In 1942, John (J.R.R. Tolkien), Jack (C.S. Lewis), and Charles (Charles Williams) return to the Archipelago of Dreams as the last stones of the Keep of Time fall, dangerously approaching the Cartographer (Merlin)''s study as well as the ever-out-of-reach "future" door. As the second World War rages in the Summer Country, the Imperial Cartological Society - led by writer/explorer Sir Richard Burton - rebuilds it at the request of the Archipelago''s terrible foe, the shadow of the Winter King, who wields a weapon of such power it can take the soul of anyone it touches - even the ancient and terrifyingly powerful dragons. To defeat the King''s shadow, the three Caretakers band together with past Caretakers (the Caretakers Emeritis) found at Tamerlane House, built by Edgar Allan Poe in the Nameless Isles of the Archipelago. Rose Dyson, the Grail Child, Don Quixote, Archimedes, and Stellan Sigurdsson are sent to retrieve and repair the sword Caliburn. In the meantime, the Caretakers are betrayed by Rudyard Kipling and Daniel Defoe, but their cause is bolstered when Burton, Doyle, and Houdini defect from the Imperial Cartological Society, which had allied itself with the Shadow King. Charles and Fred, Tummeler''s grandson, chase Defoe through a Trump, and burn down a reproduction of the Keep of Time by the Shadow King. When Rose, Archimedes, and Quixote return, the Nameless Isles are under siege from the armada of children created by the Shadow King in 1926. They were brought by the Chancellor Murdoch, who is a fusion of the Red King from the Clockwork Parliament made by the animals in 1914 and of Mordred''s shadow. He wields the Lance of Longinus, which can command the shadows of the Dragons, using their true names. The Dragons'' true names, all except for Samaranth''s, were found in the Last Book stolen by Defoe. The children are pushed back by the Tin Man (Roger Bacon), and the shadows of the Dragons are prevented from entering into the Nameless Isles by the carvorite deposits in the bases of the islands. The Shadow King, however, crosses and kills Artus, the King of the Silver Throne and descendant of Arthur Pendragon. Kipling reveals himself as a triple agent for the Caretakers, Rose Dyson binds the Chancellor, and Stephen, Aven''s son, kills him with Caliburn. Finally, Rose frees each of the dragons, leaving Samaranth the last dragon alive. Stephen becomes the new King of the Archipelago, and the Dragonships, now soulless, are no longer allowed to pass the Frontier. John, Jack, and Charles are returned to Oxford and to their own time, and they forge a full alliance, to be implemented in seven years, with Burton and the Imperial Cartological Society.

The Shadow Dragons

Saman follows four sexually liberated female friends: Yasmin, a married Catholic lawyer from Medan; Cok, a Balinese lawyer with a high libido; Shakuntala, a bisexual Catholic Javanese dancer; and Laila, a Muslim Minangkabau journalist. The other protagonist is the titular Saman, a former Catholic priest turned human rights activist who becomes the target of sexual advances by Yasmin and Cok. The first chapter, beginning in Central Park, New York, describes Laila waiting for the married Sihar and planning to lose her virginity to him. Eventually Laila realises that Sihar is still in Jakarta with his wife, and feels depressed. The second chapter covers Saman''s childhood—including his relationship with his mother, a woman drawn to the spiritual world—his entry into priesthood, and his attempt to protect a rubber tapping community from the attempt by a local plantation to acquire their land. After the attempt fails and the plantation''s hired thugs raze the community to the ground and kills those who resist, Saman is captured and tortured. He eventually is broken out of his confinement by the surviving resistance members, becoming a fugitive and relinquishing his duty as a priest. He becomes a human rights advocate, assisted by Yasmin. The third chapter, written from the point of view of Shakuntala, tells how Yasmin, Cok, Shakuntala, and Laila met at high school and their escapades there, both sexual and academic. Shakuntala recounts a fantasy she had as a teenager about meeting a "foreign demon", embracing him and then having a debate on the different cultural aspects of sexuality. Towards the end of the chapter, Shakuntala notes that she is attracted to Laila and dislikes Sihar, but supports her friend''s efforts as she cares for her. During the fourth chapter, Saman is spirited away to New York by Yasmin and Cok. Although both Cok and the married Yasmin make advances toward him, he initially declines. However, during the middle of the night he and Yasmin have sex, but Saman is distressed because he ejaculated quickly. The entirety of the last chapter consists of emails sent between Saman and Yasmin, discussing their insecurities, that become increasingly sexualised.

