Almost immediately after being slain by Glaeken in a castle keep in Romania in the Spring of 1941 Rasalom has opportunistically entered the body of a clone that grows within a woman hired by the scientist in charge of a project seeking to create a genetically enhanced super-soldier for the U.S. Army. The boy comes to term, is born and grows into an unusually strong and aggressive specimen but has a personality of his own which prevents the johnny-come-lately Rasalom from doing anything but secretly encouraging his host whenever possible to indulge his inclination to violence. This all changes when the host dies a seemingly untimely death in his late 20s and the fetus conceived by his wife becomes the newest, un-co-opted vessel for evil. The wife Carol acquires one chief protector in the form of a lifelong sociopath and occasional murdering psychopath known as Jonah Stevens. He stops at nothing to ensure the baby''s survival and guarantees that Rasalom will have more than a fighting chance to take over the Earth after attaining early adulthood. The ancient being known as Glaeken is content to take a back seat to all of this as he feels he has earned his permanent retirement from the battle between the forces of Darkness and Light. He realizes that a major confrontation is inevitable but placidly aspires to count himself and his wife Magda among the dearly departed before that dark day descends with a deafening thud upon humanity''s collective cranium.

Reborn

The Vatican gains possession of a time machine from Leonardo da Vinci after the inventor''s death. Selected members of the Pope''s Swiss Guard are sent back in time to alter history in favour of the Catholic Church. All this is supervised by a very small group of church officials and without the specific knowledge of the current Pope. The Vatican learns that major historical events can''t be prevented, only their details can be altered. For example, the Reformation can not be undone, but the details surrounding it can be changed: Martin Luther can''t be killed before publishing The Ninety-Five Theses, but the failed attempt on his life by a time-traveling agent is interpreted by Luther as a visitation by the devil. In 1688, the Progetto Reale (English: Royal Project) is undertaken by the men in charge of the department. The project''s aim is to reestablish Catholicism in England through restoration of the House of Stuart. The Catholic Church perceives the Stuarts as too weak for their purposes and instead selects the Bavarian House of Wittelsbach as an alternative. For the purpose of legalising the claim to the British throne, a member of the Swiss Guard, Arnold Füßli, is sent out to exchange the Stone of Scone for a fake. While this mission succeeds, the stone is deposited at what later becomes a reservoir and is lost for the cause. The Church''s main asset, its loyal Swiss Guard soldier Franz Defunderoll, however, chooses to desert and meet his unsuspecting self in the future. Eventually, the time machine is destroyed. In the finale of the book, the rebellious Bavarian-Scottish troops sacrifice themselves in the reservoir attempting to recover the Stone.

Das Königsprojekt

Katherine, in the middle of her senior year in high school, finds herself strongly attracted to Michael, a boy she meets at a New Year''s party. As their relationship unfolds, the issue of sex comes up more as an emotional and health issue than as a moral one. Both of them are aware that physical intimacy is both common and complicated. Michael has been sexually active, while Katherine hasn''t. Their relationship progresses slowly as they begin to go on dates and trips together; they are accompanied on various meetings by Katherine''s friend, Erica, who has known Katherine since the 9th grade and believes that sex is a physical act and not a romantic act. Erica and Katherine are also joined by Michael''s friend Artie, who, with Erica''s help, explores and acknowledges some uncertainty about his own sexuality. Artie is a depressed teenager who feels life is over after high school. He shows his depression when he attempts to hang himself from his shower curtain rod but fails. When Katherine and Michael do have sex on Michael''s sister''s bedroom floor, they are sure it seals a love that will be "forever." Michael buys Katherine a necklace for her birthday that says both of their names on it and it also says "Forever". However, separated for the summer by work that takes them to two different states, Katherine finds herself aware of the limitations of the relationship and ultimately attracted to a tennis instructor, Theo, who is older and more experienced in life. She takes responsibility for breaking the news to Michael when he comes on a surprise visit and almost catches her and Theo together. Katherine realizes the ''loss'' of Michael, while painful at first, can be the start of new successful relationships. The book ends with Katherine''s mother giving her a message that Theo called for her.

