Vera Jebsen is raped in Fagerborg in Oslo, on liberation day 8 May 1945. She does not say a word during the entire pregnancy, not until she gives birth in a taxi. She names the child Fred. Arnold Nilsen from Røst in Lofoten, a circus artist and salesman, known as "The Wheel" after rolling spectacularly down a slope as a child, is allowed to move in with Jebsen''s family, thanks to his self-confidence and his yellow Buick. Other than Vera and Fred, the family consists of Vera''s mother, Boletta, and grandmother, known as The Old One; all in all four generations. Soon Vera has another child, whom they name Barnum Nilsen, after the master scam artist P. T. Barnum. Barnum is sharp but very short and therefore lacks confidence. He is impressed by Fred''s rebellious attitude. He attends a dance class where he meets Peder and Vivian. After being sent out from the first lesson, the three meet and hang out every time their parents thing they are dancing. The three become close friends and stay by themselves for the most time. Vivian becomes a kind of girlfriend for both of the boys. Fred and Barnum share the same bedroom. They often have confidential talks at night. Fred tries to influence Bernum to become tougher and go his own way. He hates Arnold, the stepfather, and tells Barnum that he rather would have been Barnum''s father. Once, The Old One received a letter from Wilhelm, her fiancé, who disappeared while hunting in the Arctic Ocean and Greenland. The letter means a lot for everybody in the family. Barnum often reads it to Fred, who is dyslexic. Fred begins to show more respect for Barnum and his ability to write down his dreams, and gives him a typewriter as a birthday gift. Fred''s recognition means a lot to Barnum. Fred attempts at a career as a boxer. Barnum adopts a motto from his father: "The important is not what you see, but what you think you see". Barnum wins a writing competition in school which stimulates his desire to write. After coming in contact with the production of the film Hunger, based on Knut Hamsun''s novel with the same title, Barnum decides to become a scriptwriter for film. Peder becomes his agent after returning from the United States. As a consequence of his grandmother''s drinking habits, he develops an uncritical attitude to alcohol, which eventually leads to alcoholism.

The Half Brother

At the beginning, we see that the cats of the Dark Forest are training Breezepelt and other cats in the same way they trained Lionblaze. Hawkfrost begins to visit Ivypaw in her dreams and teaches her many battle moves, pretending he is from StarClan. Ivypaw, still jealous that Dovepaw is keeping secrets from her own kin, decides not to tell anyone about Hawkfrost''s training. Leopardstar, leader of RiverClan, loses her last life, and Mistyfoot takes her place as leader of RiverClan. The three reveal to Firestar who they are; Firestar reveals that he suspected it all along, but had his doubts after Hollyleaf''s death. Firestar tells the Three what he knows about them, and delivers a crucial piece of information: The prophecy is not from StarClan. After days of rain, Dovepaw senses a tree on the edge of the hollow about to fall. She warns Firestar and the Clan, and they manage to evacuate the camp before the tree falls. However, Mousefur stays behind, refusing to give up on a mouse that she was eating. Longtail goes back for the mouse, and Briarpaw goes back for Longtail. As a result, Briarpaw''s hind legs are paralyzed, and Longtail is killed. With Leafpool''s help, Jayfeather finds out that Littlecloud had the same problem with another cat. The cat''s lack of exercise allowed a chest infection to make it harder for him to breathe, eventually killing him. Jayfeather vows not to let Briarpaw die, but near the end of the book Briarpaw starts to develop a perhaps deadly cough. Briarpaw, Bumblepaw, and Blossompaw get their warrior names: Briarlight, Blossomfall, and Bumblestripe. Tigerstar tells Ivypaw that giving a strip of land to ShadowClan has endangered ThunderClan. Ivypaw believes Tigerstar and tells Firestar that she had a dream from StarClan of ShadowClan invading, because they believe that Firestar is too weak to keep his own territory. Firestar and the senior warriors decide to attack ShadowClan before they can attack ThunderClan. During the battle Lionblaze kills Russetfur, but not before she deprives Firestar of his seventh life. Lionblaze then looks upon the misery and death that the battle has brought, and believes that it should have never occurred.

