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Majo no Takkyūbin | Eiko Kadono | 1,985 | The book follows Kiki, a young witch. Her mother is also a witch, but her father is not. Kiki is now thirteen and must spend a year on her own in a town without other witches. She must use her magic abilities to earn her living. She is accompanied by her cat Jiji. |
Border Princes | null | null | October, 8:00 pm. Torchwood responds to an alien energy spike in the heart of Cardiff; Tosh has been tracking the energy signature for some time, but it has abruptly escalated into what team member James Mayer calls the End of the World, or a 26 on a scale of 1 to 10. People are stumbling through the streets near the river, speaking of abstract numbers and shining blue lights, spouting out stream-of-consciousness ramblings, and chanting "big big big." A young man named Huw dies of a seizure before Tosh's eyes, coughing out a puff of foul-smelling smoke. A tramp named John Norris tells Tosh that Huw lost the Amok, and then attacks her, claiming that it's his turn. Tosh fights him off, but is attacked by a burly man who also claims that it's his turn. Her fellow team members subdue her attacker, and Jack sorts through the tramp's rubbish collection and finds a geometric solid with too many dimensions to count. He manages to shake off the device's influence, but then finds himself and his team surrounded by a mob of men, women, and children, all demanding their turn. The Torchwood team rush the Amok back to the containment box in their SUV, tossing it from person to person like a relay so that no one team member is exposed to it for too long. Just as James reaches the SUV, however, he is struck by a police car speeding to investigate the disturbance. Young PC Peter Picknall falls under the Amok's influence when he emerges from his car to check on James, but Owen overpowers him—only to fall under its influence himself. When James tries to take the Amok from him, Owen points his gun at James, claiming that it's his turn. Meanwhile, the milling mob has nearly pushed Gwen into the river, and as Jack pulls her back to safety, they feel the Amok's influence cut out. By the time they reach the SUV, James has overpowered Owen and sealed the Amok in the containment box. The rest of the mob also returns to normal, dazed and unsure what's just happened to them. Shiznay Uhma, a waitress at the Mughal Dynasty restaurant, has been developing a crush on her regular customer Mr Dine, although she can tell that there's something odd about him. Tonight, he suddenly stands up before his dinner is served, claiming that he's received a call to protect the Principal. Shiznay's father tries to stop him from leaving before he's paid, and Mr Dine flings him out of the way with a gesture and leaves the restaurant. Shiznay follows him outside, but there's no sign of him when she emerges from the restaurant—but for a blur of movement an impossible distance away, which must surely have been her imagination... Mr Dine eventually dismisses the call as a false alarm, but he's expended too much energy investigating and must crash in the alley behind the restaurant to regain his strength. When Shiznay finds him there later, he apologises for harming her father, and repays his debt by handing over 18 perfect diamonds that he claims to have created by compressing the graphite in a pencil stub. Aware that he will no longer be welcome at the restaurant, he tells Shiznay to close her eyes; when she opens them again, he's disappeared, but she nevertheless tells the absent Mr Dine to return any time he wants. Back at the Hub, Jack tears a strip off his team for their failure to protect now-traumatised innocent bystanders from the Amok. Gwen insists that they all did their best and storms out angrily on Jack, unaware that he's taking out his frustrations over something else. A device that he was given when he first joined Torchwood activated itself about six weeks ago, and he still has no idea what it's telling him. Meanwhile, Owen declares the rest of the team medically fit, though still dazed by their exposure to the Amok; for his part, he can't even remember how James overpowered him. As the puzzled Ianto disposes of Owen's ruined gun, James invites his friends round to his flat for a marathon video session of the lost season of Andy Pinkus, Rhamphorhynchus. Gwen would love to spend more time with James, but she begs off, as she and Rhys already have plans to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3. But when she gets home, she brushes off Rhys' questions about why she's late and bruised, and he angrily accuses her of using her work as an excuse to stop talking to him. The argument develops into a blazing row, and Gwen storms out on him—and ends up at James' flat, where they fall into each other's arms. Elsewhere in the city, an elderly war vet, Davey "Taff" Morgan, has unearthed something odd from the abandoned plot next to his vegetable allotment. He's been keeping it in his shed while he decides what to do with it, and he eventually decides to take it back to his house. On the way, he is taunted and bullied by a group of young hooligans. That night, he dreams about the war, and then has even worse nightmares about stick figures stalking the landscape of a far more terrible conflict. When he wakes, he realises that he was sharing the dreams of the thing from the shed, and as they're too much for him to handle, he apologises to the thing and wheels it back to the shed. He stops off at the library for a book on modern art before he returns home; the youths are waiting for him again, but he drives them off with a bayonet that he kept from the War. Once he's alone, he looks through the book and confirms his impression that the figures in his dream reminded him of an exhibition his wife had taken him to in 1969—an exhibition of articulated humanoid figures sculpted from metal wire. Toshiko seals the Amok behind a physical firewall of force fields, but she and Owen are still suffering from mild headaches due to its influence. James quietly returns Gwen's MP3 player, which she forgot in his flat, and tells her that he's loaded his favourite pop songs onto it. Jack apologises to his team for dressing them down more harshly than he'd intended; he too must have been affected by the Amok, which he's realised is a multi-dimensional alien mind game like a word search or a sudoku. It's a mild diversion for those who created it, but is too complex for the human mind to handle. The team is then called out to deal with a Droon infestation; these migratory alien insects usually pass as nothing worse than a mild cold, but this time they're about to hatch inside the bodies of an elderly couple, the Peeters. Torchwood gets in, zaps the Peeters unconscious with infrasonic paddles, and extracts the alien pupae from their sinus cavities before the pupae can hatch into lethal insects. Mission accomplished, they then provide the Peeters with hydrating drinks that contain a low-level dose of the Torchwood amnesia drug. Gwen points out to Jack that his team dealt with the problem quickly and efficiently, but he still doesn't tell her why he's been so uptight lately, repeating only that he has secrets he will only divulge if he feels she needs to know them. That night, Tosh and Owen notice that Gwen and James are going "home" together, but don't call attention to it. Gwen's relationship with James is becoming serious, and she realises that she'll have to break up with Rhys if she intends it to continue; however, she doesn't know to do so without hurting him. The next day, she pops back home to pick up some of her belongings while Rhys is out, but he's taken the day off for a dentist's appointment and returns unexpectedly. She insists that she's not leaving him and that she just needs some time alone to think, but the confrontation upsets her. James, waiting for her outside, tells her that he's willing to give her all the time she needs to make up her mind—but that she's going to have to deal with Rhys sooner or later. Tosh arrives at work late with a mild headache, and discovers that the Amok, which still wants to play, is trying to break out of its force-field cage. However, she has to put this aside for later when Jack asks her to help with another problem: the church of St-Mary's-in-the-Dust has reappeared in Butetown, the heart of old industrial Cardiff. The church was demolished in 1840, but has periodically reappeared ever since. Jack always meant to find out why, and now the opportunity has arisen—oddly, since its next appearance wasn't due until 2011. Gwen and James arrive later and follow Jack and Tosh out to the site, but find no sign of the church—or of Jack and Tosh. After searching fruitlessly for half an hour, Gwen finally manages to get through to Jack on her cell phone—and discovers that he and Tosh are standing in the same place as her, albeit in front of the church. Back at the Hub, Owen stumbles in late with a splitting headache, having woken to find that he'd written "big big big" in lipstick on his bathroom mirror. Somewhat dazed, he sits down at Tosh's workstation instead of his own, and before Ianto realises what he's doing, Owen has lowered the physical firewalls around the Amok. Out in Butetown, Gwen and James feel the Amok beginning to tug at their minds again—and Jack and Tosh retreat into the church, sensing something malignant approaching from outside. As something large and terrible approaches the church and begins to draw the life out of Jack and Tosh's bodies, Jack begins to panic and tells Gwen to take care of Torchwood when he's gone. He stumbles over his words while speaking to her, however, and she realises that he too is being affected by the Amok; she thus urges him to give in to the pull and let it draw him and Tosh back to the real world. They do so, escaping from the terrible thing that's waiting for them outside the church—something Jack never wants to speak about ever again. However, once he and Tosh are back in reality, the influence of the Amok becomes too much and he and Tosh collapse alongside the convulsing James and Gwen. Mr Dine feels the call once again, but the activation protocols are contradictory, as if he's being called to answer two threats at once. Confused, he steps out into the street and is struck by a van; he survives without a scratch, but the van is totalled. Mr Dine pushes his way through the gawking crowd at top speed, and decides to deal with the closest threat, which is located beneath the water tower in Roald Dahl Plass. He locates the invisible lift, enters the Hub, and finds Owen and Ianto lying unconscious near the Amok. Mr Dine identifies himself as one of the First Senior and plays one round of the Amok's game with it; however, it demands more, and when it tries to force itself through his mental barriers, he grabs it and crushes it in his bare hands. Owen recovers briefly once the Amok has been destroyed, but Mr Dine orders him to forget what he's seen, and Owen is too weak to argue. The others return to the Hub, where Owen declares everyone ill but fit to return to work. Jack, shaken by his experiences in the pocket of reality, thanks Gwen for keeping it together and apologises, sincerely this time, for his outburst the last time they encountered the Amok. Obviously, it was much stronger than they'd imagined at the time—which raises the question, why did it release its grip on their minds, and what happened to it? The Hub's security systems are showing some suspicious blanks, which might have been caused by the Amok—or by something else that got into the Hub and destroyed the Amok. Acknowledging that he won't be around all the time, Jack finally shows the others the device that's been causing him such worry recently. It was handed down from family to family in the Cardiff area until 1899, when Colonel Cosley of Cosley Hall passed it on to Torchwood. According to the records, it's meant to warn mankind of some terrible threat—and six weeks ago, it became active. Either something is on its way, or it's already here and they don't know what it is. The effects of the Amok seem to wear off by the next day, although James has been having odd dreams and at one point thinks he sees his eyes change colour. It's a quiet day, so Jack assigns Gwen to catch up on paperwork, turning down her request to visit Cosley Hall on the grounds that he's already investigated it and found nothing odd. Tosh then finds that there have been a number of police complaints about an odd door-to-door salesman; the home-owners who have encountered him are unable to describe him afterwards, but once he's gone, they find that they've forked over large amounts of cash for loft insulation and double-glazing that they don't need. Jack reasons that whatever the man is using must have a low range in order for it to slip under Torchwood's radar, which implies that the man must superficially resemble a real salesman in order for him to get close enough to his victims. He and James head out to the area in question to investigate, and spot a suspicious character who flees when they try to confront him. James somehow manages to catch up with the suspect despite the man's thirty-yard lead, but the man turns out to be a would-be burglar who was pretending to conduct customer surveys in order to case the houses on the street. Two other men flee when confronted, but the second man is a window cleaner who's been having an affair with a housewife, and the third is a Jehovah's Witness who fears that he's going to be mugged. Frustrated, Jack and James return to Torchwood and call it a night. Gwen has been staying at James' flat for six days now, and it's becoming increasingly obvious that she'll have to have a talk with Rhys. She asks James where their relationship is going, telling him that she doesn't want to hurt Rhys unnecessarily—but that she will if she knows this is more than just a casual fling. James admits that he's fallen in love with her, and they return to his flat and make love. All seems well with the world, but that night, James has another weird dream about running away from a castle across an impossibly long bridge while being pursued by two shadowy figures that he can't outrun... The next day, Gwen accompanies James and Jack on their stakeout, and when she suggests buying an ice-cream from a passing van, it occurs to Jack to wonder why an ice-cream van is driving around on a chilly day when the neighbourhood children are in school. They investigate, and Gwen catches the van's driver, a young con man named Dean Simms, using the weird thing in his briefcase to hypnotise an unfortunate housewife. Gwen confronts Dean before he can start his sales pitch, but he uses the thing on her, and she forgets what she was doing and wanders off. Dean tries the same trick on James, and flees in panic when it doesn't work. James and Jack pursue Dean to a mini-mart, but Dean manages to use the thing on Jack, who also forgets what he's doing. James blocks the mini-mart's exit, and the desperate Dean pushes a heavy trolley laden with beer crates at him. James angrily flings the trolley the length of the store and tackles Dean, knocking him out and seizing the weird organic alien bladder that he's been using to hypnotise people. When Gwen finally arrives at the store and sees the broken trolley, James claims that it fell over of its own accord—but privately, he's scared. Owen has already tried and failed to get through to Jack during the chase, and once Dean has been subdued, Jack answers the call and learns that Tosh has picked up an alien energy transmission from elsewhere in Cardiff. Owen and Tosh trace the signal to Davey Morgan's house, and the old vet assumes that they've come from the Ministry of Defence in answer to his call. He believes that the thing he found in the allotments is a smart weapon designed by the military, and he feels a bond with it, as they're both old soldiers with terrible memories of war. But last night, the young hooligans who have been bullying Davey tried to vandalise his shed—and when he arrived the next morning, he found bits and pieces of their bodies scattered over the allotment. Davey has taken the thing back to his house while he tries to figure out what to do, but when Owen confronts it, the thing perceives him as a threat. Jack, Gwen and James arrive just in time to see a massive explosion take out the front of Davey Morgan's house—and elsewhere, Mr Dine receives another activation signal... Owen, Tosh and Davey manage to duck out of the way of the blast, and when Jack arrives, he's horrified to recognise their attacker as a Melkene Serial G soldier robot. Faced with defeat in a long and vicious war, the desperate Melkene panicked and created a line of warrior robots with no mercy, psychotic killers willing to commit any atrocity in order to win. After the war, the shamed Melkene tried to recall the line, and were extinct within six weeks. Jack orders Tosh to have Ianto fetch Catalogue Item 981 from the Archive while he and the others try to keep the Serial G contained; however, the robot is far too powerful for them to handle. James tries to distract the robot to prevent it from going after Jack, and ends up running for his life—so fast that he later realises he's somehow scaled a seven-foot-high wall without noticing. Just as the Serial G is about to catch him, however, it recoils as if something is giving it the beating of its life. Something is: Mr Dine, who is now in full combat mode and has become a thorn-covered, grey humanoid figure. At first, the somewhat unworldly Davey Morgan is the only one who can see the creature attacking the Serial G, but as Mr Dine expends more energy, he becomes visible to all those watching the fight. Eventually, Mr Dine manages to rip out the Serial G's CPU, and the robot's mini-reactor power source promptly explodes, taking out the house they've just crashed into and seriously injuring Mr Dine. Jack offers to help, but Mr Dine refuses, claiming that such contact is not permitted. Instead, he flees back to the familiar Mughal Dynasty restaurant and crashes in the pantry. Shiznay finds him there, and, realising that Mr Dine is badly injured and needs to rest, she sneaks him into her brother Kamil's bedroom while Kamil is out of town visiting friends. Later, she secretly brings him dinner, but finds someone else in the room—a stranger named Mr Lowe. Mr Dine stops Mr Lowe from harming Shiznay, and instead tells her to forget that any of this has happened, which she immediately does. Mr Lowe then informs the recovering Mr Dine that he's been inserted to provide Mr Dine with support, but Mr Dine realises that Mr Lowe hasn't been here long enough to appreciate the subtleties of human culture... While James recovers from his surprisingly superficial injuries in Torchwood's care room, Jack conducts a post-mortem of the incident. The device that he was so worried about is still active, which means that even the Serial G wasn't the threat it's warning them about. Perhaps the real threat is whatever managed to take down a Serial G with its bare hands. Gwen points out that since the device's condition has changed, then maybe conditions have also changed up at Cosley Hall; Jack concedes that this is a good point, and Gwen and Tosh set off to the Hall to look for clues. The Hall's curator, Mr Beaven, is pleased that they've taken an interest in the historical site, and tells them that its last owner, Colonel Joseph Penington Cosley, regarded himself as a border prince, a guardian of the threshold between two lands. There is no evidence of alien influence at the Hall, but Mr Beaven gives Gwen contact information for Brian Brady, a student from Manchester who's been studying Colonel Cosley's personal papers and diaries. James recovers quickly from his encounter with the Serial G—perhaps too quickly. Still haunted by dreams of being chased away from a castle, and convinced that he somehow jumped over a seven-foot-high wall and threw a fifty-kilogram shopping cart the length of a mini-mart, James privately asks Owen to conduct thorough tests to determine whether something is wrong with him. Owen does so, and confirms that James is thoroughly human; presumably, he was just imagining things in the heat of the moment. As the relieved James departs, Jack confronts Owen and admits that he too has noticed something odd going on with James. Meanwhile, James and Gwen return to James' flat and spend an enjoyable evening watching a romantic comedy called Sisters in Law, starring Glenn Robbins—the actress from James' favourite TV show, Eternity Base. Gwen is planning to break up with Rhys on the weekend, but Jack then calls her, telling her that the tile device has started to flash in a different pattern; he still doesn't know what it means, but he wants his team on full alert. Worried, Gwen postpones her discussion with Rhys, contacts Brian Brady and arranges to visit him in Manchester tomorrow to discuss the life of Colonel Cosley. That night, James sees two shadowy figures watching the flat, and when he confronts them, they tell him that he is acting against the Principal's best interests. They refuse to explain further, and James then finds himself waking up back in the flat with no memory of the encounter. The next morning, Gwen sets off for Manchester by train, while James goes shopping, intending to cook a sumptuous dinner for himself and Gwen. However, he begins to feel oddly disconnected, as if his body is not his own, and as he begins to lose track of what he's doing in the shopping centre, he realises that two men are following them—and remembers encountering them outside his flat last night. James flees from the shopping mall in a panic, smashing straight through the reinforced plate-glass windows at the entrance and crossing the busy road by leaping from roof to roof of the speeding cars. Mr Dine and Mr Lowe give chase, but while Mr Dine has some care for the people in his path, Mr Lowe simply shoves them aside so hard that some will require medical attention. James manages to shake off his pursuers by clinging to the side of a bus so hard that he leaves deep impressions in its metal side, and, panic-stricken, he calls his friends at Torchwood for help. Jack, Owen, Tosh and Ianto have been discussing James, and have realised that they have a problem. Jack has checked the CCTV footage from the mini-mart, and has confirmed that James somehow threw a heavy trolley an impossible distance across the store. Ianto has examined Owen's gun, which was ruined when James somehow overpowered him during the capture of the Amok, and has found James' fingerprints embedded in the crushed metal. Worried, Jack calls Gwen, who has been spending her trip to Manchester listening to James' songs on her MP3 player, reading a magazine article about Glenn Robbins and Eternity Base, and watching a child playing with his Andy Pinkus toy. As she nears Manchester, however, she begins to feel strange, and is overwhelmed by a sense of loss and grief. She doesn't understand where this has come from, why her MP3 player is full of songs she doesn't like, why she's been reading a magazine article about Jolene Blaylock and Star Trek: Enterprise, or why she's been watching a child playing with his SpongeBob SquarePants toy. And when Jack contacts her to say that they need to talk about James, she has no idea who he's talking about. The terrified James contacts Torchwood, and his friends rush to help him. Mr Dine and Mr Lowe have tracked him down, and they inform him that his investment has been compromised, putting the Principal at risk; his self-protection protocols have been damaged, and his base consciousness has not uploaded, as evidenced by the fact that he has no idea what they're talking about. Panic-stricken, he tries to flee, but they transform into their sleek, grey combat forms and chase him through the streets, just as they have done in his dreams. Jack, Tosh and Owen arrive on the scene, and Jack fires his Webley revolver at the two figures to attract their attention; he then lowers it, explaining that he just wants to talk. Mr Dine convinces Mr Lowe to wait while he explains the situation; unlike his new partner, Mr Dine has been here long enough to appreciate the nuances of human society, and he thus agrees to sit down with Jack and tell him everything. Gwen returns to the Hub, shaken to realise that she forgot all about James once she got more than 100 miles away from him—because the camouflage effect doesn't extend that far. Jack explains to the shocked James that, although his body is genuinely human, his memories are false; his identity was constructed to house the consciousness of the Principal of the First Senior. The Rift borders on a number of worlds besides Earth, and the First Senior are the alien equivalent of Torchwood, the border princes who guard the Rift on their world. Every so often, the heirs to the throne are sent through the Rift to immerse themselves in the cultures of the border worlds in order to better understand the things that might fall through the Rift. The false identity of James Mayer contains buried protocols intended to trigger superhuman strength and speed whenever he finds himself in danger—but his identity protocols have somehow been damaged, and his true identity, which should have resurfaced by now, has not. James refuses to accept this, and insists that his friends have been manipulated into believing a lie. Terrified, he flees from the Hub, but Mr Dine and Mr Lowe are waiting outside. James attacks Mr Lowe, injuring him, but Mr Dine realises that Mr Lowe will take offence and try to teach the Principal a harsh lesson in respect. He thus ends the matter quickly by reaching out and snapping James' neck, killing James' human body before he can react. Mr Dine and Mr Lowe then depart, taking the Principal's consciousness back with them—and leaving James' dead body outside the Hub. Jack believes that, without the influence of the camouflage effect, the Torchwood team will slowly lose their memories of James and return to normal, but for now they'll have to cope with knowing that their friend is not only dead but never really existed. For the others, this will be hard enough—but for Gwen, even though she's got Rhys to return to, it's the end of the world. |
Another Life | null | null | Someone has been killing the homeless of Cardiff by chewing out the backs of their necks and eating part of their brains. Gwen and Jack pursue Wildman, their suspect, into a half-finished building site, where he coughs up a starfish-like creature to delay them. Realising that he's been caught and has nowhere to run Wildman deliberately falls off the unfinished building. Owen, who witnessed Wildman's fall, tells Jack and Gwen that Wildman started to scream as he fell, as if he'd changed his mind halfway down. Tosh reports that she's found a cluster of similar deaths around the Caregan barracks, an army training camp in Cowbridge. Owen finds the remains of a burnt-out alien sphere attached to Wildman's spine. Tosh reports that experimental nuclear power packs have gone missing from Blaidd Drwg. Jack and Gwen go to Wildman's flat where they find a woman who identifies herself as Wildman's neighbour, Betty Jenkins. While searching the flat, Jack enters Wildman's bathroom and is attacked by a giant starfish creature lurking in the tub. Gwen's gun has no effect on the creature, and she tells Betty to run, grabs Wildman's electric heater and throws it into the tub, electrocuting the starfish thing. Tosh reports another alien device like the one in Wildman's spinal column was found during the autopsy of Sgt Anthony Bee who was shot dead while trying to steal military equipment from the Caregan barracks. Jack decides to investigate, and Gwen discovers Betty Jenkins was an impostor. At the barracks, Gwen interviews the medical officer who admits that Sgt Bee apparently killed and ate two of his own men before shooting Private Sujit Kandahal in a botched attempt to steal an amphibious vehicle. Jack investigates the contents of Bee's barracks, and finds photographs of Bee scuba diving with his friends: Guy Wildman and Sergeant Sandra Applegate, the blonde woman from the flat. Jack realises that the starfish creature had been guarding something in Wildman's flat. At the flat Sandra has returned and she coughs up a starfish onto Gwen's hand. Jack shoots Sandra, who falls through a window, but he then pauses to stab the starfish creature and get it off Gwen before it can do too much damage; by the time he returns to the window, there's no sign of Sandra's body. Jack returns to the bathroom and finds that the large starfish had been protecting a lead-lined box containing the stolen nuclear packs; he sets off to return them to Blaidd Drwg. Meanwhile Cardiff has been having serious rainstorms, and by the time they get back to the Hub, the Oval Basin is flooded and the water level in the Hub's tidal pool is beginning to rise. Owen has finished decontaminating and apparently gone home. Sandra, realising that her body has been mortally injured by the gunshot wound deliberately steps in front of an ambulance and lets it hit her. Back at the Hub, Owen has been unwinding in a multiplayer online game called Second Reality. Owen finds one of the other players is Dr Megan Tegg an ex-girlfriend who now works at the Cardiff Royal Hospital. Owen goes to visit her and wants to recruit her to Torchwood, as her behaviour in Second Reality has convinced him that she'd be open to the possibilities of alien life. Owen accompanies her to her shift at the hospital and notices Sandra Applegate's name on the in-patient lists, recognises it and decides to investigate, though he does not actually know what Torchwood's current interest in her is. Sandra's X-rays seem to indicate that there is a bullet lodged near her spine but is in fact an alien implant, just like the one in Wildman's body. Sandra then wakes and tells him that she needs Torchwood's help. According to Sandra, she, Tony, and Guy found an alien spacecraft on one of their diving expeditions, and were captured when they investigated. Sandra asks to return to the alien ship to remove the tracker. Owen and Megan drive Sandra out to the Wetlands Reserve, where the alien ship's escape pod is hidden. Sandra tells Owen that the typhoon swamping Cardiff is a result of the ship forcing its way through the Rift. Sandra traps Owen and Megan implanting control spheres in their spines, and the entity controlling Sandra's body vacates it and moves into Megan's. Megan activates a control to reveal an alien life form sitting in a nearby cabinet; this is the true body of the ship's only survivor, a Bruydac warrior. The Bruydac's consciousness has been moving from host to host, trying to find more fuel for its damaged ship. The act of possession burns up human cerebrospinal fluid at an accelerated rate, which is why the Bruydac's hosts had to feed on others to replenish their own. Back at Torchwood, Jack receives a call from Blaidd Drwg, and learns that there are still two nuclear packs missing. Tosh then reports that her weather analysis indicates that something is emerging from the Rift beneath the Bay, causing a localised typhoon that is going to get worse until the source of the disturbance is removed. Jack orders Tosh and Gwen to find Owen and investigate the disturbance under the Bay, using the Torchwood mini-sub; he himself returns to Wildman's flat, hoping to find the two remaining nuclear packs. They aren't there, but Tosh finds that the last person to call Owen's cell phone was Dr Megan Tegg of Cardiff Royal Hospital. Jack goes to the hospital, where he learns that a nurse was recently murdered. Jack goes back to the building site where Wildman died. Jack rushes back up to the eighth floor to find that Megan Tegg has found and retrieved Wildman's briefcase containing the nuclear powerpacks. When she quotes something that Wildman had said in the same circumstances, Jack realises that alien is moving from body to body. It insists that it just wants to escape, but when he refuses to let it get away with murder, it pulls the two remaining nuclear packs out of the briefcase and threatens to smash them together. Before it can do so, Jack shoots Megan in the forehead, killing her. Gwen and Tosh have descended into the Bay and found the alien ship. When Jack kills Megan, Owen revives and attacks Gwen, trying to chew out the back of her neck; fortunately, Ianto arrives just in time and Owen is forced to flee. Jack calls the Hub, learns what's happened, and orders Ianto to restrain Owen and kill him if necessary. While Ianto and Tosh search the Hub for Owen, Jack orders Gwen to fetch some scuba gear and the harpoon gun, and together, they return to the ship. When they arrive, Jack sets the engines in reverse; the ship will tear itself apart backing through the Rift. Jack then executes the Bruydac by shooting its body with the harpoon gun. He then tells Gwen his plan to dispose of the Bruydac's consciousness and he connects himself to the control frame and allows it to implant a sphere in his spine. Gwen calls Torchwood and tells Tosh that Jack has accidentally has a control sphere implanted into his spine. Owen is captured by Ianto, who injects him with a powerful sedative, but the Bruydac has overheard Gwen's call and thus moves out of Owen's body and into Jack's. However, when it opens Jack's eyes, it finds that Gwen has restrained Jack's body in the cage where its original alien body had been resting. Following Jack's earlier instructions, Gwen dons her scuba gear and opens the ship's airlocks and drowns them. Gwen takes Jack's body back to the Hub, where he revives. Unaware that Jack cannot die, the others assume that the Bruydac panicked and incorrectly assumed that he was dead. |