Saman

Five years have passed since the computer known as Colossus used its control over the world''s nuclear deterrent to take control of humanity. Superseded by an even more advanced successor system built on the Isle of Wight, it has abolished war and poverty throughout the world. National competition and most sports have been replaced by the Sea War Game, where replicas of World War I dreadnoughts battle each other for viewing audiences. A group known as the Sect, which worships Colossus as a god, is growing in numbers and influence. Yet despite the seeming omnipresence of Colossus'' secret police and the penalty of decapitation for anti-Colossus activities, a secret Fellowship exists that is dedicated to the computer''s destruction. Charles Forbin, the former head of the design team that built and activated the original Colossus, now lives on the Isle of Wight with his wife and son, serving the computer as Director of Staff. Though contemptuous of the growing cult of personality around Colossus, he has reconciled himself to Colossus'' rule. His wife Cleo, however, loathes Colossus and is a member of the Fellowship. One afternoon while taking her son to a secluded beach, she receives a radio transmission from the planet Mars. Identifying Cleo as a member of the Fellowship, the transmission offers help to destroy Colossus and asks her to return to the same spot the next day for further instructions. She returns with Edward Blake, Colossus'' Director of Input and the head of the Fellowship. Together they receive instructions to obtain a circuit diagram of one of Colossus'' input terminals and a sample of the information fed into it, along with instructions to proceed to two locations&nbsp;— one in St. John''s, Newfoundland, the other in New York''s Central Park&nbsp;— to receive further transmissions. Though Blake passes the necessary information along to Cleo, she is quickly arrested by the Sect and sentenced by Colossus to spend three months at an "Emotional Study Center" where she is repeatedly raped as part of an experiment designed to help Colossus better understand human emotion. Now under suspicion, Blake approaches Forbin, who is devastated by his wife''s arrest. Explaining the details of their plot, Blake convinces Forbin to help after explaining the details of Cleo''s captivity. Forbin travels in disguise with the requested information, first to St. John''s, then to New York City, where he receives an incomprehensible mathematical problem that the transmission claims will destroy Colossus once it is fed into the computer. Upon his return, Forbin slips the problem to Blake, who enters it into Colossus. While Forbin converses with the computer, Colossus begins to make verbal errors, then stops. Increasingly erratic, it attempts to warn Forbin of a threat from space that it was preparing to meet but breaks down before it can complete the message. Now free of Colossus'' rule, Blake moves to seize power, using the automated fleets of the Sea War Games to threaten the world''s capitals. As Blake gloats, Forbin tells him of Colossus'' warning. Requesting any reports of unusual astronomical activity, they learn that two contacts have been detected leaving Martian orbit and heading towards the Earth. The novel ends with the two men hearing a radio transmission repeating, "Forbin, we are coming."

