During World War II, Simon Tregarth had risen from a common soldier to the rank of lieutenant colonel. In post-war Europe, he had become involved, almost accidentally, in the black market, only to be caught and discharged in disgrace from the military. He had also managed to anger a powerful criminal organization enough for it to send assassins to dispose of him. After months on the run, he knew his time was running out. Then, Tregarth is contacted by Dr. Jorge Petronius, a man with an amazing reputation for hiding men in dire straits. Petronius recounts a fantastic tale of a stone of power, the Siege Perilous of Arthurian legend, that has the power of opening a gateway to a world attuned to the person who sits on it. Disbelieving, but with little to lose, Tregarth gives up all the money he has left and is transported to a land where magic vies with more mundane swords and bows. He arrives in a nearly empty countryside, just in time to witness a savage hunt: a lone woman being chased down by hounds followed by two horsemen. Tregarth rescues the witch Jaelithe and enters the service of Estcarp, a land ruled by witches and threatened by many enemies. One of these is the land of Gorm, which was bloodily taken over by the far-off, mysterious realm of Kolder. Estcarp''s sole trusted ally is Sulcarkeep, a nation of seafaring traders. When Magnis Osberic, leader of Sulcarkeep, requests help against a common enemy, Tregarth and Jaelithe join a party of warriors sent to its aid. On the way, they are ambushed by men of Gorm who appear to be controlled by some unseen entity. The attack is defeated. Afterwards, Koris, Captain of Escarp and refugee from that land, recognizes some of the bodies. The group reaches the island fortress of Sulcarkeep. However, most of the Sulcarmen are away in the season of trading, and an attack overwhelms the few defenders. While a handful of survivors flee in small boats, Osberic remains behind to blow up the island, taking many of the enemy with him. The violence of the explosion causes the tiny vessels to founder; Tregarth and Jaelithe both reach land, but become separated. Jaelithe is captured by Fulk of Verlaine, a coastal lord, but is helped to escape by Loyse, his only daughter. Together, the two women make their way to Kars, the capital of Karston, Estcarp''s restive southern neighbor. Tregarth, guided by a mental link with the witch, is reunited with her there. Soon afterwards, Karston erupts in frenzy of killing aimed at those of the Old Race, the principal ethnic group of Estcarp. Tregarth, Jaelithe, Koris and Loyse flee the carnage. Tregarth organizes a guerrilla force using his prior military experience, but is caught and shipped to Gorm to be turned into a mindless slave, like others he has already encountered. Fortunately, he is able to escape. The witches of Estcarp launch an attack on the capital city of Gorm. When Tregarth fights and kills the enemy leader, during the intense struggle, he inadvertently achieves a mental rapport with his opponent and learns that the people of Kolder are like him in some respects; they are a small number of refugees from another universe, though one with a higher level of technology than Earth. Estcarp is victorious, but the threat from Kolder remains.