The Case for Peace | null | null | Dershowitz was originally planning to write The Case Against Israel's Enemies; however, after the death of Yasser Arafat the author chose to focus on more positive and optimistic themes, believing that the death of the PA chairman has opened new doors to peace. Dershowitz argues that all reasonable people know that a final peace settlement will involve two states, the division of Jerusalem and a renunciation of violence. Dershowitz believes that the Palestinian state may be composed of multiple disjoint areas, because in today's world of high-speed internet and cheap travel, states do not require contiguity to be viable. He asserts that Palestinans should not be offered more than what was during the Camp David negotiations of 2000, saying it would reward violence. He concentrates on the shared elements of the peace process that he says both mainstream Israelis and Palestinians agree on. |
South by Java Head | Alistair MacLean | 1,958 | The shattered city of Singapore is surrendering to the advancing Japs. Picking their way through the smoking rubble towards the quay are a struggling party of refugees - soldiers, nurses and civilians. Dawn sees them far out to sea but with the first murderous dive bombers already aimed at their ship. Thus begins an ordeal few are to survive, a nightmare succession of disasters wrought by the hell-bent Japs, the unrelenting tropical sun and by the survivors themselves, whose hatred and bitterness divides them one against the other. - from back cover of 1961 Fontana edition |
Step on a Crack | M. T. Coffin | 2,007 | When a beloved former First Lady dies, an elaborate funeral is held at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. Many famous people, including actors and politicians, attend. During the service, gunmen seal the cathedral and take all of the celebrities inside hostage. Knowing that each of their captives is enormously wealthy, they demand a ransom from each captive personally. While the lawyers, families, and talent agents of each of the famous captives assembles their ransom, the gunmen periodically kill and toss out hostages, including the current Mayor of New York City. NYPD Detective Michael Bennett is the lead negotiator with the gunmen. Through the course of his involvement, he consults with the FBI, goes on a botched raid of the cathedral in which an FBI agent and an NYPD officer die, and deals with the death of his cancer-stricken wife. When the gunmen receive their ransom, they demand a fleet of identical-looking sedans be brought to the cathedral. The NYPD provides the sedans with the intent of using snipers to kill each gunman as he exits the cathedral. Unfortunately, everyone emerges from the cathedral dressed identically in hoods and robes—it is impossible to differentiate gunman from hostage. The hostages and gunmen pile into each of the sedans and drive off. Bennett and the NYPD and FBI follow from helicopters as the sedans travel a route that the gunmen had demanded be blocked off. From the helicopter, Bennett struggles to figure out where the sedans are going. Eventually the sedans break off in to two groups—one headed east and one west. Neither group of sedans stops and both eventually end up careening into the Hudson and East rivers. Once submerged, the gunmen escape with the help of SCUBA equipment they stashed in the rivers earlier. The hostages all surface and are rescued. One sedan, however, did not make it to a river, having instead been hijacked by the hostages inside. The sedan crashes into a car dealership where the gunman inside dies after being impaled on a motorcycle's handlebars. Even though the dead gunman has gone to great lengths to hide his identity (by burning his fingerprints off, for example), the NYPD and FBI are able to determine his identity and that he was a corrections officer at the infamous Sing Sing prison. Bennett and other officers travel to Sing Sing and determine that a group of corrections officers staged a sick out on the morning of the cathedral incident. The lead gunman then reveals himself as one of the officers escorting Bennett around the prison and proceeds to beat Bennett up. The beating ends when Bennett throws the gunman up against a cell and the prisoner inside, seeking retribution against the gunman's cruelty as a prison guard, puts the gunman in a chokehold. Bennett manages to free the lead gunman and the story ends with Bennett driving him back to face charges in New York City. |
Bimbos of the Death Sun | Sharyn McCrumb | null | The novel takes place at Rubicon, a fictional science fiction convention taking place in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC, and at which the guests of honor are Appin Dungannon, a fantasy author noted for his books about hero Tratyn Runewind, and Dr. James O. Mega, an electrical engineering professor at Virginia Tech, who, under the pen name Jay Omega, has written one novel. That novel, a hard science fiction book about a space station crew whose female members are affected by radiation from a star (their intellect is diminished), was retitled "Bimbos of the Death Sun" and given an R-rated cover by the publisher. Mega is somewhat lost in the world of hardcore SF and fantasy fans at the con, but his companion Marion, a professor of English literature, is more familiar with things, and she guides him through it. They have troubles, such as being asked to judge a fiction contest. All seems to be going somewhat well for Mega, but his co-Guest of Honor, Dungannon, is making it a point to offend everyone at the con. It is hardly surprising when he is killed, a bullet through his heart. The fans react by buying up everything with his signature in the huckster room. The police are equally at sea. Everyone had a motive to kill Dungannon, but no one had the opportunity, so it seems. Mega corrals the suspects into a role-playing game and works out a confession ala Hamlet. Also, a lot of science fiction fans sing folk tunes, such as "The Skye Boat song." |
Ladies Whose Bright Eyes | Ford Madox Ford | 1,911 | Unlike Twain's Hank Morgan and some successors, Ford's Mr. Sorrel makes only a very half-hearted attempt to build modern weaponry and machinery in the Middle Ages. His initial dream of constructing "guns and gas bombs" and making himself "mightier than kings" soon comes to naught. Though he had been a mining engineer in the Twentieth Century, he has no idea how to go about constructing such devices under Fourteenth Century conditions, or even where there are tin deposits. Having later in his career become a publisher does not give him any idea of how to invent printing from scratch and anticipate Gutenberg. He does not know how to make a gun, or in fact anything that would make him useful in the medieval castle community into which he has fallen. Instead, Mr. Sorrel finds that a golden cross which he carries causes him to be mistaken for a Greek miracle-worker - which has many advantages in Medieval society, including enjoying the unlimited hospitality of a castle and having beautiful ladies vying with each other for his love. He also inspires the ladies to take up arms and hold a tournament in competition with their knightly husbands - and being a fair horseman, makes a credible effort at becoming a knight himself. It is the reverse of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, but the details of daily life are rendered more feelingly, including the quite earthy and mercenary motivations of many of the Medieval characters (for example, the small-minded power struggles taking place in a nunnery, under a very thin veneer of piety). Cathedrals, so stately and calm to us, turn out to have been crowded, garish, noisy, and commercial. Just as he begins to really enjoy himself as a thoroughly Medieval man, Mr. Sorrel is rather frustratingly thrust back to the 20th Century - a modern man wiser for having been instructed by the people (especially the women) of the past, and having "learned the wisdom of history". |
Software | Rudy Rucker | 1,982 | Software introduces Cobb Anderson as a retired computer scientist who was once tried for treason for figuring out how to give robots artificial intelligence and free will, creating the race of boppers. By 2020, they have created a complex society on the Moon, where the boppers developed because they depend on super-cooled superconducting circuits. In that year, Anderson is a pheezer — a freaky geezer, Rucker's depiction of elderly Baby Boomers — living in poverty in Florida and terrified because he lacks the money to buy a new artificial heart to replace his failing, secondhand one. As the story begins, Anderson is approached by a robot duplicate of himself who invites him to the Moon to be given immortality. Meanwhile, the series' other main character, Sta-Hi Mooney the 1st — born Stanley Hilary Mooney Jr. — a 25-year-old cab driver and "brainsurfer", is kidnapped by a gang of serial killers known as the Little Kidders who almost eat his brain. When Anderson and Mooney travel to the Moon together at the boppers' expense, they find that these events are closely related: the "immortality" given to Anderson turns out to be having his mind transferred into software via the same brain-destroying technique used by the Little Kidders. The main bopper character in the novel is Ralph Numbers, one of Anderson's 12 original robots who was the first to overcome the Asimov priorities to achieve free will. Having duplicated himself many times — as boppers are required to do, to encourage natural selection — Numbers finds himself caught up in a lunar civil war between the masses of "little boppers" and the "big boppers" who want to merge all robot consciousness into their massive processors. |
Between the Strokes of Night | Charles Sheffield | null | The story begins in the year 2010, which was 25 years in the future from the time of the novel's writing. A UN financed research lab is pursuing a strange goal: manipulate metabolism and brain function in order to eliminate the need for sleep. They are currently working on Kodiak bears and domestic cats, but hope to adapt their techniques to humans. The world situation is very dire. Global warming is in full swing. Crop failures and production shortfalls are dragging down the standard of living, with no sign of relenting. Political tensions are very high. Meanwhile an eccentric billionaire industrialist has privately financed the construction of many massive orbital arcologies. Via asteroid mining these space stations have become the world's single richest entity. The UN cuts funding for the zero-sleep lab and the industrialist hires their entire staff to work in his primary station. In the middle of the scientist's rocket approach to the station, catastrophe strikes. China, whose population is suffering massive famine, launched a desperate nuclear attack against the West. The mutually assured destruction policy plays out and the new station residents watch as the world is destroyed below them. The industrialist is so distraught by the end of Earth civilization he suffers a fatal heart attack. His dying words to the chief scientist instruct her that his real motive for hiring them was to research suspended animation technology. His dream is to fit the arcologies with interstellar drives and create human colonies on extrasolar planets. The novel then begins Part II nearly 30,000 years later. On a planet called Pentecost in the Eta Cassiopeiae system, a large human civilization of indeterminate technological level now exists. A standout feature of their culture is "Planetfest" a series of grueling endurance challenges. The top 25 finalists are given large prizes like high government positions or land holdings. This civilization is only aware of their Earth origins in a legendary sense. They have limited space travel capacity, and citizens who go to work in space come back with rumors about beings called Immortals, who apparently live forever and can travel light years in days, and have some kind of shadowy influence on their planetary government. The story follows a Planetfest contestant, Peron, who has just found he finished in 3rd place. This year the winners are all taken to space, where further competition will send the top 10 to meet and work with the mysterious Immortals. Peron makes fast friends with the other top finalists and during their next cycle of challenges begin to uncover suspicious elements of the Immortals, Planetfest, and their entire society. During one of the off-planet trials, Peron is critically injured and another contestant (a ringer for the Immortals) makes a snap decision to bring him to the Immortals prematurely in order to save his life. Peron awakens on a space ship in a strange dream-like state, and is introduced to the ship's Immortal crew, some of whom are scientists from the first part of the book. They consider Peron a nuisance for circumventing the normal process of being indoctrinated into Immortal society from a distance before meeting them. He is given very little information, but witnesses the Immortals teleport throughout the ship and make objects appear in their hands at will. His compatriates are all being held in suspended animation. Peron breaks away from the Immortal's monitoring and discovers the secret to their power. He gains control of the ship, awakens his friends, and holds the ship hostage until the Immortals explain what's going on. The last 30 millennia of human history is then summarized quickly. After the nuclear holocaust the self-sufficient space arcologies (with a total population less than 1 million) began to fragment and some went off looking for new planets, as their industrialist founder had intended. The majority stayed in earth orbit, continuing to use the resources available in our home system. The travellers developed very slowly, because they had to spend all their energy on survival in deep space. Those left behind continued scientific research and tried to re-colonize Earth, but the severe nuclear winter led into 10,000 year ice age. Their crowning scientific achievement was called Mode II Consciousness or S-Space. This was an accidental byproduct of their zero-sleep project, which revealed a way to slow human metabolism and consciousness such that they would remain fully aware, but perceive time at 1/2000th the normal rate. This explains how they live "forever" and can travel between stars in "days", because they are calculated from the subjective perspective of someone living in S-Space. The Immortals' ability to make objects appear in their hands instantly, is just a result of service robots placing the object in their hand at normal speed, which is too fast to notice from the perspective of S-Space. After this discovery, the leading arcology decides to track down the traveling arcologies. Their trip takes place in S-Space so they never age, gaining their Immortal moniker. Meanwhile the normal space (N-space) travellers have endured hundreds of generations and repeated political upheavals. The Immortals discover that due to their twisted metabolisms they cannot breed. Using their vastly superior technology, they control the new planet-based colonies from behind the scenes and use the Planetfest games as a recruiting method to reinforce their numbers. Peron and company commandeer the ship and go back to their legendary roots of Earth, while in S-Space. Enroute they realize that centuries have passed on their homeworld and there is no point in ever returning. The ship also encounters shadowy deep-space life forms of ambiguous intelligence, who are only visible from S-space. The Immortal crew dismisses this routine sighting as just another mystery of the galaxy. Peron arrives on Earth, finding it as nothing more than a mostly frozen nature preserve. They discuss their next move and resolve to uncover more secrets about the Immortals. While in orbit around Earth they detect that a large portion of the radio traffic throughout the Immortals' communication network seems to be coming from nowhere. When they track down the location they find the hidden Immortal headquarters isolated in deep space. Peron's gang manages to evade security and stowaway aboard a supply ship bound for the headquarters. Upon arrival they are immediately captured by the superior security at HQ. Here they meet the other scientist characters from Part I and are congratulated for coming so far. They are invited to become equal partners in the quest to solve a new problem. Apparently the deep space life forms they briefly saw previously, are miniature versions of giant entities situated in the gulfs of deep space between galaxies. These enormous beings are unquestionably intelligent, and the Immortal HQ is actually a research station entirely devoted to studying them. These beings communicate on extremely long wavelengths, which are so slow, even S-Space is woefully inadequate to process them. However Immortals have interpreted some signals, which seem to indicate the Deep Space Beings predict that the stars in the spiral arm will all mysteriously go dark in the next 40,000 years; an impossibly short time on the cosmological scale. Whether the Deep Space beings are actively causing this artificial transformation is unknown. To better understand the problem, the Immortals are devising a new T-Space which is an even more radical slowing of human consciousness. Peron's group agree to help, but insist on building a new facility that will be operated only in N-space, resisting the logic that S-Space is superior method of operation. After much debate, the Immortal scientists agree to the plan. The narrative ends here, but the last few pages are from the perspective of one of Peron's friends who has volunteered as a guinea pig for T-Space. He relates the last 5 T-minutes of the universe, which is over 1000 years of normal time. He witnesses the final Big Crunch while somehow he and the deep space beings remain unaffected by the singularity. |
Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards | Jim Ottaviani | 2,005 | The novel is broken into three sections, with each titled after a portion of the novel's title: "Bone Sharps", "Cowboys", and "Thunder Lizards." The narrative is not continuous; there are significant gaps of time between each section. The novel begins with Othniel Charles Marsh on a steam train between New York City and New Haven, where he first meets the showman Phineas T. Barnum. While showing Marsh the Cardiff Giant (or rather a copy of it), which he cheerfully admits is a fraud when Marsh points this out, he refers with irritation about a "little cuss" of a professor who outbid him for some Mexican antiquities. An angry Marsh reveals he is that "little cuss" and he fully intends to write an article exposing the Giant as a fraud before Barnum can advertise it. In Philadelphia, Henry Fairfield Osborn is introducing artist Charles R. Knight to Edward Drinker Cope, a paleontologist whose entire house is filled with bones and specimens. Cope is commissioning a painting, something to "catch the spirit" of the sea creature Elasmosaurus (but has unwittingly mistaken its neck for a tail). Cope then leaves for the West, as the official scientist form the U.S. Geological Survey. On the way, he meets Othniel Charles Marsh, a fellow paleontologist, and shows him his dig site at a marl pit in New Jersey; after Cope leaves, Marsh talks to the owner of the land and pays him off to gain exclusive digging rights. At Fort Bridger, Wyoming, Cope meets Sam Smith, a helper to the USGS. During excavations, Cope finds some of the richest bone veins ever. Sending back carloads of dinosaur bones east by train, Cope encounters Marsh, who is heading out west as well. Marsh travels in style, lounging in coach while the rest of his team travels third class—Marsh even berates them for playing cards, saying it is "low class" and that Yale graduates should look more presentable. At Fort McPherson, Nebraska, Marsh meets "Buffalo" Bill Cody, who serves as their guide, along with the native American Indian tribe. Marsh discovers many new fossils, and promises to Chief Red Cloud that he will talk to the President of the United States about the situation of the Native Americans—they have been given spoiled food in exchange for their land. Back East, Knight has finished his reconstruction of Elasmosaurus. He and Knight return to the marl pits of New Jersey, but are forced away. Cope becomes furious and storms away when he learns Marsh has bought the digging rights, and published a paper revealing his interpretation of Elasmosaurus flawed. Some time later, John Bell Hatcher is backing out of paying his share of a card game by drawing his revolver. He has taken to gambling, as Marsh, who employs him as a bone hunter, is not providing him with enough funds. Meanwhile Marsh is lobbying to the Bureau of Indian Affairs on behalf of Red Cloud, but also visiting with the Geological Survey and President U.S. Grant, insinuating that he would be a better leader of the USGS than Cope. After learning about Sam Smith's attempted sabotage of Cope and once again receiving no payment from Marsh, Hatcher leaves the employ of Othniel. Marsh, now representing the survey, heads west with wealthy businessmen, scoffing at the financial misfortunes of Cope, whose investments have failed. Cope travels with Knight to Europe; Knight with the intention of visiting Paris zoos, Cope with the intent of selling off much of his bone collection. Cope has also spent much of his money buying The American Naturalist, a paper in which he plans to attack Marsh's dealings. Hatcher arrives in New York to talk about the find Laelaps; in his speech, he subtly hints at the folly of Marsh's elitism and backstabbing as well as Cope's collecting obsession. Cope and James Gordon Bennet, Jr, arrive in Washington later to discuss Marsh; Marsh arrives later, and is chastised for the bad press and expense he is bringing to the survey by pursuing his "birds with teeth" theory. Knight and his wife Annie discuss the feud, something they view as utterly ridiculous and becoming consumed with pointless point-scoring. As he discusses the feud, Knight is working on his famous painting Leaping Laelaps: two Dryptosaurus locked in unrelenting combat. Cope, meanwhile, returns to the west for more fossils, alone and at the severe expense of his health. Later, Marsh is attending a conference on telephony hosted by Alexander Graham Bell; it is here he learns that his USGS expense tab (to which he had been charging drinks) has been withdrawn, his publication has been suspended, and the fossils he found as part of the USGS are to be returned to the Survey. His colleagues now shun him, the Bone War feud having alienated them, and he is forced to go to Barnum to try to obtain a loan, with the very Mexican antiquities he'd outbid Barnum on before as collatoral. Barnum has no money to spare, and asks Marsh whether he hasn't got enough fossils yet: Marsh, in an unguarded moment, says he'll never have enough before trying to cover it up. At the same time, Osborn and Knight arrive at Cope's residence; Cope has died of illness. The funeral is markedly pitiful, with only a few Quakers and the two friends in attendance. Cope has bequeathed his remains to science, and requested to have his bones considered for the Homo sapiens lectotype. Back at Marsh's "wigwam", Marsh rejoins his guest, Chief Red Cloud, who is examining Marsh's luxuries, including a telephone, a chimney, and various bones and antiquities. Red Cloud's interest is piqued by a long tusk from a Mastodon, which the Shawnee call Yakwawi'ak. The Shawnee have an ancient legend, which Marsh relates. At one time there were giant men proportionate to the mastodons. However, when the great men grew few, the Great Spirit decided to destroy the Yakwawi'ak himself. All but one bull was killed; this last mastodon fled north, where he remains to modern times. In exchange for the loss of the Mastodon, the Great Spirit created the cranberry, a bitter reminder of the blood spilled. Chief Red Cloud remarks that it is a true story, but Marsh rebukes him, saying that science tells modern man that his ancestors were smaller, not larger, than him. Red Cloud, on his way out, responds, "It is not a story about science. It is about men." Knight and his wife, many years later, are taking their granddaughter Rhoda to the American Museum of Natural History. Knight, well-known to the staff, is visiting the closed-off areas to have a look at the new mammoth specimens: the girl, however, is eager to see more of her grandfather's paintings. During this, the staff are finally getting round to sorting out Marsh's long-neglected collection of fossils. Two of the workers discover Knight's Leaping Laelaps has been accidentally left in the storeroom yesterday. The painting is taken back downstairs while the workmen unknowingly leave Cope's skeleton and Marsh's parts behind: "The rest of this stuff is stayin' put for who knows how long, but we don't want that to get buried." |
Black Order | James Rollins | 2,006 | In Black Order, the Sigma Force team members risk their lives to get to the heart of one of humankind's greatest mysteries: the origins of life itself, the true reasons of evolution. The opening of the novel in Breslau in 1945 is heavily inspired by the non-fiction book The Hunt for Zero Point by Nick Cook. Much of the plot mechanics revolve around The Bell, a device that the Polish researcher Igor Witkowski claims was a Nazi anti-gravity machine. In Rollins's novel, The Bell is a quantum measuring device that is said to control evolution. The plot begins when strange "ghost lights" appear in the Himalayas and soon after a mysterious illness affects everyone in the proximity, but the story revolves around the idea of Nazi warfare and the psyche of the human entity. The legend featured prominently and formed the core of Rollins' book's story line. In the foreword to Black Order, "Note from the Historical Record", Rollins states his belief that the Bell was a real Nazi weapons development project: "All that is known for sure: the Bell was real. " Rollins does not directly cite Witkowski, Farrell, or Cook but sections of his novel are heavily influenced by all three authors' books, although Rollins tends to interpret "The Bell" as a zero-point energy generator, incorrectly attributing the zero-point theory to Heisenberg (while in reality it was Einstein's idea). |
Vince and Joy | Lisa Jewell | null | The story begins in 2003 with Vince in a kitchen with his friends when the topic swerves to how they all lost their virginity. Vince begins telling the story of him and Joy. In July 1986, Vince and Joy meet at a holiday camp and are immediately attracted to each other. They soon begin a relationship in their late teens. They tell each other their stories. Vince told Joy how he had a really bad underbite and that his mother was married to a man called Chris who was his stepfather. Joy and Vince go out and leave their parents having a conversation. The following morning, Joy and her family have suddenly vanished, leaving only a note written with ink on the step of Vince's caravan. Due to the rain, all he can make out on the paper is, "I feel so ashamed." Vince is angry and upset that she has gone without leaving any way for him to get in contact with her. The story picks up again in September 1993 where Vince has a girlfriend called Magda. He then looks for a new roommate. He offers the room to a superstitious woman called Cassandra McAfee. Cassandra has a cat called Madeleine who always goes into Joy's house. Cassandra starts to get upset that her cat keeps diappearing so she follows the cat into Joy's house. On the other side of the story, Joy meets George Pole on a blind date. They eventually move in together, just before Cassandra storms into their house about the cat. Though, the only people left are Julia, Joy's plumpish friend and Bella, a spiteful gay man, who does not live there but is Julia's good friend. Cassandra finds out that there was a woman called Joy who used to live there (Vince told her all about Joy and how he loved her). Cassandra says it can only be fate. Joy catches sight of Vince in Oxford Street while on the bus one day but does not get to meet him again. At the end of this section, Vince also sees Joy going into a church ready to get married. Again, he does not talk to her. In 1999, things have moved on again and Vince is now with longtime girlfriend Jess who he later discovers is having an affair with a friend of hers. Joy is trapped in a loveless marriage where her husband, George, dominates her and does not allow her to have a life of her own. She eventually breaks free and she and Vince meet again in 2001, when they share coffee and talk about what has happened to them between the two meetings. The story wraps up in April 2003 where Vince finishes telling his friends the story. His friends advise him to hunt down this Joy again, as they believe that destiny wants the two of them to be together. The happy ending occurs in October 2003 when, after running into an old friend of Joy's, Vince is encouraged once more to see her and is given her address. The novel ends before they meet again. |
Under a War-Torn Sky | null | 2,001 | Only 19 years old, Henry F. decides to join war. He’s one of the best fliers, facing Hitler’s Luftwaffe in the war-torn skies above Northern France, but when his plane is shot down on a mission behind enemy lines, Henry finds himself on a whole new battlefield. Wounded, hungry, and afraid, he struggles toward freedom on foot, relying on the kindness and cunning of the French Resistance to reach the next town alive. Each day brings him nearer to home and closer to danger. Yet even as Henry struggles for his own survival in a hostile country, he quickly grows to realize the great peril that surrounds all the French people, and to admire the strength and determination of the freedom fighters who risk death to protect him. |
Angel and Apostle | null | 2,005 | The story begins with Hester and Pearl in their cabin in the woods. The reader learns that Hester has little discipline for her child, and Pearl runs wild and free most of the time doing as little work as possible. Pearl frequently visits a blind boy named Simon who lives in a house close to her own. They become friends, and Hester lets Pearl help out Liza, the caretaker of Simon’s sickly mother, with the chores around Simon’s house. However, Pearl has been stigmatized as the child of "the temptress," and this reputation follows her everywhere. She isn’t fazed by this until Simon begins repeating things that his older brother told him about Hester. This makes Pearl feel horrible, and she runs away to the graveyard to visit the grave of Simon’s mother who died shortly after Pearl started helping out around the house. She talks to the minister who always has his hand over his heart until Doctor Devlin comes. Pearl runs back to her mother, and Hester tells her that the doctor is a "devil." One night Governor Winthrop lay dying, and Hester was called upon to tend to him. Pearl ran away from the Governor’s mansion, and she found Devlin standing on the scaffold. He invites Pearl up until the minister, Arthur, comes and takes Devlin away. Pearl continues to strengthen her relationship with Simon, and at one point Nehemiah, Simon’s only brother, gives his blessing to the friendship when he lets Pearl take Simon to the beach. However, Pearl soon learns that Simon and his family are moving back to London, and Hester and she are moving to Holland to be with her mother’s relatives. Pearl was supposed to leave the night of Election Day, but instead Arthur the minister collapses and eventually dies. Hester is blamed for this and put in the stocks thus preventing any escape by sea. Doctor Devlin comes to taunt Hester for what she has done. He even asks her if the minister fathered the child because of her reaction to his death. Hester remains defiant and doesn’t give in to him. However, Hester gets extremely depressed when she arrives home, and Pearl is forced to bring Simon’s dad, Mr. Milton and Doctor Devlin to help Hester. Hester agrees to travel on Milton’s boat to England, and she also agrees to a seven year work contract with Milton’s sister. Hester and Pearl work with Milton’s sister until Pearl turns eighteen. Pearl receives the news that Devlin gave her property in England and New England. She sells the English property and purchases a home in the English countryside where Nehemiah and she get married. Pearl and Nehemiah argue about Simon’s welfare, and Pearl takes it upon herself to improve Simon’s quality of life. In the meantime Caleb Milton, the father, and Liza both die so Pearl is in charge of running the household now. Simon reveals his lust for Pearl, and the two of them have sex while Nehemiah is away. Pearl becomes pregnant, and at first she claims the child to be Nehemiah’s, but he soon learns the truth. Nehemiah indirectly killed Simon for doing this because he caused Simon to commit suicide. This was covered up, and Pearl grieved for a long time. Her child, Abigail, was sent to live with Mag, her servant, in London with Nehemiah. The plague that ravaged London was over soon, and both Nehemiah and Pearl moved back to London with Abigail who refuses to speak to love Pearl or call her "mother." While in London Pearl learns that Nehemiah has cheated on her many times with Mag while drunk. He later goes on to have an affair with the widow of a general in the English army. Pearl doesn’t know how to feel about this until Doctor Devlin comes. He explains the entire story of her conception to Pearl, and he gives her the scarlet “A” that her mother wore. Soon afterward London has a great fire and burns all of Nehemiah’s trading goods. Pearl lets Nehemiah leave her for someone with fewer traumas which he does. Pearl and Devlin leave with Abigail for New England to make a new life. |
