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Postern of Fate | Agatha Christie | null | Now in their seventies (though the authoress never states their age clearly), Tommy and Tuppence move to a quiet English village, looking forward to a peaceful retirement. But, as they soon discover, their rambling old house holds secrets. Who is Mary Jordan? And why has someone left a code message in an old book about her 'unnatural' death? Once more, ingenuity and insight are called for as they are drawn into old mysteries and new dangers. |
Exultant | Stephen Baxter | null | Exultant is set in Baxter's "Xeelee Sequence" twenty thousand years into the Third Expansion of Mankind, "a titanic project undertaken by a mankind united by the Doctrines forged by Hama Druz after mankind's near extinction." The human-supremacist Interim Coalition of Governance has conquered almost the whole Milky Way — all but the alien Xeelee concentrated at the galactic core around a supermassive black hole called Chandra. The mysterious Xeelee are far more advanced but less numerous than the humans, and the war has been at a stalemate for three millennia even though the entire Coalition has been directed toward the war effort and ten billion humans die at the front every year. In a war fought with faster-than-light technology (equivalent to time travel), each side has foreknowledge of the other's actions and can develop counter-measures to plans before they are made. Pirius is a fighter pilot stationed at the front. When a battle turns to disaster for the Coalition forces, he disobeys suicide orders to stand and fight, choosing instead to risk survival. In a desperate gamble to outrun a pursuing Xeelee, Pirius captures a Xeelee fighter for the first time in history. Returning to base via FTL travel, he arrives two years previous to the battle, when his younger self is still a cadet. Rather than being lauded as a hero, both instances of Pirius are court-martialed for disobeying orders. Commissary Nilis of the Office of Technological Archival and Control, part of the Commission for Historical Truth, defends both the older Pirius (whom he calls "Pirius Blue") and the younger one ("Pirius Red") but loses the trial. Pirius Blue is sent to a penal unit at the front as a foot soldier, and Pirius Red is remanded to the custody of Commissary Nilis, who has plans for the fruits of Pirius Blue's battlefield victory. Using the Xeelee fighter and the innovative tactics that saved Pirius Blue, he starts to plan an unheard of assault on the Xeelee's primary stronghold at Chandra itself. While Nilis and his new team struggle to confront ossified government and military institutions, they try to understand and to develop new and sometimes alien technologies: FTL computers, a gravastar shield to protect them from FTL foreknowledge, and a black hole gun, capable of disrupting a supermassive black hole's event horizon. Meanwhile, in the course of his new duties to Commissary Nilis, Pirius Red is practically taken on a tour of the Solar system and some of the Coalition's most scandalous secrets, rife with references to events from previous books in the Xeelee sequence. As Nilis's project nears completion, it transpires that the Chandra black hole is home to not only the Xeelee, but a host of other organisms, many of which are based on exotic physics and non-baryonic matter. Regardless, the assault on the black hole continues despite protestations from Nilis. After a brutal fight to reach the surface of the black hole, the team commence their assault, causing the Xeelee to abandon it (and the rest of the Milky Way galaxy) to prevent humanity from harming the black hole's inhabitants. After the assault, the protagonists realise that the Coalition is unlikely to remain intact, now that the war with the Xeelee is no longer present to hold it together. Luru Parz, one of the team, realises that the Xeelee will eventually return, and returns to Earth to ready its defences for when the return happens. |
The Boat of a Million Years | Poul Anderson | 1,989 | The novel follows a group of ten immortals from the ancient past to the semi-distant future. Most of the novel follows the various immortals throughout their lives as they try to find others like themselves, avoid being killed, and remain quiet about their gift. Gradually, the immortals begin to meet across the world and form a family of sorts. After sharing their secret of immortality to the rest of humanity, the ensuing years result in a human culture they no longer relate to or fit in with. Consequently, they create and crew a starship to explore new civilizations within the galaxy. |
Zadig, ou La destinee | Voltaire | 1,747 | Zadig, a good-hearted, handsome young man from Babylonia, is in love with Sémire and they are to marry. Sémire, however, has another suitor: Orcan wants her for himself. Zadig tries to defend his love from Orcan's threat, but his eye is injured in the process. This injury abhors Sémire, causing her to depart with his enemy. Shortly after, Zadig makes a full recovery and falls into the arms of another woman - Azora - with whom he is married, but who promptly betrays him. Disillusioned with women, Zadig turns to science but his knowledge lands him in prison, the first of several injustices to befall him. Indeed, the conte derives its pace and rhythm from the protagonist's ever-changing fortunes which see him rise to great heights and fall to great lows. Upon his release from prison, Zadig falls into favour with the king and queen of Babylonia and is eventually appointed prime minister; in this role he proves himself to be a very honest man, looked upon favourably by the king, as he passes fair judgements on his citizens unlike the other ministers who base their judgements on the people's wealth. He is forced to flee the kingdom, though, when his relationship with king Maobdar is compromised: Zadig's reciprocated love for queen Astarté is discovered and he worries that the king's desire for revenge might drive him to kill the queen. Having reached Egypt, Zadig kills an Egyptian man while valiantly saving a woman from his attack on her. Under the law of the land, this crime means that he must become a slave. His new master, Sétoc, is soon impressed by Zadig's wisdom and they become friends. In one incident, Zadig manages to reverse an ancient custom of certain tribes in which women felt obliged to burn themselves alive with their husbands on the death of the latter. After attempting to resolve other religious disputes, Zadig enrages local clerics who attempt to have him killed. Fortunately for him, though, a woman that he saved (Almona) from being burned intervenes so that he avoids death. Almona marries Sétoc, who in turn gives Zadig his freedom and then he begins his journey back to Babylonia in order to discover what has become of Astarté. En route, he is taken captive by a group of Arabs, from whom he learns that king Moabdar has been killed, but he does not learn anything of what has become of Astarté. Arbogad, the leader of the group of Arabs, sets him free and he heads for Babylonia once more, equipped with the knowledge that a rebellion has taken place to oust the king. On this journey he meets an unhappy fisherman who is about to commit suicide as he has no money, but Zadig gives him some money to ease his woes, telling us that source of his own unhappiness is in his heart, whereas the fisherman's are only financial concerns. Zadig prevents him from committing suicide and he continues on his way. Zadig then stumbles upon a meadow in which women are searching for a basilisk for their lord who is ill, ordered by his doctor to find one of these rare animals to cure his sickness. The lord has promised to marry the woman who finds the basilisk. While there, Zadig sees a woman writing "ZADIG" in the ground, and he identifies her as Astarté. His former lover recounts what happened to her since Zadig fled Babylonia: she lived inside a statue when he left, but one day, she spoke while her husband was praying before the statue. The king's country was invaded and both Astarté and his new wife were taken prisoner by the same group, and the king's wife agrees to formulate a plan along with Astarté to help her escape so that she would not have a rival for the king. Astarté ends up with Argobad, the very same robber that Zadig encountered, who then sold her to Lord Ogul, her current master. In order to secure Astarté's release from Ogul, Zadig pretends to be a physician. He offers Lord Ogul to bring him a basilisk if he grants Astarté her freedom; instead of providing the basilisk, the lord is tricked into taking some exercise, which is what he really needs to cure him from his illness. Astarté returns to Babylonia where she is pronounced queen before a competition begins to find her a new king. Zadig triumphs in the contest which takes place between four anonymous knights, but one of the losing competitors steals Zadig's armour before the winner is revealed, and falsely claims victory. Zadig bemoans his fate, thinking that he will never be happy. While wandering on the banks of the Euphrates, Zadig encounters a hermit reading "the book of destinies", and he agrees to stay with him for a few days. The hermit claims that he will teach Zadig lessons in life: in one such incident, the pair go to an opulent castle and are treated well, but the hermit steals a gold sink; afterwards, they visit the house of a miser and are pushed to leave, but the hermit gives the miser the gold sink. The aim, he tells Zadig, is that the hospitable man at the castle will learn not to be as ostentatious and vain, and the miser will learn how to treat guests. In another, the hermit throws a fourteen year-old boy into a river, drowning him, as he claims that Providence tells that he would have killed his aunt within a year, and Zadig within two. The hermit then reveals his true identity as the angel Jesrad, and opines that Zadig, out of all men, deserves to be best informed about Fate. Jesrad states that wickedness is necessary to maintain the order of the world and to ensure that good survives. Nothing happens by chance, according to the angel: Zadig happened upon the fisherman to save his life, for example. Zadig should be submissive to Fate, he continues, and should return to Babylonia, advice which he follows. Surprisingly regarding Voltaire's hostility towards religions, this passage is based on one of the suras of the Quran: Sura The Cave (Al-Kahf), S. 18; V. 60-82, when Moses follows a mysterious character, endowed with great knowledge, through his journey. On his return, the final part of the challenge to be king is taking place: the Enigmas. Having solved the Enigmas with consummate ease, Zadig proves that it was he that won the first contest. Zadig marries Astarté, is crowned king, and rules over a prosperous kingdom. |
Galaxy of Fear: Ghost of the Jedi | John Whitman | null | Tash, Zak, and their uncle Hoole are fleeing from the threat of the Imperial scientist Borborygmus Gog. There seems to be safe refuge on Nespis 8, an abandoned space station. This place also once housed a Jedi library. According to the group's ally, Deevee, the library is still there, along with the ghost of a Jedi. The station also holds the hope to stopping Gog and a threat far worse than a disturbed Jedi spirit. |
Headhunter | Timothy Findley | null | The novel is set in a dystopic Toronto, Ontario buffeted by a mysterious plague called sturnusemia, which is believed to be carried by starlings. Against this backdrop, a schizophrenic spiritualist "of intense but undisciplined powers", Lilah Kemp, accidentally sets Kurtz free from page 92 of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, and is forced to find a Marlow to defeat him. Kurtz becomes head of the Parkin Psychiatric Institute (based on the real Clarke Institute of Psychiatry) and travels among the city's elites, including a "Club of Men" which is in fact a child pornography ring. Marlow, meanwhile, is a staff psychiatrist at the Parkin. Although the reader is clearly meant to see the parallels between Findley's Kurtz and Marlow and Conrad's original characters, the book is deliberately ambiguous about whether Lilah Kemp has really performed this act of literary magic, or is merely crazy enough to think she has. |
The Cookie Monster | Vernor Vinge | 2,004 | The story begins following the first day of Dixie Mae Leigh's job as a customer support employee at a fictional company called Lotsatech. She receives an insulting and mysterious email and, in a fit of rage, decides to find out who sent it. She and a fellow employee Victor search the Lotsatech campus looking for the author of the email, following clues in the email header. They meet up with Ellen, a grad student in computer science, who decides to try to help Dixie Mae. While they talk, several mysteries arise and convince them that the email may be a kind of warning about something going on at Lotsatech involving a professor named Gerry Reich, who seems to be involved in all the projects on the campus. Ellen finds another clue in the email leading the three to another building where, to their utter astonishment, a second Ellen appears. The only explanation of this is that they are being simulated by a computer. Further clues from another person in the building lead them to an underground lab where they find two researchers working on improving methods of producing and preserving Bose-Einstein Condensates. When Dixie Mae and the Ellens reveal that they are all actually simulations, the researchers explore the email and find a clue that leads them to a 'cookie', a file that is passed from each iteration to the next with messages from the centuries of time they have been simulated over and over. They also find out that it was actually Dixie Mae herself who wrote the email in order to make it as offensive as possible to herself, allowing each iteration of the researchers to access the cookie. The story ends with a sad Dixie Mae realizing she can't do anything herself to stop the endless cycle they are all in, but through the passing of information and ideas from one iteration to the next someday they will have the ability to stop the simulations. |
By the Pricking of My Thumbs | Agatha Christie | null | In Sunny Ridge, the nursing home where Tommy Beresford's Aunt Ada lives, resident Mrs. Lancaster stirs up worry among those in charge with her bizarre, disjointed ramblings about 'your poor child' and 'something behind the fireplace'. Intrigued, Tuppence Beresford conducts an investigation when Aunt Ada dies. |
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Operation Barracuda | David Michaels | 2,005 | Taking place almost a year after the first novel, the plot picks up with Third Echelon attempting to search and bring to justice the members of The Shop, an international arms dealing ring that played a large part in the first novel. While Sam Fisher is working to collect information on The Shop in Ukraine and Russia, Third Echelon is continuing its investigation into how the Shop had previously managed to gain the identity of a number of Splinter Cells and murder them, another plot element from the first book. However, when a German scientist named Jeinsen, who had defected to the United States from East Germany long ago, goes missing and then reappears dead in Hong Kong, heads begin to turn. Jeinsen had developed a new submarine vehicle for the United States Navy, that could theoretically carry a nuclear weapon. Sam Fisher is sent to learn why the scientist was in Hong Kong and who killed him; it is suspected that a local group of Triads named the Lucky Dragons had involvement. What Third Echelon does not yet realize is that Jeinsen, the Lucky Dragons, The Shop, and a traitor inside their own government are all part of a much larger picture involving a rogue Chinese general named Lan Tun, with ambitions to invade and conquer Taiwan. With Sam Fisher not even aware that he is the world's only hope of stopping an international crisis, he has to balance his job and a new romantic relationship with his Krav Maga instructor Katia Loenstern. Despite Sam's best efforts, Katia is killed by a Russian Mafiya sniper hired by The Shop to assassinate Sam Fisher. Ultimately, General Tun threatens to use the submarine vehicle to detonate an MRUUV (a very deadly nuclear bomb) off the coast of California, destroying LA with a massive tsunami, unless America abandons Taiwan when it is invaded by China. Fisher manages to foil the plot, and all the conspirators involved including the traitor, the general, and the Shop are viciously gunned down. The attack on Taiwan is a failure, as the Taiwanese military, with backup from the United States Navy, fends off the invading forces in a matter of hours. |
In The Garden of Iden | Kage Baker | 1,997 | Mendoza tells how she is snatched as a child from the Inquisition in Spain, having first been sold by her real parents to some 'noble Christians' who want her for pagan rites, but are instead arrested. In prison she is called Mendoza, after the name used by the pagans. She does not remember ever having a name of her own before that, her parents simply calling her "daughter" (hija in Spanish). She does not even know her family name, or the name of her village. One of the Inquisitors is Joseph, a cyborg, who is able to deliver her to his fellow agents for 'augmentation'. Fifteen years later she returns to Spain for her first mission. Although she trained as a botanist and wants to go the New World, she has to spend time in Europe on an expedition to England. She finds that the expedition leader is Joseph, the cyborg who saved her. He is about 20,000 years old, having been recruited from the Basque region as a child when his village was massacred. Joseph is a Facilitator, a 'fixer', a top agent. He is also world-weary, cynical and irreverent. His passion is his work, like all the cyborgs, but he also has a deep-seated hatred of religious fanaticism, partly because his parents were killed by a cult, partly because of what he has seen in his long life. The group also includes Nefer, whose specialty is farm animals, and Flavius, a technician. The mission is to travel to England as part of the entourage of Prince Philip of Spain, who is going to marry Queen Mary. Then they will go to the estate in Kent of Sir Walter Iden, who has been persuaded to let them sample rare plants from his garden. Mendoza is not pleased by all this. She is already deathly afraid of all 'mortals' as she calls them, and is further dismayed by the prospect of going to cold, wet, violent, disease-ridden England. When they arrive, without Flavius who stays in London, two things quickly change her mind. One is a hedge of Ilex tormentosum, or Julius Caesar's Holly, a plant with tremendous medicinal properties. It is already rare and, in the future, it is extinct. The other is Nicholas Harpole, Sir Walter's secretary. Nicholas is "tall even for an Englishman" and has a horse-like face but is very intelligent and well-educated. She is immediately attracted to him, and Joseph, always on the lookout for an advantage, encourages her to seduce Nicholas. This she does, and settles in for a long stay, having decided that the Garden is full of unusual plants that will take year to catalogue. Nicholas, it turns out, has a dark past, having been a member of an ecstatic Christian cult that practised sexual freedom. Deciding that the cult leader was simply exploiting his fellows, he broke away and began preaching radical ideas, for which he was arrested and put in chains. Although Nicholas is illegitimate, he had well-connected friends and was freed with the warning to sin no more. Mendoza also has problems. As she matures, she finds she emits "Crome radiation", a psychic field which can have unpredictable effects on time and space. This is not supposed to be possible for cyborgs, who are screened for such abilities when recruited. (In a later Company story, we learn that Joseph caused the tests to be fudged because otherwise Mendoza would be tortured to death by the Inquisition.) As the novel progresses, she is increasingly torn by love for Nicholas and the need to lie to him, to play her assigned part. Nicholas himself is suspicious of Mendoza and her companions. Old Sir Walter Iden, having been given rejuvenating treatments by Joseph as payment for their stay, decides to sell the estate and move to London. The entire household is already amazed by his transformation from doddering old man to virile middle-age. Joseph is furious but can do nothing. Then, while the household is being inventoried for the sale, Joseph is damaged in an accident which would have killed a normal human. Though he talks his way out of the immediate situation with his usual skill, he is eventually found out by Nicholas, who sees him doing self-repairs to his internal machinery. Nicholas, having been prepared to elope with Mendoza, confronts her, believing her to be a devil in human form. She admits that, even in her own eyes, she is no longer human. Nicholas flees the estate. Later she learns he has returned to preaching in Rochester, and has been condemned to burn by the new Catholic authorities. She runs away herself to Rochester, but is unable to convince him to recant. At this point Joseph appears, having followed Mendoza. His only purpose now is to prevent her becoming a Company renegade. He denounces Nicholas as just another fake messiah who can only lead others to destruction along with himself. He reveals to Nicholas that he has lived many thousands of years and has yet to see anything resembling the Truth that Nicholas and his like preach. Telling Nicholas that "of all the burnings I've witnessed, this is one I will actually enjoy" he takes Mendoza away. The next morning, they witness Nicholas' death. Returning to the Iden estate, Joseph promises to pull strings and get Mendoza sent to the New World, as she originally wanted. In the final chapter, Mendoza arrives at New World One in the South American jungle. It is a secret Company base run like a luxury hotel, where the servants are Mayans rescued from sacrifices. She settles into her new air-conditioned existence, with an unknowable future. |
The King Beyond the Gate | David Gemmell | 1,985 | The King Beyond the Gate takes place a century after Legend takes place. The Drenai are under the rule of Ceska, a usurper of the throne who over time has become a mad emperor. Ceska rules with an iron fist, with the Joinings and the Dark Templars as his tools of terror. The Joinings are horrifying werebeasts, made by merging man and animal, and the Dark Templars are priests of darkness, with power beyond compare. Thus it falls to one man to overthrow the tyrant--- Tenaka Khan. pl:Król poza bramą |
The Conversations At Curlow Creek | David Malouf | 1,996 | The story takes place in 1827 on an isolated farm at the fictional locality of Curlow Creek in the mountains of the colony of New South Wales. The two main characters are Michael Adair, an Irish-born officer in the colonial mounted troopers, and Daniel Carney, an Irish escapee and bushranger. Adair had been dispatched from Sydney to oversee Carney's hanging and he arrives at Carney's temporary prison -- a stockman's hut -- on the night before he is due to be executed. The narrative details conversations held by Adair and Carney throughout the cold night as they explore their shared Irish heritage. The novel is also peppered with Adair's reminiscences of his aristocratic childhood in County Galway. As the plot progresses, Adair develops sympathy for Carney despite his criminal past and impoverished background. The novel ends with Adair presumed to have let Carney escape into the bush -- though as with many of David Malouf's novels, the ending is ambiguous and the reader does not know for sure the fate of the hero. |
The Jew of Linz | Kimberley Cornish | null | #The occasion for Adolf Hitler becoming anti-Semitic was a schoolboy interaction in Linz, circa 1904, with Ludwig Wittgenstein #In order to fight the growing power of the Nazis in the 1920s Wittgenstein joined the Comintern #As a Trinity College don, and a member of the Cambridge Apostles, Wittgenstein recruited fellow Apostles Guy Burgess, Kim Philby and Anthony Blunt, all students at Trinity—as well as Donald Maclean from nearby Trinity Hall—to work for the Soviet Union. #Wittgenstein was responsible for the secret of decrypting the German "Enigma" code being passed to Joseph Stalin, which resulted ultimately in the Nazi defeats on the Eastern Front and liberation of the remnant Jews from the camps. #Both Hitler's oratory and Wittgenstein's philosophy of language derive from the hermetic tradition, the key to which is Wittgenstein's "no-ownership" theory of mind, described by P. F. Strawson in his book Individuals (1958). |
Sweet Women Lie | Loren D. Estleman | null | In this episode Walker's ex-wife has a new boyfriend, who she cannot find. She employs Amos Walker in the search, but the new "beau" has a secret life as a government assassin, and that is it what he has got involved in. |
Angel Eyes | Loren D. Estleman | 1,981 | An exotic dancer, Ann Maringer's life is in danger, she is scared and sure someone is out to get her. Ann turns to Amos Walker the irascible private-eye from Detroit but then disappears and Walker is out to find out what happened and where she is. |
The Icarus Agenda | Robert Ludlum | 1,988 | A few years before, a tragic "accident" left him with 78 fewer friends. The only loved-one left was Emmanuel "Manny" Weingrass, a world-renowned architect and a somewhat impossible person. In his first year in Congress, there is an uprising in Masqat - a hostage taking. The events remind him of a man known as The Mahdi whom Weingrass said was the reason for the deaths of his 78 friends. He goes to Oman for revenge and comes back victorious. The Mahdi dead and a tragedy averted. A year later, the inheritors of Inver Brass - the resurrected group of influential people, destroyed in the events of the Chancellor Manuscript, who had been tracking him ever since he went on the Oman operation through a specially gifted ICT specialist, exposes the truth of Kendrick being involved in Masqat and they reveal this to the world to have Kendrick as Vice-President of the USA, because they consider him to be morally incorruptible. After the revealing, lives are lost and friendships broken, Kendrick is desperately looking for the people who are responsible for turning his life upside-down. But unknown to the Inver Brass there is a traitor in their midst... and this might just be the last straw... Codename Icarus is the last hope to a nation and to a world. The organisation was first mentioned in his 1977 novel The Chancellor Manuscript and is also mentioned in his later novel The Bancroft Strategy. |