Witch World

The novel begins on a Family estate at Kethiuy on Cerdin, where the Sul sept of the Meth-maren House is attacked by the rival Ruil sept, with the help of Red and Gold Majats. The Ruil sept is seeking to wrest control of the Blue Majat from the Sul sept. A young Raen a Sul hant Meth-maren is the only survivor, and she seeks refuge in the nearby Blue Majat Hive. There she persuades the Blue Queen to help her regain control of Kethiuy. The Blue Warriors and their azi succeed in destroying the Ruil sept, but the Blue Hive is decimated and Raen is captured and brought before the Kontrin Council. Moth, the second oldest Kontrin, protects Raen from the Kontrin conspirators seeking to destroy her, and Raen is banished from Cerdin. Raen adopts a low profile and drifts from planet to planet in the Reach. She survives several assassination attempts but never gives up her desire for revenge against the Kontrin Council and those who destroyed her family. After Council Eldest Lian is assassinated, Moth takes control of the Council. She watches Raen''s movement but does not interfere. Raen''s final move is to board a Beta passenger spaceliner, Andra''s Jewel bound for Istra, the only planet in the Reach accessible from the Outside. Istra has no permanent Kontrin presence, only Betas, who deal with Outsiders and the Majat, who were brought here by the Kontrin hundreds of years previously. To amuse herself on Andra''s Jewel''s long voyage, Raen plays Sej, a dicing game every night with a ship azi named Jim. They agree that at the end of the voyage Raen will buy his contract, and if Jim is the overall winner, he will be a free man, but if he loses, he will become her azi. Jim narrowly loses and serves her for the remainder of the story. On Istra, Raen and Jim, now her second in command, establish a presence on the planet. She manipulates the Betas and gains control of their affairs. She also allies herself with the local Blue Majat Hive. But the Majat Hives are restless and soon turn on each other. The Blue, Green and Red Queens are killed and the surviving Gold Queen unites all the Hives under her. The Hive revolt spreads to all planets of the Reach and all the Kontrin perish, except for Raen, who now lives with the Majat on Istra. With the Kontrin Company no longer in control, the Betas take charge of the Reach. All the azi are gone, having self-terminated at their maximum age of 40, and no new azi are created. Jim, however, at Raen''s request, is given immortality by the Majat and lives with her in the Gold Hive.

Serpent''s Reach

Three Junes follows the McLeods, a Scottish family, throughout their lives and relationships. Its members are Paul and Maureen, and their sons: Fenno, and twins David and Dennis. At the opening of the book, Paul is on a tour of Greece, Maureen has died from lung cancer, and Fenno is running a bookstore in New York City. Other important characters include Malachy, Fenno''s friend who is a music critic and suffering from AIDS, and Fern, an unwed pregnant woman, who Paul formerly met on his trip to Greece, trying to recover from his wife''s death. Finally, another important character of the book is Tony, a photographer, who is a house-sitter, never living in the same house for more than a few months. He is a catalyst in the narative development of Fern and Fenno. He is an old friend with Fern and he develops a tumultuous relationship with Fenno. The novel is written in three parts, using the flashback technique. The first takes place in 1989 and is told from Paul''s perspective; the second, in 1995 and from Fenno''s point of view; the third, in 1999 and from Fern''s perspective. As Julia Glass has said herself, the book should be viewed not as a trilogy but rather a triptych - elements that may seem small in one section play a large role in another, like a triptych, rather than a consecutive series of novels in a trilogy.

Three Junes

The Deed of Paksenarrion was written as one long story, but published as three separate books. A number of people have pointed out resemblances between the story setting and Dungeons & Dragons, in particular alleged similarities between Moon''s town of Brewersbridge and Hommlet (a village in The Temple of Elemental Evil module for AD&D) and between Moon''s religion of Gird and the faith of Saint Cuthbert of the Cudgel in Greyhawk. However, such themes may often be similarly found in many brands of high fantasy, and are not unique to any one fictional world. The Deed of Paksenarrion revolves around the adult life of Paksenarrion Dorthansdotter, known as Paks, of Three Firs. It takes place in a fictional medieval world of kingdoms of humans, dwarves, gnomes and elves. The story begins by introducing Paks as a headstrong girl of 18, who leaves her home in Three Firs (fleeing a marriage arranged by her father) to join a mercenary company and through her journeys and hardships comes to realize that she has been gifted as a paladin, if in a rather non-traditional way.

The Deed of Paksenarrion

The Life traces the life story of Dennis Keith, now obese, mentally unwell and living in retirement village with his mother. A young would-be biographer arrives one day and begins to teases out his past. The story is told in different strands, one being reflections by Dennis (often in a variety of styles – first person, then third person) and also present day conversations with the biographer. Dennis is a poor gold coast kid who is mysteriously found and adopted by his mother "Mo" Keith. Dennis and his stepbrother Rod become obsessed with surfing at an earlier age. They prove to be talented and daring surfers and soon develop a reputation. They start entering competitions and eventually enter the nascent pro circuit all the while descending into heavy drug use. Dennis stumbles into an intermittent relationship with a singer Lisa Exmire. Lisa is found murdered and eventually charges are laid. Dennis drug use escalates and he drops out of the pro circuit. The novel concludes by revealing the truth about Dennis''s family, the murder and biographer.

