spanish Civil War. Nick visits Isobel in hospital where he meets Moreland attending his wife Matilda, who is about to give birth, and also encounters Widmerpool. Moreland and Nick visit the Maclinticks. In late 1936 Matilda loses her baby. Mrs Foxe gives a party for the first performance of Moreland's new symphony; Moreland has fallen for Priscilla Tolland; the Maclinticks row, and Stringham, now a recovering alcoholic, puts in an unexpected appearance. In Spring 1937 the death is announced of St John Clarke; Erridge is back from Spain; Maclintick is abandoned by his wife and commits suicide; Priscilla becomes engaged to Chips Lovell. |
A Time of Changes | Robert Silverberg | 1,971 | Life in Velada Borthan is ruled by the Covenant, of which the most conspicuous trait is the denial of the self. Referring to oneself in the first person is forbidden. A selfbarer is someone who exposes his soul to others and as a result is ostracized. The protagonist of the story is Kinnall Darival, a prince of the province of Salla, tormented by existential doubts and by his forbidden passion for his bondsister, Halum. After his brother Stirron becomes Prime Septarch of Salla, Kinnall exiles himself to the neighboring province of Glin to avoid a direct clash with him. Following a more than cold reception in Glin, his monetary savings are sequestered by the Grand Treasurer of Salla, and he is declared an illegal alien, leaving him as a penniless fugitive. He finds a nice man who employs him for a year in a logging camp, but he is eventually recognized as the fugitive prince by a woman from Salla. On the road again, Kinnall takes shelter in Klaek, a miserable village in Glin, with a family of peasants. Longing for news from the "real world", Kinnall goes to Biumar and is engaged as a seaman on a merchant boat headed to the province of Manneran. Once there, he turns to his bondfather, Segvord, for a job which allows him an honest living in Manneran. While becoming a powerful bureaucrat in Manneran, Kinnall marries Halum's look-alike and cousin Loimel - however, it turns out to be a loveless and unhappy relationship, as Loimel looks like Halum but has a different personality, and she could sense she is being used as a surrogate for somebody else. Kinnall then meets the Earthman Schweiz with whom he begins to freely discuss his alienation from his own culture. Schweiz tells him about the wonderful drug available in the wild southern country of Sumara Borthan. Finally, both go to a country lodge and share the secret drug, causing their minds to become open to one another and creating a strong connection between them. Kinnall and Schweiz organize a small expedition to Sumara Borthan where they share the drug with the natives in a kind of social magic ritual. Smuggling a large amount of the drug into Manneran, Kinnall starts to be the apostle of a new selfbaring cult, convincing many people to share the telepathic drug with him. Among them is his bondbrother Noim. Finally, betrayed and revealed, he seeks escape to Noim's estate in Salla. There he is visited by his beloved Halum, and they share the drug. She is so disturbed by the experience that she enters the pen of the voracious stormshields, who shred her to pieces. Kinnall takes his last flight to the Burnt Lowlands where he ultimately is captured by the royal guards. The book ends ambiguously. One possibility is that though Kinnal himself was executed or imprisoned for life, what he started developed into a widespread movement or cult, of which the book itself is in effect the Scriptures or basic document, and which eventually succeeded in overthrowing the established order. The other possibility is that all this was nothing more than a hallucination which Kinnal experienced under the influence of his drug, and that what he started ended with him. Both possibilities are left open—which evidently was Silverberg's deliberate intention. |
Downward to the Earth | Robert Silverberg | 1,970 | Edmund Gunderson was the Terran administrator of the colony world of Belzagor, and he returns to it after it has gained independence, feeling a sense of guilt for the way he has treated its dominant species, the elephant-like nildoror, whose animalistic appearance had kept Gunderson from taking them seriously as sentient beings. On his return, he feels a new sense of kinship with the natives, perhaps more than for the Terran tourists. The nildoror undergo a process of rebirth, and Gunderson’s greatest guilt comes from having denied rebirth to seven nildoror to make them help him repair flood damage. He encounters his old colleague Jeff Kurtz, who had undergone the rebirth ceremony only to be turned into something monstrous. Nevertheless, Gunderson dares to subject himself to the rebirth ceremony, which brings him a new understanding of the native creatures and new powers by which he can heal Kurtz and bring new understanding to others. |
The Ancestor's Tale | Richard Dawkins | 2,004 | The narrative is structured as a pilgrimage, with all modern animals following their own path through history to the origin of life. Humans meet their evolutionary cousins at rendezvous points along the way, the points at which the lineage diverged. At each point Dawkins attempts to infer, from molecular and fossil evidence, the probable form of the most recent common ancestor and describes the modern animals that join humanity's growing travelling party. This structure is inspired by Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. The pilgrimage visits a total of 40 "rendezvous points" from rendezvous zero, the most recent common ancestor of all of humanity, to rendezvous 39, eubacteria, the ancestor of all surviving organisms. Though Dawkins is confident of the essential shape of this phylogenetic taxonomy, he enters caveats on a small number of branch points where a compelling weight of evidence had not been assembled at the time of writing. At each rendezvous point, Dawkins recounts interesting tales concerning the cousin animals which are about to join the band of pilgrims. Every newly recruited species, genus or family has its own peculiar features, often ones that are relevant to human anatomy or otherwise interesting for humans. For instance, Dawkins discusses why the axolotl never needs to grow up, how new species come about, how hard it is to classify animals, and why our fish-like ancestors moved to the land. These peculiar features are studied and analyzed