The story begins with 24 year old Jean Isbel in the last stages of a multi-week trip from Oregon to the frontier in Arizona where his family had moved four years earlier to start a cattle ranch. As he nears his destination he meets a woman in the woods, and falls in love at first sight. As they part they learn that they are mortal enemies. She is, Ellen Jorth, and her family is locked in a deadly feud with his. Jean dreads the part his father, Gaston, wants him to play in the feud. He can’t get Ellen out of his mind. They meet again and his words awake in her doubt and fear that her father, Lee Jorth, is not an honorable man but in fact a horse thief and cattle rustler. As events unfold her fears are proved true. Through thick and thin Jean Isbel defends Ellen’s honor and believes the best of her. The feud erupts into fatal gun battles, first at the Isbel ranch house, and then at the general store in the nearby town. Most of the Isbel and Jorth clans are killed, with several of their allies. The remnant of the Jorths flee with Ellen in tow to a hide-out hidden in a deep box cañon. Jean and his allies track them and there is a deadly gun battle in the woods nearby. Ellen is forced by one of the three remaining Jorth allies to flee once again. During their flight their horse is shot out from under them. Ellen now on foot meets one of the dying Isbels and finally learns the certain truth that her father, family, and their allies were horse thieves and cattle rustlers as she feared. When she finally makes her way back to the hide-out, she arrives just after Jean has been forced to take refuge in the loft, unknown to her. One of the two remaining rustlers attacks her with rape in mind but is interrupted by the arrival of the other rustler. Ellen discovers Jean during this interruption. When the rustler returns a few minutes later, Ellen is forced to kill him to protect herself and Jean. A minute later Jean kills the last rustler. The story ends with Jean and Ellen declaring their love for each other.

Tonto Basin

The novel begins where its predecessor, The Fall of Colossus leaves off, with the supercomputer immobilized and the Martians arriving on Earth. They appear before Charles Forbin and his friend Edward Blake in the form of two black spheres, and quickly demonstrate vast intellect and powers of transformation and telepathy. After immobilizing Blake, they explain to Forbin their purpose in immobilizing Colossus&nbsp;— their desire to take half of the Earth''s oxygen, a process that will kill nearly a quarter of the human population. In order to proceed with construction of the "Collector" designed to harvest the oxygen, the Martians reactivate the parts of Colossus necessary to manage human society. Though having no other option but to agree to the Martians'' plan, Forbin continues to search for an alternative. He discovers in conversation with the Martians that their need for the oxygen is driven by the threat of radiation emanating from the Crab Nebula, which will kill the Martians without the protection of an oxygenated atmosphere. As construction of the Collector proceeds, a humbled Blake proposes to Forbin that the old Colossus&nbsp;— the "parent" of the crippled system, be reactivated. With little other alternative, Forbin agrees. Construction equipment controlled by Colossus soon complete work on the Collector. An initial five-minute test of the device proves enormously destructive. With a second, final test imminent, Blake travels to Colorado with Angela, Forbin''s private secretary. Racing against time, Blake and a small team of workers succeeds in penetrating the mountain where the old Colossus is located and re-activating the computer, only to discover that, once imputed with the facts of the situation, Colossus argues that the collection program is in the best interests of humans'' long-term future and should move forward. Informed of the failure of their plan, Forbin watches the second test proceed. Upon its conclusion he embarks on a new plan. With his new secretary, a fervently devout woman named Joan, he flies to Portsmouth and takes command of the battleships stationed there for the Sea War Games. Yet doing so puts him out of contact with Blake and the old Colossus, who informs Blake that a solution might exist that is acceptable to both the Martians and humanity. Regaining control of the nuclear arsenal, Colossus contacts the Martians, who inform it of Forbin''s attempt to use the battleships to destroy the Collector. Though the Martians attempt to destroy the fleet using their device, they underestimate the power of the battleships'' guns, which succeed in destroying the Collector. Though the Martians are defeated Forbin dies in the process. He is buried by the reactivated Colossus, who reaches an agreement with the Martians. A smaller version of the Collector will extract the oxygen more gradually and sustainably; in return, humanity, with the guidance of Colossus, will retreat to Mars once the Sun has become a red giant and destroys the Earth.

