When U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Panache intercepts a yacht in the Caribbean Sea, the crew discovers two men cleaning up the vessel after murdering a man and his family. Through a mock execution, the Coast Guardsmen force the killers to confess to the crime. It is later learned that the murdered man was involved in a money laundering scheme for a drug cartel. Upon hearing of this atrocity, the President of the United States, who is running for re-election, feels compelled to take drastic measures against drug trafficking; his challenger, J. Robert Fowler, has rallied the public behind the administration''s failures in the War on Drugs. The president initiates covert operations within Colombia and a step-up of operations against aircraft believed to be distributing narcotics. Aiding the president are U.S. National Security Advisor James Cutter, Central Intelligence Agency''s Deputy Director of Operations Robert Ritter, and Director of Central Intelligence Arthur Moore. The plan consists of four operations: *Operation CAPER is the interception of mobile phone communications between cartel management. It is also the communications arm for SHOWBOAT and the light-fighters'' only means of contact with the outside world. John Clark is dispatched with CAPER to coordinate the effort. *Operation EAGLE EYE uses F-15 Eagles to intercept drug flights. Several aircraft are destroyed and others are forced to land, where the pilots are interrogated for information regarding the cartel. *Operation SHOWBOAT involves four teams of soldiers infiltrating Colombia to stake-out airstrips used by drug-trafficking aircraft. They report departure times of aircraft, allowing the EAGLE EYE team to intercept them. Later the troops attack the airstrips and coca processing sites. The soldiers are seconded from U.S. light infantry battalions, and are all Hispanic in order to blend in with the local population. *Operation RECIPROCITY involves using ground-attack aircraft and laser-guided bombs to attack cartel locations discovered by intercepts. The bombs have a casing that will be consumed in the blast to give the impression of a car-bomb. Meanwhile, Félix Cortez, a former intelligence officer from Cuba employed by the cartel, feigns romantic interest in the aide of Emil Jacobs, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The aide unknowingly reveals information regarding the date of Jacobs'' official visit to the Attorney General of Colombia. Cortez delivers this information to the cartel, which orders Jacobs'' assassination as retaliation for the U.S. seizure of cartel money. During his visit, Jacobs and several other Americans in his delegation are killed. Jack Ryan suspects the CIA''s involvement in the situation in Colombia. As acting Deputy Director of the Intelligence Directorate, Ryan should be privy to most operations but he realizes he is being put out of the loop. After Robby Jackson, assigned to the Pentagon, makes an inquiry into activity in the region, Ryan goes to Moore to demand an explanation. Moore is evasive, yet orders Ryan to withhold information about Colombia from a congressional oversight committee. Cortez eventually uncovers the U.S. operations. He suppresses this information, planning to engineer a war within the cartel that will leave him in a position to seize power. Cortez orders mercenaries to hunt down the U.S. troops, and blackmails Cutter into ending SHOWBOAT, promising the intra-cartel war will slow drug imports to the States. Cutter''s meeting with Cortez is shadowed by Ryan and Clark. Clark is outraged at Cutter''s abandonment of the troops and, with Ryan, plans a rescue operation with personnel from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Air Force. Clark makes radio contact with two of the SHOWBOAT teams, ordering them to alternate pickup points to await extraction. The other two teams encounter mercenaries and take casualties. Clark makes radio contact with some survivors of these remaining teams&mdash;which include Domingo Chavez&mdash;then flies into Colombia to retrieve them. Ryan uses an Air Force helicopter to pick up other survivors. Together, Clark and Ryan launch a raid on the cartel''s command post, capturing Cortez and extracting the remaining ground team. Due to a hurricane and damage to the helicopter, they land on the deck of the Panache. Cortez is returned to Cuba, where he is a marked as a traitor. Upon being confronted by Clark with evidence of his treason, Cutter commits suicide. Ryan confronts the defiant president, informing him that despite his classifying the drug cartel as a "clear and present danger," Ryan must brief U.S. Congress over the illegal operations. After Ryan briefs the committee, the president deliberately loses the election in order to hide the covert operations and protect the honor of those involved. Ryan realizes that the president has more honor and dignity than he originally thought.