using a newly introduced tool or method from evolutionary biology, carefully woven into a tale to illustrate how the Darwinian theory of evolution explains all diversity in nature. Even though the book is best read sequentially, every chapter can also be read independently as a self-contained tale with an emphasis on a particular aspect of modern biology. As a whole, the book elaborates on all major topics in evolution. Dawkins also tells personal stories about his childhood and time at university. He talks with fondness about a tiny bushbaby he kept as a child in Malawi (Nyasaland). He described his surprise when he learned that the closest living relatives to the hippos are the whales. The book was produced in two hardback versions: a British one with extensive colour illustrations (by Weidenfeld & Nicolson), and an American one with a reduced number of black-and-white illustrations (by Houghton Mifflin). Paperback versions and an abridged audio version (narrated by Dawkins and his wife Lalla Ward) have also been published. The book is dedicated to Dawkins' friend and mentor, population geneticist John Maynard Smith, who died shortly before the book went to press. |
In Death Ground | Steve White | 1,997 | The novel is set in a distant future. Following the accidental discovery of intersteller travel via 'warp points', humanity has expanded throughout space, evolving into a Terran Federation consisting of Core Worlds like Earth and Alpha Centauri, Corporate Worlds like Galloway's Star, and Fringe Worlds colonized by small groups of like-minded people seeking to preserve ethnic or cultural identities from getting lost in a cosmopolitan sameness. (Tensions exist between the three groups of worlds, and are further explored in Insurrection, another novel also written by Weber and White). Following a series of three interstellar wars (ISWs 1-3) with different species (warlike felinoid Orions and their centauroid Gorm associates, birdlike Ophiuchi, the genocidal Rigelians, and the Thebans (explored in a prequel novel Crusade), humanity has experienced a seventy-year "vacation from history", i.e. seven decades of peace. A survey squadron travels through a previously uncharted warp point and encounters a hive-like species referred to derisively as the 'Bugs' (inspired by the Arachnids in Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers). All attempts at communication fail, and the Bugs ambush the survey squadron, with a great loss of material and human life. Pursuing the survivors, the Bugs mount a massive invasion of Terran and Orion space. Satellites left behind monitor the conquered planets and reveal that Bugs regard other sentient life forms as food sources; indeed the Bugs prefer to consume their prey alive. It is later revealed that the Bugs raise ranches of conquered species. The alternative being "equal opportunity genocide", Terrans, Orions, Gorm, and Ophiuchi form a Grand Alliance, with Terrans and Orions as the senior members. The novel features long and very detailed space and ground battle sequences, detailed discussions of tactical doctrine, the ongoing arms race between the Alliance and the Bugs, and the development of interpersonal relations between military people of different background and species. The universe and novels are based on the Starfire wargame series, which David Weber helped to develop, and which has existed in various editions since 1976. |
The Shiva Option | Steve White | null | The Grand Alliance of Terrans, Orions, Gorm and Ophiuchi has suffered a catastrophic defeat at the hands of the Bugs during the Pesthouse Campaign. Many senior military commanders have been lost, along with the bulk of the Terran Federation pre-war fleet. The Bugs appear unstoppable and fight their way toward Federation space, reaching the key system of Alpha Centauri before they are narrowly repulsed. Now, with the war once more at a stalemate, the Grand Alliance must try to recover their losses and break the deadlock. Unable to communicate or negotiate with the Bugs, the Alliance realises that the war has become a fight for the survival of their respective species and invoke Directive 18, last used against the Rigelians, and embark upon a war of species extermination. Hope arrives when the Alliance infers that, due to differences in construction methods, they can be faced by no more than five Bug Home systems. They also postulate that the massive Bug fleets are, in fact, the end result of years of military build-up. The reason for this seemingly unnecessary military reserve remains unknown. After finding a hidden route into one of the Bug home systems, the new military commanders of the Grand Alliance invoke Directive 18 and carry out a series of devastating attacks on the planet, launching massive waves of antimatter missiles against the surface in order to sterilize it. The simultaneous death of billions of their fellows leaves the surviving Bug fleet temporarily incapacitated, seeming to confirm the Alliance analysts speculation that the Bugs are telepathic. This “psychic shock” effect becomes known as the “Shiva Option” (named after the Hindu God of Destruction). Soon it becomes Alliance doctrine to exercise the Shiva Option wherever possible, in order to incapacitate Bug mobile forces and reduce resistance. Gradually, the Grand Alliance takes the initiative, forcing the Bugs onto the defensive. Meanwhile, Terran Federation Survey Flotilla 19, last seen headed into unknown space and cut off from Alliance territory by the Bug counter-offensive, runs a desperate gauntlet to try and find a way back to friendly territory, whilst fending off almost continuous Bug attacks. Eventually, they stumble across the Star Union of Crucis, a multi-species polity that fought the bugs more than a century ago and have been in hiding ever since, rebuilding their forces. It transpires that the Bug military build-up was prompted by their first war with the Crucians. The commander of the survey team establishes communications with the Crucians and they unite against the pursuing Bug forces, destroying them. Seeing an opportunity to destroy their ancient enemies for good, the Crucians willingly offer themselves as new members of the Grand Alliance against the Bugs. In return, the commander of the flotilla releases the latest military technology the Crucians and their allies, the Telikans and the Zarkolyans. Fighting their way back to Alliance space, the Crucians finally establish contact and formalize their membership of the Grand Alliance. Now trapped between their old and new enemies, the Bugs fight an increasingly desperate defensive war. When the three remaining Bug home systems are cut off from each other, the Grand Alliance are able to quickly overwhelm the remaining Bug forces and successfully carry out Directive 18. With one exception – a small Bug colony, isolated from its home world by a hidden warp point, remains undiscovered by the Alliance... |
