While spending Spring Break on the moon, Titus and his thrill-seeking friends meet Violet Durn, who is unlike any of them. While at a club, a man from an anti-feed organization hacks their feeds. When they wake up in a hospital, their feeds are unavailable: partially deactivated while under repair. Mostly, this is the teenagers'' first experience of life without the influence of the feed. During their recovery, Violet and Titus begin a romantic relationship. Eventually, their feeds are repaired and they return to Earth. However, Violet''s feed is not totally fixed. One day, Violet reveals her plan of resisting the feed to Titus. She plans to show interest in a wide and random assortment of products to prevent the corporations that control her feed from developing a reliable consumer profile. The two go to the mall and create wild consumer profiles. Later, Violet realizes that someone, most likely the Coalition of Pity, has been accessing her personal information through her dreams. She calls FeedTech customer service, but receives no help. Later, Violet tells Titus that her feed is severely malfunctioning, and she may die. Due to her deteriorating feed, various parts of Violet''s body are shutting down. Throughout the novel, there is also a presence of lesions appearing on the characters'' bodies. At first it is something they hide, but eventually the lesions turn into a trend. At School™, Titus notices that Calista has a large artificial lesion cut onto her neck. At a party, Quendy shows up with small artificial lesions over most of her body. Violet is disgusted and determines that everyone has become the feed. After this, she collapses and is taken to the hospital. As a side effect of the malfunction, Violet loses memories of the year before she got the feed installed. To avoid losing more memories, she makes large records of things she can remember. She sends them to Titus, but he deletes them. Violet''s body parts continue shutting down. She and her father cannot afford repairs, so they petition FeedTech for assistance. While Titus is in mal with his friends, Violet calls and becomes angry with him. He is unaware of the environmental disaster that happened that morning in Mexico. Some sort of toxic waste has engulfed a number of villages. The Global Alliance is prepared to go to war with the United States. Titus drives to Violet''s house. He falls asleep shortly after arriving due to the after effects of the mal. While he sleeps, Violet shares her bad news with Titus in the form of a dream: FeedTech has decided not to help Violet because of her strange customer profile. This is caused by her resistance of the feed. That weekend, Violet comes to Titus'' house to ask him to go to the mountains. He is reluctant at first, but ultimately agrees. They begin fighting and break up. On the way home, Violet''s arm stops working and when she arrives home her leg fails. Titus drives away. The next day, Violet apologizes to Titus via feed, but Titus does not answer. Titus receives a message from Violet''s father saying that Violet wanted Titus to know when it was "all over." He informs him that the time has come. Titus goes to Violet''s house, where she lies in a coma. Her father blames Titus and shows him memories of parts of her body and brain shutting down, the pain she experienced. He then tells Titus to be with the eloi. Titus asks what that means, but Mr. Durn refuses to answer, telling him to look it up. They fight, and Titus goes home. In an act of grief, he sits on his floor naked and orders the same pair of jeans continuously until he is entirely out of credit. Two days later, Titus goes to visit Violet again. He tells her any stories he can find in the information available through his feed. Finally, he tells her the story of their relationship in the form of a movie trailer. The book ends with Violet dying and the feed saying "Everything Must Go."

Feed

The novel opens with an extended description of the Maison Vauquer, a boarding house in Paris'' rue Neuve-Sainte-Geneviève covered with vines, owned by the widow Madame Vauquer. The residents include the law student Eugène de Rastignac, a mysterious agitator named Vautrin, and an elderly retired vermicelli-maker named Jean-Joachim Goriot. The old man is ridiculed frequently by the other boarders, who soon learn that he has bankrupted himself to support his two well-married daughters. Rastignac, who moved to Paris from the south of France, becomes attracted to the upper class. He has difficulty fitting in, but is tutored by his cousin, Madame de Beauséant, in the ways of high society. Rastignac endears himself to one of Goriot''s daughters, Delphine, after extracting money from his own already-poor family. Vautrin, meanwhile, tries to convince Rastignac to pursue an unmarried woman named Victorine, whose family fortune is blocked only by her brother. He offers to clear the way for Rastignac by having the brother killed in a duel. Rastignac refuses to go along with the plot, balking at the idea of having someone killed to acquire their wealth, but he takes note of Vautrin''s machinations. This is a lesson in the harsh realities of high society. Before long, the boarders learn that police are seeking Vautrin, revealed to be a master criminal nicknamed Trompe-la-Mort ("Cheater of Death"). Vautrin arranges for a friend to kill Victorine''s brother, in the meantime, and is captured by the police. Goriot, supportive of Rastignac''s interest in his daughter and furious with her husband''s tyrannical control over her, finds himself unable to help. When his other daughter, Anastasie, informs him that she has been selling off her husband''s family jewelry to pay her lover''s debts, the old man is overcome with grief at his own impotence and suffers a stroke. Neither Delphine nor Anastasie will visit Goriot as he lies on his deathbed, and before dying he rages about their disrespect toward him. His funeral is attended only by Rastignac, a servant named Christophe, and two paid mourners. Goriot''s daughters, rather than being present at the funeral, send their empty coaches, each bearing their families'' respective coat of arms. After the short ceremony, Rastignac turns to face Paris as the lights of evening begin to appear. He sets out to dine with Delphine de Nucingen and declares to the city: "À nous deux, maintenant!" ("It''s between you and me now!")