Colossus and the Crab

The plot of the play possesses an unusually complex backstory (perhaps a symptom of the playwright''s relative inexperience), which is revealed through the course of the action. Meleander, a prominent nobleman of Cyprus, is the father of two daughters, Eroclea and Cleophila. The ruler of Cyprus proposes a match between his son Palador and Eroclea &mdash; but when Eroclea appears at his court, the ruler becomes violently enamored with her himself. Eroclea is spirited away to protect her virtue, and Palador is stricken with a deep melancholy as a result. Meleander is accused of treason and stripped of his rank and honors for protecting his daughter; in consequence, he too becomes mentally ill. He convalesces in his castle, under the care of the faithful Cleophila. The troublesome ruler of Cyprus dies and is succeeded by Palador &mdash; but the whereabouts of Eroclea are unknown. At the start of the play, Meleander''s nephew Menaphon has returned from travel abroad; he has undertaken his journey to escape his unhappy love for the haughty Thamasta, Palador''s cousin. Menaphon is accompanied by a new friend, Parthenophill, a young man met in the Vale of Tempe. Palador, now the ruler of Cyprus, is still mired in melancholy, a condition his prime minister Sophronos (Meleander''s brother and successor), his physician Corax, and his tutor Aretus try in vain to alleviate. In due course, Palador''s cure comes about when it is revealed that Parthenophill is Eroclea is disguise &mdash; a revelation that cures her father''s depression as well. Cleophila, now free of the obligation to nurse her father, marries her devoted suitor Amethus. Thamasta, who had fallen in love with Parthenophill, is shocked out of her self-assured arrogance by the revealed disguise, and in a new spirit of humility becomes the wife of Menaphon. The play''s comic relief is supplied by the character Rhetias, "a reduced courtier" who is the servant of Eroclea/Parthenophill, and "two foolish courtiers," Pelias and Cuculus. In portraying the depression of Prince Palador and Lord Meleander, Ford worked in a sub-genre of psychiatric fiction that would only become prominent in the twentieth century. The play is also strongly influenced by the cult of love fashionable at the time. "Ford''s characters speak in courtly love-jargon, pen and recite love letters and poems, woo in extravagant conceits, and carry on debates and similitude contests; they become involved in secret loves and disguises and despair over unsatisfied desire." Some of this is clearly satirical: the page Grilla "holds up for ridicule the whining tunes, sighs, and tears of Cuculus, a fool planning to win the love of his mistress through extravagant conceits."