Forever

It is initially set in Japan following the end of World War II and follows the story of Lustbader''s hero Nicholas Linnear, a man raised by Anglo-Chinese parents. As a youth, Linnear is introduced to the world of aikido, kenjutsu, and iai-jutsu at a local dojo of the Itto Ryu also attended by his cruel and violent older cousin Saigō. Linnear is a natural and soon becomes adept, much to the annoyance of Saigō. During a training exercise Nicholas and Saigō duel and Nicholas defeats him. Saigō is enraged and leaves swearing revenge. When they next meet Saigō is a considerably more skilled martial artist than Linnear and defeats him quickly. Later we learn Saigō has joined a Kuji-kiri ryu in order to learn black ninjutsu and has become a ninja. Linnear himself soon becomes introduced to Aka i ninjutsu, or the red, ostensibly "good" side of ninjutsu, through the Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto Ryu. The ninja are introduced not as magical or almost mythical people, but rather as supreme martial artists who have reached the highest level and seek to progress further. It is suggested that by becoming ninja they strive to advance to an even higher plane, gaining skills such as haragei, or sensing the surrounding world in a different manner. However, we soon learn this is not without a high personal cost. Many years later, Linnear has moved to America and leads a peaceful academic existence. After quitting his job in advertising, he meets a beautiful, if disturbed, woman called Justine with whom he falls in love. This peace is shattered when a prominent local businessman is murdered in an extremely unusual manner (by a poisoned ninja shuriken). The local police are baffled and consult Nicholas as he is known to be an authority on oriental studies. Linnear quickly realises that a ninja is the murderer and the next target is his new girlfriend''s father, Raphael Tomkin, whom he begins working for as a bodyguard, although not without persuasion. Linnear also befriends Lew Croaker, a local detective. Linnear''s investigations reveal Saigō is the ninja and this puts him on a deadly collision course with his older cousin.

The Ninja

Rayford, filled with rage over so many losses, contemplates killing Nicolae Carpathia. He is so obsessed with the idea that he becomes stern and short tempered at times. At the New Babylon palace, David Hassid is placed in charge of delivering 144 computers to Nicolae, but diverts the delivery by telling the pilots delivering the computers to go one place and does the paperwork for another location. Floyd Charles reveals that he was infected from delivering Hattie''s stillborn child and goes to the hospital where Leah Rose works. While on the run from GC forces, Floyd Charles succumbs to the poison and dies. The International CO-OP is up and running, which will allow believers to trade when it becomes illegal to buy and sell without the Mark of the Beast. Rayford is still wondering if he might be the one to kill Nicolae. Hattie (who also wants to kill Nicolae) runs off after an incident with Floyd and Rayford goes to find her, only to be tricked by GC Forces. Hattie is imprisoned and taken to the Belgium Facility for Female Rehabilitation, or "BUFFR". Rayford and the newest member of the Trib Force, Leah, are trying to retrieve a large quantity of cash from Leah''s safe when the Sixth Trumpet Judgment hits as prophesied in Revelation 9:13-19, where a plague of death by fire, smoke, sulphur and deadly snake strikes carried out by 200 million demonic horsemen, visible only to the Tribulation saints, attack nonbelievers. Ray and Leah run into GC Peacekeeping forces and the horsemen, heading back to the safe house with the cash as the Peacekeepers are killed. David Hassid meanwhile successfully gets the computers incorrectly delivered. He also introduces the Condor cargo chief and his love interest, Annie Christopher, to Mac. An assassination attempt on Nicolae ends up destroying the Condor 216; it is soon replaced by Pontifex Maximus Peter Matthews''s plane and renamed the Phoenix 216. The GC plans a gala for the midpoint of the Tribulation in Jerusalem. The Tribulation hurtles to its midpoint as the four murders prophesied in scripture take place. Peter Matthews is murdered by the 10 sub-pontentates of the world. Carpathia personally kills the Two Witnesses with a gun similar to the one Rayford buys to kill him. The Witnesses later protagonize a dramatic resurrection as they are taken up into the clouds, which is dismissed by the media as a hoax. After they are resurrected, an earthquake breaks out, destroying one tenth of Israel and leaving seven thousand dead, as prophesied in Revelation 11:11-13. Finally, Carpathia himself is assassinated as prophesied in Revelation 13:3-4 while delivering a speech three days before the midpoint of the tribulation. Rayford is skeptical as to whether he really was the one who did the deed as he planned to. A hole in Carpathia''s head is the same size that Rayford would expect his gun to make, but he was bumped from behind a split second before pulling the trigger. And there were several people near him who are just as suspect. In a brief flashforward to the day before the Pontentate''s burial, it is revealed that the assassin was caught on video camera and David Hassid is clearly surprised by what the tape reveals.

