The Fifty Year Sword is essentially a mature-audience ghost story, in the disguised form of a children''s book. The events of the book take place at a woman''s 50th birthday party in an orphan''s foster home, told from the point of view of Chintana, a kind yet sullen seamstress who is struggling with the recent divorce from her husband over an affair, the mistress, Belinda Kite, of which is ironically the birthday girl whose party Chintana is attending. A storyteller is invited by a social worker to entertain the orphans. He brings with him a long, black box. The storyteller entertains the orphans by explaining his adventures of obtaining the contents of the box: His Fifty Year Sword, a weapon that never fails to cut but shows no wound until the victim''s 50th year of life. He recants a suspenseful, epic journey through mystical rocky trails and soundless forests, bent on finding an otherworldly swordsmith to satisfy a dark, never explained personal grudge. He then opens the box, revealing a seemingly bladeless sword, and he waves it in the air at the candles. Just then, the mistress and Birthday Girl, who has barged in toward the end of the story, gets annoyed at the storyteller and tells the children the whole thing is a bunch of hogwash, and sets out to prove it. She takes the hilt of the sword, and slashes it around at herself in any and all places in order to disprove the man''s story, much to the horror of the children and the bemusement of the shadowy storyteller. The suspense grabs the reader even more as the storyteller finishes and Chintana and the other guests go outside so the Birthday Girl can toast herself as her 50th year of life begins at the stroke of midnight. As they take the toast, and the clock hits midnight, signaling the 50th year of Belinda Kite, Belinda falls to pieces, as she has sliced herself in all discernable locations. Chintana, in a fit of empathy, runs to Belinda and holds her as the different discernable entities of her human body fall off. Chintana, at this point, likens holding her together to a series of stitches and the pressures and cuts that can tear it apart. How does one know how much it will take before it tears?

The Fifty Year Sword

Casper the Commuting Cat is the story of an adventurous cat, Casper, that the author, Susan Finden had adopted from a rescue centre in 2002. She describes how Casper liked to wander from her house and was not afraid of people or traffic. Casper used to walk into office blocks and doctors'' consulting rooms and find a chair to sleep on. Then he started queuing with people at a bus stop across the road from his house and boarding buses that took his fancy. He would curl up on a seat and go to sleep, and when the bus had completed its 11 mile round-trip to the city centre and returned to his bus stop, the driver would let him off. Casper''s commuting habits made him a celebrity and Finden describes the world-wide media attention that she and Casper received. In January 2010 Casper died after being struck by a speeding taxi while crossing the road outside his house. Finden tells how she coped with her loss and the renewed media attention that followed. In addition to covering Casper''s exploits, Finden includes in the book a brief story of her own life, and discusses the other cats she had adopted from rescue centres. Also present are several light-hearted chapters "written" by Casper from "the other side" in which he gives advice to other cats on how to handle humans, catch a bus, and deal with the media.

Casper the Commuting Cat

Katherine Johnson, a New York journalist, befriends businessman Jack Fox in order to write an article on his business success. Fox learns that she plans to expose him as a Mafia member and nephew of a Mafia family, and he has her killed. Her ex-husband, Blake Johnson, an ex-FBI agent now heading a special unit in the White House learns of the death, and he vows to destroy Fox and all he represents. Armed with a Presidential mandate, he flies to London and contacts Brigadier Ferguson of the Ministry of Defence. Together with Hannah Bernstein, a Detective Superintendent with Special Branch and Sean Dillon, an ex-IRA gunman and mercenary now working for the British government on ''black'' operations, he launches a series of operations to bring Fox down. Their first foray involves causing Fox''s London casino to be caught using loaded dice; this has the effect of closing down the casino and Fox''s other gambling interests. The next operation sees Johnson and Dillon join with a Mossad commando force to destroy a ship in Beirut harbour which is loaded with missiles destined to be used against Israel. Johnson is wounded in the action. Dillon recruits Billy Salter, a young but enthusiastic London gangster, for the next operation, in which they land commando-style on the coast on County Louth in Ireland to destroy a cache of weaponry in which Fox has a large financial interest. Finally, they foil a plot by gangsters working for Fox to steal several million pounds worth of diamonds from a London safe deposit. Johnson is captured by Fox''s henchmen and taken to his mansion in Cornwall. Dillon and Billy plan a parachute landing and attack the mansion. Whilst Johnson is released, Fox is killed. His minders escape to London and report to Fox''s uncle and patron Don Marco Solazzo, who comes himself to London for what he hopes will be a final showdown. Solazzo and his henchmen die in the ensuing fight on a boat in the Thames.

