Nepenthe is a sixteen-year-old orphan who was found and raised by the Royal Librarians of Raine. During the new queen''s coronation, visitors and ambassadors from the Twelve Crowns (domains) that comprise Raine gauge Queen Tessera''s strength. Bourne of Seale, a junior mage from the Floating School, meets Nepenthe in the library with a book inscribed with an unknown language, which seems to be written in configurations of plant thorns. Instead of delivering it to the Master Librarians, Nepenthe decides to transcribe it herself; she soon becomes obsessed with learning the book''s outcome. On the surface, it appears to be an epic poem documenting the conquests of Axis and Kane, an emperor and "the Hooded One," three thousand years early. As Nepenthe continues reading, the ruler of Seale prepares to usurp the throne from Tessera, whom he views as weak. (She is only fourteen years old.) Reading further as Seale''s army marches (and Bourne is imprisoned for treason), Nepenthe learns that Axis and Kane traveled through time to expand the reach and strength of Axis'' empire. Popular histories in Raine list the man Kane as Axis'' court mage; Kane was, but the woman Kane was also his lover who opened the Gates of Time for him. Kane became pregnant with his child, and she traveled with the infant through time to a cliff side near Raine. She wrote a book about her life in the language of thorns and because of her enchantments, no one but her daughter could read it—by the book''s climax, she has. The final words of the book open the Gates of Time that admit Axis and Kane, Nepenthe''s parents, and their uncountable legions of followers near Raine, three thousand years in their future. When Queen Tessera learns of the planned invasion, with the help of Vevay, her own mage, and the magicians of the Floating School, she uses magic to make Raine seem a dilapidated ruin and thereby protect it from Axis. Nepenthe meets her mother and refuses Kane''s offer to rule Raine, because it would require Nepenthe to turn her back on the only world she''s ever known. Kane chooses to remain in Raine, where she can be with her daughter and won''t have to hide her identity. This effectively stops Axis'' conquests because without her; he can''t travel through the Gates of Time. The forces of Seale see Axis''s army retreat in fear, which strengthens Tessera''s claim on the throne. Kane stays with her daughter, and Nepenthe remains in the Royal Library, the only life she ever wants to know.

Alphabet of Thorn

Martin Lynch-Gibbon is a 41-year-old well-to-do wine merchant whose childless marriage to an older woman called Antonia has been one of convenience rather than love. It never occurs to him that his ongoing affair with a young academic called Georgie could be immoral. Displaying quite a number of macho attributes in his relationships with women, Lynch-Gibbon is shocked when, out of the blue, his wife tells him that she is going to leave him for Palmer Anderson, her psychoanalyst and a friend of the couple''s, with whom she has had a secret affair for quite some time. Lynch-Gibbon moves out of their London house but still does not want to publicize his affair with Georgie, let alone become engaged to her. At roughly the same time Cupid''s arrow hits Lynch-Gibbon again. This time he falls for Honor Klein, Anderson''s half-sister, who is a lecturer in anthropology at Cambridge, a woman who, on seeing her for the first time, he remembers finding rather repulsive. Like a man possessed, he follows her to Cambridge and, in the middle of the night, breaks into her house, only to find her in bed with her half-brother. When, shortly afterwards, Antonia confesses to him that she has also been sleeping with his older brother Alexander ever since he introduced them to each other ("You mean you didn''t know at all? Surely you must have guessed."), Lynch-Gibbon''s world starts disintegrating. Despite his being a wine merchant, he chooses whisky as his constant companion. In the end, however, he realizes that life must—and somehow will—go on.