Fading Echoes

One of the experimental texts Vidal refers to as his "inventions", Duluth describes both a novel written about Duluth (that, bordered on one side by Minneapolis and on the other by Michigan, bears scant resemblance to the real city) and a television series of the same name; when residents of the city die, they end up as characters in the TV show, who can in some cases continue interacting with the living through the TV screen. When members of the cast of Duluth, the TV show, die, they become characters in Rogue Duke, a romance novel serialized in the pages of Redbook, the popular women''s magazine. The author of all three, Rosemary Klein Kantor, is herself a character in the book, making cameo appearances throughout. She generates texts with the aid of a computer, adding to its numerous geographical and historical errors her mangled clichés ("Bellamy Craig II plays hardball...in the fast lane!") and unusual grammatical constructions ("Her handcuffs now handcuffed her hands"). However, there is in the city of Duluth a mysterious cerise flying saucer whose insectoid alien inhabitants, after meddling in the spectacularly corrupt politics of the city, use an accidental tense shift to seize control of the computer, erasing the human race from the face of the earth and bringing the book to an end.

Duluth

Dwight McCarthy is on a mission from Gail to dig up information about a recent mob hit at a small diner. After being hit on by a female cop, (who he manages to get rid of by pretending to be a bisexual masochist), he goes into a bar near where the hit happened and tries to charm one of the local drinkers there named Peggy. Dwight also spots Fat Man and Little Boy, which makes his job easier later on. As Dwight keeps charming Peggy, she realizes he''s not interested in any company that night and only looking for information behind the recent hit. It''s revealed that Bruno, the target, was killed by Vito; one of Don Magliozzi''s nephews and also one of his hitmen. This was done in retaliation on Don Magliozzi''s part as Bruno killed his beloved niece years ago. Going against his family''s treaty with mob boss Wallenquist, he orders Vito to kill Bruno, who is on Wallenquist''s payroll, immediately. Afterwards, everyone''s nervous about what Wallenquist will do and if there will be a mob war in retaliation. With that information, Dwight leaves the bar and is confronted by Vito and some other hitmen who came when Fat Man and Little Boy alerted them someone was digging around for information. Dwight is kidnapped by them, but is more interested in Vito''s car and constantly refers to it as his just as soon as he kills all of them. No one believes him as they drive toward the Projects. Unknown to them except for Dwight is that Miho was following Dwight for protection. On the way, Vito tells his side of the story as to how he killed every living thing he saw, including a stray dog. Dwight is satisfied with this and orders Miho to make her appearance. She kills Spinelli, one of the goons, and they park in a hilltop rest area, overlooking the Projects. There, Miho toys with one of the hitmen as Dwight tells Vito to kill the other hitman; Vito''s own brother Luca. After Miho and Dwight are through, they head straight to Sacred Oaks to confront Don Magliozzi, driven by Vito. Miho cuts through the guards and Dwight makes his appearance. He tells the Don he is going to die along with Vito, and reveals why: the accidental death of Carmen, one of the Old Town girls. Dwight tells them Vito shouldn''t have shot at the stray dog, since the angles were in a straight line to a nearby phone booth where Carmen was calling for a ride. Carmen was killed by the gunfire. Carmen''s lover, Daisy, arrives as Dwight walks away from the Don and his associates. Daisy guns them down as Dwight remarks there''s going to be a mob war because of this, but that neither he nor the girls of Old Town will have cause to worry about it. Finally, he takes possession of Vito''s car and drives off into the night.

Family Values

When time freezes in the middle of the day during a school pep rally, the Midnighters have a problem. The secret hour is slowly making its way into the real world. The last book in the Midnighters trilogy is all about the adventure of trying to keep the secret hour in the secret hour. The Midnighters begin to experience the secret hour more and more frequently during daylight hours. To make matters worse, Rex''s darkling side cannot always control itself, and may be becoming stronger. By using Madeline and other resources, the Midnighters find out that on the night of Samhain (Halloween), the Secret Hour will expand, and more of the Earth will be sucked up. This is because there is a "rip" in true midnight, which allows non-midnighters to slip into the blue time, that is expanding like a seam in fabric. While trying to keep people out of these dangerous zones, Jessica has some trouble with her curious little sister Beth. True midnight (usually confined to the secret hour) will last for the whole day, and all humans and creatures within it will be awake, no longer ''stiff''. This will allow the darklings to feast once again upon the creatures of day-unless the five teens find a way to stop it from happening. When Jessica and her boyfriend Jonathan manage to stop the "blue time" from spreading to the whole world, Jessica unfortunately gets sucked into the "blue time". To Jonathan and the whole Midnighter''s teams dismay, she will forever be trapped in the blue time, only able to live for an hour of every day. Jessica''s parents become very sad about their daughter''s "disappearance" and are still grieving her loss when Beth comes to visit Jess for the last time. Both sisters share an emotional time with each other before Jonathan has his moment to say goodbye. Finally, with a half-hour to spare, Jonathan takes Jessica and Beth on their last flight through the blue time.