Clear and Present Danger

Lieutenant Colonel Cletus Grahame has been an instructor at the Western Alliance military academy since a battle injury crippled one of his knees, and forced his retirement from active duty. He has completed three volumes of a planned twenty-volume series of books on military strategy and tactics, and believes his analysis can revolutionize military science, although many do not take his work seriously. Feeling he needs to get out in the field and try putting his theories into practice, he leaves the academy and arranges to be sent to the world of Kultis, where the Alliance is supporting the Exotic colony of Bakhalla in a war against the neighboring colony of Neuland, backed by the Coalition. The heart of his military strategy, based in part on fencing, is what he labels the "tactics of mistake," enticing one''s opponent into overreaching, and being ready to take advantage of the mistake. This description is an adaptation of a similar concept in the novel Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini when the character Moreau studies at the salon of the Master of Arms. On the first night out on the ship to Kultis, he deliberately antagonizes Dow deCastries, Secretary of Outworld Affairs for the Eastern Coalition, forcing deCastries to take notice of him. He also meets Colonel Eachan Khan, an officer of the Dorsai troops who have been hired by the Exotics, and Khan''s daughter Melissa. Mondar, an Exotic official, is also present, and takes notice of Grahame. Putting his theories to work, Grahame repeatedly entices deCastries and the Neulanders into attempting incursions, where he is ready to pounce on them. Finally, after conveniently getting his own uncooperative commander out of the way, he entices them to launch a major invasion. Using the Dorsai troops, who had been underestimated and little-used by the Alliance command, he actually wins the war, handing deCastries a humiliating defeat. His victory has actually made him rather unpopular with his own command. Mondar, using the Exotic science of ontogenetics, recognizes him as a key mover of history, and tries to recruit him to join the Exotics, but he chooses instead to emigrate to the Dorsai, in order to begin building them into the kind of military force he envisions. It seems he possesses some of the advanced mental abilities of the Exotics, and with their help, he is able to heal his crippled knee. Melissa wants her father to return to Earth, and the General''s rank he had enjoyed in the Western Alliance, and to do so, she needs the influence of deCastries. Grahame forces Melissa to marry him to prevent Eachan''s departure, as he feels Eachan is necessary to his plans. Over the course of years, Grahame builds the Dorsai into the unique fighting force that becomes so famous in later years. With their advanced training and superior tactics, they can defeat larger forces and suffer far fewer casualties than any others, making them far more economical for other worlds to hire. Gradually, they reach a status where other worlds no longer need to depend on Earth for fighting forces to protect them, threatening Earth''s control of the younger worlds through its system of client states. To prevent this loss of position, the two Earth factions, the Western Alliance and Eastern Coalition, unite their forces under deCastries, and attempt to stretch the Dorsai forces so thin that they will be conquered. When Earth invades the Dorsai, there are no soldiers to defend it, but deCastries underestimates the power of the Dorsai people themselves. The final result leads to a totally new balance of power among the settled worlds. (The actual battle for the Dorsai itself is given little coverage in this book. The ultimate battle for Foralie district, Grahame''s home, ends up being between deCastries and Amanda Morgan, a woman in her late nineties who leads the home defense. In the novella, "Amanda Morgan", she is used as the ultimate example of the spirit of Dorsai.)

Tactics of Mistake

:Written by Michelle Sagara West Buffy continually sees the death of everyone she touches while she heads out to LA to spend summer vacation with her dad. She must come to terms with her own death before the deaths of others will disappear from her mind. :Written by Nancy Holder Absalom tries to obtain the Master''s bones from Giles, who has them kept in his house. :Written by Cameron Dokey A shapeshifter comes to town. Giles, Angel and Jenny must deal with it before it gets to the Slayer. :Written by Cameron Dokey While shopping in LA, Buffy runs into a fortune-teller who tells her that she''s the warrior sent to free the spirit of her dead child. Buffy must solve the mystery of the daughter''s death and why her spirit isn''t free. :Written by Yvonne Navarro A newly risen vampire raises the war veteran General Sam from the grave. General Sam, crazy and still sure that World War II rages on, decides to seize Sunnydale since he believes it has been infiltrated by the enemy. Giles, Jenny and Angel must stop the General and his legion of zombie followers. :Written by Paul Ruditis Willow and Xander are running a play at the local theater. Little do they know that the stage crew are all vampires who have a love for Shakespeare. After several deaths in a Shakespearian fashion, Giles, Jenny and Angel decide to remove the vampire threat on the night of the play.

