In the first book, a wealthy arms manufacturer, Dr Baines, comes to a black magician, Theron Ware. Initially Baines tests Ware''s credentials by asking for two people to be killed, first the Governor of California, Rogan (Reagan was governor at the time of writing) and then a rival physicist. When this accomplished to Baines'' satisfaction Baines reveals his real reason: he wishes to release all the demons from hell for one night to see what might happen. The book includes a lengthy description of the summoning ritual, and a detailed (and as accurate as possible, given the available literature) description of the grotesque figures of the demons as they appear. Tension between white magicians (who appear to have a line of communications with the unfallen host in heaven) and Ware is woven over the terms and conditions of a magical covenant that is designed to provide for observers and limitations. Black Easter ends with Baphomet announcing to the participants that the demons can not be compelled to return to hell: the War is over, and God is dead. The Day After Judgement, which follows in the series, develops and extends the characters from the first book. It suggests that God may not be dead, or that demons may not be inherently self-destructive, as something appears to be restraining the actions of the demons upon Earth. In a lengthy Miltonian speech at the end of the novel, Satan Mekratrig explains that, compared to humans, demons are good, and that if perhaps God has withdrawn Himself, then Satan beyond all others was qualified to take His place and, if anything, would be a more just god. However, the defeat of Satan is complete - He cannot take up this throne, and must hand the burning keys to Man, as this is the most fell of all his fell damnations - He never wanted to be God at all, and so having won all, all has He lost.

Black Easter

The play, set in Verona, begins with a street brawl between Montague and Capulet supporters who are sworn enemies. The Prince of Verona intervenes and declares that further breach of the peace will be punishable by death. Later, Count Paris talks to Capulet about marrying his daughter, but Capulet asks Paris to wait another two years (then he later orders Juliet to marry Paris) and invites him to attend a planned Capulet ball. Lady Capulet and Juliet''s nurse try to persuade Juliet to accept Paris''s courtship. Meanwhile, Benvolio talks with his cousin Romeo, Montague''s son, about Romeo''s recent depression. Benvolio discovers that it stems from unrequited infatuation for a girl named Rosaline, one of Capulet''s nieces. Persuaded by Benvolio and Mercutio, Romeo attends the ball at the Capulet house in hopes of meeting Rosaline. However, Romeo instead meets and falls in love with Juliet. After the ball, in what is now called the "balcony scene", Romeo sneaks into the Capulet orchard and overhears Juliet at her window vowing her love to him in spite of her family''s hatred of the Montagues. Romeo makes himself known to her and they agree to be married. With the help of Friar Laurence, who hopes to reconcile the two families through their children''s union, they are secretly married the next day. Juliet''s cousin Tybalt, incensed that Romeo had sneaked into the Capulet ball, challenges him to a duel. Romeo, now considering Tybalt his kinsman, refuses to fight. Mercutio is offended by Tybalt''s insolence, as well as Romeo''s "vile submission," and accepts the duel on Romeo''s behalf. Mercutio is fatally wounded when Romeo attempts to break up the fight. Grief-stricken and wracked with guilt, Romeo confronts and slays Tybalt. Montague argues that Romeo has justly executed Tybalt for the murder of Mercutio. The Prince, now having lost a kinsman in the warring families'' feud, exiles Romeo from Verona, with threat of execution upon return. Romeo secretly spends the night in Juliet''s chamber, where they consummate their marriage. Capulet, misinterpreting Juliet''s grief, agrees to marry her to Count Paris and threatens to disown her when she refuses to become Paris''s "joyful bride." When she then pleads for the marriage to be delayed, her mother rejects her. Juliet visits Friar Laurence for help, and he offers her a drug that will put her into a deathlike coma for "two and forty hours." The Friar promises to send a messenger to inform Romeo of the plan, so that he can rejoin her when she awakens. On the night before the wedding, she takes the drug and, when discovered apparently dead, she is laid in the family crypt. The messenger, however, does not reach Romeo and, instead, Romeo learns of Juliet''s apparent death from his servant Balthasar. Heartbroken, Romeo buys poison from an apothecary and goes to the Capulet crypt. He encounters Paris who has come to mourn Juliet privately. Believing Romeo to be a vandal, Paris confronts him and, in the ensuing battle, Romeo kills Paris. Still believing Juliet to be dead, he drinks the poison. Juliet then awakens and, finding Romeo dead, stabs herself with his dagger. The feuding families and the Prince meet at the tomb to find all three dead. Friar Laurence recounts the story of the two "star-cross''d lovers". The families are reconciled by their children''s deaths and agree to end their violent feud. The play ends with the Prince''s elegy for the lovers: "For never was a story of more woe / Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."