Midnighters 3: Blue Noon

Four years have gone by since World War II has ended; and Tatiana and her lover, her husband, her Shura, her Alexander - are married and living a life together with their son, Anthony. Yet they are strangers to each other. Having been separated from each other for years, they do not know each other anymore. They live a satisfactory life, with Alexander working as a lobster-man - coming home each day smelling of fish. Tatiana is now known to outsiders as ''Tania''. They move from place to place. After Alexander confesses to why he was so cold to her, they reconcile and move houses. Finally living in a place that they''ve dreamed of, Tatiana''s friend Vikki phones her to say that the USA government is looking for Alexander. Fearing for her husband''s safety, she does not tell him. Finding out himself somehow, he goes to Washington to make everything right - also finding out that his supposedly executed mother "is still alive" in a concentration camp. Realising though, that he has been tricked by an enemy, he does not go to search for her. He meets Tom Richter - a lieutenant colonel - and earns himself a job in Yuma as a captain of the Military Intelligence arm of the U.S. Army. Time passes by, and the family moves to Phoenix. Alexander gets a job as a builder/architect in Balkman''s company and Tatiana (after persuading Alexander) gets a job as a nurse in the ER terminal care ward in the Phoenix Memorial Hospital. Making friends with Balkman''s son, Steve, Alexander has finally found the peace that he has always wanted. Here Phoenix, they can forget who they once were, and nobody would know about them. Steve, when they first meet, talks about a girl that he has met at the hospital when he broke his hand; saying that he''s "never met anyone like her". Tatiana when she comes home, is tight-lipped when she hears about Steve. She is initially cold to Steve and never warms up to him. Alexander later figures that his wife was the "not like anyone else" girl that Steve was talking about. After a time, Steve introduces a man named Dudley to Alexander. But Dudley sees the tattoos - the SchutzStaffel Eagle, the blue numbers, the hammer and sickle, the swastika. To make matters worse, he storms into Alexander''s house: threatening to rape Tatiana and then kill both of them. With no choice, Alexander shoots Dudley in the head. After revealing what had happened to the police, the doctor, the coroner and the media; Alexander starts his own company and Balkman and Steve were ruined (Dudley had turned out to be an escaped murderer - it was illegal to hire escaped convicts). After years of trying for a second baby (with Anthony once accidentally seeing them trying without knowing about sex - he thinks his mother is getting hurt in the process: "Dad, I don''t think Mom wants to have anymore children. Didn''t you hear her?"), things have cooled off. Caught cheating on his wife, it is then revealed that Tatiana is pregnant. Tearfully forgiving him, they have a son - Charles Gordon Pasha Barrington. Following Charles are two more children, Harry, about two years later, and Janie. Almost eight years have past and Anthony has made his job choice: he is going to Vietnam to fight. With his parents initially protesting, he goes. Sunday evening, July 20, 1969 - while the family (Tatiana, Alexander, their children - Pasha, Harry and Janie) are watching the man on the moon, a call comes from Richter. Anthony has been reported missing for three days. Weeks go by, and Vikki visits. Tatiana and Alexander find out that Vikki and Anthony have had a romantic relationship since he was eighteen. She shows them a letter Anthony sent her - he is married to a Vietnamese girl called Moon Lai and she is pregnant. Alexander travels all the way to Vietnam to find his son. Using their heads, Anthony''s comrades, his father and Richter realise that Moon Lai is a North Vietnam communist who is just a bait for Anthony. Alexander and a group of six (twelve?) people go to rescue him. They first capture Moon Lai who tells them everything. Despite being a trap, she actually loves Anthony. She then tries and sort of fails to stab Alexander and Ha Si (a member of the group), aiming for Alexander''s thigh and Ha Si''s face. In self defense, they slit her throat. Alexander rescues Anthony (who has had his right arm amputated by the North Vietnamese) losing Richter, Ha Si and others on the way. The novel then skips ahead thirty years to Thanksgiving 1999, Alexander and Tatiana''s children are all grown and have children of their own. A very large family. Alexander and Tatiana seem content with their lot. The novel ends one hot day in near their home in Scottsdale, Arizona, Tatiana sitting on the bench eating ice cream, Alexander stands across the street, returning from buying a drink, staring at her, a bus passes and he comes around it, reminiscent of the first time they met all those years ago on 22 June 1941 in Leningrad.