Le Père Goriot

The book starts with an elderly man named Eddie who works as the head of maintenance at an amusement park called Ruby Pier. Eddie is able to perform this job despite leg injuries he received as a soldier during World War II. On Eddie''s birthday, one of the amusement park rides malfunctions because of a damaged cable and stops halfway through the ride. Two of the staff at Ruby Pier are able to rescue the passengers on the ride and then release the ride''s cart not knowing that there is a little girl under it. Eddie attempts to save the girl who was sitting under a roller coaster ride that one of the carts was about to fall on. Eddie then finds himself awake and uninjured and realizes that he feels young and much more energetic. He meets a man dubbed as "The Blue Man" who had worked at Ruby Pier''s freak show and whose real name is Joseph Corvelzchik. Through their conversation, Eddie finds out that he is dead, has gone to heaven and has to meet five people who significantly impacted his life. He also finds out that he feels so much younger because he will feel the way he felt when these people came into his life. Eddie asks why Joseph, whom he does not know, is his first person and Joseph informs Eddie that he died when Eddie ran across the street as a child and caused Joseph to wreck his own car. From this, Eddie learns his first lesson which is that there are no random events in life and all people are connected in some way. The second person that Eddie meets is his former captain from the army who Eddie finds sitting in a tree in a Philippine rainforest. The captain reminds Eddie of their time together as prisoners of war in a forced labor camp. Their group escaped after a lengthy period of time and burned the camp. Eddie remembers that he had seen a shadow running from the hut that he was setting on fire although he had never found out who the person was. The captain confesses that he was the one who shot Eddie in the leg to prevent Eddie from chasing the shadow in the fire. This saved Eddie''s life while leaving him with the lifelong injury. The captain later died by a landmine while scouting ahead during the escape, saving the lives of the group. Eddie learns his second lesson about the importance of people''s willingness to make sacrifices for others. The scene changes and Eddie finds himself outside a diner where he meets a well dressed woman named Ruby. Ruby tells Eddie that she had once worked as a waitress at the diner and explains that Ruby Pier was named after her by her husband Emile who built it in tribute to her. Emile was wounded while fighting a fire that burned much of Ruby Pier and later died from failing health. Ruby confesses that she picked the diner because that was where she had met Emile and wanted the diner to be a refuge for anyone who had ever been hurt in any way by Ruby Pier. Eddie''s father, who had been a very harsh and abusive man, is also at the diner. Ruby teaches Eddie to release his anger and forgive his father for all the trouble and hurt he had caused. Eddie now awakens in a room with several doors. Behind each of the doors there is wedding from a different culture and Eddie meets his late wife, Marguerite, in one of the weddings. They spend an extended period together, moving from one wedding to the next and catching up on all the things they had not been able to share since Marguerite''s death. They remember their own wedding and in the end, Marguerite teaches Eddie that love is never lost in death. When Eddie awakens to a new scene, he sees children playing along a riverbed and a young Asian girl named Tala comes up to him. Tala reveals that she was the little girl from the hut that Eddie set on fire. The girl shows Eddie the burns that she suffered from the fire. She hands Eddie a stone and tells him to rub the burns off. Eddie starts to scrape off the injuries he had inflicted on her and soon Tala is free of the scars. Eddie believes that he failed to save the little girl from the amusement park and remembers feeling the girl''s hands in his just before his death but Tala says that it was her hands that Eddie had felt as she pulled him safely up to heaven. In reality, Eddie did manage to save the girl at Ruby Pier. Tala teaches Eddie that his life was not for nothing and that its purpose was to protect children at Ruby Pier through his care for the safety of the rides. In this way, he also atoned for causing Tala''s death. In the end, it shows that Eddie''s heaven was the Stardust Band Shell, where he met Marguerite. He is also one of the five people to be met by the girl whose life he saved when she dies.