Romeo and Juliet

In a series of (fictional) letters exchanged between the author, Mark Dunn, and his editor, it is explained that the only copy of Dunn''s excessively and exhaustively researched and documented biography of one Jonathan Blashette - a circus performer born with three legs who goes on to make a fortune in the deodorant business and becomes a famous philanthropist - was accidentally knocked into a bathtub and destroyed. Luckily, Dunn had not yet sent along his voluminous endnotes and they survived, so the editor convinces Dunn to make a virtue of necessity and publish the endnotes by themselves. The reader is left to try and ferret out the details of Blashette''s life story through the marginal asides and tangents related therein. While the book''s copy and most reviews refer to Ibid: A Life as being a novel made up of footnotes, the novel itself identifies them as being endnotes. As endnotes are collected together and placed after a manuscript, while footnotes are interspersed throughout the manuscript itself, the novel''s framing concept necessitates the notes being endnotes, not footnotes. However, from the cover art, it is obvious that the use of the term "footnotes" was as a pun on how the notes are on a three-footed man.

Ibid: A Life

The book deals with the 1970 murder of Henry Marrow, a black man. This case helped galvanize the African-American civil rights movement in Oxford, North Carolina, where the book takes place, and across the eastern North Carolina black belt. It helped establish local civil rights activist Ben Chavis'' leadership in the black civil rights movement, which eventually led to his becoming the executive director of the NAACP and later an organizer of the Million Man March. This episode radicalized the African American freedom struggle in North Carolina, leading up to the turbulence of the Wilmington Ten cases, which grew out of racial conflict in the port city and the trial of Ben Chavis and nine others on charges stemming from the burning of a grocery store. Tyson, whose father was the minister of the First United Methodist Church-Oxford, a prominent local church, explores not only the white supremacy of the South''s racial caste system but his own and his family''s white supremacy. He interweaves a narrative of the story and its effects on him with discussion of the racial history of the United States, focusing on the persistence of discrimination despite federal law and on the violent realities of that history on both sides of the color line. Tyson challenges the popular memory of the movement as a nonviolent call on America''s conscience led by Martin Luther King. The vision of the movement in these pages is local as well as national and international, violent as well as nonviolent, and far more complicated and human than the myth of "pure good versus bare-fanged evil in the streets of Birmingham," as he puts it. Oxford writer Thad Stem, Jr. is a key figure in the book.

Blood Done Sign My Name

Day of Al''Akbar is a scenario set in an Arabian Nights-style desert land, where the player characters search the sewers under the city of Khaibar for an entrance to the tomb of Al''Akbar to find the holy Cup and Talisman, which can save their home from a plague. The module describes Khaibar City and the sultan''s palace. In this adventure, the player characters must save Arabic lands from a red plague by retrieving a magical artifact. The adventure involves wilderness encounters, dungeon crawling in a sewer, tomb-robbing, some detective work in a desert town, and a final confrontation in the Sultan''s palace. The land of Arir, a once peaceful desert country, has fallen into the hand of infidels. The ruler, Sultan Amhara, was killed in the battle for the capital city of Khaibar. He left behind one of the greatest treasure stores ever amassed, including the Cup and Talisman of Al''Akbar. A deadly plague sweeps your land. The holy men could cure the deadly plague which sweeps the land, if they had the Talismanm which the player characters must find. {| class="wikitable" |- ! Chapter ! Page |- | Introduction | 2 |- | Journey to Khaibar | 3 |- | The sewers of Khaibar | 5 |- | Beyond the Walls | 14 |- | The Sultan''s Palace | 35 |- | Artifacts | pullout section |- | Glossary of Useful Terms | pullout section |- | Prerolled Characters | pullout section |- | Players'' Riddle Illustration | 39 |} * Al''Farzikh: 7th level assassin * Vahtak: 6th level thief * The Mad Dog of the Desert: 14th level Magic user/16th level assassin * The Crescent Witch: 8th level Magic user

Day of Al''Akbar

The novel opens in 54 BC, with Caesar in the middle of his epochal Gallic campaigns, having just invaded Britannia. The first half of the novel deals broadly with the conclusion of his conquests in Gaul, and the second half narrates the growing sense of unease in Rome concerning Caesar''s intentions, the antagonism of the conservative ''boni'' faction towards him, his crossing of the Rubicon, his invasion of Italy and his victory in the Civil War. Some of the pivotal moments include Caesar''s return from Britannia; his narrow escape during the battle of Gergovia; his great victory at Alesia, which involved the complete circumvallation of the citadel, the repulse of a relief force, and the acceptance of the surrender of Vercingetorix; his final destruction of the Gallic resistance at Uxellodunum; the death of Julia and Marcus Licinius Crassus; his falling out with Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus and the final collapse of the First Triumvirate system; his failed negotiations concerning his re-election as consul; the opening of the Civil War; the Battle of Dyrrhachium and the Battle of Pharsalus; the flight of Pompey to Ptolemaic Egypt and his assassination there; and the scattering of the ''boni'' leadership.