A Severed Head

Khaavren of Castlerock is a young Dragaeran gentleman from the House of the Tiassa whose family has fallen onto hard times. Though lacking an inheritance, Khaavren has a long sword and is "tolerably well-acquainted with its use." On his way to the capital city of the Empire, Khaavren befriends Aerich and Tazendra, nobles from the Houses of the Lyorn and Dzur who also lack income. Khaavren tells them of his plan to join the Phoenix Guards, the new Emperor''s elite personal troops, and his new friends decide to accompany him. The trio arrive in Dragaera City and meet Pel, a Yendi who joined a few days previous. Pel helps the trio sign up and buy their equipment, and quickly befriends them. The four are unusual for Phoenix Guards because most guardsmen come from the militaristic House of the Dragon. The recruits are each paired with a haughty Dragon veteran for their first patrol, but each recruit kills his or her Dragon partner by the end of the night. The group is thereafter only partnered together on patrols and soon becomes inseparable. The group learns of the standing feud between the White Sash Battalion of the Phoenix Guards and their own Red Boot Battalion. They fight a duel and several brawls with members of the enemy battalion. After learning of the White Sash''s failure to apprehend a murderer, Kathana, the group decides to earn glory for their own troop by tracking her down themselves. Unbeknownst to the group, a number of powerful figures in the Imperial Court have a vested interest in the fate of Kathana. Seodra, the Court Wizard, and Lytra, the Warlord, want to manipulate Kathana''s arrest to gain favor from the Emperor. The Imperial Consort, however, is a friend of Kathana''s and wants her protected, as do those who wish her favor. Before setting out, Khaavren''s would-be lover Illista, a Phoenix courtier seeking favor, wrings a promise from Khaavren to prevent Kathana from being arrested. Kathana, a remarkable painter, is charged with killing the Marquis of Pepperfield, who insulted her painting. The Marquis''s son Uttrik, a soldier, desires revenge for his father''s death. Wanting to be rid of both Uttrik and Khaavren, Seodra manipulates Uttrik into challenging Khaavren to a duel, hoping that one would kill the other. Khaavren wins the duel, but spares Uttrik''s life and allows him to join them. Seodra sends an ever-increasing number of thugs to stop the group, but the group manages to reach Kathana''s hiding place: the manor of Adron e''Kieron, a prominent Dragonlord. Uttrik challenges Kathana to a duel. The rest of the group is unsure what to do, unwilling to obstruct the honor of a duel or to abandon their original purpose. They convince the pair to hold their duel in the Marquisate of Pepperfield, hoping to buy time from the journey. The group encounters more thugs and works together, despite its differences, to bypass them. By the time they reach Pepperfield, Uttrik and Kathana have become friends and regret the events that have led them to their duel. Before the duel can commence, however, an invading army of Easterners arrives. The group manages to negotiate a peace agreement with the general of the army, Fenarr, to prevent an invasion. After the Easterners leave, Adron arrives with his army and two of Seodra''s minions, Shaltre and the Duke of Garland, under orders to kill the group. Aerich reveals that Shaltre had wronged his father, the Duke of Arylle, and challenges him to a duel. Aerich kills Shaltre and Garland flees. Adron allows the group to go in peace. Uttrik swears off his duel with Kathana, who vows to turn herself in and accept her fate. The group returns to Dragaera City, but before they can tell anyone of the peace treaty with the Easterners, they are imprisoned. Illista comes to speak to Khaavren, but he finally realizes that she is simply using him for her own ends. Eventually the group is summoned before the Emperor and Khaavren volunteers to be questioned under the Orb, which can detect falsehood. Lytra acts as the inquisitor, however, and tries to manipulate the interrogation to incriminate Khaavren and his friends. Eventually Khaavren is able to get the truth across to the Emperor, who is pleased by the group''s service. He punishes many of those responsible for the intrigues, gives Kathana a very light sentence of service in the Phoenix Guard, and promotes Khaavren to Ensign. Only Khaavren stays in the Phoenix Guard for very much longer, however. Aerich returns to his duchy now that his shame has been removed. Tazendra learns from Aerich that her own family shame was simply a misunderstanding, and she returns to her family estates, making her Aerich''s vassal. Pel enters training to learn the Art of Discretion and become an influential court advisor. Khaavren continues to live in the house they all shared and keeps rooms ready for each of them should they ever return.

The Phoenix Guards

In Cider for the Stars, while en route to Champignac, Spirou and Fantasio are confronted with strange events: the villagers see extraterrestrials and animals panic. When they arrive at the castle, the Count tells them that he is, in fact, housing three extraterrestrials ("Ksoriens"), enrolled in a mycology training program, but that their love for cider had led them to become careless. One of them is wounded in the town and manages to regain the castle, but its saucer is stolen by foreign secret agents. A whole patrol of Ksoriens then proceeds to land in order to retrieve the saucer, but one of them is in turn kidnapped. The Ksoriens threaten to put the whole area to sleep in order to help them in their task, but the Count opposes the plan. In the nick of time Spirou and Fantasio find the saucer and the Ksorien, and the extraterrestrials capture the secret agents. The Mayor, as is his wont, suspects that the Count is conducting secret experiments and orders the castle to be searched, forcing the Ksoriens to leave. <!--

Du cidre pour les étoiles

The story starts with 10 year old Liza Barton accidentally shooting and killing her mother and shooting and injuring her stepfather Ted. She is acquitted of the crime and is later adopted by some distant relatives. Twenty-four years later, the story picks up with Liza determined to bury her past. She has changed her name to Celia Foster and married Alex Nolan after her first husband Larry''s death. Alex, not aware of Celia''s past, gifts her with a surprise birthday present—the keys to her own parents'' home in a neighboring town Mendham. Alex, Celia and her 4 year old son, Jack, move into the home to find that it has been vandalized. Unsure of how Alex would react to her past, Celia decides to hide it from him for some more time. Flashes of the night her mom died come back to Celia as she sets out to find out more about what really happened that night. She discreetly tries to find information about her father''s accident that led to his death a year before her mother''s death. One by one, a few of the older residents of the town are murdered and some of the evidence leads to Celia being suspected. Celia finds her own life in danger, as the pursuit of the murderer''s identity picks up pace.