The Life

The story begins in 1965 during the Watts Riots in Los Angeles, California. 23-year-old Lloyd Hopkins is still with the National Guard and is deployed to help handle the situation. It is during this riot that Hopkins kills his first man, a deranged armory sergeant who was hunting down and killing African Americans. Eighteen years later Hopkins is now a sergeant with the LAPD and has the highest number of arrests of any officer in the department''s history. He is considered a genius by many of his associates for his uncanny ability to make intuitive leaps of logic when tracking down criminals. Soon his abilities are put to the test when he investigates the brutal murder of a woman who was disemboweled in her apartment. Hopkins quickly deduces that the person responsible for this murder has in fact been killing women since the late 1960s, but has never been caught because he always changes his modus operandi. A subplot of the novel involves Hopkins'' relationship with his family. He adores his three daughters and deeply loves his wife, though he is chronically unfaithful to her. His wife loves Lloyd, but begins to realize that his habits are not healthy for their children, particularly his propensity for telling them about the cases that he has worked on.

Blood on the Moon

Alvin''s family is migrating west. When they try to cross the Hatrack River, an unknown force tries to stop the as-yet-unborn Alvin being born - since Alvin would be the seventh son of a seventh son, therefore possessing incredible powers as a Maker. The force sends a tree down the river to crush the wagon the pregnant Mrs. Miller is riding in. Her son Vigor diverts the tree, but is mortally wounded in the act. Because a seventh son must be born while the other six are alive, Vigor desperately clings to life until Alvin is born. Help is dispatched at the insistence of five-year-old "torch" (a person who, among other things, can see the life forces of people and under certain conditions, their myriad alternate futures) Peggy Guester, who sees Alvin and Alvin''s possible future as a Maker. As the years pass, Alvin avoids numerous attempts an unknown force to kill him, often helped by the intervention of a mysterious protector. Alvin''s father, a non-believer in God, believes that a water spirit is trying to kill Alvin. When Alvin is seven, a new Reverend, named Thrower, arrives in town, trying to build a church. Alvin''s father refuses to help, but Mrs. Miller has all of her sons work on building the church. When the ridgebeam is being place onto the church in construction, it shivers and breaks, seemingly about to fall on Alvin. However, mid-air, it breaks in two, and misses Alvin - yet another example of Alvin''s close-to-death experiences. When Alvin goes home, he provokes one of his sisters by poking her, so they get revenge on Alvin by putting needles into his night gown. Alvin avenges himself by using his knack to send cockroaches after his sisters. The plan works, Alvin winning a victory over his sisters. However, afterwards, he has a vision he dubs Shining Man, who makes him promise only to use his knack for good. When Alvin is ten, "Taleswapper" (William Blake) a traveling storyteller who arrives in the town Alvin''s parents have founded. After stopping by Alvin''s brother-in-law''s house (who directs Taleswapper to the Miller house), he visits the church, where he notices that the altar has been touched upon by an evil entity. Reverend Thrower kicks him out, and Taleswapper goes to the Miller''s, where his timely intervention stops Mr. Miller from killing Alvin. Taleswapper is welcomed in. Taleswapper helps to put a name to the unknown force that tries to stop Alvin from realizing his true powers as a Maker: the Unmaker. Meanwhile, the Reverend Philadelphia Thrower becomes a tool of the Unmaker - who was the evil force that touched the altar. Soon the Miller family goes to a quarry to cut out a millstone. Here Alvin''s knack is revealed - single-handedly he cut the millstone through hard rock. During the night, Taleswapper and Mr. Miller guard the millstone. Mr. Miller tells Taleswapper a story about how a force is trying to use him to kill Alvin - revealing the reason why Mr. Miller was about to kill Alvin when Taleswapper first arrived. Taleswapper advises Mr. Miller to send Alvin away to someplace where he may be safe. The next day the millstone is taken home. The Unmaker finally manages to injure Alvin, by making a millstone fall on him. Taleswapper encourages him to heal himself. Alvin does so, but finds that a part of his bone he cannot heal alone, and Alvin falls into a time of bad health. He realizes that he might need outside help to heal himself. Reverend Thrower (acting as a surgeon) attempts to kill him, but finds himself unable to by a mysterious force. Alvin heals himself (with the aid of his brother Measure, who performs the surgery). Alvin contracted as an apprentice to a blacksmith in the town on the Hatrack River where he was born. Taleswapper meets up with Peggy. It is revealed that she, using her torch powers and Alvin''s birth caul, had protected Alvin all his years, and the Unmaker was only able to hurt Alvin with the millstone because Alvin himself overrode her powers that tried to save him. The book''s sequel, second in the tales of Alvin''s life, is Red Prophet.