Caesar

When entrepreneur Greg Lockland arrives in California to attend his parents'' funeral, his world begins to unravel. Pictures of a brother he barely remembers and letters discovered hidden in his father''s safe deposit box suggest an illicit affair between his late father and Greg''s ex-lover Lian Wan. Confused and angry, Greg visits Kate Walken, a young woman with whom his relationship has taken an unexpected, romantic turn. Greg hates secrets and the hurt they cause. Yet, he tells Kate only of the pictures he found. Greg battles with his mixed emotions and can''t bring himself to tell her about Lian. Does he still love Lian? Does he love Kate? Can he love Kate? Greg is like a boy who never grew up. He''ll stop at nothing to get what he wants. Though he can be affectionate, he can be obnoxious, deceiving and secretive-all the things he loathes. Seething anger, growing suspicion, and inescapable jealousy accompany Greg on a transpacific journey to Hong Kong in search of Lian and the truth about the affair. Greg has no idea he''s about to unlock a secret that has been kept closeted for years. One after another, people return from his past, each adding another roadblock to Greg''s mysterious puzzle. With each piece of information, Greg is forced to re-examine his beliefs, feelings, and relationships with old friends and family. Among those who help Greg is Agnes, the Director of Nursing at the hospital where his father once worked. She is a bossy, mannish, British nurse whom Greg never liked. During his relentless search to uncover the truth, Greg is surprised to find Agnes with his happy-go-lucky friend Old Chow and realizes Agnes has a passionate side. Agnes and Old Chow prod Greg to explore his feelings and their secret plans push him into another situation of doubt. (Summarized by Joanne D. Kiggins)

The Pacific Between

Arabella, the beautiful daughter of a country vicar, sets out to London to have a season and make an advantageous marriage. On her way there, her carriage has an accident and she has to stop over at the hunting box of Robert Beaumaris, the Nonpareil of the town and one of the wealthiest men in England. Mr Beaumaris suspects the ''accident'' to be a ruse on the part of someone chasing him for his fortune. Overhearing him make a remark to this effect, Arabella impulsively pretends to be an heiress. Mr. Beaumaris, knowing this to be untrue is amused by her daring to put him in his place, and decides to encourage his friend''s belief in this falsehood. He is bored by Society and views the town cynically. He is also amused by the fact that society will follow whomever leads, irrespective of the wisdom of the person''s behavior. Arabella requests that Mr Beaumaris and his friend Lord Fleetwood not reveal her "fortune". She continues on her journey to London to stay with her godmother, Lady Bridlington, blithely believing that nothing will come of this interlude. However, Lord Fleetwood is not very discreet, and the town soon believes Arabella to be an heiress. To amuse himself, Mr Beaumaris decides to make Arabella the rage of the town by flirting with her and driving her out in his carriage. Arabella is aware that his intentions are not serious, but plays along because to be admired by him makes her a social success. Arabella feels that she cannot make a good match when all the town falsely believe her to be wealthy and knowing that Mr Beaumaris can have no designs on her supposed fortune and is only amusing himself with her, she is most comfortable in his company. She enchants him with her unusual behaviour (which includes foisting a climbing boy and a mongrel on him) and the fact that she does not appear to fancy him. Mr Beaumaris eventually falls in love with Arabella and proposes. Arabella, not knowing him to be aware of her deception from the start, tearfully refuses, realising that she is indeed in love with him, but cannot reveal her deception without risking his love. Meanwhile, Arabella''s brother Bertram has come to town on 100 pounds that he won. The wealthy friends he makes soon lead him into debt and Arabella decides she must accept Mr Beaumaris''s proposal in order to pay off Bertram''s debts. Mr Beaumaris guesses the cause of her sudden reversal and is amused, knowing her to be in love with him, despite the appearance of the situation. She insists they elope together since she''s desperate and he agrees, but instead takes her to visit his grandmother''s house. Once they arrive, she reveals that she is not a wealthy woman, he reveals that he knew all along and that he went to visit her family. All is resolved by the fact that his fortune is so massive, the lack of hers will never be noticed, and the lack of fortune for her brothers and sisters will be explained away by an eccentric uncle who left the money to Arabella.