The Fall of Colossus

June, AD 80: When Flavia Gemina''s father Marcus leaves on another sea voyage, she and her three friends – Nubia, Jonathan, and Lupus – accept an invitation from their friend Polla Pulchra to spend the rest of the month at her father''s luxurious villa in Surrentum. Behind the invitation is a plea for help: Pulchra''s mother, Polla Argentaria, seems to fall ill whenever they have houseguests, and Pulchra suspects someone is trying to poison her mother. On the pretext of a matchmaking party, Pulchra has convinced her father to invite all of Pulchra''s suspects: three young widows and three bachelors. Romance is thick in the air: Flavia still nurses a secret love for Pulchra''s father, the charismatic Publius Pollius Felix, despite the difference in their ages. She is flustered to find that the male guests include the young lawyer Gaius Valerius Flaccus, who shared a past adventure with them (in The Colossus of Rhodes). Pulchra also takes a shine to Flaccus, even while growing closer to Jonathan. Flavia also meets, for the first time, the young senator''s son she has been betrothed to: Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus. The two do not make a favorable impression on each other, but gradually she is won over by his inquisitive nature and willingness to help in their investigation. Flavia assigns each member of her new "team" to watch one of the young bachelors or widows, but no obvious suspect turns up. However, their surveillance does reveal the disquieting fact that Felix regularly cheats on his wife, with the female houseguests, the young slave girls, and several women from the nearby town of Baiae (whilst there are no explicit depictions of sexual activity in the novel, there is certain implicit material which might surprise in a children''s novel). They consider whether one of the young widows (or even Felix himself) is trying to poison Polla to make way for a new marriage. Tranquillus has the idea of consulting a poisoning expert in Baiae, Locusta (purportedly the daughter of the famous poisoner employed by Nero). Locusta says Polla''s symptoms are consistent with poisoning by hemlock, which shows that the poisoner must be an amateur: hemlock is only lethal if used in the correct dose, and when it is fresh. Locusta draws the conclusion that Polla has built up a resistance to hemlock because of this. Flavia has the idea of laying a trap: she lets the adults overhear her angrily scolding Tranquillus for bringing back a packet of incredibly lethal poison from Locusta for "research purposes," and tells him to hide it in an isolated part of the villa. They lie in wait to see who steals it, and the poisoner turns out to be Polla herself. Driven to despair by her husband''s repeated infidelities, she has been trying (somewhat half-heartedly) to commit suicide. Flavia watches her swallow a cup of wine laced with the non-existent poison, then faint from its imagined effects. Flavia then confronts Felix, telling him how much his selfish behavior has wounded his wife. Pulchra, who once idolized her father, is so distraught by her parents'' behavior that she makes her own half-hearted attempt at suicide, swimming out to sea to drown herself. Flavia convinces her to come back, telling her that her parents can mend their relationship, and to remember that Flavia and the others are still her friends. Felix calls Flavia into his study to thank her in private for helping his wife and daughter. To her surprise, he moves closer, as though wanting to kiss her. Though she has dreamed about him doing this before, now that it is about to happen, she is suddenly repulsed, and excuses herself in a hurry. She runs out, deciding to forget that she has ever loved him. Tranquillus receives a harsh letter from his father, who has heard about some of the wilder goings-on at the villa, and put a scandalous interpretation on some of his innocent exchanges with Flavia. The letter ends with his father ordering him to end the betrothal and return to Rome. Tranquillus is furious, but has no choice but to obey. Flavia is saddened, as she was honestly getting to like Tranquillus. As the four friends depart the villa, she decides that she is in no hurry to fall in love and get married. Instead, she is determined to enjoy her childhood for as long as possible, and have as many adventures with her friends as she can.

The Sirens of Surrentum

Detained at P.O.W. Camp 354 near Nanyuki, Kenya, Felice Benuzzi from Trieste, together with two fellow-prisoners Dr. Giovanni (''Giuàn'') Balletto from Genova and Vincenzo (''Enzo'') Barsotti from Lido di Camaiore, escaped in January 1943 and climbed Mt Kenya with improvised equipment and meagre rations, two of them reaching a point above the Petit Gendarme, at about 5000 metres, high up the NW ridge. After an eventful 18-day period on the mountain (24 January-10 February), and to the astonishment of the British camp commandant, the three adventurers broke back into Camp 354. As reward for their exploit, they each received 28 days in solitary confinement, commuted to 7 days by the camp commandant in acknowledgement of their "sporting effort". From the flyleaf of the 1952 William Kimber edition of the book: :"One of the most unusual adventures of the war years has now been written by the man who led it, and who has the ability to tell his story with the accuracy and vividness that compels the readers to live through it with him. Felice Benuzzi was a P.O.W. in a British Camp facing Mount Kenya (5,199 m - 17,058 ft). The depressing tedium of camp life and the fascination of the mountain combined to inspire him with a plan. He first put the prospect of escaping to climb it to a fellow prisoner who was a professional mountaineer. The expert told him that the idea was mad, that they would need six months'' training on first-class food and porters to carry equipment to a base camp. But Benuzzi was not to be put off. Eventually he got two others to conspire with him, a doctor and a sailor. Surreptitiously they improvised scant equipment and saved what food they could from rations. Their only ''map'' of the mountain was a sketch of it on the label of an Oxo tin. :"And then they escaped, and went to climb the mountain. The sailor was ill immediately after breakout but decided to carry on. The lower reaches of Kenya are jungle and forest infested with big game. They were unarmed, and their encounters with the animals are some of the most exciting passages in the story. But Benuzzi writes with a simplicity and vigour that take you with him every yard of the way. At the foot of the highest peak the sailor was too ill to go further, and Benuzzi and the doctor went forward to the climax of their adventure. Their way back was as hazardous as the ascent, and the tension never relaxes until they at last break back into the P.O.W. camp from which they had escaped and give themselves up to the British Commandant."