Seventh Son

The novel begins with shy and lonely 11-year-old Seymour Kerley, staying at an acquaintance of his mother''s for the summer holidays. Seymour''s parents have broken up and arguing over custody of him. When Seymour was staying with his father, an alcoholic, the latter had drunkenly threatened to take Seymour away interstate. Although Seymour himself thought this was a shallow threat, as his father had little money and was often jobless, his mother took him away to stay at Victoria Road with Thelma. Thelma is a woman who Seymour''s mother had formed a "casual and tenuous acquaintance". Thelma is meticulous and tart. At her house Seymour is bored and unhappy. During the day, while Thelma is at work, Seymour is not allowed to open the door, or leave the house, because of his mother''s fear that his father might come and take him away. However, after a few days, Seymour climbs over the back gate and walks to the nearby shops. Seymour goes in a few shops then to the park. At the park a group of children tease him. Not knowing how to defend himself, Seymour runs away. The children chase him. Seymour gets lost, and can''t find his back gate. He goes through a gate which he guesses is his, but it is not. Instead he meets a young girl: Angie. Angie is in her late teens, and Seymour describes her a beautiful angel. Seymour and Angie become friends, and Angie takes him on outings to the horse races, shops and a restaurant. Seymour has faint suspicions about Angie, but refuses to believe them. One day, Seymour finds Angie in her flat acting "peculiar" and looking sick. Seymour goes back to Thelma''s house and calls Angie''s sister, Lynne, whom he met previously. Lynne comes over and calls her father, who drives up to Angie''s flat and takes Angie away. Several days later, Seymour decides to go to Angie''s flat and clean it for when she comes home. However, Seymour finds that it has already been cleaned and almost everything is packed away. Lynne finds Seymour in the flat and tells Seymour Angie won''t be coming back, and reveals that Angie has been taking drugs for nearly five years. Lynne describes how Angie has promised, many times, to her parents that she will go to rehab, and that Angie''s boyfriend James, is in jail. Angie is going to Rankin House temporarily, a rehabilitation center nearby, then Lakeview, another center. While Angie is at Rankin House, Seymour decides to go see her to give her back her doll that that was left at the flat. Seymour gets to Rankin House and finds Angie, who desperately pretends she has been sick with Pleurisy and is going to be back soon. Angie and Seymour begin to fight, but Seymour, weary of her lies, gives her back her doll and leaves. The rest of the novel is a letter from Angie. In the letter Angie apologizes to Seymour and says that she is at Lakeview, pregnant and going to have her baby soon, and when she gets out she and the baby will live with her parents for a while. In the postscript there is a letter from Seymour in reply to Angie. He describes in the letter that he likes Carrucan, the place where he and his mother have moved to, and that his father came to visit him and got a job as a truck driver. Seymour says he has made a friend called Martin and is learning to swim, and that when Angie gets out of Lakeview and goes to live with her parents he suggests they go out to places with her baby.

