The story of the novel follows the life and career of Henry Coningsby, the orphan grandson of a wealthy marquess, called Lord Monmouth. Lord Monmouth initially disapproved of Coningsby''s parents'' marriage, but on their death he relents and sends the boy to be educated at Eton College. At Eton Coningsby meets and befriends Oswald Millbank, the son of a rich cotton manufacturer who is a bitter enemy of Lord Monmouth. The two older men represent old and new wealth in society. As Coningsby grows up he begins to develop his own liberal political views and he falls in love with Oswald''s sister Edith. When Lord Monmouth discovers these developments he is furious and secretly disinherits his grandson. On his death, Coningsby is left penniless, and is forced to work for his living. He decides to study law and to become a barrister. This proof of his character impresses Edith''s father (who had previously also been hostile) and he consents to their marriage at last. By the end of the novel Coningsby is elected to Parliament for his new father-in-law''s constituency and his fortune is restored. The character of Coningsby himself is based on George Smythe. The themes, and some of the characters, reappear in Disraeli''s later novels Sybil, and Tancred.

Coningsby

Harold Shea''s wife Belphebe of Faerie suggests he undertake a transdimensional expedition to retrieve his colleague Walter Bayard, who is stranded in the world of Irish mythology. Walter’s long absence has put him in danger of losing his tenure at the Garaden Institute that employs both him and Harold as psychologists. A secondary advantage to Belphebe will be to get Harold out of her hair; she is pregnant with their first child, and he is getting on her nerves. Harold prepares for the trip more carefully than on previous occasions, reluctant to risk his life as cavalierly as before now that he has a family. In particular, he replaces the épée he formerly favored with a stronger cavalry saber, and dons a mail shirt for greater protection. To ensure he is able to locate Walter amid the uncertainties of transdimensional travel, he makes the goal of his expedition not Eriu but the Land of Oz, whose rulers are possessed of an artifact "effective as a teletransporter," the Magic Belt of the Gnome King. (De Camp prefers the standard spelling of "gnome" to Baum''s idiosyncratic "nome.") As usual, things immediately go wrong. Instead of Oz, Harold ends up in a decidedly more sinister place, the University of the Unholy Names in Dej, a world of vaguely Islamic and Arabic antecedents. There he encounters the student Bilsa at-Tâlib, who enthusiastically suggests a magical contest between them and conjures up a gigantic snake that immediately snaps Harold up. Fortunately, the latter''s mail shirt protects him long enough for him to repeat the spell that transports him between worlds, and this time he really does end up in Oz (thankfully sans snake). The Oz he encounters is greatly changed from the land of which Baum had written, the enchantment that had kept its inhabitants ageless having been broken through a misuse of magic by a dabbler in spells named Dranol Drabbo some years prior. Dorothy Gale and Princess Ozma are now grown up, married, and with children of their own. Moreover, Harold finds Ozma''s husband, King Evardo of Ev, a much more canny and realistic ruler than Ozma in her youth; the royal pair is willing to help him, but only for a price! Lengthy negotiations ensue, as a result of which Harold finds himself committed to rescuing their son Prince Oznev, who is being held captive by Kaliko, the current king of the Gnomes. To facilitate his foray into the Gnome Kingdom Harold demands and receives the service of former gnome king Ruggedo, an old enemy of Oz, as guide, along with tarncaps to render them invisible. He also commissions the local blacksmith to forge a pair of bolt cutters under his direction with which to free Oznev. Meanwhile, Ozma uses the Magic Belt to summon Walter from Eriu. Much to her embarrassment Walter arrives in bed and with a bedmate, having recently acquired an Irish wife, Boann ni Colum. On the way to the underground Gnome Kingdom Ruggedo, pondering his past failures, consults Harold in his psychological capacity. His problem, it turns out, is that he is an unscrupulous, treacherous, selfish, greedy, lying, thieving scoundrel, and at the same time an irascible, ornery, cantankerous, ill-mannered, bad-tempered old grouch. Harold informs him that he will never be popular while remaining both; to succeed, he must overcome one trait or the other. Afterward the two penetrate the Gnomish Kingdom and manage to liberate Oznev. Ruggedo, determined to apply Harold’s advice, stays to dispute the throne with Kaliko. Meanwhile Harold and the prince duel with and defeat Drabbo, who has become Kaliko’s chancellor. Rescuer and prince return to Oz amid general acclaim. Harold then prepares for his return home, whence Walter and Boann plan to follow in the wake of the banquet celebrating Oznev’s deliverance. As for Ruggedo, when last seen he had expelled Kaliko from the Gnome Kingdom, declared monarchy obsolete, and proclaimed himself Lifetime President and Founding Father of the Gnomic Republic.

