In the early 37th century, the Harrington family moves from the planet Meyerdahl to the newly founded Star Kingdom of Manticore. Their eleven-year-old daughter, Stephanie, is unhappy with this change as their new home, the planet Sphinx, seems to have little to offer. However, she changes her mind when the hunt for an unknown force that keeps stealing celery from the colonists'' greenhouses leads her to an encounter with a new sentient species: a treecat, a six-limbed arboreal mammal going (unknown to Stephanie) by the name of Climbs Quickly. The two young beings instantly share a telepathic connection that future generations will come to call "bonding". This empathic linking is involuntary and nearly instantaneous, like love at first sight. Soon, the two unlikely companions have to face off against a number of enemies, as the people of Sphinx begin to realize – sometimes unwillingly – that they will have to share their new home with another intelligent race that was here first. :Note: Another plot summary can be seen in the Teacher''s Study Guide that Baen has produced.

A Beautiful Friendship

Fleming structured the novel in three sections—"Happenstance", "Coincidence" and" Enemy action"—which was how Goldfinger described Bond''s three seemingly coincidental meetings with him. ;Happenstance Whilst changing planes in Miami after closing down a Mexican heroin smuggling operation, British Secret Service operative James Bond is asked by Junius Du Pont, a rich American businessman (whom he briefly met and gambled with in Casino Royale), to watch Auric Goldfinger, with whom Du Pont is playing Canasta in order to discover if he is cheating. Bond quickly realises that Goldfinger is indeed cheating with the aid of his female assistant, Jill Masterton, who is spying on DuPont''s cards. Bond blackmails Goldfinger into admitting it and paying back DuPont''s lost money; he also has a brief affair with Masterton. Back in London, Bond''s superior, M, tasks him with determining how Goldfinger is smuggling gold out of the country: M also suspects Goldfinger of being connected to SMERSH and financing their western networks with his gold. Bond visits the Bank of England for a briefing with Colonel Smithers on the methods of gold smuggling. ;Coincidence Bond contrives to meet and have a round of golf with Goldfinger; Goldfinger attempts to win the golf match by cheating, but Bond turns the tables on him, beating him in the process. He is subsequently invited back to Goldfinger''s mansion near Reculver where he narrowly escapes being caught on camera looking over the house. Goldfinger introduces Bond to his factotum, a Korean named Oddjob. Issued by MI6 with an Aston Martin DB Mark III, Bond trails Goldfinger as he takes his vintage Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost (adapted with armour plating and armour-plated glass) via air ferry to Switzerland, driven by Oddjob. Bond manages to trace Goldfinger to a warehouse in Geneva where he finds that the armour of Goldfinger''s car is actually white-gold, cast into panels at his Kent refinery. When the car reaches Goldfinger''s factory in Switzerland (Enterprises Auric AG), he recasts the gold from the armour panels into aircraft seats and fits them to the Mecca Charter Airline, in which he holds a large stake. The gold is finally sold in India at a vast profit. Bond foils an assassination attempt on Goldfinger by Jill Masterton''s sister, Tilly, to avenge Jill''s death at Goldfinger''s hands: he had painted her body with gold paint, which killed her. Bond and Tilly attempt to escape when the alarm is raised, but are captured. ;Enemy action Bond is tortured by Oddjob when he refuses to confess his role in trailing Goldfinger. In a desperate attempt to survive being cut in two by a circular saw, Bond offers to work for Goldfinger, a ruse that Goldfinger initially refuses, but then accepts. Bond and Tilly are subsequently taken to Goldfinger''s operational headquarters in a warehouse in New York City. They are put to work as secretaries for a meeting between Goldfinger and several gangsters (including the Spangled Mob and the Mafia), who have been recruited to assist in "Operation Grand Slam" – the stealing of the United States gold reserves from Fort Knox. One of the gang leaders, Helmut Springer, refuses to join the operation and is killed by Oddjob. Learning that the operation includes the killing of the inhabitants of Fort Knox by introducing poison into the water supply, Bond manages to conceal a capsule containing a message to Felix Leiter into the toilet of Goldfinger''s private plane, where he hopes it will be found and sent to Pinkertons, where his friend and ex-counterpart Felix Leiter now works. Operation Grand Slam commences, and it turns out that Leiter has indeed found and acted on Bond''s message. A battle commences, but Goldfinger escapes. Tilly, a lesbian, hopes that one of the gang leaders, Pussy Galore (leader of a gang of lesbian burglars), will protect her, but she is killed by Oddjob. Goldfinger, Oddjob and the mafia bosses all escape in the melee. Bond is drugged before his flight back to England and wakes to find he has been captured by Goldfinger, who has managed to hijack a BOAC jetliner. Bond manages to break a window, causing a depressurisation that sucks Oddjob out of the plane; he then fights and strangles Goldfinger. At gunpoint, he forces the crew to ditch in the sea near the Canadian coast, where they are rescued by a nearby weathership.