Day of Reckoning

The story is set in 2010, mostly in the United States. A number of plots and many vignettes are played out in this future world, based on Brunner''s extrapolation of social, economic, and technological trends. The key main trends are based on the enormous population and its impact: social stresses, eugenic legislation, widening social divisions, future shock, and extremism. Certain of Brunner''s guesses are fairly close, others not, and some ideas clearly show their 1960s mind-set. Many futuristic concepts, products and services, and slang are presented. A supercomputer named Shalmaneser is an important plot element. The Hipcrime Vocab and other works by the fictional sociologist Chad C. Mulligan are frequent sources of quotations. Some examples of slang include "codder" (man), "shiggy" (woman), "whereinole" (where in hell?), "prowlie" (an armored police car), "offyourass" (possessing an attitude), "bivving" (bisexuality, from "ambivalent") and "mucker" (a person running amok). A new technology introduced is "eptification" (education for particular tasks), a form of mental programming. Another is a kind of interactive television that shows the viewer as part of the program ("Mr. & Mrs. Everywhere"). Genetically modified microorganisms are used as terrorist weapons. The book centres on two New York men, Donald Hogan and Norman Niblock House, who share an apartment. House is a rising executive at General Technics, one of the all-powerful corporations. Using his "Afram" (African American) heritage to advance his position, he has risen to vice-president at age twenty-six. Hogan is introduced with a single paragraph rising out of nowhere: "Donald Hogan is a spy". Donald shares an apartment with House and is undercover as a student. Hogan''s real work is as a "synthesist", although he is a commissioned officer and can be called up for duty. The two main plots concern the fictional African state of Beninia (a name reminiscent of the real-life Benin, though that nation in the Bight of Benin was known as the Republic of Dahomey when the book was written) making a deal with General Technics to take over the management of their country, in a bid to speed up development from third world to first world status. A second major plot is a break-through in genetic engineering in the fictional Australasian nation of Yatakang (which seems to be a disguised Indonesia), to which Hogan is soon sent by the U.S. government ("State") to investigate. The two plots eventually cross, bringing potential implications for the entire world.