No place like home

Life in the Iron Mills begins with an omniscient narrator who looks out a window and sees smog and iron workers. The gender of the narrator is never known, but it is evident that the narrator is a middle class observer. As the narrator looks out the windowpane, an old story comes to mind; a story of the house that the narrator is living in. The narrator cautions the reader to have an objective mind, and to not be quick to judge the character in the story he/she is about to tell the reader. The narrator begins to introduce Deborah, Wolfe''s cousin. She is described as a meek woman who works hard, and has a hump in her back. Deborah finds out from Janey, that Hugh did not take lunch to work, and she decides to walk many miles in the rain to take a lunch for Wolfe. As she walks up to the mills, Deborah begins to describe it as if it were hell, but she keeps going for Wolfe. When she arrives Wolfe is talking amongst friends and he recognizes her. The narrator explains his affection for her, but also describes his affection as loveless and sympathetic. Hugh finds no time to eat his dinner and goes back to do a day of labor in the mills. Deborah, who is exhausted, stays with Hugh and rests until his shift is over. In the meantime, the narrator further explains that Wolfe does not belong in the environment of the iron mill workers. He is known as "Molly Wolfe" by other workers because of his manner and background in education. When Wolfe is working he spots men that do not look like workers. He sees Clarke, the son of Kirby, Doctor May who is a physician, and another two men that he does not recognize. These men stop by to look at the working men, and as they are talking and observing, they spot a weird object that has the shape of a human. As they get closer, they see that it is an odd shaped statue built with korl. They begin to analyze it and wonder who created such a statue, one of the workers points at Wolfe and the men go to him. They ask him why he built such a statue and what it represents. All Hugh says is that "She be hungry". The men begin to talk about the injustice of labor force, and one goes as far as to say that Hugh can get out of the meager job he is in, but that he unfortunately can not help. The men leave, but not before Deborah steals one of their wallets, which has a check for a substantial amount inside. They go back home and Wolfe feels like he is a failure and feels anger towards his economical situation. Once home, Deborah confesses to stealing from Mitchell, and shamefully gives the money to Wolfe to do with it what he pleases. Wolfe decides to keep the money believing he is deserving of it because after all they are all deserving in Gods eyes. The narrator transitions to a different scene with Dr. May reading the newspaper and seeing that Wolfe was put in jail for stealing from Mitchell. The story goes back to Hugh and he is in prison with Deborah. The narrator explains how terrible their situation is, and goes on to give detail of Wolfe''s mental disintegration. Hugh ends up losing his mind and killing himself in prison. The story ends with a quaker women who comes to bless and help with the body of Hugh. She talks to Deborah and promises her that she will give Hugh a proper burial, and come back for her when she is released from jail.

Life in the Iron Mills

This novel deals with the attempts of the son of (fictional) Chola king Parthiban, Vikraman, to attain independence from the Pallava ruler, Narasimhavarman. The Cholas remain vassals of the Pallavas. Parthiban conveys his dream of the Chola dynasty regaining its glory - which he believes is lost since they are no longer the independent rulers of their land - to his young son Vikraman. Parthiban refuses to pay the taxes to the Pallavas and this triggers the Pallavas to wage war against the Cholas. In the resulting war Parthiban is killed and in the battlefield an enigmatic monk promises to Parthiban that he will make sure that Vikraman fulfills Parthiban''s dream. Vikraman grows up and plans his retaliation against Narasimhavarman. But his uncle, Marappa Bhupathi, betrays him and Vikraman is arrested and banished from India by Narasimhavarman. The narrative moves on to describe how Vikraman comes back longing to meet his mother and the mysterious beauty whom he saw before being deported. To his woe he later discovers that his mother has disappeared and has in fact been kidnapped by the savage Kapalikas - a tribe which believes in human sacrifice. He also comes to know that the beauty he has fallen for, Kundhavi, is none other than the daughter of his sworn enemy, Narasimhavarman. The novel climaxes with the identity of the monk being finally being revealed as pallava king, Narasimhavarman and establishment of the independent Chola kingdom under Vikraman in Uraiyur. Vikraman also marries kundhavi in the final chapter.