Goldfinger

A honeymooning couple, John and Rae Ingram, rescue a young man, Hughie, from a sinking boat who claims to have lost his companions to food poisoning. When John goes to inspect the sinking boat, he discovers the captain, Russ, and another woman, Mrs. Warriner, alive and begging for help. Discovering that John has left, Hughie panics, takes Rae hostage, and begins driving her boat away from the sinking ship. On board the sinking ship, John learns that Hughie and Mrs. Warriner and Russ and his wife, Mrs. Bellows, were vacationing when Hughie suffered an agoraphobic reaction while diving with Mrs. Bellows and accidentally killed her trying to climb onto her shoulders. The realization of what he''d done resulted in Hughie suffering a psychotic break. Mrs. Warriner further tells John that Hughie, though a gifted artist, has the mind of a child, his emotional growth having been stunted by his overbearing father and a codependent relationship with an inappropriately affectionate mother. On board the Ingram''s boat, Rae is able to surmise this herself from Hughie''s behavior and assumes the role of a caring mother figure in order to lull him into a false sense of security, while preparing to kill him with a shotgun John has stashed in their room. Ultimately, John and Russ are able to sufficiently repair their boat and rendezvous with Hughie and Rae. When everyone is reunited, Hughie suffers a flashback and sees Russ as his father and knocks him overboard. Hughie suffers a panic attack in the water and seizes up, and drags Russ below water where they both drown. John gives a sympathetic psychological analysis of Hughie as he, Rae, and Mrs. Warriner see that a new wind has come in that will take them all home.

Dead Calm

The novel takes place in two time periods: the first deals with the Binewski children''s constant struggle against each other through life. They especially have to deal with the Machiavellian Arty as he develops his own cult: Arturism. In this cult, Arty persuades people to have their limbs amputated so that they can be like Arty, the cult leader, in their search for the principle he calls PIP ("Peace, Isolation, Purity"). Each member moves up in stages, losing increasingly significant chunks of their body, starting with their toes and fingers. As Arty battles his siblings to maintain control over his followers, competition between their respective freak shows slowly begins to take over their lives. The second story is set in the present and is centered on Oly''s daughter, Miranda. Nineteen-year-old Miranda does not know Oly is her mother. She lives on a trust fund created by Oly before she gave up her daughter to be raised by nuns. This had been urged by her brother Arty, who was also Miranda''s father (not through sexual intercourse, but by the telekinetic powers of Chick, who carried Arty''s sperm directly to Oly''s ovum). Oly lives in the same rooming house as Miranda so she can "spy" on her. Miranda has a special defect of her own, a small tail, which she flaunts at a local fetish strip club. There she meets Mary Lick, who tries to convince her to have the tail cut off. Lick is a wealthy woman who pays attractive women to get disfiguring operations, ostensibly so they may live up to their potential instead of becoming sex objects; it is implied, however, that Lick''s real motivation is to punish them for being more attractive than she is. Oly plans to stop Lick in order to protect her daughter.