Assassins

In the previous book "A Clan in Need", Ravenpaw and Barley go and ask Firestar, leader of ThunderClan for help to drive out the rogues that drove Ravenpaw and Barley away from the farm. After gathering up a patrol of cats willing to help, they attack and succeed in driving the rogues away. Firestar then promises to help Barley and Ravenpaw back to their home. The Heart of a Warrior will follow Firestar, Ravenpaw and Barley in their adventure back. The story continues where Ravenpaw and Barley are still in ThunderClan. They prepare to go back to the barn and with the help of Firestar and a warrior patrol; they are ready to reclaim the barn back. Ravenpaw and Barley wanted to leave quietly without anyone noticing, but Squirrelkit makes enough noise to get attention of the whole Clan; thus making everyone knowing that Ravenpaw and Barley are leaving. They do their farewells and depart from ThunderClan with a warrior patrol. They go in the barn finding the place all wrecked. Firestar then makes a plan to ambush the rogues in their sleep. When they carry out their plan, they are given away when the chickens are startled and make a lot of racket and noise. During the battle in the barn, the farmer goes in and makes everyone retreat. It turns out that some of the "rogues" were part of BloodClan. Firestar later then comes up with another plan, claiming that it will work. Most of the plan works out so far when they drive out the rogues out of the barn, but as the battle continues outside, it transpires that the rogues had reinforcements. They were about to lose against the rogues until the dogs got loose and attack the rogues. They finally drive out the rogues with the help of the dogs (whom Ravenpaw and Barley once saved from the fire), leaving only Barley''s brothers left; Hoot and Jumper. They were about to be killed, but Barley says not to. Firestar and the warrior patrol then depart with Ravenpaw and Barley and they return to ThunderClan. Ravenpaw and Barley let Hoot and Jumper stay in the barn. While Barley goes out on a walk, Ravenpaw shows Hoot and Jumper around the farm. Ravenpaw notices that Hoot and Jumper don''t even care and they don''t do anything. As the three return to the barn, Ravenpaw takes a nap. when he wakes up by Barley, he finds the barn wrecked. Hoot and Jumper claim that they were trying to hunt for mice. One night Barley and his brothers go out for a walk. When they return, Hoot and Jumper order Ravenpaw to do everything for them. The next day, they still are ordering Ravenpaw around. Ravenpaw wonders why Barley isn''t doing anything about it. Later in the day, Barley gets angry at Hoot and Jumper saying that he doesn''t like how they are treating his friend and claims that loyalty is everything, not blood. Ravenpaw sees this but doesn''t help Barley, knowing that he can handle it on his own. Hoot and Jumper later leave the barn for good. Ravenpaw and Barley finally have their home, together, and as their own.

The Heart of a Warrior

Orosa-Nakpil Malate is a gay themed story that revolves around a University of the Philippines, Manila Intarmed freshman by the name of John David “Dave” de Jesus who looked for fun but found love and life in the liberated world of Orosa-Nakpil streets in Malate, Manila. Dana, his Intarmed classmate and his best friend, served as his “fairy godmother” while he goes on his sexcapades in Malate. She kept him strong at and stayed at his side during his toughest times at school and in love and turned him from an innocent rural gay into an outgoing urban gay hottie. In Orosa-Nakpil, Malate, he met not only the men who spent steamy nights with him in the dark room on the second floor of Barn bar, but also the men who changed his life forever. The complexity of the story started from a high school rivalry between Dave and Michael that turned into a bitter revenge against the former. He fell in love with a guy, who turned out to be part of the big plan against him and broke his heart - big time. Another guy, who he thought he could trust, destroyed his dignity in the dark premises of a campus comfort room and was framed as the sinner - the unfaithful cock sucker. Then he met Ross, the guy who made him fall in love like he never did. He never felt more special. But then, a painful event took them apart. Ross gave him a stethoscope before he bid goodbye. Dave then, slowly and surely but not completely, moved on and became successful in his studies. He graduated with flying colors and became a doctor. Then an unexpected encounter presented shocking revelations to Dave that made everything clear to him. Why he was raped, why Ross left, why a hundred crumpled fliers containing libelous information flew towards Dave at the Barn bar 6 years ago, why Ross did something Dave never thought he could. He knew why - he knew that it was because of revenge, HIV-AIDS, and Ross’ incomparable love for Dave. Orosa-Nakpil Malate, is a story of love, hate and hope; of family, friendship and rivalry, sending great awareness about HIV-AIDS, how brutal and merciless but life-changing it is, and most especially, how to prevent yourself from being infected.