Parthiban Kanavu

The protagonist is Maya Andreyeva, a "camera" for a major news network in a 24th century after the fall of an US world empire, where every nation is a third-rate power except hypertechnological Africa, which requires a blood test of aspiring immigrants. As a "camera", Maya is heavily wired with sensory and telecommunications gear so that she can broadcast her perceptions, combining the functions of an on-location reporter and her camera crew, presenting both audiovisual data and its interpretation. (Related concepts include simstim in William Gibson''s Sprawl trilogy, or the "gargoyles" of Neal Stephenson''s Snow Crash.) Carter uses the protagonist''s occupation as a focal point for analyzing the role of the media in packaging, selling, and, thus shaping history and historical truth. The reader is taken through not only the familiar slanted research and writing of a piece, but also the careful cooking of raw sense data for broadcast by a screener, the one person who experiences the camera''s full sense experience, precisely so that others do not. The screeners experience high turnover because of their unfortunate tendency to identify too closely, and fall in love, with the cameras who cannot share their unidirectional intimacy. The novel begins with Maya finding herself saddled with a new and problematic screener - one who appears to her only through the net, never in person, and who is a woman, contrary to all custom in her heterocentric dystopia. In the virtual company of this mysterious woman, Maya grapples with conspiracy, totalitarianism, mind control, race, sexuality, as well as the nature of the mind and free will.

The Fortunate Fall

Robert is contacted one day by a friend in France, who tells him that Nicole, a woman with whom Robert had had an affair years ago, has died - and Jean-Claude, the son Robert never knew he had, is now an orphan. That evening, Robert explains the situation to Sheila, and they agree to take in Jean-Claude for the summer holidays; however, they also agree to keep Jean-Claude''s true identity a secret. Later that summer, Sheila, a journalist, is tempted by the possibility of an affair with an author she has been interviewing. At the same time, Jessica and Paula discover Jean-Claude''s true identity, through Davey Ackerman, Robert''s friend''s son. They refuse to speak to their parents. As the Beckwiths are bringing Jean-Claude to the airport to return to France, he suddenly falls ill and is hospitalized. After surgery, during which the Beckwiths become closer again, he makes a full recovery. At last, the whole family come to terms with Jean-Claude and would like him to live with them. However, Jean-Claude refuse politely, for he has to go to the school in France chosen by his mother years before. This ending is not wonderful, but thoughtful.

Man, Woman and Child

The Empathic Civilization is divided into three parts with an introductory chapter that summarizes the contents and arguments of the book. The first part consists of four chapters and analyses empathy from the perspective of psychology, biology, and philosophy. Rifkin provides a history of empathy in psychology, including how it relates to the works of Freudian psychology, Melanie Klein, Ronald Fairbairn, Heinz Kohut, and Donald Winnicott, leading to John Bowlby and Attachment Theory. As psychological theory has evolved, empathy has played a larger and larger role, especially in the emotional and intellectual development of children. In terms of biology, Rifkin connects the biological function of mirror neurons with the capacity for empathy. Philosophically, Rifkin explores empathy-altruism, the faith versus reason debate, and truth versus reality debate. Rifkin argues in favour of relationalism, that the meaning of existence is to enter into relationships. From the lens of empathy, he deconstructs the concepts of truth, freedom, democracy, equality, mortality. The second part consists of five chapters and focuses on the rise, development, and fall of civilizations. Rifkin connects the qualitative changes in energy regimes and communication techniques with changes in how people understand and organize reality. Hunter-gatherer societies were all oral cultures and thus only existed in geographically-limited small groups and identified themselves symbiotically in terms of that group. Spiritually, these societies believed in local gods who were only known to others through oral tales. The development of writing, as well as hydraulics and irrigation, allowed agricultural societies to better organize themselves so that a larger geographic area and a larger population could be controlled. Hydraulic power was labour intensive, requiring large populations of subservient people. With scripts, there was a shift from a mythological consciousness to a theological consciousness; individuals thought of themselves less in terms of a small, local group and more with a monotheistic religion which included a personal relationship with a god. Decentralization followed the collapse of the Roman Empire, as each town operated a water or wind mill and the printing press distributed literature, empowering more people. Autobiographies started to be written, more people married for love rather than other arrangements, and the concept of privacy, democracy, and market capitalism was more prevalent. People began to organize themselves more into nation-states. Steam and fossil fuels became the dominant energy regime and electronic communications, like telegraphs, radios, telephones, and television, became the dominant means of communication. With vastly more interaction with other people and cultures, there was more emphasis on studying people and psychology. Personal investments, social exploration, and creativity became highly valued. The third part consists of the remaining five chapters. Rifkin extrapolates the changes in energy regimes to predict a shift in production towards renewable sources like wind and solar power under distributed (i.e. personal) management. Rifkin also extrapolates the changes in communication to predict a proliferation of wireless, mobile personal communication that allows people to be constantly connected to others regardless of distance, language, or other barriers. This will evolve people''s sense of empathy to create a biosphere-wide consciousness and a mode of production he calls distributed capitalism. Rifkin believes this new system will allow people to solve more complex issues, such as climate change and pathogenic pandemics, focus more on quality of life (rather than materialistic) issues, and value collaboration over competition.