Geek Love

A psychiatric patient has lost his way and arrives at the country of Kappa. He is treated as a special guest and talks with Kappas of many occupations. Geeru, a radical capitalist, states that the unemployed labourers of Kappas are killed and their flesh is provided for food. The patient is astonished but Geeru argues that because the Japanese women in the poorest class are obliged to survive by prostitution, the patient''s opposition is sentimental. Kappa''s national characteristics are materialism and nihilistic realism. The babies of Kappa control their destiny. While in the womb, the fetus can refuse life as a Kappa, and be aborted. The Maggu, the sceptical philosopher Kappa committed suicide and appears as a ghost through the person of Tokku, a poet. Maggu is concerned about his fame after his death, although he admires the writers and philosophers who has died by suicide such as Heinrich von Kleist and Otto Weininger. At last the patient is due to return to the real human world, but muses that Kappa was clean and superior to human society and becomes a misanthrope.

Kappa

In The Tangled Skein, Baroness Orczy does not paint Queen Mary nearly so black as she is usually portrayed. Indeed Mary is depicted as so passionately loving as to be almost lovable, a woman of strong emotions, invariably swayed by justice. The tangling of the skein results from Mary’s love for (the fictional) Robert d’Esclade, fifth Duke of Wessex, whom the people of England desire to become King Consort. Robert is the embodiment of all chivalry, and every virtue dear to the heart of an Englishman. He is, so far, fancy free, but beyond deep respect for, and loyalty to, his Queen, he has no other feeling, and the idea of marriage with her merely for political reasons is repulsive to him. He is at the same time half betrothed, but not bindingly, to Lady Ursula Glynde, whom he has not seen since her babyhood. Wessex is repelled by the idea of having his wife thrust upon him in any way, and purposely avoids the girl, in which he is, unknown to himself, aided and abetted by the Queen, who tries jealously to guard him against falling a victim to Ursula’s undoubted fascinations. The Lady Ursula is exceedingly beautiful, very, sprightly in manner, and a favourite wherever she goes. As soon as she realises for what purpose Mary is keeping her in the background, Ursula’s spirit is aroused to the point of self-defence. To begin with, she is in love with Wessex, the report of his nobility and goodness and the feeling that in a measure he belongs to her, have influenced her all her life; but she has also a deeper interest at stake in the fact that on her father’s death- bed she bound herself by a promise to go into a convent if she should not marry Wessex. Ursula has no fancy to take the veil, so merry, so utterly independent is she that she takes to breaking bounds in order to frustrate the Queen’s jealousy; and bring herself under the notice of her betrothed, which she achieves, and all would have gone well for the young couple but for the power of Cardinal de Moreno, and his tool Don Mignel, Marquis de Saurez. The Cardinal is in England in order to negotiate the marriage between Philip II of Spain and Mary. His only stumbling block he discovers to be Wessex, and with a view to clearing him out of the way he first tries to bring about the marriage between the Duke and Lady Ursula. But, Mary discovers the ruse, and, in a fit of rage, declares that if this comes about his Eminence may leave England immediately; she will not marry Philip, Then the Cardinal has to set to work to part the lovers, a far more difficult and intricate business than bringing them together. It costs a life, Wessex his freedom, and Lady Ursula her good name before it can be affected. The skein is more hopelessly tangled than before, and still Mary remains obdurate. To straighten the tangle it takes the forfeiting of Mary’s dignity, her love, and her will. The Cardinal’s victory is gained at the expense of his own career. The lovers themselves are left with scars they can never forget.