No Picnic on Mount Kenya

This novel is an imaginative reconstruction of the life of a band of Neanderthals. It is written in such a way that the reader might assume the group to be modern Homo sapiens as they gesture and speak simply among themselves, and bury their dead with heartfelt, solemn rituals. They also have powerful sense impressions and feelings, and appear sometimes to share thoughts in a near-telepathic way. As the novel progresses it becomes more and more apparent that they live very simply, using their considerable mental abilities to connect to one another without extensive vocabulary or the kinds of memories that create culture. They have wide knowledge of food sources, mostly roots and vegetables. They chase hyaenas from a larger beast''s kill and eat meat, but they don''t kill mammals themselves. They have a spiritual system centring on a female principle of bringing forth, but their lives are lived so much in the present that the reader realizes they are very different from us, living in something like an eternal present, or at least a present broken and shaped by seasons. One of the band, Lok, is a point of view character. He is the one we follow as one by one the adults of the band die or are killed, then the young are stolen by the "new people," a group of early modern humans. Lok and Fa, the remaining adults, are fascinated and repelled by the new people. They observe their actions and rituals with amazement, only slowly understanding that harm is meant by the sticks of the new people. The humans are portrayed as strange, godlike beings as the neanderthals witness their mastery of fire, Upper Palaeolithic weaponry and sailing. All save the last chapters of the novel are written from the Neanderthals'' stark, simple stylistic perspective. Their observations of early human behaviour serve as a filter for Golding''s exercise in paleoanthropology, in which modern readers will recognize precursors of later human societal constructs, e.g., religion, culture, sacrifice and war. The penultimate chapter employs an omniscient viewpoint, observing Lok. For the first time, the novel describes the people the reader has been inhabiting through the first-person perspective. Lok, totally alone, gives up in despair. In the final chapter, we move to the point of view of the new race, more or less modern humans fleeing in their boats, revealing that they are terribly afraid of the Neanderthals whom they believe to be devils of the forest. This last chapter, the only one written from the humans'' point of view, reinforces the inheritance of the world by the new species. The fleeing humans carry with them an infant Neanderthal, of whom they are simultaneously afraid and enamoured, hinting at the later hypothesis of inter-breeding between Neanderthals and modern humans.

The Inheritors

Catherine, Called Birdy provides an insider''s look at the life of Catherine Rollo, 14, the daughter of a minor English nobleman. She is called "Birdy" in reference to the number of birds she keeps in her room. It could also be interpreted metaphorically, as she has been described as "a bird fighting against the bars of her cage" many times throughout the story. The year is 1290 and the vehicle for storytelling is Catherine''s diary. She looks with a clear and critical eye upon the world around her, telling of the people she knows and of the daily events in her small manor house. Much of Birdy''s energy is consumed by avoiding the various suitors her father chooses for her to marry. She sends them all packing with assorted ruses until she is almost wed to an older, unattractive man she refers to as Shaggy Beard. In the process of telling the routines of her young life, Birdy lays before readers a feast of details about medieval England. The book contains information about the food, dress, religious beliefs, manners, health, medical practices, and sanitary habits (or lack thereof) of the people of her day. From the number of fleas she kills in an evening to her herbal medicines laced with urine, Birdy tells facts about her time period. She is depicted as a feminist far ahead of her time. An afterword discusses the mind set of medieval people and concludes with a list of books to consult for further information about the period.