The Lover''s Melancholy

Four archangels discuss how a simple assignment went so terribly wrong. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are coming and so the Archangels found the perfect champions to save the world: fighters, warriors, and soldiers. These chosen champions must drink a shooter that will imbue them with divine powers to battle the Four Horsemen. A mistake is made when four random women drink the divine concoction. Alexandra Carlton, Julia Wolfe, Emily Keller and Dinah Medrano must all take up the mantles of champions. Alexandra Carlton, a waitress at a sports bar, inadvertently becomes the champion destined to take on the First Horseman of the Apocalypse by drinking a shooter given to her as a tip. Shortly thereafter, she meets the Archangel Raphael, who has been charged with preparing Alexandra for her quest. The story focuses on Alexandra''s attempts to learn “the ways of the Horseman” in order to stop him, as increasingly erotic visions of that Horseman and Raphael''s apparent reluctance to give her any useful information thwart her. A refugee lawyer, Dinah Medrano, is approached by the Archangel Michael to be a champion to defend the Earth from the Apocalypse, specifically the Horseman of War. At first, Dinah is resistant to the presented challenge because she is convinced that Michael is not sane. However, when she realizes she has been gifted with powers to manipulate water and heal people, Dinah accepts Archangel Michael’s challenge in order to save her sister, Fatima, who is suffering from cancer. The story focuses on Dinah’s attempts to cease the progress of the Horseman of War, despite the complications that arise when she discovers the Horseman of War is a former angel. After missing a day of work because of a severe hangover, Emily Keller returns to find an elderly man assigned as a trainee to the concrete truck she drives for her father’s company. Arthur Capella is the name adopted by Urial, the Archangel of Music, who is tasked with persuading Emily that she is the champion who must confront and defeat the Apocalyptic Horseman, Famine. Emily, a modern young woman, living in a world of online social networking, is not easily persuaded, until she finds out that her good friend Donald, not only is the Horseman Famine, he is also responsible for killing both her mother and her mentor, Twinkie. Famine, in this story, seeks to destroy the populations of the developed world by a devious kind of starvation caused by the dwindling nutrition in refined and convenience food. Julia Wolfe is a particle scientist involved in a secret fusion project located two miles beneath the surface. The project, dubbed Eden by the members of the scientific team, is working on achieving positive fusion, a goal that could spell the end of the world''s energy problems. As the project nears completion, Julia finds her personal life unraveling. From troubling dreams to dissatisfaction with her marriage, she begins question her place within Eden and wonders if she needs to leave. However, when the fusion reactor malfunctions throwing Eden into darkness and chaos, Julia realizes they are not alone in the deep. It is up to Julia to protect them against the horsemen Death. More than their lives hang in the balance. If she fails, Death will escape from Eden and wash over the surface world.

Women of the apocalypse

Jannus is the son of Mistress Lillia, the ruler of Newstock, a village near the river in Bremner. The competing villages are protected by the Valde, strange female warriors who serve ten years in the villages. The few that reach the end of their service are allowed to get married with one of the rare male Valde. The Valde are tall, beautiful, filled with quick animal instincts, sexually mature at nine and dead of old age around thirty, are also gifted with empathy; the power to feel one''s emotions. While watching a duel to the death between Poli - Jannus''s favorite Valde - and another Valde, Jannus discovers a Screamer, a fragile humanoid creature that is hunted without pity by the Valde. He saves the Screamer who tells him that he is an immortal Tek. Each time when a Tek dies he is reborn again. The Tek wants to return to Kantmorie to end his thousand years of regenerations. The Tek, called Lur by Jannus, persuades Jannus to accompany him. Together with a merchant family, the Yrsmits and a number of Valde warriors Jannus follows the river downstream. Among the Valde is Poli who served her ten years. After a number of adventures the Tek, Jannus, Poli and the leader of the merchant family find themselves in the desert trying to reach the location where the Shai is, the huge intelligence guiding the star ship that brought the Teks to the world, to end the endless cycle of rebirthing. * Pursuit of the Screamer, DAW Books, June 1978, ISBN 0-87997-386-2 * Circle, Crescent, Star, DAW Books, February 1981, ISBN 0-87997-603-9 * Summerfair, DAW Books, July 1982, ISBN 0-87997-759-0 * Tidestorm Limit, 1983, (published in Dutch and French translations only) **Stormvloedgrens, Dutch edition **Aux confins de l''ouragan, French edition * The Sun of Return, 1985 (published in Dutch and French translations only) **Gift van de Shai, Dutch edition **Le soleil du grand retour, French edition