How I Survived My Summer Vacation

Mick Winger has an unusual gift and with it has accidentally killed several people. When Mick gets angry at people, his power manifests itself by launching an attack upon them by giving them cancer, leukemia or related terminal illnesses. If made angry enough, his anger can outright kill the victim. Mick was raised in an orphanage and along his journey to manhood unintentionally killed several people who mistreated him, as well as nearly everyone he loved, though nearly every occurrence was accidental. The only intentional murder he describes while growing up is being nearly molested in a Denny''s bathroom. This is when he discovers the intensity of the attacks are greatly heightened when he''s touching a target. When fifteen, he fled child custody and set out on his own. When Mick becomes angry, he gets, as he describes it, "sparkly." He can see sparks surrounding and enveloping him and then those sparks lashing out on the object of his anger. Unavoidably, those attacked by his "sparks" end up with terminal illnesses and soon die. The effect of his attack is much more pronounced if he is touching the victim. Until he was a young man, Mick had no idea he was different from other children. He discovered he was different when describing "sparkiness" with other children, who had no idea what he was talking about. Soon after setting out on his own, he encounters a young woman who not only knows about his gift, but who even seems to possess the same gift, although to a lesser extent. She however possesses the ability to "call," to influence Mick so that he unintentionally heads straight for her, as well as intense sexual attraction, which she describes as simple pheromones that all people have, except that people like Mick, due to a different biochemical makeup (though Mick doesn''t understand this when it is first explained to him), is far more susceptible to these pheromones than a normal human being. Eventually he is led back to his birth parents, who are members of a mysterious, secluded colony. Talking to his parents, who also possess his ability, he learns he is far more powerful than they or probably anyone else at the colony. Mick learns that what he sees as "sparks" his family only sees as dust; he even begins to realize that he can see when people are lying. After being brought to the villages Patriarch, Papa Lem, Mick learns the intent of the colony and how they operate. Mick then refuses to "spread his seed" with the daughter of Papa Lem and returns to his parents'' house for the night. During the night, Mick is attacked by an agent of Papa Lem and others from the village. Mick ends up killing his father and setting fire to the village while at the same time learning new extents to his abilities. After fleeing the village on foot, Mick runs into the girl he met when he first set out on his own. The assailants from the village quickly catch up with the duo and start firing at them. The woman, unbeknown to Mick, is shot in the back of the head just as they reach their allies. Mick pulls the girl from her wrecked car and puts all his "sparkiness" into her just before passing out. Mick awakes in the lair of his new allies. Upon questioning, Mick learns that the girl is alive and that he had somehow healed her from the bullet wound. Mick is on his way to officially meet the young lady when the story abruptly ends.

