Myron Bolitar receives a phone call from an ex-lover, Terese, who asks him to come to Paris immediately. Upon arriving, Myron is informed by French police that Terese’s ex-husband, Rick, has been murdered and Terese is the prime suspect. Terese is soon cleared of the charges. At the crime scene of the murder, blood was found that matched that of Rick’s daughter. Terese informs Myron that ten years previously, her only daughter with Rick, Miriam, was killed in a car accident that led to Terese and Rick’s divorce. After nearly being kidnapped, Myron catches a glimpse of a teenage blonde girl who resembles Terese and wonders if perhaps Miriam’s death was faked. Myron sees the same girl again and follows her into a house in London. There, he is ambushed by terrorists who kill Rick’s second wife. After murdering the lead terrorist, Myron is taken to a “black site,” a secret interrogation facility maintained by the United States government to torture suspected terrorists. When his innocence is realized, he is released but does not recall anything that happened while incarcerated. Meanwhile, back in the United States, DNA samples taken from Miriam’s grave prove that she is in fact dead. Myron suspects that Terese’s frozen embryos were used illegally to create a second daughter, the elusive blonde girl he has been seeking. Myron and his accomplice Win investigate the charity “Save the Angels,” which promotes adoption over stem-cell research and is run by right-wing conservative Christians. Rick had been investigating the charity shortly before being murdered. Myron and the French detective Berleand track the teenage blonde girl to a home that was pictured on the “Save the Angels” website. There, they are ambushed by a terrorist cell and Berleand is killed. Upon entering the home, Myron discovers a group of blonde, blue-eyed children who have been raised from stolen embyos by terrorists in the hopes of training them for suicide missions. The terrorist cell is wiped out by law enforcement and the brainwashed children are taken into custody. Myron tracks down Terese to Angola, where she has been hiding with her long lost daughter since the ambush in London. It is implied at the end of the book that law enforcement failed to track down all of the terrorists: a blonde, blue-eyed teenage boy with a heavy backpack is seen stepping from a bus and walking into a crowded area of tourists.

Long Lost

Raised on the prosperous farm of Hugo Jocelyn, descendant of a French knight, Innocent has always believed herself to be Jocelyn''s illegitimate daughter by his fiancee before her death. She is an idealistic woman, inspired by the romanticism of the medieval French literature preserved by her ancestor; indeed, she feels she knows "Sieur Amadis" personally. As an infant, Innocent was dumped at the farm during a violent storm, by a stranger who explained he had to keep going but feared endangering the child. He promised to return, but never did, instead sending money every six months. Jocelyn reveals this in a deathbed confession. After his death, Innocent receives a visit from her birth mother, Lady Blythe. A shallow and pretentious noblewoman, she explains that Innocent was the result of a fling she''d had with artist Pierce Armitage. He was probably the one who left her at the farm. Innocent departs for London, planning to earn her living by writing and "make a name" for herself, since she has none by birthright. She has one book already written; it''s wildly successful, and she writes another. In the usual Corellian coincidences, Innocent''s landlady had had a serious relationship with Pierce Armitage, and Lord Blythe had been his friend at school. Lady Blythe confesses all, then dies. In Italy, Lord Blythe discovers Armitage alive and tells him of Innocent; Armitage at once prepares to claim his daughter legally. However, Innocent has been lured into a romance with a modern-day Amadis Jocelyn, descendant of her "Sieur Amadis"'' brother. She mistakes his flirtations and romantic gestures for real love, but he thinks of it as a mere fling. When he casts her out, Innocent is heartbroken, and returns to her farm to die.