The Summer Garden

The planet Pao is a quiet backwater with a large, homogeneous, stolid population ruled by an absolute monarch: the Panarch. The current Panarch attempts to hire an offworld scientist, Lord Palafox from the Breakness Institute on the planet Breakness, as a consultant in order to reform Pao. Before the deal can be concluded, however, the Panarch is assassinated by his brother Bustamonte, using mind-control over the Panarch''s own son, Beran Panasper, to do so. Lord Palafox saves Beran Panasper and takes him to Breakness as a possible bargaining chip in his dealings with Pao. Somewhat later, the predatory Brumbo Clan from the planet Batmarsh raids the virtually defenseless Pao with impunity, and the Panarch Bustamonte is forced to pay heavy tribute. To rid himself of the Brumbos, he seeks the aid of Palafox, who has a plan to create warrior, technical and mercantile castes on Pao using customized languages (named Valiant, Technicant and Cogitant) and other means to shape the mindsets of each caste, isolating them from each other and the general populace of Pao. To achieve this, each caste gets a special training area where it is completely segregated from any outside influence; the necessary land is confiscated from families, some of which have held it for countless generations&nbsp;— which creates some disaffection in the conservative Paonese population and earns Bustamonte the name of a tyrant. In order to return with them to Pao incognito, Beran Panasper infiltrates a corps of interpreters being trained on Breakness. Mostly to amuse themselves, some of the young people create a language they call "Pastiche", mixing words and grammatical forms, seemingly at random, from the three newly created languages and from the original Paonese language. Palafox looks upon this development with indulgence, failing to realize the tremendous long-term significance. Beran returns to Pao under the name Ercolo Paraio and works for a few years as a translator at several locations. Once Beran Panasper reveals to the masses that he is still alive, his uncle Bustamonte''s popular support melts virtually overnight and Panasper claims the title of Panarch that is rightfully his. The Brumbo Clan is repulsed by the warrior caste. For a few years, the castes of Pao are highly successful in their respective endeavors and the planet experiences a short golden age. However, Panasper is upset about the divisions in the populace of Pao caused by the Palafox program; the three new castes speak of the rest of the Paonese as "they" rather than "we" and regard them with contempt. Beran attempts to return the planet to its previous state by re-integrating the castes into the general populace. Palafox opposes this move and is killed, but the warrior caste stages a coup and takes command of Pao. Panasper convinces them that they cannot rule the planet alone, since they share no common language with the rest of the population and can not rely on the cooperation of the other segments of the people of Pao, and they allow him to keep his office. One interpretation of the end of the novel is that Beran Panasper is only in nominal charge of the planet, on the sufferance of the warrior caste, and that it is uncertain what will become of him and his plans of re-uniting the populace of Pao. Another way of seeing the ending is that Beran has outfoxed the warriors by getting them to agree to his decree that "every child of Pao, of whatever caste, must learn Pastiche even in preference to the language of his father". In the end, Beran looks ahead twenty years, to a future when all inhabitants of Pao will be Pastiche-speakers&nbsp;— i.e., will speak a language which mixes some attributes and mindsets appropriate to peasant cultivators, proud warriors, skilled technicians and smart merchants&nbsp;— which will presumably shape a highly fluid and socially mobile society, composed of versatile and multi-skilled individuals.