Eye for Eye

Caith mac Sliabhin, condemned by the Sidhe in The Brothers for committing patricide, wanders along the river Guagach, accompanied and tormented by Dubhain, a mischievous pooka. Their journey takes them to Gleann Fiain where a beast from the river chases Caith up a hill to an isolated cottage. The occupants, twins Ceannann and Firinne, let Caith and Dubhain in and allow them to spend the night. Unbeknown to Caith, the birth of the twins 21 years ago set in motion a sequence of events that damned Gleann Fiain and cast a shadow over Faery. The twins were born to Fianna, queen of Gleann Fiain in Dun Glas. But unbeknown to her husband, Ceannann mac Ceannann, Fianna was unable to conceive and had sought help from a wise-women, Moragacht. Moragacht struck a bargain with her, promising her twins if she lay down with a selkie, in exchange for one of the twins when they were born. But when the twins arrived (a human and a selkie) and Moragacht came to claim one of them, Fianna denied any knowledge of her, and mac Ceannann turned Moragacht away. From that day onwards, grief and misery struck the family, and mac Ceannann and Fianna were forced to vacate Dun Glas and flee with the twins to an abandoned hilltop fortress. But the loch beast, under Moragacht''s control, found them there and killed them all, except the twins, now aged 14, who escaped to the cottage. The witch then seized control of Dun Glas from where she damned all of Gleann Fiain. But the wards that had protected the cottage from Moragacht fall when Caith and Dubhain arrive. Riders from Dun Glas come and capture the twins. Caith and Dubhain (as a horse) give chase, but as they approach the riders, Dubhain is overcome by the witch''s magic and falls into the loch, abandoning Caith. Caith and the twins are taken to Dun Glas where they are locked in cells bordering the loch. Caith lapses into a dream where he enters the loch to find Dubhain duelling with the loch beast. He draws Dubhain back to his cell, who in turn calls Nuallan from Faery, the bright Sidhe controlling their destinies. Nuallan gives Caith a silver key to unlock the iron cells and so lifts a spell enabling Nuallan to cast Caith, Dubhain and the twins out of Dun Glas. Moragacht allows her prisoners to escape because with her magic she now holds Nuallan, a bigger catch and her means to controlling Faery. The twins lead Caith and Dubhain to the ruins of the hilltop fortress, their former home. There they make a fire with the remains of a staircase, but a ghost appears out of the smoke that transports Caith back to the night of the fall of the fortress and into the body of Padraic, head of mac Ceannann''s household. There he relives the last few hours of the family until he is killed by the beast. Firinne retrieves one of the burning timbers from the fire as a keepsake, and the twins set off for the sea to search for their selkie father, with Caith and Dubhain in pursuit. Caith finds the selkie first, a whale floundering on the beach. But when the selkie shapeshifts to a man, he is killed by one of Moragacht''s pursuing riders. In the ensuing confusion, Caith accidentally kills Ceannann. Firinne is devastated by the loss of her twin brother and gives Caith her keepsake from the fortress. Then, revealing her selkie birth, she changes into a whale and heads out to sea. Caith rides Dubhain back to Dun Glas to free Nuallan. Once again Dubhain is weakened by the witch''s spells and Caith has to enter the keep on his own. He sees Nuallan helpless in his cell, but Nuallan asks him to unlock it with the silver key Caith unknowingly still had all this time, the key that would have given Moragacht access to Faery. Nuallan takes the key and flees the keep, leaving Caith to fend for himself. Moragacht, furious at the loss of the Sidhe, prepares to deal with Caith, but he throws the charred piece of wood Firinne gave him into the fireplace which releases Padraic, the ghost from the hilltop fortress. In an act of revenge, it begins destroying Dun Glas and all in it. With the witch''s spell now diminishing, Dubhain rescues Caith from the keep, while in the loch a whale from the sea turns on the beast. The shadow over Faery lifts and Caith and Dubhain resume their travels.

Faery in Shadow

Necromancer Jaime Vegas is hired by a television show, along with other celebrity spiritualists (i.e. frauds) to raise Marilyn Monroe''s spirit for a little chat on the anniversary of her death. Filming begins with Jaime and the other celebrity necromancers raising the spirits of other dead celebrities as stock footage for the show. In addition, she''s asked Pack Alpha Jeremy Danvers to join her as a guest/escort... and Jaime hopes a little more. During filming, Jaime experiences something that should never happen, a ghost that she can not see but can feel touching her. Frightened that she, like other necromancers before her, is going crazy, she reaches out to other supernaturals on the Interracial Council for help. Going to Portland to visit the head of the Council, Paige Winterbourne, her husband/business partner Lucas Cortez and their teenage ward Savannah Levine, Jamie is nearly killed by a woman whom Savannah believes can help. Rescued by the teenager, Savannah leaves Jamie in the care of Jeremey who accompanies back to LA. Together Jaime and Jeremey along with the Angel Eve (Savannah''s mother) and Ghost Kristof (Savannah''s father and once head of the Nast Cabal), discover the ghosts are those of children killed by humans trying to learn the art of witchcraft! this requires additional information

No Humans Involved

13-year-old Ally lives at a campsite called The Moon Shadow where she is homeschooled by her parents along with her 10-year-old brother Kenny. Although they don''t have phone reception and have barely seen any TV in their lives, Ally loves The Moonshadow and her dream is to find one of the Messier Objects. She then discovers that her family is going to move to the city and she will be put in public school. Meanwhile, 13-year-old Bree is the most popular girl in her school and proud of it. She wants to become a Prom Queen in high school and eventually be on the cover of Seventeen magazine before she''s seventeen. Her nerdy family however, has other plans. She and her 10-year-old sister, Melanie are going to move to The Moon Shadow and take the place of Ally and her family as the caretakers of the campsite. Bree is appalled at the thought of moving and doesn''t want to be homeschooled in the middle of nowhere,with no boys, no friends, and no chance of any model coming up to her and giving her a job offer. 13-year-old Jack only finds comfort in reading and drawing in his treehouse. His mom has been married four times and he has no friends, as well as being shy and slightly overweight. After failing science, he is faced with the choice of either attending summer school or going to The Moonshadow to watch an eclipse with his teacher. He chooses to go to The Moon Shadow. Eventually, all three children meet each other at The Moon Shadow and form a unlikely friendship. Bree and Ally plot to convince their parents to change their minds about the move, but they fail in their attempt. Jack is smitten with Ally even though Ally''s long-time friend, Ryan believes that Ally is "just Ally" and that Bree is a hottie and "the drop-dead gorgeous one." Together, Jack, Bree, and Ally learn to accept how their lives are going to change and realize what is truly important in life. They witness the total eclipse and leave as changed people.