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Morton Cargill, Korean War soldier, accidentally kills a girl named Marie while driving drunk. He runs from the scene. A year later, he gets a letter from the girl asking to meet him. But this is not Marie, but a remote descendant from the future, who is suffering an inherited form of neurosis which time travelers, called ''The Shadows'', have traced back to his negligent crime. The only therapy to cure her is if she witnesses him being murdered. He then wakes 400 years into the future, to the Shadow City to be executed. He escapes, with help from Ann Reece, who represents a group called ''Tweeners'', who are organized by a Shadow named Grannis. Grannis is apparently a traitor to the Shadows and wishes the Tweeners to attack and destroy the Shadow City. Cargill is overcome by suspicions against the Tweeners, so during his rescue he escapes into the woods where he is immediately captured. His captors this time are futuristic nomads or ''trailer trash'' called ''Planiacs'' who live in floating airships. The Planiacs have rejected civilization and its intolerable psychological pressures. Their airships are stocked and repaired by the Shadows, and they live utterly purposeless lives floating from place to place, occasionally stopping to fish. Grannis the Shadow shows up among the Planiacs, apparently to seize Cargill. Cargill escapes by seducing his jailer''s daughter, Lela Bouvey, and stealing an airship. He spends several months as a nomad, and begins to organize a political revolution among them, but is recaptured by the Shadows, and sent back in time to the same night he escaped. Ann Reece, the Tweener agent, again frees him, brings him to their city, where he is hypnotically programmed. He has no choice but to carry out his mission, to enter the Shadow city and shut off its defensive energy field, so that an air raid might destroy the Shadows. The Tweeners are those Planiacs who attempted to join the Shadows, but could not pass their tests. They plan to destroy the Shadows and force the Planiacs out of their nomadic existence and back to earthbound labor. Cargill has several dreams where is encounters beings from previous or future eons, which convinces him that the fate of the universe hangs in the success or failure of the Shadow-Tweener war. As a delaying tactic, he advises the Tweeners how to reorganize their air force to make a successful raid, he again seduces his jailer (which this time is Ann Reece), and he again begins to organize a political revolt among his captors, hoping an uprising of peacelovers among the Tweeners will stop the coming attack. Now firmly convinced that the Shadows are innocent, and that the planned Tweener attack is wrong, Cargill is unable to halt or even hinder the hypnotic programming that forces him to enter the Shadow City. The Shadows are superhumans able to travel through time, walk through walls, and revive the dead. Once in the city, Cargill is given the Shadow training, which consists of a single lecture hypnotically imprinted on his brain. Now armed with all their powers and abilities, Cargill emerges from the training session to witness a celebration of the election results: the Shadows elect their leaders retroactively through time, voting only after the leader''s term of office is up, and reporting it back through time to themselves on election day. To his surprise and dread, Cargill finds he is the new leader. The leader of the Shadows is Grannis; Cargill himself is Grannis. He spends the last chapter of the book traveling back through time to organize the various pointless conspiracies among the Tweeners and Planiacs which brought him here. While being killed and raised from the dead, he recalls that he and all other participants in the life-force of the cosmos created the universe as a game, and became bound to it, and to its tragedies, due to their psychological limitations: greed creates time, the desire for revenge creates death, and so on. Cargill-Grannis discovers he is innocent of the original death of Marie, but now he must arrange that death in order to prevent a time paradox which would otherwise destroy the universe.