Felidae | Akif Pirinçci | 1,989 | The novel begins with Francis, a tomcat, moving to a new neighborhood with his owner. Francis soon finds the corpse of Sascha. Bluebeard, a deformed local cat, is convinced that humans are responsible for the death and other recent murders. Francis disagrees with this assessment, convinced that the slash on Sascha's neck was caused by teeth. The discovery of the body marks the start of terrible nightmares that inflict Francis and intertwine him with the murders. Tomcat Deeply Purple is the next victim; while visiting the body, Francis notices that he, like Sascha, was sexually aroused before death. That night, Francis hears yowling from the uninhabited upper floors of his house. He finds a strange religious meeting taking place, in which a cat named Joker preaches about a cat known as Claudandus, who allegedly sacrificed himself and ascended to Heaven. Meanwhile, cats jump into frayed wires and electrocute themselves. Francis accidentally alerts Joker to his presence and is chased by the cult members. He escapes and falls through a skylight. He then meets Felicity, a blind Turkish Angora who has heard the murderer and his victims shortly before their death. Additionally, Felicity says that she sees images in her mind alongside feelings of fear and pain. Francis believes that the images are actually memories retained from childhood. After leaving Felicity's home, Bluebeard takes Francis to Pascal, an intelligent Havana Brown who has learned to use his owner's computer. With it, he has compiled a list of the local cats. Francis learns from Pascal that Felicity has been reportedly murdered. Francis experiences another nightmare that night, inspired by Pascal's words that Felidae deserve admiration and the large portrait of Gregor Mendel in Pascal's house. Unnerved, Francis hunts for rats and finds the journal of Julius Preterius, a scientist who used the house as a laboratory years prior. Francis learns that Preterius was attempting to create a flesh-binding glue with assistants Ziebold and Gray. The glue is unsuccessful, and, desperate, Preterius uses the glue on a stray cat. Due to a genetic abnormality, the glue seals the wounds on the cat. Preterius names the cat Claudandus (one who must or should be sealed) and plans to breed him and replicate the mutation. Preterius descends into madness, but continues with his project long after funding ceases. The journal's last entry reveals that Preterius had heard Claudandus speak to him and was planning to free the cat. Francis later encounters the strange Persian Jesaja, who alludes to escaping from Preterius' lab and proclaims to be the Guardian of the Dead. He lives in ancient catacombs, keeping a tomb housing hundreds of cat skeletons. Jesaja says that he serves "the Prophet" (Claudandus), who delivers corpses for him to guard. That night, Francis experiences another dream, this time involving a white cat who states he is Felidae. He is surrounded by hundreds of others, many of whom Francis recognizes. The white cat invites Francis to join them on a journey to Africa. Francis wakes and answers the call of a female in heat. He inquires about her breed, but she states that her breed has no name and is both old and new. He mates with her and learns from Bluebeard that her race is more wild than standard cats. Francis, Pascal, and Bluebeard continue to research the murders. Their new data suggests that the murderer has been active since the demise of Preterius and has killed approximately 450 cats. Joker has gone missing and cannot be located. The three present this information to the local cats and Pascal presents a logical explanation that places the blame on Joker. The crowd is placated, but Francis is not; he visits Joker's home. He finds the cat dead among porcelain statues. Unlike previous murders, there appears to have been no struggle. Francis returns home and reads an encyclopedia entry on genetics, which mentions Mendel as the founder of modern genetics through his experiments on plant hybridization. He realizes that the new-old cats are being specifically bred to bear attributes of their ancient Egyptian ancestors. Francis immediately begins to connect his dreams to the murders, and makes sense of Felicity's past comments: a cat had been attempting to keep standard males from breeding with the special females, and killed them after they failed to comply. He also recalls that Pascal's owner idolizes Mendel, that Pascal offhandedly mentioned his owner's name being Ziebold, and that Pascal spoke of Felidae with yearning. Francis concludes that Pascal is Claudandus, and goes to confront him. He finds a program on the computer that catalogs the new breed's genetics and breeding, as well as the cats killed to keep from contaminating the lines. Pascal reveals himself, explaining that he harbors a deep hatred of humanity due to the suffering inflicted upon him by Preterius. He had killed Preterius and set free the other cats before being rescued by Ziebold. Pascal had wanted Francis to take over the program, hoping that the cats would eventually overthrow the human race. Francis and Pascal begin to battle, with Pascal destroying the computer and setting the house afire in the process. Pascal dies after Francis slits his throat. In the epilogue, Francis states that he never told any others the true identity of the murderer and that Joker's name was eventually cleared. Jesaja was coaxed out of the catacombs and found a home with a bartender. Francis muses that Pascal had succumbed to hatred and lost his innocence and, in the process, became human. He states that all animals have the ability to lose their innocence and humans, who descended from animals, still carry a hint of innocence. The novel ends with Francis urging the reader to never cease believing in a world where animals and humans coexist, including those "more sublime and intelligent than the latter--for example, Felidae." |
Lords of the Starship | Mark S. Geston | 1,967 | In the far future, on an Earth devastated by millennia of war, the Caroline Republic is hostile towards its neighbors although sharing their dire economic straits. Outside the declining remains of civilization lie ruins and wastelands populated by mutants and monsters. It is generally felt that humanity lost its vitality long ago. To a leading politician of the Caroline the aged veteran General Toriman proposes a centuries-long scheme to build the nation by taking control of an ancient shipyard hundreds of miles away which was apparently designed to build spacecraft. Ostensibly, the purpose of the project will be the construction of a spaceship seven miles long called the "Victory" to carry the population of the despairing world to a paradise planet called "Home". In fact, the ship will never be completed, but the effort will revitalize the nation's economy and perhaps restore mankind's missing quality. General Toriman dies and the cynical politicians of the Republic rouse the population to begin the project. The River Road from the Caroline homeland to the Yards is forced with a bloody battle between a Caroline military force and mutants, during which the ghost of the ancient hero Miolnor IV appears to save the day. Work begins on constructing the ship. Despite their antiquity, the Yards' machinery and buildings seem to have been perfectly preserved and materials for the construction of the ship are discovered. Legends say that the fortifications still standing nearby defended human civilization against Dark Powers over the mountains to the west. The magnificent city of Gateway grows in the hills above the Yards while the Victory slowly takes shape. Much of the population of the Caroline moves to the Yards and its society is formally divided into two classes. The Technos supervise construction and are aware of the motivational "myth of the ship" plan while the People believe that the voyage to the planet Home is the actual goal. Some Technos realize that, although Gateway has become rich and prosperous through the Victory project, the Caroline homeland is still as miserable as its neighbors. Before they can act on this knowledge the People revolt, led by a man named Coral who claims truthfully that the Technos have lied and do not intend to complete the Victory. Most of the Technos are killed although one is allowed to bring the news to the Dresau Islands in the eastern sea. The Dresau Navy has a proud tradition as the last surviving remnant of vital humanity and its leader believes the Victory project has a sinister purpose, possibly directed by heirs of the dark power Salasar, which once ruled most of the earth. After almost two centuries of construction, the Victory is completed and the women and children of the People are placed aboard in suspended animation. Led by the Dresau Navy the gathered enemies of Coral's triumphant People attack with their restored ships and scavenged weapons. The defenses of the Caroline Empire are ineffective, and an apocalyptic battle rages about the Yards, with millions fighting. At the height of the battle the sea turns red with blood and the dead of past wars rise in support of the assault. The legendary fortresses fire missiles toward the west. Before any of the men of the People board the Victory it moves down the ways to the sea. It turns its huge engines toward the shore and they ignite, incinerating the fighting armies, ships, Yards, and Gateway. The Victory then redirects the destruction onto itself and its millions of passengers. Balls of fire arrive over the mountains to complete the destruction. When the wreckage of the Yards has cooled, the man who has been called General Toriman, Miolnar IV, and Coral arrives. The Victory project and its opposition have been devised by the heirs of Salasar, which built the allegedly ancient shipyards for the purpose. He signals the completion of the project; the military powers of the east have been destroyed and invasion by those in the west can begin. |
The History Boys | Alan Bennett | null | The action of the play takes place in Cutlers' Grammar School, Sheffield, a fictional boys' grammar school in the north of England. Set in the early 1980s, the play follows a group of history pupils preparing for the Oxford and Cambridge entrance examinations under the guidance of three teachers (Hector, Irwin and Lintott) with contrasting styles. Hector, an eccentric teacher, delights in knowledge for its own sake, but the headmaster ambitiously wants the school to move up the academic league table; Irwin, a supply teacher, is hired to introduce a rather more cynical and ruthless style of teaching. Hector is discovered sexually fondling a boy and later Irwin's latent homosexual inclinations emerge. The character of Hector was based on the schoolmaster and author Frank McEachran (1900–1975). |
Youth in Revolt | C.D. Payne | 1,993 | The book's main protagonist is Nicholas "Nick" Twisp, a 14-year-old boy of above-average intelligence. Nick's life continues like a normal teenager's with his best friend Leroy, a.k.a. Lefty, and his divorced parents George and Estelle. His mother is dating a truck driver named Jerry, who sells a group of sailors a Chevy Nova that dies soon after the sailors get it. In response, the sailors go for revenge. After outsmarting them, Jerry strategically decides to take a vacation, so they all go to a religious mobile home camp. It is there that Nick meets Sheridan "Sheeni" Saunders and his life is turned completely upside down. Through plots to get Sheeni closer to him he ends up with several crimes on his hands and is forced to run from the police. Nick tricks everyone into thinking he went to India, thereby escaping the police. Nick hides out with his sister Joanie and returns with help from his friend in Ukiah, Frank "Fuzzy" DeFalco. He dresses in Fuzzy's late grandmother's clothes, adopting the name Carlotta and a conservative disposition. As Nick does so, he befriends Sheeni and several other people who Nick knew before. While spending the night with Sheeni on Christmas Eve, she reveals to him that she knew from the beginning it was him, not Carlotta. Nick then gets "the best Christmas present a youth could receive," starting a secret relationship with Sheeni. Nick inherits a fortune when an elderly neighbor of Joanie takes a liking to him and decides to put him in her will. When Joanie's neighbor died, Nick is briefly left half a million dollars richer, until his mother's boyfriend, a somewhat corrupt police officer, seizes the money. Faced with homelessness from the loss of the house he had been squatting in, Nick becomes rich beyond belief when an idea of his, a wart watch, makes it big. |
The Mouse and the Motorcycle | Beverly Cleary | 1,965 | Ralph is a mouse who lives in the run-down Mountain View Inn, a battered resort hotel in the Sierra Nevada of California. Ralph longs for a life of danger and speed, wishing to get away from his relatives, who worry about the mice colony being discovered. One day a boy named Keith Gridley and his family visit the hotel on their way through California. Keith leaves a toy motorcycle on his bedside table, which interests Ralph. While Keith is away, Ralph attempts to ride it, but cannot figure out how to start it. Startled by a telephone ring, he and the motorcycle fall into a metal wastebasket. Keith discovers his missing motorcycle in the wastebasket along with Ralph and the two strike a friendship. Although Ralph's mother worries that he is in contact with humans, Keith shows Ralph how to start the motorcycle--make an engine-like noise--and lets Ralph ride it during the nighttime. While Keith and his family explore California, Ralph recklessly rides the motorcycle through the depths of the hotel. One night he is spotted by Keith's mother, and Mr. Gridley thinks she is imagining things, but she is still sure that she saw a mouse riding a motorcycle. Ralph and the motorcycle are almost sucked up by a maid's vacuum cleaner, but Ralph escapes, riding into a pile of dirty bedsheets. He escapes by chewing holes in the sheets, but, unfortunately, he must leave the motorcycle behind. The management discover the chewed-up bedsheets, resulting in a "war on mice". After Ralph loses the motorcycle Keith loses trust in him, although he still brings the mice colony room service. One night Keith becomes very sick with a high fever, but his parents don't have any more aspirin, nor are able to obtain one until morning. To regain Keith's trust, Ralph searches the hotel for an aspirin tablet, at risk to himself, for the medicine could prove fatal to a small mouse if ingested (In fact, that had caused the death of Ralph's father). His adventures include venturing outside the hotel, being trapped by guests, narrowly escaping an owl, and hatching a plan of adventure which involves Keith's toy ambulance and the elevator. When Ralph succeeds, Keith's health is restored. He agrees to let Ralph keep the motorcycle, which is found by the bellboy, Matt, after he leaves, and Ralph uses the space under the TV set in the lobby to use as a garage; the motorcycle is his to keep. |
The Haunter of the Dark | H. P. Lovecraft | 1,936 | The story takes place in Providence, Rhode Island and revolves around the Church of Starry Wisdom. The cult uses an ancient artifact known as the "Shining Trapezohedron" to summon a terrible being from the depths of time and space. The Shining Trapezohedron was discovered in Egyptian ruins, in a box of alien construction, by Professor Enoch Bowen before he returned to Providence, Rhode Island in 1844. Members of the Church of Starry Wisdom in Providence would awaken the Haunter of the Dark, an avatar of Nyarlathotep, by gazing into the glowing crystal. Summoned from the black gulfs of chaos, this being could show other worlds, other galaxies, and the secrets of arcane and paradoxical knowledge; but he demanded monstrous sacrifices, hinted at by disfigured skeletons that were later found in the church. The Haunter of the Dark was banished by light and could not cross a lighted area. The Shining Trapezohedron is a window on all space and time. Described as a "crazily angled stone", it is unlikely to be a true trapezohedron because of the Old Ones' penchant for bizarre non-Euclidean angles. It was created on dark Yuggoth and brought to Earth by the Old Ones, where it was placed in its box aeons before the first human beings appeared. After the passing of the Old Ones, during the final stages of the lower Triassic period, the trapezohedron was salvaged from the ruins of their cyclopean cities by the serpent people of Valusia. Eventually, after the bloody extermination of the serpent people at the hands of the advancing pre-human hordes of Lomar, the device found its way into the possession of the primitive men of Lemuria, Atlantis and in later cycles the Pharaoh Nephren Ka of Egypt until at last it was unearthed and brought to New England. After the death of Robert Blake, who came to grief after discovering the Shining Trapezohedron and deciphering texts about it from ancient evil cults, the artifact was removed from the black windowless steeple where it was found by a Dr. Dexter and thrown into the deepest channel of Narragansett Bay. It was expected to remain there, under the eternal light of the stars, forever; yet, Robert Bloch's sequel, "The Shadow from the Steeple", proved that Nyarlathotep had cheated Dexter, forcing him to peer into the stone and throw the stone into the bay, where the eternal darkness of the depths gave the Haunter the power to remain perpetually free; it used this power to merge with Dr. Dexter and make him one of the world's leading nuclear scientists-in charge of atomic investigation for warfare. Nyarlathotep appears in this story as the "three-lobed burning eye", a huge bat-winged creature, with a burning tri-lobed eye appearing unseen from the Trapezohedron. Blake realizes the horror can only travel in the dark. When a storm and power blackout envelop the city, he scribbles down his findings, concluding the story with his terrified record of what he can only glimpse of the approaching beast. "I see it-- coming here-- hell-wind-- titan-blur-- black wings-- Yog-Sothoth save me-- the three-lobed burning eye..." Lovecraft indicated in his letters with then-young writer Robert Bloch, that the character Robert Blake was an intentionally thinly veiled gesture at killing off one of his friendly correspondents. In 1936, Bloch published story that continued the professional fun, in which Blake did not actually die, but was possessed by Nyarlathotep, and kills off a character based on Lovecraft. |
Kangaroo Notebook | Kobo Abe | null | One morning, while pondering the stress of his latest assignment at his uninspiring job, the narrator of Kangaroo Notebook feels an itching on his leg that seems to indicate an unusual hair loss. The next morning he wakes to discover that he is sprouting small radishes on his shins. After battling to be seen in his local medical clinic, he enters a hospital, where a physician prescribes hot-spring therapy in Hell Valley. Hooked to a penile catheter and an IV bottle, the narrator begins a harrowing journey on his hospital bed through the underworld that seems to lie beneath the city streets. Here, he seeks health not so much as he seeks simple explanations for what is happening to him and the strange people he meets: abusive ferrymen, waiflike child demons, vampire nurses, a chiropractor who runs a karate school and works a sideline as a euthanist. |
The Face of Another | Kobo Abe | null | A plastics scientist loses his face in an accident and proceeds to obtain a new face for himself. With a new 'mask', the protagonist sees the world in a new way and even goes so far as to have a clandestine affair with his estranged wife. There is also a subplot following a hibakusha woman who has suffered burns to the right side of her face. In the novel, the protagonist sees this character in a film; in the film version, this is deliberately obscured. |
Inter Ice Age 4 | Kobo Abe | null | Plot elements include submersion of the world caused by melting polar ice, genetic creation of gilled children for the coming underwater age, and a fortune-telling computer predicting the future and advising humans how to deal with it. Because a similar computer in Moscow is being use to make forecasts of a political nature, an institute of a Tokyo professor decides to avoid politics and try to forsee the future of an individual. A man is picked, apparently at random, only to be murdered before he can be programmed, but the computer can still read his mind. The resulting involvements are complicated by a climactic shift - Inter Ice Age 4 - which puts earth under water. |
The King of the Golden River | John Ruskin | 1,851 | The richness of the Treasure Valley, high in the mountains of Stiria or Styria, southeastern Austria, is lost through the evil of the owners, the two elder, "Black Brothers," Hans and Schwartz, who in their foolishness mistreat Southwest Wind, Esquire, who in turn floods their valley, washing away their "liquid assets," and turning their valley into a dead valley of red sand. This personified wind has the power to keep things this way through his influence with other winds that had caused the valley's unique fertility. Forced into a trade other than farming Hans and Schwartz become goldsmiths. They cruelly melt their younger brother Gluck's prize heirloom, a golden mug, which consists of the head of a golden bearded man. This action releases the King of the Golden River for Gluck to pour out of the crucible as a finely dressed little golden dwarf. The Golden River is one of the high mountain cataracts, that surround the Treasure Valley. Gluck fancies that it would be good if that high majestic river would actually be what it appears in the setting sun, a river of gold. The dwarfish king disagrees with Gluck, but offers a proposition: if someone were to climb up to the source of the river and throw into it at least three drops of "holy water," it would become for that person only a river of gold. That person must do it on his first and only attempt or be overwhelmed by the river to become a black stone. Hans and Schwartz desire to take the challenge, duel each other with the result that Schwartz is thrown into jail for disturbing the peace. Hans, who had the good sense to hide from the constable, steals holy water from the church and climbs up the mountains to the Golden River. He has a hard time of it on a glacier and gets away without his provisions and only his flask of holy water. Overcome with thirst Hans is forced to drink from this flask, knowing that only three drops are all that's needed. Along the path, Hans comes across three prostrate individuals dying of thirst, a puppy, a fair child, and an old man. Hans satisfies his own thirst while denying the three needy individuals. The "demeanor" of the surroundings of his journey turns bleak and inauspicious, climaxing in Hans being transformed into a black stone once he has hurled the holy water flask into the Golden River. Gluck secures the release of his brother Schwartz, who, buying his holy water from a "bad priest," eventually fares likewise, spurning in his turn the fair child, the old man, and his brother Hans lying prostrate in his path. The Golden River then acquires another black stone around which to rush and wail. Gluck takes a turn at climbing the mountain. He encounters first an old man walking down the mountain trail who begs water from the flask. Gluck allows him to drink, leaving only a third of the holy water. He then encounters a fair child, lying by the road, whom he allows to drink all but a few drops. Following these unselfish acts, Gluck's path is made bright and pleasant making him feel better than he had in his whole life—no doubt, due to his kindness. He then comes across the prostrate puppy, whom he gives the final drops of the holy water. The puppy turns into the King of the Golden River, who tells Gluck the fate of his two brothers and, thereupon, shakes three drops of dew from a lily into Gluck's flask to throw into the river. Gluck does this, and the Golden River forms a whirlpool where it travels underground and emerges in the Treasure Valley, which then becomes lush and fertile once more. Gluck the new owner is a wealthy man, who never turns away the needy from his door. Ever afterward, though, the people show and tell travelers the tale of the two black stones in the Golden River, known as The Black Brothers. |
Asterix and the Normans | null | null | The story begins with Vitalstatistix receiving a missive from his brother Doublehelix in Lutetia (modern-age Paris) who wants his aid in making a man of his teenage son, Justforkix. Justforkix arrives in a sports car-like chariot, and comes across as a happy-go-lucky urbanite with an air of superiority about him. Conflict soon emerges between the city boy and the country folk. The village holds a dance in honour of his arrival but he is unimpressed by the simple traditional way of dancing, snatches Cacofonix's lyre and sings and plays in the manner of Elvix Preslix (the Rolling Menhirs in the English version). Some of the younger villagers soon catch on and dance to this new form. Outraged by this usurpation, Cacofonix tries to show off his own skills, but this of course leads to the break-up of the dance and a knock-out blow from Fulliautomatix. Justforkix on the other hand is impressed and suggests that Cacofonix's talents would be better appreciated in Lutetia. On the whole, though, Justforkix is quickly bored with the village. This changes, however, when a Norman ship arrives. The Normans (actually Vikings from the frozen north) have decided to come to Gaul not for plunder, but for learning: they are fearless to the point of not feeling fear or even understanding the concept. This causes many problems for them, including the contempt of children for parental discipline, the inability to cure hiccups — which can be cured by giving the person a fright — and lack of road safety since reckless chariot-drivers show no fear towards the authorities. The main reason for this expedition, however, is that they have heard of people "flying in fear", which they interpret too literally, thinking that this mysterious "fear" will grant them the ability to fly. Unfortunately, the local Gauls fear nothing (except the sky falling on their heads) and they actually welcome the prospect of a fight with the Normans. However, Justforkix is horrified and fearfully decides to return home. Viewing Justforkix as an expert in fear, the Normans kidnap him on his "flight" home so he can teach them the meaning of the concept. Their chief, the fierce Timandahaf, roars at Justforkix to make them feel fear, though paradoxically it is Justforkix who fears them. The youngster's situation is hopeless until Asterix and Obelix come to the rescue. A fight breaks out in which the Normans show no fear whatsoever in spite of the beating they get from the magic-powered Gauls, in contrast to some Romans who reluctantly get involved due to an over-enthusiastic new recruit. Timandahaf brings an end to the battle and explains to the Gauls the reasons he and his men have come and kidnapped Justforkix. In order to teach the Normans fear, Asterix sends Obelix to fetch Cacofonix while remaining behind as a hostage. But Cacofonix turns out to be missing — encouraged by Justforkix's comments and annoyed by the villagers' treatment of him, he has decided to go to Lutetia. Obelix manages to track him down, however, and to persuade him to come back to save his first real fan. Meanwhile, the Norman chief's patience runs out and he tries to force Justforkix to teach them flying by tossing him off a cliff. Just before this can be carried out, Asterix engages the Norman warriors in battle and, seeing him pressed by the Normans, Justforkix suddenly gains the courage to fight as well — albeit to no visible effect. Just in time, Obelix and Cacofonix turn up to stop the slugfest, and after some scepticism the Normans learn that Cacofonix does indeed have the ability to teach one the meaning of fear: his loud and ear-splitting singing has them scared out of their wits. After having experienced this new emotion, the Normans find out that it does not give them wings but rather shows them the true meaning of courage, something they had always taken for granted. Justforkix himself has learned the meaning of courage thoroughly, making him the pride of his uncle. The story ends with the traditional banquet, but with Cacofonix as guest of honour and Fulliautomatix tied up with rope, his ears filled with parsley. For once their roles are reversed. |
003½: The Adventures of James Bond Junior | R. D. Mascott | 1,967 | The plot follows James Bond Junior while he tries to uncover what is going on at Hazeley Hall. He and Sheelagh Smith, his "girlfriend" follow the clues of this mystery, but the information is given to the Commander of the police when James is injured. The Commander ultimately gets the credit for solving the case and threatens James if he says anything. |
Kalki | Gore Vidal | 1,978 | James J. Kelly, a former soldier in the American military, finds out that the American and Soviet governments are about to conduct tests of a new kind of neutron bomb called the model b or the nC, which will kill every living thing on the planet, leaving it uninhabitable for centuries. The American generals know the cataclysmic effects of conducting these tests but they acquiesce to the tests anyway, ignoring a report provided to the National Security Council which predicts the end of the world if six or more nCs are simultaneously exploded. Mistakenly assured that the Soviets would not explode reciprocating nCs, the generals are unwittingly about to destroy the whole world. James J. Kelly decides to save the human race through an elaborate religious hoax, declaring himself to be Kalki and announcing the end of the world. His secret plan is to kill off everyone in the world except for himself and his wife Lakshmi. These two would then be the last living human couple on the planet. They would be the Adam and Eve to a new human race, giving birth to three sons and six daughters over the next twelve years, who would then intermarry and in about two centuries, the world would be fairly well populated again. In addition to himself and his wife, Kalki decides to bring along three more people to his new world, teachers called Perfect Masters, chosen for their knowledge and the fact that they are all sterile. These three people will teach various fields of science to the new race. Teddy Ottinger will teach engineering, Geraldine O'Connor biology and genetics, and Dr. Giles Lowell medicine. Kalki's wife Lakshmi is herself a physicist, and Kalki is a chemical engineer. Shockingly, Kalki succeeds in carrying out his insane plan and the entire world dies, leaving behind only Kalki, his wife Lakshmi and the three other Perfect Masters. However, Kalki's plans go awry when Lakshmi miscarries the first baby girl and it is learnt that Lakshmi is incapable of having children with Kalki. At this point, the only other male in the group, Dr. Lowell, announces that he never had a vasectomy and is the only one now with whom Lakshmi can conceive a child. It had been his plan all along to be the one to father the new human race with Lakshmi, whom he claims to be in love with. When Dr. Lowell admits his treachery, Kalki kills him. The story ends with a bleak postscript from Kelly/Kalki, forty three years after the apocalyptic plague. In the interim period, Teddy died twenty seven years after the plague and Geraldine (Teddy's lover and Kalki's second consort) died, as has Lakshmi. Kalki has become the last human alive, and with his death, the human species will become extinct. It is implied that simians will inherit the post-apocalyptic world. |
Ilse Witch | Terry Brooks | 2,000 | It has been 130 years since the events of the Heritage of Shannara series, and the Free-born and the Federation are still at war. The story follows a quest organized by Walker Boh, the last surviving Druid. Thirty years ago, the Elven prince Kael Elessedil led an expedition in search of a legendary magic which was said to be the most ancient and powerful in the world. Thirty years later, Kael is found floating in the sea of the Blue Divide; a map is found with him, covered with mysterious symbols. Walker is the only man who can read them. But there is another: the Ilse Witch, a beautiful but twisted young woman who is as practiced in magic as Walker himself. She will stop at nothing to possess the map and the magic it leads to. To stop her, Walker must find the magic first. Thus begins the voyage of the sleek, swift airship, the Jerle Shannara. The company chosen by Walker must fly into the face of unknown terrors while the Ilse Witch and her dark allies pursue. This book marked a new era in the Shannara saga, for it was the first time that Brooks described the use of futuristic technology, including airships as well as robots and lasers from the Old World. |