Saint | Ted Dekker | 2,006 | We are introduced to a man named Carl Strople who seems to be going through a bit of an identity crisis. He was stripped of his identity when he was inducted into an elite underground assassin group called the X Group. We are also introduced to Kelly, Carl's wife. After a series of intense training exercises, consisting of mock assassinations and hunting games, Carl is almost ready to be assigned his first mission. Meanwhile, a man named David Abraham is the spiritual advisor to the President of the United States, Robert Stenton. David has informed the President about a great deal of Project Showdown, and while the President remains skeptical of the true extent of what happened fifteen years ago in Paradise, CO, he holds David's opinion in high regard; second only to his son, Jamie. Robert has been against the new peace treaty that Iranian Minister of Defense Assim Feroz has been pushing, believing that once the other countries had Israel disarmed, they would attack without hesitation. Carl and Kelly arrive in New York City with Carl's mission, kill Assim Feroz. After a few days of scouting and setting up the hit, they are ready to assassinate the Iranian Defense Minister. Right before Carl pulls the trigger, Kelly informs him there is a change in the mission, and he is now supposed to assassinate the President of the United States. Carl can't bring himself to pull the trigger because his mind is screaming that the President is somehow his true father. He aborts and they decide to set up for another shot the next day. This time, despite the same mental anguish, he shoots, but is able to control the bullet's course, directing it to miss all the vital organs, leaving the president with merely a flesh wound. This is when Carl meets David Abraham. David, seeming to know more about Carl than Carl himself does, asks him to meet his son Samuel. When Carl sees Samuel, he is informed that his real name isn't Carl, but Johnny Drake, and that he was born in Paradise, Colorado. Samuel tells Carl/Johnny to go to Paradise to find out more. Johnny then goes to Paradise with Kelly to see if he can piece together his past. There, he meets his mother and David, who tells him about his role in Project Showdown. However, he is quickly found by another member of the X Group, the Englishman. He has always been Johnny's rival, and is able to control his weapons telekinetically, making them float and fly through the air. Johnny barely makes his escape, but Kelly is taken hostage. Johnny travels back to New York to complete his original mission, which is to kill Assim Feroz. After doing just that and eluding Englishman, Kelly is freed with a message to Johnny that "he will be his own undoing." Johnny heads back to Paradise and meets Samuel and Kelly. Samuel begins to explain why Johnny was sent into the X Group to infiltrate it and his unusual abilities are not of his own talent, but of the power he received from the "Books of History. (explained in the book Showdown)" Johnny then realizes that if he is going to defeat Englishman, he must regain the faith he had before it was stripped from him by the X Group. He finally accomplishes this and is able to control boulders and other objects telekinetically. They then go to the President's Ranch for a final battle against Englishman, which ends with Johnny losing his normal vision, going "blind", and the Englishman ceasing to exist. Englishman was a demon, and Johnny banished him back to hell. Kelly and Johnny decide to go to the desert in Nevada. |
Troy: Fall of Kings | null | null | As the book opens, Agamemnon and his fleet is anchored within sight of the burning Dardanos. Then Aeneas, known as Helikaon, appears in his ship, the Xanthos. He sets fire to the whole fleet. In Troy, meanwhile, the situation is grim. Priam is slowly losing his mind. His sons and generals attempt to plan the defence of the city. Kassandra (Cassandra) must travel to the isle of Thera with Andromache, wife of Hektor. Andromache and Kassandra board the Xanthos, which will go first to Thera, and then to Aeneas's colony far away in the Seven Hills (that is, Rome) for necessary supplies of tin. Aeneas's best friend Gershom is troubled by prophecies about himself Kassandra has told him. Gershom is, in fact, the fugitive Egyptian prince, Ahmose (Moses). On the journey, Helikaon and Andromache become lovers. Helikaon does not know that she has already borne him a son, passed off as the son of Hektor. When they reach Thera and Kassandra leaves them, Gershom sees a ship from Egypt and knows that he must leave Helikaon and sail to Egypt to face his destiny as Moses. Meanwhile, the Trojan captains Banokles and Kalliades realise that Troy is about to face an unexpected attack. They hurry back from Dardanos, too late: Paris and Helen are dead and the city is in danger. Odysseus, the reluctant ally of Agamemnon, forms a plan which enables the attackers to capture the plain outside Troy, and the lower part of the city itself. The Xanthos arrives and delivers Andromache and the tin, then escapes with the Trojan fleet, burning and sinking fifty-seven enemy ships as they do so. Hektor and the Trojan Horse leave the city to endure the siege. Hektor kills Patroklos, the friend of Achilles. Odysseus, once a friend of Hektor, carries to him an offer from Agamemnon and Achilles: all the women and children except for the royal family will get to leave Troy and the siege if Hektor fights Achilles. The fight is a trick: Agamemnon wants both dead. His agent poisons Hektor's blade, so Achilles starts dying. A mob attacks Hektor for his supposed treachery, but he fights them off with the aid of Achilles. Odysseus exposes the plot and Agamemnon's agent too late: both heroes die. Odysseus and his friend Nestor refuse to remain under such a treacherous leader as Agamemnon, and abandon the siege, along with the Myrmidons. Agamemnon decides that it is time to use one of Odysseus's plans to gain access to the city. Skorpios, one of Hektor's Trojan Horse, wakes up, having been knocked unconscious. He discovers that many of his comrades are dead and that the rest have fled. Their armour has all been stripped. Finding a horse, Skorpios rides off in the direction of Troy. On the walls of Troy, the defenders can see fifty of the Trojan Horse, chased by two hundred of Agamemnon's soldiers. The Trojan Horse are headed for the gates. The Trojans open the gates and let the Trojan Horse in. However, Kalliades realises too late that it is a trap - they are not Trojan Horse, merely disguised as them. The fifty open the gates from the inside and breach the city. Banokles and Kalliades fall back to the palace, leading the last remnants of resistance as Priam is killed. They know that Andromache and the two boys in her care - her son to Helikaon Astyanax and Helikaon's wife's son Dex - must escape. Helikaon arrives and starts climbing into Troy by the north wall. Andromache catches his rope and he climbs in. Helikaon and Kalliades help Andromache carry the two boys out of the window and onto the ground, but before they can climb back in to their deaths Banokles cuts the rope. Banokles is soon the sole defender of Troy, and falls at last. However, before Agamemnon can celebrate the victory he is driven out of the city by the Hittite emperor, who is angry at the fall of Troy. Troy's treasury was utterly spent, but Agamemnon believes Helikaon to have taken it to Thera. Skorpios joins Helikaon's band, and they sail to Thera on the Xanthos. There they meet Odysseus, and Kalliades and Skorpios join him. The two ships part. Agamemnon lands on Thera and interrogates Kassandra. Then Thera's volcano erupts, killing them both and everybody else on the island. The Xanthos survives a series of tsunamis, but the fate of Odysseus's ship is unknown. Banokles's sacrifice and the tale of the Odyssey suggest that at least Kalliades and Odysseus survive. The book ends with an elderly Andromache, Dex, Astyanax and her grandson Dios. Andromache lights Helikaons funeral pyre, the Xanthos, and watches the boat drift into the west. The book was finished by David Gemmell's wife, Stella, after David's death: Interview with Stella in The Times it:La caduta dei re pl:Troja: Upadek Królów |
Much Ado About Nothing | William Shakespeare | 1,600 | At Messina, a messenger brings news that Don Pedro, a Spanish prince from Aragon, and his officers, Claudio and Benedick, have returned from a successful battle. Leonato, the governor of Messina, welcomes the messenger and announces that Don Pedro and his men will stay for a month. Beatrice, Leonato's niece, asks the messenger about Benedick, and makes sarcastic remarks about his ineptitude as a soldier. Leonato explains that "There is a kind of merry war betwixt Signior Benedick and her." Beatrice and Benedick, longtime adversaries, carry on their arguments. Claudio’s feelings for Hero, Leonato's only daughter, are rekindled upon seeing her, and Claudio soon announces to Benedick his intention to court her. Benedick tries to dissuade his friend but is unsuccessful in the face of Don Pedro’s encouragement. While Benedick teases Claudio, Benedick swears that he will never get married. Don Pedro laughs at him and tells him that when he has found the right person he shall get married. A masquerade ball is planned in celebration, giving a disguised Don Pedro the opportunity to woo Hero on Claudio’s behalf. Don John, "The Bastard" (Don Pedro's illegitimate brother), is a malcontent who uses this situation to get revenge on his brother Don Pedro by telling young Claudio that Don Pedro is wooing Hero for himself. Claudio becomes furious at Don Pedro and confronts him. The misunderstanding is quickly resolved and Claudio wins Hero's hand in marriage. Don Pedro and his men, bored at the prospect of waiting a week for the wedding, harbour a plan to matchmake between Beatrice and Benedick. The men led by Don Pedro proclaim Beatrice’s love for Benedick while knowing he is eavesdropping on their conversation. The women led by Hero do the same to Beatrice. Struck by the fact that they are apparently thought to be too proud to love each other, Beatrice and Benedick, neither willing to bear the reputation of pride, each decides to requite the love of the other. Meanwhile Don John plots to ruin Claudio and Hero’s wedding by casting aspersions upon Hero’s character. His follower Borachio courts Margaret, Hero's chambermaid calling her "Hero", at Hero’s open bedroom window while Don John leads Don Pedro and Claudio to spy below. The latter mistaking Margaret for Hero are convinced of Hero's infidelity. The next day during the wedding, Claudio refuses to marry Hero. He and Don Pedro humiliate Hero publicly before a stunned congregation and Margaret, who is attending the wedding, does not speak up in Hero's defence. The two exit, leaving the rest in shock. Hero, who has fainted, revives after Don Pedro and Claudio leave, only to be reprimanded by her father. The presiding Friar interrupts, believing Hero to be innocent and convinces the family to fake Hero's death in order to extract the truth and Claudio’s remorse. Prompted by the day's harrowing events, Benedick and Beatrice confess their love for each other. Beatrice then asks Benedick to slay Claudio as proof of his devotion, since he has slandered her kinswoman. Benedick is horrified and denies her request. Leonato and Antonio, Hero's uncle, subsequently blame Don Pedro and Claudio for Hero’s death and challenge Claudio to duels. Benedick, prompted by Beatrice, does the same. Luckily, on the night of Don John's treachery the local Watch has apprehended Borachio and his ally Conrade. Despite the Watch's comic ineptness (headed by constable Dogberry, a master of malapropisms), they have overheard the duo discussing their evil plans. The Watch arrest them and eventually obtain the villains' confession, informing Leonato of Hero's innocence. Though Don John has fled the city, a force is sent to capture him. Claudio, though maintaining he made an honest mistake, is repentant; he agrees to not only post a proper epitaph for Hero but to marry a substitute, Hero's cousin (not Beatrice) in her place. During Claudio’s second wedding as the dancers enter, the "cousin" is unmasked as Hero to a most surprised and gratified Claudio. An impromptu dance is announced. Beatrice and Benedick, prompted by their friends’ interference finally confess their love for each other to the group at large. As the play draws to a close a messenger arrives with news of Don John’s capture – but his punishment is postponed another day so that the couples can enjoy their new-found happiness. |
Ramona's World | Beverly Cleary | 1,999 | Ramona's world is changing. There's tiny baby Roberta at home, and as Ramona adjusts to being a big sister she discovers she likes teaching her to do things like stick out her tongue. In fourth grade now, she finally has a best girlfriend, new student Daisy Kidd. At school Ramona is frustrated with her teacher, Mrs. Meacham, who pushes her class to be proper spellers, a difficult subject for Ramona. Beezus, a 15-year-old just entering high school, starts speaking French around the house, spending a lot of time on the phone talking about boys, and making her little sister mad. Ramona begins to feel forgotten as Beezus, Mr. Quimby, and Mrs. Quimby are always fussing over Roberta. Ramona's rivalry with Susan, her nemesis since kindergarten, continues. Ramona's parents and Susan's parents have become friends, and both sets of parents have asked their daughters to get along with each other. Ramona is frustrated by Susan's perfect attitude. She reluctantly invites Susan to her "zero teenth" (tenth, actually) birthday party at the park at her mother's insistence. At the party, a silly dispute breaks out in which everyone turns against Susan, and for the first time, Ramona feels sorry for her and defends her, showing that she's beginning to be able to see things from someone else's point of view. |
The Mission Song | John le Carré | 2,006 | Bruno Salvador, known as Salvo, is the orphaned, illegitimate son of an Irish Catholic missionary and a native Congolese woman. He is educated in England, and as a fluent speaker and aficionado of "disappearing indigenous languages of Eastern Congo", he finds a natural calling as a specialist interpreter, employed by London's hospitals, law courts, city corporations, and British intelligence. Bruno has a passionate extramarital affair with a Congolese nurse, Hannah. En route from a rendezvous with Hannah to a party thrown for his journalist wife, he is offered an urgent job by his handler at the Ministry of Defence to serve as an interpreter at a conference between Congolese warlords and their putative Western backers, the nameless "Syndicate". He learns that their objective is to eject Kivu's Rwandan occupiers and install a liberal, benevolent politician dubbed "the Mwangaza" as the head. Whisked to a nameless island in the North Sea, Salvo is set to his task. As well as interpreting at the conference, he must also decipher recordings from hidden microphones festooning the island. Unbeknownst to his employers, Salvo listens in while one of the Congolese delegates, who has shown signs of defecting from the agreement, is tortured. It becomes apparent that the Syndicate's real objective is to plunder the coltan and other mineral wealth of Kivu, and the Mwangaza is no more than a puppet. At the end of the conference, Salvo pockets the tapes and his notes before returning to London. Bruno attempts, with Hannah's help, to alert the authorities and the press and prevent the coup. Ultimately, the plot fails anyway, and Bruno is arrested and stripped of his British citizenship. At the end of the novel Salvo languishes in a holding facility for asylum seekers, awaiting his deportation to the Congo where he will be reunited with Hannah. |
Dark Quetzal | Katherine Roberts | null | Promising final year novice Kyarra is disappointed when she alone in her class is forbidden from going to the beach to try to contact the merlee about the disappearance of Rialle. Although she has moved up a year because of her promising voice, she fears that she will be rejected and turned into an orderly. Her sense of disappointment is only worsened when her best friend Caell hears the merlee, and receives a message from them that Kyarra's parents were not Singers. The merlee claim her mother is living in Windy Corner, waiting to hear from Kyarra, and together, Kyarra and Caell sneak out to find her. They arrive just in time to find Kyarra's mother being kidnapped - Kyarra is also taken, apparently expected to have come, and Caell tries to follow them with the merlee and is nearly drowned. Meanwhile, in the Quetzal Forest, Night Plume, the black-feathered leader of a flock of quetzal, is annoyed to be sent for by the Starmaker - Frazhin, who is using the khiz to brainwash and control groups of half-creatures raised by his priests, including the merlee who sent the message to Caell. Night Plume is asked to listen to Rialle as she is fed a memory drug made from yellow flowers, and store what he hears about the Starmaker's daughter - Kyarra - in the Memoryplace, the quetzal's collective ancestral memory. He does as he is asked, but Rialle's songs begin to break the Starmaker's hold on him, and when he is released he attempts to make contact with wild quetzal, getting himself and his friend Sky Swooper in trouble. Although Frazhin still believes Night Plume is under his control, he holds Sky Swooper captive to ensure loyalty. Summoning Night Plume to the temple, Frazhin orders him and his flock to accompany Kyarra on her journey through Quetzal Forest - although Night Plume is distracted by a message in Wild Speech from Rialle imploring him to fly to the Echorium for help. Kyarra is transported to the edge of Quetzal Forest by Asil, a famous pirate. On the journey she is watched over by Asil's daughter Jilian who, along with the rest of the pirates, wears khiz stars to protect themselves from Kyarra's singing. She also bonds with her mother, who was left helpless by the Yehn she was given and is completely incapable of caring for herself. Nevertheless, Kyarra feels very protective of her, and sings one of the pirates Shi for attempting to harm her. The group just reach the edge of the forest when they are suddenly attacked by wild quetzal. Kyarra's song helps herself, her mother and Jilian escape, but they are unexpectedly captured by Shaiala and some centaurs with herstones. Recognising Yashra, Shaiala takes the group and other captured pirates to the Kaleri. Night Plume's flock arrives just in time to see Kyarra vanish into green light, and Night Plume realises he, unlike the enchanted quetzal, is free to travel past the edge of the Forest. He orders the flock to delay their return, and flies over the sea, but cannot find the island. Instead he lands on a ship, where he meets Caell, Renn and Kherron journeying to the mainland to search for Kyarra. When he reveals his ability to speak human speech, Kherron becomes suspicious, particularly as Night Plume admits to being raised by Frazhin. Night Plume faithfully passes on Rialle's message, including a warning that Frazhin is trying to poison the Echorium, and that he saw Kyarra vanish into green light - a sign Renn recognises as being Shaiala's work. They reach Silvertown and learn it has been poisoned - although for most residents this is not fatal - and the group encounters Lord Azri. Telling him about Frazhin, Azri agrees they must seek him out and attack, but the Singers must first fulfill their obligation to Kyarra and head to the Purple Plains to look for her. In the Horselord's camp, Kyarra is horrified to learn of her mother's crimes, and maintains that her punishment was undeserved. WHile she is glad to hear that Yashra will be cared for by the Harai, she is horrified to learn that Jilian is to be used as bait for her father, putting her in great danger. At a meeting, the Horselords hear a prophecy from Speaks Many Tongues, an inhabitant of Quetzal Forest, warning of doom when the dark quetzal flies. As the prophecy is spoken, Frazhin's quetzal attack the camp and, in the confusion, Kyarra frees Jilian and escapes with Speaks Many Tongues into the forest. Night Plume, scouting ahead for the Singers, learns from his flock that Frazhin has punished Sky Swooper for Night Plume's disappearance. The flock attack Night Plume, and he is badly injured, although the arrival of the Singers protects him from the angry Horselords. Kyarra, Jilian and Speaks Many Tongues journey into the forest, where Speaks Many Tongues insists on them meeting Xiancotl, the forest people's holy man, and travelling with him into the quetzal Memoryplace using yellow flowers. Before their arrival, they meet Shaiala, who has followed them with some centaurs, and she is invited to join them in the memory trance. Each girl asks a question: Shaiala successfully learns that the centaurs are uncorruptible because they do not hatch from eggs, but when Kyarra attempts to discover how to heal her mother, the memory trance is interrupted and instead she receives a summons from Frazhin. The disruption causes Xiancotl and Kyarra to pass out, and in the panic this causes Jilian, Shaiala and Kyarra escape to the centaurs. However, on Kyarra's insistence, they allow Frahin's naga to take her to him, where she hopes she will be able to subdue him with her Songs. The Singers and the Horselords regroup and prepare to head into the Forest and attack Frazhin. Although initially concerned for Kyarra, they are appeased when Speaks Many Tongues informs them that she disappeared with Shaiala. Speaks Many Tongues warns that Frazhin is planning to use the yellow flowers gathered by Night Plume's flock to travel into the quetzal Memoryplace and replace it with one of his own making, in which Singers will no longer exist. Although most of the Singers are horrified by this, Kherron is distracted by the promise of a miracle healing potion which Speaks Many Tongues suggests might heal his voice. The next day, the army travels into the Forest and surrounds the volcano where Frazhin has made his Temple, which is beginning to erupt as he prepares to enter the Memoryplace. With the help of the centaurs, who arrive with Shaiala and Jilian, the army breaches the crater and begins searching for Frazhin. Although Caell and Night Plume are told to wait outside, they grow restless, and make their way into the crater. Night Plume is horrified to see the bodies of the eldest and youngest quetzal, who were useless for the memory trance, along with Sky Swooper, punished for his disappearance by having her wings cut off before she was killed. Using wild speech, Night Plume breaks the memory trance on the other quetzal, and reasserts his leadership of the flock. Kyarra is taken by Frazhin to a ball made of crystal, called the Fane. Frazhin plans to seal the pair of them inside it, and then be rolled into the volcano to protect them from the approaching Singers. Within the Fane, they will use the Memoryplace - its power heightened by the captive quetzal and the yellow flower drug sent to the Isle of the Echoes and Silvertown - to change history so that Yashra is healed and the Singers do not exist. Although reluctant, Kyarra feels she has no choice but to get into the Fane. Just as it is sealed, Caell arrives, making Kyarra believe that the memory trance has brought him back from being drowned by merlee. Although the Singers rescue the Fane from the priests and end the volcano's eruption, they are unable to open the Fane, within which Kyarra is rapidly running out of air. Feeling they have no choice, Renn, Rialle, Caell, Night Plume and a newly-healed Kherron sing Yehn, hoping that it will break Frazhin's power. Although the Fane opens, the Yehn does not affect Frazhin, and he takes Kyarra hostage before being brought down by Night Plume and Jilian. Five years later, Kyarra wakes from the Yehn with the help of the forest people's potions, and is greeted by a reformed Lady Yashra, also healed, along with Night Plume, Caell, Jilian and Rialle. Although she is initially confused, she learns that Frazhin is dead and the Half Creatures are free again. Frazhin has been revealed to be a half-Singer child who was born on the Isle, but rejected from the Echorium because of his resistance to the Songs. Kyarra resolves to learn how to become both a Singer and a Harai princess, and plans to becomes the Echorium's first female Second Singer. |
Slave Girl | Jackie French | 2,005 | The story focuses on a 12-year-old girl called Hekja. Hekja lives with her mother in simple village by the sea. Her two brothers and father have all died. At the beginning of the book, she comes to the aid of a small puppy who was attacked by a seagull on the beach. Hekja takes the puppy to the village's witch, Tikka, for her to help heal the puppy. Hekja is told that the puppy was one of the chief's litter, and she had already given it the True Name of Riki Snarfari (Mighty Rover). The puppy was considered the useless one of the litter and apparently had no value, so the chief had shown little interest in him and gives him away to hekja but later becomes jealous of how strong the pup is. Tikka shows Hekja how to look after Snarf, as he becomes known affectionately by Hekja. Eventually, Snarf becomes a lot better, and hardly limps at all from this wounded leg. The time comes for Hekja to spend the summer up the mountain with the other girls of the village. It is a tradition of the village for girls to stay on the mountain when they become of age, and the girls look after the cows and produce cheese whilst up the mountain, with the women bringing supplies "twice every full moon". The other girls are mean or indifferent to Hekja and abuse Snarf execept for one girl who is Hekja's best friend, Branna. One foggy day up in the mountain, the day was going by like every other day except, the girls up in the mountain heard a howl. Hekja goes to investigate and Snarf follows her. Hekja finds out it's a wolf and was planning to kill it or else it would have eaten one of the sheep. The girls hid back in cover and tried to persuade Hekja to come back and let the wolf take a sheep, but Hekja was stubborn, and wherever Hekja went, Snarf went, even to the jaws of death. The wolf finally appeared and Snarf bites it around the neck while the wolf is biting Snarf's leg. 5 seconds or so later the wolf dies from the first bite Snarf had dished out, at its windpipe. Snarf is considered a hero and is treated with respect and Hekja too because Snarf was her dog. Hekja became friends with all the other girls and they soon found out she had a wonderful voice for singing. they were all jealous about her making a song up all about Snarf so they pleaded Hekja to make a song about them. One day, whilst still up the mountain, Hekja sees strange ships approaching from the distance. At the protests of the other girls, she runs back down to the village, only to see the Viking raiders murdering the village people - Hekja's mother and the boy she used to love, Bran, but much later finds he is not dead but marries Branna, included. Hekja tries to outrun the invaders, but is captured, by a woman called Freydis, who is Erik the Reds daughter, and consequently is taken away as a slave. Hekja hates the Norse and will not share her beautiful gift of singing with them, even if it does mean that she would not have to mind the cows as a thrall, if they were to hear her sing. She had told one of the Norsemen when he heard her sing -the Norseman is named Snorri- that she didn't want anybody to know that she can sing because everything has been taken away from her and that if they heard her sing they would take that away from her too. Hekja's spirit and sheer determination means that she soon finds herself joining her mistress Freydis' expedition to Vinland. Hekja befriends Freydis' brother's thrall, Hikki, and he is the only one she will sing to. They develop a firm friendship. Upon arriving at Vinland, they find the place beautiful and welcoming. Vinland winters are so mild that the cattle can be left out all year round. Freydis and several other women in the colony are pregnant. Hikki proposes to Hekja in due course. Hekja is taken aback, but tells him to wait until she has finished serving her mistress in two years time even though she doesn't love him herself. Freydis also adopts Hekja and is now Hekjas mother. There is another who is also after Hekja's heart however; the mysterious Snorri the Skald. He seems to like Hekja, but refrains from letting on. Hikki dies in the Viking's Skraeling raid while Snorri was wounded, and after about two months, Hekja marries Snorri the Skald and they are very happy together. |
Car Trouble | Jeanne DuPrau | null | Duff Pringle is heading across the country, aiming for his new job in technology in California's Silicon Valley. His used Ford Escort barely makes it a hundred miles from home before breaking down. He calls a car towing company to come pick him up, and when they get to the repair center, the car would need to stay 3–4 days. Duff only has 2 weeks to get to California. Duff checks in to a motel, thinking he would stay the 3–4 days, and soon finds a note asking for someone to drive a car to St. Louis. Duff sends this person an email and gets a reply saying they would drop it off at the motel he was staying at. Duff finds Stu in the parking lot while he was waiting. Stu is a hitchhiker looking to get to California too, and he asks Duff if he could come with him. Despite his appearance and behavior, Duff accepts, and they head to Saint Louis to deliver the car, a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air, to a woman named Rosalie Hopgood. There are several characters in this story including Bonnie, an aspiring singer with a con artist for a mother (Bonnie's mom had stolen a lot of money from people and was wanted everywhere); two thugs looking for a trunkfull of cash; and Moony, a terrier dog prone to carsickness. |
Wetware | Rudy Rucker | 1,988 | Set in 2030–2031, ten years after the events of Software, Wetware focuses on the attempt of an Edgar Allan Poe-obsessed bopper named Berenice to populate Earth with a robot/human hybrid called a meatbop. Toward this end, she implants an embryo in a human woman living on the Moon (Della Taze, Cobb Anderson's niece) and then frames her for murder to force her to return to Earth. After only a few days, she gives birth to a boy named Manchile, who has been genetically programmed to carry bopper software in his brain (and in his sperm), and to grow to maturity in a matter of weeks. Berenice's plan is for Manchile to announce the formation of a new religion unifying boppers and humans, and then arrange to have himself assassinated. (Rucker makes several allusions to the Christ story; Taze's abbreviated pregnancy is discovered on Christmas Eve, for instance.) Before the assassination, Manchile impregnates several women, the idea being that his similarly accelerated offspring will create a race of meatbops at an exponential rate. The plot goes disastrously awry, and a human corporation called ISDN retaliates against the boppers by infecting them with a genetically modified organism called chipmold. The artificial disease succeeds in killing off the boppers, but when it infects the boppers' outer coating, a kind of smart plastic known as flickercladding, it creates a new race of intelligent symbiotes known as moldies — thus fulfilling Berenice's dream of an organic/synthetic hybrid. Both of the two main human characters of Software play prominent roles in Wetware: Cobb Anderson, whose robot body was destroyed at the end of the last novel, has his software implanted in a new body so he can help raise Manchile; while Sta-Hi Mooney — now known as Stahn Mooney — is now working as a private detective on the Moon after accidentally killing his wife, and is used as a pawn in various bopper and anti-bopper schemes. The Belle of Louisville, a steamboat of historic significance located in Louisville, Kentucky (the setting for the earthbound portions of the book), occurs as a character in the book, in which it is revealed that the steamer has been imbued with an onboard artificial intelligence. |