The Tangled Skein

The residents of Tiamat are split into two clans: "Winters" who advocate technological progress and trade with offworlders, and "Summers" who depend on their folk traditions and rigid social distinctions to survive on this marginal planet. Every 150 years, the sun''s orbit around a black hole dramatically impacts the planetary ecology and to keep the uneasy peace, the government switches from Winter rule to Summer rule under a matriarchal monarch. Interstellar travel between Tiamat and the Hegemony is only possible during the 150 years of Winter rule, and a single woman rules the entire planet: a "Snow Queen" in Winter, a "Summer Queen" in Summer. The Hegemony''s interest in Tiamat has to do with the "mers," sentient sea-dwelling creatures whose blood provides the "water of life," a virus that restores physical youth. Mers are hunted as frequently as possible during the Winter years, to the brink of extinction. This also allows a single Snow Queen to reign for the entire 150-year season, and it is with the Snow Queen, Arienrhod, that the story begins. She has secretly implanted several Summer women with embryos, clones of herself, in the hopes of extending her rule past her ritual execution at the end of Winter. The novel follows Moon, the only one of these clones to survive to adolescence. She and her cousin Sparks are lovers, and both are "merry-begots", conceived during the planetary festivals held every 20 years to remind Tiamat of the cycle of power. Moon becomes a sibyl, a position of high status among the Summer people, since they are keepers of knowledge freely available to anyone who asks. Sibyls enter a trance and by mysterious means, can answer questions. Sparks, unable to join her among the sibyl mystics and curious about his offworld heritage, travels to Carbuncle, Tiamat''s capital, where he is immediately caught up by Arienrhod and eventually becomes the "Starbuck": her consort and commander of the mer hunts. Moon receives a message, apparently from Sparks, urging her to come to Carbuncle, though the city is barred to sibyls. On her way, she becomes entangled with smugglers and is taken off-world – a one-way trip for a Tiamatan citizen, as the Hegemony forbids Tiamat full access to their worlds. She is taken to the capital planet, Kharemough, and discovers that the Winters'' prejudice against sibyls is a political tool used by the Hegemony to preserve its control of technology on Tiamat. Sibyls are highly respected throughout the other planets of the Hegemony; only on Tiamat, due to a careful reinforcement of superstitions during the reign of Winter, are they considered dangerous and mentally unstable. Eventually, despite the waning window of safe travel offered by Tiamat''s orbit, she negotiates a return after finding out from a trance that Sparks is in danger. After a crash landing and short sojourn as a captive by an outback tribe of Winter fugitives in the north, Moon returns to Carbuncle and confronts Arienrhod for the fate of her beloved Sparks. Here she discovers the truth of her heritage and that Arienrhod considers her a failure; she wanted a clone in spirit, not just in body, a clone who would keep the Summers from rejecting technology – throwing all imported devices into the sea – at The Change. Moon proves her wrong by participating in the ritual competition for the Summer Throne, and winning. The Change will proceed, and Winter will end&mdash;but with an enlightened queen, preparing Tiamat to face the Hegemony as a peer when the 150 years of summer end and interstellar travel is again possible through the black hole.

The Snow Queen

Osfameron Tanamoril (Moril) Clennenson is a travelling musician, who travels with his father, Clennen, his mother, Lenina, and his elder siblings, Dagner and Brid, through Dalemark, a country torn by civil war between the South and the North. They travel around, playing music, taking passengers and messages, and spreading news throughout the country. When Clennen (the father and main performer) is murdered by the Earl of South Dales, who suspects him of being a spy for the North, Lenina (who is high-born and gave up the chance of being a Lady when she married Clennen) takes her three children and their passenger Kialan, the fugitive son of a Northern earl, back to her home town of Markind in South Dalemark. Within the same day as her husband''s death, Lenina is married to her former fiancé the Lord of Markind, guided by the belief that this is the only way to counter the bad luck caused by Clennen''s murder. Dagner, Brid, and Moril encounter their father''s murderer among the wedding guests in Markind and together with Kialan they flee the town and try to reach the North, while continuing to perform for a living. However, without Clennen and Lenina, they find this difficult to do. The oldest son, Dagner, tries to continue their father''s work as a Northern spy, but is arrested for treason against the Earl of South Dales. Brid, Moril, and Kialan are forced to flee, believing that Dagner will be hanged. Before he died, Clennen left his youngest son Moril a magical cwidder (a common musical instrument in Dalemark similar to a lute with some properties of an acoustic guitar). It is rumored to have been owned by Moril''s ancestor and namesake Osfameron, who was both a minstrel and a famous magician, featuring in many of the legends of Dalemark. Throughout their travels from the South to the North, Moril discovers that he has the power to use the magic of his newly inherited instrument. As they travel, they become embroiled in the civil war. As the Southerners are about to attack the North, Moril uses his magical cwidder to make the mountains ''walk'' and close Flennpass, the only mountain pass between the North and the South, just as his ancestor, the famed Osfameron, did in so many of the songs Moril''s father had sung nearly every day. The walking mountains crush the attacking Southern army, killing the evil Earl of South Dales, Clennen''s murderer, and saving the North. However, after the battle, Moril is wracked with guilt, as he caused the deaths of hundreds of men, and mainly because he was angry that his beloved horse, Olob, had been shot. In the end, when all safely reach Hannart, the earldom of Kialan''s father, they are joined by Dagner who has been released from jail after the death of the Earl of South Dales and traveled to North Dalemark with another traveling Singer, Hestefan. Moril decides that he should travel with Hestefan and learn how to be a proper Singer. Hestefan accepts, and they leave to continue travelling through Dalemark.