Run Silent, Run Deep | Edward L. Beach, Jr. | null | Beach's bestselling novel of submarine warfare begins soon before the attack on Pearl Harbor. The story is ostensibly the transcription of a Navy tape recording, as related by Commander Edward J. Richardson for use in a war bond drive, of events resulting in his award of the Medal of Honor. The captain of an old submarine used for training at New London, Connecticut, Richardson and his crew are assigned to fit out and commission a new submarine, the USS Walrus, and take her to Pearl Harbor to destroy Japanese shipping in the Pacific Ocean. His executive officer and former best friend, Jim Bledsoe, is resentful because Richardson was forced to fail him during Bledsoe's qualification for command after Bledsoe acted recklessly, nearly sinking their boat. Adding to the difficulties between them, Richardson is secretly enamoured of Bledsoe's fiancee, Laura Elwood, who despises him for ruining Bledsoe's chance. Laura and Jim wed just before Walrus departs New London. During their first war patrol in the Walrus, they encounter the Japanese destroyer Akikaze, whose skipper, Captain Tateo Nakame (nicknamed "Bungo Pete"), is responsible for a series of sinkings of several American submarines in the Bungo Suido, including the USS Nerka, which had been commanded by a close friend of Richardson's. Richardson, wounded in a subsequent encounter with Bungo, remains at Pearl Harbor while Bledsoe commands the Walrus for three war patrols. Bledsoe establishes a reputation for himself as an aggressive skipper with a good rate of sinkings. Between patrols, Bledsoe has an extramarital affair at Pearl Harbor, causing Richardson anguish for Laura's sake. During its next patrol, however, Walrus becomes Bungo Pete's seventh victim. During his stint ashore, Richardson works on solving reliability problems with American torpedoes. Richardson is given a new command, USS Eel, when her skipper comes down with tuberculosis. When the news of the loss of Bledsoe and the Walrus arrives, Richardson convinces his superiors to let him hunt Bungo Pete in the Eel. A great battle ensues in a raging storm between the Eel, fighting on the surface, and Bungo Pete's special anti-submarine warfare group, which consists of a Q-ship, a Japanese submarine, and the Akikaze. After sinking all three vessels, Richardson discovers three lifeboats in the vicinity and realizes that Bungo Pete and his skilled specialists will be rescued to resume their hunting. He intentionally rams the lifeboats. Soon after the destruction of Bungo Pete, the Eel is detailed to lifeguard duty off Guam, where Richardson's actions saving three aviators earns him the Medal of Honor. After the war he returns home, expressing his hope to begin a relationship with Laura Bledsoe. The World War II U.S. Navy submarine commander P.J. Richardson (Clark Gable) has an obsession with the Japanese destroyer that had sunk his previous boat and three others in the Bungo Straits. He persuades the Navy Board to give him a new submarine command with the provision that his executive officer, also known as the XO or the "exec", be someone who has just returned from active sea patrol. He is single-mindedly training the crew of his new boat, the USS Nerka, to return to the Bungo Straits and sink the destroyer, captained by a crafty ex-submariner, now destroyer captain, nicknamed Bungo Pete. Richardson's executive officer, Lieutenant Jim Bledsoe (Burt Lancaster), is worried about the safety of his boat and his crew. Bledsoe also is seething with resentment at Richardson and the Navy leadership for denying him command of the boat which he believes should rightfully have been his. Richardson begins to drill the crew on a rapid bow shot, during which the submarine shoots at a destroyer moving in for the kill "down the throat" (i.e., at its bow coming head-on), which is normally considered a desperation shot due to the extremely narrow profile of the target. He then bypasses one target only to take on a Japanese destroyer using the bow shot on which they have drilled. The crew becomes outraged when it becomes apparent that Richardson is choosing to avoid all legitimate targets in order to enter the Bungo Straits undetected in direct contradiction to mission orders, jeopardizing the boat and its crew merely to avenge the destroyed submarine. Soon after engaging Bungo Pete, they are attacked by aircraft that had been clearly alerted to their presence and had been waiting in ambush. They are forced to dive and barely escape destruction from depth charges. Three of the crew are killed, and Richardson suffers a skull fracture which incapacitates him. They are also almost hit by what they mistakenly believe is one of their own torpedoes doubling back on them. By sending up blankets, equipment, and the bodies of the dead, they convince the Japanese that the submarine has been sunk. Bledsoe uses Richardson's incapacitation to assume command and as an excuse to return to Pearl Harbor. While listening to Tokyo Rose proclaiming the sinking of their boat, they are mystified how the Japanese were able to identify the crew of the boat. They later realize the Japanese are collecting their garbage. Bledsoe then realizes additionally that the submarine now has a real advantage—the Japanese believe they are sunk and their source of intelligence has ended—and returns to the Bungo Straits to fight the Akikaze destroyer, which the submarine defeats only to be subjected again to a mystery torpedo. Richardson deduces that it was not the Akikaze alone which had been destroying the US submarines but a Japanese submarine working in concert with the destroyer. He orders the boat into a dive just seconds before a Japanese torpedo shoots by. The US submarine then forces its adversary to surface and destroys it. The older submarine skipper thus achieves his revenge. The film ends with Richardson dying from his head injury and being buried at sea. There are