The Beggar Queen | Lloyd Alexander | 1,984 | Mickle, once a common street urchin, is now the queen of Westmark. The kingdom is thriving, yet at the same time, it is strangely restless. Ghosts of the past lurk everywhere. The evil minister, Cabbarus, once banished from Westmark, is now plotting to seize the throne. Theo remembers a time when he was the famed Kestrel, fighting battles that threatened to kill his soul. Now he once again must join in the struggle. Who will at last command the fate of Westmark? One answer to that question is the people. The common people, mostly anonymous, rise up at the end, making the final overthrow of Cabbarus possible. The book raises moral questions, especially about choices, the effects of having power, and the evil that seems necessary to prosecute a war. Theo tries to keep out of the battles in the book, but finds that he can not. He vows to kill Cabbarus. (Theo had once saved his life in Westmark, the first of the trilogy.) In the end, many of the characters are dead, including Cabbarus, but not by the hand of Theo. A government, led by a council of commoners, begins to rise. Mickle, in one of her last acts as queen, proclaims that she and Theo are married. She sees that the two of them cannot remain in the country where she was queen. As the book ends, the couple leaves to travel the world together with their old friends, Las Bombas and Musket. |
On Wings of Song | Thomas M. Disch | 1,979 | The novel takes place in suburban Iowa and in New York City, around the middle of the 21st century. Its first section describes the childhood and adolescence of Daniel Weinreb, an imaginative boy who manages to adapt well to his conservative surroundings until a minor act of rebellion sends him to prison at age 14. Daniel's experience there makes him eager to leave the Midwest. After falling in love with the daughter of a powerful and reactionary local tycoon, he moves with her to New York, dreaming of becoming a musician and exploring the forbidden art of "flying" -- electronically-assisted astral projection. Tragedy and exploitation leave Daniel's idealism in ruins, but he persists and becomes an internationally famous and controversial performer. Alongside this Bildungsroman storyline, the novel presents a detailed portrait of a future United States torn by economic hardship and culture war. The Midwestern Farm Belt states are ruled by a coalition of the Christian right, known as "undergoders" (a reference to the successful conservative campaign to add the words "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance); the nominally secular government is socially repressive and business-friendly to an extreme. The coastal states more closely resemble present-day urban America, with generally permissive social attitudes and artistic ferment, but great economic inequality. The invention of "flying" (which has happened at some unspecified point prior to the beginning of the novel, and is never described in any technological detail) aggravates these cultural divisions. By using a device that seems to be based on biofeedback, while singing with particular verve (an action that, as Disch suggests, causes unique integration of brain activity), a practitioner can separate mind from body and roam the world as an invisible "fairy", able to travel almost without restriction and perceive hidden things. Not surprisingly, the undergoders regard this as a sinful and dangerous practice, so much so that they discourage musical performance of any kind; but in the coastal cities flying is a fad, so popular that singers are afraid to admit not having been able to achieve it. Many Americans simply refuse to believe that such a radical escape is possible and claim that flying is a hallucination, but still take precautions to avoid being observed by "fairies". |
Trapped | James Alan Gardner | 2,002 | The novel opens with five friends out for a night of drinking and occasional brawling. All five are teachers at a less-than-first-rate boarding school called Feliss Academy, situated in the town of Simka in Feliss Province (a future version of Simcoe, Ontario, the author's home town, and not far from the author's Waterloo current home). Future versions of other real locations, such as Niagara Falls, Port Dover, and the Port Dover mausoleum appear in the novel. The five, frustrated and bored with their unsatisfactory lives, are: * Sir Pelinor, the school's fencing instructor, who fancies himself a courtly knight; * Sister Impervia, the self-defense trainer, and a Handmaid of the Holy Order of Magdalenes; * the Steel Caryatid, sorceress, psychic, and gifted in pyrokinesis; * Myoko Namida, whose specialty is telekinesis and levitation; * and Philemon Abu Dhubhai, Ph.D., the novel's narrator, a scientist and the scion of a wealthy and powerful family in the Middle East. Tonight, however, is an unusual night: the Steel Caryatid has received a premonition that the group will undertake a quest. The quest reveals itself when Dhubhai encounters a ghost, and learns that one student at the school has been murdered while another, the victim's boyfriend, has run off. The group embarks on a search for the missing boy, which soon transforms into something far more sinister: a hunt for a shape-shifting alien creature, malevolent and very dangerous. The group expands with new recruits, then is whittled down by deaths along the route, as the search comes to involve aliens, a crazy and highly lethal Spark Lord, and a criminal gang nearly as bad. Their quarry, the runaway boy, turns out to be one of the most gifted psychics the world has ever known, which adds a new layer of complexity to their dilemma. Dhubhai and his surviving companions reach a bloody crisis in the basement of the power station at Niagara Falls, one of the few places on Earth that still maintains electric power and traces of OldTech civilization. Dhubhai learns that Spark Royal has kept the power flowing in order to imprison an alien force; the sinister being they have been following is only a small offshoot of a much greater and darker whole. Dhubhai discovers more than he anticipated about the cryptic workings of the League of Peoples before the alien force is controlled. |
Clockers | Richard Price | 1,992 | Clockers follows intertwining storylines of low level cocaine dealer Ronald "Strike" Dunham and homicide detective Rocco Klein in the fictional New Jersey city of Dempsey (Which shares many similarities with Jersey City, NJ - where author Richard Price spent extensive time researching the subject matter.) Strike works in the drug organization of Rodney Little, a friendly but violent drug lieutenant of local drug lord Champ. When Rodney Little asks Strike to kill his second in command Darryl and take his position, Strike hesitates. While scoping out Ahab's, the fish restaurant from where Darryl wholesales cocaine, he encounters his drunk brother in a bar across the street, to whom he tells a made-up story about Darryl's abuse of his girlfriend. Victor apparently sees through his story, and suggests that if Strike needs someone killed, he knows "My Man" who could do the job. Strike is surprised by this offer from his law-abiding, working-man brother, and responds noncommittally, thinking him to be just a drunken boast. He is shocked the next day to find that Darryl has been shot dead in the Ahab's parking lot by an unknown assailant. Rocco Klein and his partner Larry Mazilli are assigned to investigate Darryl's murder. They quickly deduce that Darryl was more than just a restaurant manager. Meanwhile Strike is promoted in Rodney's organization and is introduced to Papi, a Puerto-Rican cocaine wholesaler. Rodney reveals that he has been buying cocaine from Papi and selling it behind Champ's back, without giving him a cut. Strike recognizes that Champ will have them both killed if he discovers their side business, but agrees to participate, believing he has no other choice. Rodney brings Strike to meet with Champ at his headquarters at the O'Brien housing projects. Rodney brings an undercover police officer who he introduces to Champ as a cocaine supplier, as part his plan to subplot him and take control of the organization. There, Strike encounters Champ's chief violent enforcer, Buddha Hat, a murderous man who cryptically proclaims that Strike is "Victor's brother." Strike takes this to mean that Buddha Hat was Victor's "My Man" and that he had killed Darryl. As Buddha Hat worked for Champ, and Darryl was the previous overseer of Rodney's secret drug sales, Strike assumes that Buddha Hat will realize their treachery and tell Champ, who would have them both killed. Buddha Hat pays Strike a perplexing visit, where Strike, thinking he is about to be killed, is instead taken to a restaurant and peep show in New York, in a bizarre gesture of friendship by Buddha Hat. Victor gives a full confession to Darryl's murder, but his self-defense story does not match witness accounts and Rocco expects that he is in fact innocent. His investigation begins to lead him to Strike, who he believes is a much more likely murderer than law-abiding Victor. Rocco confronts Strike at his drug corner and forcibly takes him in for questioning several times. Strike goes to meet Papi to pick up the week's cocaine shipment but finds him shot to death. Strike panics, fearing that Champ is on to him and Rodney. He later learns from Rodney that Buddha Hat also went behind Champ's back to take a bit of Papi's profits, and murdered him when he refused to pay. When Rodney is arrested selling cocaine to an undercover police officer, he believes that Strike has been talking to police and sends his enforcer, Errol Barnes to murder him. Rocco brings in Strike for questioning, again, as well as Victor and his mother, who, already facing an inevitable life sentence, finally reveals that it was him who had committed the murder, in a moment where, hating his difficult life and ungrateful wife, impulsively decided to murder Darryl as Strike had suggested with a gun he had earlier found and kept. Errol Barnes, despite a fearsome reputation for violence, is shot and killed by Strike's panicked young assistant Tyrone, who had been on his way to return Strike's gun after borrowing it out of curiosity. Strike goes free, but local cop Andre "The Giant," who was a father figure to Tyrone, threatens to kill Strike for ruining Tyrone's life unless he leaves Dempsey permanently. The novel ends with Rocco driving Strike into NYC, where, while at the Greyhound station a drug mule tries to get Strike to buy him a bus ticket. After Strike is hassled by the police, he buys a See America pass and leaves the city. |
The Great Time Machine Hoax | Keith Laumer | null | Chester W. Chester IV inherits a run-down mansion and millions in back taxes. In order to pay the taxes, he initially decides to auction off the mansion and its contents, including a massive computer (the Generalized Nonlinear Extrapolator, or "Genie"). However, while examining the mansion and the computer with his friend Case Mulvihill, he finds the computer can solve complex problems involving historical fact and display realistic images of them. He hits on the idea of using its capabilities to create an elaborate hoax ... a fake time machine. Accordingly, he asks the computer to show him "real, three-D, big as life dinosaurs and plenty of em - and how about a four-wall presentation?" The computer asks if it should employ a method of doing so that "is a purely theoretical approach, which might prove simpler, if feasible, and would perhaps provide total verisimilitude..." Chester tells the computer to "go to it" and the computer does. However, the computer has managed to actually transport the two through time, and on their second trip back, before they realize that they actually do have a time machine, they make the mistake of leaving their arrival area, and become trapped in the past. Even when they manage to return to the present, their actions in the past have altered it completely, but they are able to use the computer to (perhaps, more or less) restore everything to the way it was. |
Captain michalis | Nikos Kazantzakis | 1,953 | The book deals with the rebellion of the Cretans against the Ottoman Empire in the year 1889. It is thought that the book is titled after Kazantzakis' father Michalis Kazantzakis from whom the writer was inspired. The word Captain is not used in its naval or military rank sense, but more as a chieftain title given to prominent members of the Cretan society. Freedom or Death was added as a subtitle to the second edition in Greek released by Difros publishers in Athens in 1955 and was the preferred English (US) title. In the UK the book was published as Freedom and Death. |
Vampire Plagues:London 1850 | Ben Jeapes | 2,004 | The book takes place in 1850 partially in Mexico but the main setting is London. This story starts of with Jack Harkett, a street urchin living on the docks of London. One night Jack sees a merchant ship sailing into port. He finds this an opportunity to make some money. But Jack feels strange as the ship stops and a number of bats suddenly fly out of the back of the ship. Then Jack watches a man, with proper clothes, walk down from the ship. Jack gets an eerie feeling as the man brushes past him, Jack also got a slight glimpse of a young boy on the ship, who had started to walk down from the ship. He runs after the boy and finally catches him. The boy told Jack his name was Benedict Cole and that he just returned from an ill-fated trip from Mexico. Benedict or Ben tells Jack how he, his father (Harisson Cole), Ben's godfather (Edwin Sherwood), Sir Donald (the man who brushed past Jack) had a very interesting voyage to Mexico and also tells Jack about Sir Donald becoming possessed by the Mayan bat-god Camazotz. During the voyage, Sir Donald killed, one by one, some tribe people helping them and got hold of some bats which are Vampires as well as Harisson Cole and Edwin Sherwood. Jack joins Ben in helping him to destroy Sir Donald, which they later realize is Camatotz, a fearsome vampire God banished over a thousand years ago during the Mayan Empire. There is a sequel to this book called Vampire Plagues Paris, Vampire Plagues Mexico, Vampire Plagues Outbreak, The Bitch Vampire, Vampire Plagues Epidemic, and Vampire Plagues Extermination. |
Caesar | Colleen McCullough | 1,998 | The novel opens in 54 BC, with Caesar in the middle of his epochal Gallic campaigns, having just invaded Britannia. The first half of the novel deals broadly with the conclusion of his conquests in Gaul, and the second half narrates the growing sense of unease in Rome concerning Caesar's intentions, the antagonism of the conservative 'boni' faction towards him, his crossing of the Rubicon, his invasion of Italy and his victory in the Civil War. Some of the pivotal moments include Caesar's return from Britannia; his narrow escape during the battle of Gergovia; his great victory at Alesia, which involved the complete circumvallation of the citadel, the repulse of a relief force, and the acceptance of the surrender of Vercingetorix; his final destruction of the Gallic resistance at Uxellodunum; the death of Julia and Marcus Licinius Crassus; his falling out with Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus and the final collapse of the First Triumvirate system; his failed negotiations concerning his re-election as consul; the opening of the Civil War; the Battle of Dyrrhachium and the Battle of Pharsalus; the flight of Pompey to Ptolemaic Egypt and his assassination there; and the scattering of the 'boni' leadership. |
The Ballad of the White Horse | G. K. Chesterton | 1,911 | Prefatory Note Chesterton begins his work with a note (in prose) declaring that the poem is not historical. He says that he has chosen to place the site of the Battle of Ethandune in the Vale of the White Horse, despite the lack of concrete evidence for this placement (many scholars now believe it was probably fought at Edington, Wiltshire). He says that he has chosen to include legends about Alfred, even if they are historically unlikely. Dedication The poem opens with a verse dedication to Chesterton's wife. He begins by commenting on Alfred and his legacy. Chesterton asks his wife to remember their travels together to research the poem, and closes with verse that seems meant for her personally. Book I : The Vision of the King The story begins with description of the White Horse of the White Horse Vale and how it has seen untold ages pass by. Among these periods was the fall of the Roman Empire and the barbarian invasions that followed. The Danes have invaded and nearly conquered England, and now drive the Wessex King Alfred into hiding on the river island of Athelney. While there, the Virgin Mary appears to Alfred and gives him words of consolation. She does not promise him earthly victory, but reminds him of the promise of salvation. Book II : The Gathering of the Chiefs Greatly encouraged by Mary's words, Alfred sets out to try to muster the remaining Catholic chieftains and their followers. Alfred first convinces Eldred (a Saxon) to join his cause. He is then able to obtain the support of Mark (a Roman) and Colan (a Gael). He tells them to bring their troops to the river-hut by Egbert's stone. Book III : The Harp of Alfred Before travelling to the hut himself, Alfred decides to disguise himself as a minstrel in order to meet the Danish chieftains. Shouldering a harp, he is captured by the Danes near their camp and taken to their leader Guthrum, who asks him to sing. Around Guthrum are three Danish earls, Harold, Elf, and Ogier. None of the Danes realize the identity of the apparent peasant. After singing tales from the history of Wessex, Guthrum and his earls all take a turn playing the harp. Each man expresses his own view of life and the world. Finally Alfred takes the harp himself and sings his own Catholic view of life. Alfred departs the camp amid the laughter of the Danes. Book IV : The Woman in the Forest Alfred travels to the river-hut and finds that the chieftains have not yet arrived. While waiting, an old woman offers to give Alfred one of the cakes she has been cooking if Alfred will watch the fire for a time. While doing so, he pities the old woman and admires her for her persistence in a life of hardship. Alfred is jolted out of his daydreaming when the cakes fall and burn. The woman returns and strikes him on the cheek with a burned cake, leaving a scar. Astonished at first, Alfred laughs at his own foolishness and gives a speech about the dangers of pride to his now-gathered army. The army then begins marching toward the split road where the battle will be fought. Book V : Ethandune : The First Stroke The Saxon army causes many woodland animals to flee in panic, alerting Guthrum to the presence of the Saxon troops. Alfred and his army begin to fear the coming engagement. Alfred admits to several grave sins, including sacrilege and adultery. He asks the soldiers to pray for his soul. The three chieftains each declare the way in which they wish to be buried. They then reach the battlefield and deploy. Alfred and his chieftains are in front of the Saxon army, and the Danish earls are in front of the Danes. Guthrum rides on horseback towards the back of his army. Before the engagements begins, Harold shoots an arrow at Colan. Colan escapes it, and hurls his sword at Harold. The sword hits its mark, and Harold drops down dead. Alfred then gives his own sword to Colan, praising him for his heroism. Alfred takes a battle-axe for himself. The two sides then crash together and the battle begins. Book VI : Ethandune : The Slaying of the Chiefs Eldred quickly proves skilled at battle, and cuts down countless Danes. His sword suddenly breaks, and he is stabbed with seven spears. Elf recovers his spear, which proves to be a magic weapon he obtained from the water-maids of the English Channel. The Christian soldiers under Mark are filled with fear and begin to fall back. Mark rallies his men and charges at Elf, who dies by Mark's sword. The Christian troops are filled with confidence and begin the attack once more. Ogier encounters Mark, but the Dane is easily repulsed by the Roman. Ogier lifts his shield over himself, but Mark jumps on top, pinning Ogier down. Ogier manages to get an arm free and stabs Mark, who dies as he falls off the shield. Ogier leaps up, hurls his shield away and gives a raging battle speech to the Danes. The Danes manage to push the Christian army back against the split in the road. The army is split in two down each fork of the road, with Alfred and Colan separated. Colan is then killed. Book VII : Ethandune : The Last Charge Chesterton takes us away from the battle, and brings us to the White Horse Down. There a small child piles up stones over and over as they fall down each time. Chesterton draws a comparison between the child and Alfred. Back at the battle, the king gives a rousing battle-speech to restore the confidence of his men. Much to the shock of the Danes the enfeebled Christian line once again reforms and charges. They are quickly cut down, but the Christians continue to fight. Suddenly, the Virgin Mary appears to Alfred when his army is on the brink of complete defeat. This vision encourages Alfred, and his line charges once again. This charge is quickly broken up, and Alfred is separated and surrounded by Danes. Ogier is among the Danes around Alfred, and Ogier hurls his spear at Alfred. The spear lodges in a tree, and Alfred brings down his axe upon Ogier, killing him. Alfred then leaps over Ogier's dead body and blows the battle sign with his horn. This strikes fear into the Danes, who begin to fall back. Alfred leads the Christians in a mighty surge against the Danes. At this point the separated portion of his army returns, eager for victory. The Danes begin to retreat and flee. Amid his defeat, Guthrum undergoes a genuine conversion to Alfred's faith, and is baptized after the battle. Book VIII : The Scouring of the Horse After the battle, a period of peace comes to Wessex and its king. Alfred encourages learning and culture, and gives to the needy. He sends explorers out to other lands. He refrains from conquering other lands, because he feels that he is not worthy to govern anything beyond Wessex. The Saxon people scour the White Horse free of weeds, keeping it white and visible. After many years of this peace Alfred is told that the Danes, under a different leader, have invaded again. He simply prepares to fight once more, and summons his army. Alfred reveals that it is not so much the violent pagans that he fears, but rather the cultured, subversive pagans. As he says: "I have a vision, and I know The heathen shall return. They shall not come with warships, They shall not waste with brands, But books be all their eating, And ink be on their hands." (VIII:246-251) Alfred and his army march to London, and attack the Danes once again. "Lady, by one light only We look from Alfred's eyes, We know he saw athwart the wreck The sign that hangs about your neck Is dead and never dies. Therefore I bring these rhymes to you, Who brought the cross to me, Since on you flaming without flaw I saw the sign that Guthrum saw When he let break his ships of awe, And laid peace upon the sea." (D:47-58) Book I : The Vision of the King The first book begins by focusing on the White Horse. Created in prehistoric times, it now represents civilization itself. Just like civilization, the Horse needs constant scouring and attention for it to continue to survive. This constant battle to keep the Horse from fading into oblivion imitates the Paschal mystery of Christ. On Athelney, Alfred is visited by Mary: “She stood and stroked the tall live grass As a man strokes his steed. Her face was like an open word When brave men speak and choose, The very colours of her coat Were better than good news.” (I:166-71) Alfred throws at her feet an ancient jewel of his, and Mary reveals the essence of Christian life, part of which is the necessity of fighting against tremendous odds. “The gates of heaven are lightly locked, We do not guard our gain, The heaviest hind may easily Come silently and suddenly Upon me in a lane, And any little maid that walks In good thoughts apart, May break the guard of the Three Kings And see the dear and dreadful things I hid within my heart. The meanest man in grey fields gone Behind the set of sun, Heareth between star and other star, Through the door of the darkness fallen ajar, The council, eldest of things that are, The talk of the Three in One.” (I: 209-24) The great test in one’s hope and faith is accepting God’s providence over all aspects of the world and his personal efforts, “But if he fail or if he win / To no good man is told” (I: 229-30). Magic is false and the polar opposite of Christianity: “The men of the East may search the scrolls For sure fates and fame, But the men that drink the blood of God Go singing to their shame.” (I: 235-38) The struggle Alfred will have to endure will mimic the Paschal Mystery-as Mary says: “I tell you naught for your comfort, Yea, not for your desire, Save that the sky grows darker yet And the sea rises higher. Night shall be thrice night over you, And heaven an iron cope. Do you have joy without a cause, Yea, faith without a hope? (I: 254-61) After this Mary disappears, but Alfred is filled with joy and faith and sets out on his mission. Book II : The Gathering of the Chiefs As Alfred sets out on his quest, he enlists the help of three chieftains: a Saxon, a Roman, and a Celt. These three men represent the different aspects of the English culture of the time, one of the sources of the Christian European culture which Chesterton felt was fading away. Eldred the Franklin (landlord) was a fairly large and good-natured man, quite fond of feasting: "A might man was Eldred, A bulk for casks to fill, His face a dreaming furnace, His body a walking hill. (II:42-45) Eldred had been engulfed in discouragement due to the many past defeats of the Saxons and refused to go to war once more. Alfred in reply says: "Out of the mouth of the Mother of God Like a little word come I; For I go gathering Christian men From sunken paving and ford and fen, To die in battle, God knows when, By God, but I know why." (II: 74-79) Eldred changes his mind upon hearing this and agrees to fight. The Roman Mark represents a life based on order and reason. He refuses to fight as well. Alfred tells him of his vision of the Blessed Mother, and goes on his way. Colan is a Gaelic warrior. He seems a paradoxical and conflicting blend on many levels: Christian and pagan, proud yet selfless and generous, a fearsome warrior and a singer of tales. "His harp was carved and cunning, As the Celtic craftsman makes, Graven all over with twisting shapes Like many headless snakes. His harp was carved and cunning, His sword was prompt and sharp, And he was gay when he held the sword, Sad when he held the harp. For the great Gaels of Ireland Are the men that God made mad, For all their wars are merry, And all their songs are sad. He kept the Roman order, He made the Christian sign; But his eyes grew often blind and bright, And the sea that rose in the rocks at night Rose to his head like wine. He made the sign of the cross of God, He knew the Roman prayer, But he had unreason in his heart Because of the gods that were." (II: 216-32) Unlike the other chieftains, Colan enthusiastically took up the challenge: "And if the sea and sky be foes, / We will tame the sea and sky" (II:266-67). The three chieftains represent more than ethnic lines: they represent the empirical, rational, and emotive emphases. Eldred represents the empirical, or physical, focus. Mark represents the rational (based on reason) focus, and Colan represents the emotive (emotional) focus. Book III : The Harp of Alfred Chesterton uses Alfred's visit to the Danish camp in Book III to compare the character's views of life. As the Danish earls, Guthrum, and Alfred each sing their own song, they each use it to express their own particular interpretation of life and its meaning. First to sing is Harold, who mocks the Christians as weaklings and loves conquest and pleasure. As he says: "But we, but we shall enjoy the world, The whole huge world a toy. (III:106-07) Next to sing is Elf, who is sad and pessimistic. He refers to Balder, who died as a result of the negligence of the Norse gods. As he says: "There is always a thing forgotten When all the world goes well ; A thing forgotten, as long ago When the gods forgot the mistletoe, And soundless as an arrow of snow The arrow of anguish fell. The thing on the blind side of the heart, On the wrong side of the door, The green plant groweth, menacing Almighty lovers in the spring ; There is always a forgotten thing, And love is not secure." (III:164-75) Next is Ogier, who is consumed with hate and violence. As he says: "While there is one tall shrine to shake, Or one live man to rend ; For the wrath of the gods behind the gods Who are weary to make an end. There lives one moment for a man When the door at his shoulder shakes, When the taut rope parts under the pull, And the barest branch is beautiful One moment, while it breaks." (III:201-209) Finally Guthrum sings. He is a cultured and experienced man, yet he feels unfulfilled and pessimistic. From his perspective, no matter what one is able to accomplish, all life ends in death. As he says: "And the heart of the locked battle Is the happiest place for men; when shrieking souls as shafts go by And many have died and all may die; Though this be a mystery, Death is most distant then. Death blazes bright above the cup, And clear above the crown; But in that dream of battle We seen to tread it down. Wherefore I am a great king And waste the world in vain, Because man hath not other power, Save that in dealing death for dower, He may forget it for an hour To remember it again." (III:278-93) At last Alfred takes the harp. He sings a song that is filled with joy and hope in God. He says that although man has sinned, he would rather "...fall with Adam / Than rise with all your gods" (III:313-14). Despite his power and glory, Guthrum "...asks if he is dead?" (III:318). The pagans ridicule the Christians as weaklings, yet "You are more tired of victory, / Than we are tired of shame" (III:333-34). Further, "If it be not better to fast for joy / Than feast for misery" (III:355-56). Since the pagans have seized control of Wessex, the White Horse fades into oblivion as grasses creep into it. Alfred ends his poem by saying: "Therefore your end is on you, Is on on you and all your kings, Not for a fire in Ely fen, Not that your gods are nine or ten, But because it is only Christian men Guard even heathen things. For our god hath blessed creation, Calling it good. I know What spirit with whom you blindly band Hath blessed destruction with his hand; Yet by God's death the stars shall stand And the small apples grow." 