Every Soul A Star

The Lost Warrior opens with narration from Graystripe, a warrior who was separated from his Clan, ThunderClan, after being kidnapped by humans trying to deforest his home. He is then taken in as a house cat by a Twoleg (human) family. He somewhat likes the Twolegs and their kits but he cannot stand to be away from his Clan and his fellow warriors. He makes an attempt to flee but gets lost in Twolegplace and battles with a kittypet named Duke. After being forced to flee the fight, Graystripe is led back to the nest he has been staying in by a female kittypet named Millie he meets, who assures him that losing to Duke is nothing to be ashamed of. The two cats get to know each other better and Millie finds a small forest in the middle of the Twolegplace. She then shows it to Graystripe and asks him to teach her how to hunt and fight after learning of his previous life. After a dream in which he is visited by his deceased mate, Silverstream, and his daughter Feathertail, and another fight with Duke and his allies, Graystripe finally makes the decision to try to return to ThunderClan. In another dream about Silverstream, after Graystripe tells Silverstream that he wishes he could be with her, Silverstream reminds him that his place is with ThunderClan. She also tells him that he already has a traveling companion. Later, Graystripe asks Millie to come with him to ThunderClan, and is taken aback at her refusal. He then leaves for ThunderClan alone. Graystripe ends up getting lost in Twolegplace for days before collapsing from exhaustion. Millie changes her mind and goes out to catch up to Graystripe. Upon meeting him, she discovers him feverish and weak; he even calls her by Silverstream''s name. Millie nurses him back to health and asks him about Silverstream. Then the two set off to try to find ThunderClan. What they don''t realize is that ThunderClan, along with the rest of the Clans, no longer resides in the forest.

The Lost Warrior

A shapechanging alien has come to Earth with others of his kind to save us from ourselves. After witnessing the slaughter of his entire family by evil aliens bent on stopping him, he takes off on a cross-country race to save himself. He stops at a farmhouse in the middle of the night to "borrow" some money and clothes, and comes across a sleeping boy about his age. Using a drop of blood from an old bandage, he is able to "become" Curtis Hammond, the exact duplicate of the boy. Seconds after leaving the house, the evil aliens arrive and murder the family, leaving only the dog alive. Curtis and the dog escape, and eventually end up at the location of an alien sighting. UFO buffs Castoria and Polluxia Spelkenfelter, twins, recognize Curtis from the news reports of his murder and decide to help him. Eventually he reveals to them his true nature, and they pledge to assist him in the mission he has come to Earth to complete. Together, twins, boy, and dog set off for Nun''s Lake, Idaho, the next stop on the twins'' itinerary while they decide what to do next. Michelina Bellsong just got out of prison. She has moved in with her Aunt Geneva in order to make a new start, but things aren''t going her way. She feels adrift and without direction, just wanting to get through the day. While sunning in the backyard, she is approached by a precocious but disabled little girl. Leilani Klonk has a deformed hand and a deformed leg, which requires a brace. She is more intelligent and articulate than the average nine year old, and disarms Mickey with her wit. Mickey and Geneva get to know the girl, and find out that her mother is an insane drug addict, and her step-father is a murderer. He killed her older brother Lukipela, and Leilani is next. Leilani believes that no one can help her, as Preston Maddoc is highly thought of by the academic community. Preston and Sinsemilla, Leilani''s mother, bounce across the country looking for UFOs and Leilani knows it''s only a matter of time before they bounce back to Montana, which is where she last saw her brother. Mickey and Geneva vow to find a way to help Leilani, but Preston finds out and takes off with the family in the dead of night. Mickey discovers them gone and sets out after them, determined to save Leilani. Leilani has mentioned that they are headed to Nun''s Lake, Idaho to the site of a supposed close encounter and Mickey races to reach the town and find the girl. Mickey arrives and goes to speak to the man who was "healed" by aliens, and finds out that Leilani''s step-father hasn''t been there yet. She stakes out the house, wanting to find Preston and follow him to Leilani. Preston is alerted to her presence by the man who was healed, who he then murders. He sneaks out of the house and creeps up on Mickey, knocking her unconscious. He carries her into the dead man''s house and ties her up, leaving her there and racing back to the campground. Curtis encounters Leilani at the campground in Nun''s Lake and knows she''s in trouble. He and the twins approach her while Preston''s out and convince her to come with them. As they are running for the twins'' RV, Leilani is snatched by her step-father and taken to the house he has hidden Mickey in. His plan is to make Leilani watch him kill Mickey, then torture and kill Leilani. When he gets back to the house, he discovers that Mickey has gotten free of her restraints. He dumps Leilani, takes her brace, and starts searching for Mickey in the maze of old magazines and newspapers. Leilani heads into the maze looking for a way out, and she and Mickey find each other. Preston traps them in a corner and lights the newspapers in front of them on fire, planning to listen as they burn to death. Curtis and the twins, now aided by a disillusioned ex-PI sent by Aunt Gen, arrive at the house. Noah Farrell, the PI, shoots Preston Maddoc as he races through the maze searching for Mickey and Leilani. Preston stumbles away, getting weaker and weaker from blood loss and smoke inhalation. Noah and Cass find Mickey and Leilani and the four of them search for an exit. Curtis, in his natural form, comes to their rescue, and they all escape the house. Preston Maddoc is buried under a pile of burning trash and dies. Leilani, Mickey, Aunt Gen, and Noah join Cass and Polly in their quest to help Curtis fulfill the mission he''s been sent here for.