Cart and Cwidder

Dick and Nicole Diver are a glamorous couple who take a villa in the South of France and surround themselves with a circle of friends, mainly Americans. Also staying at the resort are Rosemary Hoyt, a young actress, and her mother. Rosemary gets sucked into the circle of the Divers; she falls in love with Dick and is also adopted as a close friend by Nicole. Dick first toys with the idea of an affair with Rosemary at this point, which he finally acts upon years later. However, Rosemary senses something is wrong with the couple, which is brought to light when one of the guests at a party reports having seen something strange in the bathroom. Tommy Barban, another guest, comes loyally to the defense of the Divers. The action involves various other friends, including the Norths, where a frequent occurrence is the drunken behavior of Abe North. The story becomes complicated when Jules Peterson, a black man, is murdered and ends up in Rosemary''s bed, in a situation which could destroy Rosemary''s career. Dick moves the blood-soaked body to cover up any implied relationship between Rosemary and Peterson. Once into the book, the history of the Divers emerges. Dick Diver was a doctor and psychoanalyst and had taken on a complicated case of neuroses. This was Nicole, whose complicated, incestuous relationship with her father is suggested as the cause of breakdown. As she becomes infatuated with Dick, Dick is almost driven to marry her as part of the cure. Strong objections are raised: Nicole is an heiress and her sister thinks Dick is marrying her for her money. They do marry, and Nicole’s money pays for Dick''s partnership in a Swiss clinic and for their extravagant lifestyle. However, Dick gradually develops a drinking problem. He gets into fights and trouble with the police in various incidents and is bought out of the clinic by his partner. The opening episode almost marks the crossover point whereby Dick becomes the weaker partner, progressively failing in what he attempts while Nicole becomes stronger. Dick''s behaviour becomes embarrassing as he mishandles situations with the children and friends. Eventually Nicole has an affair with Tommy Barban, and divorces Dick to marry Barban. Nicole survives, while Dick drifts into ever diminishing circumstances. The underlying theme is then how one person has become strong by destroying another—a point emphasized cynically by Nicole''s sister, who having seen Dick originally as the parasite, finally remarks that "That was what he was educated for."

Tender is the Night

In a post-Apocalypse America where almost everyone was killed by a plague over 1700 years prior, little is known about the ancient "Roadmaker" civilization that is said to have built the devastated ruins of enormous cities, and the magnificent roads that still cover the landscape. In the valley of the Mississippi River, a number of towns have united again, trade and science have begun anew. When a copy of Mark Twain''s novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur''s Court is discovered in the estate of the sole survivor of an earlier expedition to the north, a young woman named Chaka Milana, whose brother died in the previous expedition almost a decade ago, decides to gather a band of explorers and try to find Haven, a legendary stronghold where the knowledge of mankind is said to have been collected and kept safe for future generations. A long voyage ensues, taking the group, amongst other places, to the ruins of the ancient city of Chicago. After losing several members of their team and travelling by an extraordinary means of transport that still functions after hundreds of years, the team eventually finds Haven and salvages some of the knowledge stored there before the facility is struck by a disaster that they themselves cause.