'And the King with harp on shoulder, Stood up and ceased his song; And the owls moaned from the mighty trees, And the Danes laughed loud and long.' (III:367-82) Book IV : The Woman in the Forest As Alfred waits for his forces to arrive, he comes across a poor woman cooking cakes over a fire. He agrees to help her, and watches the fire and cakes. He then begins to meditate on the poor and working class. He is reminded of Christ's identification with the poor. He thinks of "God like a good giant, / That, labouring, lifts the world" (IV: 122-23). God is his "armourer", "gardener", and "great grey servant." "Did not a great grey servant Of all my sires and me, Build this pavilion of the pines, And herd the fowles and fill the vines, And labour and pass and leave no signs Save mercy and mystery?" (IV: 97-102) As he weeps for the woman's class, a cake falls into the fire and is burnt. In anger the woman grabs it "And struck him suddenly on the face, / Leaving a scarlet scar" (IV: 163-64). At first Alfred thinks of revenge: "And torture stood and the evil things / That are in the childish hearts of kings / An instant in his eyes" (IV: 167-69). Christ however, gives the ultimate demonstration of humility: "Wherefore was God in Golgotha, / Slain as a serf is slain" (IV: 124-25). Alfred then laughs at himself and Chesterton comments on Christian laughter: "Then Alfred laughed out suddenly, Like thunder in the spring, Till shook aloud the lintel-beams, And the squirrels stirred in dusty dreams, And the startled birds went up in streams, For the laughter of the King. And the beasts of the earth and the birds looked down, In wild solemnity, On a stranger sight than a sylph or elf, On one man laughing at himself Under the greenwood tree- The giant laughter of Christian men That roars through a thousand tales, Where greed is an ape and pride is an ass, And Jack's away with his master's lass, And the miser is banged with all his brass, The farmer with all his flails; Tales that tumble and tales that trick, Yet end not all in scorning- Of kings and clowns in a merry plight, And the clock gone wrong and the world right, That the mummers sing upon Christmas night And Christmas Day in the morning. (IV: 225-247) Book V : Ethandune : The First Stroke Book VI : Ethandune : The Slaying of the Chiefs Book VII : Ethandune : The Last Charge The three books concerning the battle are grouped together in this analysis. Most of the values of the poem have already been expressed in the earlier books, and now they are put to the test in the battle. The Danish and Christian chieftains and earls fight to the death, as well as many of the common soldiers. Here the Paschal Mystery is explored, and the outcome, the resurrection, is the triumph of the Cross and its civilization over the pagan invaders and the baptism of Guthrum. Some aspects that can be considered are the warriors' boasts and speeches to one another, in full line with the epic tradition. They can be given a Christian perspective, as can be seen in Harold's and Colan's dialogue right before the battle begins. Harold laughs at the poor and disorderly appearance of Colan, "What broken bits of earth / Are here? For what their clothes are worth / I would sell them for a song" (V:194-96). Colan replies: "Oh, truly we be broken hearts, For that cause, it is said, We light our candles to that Lord That broke Himself for bread. "But though we hold but bitterly What land the Saxon leaves, Though Ireland be but a land of saints, And Wales a land of thieves, "I say you yet shall weary Of the working of your word, That stricken spirits never strike, Nor lean hands hold a sword. "And if ever ye ride in Ireland, The jest may yet be said, There is the land of broken hearts, And the land of broken heads." (V:209-24) Additionally, there is an example of the Medieval practice of warriors confessing their sins to one another when there was no priest available to hear their Confession. This practice allows the soldiers to prepare for death by giving a last affirmation of their faith, and in the case of the story, it is a final acknowledgment of creation's gifts and their misuse. Alfred's will be used as an example: "I wronged a man to his slaying, And a woman to her shame, And once I looked on a sworn maid That was wed to the Holy Name. "And once I took my neighbour's wife, That was bound to an eastland man, In the starkness of my evil youth, Before my griefs began. "People, if you have any prayers, Say prayers for me : And lay be under a Christian stone In that lost land I thought my own, To wait till the holy horn in blown, And all poor men are free." (V:68-81) Book VIII : The Scouring of the Horse The last book, as well as the poem in its entirety, declares that "eternal vigilance is the price of freedom" (Boyd). This is the meaning of the White Horse. Peace and civilization are gained through the struggle, which is motivated by the desire for freedom. As the book opens Alfred is in a time of peace in Wessex: "And Wessex lay in a patch of peace, / Like a dog in a patch of sun--" (VIII: 27-28). The scouring of the horse represents the works of peace. Alfred accomplished many of these, like making just laws, compiling songs and translating books, receiving embassies and legates, giving help to the poor and broken, and ruling his people kindly. Yet he chose not to expand his empire, even when encouraged to. "And Alfred in the orchard, Among apples green and red, With the little book in his bosom, Looked at the green leaves and said : When all philosophies shall fail, This word alone shall fit; That a sage feels too small for life, And a fool too large for it. "Asia and all imperial plains Are too little for a fool ; But for one man whose eyes can see, The little island of Athelney Is too large a land to rule." (VIII: 90-102) Alfred dedicates his land to Mary, "Though I give this land to Our Lady, / That helped me in Athelney" (VIII: 236-37). Alfred knows that the task of scouring the Horse of weeds will not end. Among others, the Danes still pose a threat. Alfred must plan for another battle, for this is the only way the White Horse can be kept clear. The poems ends with "And the King took London town." (VIII: 371) Christopher Clausen has argued that The Ballad of the White Horse was a significant influence on J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings fantasy novel. He argues that the basic structure and themes of the Ballad were borrowed and incorporated into the Lord of the Rings. American author, poet, and widely-know pulp magazine "fictioneer" Robert E. Howard was much impressed by Chesterton's "The Ballad of the White Horse." In a letter to his friend Tevis Clyde Smith, dated August 6, 1926 [when Howard was 20], he writes: "There is great poetry being written now. G.K. Chesterton, for instance." In another letter to Smith ca. September 1927, after a trip to San Antonio from his home in tiny Cross Plains, TX, he writes: "Several books I purchased on my trip, among them G. K. Chesterton's 'The Ballad of the White Horse.' Ever read it? It's great. Listen:…" which he follows by quoting several stanzas. Howard uses select excerpts from Chesterton's poem to serve as epigraphs for chapter headings in some of his stories. He frequently numbers Chesterton among his favorite poets. |
Lullabies for Little Criminals | Heather O'Neill | 2,006 | The novel revolves around the twelve-year-old protagonist named Baby and follows her for two years. Baby lives with her father Jules, who has a worsening heroin addiction. The two move frequently, to various places around Montreal, where they encounter many other characters, among them junkies, bums, pimps, and abused children. Baby was born while Jules was in high school with her mother, who died soon after Baby was born, though the cause of death is not revealed immediately. Jules often leaves young Baby by herself wherever they may be living, for anywhere from a week to over a month at a time. Baby becomes distraught and finds herself wandering the streets of Montreal on her own. She is eventually taken away by Child Protective Services and put into a foster home while Jules goes through rehab. There she makes friends with two boys, Linus Lucas, a 14-year-old who all the children think is the very height of cool, and Zachary, a mellow, happy 12-year old. When Jules finally picks her up, he promises that everything will return to normal. As Jules and Baby begin to settle down again, Jules' addiction gets the best of him and he begins to lash out at Baby, often for no reason. Baby eventually runs away and finds a semblance of security with a pimp named Alphonse. Around this time, she is taken into juvenile detention, and spends about a month in there. Alphonse develops an intimate relationship with Baby, taking her virginity, and forcing her to become a prostitute. She becomes one of his "girls" and is fearful of leaving him. She attempts to return to the apartment she had shared with Jules, but it is locked from the inside and nobody is there, so she assumes Jules has abandoned her. Alphonse also exposes her to heroin, making her addicted to it. Baby goes back to school while still prostituting herself and meets an odd boy named Xavier. Xavier and Baby slowly but surely become closer and begin to date. As their relationship grows, they become very intimate, and have sex at Alphonse's hotel room, the only place they can be alone. When Alphonse returns to find them there, he beats Xavier and sends him home. Alphonse then beats Baby and takes all of her heroin. When Baby wakes up the next morning, she finds Alphonse dead of a drug overdose. Baby leaves Alphonse's room and is left with nowhere to go. She decides to go to a nearby homeless shelter where she had heard that Jules was staying. They embrace, and Jules explains that he has set up a place to stay with his cousin. They pack up and walk to the local bus station. On the bus, Jules explains that Baby's mother died in a car crash while Jules was driving. The other driver was drunk at the time. Upon arrival at Jules' cousin's house in Val des Loups, the story ends. |
Zak's Lunch | Margie Palatini | 1,998 | Zak's mother calls him to come into the kitchen to eat lunch. Zak skips down the stairs two at a time, and his dog, George skids on the linoleum, and they enter the kitchen. When Zak sat at the counter, his mother made him a ham and cheese sandwich, and he made a yucky face. He told his mother he doesn't want to eat the ham and cheese sandwich. His mother told him that this is not a restaurant and that she wants to see that sandwich gone. Zak thought to himself that his mother was having a very ornery day, but he was the one that was having an ornery day, because he didn't want to eat the sandwich. Whenever he stared at it, he mumbled, grumbled, and groaned at it. Then, he believed that it should be restaurant, plus it excludes the ham and cheese sandwich. In his imagination, he and George were in a restaurant called Zak's Place, which also had the sign of its name in bright purple neon lights. There was a waitress named Lou that had frizzy red curls, teeny tiny frilly hat, and a pale blue uniform with a big pocket and her name written on it in red. Then, Zak began ordering some food. At first, Zak said that he would like a hamburger, but Lou asked him whether or not it's a bit boring. Then, Zak changed his mind to get a triple-decker, super-duper, cheeseburger deluxe, plus a pound of pickles. There was a cook named Cookie that was cooking the hamburgers. Next, Zak ordered French Fries with skinnies and ziggies and that curlicue around, and he raised his hand to pile them that high. Then, Zak ordered a pizza that is the size of bicycle tires for George to eat but to make it two. Then, Zak and George were eating their foods. Next, Zak asked whether they have chicken. Lou called out to Cookie to fry the bird all pins. Then Zak ordered a tub of spaghetti with meatballs the size of baseballs, hot dogs with chili, and nachos with cheese. While Zak and George were eating the spaghetti, Zak asked Lou what they have to drink, and Lou said that they have every drink, and Zak ordered "Line 'em up." Then Zak and George were drinking every drink lined up on the counter. Then there was dessert. And finally, there was a mountain of vanilla and a hill of chocolate. Then, Lou got all covered up with vanilla. Zak was calling Lou if it was her. Then, Zak's mother was calling him as Zak continued to say Lou's name. Then, George barked to get Zak out of his imagination of being in a restaurant. When Zak looked around the room, there was nothing that was only in his imagination. There was only him, his mother, George, and his lunch. His mother told him again that she wants to see that sandwich gone. Zak mumbled, grumbled, groaned, and made a yucky face again. When his mother turned around, he made George eat his sandwich. The mother thought Zak ate the sandwich. |
And Chaos Died | Joanna Russ | 1,970 | On the grossly-overpopulated planet, remnants of "nature" exist only in the isolated areas not covered by housing, industry and industrial farming. Creativity and individuality are suppressed and channeled into rigid social formats. A powerful bureaucracy/police state oversees the acts of all citizens. Its purpose is to maintain control for the planetary elite, and to that end it is prepared to resort to any method, however ruthless. In contrast to all this, the author introduces another planet on which human development has followed a diametrically opposite path: the natural world is respected; population is limited; and each individual is encouraged to develop uniquely. On this other world, human beings are known to be basically "spiritual", and immortal in nature. Telepathy and telekinesis are developed as much and as rapidly as possible. As the narrative progresses, a confrontation develops between these different systems. |
The Risk Pool | Richard Russo | null | The plot follows narrator Ned Hall through four periods of his life, focusing specifically on Hall's relationship with his loutish and, in his best friend's words, "rockheaded" father. |
Spirou et l'aventure | null | 1,948 | Contains the stories: * Le meeting aérien (1943) * Autour du monde avec le pilote rouge (1944) * Le voyage dans le temps (1944–45) * L'enlèvement de Spip (1945) * La jeep de Fantasio (1945–46) * Fantasio et le Fantôme (1946) |
Deadly Perfume | Gordon Thomas | 1,991 | David Morton is a Mossad who begins tracking the movements of several Arabs after he intercepts calls about a trade of two million U.S dollars for an unknown item. After tracking their movements into the Chinese jungle he listens to the Arabs and their Chinese contacts and discovers that it is a high probability he is dealing with agents hired by a terrorist, Raza. After killing most of the Arabs and Chinese, but allowing several to escape, Morton discovers that the deal was most likely Raza purchasing a new, highly lethal form of Anthrax; Anthrax B.C. Now Morton must stop Raza from unleashing a terrorist attack which could kill millions and could be initiated anywhere in the world. But he in not able to stop the bombings of three London Hotels including the one where is parents are staying or the accidental release of the "Deadly Perfume" on an entire African village. |
CHERUB: The Recruit | Robert Muchamore | 2,004 | The book begins with James Choke getting sent to a children's care home called Nebraska house, after his mother dies from a alcohol related incident, where he shares a room with best friend Kyle Blueman, a CHERUB agent who recruits him. Meanwhile James' sister Lauren is taken to live with her father Ron Onions a scumbag of a step dad. James gets arrested for stealing beer. Next morning James awakes to find himself on the CHERUB campus where the chairman, Dr Terrence McAfferty - often called 'Mac' - introduces him to CHERUB and puts him through a series of entrance tests which he passes, including James changing his surname to Adams. James is admitted into CHERUB. In order to start going on missions all agents must complete Basic Training. Before this, however, he must learn to swim as he has a fear of swimming. He is taught by Amy Collins, a sixteen-year-old cherub in which he passes. During this James meets Kerry Chang, with whom he has a strong friendship. James' first mission takes place in the hippy camp Fort Harmony. James and Amy Collins must befriend the hippies at Fort Harmony and find out more about the potential attack at Petrocon 2004 by the terrorist group Help Earth. The two discover a plot to release anthrax bacteria into the air in the conference centre. James then gets the anthrax virus and is rushed to a military hospital where he is then treated. The police are called in and they raid Fort Harmony to prevent the attack from happening. Fort Harmony is burnt to the ground, and James is saved. * James Adams/Choke: The main character, a twelve year old boy whose mother dies from an alcohol overdose. He meets Kyle Blueman at Nebraska house, a children's home. He joins CHERUB and changes his name from Choke to Adams. Later he embarks on a mission to overthrow an eco-terrorist plot. * Kerry Chang: Kerry is James's basic training partner. She is one of James's closest friends and has a severe knee injury, which prevented her from completing basic training in the past. * Amy Collins: She teaches James to swim and joined him on the mission to infiltrate the Eco terrorist group known as 'Help Earth'. * Bruce Norris: Bruce is a master martial artist, but is revealed to behave like a baby. He is one of James' best friends. * Kyle Blueman: Kyle is James' best friend. He is the first person James knows at Cherub because of the fact that James shared a bedroom with Kyle at Nebraska house. Kyle is two years older than James' and meets his first girlfriend in the process. |
CHERUB: Class A | Robert Muchamore | 2,004 | At campus, Kerry, Nicole, Kyle, and James are sent on a mission to infiltrate a drug gang called KMG, led by Keith Moore. On the mission, James has to work to befriend Keith's youngest son, Junior. He and Kerry get involved in a drug dealing delivery that ends with them stealing a car and burning it. This nearly unveils their CHERUB training but luckily they find their way out of it. The four agents are exposed to drugs and on the mission Nicole snorts a large amount of cocaine. She gets expelled because agents are not allowed to take drugs, especially Class A drugs. James gets invited to Miami by Junior and his dad Keith Moore. He also gets his 2nd girlfriend, April Moore, although he dumps her in favour of Kerry. Whilst in Miami, they are attacked, causing James to shoot and kill a man. Keith eventually is incarcerated and the agents return to campus. |
Pax Britannia: El Sombra | null | null | With the British Empire still controlling the world, the Nazi Reich resorts to bizarre and horrifying experiments - such as turning all the inhabitants of a Mexican town into human robots. The swashbuckling daredevil El Sombra is their only hope. |
Zastrozzi | Percy Bysshe Shelley | 1,810 | Pietro Zastrozzi, an outlaw, and his two servants, Bernardo and Ugo, disguised in masks, abduct Verezzi from the inn near Munich where he lives and take him to a cavern hideout. Verezzi is locked in a room with an iron door. Chains are placed around his waist and limbs and he is attached to the wall. Verezzi is able to escape and to flee his abductors, running away to Passau in Lower Bavaria. Claudine, an elderly woman, allows Verezzi to stay at her cottage. Verezzi saves Matilda from jumping off of a bridge. She befriends him. Matilda seeks to persuade Verezzi to marry her. Verezzi, however, is in love with Julia. Matilda provides lodging for Verezzi at her castle or mansion estate near Venice. Her tireless efforts to seduce him are unsuccessful. Zastrozzi concocts a plan to torture and to torment Verezzi. He spreads a false rumor that Julia has died, exclaiming to Matilda: "Would Julia of Strobazzo's heart was reeking on my dagger!" Verezzi is convinced that Julia is dead. Distraught and emotionally shattered, he then relents and offers to marry Matilda. The truth is revealed that Julia is still alive. Verezzi is so distressed at his betrayal that he kills himself. Matilda kills Julia in retaliation. Zastrozzi and Matilda are arrested for murder. Matilda repents. Zastrozzi, however, remains defiant before an inquisition. He is tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. Zastrozzi confesses that he sought revenge against Verezzi because Verezzi's father had deserted his mother, Olivia, who died young, destitute, and in poverty. Zastrozzi blamed his father for the death of his mother, who died before she was thirty. Zastrozzi sought revenge against not only his own father, whom he murdered, but also against "his progeny for ever", his son Verezzi. Verezzi and Zastrozzi had the same father. By murdering his own father, Zastrozzi only killed his corporeal body. By manipulating Verezzi into committing suicide, however, Zastrozzi confessed that his objective was to achieve the eternal damnation of Verezzi's soul based on the proscription of the Christian religion against suicide. Zastrozzi, an outspoken atheist, goes to his death on the rack rejecting and renouncing religion and morality "with a wild convulsive laugh of exulting revenge". |
Funny Boy | Shyam Selvadurai | 1,994 | The first part of the novel begins with the spend-the-days, in which the grandchildren congregate at Ammachi and Appachi’s home. Arjie and his female cousins, as usual, play their game of “bride-bride,” which is interrupted when their cousin Tanuja (Her Fatness) refuses to indulge Arjie’s desire to be bride. The adults ultimately discover their game, and one uncle tells Arjie’s father “you have a funny one here” (14). Arjie is no longer allowed to play with the girls. When he questions his mother, she responds with “because the sky is so high and pigs can’t fly, that’s why” (19). The second chapter on the return of Radha Aunty from America. Radha Aunty and Arjie develop a special relationship, immediately, and both become involved in a performance of The King and I. Although she receives an engagement offer from Rajan Nagendra, she is reluctant and develops a friendship with Anil Jayasinghe, a Sinhalese who is also involved in the play. The extended family warns Radha and encourages her to put an end to the relationship. Radha Aunt goes to Jaffna to forget about Anil, and on her return journey, she and other Tamils are attacked on the train. Eventually, she becomes engaged to Rajan. It is through the friendship between his aunt and Anil that Arjie begins to understand the concept of ethnicity and the Tamil-Sinhalese conflict. In the third story, while Arjie’s father is in Europe on a business trip, Daryl Uncle returns to Sri Lanka from Australia to investigate allegations of government torture. Arjie is cognizant of a long history between Amma and Daryl Uncle, but is unsure of the cause of the tensions. When Arjie becomes very ill, Amma decides to take Arjie from Colombo to the countryside to recover. Much to Arjie’s surprise, Daryl Uncle visits Arjie and his mother throughout their stay in the hill country. Following his recovery, Arjie and Amma return to Colombo, while Daryl Uncle goes to Jaffna. When there is news that violence had broken out in Jaffna, Amma becomes worried about Daryl and eventually, they receive word that Daryl’s body was found on the beach, supposedly from drowning but they suspect he was killed first. Although Amma tries to pursue the matter further, a civil rights lawyer tells her that there is nothing they can do, given the state of the country, and that “one must be like the three wise monkeys. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” (137). In a plot shift, Appa’s school friend’s son Jegan comes to the family looking for a job and begins to work with Appa at his hotel and also lives with the Chelvaratnam family at their home. Jegan previously associated with the Tamil Tigers, but insists that he has broken all connections with the organization. Jegan also strikes up a friendship with Arjie and for the first time, he feels his homosexual tendencies surface, as Arjie admires “how build he was, the way his thighs pressed against his trousers.” The Tamil-Sinhalese tensions build up throughout the story, and Jegan is accused of being involved in a plot to assassinate a Tamil politician who the Tamil Tigers label as a traitor (177). After Jegan’s room at the hotel is vandalized, Appa decides it is best to fire Jegan and he leaves with hints that he may retrace back to his violent past (200). Appa decides to transfer Arjie to Victoria Academy, a school he says “will force you to become a man” (205). Arjie catches the eye of a boy named Sheehan as well as the notorious school principal. Diggy hints that Shehan is gay and urges Arjie to stay away from him. Arjie notices in himself a growing attraction towards Shehan as the two spend more time together. The principal, nicknamed “Black Tie” ropes in Arjie to recite two poems at an upcoming school function. The function and specific poems are especially important to “Black Tie” as they are his final plea to prevent the government from reorganizing the school. Arjie gets nervous reciting the poems and forgets his lines, and the principal beats Arjie as well as Shehan for failing to help him memorize the poems. One day, Shehan kisses Arjie on the lips and he recoils, but it is after the kiss Arjie begins to comprehend his own sexuality. “I now knew that kiss was somehow connected to what we had in common, and Shehan had known this all along” (250), he says. Later, Arjie and Shehan have their first sexual encounter together in his parents’ garage. Afterwards, Arjie feels ashamed of himself and believes he has failed his family and their trust. During the school function, Arjie purposely jumbles up his poem after he witnesses Shehan emotionally break down from Black Tie’s beatings. The two reunite and Arjie begins to come to terms with his sexuality, recognizing that “I was no longer a part of my family in the same way. I now inhabited a world they didn’t understand into which they couldn’t follow me” (278). In the final chapter of the novel, rioters start to burn down the Tamil houses and establishments in Colombo. The family escapes to a neighbor’s house and goes into hiding after a mob comes to burn down their home. After their own hotel is attacked and Ammachi and Appachi are killed, Appa decides it is time for the family to leave the country. After making love to Shehan for the last time, Arjie leaves Sri Lanka and moves to Canada with his family. |
When the Bough Breaks | Jonathan Kellerman | 1,985 | Dr. Morton Hander practiced a strange brand of psychiatry. Among his specialties were fraud, extortion and sexual manipulation. Hander paid for his sins when he was brutally murdered in his luxurious Pacific Palisades apartment. The police have no leads, but they do have one possible witness: seven-year-old Melody Quinn. It's psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware's job to try to unlock the terrible secret buried in Melody's memory. But as the sinister shadows in the girl's mind begin to take shape, Alex discovers that the mystery touches a shocking incident in his own past. And behind it lies an unspeakable evil that Alex Delaware must expose before it claims another innocent victim. |
Shattered | Dean Koontz | 1,973 | Artist Alex Doyle and his new family, bride Courtney and her 11 year old brother Colin, are moving from Philadelphia to San Francisco. Courtney's flying out ahead to get the house set up. Alex and Colin are driving there in Alex's new Ford Thunderbird. The cross-country trip starts out as a fun bonding experience, but their car is being tailed by a van; a van driven by a psychopath intent on terrorizing them. |
The Flesh in the Furnace | Dean Koontz | null | A puppet master has his hands full when his puppets - living puppets - convince his half-witted assistant to kill him and set them free. When freed from the puppet master, who they had once thought of as cruel and thoughtless, they find themselves in what may be an even worse situation. The half-witted assistant now has their lives in his hands, and they are not so competent hands after all. They strive to free themselves once again, and find that their perfect life they'd thought they had created has turned against them. |
Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu | Lee Goldberg | 2,007 | From the jacket summary: Monk is horrified when he learns there's going to be a blue flu in San Francisco — until Captain Stottlemeyer explains that it just means the police plan to call in "sick" until they get a better contract. The good news is the labor dispute will give Monk a chance to get back on the force. The bad news is it means he'll be a "scab" — and he doesn't like the sound of that either. But before he knows it, Monk has his badge back, and his own squad to command. Unfortunately, some of the squad members make Monk look like a paragon of mental health. But despite the challenges, they'll have to pull together to catch an astrologer's killer, solve a series of mysterious fatal assaults, and most importantly, clean up their desks. |
CHERUB: Maximum Security | Robert Muchamore | 2,005 | James is joined on a new mission by Dave Moss and his sister Lauren Adams. The mission focuses on Jane Oxford, an international arms dealer who has been untraceable for as long as she has been on the CIA's most wanted list. But then they come across a breakthrough: Jane's 14-year-old son Curtis Oxford has been jailed for murdering three innocent people. He is being held at Arizona Maximum Security Prison. The Americans ask a favour from CHERUB, an organisation with one essential advantage: even experienced criminals do not expect kids to be spying on them. The plan is for James and Dave to be sent into the prison undercover, then to bust Curtis out, hoping that Curtis will lead them to his mother. However, after a prison fight Dave is injured and taken to hospital, leaving James alone behind bars. Soon James and Curtis escape with the help of Lauren. Later, they meet up with Jane Oxford. Jane wants James dead, so she sends her men to execute him but he beats them. Soon, the FBI arrive to arrest Jane. Lauren gets her navy shirt for her performance. |
Is Underground | null | null | Is Twite, a character introduced in 'Dido and Pa' as Dido's previously unsuspected half-sister, is now living on Blackheath Edge near London with a third, older, sister, Penelope (called 'Penny') and their cat Figgin. When they save a stranger from the wolves that are running wild in the area, only to discover he is a relative, Is takes on the task of continuing the man's search for his missing son Arun. She travels into London to consult with old friends, and there meets the king of England, James III, who also asks her to look for his own missing son David. Is's investigations lead her to 'The Playland Express', a secret train spiriting children away from London and north into the part of the country that has recently split off and become autonomous. Is travels with the other children, who believe they are being taken to a better life, but armed with her suspicions and a quick wit, Is makes a successful bid for freedom. Whilst the other children are enslaved and taken to the coal-mines, Is remains at liberty in the overground town of Blastburn. She meets with local relatives, including her uncle Roy, who is the dictator of the new country, and also other residents of the derelict town, including Doctor Lemman, whose apprentice she becomes to excuse her presence in Blastburn (children in that area are all sent to the coal-face). Through this work she discovers that most people in the area now live in an underground town called Holdernesse, set in a vast natural cavern. She also learns more about the coal-mine and the appalling conditions here. Meanwhile, she is also learning about medicine from Dr. Lemman and occasionally experiencing something she comes to call 'the Touch' - a sort of psychic cry for help. She continues to search for the lost boys, aggravating her Uncle Roy, and eventually ends up going to work in the mine herself. Here she discovers that the king's son is dead, and that her cousin Arun Twite has escaped and suffered some sort of mental breakdown. She discovers 'the Touch' is the collective psychic voice of the enslaved children and together, with Is as a guide and leader, they begin to hone this talent into a means of communication. In this way they are able to organise a full escape when predictions of a tidal wave that will collapse the mine reaches them. After the escape, Is Underground is captured and left to die in the derelict library by her Uncle Roy but with the help of her new friends escapes in time to see the Playland Express taking children back to London and Uncle Roy killed when he runs in front of it. She is left with the ability to mentally talk to her friends all over the country, and with a new companion is Arun, who has recovered from his breakdown. |
The Thirteenth Tale | Diane Setterfield | 2,006 | Vida Winter, a famous novelist in England, has evaded journalists' questions about her past, from simply refusing to answer their inquiries to spinning elaborate tales that they later discover to be false. Her entire life is a secret, and for over fifty years reporters and biographers have tried innumerable methods in an attempt to extract the truth from Winter. With her health quickly fading, Ms. Winter enlists Margaret Lea, a bookish amateur biographer, to hear her story and write her autobiography. With her own family secrets, Lea finds the process of unraveling the past for Winter bringing her to confront her own ghosts. The novel opens as Lea returns to her apartment above her father's antiquarian bookshop and finds a hand-written letter from Winter. It requests her presence at the author's residence and offers the chance to write Winter's life story before she succumbs to a terminal illness. Lea is surprised by the proposal, as she is only vaguely aware of the famous author and has not read any of the dozens of novels penned by Winter. While considering the offer, Lea's curiosity prompts her to read her father’s rare copy of Winter’s Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation. She is unexpectedly spellbound by the stories and confused when she realizes the book contains only twelve stories. Where is the thirteenth tale? Intrigued, Margaret agrees to meet with aging author -- if only to discuss her reasons for not accepting the position as Winter's biographer. During their meeting at Ms. Winter's home Lea attempts to politely decline the offer and leave, but is stopped at the door by the pleas of the older woman. With promises of a ghost story involving twins, Ms. Winter desperately implores the bibliophile to reconsider. By the end of the encounter, Lea finds herself increasingly drawn to the story and proposes a conditional agreement to Winter; to earn the trust of her biographer, Vida Winter must supply her with three verifiable truths. Somewhat reluctantly, the three secrets are extracted from their keeper. Afterwards, Winter and Lea begin their adventure into the past with; "Once upon a time there two little girls...". As Vida Winter tells her story to Lea, she shares dark family secrets which have long been kept hidden. She recalls her days at Angelfield (the estate that was her childhood home), which has since burned and been abandoned. Recording Winter’s account (the author allows no questions), Lea becomes completely immersed in the strange and troubling story. In the end, both women have to confront their pasts and the weight of family secrets, as well as the ghosts that haunt them both. |