a number of differences of plot of the book as compared to the movie . The period covered by the book is much longer—from before the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941 until the end of the war. Like the movie, Richardson has two fleet boat commands in the book. The movie uses many plot elements of the novel, such as Japanese gathering intelligence from the sub's garbage. However, in the book, Richardson is ashore recovering from a broken leg (after suffering a serious injury during action), and working on the torpedo exploder problem when his first command, USS Walrus, is sunk with the loss of all crew including Jim Bledsoe. In the novel, the conflict between Richardson and Bledsoe starts much earlier while both men are reconditioning the old USS S-16 (SS-121) in Naval Submarine Base New London for service by the Polish Navy. The mutinous attitudes of the crew in the movie are an extension of Bledsoe's earlier rebelliousness in the novel. Richardson conns his boat through a wild night surface action against a Japanese convoy. The movie, produced with the assistance of the US Navy, does not feature the Eel ramming Japanese lifeboats: this change may have been due to the Navy's concerns about the accusations related to Dudley W. Morton shooting into lifeboats while commanding Wahoo. The cinematic version of his novel was not particularly an object of affection for its author, Edward L. Beach. He would say later that the movie company bought only the title and was not interested in producing an accurate depiction of the theme and plot of his novel. |
Holes | Louis Sachar | 1,998 | At the beginning of the story, Stanley, a teenage boy who is supposedly affected by a family "curse", has been wrongly accused of stealing the shoes of the baseball player from a charity auction. As punishment for this crime he was given a choice to either go to jail or Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention and correctional facility where convicts of similar age are forced to dig holes to "build their character". Warden Walker, real granddaughter of Trout Walker, is actually looking for a buried treasure that outlaw Katherine "Kissin' Kate" Barlow stole from Stanley's great-grandfather. Years ago, Stanley's family got cursed by Madame Zeroni, a fortune-teller and ancestor, due to a promise not fulfilled by Elya Yelnats, Stanley's great-great-grandfather, more popularly known in the novel as a "no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing great-great-grandfather". Later in the story, Zero had been living on jars of very old spiced peaches that he had found in the boat, which he called "Sploosh". Upon seeing a mountain resembling a human fist giving the thumbs up sign, Stanley recalls the story of his ancestor Stanley Yelnats I, who finds "refuge on God’s thumb", which Zero and Stanley climb in search of water. Atop the river, Stanley discovers a field of onions, which the boys eat, and a pool of groundwater, which they drink, and during their contentment Stanley sings to Zero that they should return to Camp Green Lake to find the buried treasure. Upon returning, Zero steals some water and food from the kitchens while Stanley looks for the buried treasure. At this they succeed, but are apprehended by the Warden and the camp staff, and become surrounded by a group of lethal yellow-spotted lizards. Because the boys have consumed onions, the lizards do not bite them. Unable to leave the hole they occupy, they remain in place until the next morning, during which an attorney arrives requesting Stanley’s release. When the warden demands the suitcase, Zero indicates the name ‘Stanley Yelnats’ written on it, its contents being the jewels, deeds, stocks and promissory notes stolen from Stanley Yelnats the first. Protagonist Stanley IV then uses the bonds to buy a new house for his family, and Zero hires a team of investigators to find his missing mother; meanwhile, the drought at Green Lake is replaced by rainfall, as if in response to Stanley's fulfilment of his ancestor's promise (a suggestion left purposely ambiguous by the narration). In a final scene, Clyde Livingston, along with the Yelnats and Zeroni families, celebrates the success of Stanley’s father's antidote to foot odor, composed of preserved and fermented spiced peaches and named "Sploosh" by Zero. The warden is forced to sell Camp Green Lake to the state government, who turns it into a Girl Scout camp, a coincidence since Mr. Sir, a head of the camp, told the campers that "this isn't a Girl Scout camp", referring to the backbreaking digging. |
The Lost City of the Jedi | Paul Davids | null | After an attempted assassination by the Empire trying to blow up Luke's X-wing fighter, he has a vision of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Obi-Wan tells Luke of the secret Lost City of the Jedi hidden beneath the rainforests of Yavin IV. Unknown to Luke at the time, the city is home to a twelve-year-old boy named Ken, who is called the "Jedi Prince." In the city, with the vast databanks on the computers, Ken learns the history of the Jedi and the Rebellion from his only companions, his caretaker droids. As Luke is searching the forests he meets a mysterious healer, Baji. With Baji he searched the forests, eventually encountering Ken, who had run away from the droids. Before he is questioned further, his caretaker droid finds him and they both vanish in a puff of smoke from Dee-Jay. Luke, more determined to find this city, returned to get help from the rest of the Rebels. Meanwhile, Trioculus, the new Emperor has a meeting with Supreme Prophet Kadann. Kadann tells him that he is not the true son of Palpatine, but still gives him the blessing of the Prophets. He also tells him of the Lost City of the Jedi, where the Jedi Prince lives, saying that this prince could end Trioculus' reign. Able to infiltrate the Rebel's meeting with an explosive device, he demanded that they reveal to him the location of the city. When they refused, he readied the device's explosion, while still taking in the beauty of Princess Leia. As Luke stopped the explosion Trioculus started his second plan: to raze the forests in order to find the entrance. During this implementation, he suddenly goes blind and orders the capture of the healer, Baji. Baji tells him that when he uses the power of the Glove of Darth Vader he is injuring his nerve endings, causing blindness and his body to rot. Baji tells him of a cure, but it can only be found in his hut, which is about to be destroyed by the fires. Unable to stop his troops, Trioculus rushes into the hut, and saves the cure, but is badly burned and scarred. As the Rebels attempted to stop the troops, Luke finally found the City. With the help of the droids at the weather controlling center, he created a rainstorm which put an end to the fires. Ken decided to leave with Luke and join the Rebels in their fight leaving the City and his caretakers. Without finding the city, Trioculus left the planet, vowing to destroy all of the Rebels except Leia, who he would make his queen. |