Stand on Zanzibar

The Red Flower Society is a secret society that aims to overthrow the Manchu-led Qing Dynasty and restore Han Chinese rule in China. The society is led by a total of fifteen leaders with Chen Jialuo as chief. The fourth leader Wen Tailai is ambushed by a group of soldiers and arrested on the Qianlong Emperor''s order because he knows a secret about Qianlong''s birth and the emperor wants to silence him. The story''s development is mostly based on the society''s repeated attempts to rescue Wen Tailai. The heroes encounter some Islamic tribesmen, who are pursuing a convoy of hired escorts, who have robbed them of their holy artefact, a Quran. Chen Jialuo aids them in defeating the mercenaries and recovers the holy book. He earns the respect and admiration of Huoqingtong, the daughter of the tribe''s leader. Throughout the story, some of the heroes eventually find their rights after braving danger together. The couples Xu Tianhong and Zhou Qi, Yu Yutong and Li Yuanzhi, are married after two lengthy subplots. Chen Jialuo and the heroes follow the trail of the convoy escorting Wen Tailai and arrive in Hangzhou. There, Chen Jialuo coincidentally meets the Qianlong Emperor, who is disguised as a rich man, and they strike up a friendship. However later when they discover each others'' true identities, they become wary and suspicious. Qianlong''s best warriors are defeated by the society''s leaders in a martial arts contest and the emperor feels humiliated. He wants to summon his army to eradicate the society, but refrains from doing so as he is aware of their strong influence and connections in Hangzhou. When Chen Jialuo finally rescues Wen Tailai, he is shocked to learn that the Qianlong Emperor is not a Manchu, but in fact, a Han Chinese. Even more shockingly, Wen reveals that Qianlong is actually Chen''s older brother, who was replaced at birth with the Yongzheng Emperor''s daughter. Chen Jialuo and the heroes take Qianlong hostage and try to persuade him to acknowledge his ethnicity. They suggest that he use his authority to drive the Manchus out of the Central Plains and assure him that he will still remain as emperor after that. Qianlong reluctantly agrees and takes an oath of alliance with the heroes. At the same time, the Qing army invades northwestern China, where the Islamic tribe lives, and Chen Jialuo travels there to help his friends. He meets Huoqingtong again and her younger sister, Kasili (Princess Fragrance). Chen falls in love with Kasili and finds himself entangled in a love triangle, because Huoqingtong also has romantic feelings for him. The Islamic tribe is eventually annihilated by the Qing army and Kasili is captured and brought back to the capital Beijing. The Qianlong Emperor is attracted to Kasili''s beauty and tries to force her to become his concubine but she refuses. Chen Jialuo infiltrates the palace to meet Qianlong and remind him about their pact, whilst affirming that he will persuade Kasili to marry the emperor. Kasili later discovers that Qianlong has broken his promise and is secretly plotting to destroy the Red Flower Society, so she commits suicide to warn Chen. The society''s members are angry with the emperor for renouncing his oath and they storm the palace. Qianlong is defeated and forced to come to a truce with the heroes. Chen Jialuo and his friends then return to the western regions after paying respects at Kasili''s tomb.

The Book and the Sword

The story starts with Centurion Eric von Shrakenberg in a cargo airplane with his airborne unit and the embedded American correspondent William Dreiser, on their way to their drop point, where they will jump and parasail into Nazi-controlled Georgia. The Nazis have been much more successful than in our history, since the Soviets had to divert resources to defend their southern border against the Domination of the Draka. As a result, the Nazis managed to overrun European Russia. The Soviet Union has been pushed back and only controls territories east of the Ural Mountains. However, the Germans are seriously overstretched, and vulnerable to a strong attack. During the travel to their drop zone, Eric thinks back on his past and his relationship with his father, and his most recent visit home to see his family. This was the first visit in several years, his exile was due to his arranging the escape of his serf daughter to America. Eric''s bravery in the earlier Draka conquest of Italy led to his former "mistake" being forgiven. Eric''s "Century" ends up being seriously under-supplied because the gliders with the artillery went into a canyon. The engineers are frantically building a rubble ramp, but the heavy weapons won''t be available for the battle. The story details how Eric''s single infantry company takes and holds a small village strategically located on the crucial Ossetian Military Highway over the Caucasus Mountains. The balance of the First Airborne Legion is the plug which is holding four German divisions from escaping the trap they are in on the south side of the mountains. Eric''s unit is tasked with holding the highway and village against repeated attacks by Felix Hoth''s Waffen-SS armored regiment, which is fighting to clear the highway so the German divisions can escape. Eric''s company manages to hold out long enough for the Draka to crush the four divisions, cross the mountains, and relieve his unit. Holding this highway and village is the critical act of the invasion of Russia. This lets the Draka''s essentially undamaged and superior armored and mechanized units to penetrate into the plains of Southern Russia, where they can bring to battle and destroy the overstretched and exhausted German forces. It also leads to Eric being awarded the Domination''s highest medal of valor, the aurora, "for saving 10,000 Citizen lives," and which makes him immune to Security Directorate reprisals for his "treasonous utterances" or for his earlier "indiscretion." The actions of Century A is the pivotal event at the beginning of the invasion of Russia that allows the Domination to eventually win the Eurasian War.