The Bear that Wasn't | Frank Tashlin | null | A bear settles down for his long winter nap, and while he sleeps the progress of man continues. He wakes up to find himself in the middle of an industrial complex. He then gets mistaken by the foreman for a worker and is told to get to work. To this he responds, "But I'm not a man, I'm a bear". He is then taken to each of his successive bosses, who try to convince him that he is just a "silly man who needs a shave and wears a fur coat", reaching all the way up to an elderly president of the factory who concludes he cannot be a bear because "all bears live in the zoo". The bear is taken to the zoo, hoping to gain support from his own species, but even the zoo bears claim he is not a bear, because if he was "he'd be behind bars like us". Eventually he concludes that he must be a "silly man", and works hard at the factory to the satisfaction of the foreman and the other bosses. However, winter comes again, and he feels cold. He wishes he knew what a "silly man" would do to get warm. But in the end he finds a cave and enters, feeling comfortable and bear-like once more. As the bear is sleeping, he reflects on the events of the year, as the narrator concludes that because all the bosses and even the zoo bears disbelieved he was a bear, did not make it so. "The truth is he was not a silly man...and he was not a silly bear, either". |
Antrax | Terry Brooks | 2,001 | The voyage to find the lost magic takes the companions to the continent of Parkasia. Here, they are split up, and Walker, despite all his plans and his enormous power, finds himself caught and trapped by an unseen force, a supercomputer built by the ancient humans. Antrax was created to store data and information from its time and it is given a duty, an order to protect the information that it holds. However, when the Great War broke out, the last of its creators returned, and gave Antrax its final task: protect the information at all costs, no matter what the price. Antrax then began to build its own arsenal of defence mechanisms: lasers and Creepers. Above Castledown, the crew of the Jerle Shannara find themselves besieged by evil forces, and the Ilse Witch confronts the Druid's protégé, Bek Ohmsford, who claims that she is actually Grianne Ohmsford, and that he is the brother she last saw as an infant - now a young man who carries the Sword of Shannara and wields the magic of the wishsong. Meanwhile, Walker realises that the 'magic' they have been searching for is actually the science of the Old World, stored on Antrax, which could be used to rebuild society with new technology. But there is no practical way to access this information, so Walker chooses to destroy the power-hungry computer, which is quickly becoming a danger to the whole world. However, he is mortally wounded in the process. He dies soon after. It is believed that Antrax was in fact initially known as Oronyx Experimental and appears in The Elves of Cintra. |
Morgawr | Terry Brooks | 2,002 | The Morgawr is a centuries-old sorcerer of unimaginable might, who feeds upon the souls of his enemies. With a fleet of airships and a crew of walking dead men at his command, he is in relentless pursuit of the Jerle Shannara. His goal is twofold: to find and control the fabled 'magic' of Parkasia, and to destroy the Ilse Witch (his disciple) to keep her from using the magic to destroy him. But she has already paid a heavy price for her actions. When Walker Boh persuades the witch to use the Sword of Shannara, she is exposed to its awesome power and forced to confront the truth of her horrifying deeds as the Ilse Witch, causing her to flee deep into her own mind. She has only one protector: her brother Bek, who is determined to redeem her. He does this, and they use their combined magic to destroy the Morgawr. They go home to the Four Lands. But rather than going home with Bek, Grianne Ohmsford will be going now to Paranor, for Walker charged her with a very important task before he died: she is to foster a new Druid order. |
Weetzie Bat | Francesca Lia Block | null | Weetzie is growing up in L.A. with her mother while her father has moved to New York. She does not like school and tends to avoid making friends until she meets Dirk, the “best-looking guy” in her school, who soon admits that he is gay. They become best friends and often visit Fifi, Dirk’s grandmother. The two friends enjoy "duck-hunting," their term for hunting for boyfriends. Fifi presents Weetzie with a lamp, which contains a genie who promises her three wishes. Weetzie wishes "for a Duck for Dirk, and My Secret Agent Lover Man for me, and a beautiful little house for us to live in happily ever after." She quickly receives a call from Dirk, informing her of Fifi's sudden death, and that Fifi left them her cottage in her will. Dirk soon meets his own "duck", Duck, who moves in with them. Weetzie meets a film director, who introduces himself as "My Secret Agent Lover Man," and requests that she be in one of his films. He comes to see her at work every day, until she finally agrees to his requests. He, too, moves into the house. Things go smoothly until Weetzie announces her desire for a baby. My Secret Agent Lover Man refuses, declaring that the world is too evil to bring more people into it. Dirk and Duck secretly make a pact to get Weetzie pregnant. When My Secret Agent Lover Man learns of their plot and discovers that Weetzie is indeed pregnant, he walks out on them, infuriated by the deception. Weetzie gives birth to a tiny baby girl, Cherokee. My Secret Agent Lover Man returns. Although they are still unsure of the baby's true father, he treats the baby as his own, and he is welcomed back into the family. This peace does not last for long. A strange woman (whom we learn to be a witch) comes to their door, demanding to see "Max" (My Secret Agent Lover Man). He explains that they had been sexual partners during his separation from Weetzie, and that the witch now bears his child. The witch demands money from him for an abortion. The witch does not follow through with this, and leaves her baby on their doorstep, along with voodoo dolls of Weetzie and My Secret Agent Lover Man. While he does not want to keep the child, Weetzie insists that they do so, naming her Witch Baby to settle the matter. While on a night out, the little party notices Christmas decorations set up for a film. Weetzie remarks that it looks like "Shangri-L.A.", providing My Secret Agent Lover Man with his next film. As they progress through the filming (taking place in a surreal alternate reality), they realize that they do not yet have an ending for it. They convince Weetzie to ask her father's opinion, and so she flies to New York with her daughter for a visit. The three tour the city, all the while discussing Charlie's failing health, and the estranged relationship he has with his ex-wife. Weetzie pleads with him to return but he refuses and dies a few days later. They dedicate Shangri-L.A., with his ending, to his memory. One day, Duck comes home crying, locking himself in his room, and refusing to confide even in Dirk. They discover him missing the next morning. He has left a note saying that his friend Bam-Bam is dying (most likely of AIDS), implying that he will never return. The devastated Dirk leaves on a search for his lover, which leads him to San Francisco. Upon meeting once again, they become fully aware of how much they truly mean to one another. They return home the next morning to find their family waiting for them with open arms. Weetzie reflects on their life together, and decides that while "happily ever after" may be the ideal, she is perfectly contented with "happily." |
Oms en Série | Stefan Wul | null | The story, set in the far future, deals with Oms (a play on the French word "hommes," meaning "men"), tiny people from Terre (French for "Earth"), who have been brought by the giant Draags to their home planet, Ygam. Some Oms are domesticated as pets, but others run wild in parks, and are exterminated every 2 Draag years (1 Draag day being roughly equivalent to 45 Earth days). The Draags' treatment of the Oms is ironically contrasted with their high level of technological and spiritual development. The protagonist is a domesticated Om named Terr (short for "terrible") who runs away and joins a group of wild Oms. He has learned some of the Draags' scientific knowledge while in captivity, and uses this to forge a new, equal relationship with the Draags. fr:Oms en série |
North and South | Elizabeth Gaskell | 1,855 | Margaret Hale, 19, happily returns home from London to the idyllic southern village of Helstone after her cousin Edith marries Captain Lennox. She lived nearly 10 years in the city with Edith and wealthy Aunt Shaw to learn to be an accomplished young lady. Margaret, herself, has refused a marriage offer from the captain's brother, Henry, a rising barrister. But her life is turned upside down when her father, the pastor, leaves the Church of England and the rectory of Helstone as a matter of conscience—his intellectual honesty having made him a dissenter. On the suggestion of his old friend from Oxford, Mr. Bell, he settles with his wife and daughter in Milton-Northern, where Mr. Bell was born and owns property. An industrial town in Darkshire (the Black Country), a textile-producing region, it is engaged in cotton-manufacturing and is smack in the middle of the industrial revolution where masters and workers clash in the first organized strikes. Margaret finds the bustling, smoky town of Milton harsh and strange and she is upset by the poverty all around. Mr. Hale, in reduced financial circumstances, works as a tutor and counts as his pupil the rich and influential manufacturer, Mr. John Thornton, master of Marlborough Mills. From the outset, Margaret and Thornton are at odds with each other: She sees him as coarse and unfeeling; he sees her as haughty. But he is attracted to her beauty and self-assurance and she begins to admire how he has lifted himself from poverty. During the 18 months she spends in Milton, Margaret gradually learns to appreciate the city and its hard-working people, especially Nicholas Higgins, a Workers’ Union representative, and his daughter Bessy with whom she develops a friendship. Bessy is consumptive from inhalation of cotton dust and she eventually dies from it. Meantime, Margaret's mother is growing more seriously ill and a workers' strike is brewing. Masters and hands (workers) do not reach a resolution on the strike and an incensed mob of workers threatens Thornton and his factory with violence after he brought Irish workers in to his mill. Margaret implores Thornton to intervene and talk to the mob but he manages merely to fuel their anger. Margaret intervenes too and is struck down by a stone. Soldiers arrive, the mob disperses and Thornton carries Margaret indoors, professing his love to her unconscious prostrate figure. Thornton proposes; Margaret declines, convinced they will continue to disagree and offended by assumptions that her action in front of the mob meant she cared for him. Mrs. Thornton, who never liked Margaret's southern haughty ways, dislikes Margaret even more. Margaret’s long-absent brother, Frederick, wanted for naval mutiny, secretly visits their mother as she is dying. Thornton sees Margaret and Frederick together and assumes he is her lover. Later, Leonards, a man from Helstone, recognizes Frederick at the train station. An argument ensues and Frederick pushes Leonards away. Leonards dies shortly after. The police question Margaret about the scuffle: she lies and says she was not there. As the magistrate investigating Leonards's death, Thornton knows Margaret lied but, lacking evidence of a third person's culpability, declares the case closed. Nicholas, on Margaret's prodding, approaches Thornton for a job which he eventually gets. Thornton and Higgins learn to appreciate and understand each other better. Mr. Hale visits his oldest friend Mr. Bell in Oxford. There, Mr. Hale also dies and Margaret must go back to live in London with Aunt Shaw. She visits Helstone with Mr. Bell and requests him to tell Thornton about Frederick. But Mr. Bell dies before he can do so and leaves Margaret a considerable legacy that includes Marlborough Mills and the Thornton house. Thornton is forced to stop production as a result of market fluctuations and the strike. He learns the truth about Margaret's brother from Nicholas Higgins and comes to London to settle his business affairs with Margaret. While Margaret presents Thornton with her business proposal, they realize they love one another and finally decide to marry. |
I Am David | Anne Holm | 1,963 | David, a 12-year-old, has lived in a prison camp for as long as he can remember. While the people who run the camp are only referred to as them, later in the book it is stated that they came to power in 1917, indicating that the captors are Communists. His only friend in there, Johannes, died some time before, but one of the guards has been keeping an eye on David, making sure he is fed and has vitamins. This guard sets up the escape, gives him some soap, and leaves a sack outside the camp fence with bread and cheese and a compass in it. David must find a boat to Italy, then travel north to a free country that has a king. David uses the excuse that he works for a circus to explain why he is a polyglot and why he is travelling (to catch up with the circus which has gone ahead). On his way, he helps people, and sometimes they give him money. Along his journey, David discovers the beauty of the world and slowly he changes his behavior and the way he interacts with people. He saves a girl named Maria from a fire in a shed where she was trapped. David spends some time in Maria's family's house, where he sees a globe and learns about different countries. However, his knowledge of suffering and death worries the parents. David overhears them talking about him, and leaves the house to travel north again. Some time later he sees a newspaper personal advertisement aimed at him and placed by the parents, so he sends them a letter to reassure them that he is all right. David has also been praying to the God of green pastures, and a priest explains that while some people say there are many gods, there really is only one. When winter hits, he is held prisoner by a farmer who uses him for slave labour. However, this also gives him shelter until the snow melts. The farmer's dog keeps him company through the winter, and travels with him when he escapes in the spring. Later, the dog helps distract some guards so that David can sneak over the border. When he meets Sophie, an old lady that lives in Switzerland and likes to paint as hobby, she asks David if she might paint him; later she invites David to have lunch with her in her house, and while he is there, David sees a picture of a woman in Denmark. Sophie tells him that the woman's husband and child were killed by , but that one guard let the woman escape. He realises he needs to travel to Denmark and find that woman. Finally he arrives in Denmark, and traces the woman through the telephone directory. When he knocks on her door, he simply tells her "I am David", and she knows he is her long-lost son. |
Cry to Heaven | Anne Rice | 1,982 | Set in eighteenth-century Italy, Cry to Heaven focuses on two characters: peasant-born Guido Maffeo, who is castrated at the age of six to preserve his soprano voice, and fifteen-year-old Tonio Treschi, the last son of a noble family from the Republic of Venice, whose father, Andrea, is a member of the Serenissima's Council of Three. Although Guido becomes a star of the opera as a teenager, he loses his voice at eighteen, like many castrati. After a failed suicide attempt, he becomes a music teacher in the Naples conservatorio. Tonio, on the other hand, learns that his older brother, Carlo, was exiled for embarrassing the family. While Andrea attempts to cut Carlo out of the family, after his death, Carlo returns and plots to regain his original position. Revealing that Tonio is actually his illegitmate son, he has Tonio castrated, and sends him off with Guido to study in Naples. However, although everyone in Venice is inclined to believe that Carlo was behind his castration, Tonio cannot accuse him of the crime because doing so would result in the "extinction" of the Treschi family. After some soul-searching, he decides to remain in Naples and study under Guido, holding off on revenge until after Carlo and his mother (also Carlo's lover and later wife) have children to ensure the family line. Because of Tonio's almost unhuman soprano voice, Guido is roused from his depression, and takes him as a star student. Tonio progresses in his lessons extremely quickly. Guido also has Tonio perform some of his original compositions, which begin to impress audiences at the conservatorio. Tonio, for his part, struggles to come to terms with his castrato status - in his own mind, he is "less than a man." At first, he finds it difficult to even associate with his fellow castrati. As time goes on, he has a love affair with another castrati boy, Domenico, and after Domenico leaves, with Guido himself. He comes to dominate the conservatorio - in addition to being a star student, he soon befriends all the boys his age and becomes something of a leader and confidant. Also, Tonio continues his studies in fencing and firearms, which, in Guido's words, make him into a "hero" to his fellow students, especially after he kills (in self-defense) a student who vowed to kill him. Because he was raised to be a gentleman, and because he was castrated relatively later in life, he continues to act like a man, unlike the more effeminate poses of castrati boys. Despite the fact he's a castrato, even local noblemen come to respect him both as a sparring partner and a friend. However, Guido and others need to scheme to finally get Tonio out of the conservatorio and onto the stage. After his debut, Guido and Tonio travel to Rome for his premiere opera, where he gains the patronage of a powerful cardinal, Calvino, and befriends a powerful count from Florence, di Stefano. Although he is almost booed off the stage for upstaging the operatic star Bettichino, he proves a great success, and both he and Guido have a bright future in front of him. He even becomes lovers with an English noblewoman and widow, Christina, which seems to restore him to his former status. However, Tonio is unable to break free of the desire for revenge against Carlo. After having two children by Carlo, Tonio's mother, Marianna, dies. Soon afterwards—and before his Fat Tuesday opera performance—hitmen sent by Carlo try to kill him. Against the wishes of all his friends, Tonio vows to return in time for an Easter opera, then disappears. In Venice, Carlo has become a pathetic alcoholic wreck. Disguised as a woman (a trick he learned for the opera), Tonio succeeds in "seducing" his father and capturing him. Intoxicated, Carlo curses ever coming back to Venice, and even wanting to take Tonio's place, finding the city decadent and confining. Although he promises never to try and hurt Tonio again, he attempts to kill him the second he has the opportunity. In response, Tonio finally kills Carlo. He then returns to his friends, finally able to fully pursue his life. |
The Marriage of Figaro | Pierre de Beaumarchais | null | The Marriage of Figaro picks up three years following the end of The Barber of Seville as Figaro is engaged to be married to Suzanne; both characters are among the Count’s staff in his dwelling. In the three years since Figaro helped forge the marriage of the Count and Rosine, he has already grown bored with his marriage and is taking notice of Suzanne. The Count looks to re-engage the act of primae noctis, in which he would consummate the marriage with the bride-to-be prior to Figaro’s honeymoon. |
Today We Choose Faces | Roger Zelazny | 1,973 | The story is set, like many Zelazny pure-SF novels, a few centuries in the future. The narrator, a Mafia assassin named Angelo di Negri, has been revived from suspended animation by the mostly legitimate successors of the criminal organization, and given a mission to assassinate a scientist on a fortified facility on an otherwise uninhabited planet. The first part of the novel describes Negri's assault on the planet, in which he begins the attack in a heavily armed and armored space capsule, which is gradually reduced by the formidable defenses to a ground-attack vehicle, which in turn is slowly degraded until Negri abandons it to continue on foot with hand-held weapons, eventually left only with a stiletto. After he completes the job, the phone rings. This is a motif throughout the story. His victim has managed to survive even the death of his body, and tells Negri that while they were fighting, war has taken place and humanity is near extinction. Only the technology in another building can preserve the remnants. Negri locates the cache, and sets out on the next phase of his story. Despite also being in the first person, the next part of the novel appears to have nothing to do with Negri. The narrator is a member of some secret cabal scattered throughout the House, a series of artificial environments where people live, never seeing the outdoors. It seems this cabal is in charge of the House, and someone is killing the members one by one. Each death jolts the others, so they are evidently clones. (As described earlier in the novel, cloning can be accomplished, although clones have some unexplained psychic connection to each other). One of the cabal is the Nexus, the one who can interface with the computer that seems to run everything. Each time a Nexus is killed his consciousness transfers to another member. The narration passes from one Nexus to the next as the killer works his way through his list. Each one gets the memories of his predecessor at the moment of death. The House has Wings, different sections, connected by Passages, which may really be wormholes in space. Some Wings are residential, some offices, some manufacturing, some maintenance etc. There are also levels within Wings. Wing Null is where the computer is, and also where a series of pins in a circuit board represent stages in the cabal's cleansing of evil instincts and bad memories from its collective personality. This mirrors the avowed purpose of the House - to rid humanity of all the traits which brought about its downfall, so it is fit to be let loose once more. This involves occasionally removing people with undesirable characteristics, in the effort to breed a better human. The narrator has to deal with an internal demon, a voice that tries to get him to remove the most recent pin. Old memories are not entirely suppressed and manifest themselves in this way. As the menace from the killer - now known as Mr. Black, grows, the voice becomes more persistent until one by one the pins are removed, revealing more about the history of the cabal. The narrator is further dogged by a woman, whose father was forced to commit suicide by the cabal to suppress an unwanted technology, and who seems to know Mr. Black. This section of the story features running battles through offices, factories and service tunnels, as the narrator hunts and is hunted by Mr. Black. In one scene the narrator is attempting to escape through offices, and as he passes each desk the phone rings in some mocking version of the pursuit. As the pins are removed the narrator becomes a more capable hunter, and more ruthless. Finally the narrator kills Black, who dies with a smile on his face. It quickly becomes obvious why. Black is another clone, and his personality transfers to one of the cabal. The narrator fights off the transfer, but realizes that in doing so he has allowed Black to take over one of the others, who are all in Wing Null. Arriving there with the woman in tow, he finds that all but one are dead, and Black has escaped to the Outside. He has also pulled all but the last pin. In a final fight across the same blasted landscape where Negri attacked in the beginning, Black kills the narrator, but then has to deal with the inevitable transfer. Black becomes the new narrator. He was a stolen clone, but he did not remember his origins. He simply lived in the cracks in the House society, somehow being helped by an unknown party. He eventually became the cabal's nemesis, intent on opening the House and setting humanity free again. But now he is the cabal, with all their conflicting memories and motives. He has to fight his way back to Wing Null, dealing with all the old defenses again. It becomes obvious that the clones are all related to Angelo Negri. With the pulling of the final pin, Negri's personality is restored. He realizes that the House is a failure. The only thing left to do is to break open the various Wings and shut down the computer. This he does. For the last time, the phone rings. The woman answers. It is the disembodied scientist, who has been manipulating events all along. Negri tells the woman to take a message. |
El Corazón de Piedra Verde | Salvador de Madariaga | 1,942 | The book is a work of historical fiction set in the late pre-Columbian age in Mexico City and depicts the daily life of the ancient Aztec people, both the commoners (servants, traders and warriors) and the upper classes (priests, nobles, and government officials). The "Mexican" section contains a great deal of Mexican symbolism, geographical, political and religious references and historical data took from various authors like Bernal Díaz del Castillo and his book Verdadera Historia de la Conquista de la Nueva España (in English, "True History of the Conquest of New Spain"). The novel also recounts the history and development of the Manriques, a family of Spanish nobles, and details aspects of life in 15th century Spain. The Manrique family lives through major historical events, such as the reconquest of Spain by Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, the reception of Christopher Columbus twice at Torremala (the Family Settlement), news of the discovery of the Americas and the relationship between the family of Hernán Cortés and the Manriques. The two stories eventually merge with the meeting of the two main characters, Alonso Manrique and Xuchitl (the daughter of King Nezahualpilli of Texcoco, one of the three allied kingdoms that Cortés found at the time of his arrival). The Mexican set of characters struggles with love, pain, pride and hate with the Spanish group of characters during the conquest of Mexico (1519-1521) by Hernán Cortés, the fall and complete destruction of Tenochtitlan and its satellite kingdoms, and the emergence of a new nation, New Spain (now modern Mexico) out of the meeting of two great cultures: the Spanish heritage (with old Visigoth, Jewish, Moorish and Catholic roots) and the ancient native Mexican traditions (like the Olmecs, Mayans, and Toltecs). The novel deals with the "conflict between two worlds": Christian Europe and Aztec America. Both civilizations are represented by equally-committed proponents: Alonso Manrique (Europe) and Itzcauatzin (America). Both characters are soldiers and priests (symbolizing nationalism and faith). Alonso started as a priest and later became a warrior; Itzcauatzin entered an academy (Calmecac) that prepared him for both. Caught in between is Xuchitl, the Aztec princess. Whoever wins her wins the future of the Aztec civilization. Xuchitl identifies the winner by giving him the Aztec talisman known as "el corazon de piedra verde" ("the green stone heart"). This talisman was worn by her father and represents the mystic powers of the Aztec religion. Alonso won, signifying the beginning of the Christianization of Mexico. Itzcauatzin gives his life as a human sacrifice vainly trying to add enough power to the traditional religion to overcome the Europeans. In the end, Alonso and Xuchitl have a son and return to Mexico from Spain. They bring the jade heart with them, but with the Virgin Mary etched on it to counteract the stone's original powers. The novel was the first of an intended five novels —each covering a century (XVI-XX)— tracking the creation of modern Mexico through the descendants of Alonso and Xuchitl. However, only four novels were finished before Salvador de Madariaga died. no:Det magiske hjertet es:El_coraz%C3%B3n_de_piedra_verde |
Blockade | Derek Hansen | null | The protagonist is Miklos Bollok, a logging company owner who uses corrupt politicians to clear-fell the last remaining wilderness in Victoria, Australia. He is stymied by a direct action campaign by conservationists. His downfall also comes about by a dark secret that is made public by his wife. |
Bellwether | Connie Willis | 1,996 | The main character, Dr. Sandra Foster, studies fads in Boulder, Colorado. Her employer, Hi-Tek, wants to know how to predict fads, in order to take advantage of this knowledge and thus to possibly create one. While Dr. Foster is extensively researching and analysing fads, Hi-Tek itself is swept by management fads. In addition, the Management wants one of its employees to win the mysterious Niebnitz Research Grant (the fictitious award is very similar to the MacArthur Fellowship's Genius Grant). Meanwhile, the employees struggle with chaos created by the administrative assistant from Hell. Willis uses humor to come to an unsettling conclusion. |