The Alchymist's Cat | Robin Jarvis | 1,991 | Will Godwin, a young boy, is forced to work for the evil apothecary Dr. Elias Theophrastus Spittle after Spittle frames him for a murder. Following a close call, he finds a family of cats in a graveyard and brings them back to Spittle's home. The mother cat, as it seems, is named Imelza. But the father is nowhere in sight. Soon after, Will persuades Spittle, who is searching for a way to become immortal, to take one of them as a familiar. The kittens are thereafter named Jupiter, Dab and Leech. Jupiter is trained in the magic arts, while his brother Leech is despised by Spittle. Envious, Leech begins to plot the downfall of his brother, Jupiter. The plague spreads through London, and many people die. Imelza and Dab escape from Spittle, but Imelza is beaten to death by a mob and Dab almost dies but is saved by Molly, a plague doctor and friend of Will's. Dab returns home and is soon killed by Spittle for his experiments, leaving Jupiter and Leech alone to battle over who is heir to the black arts. Spittle, after creating a potion that dyes things orange, manages to formulate the Philosopher's Stone, but contracts the Plague and dies, forcing Jupiter to use the potion on him to resurrect him. Jupiter, upon discovering Dab's body, drinks the potion himself and turns on his master and kills him by starting a fire. Leech betrays Jupiter and leaves him to burn, inheriting his brother's magic powers in the process, but falls into the fire himself. Will manages to recover one cat, burnt unrecognizably but later revealed to be Leech. Leech, having drunk both the immortality potion and orange dye, convinces a rat that Spittle had kept to take him into the sewers and takes his brother's name and title as his own, "Jupiter, Lord of All". The book gradually weaves both storylines together. The Great Plague and the Great Fire of London occur during the course of the story. |
The Pillars of Creation | Terry Goodkind | 2,001 | Jennsen Rahl, Richard Rahl's half sister, has spent the first twenty years of her life running from her father, Darken Rahl. Born without any aspect of the gift of magic, Jennsen has been marked for death since birth. When her mother is apparently murdered by D'Haran assassins she sets out with her new friend, Sebastian, to start her life over. Sebastian eventually reveals that he is a spy for the Imperial Order. He speaks convincingly of the Order's goals concerning the fair treatment of all humanity and the elimination of magic. Above all else he esteems Emperor Jagang. In equal measure he despises Richard Rahl, who he claims has brought on war with an invasion of the Old World after bringing down the Barriers separating the sections of the known world. Meanwhile, another sibling of Richard's, Oba Rahl, suffers under an abusive mother on the family farm. Oba imagines himself as energetic and the possessor of a healthy curiosity. His inquisitive nature manifests itself especially through pleasure in watching things die under his hand. Oba does not know that he, along with Jennsen, is pristinely ungifted and immune to magic. His mother sends him to a nearby sorceress to buy medicine and during the purchase he begins to menace the magic user. Her attempts to defend herself with magic fail and Oba kills her brutally. During the fight Oba surrenders to a voice in his mind that promises invincibility in return for obedience. After returning home Oba kills his mother and resolves to see the world. He can travel comfortably with the funds he looted from the sorceress. Jennsen wants to find another sorceress, sister of the one Oba killed, and who had previously helped Jennsen and her mother. Along with Sebastian she travels to the People's Palace, capital of the D'Haran empire. There she learns that the sorceress she seeks lives in a deadly enchanted swamp. After Sebastian is detained by D'Haran guards, a friendly stranger, Tom, helps a desperate Jennsen to the swamp. She safely reaches the sorceress' home, her natural immunity to magic protecting her through the swamp, but only learns that nothing can be done to save her from Lord Rahl. She leaves, disappointed and upon returning to the People's Palace cleverly rescues Sebastian. He convinces Jennsen that she should visit Emperor Jagang, leader of the Imperial Order. Oba is also aware of the second sorceress and the fact that she knows something concerning his fate or nature. He hires a guide to the swamp, which he safely negotiates as well. The sorceress reveals that Oba is now a thrall to the Keeper of the Underworld and kills herself before Oba can do the deed. This, along with the fact that his guide has stolen all his money, enrages Oba. He is mollified somewhat by the treasure he finds in the sorceresses' cottage but his rage returns when, after returning to the People's Palace, he spots his guide. After killing the guide he is briefly jailed but escapes, using the voice in his mind to make the D'Haran guards do his bidding, and resolves to locate Richard Rahl. Jennsen and Sebastian reach Emperor Jagang at the van of the army of the Imperial Order. Though initially shocked by the crude Order soldiers, she is advised not to be so picky and that the D'Harans are even worse. The day after her arrival the Emperor Jagang assaults the Confessor's Palace but is bloodily repulsed. Emperor Jagang is severely injured in the action. Even worse for the Order, their enemy unleashes an ancient magic on the main army, wreaking immense destruction. Jennsen reacts by making a pact with a dark force, the Keeper, to kill Richard Rahl in return for her surrender and obedience. Oba captures Kahlan and is ordered by the Keeper to take her, along with the Sword of Truth to the Pillars of Creation. Using his link to the sword, Richard pursues Oba to the Pillars, where he encounters Jennsen, who has also been drawn to the same spot by the Keeper in order to kill Richard. The Keeper's supreme plan, however, was for Richard to kill Jennsen at the Pillars of Creation thereby opening a gate between the Keeper's realm and the world of the living. Richard discerns the plan and refuses to be goaded into cooperating. Jennsen then recognizes his integrity and the Keeper's plan is foiled. Jennsen learns that the men who were sent to kill her mother were actually soldiers of the Imperial Order, and after coming to believe that Richard is truly a loving and caring brother, she joins him and Kahlan in their quest against Jagang. |