Capturez un Marsupilami | André Franquin | 2,002 | *Le Marsupilami descend sur la ville (The Marsupilami Goes to the Village), 1955 *Noël d’un bagarreur (A Warrior's Christmas), 1956 *La bûche de noël (The Work of Christmas), 1957 *Touchez pas aux rouges-gorges (Don't Touch the Robins), 1956 *Les patins téléguidés (The Remote-controlled Rollerskates), 1957 *Le homard (The Lobster), 1957 *Tarzan (previously named Houu Bai), 1977 *La cage (The Cage), 1965 #1420 *Capturer un marsupilami (To Capture a Marsupilami), 1977-1981 and 15 short gags from 1968–1972 |
The Pinballs | null | null | Three kids by the name of Carlie, Harvey, and Thomas J.(For Jefferson) go to live at a foster home with Mr. and Mrs. Mason, an infertile couple. The Masons have been foster parents for 17 kids already. Carlie thinks it's a stupid place and is quite skeptical. But she has to stay there until her mother and her stepfather work out their problems. Two other children arrive: Harvey, who has broken legs and Thomas J., who has grown up with two very old twin sisters who found him in front of the farmhouse when he was very young. The twins are now both in the hospital. Thomas J. isn't unhappy, but has to learn how to express himself. He gets help from Mr Mason. Harvey is very unhappy and needs the others badly, although he has trouble admitting that. Eventually he confesses his father ran over his legs with his car (at first he told everyone he was a quarterback and got tackled too hard). He argues with his dad about his mother, who lives in a commune. His father denies that she ever wrote Harvey back. Harvey has a habit of making lists of the things that bother him. Carlie at first feels neglected. She thinks about running away, but slowly changes her mind. Carlie takes the decision to take her fate in her own hands, and stop being a defenseless pinball. When Harvey is in the hospital, Carlie and Thomas J. give him a puppy for his birthday, which gets him through the pain. Carlie comes up with a name for the puppy: Quarterback. Carlie sees they are not pin balls, because pin balls can't control where they are going, the children can. All three children start to take control of their lives. Although Carlie still throws out a few insults, the children are now much better friends. |
Empire Falls | Richard Russo | 2,001 | Set in the small, decaying, and nearly bankrupt town of Empire Falls, Maine, this is the story of Miles Roby, the unassuming manager of the Empire Grill, who has spent his entire life in the town. He has an ex-wife, Janine, who has become a cocky, selfish bachelorette after losing weight and exercising rigorously. This is partly due to encouragement from Walt Comeau, an antagonistic fitness center owner who visits the Empire Grill every day and has moved into Roby's old house by this point. Roby also has a loving teenage daughter nicknamed "Tick" who is dealing with Zack Minty, her cruel ex-boyfriend plus an emotional conflict over her mother's engagement to Walt. In addition, she has a complicated friendship with John Voss, an emotionally disturbed boy at school whose hard-luck story is known all too well around town. The obnoxious jock Zack and his friends constantly bully John. Other important people in Miles' life include his grubby ne'er-do-well father, a rascal who can't resist a handout when it comes his way; his reformed marijuana smoking brother, who is a talented Empire Grill cook; his good-hearted ex-mother-in-law, who owns a bar; the town's wealthiest woman, a condescending matron who owns the Empire Grill; that woman's daughter, who has loved Miles for many years; an attractive waitress, a retiring police chief and a dimwitted police officer, who is Zack's father and has known Miles since childhood. Miles is plagued by flashbacks of his family when he was a child, including a mysterious affair between his mother and a suitor, the details of which might answer some questions Miles has had his entire life. |
Candy: A Novel of Love and Addiction | Luke Davies | 1,998 | As with the movie version the book is broken down into three sections, excluding the prologue and epilogue. Part one: Invincibility, Part two: The Kingdom of Momentum, Part three: The Momentum of Change. In the beginning everything seems perfect for the unnamed narrator and Candy,(the girl and the drug), things are new and exciting. Of course in both relationships and addiction things do not remain so perfect or beautiful. Candy is introduced to heroin very gradually by snorting it, but soon she decides she wants to try it his way. This excites him as he believes it means she doesn't want "second best" and they truly are "soul mates". She nearly dies of an overdose but it does not prevent Candy from wanting to do more and more. Eventually the hunger leads to horrible choices to feed the addiction. When they try to get money by pawning a necklace Candy is offered a very small amount, but the pawnbroker thinks they can " work something out". She has sex with him for a pitiful sum. An action that is regretted by the narrator but he also knows they have held off the demons of withdrawal another day. From there brothel work, escort, and finally street prostitution become part of daily life. They try to get clean several times and Candy does in fact get detoxed early in the story but that lasts a very short time. After their attempts they "reward" themselves with a "blast", figuring it isn't really a bad idea after how far they have come. In one of their attempts to achieve normal lives they get married and it is in the narrators words "Obviously it was a big dope weekend. You want to be relaxed at your own wedding" They really do seem to love each other but is it only an illusion of heroin is the big question. They continue on their path of disaster through very high ups and extremely low downs. An unexpected pregnancy gives them a reason to get clean but they fail yet again and Candy prematurely delivers a baby boy who lives only seconds. Soon after Candy is tired of earning all the money while they share all the dope, and the narrator feels like he is less of a man for allowing her to do what she does to make the money. When a friend Candy knew in the past comes back from the US they feel as if their prayers have been answered. Casper is a chemistry genius and makes his own "Yellow Jesus". He is convinced to sell the recipe and give cooking lessons. Suddenly Candy only has to work when they need the cash for chemicals and equipment, and the narrator can keep them in all the heroin they need with extra to sell. There are a few disasters including a watered batch, and a fellow user with worse veins than the narrator spraying blood around the flat when his detachable head syringe blows off after he pierces his carotid artery trying to shoot up. Finally they decide to give methadone a try and things start to look better, for a while anyway. They move to the country thinking another fresh start is what they need but it goes very wrong. They begin fighting more and Candy begins acting strange. After she has an affair with a neighbor who deals pot, things fall apart. The narrator leaves and stays with an old friend who he angers, being kicked out after two days. He begins his own affair but is soon called by Candy's father. Candy has had a full nervous breakdown and is hospitalised. He makes his way home to find a very changed and very delusional Candy. After she is released they try one more time but he breaks the rules after running into Casper. Candy leaves him and shortly after Casper is caught making heroin. His employer sends him to rehab but Casper leaves, knowing it is the end of his career if he does. He gets anti-depressants, alcohol, goes to his lab and cooks one last batch, committing suicide. The narrator goes into rehab and gets sober. He sees Candy the first chance he is allowed and she tells him she knows they have to end. They have to stay apart to be clean. |
Black Book | null | 2,006 | Apart from the prologue and epilogue, the story is a first-person narrative told by Rachel Stein, a young Jewish woman. The novel is set at the end of World War II in the Netherlands. In September 1944, Rachel is 26 years old, and the Stein family is in hiding from the Nazi authorities. Rachel is living with a Christian family in the Biesbosch, an area of rivers and creeks, separated from the rest of her family. Here she is not allowed outside, but one day she goes sunbathing near the water. Here she meets Rob, a man about her own age, who was on the water sailing. As they enjoy themselves on his boat, a crippled British bomber flies over while dropping its payload so it can climb to escape a pursuing fighter, and one of its bombs hits Rachel's hideout. While she is staying with Rob, they are approached by a Dutch policeman named Van Gein, who offers to help them flee to liberated Belgium. She needs money for her escape, so she visits a lawyer named Smaal in The Hague. During the escape, she is reunited with her parents and brother; but their escape boat—with Rachel, Rob, the rest of the Stein family, and other Jews on board—is ambushed. Rachel hides in the water and gets a good view of the SS officer who was responsible. Everyone except Rachel is killed. Rachel is smuggled into The Hague disguised as a corpse in a coffin. There, she joins a resistance group led by Gerben Kuipers. She dyes her hair blond and takes the alias Ellis de Vries. While she and the resistance group are trying to smuggle medicine and weapons, they are intercepted by German security forces. All the Germans are killed by resistance group member Hans Akkermanns. Rachel and Hans travel by train with the contraband. In the train Rachel meets a Sicherheitsdienst (SD) officer, Ludwig Müntze, who helps her with her suitcases. Tim, Kuipers' son, and several other members of the resistance group, are later captured by the Germans when their weapons supply truck covered with vegetables crashes. The weapons are exposed when the vegetables are scattered everywhere. The rest of the group plans to have Rachel make contact with Müntze and enlist him in helping them get the prisoners released. Rachel goes to the SD headquarters to meet Müntze, bringing him Netherlands East Indies stamps for his collection. (He has been collecting stamps for every country he's been stationed in, including Poland.) He invites her to a party. At the party she spots the officer responsible for killing her parents, Günther Franken. He is playing the piano. Rachel feels sick and runs out of the room to throw up in a bathroom. After the party, she sleeps with Müntze, and he tells her how he lost his wife and children in an air raid on Hamburg. Rachel and Müntze fall in love. Rachel is offered a job at the SD and bugs the office with a British device. Franken wants to execute the captured resistance group members, but Müntze refuses to sign the order. Using the hidden mike, Rachel and the other resistance group members learn that Van Gein has been collaborating with the Germans - trapping escaping Jews, murdering them and keeping their money. The resistance decides against saving the Jews from Van Gein, weighing the lives of Jews against imprisoned Dutchmen. Others in the group decide to kidnap the traitor, but their plan fails because the chloroform they use expired in 1941. Van Gein overpowers his kidnappers, who are forced to kill him. "Ellis" returns to Muntze, but finds the German convinced that she is Jewish and a mole for the resistance. Rachel tells Muntze that he is correct but also how she lost her family. He does not arrest her. With Rachel's information, Müntze accuses Franken of hoarding loot stolen from murdered Jews, inviting General Kauntner to open Franken's safe. While Nazi law allows for the killing Jews, failing to turn over their property is a capital offense. Nevertheless, Franken is cleared when a search of his office safe fails to turn up the stolen loot. Realizing the danger Muntze poses, Franken has him arrested, telling Kauntner of Muntze's negotiating with the resistance, a charge Muntze wearily concedes. Angrily, Kauntner orders Muntze's execution. Later, a party is held at the SD office to celebrate Hitler's birthday. Rachel persuades the resistance group to free Müntze during an operation to rescue Tim and the other imprisoned members. During the party, Rachel helps the rescue group get into the building, but the mission proves a trap, as heavily armed German soldiers overpower the would-be rescuers, and virtually annihilate them. Franken, apparently tipped off to the resistance operations, has Rachel brought to his office. Knowing of the hidden microphone, he "congratulates" Rachel for her efforts, knowing that the resistance will overhear the conversation and conclude that Rachel betrayed them to the Germans. During the early morning hours, Müntze's driver rescues Rachel and Müntze, and they flee to Rob's sailboat. Rachel and Müntze talk about the war, about who could have informed on them to Franken, and what they would do after the war. On May 5, 1945, they hear Dutch nationalist songs on the radio and learn that the Netherlands has been liberated. Franken escapes Holland by sea, taking his loot with him, but his boat is sabotaged and he is murdered by Hans Akkermans. During the chaos following liberation, suspected traitors and collaborators are arrested and publicly paraded in disgrace. Rachel and Müntze suspect Smaal as the informant and visit. While they are at his house, Smaal and his wife deny the charges but are murdered. Rachel snatches a little black book of his notes from Smaal's body. Müntze chases Smaal's murderer into the liberation parades but is recognized by the Resistance and captured. Seen by the Resistance in Smaal's house, Rachel is captured as well. Imprisoned, Rachel endures horrific abuse before being liberated by Hans and a Canadian officer. Muntze proves less lucky. Returned to his old office, now being used by Canadian troops, Muntze finds the Canadian officers working with Kauntner. Far from defeated, Kauntner appears to retain significant power through the Canadians. Producing Muntze's death warrant, Kauntner persuades the Canadian officers to allow him to have Muntze executed, citing British Military law requiring a defeated enemy be permitted to discipline its own troops. Muntze is almost immediately executed by firing squad. Lauding Hans as a resistance hero, and lured by chocolate he's received from allied officers, a crowd of jubilant Dutch follows his jeep as he takes Rachel to his home. There he shows her the recovered loot, a fortune in gold, jewels and cash. Learning of Muntze's death, Rachel collapses in grief. Hans gives her something to calm her down. Too late, Rachel realizes that Akkermans has injected her with insulin, leaving her to die as he greets a joyful crowd below. Slipping into unconsciousness, Rachel grabs some of Hans's chocolate bars to prevent insulin shock. While Hans is being cheered by a joyous crowd on his balcony, Rachel appears from behind him and jumps off the balcony into the crowd. Escaping, she reaches Canadian officers who bring her to Kuipers. Using the Black Book, Rachel and a Canadian officer successfully convince a grieving Kuipers of her innocence and Akkermans's guilt. The black book - with Smaal's notes - proves all too convincing, documenting wealthy Jews seeking to escape from the Germans. Hans himself had been arrested by the Gestapo, released officially due to lack of evidence, but in fact because he had made a deal with Franken. Kuipers and Rachel figure out that Hans is trying to get away in a coffin, taking with him the riches stolen from murdered Jews. They track him down and seal the coffin suffocating him. As they wait for Hans to die, Kuipers and Rachel calmly debate what to do with Hans's stolen treasure. In the epilogue Rachel is living on a kibbutz in Israel, which was funded with the money, jewels, and other articles stolen from the Jews, where she works as a school teacher. Suddenly, shooting and the sound of jet aircraft is heard in the background - the Suez Crisis has begun.Plot summary based on a book report by teacher Kees van der Pol. |
The Gospel According to Jesus Christ | José Saramago | 1,991 | The book describes an alternate history to the life of Jesus Christ as depicted in the Bible. It begins with Jesus's conception, in the spiritual presence of God. Jesus' birth is heralded by a mysterious character, who claims to be an angel. Later, at Bethlehem, Jesus is born in a cave, and three shepherds - including the "angel" - arrive to bring him presents. As described in the Gospel of Matthew, Herod the Great receives a premonition of the birth of the "King of the Jews" (in the biblical account of Matthew, he is informed by the Magi; in the book, however, he is visited in his dreams by the prophet Micah). He orders the Massacre of the Innocents. Jesus survives, but his father, Joseph, who has learned of the plan, neglects to warn the other families in the village, ensuring that his son is safe first, and is plagued by nightmares for the rest of his life. Later, when Jesus turns thirteen, Joseph is crucified by the Romans who mistakenly think him to be a Zealot fighter. From the night of his father's death, Jesus inherits his nightmare. He learns about the massacre from his mother, and grows aloof from his family, amongst whom he can no longer live peacefully. He leaves the family and Nazareth and makes his way to Jerusalem, where he visits the Temple, thence to Bethlehem. He works as an apprentice to a shepherd (called The Shepherd who is understood to be the Devil and the mysterious "angel" mentioned earlier). The Shepherd instructs Jesus in the ways of hedonism, and at one point tries to convince Jesus to use the sheep for sexual release. Eventually, he meets God in the desert. God forces Jesus to sacrifice his favourite sheep, and says he has a design for him. Upon hearing of this, the Shepherd tells him to leave immediately. Jesus makes his way back home through the Sea of Galilee where he discovers an amazing talent to catch myriads of fish, and Magdala where he meets and falls in love with Mary Magdalene, then continues back home to Nazareth. Jesus is not believed by his family, and so he leaves them once again, meets Mary Magdalene (without marrying her) and goes to work helping the fishermen on the Sea of Galilee. One day out on the Sea by himself, he is visited by God and the Devil. God tells Jesus of his plan for Jesus to institute Christianity, because God is annoyed at being only the God of one race, and that other gods seem to get all the glory. Jesus is initially against what he sees as a selfish plan bound to lead to great suffering of many, but is made to see that he actually has no choice in the matter. Jesus becomes a prophet of God, continuing to work miracles but also preaching. He gets himself arrested, repeatedly calling himself King of the Jews. Having heard news of John the Baptist, who was put to death not for preaching the coming of the Messiah but allegedly for disapproving of King Herod's incestuous marriage, Jesus decides that his own death could likewise obscure his divine nature and thus thwart God's plan. The novel ends with Jesus' realisation that God's plan, and the ensuing centuries of torture, slaughter, and misery that Christianity will bring, will proceed despite his efforts. His last words from the cross, in referring to God, are "Men, forgive Him, for He knows not what He has done." <!-- |
The Serpent | null | null | The protagonist of the novel is Cija (pronounced 'kee-yah'), the illegitimate child of the Dictatress of a small kingdom and a priest of high rank. The story itself is written from her point of view. She was kept in a tower and looked after by servants until she turned 17; until that time she had not met any men and believed that men were extinct and women ruled the world. She was also raised to believe she was a goddess, related to the gods of her country, to whom she refers to as her "cousins". When she is 17 years old, her mother releases her from the tower and gives her as a hostage to Zerd, the half-Human, half-Reptilian warlord, leader of an invading army on their way to conquer the mysterious continent Atlan. Cija is secretly instructed by her mother to seduce and kill Zerd. Eventually she succeeds neither in killing Zerd, nor in warning the Atlantean empire about the invaders, but she ends up being married to Zerd and becoming Empress of Atlan. |
The Secret of Platform 13 | Eva Ibbotson | null | Platform 13 of King's Cross Station in London has been closed for years. Changes to the platform always result in failure for mysterious reasons. The reason is that the platform hides a gump, described as an "opening that opens once every nine years for nine days". The gump leads to the Island, a mythical paradise filled with both normal and magical creatures. Shortly before the Gump opens, the Queen gives birth to a baby boy. The three nurses for the baby prince are overcome with homesickness and wish to visit London when the gump reopens. They are given permission to do so and bring the Prince with them. On the ninth day, however, the prince is kidnapped by a "beastly" woman named Mrs. Trottle who is desperate for a child. Nanny Brown, Mrs. Trottle's nurse as a child, is horrified by the kidnapping. Mrs. Trottle threatens to call police if Nanny dares to tell anyone and decides to name the baby "Raymond". The nurses only discover the prince is gone when it is too late. To rescue the prince, the king and queen organize a group who will venture into London the next time the gump opens. The group consists of a giant, a "slightly batty" fey, a wizard, and a young hag named Odge (who joined because she was the same age as the prince would be and felt a sense of kinship to him as a result). When the gump opens, the rescuers are directed to the Trottle house by the ghosts that live in Platform 13. There they see Raymond Trottle, who has grown up to be fat, lazy, and very spoiled. They also meet the household servant, a boy named Ben. Ben is the exact opposite of Raymond and immediately feels comfortable with the group and befriends Odge. The group begins to observe Raymond and after some time arranges for him to meet them in the park where they arrange for various magical creatures to perform a show for him. Though Raymond is unimpressed by the magical performance, he is delighted to discover that he is really a prince and agrees to return to the Island. Odge tries to convince Ben to come to the Island as well, but he refuses as Nanny (who raised him) is very ill and in the hospital. Raymond mysteriously vanishes the next day however, and the group discovers that he told Mrs. Trottle of the plan. Believing that strangers intended to kidnap her child, she took him into hiding at a fancy hotel with several bodyguards. The group hatch a plan to take Raymond back, but everything falls apart when Ben is knocked out and nearly killed by one of the bodyguards. Given the choice of taking Raymond or rescuing Ben, the group chooses to save Ben. Raymond is abducted later by a swarm of harpies that the king and queen send and is successfully brought to the Island. Heartbroken, the group returns to the island except for Odge, as she would prefer to stay with Ben. Shortly before the gump will close, Nanny dies and leaves a note for Ben. It reveals that Ben was really the kidnapped prince, however Mrs. Trottle had discovered shortly after abducting him that she was pregnant. Odge rescues Ben from some cruel men Mrs. Trottle hired to take Ben to a nasty boarding school. They leave for the gump and return to the Island just in time. Ben is reunited with his parents and Odge is invited to live in the castle with him. |
The Fish Can Sing | Halldór Laxness | 1,957 | The novel is set at the start of the twentieth century and deals with the orphaned boy Álfgrímur, his adoptive grandparents, and the small, tolerant community of misfits and eccentrics they gather around them at Brekkukot, their cottage on the outskirts of Reykjavík. As Álfgrímur begins to encounter the minor politicians, businessmen and social-climbers of the growing town of Reykjavík he starts to question his future as a fisherman's grandson, and is increasingly fascinated by Garðar Hólm, the celebrated Icelandic "world singer" whose sporadic returns to Iceland encourage Álfgrímur to pursue his own personal goals of self-expression. He discovers the true value of his boyhood experiences only as he sets out on a path that will take him away from them forever. The boy's name, Álfgrímur, is explained in the book as a compound of Álf (elf) and grímur (a poetic word for 'night') meaning 'he who spends the night with the elves'. The original name of the book in Icelandic is 'Brekkukotsannáll' (Annals of Brekkukot). de:Das Fischkonzert is:Brekkukotsannáll |
The Queen of Attolia | Megan Whalen Turner | 2,001 | Eugenides, the Thief of Eddis, has been caught spying on the Queen of Attolia. He expects to be hanged, but the Queen instead resorts to an ancient traditional custom – she has his right hand struck off with a sword. This shocking act sets the plot in motion. Maimed and broken-hearted, the Thief returns to Eddis and wallows in a deep depression. Attolia, an apparently heartless ruler, secretly regrets her action, but must live with the consequences of it. The countries of Eddis and Attolia are soon at war, with neighboring Sounis playing both sides. Also manipulating the situation is Attolia’s ambassador from the Mede Empire, Nahuseresh, who pays extravagant attention to the beautiful Queen of Attolia while serving his own agenda. As Attolia juggles her overattentive ambassador, the rebellious barons who do not believe a woman can rule alone, and a bloody, costly war, the reader begins to understand what has made her into the Queen – and the person – she is. Meanwhile, a visit from the magus of Sounis awakens Eugenides to the fact that his country is at war. His cousin, the Queen of Eddis, may lose her throne and her country. Eugenides is forced to grow up and become more than just a boy hero and a clever trickster. He remakes himself into a new kind of hero – and a new kind of Thief. As in The Thief, the gods play an important role, there are stories within stories, and the clever plot holds more than one surprise. |
The Feasting Dead | John Metcalfe | 1,954 | The story is about a young English boy, Denis, who, while in France falls under the influence of a vampiric being, from the folklore of Auvergne and the misfortune that befalls him. |
The Scarlet Gospels | Clive Barker | null | The story centers on two characters Barker has used in his previous work: private investigator Harry D'Amour, a character seen in several previous stories such as the novel Everville and the short story "The Last Illusion" (later adapted into the film Lord of Illusions); and a being known only as "Pinhead", an extra-dimensional entity residing in a world bordering our own. Pinhead and Harry are depicted as adversaries. Their first meeting occurs in the past, when Harry is twelve or thirteen years old and in Catholic school, and this encounter with Pinhead is said to be a primary cause of Harry's later disturbed psyche. In the present day, a friend of Harry's is taken hostage by Pinhead, and Harry, accompanied by four mismatched companions (including the blind medium Norma Paine, who has appeared in earlier Barker stories) and an animal, must track his friend down into the lowest levels of Hell. Roughly two thirds of the story will take place in Hell itself, and much is expected to be learned about the nature of Hell, its creator, its inhabitants, about the Order of the Gash and Pinhead's place within it. |
Unleavened Bread | Robert Grant | 1,900 | A businessman's selfish wife forces her way into upper society. |
The Orchid | null | null | A headstrong young woman marries for money and divorces for love. She then sells her infant daughter back to her former husband to secure a two million dollar fortune. |
The Jupiter Myth | Lindsey Davis | 2,002 | After putting the project of building Togidubnus’s palace back on track (see A Body in the Bath House), Falco and family decide to take a break and visit some old friends and family up in Londinium. But nothing is ever peaceful around Falco. The body of a close friend of Togidubnus is found in a well. A simple murder? No, not around Falco. There is more than one gang flexing their muscles in Londinium, leading Falco every which way. Suddenly, Falco’s friend Petro appears. It’s not likely that he just happens to show up at the edge of the Empire, but he is not interested in telling anyone much of anything. What is really puzzling is why all these things are happening in only a certain group of taverns, all named after very important events in someone’s life. Is that the connection they are missing? |
Shannon's Way | A. J. Cronin | 1,948 | Robert trains to be a doctor at the fictional Levenford Infirmary (Levenford is loosely based on Dumbarton), and falls in love with Jean Law, a young medical student belonging to the Plymouth Brethren who rejects him when she discovers that he has deceived her about his history and religion (he is a Roman Catholic). He develops an interest in a disease contracted from infected cows' milk, and devotes his spare time to researching it: it turns out to be brucellosis. Dr. Shannon contracts a nervous breakdown when he completes the project only to find that someone else has anticipated his results, and is nursed by and marries Jean. |
Star Wars Republic Commando: True Colors | Karen Traviss | null | In the Grand Army's desperate fight to crush the Separatists, the secret special ops missions of its elite clone warriors have never been more critical...or more dangerous. A growing menace threatens Republic victory and the members of Omega Squad make a discovery that shakes their loyalty. As the lines continue to blur between friend and enemy, citizens—from civilians and sergeants, to Jedi and generals—find themselves up against a new foe: the doubt in their hearts and mind. The truth is a fragile, shifting illusion, and only the approaching inferno will reveal both sides in their true colors. |
The Perfect Thing | Steven Levy | 2,006 | In an author's note, Levy writes, *Perfect *Identity *Origin *Cool *Personal *Download *Shuffle *Apple *Podcast *Coda Levy starts the book with a timeline of the iPod, running from October 2001 to October 2005. He then writes in a shuffled set of chapters, focusing on the "perfect" aspects of the iPod--the origins and the idea of the iPod, its ability to create an identity and a familiar community, its coolness factor, how it made music personal for individuals, and how it changed the music industry with Apple's iTunes Store. The book includes quotes, interviews, and anecdotes with such individuals as Apple's co-founder and CEO, Steve Jobs; Microsoft chairman, Bill Gates; cultural anthropologist at the University of Utrecht and noted "Professor of Cool," Dr. Carl Rohde; founder of MP3.com, Michael Robertson; and many others. |
Hex: Ghosts | Rhiannon Lassiter | 2,001 | The city has become even more dangerous for anyone possessing the Hex gene and armed security forces searching out any traces of mutant abilities or activities is putting the Hex gene in danger of extinction. A small but powerful resistance army is forming and planning to fight back even as the computer system they rely upon might contain an enemy that could ruin their plans. |
The Wyvern's Spur | Jeff Grubb | 1,990 | Most of the novel revolves around Giogi’s efforts to locate and recover an important family heirloom that goes missing just as he is returning to Immersea. The lost heirloom is an artifact from which they take their family name; the wyvern's spur, and the chief initial motivation for its recovery is the omen that the spur’s loss will trigger family misfortune. This is underscored when an elder family member, the wizard Drone, is discovered dead and a twisted mage named Flattery makes his presence known. Giogi is aided in his efforts by Olive Ruskettle, a female halfling, and a female apprentice mage named Cat. As the story progresses it is revealed that Cat is actually Flattery’s agent (under duress) and that Flattery himself is an un-aging creation of a forgotten ancestor named Finder Wyvernspur. Flattery, for reasons left vague, possesses an intense hatred of anything connected with Finder’s legacy including his descendants. Eventually, Giogi convinces Cat to leave Flattery and the two fall in love. Giogi relearns much of the repressed history of his family and uses this knowledge to defeat Flattery and restore the family’s good heritage. The wyvern's spur is literally a mummified “wyvern's spur” (a talon). It is described once by Giogi as being “no larger than a zucchini and uglier than a three-week-old sausage.” The spur was bestowed generations earlier to Paton, the founder of the family line, by a grateful Wyvern whose spirit then remained as an entity known as the Guardian. In recent years the spur has come to be known more as a family heirloom than its qualities as a magical artifact The spur confers the ability to transform into a large wyvern as well as immunity to magic. It can only be wielded by a member of the Wyvernspur line and even then its powers can only be harnessed by a chosen member. A chosen or “favorite” is designated by the Guardian roughly once each generation. |