Catherine, Called Birdy

The lives of several friends are thrown into disarray by the machinations of Julius King. Julius makes a bet with his ex-girlfriend Morgan that he can break up the homosexual couple Axel and Simon; meanwhile, Morgan and her brother-in-law Rupert are conned into embarking on an affair, and Morgan''s nephew Peter is falling in love with her. Julius King, returning from a university job in America, seeks out his old school friends, Rupert Foster and Axel Nillson. His former lover, Morgan Browne, Foster’s sister-in-law, has arrived in England at the same time. Foster’s attempts to keep them apart are thwarted by Morgan Browne, still in love with King and determined to confront him. At the same time, she is avoiding her husband, Tallis Browne, who still loves her. The plot is complicated further when, almost immediately and by accident, Julius King meets Tallis Browne. King is intrigued by his old lover’s husband, a rather nondescript fellow with not much personal presence but considerable moral integrity. King himself is a man of formidable intellect, and he does not suffer anyone gladly. He is irritated by what he sees as self-satisfied and patronizing conduct in his friends, and he sets out, without much concern for the consequences, to put them in compromising situations. Morgan, his love from the past, will not leave him alone, and though he has a quick way of chastening her for her importunities, he determines to include her in his plans. Rupert Foster, rather full of himself since he has just finished his book on the power of good and love in life, is ripe and ready to be fooled, and Morgan, full of the hot air of spurned love and dramatizing her problems for all to see, appears to be just the mate for Rupert, if King can somehow get them together. To make the game more interesting, he takes on the extra task of breaking up the homosexual relationship between Axel Nillson and Simon, Rupert’s brother. Using a mixture of high cunning, sheer criminality, and pinches of blackmail, King tempts his friends into situations which they would never have contemplated and which ultimately result not only in revealing flaws in their characters but also in causing serious harm to Rupert, for which King, a cool, nerveless fellow, takes no responsibility. Everyone learns how ridiculously vulnerable they are, but Axel and Simon escape from King’s labyrinth of “now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t,” strengthened in their love and less inclined to be shamefaced about being homosexual. Whether Morgan Browne learns anything is unclear, and the damage done to the Fosters is gratuitously cruel.

A Fairly Honourable Defeat

Ever since Wallace Wallace (main character) was young, he has insisted on telling the truth. After scoring the winning touchdown for the Bedford Middle School football team in the championship Wallace Wallace, he becomes a popular guy. What the entire town and most of the football team don''t realize is that Wallace is really a benchwarmer, whose winning touchdown was a fluke. His former best friend, football team captain Steve Cavanaugh, knows that the winning move was lucky and has cut ties with Wallace because of it. When Wallace is assigned to write a report on the book Old Shep, My Pal, he won''t lie about his feelings. He dislikes the book and writes a negative review, which results in a detention handed down by his English teacher, Mr. Fogelman, until he writes a quality review. His detention is spent with the drama club, which is currently producing a play version of Old Shep, My Pal. Wallace is initially bored, but soon impresses the club members with his charisma and suggestions for improvement. When his detention is complete, he quits the football team to join the drama club. The student body does not take this lightly, as they view him as the hero of the team. Soon after Wallace joins the club, an unknown person vandalizes the play set and rehearsals. One club member, Rachel Turner, believes Wallace is the culprit. Everyone else initially regards him as a hero and refuses to believe her, but when one of Wallace''s practice jerseys appears during the final sabotage attempt, they turn against him. Rachel changes her mind to believe that Wallace isn''t the vandal. Wallace is eventually banned from the play entirely. Despite his ban, the drama club decides to use Wallace''s ideas for the play, including having Shep live at the end. This decision results in disaster when the saboteur blows up the prop Shep during the performance—just as the actors praise his miraculous recovery. Meanwhile, Wallace figures out that the culprit is Rachel''s brother Dylan, who wanted revenge because he felt the play had ruined the famous Wallace Wallace. Consequently, Wallace tells his first lie to spare Rachel''s feelings. After her initial anger at Wallace, she realizes on her own that Dylan was behind the attacks. Wallace and Rachel recognize their mutual feelings of love, and plan to go on a date together. Furthermore, Cavanaugh and Wallace make up and are friends again.