The Buddha of Suburbia | Hanif Kureishi | 1,990 | The Buddha of Suburbia is said to be very autobiographical. It is about Karim, a mixed-race teenager, who is desperate to escape suburban South London and make new experiences in London in the 1970s. Gladly, he takes the unlikely opportunity when a life in the theatre announces itself. When there is nothing left for him to do in London, he stays in New York for ten months. Returning to London, he takes on a part in a TV soap opera and the book leaves its reader on the verge of Thatcherism. The suburbs are "a leaving place" from which Kureishi's characters must move away. To Karim, London—even though it is geographically not far away from his home—seems like a completely different world. Therefore his expectations of the city are great. In The Buddha the move into (and later through) the city is like an odyssey or pilgrimage. On the first page Karim introduces himself as follows: "My name is Karim Amir, and I am an Englishman born and bred, almost". This motif is reinforced throughout the novel. Pop music is an important theme in Kureishi's novels. One could even say that his novels have a soundtrack. London itself is associated by Karim to a sound. "There was a sound that London had. It was, I'm afraid, people in Hyde Park playing bongos with their hands; there was also the keyboard on The Doors' "Light My Fire". There were kids in velvet cloaks who lived free lives". Through his work with two theatre companies, Karim gets to know new people from completely different backgrounds, like the working-class Welshman Terry who is an active Trotskyist and wants him to join the party, or Karim's lover Eleanor who is upper middle-class but pretends to be working-class. Through the latter group of people, surrounding Eleanor or Pyke (a strange theatre director), he realises that they are speaking a different language, because they received a good education, which was not valuable in the suburbs. In The Buddha other characters and their struggle to make it in London are described, too. Kureishi portrays Eva, as a social climber at war with the city: "Eva was planning her assault on London. […] she was not ignored by London once she started her assault. She was climbing ever higher, day by day. […] As Eva started to take London, moving forward over the foreign fields of Islington, Chiswick and Wandsworth inch by inch, party by party, contact by contact". Later in the novel the main character's father (an Indian immigrant, a boring bureaucrat living with his family in a grey London suburb) is suddenly discovered by the London high society, that is hungry for exotic distractions, and so he becomes their Buddha-like guru, though he himself does not believe in this role. His son does not believe in him either and, at the same time, has his first erotic experiences. Within the problems of prejudice and racism lies one of the themes of initiation novels: the question of identity. Furthermore, London seems to be the perfect setting for the protagonists' "often painful growth towards maturity through a range of conflicts and dilemmas, social, sexual and political." (Bart Moore-Gilbert, 2001, 113) These characterisations mark Kureishi's novels as examples of Bildungsromane and novels of initiation. Even though The Buddha is set in the 1970s and ends just before the Thatcher era begins, Kureishi was writing it under the direct influence of the outcome of Thatcherism. It is not surprising then, looking back, that he can see the roots of conservatism already in the '70s. |
Tribulations of a Chinaman in China | Jules Verne | 1,879 | Kin-Fo is a very wealthy man, who certainly does not lack material possessions. However, he is terribly bored and when news reaches him about his major investment abroad, a bank in the United States, going bankrupt, Kin-Fo decides to die. He signs up for a $200,000 life insurance covering all kinds of accidents, death in war, and even suicide. He rejects seppuku and hanging as means of dying, and is about to take opium laced with poison when he decides that he doesn't want to die without having ever felt a thrill in his life. Kin-Fo hires his old mentor, the philosopher Wang, to murder him before the life insurance expires. After a while news reaches Kin-Fo that the American bank he had invested in was not bankrupt, but instead had pulled off a stock market trick and is now wealthier than ever. Unfortunately, Wang has already disappeared. Together with two body guards assigned by the insurance company, and his loyal but lazy and incompetent servant Soun, Kin-Fo travels around the country in an effort to run away from Wang and the humiliation from the affair. One day he receives a message from Wang, stating that he can't stand the pain of having to kill one of his friends, and instead decided to take his own life while giving the task of killing Kin-Fo to a bandit he once knew. Kin-Fo, Soun and the two bodyguards now try to get to the bandit, planning to offer money in return for his life. The ship they travel with is hijacked, and they are forced to use their life vests with built-in sails to return to land. After being kidnapped by the bandit they were looking for, they are blindfolded and returned to Kin-Fo's home, where his old friends (including Wang, who we now find out staged this entire history to teach him a lesson about how valuable life is) are waiting for him. He marries a young, beautiful woman and they live happily forever after. |
Noon: 22nd Century | Boris Strugatsky | null | The book is a collection of short stories describing various aspects of human life on Earth in the 22nd century. The plots of the stories are not closely connected, but they feature a shared set of characters. The most commonly recurring characters are Evgeny Slavin and Sergei Kondratev, who, as a result of a lengthy journey through interstellar space at near the speed of light, are thrown over a century into the future and must re-integrate into the society of their great-grandchildren. The book includes the following stories: #Night on Mars - Two doctors walk on foot on Mars after their vehicle was lost in quicksand. They must avoid an encounter with a local wild beast, while hurrying to assist in the delivery of Evgeny Slavin, the first human born on Mars. (This apparently takes place in the late 20th century.) #Almost the Same - Sergei Kondratev as a young man in flight school. #Old-timer - The photon engine-driven spaceship "Taimyr" mysteriously returns to Earth after having disappeared a century earlier. Kondratev and Slavin are the only survivors. #The Conspirators - Schoolchildren Pol Gnedykh, Aleksandr "Lin" Kostylin, Mikhail Sidorov, and Gennady Komov plan and dream about their futures. #Chronicle - A scientific report giving an analysis of the disappearance and reappearance of the Taimyr. #Two from the Taimyr - Kondratev and Slavin recuperate from their wounds after the crash of the Taimyr, and begin to investigate the Earth of the future to which they have returned. #The Moving Roads - Kondratev explores Earth on a global system of moving roadways. #Cornucopia - Slavin attempts to adjust to the domestic technology of the future. #Homecoming - Kondratev encounters Leonid Gorbovsky, and decides to take a job in oceanography. #Langour of the Spirit - Gnedykh and Kostylin reconnect after many years apart. #The Assaultmen - Gorbovsky tours the artificial satellites of Vladislava, and journeys to the surface with Sidorov and Ryu Waseda. #Deep Search - Kondratev and oceanographer Akiko Okada hunt giant squid on a deep sea expedition. #The Mystery of the Hind Leg - Slavin encounters the Collector of Dispersed Data project. #Candles Before the Control Board - Okada (now married to Kondratev) tries to visit her dying father, the subject of the Great Encoding #Natural Science in the Spirit World - Espers assist the Institute of Space Physics in an effort to explain the Taimyr disappearance and reappearance. #Pilgrims and Wayfarers - Gorbovsky discusses the "Voice of the Void" and other mysteries, and the philosophy of space exploration. #The Planet with all the Conveniences - Komov, Waseda, and others explore the planet Leonida and make brief contact with the Leoniders. #Defeat - Sidorov tests prototype colonization devices in a remote area on Earth. #The Meeting - Gnedykh and Kostylin again meet after a long separation, and Gnedykh regrets his accidental killing of an alien creature who may have been sentient. #What You Will Be Like - Kondratev, Slavin, and Gorbovsky explore Tagora. Kondratev and Slavin discuss the progress and stagnation of humanity over their long lifespan, and Gorbovsky tells a fantastic story about his encounter with a visitor from the future. |
World's End | Upton Sinclair, Jr. | 1,940 | Lanny Budd is a teenage student at a private school in Germany for music and dance. Budd, born in Switzerland, is the grandson of the president of Budd Gunmakers in New England. His parents are American born: his father is the European sales representative, and his mother, his father's former mistress, is supported in grand style on the French Riviera. The story follows Lanny Budd, his English schoolmate Rick, and his German friend Kurt through World War I. In the aftermath, Budd joins the staff of the U.S. delegation for the negotiation of the Treaty of Versailles. The plot and characters are developed to reveal historical facts as well as the ideological tensions at the time. Budd was troubled by knowing his two closest friends were involved on opposite sides of the major war. Later he was disturbed by what he considered the failure of the negotiations at Versailles to get past the bitterness of the French and British people against Germany. |
An Instance of the Fingerpost | Iain Pears | 1,997 | A murder in 17th-century Oxford is related from the contradictory points of view of four of the characters, all of them unreliable narrators. The setting of the novel is 1663, just after the restoration of the monarchy following the English Civil War, when the authority of King Charles II is not yet settled, and conspiracies abound. Most of the characters are historical figures. Two of the narrators are the mathematician John Wallis and the historian Anthony Wood. Other characters include the philosopher John Locke, the scientists Robert Boyle and Richard Lower, spymaster John Thurloe, and inventor Samuel Morland. The plot is at first centred on the death of Robert Grove but later takes in the conspiracies of John Mordaunt and William Compton (of Compton Wynyates), and the politics of Henry Bennet and Lord Clarendon. Furthermore, the characters that are fictional are nonetheless drawn from real events. The story of Sarah Blundy incorporates that of Anne Greene, while Jack Prestcott is involved in events based on the life of Richard Willis (of the Sealed Knot). The book is an epistolary novel. The accounts are written many years after the events they describe, after Thomas Ken gained his Bishopric but before the death of Henry Bennet. This dates them to 1685, the last year of Charles' reign. A contrast portrayed in the novel is, on one hand, a philosophy based on ancient and medieval learning, and, on the other, the scientific method that was beginning to be applied in physics, chemistry and medicine. |
Wonderful Fool | null | null | One day Takamori, a young man living with his mother and dominant younger sister Tomoe, receives a letter from Singapore. After a while they manage to decipher the unusually poor Japanese, and figure out that Gaston Bonaparte, a man who used to be a pen friend of Takamori during his school days, will soon arrive in Japan. On the expected day, they find the poorly dressed Gaston (a striking contrast to his more famous relative, in the eyes of his Japanese hosts) in the cheapest class, deep down in the ship. Gaston immediately befriends a stray dog (who he initially calls 犬さん - Mr. Dog, but later renames Napoleon), who is to follow him for most of the story but they is eventually captured by the dog catcher and killed. After staying a few days at Takamori and Tomoe's home, Gaston decides to carry on his mysterious mission in Japan. He ends up checking into a Love hotel in Shibuya with his dog, attracting some strange looks from the owner. During the night Gaston manages to help a thieving prostitute escape (although mostly due to misunderstanding the situation), which gets him kicked out of the hotel in the middle of the night. but she gets him food and puts him in contact with an old fortune teller, who makes Gaston his assistant. Soon Gaston is kidnapped by a gangster planning to murder two old army officers for revenge. Gaston tries to talk the man, Endo, out of his violent plans. When this doesn't work, he simply steals the bullets from Endo's gun, thus making the victim able to run away. Endo knocks Gaston out and flees, but Gaston manages to track the next victim down, and outside his house he finds Endo once again. The former is not overly happy to see him, but figures that he could use some help with digging up some silver that the army officer stole during the war. In the mountain swamp where the treasure is supposed to be located, Endo and the army officer get into a fight. Gaston gets between them, saving the life of Endo, who is later found by a fisherman and rushed to a hospital. Gaston disappears and is never found again. |
Escape Attempt | Boris Strugatsky | null | The novel tells a story of two young men from Earth, Anton and Vadim, who decide to go for a trip to Pandora, but are persuaded rather to travel to an uncharted planet by a mysterious man whom they know as Saul Repnin. Their choice is an unnamed planet in EN-7031 system, because that's where Gorbovsky and Bader predicted that Wanderers' traces could be found. After landing successfully on the planet (which they named Saula after Repnin), the explorers soon discover a local human civilization, as well as the predicted Wanderers' traces. The latter appear as a phenomenon later called "everlasting machines" and largely influence the entire local population. Despite the fact that it is strictly forbidden for them to initiate a contact with any human or alien civilization without an authorization from COMCON, they try to do just this - and fail, having misinterpreted the situation. What they see as catastrophic is just a routine life in an early feudalistic society of Saula. Saul Repnin, who, as it was later uncovered, was a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp but shifted into the future (s.c. time guest), is so shocked to see a local civilization (even though it's not the Earth's one) commit just the same cruelties he saw in his time, that it causes a severe psychological crisis in him. Anton and Vadim decide that it's the best to leave the planet immediately and after they arrive back on Earth, they discover that Saul has disappeared, leaving a short note, which partly explains who he was and that he wants to go back. Saul Repnin was killed soon after he returned to his time. |
Hornblower in the West Indies | C. S. Forester | 1,957 | Hornblower raises his flag in the schooner HMS Crab and pays a courtesy call at New Orleans. There, he learns of a plot by Napoleon's most loyal followers to liberate him from his exile on the isolated island of St Helena. Hornblower intercepts their ship, the Daring, but is powerless to stop them by force; with no other choice, he lies to their leader, Count Cambronne, telling him that Napoleon has died. When he returns to port, he learns to his astonishment and relief that his lie was the truth. While attempting to suppress the slave trade HMS Clorinda, the vessel carrying Hornblower's flag, follows a faster slave ship, the Estrella del Sur, into a Puerto Rican port. Hornblower figures out a way to disable the slave ship, so that when it leaves port, the Clorinda will be able to catch it. Hornblower, characteristically, outsmarts his subordinate, the dim-witted, pompous Captain Fell of the Clorinda to the point he thinks the sabotage plan was his idea. Pirates kidnap Hornblower and his young secretary Spendlove and take them to their hideout near Montego Bay. Hornblower escapes, and makes use of mortars again to reduce their hideout. Forester takes artistic license with the geography of Jamaica. Hornblower is visited by a rich young wool merchant, named Ramsbottom, one of the very first millionaires. The young man is on a tour of the Caribbean in his yacht, a converted ex-Royal Navy brig-sloop, the Bride of Abydos. Hornblower tours Ramsbottom's yacht during a dinner party on board. Ramsbottom explains his interest in Latin America by saying that he has a Venezuelan mother. He is cautioned to stay away from the South American coast, which is in a state of rebellion against Spain. It turns out, however, that Ramsbottom, far from being a tourist, is dedicated to helping Spain's South American colonies to achieve their independence. While Hornblower and his squadron are conveniently away on manoeuvres, Ramsbottom, by pretending that his yacht is the Desperate, a Royal Navy brig enforcing a (bogus) blockade, captures the Helmond, an unsuspecting Dutch transport, and secures the Spanish artillery train forming its cargo. Hornblower hears the news on his return from manoeuvres and goes to investigate. He finds Ramsbottom's ship, empty, accompanied by the Helmond, anchored off the coast of Venezuela. The captured cannons have been instrumental in the defeat of the Spanish forces. Hornblower secures Bride of Abydos just before the arrival of a Spanish and a Dutch frigate, from where Spanish and Dutch naval officers swiftly arrive to demand its surrender. Hornblower by verbal trickery manages to avoid both surrendering the Bride of Abydos and starting a war. Hornblower's wife Barbara comes out to Jamaica for Hornblower's final days as Commander in Chief, and to accompany him home. On the voyage back, they endure a hurricane and shipwreck. In the middle of the hurricane, Barbara drops her final wall of reserve as she assures him she has never loved another man. sv:Hornblower i Västindien |
Sky Coyote | Kage Baker | 1,999 | Joseph's latest role is that of Sky Coyote, the trickster, the foolish one, the animal god of many Native American traditions. He will play it for the Chumash, a tribe in California in the late 17th century. His job is to persuade the village of Humashup to give up their entire lifestyle, which the Company will take and "preserve," while the Chumash are shipped out to work in a Company facility. The Spanish are coming soon, and the Chumash culture will be wiped out along with all the others. Of course, Joseph can't do this alone. He assembles a small army of his kind, including the erratic and moody botanist Mendoza, whom he occasionally regrets recruiting in 16th century Spain; the anthropologist and former Babylonian Imarte; who is not averse to bedding her subjects to get more data; and many other specialists. Joseph is the Master of Ceremonies, however. He's also wearing a lot of non-standard equipment to turn him into a cavorting, fast talking (and priapic) god. The Chumash turn out to be, well, ordinary. Superb craftsmen, their lives revolve around work, festivals, religion, festivals, getting ahead, and festivals. They may not have churches and boys clubs, but the kantap fills the same needs. The guilds make sure that everybody gets what they need and pays handsomely for it. Oily salesmen try to make their percentage any way they can. Joseph is a little surprised to learn that they are so worldly, and they are quite surprised that he, well, exists. However Joseph spins his tale with his usual skill and pulls off the job. There are snags, but not the usual kind. For a start, actual 24th century Company operatives have come back to supervise. They are disgusted that the cyborgs eat meat, drink alcohol and consume other stimulants banned in their era. The cyborgs are not too impressed with the childish, phobia-ridden operatives either, but a job is a job. Mendoza starts her feud with Imarte, which continues in the next installment. There is a messianic religion encroaching on Chumash territory. This gets Joseph's hackles up. Nature throws in an earthquake or two. The Chumash go to their reward, the Company gets all the valuable information and samples it needs to sell to the rich and not-so-smart in the 24th century, and Joseph is left with a nagging doubt. For one thing, why does nobody know what happens after 2355, even though all history is available to the cyborgs up to that point? And why do cyborgs who talk too much about this tend to get suddenly re-assigned? Why do the 24th century people seem so cowardly and stupid? Didn't they go all the way back to 30,000 BC to start the ball rolling? Or was it 40,000? Nobody is quite sure. However, Joseph is mostly satisfied, but unfulfilled and, at his core, unhappy. Mendoza has been released to wander the redwood forest, a dream task for the botanist. Joseph believes that in 1923 he saw her with a mortal she fell for in Tudor England, but that story is not completed in this volume. Joseph has more or less adopted Mendoza as his daughter, though he cannot admit it. By the end of the book he has become a 20th century Hollywood studio executive, hiding artifacts of the era for the Company. |
To Reign in Hell: The Exile of Khan Noonien Singh | Greg Cox | 2,006 | The book begins with Khan, Lt. Marla McGivers, and most of the other supermen and women that had been with him on the SS Botany Bay arriving on the planet Ceti Alpha V. Khan is given supplies and a phaser and begins to build a colony on the planet. Khan is challenged several times by his fellow supermen, but remains in control for the most part. Some time after arriving, the next planet in the Ceti Alpha system, Ceti Alpha VI, explodes and disrupts the orbit of Ceti Alpha V. This causes major climate changes and loss of plant and animal life. Khan and the supermen take refuge underground and Khan waits for Kirk to arrive and rescue him and his followers from the hell that has become of the planet. After more time passes, several supermen do not wish to follow Khan any longer and try to assassinate Khan by placing a Ceti Eel in Marla McGivers' ear. This bizarre creature causes her to do whatever is commanded of her, and the men order her to kill Khan. Marla's love for Khan allows her to resist enough to instead kill herself. The eel emerges from her ear after her death and Khan sees the reason why she died. After the failed assassination, the rebels leave the underground and form a new faction on the planet, taking control of the vital hot springs that provide the only water on the planet. Khan then battles them, losing many men and women, but winning in the end. At the end of the novel a few years later, Khan sees two men in space suits materialize on the planet's surface. Throughout the novel, Khan blames his hardships on James Kirk for stranding him on the planet and never checking on him again. |
Far Rainbow | Arkady Strugatsky | null | The novel tells the story of the Rainbow catastrophe of 2156. It starts very simple, as a Wave observer Robert Sklyarov notices an unusually persistent Wave and reports it to the Capital (the only city on the scientists' planet). Simultaneously, Camill (the last remaining of "the Baker's Dozen") appears at his observation tower and tells him to leave it and fly south immediately. Sklyarov refuses to leave precious ulmotrons behind and urges Camill for help but when the wind front preceding the Wave strikes, the falling machinery seemingly kills Camill. Terrified Sklyarov flees south. Back in the Capital, everything is still quiet. Leonid Gorbovsky, whose Tariel II has delivered scientific equipment to Rainbow, pays a visit to Matvei Vyazanitsyn, the general director of the planet, then returns to his ship, when the ominous news come. Camill contacts (via videophone) the nearest scientist village and issues a warning that the Wave Sklyarov saw is closely followed by another one of a new type. According to him, it cannot be stopped like the ones before and therefore the Rainbow world council must begin the evacuation of the planet immediately. At this moment the Wave reaches Camill's observation tower and he dies once again. Soon enough it becomes clear that humans cannot hold the new Wave back and an order to gather the entire population in the Capital is issued. Robert Sklyarov witnesses the Wave destroying semi-automatic charybdis and tries to pilot one manually to give his friends time to flee. In the end, his charybdis is destroyed, too, but Sklyarov manages to escape and sets off (on a flier) for the Children Village, where his fiancée, Tatiana Turchina, works as a governess. He finds the Village already empty but on the way to the Capital, he locates a crashed aerobus that was carrying some of the children from the Village as well as Turchina herself. Having to choose whom to take with him (his flier can only carry two people), Sklyarov decides for his fiancée even though he knows that she would hate him for leaving the children behind. Meanwhile in the Capital, the situation is close to panic. Everyone knows by now that Gorbovsky's Tariel II cannot take them all to space and that the nearest to Rainbow spaceship that can won't make it in time. Plans like burrowing a huge underground cave under the Capital to hide from the Wave, or jumping over it, or diving under it (in the southern ocean) are desperately developed. At this time, Gorbovsky announces that only the children will we transported onto the orbit on Tariel II, but everyone agrees that this is the best choice. Afterwards a crowd of scientists approaches him and asks to take some of their documentation on board, since they consider it too valuable to be sent directly into space with mini-rockets. And in the very last moment, Gorbovsky refuses to board his ship, leaving his first mate in charge and making even more space for the children and documentation. Tariel lifts off when the Waves (both northern and southern) are a few kilometers away from the Capital. Shortly before the two reach it, Gorbovsky, Camill, Sklyarov and Turchina sit on the beach not far from the city and watch a team of null-T-testers float their blind team-mate toward the southern Wave, while he is playing a song on the banjo. |
Almost Transparent Blue | Ryu Murakami | null | Narrated by the main character Ryū (possibly Ryū Murakami himself) the novel focuses on his small group of young friends in the mid-1970s. Living in a Japanese town with an American air force base, their lives revolve around sex, drugs and rock 'n roll. The near-plotless story weaves a vividly raw image intensive journey through the daily monotony of drug-induced hallucinations, vicious acts of violence, overdoses, suicide, and group sex. |