Marching Through Georgia

Honey and Agnes are best friends growing up in Mount Blessing, a religious commune in Connecticut. Honey and Agnes could not be any more different, and the older they get the more they are growing apart. Honey was abandoned by her mother as a newborn, but she lived in the nursery with Agnes until she turned 7 years old; Honey lives with Winky and Agnes lives with her parents and her brother, Benny. Ever since Agnes got The Saints'' Way (The Saints'' Way is a book that everyone in Mount Blessing gets when they turn twelve; it is given by the leader Emmanuel), she has changed. Agnes now abides all the rules in Mount Blessing, and she goes by whatever Emmanuel says. Honey on the other hand, never listens to Emmanuel or Veronica, never follows the rules and hates living at Mount Blessing. Whenever they, or anyone, do something wrong they are sent to the "regulation room". There they get whipped by Emmanuel and Veronica. Everything stays this way until Nana Pete, Agnes'' grandmother, shows up unexpectedly and finds out the truth behind Mount Blessing.

The Patron Saint of Butterflies

The novel''s narrative is divided into three distinct strands. One is centred on Urania Cabral, a fictional Dominican character; another deals with the conspirators involved in Trujillo''s assassination; and the third focuses on Trujillo himself. The novel alternates between these storylines, and also jumps back and forth from 1961 to 1996, with frequent flashbacks to periods earlier in Trujillo''s regime. The Feast of the Goat begins with the return of Urania to her hometown of Santo Domingo, a city which had been renamed Ciudad Trujillo during Trujillo''s time in power. This storyline is largely introspective and deals with Urania''s memories and her inner turmoil over the events preceding her departure from the Dominican Republic thirty-five years earlier. Urania escaped the crumbling Trujillo regime in 1961 by claiming she planned to study under the tutelage of nuns in Michigan. In the following decades, she becomes a prominent and successful New York lawyer. She finally returns to the Dominican Republic in 1996, on a whim, and finds herself compelled to confront her father and elements of her past she has long ignored. As Urania speaks to her ailing father, Agustin Cabral, she recalls more and more of the anger and disgust that led to her thirty-five years of silence. Urania retells her father''s descent into political disgrace, and the betrayal that forms the crux of both Urania''s storyline and that of Trujillo himself. The second and third storylines are set in 1961, in the weeks prior to and following Trujillo''s assassination on the 30th of May. Each assassin has his own background story, explaining his motivation for his involvement in the assassination plot. Each has been wronged by Trujillo and his regime, by torture and brutality, or through assaults on their pride, their religious faith, their morality, or their loved ones. Vargas Llosa weaves the tale of the men as memories recalled on the night of Trujillo''s death, as the conspirators lie in wait for "The Goat". Interconnected with these stories are the actions of other famous Trujillistas of the time; Joaquín Balaguer, the puppet president, Johnny Abbes García, the merciless head of the Military Intelligence Service (SIM), and various others&mdash;some real, some composites of historical figures, and some purely fictional. The third storyline is concerned with the thoughts and motives of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina himself. The chapters concerning The Goat recall the major events of his time, including the slaughter of thousands of Dominican Haitians in 1937. They also deal with the Dominican Republic''s tense international relationships during the Cold War, especially with the United States under the presidency of John F. Kennedy, and Cuba under Castro. Vargas Llosa also speculates upon Trujillo''s innermost thoughts and paints a picture of a man whose physical body is failing him. Trujillo is tormented by incontinence and impotence; and this storyline intersects with Urania''s narrative when it is revealed that Urania was sexually assaulted by Trujillo. He is unable to achieve an erection with Urania, and in frustration and anger he rapes her with his hands. This event is the core of Urania''s shame, and her hatred towards her father. In addition, it is the cause of Trujillo''s repeated anger over the "anemic little bitch" that witnessed his impotence and emotion, and the reason he is en route to sleep with another girl on the night of his assassination. In the novel''s final chapters, the three storylines intersect with increasing frequency. The tone of these chapters is especially dark as they deal primarily with the horrific torture and death of the assassins at the hands of the SIM, the failure of the coup, the rape of Urania, and the concessions made to Trujillo''s most vicious supporters allowing them to enact their horrific revenge on the conspirators and then escape the country. The book ends as Urania prepares to return home, determined this time to keep in touch with her family back on the island.