Arabella

Sofia Petrovna, a typist in the Soviet Union in 1937 is proud of the achievements of her son Nikolai (Kolya). Kolya, an engineering student and strong Communist, is at the beginning of a promising career, with his picture featured on the cover of Pravda. Before long, however, the Great Purge begins and Sofia''s coworkers begin vanishing, amid accusations of treachery. Soon, Kolya''s best friend Alik reports that Kolya has been arrested. Sofia and her friend and fellow typist Natasha try to find out more but are drowned in a sea of bureaucrats and long lines. More people vanish, and Sofia spends ever more time in lines at government buildings. Natasha makes a typographical error that is mistaken for a criticism of the Red Army and she is fired. When Sofia defends her, she is criticized and soon forced out as well. Alik is questioned, and when he does not renounce Kolya, he, too, is arrested and vanishes. Natasha and Sofia both lose their will to live. Natasha commits suicide via poison, and Sofia immerses herself in a fantasy of Kolya''s return. When she finally gets a letter from Kolya, in which he reaffirms his innocence and tells more of his own story, Sofia tries to fight for his freedom again, but realizes that, in this bizarre, chaotic place, she will likely only place more suspicion on herself and Kolya. Out of desperation, she burns the letter.

Sofia Petrovna

The book opens with a scene showing a couple of farmhands who are entrusted with disposing of a diseased cow. However they instead take it to a nearby slaughter house and sell it. The story then moves to the protagonist Dr. Kim Reggis who is going through a bad divorce. On a night out with his daughter Becky, he takes her to the nearby fast food chain, OnionRing Burgers. There she eats a rare steak burger. The beef in the burger is revealed to have come from the cow mentioned at the start of the book. The next day Becky begins having loose motions and severe body pain. Kim and his estranged wife Tracy rush her into the emergency care unit of the hospital he works in. However he is ignored there which infuriates him. The doctors confirm that she has been infected by E Coli''s renegede strain O157:H7 which is resistant to most antibiotics. Becky''s condition begin to deteriorate rapidly. Feeling helpless at his inability to save his daughter''s life, Kim makes it his mission to trace out how she contracted the disease. He first makes a visit to the restaurant they ate at, only managing to create a ruckus there. However he learns that the beef came from Mercer Foods. He traces the slaughterhouse and manages to take a US FDA in his confidence. The next day Becky dies of multiple organ failure leaving him in sorrow and strengthening his resolve for justice. He infiltrates the slaughterhouse with the help of his ex-wife by changing his appearance to make him look like a jobless neo-Nazi. He accepts a job as a janitor. On his first day at work, he gets into the records room and finds out the truth about the diseased animal. They are attacked by an assassin. Tracy appears and kills the assassin. They then escape from the slaughterhouse and flee the country after making public the malpractices committed by the slaughterhouse.

Toxin

The story takes place in China during the Down to the Countryside Movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The unnamed narrator and the chess master Wang Yisheng are two young intellectuals among many who are sent to a remote farm in the mountains to work. During the train ride to the mountains, Wang Yisheng and his friend talk about how he learned to play Chinese chess, and how he evolved his current strategy. Wang Yisheng tells his friend that his family was very poor, and his mother did not want him to be such a chess maniac, since chess could not earn money. However, Wang Yisheng was very devoted to chess. One day, while gathering garbage to sell, Wang Yisheng meets an old man who is a chess master. Using the principles of Daoism, the old man teaches Wang everything he knows about chess. Wang Yisheng also tells his friend about how his mother always disapproved of his chess habit, but before she died, she painstakingly made him a chess set out of discarded toothbrush handles, because she knew how much he loved chess. The two friends then debark the train and head their separate ways to different farms in the countryside. A couple months later, Wang Yisheng takes a vacation and visits his friend in the mountains. One of the narrator''s friends at the farm, Legballs, happens to be a good chess player. Legballs is very impressed with Wang''s ability, and the two become good friends. After a while of working at the farm, there is a local festival with a chess tournament. The narrator, Legballs, and their friends all take a vacation to attend the festival. Wang Yisheng arrives too late to enter the official chess tournament, but he challenges the winners to an unofficial match after the tournament is over. Word spreads of his challenge, and many people decide to challenge him. He ends up playing 9 people at once without any chess boards in front of him (effectively playing blind), and he beats most of them easily. He eventually defeats the winner of the official tournament, an old man. zh:棋王 (阿城小说)