Mendoza in Hollywood | Kage Baker | 2,000 | As the novel opens, Mendoza is walking through incessant rain in the hills above old Los Angeles. It is winter, 1862, and to the east America is at war with itself. For over 150 years she has lived wild in the Pacific coast forest, collecting and cataloging plant species, and rarely interacting with anybody else, human or cyborg. This suits her fine, and she resents being commanded down to Cahuenga Pass for a special mission. As usual, however, she wants to be a "good little machine". She already knows what the mission is. The rain will be followed by a long drought, and there will be much to be preserved, which would otherwise be lost. What the drought cannot eradicate, starving cattle will. Meanwhile, smallpox will reduce the local population, especially the Native Americans. Arriving at the Inn at the pass, she quickly meets her fellow cyborgs, the Facilitator Porfirio, Anthropologist Oscar, Zoologist Einar, Ornithologist Juan Bautista, and the Anthropologist Imarte, with whom she renews her ongoing feud. With all the traffic passing by, the Inn is a perfect cover for Company research and other work. However, when Mendoza arrives, the main problem is lighting a fire to cook dinner, given that everything is soaked by the rain. Mendoza's first night is a rough one, as she dreams incessantly of Nicholas Harpole, her lover in 16th century England, who was burned at the stake. She is woken by Porfirio, who tells her she has been blasting the place with "Crome radiation", the blue radiance of psychic activity. She dismisses his concerns, but worries about this sudden resurgence of her previous troubles. Later, she is led into the hills by Einar, to collect samples in the "Temperate Belt" which will be severely affected by the drought. This just happens to follow the future path of Sunset Boulevard. Along the way, Einar has to kill one of the locals. The hills are infested with bandits, crazy pioneers and other mortals likely to shoot first and warn later. Mendoza is shocked - cyborgs are programmed to run from danger and not harm mortals. Einar informs her that the rules are different here. She is even given a Navy pistol to use if necessary. The Inn's inhabitants pass the time with movies supplied by the Company. In one chapter, we get a long and reverent description of them watching D.W. Griffith's Intolerance, with Einar as Chorus describing every scene. Since Imarte was actually alive in Babylon, one of the movie's famous settings, we hear much about what life was really like. Everything is thrown into tumult, however, when Mendoza decides to forage in Laurel Canyon. The place is known to be saturated with Crome radiation from a bizarre underground quartz formation. It is this which will attract so many unusual people to the site in the 20th century, and give rise to many of the underground stories of Hollywood. Despite precautions and a lot of very futuristic equipment, Mendoza and Einar suddenly find themselves thrown forward in time to 1996. Mendoza the botanist is suddenly in urban LA, where the soil is concrete and the major life form is the automobile. Staggering up to a Company safe house whose future location they know, they are hastily taken inside by the staff, who have been expecting this event. Horses and all, they are placed in a Time Transfer chamber for return to their own time, but at the last minute Mendoza sees the cyborg Lewis enter the building. Lewis had befriended Mendoza at the facility New World One and she suspected he was in love with her. Lewis makes an attempt to talk to Mendoza, and tries to warn her "Don't go with him!". She has no idea what he means, and in any case, the transfer takes place before any more can be said. Returning to the Inn, short one horse which died from the Transfer, Mendoza confronts Porfirio. He must have known what was going to happen to her. He grudgingly admits he knew something, but was just told to let it happen. He also knew only what he needed to know, and nothing more. The drought starts to bite, and Mendoza is going further and further around the bend. Her lover haunts her dreams every night, and the resulting Crome's radiation provides nocturnal fireworks for her colleagues. She can no longer do any real work. Then one of Imarte's clients leaves behind a briefcase with amazing documents in it. They seem to relate to a British plot to exploit the disarray in the United States and take over the Channel Islands, specifically Santa Catalina. From there, a few well-armed ships could control the seas of Western North America. Imarte records all the papers and heads for San Francisco to do more research. All the others are called away also, except for Mendoza and Juan Bautista, who has finally allowed his pets to be shipped out with all the other biological samples. At this point, Mendoza is astonished by the arrival of her ex-lover, Nicholas Harpole, except that he does not recognize her and goes by the name of Edward Alton Bell-Fairfax, an Englishman with mysterious intentions. Mistaking her for Imarte's assistant, he requests the usual service. Mendoza eagerly complies. Soon Edward reveals he has come for the briefcase. However he is also intrigued by Mendoza, who shows sexual sophistication despite being virgo intacta - apparently the healing capability of the cyborg physiology has gone to extremes in her. She is able to persuade him to take her away, as she will enable him to avoid U.S. agents hot on his trail as he goes to meet his fellow conspirators. Once more Mendoza embarks on an idyll, as they trek to San Pedro, and then to Santa Catalina, where a mysterious sailing ship awaits. Edward starts to show unexpected abilities, especially in being aware of things that humans usually cannot perceive. But then the ship turns out to be a trap, set by the Pinkertons. Edward is killed while disposing of the incriminating documents, and Mendoza finally snaps. She goes into overdrive, killing all the agents. When the British finally show up, she throws assorted body parts at them, whereupon they flee. In the rest of the story Mendoza, having completed her confession, awaits her punishment. In the meantime, she examines her considerable store of information about the history of old LA, noticing for the first time how Santa Catalina has some kind of significance in the activities of the Company. Apparently something on the island is vital to the actual creation of the Company, but what? Before she can pursue this further, she is put in a Time Transfer box and sent Back Way Back, or in more usual terms, to about 150,000 BCE. She is left on Santa Catalina itself, still forested rather than the barren island of later millennia. Her job is to raise food for a Company resort on Santa Cruz Island, where rich folks come back to hobnob with mastodons and hunt saber-tooths, or maybe vice versa. Her memory has been interfered with, so she can no longer remember details of the history she once knew. She also has a mission to alert the Company when certain unusual beings show up to colonize the center of the island. Apparently they have something the Company needs.... Mendoza seems hopelessly trapped. Can she survive to the 19th century all over again, or is her immortality as suspect as other things have become? Twice now she has met her demon lover. She knows he will come for her again. |
The Gates of Morning | Henry De Vere Stacpoole | 1,925 | The novel picks up a day or so after the events at the conclusion of The Garden of God. Dick Lestrange, son of Richard and Emmeline Lestrange, is about fourteen or fifteen. He has come to love Katafa, a Spanish girl who is the adopted daughter of the Kanaka people of the island of Karolin, about forty miles from the island (Palm Tree) where his parents lived. Now she has brought him to her island, and due to a series of complicated political circumstances, the people have declared him their new king. Dick is not unwilling to lead the people, but needs advice and guidance. He also sees immediately that the island has a defense problem. In The Garden of God, all the Karolin men of warrior age and status have died as the result of an ill-advised attack on Palm Tree—and all their war canoes were burned. Fishing canoes still exist, but new war canoes must be built at once. The Melanesian slaves who took over Palm Tree at the end of The Garden of God were all men; if they decide to make Palm Tree (which Kanaka call Marua) their permanent home, they will attack Karolin, the nearest island, to steal women. He's sent for three elderly men, expert canoe-builders, from the southern side of the immense island; but the ladies who took his message return without them, saying they don't acknowledge Taori (Dick) as their leader. Dick goes in person to explain the situation and meets Aioma, the oldest canoe-builder, and his granddaughter Le Moan, age fourteen, who falls in love with Dick on sight. She has no idea that Dick is already married, let alone that his bride is her own Aunt Katafa (Katafa being an adopted daughter of the late priestess Le Juan and therefore sister to Le Jenabon, Le Juan's biological daughter, who is Le Moan's mother). Left alone on the southern shore when all the other people from the south side go north to help with the canoe building, Le Moan sees the Kermadec, a schooner full of white men, sail into the lagoon. Thinking they might attack the people, and especially Dick, Le Moan tells them that she is alone on the island, that everyone else died in a storm. Captain Peterson, a rough and ferocious-looking but kindhearted man, takes her aboard and gives her over to Sru, his Paomotuan assistant, to stay with the Kanaka crew until he can find her a place to live on another island. Talking with Le Moan, Sru learns two things; the girl has a gift of absolute direction, and can find her way to anyplace she has ever been without need of a compass; and she wears a very large double pearl ornament, which tells Sru that Karolin's lagoons are full of pearls. Sru encourages her to confide in him, including the part about her being in love with Dick and trying to protect him. She also tells him that the lagoon is indeed thick with pearl oysters. Sru tells her Captain Peterson would never have harmed Dick or the people, but that he must not be told about the pearls, because he is something of a profiteer and might take everything for himself. He spends the next few weeks teaching her how to steer the ship. With first mate Rantan and a beachcomber named Carlin who is hitching a ride on the ship to go to the northern islands, Sru plans and carries out a mutiny, killing both Peterson and a white sandalwood trader—and framing the natives of the island where the sandalwood trader lived for the murder. Meanwhile, Aioma is enthusiastically directing the people in the building of new war canoes and conversing endlessly with Dick about boats, about the model ships built long ago by Kearney and treasured by Dick as his one remaining link with his old life. Aioma has also become Dick's chief of staff, so to speak, advising him about etiquette and his duties as king (for instance, he warns Dick that he must not lower himself to work with the people, because to be seen as their equal is unfitting). The Kermadec returns to Karolin, guided by Le Moan, who remains on board as Rantan and Carlin go ashore, shoot a number of the people including two babies, and break up the half-finished canoes. Returning to the Kermadec they tell the Kanaka crew that the people of Karolin attacked them, but Le Moan saw what really happened and tells the crew later, advising them that the people of Karolin are good and will accept them if they go ashore in peace. Le Moan manages to kill Carlin, and tries to kill Rantan; as he defends himself, she is rescued by crewman Kanoa, who is secretly in love with her. They tie Rantan and deliver him into the hands of the Karolin people, who indeed welcome the Kanaka from the Kermadec in peace and friendship. Dick gives Rantan to the mothers of the babies who died, to do with as they see fit. Only now does Le Moan discover that Dick and Katafa are married. A few days later, the tide goes out at half flood and returns with a vengeance, like a tsunami. Three great waves sweep the island, destroying everything, while the people take to the trees. In the next hours huge flocks of birds are seen in the skies, coming from the direction of Palm Tree. When Aioma, Dick, and Le Moan decide to take the Kermadec out on the ocean so that the men can learn to steer it properly, they make for Palm Tree, only to discover that it has completely sunk beneath the ocean. The island of the Blue Lagoon is no more. Aioma believes this is a sign, not from the gods, but from Uta Matu, the late king of Karolin, whose warriors Dick is responsible for having killed (though they mostly killed each other). Le Moan, hearing this, decides to try to keep Dick for herself by steering away from Karolin and pretending she's lost her gift of direction (implying it's the curse of Uta Matu). Dick, devastated by the loss of his former home, is so desperate to get back to Karolin and Katafa that he takes ill. Le Moan cannot stand his suffering, gives up, and declares that her direction-sense has come back and steers the Kermadec for home. On the way, they encounter an abandoned ship. Aioma, unwisely, takes out his frustration with the papalagi (foreigners) and their ships by boarding this one—full of dead bodies—and setting fire to it. He proceeds to do the same to the Kermadec when they get back to Karolin. What he does not know is that his contact with the abandoned ship has infected him with measles. By evening of the next day everybody on Karolin has caught it, and having no resistance, nearly everyone dies. Katafa is frantic with grief, because Dick has caught it, too, and is lying delirious, speaking only in English. Le Moan blames herself; if she'd never asked the Kermadec for a lift none of this would have happened. She believes the curse of Uta Matu, and of her own grandmother Le Juan, have brought shame, disgrace, sickness and death to her people. She calls out to Katafa, "Taori will not die: I go to save him; the nets are spread for him, but I will break them -- I, who have brought this evil." The instant she speaks these words, Dick's fever cools down and he begins to improve. As Katafa goes to care for him, Le Moan gets in her fishing boat. Sailing it clear out to sea, she takes the sail down, lies down in the bottom, and gives herself to the gods. Stacpoole ends the story by saying that to this day, Karolin remains unexplored and uncharted, because try as they might, no one can ever quite get there. it:The Gates of Morning |
The Mount | Carol Emshwiller | 2,002 | The first-person narrator, Charley, is a young man who like all humans is used as riding mounts (e.g. horses) for an alien race known as Hoots. Humans in Charley's world, a pastoral Earth, have existed in a master-slave relationship with the Hoots for centuries. The Hoots, who have no way to return to their home planet, maintain the natural systems that keep the world running. Escaped mounts like Charley's father, formerly the Guards' Mount known as Heron, lead assaults on the stables where humans are kept and seek to unify their own people against the Hoots. When Charley (mount name Smiley) meets his father for the first time (Heron and Merry Mary were mated and separated by the Hoots soon after Charley was born), he resists betraying either his Master, the Hoot heir apparent, or anything that might help the resisting humans because his life as a mount (breed Seattle) is the only one he's ever known. |
The Citadel of Chaos | Steve Jackson | null | The player takes the role of an adventurer on a quest to find and stop the powerful magician Balthus Dire. In order to be able to confront Dire, the player must navigate the Citadel, avoiding monsters while also collecting several artifacts that will allow passage past guardians to the villain's inner sanctum. |
Starship Traveller | Steve Jackson | null | The player takes the role of a starship commander whose ship and crew are sucked through a black hole into an alternate universe. The player's goal is to return to collects clues from several different planets that will allow the plotting of a course to return home. |
Deathtrap Dungeon | Ian Livingstone | null | Set in the town of Fang on the continent of Allansia, the player takes the role of an adventurer who decides to enter Baron Sukumvit's "Trial of Champions" and brave "Deathtrap Dungeon". Competing against five other adventurers, the player must defeat monsters, navigate the maze of dungeons and collect certain gems, which are the key to escaping and winning the Trial. |
Doctors | Erich Segal | 1,988 | The story begins with the childhood days of Barney Livingston and Laura Castellano and the incidents which motivated them to ultimately become doctors. The story then traces their days at medical school. The background of the students provide an insight into the many troubles faced by them. As the story progresses, the strength and weaknesses of their characters come to light. All are struggling with ethics, failed relationships and prejudices of those times. After a failed marriage and a string of failed relationships, Laura and Barney realize their love for each other. Erich Segal had extensively researched the lives of medical students and doctors in practice. Apart from that he acknowledges the inspirations from Gentle Vengeance by Charles LeBaron, Getting Better by Kenneth Klein and Becoming a Doctor by Melvin Konner. He has drawn some anecdotes from The Making of a Surgeon by William Nolen, The Making of a Psychiatrist by David Viscott, The End of Life: Euthanasia and Morality by James Rachels and Requiem pour la Vie by Leon Schwartzenberg. A similar (though much smaller book) is The Year of the Intern by Robin Cook. Doctors had reached the number one spot on the New York Times bestseller list. |
Year of the Intern | Robin Cook | 1,973 | It is an insider's perspective of the medical world. As Dr. Peter becomes a doctor he is destroying himself as a person due to extensive work and concerns. He began writing the book while serving on a submarine, basing it on his experiences as a medical resident. When it did not do particularly well, he began an extensive study of other books in the genre to see what made a bestseller. He decided to concentrate on medical suspense thrillers, mixing intricately plotted murder and intrigue with medical technology. He also brought controversial ethical and social issues affecting the medical profession to the attention of the general public. |
The Graveyard Game | Kage Baker | 2,001 | Segments titled "Joseph in the darkness" appear before and after each of the episodes described below. Joseph, apparently talking to his father-figure, Budu, fills in historical detail in the storyline and discusses his own motivations. In Mendoza in Hollywood, the botanist Mendoza and her companion Einar were thrown forward in time from 1863 to 1996 in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles. This is supposed to be impossible, but Mendoza is a Crome generator, a psychic who cannot control her potential, and Laurel Canyon is a focus of Crome radiation (explaining its attraction for certain kinds of people over the years!). As the action of this novel opens, Lewis is arriving at Company HQ in Laurel Canyon in 1996. Entering the building he is just in time to see Mendoza being sent back to her own time, and tries to warn her "Don't go with him!", meaning the English agent she encounters later. From his point of view, that encounter was the cause of her disappearance. She vanishes as the transfer takes place. Lewis takes advantage of work in San Francisco to contact Joseph who is working in the hi-tech industry there. Joseph persuades him to try out a new virtual reality helmet, which turns out to have a fault that disables cyborgs' implanted monitors for 24 hours. Joseph and Lewis can now talk freely, without Company eavesdropping. Initially reluctant, Joseph drives Lewis to Bodega Bay to talk to Juan Bautista who was the last cyborg to see Mendoza. They give him a dose of VR and then pump him for information. Juan Bautista is able to draw a picture of the man Mendoza met in 1863 and subsequently ran away with. To Joseph's shock, the man is a double for Nicholas Harpole, the religious fanatic with whom Mendoza fell in love in Tudor England, and who was subsequently burned at the stake. Joseph sees Nicholas as the main cause of Mendoza's troubles. He also hates religious fanatics of all stripes. Leaving Juan Bautista, Joseph and Lewis agree to meet from time to time as circumstances allow, and as they learn more. A family is celebrating the "Day of the Dead" at a graveyard in Texas. The paterfamilias, actually an uncle, is Porfirio, Mendoza's Facilitator in 1863. Under cover of an electrical storm, Joseph contacts Porfirio and asks what he knows about Mendoza. Porfirio tells him Mendoza was sent back in time, Back Way Back, over 100,000 years. The Company operated resorts for rich clients back before the arrival of humans in the New World. She must have been sent there, but why? Porfirio sends Joseph on his way with one request: don't come back. Lewis poses as an antiquarian, buying old papers and books, and comes into possession of a box which contains a picture of a man named Edward Alton Bell-Fairfax, who he recognizes as the man in the picture drawn by Juan Bautista. Further research turns up a well-born man, apparently a natural son of someone in high places, with powerful friends who guide his life. He served as an agent of various shadowy entities. Lewis contacts Joseph and they meet in London. They make a junket to the north of England. They spend time in the country of "The Innocents", an imagined novel combining elements of Animal Farm and Watership Down. This novel and its loony fans are among the catalysts for the growing animal-rights movement which will eventually ban meat consumption in many countries. They stay at a house run by two of the more extreme fans, but Joseph has other motives. He has finally decoded some information Budu forced on him, and he means to act on it. Under cover of another storm, Joseph sneaks out of the house, with Lewis tailing him. They uncover a secret installation in a hillside, containing many cyborgs suspended in tanks of fluid. Are Mendoza and Budu in places like this? Lewis' Company conditioning, intended to keep cyborgs out of forbidden places, causes him to re-experience his suppressed memories of being disabled and kidnapped in medieval Ireland. He begins to understand why the Company left him in South America for 700 years, until the events recorded in Sky Coyote. Lewis is still researching Edward when he can. He learns that Nennius, another cyborg, was monitoring or guiding Edward, even being the headmaster of his school. Joseph seeks out Suleyman, a former Barbary Coast pirate who has built up an independent power base in Fez, Morocco. Suleyman has also found means of frustrating the Company monitoring. Suleyman reveals that he himself is working secretly against other factions, some of whom seem to be creating new diseases to wipe out humans. He implicates Budu in this, to Joseph's consternation. Joseph and Lewis meet again in London. Joseph now has one of Suleyman's masking devices. Lewis tells him all he knows about Edward. Edward was working for people who wanted to gain possession of Santa Catalina island, off the California coast. Joseph has a meeting with Victor, who reveals that he did bring Budu down, a few hours before the San Francisco earthquake in 1906, and tells Joseph where to find him. Lewis is working in a library. Finding his cover blown by a strange little man, Lewis drops out of sight and heads to Spain for another meeting with Joseph. On the way he encounters more of the strange men, and is injured with some kind of disrupter that partially disables his hand. This is not supposed to be possible, as the cyborgs have self-repair mechanisms. Told to take a vacation, he accompanies Joseph on a tour of the local archeological sites— the places where Joseph was raised, 20,000 years previously, before checking into a Company base for repairs. Lewis has an "accidental" encounter with Nennius aboard a cruise ship, and Nennius feeds him a story about Edward. Lewis contacts Joseph, and they proceed to Santa Catalina where Lewis believes the key to the mystery is hidden. It is a trap. Lewis is taken, and Joseph severely injured. Rolling off a cliff and into the sea, he eventually washes up onshore and is able to reach one of Suleyman's mosques, from where he is taken to Suleyman himself. When he recovers, his implant has been removed. He is a free agent, but also a fugitive. If the Company ever discovers he is still alive, there will be Hell to pay. Suleyman gives him the same message as Porfirio did: go, and don't come back. Joseph follows Victor's instructions and locates Budu, buried by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. He takes the remains to one of the Company's storage facilities under Mount Tamalpais and starts the process of revivification, with help from the cyborg Abdiel, whose entire life consists of journeying between these facilities, maintaining them. Joseph settles down to wait for Budu to re-activate, and tells his recovering corpse his story. He likens himself to Hamlet, for delaying too long in taking action, resulting in the deaths of all around him. But he still has 74 years until 2355... |
The Rose and the Yew Tree | Agatha Christie | null | Hugh Norreys, a self-described “cripple” watches John Gabriel run for parliament from his couch in the small Cornish town of St. Loo. Hugh’s invalid status seems to encourage his visitors to reveal their secrets and emotions. Hugh is mystified by Gabriel, an ugly little man who, nevertheless, is attractive to women. He is also intrigued by Isabella, a beautiful young woman from the castle down the road. So, Hugh and most of St. Loo are shocked when, shortly after Gabriel wins the election, he and Isabella run away together and Gabriel resigns as a member of parliament. The novel explores love, caring for others, and a gothic tragedy of one woman and the men who love her. |
Strider | Beverly Cleary | null | Strider takes place two years after the end of Dear Mr. Henshaw, and Leigh Botts has grown a lot. At age 14, Leigh writes in his diary about his experiences with his parent's divorce, his friend Barry, a girl named Geneva and a dog named Strider who he and Barry find abandoned on a beach. Leigh and Barry decide to share custody of Strider, in the same way divorced parents share custody of their children. However, as time goes on, Barry does not seem to take good care of Strider, which causes trouble for Leigh. Finally, feeling desperate, Leigh winds up taking custody of the dog. Strider is a dog that loves to run; because of Strider, Leigh Botts finds himself running -- well enough to join the school track team. He also develops and a crush on a red haired girl named Geneva. |
Scandal At High Chimneys | John Dickson Carr | 1,959 | Clive Strickland, lawyer and author, was to discover a bewildering and terrifying slice of Victorian life when his friend Victor Damon asked him to visit the family estate. The Damon family home, a huge and formidable mansion, plays host to a multitude of characters. Strange things happen at the Damons': a ghost like figure threatens; Matthew Damon gets murdered under impossible circumstances and it take the brilliance of Jonathan Whicher to solve the tangled puzzle. |
How to Eat Fried Worms | Thomas Rockwell | 1,973 | 10-year-old Billy must eat 15 earthworms in 15 days to win a bet for $50. His friends help him by preparing the worms in a variety of ways to make them more appetizing, such as using condiments including ketchup, mustard, and horseradish, and maple syrup. |
The Life of the World to Come | Kage Baker | 2,004 | The first part is an extension of the first person accounts previously supplied by Mendoza, which accounts are apparently previous chapters in her journal, written on any material she can get. Somehow all of this manages to stay intact for the unknown amount of time, perhaps 3000 years, that Mendoza spends in exile on Santa Catalina. The period is uncertain because Mendoza herself cannot remember living through some portions of it. From time to time she looks down at her plants, and next time she looks up months or years have slipped by. She may just be doing the cyborg version of 'zoning out', but since she has already slipped forward in time once, there's no telling what might be happening. What is certain is that she is about 150,000 years in the past, growing fruit and vegetables for a Company resort on Santa Cruz island. One day, a man shows up in a Company Time Shuttle. These previously unknown vessels let the Company ship tourists back to the past, but can only be piloted by cyborgs. Nonetheless the man is the image of her two previous lovers, and she does unto him what she did unto them. This time, however, he leaves behind genetic material when he goes back to the future. She is able to learn from this that he is no more human than she, but in a different way. His name is Alec Checkerfield. Next we learn about "Smart Alec", precocious scion of rich privileged 24th century Londoners, who leave him in the care of their housekeepers so they can get on with their lives away from dismal, puritanical England. Alec affects all around him, especially machines. Given a highly controlled moral teaching unit at a young age, he is able to re-program it by instinct to become his personal assistant and, eventually, partner in crime. This entity becomes "The Captain", after the pirate Captain Morgan. They resolve to rule the oceans of the world, using smuggling to pay the bills. Since meat, alcohol, chocolate etc. are illegal in most of the developed world, this is both easy and lucrative. With the assistance of the Captain, Alec outwits the Company and becomes master of his own time machine. This is in no small part thanks to Mendoza, who disables the self-destruct device on the one he initially stole from the Company. However, at the peak of his achievements, he finds he has committed one of the most heinous crimes of history. He, Mendoza and the Inklings all become aware of their parts in this. All are left desolated, filled with self-loathing and worse. |