Orosa-Nakpil, Malate

The story concerns a family who move to "Three Chimneys", a house near the railway, after the father, who works at the Foreign office, is imprisoned as a result of being falsely accused of selling state secrets to the Russians. The three children, Roberta (Bobbie), Peter and Phyllis (Phil), find amusement in watching the trains on the nearby railway line and waving to the passengers. They become friendly with Albert Perks, the station porter, and with the Old Gentleman who regularly takes the 9:15 down train. He is eventually able to help prove their father''s innocence, and the family is reunited. The family take care of the Russian exile, Mr Szczepansky, who came to England looking for his family (later located) and Jim, the grandson of the Old Gentleman, who suffers a broken leg in a tunnel. The theme of an innocent man being falsely imprisoned for espionage and finally vindicated might have been influenced by the Dreyfus Affair, which was a prominent worldwide news item a few years before the book was written. And the Russian exile, persecuted by the Tsars for writing "a beautiful book about poor people and how to help them" and subsequently helped by the children, was most likely an amalgam of the real-life dissidents Sergius Stepniak and Peter Kropotkin who were both friends of the author.

The Railway Children

This book is the story of a cowboy (Jack Burns), who lives as a transient worker and roaming ranch hand much as the cowboys of old did, and refuses to join modern society. He rejects much of modern technology, prefers to cut down any fence he comes across, will not carry any kind of modern identification such as a driver''s license or Social Security card, and refuses to register for the draft. When his friend Paul Bondi, who is a philosophical anarchist, is jailed for refusing to register for the draft, Burns deliberately gets himself arrested in an attempt to break his friend out of jail, but winds up on the run from the law himself. Bondi has been tried and is awaiting transport from county jail to federal prison but refuses to escape with Burns. As police have discovered that Burns has also never registered for the draft, authorities are intent on sending Burns to trial and eventually federal prison for violation of the Selective Service Act of 1948. Burns eventually escapes reluctantly leaving his friend behind. After a brief stop to say goodbye to Paul''s wife (Jerry) and son (Seth), Jack heads for the nearest mountains on horseback. The police mount a manhunt and pull out all the stops to capture Burns, including helicopters on loan by the Air Force. If Burns can scale the mountain range, he figures he can escape under the cover of the forest on the other side. The police know this as well, so they position themselves to prevent that from happening.

The Brave Cowboy

A ship heading from Earth to Athena, a planet 500 light years away, is suddenly attacked by the Gerns, an alien empire in its expansion phase. People aboard are divided by the invaders into Acceptables and Rejects. The Acceptables would become slave labor for the Gerns on Athena, and the Rejects are forced ashore on the nearest ''Earth-like'' planet, called Ragnarok. The Gerns say they will return for the Rejects, but the Rejects quickly realise that that isn''t going to happen. Ragnarok is not so ''Earth-like.'' Its gravity is 1.5 times that of Earth, it is populated by deadly, aggressive creatures and it contains little in the way of usable metal ores. This, combined with a terrible deadly fever that kills in hours, more than decimates the population. The novels follows the stranded humans through several generations as they try to survive there, and their unswerving goal to repay the Gerns for their cruelty. Comic book writer Warren Ellis counts the novel as one of his early favorites, writing, "I must have read that book twenty times. It just rips along (in many senses of the word “rips”), as shamelessly gleeful as a short genre book should be." There is a sequel from 1964 called The Space Barbarians.

