The book is written in the form of a false document. It opens with a foreword by Meyer, who states that the manuscript was brought to his attention by a woman with some familial connection to Horace Vernet, also an ancestor of Holmes. The woman had read The Seven-Per-Cent Solution and thought Meyer might be interested. Although damaged by water, the manuscript proved authentic. Dr. Watson explains in his own preface that he did not publish the story because of the number of well-known persons who would be affected - persons whose identity would be impossible to disguise. Holmes had for a long time refused Watson permission to write the story on these very grounds, but Watson eventually persuaded him by promising to place the manuscript in Holmes'' hands, the only condition being that he not destroy it. The story involves many well-known people, including George Bernard Shaw, who hires Holmes to look into the death of an unpleasant theatre critic; Sir Arthur Sullivan, one of whose singers at the D''Oyly Carte Opera Company was another victim of the murderer; and others including W. S. Gilbert, Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, Henry Irving, Ellen Terry and Frank Harris. In the novel, Holmes clears the name of a shy Parsee Indian wrongfully accused of murder; in real life Conan Doyle played a significant part in helping George Edalji, a Parsee victim of injustice in the English court.

The West End Horror

The book begins with Khan, Lt. Marla McGivers, and most of the other supermen and women that had been with him on the SS Botany Bay arriving on the planet Ceti Alpha V. Khan is given supplies and a phaser and begins to build a colony on the planet. Khan is challenged several times by his fellow supermen, but remains in control for the most part. Some time after arriving, the next planet in the Ceti Alpha system, Ceti Alpha VI, explodes and disrupts the orbit of Ceti Alpha V. This causes major climate changes and loss of plant and animal life. Khan and the supermen take refuge underground and Khan waits for Kirk to arrive and rescue him and his followers from the hell that has become of the planet. After more time passes, several supermen do not wish to follow Khan any longer and try to assassinate Khan by placing a Ceti Eel in Marla McGivers'' ear. This bizarre creature causes her to do whatever is commanded of her, and the men order her to kill Khan. Marla''s love for Khan allows her to resist enough to instead kill herself. The eel emerges from her ear after her death and Khan sees the reason why she died. After the failed assassination, the rebels leave the underground and form a new faction on the planet, taking control of the vital hot springs that provide the only water on the planet. Khan then battles them, losing many men and women, but winning in the end. At the end of the novel a few years later, Khan sees two men in space suits materialize on the planet''s surface. Throughout the novel, Khan blames his hardships on James Kirk for stranding him on the planet and never checking on him again.

To Reign in Hell: The Exile of Khan Noonien Singh

Dr. Melmoth, the President of Harley College, takes into his care Ellen Langton, the daughter of his friend, Mr. Langton, who is at sea. Ellen is a young, beautiful girl and attracts the attentions of the college boys, especially Edward Walcott, a strapping though immature student, and Fanshawe, a reclusive, meek intellectual. While out walking, the three young people meet a nameless character called “the angler,” a name he gets for appearing an expert fisherman. The angler asks for a word with Ellen, tells her something in secret, and apparently flusters her. Walcott and Fanshawe become suspicious of his intentions. We learn that the angler is an old friend of the reformed Inn owner, Hugh Crombie. The two had been at sea together, where Mr. Langton had been the angler’s mentor and caretaker. Langton and the angler had a falling out, however, and, thinking that Langton has been killed at sea, the angler undertakes to marry Ellen in order to inherit her father’s considerable wealth. Thus in his secret meeting with Ellen, the angler instructs her to sneak out of Melmoth’s home and follow him, telling her he has information about her father’s whereabouts. His real aim, though, is to kidnap her, to tell her of her father’s death, and to manipulate her into marrying him. When the various men (Melmoth, Edward, Fanshawe) learn that she is not in her chamber, they go searching for her. The search reveals the nature of each: Melmoth, an aged scholar unused to physical labor, enlists the help of Walcott, who is the most skilled rider and the most likely to be able to contend with the angler in a fight. Fanshawe, who lags behind the search because of his weak constitution and his slow horse, is given information by an old woman in a cabin (where another old woman, Widow Butler, who turns out to be the angler’s mother, has just died) that allows him to reach the angler and Ellen first. The angler has taken Ellen to a craggy cliff and cave, where he intends to hold her captive. Ellen has finally realized the angler’s intentions. When Fanshawe arrives, he stands above them, looking over the edge of the cliff. The angler begins to climb up the cliff to fight Fanshawe but grabs a twig too weak to support him and tumbles to his death. Fanshawe awakens Ellen from a faint, and they travel back to town together. Fanshawe loves Ellen but knows that he will die young because of his shut-in lifestyle. When Langton offers Ellen’s hand in marriage to Fanshawe in exchange for rescuing her, he refuses, sacrificing his happiness so as not to subject her to a life of widowhood. He also knows that Ellen has affections for Walcott. Fanshawe dies at 20. Ellen and Walcott marry four years later. The narrator states that Walcott grows out of his childish ways (drunkenness, impulsiveness, the suggestion of teenage affairs) and becomes content with Ellen. They are, according to the narrator, happy, but the book ends on an ambivalent note, stating that the couple did not produce children.