Bomber | Len Deighton | null | Sam Lambert is an experienced RAF pilot based at an East Anglian bomber station. He has been flying missions over Germany since the start of the war and as he nears his tour's end, he is developing stressful exhaustion. The stress of flying missions is exacerbated by a plot device similar to that found in From Here to Eternity. Lambert is an expert cricket bowler and the station commander needs his participation to assure victory against a rival. Lambert's refusal to do put him at odds with the station commander and an ambitious and unscrupulous flight lieutenant who seeks to force Lambert out of flying by taking his best crewmen and replacing them with poor performers (this chimes with another war movie, Twelve O'Clock High). At the same time, his crew revere him and believe that he is the one factor that will ensure their survival. RAF Bomber Command is organizing a large air raid on Krefeld tonight. We join the bomber crews at rest and in preparation for the ordeal. The men, their planes, weapons, responsibilities, attitudes, thoughts and fears are described in great detail with minute historical accuracy. There are frequent references to weather conditions, meteorological phenomena and forecasts that add to the foreboding in the plot. Meanwhile across the Channel in northwest Germany the small market town of Altgarten goes about its daily business, its residents and wartime guests aware of the war's progress but curiously untouched by it. We follow Oberleutnant August Bach returning from leave in Altgarten to his duties at a Freya radar installation on the remote Dutch coast looking out towards England. Bach is a World War I veteran now serving as commander of a radar station charged with detecting and tracking the Tommi Terrorflieger on their night-time raids against the Fatherland and guide by radio Luftwaffe Nachtjäger (nightfighters) to intercept and attack them. The holder of the Pour Le Mérite for heroism, he is symbolic of a more genteel and decidedly non-Nazi background. The counterpoint to this is his son's membership in a Waffen SS unit serving in Russia. He is a widower with a second younger son, looked after by a state provided caregiver. Back in Altgarten the Bürgermeister (German: "mayor") finalises preparations for his own birthday banquet. It is to be held in a cosy restaurant located in one of the timber-built houses surrounding the medieval town square. We are introduced to the Altgarten TENO (Technische Nothilfe or "Civil Defence") engineers who regularly work heroically in the nearby Ruhr cities following air raids, and the local fire crew, adequate for a small country town but useless against what is to come. The bombs are loaded into the Lancasters, the German radars are allowed to "warm up", the aircrews adjust their night vision and everyone sits and waits and waits. Superstitions, rites and rituals are respected as the combatants ready themselves. Meanwhile Altgarten's people continue with their day-to-day routines. Eventually the raid gets under way. The British bomber stream forms up and navigates its dogleg course avoiding known flak concentrations and searchlight batteries. As the bombers are pinpointed by German nightfighters, we discover in the minutest detail how tiny pieces of shrapnel from an 88 mm anti-aircraft shell can destroy one of 750 Lancasters, each costing more than £42,000 at 1943 prices. Despite the meticulous planning, things go wrong immediately: A Lancaster almost crashes on take-off; a Junkers fighter crashes into the sea after hitting birds over the IJsselmeer; another is shot down by a friendly flak-ship. A pathfinder Mosquito is downed and its marker bombs explode south east of Altgarten; with little flak and clear bombing conditions, Christmas Tree marker pyrotechnics are placed over the marker bombs with unusual accuracy. Creepback ensures that the entire town of 5,000 inhabitants is carpet-bombed by a force designed to destroy a city: a firestorm results. The author maintains a clinically distanced vantage point, understating and implying the horror of the characters' situations. Even so, the protagonists' injuries and deaths are described in the same detail as the airmen's tactics. Each successive event is clinically dissected and analysed almost as though in slow-motion. As is the case with virtually all of his works, the author does portray some characters' actions as counter-productive to their own cause. By the time the raid is over, Altgarten is destroyed; many of the main characters are dead or have lost those close to them. Despite the attack going terribly wrong, there are no punishments meted out. Lambert - for not playing cricket - is banished from flying, an indignity that he views with mixed emotions. The book ends with an epilogue which gives details of the later lives of the major characters, some of whom are purportedly still alive at the time of the book's appearance. |
The Namesake | Jhumpa Lahiri | 2,003 | As The Namesake opens, Ashima Ganguli is a young bride who is about to deliver her first child in a hospital in Massachusetts. Her husband, Ashoke, is an engineering student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). As she prepares to give birth, she realizes how isolated she has become. If she were still in Calcutta, she would have her baby at home, surrounded by all the women in her family who would administer all the proper Bengali ceremonies and would tell her what to expect. In the United States, Ashima struggles through language and cultural barriers as well as her own fears as she delivers her first child. The baby boy is healthy and the new parents are prepared to take their son home. But Ashima and Ashoke are stunned to learn that they cannot leave the hospital before they give their son a legal name. The traditional naming process in their families is to have an elder give the new baby a name. They have chosen Ashima's grandmother for this honor. They have written the grandmother to ask her to give the baby a name. But the letter never arrives and soon after, the grandmother dies. In the meantime, Ashoke suggests the name of Gogol. He chooses this name for two reasons. First, it is the name of his favorite author, the famous Russian author. The second reason is that Ashoke, before he was married, had survived a very traumatic accident. The train he was riding in had derailed and many people had died, while Ashoke had broken his back and could not move. He had been reading Gogol just before the accident, a page of that book clutched in his hand. The paper caught the attention of the medics who had come to rescue him. If it had not been for that page, acting as a flag in the darkness, Ashoke would have died. While he insists on being called Gogol in elementary school, by the time he turns 14 he starts to hate the name. His father tries once to explain the significance of it, but he senses that Gogol is not old enough to understand. As Gogol progresses through high school, he hates his name more and more. He informs his parents that he wishes to change his name. His father is rather indifferent to the idea and agrees. Shortly before leaving for college, he travels to the courthouse and has his name legally changed to Nikhil Gogol Ganguli. This change in name and Gogol's going to Yale, rather than following his father’s footsteps to MIT, sets up the barriers between Gogol and his family. The distance, both geographically and emotionally, between Gogol and his parents continues to increase. He wants to be American, not Bengali. He goes home less frequently, dates American girls, and becomes angry when anyone calls him Gogol. During his college years, he smokes cigarettes and marijuana, goes to many parties, and loses his virginity to a girl he cannot remember. When he goes home for the summer, Gogol's train is suddenly stopped and temporarily loses electricity. A man had jumped in front of the train and committed suicide, and the wait for the authorities causes a long delay. Ashoke, who is waiting at the train station for Gogol, becomes very concerned when he calls the train company and hears of this incident. When they pull into the Ganguli's driveway, Ashoke turns off the car and finally explains the true significance of Gogol's name. Gogol is deeply troubled by this news, asking his father why he didn't tell him this earlier. He starts to regret changing his name and changing his identity. He lives in a very small apartment in New York City with his friend Eliseo, where he has landed a job in an established architectural office after graduating from Columbia. He is rather stiff personality-wise, perpetually angry or else always on the lookout for someone to make a stereotypical comment about his background. At a party, Gogol meets a very attractive and rather socially aggressive Barnard girl named Maxine. Gogol becomes completely wrapped up in her and her family. Maxine's parents are financially well off and live in a four-story house in New York City. Maxine has one floor to herself and invites Gogol to move in. Gogol becomes a member of the family, helping with the cooking and shopping. Maxine's parents appear to have accepted him as a son. When Maxine's parents leave the city for the summer, they invite Maxine and Gogol to join them for a couple of weeks. They are staying in the mountains in New Hampshire, where Maxine's grandparents live. Gogol introduces Maxine to his parents. Ashima dismisses Maxine as something that Gogol will eventually get over. Shortly after this meeting, Gogol's father dies of a heart attack while teaching a semester in Ohio. Gogol travels to Ohio to gather his father's belongings and his father's ashes. Something inside of Gogol changes. He slowly withdraws from Maxine as he tries to sort out his emotions. Maxine tries to pressure him to open up to her. Gogol breaks off the relationship and begins to spend more time with his mother and sister, Sonia. Ashima, after some time has gone by, suggests that Gogol contact the daughter of one of her friends. Gogol knows of the woman from his own childhood. Her name is Moushumi, and she has had the unfortunate experience of having planned a wedding only to have her intended groom change his mind at the last minute. Gogol is reluctant to meet with Moushumi because she is Bengali. But he meets her anyway, to please his mother. Moushumi and Gogol are attracted to one another and eventually are married. However, by the end of their first year of marriage, Moushumi becomes restless. She feels tied down by marriage and begins to regret what she has done. Gogol suspects something is wrong and often feels like a poor substitute for Moushumi's ex-fiance, Graham, who abandoned her. One day, Moushumi comes across the name of a man she knew when she was a senior in high school. She contacts him, and they begin an affair. Gogol finds out. Moushumi and Gogol divorce. The story ends with Ashima selling the family home so she can live in India with her siblings for half of the year. Sonia is preparing to marry an American man named Ben. Gogol is once again alone. But he feels comforted by one thing: before his father died, he finally told his son why he had chosen that name for him. By the end of the novel, Gogol has come to accept his name and picks up a collection of the Russian author's stories that his father had given him as a birthday present many years ago. |
The Human Factor | Graham Greene | 1,978 | Maurice Castle is an aging bureaucrat in the British secret service MI6. Married to a black African woman with whom he fell in love during his previous stint in apartheid South Africa, he now lives a quiet life in the suburbs and looks forward to retirement. As the book begins, however, a leak has been traced to the African section in London where he works and threatens to disrupt this precarious tranquility. Castle and younger colleague Davis make light of the resulting inquiry, but when Davis is accused on circumstantial evidence and quietly "disposed of", Castle begins to wrestle with questions of loyalty, morality and conscience. On the one hand, Castle undertakes his day-to-day job professionally, and is willing to do what is more than required for both Davis and Daintry, his boss. On the other hand, Castle is grateful to Carson, who, as a Communist, has helped Castle's wife escape South Africa. In return, Castle decides to help the Communists and believes that by helping them, he is helping his wife's people—not knowing that Moscow has all along been using him for entirely different purposes. Rather than action or high politics, the novel builds its suspense by focusing on the psychological burdens of the pawns in the game: doubt and paranoia bred by a culture of secrecy, the sophisticated amorality of the men at the top, and above all, loyalties (to whom and what and at what cost?) Greene's characters are complete psychological portraits located within the context of the Cold War and the impact of international affairs on the complicated lives of individuals and vice versa. The interplay of international politics on the individual level is a trademark of this author. |
Giant's Bread | Agatha Christie | null | At London’s National Opera House, the opening of the building is celebrated by the first performance of a new composition, The Giant, in front of a specially-invited audience of Royalty, society figures and the press. Somewhat in the style of a Russian opera, the audience are either puzzled or ecstatic about this modernist piece. One man who does not personally like the composition, but can see the genius that scored it, is Carl Bowerman, the elderly and distinguished Music critic who joins the owner of the Opera House, Sebastian Levinne, for a private drink. Despite the foreign nature of the music, Bowerman recognises that the composer, known as Boris Groen, must be English because "Nationality in music is unmistakable." He states that Groen is the natural successor to a man called Vernon Deyre who was killed in the war. Sebastian politely refuses to tell more about the absent Groen, telling him that, "There are reasons..." In the late years of the Victorian era, Vernon Deyre is a small boy growing up in the old country house of the Deyre family, Abbots Puisannts. He is the only child of Walter, a soldier by profession, and Myra Deyre. She is something of an emotional and clinging person while Walter is a sad figure, not in love with his wife and subject to various dalliances. Vernon's nurse - an important figure in his childhood - raises him but he has no friends. In their place he has four imaginary friends, the most important of which is called Mr. Green, a florid man who loves playing games and who lives in a wood that borders on the grounds of Abbots Puisannts. One of the main male figures in Vernon's life is his Uncle Sydney, Myra’s brother. He is a self-made man who runs a manufacturing business in Birmingham and is someone who Vernon instinctively feels uncomfortable with. Someone who promotes a different reaction is Walter’s sister, Nina, an artistic woman who impresses Vernon by her playing of the grand piano in the house. This is an object for which Vernon has an unreasoning terror, naming it "The Beast", and which promotes a hatred of music in his soul. Aunt Nina’s marriage breaks up and Walter wants her and her young daughter Josephine (Joe) to live with them but Myra objects. Fate takes a turn though when the Boer War breaks out and Walter goes off to fight. In his absence, whilst Vernon is away at school, Nina dies and Myra takes Joe in. As a result, Vernon has a playmate in the holidays and the two start to make a circle of acquaintances. One of them, Nell Vereker, is a thin girl who cannot keep up with Vernon and Joe in their games. The local village is aghast when the adjoining property to Abbots Puisannts is bought by a rich Jewish family called the Levinnes and, although held at arm's length at first, gradually the family come to held in a grudging acceptance. Vernon and Joe also make friends with the son of the family – Sebastian, who is much the same age as them. A few weeks before the end of the war, Walter Deyre is killed in action and Vernon inherits Abbots Puisannts, although not being of age, it is held in trust for him. A shortage of money means that Myra and her son have to move and they rent the house out while they move to Birmingham to be near Uncle Sydney. Eleven years pass. Vernon and Sebastian have remained friends through their time at Eton and Cambridge. Sebastian’s father has died in the intervening years and he, unlike Vernon, has inherited millions. Sebastian is starting on his career of a patronage of the arts, opening a gallery in Bond Street while Joe has artistic tastes and Vernon is at a loose end as to what he wants to do – money, or the lack of it, still being a concern. He has a life-changing moment when he is forced to attend a charity concert at the Albert Hall and suddenly overcomes his childhood hatred of music, so much so that he declares that he wants to be a composer. Vernon reaches twenty-one and is bitter to learn that his financial situation means that he cannot afford to move back to Abbots Puisannts. He is forced to agree that he will work at Uncle Sydney’s firm but life takes a different tack when, after a gap of several years, he meets Nell Vereker again at Cambridge. She has grown into a beautiful young woman and Vernon falls in love with her. He is opposed by Nell’s mother, who has brought her up to be a lady despite being desperately short of money herself and is determined that Nell will marry riches. Her preferred candidate for her daughter’s hand is an American called George Chetwynd. Uncle Sydney is also opposed to Vernon marrying Nell and persuades him to wait until he is more established. One night, while Nell and her mother are abroad, Vernon is introduced to a professional singer called Jane Harding at a party hosted by Sebastian. He is attracted to Jane, despite a ten-year age difference and starts to see her, to Joe’s approval but Myra Deyre’s consternation. Jane's effect on Vernon is to apply himself more to composing music and to do so, he leaves his uncle’s firm. Nell is frightened of Jane and confronts her but the older, more experienced girl is more than a match for Nell. Vernon finishes his composition and, suddenly scared of rumours that Nell is going to marry George Chetwynd, proposes to her but she asks him to wait. Events reach a crisis point when Joe absconds with a married man and this prompts Vernon to accuse Nell of not having that sort of courage. This outburst merely prompts her into getting engaged to Chetwynd with whom, as she tells Vernon, she "feels safe". On the rebound, Vernon starts a relationship with Jane. He also finishes his composition which Sebastian produces and Jane sings in, the piece receiving warm reviews. The First World War is declared on 4 August 1914 and four days later Nell sees Vernon again and confesses that she still loves him. Hearing that he has enlisted she agrees to be his wife and they are married later that afternoon. Six months later, Vernon is sent to France and Nell becomes a VAD nurse, finding the work and the treatment meted out to volunteers like her hard to take. After some time she receives a telegram to say that Vernon has been killed in action... Several months pass and George Chetwynd meets Nell briefly before he goes off to Serbia to carry out relief work and promises to keep in touch with her. Nell has, through her widowhood, inherited Abbots Puisannts and she makes a move that Vernon never could by selling the house. She finds out that Chetwynd has bought it and he invites Nell and her mother to visit him at the house where he proposes to her. She accepts and they marry. It is 1917. In neutral Holland, Vernon turns up one night at an inn, having escaped from a prisoner of war camp in Germany. The daughter of the woman who runs the inn gives him some old English magazines to read and a letter for a soldier she knew called Corporal Green. Struck by the man having the same name as his imaginary childhood friend, he happily agrees but is then dumbstruck to read in one of the magazines of Nell and George’s marriage. He staggers into the night and throws himself in the path of a coming truck. Two years later a man called George Green is the chauffeur of a rich American who found the man in Holland suffering from loss of memory after an "accident" and working as a driver. They are back in England now and George's employer visits Chetwynd, an acquaintance, at Abbots Puisannts. By coincidence, Jane Harding is also visiting the house that day. She has lost her singing voice and is now an actress and, appearing locally with a repertory company, Chetwynd has invited her to tea. She and Nell meet and their mutual animosity to each other is clear but Nell receives a greater shock when she catches sight of their American visitor’s chauffeur and realises that Vernon is still alive. Jane also recognises Vernon in the nearby town and hurriedly summons Sebastian down there by telegram. They get Vernon professional help and he slowly starts to recover his memory and has a proper reunion with Nell while Chetwynd, unaware of what has happened, is away. Vernon wants to take up where he left off, although he accepts the loss of Abbots Puisannts but Nell, afraid, lies to him that she is pregnant. Disconsolate, Jane takes him away, no one else being aware that he is alive, but not before she has confronted Nell with her lie. The two go to Moscow where Vernon is taken up with Meyerhold and the Avant-garde music of the new movements in Russia. They suddenly receive a telegram saying that Joe is dangerously ill in New York and they sail across to see her. On the way, the ship hits an iceberg and starts to sink. In the confusion of the evacuation as the ship starts to tilt badly and go down into the water, Vernon sees Nell, she and Chetwynd having been on board but sailing in a different class to themselves. She cries out to Vernon to save her and he does so, watching Jane’s horrified face as she goes "down into that green swirl…" Back safely in New York, Vernon confesses that to Sebastian that he let the love of his life die. Sebastian is furious but the emotional shock to Vernon causes him to regain his passion and talent for composing again. He begins The Giant, oblivious to all else, even Nell who visits him to admit that she still loves him. He rebuffs her, his only interest now for his music. |
Unfinished Portrait | Agatha Christie | null | In the midst of divorce, bereft of the only people in her life she cares for, Celia considers taking her life. But, while on an exotic island, Celia meets a successful portrait painter Larraby, who spends a night talking with her, and learning her deepest fears, leaving Celia with the hope that he may be the one to help her come to terms with her past. |
Absent in the Spring | Agatha Christie | null | Stranded between trains, Joan Scudamore finds herself reflecting upon her life, her family, and finally coming to grips with the uncomfortable truths about her life. |
Too Many Magicians | Randall Garrett | 1,966 | The novel takes place in 1966. However, it occurs in a world with an alternative history. The Plantagenet kings survived and rule a large Anglo-French Empire. In addition, around AD 1300 the laws of magic were discovered and magical science developed. The physical sciences were never pursued. The society looks early Victorian, though medical magic is superior to our medicine. The book uses the conventions of a detective story. The protagonist is Lord Darcy, Chief Investigator for the Duke of Normandy. This Sherlock Holmes-like figure is assisted by Master Sean O’Lochlainn, a forensic sorcerer. The novel is a locked room mystery, which takes place at a wizards’ convention. Garrett delights in puns. Analogues of Nero Wolfe, Archie Goodwin, James Bond and Gandalf the Grey appear. Lord Darcy also appears in several other novellas and short stories by Garrett, but this is Garrett's only novel-length Lord Darcy story. Michael Kurland has written two further novels set in the Lord Darcy universe. |
Colonization: Second Contact | Harry Turtledove | 1,999 | The novel is set in 1963, eighteen years following the end of the alternate World War II shown in the Worldwar series. Earl Warren is President of the United States, Vyacheslav Molotov is the Premier of the Soviet Union, and Heinrich Himmler leads Nazi Germany. Smaller countries remain independent, such as the Republic of Ireland and Imperial Japan, which still controls portions of its World War II-era empire. A few isolated areas are still held by Charles de Gaulle's Free France, and in German-occupied France the French Resistance remains active. At the start of the novel, the colonization fleet of the Race enters the Solar System, bringing with them eighty to one hundred million colonists for settling on Earth. As the fleet enters Earth orbit, a human satellite unleashes a nuclear attack that kills millions. As Germany, the USSR, and the United States each have large-scale space capability, any of the three nations may have been responsible for the attack. All three deny it when furious Race leaders demand answers, but in truth two of the three human nations are as much unaware of the attacker's identity as the Race. In addition, while there is peace between the independent human nations and the Race- albeit an uneasy one- Mao Zedong and Ruhollah Khomeini continue to lead popular resistance to the invaders in China and the Middle East, respectively. Race efforts to wage a counter-insurgency war in those regions are frustrated by their lack of familiarity with such warfare and a near-total lack of support from the human population. The Race also becomes aware of subtle support of these resistance movements by Germany, the United States, and the USSR, but as the Race are unable to prove it nothing can be done to stop them. Meanwhile, the Race colonists, who expected to encounter an Earth that was already conquered with the natives still at medieval levels of advancement, have to deal with the consequences of the cold war with the humans. The fleet brings with it not only the first civilians, but also the first Race females, both of which cause tension among the male soldiers who formed the invasion force. To the Race males, ginger is a euphoric drug; to the females, it causes them to go into estrus, throwing Race forces on Earth into social chaos. Worse still for the commanding Fleetlord of the Race forces on Earth is a sharp upswing in armed revolts in the Middle East and in China; at the novel's end Khomeini's guerrillas have staged several successful ambushes against Race patrols, while resistance forces under Mao Zedong storm the Forbidden City. |
The Tale of Samuel Whiskers or, The Roly-Poly Pudding | Beatrix Potter | 1,908 | The theme of the tale is the childhood sin of disobedience. Tom Kitten is a young cat who lives with his mother, Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit, and sisters, Moppet and Mittens, in a house overrun with rats. Her children being an unruly bunch, Mrs. Twitchit puts Moppet and Mittens in a cupboard in order to keep them under control, but Tom Kitten escapes up the chimney. As he makes his way to the top of the house, he comes across a crack in the wall and, squeezing through it, finds himself under the attic's floorboards. There he meets the rats, Mr. Samuel Whiskers and his wife Anna Maria. They catch him and proceed to cover him with butter and dough in order to eat him as a pudding. However, when they proceed to settle the dough with a rolling-pin, the noise gets through the floorboards and attracts the attention of Tabitha Twitchit and her friend Ribby who has been helping search for Tom. They quickly call for John Joiner, the carpenter, who saws open the floor and rescues Tom. Whiskers and his wife escape to the barn of Farmer Potatoes, spreading their chaos to another location, though leaving the cat family residence in peace. Potter mentions herself as seeing Samuel Whiskers and Anna Maria making their escape, using a wheelbarrow that looks like her own. |
Island of the Lizard King | Ian Livingstone | null | The player takes the role of an adventurer on a quest to find and stop the Lizard King and free the human slaves captured by his army. As the adventurer, the player must traverse Fire Island, battling Lizard Men and various other monsters. The player must also find and utilize information regarding the Lizard King's weakness that will be required during the final confrontation. |
Abba Abba | Anthony Burgess | 1,977 | In Part One, the poet has various adventures, meeting the Roman (dialectal) poet Giuseppe Gioacchino Belli in the Sistine Chapel, and Pauline Bonaparte, sister of Napoleon, in the Pincio. Part Two consists of about seventy (from a total of 2,279) amusingly blasphemous sonnets by Belli, purportedly translated by one "Joseph Joachim Wilson", a descendant of the Roman man-of-letters Giovanni Gulielmi (a character in Part One). An elaborate passage describes how the Italian Gulielmis were transformed into English Wilsons "during a wave of anti-Italian feeling occasioned by alleged ice-cream poisoning in the 1890s in the Lancashire coastal resorts of Blackpool, Cleveleys, Bispham and Fleetwood". "J. J. Wilson" is a thinly veiled "John Anthony Burgess Wilson". |
The Jagged Orbit | John Brunner | 1,969 | The novel is set in the United States of America in 2014, when interracial tensions have passed the breaking point. A Mafia-like cartel, the Gottschalks, are exploiting this situation to sell weapons to anyone able to buy them. A split develops within the cartel, between the conservative old men and ambitious underlings prepared to use new computer technology to pull off some spectacular coups. There are several separate strands of narrative following particular characters. James Reedeth is a young psychologist at New York's major mental health institution who is disenchanted with his job and his employer, the revered Elias Mogshack. Lyla Clay is a "pythoness," a young woman capable of metabolising certain psychedelic drugs to enter a trance in which she makes unconscious predictions. Matthew Flamen, a "spoolpigeon" (a variety of investigative journalist), is struggling to hold onto his job, and by his obsessive behaviour has driven his wife into Mogshack's asylum. The plot is contrived to bring the strands together and resolve matters by a lengthy discussion between Flamen, Reedeth, Lyla Clay, Pedro Diablo (Flamen's African-American counterpart), Xavier Conroy (a long-time critic of Mogshack), and Harry Madison (a former patient at Mogshack's asylum). |