The Empathic Civilization

Equinox concerns the sexual and violent encounters that ensue -"the search for erogenous gratification of a diverse collection of people"- when an unnamed Black sea captain, sailing his 72-foot diesel boat, the Scorpion, with his dog Niger and two teenagers Gunner and Kirsten, docks at a small American seaport and meets its inhabitants including Robby, a naive drifter; Catherine, a Countess; Proctor, an artist; Bull, the town sheriff (who is himself an active criminal) and his equally thuggish operative Nazi; and various low-life characters including the black and white twins (self described rape artists) Nig and Dove. A lost wallet is traced to its owner, the artist Jonathan Proctor. At his studio, Proctor tells the Captain the story of his life in picaresque episodes, culminating in his first encounter, many years before, with the bewitching Catherine. She is depicted as a kind of baleful Madonna: depraved, hypocritical, perversely saintlike. Proctor mobilises the Captain and the other characters in a kind of amorous military assault against her as a personification of religious double standards. In the novel''s closing movement, the perpetrators of an appalling sex crime are protected by their corrupt friends, while the completely innocent vagabond Robby is lynched and punished in their place. The apparent brevity of the novel thus detailed, and the slightness of its narrative, is only achieved by passing over its many long and very explicit sexual descriptions. These are polymorphous, bisexual, often involving multiple and underage partners, and incorporating urophilic and SM elements. Though very detailed and gratuitous (in that the author seems to revel in and enjoy the sexual descriptions), these passages are generally written in a poetic, obscure and oblique language which removes them from the realm of mere pornography and inserts the novel into a modern tradition of challenging and thoughtful erotica shared by such works as Burroughs'' The Wild Boys and Trocchi''s Cain''s Book. There is an additional leitmotif relating to the myth of Faust, and at several points the Captain himself is either likened to the Devil or actually supposed to be Satan himself. Though sexually rapacious, the Captain''s character is sympathetic, and in his conduct and attitudes seen to be one of the least truly evil personages in the narrative.

Equinox

The wizard Drum Billet knows that he will soon die and travels to a place where an eighth son of an eighth son is about to be born. This signifies that the child is destined to become a wizard; on the Discworld, the number eight has many of the magical properties that are sometimes ascribed to seven in other mythologies. Billet wants to pass his wizard''s staff on to his successor. However, the newborn child is actually a girl, Esk (full name Eskarina Smith). Since Billet notices his mistake too late, the staff passes on to her. As Esk grows up, it becomes apparent that she has uncontrollable powers, and the local witch Granny Weatherwax decides to travel with her to the Unseen University in Ankh-Morpork to help her gain the knowledge required to properly manage her powers. But a female wizard is something completely unheard of on the Discworld. Esk is unsuccessful in her first, direct, attempt to gain entry to the University, but Granny Weatherwax finds another way in; as a servant. While there, Esk witnesses the progress of an apprentice wizard named Simon, whom she had met earlier, on her way to Ankh-Morpork. Simon is a natural talent who invents a whole new way of looking at the universe that reduces it to component numbers. His magic, however, is so powerful that it causes a hole to be opened into the Dungeon Dimensions. Eskarina and Simon discover the weakness of the creatures from the Dungeon Dimensions - if you can use magic, but don''t, they become scared and weakened. They both manage to transport themselves back into the Discworld. Together they develop a new kind of magic, based on the notion that the greatest power is the ability not to use all the others.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Alphabet of Thorn

By Patricia A. McKillip

A Severed Head

By Iris Murdoch

The Phoenix Guards

By Steven Brust

Du cidre pour les étoiles

No Author Listed

No place like home

By Mary Higgins Clark

Life in the Iron Mills

By Rebecca Harding Davis

Parthiban Kanavu

By Kalki Krishnamurthy

The Fortunate Fall

By Raphael Carter

Man, Woman and Child

By Erich Segal

The Empathic Civilization

By Jeremy Rifkin

Equinox

By Mel Keegan

Equal Rites

By Terry Pratchett