The Languages of Pao

The novel takes place over a period of two days in a VA hospital. Walter James, a white veteran of the Vietnam war, has just been admitted. Walter has a completely reconstructed face and suffers from frequent seizures and blackouts as a result of a fragment of bullet embedded in his brain. Braiden Chaney is a black man who lost both of his arms and legs from gunfire in the Vietnam War. He has been in the VA hospital for 22 years at the start of the novel. The novel is structured in the stream of consciousness style. Much of the novel takes place in the mind of Braiden as Braiden is forced to construct elaborate fantasies, most of which involve his being a king in Africa, to escape the plight of his physical state. Most of the novel consists of dialogue between the two men. They tell each other their respective stories, mostly during the course of one night, while they drink beer and smoke pot that Braiden''s sister has smuggled into the hospital for him. The novel is ultimately a theodicy as it attempts to explain the paradox of evil in a world created by an omnipotent God. Braiden has several conversations with Jesus throughout the novel, and while the reader is left to determine whether they are fantasies or real conversations, the novel implies that they are real. The plot of the novel borrows from One Flew Over the Cuckoo''s Nest, which is referenced in the novel. Braiden along with his sister eventually convinces Walter to kill him, effectively ending the miserable existence he has led for the last 22 years. The novel ends with this event, and Walter reflects, "I knew that somewhere Jesus wept."

Dirty Work

Hunter S. Thompson receives a letter from the editor of Running magazine, asking him to cover the 1980 Honolulu Marathon, which the editor says should be "a good chance for a vacation". Hunter asks the illustrator Ralph Steadman to accompany him. On the flight over, he meets a man named Ackerman, who seems to have connections to the drug trade in Hawaii. Hunter covers the marathon with his characteristic gonzo style, weaving his own experiences into the coverage of the story. After the marathon, Hunter, Ralph and Ralph''s family move to a rented beach side "compound" on Hawaii''s Kona coast. The weather is miserable and they are trapped indoors, besieged by huge waves. Ralph and his family, upset about the terrible conditions of their vacation, return to England. Later, Hunter reunites with Ackerman to go fishing. Hunter eventually catches a huge Marlin, which he beats to death with a Samoan war club. The fishing boat returns to the dock, with Hunter screaming triumphantly, "I am Lono!", referring to the ancient Hawaiian god. After this, Hunter ends his story in the City of Refuge, hiding from those he upset with his antics at the docks. The story frequently breaks away to excerpts from The Last Voyage of Captain James Cook, which tells the story of the man the native Hawaiians thought was the reincarnation of Lono.

The Curse of Lono

The Kindly Ones belongs with the second collection, The Doll''s House, and the seventh, Brief Lives, in that it finishes off a story that mostly originated in these collections. Parts from other collections are also important to its story, however, notably elements from Season of Mists and the story of Orpheus, told mostly in Fables and Reflections. The most structurally ambitious of the collections, The Kindly Ones is a single storyline written as a Greek tragedy, with Morpheus as its doomed hero and an aspect of the triad of witches, the Erinyes, as the Greek chorus. It pulls together various threads left dangling throughout the series, notably the grudges against Morpheus of several characters: Hippolyta Hall, whose child, Daniel, was claimed by Morpheus; the witches themselves; the Norse god Loki; and the witch Thessaly. The Kindly Ones also continues several other stories, including that of Cluracan of Faerie and his sister Nuala, that of the Corinthian, and that of Rose Walker and her former landlord Hal. It also features Lucifer, now playing piano in a nightclub, although he is loath to take requests. After Daniel is kidnapped towards the beginning of the story by Loki and Robin Goodfellow (the Puck), Hippolyta (or Lyta), manipulated by Loki into believing he was murdered, convinces herself that Morpheus was responsible due to her brief interactions with him throughout the series. In the midst of an intense breakdown over the loss of her child, Lyta resolves to destroy Morpheus, eventually finding the witches who agree to help her in her goal. In their aspect as the Furies, the witches are empowered to destroy Morpheus by the fact that he has shed the blood of one of his family (that of his son, Orpheus, when he granted him the boon of death). In many places, Lyta is depicted as Medusa, even meeting Medusa''s two sisters, Stheno and Euryale, at one point in the story. Unbeknownst to Lyta, Daniel is eventually recovered alive and well by Morpheus'' servants, the raven Matthew and a restored Corinthian. However, Lyta incurs the wrath of the Furies before learning that Daniel is still alive and safe, and is subsequently unable to stop the Furies from taking their revenge. Throughout the story the greatest mystery is the motivation of Morpheus; it is never exactly clear to what extent he is aware of the course on which he has, to some extent, set himself, and how serious are his attempts to save himself. In a telling sequence, he finally lays himself open to the Furies by leaving his kingdom to fulfill a boon he had granted to Nuala, even though he knows that his own end will likely be the consequence; once more his refusal to shirk what he perceives as his responsibility for any reason is a turning point in the story. In an affecting sequence, the main story ends with Morpheus and his sister Death on a desolate peak, echoing a sequence from one of the series'' early high points, "The Sound of her Wings" (issue #8). Death asks for Morpheus'' hand, and he simply disappears, in a flash of light. Having existed for all but an eternity, Dream of the Endless dies. Immediately upon the death of Morpheus, Daniel metamorphoses into a new aspect of Dream, with white clothes and hair, and an emerald instead of a ruby.