Came Back to Show You I Could Fly

The Sahara is being flooded to create a new sea when the protagonist of the novel, Mark Sunnet, crashes his private rocket plane into an island of what is currently little more than a large lake. He soon finds himself and his female companion sucked into an underground cavern where they are promptly captured by mysterious pygmies. The diet of little people is centred around large fungi; the captives speculate that stories which reached the surface of the little people and their giant mushrooms may have led to the myth of gnomes. Sunnet finds that a tiered community has evolved in the underground caverns - the pygmies inhabiting a large underground collection of natural and artificial caverns and tunnels, and the captured humans in a deliberately isolated subsection of the caverns. He is also surprised to learn that family life exists in the caverns - "natives", children of captured humans who were born and have lived all their lives in the caverns exist, and are generally happy with their life, and have no wish to escape. Most of the captured humans do wish to escape, and two different methods are being tried. Both are tunnels, one going up at an angle, to try and break through to the surface, and another on a level, hoping to intersect a pygmy tunnel or cavern, from where they will be able to make their way to the surface. The pygmies are distressed, and it is Sunnet''s arrival that reveals why to the captives - the pygmies fear their environment will be flooded and destroyed by the newly formed Saharan Sea. Their fear is well founded, and the waters break through into the pygmy caverns, eventually flooding the entire ecosystem. Sunnet and a handful of others survive, and finish the story being sunburned after years of subterranean life, and establishing a new company based on primitive - but unique - technology they rescued from the caverns.

The Secret People

Sixteen-year-old Connor is on his way home from school when he is run down by an ice-cream truck. He is sent to hell with his dog, Scrote, who choked on an ice cream cone which rolled off the truck. There he is sentenced to spending all eternity reading intellectual books and listening to classical music with his personal devil tormentor, Clarence, and a transvestite Viking, Olaf. Eventually he meets a beautiful naked angel called Francessa who tells him that one person''s hell could be his heaven. He sets out to swap hells with an elderly, classical music loving, homosexual gentlemen whose hell is to constantly play the PlayStation and have his penis fondled by nude women. He, Clarence, Scrote and Olaf set out on a long journey, of which if they are caught means they will be annihilated and be gone forever. On their travels, Olaf is captured and annihilated. Eventually they reach Connor''s heaven, but he finds that Clarence has betrayed him. Olaf also betrayed him and is not dead, but then tries to help Connor and is this time killed for good. Connor and Scrote are sentenced to their ideal heaven, which has now became their worst nightmare as their tastes have changed. Connor notices a lever on the annihilator which has a plus and a minus. Figuring that it will reincarnate him if he changes it to plus and jumps in, he does so. It is left to the reader to decide whether Connor and Scrote were reincarnated or were fully annihilated.

HellBent

Young Darren Shan has been fascinated by spiders from an early age. His best friend, Steve "Leopard" Leonard has grown up reading horror comics and stories about werewolves and vampires. Steve, Darren, and their friends find out about a freak show called Cirque du Freak and plan on buying tickets. Their teacher finds out about the freak show and tries to shut it down by ripping up the address . Steve memorizes the address and is there, but when he finds no one he gets ready to leave when Mr. Tall, arrives from nowhere, the ring master, hands him two tickets. Darren gets the other ticket. After viewing the "Cirque du Freak" Darren and Steve are mesmerized by the fantastic and disturbing show, especially by the act of the mysterious Mr. Crepsley and his giant, deadly, poisonous spider, Madam Octa. When the show ends, Steve goes back to talk to Mr. Crepsley about turning him into a vampire. He takes a taste of his blood and says that Steve''s blood is bad. In horror, Steve flees the theater and tells Mr. Crepsley he will get him back for this. Darren, also horrified, turns away and decides to tell Steve that he got lost on his way back to the house, and decided to go home, which Steve half-believes. Darren steals Madam Octa, and plays with her. Steve comes over and lets her crawl around him. Annie, Darrens younger sister, walks in and screams. Darren gets distracted, and Madam Octa bites Steve paralyzing him. Darren convinces Annie to keep it secret that Darren caused Steve to get bitten. They send Steve to the hospital, the doctors have no idea what caused it and how to cure it. Darren decides the only person with a cure is most likely Mr. Crepsley. Darren goes home and observes Madam Octa. He becomes enraged and pitches her out the window. Darren then sees Mr. Crepsley taking her back. Darren goes to meet Mr. Crepsley at the theater and gives Darren a cure. But in exchange, Darren must become half vampire and give up his entire life as a human.