No More Dead Dogs

While looking at a cottage with her friend Mrs. May, Kate discovers that the present tenant, Tom Goodenough, knew Arrietty Clock, a tiny "Borrower" that Mrs. May''s brother claimed to have met. He tells her what happened to Arrietty and her parents after they were driven from their original home in an old, English house. Homeless, they are forced to live outside. When they discover that the relatives they had hoped to stay with are nowhere to be found, they take up residence in an old boot. Arrietty meets a mysterious, wild Borrower named Spiller who assists them by bringing them meat and saves Arrietty''s life from a dog. Although nearly everything outside - cows, moths, field mice, cold weather - is a life-threatening danger for the tiny Borrowers, they learn how to survive in the wild. One night the boot''s owner, a gypsy named Mild Eye, discovers his lost property and brings them back to his caravan. With the help of the human boy Tom Goodenough, Spiller rescues them and leads them on to the their next home, the cottage that Tom lives in. There the Clocks find their long-lost relatives and Arrietty finds a friend in Tom.

The Borrowers Afield

The Kellers are a bourgeois couple living in a smaller German town whose daughter has married the Russian emigre writer Chorb. The distrust between Chorb and his father-in-law is deepened when Chorb and his bride escape from the formality of their wedding to spend their first night at a local seedy hotel. On the honeymoon, the bride accidentally touches a live electric wire near Nice and dies. Chorb now returns to recreate her image by visiting the sites they had been to together and to tell her parents. Arriving in the evening he only finds the maid at the Keller''s home who have gone to the opera to see Parsifal. Chorb does not want to break the news to her and tells her that his bride is ill and he will be back in the morning. He returns to the hotel to spend the night in the same room he had been with his wife. Unable to stay in the room alone, he pays a prostitute to stay with him. When the Kellers get home, they are too alarmed to wait for the morning and leave for the hotel. There, during the night, Chorb sees his wife in the prostitute, screams, and the terrified woman is about to leave: at this moment the Kellers arrive.

The Return of Chorb

The novel is set in an era in which interstellar travel is in the process of being discovered and perfected. Before the novel''s opening, "hyper-assistance", a technology allowing travel at a little slower than the speed of light, is used to move a reclusive space station colony called Rotor from the vicinity of Earth to the newly discovered red dwarf, Nemesis. There, it takes up orbit around the semi-habitable moon, Erythro, named for the red light that falls on it. It is eventually discovered that the bacterial life on Erythro forms a collective organism that possesses a form of consciousness and telepathy (a concept similar to the Gaia of Asimov''s Foundation series). While the colonists argue over the direction of future colonization — down to Erythro, or up to the asteroid belts of Nemesis system — events catch up to them. Back on Earth superluminal flight is perfected, ending Rotor Colony''s isolation and opening the galaxy to human exploration. The story also relates the breakup and reunion of a family (the mother, the discoverer of Nemesis, and the daughter were separated from the Earthbound father when the colony departed; the father becomes part of the hyperjump research project as a result); the startling discovery that the bacterial inhabitants of Erythro, collectively, constitute a sentient and telepathic organism; and the discovery and resolution of a massive crisis: Nemesis'' trajectory threatens to gravitationally destabilize the Solar System.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

The Shadow Dragons

By James A. Owen

Saman

By Ayu Utami

The Fall of Colossus

By Dennis Feltham Jones

The Sirens of Surrentum

By Caroline Lawrence

No Picnic on Mount Kenya

No Author Listed

The Inheritors

By William Golding

Catherine, Called Birdy

By Karen Cushman

A Fairly Honourable Defeat

By Iris Murdoch

No More Dead Dogs

By Gordon Korman

The Borrowers Afield

By Mary Norton

The Return of Chorb

By Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov

Nemesis

By Isaac Asimov