Fanshawe

The hand-lettered text, done by the author''s brother, tells the story of an elderly couple who realize that they are very lonely. The wife wants a cat to love, so her husband sets off in search of a beautiful one to bring home to her. After traveling far away from home, he finds a hillside covered in "Cats here, cats there, Cats and kittens everywhere. Hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, Millions and billions and trillions of cats..." This rhythmic phrase is repeated several other times throughout the story. The man wants to bring home the most beautiful of all the cats, but he''s unable to decide. Each seems lovely, so he walks back home with all of the cats following him. His wife is dismayed when he arrives, realizing immediately what her husband overlooked: they won''t be able to feed and care for billions and trillions of cats. The wife suggests letting the cats decide which one should stay with them, asking "Which one of you is the prettiest?" This question incites an enormous cat fight, frightening the old man and woman so that they ran back into the house. Soon, all is quiet outside. When they venture out, there is no sign of the cats: they''d apparently eaten each other up in their jealous fury. Then, the old man notices one skinny cat hiding in a patch of tall grass. It had survived because it didn''t consider itself pretty, so the other cats hadn''t attacked it. The couple take the cat into their home, feed it and bathe it, watching it grow sleek and beautiful as the days pass: exactly the kind of cat they wanted.

Millions of Cats

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

The book Rivalry begins with the return of the story’s protagonist, Komayo, to the Geisha world. Having left the pleasure quarters to live in the countryside, she returns several years later because her husband has died, leaving her to fend for herself. She decides that she would rather relive her days as a geisha than to live as a peasant. Upon her return, she is reunited with a lover from her past, Yoshioka. The two had spent time together before Yoshioka left the country to study abroad. Yoshioka feels a rekindled desire for Komayo and calls for her often to spend much of her time with him attending various events. Soon he suggests that he should become her danna. Although Komayo would be glad to have the financial support, she shies away from his proposal. Komayo and Yoshioka go on a weeklong vacation to hot spring resorts, but Yoshioka has to leave early, unexpectedly. Komayo stays and runs into Segawa, a man whom she desires instantly. After a brief, but unforgettable affair, Komayo returns to Tokyo. At the Kabuki theater Yoshioka overhears a conversation about the love affair between Komayo and Segawa. He seeks his revenge by becoming involved with the geisha Kikuchiyo, a promiscuous geisha from Komayo’s okiya. As the novel progresses Komayo discovers that Yoshioka betrayed her. She’s hurt but pursues her relationship with Segawa with renewed determination. However, Segawa does not reciprocate the same devotion as Komayo. After a performance, Yoshioka’s first mistress, Rikiji, seeks her revenge on Komayo by introducing Segawa to a wealthy former geisha, Kimiryu. This new geisha’s financial situation pleases Segawa’s mother who never approved of Komayo. Hence, the novel concludes with Komayo alone. Both the man that offered to support her and the man she loved have left her for other geisha. The mother of her okiya dies and her husband, Old Gozan, recognizes his inability to continue the house on his own; he passes it on to Komayo. The story ends with Komayo suffering from the loss of both lovers, but also her realization that the geisha okiya means a lot to her. Gozan’s offer to pass on the okiya adds a glimmer of hope for Komayo with a life running the household herself.