Lucky Child | Loung Ung | 2,000 | Lucky Child tells the story of Loung Ung and her sister Chou Ung. Each chapter alternates between their stories. Loung lives in Vermont as a refugee with her older brother Meng and his wife Eang. Meng only had enough money to bring one of his siblings with him, so he had to leave the rest of his family. He chose Loung to come with him because she was the youngest, ten years old upon leaving Cambodia; hence, she is the "lucky child." *Loung - In America, Loung dealt with issues regarding assimilation and fitting in. Her family originally had live off food stamps in order to survive. At school, Loung was ridiculed for her poor English and her ethnic Cambodian facial features. Her belly still bloated from malnutrition, she felt she wasn't pretty. She also continued to be plagued by memories of Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge. Even as she began to put the past behind her, she could not entirely because her brother refused to do so. Nonetheless, Loung's quality of life was a lot higher than her prospects had she remained in Cambodia; she even earned a full scholarship to college. Loung was often haunted by her torturous past but finally comes to terms with it when she visits Cambodia at the end of the story and finally reunites with her long-lost family Loung's story is written in the first person present tense. *Chou - Chou's life in Cambodia was very different. The village where she and the rest of Loung's family lived was still plagued by random Khmer Rouge attacks. The family, despite its previous upper-class status, was reduced to peasant status. Khouy was forced to enlist in the military to earn money. At the age of eighteen Chou's aunt and uncle arrange a marriage to her. She and her new husband Pheng lived on a her aunt and uncle's property. Chou gives birth to several children. Chou's story was recorded by Loung and translated to English. It is written in the third person. *Loung Ung - The author and narrator of the American story arc. *Chou Ung - Loung's sister. Older by two years, Chou remained in Cambodia with the rest of her family. Chou was closest to Loung and missed her younger sister a lot. At age eighteen she marries Pheng. She is the central character in the Cambodian story arc. *Meng and Eang Ung - Loung's caretakers, Meng is her eldest brother and Eang is his wife. They flee Cambodia with Loung for Thailand, there they receive sponsorship by an American church to live in Vermont. *Maria and Tori Ung - The children of Meng and Eang, they are the first Ungs to become American citizens since they were born in America. |
The Burden | Agatha Christie | null | When Laura Franklin's younger sister Shirley comes into the world, Laura instantly resents her, and soon begins wish and even to pray that her baby sister will die. But after saving Shirley's life in a fire, she experiences a complete change of feeling, and becomes very affectionate and protective towards her. Later, as the sisters grow up and fall in love, Laura begins to realise that the burden of her love for Shirley has had a dramatic effect on both their lives. |
Partners in Crime | Agatha Christie | null | The Beresfords' old friend, Mr. Carter (who works for an unnamed government intelligence agency) arrives bearing a proposition for the adventurous duo. They are to take over 'The International Detective Agency', a recently cleaned out spy stronghold, and pose as the owners so as to intercept any enemy messages coming through. But until such a message arrives, Tommy and Tuppence are to do with the detective agency as they please - an opportunity that delights the young couple. They employ the hapless but well-meaning Albert, a young man also introduced in The Secret Adversary, as their assistant at the agency. Eager and willing, the two set out to tackle several cases. In each case mimicking the style of a famous fictional detective of the period, including Sherlock Holmes and Christie's own Hercule Poirot. That's when her brother gets murdered... At the end of the book, Tuppence reveals that she is pregnant, and as a result will play a diminished role in the spy business. * A Fairy in the Flat / A Pot of Tea - Introduces the setup of Tommy & Tuppence at The International Detective Agency. Reminiscent of Malcolm Sage, detective (1921) by Herbert George Jenkins. * The Affair of the Pink Pearl - This first case is in the vein of the detective Dr. Thorndyke by R. Austin Freeman. * The Adventure of the Sinister Stranger - An espionage story, following in the footsteps of Valentine Williams and the detective brothers Francis and Desmond Okewood. One of the Williams' books in particular - The Man with the Clubfoot (1918) is named by Tuppence in the story. * Finessing the King / The Gentleman Dressed in Newspaper - This two part story is a spoof of the nowadays almost forgotten Isabel Ostrander, with parallels to the story The Clue in the Air (1917) and the detectives Tommy McCarty (an ex-policeman) and Denis Riordan (a fireman). * The Case of the Missing Lady - This story references Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax (1911). * Blindman's Buff - Matches Clinton H. Stagg's stories about the blind detective Thornley Colton. * The Man in the Mist - In the style of G. K. Chesterton's Father Brown stories. * The Crackler - A spoof on Edgar Wallace's style of plotting. * The Sunningdale Mystery - The tale is in the style of Baroness Orczy's The Old Man in the Corner (1909) with Tuppence playing the role of journalist Polly Burton and Tommy tying knots in a piece of string in the same way as Orczy's character, Bill Owen. * The House of Lurking Death - Recreates the style of A. E. W. Mason and his French detective Inspector Hanaud. * The Unbreakable Alibi - Modelled after Freeman Wills Crofts, known for his detective stories centred around alibis and the Scotland Yard detective Inspector Joseph French. * The Clergyman's Daughter / The Red House - A two part story, this is a parody on detective Roger Sherringham by Anthony Berkeley, with plot elements reminding of The Violet Farm by H. C. Bailey (although the latter was not published until 1928). * The Ambassador's Boots - Following the style of H. C. Bailey with Dr. Reginald Fortune and Superintendent Bell as the parodied detectives. * The Man Who Was No. 16 - This story parodies Christie's own The Big Four, featuring Hercule Poirot. |
Hell Island | Matthew Reilly | 2,005 | Hell Island is a remote Pacific Island currently used by the American government for scientific experiments. It was originally used as a Japanese airfield during World War II but was captured with a force of more than 500 Marines, including Schofield's grandfather. The book opens with Schofield's ten-man Marine Recon team parachuting onto the deck of the soon-to-be-decommissioned aircraft carrier, USS Nimitz CVN-68, along with three other special forces squads - a Delta Force team, a squad of SEALs and a force from the 82nd Airborne Division. The Delta team make landfall on the island while the other three teams investigate the aircraft carrier. It quickly becomes clear that the island was the testing ground for an elite force of supersoldier, as the Airborne and SEAL teams are quickly slaughtered. A DARPA scientist, whom Schofield's team stumble across, explain that the enemy is a group of genetically and electronically enhanced gorillas, armed with modified M-4 Colt Commandos and extremely deadly in melee combat. The few remaining Marines dispatch significant numbers of the gorillas in a large battle on board the carrier, eventually departing to investigate the island. Schofield comments that the island is home to an extensive tunnel network dating from World War II, which features an uncommon self-destruct mechanism: sea doors which can flood the lower parts of the tunnel system in the event of an enemy force capturing the base. Schofield then realises the gorillas are somehow controlled by Captain William Buck "Buccaneer" Broyles, the former leader of what was acknowledged to be the best Marines Unit, due to the similar tactics his Marines and the gorillas employed. They set a trap to lock the remaining force in an old ammunition storage bunker before detonating the munitions, but the Delta team's entrance with the rest of the DARPA team (who deactivate the gorillas' neural chips) changes the situation. What is controlling (or at least, calming the apes down) is a silver disc, which are on the men testing Captain Schofield and his group, including the Delta force. Dr Knox, the scientist in charge of the project, tells Schofield that they are the sole survivors of a field test for the apes, which has so far killed five hundred Marines and two special forces squads. He congratulates Schofield on his success, before instructing the Delta team leader to execute them. However, Mother jams the radio signals controlling the apes (remember the silver discs...) releasing them to murder their creators, the scientists. The Delta team is distracted and Schofield's team fires upon them and kills them, leaving only Broyles. Schofield opens a sea door, flooding the tunnels and drowning the gorillas along with the "Buccaneer". They leave on a C-17 which was sent to pick up the DARPA and Delta teams along with the apes. |
The Ungoverned | Vernor Vinge | 1,985 | The framework is the story of the Republic of New Mexico (NMR) invading the peaceful anarcho-capitalist society in Kansas. The NMR creates a military fiasco by completely failing to understand the cultural differences — including the amount of self-protection a lone Kansas farmer may have. The main protagonist is Wil W. Brierson, a detective/insurance agent, who attempts to disrupt the invasion while trying to minimize the property damage (and thus claims his company might have to pay out) and bridge the cultural gap. Brierson is also the protagonist of Marooned in Realtime. |
Ring | Stephen Baxter | 1,993 | The AI Lieserl is abandoned for five million years, leaving her to observe the sun's interior. She discovers dark matter-based life, which she names photino birds. These birds gradually drain the energy from the core of a star, ending fusion and causing premature aging into a stable red giant—the birds' preferred habitat, as it has no risk of going supernova and destroying them. A generation ship is sent with one end of a wormhole to explore the future and investigate the whereabouts of Michael Poole. It will be a five-million-year journey, though only a thousand years will elapse on board, due to relativistic time dilation effects. The crew is broken into three factions—the primitives, the virtuals, and a survivalist faction, Superet. Their journey is a round trip taking them to the future of our solar system through relativistic time dilation. Among the factions, the primitives are a eugenics project for Garry Uvarov who hopes to lengthen the lives of humanity without the use of Anti-Senescence (anagathic or life-extension) technology. The Superet faction relies heavily on failing technology and maintains a totalitarian government which refuses to acknowledge the existence of other decks on the ship; the virtuals remain aloof. Upon their arrival, the entire universe is full of red stars (indicating that the stars have aged far faster than expected). The Northern makes contact with Lieserl, who explains her observations of the photino birds. The photino birds do not just exist in our sun but every sun, helioforming them to an amenable habitat. The Xeelee, masters of baryonic matter, have known about the photino birds and have been striving to thwart them. The baryonic universe is doomed but the Xeelee create a 'Ring' which is an escape hatch. A cosmic string is made into a loop and creates the phenomenon of the Great Attractor. The function of the Ring is to create a Kerr metric at its centre, which, in this fictional universe, creates a portal to other universes; the rotating Ring is somewhat similar to a Tipler Cylinder. Whenever humans have met up with the Xeelee and pursued war, this was merely an annoyance since the Xeelee were thinking on a larger scale about more potent enemies. The crew of the Northern and Lieserl discover the folly of their species. A Xeelee nightfighter is discovered in Callisto, a reference to the later story "Reality Dust", and it is rigged to piggyback the Northern to the Great Attractor. Fifty days later they discover that the Xeelees' project has been destroyed but a recently awakened virtual of Michael Poole shows Spinner-of-Rope, a primitive, how to pilot around the fragmented cosmic strings and travel into the past using a closed time-like path; this method of time travel was first suggested by J. Richard Gott. These last humans return to the Ring, in an era in which it was not destroyed; the Xeelee allow them through, and they briefly attempt to pick universes (rejecting the high-gravity universe depicted in Raft) and find sanctuary in another younger universe, after passing through the Ring, and get to work on starting a new world. Michael Poole remains in our universe and witnesses the deaths of the last stars, and the decay of the last protons—the final victory of the dark matter lifeforms over the baryonic Xeelee and lesser races. Eventually, his consciousness disperses, and history ends. |
The White Bull | Voltaire | null | How the Princess Amasida met a bull ---- The story takes place in Ancient Egypt where Princess Amasidia, daughter to King Amasis, is walking along the Pelusium Way in the company of Old Mambres, who the king appointed to be in charge of her household. She is deeply saddened as her love has been missing for 7 years and the King has forbidden him. No one in the kingdom is to even speak his name. While walking along the Pelusium Way she encounters many majestic creatures one which is the most beautiful White Bull she has ever seen. As soon as the Bull sees the princess he tries to run towards her as a peculiar old lady tries to restrain the bull. As soon as the Bull reaches princess Amasidia, he throws himself to the ground weeping and kissing her feet. As soon as the princess sees this she offers to purchase the Bull and the bull seems to want to be with the princess, yet the bull cannot speak. Seeing Amasidia's want of the bull Mambres goes to the old women to try to persuade her. How wise Mambres, former sorcerer to the Pharaohs, recognized an old woman, and how she recognized him ---- As Mambres tries to persuade the old lady to buy the bull, she states that the bull is not hers to sell, like the rest of the animals they see there. Then they speak of how they met 700 years ago when Mambres was traveling from Syria to Egypt. The old lady was the noble Pythoness of Endor. The old woman states that even though they are old friends, she cannot satisfy their curiosity about the bull. Amasidia then goes to talk to the woman about buying the bull, yet the old lady still refuses. The lady says you are welcome to see the bull and feed him to your likings but he is never to leave the watch of the other animals and the old lady. They argue and Amasidia asks if he were to escape she would not be able to restrain him, but the old lady says that if he were to do that, the magical serpent might give the bull a venomous bite. As the day was turning to night Amasidia knew that she had to return home and left the bull. How the fair Amasidia held secret converse with a handsome serpent ---- The next day Amasidia and Mambres are talking and decide the bull truly is a majestic creature and they start devising a plan to speak with the serpent. Mambres sets up a meeting between the princess and the serpent, and informs her that to get a secret from the serpent she must flatter him. They speak of his past presence as a god, and the serpent informs the princess that she has a certain power over him, the same power which he is to have over others. The serpent then agrees to tell Amasidia the tale of the white bull. The bull used to be a king who fell in love with his dreams as he slept. Wanting to remember them he hired Magi to retell him his dreams and interpret them for him. The Magi failed and the king had them hanged. Then about seven years ago a Jew interpreted his dream, and then suddenly the king turned into the ox he is now. Upon hearing that this was her lost love she fainted, Mambres thinking she was dead rushed over. How they wanted to sacrifice the ox and exorcize the Princess ---- The bull saw the princess's ladies rushing to her and did the same dragging the old lady. No one could wake the princess till the bull arrived. Then the princess abruptly awoke. She then showered the bull with kisses and all of the princess's ladies were bewildered. The ladies rushed back to their homes and told different stories to all who would hear. With all the talk of this gossip the king took wind of the story. Upon hearing the story he was filled with anger and sentenced his daughter to be locked in her chamber. Mambres knowing that the bull was the princess's love had to keep it a secret because that man was Nabuchad the one who had dethroned Amasis 7 years prior. The king had hired the Jew to perform the metamorphoses. Mambres then informs the princess that the only metamorphoses that can be changed back is one of an ox. How wise Mambres acted wisely ---- Mambres then tries to trick the old lady into giving the ox to him so that he may hide him in one of his country's stables. Mambres then devised a plan to appoint the white bull as the new bull god Apis, and sent four magical animals, a raven, she-ass, dog, and dove to deliver a letter to the High Priest of Memphis, so that the priests could come and worship the new bull. He used tests to see of the animals were trustworthy, and all passed but the raven, who left displeased. Mambres then sent three servants to follow the animals. How Mambres met three prophets and gave them a good dinner ---- Upon talking to his servants, they revealed themselves as the three prophets, Daniel, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah. He then invited them along with the old lady and bull to a great dinner. The white bull was unable to take part in the feast as he was an animal and his identity was unknown to them. He sat angered as the prophet that had imprisoned him, Daniel, and the old lady got to enjoy a feast while he lay in the grass hungry. The dinner continued and the prophets, Mambres, and old lady feasted and drank wine, telling stories. Then the prophets and Mambres walked along the Nile talking into the night. The white bull seeing and opportunity to strike his enemies took it and as he was charging towards the prophets the master of things transformed them into magpies so they were not harmed. The King of Tanis arrives. His daughter and the bull are to be sacrificed. ---- As the King arrived he yelled out saying that the bull needed to be tied up and thrown out to the Nile where the whale of Jonas was to eat him, for having placed a spell on his daughter. Mambres knowing that the raven had told the king everything, had the serpent go to Amasidia and reassure her that everything would be okay. Mambres then told the king that the bull needed to stay alive until another suitor had been found for the bull god Apis. The king agreed and gave Mambres one week to find a replacement. The old lady had departed spirits try and scare the king into not sacrificing the bull, but just like Nabuchad he did not remember in the morning. How the serpent told stories to the Princess, to comfort her ---- The serpent told stories to Amasidia to calm her. Telling her times of how he cured serpent bites by just displaying himself on the end of a stick. He told her other inspirational stories and avoided one that might fill her with grief. How the serpent brought her no comfort ---- The princess remarked to the serpent stories by saying they did nothing but bore her. She needed stories that did not resemble dreams. He continued to tell her plausible stories, but she was not entertained. After one tale of love she could not refrain and yelled the name of her lover, Nebuchadnezzar!. Her ladies also yelled the name, and the raven went to inform the king, as it was still an offense to even utter his name. Amasis was enraged again and sent 12 of his evilest men to gather his daughter. How they wanted to cut off the Princess's head, and how they did not cut it off ---- As they brought the Princess to Amasis, he re-informed her how by uttering his name you are condemned to death. She told her father to carry out the penalty, but to first allow her to bewail her virginity. He granted her wish and said tomorrow both you and the bull will be killed. Priests arriving due to the letter, and crowds joined from all reaches of the kingdom, all chanting "Our ox is dead and done, we'll find ourselves a better one." How the princess married her ox ---- The king was surprised by this spectacle, and did not carry out the killing of the bull. The priests had arrived just in time to worship Nebuchad as the new Apis. Mambres then told the king that he should be the first to untie the ox and worship him, and the king obliged. Then Amasis went to kill his daughter as if he didn't he would be sentenced to hell. While preparing for the killing, Amasidia shouted her love for Nebuchad. Upon becoming the new bull god Nebuchad gained the ability to speak and shouted back to Amasidia that he will love her till his death. After this the bull regained his human form in front of the large crowd. Then Nebuchad said, "I would rather be Amasidia's lover than a god. I am Nebuchadnezzar, King of Kings." Nebuchad then married Amasidia on the spot and showed mercy to his new father-in-law and let him keep his kingdom of Tanis. He also bestowed foundations to the dove, she-ass, dog, whale,three magpies, and even the raven. Showing the whole world that he could pardon as well as conquer. The old lady even received a fat pension. This created a custom that was passed on to all kings, that all can be pardoned after recognizing the error of his ways. |
The Return | Judith Reeves-Stevens | null | The novel begins on the planet Veridian III and takes place shortly after the events seen in the motion picture Star Trek Generations. The body of James T. Kirk is stolen by the Romulans after his burial by fellow Starfleet captain Jean-Luc Picard. The Borg have formed an alliance with the Romulan Star Empire in order to destroy the Federation. Using alien technology, the Borg bring Kirk back to life and his katra is restored, but false memories are implanted to turn him against the Federation. The goal of this secret alliance is to destroy Picard and therefore Starfleet's only defense against the Borg but, despite his conditioning, Kirk is able to resist commands to kill Worf, Data, and Geordi La Forge, all of whom are attacked by him during his search for Picard. Simultaneously, Picard and Dr. Beverly Crusher are participating in a strike team in a Federation expedition to an assimilated colony, where they are captured on board a Borg vessel. They are able to escape and, as they move freely around the vessel, they learn of the Borg/Romulan Alliance. Spock also learns of this alliance when he is captured dealing with Romulans, but the Borg do not assimilate him as, for some reason, they believe Spock is already Borg. Kirk is eventually captured on Deep Space Nine attempting to kill Commander William Riker, and the implant that was responsible for his false memories is removed by the joint efforts of Dr. Julian Bashir and Admiral Leonard McCoy; McCoy acts as an advisor during the surgery while Bashir's younger, fitter hands perform the operation. Although Kirk retains the drives implanted in him by the device, leading him to a confrontation with Picard in a holodeck re-creation of the original USS Enterprise, Spock is able to remove the commands thanks to a mind meld. In the process, they learn that V'ger, the former Voyager 6, was actually upgraded by a division of the Borg Collective, which explains why the Borg did not assimilate Spock; they assumed the trace of V'ger in his mind from their meld (in Star Trek: The Motion Picture) was an actual link to the Collective. This also gives Starfleet another advantage; thanks to the meld, Spock knows the location of the Borg homeworld. Taking a Defiant-class starship (renamed Enterprise for the mission), the Enterprise-D senior staff, accompanied by Kirk, Spock and McCoy, travel directly to the Borg homeworld thanks to a stolen transwarp drive. Once there, the Enterprise neutralizes the Borg/Romulan fleet around the planet with a wave, dampening the Borg's communication and making them unable to maintain their link to the Collective, effectively neutralizing them. Taking this as a distraction, Kirk and Picard beam down to the planet in search of the Borg central node. Using Picard's memories as Locutus, they track down the Borg central node which, when deactivated, will sever the Borg Collective; every Borg ship will be separate from every other ship, and what can defeat one will always work a second time. However, the result will cause a cataclysmic explosion that will kill whoever operates the node. Picard and Kirk debate on who will go, each attempting to be the hero and sacrifice themselves. Kirk appears to give in and let Picard pull the lever, but he takes the sudden calm to knock Picard out and beam his unconscious body back up to the Enterprise. Kirk then pulls the lever and triggers the explosion. However, even as the crew watches, Spock, who has always been able to sense Kirk ever since they first mind-melded, still does not believe that his friend is dead. |
Once a Runner | John L. Parker Jr. | 1,978 | The novel opens with a physically fit young man standing on a track, watching as "the night joggers" toil around him. He begins to walk toward the starting post, and thinks that now that the Olympic games are over for him, he does not know what he will do with his life. The man starts to walk around the track, and thinks back to four years ago. Quenton Cassidy is a collegiate runner at fictional Southeastern University based on the University of Florida. He is a distance runner who specializes in the Mile. After writing a petition for the college's athletes protesting a dress and conduct code, Quenton is suspended from the university and prohibited from competing in the university's annual track meet. Cassidy drops out, moves to a cabin in the woods, and submits himself to a brutal training regimen. He is under the coaching of fictional gold medalist Olympian Bruce Denton. His plan is to compete at the Southeastern Relays against the best miler in the world, John Walton (obviously based on John Walker). Because he is barred from competing at the meet, Denton comes up with a plan to disguise him as a Finnish runner attending a nonexistent university in Ohio. Cassidy, who has always dreamed of running a sub 4:00 mile, spends many months training for the race of his life, urged on by Denton, who is nearing the end of his running career due to injuries. After completing an agonizing interval workout of 60 quarter miles, Cassidy finally believes he is ready to face Walton. The night before the race, Cassidy performs a ritual of his to prepare himself for the meet—he walks a mile on the Southeastern track, putting all of his "demons" in a symbolic "orb" that will hold them in during the race and allow him to push through the pain. The next day, Cassidy arrives at the meet, which his disguise allows for, but spends more than an hour warming up on the cross-country course near the track. As the race draws nearer, Quenton fights to keep control of his adrenaline and anxiety, waiting until the race starts so he can unleash them. A large part of a chapter is devoted to the race itself, which comes down to a contest between Cassidy and Walton in the final lap. The novel describes the effect lactic acid has on Quenton as he fights to close in on Walton, who has a slight lead. Excruciatingly, Cassidy reels Walton in, and outsprints him in the final straight to win the race in a time of 3:52.5. After the race, the scene changes back to Cassidy standing at the Southeastern track, walking through the last lap of a mile. Quenton reflects upon his running career, and realizes that while it is over for him, there is much to be left behind on the track. When he reaches the end of the lap, he reaches into his bag and pulls out a box with a silver Olympic medal inside. Cassidy thinks to himself that he can live with leaving behind his old life, and with a bittersweet feeling walks off into the night. |
Zahrah the Windseeker | Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu | 2,005 | In the northern Ooni Kingdom, fear of the unknown runs deep, and children born dada are rumored to have special powers. Thirteen-year-old Zahrah Tsami feels like a normal girl, she grows her own flora computer, has mirrors sewn onto her clothes, and stays clear of the Forbidden Greeny Jungle. But unlike other children in the village of Kirki, Zahrah was born with the telling dadalocks. Only her best friend, Dari, isn’t afraid of her, even when something unusual begins happening—something that definitely makes Zahrah different. The two friends determine to investigate, edging closer and closer to danger. When Dari's life is threatened, Zahrah must face her worst fears alone, including the very thing that makes her different. In this novel, things are not always what they seem: monkeys tell fortunes, plants offer wisdom, and a teenage girl is the only one who stands a chance at saving her best friend's life. |