The Sandman: The Kindly Ones

The story is told in the first person by Jonah Scott, a British pilot for the fictional airline Air Britain who has arrived in New York City on his regular flight from London. The United States has collapsed into the equivalent of a bankrupt Third World and borderline-starving country (1200 calories/day) after using up nearly all of its oil reserves and a resultant collapse of the dollar. The taxi that Jonah and Senior Flight Attendant Kate Monahan take to the airline''s NYC apartment is powered by methane generated from chicken droppings. Kate is a lovely redhead, and Jonah is a "red-blooded male," and the book is full of Jonah''s thoughts on the subject regarding Kate''s lovely figure, as well as what they do together, in detail. Even after they each find other partners, Kate''s assets are described quite clearly. During the night, Jonah and the apartment superintendent and guard, John Capel, must fight off armed burglars disguised as military police looking for the food Jonah and Kate brought with them. Capel is wounded but Kate demonstrates her basic medical skills in cleaning and dressing the wound. Jonah offers to help Capel and a newly-orphaned girlfriend of one of his crew travel illegally to London aboard his aircraft. Shortly after take off from New York, Jonah is informed that Israel has attacked Beirut, Damascus, and Cairo with nuclear weapons in retaliation for their poisoning of Tel Aviv''s water supply. Israel''s strike triggers a worldwide nuclear holocaust while the plane is en route to London, the USSR and China attacking America and its allies. Unable to continue to Europe due to the fact that it has suffered nuclear attack, or return to New York, the crew desperately attempt to find a place to land their plane. Faced with dwindling fuel, and the destruction of the airfield at Funchal by a desperate pilot disobeying landing instructions, Jonah and his crew wonder whether to crash land on an island in the Azores chain with the help of Juan, a local resident who has contacted them via amateur radio. By pure chance, Jonah sights a NATO airfield, Lajes Field, which has certainly been attacked, but which is mostly intact. Jonah and the nuclear scientists who are on board deduce that the Soviets needed Lajes intact and accordingly attacked it with a neutron bomb. After seeing Eddie Burns, a survivor who was deep underground at the time of the attack, Jonah lands the plane at Lajes. Rising levels of wind-swept fallout from Europe require that they evacuate, and they decide to fly to Antarctica. But they do not know how many people they can carry if they must carry food and fuel as well. With Eddie''s help, Jonah and the SAS soldiers on board manage to re-activate the base radar and use the teletype machines to make contact with a British naval officer in the Falkland Islands who is able to confirm, at the expense of his life leaving a sealed room, with the McMurdo Antarctic base the existence of sufficient provisions, plus a nuclear reactor for warmth. There is more than enough for the survivors, and then... A Russian Antonov freighter aircraft lands at Lajes. It is initially mistaken for a Soviet troop transport to occupy Lajes. It is, however, stolen: carrying two female Soviet Air Force crew and a large number of civilian refugees. Next morning, after both aircraft are refueled, the survivors endure flying through an overcast layer of radioactive ash and byproducts on their way to Antarctica. There are more sacrifices when the Antonov cannot make the necessary altitude with the weight of cargo, passengers, and fuel: even after jettisoning everything, fifty Russian volunteers must sacrifice themselves by jumping from the plane''s hatch, led by the co-pilot. Soon after the characters arrive at McMurdo, it is realised that the tilt of the Earth on its axis has been affected by the numerous nuclear explosions. There are two different endings of Down To A Sunless Sea which suggest either a radioactive death for all the survivors with a theological twist, or, more optimistically, a chance for the almost one thousand survivors to rebuild the world in not just warmth but also peace and cooperation.