The Universe Maker

In April 1967, 18-year-old Susanna Kaysen is admitted to McLean Hospital, in Belmont, Massachusetts, after attempting suicide. She denies that it was a suicide attempt to a psychiatrist, who suggests she take time to regroup in McLean, a private mental hospital. Susanna is diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, and her stay extends to 18 months. Fellow patients Polly, Cynthia, Lisa, Lisa Cody, Georgina and Daisy contribute to Susanna’s experiences at McLean as she describes their personal issues and how they come to cope with the time they must spend in the hospital. Susanna also introduces the reader to particular staff members, including Valerie, Dr. Wick and Mrs. McWeeney. Susanna reflects on the nature of her illness, including difficulty making sense of visual patterns, and suggests that sanity is a falsehood constructed to help the "healthy" feel "normal." She also questions how doctors treat mental illness, and whether they are treating the brain or the mind. During her stay, Susanna undergoes a period of depersonalization, where she bites open the flesh on her hand after she becomes terrified that she has "lost her bones." Also, during a trip to the dentist, Susanna becomes frantic after she wakes from the general anesthesia, when no one will tell her how long she was unconscious, and she fears that she has lost time. After leaving McLean, Susanna mentions that she kept in touch with Georgina and saw Lisa, who was about to board the subway with her son.

Girl, Interrupted

The book begins a few months after the September 11th terrorist attacks on the United States, with John Wells, an undercover CIA agent, in the middle of a battle in Afghanistan. Wells has been undercover with Al Qaeda for many years, fighting in Chechnya, Afghanistan and Pakistan. During the battle he and his crew of Al-Qaeda members are on a hillside where a group of United States Marines are stationed. The small Al-Qaeda band is planning to attack the Marines to help with a bigger battle that is raging below, and Wells decides to take out the terrorists himself so he can send a message to his CIA contact via the Marines: "No prior knowledge of 9/11. Say hi to Heather for me." Meanwhile, back in the United States, Jennifer Exley, his CIA handler, visits a prisoner of war being held on a Navy ship to try to get information on Wells, who has been incommunicado for two years. Al Qaeda detonates two truck bombs in LA, killing hundreds of people. John Wells is returned to the USA on a mission from Al Qaeda where he reconnects with the CIA. However due to the length of his absence he is accused of being “un-faithful” because he did not warn the US about Al Qaeda attacks. The accuser, Vinny Duto forces John to take a polygraph test. He proves himself to be innocent. Wells is put in a CIA safe house in Washington, DC but escapes in order to continue his Al Qaeda mission. He heads to Atlanta and spends several months hiding out before being given the task of killing a retired US Army general. After completing this task, and secretly killing his two fellow Al Qaeda members, he is given the task of collecting something from Canada. While in Canada, he meets with a Al-Qaeda member to collect a suitcase, really a scientist who has been working to grow the plague bacteria. Wells returns with the suitcase but has secretly been infected with the plague by the scientist. Wells then learns that Al Qaeda used the LA bombings as a distraction from an impending, much larger attack; several other Al Qaeda members have infected themselves with the plague and plan to spread it throughout the population, creating a pandemic within the United States. Wells, with the help of Exley, is able to kill the infected terrorists and take out their leader, Khadri, thwarting their plans.

The Faithful Spy

The story begins shortly before the wedding of Michael Crawford, a doctor. The night before he marries Julia, he inadvertently places his wedding ring in the hand of a statue in a garden. When he goes to retrieve it, he discovers the statue has mysteriously vanished. Despite this mysterious event, the wedding proceeds. Julia''s disturbed twin sister Josephine serves as the maid of honor. The next morning, Crawford awakes to discover Julia''s horribly mutilated corpse next to him in the bed. Knowing he will be suspected of murdering his bride, Crawford flees to London and passes himself off as a medical student. He meets John Keats, who is also studying medicine. One day while visiting the wards they encounter the grief-stricken Josephine, who attempts to shoot Crawford to avenge her sister. A mysterious apparition saves him. Keats does his best to help Crawford understand what has happened. By placing the wedding ring on the statue Crawford unwittingly attracted the attention of one of the nephilim, who now considers herself Crawford''s true wife. The nephilim killed Julia so she could have Crawford for herself. Keats, who has some experience with the nephilim, recommends that Crawford visit the Alps. There is a place high in the mountains where he may be able to free himself from "the stress of her regard". While traveling on the Continent, Crawford is called upon to assist another Englishman who is suffering from a seizure. The man is Percy Shelley, and is accompanied by Lord Byron, John Polidori, and Claire Clarmont. Byron and Shelley are also connected to the nephilim, which they see as both a blessing and a curse. The nephilim can prolong the lives of humans and serve as muses who help to inspire great works of creativity, but they are extremely jealous and will destroy anyone they see as a rival. Crawford and the two poets make their way up the Jungfrau, where it is said one might be able to break the bond with a nephilim. After answering a version of the Riddle of the Sphinx Crawford manages to free himself from his "wife". In doing so he also learns more about the nature of the nephilim. Yet the danger is not over for Crawford, the poets, and their loved ones. The nephilim are still active, and developments in Venice may threaten all humanity. Crawford, Josephine, Shelley, and Byron, all haunted by personal tragedy, must find a way to save themselves and the rest of the world from the nephilim.