The Survivors

Jango begins with Seeker, Morning Star and Wildman who are all being taught in the Nom and are near the end of their training. Their teacher, Chance, mentions the secret skill of a Noble Warrior, and tells them a new teacher will be assigned to them to help them attain this secret skill. He then hands them over to Miriander, who puts them through training to learn how to control another''s will by using lir. Once this training is over, it is discovered that Seeker has power without limits. Unlike the other Noble Warriors, he is able to suck the lir out of any living thing and doesn''t get weary doing so. He fights and defeats Chance. Afterwards, he is told to stay in one place while the Elder and the council of the Nomana decide what to do with him, as they feel that they should not loose such power in the world, yet he might be the one the save the Nomana. In the trees of the forest called the Glimmen lives Echo Kittle who is described as being pale, slender and beautiful. She is captured by the Orlan leader, Amroth Jahan, who intends to arrange a marriage between her and one of his sons. She refuses to do so until the Jahan threatens to burn down the Glimmen and kill everyone in it. She decides to go along with them and soon they arrive in Radiance, which is led by Soren Similin. After a series of events taking up more than half the book, Similin manages to form an alliance between the Jahan and Radiance so they can destroy Anacrea with the use of charged water, which has huge explosive power. Neither the Jahan or Radiance intends to share the victory with the other. In his cell, Seeker is told by a Noma, Narrow Path, that the council of the Nom has decided to cleanse Seeker. Narrow Path believes this is the wrong decision and, knowing that he himself will be cleansed for this act, sets Seeker free, and tells him that he must go and fight the true threat; the Savanters, whom live in the land cloud. Seeker heads off to the land cloud, which is on the opposite side of the Glimmen, and on the way there he meets Jango sitting by a strange door in a broken down wall. At first, Jango seems to be a crazy old man, until he begins citing many of Seeker''s personal thoughts. He gives Seeker much cryptic advice on how to defeat the Savanters and cites Noman''s famous quote. (see Noman''s experiment). Seeker continues on his way through the Glimmen but is stopped by Echo Kittle who has escaped from the Orlans in Radiance. She pleads with Seeker to help her defend the Glimmen from the Orlans but Seeker, knowing that he has little time left, refuses and carries on his way into the land cloud. There he kills five out of seven savanters but he is told to go back by a black figure, pretending to be his shadow. Seeker feels that something bad is happening at the Nom so he runs back as fast as he can. When Seeker arrives back at the Nom, the army of Orlans has already attacked and the charged water bomb ready to blow up the city, although Seeker doesn''t know this. Seeker drives his power into the ground, causing an earthquake that stopped the battle in an instant, but the charged water bomb had already been launched at Anacrea and destroyed it, along with the Garden and the Lost Child. Seeker gets angry and takes revenge on the Jahan by breaking his pride, forcing him to kneel to Echo Kittle. The army of Orlans breaks up and Soren Similin dies from a charged water explosion. Seeker heads out in search of a purpose and runs across Jango, who is standing before a door. Jango says the door is open and he can enter if he wishes. Before he enters, he is told by Jango that there are many more Noms, and so he realizes the All and Only is not dead. The book is ended when Seeker enters the strange door next to Jango and enters an exact replica of the Nom''s Garden that he was used to. He kneels down and asks for forgiveness for disbelieving in him after the destruction of the Nom.

Jango

Kim, a nine year old Vietnamese girl, decides to plant six Lima bean seeds in a vacant lot in remembrance of her dead father, a farmer, and she also has two sisters. She visits every day to see the progress. She plants the beans in the hope that the spirit of her father will watch and recognize her as his daughter. Ana, a very old woman who is Romanian sees Kim bury something, and quickly assumes Kim is doing something illegal. Ana digs up the seeds in the vacant lot. Upon discovery of the Lima seeds, she feels sorry and replants them. Wendell, a man in the community, is told by Ana that Kim planted the seeds, and they are dying since Kim planted the seeds in the wrong season, so he decides to watch over them while he creates a small garden of his own in the space. Gonzalo, a Guatemalan teenager, and his uncle, Tio Juan, also add to the garden. Tio Juan was a farmer in Guatemala and finally finds a place he feels comfortable in the garden. Juan helps others with their gardens, but no one can understand him because he doesn''t even speak English. Sam is a 78 year old man who is nice to everyone, and started a contest to solve the problem of water reaching the gardens. If adults can''t do it, let children try! Leona also sees the progress of the garden but dislikes all the garbage. She complains to the government and wins. Curtis plants tomatoes to win the heart of a former girlfriend, Lateesha. Curtis planted it outside the fence and becomes very protective of the garden after some of his tomatoes are stolen. So he enlists Royce, a teenager who is homeless. Sae Young owned a drycleaning shop until she was brutally beaten during a robbery. Soon she becomes fearful of people. She would never go out of her house and would have everything delivered. When she goes to the garden, she begins to feel safer around people. Nora is a nurse who takes care of a man in a wheelchair, Mr. Myles, and as they walk by the garden, Mr. Myles gets excited and Nora helps him to join in planting something. Maricela is a pregnant sixteen year old who wishes her baby would die.Then she starts to realize that the miracle of life is not so bad. Amir is an Indian immigrant and owns a fabric store. He decides to plant eggplant and carrots in the garden. In the garden he meets up with someone who had insulted him in his store, and they become friends. He also assists in the arrest of a robber, along with two other men. Florence loves the garden, but she can not participate because of arthritis in her wrists. She watches the garden change, and becomes upset when nobody is there for the fall and winter. She fears that nobody will come back the following year, but the story comes full circle when she sees Kim planting Lima beans in early spring again.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Reborn

By F. Paul Wilson

Das Königsprojekt

By Carl Amery

Forever

By Judy Blume

The Ninja

By Eric Van Lustbader

Assassins

By Tim LaHaye

The Heart of a Warrior

By Erin Hunter

Orosa-Nakpil, Malate

By Louie Mar Gangcuangco

The Railway Children

By E. Nesbit

The Brave Cowboy

By Edward Abbey

The Survivors

By Tom Godwin

Jango

By William Nicholson

Seedfolks

By Paul Fleischman