Geisha in Rivalry

An eight-man construction crew is building an airstrip and related facilities on a small pacific island during the course of World War II. They uncover and break open an ancient stone "temple." This releases an ancient being composed of pure energy, leftover from a war involving sentient machines in a long-lost civilization, which "possesses" a bulldozer being used by the construction crew. The being''s purpose was to take over the "enemy''s" machines and attack them. When released from the ancient stone temple that contained it, it believes that the bulldozer (called "Daisy Etta" by the workers in the island, a mispronunciation of De-Siete (D7, in Spanish) is important to its intentions, possesses it, and it begins killing the workers. Ultimately, two of the three surviving workers—one goes insane—manage to destroy the bulldozer and (presumably) the creature. While trying to write a report on what happened, the two sane workers are despairing of anyone believing them. Then, bombs fall from the sky, blasting the whole area below them, including the places the killdozer damaged and the graves of their fellow workers. One worker tears up the report he was writing and throws it in the air, thrilled that an explanation is now available -- enemy action in wartime.

Killdozer

Mr. Hilton Cubitt of Ridling Thorpe Manor in Norfolk visits Sherlock Holmes and gives him a piece of paper with this mysterious sequence of stick figures. The little dancing men are at the heart of a mystery which seems to be driving his young wife Elsie to distraction. He married her about a year ago, and until recently, everything was well. She is American, and before the wedding, she asked her husband-to-be to promise her never to ask about her past, as she had had some “very disagreeable associations” in her life, although she said that there was nothing that she was personally ashamed of. Mr. Cubitt swore the promise and, being an honourable English gentleman, insists on living by it, which is one of the things causing difficulty at Ridling Thorpe Manor. The trouble began when Elsie received a letter from the United States, which evidently disturbed her, and she threw the letter on the fire. Then the dancing men appeared, sometimes on a piece of paper left on the sundial overnight, sometimes scrawled in chalk on a wall or door, even a windowsill. Each time, their appearance has an obvious, terrifying effect on Elsie, but she will not tell her husband what is going on. Holmes tells Cubitt that he wants to see every occurrence of the dancing men. They are to be copied down and brought or sent to him at 221B Baker Street. Cubitt duly does this, and it provides Holmes with an important clue. Holmes comes to realize that it is a substitution cipher. He cracks the code by frequency analysis. The last of the messages conveyed by the dancing men is a particularly alarming one. Holmes rushes down to Ridling Thorpe Manor only to find Cubitt dead of a bullet to the heart and his wife gravely wounded in the head. Inspector Martin of the Norfolk Constabulary believes that it is a murder-suicide, or will be if Elsie dies. She is the prime suspect in her husband’s death. Holmes sees things differently. Why is there a bullet hole in the windowsill, making a total of three shots, while Cubitt and his wife were each only shot once? Why are only two chambers in Cubitt’s revolver empty? What is the large sum of money doing in the room? The discovery of a trampled flowerbed just outside the window, and the discovery of a shell casing therein confirm what Holmes has suspected &mdash; a third person was involved, and it is surely the one who has been sending the curious dancing-man messages. Holmes knows certain things that Inspector Martin does not. He seemingly picks the name “Elrige’s” out of the air, and Cubitt’s stable boy recognizes it as a local farmer’s name. Holmes quickly writes a message &mdash; in dancing men characters &mdash; and sends the boy to Elrige’s Farm to deliver it to a lodger there, whose name he has also apparently picked out of the air. Of course, Holmes has learned both men''s names by reading the dancing men code. While waiting for the result of this message, Holmes takes the opportunity to explain to Watson and Inspector Martin how he cracked the code of the dancing men, and the messages are revealed. The last one, which caused Holmes and Watson to rush to Norfolk, read “ELSIE PREPARE TO MEET THY GOD”. The lodger, Mr. Abe Slaney, another American, unaware that Elsie is at death’s door and quite unable to communicate, duly arrives at Ridling Thorpe Manor a short while later, much to everyone’s astonishment, except Holmes’s. He has sent for Slaney using the dancing men, knowing that Slaney will believe that the message is from Elsie. He is seized as he comes through the door. He tells the whole story. He is a former lover from Chicago and has come to England to woo Elsie back. She originally fled his clutches because he was a dangerous criminal, as Holmes has found out through telegraphic inquiries to the US. When an encounter at the window where the killing happened turned violent with Hilton Cubitt''s appearance in the room, Slaney pulled out his gun and shot back at Cubitt, who had already shot at him. Cubitt was killed and Slaney fled. Apparently, Elsie then shot herself. Slaney seems genuinely upset that Elsie has come to harm. The threatening nature of some of his dancing-man messages is explained by Slaney''s losing his temper at Elsie''s apparent unwillingness to leave her husband. The money found in the room was apparently to have been a bribe to make Slaney go away. Slaney is arrested and later tried. He escapes the noose owing to mitigating circumstances. Elsie recovers from her serious injuries and spends her life helping the poor and administering her late husband’s estate.