The Stress of Her Regard

Misty is close to foaling and the Beebe family is anxious about it. Paul and Maureen check on her every day before and after school at almost every possible time. Unfortunately, a terrible storm system arrives first, setting up over Chincoteague with floods, hurricane winds, ice, and snow. At first reluctant to accept the threat of the storm, then reluctant to leave the island, the inhabitants are, in the end, forced to accept the devastation that lays waste to chicken farms and pony herds. This leaves the Beebes no choice: They keep Misty in their kitchen for the time being, while they evacuate. Paul also insists on getting a nanny goat if Misty didn''t accept her foal. When Misty is taken to the vet on the mainland of Virginia (along with the goat), she has her foal there: a brown filly with a white moon on her forehead. She is named "Stormy" after a suggestion sent in by letter. Most of the novel is about the storm and its aftermath; the title character only arrives toward the end of the novel. The Beebes are concerned with restoration of Chincoteague and Assateague, and Misty and Stormy play a key role in this effort, giving shows in order to collect donations for the residents of Chincoteague.

Stormy, Misty''s Foal

Independent People is the story of the sheep farmer Guðbjartur Jónsson, generally known in the novel as Bjartur of Summerhouses, and his struggle for independence. The "first chapter summons up the days when the world was first settled, in 874 AD—for that is the year when the Norsemen arrived in Iceland, and one of the book''s wry conceits is that no other world but Iceland exists. ... The book is set in the early decades of the twentieth century but ... Independent People is a pointedly timeless tale. It reminds us that life on an Icelandic croft had scarcely altered over a millennium". As the story begins, Bjartur ("bright" or "fair") has recently managed to put down the first payment on his own farm, after eighteen years working as a shepherd at Útirauðsmýri, the home of the well-to-do local bailiff, a man he detests. The land that he buys is said to be cursed by Saint Columba, referred to as "the fiend Kolumkilli", and haunted by an evil woman named Gunnvör, who made a pact with Kólumkilli. Defiantly, Bjartur refuses to add a stone to Gunnvör''s cairn to appease her, and in his optimism also changes the name of the farm from Winterhouses to Summerhouses. He is also newly wed to a young woman called Rósa, a fellow worker at Rauðsmýri, and is determined that they should live as independent people. However, Rósa is miserable in her new home, which does not compare well to the luxury she was used to at Rauðsmýri. Bjartur also discovers that she is pregnant by Ingólfur Arnarson Jónsson, the son of the bailiff. In the autumn, Bjartur and the other men of the district ride up into the mountains on the annual sheep round-up, leaving Rósa behind with a gimmer to keep her company. Terrified by a storm one night, desperate for meat and convinced that the gimmer is possessed by the devil, Rósa kills and eats the animal. When Bjartur returns, he assumes that Rósa has set the animal loose. When he cannot find her when it comes time to put the sheep inside for the winter, he once more leaves his wife, by now heavily pregnant, to search the mountains for the gimmer. He is delayed by a blizzard, and nearly dies of exposure. On his return to Summerhouses he finds that Rósa has died in childbirth. His dog Titla is curled around the baby girl, still clinging to life due to the warmth of the dog. With help from Rauðsmýri, the child survives; Bjartur decides to raise her as his daughter, and names her Ásta Sóllilja ("beloved sun lily"). The narrative begins again almost thirteen years later. Bjartur is now remarried to a woman who had been a charity case on the parish, Finna. The other new inhabitants are Hallbera, Finna''s mother, and the three surviving sons of Bjartur''s second marriage: Helgi, Gvendur (Guðmundur) and Nonni (Jón). The rest of the novel charts the drudgery and the battle for survival of life in Summerhouses, the misery, dreams and rebellions of the inhabitants and what appears to be the curse of Summerhouses taking effect. In the middle of the novel, however, World War I commences and the prices for Icelandic mutton and wool soar, so that even the poorest farmers begin to dream of relief from their poverty. Particularly central is the relationship between Bjartur and Ásta Sóllilja.