The Feast of the Goat

Several years after his return to earth Harry Sr. is troubled by nightmares of resurgent Vampires. These nightmares are messages from the dead who he is unable to communicate with when awake due to the actions of Harry Jr. Separately E-Branch is investigating drug smuggling in the Mediterranean when two of its agents are assaulted. One is vampirized and the other rendered insane. Harry Sr''s new girlfriend, Sandra, herself secretly a member of E-Branch plays a pivotal role in bringing Harry into the mix. She had been assigned to watch him and if possible restore his powers and reports to the head of E-Branch on his status. Unknown to everyone the E-branch head is a sleeper agent for the Russian E-Branch/KGB community. Afraid that Harry may be recovering his old powers, or perhaps developing new ones, the Russians choose to eliminate him. The plot fails due to the intervention of the dead, and in the process Sandras status as an agent is revealed, as is the fact that Ken and Trevor are in trouble, and that the dead want Harry in the Mediterranean. Together Harry, Sandra, and Darcy, go out to check on the situation. During the course of the investigation they learn that the drug smuggler is a resurrected Janos Ferenczy, using the alias Jianni Lazarides. Sandra and Ken Layard are kidnapped and vampirized, and Janos uses his telepathy to force Trevor Jordan to kill himself. Despite being virtually powerless Harry moves to engage Janos on his home ground in Romania, but not before spending the night (what would later be revealed to be a very fateful night) in the ruins of Faethers house in Ploesti. When he awoke the next morning Harry discovered he was surrounded by odd black mushrooms that exploded at the slightest touch releasing their spores into the air which he breathed. Overnight Faether had restored his Deadspeak, and had untangled most of Harry''s mental troubles. However not being a mathematician he was unable to restore the command of numbers and access to the Mobius Continuum. With his deadspeak restored Harry sought out and again spoke to Mobius himself, who recruited other mathematicians to help with the problem as Harry approached Janos lair slowly. Harry began showing signs of developing telepathy and possibly other powers in his own right. A fact he initially put down to his mind compensating for the long lack of his other abilities. During the final confrontation against Janos and his vampire thralls a group of Thracians raised from their ashes by Janos to help him instead took Harry''s side and assisted him. This along with the timely restoration of his teleportation abilities through the Mobius Continuum allowed Harry to defeat Janos. The book closes shortly after Harry and the last Thracian stake and behead the vampirized Sandra.