The Adventure of the Dancing Men

The story is about Dr. De Soto, a mouse-dentist who lives in a world of animals who act as humans. He and his wife, who serves as his assistant, work together to treat patients with as little pain as possible. Dr. De Soto uses different chairs, depending on the size of the animal, with Mrs. De Soto guiding her husband with a system of pulleys for treating extra large animals. However, they refuse to treat any animal who likes to eat mice. One day, a fox with a toothache drops by and begs for treatment. Mrs. De Soto convinces her husband that he needs to help the fox to get rid of his pain, so Dr. De Soto reluctantly agrees. They give the fox some anesthetic and proceed to treat the bad tooth. However, while under the effects of the anesthetic, the fox unknowingly exclaims how he would love to eat the mice, but also expresses it is crass to attempt to eat someone who had just relieved him of much pain. The De Sotos remove the bad tooth, and tells the fox to come back tomorrow to get a false tooth. Later that night, Dr. De Soto expresses his disgust that they trusted a fox who had hoped to eat them, although Mrs. De Soto claims that the effects of the anesthetic just got to him. They prepare the new tooth, but come up with a plan to place it in without getting eaten. The next day, which was originally the De Sotos'' day-off, the fox comes back much happier than before and anxiously awaits the placement of his new tooth. The De Sotos proceed with their work, but the fox is licking his lips and thinking about eating the mice. The De Sotos use a long stick to open his jaws and put in the new tooth. However, the fox has decided to eat them. Fortunately, his jaws were held tightly apart from each other, so he couldn''t trap them in his teeth. Dr. De Soto uses a special mouth glue and spreads it onto the fox''s teeth. When the fox closes his mouth, his teeth were stuck together! The De Sotos told him to wait a few days or a few hours before the special glue wore off (they kept their plan a secret from the fox and pretended that it was part of the treatment). The fox then went home, not realizing that he had been tricked, but clearly disappointed that he couldn''t eat the De Sotos. The book ends with the DeSotos triumphant at having "outfoxed the fox". Mrs. De Soto joins her husband for a day off work and says she will never again disagree with his policy of refusing to do business with hostile animals.

Doctor DeSoto

The book begins with a brief chapter detailing the traversing of a section of the Kalahari Desert by a group of four Europeans, led by the experienced guide H. A. Ryder. The text tells of how they survive the desert thanks to Ryder''s skills, but are being pursued by more than one hundred of the Herero King''s best men, due to the Europeans stealing their hard-won diamonds. The chapter ends with the Europeans meeting with their escape ship, the HMS Rove only to find it stranded. Simultaneously, the Herero attack the ship, killing the Europeans (presumably) while a massive sandstorm rages around them, reshaping the coastline and burying the Rove under hundreds of feet of sand, lost for eternity. The story continues with the Oregon (a high-tech modernized ship carrying heavy weaponry but usually masquerading as a dilapidated freighter) meeting with the leader of the Congolese Army of Revolution, Makombo. They ''agree'' to trade 500 AK-47''s, 200 RPGs, fifty RPG launchers and 50,000 rounds of Warsaw Pact 7.62mm ammunition in return for a quarter pound of rough (blood) diamonds. These weapons are then stolen by the rebels after double-crossing Cabrillo before the Oregon''s crew had the chance to do the same to them. After narrowly escaping from those individuals, the Oregon begins to track the location of the weapons in the hope that they can seize them once again. In addition to this they also hear that a billionaire with a controversial product has been kidnapped. They take up the quest to free him. During this operation Juan is nearly stranded in the desert, but manages to travel by parasurfing his way back to civilization. After rescuing the billionaire, they find out that his former partner is planning to dump millions of litres of toxic crude oil into the ocean in order to enlighten the world about the environmental effects that our continued ignorance is causing. Luckily, the Oregon and crew do battle (oddly enough it''s the Congo revolutionaries) with the bad guys and save the planet. Their curtain comes by giving the rightful owners billions of dollars worth of diamonds that will allow them to free Zimbabwe from the evil regime that is currently in place.