Sir Harold and the Gnome King

After recovering from tetrodotoxin poisoning inflicted by SMERSH agent Rosa Klebb (see From Russia, with Love) MI6 agent James Bond is sent by his superior, M, on a "rest cure" to Jamaica. Whilst there his task is a simple assignment to investigate the disappearance of Commander John Strangways, the head of MI6 Station J in Kingston, Jamaica, and his secretary. Bond is briefed that Strangways had been investigating the activities of Dr. Julius No, a reclusive Chinese-German who lives on Crab Key and runs a guano mine; the island is said to be the home of a vicious dragon with a colony of Roseate Spoonbills at one end. The Spoonbills are protected by the National Audubon Society, two of whose representatives had died when their plane crashed on Dr. No''s airstrip. On his arrival in Jamaica, Bond soon realises that he is being watched, as his hotel room is searched, a basket of poisoned fruit is delivered to his hotel room (supposedly a gift from the colonial governor) and a deadly centipede is placed in his bed while he is sleeping. With the help of old friend Quarrel, Bond visits Crab Key to establish if there is a connection between Dr. No and Strangways'' disappearance. There he and Quarrel meet Honeychile Rider, who visits the island to collect valuable shells. Bond and Honey are captured by No''s men after Quarrel is burned to death by the doctor''s "dragon"&nbsp;– a flamethrowing armoured swamp buggy to keep away trespassers. Bond discovers that Dr. No is also working with the Russians and has built an elaborate underground facility from which he can sabotage American missile tests at nearby Cape Canaveral. No had previously been a member of a Chinese Tong, but after he stole a large amount of money from their treasury, he was captured by the organisation, whose leaders had his hands cut off as a sign of punishment for theft, and then ordered him shot. The Tong thought they shot him through the heart. However, because No''s heart was on the right-hand side of his body (dextrocardia), the bullet missed his heart and he survived. Interested in the ability of the human body to withstand and survive pain, No forces Bond to navigate his way through an obstacle course constructed in the facility''s ventilation system. He is kept under regular observation, suffering electric shocks, burns and an encounter with large poisonous spiders along the way. The ordeal ends in a fight against a captive giant squid, which Bond defeats by using improvised and stolen objects made into weapons. After his escape he encounters Honey from her ordeal where she had been pegged out to be eaten by crabs; the crabs ignored her and she had managed to make good her own escape. Bond kills Dr. No by taking over the guano-loading machine at the docks and diverting the guano flow from it to bury the villain alive. Bond and Honey then escape from No''s complex in the dragon buggy.

Dr. No

Chasm City is framed and largely written in the voice of Tanner Mirabel, a security expert who has come to Chasm City to avenge the death of his former client''s wife at the hands of a "postmortal" noble named Argent Reivich. Tanner arrives to find that Yellowstone, the most advanced civilization in human history, has descended into squalor; an alien nanotech virus known as the Melding Plague has wreaked havoc throughout the system. Chasm City, a dense forest of mile-high shapeshifting skyscrapers, has melted into a slum. The Glitter Band, a sparkling diorama of ten thousand orbital habitats, has been reduced to a "Rust Belt" of a few hundred survivors, mostly primitive and pre-nanotech antiques. In this chaos of plague and desolation, Tanner seeks his prey, only to discover that Reivich is more clever than he originally thought. In the midst of his hunt, he begins experiencing virus-induced flashbacks from the life of Sky Haussman, the founder of his home world, Sky''s Edge, who is both revered and reviled for the crimes he committed for his people. From the depths of the gas plume at the heart of Chasm City, to the aristocratic canopy spanning what remains of the skyscrapers, Mirabel begins to unravel the mystery of the Melding Plague.