Eternity Road

Harvard 1980, a radical human rights activist group are seeking a way to put their group into the public eye. Member Kathy Lakas suggests they organise the rescue of Rudolf Hess, then being held for nearly 40 years since the end of the Second World War. Lakas, given the permission to employ a mercenary soldier to plan the rescue bid, hires Lebanese mercenary John Haddad. Haddad accepts the offer in part and travels to West Berlin, in the heart of East Germany, to conduct a reconnaissance into the feasibility of the operation. While in West Berlin, Haddad is kidnapped by a mysterious group of vicious Germans lead by an ill looking middle aged man. They already know who Haddad is and have guessed why he is in Berlin, but they torture him all the same and leave him for dead. Hospitalised from the beating, Haddad is visited by British Army Major Reed-Henry who questions him on his activities. He shows Haddad photographs of the men who attacked him, revealing the leader as Karl Stroebling, a KGB operative and terrorist group leader. Again Reed-Henry already suspects why Haddad is in Berlin, but leaves it at that. Next day Haddad is joined by Kathy who is shocked by his injuries. Still unsure whether to accept the contract, Haddad realises he needs someone to watch his back and allow him to work without the threat of Stroebling. So Haddad travels to Paris, where he locates an old comrade, Maroun, who has been contracted to assassinate a Palestinian military leader. Maroun agrees to join up with Haddad after he''s completed his current job and protect Haddad in Berlin from Stroebling and his group. While in Paris Hadad meets Kathy''s brother Michael, who''s also a senior member of Kathy''s group. Haddad returns to West Berlin to continue with his reconnaissance while Kathy returns to the States, back there she learns her fellow committee members want to pull the plug on the project. Kathy strongly objects to their plan and decides to fund the rescue with her brother personally by selling a valuable family heirloom. Back in West Berlin, Haddad is approached by an American Army Major, Tom Dade. Dade an old friend of the Lakas'' is keen to help and suggests that Haddad seek out Reed-Henry for assistance in rescuing Hess.

The Square Circle

The novel begins with an overview of the main character''s background. Louis Lambert, the only child of a tanner and his wife, is born in 1797 and begins reading at an early age. In 1811 he meets the real-life Swiss author Madame de Staël (1766–1817), who – struck by his intellect – pays for him to enroll in the Collège de Vendôme. There he meets the narrator, a classmate named "the Poet" who later identifies himself in the text as Balzac; they quickly become friends. Shunned by the other students and berated by teachers for not paying attention, the boys bond through discussions of philosophy and mysticism. After completing an essay entitled Traité de la Volonté ("Treatise on the Will"), Lambert is horrified when a teacher confiscates it, calls it "rubbish", and – the narrator speculates – sells it to a local grocer. Soon afterwards, a serious illness forces the narrator to leave the school. In 1815, Lambert graduates at the age of eighteen and lives for three years in Paris. After returning to his uncle''s home in Blois, he meets a woman named Pauline de Villenoix and falls passionately in love with her. On the day before their wedding, however, he suffers a mental breakdown and attempts to castrate himself. Declared "incurable" by doctors, Lambert is ordered into solitude and rest. Pauline takes him to her family''s château, where he lives in a near coma. The narrator, ignorant of these events, meets Lambert''s uncle by chance, and is given a series of letters. Written by Lambert while in Paris and Blois, they continue his philosophical musings and describe his love for Pauline. The narrator visits his old friend at the Villenoix château, where the decrepit Lambert says only: "The angels are white." Pauline shares a series of statements her lover had dictated, and Lambert dies on 25 September 1824 at the age of twenty-eight.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

A Beautiful Friendship

By David Weber

Goldfinger

By Ian Fleming

Dead Calm

By Charles Williams

Geek Love

By Katherine Dunn

Kappa

No Author Listed

The Tangled Skein

By Baroness Emma Orczy

The Snow Queen

By Joan D. Vinge

Cart and Cwidder

By Diana Wynne Jones

Tender is the Night

By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Eternity Road

By Jack McDevitt

The Square Circle

No Author Listed

Louis Lambert

By Honoré de Balzac