Cirque Du Freak

The book is a work of historical fiction set in the late pre-Columbian age in Mexico City and depicts the daily life of the ancient Aztec people, both the commoners (servants, traders and warriors) and the upper classes (priests, nobles, and government officials). The "Mexican" section contains a great deal of Mexican symbolism, geographical, political and religious references and historical data took from various authors like Bernal Díaz del Castillo and his book Verdadera Historia de la Conquista de la Nueva España (in English, "True History of the Conquest of New Spain"). The novel also recounts the history and development of the Manriques, a family of Spanish nobles, and details aspects of life in 15th century Spain. The Manrique family lives through major historical events, such as the reconquest of Spain by Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, the reception of Christopher Columbus twice at Torremala (the Family Settlement), news of the discovery of the Americas and the relationship between the family of Hernán Cortés and the Manriques. The two stories eventually merge with the meeting of the two main characters, Alonso Manrique and Xuchitl (the daughter of King Nezahualpilli of Texcoco, one of the three allied kingdoms that Cortés found at the time of his arrival). The Mexican set of characters struggles with love, pain, pride and hate with the Spanish group of characters during the conquest of Mexico (1519-1521) by Hernán Cortés, the fall and complete destruction of Tenochtitlan and its satellite kingdoms, and the emergence of a new nation, New Spain (now modern Mexico) out of the meeting of two great cultures: the Spanish heritage (with old Visigoth, Jewish, Moorish and Catholic roots) and the ancient native Mexican traditions (like the Olmecs, Mayans, and Toltecs). The novel deals with the "conflict between two worlds": Christian Europe and Aztec America. Both civilizations are represented by equally-committed proponents: Alonso Manrique (Europe) and Itzcauatzin (America). Both characters are soldiers and priests (symbolizing nationalism and faith). Alonso started as a priest and later became a warrior; Itzcauatzin entered an academy (Calmecac) that prepared him for both. Caught in between is Xuchitl, the Aztec princess. Whoever wins her wins the future of the Aztec civilization. Xuchitl identifies the winner by giving him the Aztec talisman known as "el corazon de piedra verde" ("the green stone heart"). This talisman was worn by her father and represents the mystic powers of the Aztec religion. Alonso won, signifying the beginning of the Christianization of Mexico. Itzcauatzin gives his life as a human sacrifice vainly trying to add enough power to the traditional religion to overcome the Europeans. In the end, Alonso and Xuchitl have a son and return to Mexico from Spain. They bring the jade heart with them, but with the Virgin Mary etched on it to counteract the stone''s original powers. The novel was the first of an intended five novels —each covering a century (XVI-XX)— tracking the creation of modern Mexico through the descendants of Alonso and Xuchitl. However, only four novels were finished before Salvador de Madariaga died. no:Det magiske hjertet es:El_coraz%C3%B3n_de_piedra_verde

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Witch World

By Andre Norton

Serpent's Reach

By C. J. Cherryh

Three Junes

By Julia Glass

The Deed of Paksenarrion

By Elizabeth Moon

The Life

No Author Listed

Blood on the Moon

By James Ellroy

Seventh Son

By Orson Scott Card

Came Back to Show You I Could Fly

By Robin Klein

The Secret People

By John Wyndham

HellBent

No Author Listed

Cirque Du Freak

By Darren Shan

El Corazón de Piedra Verde

By Salvador de Madariaga