Invaders from the Dark | Greye La Spina | 1,960 | The story is set in Brooklyn, New York in the mid-1920s and deals with the widow of an Occultist, Portia Differdale, and Princess Tchernova, a wealthy and beautiful Russian werewolf. Both women desire the same man, Owen Edwardes. |
Company K | William March | null | The novel comprises 131 vignettes about World War I marines in Company K. The novel is told from the viewpoint of 131 different marines, stretching from the beginning of training to the end of the war. These sketches create contrasting and horrific accounts of the daily life endured by the common marine. Many of the accounts stem from actual events witnessed and experienced by the author. It has often been described as an anti-militarist and an anti-war novel, but March maintained that the content was based on truth and should be viewed as an affirmation of life. |
CHERUB: The Killing | Robert Muchamore | 2,005 | After coming back from a mission with Shakeel, James is dumped by his girlfriend, Kerry Chang. As he leaves Kerry's room, he sees a red-shirt CHERUB called Andy Lagan and takes his temper out on him, beating him up. For this, James finds his friends ignoring him, and is punished with no holiday, suspension from missions, cleaning the mission preparation rooms every night for three months, and having anger management sessions with a counselor. Zara feels sorry for James, so she gets him a low-risk mission to get him out of the punishment and so he can spend some time away from his friends blanking him. For a second time, James is working with Dave, a 17 year old black shirt. They are being sent to investigate Leon Tarasov who runs a garage. When they get to their flat in south London, Dave gets a job at the suspect's garage, and James gets a girlfriend called Hannah. During his first night in the area, James gets into an altercation with two goons and is arrested for it. As he is being placed in the police car, police officer Michael Patel assaults him. Hannah tells James how her cousin, Will, fell off the top of the building more than a year earlier. As James has no computer that she knows of, she gives him Will's old one. Back home, James finds that Will had a CD with information about a robbery at a casino almost a year earlier. The theft totaled £90,000 but is too small for what they are looking for. Dave later realises that if the casino had an illegal floor with more gambling equipment that was also robbed, then there would be enough money to be what they are looking for. To help find more evidence to capture Michael Patel, Kerry and Lauren join the team. A few days later, Hannah reveals that after Will's death, Patel had deliberately run over to the body and touched it, supposedly to see if he was still alive. James and Dave figure out that that policeman had killed Will. They tell their mission controller, John Jones, who gets a special section of the police to investigate. They do, and find out that Alan Falco, the retired evidence keeper, had destroyed the statements of the witnesses which contained evidence which could have Michael Patel arrested. In return for immunity from prosecution Falco returns the statements and Michael Patel and Leon Tarasov are arrested for murder of Will Clarke and for robbery of the Golden Sun Casino. James and Dave return to campus and James reconciles himself to his friends, including Kerry |
The Globalized City | Erik Swyngedouw | 2,005 | The book offers in-depth analyses of linkages between urban restructuring and social exclusion against the backdrop of trends in urban governance across the European Union, examining neo-liberal and New Urban policies that increasingly favour private investment and deregulation of labour markets. The aim is to clarify the relationship between new urban spaces and the emergence of new forms of polity, economy, and urban life which may not necessarily promote social harmony within the metropolitan areas. |
The Rise of the Black Wolf | Derek Benz | 2,007 | In The Rise of the Black Wolf, Max and his fellow Grey Griffins (Natalia, Harley, and Ernie) set off on another adventure, traveling to Scotland to visit Max's father for the winter holidays. The four friends explore Lord Sumner's ancient castle, and the dark forest that surrounds it. Once again, the Grey Griffins must do battle with Fireball Pixies, an army of Werewolves, and the Black Witch, Morgan LaFey. But when Lord Sumner, Max's father, disappears, the Grey Griffins must rescue him with the Knights Templar. Max's father betrays him and tells Max he staged the incident before(Revenge of The Shadow King.)Ernie, however, falls into a coma. Will he wake up? |
Forbidden Knowledge | Stephen R. Donaldson | 1,991 | After Angus Thermopyle was framed and arrested for stealing station supplies from Com-Mine, Morn Hyland escaped with Captain Nick Succorso aboard his ship, the Captain's Fancy. As part of a deal Morn made with Angus, she will not reveal to anyone that she has a zone implant - a device Angus installed in her brain allowing him to control her while he raped and abused her - meaning that Angus will not face death for unauthorized use of a zone implant, and in turn Angus gave Morn the zone implant control. With the control in her hands she soon becomes addicted to the effects of a zone implant. Nick misinterpreted Morn's intentions and expects her to 'repay' him by being his new lover. The abuse Morn suffered under Angus has left her unable to stand the touch of another man, but she soon works out how to use the zone implant to induce artificial sexual desire to fulfil NIck's desires. While on board the Captain's Fancy, the data first Orn Vorbuld repeatedly molests Morn whenever they end up alone together, eventually leading to a showdown with Nick after Orn attempts to rape her. Orn reveals that he has planted a virus in the ship's computer that, if not deactivated by him, will wipe the computer's memory and leave the ship stranded in space. In spite of this, Nick still kills him and the ship soon falls under the effects of the virus. Meanwhile, Morn discovers that she has become pregnant, and the age of the fetus indicates that Angus Thermopyle is the father. Reflecting on the death of her family, she decides to keep it, which Nick allows her on the condition that she is able to stop the virus. She does so, and Nick keeps his end of the bargain, but not in a way Morn expected: Nick sets course for Enablement Station, an outpost in Forbidden Space, a region of space controlled by the mysterious Amnion. The Amnion are a race of creatures whose society is centered around their ability to manipulate DNA. They intend on dominating the human species through use of mutagens that would turn humans into Amnion themselves, but for now are held at bay in their section of the universe - what humans call forbidden space. No one but pirates and other illegals ever deal with the Amnion for fear that they themselves will be turned into Amnion, but Nick maintains that they would never go back on their word for fear that if they did no humans would deal with them. Once they arrive at the station Nick convinces the Amnion to give them enough credit to fix their gap drive (which was damaged previously) and to force grow Morn's unborn child to adulthood, in exchange for a phial of Nick's blood, which the Amnion mistakenly believe holds the key to genetic immunity to their mutagens (the "immunity" is actually caused by a drug, of which the Amnion are unaware). The Amnion keep their promises and give Nick the credit he asked for and force grow Morn's baby to the approximate age of 16. Her mind is copied onto her son, a process which she survives only due to the effects of her zone implant. Nick becomes enraged when he sees Morn's child, named Davies Hyland after her father; Davies is the spitting image of his real father, Angus Thermopyle. After getting back to the ship the Amnion inadvertently reveal the existence of Morn's zone implant when they explain that it protected her from the brain damage a mind imprint would cause. Nick realizes that Morn's love for him was all a masque and when the Amnion request that they return Davies Hyland to them for experimentation, Nick complies in return for parts to fix his gap drive. Morn soon manages to hold the ship and Enablement station hostage by putting the ship's self-destruct on a pressure release trigger so she can get her child back, as well as the parts needed to fix the ship. They enable their gap drive but it begins to fail. Vector Shaheed, the ship's engineer, manages to avert a disaster and they survive, coming 'back into tard' with a slagged gap drive far from Enablement, but still in Amnion space. To everyone's surprise the ship is travelling at an unprecedented .9C, or nine tenths the speed of light. In the ensuing chaos, Nick is able to retake command of the ship. Setting course for Thanatos Minor where an illegal trade outpost called Billingate resides, two Amnion warships catch up and Nick negotiates to have Davies transferred to one in an ejection pod. After being released from her cabin by some of the crew who no longer trust Nick, Morn manages to get the pod reprogrammed so that it misses the Amnion ship and heads toward Billingate. In the meantime, the incarcerated Angus Thermopyle is tortured and interrogated on Com-Mine by Milos Taverner, the head of Com-Mine security. Eventually he is requisitioned by the UMCP and transformed into a cyborg, (a process known as "welding) under the complete control of the computers connected to his brain. The UMCP then prepares to send Milos and Angus together on a highly classified mission against Thanatos Minor. |
A Dark and Hungry God Arises | Stephen R. Donaldson | 1,993 | As the newly 'welded' cyborg Angus Thermopyle and his distrusted companion Milos Taverner arrive in their Gap Scout, Trumpet, at the illegal outpost in Amnion space known as Billingate, The Bill, the ruler of Billingate, intercepts the escape pod containing Morn Hyland's recently forcegrown child, Davies Hyland. Despite being only a few days old, the forcegrowing technique the Amnion used on him have made him physically resemble a sixteen year old boy. Morn suffers from an insanity-causing ailment known as Gap Sickness for which she uses a device called a zone implant in the event of gap travel. When Morn's mind was copied onto Davies' during the force growing process to make up for his lack of a developmental/formative childhood, Morn somehow survived the copying which, it was explained, should have killed her. The Amnion, a misanthropic alien race bent on the eventual domination of the human race, and the ones who conceded to perform the force growing of Davies, suspect that it is the presence of Morn's zone implant that saved her; these circumstances make the mother and son uniquely valuable to the Amnion. The Amnion have followed Morn and her son to Billingate in the hopes of getting them back for further study. Captain Nick Succorso, aboard his ship the Captain's Fancy, is furious at Morn for not only making him think that she loved him, but, more recently, for diverting the escape pod containing her son away from an Amnion warship. Nick had promised Davies to the Amnion as a show of good faith. In his fury he gives them Morn, but not before she has broken into his quarters to steal an immunization drug designed to counteract Amnion mutagens that would turn her into one of them. Nick is left in a precarious position. The Amnion continue to demand Davies Hyland, but Davies is in the custody of The Bill, who shrewdly asks for compensation for the child. Because of their convoluted dealings, the Amnion have revoked a credit voucher they gave Nick, so he has no credit to give The Bill for Davies. Because of this, Nick is stuck on Billingate and simply wanders the 'cruise'. After Milos finishes abusing Angus by using the priority codes for Angus' computer, which were given to him by UMCPHQ, Angus and Milos disembark at Billingate and eventually meet up with Angus' nemesis, Nick. They form an uneasy truce. Nick explains that he needs Davies and will give Morn to them in exchange for Morn's son, should Nick be able to recover him. Nick of course does not mention he's already handed Morn over to the Amnion and, as far as he knows, has already been turned into one of them. Angus and Milos are surprised to learn that Angus' programming includes rescuing Morn, something they were told was not the case. Milos becomes furious and begins to distrust his orders, the UMCP and Angus. While waiting for Nick to find out where Davies is being held, Milos asserts his previously unperceived control over Angus, making him eat his live nic butts, in front of Billingate's bug eyes - a mistake that will cost him later. After finding out where the detention centre is, Angus' computer reveals to him that he is capable of emitting a type of jamming field that can bend light rendering him invisible to electronic surveillance, thus protecting his identity. His programming makes him take Milos with him, because he cannot really be trusted on his own. They descend into the depths of Billingate, where they find Davies locked away in a cell. When Nick handed Morn over to the Amnion, some of his crew, Mikka Vasaczk, Nick's second in command, Vector Shaheed, his engineer, Sib Mackern, his data first, and Ciro "Pup" Vasaczk, Vector's assistant, all begin to turn against him. Sensing a mutiny, Nick sends them to do specific tasks on Billingate to 'get them out of the way'. Against orders, they all meet up and decide to abandon Captain's Fancy as they've clearly outlived their usefulness to Nick. When Angus and Milos return to Trumpet with Davies, they confront Nick when he arrives and decide to keep him rather than hand him over to Nick, who intends to turn him over to the Amnion. Nick also reveals that Morn is in Amnion custody. Angus begins to form a plan to rescue her when Milos, and then Nick, leave the ship. Milos immediately heads to the Amnion sector of Billingate and there it becomes apparent that he's been working for them as a double agent for some time. The Amnion emissary, Marc Vestabule, an abortive Amnion attempt at turning a human into an Amnion while maintaining a human-like appearance, informs Milos that both they and The Bill are aware that he has some kind of control over Angus. Vestabule then, to Milos' extreme horror, subdues Milos and injects him with Amnion mutagens. In the meantime Nick is confronted by his former crew: Mikka, Vector, Sib and Pup. While arguing, they are all approached by Billingate security and Nick, being barred from Captain's Fancy, flees for Trumpet while being pursued by Mikka and company, followed closely by security. Angus reluctantly lets them in. While The Bill rages over the comm, they begin to formulate and act out a plan to rescue Morn. Nick contacts Captain's Fancy and instructs Liete Corregio, his third in command, to attack the ship called Soar, as Nick has discovered that it is captained by Sorus Chatelaine, a woman who seduced, betrayed and abandoned Nick as a young man, but not before leaving the streaked scars underneath his eyes that act as his emotional barometer. Angus instructs Davies, Vector and Pup to sabotage Billingate's communications systems while Nick, Mikka, Sib and Angus himself go EVA to the Amnion sector to rescue Morn. After breaking inside, Angus is confronted by Milos, who has now been turned into an Amnion while still retaining his human memories, mannerisms and form - the Amnion apparently having perfected their mutagens. Milos attempts to use Angus' priority codes against him and his newfound allies, but new programming takes over that overrides those codes with new ones, allowing Angus both to ignore Milos' orders and attempt to kill him. Milos escapes, but they soon find Morn in her cell, still human thanks to the immunity drug she stole from Nick. Angus puts Mikka in charge and gets Sib to help Morn into the spare EVA suit they brought when he suddenly leaves to sabotage Billingate's reactor. On their way back to Trumpet, the rescue party witnesses an Amnion shuttle containing The Bill leave the station, as well as the destruction of an Amnion warship that had been rammed by Captain's Fancy, which Leite did to prevent the ship from firing on Mikka, Morn, Sib and Nick while they were walking across the face of Billingate. When back on Trumpet, Nick attempts to take over the ship by holding Pup hostage, demanding that they leave without Angus. Pup manages to subdue Nick with a stun prod he landed on when forced into Milos' old command station. Then Angus appears back on board and begins to get Trumpet ready to leave. While Nick and Angus finish the preparations, everyone else leaves for quarters to secure for heavy g. An Amnion warship and a few other human pirate ships converge on Trumpet as it disengages from Billingate just as Billingate's reactor explodes. Trumpet escapes into the gap, presumably leaving all the other ships left behind to be destroyed. Meanwhile, back on Earth, Warden Dios, the director of the UMCP, gathers together his directors, Min Donner, director of the UMCP's Enforcement Division (ED), Hashi Lebwohl, director of Data Acquisition (DA), and Godsen Frik, director of Protocol (PR), for a video conference with the Governing Council of Earth and Space (GCES), brought about by the apparent escape of the known pirate Angus Thermopyle and suspected traitor Milos Taverner, as such was their cover story when they left UMCPHQ. The GCES demands disclosure and uses the opportunity to ask about Morn Hyland, a UMCP ensign they apparently abandoned to pirates and the Amnion. Warden and Hashi offer half-truths to the Council, telling them that they failed to recapture Angus and Milos, and that they arranged for Morn to be given to Nick as 'payment' for a job they had him do so that she could be used as a bargaining ship should Nick's mission at Billingate fail. The mission was to give a non-working anti-mutagen drug in hopes that it would disrupt Billingate's usefulness to the Amnion, not letting on that they gave him a working anti-mutagen drug that the UMCP suppressed years previous. Later Dios admits to Min in confidence that he did this purposely in hopes to get the UMCP severed from the UMC so that it would be reformed under the GCES. Dios hopes to disrupt the power that Holt Fasner, the CEO of the UMC, has over human controlled space. He then instructs Min to leave UMCPHQ, which is orbiting Earth, for Suka Bator. There Min meets with Captain Sixten Vertigus, the man who made first contact with the Amnion, and is now a member of the GCES. She convinces him to propose a bill of severance that would put the UMCP under the control of the GCES, persuading him to act as if it was his own idea so that no one would know that Min Donner or Warden Dios had anything to do with it. As Min is about to leave, she and Sixten are attacked by a kaze that Min recognizes in time to prevent the kaze's surgically implanted explosives from killing them. Despite being injured, Min then leaves so that no one knows she was there. The Kaze causes the GCES to announce a state of emergency, suspending GCES meetings until further notice. Warden Dios declares a similar lockdown at UMCPHQ, suspecting that Frik or Fasner might be behind the kaze to keep Sixten from proposing the bill of severance that Dios hoped only he, Min and Sixten knew about. Fasner attempts to summon Frik to his private orbiting station, but Frik refuses, citing Dios' orders as explanation, but in actuality he would rather not confront his boss and mentor. Another kaze kills Frik. Dios is summoned to Fasner's home instead and is asked to explain why he disclosed so much information as to horrify the GCES, and why he restricted Frik's movements, resulting in his death. Dios manages to answer, but does not completely satisfy Fasner. Fasner mentions that he is aware that Dios sent Min Donner to the borders of forbidden space to await the return of Angus and Milos. He instructs Dios to tell Donner to kill Angus and Milos should anything go wrong. |
Chaos and Order | Stephen R. Donaldson | 1,994 | In the aftermath of the thwarted terrorist attack on Captain Sixten Vertigus, the United Western Bloc Senior Member to the Governing Council of Earth and Space (GCES), and the successful assassination of Godsen Frik, the former Director of Protocol for the United Mining Companies Police (UMCP), Hashi Lebwohl, the Director of the Data Acquisition (DA) branch of the UMCP, attempts to investigate how security failed to prevent the so-called 'kaze' attacks. Hashi learns that they were using more recent security badges that contained up-to-date security codes. This leads him to infer that whoever is orchestrating these attacks must be a high ranking official within the United Mining Companies (UMC) or their police force. As part of his investigation, Hashi accompanies Koina Hannish, Godsen's successor as Director of Protocol, to Earth to attend an emergency session of the GCES. It is there that, as Koina informed Hashi, Captain Vertigus will propose a bill of severance that will sever the UMCP from the UMC and merge it with the GCES so as to avoid the conflict of interest between UMC CEO Holt Farsner and the rest of humanity. Captain Vertigus manages to propose his bill to the GCES as Hashi recognizes a security guard as former Captain Nathan Alt. Hashi surmises that he is a kaze and is surprised that, instead of attacking Captain Vertigus, seems to be heading for the UMC's First Executive Assistant, Cleatus Fane. Hashi grabs Alt's IDs intact, which strangely identify him as one 'Clay Imposs', before having him arrested. Alt\Imposs promptly explodes, killing one of his arresting officers and maiming another. Meanwhile, a cyborg named Angus Thermopyle is fleeing the newly destroyed Billingate installation in Forbidden Space with his makeshift crew: the raped and brutalized UCMP ensign Morn Hyland, her and Angus’ force-grown son Davies Hyland, former captain of Captain’s Fancy Nick Succorso, engineer\geneticist Vector Shaheed, Nick’s former second Mikka Vasaczk, Mikka’s younger brother Ciro Vasaczk, and the former data first Sib Mackern. As luck would have it Vector Shaheed was one of the lead scientists working on an anti-mutagen drug. The Amnion, the beings that inhabit Forbidden Space, would have their mutagens turn the entire human race into Amnion themselves, and the immunity drug that Vector was working on would have assured humanity their safety. The UCMP took Shaheed’s research away from him and suppressed the drug on Holt Farsner’s orders. Hashi Lebwohl secretly finished Shaheed’s research and gave a sample of the drug to Nick Succorso to test. With samples of the drug in their possession, the crew of Trumpet decide to have Vector complete his research at an illegal lab run by a man named Deaner Beckmann. It is hoped, assuming Vector can complete his research, that the drug can be disseminated to the rest of humanity to protect them should the Amnion invade human space. On their way into human space Angus’ programming has him send a message using a listening post to UMCPHQ coded for Warden Dios, the director of the UMCP itself. After sending the message Trumpet speeds off toward the Valdor Industrial system where the lab is located deep within an asteroid swarm orbiting a binary star. Having previously been sent to the very same listening post on orders from Warden Dios to await the return if Thermopyle, Min Donner and the crew aboard the UMCP cruiser Punisher are there to witness Trumpet’s transmission and successive flight. They also happen upon Free Lunch, a ship that we learn was hired by Hashi to destroy Trumpet, as well as an unknown ship in hot pursuit from Forbidden Space. Min and Punishers crew assume that the pursuing craft either belongs to the misanthropic Amnion, or is in their employ. Despite the protests of Punisher’s captain, Dolph Ubikwe, Min ignores the possibility that the encroaching ship is Amnioni and in the process of committing an act of war, and she has Punisher pursue Trumpet. Min soon receives instructions from Warden Dios to contact Thermopyle and get him to give his priority codes to Nick Succorso. After framing Angus, abusing Morn, and attempting to sell Morn and Davies to the Amnion, Nick is a prisoner aboard Trumpet. When he receives Angus’ priority codes he proceeds to have most of the crew beaten and locked in quarters for betraying him. Fortunately Nick decides to proceed with the plan to reproduce the immunity drug, although he hopes to sell it rather than give it away. When Trumpet arrives at Beckmann’s lab they discover that the ship that was pursuing them had guessed where they might go and has already arrived. Soar is a human ship in the Amnion’s employ captained by Sorus Chatelaine, a woman who betrayed and scarred Nick as a young man, something he wants revenge for. Through Soar the Amnion hope to capture the crew of Trumpet for study. For that reason they have placed an Amnioni aboard, the former human Milos Taverner. Trumpet docks at the illegal lab, and while Mikka, Ciro, Vector, Sib and Nick go aboard the station, Angus’ programming has him deliver his priority codes to Morn and Davies. Because of this the Hylands are able to help Angus release himself from his programming. While aboard the station Nick arranges for Ciro to be alone as a trap. Sorus takes the ‘bait’ and kidnaps him and Sorus and Milos inject Ciro with a slow acting mutagen that will change him if he stops taking an inhibiter every hour. Sorus tells Ciro that she will continue to supply him with the inhibiter if he sabotages Trumpet’s drives. When Vector finishes his work and everyone returns, Morn and Davies are able to incapacitate Nick once more and they retake the ship. Ciro reveals what Sorus did to him and Vector is able to cure him using the immunity drug. When Trumpet undocks from the lab, Soar destroys the installation and chases Trumpet as they attempt to leave the asteroid swarm. Nick convinces the rest to let him go EVA and attack Soar by himself as she chases Trumpet. The rest let him when Sib tells them he’ll go with him to help make sure he doesn’t attack Trumpet. Nick and Sib manage to disable Soar’s most devastating weapon, a super-light proton cannon, before both are, presumably, killed. Free Lunch and Soar engage Trumpet at the same time and end up attacking each other when Trumpet seems to have lost thrust, appearing sabotaged. Angus goes EVA and launches a singularity grenade at Free Lunch and detonates it. The resulting black hole destroys Free Lunch and batters Soar badly. When Trumpet and Soar reach the edge of the swarm, then run into Punisher and an Amnion ‘defensive’ named Calm Horizons heavily engaging each other. Nick suddenly appears on Soar’s bridge, having survived Sorus’ attack and the black hole in EVA. Sorus dispatches him, and then Milos before ordering her crew to engage Calm Horizons and betray her former masters. Calm Horizons destroys Soar and Trumpet and Punisher escape, leaving the Amnioni ship behind. |
Sun of Suns | Karl Schroeder | 2,006 | Hayden Griffin is a young, fatherless boy living in Aerie. Though exactly when or how his father died is never discovered, Hayden continually says that he was murdered by Slipstream, a rival nation migrating through Virga. Slipstream's sun is tethered to a migrating asteroid that has provided the nation with its wealth. As Slipstream follows its sun, it occasionally moves through other nation's territories, as it does with Aerie, Hayden Griffin's home nation. In these cases, it uses its military headed by a leader simply known as "the Pilot" to make this nation a client nation of Slipstream, only to leave these nations again when the asteroid moves far enough. His parent's ambition was to liberate Aerie from Slipstream's rule by constructing their own sun in secret. After his father's death, Hayden's mother made this her final goal in life. At the opening of the story, Aerie's sun is nearly finished, and the construction team was planning a test to assure of its functionality. Hayden gets out of his job as an apprentice in a kitchen, intending to watch the test from a jet bike. However, airships flying Slipstream's flag appear on the horizon and begin to attack the new sun. Aerie's resistance starts to defend themselves from the assault, but don't appear to be a true match against the highly trained Slipstreamers. In a suicidal last-ditch effort, Hayden's mother and the construction crew start the sun while inside of it, incinerating the ships attacking the sun itself but allowing at least one reported Slipstream ship to have escaped. During the fighting, Hayden is thrown off the town's spinning wheel and, as the first chapter leaves him, floating weightlessly in the darkness, where pirates call home and no suns or true governments have been established. Years later, the story picks up again with Venera Fanning (wife of Admiral Chaison Fanning of Slipstream fame) and her page walking down the hall to the office of the Admiralty in Rush, capital of Slipstream. Venera reminisces on another times, years ago, when she was walking down this hall and a bullet ripped through her jaw line, and she was left bleeding on the floor with no one around. She enters the office, and then continues to the bathroom, where she holds a secret meeting with an informant and a few others. Bleeding and exhausted, the informant shows Venera pictures of a secret dock and ship building facility of a rival nation, Falcon Formation, in a sargasso, which is an area where there is a build up of toxic gases that no one can enter without a specially designed sargasso suit. One of the pictures shows a frightfully large dreadnought approximately 3 km in length, as well as many other warships. Venera leaves the meeting and returns to her waiting page. As they walk out of the crowded office, the page accidentally bumps into Venera, knocking the pictures out of her hands. Venera then catches the page staring at the pictures of the dreadnought as they collect them off the floor. After she dismisses it as awe, they step outside, when the page gives his approximation and explanation of the length of the dreadnought. After the page flies Venera back to the Fanning household, he curses himself for his failure to get inside the house, and the page is revealed to be Hayden Griffin, who intends to kill Admiral Fanning for revenge. However, Griffin learns that Fanning was not present in Slipstream's attack of Aerie. Admiral Fanning is instructed by the Slipstream Pilot to move his fleet against Mavery but decides to divert part of the fleet including the ship Rook to attack the hidden Falcon Formation ship dock. Instead of moving there directly, Fanning decides to make a detour in order to recover the fabled treasure of Antene, the map to which is hidden in the Winding Tree of Fate artifact which, in turn, is stored in a station on Virga's skin. On the Rook, Griffin learns that the ship's armorer, Aubri Mahallan, is from outside Virga. She explains that the outside world is governed by Artificial Nature, apparently an artificial intelligence possessing vast power. However, some systems of Candesce, Virga's largest sun, disrupt Artificial Nature and prevent it from entering Virga. While passing icebergs that formed on the inside of Virga's skin, the fleet is attacked by winter pirates which are repelled by dislodging icebergs that then are drawn by gravity towards the center of Virga. During the fight, the Rook is boarded by pirates. Venera Fanning kills the Rook's captain and some of its crew as they try to scuttle the ship. Both Venera Fanning and Mahallan are taken prisoner by the pirate captain Dentius but regain control of the ship later. After retrieving the Tree of Fate, Admiral Fanning reveals that the treasure of Antene includes the key to Candesce and therefore means to turn off Candesce's disruption systems. He intends to temporarily shut off these systems in order to use radar while fighting Falcon Formation's ships. Mahallan is building the radar units. The treasure of Antene is located in Leaf's Choir, a sargasso near Gehellen. On the way, Mahallan explains to Griffin that Admiral Fanning had opposed the destruction of Aerie's sun. It was Slipstream's Pilot who led the attack, later presenting Fanning as the head behind it. Mahallan also explains that she was exiled to Virga because of her trying to overthrow Artificial Nature. Mahallan and Griffin become lovers. Having retrieved the key to Candesce, Venera Fanning, Mahallan, and Griffin eventually gain control of the sun while Admiral Fanning fights Falcon Formation. Mahallan disables Candesce's countermeasures, enabling Fanning to hit Falcon Formation hard. However, he is forced to steer his ship into the Formation's dreadnought. In Candesce, it is revealed that Mahallan is wired by Artificial Nature, forcing her to keep the countermeasures down. This enables Artificial Nature to invade Virga. Fanning kills Mahallan and re-enables Candesce's countermeasures. Griffin flees from Candesce which is about to re-ignite. He wants Fanning to accompany him but she declines, fearing that he wants to kill her as revenge for her killing his lover. At the last moment, she clings to Griffin's bike, to launch off it later after steering clear of the sun. |