Necroscope IV: Deadspeak

Hitchens condemns Mother Teresa for having used contributions to open convents in 150 countries rather than establishing the teaching hospital toward which her donors expected that she would apply their gifts. He claims that Mother Teresa was no "friend to the poor," and that she opposed structural measures to end poverty, particularly those that would raise the status of women. He argues she was a tool by which the Catholic Church furthered its political and theological aims, and the cult of personality that she developed was used by politicians, dictators and bankers to gain credibility and assuage guilt, citing Hillary Rodham Clinton, Charles Keating and Michèle Bennett as examples. Hitchens portrays Mother Teresa''s organization, the Missionaries of Charity, as a cult which has promoted suffering to further its own financial ends and does not help those in need. He argues that Teresa''s own words on poverty proved that her intention was not to help people, citing a 1981 press conference in which she was asked: "Do you teach the poor to endure their lot?" She replied: "I think it is very beautiful for the poor to accept their lot, to share it with the passion of Christ. I think the world is being much helped by the suffering of the poor people." Hitchens details Mother Teresa''s relationships with wealthy and corrupt individuals including Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier and his wife Michèle Duvalier, enigmatic quasi-religious figure John-Roger, and disgraced former financial executive Charles Keating. The book includes the reproduction of a letter written by Mother Teresa on behalf of Charles Keating to Judge Lance Ito who was presiding over Keating''s trial for defrauding his investors of billions of dollars. The letter urged the judge to consider the fact that Keating had donated generously ($1.25 million) to the Missionaries of Charity and suggested that Judge Ito "look into [his] heart" and "do what Jesus would do." Hitchens also includes the contents of a letter written to Mother Teresa by the man prosecuting the case against Keating, Deputy District Attorney for Los Angeles Paul Turley. In the letter, Mr. Turley pointed out to Mother Teresa that Keating was on trial for stealing more than $250 million from over 17,000 investors in his business. In addition, Turley expresses his opinion that "[n]o church, no charity, no organization should allow itself to be used as a salve for the conscience of the criminal" and suggests: "Ask yourself what Jesus would do if he were given the fruits of a crime; what Jesus would do if he were in possession of money that had been stolen; what Jesus would do if he were being exploited by a thief to ease his conscience? I submit that Jesus would promptly and unhesitatingly return the stolen property to its rightful owners. You should do the same. You have been given money by Mr. Keating that he has been convicted of stealing by fraud. Do not permit him the ''indulgence'' he desires. Do not keep the money. Return it to those who worked for it and earned it! If you contact me I will put you in direct contact with the rightful owners of the property now in your possession." After the conclusion of the letter, Hitchens notes: &#34;Mr. Turley has received no reply to his letter. Nor can anyone account for the missing money: saints, it seems, are immune to audit.&#34;

The Missionary Position

It explores the concepts of war and peace, good government and religious belief. It can be seen as a bridging novel between the all-human Dune universe and the ConSentiency universe series. It is a novel expanded from four short stories: * "You Take the High Road". Appeared in Astounding Science Fiction, May 1958 * "Missing link". Appeared in Astounding Science Fiction February 1959 * "Operation Haystack". Appeared in Astounding Science Fiction, May 1959 * "The Priests of Psi". Appeared in Fantastic Science Fiction Stories, February 1960 The story focuses on Lewis Orne, an agent for a government agency which develops "lost planets." After correctly identifying a warlike civilization on the planet Hamal, he is drafted into Investigative Adjustment (I-A), which manages dangerous planets. Under the auspices of I-A, he travels to various planets in order to maintain peace throughout the galaxy. At the same time, the priests of the planet Amel, who practice "religious engineering," set about creating the first human god in their history. After resolving a number of dangerous situations, Lewis is injured and has a near-death experience. Following this, his psychic powers develop, and after passing a series of tests he becomes a god.

The Godmakers

A Romance of Two Worlds starts with a young heroine, in first person, telling her story of a debilitating illnesses that includes depression and thoughts of suicide. Her doctor is unable to help her and sends her off on a holiday where she meets a mystical character by the name of Raffello Cellini, a famous Italian artist. Cellini offers her a strange potion which immediately puts her into a tranquil slumber, in which she experiences divine visions. Upon wakening, she craves more. Later, she meets her guardian angel named Heliobas, the hero of the story, who whisks her through infinite solar systems faster than a shooting star while human spirits fly by like gossamer silk. He shares the truth of religion and the secret of human destiny, but still she longs for more. She comes to understand God as pure light and pure love, but it''s not enough that she should see and hear these things from the touch of an angel. She wants to master this ability on her own and seeks a oneness with God through a series of meditative disciplines while locked away in a monastery.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

The Fifty Year Sword

By Mark Z. Danielewski

Casper the Commuting Cat

No Author Listed

Day of Reckoning

By Jack Higgins

Stand on Zanzibar

By John Brunner

The Book and the Sword

By Louis Cha

Marching Through Georgia

By S. M. Stirling

The Patron Saint of Butterflies

No Author Listed

The Feast of the Goat

By Mario Vargas Llosa

Necroscope IV: Deadspeak

By Brian Lumley

The Missionary Position

By Christopher Hitchens

The Godmakers

By Frank Herbert

Romance of Two Worlds

By Marie Corelli