Memoirs Found in a Bathtub | Stanisław Lem | 1,971 | Set in the distant future, Memoirs Found in a Bathtub is the horrifying first-hand account of a bureaucratic agent trapped deep within the subterranean bowels of a vast underground military complex. In a Kafkaesque maelstrom of terrifying confusion and utter insanity, this man must attempt to follow his mission directives of conducting an "on-the-spot investigation. Verify. Search. Destroy. Incite. Inform. Over and out. On the nth day nth hour sector n subsector n rendezvous with N." The narrator inhabits a paranoid dystopia where nothing is as it seems, chaos seems to rule all events, and everyone is deeply suspicious of everyone else. In danger of losing his mind, the protagonist starts keeping a diary, and it is this diary which details only a few days in his life that is ultimately found by a future society and given the title Notes from the Neogene. Memoirs Found in a Bathtub is this distant voice from the past, this Notes from the Neogene. |
Pursuit of the House-Boat | John Kendrick Bangs | 1,897 | After the House-Boat was hijacked by Captain Kidd at the end of A House-Boat on the Styx, the various members of its club decided that in order to track it down, a detective would have to be called in. So they hired Sherlock Holmes, who, at the time of the book's publication, had indeed been declared dead by his creator. |
Pollyanna | Eleanor H. Porter | 1,913 | The title character is named Pollyanna Whittier, a young orphan who goes to live in Beldingsville, Vermont, with her wealthy but stern Aunt Polly. Pollyanna's philosophy of life centers on what she calls "The Glad Game", an optimistic attitude she learned from her father. The game consists of finding something to be glad about in every situation. It originated in an incident one Christmas when Pollyanna, who was hoping for a doll in the missionary barrel, found only a pair of crutches inside. Making the game up on the spot, Pollyanna's father taught her to look at the good side of things—in this case, to be glad about the crutches because "we didn't need to use them!" With this philosophy, and her own sunny personality and sincere, sympathetic soul, Pollyanna brings so much gladness to her aunt's dispirited New England town that she transforms it into a pleasant place to live. The Glad Game shields her from her aunt's stern attitude: when Aunt Polly puts her in a stuffy attic room without carpets or pictures, she exults at the beautiful view from the high window; when she tries to "punish" her niece for being late to dinner by sentencing her to a meal of bread and milk in the kitchen with the servant Nancy, Pollyanna thanks her rapturously because she likes bread and milk, and she likes Nancy. Soon, Pollyanna teaches some of Beldingsville's most troubled inhabitants to "play the game" as well, from a querulous invalid named Mrs. Snow to a miserly bachelor, Mr. Pendleton, who lives all alone in a cluttered mansion. Aunt Polly, too—finding herself helpless before Pollyanna's buoyant refusal to be downcast—gradually begins to thaw, although she resists the glad game longer than anyone else. Eventually, however, even Pollyanna's robust optimism is put to the test when she is hit by a car and loses the use of her legs. (In the movie adaptation, she falls off a tree after sneaking out of the house). At first she doesn't realize the seriousness of her situation, but her spirits plummet when she was told what happened to her. After that, she lies in bed, unable to find anything to be glad about. Then the townspeople begin calling at Aunt Polly's house, eager to let Pollyanna know how much her encouragement has improved their lives; and Pollyanna decides she can still be glad that she at least has her legs. The novel ends with Aunt Polly marrying her former lover Dr. Chilton and Pollyanna being sent to a hospital where she learns to walk again and is able to appreciate the use of her legs far more as a result of being temporarily disabled. |
Grantchester Grind | Tom Sharpe | null | Porterhouse is a college which had an incident involving a bedder and the college's only research graduate student which caused the Bull Tower to be severely damaged. Since the college's funds were exhausted by a previous bursar with a tendency to gamble, one of the story's central themes is guided by the Senior Members' attempts to acquire funds for the college. The new Master, Skullion, the previous Head Porter of the college, is frail after a stroke (or a 'Porterhouse Blue' , hence the previous book's title) and the issues surrounding the death of the previous Master, Sir Godber Evans, prompt his widow to instigate a plan to investigate the death through a planted Fellow, backed by a large, anonymous donation to the College. Meanwhile, the Dean of the College takes it upon himself to visit prosperous Old Porterthusians (previous members of Porterhouse) in the hope that one is willing and able to become Master if and when Skullion cannot continue. At the same time, the current Bursar is contacted by an American media mogul who seems to be interested in supporting the college without clarifying what it is he wants in return. At the end of the novel the alcoholic Lord Jeremy Pimpole is appointed as Master of the College. |