Chasm City

After receiving a large inheritance, James Bond 007 is accused of improprieties and drummed out of the British Secret Service. Disgusted with his former employers, Bond places his services on the open market, where he later attracts the attention of representatives of SPECTRE who are quite willing to put their one-time enemy on their payroll. But the whole thing was a hoax, just a plan to get Bond inside the enemy''s organization. Prior to joining up, Bond spends a month in Monte Carlo with Miss ''Percy'' Proud, a CIA agent who teaches him everything she knows about programming languages and computers in general. This background allows Bond to attract Jay Autem Holy, an agent of SPECTRE who left the Pentagon, faked his death, and later started a computer game company that creates simulations based on real-life battles and wars. Bond''s allegiance to SPECTRE is periodically questioned throughout the novel, even at one point going so far as to send Bond to a terrorist training camp (known as "Erewhon") to see if he has ''the right stuff''. Proving his worth, Bond becomes involved in a plot to destabilise the Soviet Union and the United States, by forcing them to rid the world of their nuclear weapons. What SPECTRE leaders Tamil Rahani and Dr. Jay Autem Holy suspect, but never fully realise is that Bond''s resignation is false. Along with Bond, the Secret Service plays a vital role in foiling SPECTRE; however, Rahani, the current leader of SPECTRE is able to escape Bond''s clutches by parachuting out of an airship over Switzerland.

Role of Honour

Molly is trying to fit in her new life as the daughter of a billionaire (Primo Cell), but things aren''t going so well. This is mainly because her mother is depressed about losing her 11 years of her life to hypnotism. She walks around the property miserable and all she does is sulk. Molly tries to help her but is soon subjected to the mystery of her missing pug. While looking she is hypnotised and taken to another time. She is taken to India in 1870, and taken to a fine red fort. Her escort, Zackya, is getting more and more nervous as they approach the main room. Then she has the displeasure of meeting the Maharaja of Waqt, a fat scally man, who wishes to kill her to stop her from wrecking the plans made in the last two books, since the Maharaja is the mastermind who hypnotized Cornelius Logan in the first place to hypnotize Lucy and Primo Cell. Taken back into the 1870s, Molly makes a new friend named Ojas who helps her, Rocky, and Forest defeat the mad Maharaja and save time as we know it. The Maharaja kidnaps a baby Molly, three-year old Molly, six-year old Molly, and 10-year old Molly by time traveling. It reveals her Uncle Cornelius was actually hypnotized as a young boy by the Maharaja and that Molly has a twin brother. es:Molly Moon viaja a través del tiempo sv:Molly Moons hypnotiska tidsresa

Molly Moon''s Hypnotic Time-Travel Adventure

Throughout the series, author Lin Carter has portrayed himself as the recipient and editor of the manuscripts of protagonist Jonathan Dark (Jandar), teleported from the Jovian moon Callisto (moon) (or Thanator, as its inhabitants call it) to the ruined Cambodian city of Arangkhôr. In this volume he finally travels to Cambodia, hoping to learn what became of Jandar after the conclusion of the last volume of his memoirs, Mind Wizards of Callisto. Once in Arangkhôr Carter accidentally falls into the well-like teleportation device himself, and is duly transported to the jungle moon as Jandar had been. A literal babe in the woods, he is hardly cut out to become an interplanetary hero; indeed, he spends much of his sojourn on Thanator mooning over its extraordinary sights like a tourist, likening them to wonders of which he has read or seen portrayed in various works of fantastic literature and art. Fortunately, Carter is soon taken in hand by an Othode, a forest creature with the personality of a faithful dog, which becomes his companion and protector against the local perils. It defends him against a Vastodon and later saves him from an immense spiderweb. Carter acquires another companion in the native boy Tarin, who had also been trapped in the web, and an abbreviated native-style name, "Lankar," which Tarin finds easier to pronounce. They subsequently encounter warriors from Shondakar, the kingdom of Jandar''s love interest Princess Darloona, and join the expedition against the hidden city of Kuur, lair of the evil Mind Wizards who hold the hero captive. Carter''s Othode even manages to uncover the secret entry to the city, but Carter himself is caught and imprisoned with Jandar. All comes out well, as they are rescued by Tarin and in a climatic battle the Mind Wizards are almost all killed. (One is later revealed to have escaped, to permit sequel possibilities.) At the end of the story Carter manages to catch the return beam to Earth, content to resume his role as redactor, rather than participant, in Jandar''s adventures.