Skeleton Coast

Bryson spent his childhood growing up in Des Moines, Iowa. He was born on December 8, 1951, which was also the tenth anniversary to the USA’s entry into World War II. He was a part of the baby-boom generation that was born right after World War II ended. He describes his early years of life and his parents, William and Mary Bryson. His father was a well-known sports writer for the Des Moines Register, the leading newspaper in Des Moines. His mother was also a writer; however, she wrote for magazines like Better Homes and Gardens, Good Housekeeping, and House Beautiful. He recounts many things that were invented during his childhood that fascinated him, which include frozen dinners, atomic toilets, and television. His middle-class, all-American lifestyle is shown constantly throughout the book, and the influence of his depression-era raised parents rubs off on him. He also remembers his adventures as "the thunderbolt kid," an alter ego he made up for himself when he felt powerless. He was able to vaporize people with his heat vision and thought that he came from another planet. He tells amusing stories of his misadventures as Billy Bryson also, including his first days in school when he figured out that when the entire class was running drills to protect themselves from a bomb, he would simply read comic books instead. However, when the principal and a police officer came in one day to supervise, he got in loads of trouble. Trouble was something fairly common for "the thunderbolt kid", seeing as throughout his childhood his teachers were not too amused by his abilities. In fact, Bryson recounts how he really wasn''t too interested in getting up before noon, thus not even going to school very often. Despite his unique behavior, Bryson tells his story through the eyes of a child, filled with hilarious observations about basically everything: from Lumpy Kowalski''s curious nickname to all the joy that was to be had in the marvelous department stores. Even though he focuses mostly on his childhood, he tells of many of the events that were happening at the time, including the development of the atomic bomb, and the beginnings of the civil rights movement. Bryson is constantly ironically praising the time in which he grew up, citing all of the fun that children could have in those days while still noting that it probably resulted in buttock cancer for many of Bishop''s atomic toilet aficionados. He tells of his first days in Jr. High and High School, and during both he began smoking, drinking, and stealing, although he didn’t get caught for any of it. He met Stephen Katz in Jr. High, when they were both in the school''s A/V club. Katz would accompany Bryson on many of his travel experiences. At the end of the book, Bryson tells the reader that "life moves on," and that he wishes that the world could be more similar to life in the 50s and 60s. The last lines of the book are, "What a wonderful world that would be. What a wonderful world it was. We won’t see its like again, I’m afraid."

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir

The story is of three sisters, of whom the youngest is chosen by Tsar Saltan (Saltán) to be his wife, while he makes the other two his royal cook and royal weaver. They are jealous, of course, and when the tsar goes off to war, and in his absence the tsaritsa gives birth to a son, Prince Gvidon (Gvidón), they arrange to have her and her child sealed up in a barrel and thrown into the sea. The sea itself takes pity on them, and they are cast up on the shore of a remote island, Buyan. The son, having quickly grown while in the barrel, goes hunting. He ends up saving an enchanted swan from a kite. The swan creates a city for Prince Gvidon to rule, but he is homesick, and the swan turns him into a mosquito. In this guise, he visits Tsar Saltan''s court, where he stings his aunt in the eye and escapes. Back in his distant realm, the swan gives Gvidon a magical squirrel. But he continues to pine for home, so the swan transforms him into a fly. In this guise, Prince Gvidon visit''s Saltan''s court again and he stings his older aunt in the eye. The third time, the Prince is transformed into a bumblebee and stings the nose of his grandmother. In the end, he expresses a desire for a bride instead of his old home, at which point the swan is revealed to be a beautiful princess, whom he marries. He is visited by the Tsar, who is overjoyed to find his wife and newly-married son.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

The West End Horror

By Nicholas Meyer

To Reign in Hell: The Exile of Khan Noonien Singh

By Greg Cox

Fanshawe

By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Millions of Cats

By Wanda Gág

The Fall of Colossus

By Dennis Feltham Jones

Geisha in Rivalry

No Author Listed

Killdozer

By Theodore Sturgeon

The Adventure of the Dancing Men

By Arthur Conan Doyle

Doctor DeSoto

By William Steig

Skeleton Coast

By Jack Du Brul

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir

By Bill Bryson

The Tale of Tsar Saltan

By Aleksandr Pushkin