One Door Away from Heaven

Humanity has colonized the solar system and moved outward to begin exploring the far reaches of the galaxy. An interplanetary audience follows real-life stories of triumph and tragedy presented to them by Duncan Chalk, a media mogul with apparently limitless resources. Chalk, unknown to all around him, is a kind of psychic vampire who draws sustenance from the emotions of others, particularly those of pain and trauma. Though he enjoys playing his inner circle of assistants against each other as a sort of daily snack, Chalk''s true nourishment comes from the dramas he orchestrates for his audience. Chalk''s latest drama involves the pairing of Minner Burris, a space explorer who was captured and surgically altered by aliens on the planet Manipool, and Lona Kelvin, a 17-year-old girl who donated eggs for a fertility experiment that produced a hundred babies. Burris, whose freakish appearance draws attention whenever he ventures out in public, has withdrawn into seclusion and bitterness. Kelvin, whose brief fame as the virgin mother of an army of children has begun to fade, has twice attempted suicide because she has not been allowed to adopt or even see any of her offspring. Chalk promises Burris a full round of surgery and treatment to restore his human appearance, and offers Kelvin a chance to adopt one of her babies, if the two agree to come together for an all-expenses paid tour of the solar system. At first the two wounded subjects enjoy each other''s company and even become lovers. Kelvin''s empathy and compassion are stirred by Burris''s plight, and Burris enjoys playing masculine protector and guide to the naive teenager. The affection soon curdles into irritation, hostility and even hatred—all of which provide a psychic feast for Chalk. The two finally break off after a particularly vicious fight, which Chalk uses as a pretext to void the agreement. He does, however, try to keep them on the hook by dangling new offers: for example, he asks Kelvin to befriend David Melangio, a childlike man whose feats of memory and calculation are his only means of meeting a world that has already subjected him to overwhelming traumas. Kelvin erupts in rage and is carried off by Chalk''s assistants. Burris, meanwhile, has a sexual fling with Elise, the widow of an astronaut who accompanied Burris on the Manipool landing, and who died from the surgical alterations performed by the aliens. Elise is both aroused and repulsed by Burris'' body, and the sadomasochistic nature of her attraction eventually alienates Burris. His withdrawal causes her to commit suicide in a particularly grisly fashion. Burris, deeply shaken, returns to Earth. He has realized that Chalk''s promise was empty, and that such help may no longer even be possible—the changes wrought by the Manipool aliens appear irreversible. What''s more, the surgery that turned him into a monster has also "improved" his body in unexpected ways that Burris has come to appreciate. With the inadvertent help of Melangio, who during a typically bland chat lets slip some information that gives them clues into Chalk''s true nature, Kelvin and Burris confront the media baron in his office. They expose the full, unfiltered core of their mutual pain to Chalk, who is overwhelmed and finally killed by the intensity of the emotional flood. As the novel ends, Burris has convinced Kelvin to join him in a trip back to Manipool, where they will confront the aliens and, presumably, undergo alterations that take them beyond humanity.