The Chess Master

The story revolves around Juanito Santa Cruz. The scion of a wealthy family, he goes around carousing and womanizing with his friends. In one of these episodes, he is taken with Fortunata, a young woman of the lower class. This encounter ends with Juanito growing bored of Fortunata and disappearing from her life. His mother decides to marry him to his cousin Jacinta. During their honeymoon, he tells her about his experiences in the poor neighborhoods of Madrid and talks to her about Fortunata. As time passes, Jacinta realizes she cannot have children and she and the rest of the family become obsessed with this. Ido del Sagrario is a poor man whom Juanito invited to the house with the intention of humiliating him for his own amusement. He shows up at the Santa Cruz home one day and informs Jacinta that Juanito had a son with Fortunata. Jacinta becomes very excited about the idea of having her husband''s child, laying aside any feelings she had of betrayal. After consulting with Guillermina Pacheco (a saintly neighbor), the two women go through the Pitusín neighborhood. The baby''s guardian is José Izquierdo, uncle of Fortunata, from whom they wish to buy the baby. When she talks to her husband, the discussion turns farcical. He tells her that the baby was not his. He is certain that he had a child with Fortunata, but that that baby died some time after he married Jacinta. Meanwhile, Fortunata has been living with various men, and living badly. If one man did not deceive her, he beat her, or abandoned her at the first opportunity. She was in Barcelona for a time, and on her return she moved in with Feliciana, an acquaintance of hers. Feliciana''s boyfriend usually came to her house to visit with a friend of his, Maximiliano ("Maxi") Rubín. It is there that Rubín falls hopelessly in love with Fortunata. Soon the young man proposes to maintain her, and Fortunata, seeing this as an opportunity to escape her situation, accepts his offer. Maxi lives with his aunt, Doña Lupe. After a certain point he wants to marry Fortunata. He consults his aunt and brothers. Everyone agrees that Fortunata should spend some time in Las Micaelas convent in order to reform herself. After the prescribed time passed, they married. However, a trap awaits Fortunata in her new home. Juanito Santa Cruz has bought the apartment next door, and he bribes the newlywed''s servant to sow discord between the couple. It did not take long before Fortunata took the bait. Maxi returns to his aunt''s house, and Fortunata moves into the apartment paid for by Juanito. With time, Juanito grows tired of his vulgar desires. He tries to get far away from Fortunata to the point of abandoning her again, this time leaving her a small sum to live on for a while. Fortunata bumps into Don Evaristo Feijoo, friend of her brother-in-law Juan Pablo. Feijoo proposes a sexual relationship in which she will live well and see new faces. She stays with him for a time, though they do not live together. This works out until Feijoo begins to think he is too old and Fortunata finds herself once again in the gutter. Feijoo advises her to return to her husband''s house, and, after pulling a few heart strings, she does. During this time she meets Segismundo Ballester, a co-worker of Maxi''s from the pharmacy. Ballester is crazy for her. Seeing Fortunata reformed makes Juanito Santa Cruz want her once again by his side. Fortunata, without even fleeing from the house, falls for him once more. Maxi gradually loses his mind. One day, in his state of insanity, he discovers that his wife is pregnant. Meanwhile, Juanito begins to tire of Fortunata yet again. Fortunata is sure that she is pregnant, and rather than explain to Doña Lupe ("she of the turkeys") what has happened, she simply gets out of the house. Fortunata returns to her Aunt Segunda, in the place she was raised. She had her second child, attended by a doctor who was a friend of the Rubíns and of Segismundo. Maxi is told that Fortunata is dead. He refuses to believe this and is able to figure out where she is and even gets to know the baby. Fortunata is told that Juanito Santa Cruz was betraying her with Aurora, a family friend of the Rubíns and an intimate of hers. As soon as she finds herself alone at home, Fortunata plans to get even. In a few days she dies during a blood-letting. Before expiring, she writes a note in which she gives custody of her child to Jacinta. Maxi, who didn''t know whether he was too sane or too crazy, was sent to the insane asylum at Leganés. The same day as Fortunata''s funeral, they also bury Feijoo.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Black Easter

By James Blish

Romeo and Juliet

By William Shakespeare

Ibid: A Life

By Mark Dunn

Blood Done Sign My Name

By Timothy Tyson

Day of Al'Akbar

By Allen Hammack

Caesar

By Colleen McCullough

The Pacific Between

By Raymond K. Wong

Arabella

By Georgette Heyer

Sofia Petrovna

By Lydia Chukovskaya

Toxin

By Robin Cook

The Chess Master

By Zhong Acheng

Fortunata y Jacinta

By Benito Pérez Galdós