Down to a Sunless Sea

Whit is walking in a New Order city when he sees that Wisty is to be executed in the Courtyard of Justice. He races to save her, only to find that she has already been killed, once again being fooled by The One when he sees she''s still alive after she sets herself on fire (which, for Wisteria Allgood, is a good thing). Wisty reveals that The One killed Margo, an important Freelander. Whit and Wisty escape the New Order and head through a portal. They come out in a different part of the City of Progress. Whit sees Celia on a billboard, who tells him to turn himself in to the New Order, that everything he''s done is wrong. As Celia fades away, we see that Whit feels strongly that Celia was really up on the board, and that she would never tell him to turn himself in. The One executes a soldier for failure to kill Wisty. Wisty and Whit return to Garfunkel''s, to big surprise, and dismay when the Freelanders learn that Margo is dead. After several tears are shed, Wisty convinces the kids that they shouldn''t be beating themselves up about Margo''s death, that she wouldn''t want them to. The Freelanders accept this and continue on. Whit and Wisty are assigned to a quest at a New Order jail as Stephen and Sydney Harmon, a very powerful witch and wizard. They manage to make it in and out of the place, but don''t rescue the kids. After Whit and Wisty return, Whit shares with Janine, the Shaman of the group, a poem that he wrote about Celia, and Wisty destroys the romantic moment, telling Janine that Whit got the poem from their eighth grade English class. That night, they visit a Resistance concert, where Wisty learns of her gift in music. She describes being up on stage as a type of euphoria, a high. Whit sees a fake New Order "rock group" who call themselves "the Nopes". He then sympathizes his feelings about writing a six-page poem about Wisty''s death. Wisty meets the Bionics, a popular New Order group, and their drummer, Eric, whom she finds very attractive. After almost getting caught by the New Order and using magic to get away, Eric and Wisty spend the night kissing and being together. Wisty wakes up in the morning to find her drumstick gone, much to her dismay, and she learns that Eric took it. Wisty, very angry, texts Eric, and eventually arranges a meeting at the City of Progress diner. But first she visits Mrs. Highsmith, the witch from the last book that almost got her arrested. After the visit, Wisty goes up to the diner, only to learn from Eric that he took the drumstick because he was working for the New Order. Wisty and Whit are taken in to a New Order school. The One continually tries to steal Wisty''s Gift (which we learn is actually dominion over the element fire). After some help from Byron Swain, the kids get trapped in a frigid room for what looks like their final hours, but Whit and Wisty turn themselves into fish and escape the school. They return to Garfunkel''s, and, taking some kids with them, go down to the abandoned war shelter. Garfunkel''s, and the kids who were too scared to go with them, is then destroyed as the kids look on in horror and heartbreak. Whit decides they should go to Mrs. Highsmith''s home again. He kisses Janine with very confused thoughts, obviously torn between Janine and Celia, and then returns to Mrs. Highsmith''s home with Wisty. The witch gives them a message from their parents that also says that they should turn themselves in, that they should just give up in their quest. The One then appears, infuriating Wisty, who screams at Mrs. Highsmith that "she told him they were there". With horror, Mrs. Highsmith tells the kids that The One has "mastered air, earth, and water", the other three elements, and we learn that the reason why he needed Wisty''s Gift is because he wanted to control all four of the elements. Wisty and Whit learn that that they can conjure things up with their imagination, and that is the center of their magic. Wisty says that The One''s power is almost godlike. Wisty and Whit eventually surrender to The One. In the epilogue, Wisty and Whit''s parents are executed, to Wisty and Whit''s horror. Celia appears and freezes time so that Wisty can escape. The book ends with "to be continued", as did the last, with us unknowing of Whit''s whereabouts, where Whit''s going, or what Wisty has to do.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

The Half Brother

By Lars Saabye Christensen

Fading Echoes

By Kate Cary

Duluth

By Gore Vidal

Family Values

No Author Listed

Midnighters 3: Blue Noon

By Scott Westerfeld

The Summer Garden

By Paullina Simons

The Languages of Pao

By Jack Vance

Dirty Work

No Author Listed

The Curse of Lono

By Hunter S. Thompson

The Sandman: The Kindly Ones

No Author Listed

Down to a Sunless Sea

By David Graham

Witch and Wizard: The Gift

By James Patterson