Thorns

Wimsey''s mother, the Dowager Duchess of Denver, telephones to say that Thipps, an architect hired to do some work on her local church, has just found a dead body wearing nothing but a pair of pince-nez in the bath in his flat. The official investigator, Inspector Sugg, suspects Thipps and his servant; Wimsey starts his own enquiry. Sir Reuben Levy, a famous financier, has disappeared from his own bedroom, and there has been a flurry of trading in some Peruvian oil shares. Inspector Parker, Wimsey''s friend, is investigating this. The corpse in the bath is not Levy, but Wimsey becomes convinced that the two are linked. The trail leads to the teaching hospital near the architect''s flat, and to surgeon and neurologist Sir Julian Freke, who is based there. Wimsey discovers that Freke murdered Sir Reuben and staged his ''disappearance'' from home, having borne a grudge for years over Lady Levy, who chose to marry Sir Reuben rather than him. He also engineered the trading in oil shares, to lure Sir Reuben to his death. He dismembered Sir Reuben and gave him to his students to dissect, substituting his body for that of a pauper donated to the hospital for that purpose, who bore a superficial resemblance to Sir Reuben. The pauper''s body, washed, shaved and manicured, was then carried over the roofs and dumped in Thipps'' bath as a joke. Freke''s belief that conscience and guilt are inconvenient physiological aberrations, which may be cut out and discarded, are an explanation for his conduct. He attempts to murder both Parker and Wimsey, and finally tries suicide when his actions are discovered, but is arrested in time. The book establishes many of Wimsey''s character traits - for example, his interest in rare books, the nervous problems associated with his wartime shell-shock, and his ambiguous feelings about catching criminals for a hobby - and also introduces many characters who recur in later novels, such as Parker, Bunter, Sugg, and the Dowager Duchess. There is a passing reference in the book to Freddy Arbuthnot, Wimsey''s friend and contact for the stock market, being in love with Sir Reuben Levy''s daughter Rachel and wanting to marry her. This theme is picked up in Strong Poison, taking place seven years later, when Freddy at last manages to convince Rachel''s family to consent to the match despite his being a gentile - after Freddy compared his long wait with that of the Biblical Jacob for his Rachel. Whose Body? is now in the public domain in the United States, but may still be copyrighted elsewhere.

Whose Body?

Dilvish is the descendant of both elves and humans, a scion of a prominent Elven house and "the Human House that hath been stricken" which lost its peerage for mixing Elven and Human blood. Hundreds of years before the main story, he comes across a dark ritual being performed by the sorcerer Jelerak who is sacrificing a human girl. He attempts to stop the ritual but is turned into stone, with his soul banished to Hell. His body became a statue, and for many decades it resided within the square of a nearby town that he had formerly saved from enemy conquerors. When this town is again in need of a hero, their citizens'' plight allows Dilvish the passage he needed to escape from Hell. He returns to the world of the living with his steed, the metal demon horse Black, and a burning desire for revenge against Jelerak, but must first repulse the assault against the endangered town. Dilvish then goes to call upon the Shoredan - a cursed people bound to his family. He searches for Jelerak in the Tower of Ice and finds the sorcerer''s apprentice and his sister trapped there. The two of them believe him to be a servant of Jelerak sent to kill them.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Clear and Present Danger

By Tom Clancy

Tactics of Mistake

By Gordon R. Dickson

How I Survived My Summer Vacation

No Author Listed

Eye for Eye

By Orson Scott Card

Faery in Shadow

By C. J. Cherryh

No Humans Involved

By Kelley Armstrong

Every Soul A Star

No Author Listed

The Lost Warrior

By Erin Hunter

One Door Away from Heaven

By Dean Koontz

Thorns

By Robert Silverberg

Whose Body?

By Dorothy L. Sayers

Dilvish, the Damned

By Roger Zelazny