Pursuit of the Screamer

The story starts with the twins Pat and Isabel O''Sullivan looking forward to enjoying their first summer term at St. Clare''s. Their mother is happy to see them looking forward to school. One day, they go to play tennis with a friend, and meet a girl who has mumps. The twins, to their dismay, are put in quarantine, and are not allowed to go back to school at the beginning of the term. When they arrive back the following week, they are heartily welcomed by their friends. Five new girls have joined their form. There is an American girl called Sadie, who is obviously quite rich and elegant. The twins discover that their cousin Alison has already made friends with her. There is a wild-looking girl called Carlotta, who is half Spanish. There is a naughty but very likeable girl Bobby (Roberta), who quickly becomes friends with Janet. There is another girl called Prudence, who is quite pretty but has no sense of humour. The last new girl is Pam, who is very hard working but also very shy. The girls soon discover that Miss Roberts is on the war path. She is the first form head and is determined that her girls should do well and be promoted in next form. The twins also get to know the new girls. Prudence turns out to be nasty, spiteful, and dishonest. She takes a strong dislike to Carlotta, and discovers that Carlotta once belonged to a circus. She reveals Carlotta''s secret to the other girls, hoping it will make them despise her, but it only serves to make Carlotta even more popular. Prudence also manipulates the shy Pam under the false disguise of a friendship. As a result, Pam is initially disliked by all of the girls except Carlotta and Isabel, who take pity on her when they realise that she is afraid to tackle Prudence as she does not want to be on her own. Encouraged by the two older girls, Pam eventually stands up to Prudence and ends their forced friendship, becoming friends with Carlotta instead. Bobby initially doesn''t seem to care for anything or anyone until Miss Theobald tells her that she is cheating her parents badly. After learning this, Bobby starts working hard, too, though she occasionally plays tricks. The American girl, Sadie, is like Alison, always caring about her looks. She also hates sports and all outdoor activities (although, unlike Alison, she actually enjoys swimming). However, she is good tempered and laughs at being teased. The girls soon find out that Sadie is an heiress. Sadie''s father died and left a will giving away all his money to his sisters, but Sadie''s mother won it back through lawsuits. During the term, while Prudence is spying on Carlotta, Sadie is kidnapped, and Carlotta - who finds her tied up, gagged and blindfolded in the back seat of a motor car - goes after her, and stages a fake road accident, during which she manages to rescue her with the help of her circus'' friends. The term ends happily for most, with Prudence leaving because everyone hates her for her part in Sadie''s kidnap (she could have alerted Sadie to the fact that she was in danger when she and Pam met a strange man lurking around the school entrance but was too busy trying to get Carlotta into trouble to realise this, and ignored Pam''s warning to report the man to Miss Theobald), Sadie herself bouncing back strongly from her kidnapping ordeal and preparing to go back to America, and the other girls looking forward to going into second year except Prudence, who is leaving.

Summer Term at St. Clare''s

The action starts in Sacramento in 1867. The Cascabels are a French family of circus artists who spent several years touring the United States and plan to return home. Their savings get stolen so the family cannot afford the ship ticket. Instead, César Cascabel decides to travel overland, via Alaska and Bering Straits, through Siberia and Central Russia with their horse drawn Carriage, the Belle-Roulotte (the Fair Rambler). They don''t expect dangers to happen. On their way, they rescue at the Alaskan border, with the help of native girl Kayette, a Russian political fugitive, count Narkine, whom they bring along so that he can see again his father in Russia. Count Narkine adopts Kayette as his daughter. In Sitka, the group witnesses the transfer of Alaska to the United States. On their way from Port Clarence the travellers unfortunately end up on a floating iceberg that drifts to the Lyakhovsky Islands in Arctic Ocean. There they are captured by the natives. Other troubles, including political ones, occur but Cascabels manage to get through Ural to Perm and then, easily, to France. An animated TV series inspired by the book was produced in 2001 in France. <gallery> Image:''César Cascabel'' by George Roux 03.jpg|Map of route through Alaska Image:''César Cascabel'' by George Roux 39.jpg|Map of route through Russia </gallery>

César Cascabel

When dogs and men suddenly disappear, and strange screams fill the night, fantastic stories of vengeful ghosts are almost believable. It is these strange happenings which bring Frank and Joe Hardy to the Pocono Mountains to help their father''s friend, a retired police captain, solve the mystery of Black Hollow. But when the Hardy Boys and Chet Morton arrive at Captain Thomas Maguire''s cabin on the edge of the hollow, he has disappeared. In the woods the boys find only a few slim clues: a flashlight bearing the initials T.M., a few scraps of bright plaid cloth, and two empty shotgun shells which had been fired recently. Frank and Joe are determined to find the captain, despite Chet''s misgivings after a night of weird and terrifying screams. Neighbors of the missing man insist that the bloodcurdling cries are those of a legendary witch who stalks Black Hollow seeking vengeance. Strangely, it is a small puppy that helps the boys disclose a most unusual and surprising set of circumstances, involving a mute boy, an elusive hermit, and a fearless puma trainer.