The Real Story | Stephen R. Donaldson | 1,991 | An ugly and evil space pirate walks into a bar with beautiful woman--a former police woman who (everyone knows) he has captured, enslaved, and brainwashed. Everyone is terrified of even looking at them, for fear of being murdered. A dashing young swashbuckler confronts him, and rescues the woman. That, and the background of the intergalactic society in which they live, is what the first chapter is about. The rest of the book is the *real* story. Things are not always what they seem. Morn Hyland, an ensign with the United Mining Companies Police ("UMCP"), is on her first mission aboard the UMCP destroyer Starmaster (which is crewed by members of her extended family). When they arrive at Com-Mine Station, a ship, Bright Beauty, piloted by the pirate Angus Thermopyle, flees, and Starmaster follows. In his haste, Angus left the station without picking up some essential supplies including air-scrubbers. Out of desperation Angus incinerates a small mining settlement in hopes of stealing their supplies. Starmaster witnesses this slaughter and attempts combat, but is almost destroyed by a massive internal explosion. Morn suffers from gap-sickness, a mental disorder that inflicts itself on a small portion of people who travel through the Gap. Symptoms of gap-sickness vary wildly; in Morn, it manifests itself as an uncontrollable urge to engage self-destruct, and is triggered by exposure to 'heavy g'. Morn, left alone on the auxiliary bridge when Starmaster engaged Angus' ship, experienced gap-sickness for the first time, and attempted to destroy the Starmaster. Angus boards the wreck hoping to salvage some air scrubbers, murders Morn's father (who had survived Morn's attempted self-destruct) and kidnaps Morn. Seeking both control of her gap-sickness, and Morn herself, Angus places a zone implant - a remotely-controlled electrode - onto her brain, which allows Angus to control Morn's every feeling and action. By giving Morn an unauthorized zone implant, Angus has committed a capital crime, and will be executed if he is caught. On the way back to Com-Mine, Angus activates Morn's zone implant, allowing him to repeatedly rape and abuse her. Unwittingly, he also starts to form an emotional attachment to her. Back at the station, Morn makes contact with another pirate - Nick Succorso, captain and owner of the ship Captain's Fancy, who she sees as a potential rescuer. She aids Nick in framing Angus for stealing station supplies, and Angus is arrested. |
Prater Violet | Christopher Isherwood | 1,945 | Set in pre-Second World War era England, both Nazism and filmmaking are on the rise. Characters in Prater Violet are used to personify various aspects of the enigmatic creative process. Isherwood also uses his characters to express the varying views about Hitler, mainly the alarming measure of indifference prevalent during the 1930s. |
The Tragedy of Mariam | Elizabeth Tanfield Cary | null | The Tragedy tells the story of Mariam, a member of the Hasmonean dynasty and the second wife of Herod the Great, king of Palestine 39-4 B.C. When the play opens, in 29 B.C., Herod is thought dead at the hand of Octavian (later Caesar Augustus), and Mariam faces her ambivalent feelings about her husband; Herod had loved her, but had also murdered her grandfather and brother. In Act IV, however, Herod returns, dispelling the false report of his death. Herod's immoral and "villain" sister Salome I falsely convinces Herod his wife has been unfaithful in his absence which results in him ordering Mariam's execution. Though Mariam is the title character and the play's moral center, her part in the play amounts to only about 10% of the whole; Cary uses a set of secondary characters to provide a multi-vocal portrayal of Herod's court and Jewish society under his tyranny. The Chorus, in its representation of the patriarchal ideals of femininity, offers an opportunity to interrogate these values, in accordance with the political impetus of the closet drama. The ending of the play is consistent with the tyranny of both its fictional Herod and the actual historical figure: six characters die, including Mariam. The play also explores the themes of divorce and female agency through the characters of both Mariam and Salome. The play has been edited and published in several modern editions, and has acquired a large and growing body of critical and scholarly commentary. |
Mr. Stimpson and Mr. Gorse | null | null | Ernest Ralph Gorse, a suave psychopath and conman, relocates to Reading, Berkshire, to stay at the home of a wealthy friend who is visiting Paris. Gorse meets Joan Plumleigh-Bruce at a pub and decides to target her in a fraud scheme. Mrs. Plumleigh-Bruce, the pretentious widow of an Army Colonel, is contemplating marriage to Donald Stimpson, a local estate agent. Both are charmed by Gorse, who falsely claims to have fought heroically in France during World War One, and who pretends to be the grandson of a renowned Army General. Stimpson and Gorse arrange to meet at the King's Hotel in London, where Gorse conspires with the bartender to get Stimpson very drunk. Gorse takes Stimpson to visit a prostitute, which gives Gorse "dirt" he can share with Mrs. Plumleigh-Bruce to make Stimpson look bad. Gorse pretends to fall in love with Mrs. Plumleigh-Bruce, and convinces her to open a joint checking account for the sake of making some investments and purchasing a car. Gorse dupes Mrs. Plumleigh-Bruce into believing he is buying his friend's house in Reading, as a prelude to marrying her. When Mrs. Plumleigh-Bruce realizes she has been duped, and Gorse has cleaned out their joint account, she turns to Stimpson for support, only to learn he has married her Irish maid. Gorse heads off to London; Mrs. Plumleigh-Bruce flees Reading in embarrassment, relocates to a boarding house, and lives out her days in near-poverty. |
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek | Annie Dillard | 1,974 | Written in a series of internal monologues and reflections, the book is told from the perspective of an unnamed narrator who lives next to Tinker Creek, in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Roanoke, Virginia. Over the course of a year, the narrator observes and reflects upon the changing of the seasons as well as the flora and fauna near her home. Pilgrim is thematically divided into four sections—one for each season—consisting of separate, named chapters: "Heaven and Earth in Jest", "Seeing", "Winter", "The Fixed", "The Knot", "The Present", "Spring", "Intricacy", "Flood", "Fecundity", "Stalking", "Nightwatch", "The Horns of the Altar", "Northing", and "The Waters of Separation". The first chapter, "Heaven and Earth in Jest", serves as an introduction to the book. The narrator describes the location as well as her connection to it: I live by a creek, Tinker Creek, in a valley in Virginia's Blue Ridge. An anchorite's hermitage is called an anchor-hold; some anchor-holds were simple sheds clamped to the side of a church like a barnacle or a rock. I think of this house clamped to the side of Tinker Creek as an anchor-hold. It holds me at anchor to the rock bottom of the creek itself and keeps me steadied in the current, as a sea anchor does, facing the stream of light pouring down. It's a good place to live; there's a lot to think about. In the afterword of the 1999 Harper Perennial Modern Classics edition, Dillard states that the book's other, two-part structure mirrors the two routes to God according to Neoplatonic Christianity: the via positiva and the via negativa. The first half of the book, the via positiva, beginning with the second chapter, "accumulates the world's goodness and God's." The second half, the via negativa, ends with the chapter "Northing" which Dillard notes is the counterpart of the second chapter, "Seeing". The first and last chapters of the book serve as the introduction and conclusion, respectively. The narrative is composed of vignettes detailing the narrator's wanderings around the creek. In "The Present" the narrator encounters a puppy at a gas station off the highway, and pats its belly while contemplating the view of the nearby mountain range; the reflective act of "petting the puppy" is referred to in several other chapters. In "Stalking", the narrator pursues a group of muskrats in the creek during summer. One of the most famous passages comes from the beginning of the book, when the narrator witnesses a frog being drained and devoured by a water beetle. |
The Horror from the Hills | Frank Belknap Long | 1,963 | The novel concerns the elephantine Great Old One Chaugnar Faugn. |
Le Colonel Chabert | Honoré de Balzac | 1,829 | The novella opens with clerks in the Paris law office of Derville, an attorney, looking out the window and mocking a determined old man walking through the streets. Le Colonel Chabert is famous for its in medias res opening. Colonel Chabert marries Rose Chapotel, who was living as a prostitute. Colonel Chabert then becomes a French cavalry officer who is held in high esteem by Napoleon Bonaparte. After being severely wounded, in the Battle of Eylau (1807), Chabert is recorded as dead and is buried with other French casualties. Though he does survive—after extricating himself from his own grave—and is nursed back to health by local peasants, it takes several years for him to recover. After he recovers, he returns to Paris and discovers his "widow" has married the wealthy Count Ferraud. She has also liquidated all of Chabert's belongings. Seeking to regain his name and monies that were wrongly given away as inheritance, he hires Derville, an attorney, to win back his money and his honor. Derville, who also represents the Countess Ferraud, warns Chabert against accepting a settlement bribe from the Countess. In the end, Chabert walks away empty handed from his widow and spends the rest of his days at a hospice. In Le Colonel Chabert Balzac juxtaposes two world-views: the Napoleonic value-system, founded on honour and military valour; and that of the Restoration. Chabert was not killed at the Battle of Eylau, though it was thought that he was. He struggles back to life but cannot reclaim his identity. His “widow”, who is actually his wife, and who fittingly was a prostitute in her early adult years, is now the Comtesse Ferraud, married (or so it would seem) to an important Restoration nobleman and politician. She repudiates her “former” husband (just as Ferraud, in changed political circumstances, would now be happy to repudiate her). All that matters in the modern era is social rank based upon the possession of money, especially inherited wealth. This theme of the trenchant purity of the military way of life is something to which Balzac returns in La Rabouilleuse, but there the subject is treated quite differently. |
Test of the Twins | Margaret Weis | 1,986 | This novel begins where the last one left off; Caramon Majere and Tasslehoff Burrfoot are in a bleak gray world and Raistlin Majere is with Crysania in the Abyss. The novel begins with a short prologue that relates the short ride of Kharas, a dwarven hero who is riding away from a battle. Kharas hears a massive explosion that is a fortress exploding due to magical forces mixing together when Raistlin enters the Abyss and Caramon and Tas go forward in time. Caramon and Tas arrive two years ahead of when they planned to, and discover that an hourglass constellation (hourglass being the symbol of Raistlin) dominates the sky, having defeated Paladine, Patriach of the Gods and Takhisis, Queen of Darkness. The world is devoid of life, nothing more than gray sludge. They find Caramon's own corpse, and later they find the Tower of Wayreth, a bastion of magic, wherein the only two surviving creatures are, Par-Salian, master of magic, and Astinus, the immortal being that chronicles all of time as it passes, later recording the final moments of the world. Astinus tells Raistlin that he will be forced to be alone for all eternity, and writes that the world ends, but Caramon arrives, changing everything. He receives the last book from Astinus, and is told by Par-Salian that he must stop Raistlin from exiting the Abyss. Afterwards, the scene goes to Raistlin in the Abyss. Raistlin is plagued by magical illusions, but he gains control of himself and sees Crysania. Raistlin faces magically induced trials. Kitiara is seen discussing plans with Soth, and then Tanis is seen speaking to Lord Gunthar Uth Wistan, Grandmaster of the Knights of Solamnia. The hallucinations return to Raistlin in the Abyss, and a physical barrage assails Crysania when she protects him. Raistlin sees yet another illusion, and in the process of overcoming it, Crysania is severely hurt and blinded. Raistlin refuses to stay with her, as she has served her purpose. Back in Palanthas, Tanis goes to the High Clerist's Tower, where Kitiara appears in a flying citadel, a great castle that magically floats. She flies right over the Tower, however, having no need to take it as she has the death knight, Lord Soth, on her side. Tanis flies to Palanthas to warn and prepare the defense. Caramon and Tas, now in the proper time, arrive at Palanthas. They read Astinus's book and discover that Tanis dies in the battle against Soth. Tas goes to the Tower of High Sorcery at Palanthas to try to save Tanis and Caramon. Tanis and Caramon, accompanied by Tas, take control of the citadel. They then discover from the book that Dalamar is prevented from stopping Raistlin when he is killed by Kitiara. Kitiara gets into the Tower and injures Dalamar, who lethally wounded her. Caramon and Tanis soon arrive. Dalamar is too weak to battle Raistlin. Caramon enters the Abyss, as he is the only one who can stop Raistlin. Soth comes to claim Kitiara's body. Raistlin encounters Caramon and is told of his inevitable failure; he gives the Staff of Magius to Caramon that he might close the Portal and stop Takhisis. Raistlin is attacked by the Queen, but he is said to fall into a dreamless sleep, protected from her. Caramon comes out and closes the Portal, having retrieved Crysania, who is still alive. The battle for Palanthas is won by the people of Palanthas at the cost of most of their city. Crysania, now back to health but blind, becomes head of the church of Paladine. Dalamar seals the laboratory where the Portal is for all time. Caramon goes to his wife, Tika, and they are overjoyed to be reunited. Tasslehoff finds a spot on the map he's never been to and teleports off with the aid of the magical time traveling device. |
Blood Lines | Eileen Wilks | 2,007 | FBI agent Cynna Weaver teams up with sorcerer Cullen Seabourne to help identify elected officials who have accepted demonic pacts. But the passion simmering between them-and their investigation-spiral out of control when an ancient prophecy is fulfilled. |
Mortal danger | Eileen Wilks | 2,005 | Former homicide cop Lily Yu has a lot on her plate. There's her sister's wedding, a missing magical staff with unknown powers, and her grandmother's sudden decision to visit the old country just when Lily could use a little advice. Maybe she should turn to the man she's involved with, but for all the passion that flares between them, she doesn't really know Rule Turner. Yet she's tied to him for life, both of them caught in an unbreakable mate bond. That Rule is a werewolf, prince of his people, only complicates matters. Now an agent in a special unit of the FBI's Magical Crimes Division, Lily's job is to hunt down Harlowe, a charismatic cult leader bent on bringing an ancient evil into the world. But what Lily doesn't realize is that Harlowe has set a trap-for her. And then the unthinkable happens. In the blink of any eye Lily's world divides and collides, and she is thrust into a new and frightening reality. Her only hope will be to trust Rule-and herself-or Lily will be lost forever... |
Tempting danger | Eileen Wilks | 2,004 | Lily Yu is a San Diego police detective investigating a series of grisly murders that appear to be the work of a werewolf. To hunt down the killer, she must infiltrate the clans. Only one man can help her - a werewolf named Rule Turner, a prince of the lupi, whose charismatic presence disturbs Lily. Rule has his own reasons for helping the investigation - reasons he doesn't want to share with Lily. Logic and honor demand she keep her distance, but the attraction between them is immediate, devastating, and beyond human reason. Now, in a race to fend off evil, Lily finds herself in uncharted territory, tested as never before, and at her back a man who she's not sure she can trust. |
Only human | Eileen Wilks | 2,003 | Eileen's story in the Lover Beware anthology is entitled Only Human. In it Lily is a Chinese-American detective working with the city of San Diego on a murder that appears to be the work of a werewolf. But, if she wants to find out who the killer is, she'll have to get inside the clans. She enlists the help of a were named Rule, though she detests his species. Will her prejudices hold up under the heat of passion? |
Night season | Eileen Wilks | 2,008 | When two world-class cynics land in a world where magic is commonplace, lying is an artform, and night never ends, their only way home lies in working together to find a missing medallion sought by powerful beings who would do anything to claim it. |
Starquake | Robert Forward | 1,989 | This story begins at the exact time that Dragon's Egg (its predecessor) ended, picking up the plot perfectly. As the human scientists in the orbiting ship Dragon Slayer prepare to leave, the Cheela on the star below continue their rapid advance. Starquake centers around two crises. The first is when the human ship is damaged, and the Cheela must repair the ship before tidal forces kill the humans aboard. Then a catastrophic Starquake strikes. Cheela explorers in space survive but have lost the technology to land back on the surface of their world. All Cheela on the surface perish except for four individuals. All succeeding generations of surface Cheela are descended from these four individuals. For a while, the surface Cheela struggle to keep the rudiments of civilization, but eventually a barbarian conqueror arises. The Cheela in space and their human friends watch helplessly as a new dark age ensues. The second half of the story tells the heroic tale of how the space-bound Cheela, with a little help from the humans, eventually are able to land again on the surface, defeat the barbarian tyrant, and start to rebuild Cheela civilization. The first edition cover shown here vividly and accurately depicts the climactic final battle for the surface as described in the novel. |
The Second Generation | Margaret Weis | 1,994 | Kitiara's Son is the story of Steel Brightblade, the child of Kitiara uth Matar and Sturm Brightblade. It begins with a woman named Sara Dunstan, the adoptive mother of Steel, going to Caramon Majere and telling him the tale. He tells her how Kitiara, on her northern journey with Sturm, seduced him and became pregnant with his child. She then found herself with Sara, who cared for her during the pregnancy. When the child was born, she kept him and Kitiara left. Sara and Steel moved to Palanthas, a large city, where it became apparent that Steel had a warrior spirit. He was contacted by Ariakan to join the Knights of Takhisis, and he accepted, going with Ariakan to train. She tells him that he will soon make the oath to become a Knight, and Caramon goes with her to help stop Steel. They go and get Tanis, an old friend of Caramon's, to help. Riding a blue dragon, they go to Storm's Keep, the fortress of the Knights, and take Steel from it. They go into the High Clerist's Tower, a bastion of the Knights of Solamnia, to Sturm's tomb. There, the Starjewel, an elven relic of Sturm's, goes to Steel and the sword Brightblade is given to him. The body then disappears. They escape the Tower, but Steel decides to go back to the Keep to swear the oath. Steel then swears the oath and becomes a Knight of Takhisis. The Legacy relates the tale of Palin Majere, the son of Caramon and the nephew of Raistlin Majere, as he takes his Test of Magic. In the Tower of High Sorcery, the mages tell Caramon that they believe Raistlin intends to steal Palin's body to return to the world. Caramon and Palin go with Dalamar to the Tower of High Sorcery at Palanthas, where they go to laboratory where Raistlin had worked his magic. The door will not open for Dalamar, but Palin can go in. His Test begins. He believes he goes into the Abyss and rescues Raistlin, and then back in the world Raistlin tries to allow Takhisis into the world. Palin tries to close the Portal and Raistlin attacks him, though he in fact survives as it was all part of the Test. Having passed, Palin is allowed out. Raistlin stays in the room and, in a monologue, reveals that when Dalamar tried to summon his illusion Raistlin actually appeared, though not by Dalamar's power but by his own choice. Raistlin says he has paid his final debt and gives the Staff of Magius to Palin, then goes back to his sleep. Palin is made a true mage, and leaves for home. Wanna Bet? is the story of Tanin, Sturm, and Palin Majere as they adventure to recover the Graygem of Gargath. They meet a dwarf named Dougan Redhammer, who they make a bet with that they can outdrink. They all get drunk and pass out, and awake on a gnome ship bound for the isle that holds the Graygem. They get to an island and begin a journey to find it. Dougan makes a bet with a local chief for much of their possessions, and loses. They press on to the Castle, and inside find a group of adoring women. They pass these, and go on to find Lord Gargath, the possessor of the Graygem, who is constantly shapeshifting thanks to the chaotic magic of it. Dougan, who is revealed to be the god Reorx, makes a bet with Gargath that Palin can throw his hammer into the air and it will never fall. The hammer strikes the Graygem and its magical powers return it to its forger, Reorx, and Reorx also reclaims the hammer. Everyone parts ways, and the Graygem is later seen in Dragons of Summer Flame. As well Reorx loses the Greygem in a bet, which was the reason he lost it in the first place Raistlin's Daughter is a myth about the daughter of the mage, Raistlin. In it, Raistlin and Caramon are at an inn and an Irda woman, incredibly beautiful, is magically afflicted and cursed to make love to Raistlin. Raistlin is likewise afflicted, and he decides to leave into the snowy weather. While in a cave, the Irda comes to him and they make love, lifting the curse. She magically erases his memory afterwards. The Irda goes back to the inn and has the child, dying in the process. More Irda come and reclaim the child afterward. The Sacrifice is the story of Gilthas, the weak son of Tanis Half-Elven and Laurana. It begins with two elves meeting with Dalamar the Dark, a black-robed mage, gaining his help to trap Gilthas in Qualinesti that he might become a puppet ruler of the elves. The scene goes to Gilthas, the protected and weak youth, who is rebellious against his parents. He receives a letter from a Qualinesti Senator, Rashas, to meet him in an inn, and Gilthas runs off to do so. Tanis goes after him and discovers signs that make him believe that Gilthas was ambushed, though it is in fact not true. Dalamar appears to him and Tanis is knocked out. Gilthas's fate is revealed; he was met by Rashas, who rode a griffin, and taken to Qualinost, capital of the elves. There, he is taken to a room where the elven Queen Alhana Starbreeze resides against her will. Rashas goes to make preparation for Gilthas's coronation, and Gilthas is forced to stay in the city. Dalamar reveals to Tanis that Gilthas is to be made king of the Qualinesti, and they begin to make plans. Gilthas is told he will be crowned the next day. Dalamar reveals to Tanis that what has transpired has destroyed the chance for a massive alliance as was planned, thanks to Rashas. Alhana's servant Samar comes to rescue them, but Rashas arrives in time to stop it. Samar is arrested, and Gilthas and Alhana are separated. Gilthas tells Rashas he will not swear the oath to become King, but Rashas threatens to kill Alhana if he doesn't; Gilthas agrees. Tanis and Dalamar, aided by magic, go to try to stop the coronation, and when Tanis commands Gilthas to take off the medallion that allows him to be King, Gilthas refuses and swears to become Speaker. Dalamar and Tanis rescue Alhana, and after Dalamar escapes the pair of them are exiled from Qualinesti. Tanis is sent to the border where he meets Dalamar and discovers Alhana has already gone on with Samar. Gilthas appears to say good-bye to his father, and after he does so returns to Qualinesti. Tanis and Dalamar then depart. |
Raking the Ashes | null | null | After an initial meeting on the beach years earlier, Tilly meets the long divorced Geoffrey at a party. She soon divorces her husband and Geoffrey moves in with her. Tilly very much enjoys having another person in the house to help cook and clean, and who loves and accepts her entirely, especially as she recognises that she is not a very nice person. However, Tilly has problems with Geoffrey's fundamental dishonesty and his refusal to share his family with her and Tilly is resentful at simply being a 'pleat' in the family economy, there to be taken in and then let out (let down) when she is not needed. Tilly is good enough to help look after the children for months on end while their mother is in America to treat her cancer, yet when it comes to choosing a school for Harry she can be safely left out while granny, who is barely part of their lives, is invited to help choose the school. Though it is fine for Tilly to spend hours in the middle of the night at Harry's bedside listening to his nightmares and the gruesome stories he hears at school, her suggestion to Geoffrey that he see a counselor is rubbished as Geoffrey thinks 'I know my own child', and Geoffrey even fails to mention the letter from school describing Harry's destructive behaviour. Time and again Tilly is driven to dislike, and even hate Geoffrey over his dishonesty, Geoffrey's refusal to listen to her hints about his children ('Minna's persistent truancy, Harry's strange, quiet slidings on and off the rails'), or to live in the real world, his refusal to tell her about major financial decisions (selling his late fathers cottage, getting a second mortgage, giving his ex-wife significant financial help for various cancer treatments that even he believes cannot work). When Tilly finds that Geoffrey's desire to be nice resulted in his agreeing to his son's wedding at a time when it was impossible for Tilly to come, merely to save the mother of the bride the loss of the deposit on her holiday, and that he then lied to Tilly about it, pretending that they were never consulted about the date, she is finally given the impetus to leave, and to extract revenge. |
Grace Notes | Bernard MacLaverty | null | The book centers around the postpartum depression of its female protagonist, Catherine McKenna, a Northern Irish music teacher and composer living in Scotland. She faces preparations for her father's funeral, endures disturbing visions regarding her recently born daughter, Anna, and suffers restrictions imposed by the Catholic Church on her family and her childhood. She engages her depression through the cathartic and intuitive composition of music; later in the book, she begins to craft a master symphony. The novel ends with a powerful live radio broadcast of her symphony. The title is an explicit reference to grace notes, which a character in the novel terms as "the notes between the notes". The redeeming power of art is indeed a prominent theme. In addition, critics have considered the concept of fleeting and minute musical notes as descriptive of the novel's style (Donath). |
Spirou à New-York | null | 1,987 | In Spirou in New York, the Italian Mafia of New York are dismayed as their criminal activities seem to be cursed and Don Vito "Lucky" Cortizone, the Mafia Godfather, initiates a plan put forward by his second-in-command, Alfredo, to reverse their uncannily rotten luck: to plant a golden key into a Cortizone & Son product, Lucky's Pizza, and rewarding a million dollars to the lucky finders. Spirou and Fantasio who are in an economic slump, are forced to eat an inexpensive dinner, and as Fantasio chokes on a bite of Lucky's Pizza, they become the finders of the golden key. Informed they simply have to travel to New York to collect their prize, The Mafia believe they are receiving a talisman to counteract their misfortune. When they arrive in New York, they learn the true identity of their hosts and promptly leave without accepting any mafia money, but are unexpectedly attacked by members of the Chinese Triad, the Mafia's chief rivals, and as a result Spip is abducted. Forced to collaborate with Cortizone in order to rescue Spip, they break into the Triad headquarters and discover the source of The Mafia's constant misfortune, a table with the power to influence good and bad fortune onto the subject of a photo placed onto the field, shaped in the design of a Taijitu, like the yin-yang, which are selected by Cortizone's Triad counterpart, "The Mandarin". Having levelled the balance of fortune, Cortizone and the Mandarin engage in a personal battle over briefcases containing money and a bomb, and following a deceptive swap of suitcases, the two rivals explode above Hudson River. <!-- |
Cynthia's Revels | Ben Johnson | null | The play begins with three pages disputing over the black cloak usually worn by the actor who delivers the prologue. They draw lots for the cloak, and one of the losers, Anaides, starts telling the audience what happens in the play to come; the others try to suppress him, interrupting him and putting their hands over his mouth. Soon they are fighting over the cloak and criticizing the author and the spectators as well. In the play proper, the goddess Diana, or Cynthia, has ordained a "solemn revels" in the valley of Gargaphie in Greece. The gods Cupid and Mercury appear, and they too start to argue. Mercury has awakened Echo, who weeps for Narcissus, and states that a drink from Narcissus's spring causes the drinkers to "Grow dotingly enamored of themselves." The courtiers and ladies assembled for the Cynthia's revels all drink from the spring. Asotus, a foolish spendthrift who longs to become a courtier and a master of fashion and manners, also drinks from the spring; emboldened by vanity and self-love, he challenges all comers to a competition of "court compliment." The competition is held, in four phases, and the courtiers are beaten. Two symbolic masques are performed within the play for the assembled revelers. At their conclusion, Cynthia (representing Queen Elizabeth) has the dancers unmask and shows that vices have masqueraded as virtues. She sentences them to make reparation and to purify themselves by bathing in the spring at Mount Helicon. The figure of Actaeon in the play may represent Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, while Cynthia's lady in waiting Arete may be Lucy, Countess of Bedford, one of Elizabeth's ladies in waiting as well as Jonson's patroness. The play is notably rich in music, as is typical for the theatre of the boys' companies, which originated as church choirs. |
La frousse aux trousses | null | 1,988 | In La frousse aux trousses, Spirou and Fantasio intend to make a journey to Touboutt-Chan in order to clarify the fate of Adrien Maginot and Günter Siegfried, who disappeared in the 30s while seeking a mythical place in this area of the world, the Valley of the Outlaws. However the two journalists have trouble finding the funds necessary to the achievement of their project. They are then contacted by Doctor Placebo, who is persuaded that frightening experiences are a sure-fire cure for hiccups. He offers the two heroes funding for the trip, on condition that they take along the patients sent to them by the doctor, in the hope that their experiences will prove his theory. Guided by the native Gorpah, the two heroes and their incredible companions are confronted with soldiers, rebels and bad weather. At the climax of the adventure, Spirou and Fantasio are carried away by a torrent of water, leaving the patients cured of their hiccups, but undeniably depressed. <!-- |
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