The Trojan Women | Euripides | null | Euripides's play follows the fates of the women of Troy after their city has been sacked, their husbands killed, and as their remaining families are about to be taken away as slaves. However, it begins first with the gods Athena and Poseidon discussing ways to punish the Greek armies because they condoned Ajax the Lesser for dragging Cassandra, the eldest daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba, away from Apollo's temple. (From some ancient Greek paintings many people believe Ajax raped Cassandra, and the verb that Euripides used to describe Ajax's "taking" of Cassandra can also be translated as rape, but it does not directly say that in this story) What follows shows how much the Trojan women have suffered as their grief is compounded when the Greeks dole out additional deaths and divide their shares of women. The Greek herald Talthybius arrives to tell the dethroned queen Hecuba what will befall her and her children. Hecuba will be taken away with the Greek general Odysseus, and Cassandra is destined to become the conquering general Agamemnon's concubine. Cassandra, who has been driven partially mad due to a curse by which she can see the future but will never be believed when she warns others, is morbidly delighted by this news: she sees that when they arrive in Argos, her new master's embittered wife Clytemnestra will kill both her and her new master. However, because of the curse, no one understands this response, and Cassandra is carried off. The widowed princess Andromache arrives and Hecuba learns from her that her youngest daughter, Polyxena, has been killed as a sacrifice at the tomb of the Greek warrior Achilles. Andromache's lot is to be the concubine of Achilles' son Neoptolemus and more horrible news for the royal family is yet to come: Talthybius reluctantly informs her that her baby son, Astyanax, has been condemned to die. The Greek leaders are afraid that the boy will grow up to avenge his father Hector, and rather than take this chance, they plan to throw him off from the battlements of Troy to his death. Helen, though not one of the Trojan women, is supposed to suffer greatly as well: Menelaus arrives to take her back to Greece with him where a death sentence awaits her. Helen begs/seduces her husband to spare her life and he remains resolved to kill her, but the audience watching the play knows that he will let her live and take her back. Not only is it revealed at the end of the play that she lives, but also in the Odyssey Telemachus will learn how Helen's legendary beauty wins her a reprieve. In the end, Talthybius returns carrying with him the body of little Astyanax on Hector's shield. Andromache's wish had been to bury her child herself, performing the proper rituals according to Trojan ways, but her ship had already departed. Talthybius gives the corpse to Hecuba, who prepares the body of her grandson for burial before they are finally taken off with Odysseus. Throughout the play, many of the Trojan women lament the loss of the land that reared them. Hecuba in particular lets it be known that Troy had been her home for her entire life, only to see herself as an old grandmother watching the burning of Troy, the death of her husband, her children, and her grandchildren before she will be taken as a slave to Odysseus. |
The Dragonbone Chair | Tad Williams | 1,988 | Simon, a fourteen-year-old kitchen boy and servant in the great castle Hayholt, muddles his way through the daily routines of castle drudgery in the last days of the long reign of King John Presbyter. Simon is thrilled when luck turns his way and he finds himself apprenticed to the good Doctor Morgenes, the castle's healer and wizard, after which Simon alternates his time between his menial chores and learning to read and write, under instruction by the doctor. Shortly after the death of the great King John, his son Elias, whom many say is a pawn of the evil cleric Pryrates, takes the throne. Shortly afterwards, King Elias's brother Josua mysteriously disappears, and the new reign begins to curdle in suspicion and discontent. Elias, blinded by his desire for power, creates a pact with the undead Sithi ruler, the Storm King, who himself seeks to regain his lost realm through a pact with one of human royal blood. When Simon accidentally stumbles into the castle dungeons, he discovers that Prince Josua is being held captive, so he and Morgenes conspire to rescue the prince. Simon and Morgenes are successful, and Josua is able to flee the castle. Soon after, Elias's soldiers, led by Pryrates, storm Morgenes's office. Morgenes is slain by a dark magic, and Simon is able to flee the castle through a secret passage at the back of the doctor's office. Armed only with his mentor's biography of the good King John, Simon is lost and despondent. After endless hours in the tunnels beneath Hayholt, which is actually the remains of the Sithi castle, Asu'a, Simon stumbles back into the open beyond the castle and town. There, he accidentally witnesses a scene of evil magic involving the king, Pryrates and a few white-faced and white-haired demons. Horrified, he stumbles through the woods on the road north towards Naglimund, the seat of Prince Josua. About halfway to Naglimund, he stumbles upon a strange creature, caught in a cotsman's trap. Simon realizes it must be one of the Sithi, an elven-like folk who was thought to have disappeared from the lands. He rescues him from the trap and in answer is shot at with a white arrow. At that moment, he encounters a troll by the name of Binabik. Binabik tells Simon that the white arrow is a symbol of an obligation towards Simon, and together they travel further towards Naglimund. While traveling through the Aldheorte forest, they save a young servant girl and her sister from vicious hounds. They travel to Geloë, a witch who helps them escape the soldiers pursuing them. While in her house, Simon, Binabik and Geloë also walk the Dreamroad to try to find answers but only find enemies waiting. They finally reach Naglimund, where they meet with Prince Josua. Simon begins training to be a soldier, as it is common knowledge that Elias is leading an army towards Naglimund. Whilst having a raed [council], an old man appears: Jarnauga. There, the travelers learn of the existence of three legendary swords by the names of Minneyar (or "Year of Memory"), Sorrow, and Thorn. The magic of these swords are the only hope against the combined power of the two High Kings, the ancient Sithi and the new-crowned human, who already have possession of at least one of the swords. They also learn the history of the Sithi and the Storm King, and of the existence of Utuk'u, Queen of the Norns, who are the northern cousins of the Sithi. It is then that Simon realizes that his vision of the dark magic just after his escape from Hayhold was no vision at all but an actual event, and that the white-faced demons were actually Norns. In Naglimund, Simon