Doctor Thorne | Anthony Trollope | 1,858 | When their father dies, Doctor Thomas Thorne and his younger, ne'er-do-well brother Henry are left to fend for themselves. Doctor Thorne begins to establish a medical practice, while Henry seduces Mary Scatcherd, the sister of stonemason Roger Scatcherd. When Scatcherd finds out that Mary has become pregnant, he seeks out Henry and, in the ensuing fight, kills him. While her brother is in prison, Mary gives birth to a girl. A former suitor offers to marry her and emigrate to the United States to start a new life, but refuses to take the baby. Doctor Thorne persuades her to accept the generous offer, promising to raise his niece. He names her Mary Thorne but, wishing neither to have her illegitimacy made public nor to have her associate with the uncouth Roger Scatcherd, he keeps her birth secret. He tells Scatcherd that the baby had died. After his release, Scatcherd rises quickly in the world as a railway project undertaker. In time, his skills make him extremely rich. When he completes a seemingly-impossible important project on time, he is created a baronet for his efforts. Throughout his career, he entrusts his financial affairs to Doctor Thorne. When Thorne becomes the family doctor to the Greshams, he persuades Scatcherd to loan ever growing sums to the head of the family, the local squire, who has troubles managing his finance. Eventually, much of the Gresham estate is put up as collateral. Meanwhile, Mary grows up with the Gresham children and becomes a great favorite with the whole family. As a result, Thorne feels obliged to tell his friend the squire the secret concerning her birth. Mary falls in love with Frank Gresham, the only son and heir of the squire of Greshamsbury and nephew of the Earl and Countess De Courcy, and he with her. However, his parents desperately need him to marry wealth, in order to rescue them from the financial distress resulting from the squire's expensive and fruitless campaigns for a seat in Parliament. As Mary is penniless and of low birth, such a marriage is frowned upon by his mother Lady Arabella and the De Courcys. His snobbish mother and maternal aunt bearing the aristocratic De Courcy family name wish him to marry a thirty-year-old, eccentric, intelligent if kind-hearted heiress, Martha Dunstable. He reluctantly visits Courcy Castle and they become friends. He foolishly and playfully proposes. She demurs, knowing that he does not love her, and he tells her about his love for Mary. Sir Roger is a chronic drunkard, and Doctor Thorne tries in vain to get him to curtail his drinking. In his will, he stipulates that bulk of his estate go to his odious, dissolute only son Louis Philippe, but leaves Doctor Thorne in control of the inheritance until the heir reaches the age of twenty-five. Should Louis die before then, Scatcherd stipulates that the estate go to his sister Mary's eldest child. Thorne is forced to divulge Mary's history, but Scatcherd leaves the will unchanged. Sir Roger eventually dies of his excessive alcoholism, and Sir Louis inherits his vast wealth. The son proves just as much an alcoholic as the father, and his weaker constitution quickly brings him to the same end, before he reaches twenty-five. After consulting with many lawyers, Doctor Thorne confirms that his niece Mary is the heiress, richer than even Miss Dunstable. Unaware of these proceedings, the more-resolute Frank finally persuades his doting father to consent to his marriage to Mary. When all is revealed, everyone is elated, even Frank's mother and Countess De Courcy, and their wedding becomes a much talked of event after the marriage of Mr Oriel and Beatrice Gresham, Frank's younger sister and Mary's best friend. |
The Sheep Look Up | John Brunner | 1,972 | With the rise of a corporation-sponsored government, pollution in big cities has reached extreme levels and most (if not all) people's health has been affected in some way. Continuing the style used in Stand on Zanzibar, there is a multi-strand narrative and many characters in the book never meet each other; some characters only appear in one or two vignettes. Similarly, instead of chapters, the book is broken up into sections which range from thirty words in length to several pages. The character of Austin Train in The Sheep Look Up serves a similar purpose to Xavier Conroy in The Jagged Orbit or to Chad Mulligan in Stand on Zanzibar: He is an academic who, despite predicting and interpreting social change, has become disillusioned by the failure of society to listen. This character is used both to drive the plot and to explain back-story to the reader. By the end of the book rioting and civil unrest sweep the United States, due to a combination of poor health, poor sanitation, lack of food, lack of services, ineffectiveness of services (medical, policing), disillusionment with government/companies, oppressive government, civil unrest, high incidence of birth defects (pollution-induced), and other factors; all services (military, government, private, infrastructure) break down. A housewife in Ireland smells smoke, and says to a visiting doctor: "We ought to call the fire brigade, is it a hayrick?" to which the doctor replies, "The brigade would have a long way to go. It's from America. The wind is blowing [from] that way." |
After Worlds Collide | Philip Gordon Wylie | 1,934 | The United States and several other countries were able to construct and launch space Arks before the Earth was destroyed by a collision with Bronson Alpha, a rogue planet that had entered the solar system months earlier. A French ship malfunctioned shortly after liftoff and crashed. Both American ships survived the voyage to the companion body, Bronson Beta, though they were separated and each unaware of any other successful arrivals. The two American ships' personnel are finally reunited nearly half way into the book. Bronson Alpha destroys Earth and moves out into deep space again, while Bronson Beta swings into what seems to be a stable, but eccentric, orbit around the sun. Early in the story, the survivors of Hendron's own smaller Ark took stock of their situation and set out to establish a colony, already aware of the hint of a previous civilization: a road. Tony Drake and another associate scout out for suitable farmland, which is put to use, but during their return journey following the alien road, the two men come across a vehicle. After a mysterious disease passes through the camp, killing two colonists, Hendron forbids exploration, but some of the colonists defy him and strike out, bringing back wood from a distant forest. That night, an aircraft passes near the camp, beating a hasty retreat when it notices the campfire of wood. Tony's former manservant, Kyto, explains he found a piece of paper blowing in the wind, and it reveals that a group arrived from Earth that intended to establish a "soviet", and they were made up of Germans, Russians and Japanese. At Hendron's order, an exploratory aircraft is built from remnants of the Ark and its rockets, and Tony Drake sets off with writer Eliot James. They follow the road and discover a domed city. These are the remains of a native civilization, whose builders were essentially humanoid and had considerably higher technology than humanity (but this did not enable them to survive the freezing of their world). They explore it for three days and then fly south and discover a search light beaming up in the dark. They discover it to be the second Ark from Hendron's encampment on Earth that had a disastrous landing, but they make a joyous reunion with its commander, Dave Ransdell. Ransdell's camp also saw a mysterious aircraft, long enough to see it had "lark's wings". Tony and Ransdell fly back to Hendron's camp, finding that Hendron is visibly deteriorating in health and mind. Tony is jealous that Ransdell apparently will become the new leader also have Eve, Hendron's daughter, as his wife. Eve, acting as Hendron's regent, dispatches Tony to the Ransdell camp to deliver a radio, and the first signal received is that the Hendron camp has suffered some sort of attack. Tony and one of Ransdell's men return to the Hendron camp to investigate: everyone is lying on the ground. They discover everyone is alive, after all, but drugged; they give the doctor antidotes and then hear an aircraft approaching. Assuming a "dead" sprawl, they watch the aircraft pass over: the men inside have Slavic features and have evidently begun a takeover attempt. The aircraft leaves, the doctor responds to the antidotes, and Tony prepares the weapon emplacements (rocket tubes from the Ark) to defend. An armada arrives soon afterward and is totally obliterated by the Hendron camp's weapons. The people gradually wake up; the other camp reports they are all right. Hendron hands command to Tony, and Ransdell is relieved by that choice. Tony decides to occupy one of the alien cities, not the one they found but a different one shown on a diagram to exist close by; they follow the road there. During the trip, they encounter an alien automobile driven by a British woman; she explains that a British ship also made it over from Earth but landed in a lake; they were found the next day by the "Dominion of Asian Realists" group, which Hendron nicknamed "Midianites", and enslaved. The Midianites' society is like an ant farm, the colony being all important and the people nothing, but the top rulers live luxuriously. The alien city is occupied and the tractors leave at once for Ransdell's camp to bring its people to the city, which Tony names Hendron, because Hendron died just as the convoy came into view of the city. Hendron is buried the next day. The scientists manage, with the Briton's help, to figure out how to charge batteries and operate machinery, and they also find hangars of the lark aircraft; some are armed and used for air defence. Meanwhile, the planet is approaching aphelion, and nobody is entirely certain that the planet is in a stable orbit around the sun. The weather is getting colder, and one night, the Midianites disconnect the power supply to the city of Hendron's people. One member of Hendron's group seems to defect to the Midianites, while four others land in a city on the other side of the Midianites' city, and attempt to reach the Midianite city by an underground service tunnel's high-speed car. They are unsuccessful, but the female defector kills the Midianite leader, defeats his key people, and allows the British to take control. In short order, the story ends quite abruptly. The Dominion is defeated, and the victorious American/British coalition settles into the domed cities, discussing a form of government that the former Midianites now seem resigned to living under. While challenges still exist, their immediate needs for shelter, energy, and food are taken care of. The story ends on an optimistic note with a reference to the first pregnancy among the colonists, Eve's and Tony's, and the confirmation that they have passed aphelion and are now definitely locked into orbit around the old Earth's sun. |
Hard to Be a God | Boris Strugatsky | 1,964 | The first chapter shows a scene from Anton's childhood, when he sneaks away from his boarding school with his friends, Pashka (Paul) and Anka (Anna), for a small role-play in the woods. It reveals that children live in a futuristic utopia, and the teenagers are drawn to the adventures on far away planets, where Earth tries to stimulate progress, by sending undercover agents (known as 'observers', not to be confused with latter-day progressors). While children play they find an abandoned road with a road sign "wrong way". Anton decides to go further and discovers remnants from World War II - a skeleton of German gunner chained to his machine gun. Later it is revealed that both Anton and Pashka grow up to be observers on the other planet, and are based in two neighbouring states: Anton in the Arkanar Kingdom and Pashka in the Irukan Duchy. The actual story begins when don Rumata (Anton) visits the Drunken Den, a meeting place for observers working in the Lands Beyond the Strait (Запроливье). Currently, he is investigating the disappearance of a famed scientist, Doctor Budah, who might have been kidnapped by the Prime Minister of Arkanar, don Reba. Don Reba leads a campaign against all educated people in the kingdom, blaming them for all the calamities and misfortunes of the kingdom. Rumata is alarmed, as the kingdom is rapidly morphing into a fascist police state. Apparently, all Rumata's efforts are concentrated on saving most talented poets, writers, doctors and scientists and smuggling them abroad, into neighboring countries. However, most of his native friends are murdered or broken by Don Reba's regime. Rumata tries to convince his colleagues that a more active intervention must take place. However, don Goog (Pashka) and don Kondor (an elder and more experienced observer) feel that he became to involved in native affairs and can't see the historical perspective objectively. They remind him of the vices of overly active meddling with the history of the planet. Not convinced, but left with no other choice, Rumata agrees to continue his work. Back in the city, Rumata tries pumping multiple people for information, including Vaga the Wheel, the head of local organised crime. He also comes to a soiree organised by don Reba's lover, dona Okana, who is also rumored to be don Reba's confidante. Rumata hopes to seduce he, and pump for information, however, he cannot hide the disgust, of whoring himself out, and has to retreat. Rumata's love interest, a young commoner named Kira, who can't stand any longer the brutality and horrors of fascist Arkanar asks Rumata to stay in his house. Rumata gladly agrees and promises to evetually take her with him to 'a wonderful place far far away' - meaning Earth, of whose existence Kira is unaware. His other plans don't go that smoothly. Life in Arcanar becomes less and less tolerable. Reba orders the torture and execution of dona Okana. Rumata - faced with the horrible consequences of his power play - goes into drunken stupor. Finally, left no other option, Rumata openly blames don Reba in front of the King Pitz VI for kidnapping a famous physician, that he, Rumata, invited to tend to King's maladies. The ensuing events prove that don Reba has anticipated and prepared for this. After confessing that he, in fact, kidnapped Dr. Budah, fearing that the man is not to be trusted with King's life, don Reba apologizes. He then brings forward a physician, introducing him as Dr. Budah. The next night, Rumata, who's turn is to guard royal prince and the only heir to the throne, is suddenly overwhelmed by dozens of Don Reba's men, and while fighting for his life witnesses them murdering the prince. They are in turn massacred by monks, apparently members of the Holy Order, a militaristic religious sect. Defeated Rumata is brought in front of don Reba. Don Reba reveals that he has been watching don Rumata for some time - in fact he knows Rumata to be an impostor - the real Rumata died long time ago. However, don Reba realizes that there is some supernatural power behind Rumata. Rumata's gold is of impossible high quality and Rumata's sword fighting style is unheard of - and yet - he never killed a single person while staying in Arcanar. Don Reba instinctively feels that killing Rumata may lead to retribution from his supernatural allies (he assumes Rumata to be a denizen of hell) and tries to forge a treaty with him. During their conversation, Rumata finally understands the magnitude of Reba's plotting. The presented physician was not Budah - impostor was promised a position of royal physician and was instructed to give King a potion - that was really a poison. King died and the physician was executed for murdering the king. With death of royal prince during Rumata's guard and king dead by hands of "Budah" - a doctor that was brought by Rumata and against Reba's wishes, Rumata can be easily blamed for staging a coup - in fact nobody would ever believe that he is not Reba's accomplice. In the same time, organized crime group of Vaga the Wheel, secretly encouraged by don Reba, started pillaging the city. Don Reba's then called in the Holy Order's army which quickly dispatched the criminals and the guardsmen alike, seizing the defenceless city with minimal losses. Reba - who might have been a pawn of Holy Order from the beginning - has become a new head of state, a magister of the Holy Order and bishop and governor of Arkanar. Shocked and infuriated, Rumata still holds his ground, and forms a non-aggression pact with Don Reba. He uses his new status to rescue the real Dr. Budah as well as his friend Baron Pampa from prison. Around him, Arcanar succumbs to the Holy Order. As the last of his friends and allies die and suffer in the turmoil, Rumata acts with all haste to expedite the departure of Budah. Rumata returns to his home, to discover his most loyal servant killed during a fight with a squad of Reba's stormtroopers who had gained entrance into the house; the rest of the household were then saved by a unit of the Holy Order. The three observers meet again to discuss the future. Both his colleagues are tortured by remorse, however, there is nothing to be done now. Don Kondor suggest that Rumata act carefully, as it is clear that rascal Reba can go back on their deal at any moment. He particularly advices to send Rumata's lover, Kira, to Earth with uttermost speed, as "all that we hold dear should be either in our heart or on Earth". Before Budah's departure, Rumata poses before him a theological question: "what would you ask a god, if he could come from sky and fullfil any of your wishes". After a long discussion - with Budah wishing and Rumata explaining the dire consequences of each of the wishes, Budah finally states that the only true gift, a god could give the people - is to leave them to their affairs. To this, Rumata replies, that god cannot bear the sight of their suffering. Budah crosses the border successfully and is saved. Feeling confident in his superior abilities and contacts in the military and the criminal world alike, Rumata plans to escape with Kira to Earth. However a unit of soldiers (either the friends of Kira's brother, or more likely, henchmen of don Reba) arrive in order to capture Kira and in the confusion she is shot dead by a crossbowman through the window. She dies in Rumata's hands. As the soldiers break the front door, Rumata, maddened with grief, unsheathes his swords and waits for them. The rest is narrated by Pasha to Anka. It is told, that space station was put on alert, when the house was attacked, however they did not have chance to react. The Earthmen doused the entire city with a sleep-inducing gas, but before that Anton-Rumata had fought his way through the city towards the palace - bathing his way in blood - where he finally killed don Reba. Remembering their childhood, Pashka wonders whether that episode, when Anton decided to disobey "wrong way" sign, and found a skeleton, had a deeper meaning - as going back to the past - to medieval world - could bring nothing but trouble. |
Scorpia | Anthony Horowitz | 2,004 | In a secret meeting room of criminal organization Scorpia, Julia Rothman briefs her colleagues on their latest project, codenamed "Invisible Sword." It is a plan to murder children aged 12 - 14 in Great Britain and destroy the friendly relations between the United States and the United Kingdom. " Then Alex figures out his parents are not dead Alex Rider is on a trip with his friend Tom Harris in Venice in search of Scorpia, the name that Yassen Gregorovich gave Alex before dying in the prior novel. While investigating at a party being held in the house of Julia Rothman, Alex is captured by a Scorpia assassin called Nile and is left to die in a water room, but manages to escape, barely. Alex is tutored about BASE jumping from Tom's brother Jerry and infiltrates the pharmaceutical company Consanto. He runs into Nile again; however, this time Nile takes Alex to see Julia Rothman. Rothman offers Alex a job at Scorpia, which he accepts after Rothman tells him that Scorpia had hired his father John Rider as an assassin. She also tells Alex that John was killed by MI6 during a prisoner exchange at Albert Bridge. Alex's first task is to kill his former MI6 superior, Mrs Jones. Scorpia sent a letter to the Government informing them of the power of Invisible Sword. To demonstrate, they tell them that they will kill the England B national football team as they arrive at London Heathrow Airport without using any weapons. Despite increased security, the team mysteriously dies. Alex sneaks back into England amid the chaos. He then sneaks into Mrs Jones's apartment to kill her, but is unsuccessful and is arrested. Alan Blunt, the head of MI6, takes Alex to a COBRA meeting to figure out what Invisible Sword is and how to stop it. With Alex's help, they determine that Scorpia embedded gold-encased nanoshells into the football players' bloodstream. The nanoshells were hidden in vaccinations and contained cyanide, which were activated by satellite dishes, and when they were activated, the gold wore away and the cyanide was released into the bloodstream, killing every single one of the players instantly. Scorpia will then kill London's schoolchildren, including Alex (Due to Rothman's hatred for him due to his father's later-revealed double-cross,) as they had all recently been vaccinated. Alex agrees to help MI6 out and pretends to come back to Scorpia. Rothman takes him to an abandoned church; Scorpia planned to put a satellite in a hot air balloon. At a certain height, they will then activate the nanoshells. Alex activates a retainer in his mouth and the SAS invades the church. As the balloon begins to rise, Alex jumps on the balloon and damages the satellites, causing them to plunge to the ground. Rothman is killed by the falling satellite. In the final pages of the novel, Alex learns that his father was a double agent for MI6, and the bridge scene was staged. Scorpia learned that John Rider was still alive and took revenge by blowing up the plane that he and Alex's mother Helen were flying in. In the final scene, as Alex exits the MI6 headquarters, a Scorpia assassin shoots him in the chest. He collapses, sees his parents, and loses consciousness. |
Eagle Strike | Anthony Horowitz | 2,003 | While on holiday in the South of France with his friend Sabina Pleasure, Alex Rider runs into the assassin Yassen Gregorovich, who killed Alex's uncle in the first novel Stormbreaker. When the Pleasures' holiday home explodes in a supposed gas leak, Alex suspects Yassen is involved and sneaks onto his yacht. Yassen captures him and enters him in a bullfight as punishment. After escaping, Alex calls a number he found on Yassen's mobile phone and hears pop star Damian Cray's voice. He tells MI6 about this, but Alan Blunt refuses to follow up on it as he believes it would be politically unwise if the press ever found out that MI6 was investigating Cray. Alex tells Sabina about his double life as a spy, but she does not believe him and refuses to speak with him. Alex meets a photographer named Marc Antonio (Le' Bis"Tro) in Paris; he reveals that Sabina's father was investigating Cray, and Antonio is killed shortly afterwards by an assassin. Alex goes to Cray Industries in Amsterdam, where he hears Yassen and Cray conversing about a flash drive. Cray catches Alex as he tries to sneak away and puts him in a real-life version of Feathered Serpent, a new video game developed by Cray Software Industries (the game was just a cover for getting a huge factory to develop a flash drive). Alex escapes and steals Cray's flash drive. In response, Cray kidnaps Sabina and holds her for ransom. Alex attempts to force Cray to release Sabina, but Cray outmaneuvers him and forces Alex to hand over the flash drive. Sabina is released and apoligizes to Alex for not believing him. Cray reveals his plan, code-named "Eagle Strike": he will board Air Force One and use its missile room to launch nuclear missiles at major drug-running countries to eradicate the drug trade. Sabina and Alex are locked in a room together, Sabina explains then when she first saw Cray when he kidnapped her, she knew Alex was right the whole time and should have believed him, Alex admits he had the stupid mistake of going after Cray which lead to Sabina's capture, the two reconcile. Yassen comes in and forces the two to put on nuclear-proof suits. After creating a diversion using a plane full of fake nerve gas, he, Yassen, Alex, and Sabina sneak aboard Air Force One at Heathrow Airport. Cray plugs in the flash drive and activates the missiles. He then orders Yassen to kill Alex and Sabina; upon Yassen's refusal, Cray shoots Yassen and then Alex, Sabina, flying into a rage, attacks him. But before she is almost killed, Alex, saved by a bulletproof jersey (given to him by Mr. Smithers), gets up and fights Cray. Eventually, the two manage to push Cray out of the plane, along with a food service cart used by Sabina. He is then sucked into the engine and shredded to pieces. The food cart getting sucked into the engine results in the engine's destruction, causing the plane to lose control. Cray's pilot Henryk attempts to abort the plane take-off, but, as the plane has already reached V1 speed, he cannot do so safely and crashes the plane off the runway, breaking his neck in the process. Alex and Sabina survive the crash and Sabina presses a self-destruct button to destroy the missiles. As he lays dying , Yassen tells Alex that Alex's Dad, worked with him as an assassin and that if he does not believe him, to go to Venice and find something called "Scorpia", which is later revealed in the subsequent novel as an evil intelligence company. Alex is stunned at this revelation. At the end of the novel, Sabina tells Alex that she will be moving to San Francisco and then they share a kiss underneath a bridge. |
The Constant Gardener | John le Carré | 2,001 | Justin Quayle, a British diplomat in Nairobi, Kenya, is told that his activist wife, Tessa, was killed while travelling with a doctor friend in a desolate region of Africa. Investigating on his own, Quayle discovers that her murder, reportedly done by her friend, may have had more sinister roots. Justin learns that Tessa had uncovered a corporate scandal involving medical experimentation in Africa. KVH (Karel Vita Hudson), a large pharmaceutical company working under the cover of AIDS tests and treatments, is testing a tuberculosis drug that has severe side effects. Rather than help the trial subjects and begin again with a new drug, KVH covered up the side effects and improved the drug only in anticipation of a massive multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis outbreak. Justin travels the world, often under assumed identities, to reconstruct the circumstances leading to Tessa's murder. As he begins to piece together Tessa's final report on the fraudulent drug tests, he learns that the roots of the conspiracy stretch further than he could have imagined; to a German pharmawatch NGO, an African aid station, and, most disturbingly to him, corrupt politicians in the British Foreign Office. John le Carré writes in the book's afterword: 'by comparison with the reality, my story [is] as tame as a holiday postcard'. The book is dedicated to Yvette Pierpaoli, a French activist who died during the course of her aid work. |
The Kid from Hell | Boris Strugatsky | 1,973 | The novel tells the story of Gack, a man from Giganda. Gack is a commando in Fighting Cats: an elite army unit of Alai Duchy. In the first chapter of the novel, Gack is mortally wounded in a battle with the army of the Empire. Kornei Yashmaa, a progressor finds him and takes him to Earth where the doctors practically resurrect Gack. Yashmaa tries to help Gack adjust to life on Earth. However, Gack does not want to cooperate or believe that Earth is real. At first, he thinks that everything Yashmaa and other Earthlings tell him is a part of his psychological training as an officer of the Alai Army. Even after Yashmaa proves to him that he is indeed on a different planet, Gack still thinks that he was sent to Earth with an unknown secret mission by the Alai military. His next idea is that the Earth wants to conquer Giganda and wants to use him as a test subject or a future propaganda agent. As he learns more about the technology and lifestyle on Earth (he is even given an android servant), he becomes more and more confused. Accidentally, Gack discovers that other Gigandians have been taken to Earth as well, but they have integrated into the society and do not want to deal with him. After a month since Gack's arrival on Earth, Yashmaa tells him that the war on Giganda was stopped by progressors and that Alai Duchy as well as the Empire is no more. Gack is so shocked by the news that he demands to go back to Giganda immediately. When Yashmaa refuses, Gack tries to escape by force. With the help of his android servant, he manages to construct an assault rifle and ammunition to it. Gack threatens to shoot Yashmaa if he does not send him back. Yashmaa can easily disarm Gack, but, persuaded by Gack's actions, decides to let him go. In the last chapter Gack is back on Giganda and helps local doctors to cure a plague ravaging a nearby city. He is home. |
Dr. Heidenhoff's Process | Edward Bellamy | 1,880 | The novel concerns a doctor who develops a mechanical method of eradicating painful memories from people's brains so that they can feel good about life again. The protagonist persuades his lover to try the process after she has been seduced by a rival. She is transformed until the protagonist awakes and realizes that he has dreamt of the doctor and his process and that his lover has committed suicide. The book is notable for its vivid description of small-town American life and mores in the period (1880). The 'Process' mentioned in the title is a plot mechanism to introduce a long discussion of the meaning of guilt. If one loses ones memory of the deed, is one still guilty? If one has changed of time since the deed, is one still guilty? The argument also emphasises the difference between guilt (in the eyes of others) and remorse (one's own judgement), and suggests that forgiveness can remove guilt but not remorse. (Information in this paragraph based on my recent reading of the book). |
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