Independent People

Once the unquestioned master of countless solar systems, the Empire is tottering on the brink of total collapse. Once commanding and invincible armada of Star Destroyers, its fleet has been reduced to a skeleton force. Day by day, neutral systems are rushing to join the New Republic coalition. But with the end of the war in sight, the New Republic has fallen victim to its own success. An unwieldy alliance of races and traditions, the confederation new finds itself riven by age-old animosities. Princess Leia struggles against all odds to hold the New Republic together. But she has powerful enemies. An ambitious Moff Disra leads a conspiracy to divide the uneasy coalition with an ingenious plot to blame the Bothans for a heinous crime that could lead to genocide and civil war. At the same time, Luke Skywalker, along with a mysterious group of pirate ships whose crews consist of clones. And then comes the most startling news of all: Grand Admiral Thrawn--believed to be dead for ten years--is alive. The most cunning and ruthless warlord in an Imperial history has seemingly returned to lead the Empire to triumph. As Han and Leia try to prevent the unraveling of New Republic in the face of this fearful and inexplicable threat from the past, Luke sets out to track down the rogue pirate ships. To do so, he will team up with Mara Jade, with whom he will share his growing mastery of the Force and the ever- present threat of the dark side. All the while, lurking in the shadows is the enigmatic Major Tierce, a disciple of Emperor Palpatine, sharing his long-dead master''s lust for power, schooled in the devious stratagems of Thrawn himself, and armed with his own dark plans for the New Republic and the Empire.

Specter of the Past

The Great God Om tries to manifest himself once more in the world, as the time of his eighth prophet is nigh. He is surprised, however, when he finds himself in the body of a tortoise, stripped of his divine powers. In the gardens of Omnia''s capital he addresses the novice Brutha, the only one able to hear his voice. Om has a hard time convincing the boy of his godliness, as Brutha is convinced that Om can do anything he wants, and would not want to appear as a tortoise. Brutha is gifted with an eidetic memory and is therefore chosen by Vorbis, the head of the Quisition, to come along on a diplomatic mission to Ephebe. However, Brutha is also considered unintelligent, since he never learned to read, and rarely thinks for himself. With the help of Ephebe''s Great Library, and the philosophers Didactylos, his nephew, Urn, and Abraxas, Om learns that Brutha is the only one left who believes in him. All others either just fear the Quisition''s wrath or go along with the church out of habit. While in Ephebe, Brutha''s memory aids an Omnian raid through the Labyrinth guarding the Tyrant''s palace. While in the library of Ephebe, Brutha also memorizes many scrolls in order to protect Ephebeian knowledge as Omnian soldiers set fire to the building. Fleeing the ensuing struggle by boat, Brutha, Om and a severely injured Vorbis end up lost in the desert. Trekking home to Omnia, they encounter ruined temples as well as the small gods who are faint ghost-like beings yearning to be believed in to become powerful. Realizing his ''mortality'' and how important his believers are to him, Om begins to care about them for the first time. While Brutha, Vorbis, and Om are in the desert, the Tyrant of Ephebe manages to regain control of the city and contacts other nations who have been troubled by Omnia''s imperialistic interactions with the other countries around it. On the desert''s edge, a recovered Vorbis attempts to finish off Om''s tortoise form, abducts Brutha, and proceeds to become ordained as the Eighth Prophet. Brutha is to be publicly burned for heresy while strapped on a heatable bronze turtle when Om comes to the rescue, dropping from an eagle''s claws onto Vorbis'' head. As a great crowd witnesses this miracle they come to believe in Om and he becomes powerful again. Om manifests himself within the citadel and attempts to grant Brutha the honour of establishing the Church''s new doctrines. However, Brutha does not agree with Om''s new rule and explains that the Church should care for people while having a tolerance for other religious practices. Meanwhile, Ephebe has gained the support of several other nations and has sent an army against Omnia, establishing a beachhead near the citadel. Brutha attempts to establish diplomatic contact with the generals of the opposing army. Despite trusting Brutha, the leaders state they do not trust Omnia and that bloodshed is necessary. At the same time, Simony leads the Omnian military to the beachhead and uses Urn''s machine of war in order to fight the Ephebians. While the fighting occurs on the beachhead, Om attempts to physically intervene, but Brutha demands he does not interfere with the actions of humans. Om becomes infuriated but obeys Brutha, but he travels to an area of the Discworld where gods gamble on the lives of humans in order to gain or lose belief. While there, Om manages to unleash his fury, even striking the other gods. This causes the soldiers to cease fighting on the battlefield, thinking it a sign from the heavens. In the book''s conclusion Brutha becomes the Eighth Prophet, ending the Quisition and reforming the church to be more open-minded and humanist. Om also agrees to forsake the smiting of Omnian citizens for at least a hundred years. The last moments of the book see Brutha''s death a hundred years to the day after Om''s return to power and his journey across the ethereal desert towards judgement, accompanied by the spirit of Vorbis, whom Brutha found still in the desert and took pity on. It is also revealed that this century of peace was originally meant to be a century of war and bloodshed which the History Monk Lu-Tze changed to something he liked better.