also learns of a small group of scholars known as the League of the Scroll, of which Morgenes was a member and of which Jarnauga and Binabik are also members. Binabik is only a recent member, after the death of his master Ookequk. Recognizing the true danger facing the land of Osten Ard, only the League holds the knowledge of times past, which may be the only hope of salvation for young Simon and his friends. To Simon's dismay he also finds out that Marya the serving girl whom they saved is actually Miriamele, only child and daughter of King Elias, who had fled her father's madness to join her uncle's cause. They learn then that the black sword Thorn, once belonging to Camaris the greatest knight of history, is not lost in the depths of the sea, as once thought. It may still exist in the frozen heights to the north, near Binabik's ancestral home. Simon and Binabik join a group of soldiers to go to the far north to recover the magical blade. Along the way they run into Sithi and the one that Simon saved turns out to be the son of the ruling House named Jiriki. Together with An'nai, one of his kinsman, the Sitha prince joins their quest to the north and helps them survive several dangers. Eventually, Simon and his small company reach the icy mountains which are home to the powerful sword. Simon discovers the blade but shortly afterwards the troupe is attacked by a fierce iceworm, Igjarjuk. Simon, despite his fears, bravely tries to fight it off, suffering a wound in the process. As the novel progresses, the narrative widens, giving the reader secondary viewpoints besides those of Simon. Some of the side stories, which have great importance nonetheless, include those of Isgrimnur, Duke of Rimmersgard; Maegwin, the daughter of the Hernystiri client king; and Tiamak, a scribe in the marshes of the distant South. Miriamele, the king's daughter, fled to her uncle in Naglimund. His protectiveness of her frustrates her however, so she flees Naglimund before its fall towards her kin in Nabban, intending to win their allegiance. A drunken monk named Cadrach travels with her; he has lots of secrets and a mysterious past. Isgrimmnur is sent after Miriamele to ensure her safety and return her to Josua. In Hernystiri, the king and his son are slain and their people driven into hiding in the mountains. There, Count Eolair attempts to assist Maegwin the king's daughter but she is sinking into madness while trying to find a way to save her people. The book ends with the fall of Naglimund: after King Elias accepted the Storm King's terms and bargain, a host of Norns, giants, and undead servants of the Storm King arrive and utterly destroy the castle. Josua escapes with only 11 other people, amongst them Deornoth, his sworn sword, and Gutrun and Isorn, wife and son of Isgrimmnur. Simon opens his eyes after the dragon to find his face bearing a long burn scar and swath of hair turned white. |
Magician | Raymond E. Feist | 1,982 | In the twelfth year of the reign of Rodric the Fourth, an orphaned kitchen boy named Pug is made an apprentice magician to the magician Kulgan in Crydee. An indifferent student of magic, he rises to high station by saving Princess Carline, Duke Borric’s daughter, from mountain trolls and becomes a squire of the Duke's court. Following the discovery of a foreign ship wrecked after a storm and reports of bizarrely dressed warriors appearing in the forests, Pug’s liege, Lord Borric sets out for Krondor, the capital of the western realm of the kingdom, to convey the news and ask for aid. Their party is attacked, however, by dark elves and they are rescued by dwarves and their leader Dolgan who leads them through a series of mines to the coast. Shortly after arriving in Krondor Lord Borric’s band are instructed to carry on to Rillanon, the capital of the kingdom. Once there, however they are refused any help from the King Rodric, who suffers from madness and delusions, and they are turned away. War erupts between the Midkemians and the otherworldly Tsurani. The Duke's troops engage in a fierce battle in an effort to locate and destroy the rift in spacetime which gives access to the Tsurani, but Pug is captured and taken back through the rift to Kelewan, the Tsurani homeworld, as a slave. After years of stalemate fighting on Midkemia by the two opposing forces, Pug returns as a magician, a Great One, the Tsurani name for master practitioners of magic. Meanwhile, a fellow slave, Laurie, along with a Tsurani warrior, Kasumi, embark on a secret errand of peace from the Tsurani Emperor to King Rodric in Rillanon, but also fail to persuade the mad king. Discovering that Pug is alive and prospering as a magician, the dying Duke Borric reveals that he has adopted Pug into his family, also giving him an island – Stardock, where Pug is to begin an academy of magic. Duke Borric also reveals that Martin is his son and the older brother to Lyam and Arutha. Upon Borric’s death, Lyam becomes Duke of Crydee and commander of the Armies of the West. Shortly after, King Rodric appears at the camp after hearing the news of Borric's death. King Rodric himself then leads a charge against the Tsurani, breaking their ranks and driving them back, but suffering a mortal wound. While dying, the King's sanity seems to return and he apologizes to Lyam and names him heir to the throne. With Rodric's death, Lyam assumes command and sues for a peace treaty with the Emperor Ichindar. During the peace conference, the two rulers, with Pug as the interpreter, begin on good terms by exchanging gifts. Due to the interference of powerful and mysterious sorcerer Macros the Black, the elves and dwarves mistakenly perceive treachery, and the truce dissolves into an all-out conflict. Macros enlists Pug's help to close the rift once and for all, and the connection between the two worlds is severed, leaving numerous stranded Tsurani soldiers in Midkemia, including Kasumi. The Tsurani, who expect to be put to death as is custom on their world, are instead granted freedom in return for their pledge of service to the Kingdom, and are stationed in LaMut with Kasumi made Earl and given command. Lyam chooses to reveal Martin's birthright on the eve of his selection and coronation, threatening to throw the Kingdom into turmoil and potential civil war, but Martin relinquishes his claim, making Lyam the rightful king and ending any possibility of dispute. |
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