Lankar of Callisto

Joseph then marries a school-teacher from Monterey named Elizabeth. Upon returning to the farm from the wedding, they find that the youngest brother, Benjy, an alcoholic, had been stabbed and killed by Juanito when he discovered him seducing his wife. When they meet later that night at the sacred rock, Juanito asks Joseph to kill him in revenge for his brother, but Joseph refuses. Joseph wants to pass it off as an accident, and for him to stay, but Juanito flees the farm, promising to return once the guilt has passed. For a time, the farm prospers, and Elizabeth bears a child. Joseph''s brother, Burton, a devout Christian, becomes increasingly concerned with Joseph''s late night ''talks'' with the tree. The farm is then the site of a New Year''s fiesta, and Burton decides to leave the farm after seeing the ''pagan'' activities. After he leaves, the remaining brothers discover that Burton had girdled the tree to kill it. In the following rainless winter everything begins to die as a severe drought sets in. One day, Joseph and Elizabeth visit the glade. Elizabeth decides to climb on the mossy rock, when she falls and breaks her neck, dying instantly. Soon thereafter, Joseph and Thomas decide to drive the cattle out to San Joaquin to find green pastures. At the last minute, Joseph decides to stay, then lives by the rock and watches the stream dry up. Juanito returns and convinces Joseph to visit the town''s priest to enlist his help in breaking the drought. The priest refuses to pray for rain, saying that his concern is the salvation of human souls. Joseph returns to the rock to find the stream dry. When trying to saddle his horse, he frightens the animal and receives a cut on the arm from a saddle buckle. Joseph then climbs to the top of the rock and slits his wrists, watching the blood run into the moss. As he sacrifices himself to some mysterious higher power, he feels the rain begin to fall down.

To a God Unknown

The main character lives in a converted hotel in Hollywood, where he works as the film critic for a weekly newspaper. The story is told in an oneiric fashion, without a clear explanation of all the strange elements of a partly real, partly imaginary Los Angeles. Amnesiascope focuses mostly on the protagonist''s relationship with Viv, a sexually adventurous yet committed artist, with whom the narrator works on the making of an avantgarde erotic short film. The narrator also has to deal with different factions at the paper, the various time zones he experiences driving through LA, the complexities of making a pornographic film, and his feelings of guilt after writing for his paper a review of The Death of Marat, a non-existent film by Adolphe Sarre, a non-existent director, which takes on a life of its own. The non-linear story is often interrupted by descriptions of dreams that the protagonist or other characters have had. Moreover, events told have a dream-like quality, inasmuch as what seems to have actually happened is subsequently dealt with as if it were a dream or fantasy (cf. the first meeting with Justine, who subsequently doesn''t seem to remember having met the protagonist). At the end of the novel, the narrating I has lost his job at the paper and Viv, yet he has gained back a sense of himself.

Amnesiascope

The story begins in London where a Basque ex-priest named Juan Uriarte is on trial, accused of attempting to purchase chemicals and plotting a terrorist attack. The trial is covered by an English reporter named Kate Ramsay. Uriarte''s Catholic charitable outreach service is also suspected of being a front for radicals; however, Uriarte manages to avoid prosecution by claiming his intention was to eliminate the camels of a Muslim faction in Sudan. Not convinced, Ramsay becomes determined to undercover the truth and she travels with him to Uganda to see his charity''s work first hand. In due course, she becomes attracted to Uriarte and offers to assist him with his plans. This works well for Uriarte, as he recruits her help, resulting in trips to Cairo and Rome. Ramsay is unaware of the actual purpose of these trips, but is sympathetic to Uriarte''s convictions and she smuggles an illegal item into Rome, which she believes is a Coptic relic. In the meantime, the story reveals an international conspiracy that is developing and is aimed at the Vatican. With the death of Pope John Paul II and the 2005 Papal conclave that elected Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI as a backdrop, a plot unfolds to destroy "the longest continuous government in the world — the Papacy". It becomes apparent that the real purpose behind Uriarte''s actions was to murder the Conservative faction of the Church and open a path for more Liberal-minded clergy to take control of the Church. Uriarte''s plot is unknowingly foiled by Ramsay''s uncle, a conservative priest from England.