The Clue of the Screeching Owl

Seize the Night begins a few months after Fear Nothing. It starts with Chris and his dog Orson happening upon Chris''s ex-girlfriend, Lilly Wing, whose son Jimmy has just disappeared. Chris swears to Lilly he''ll find Jimmy, and departs with Orson to begin the search. The trail leads them to Fort Wyvern, the abandoned military base Chris likes to explore. They search the base, but soon become separated, and Orson goes missing. Fearing for his dog''s well-being, along with that of Jimmy, Chris calls his best friend Bobby Halloway to join him in the search and then sends his girlfriend Sasha Goodall to Lilly''s house to console her. Soon after calling them, Chris sees about thirty or so of the rhesus monkeys encountered towards the end of Fear Nothing and takes refuge from them in a nearby bungalow. The monkeys follow him in, and he is saved from being found by Bobby''s arrival. Bobby and Chris search the base, but find nothing except a few strange devices and rooms. After leaving, they stop by Lilly''s house. Sasha and Chris head to their place, while Bobby heads off to Lilly''s mother-in-law Jenna, to bring her back to Lilly''s. The next day, Chris calls Manuel Ramirez, the acting chief of police, to give him information about Jimmy Wing''s kidnapper''s vehicle. Getting no answer, he leaves a message for Manuel to call him after noon. Bobby stops by a bit later to say that Jimmy is not the only child missing. Later, Manuel tells Chris in no uncertain terms to back off, while confiscating his and Bobby''s guns and trashing his house. After he leaves, Roosevelt Frost arrives with his cat, Mungojerrie. They all leave and head out to an old road a few miles away where Sasha''s coworker at the radio station, Doogie, meets up with them. They then head back to Fort Wyvern to continue the search for the children and Orson. Chris and company head into the base, where Bobby is critically wounded in an ambush. He sends everyone else on to find the kids and Orson, and when they return with them in tow, Bobby dies. Chris, refusing to leave Bobby''s body behind, demands it be taken with them on the way out. On the elevator ride back up, they actually encounter themselves at the top of the shaft, and Chris is able to stop Bobby''s past self from being shot. With the past now altered, Bobby''s body disappears from the elevator, and Chris takes the live Bobby with him out of the base to return Jimmy and the other kids to their parents.

Seize the Night

The Rogue continues from the events of the Ambassadors Mission. The Ambassadors Mission ended with Lorkin being confined to the Sanctuary (The Traitors'' mountainous hidden city), and been given the job of assisting healing the inhabitants as the Sachakan magic users don''t know healing magic, though Lorkin is doing this willingly. Ambassador to Sachaka Dannyl is no longer looking for Lorkin and has resumed his duties as Ambassador while awaiting for a new assistant. Sonea has exposed a rogue magician from Igra, with help from Cery and Regin. Though through reading the rogue''s mind they have discovered that the Thief Skellin is also a magic user though he is unaware of Black Magic, this Thief is also responsible for the murders that have been plaguing the Thieves and the man directly responsible for importing and selling the drug Roet that is an attempt to gain a measure of control of citizens of Imardin from all the classes, low, high and magician. Living among the Sachakan rebels, Lorkin does his best to learn about them and their unique magic. But the Traitors are reluctant to trade their knowledge for the Healing they so desperately want, and while he assumes they fear revealing their existence to the world, there are hints they have bigger plans. Sonea searches for the rogue, knowing that Cery cannot avoid assassination forever, but the rogue''s influence over the city''s underworld is far greater than she feared. His only weakness is the loss of his mother, now locked away in the Lookout. In Sachaka, Dannyl has lost the respect of the Sachakan elite for letting Lorkin join the Traitors. The Ashaki''s attention has shifted, instead, to the new Elyne Ambassador, a man Dannyl knows all too well. And in the University, two female novices are about to remind the Guild that sometimes their greatest enemy is found within.