Small Gods

Zoey and Stark reassure their connection by having sex under the wishing tree and become connected. Zoey finds out that she wields the ancient magick of the fey and can bring back old fey that serve her elements, prompting Queen Sgiach to ask her to stay on Skye indefinitely and be her successor. Aphrodite and Darius leave Skye, but Zoey and Stark decide to stay a little longer while Stark recuperates. Zoey continuously senses Darkness on Skye, leading her to believe that she cannot hide from Darkness anymore. Neferet returns to the House of Night. In an attempt to draw Zoey back from Skye after Kalona''s failed mission, Neferet kills Jack as a debt payment to Darkness. Finding out about Jack''s death, Zoey realizes that no matter how good she feels on Skye, Tulsa is her home and she has responsibilities as a High Priestess and returns. Kalona finds out that he can enter Stark''s mind because of the immortality he breathed into him. For the same reason, he realizes that the oath he swore to Neferet doesn''t apply to him anymore as he hasn''t been fully an immortal since his return. Neferet allows Zoey to light Jack''s funeral pyre and during the ceremony, Neferet asks Zoey for forgiveness to regain everyone''s trust. Zoey accepts the fake apology even though she sees through Neferet, but many other people think the apology is genuine. Neferet summons Darkness to drag Rephaim to the funeral and accuses him of being allied with Darkness and Stevie Rae for being allied with Rephaim, then orders the Sons of Erebus to kill both of them. Kalona interferes and faces the Sons of Erebus with Rephaim. The two fight, but Rephaim only defends himself rather than attacking the warriors. Stevie Rae asks her friends to cast a circle to stop the battle and save Rephaim. She asks Kalona for his son''s freedom and he grants it and takes off. A white feather falls from him, symbolizing his good deed. The feather breaks Stevie Rae''s concentration and Dragon Lankford lunges to kill Rephaim. Convinced by Stevie Rae''s words, Zoey steps between them and stops Dragon, arguing that Rephaim is on the same side, having chosen the path of Light. Nyx appears then and forgives Rephaim, bespelling him to take human form at night and raven form during the day, to atone for killing Anastasia. She also talks to Damien and Dragon, to convince them to move on, then disappears. Rephaim goes to Dragon and offers his service to pay for the grief he had caused, but Dragon rejects him. When Zoey tries to calm Dragon, he lashes at her for her age. Because Neferet and Dragon do not accept him at the House of Night, Zoey, her friends, and the red fledglings leave to start a new House of Night on their own in the tunnels, with Zoey being the "vampyre queen", Stevie Rae being the High Priestess, Aphrodite being the Prophetess, Kramisha being the Poet Laureate, and all the red fledglings and Zoey''s friends being the students. Towards the end of the book, Neferet cooperates with the white bull and intends on sacrificing Sylvia Redbird, but ends up killing Linda Heffer (who had recently left Zoey''s stepfather due to his infidelity) to create a Vessel for her (someone who has to obey her completely) as a weapon to use against Zoey. Meanwhile, in the Otherworld, Heath is given the opportunity by Nyx, to be the lost soul in this Vessel and he chooses it over being reborn in the real world or remaining in the Otherworld; this way, he can help Zoey in the modern world. Meanwhile, Stark and Zoey are making out and preparing to have sex for their third time, but Stark becomes aggressive, which is unlike himself. He bites Zoey, but she is finally able to stop him (It is implied that it was Kalona, not Stark, in Stark''s soul, who took over and got aggressive). When they go to sleep, Zoey has a dream where she learns of her mother''s death and realizes that her mother really cared for her. The book ends with Zoey waking up with this new realization and beginning to cry and grieve for her mother''s death, and Stark being there to comfort her.

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