The Death of a Pope

The time is "somewhere in the near future" from the 1970s, and Bob Shairp is a government worker for a project in which a human being''s individual qualities can be stored as computer data &mdash; on Müller-Fokker tapes. These reel-to-reel tapes, flesh pink in color, can store an entire person''s identity in four tapes. The people recorded on the tapes can be reconstructed by encoding the tapes'' data into a virus and infecting someone with that virus (see mind uploading). Of course, that person would have to be backed up too, and a game of musical chairs is set in motion. Bob Shairp is being recorded for test purposes on the tapes when there is an accident and the chair he is sitting in explodes, destroying his body. Only from the tapes can he be resurrected. This somewhat conventional science-fiction premise is something of a MacGuffin, as the novel''s other major characters struggle to possess the Müller-Fokker tape in numerous subplots that satirize various prominent forces in 1970s America, including the military, evangelism, men''s magazines, and radical anticommunist groups such as the John Birch Society. The novel also focuses heavily on parallels between the right-wing politics of Sladek''s time and Nazism: one main character is closely based on Adolf Hitler, recast as a semi-literate American racist obsessed with African Americans.

The Müller-Fokker Effect

The story begins with Han Solo and Chewbacca on a diplomatic mission from the New Republic to the spice mines of Kessel. Unbeknownst to them, Moruth Doole had taken over the space mines, and was convinced the Falcon with Solo and Chewbacca aboard was a spy ship, a prelude to invasion to seize control of the extremely lucrative spice production facilities. His small fleet, based on Kessel''s solo moon, shot down the emissaries, and brought them to Doole for questioning. He proceeded to do so by ingesting a large quantity of extremely pure glitterstim, which boosted his psychic capabilities to the point where he could forcibly invade Solo''s mind and ascertain the truth. When Doole realized that they had been just diplomats, and that he had effectively declared war on the New Republic, he panicked. When combined with the fact that he thought Solo knew he had been the one that ratted out Solo and Chewbacca to the Imperials (the result of which was that Solo was forced to dump his cargo on the Kessel Run; Jabba the Hutt then placed the bounty on his head mentioned in Episode IV), Doole decided the best course was to place the two prisoners in his mines as slave laborers where they would no doubt perish soon. In the mines, the two, with the aid of a young Kyp Durron sought for an escape. Simultaneously, Luke Skywalker embarked on his search for talented Force-sensitives whom he could mold into Jedi within his new Jedi Praxeum. Lando Calrissian, along with C-3PO and R2-D2, aided Luke with this search. In order to do so, he used a device that supposedly could detect one''s affinity to the Force. Calrissian followed one lead to the Umgullian Blob races where Dack, the possible force-sensitive, was rumored to have predictive abilities due to his successes at gambling. However, Calrissian discovered that he was cheating and exposed him. Rather than be punished by death, as was the law on Umgul, Dack was returned to the Duchess Mistral. In return, Calrissian was rewarded with half of the one million credit reward. Skywalker, meanwhile had gone to the infested planet Eol Sha where a man named Gantoris was believed to have Force-sensitiveness. After two serious tests, one involving fighting a fire dragon, Gantoris agreed to come to the Jedi academy, but was still afraid about the "Dark man" he saw in his dreams that would one day end his life. After collecting Streen, an old hermit on Bespin, the trio made back to the Yavin 4 where the Jedi academy began.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Coningsby

By Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield

Sir Harold and the Gnome King

By L. Sprague de Camp

Dr. No

By Ian Fleming

Chasm City

By Alastair Reynolds

Role of Honour

By John Gardner

Molly Moon's Hypnotic Time-Travel Adventure

By Georgia Byng

Lankar of Callisto

By Lin Carter

To a God Unknown

By John Steinbeck

Amnesiascope

By Steve Erickson

The Death of a Pope

No Author Listed

The Müller-Fokker Effect

By John Sladek

Jedi Search

By Kevin J. Anderson