The Rogue

In the near future, Christianity has dominated everything, including politics, television, the Internet, and film. The leaders of the semi-theocracy include Reverend Jimmy, a televangelist who is the spiritual advisor to the President, and Pastor Bob, a laid-back reverend who is obsessed with golf and competes with Jimmy for spiritual dominance. Ironically, though Jimmy says he has spoken to God about almost everything, their teachings are the opposite of Jesus Christ''s ideas of peace, love, and forgiveness towards everyone. Jimmy even claims on his program that bombing Europe will bring the Second Coming. However, a jaded ex-reporter, Johnny Greco, bitter towards Jimmy, has already found it, in an Irish-Hispanic Catholic named Jay, who performs incredible miracles of healing sick people, preaches against what Christianity has become, and values peace, tolerance, and love for all humans. Dismissive at first, he soon begins to believe in what Jay is saying, and begins to think that Jay truly is "the real deal". Unfortunately for Jay, things happen as they previously did and Jay, some of his closest apostles and Revrend Jim (who Jay converts) are killed. However, Jay''s apostles continue to spread the word of his actions and teachings and form a new religion. The book ends: THE END AND THE BEGINNING

The Messiah Of Morris Avenue

The book is divided into 16 sections *The Cosmos: Gods, Demons and Things - Discusses the known gods on the Discworld and their relationships with the gods of Earth. *Dwarfs - Explores the customs of the dwarfs and the similarities between dwarf culture and mining cultures on Earth; also certain Earthly religious cultures. *Elves - Considers the elven race and what is known about them both on Earth and the Disc. *The Nac Mac Feegle - Discusses the Feegle and their ''Pictsies'' equivalents on Earth. *Trolls - Documents the customs and thoughts of the silicon based lifeform and our beliefs regarding them on Earth. *Other Significant Races - Covers a variety of other races including Vampires and Igors and their equivalents on Earth. *Beasties - Dragons, chimeras, the sphinx, etc, including the Luggage. *The Witches of Lancre - Explores similarities and contrasts between the Lancre witches and the Wise Women and witches of Britain and Ireland. *The Land of Lancre - The landscape legends, customs and beliefs in lancre set alongside their counterparts on earth (mainly British). *The Witches of the Chalk - Compares material in the Tiffany trilogy with beliefs and customs of Earth. *The Chalk - Explores the similar customs and way of life between Tiffany''s home and the sheep-rearing areas of Southern England in past generations. *Heroes! - Deals with the parallels of Mazda/Prometheus, Carrot as the Lost Heir, and Cohen in relation to Alexander the Great, Tamurlaine, the aged Ulysses, and heroic defiance. *Lore, Legends and Truth - Concentrates on ''folklore'' as recalled by inhabitants of Ankh-Morpork; includes sections on rat-charming, sinking islands, and wizardry. *More Customs, Nautical Lore and Military Matters - More urban traditions, also ghost ships and female soldiers. *Kids Stuff... You know, about ''Orrid Murder and Blood - Children''s lore (e.g. Frighteners, and the Tooth Fairy); comparison of the Hogfather with father Christmas/Santa Claus. *Death - Well, death, obviously.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Tonto Basin

By Zane Grey

Colossus and the Crab

By Dennis Feltham Jones

The Lover's Melancholy

By John Ford

Women of the apocalypse

No Author Listed

Pursuit of the Screamer

By Ansen Dibell

Summer Term at St. Clare's

By Enid Blyton

César Cascabel

By Jules Verne

The Clue of the Screeching Owl

By Franklin W. Dixon

Seize the Night

By Dean Koontz

The Rogue

By Trudi Canavan

The Messiah Of Morris Avenue

No Author Listed

The Folklore of Discworld

No Author Listed