Innocent, Her Fancy and His Fact

The action takes place in the future. The main character - Richard Muller, a retired diplomat – finds himself forced to hide from the human race on the uninhabited planet Lemnos. He lives there in the center of an ancient city-maze, built by a vanished race. The outer zones of the maze are filled with lethal traps to discourage entrance into the central zone. The maze was considered insuperable until the successful attempt of Muller. In his earlier life he had honestly served humanity, has traveled hundreds of worlds, endured hardship and danger. The career diplomat Charles Boardman invited him to come into contact with the inhabitants of the planet Hydra - the only intelligent alien race yet discovered in the galaxy. In a neighboring galaxy another highly-developed race has been discovered and Mueller must try to enlist the help of the inhabitants of Hydra. Mueller spent five months on Hydra without seeming to establish any meaningful communication with the natives at all. When he returned he discovered that other human beings cannot bear to be close to him - he seems to emanate an intolerable mental field that overwhelms the others. Earth science cannot understand or trace the origin of these emanations from Muller''s brain and Mueller went into voluntary exile. After nine years, however, Boardman invades his self-imposed isolation. The lethal snares of the maze are penetrated, firstly with robot drones and later with human volunteers, many of whom perish. Ned Rawlins, son of a friend of Muller who is now dead, establishes contact with him and, under the instruction of Boardman, promises him a cure as a means of luring him out of the maze. Mueller agrees to go, but his conscience torments Rawlins and he tells Muller the whole truth as far as he knows it: that only Muller has the ability to make contact with the aliens from the other galaxy who are on their way to extinguishing human civilization. Already six human worlds have been overrun, the people turned into zombie slaves. The aliens do not seem to realize that the humans are rational beings. They are radically alien, huge in physical size, communicate with each other telepathically, are physically very limited but are able to enslave the inhabitants of entire planets. Only one person - Muller - who can radiate telepathically, might be able to enter in contact with them: yet his experiences have made him potentially furiously hostile to any further contact with aliens, indeed with the human race itself. After a dramatic meeting with Boardman Muller agrees. He flies to the edge of the galaxy, is taken inside an alien ship, and there seems to have his whole psyche read by the aliens. When he returns, Muller meets Rawlins and discovers that his repulsion field has now vanished. To Rawlins'' disappointment, however, instead of returning to Earth and its comforts and pleasures, Muller has decided to return to the maze. The worldly-wise Boardman is sure he will come back out in a few years, but Rawlins does not think so. At the end of the story we are left without knowing what resulted from this contact with the alien civilization, or what ultimately happened to Muller. Rawlins is meanwhile following in Muller''s footsteps, and those of the innumerable reckless adventurers before him, from the seamen of old to the space-farers of the remote future century of the novel. The last sentence reads: "He held the girl tightly. But he left before dawn".

The Man in the Maze

The novel opens in a small village in Ixopo Ndotsheni, where the black pastor Stephen Kumalo receives a letter from the priest Theophilus Msimangu in Johannesburg. Msimangu urges Kumalo to come to the city to help his sister Gertrude, because she is ill. It is a long journey to Johannesburg and Kumalo sees the wonders of the modern world for the first time. Kumalo goes to Johannesburg to help Gertrude and to find his son Absalom, who had gone to the city to look for Gertrude but never came home. When he gets to the city, Kumalo learns that Gertrude has taken up a life of prostitution and beer brewing, and is now drinking heavily. She agrees to return to the village with her young son. Assured by these developments, Kumalo embarks on the search for his son, first seeing his brother John, a carpenter who has become involved in the politics of South Africa. Kumalo and Msimangu follow Absalom''s trail only to learn that Absalom has been in a reformatory and will have a child with a young woman. Shortly thereafter, Kumalo learns that his son has been arrested for murder. The victim is Arthur Jarvis, who was killed during a burglary. Arthur was an engineer and a white activist for racial justice, and he happens to be the son of Kumalo''s neighbour James Jarvis. Jarvis learns of his son''s death and comes with his family to Johannesburg. Jarvis and his son had been distant, and now the father begins to know his son through his writings. Through reading his son''s essays, Jarvis decides to take up his son''s work on behalf of South Africa''s black population. Absalom is sentenced to death for the murder of Arthur Jarvis. Before his father returns to Ndotsheni, Absalom marries the girl who is carrying his child, and she joins Kumalo''s family. Kumalo returns to his village with his daughter-in-law and nephew, having found that Gertrude ran away on the night before their departure. Back in Ixopo, Kumalo makes a futile visit to the tribe''s chief in order to discuss changes that must be made to help the barren village. Help arrives, however, when James Jarvis becomes involved in the work. He arranges to have a dam built and hires a native agricultural demonstrator to implement new farming methods. The novel ends at dawn on the morning of Absalom''s execution. The fathers of the two children are now devastated that both of their son''s are now dead.

Cry, The Beloved Country

The novel opens with a brief history of Vlad Taltos and a description of how he acquired his jhereg familiar, Loiosh. Despite being an Easterner in the Dragaeran city of Adrilankha, Vlad is a minor boss in the criminal activities of the Jhereg Organization. One day he is approached by an extremely powerful member of the Organization''s ruling Council and offered an assassination job with a staggeringly large reward. The contract is to kill another Jhereg crime lord, Mellar, who has absconded with a fortune from the Jhereg treasury. Vlad accepts. Mellar has become the houseguest of the Dragonlord Morrolan e''Drien in his floating fortress, Castle Black. Vlad is a personal friend of Morrolan and has a standing invitation to Castle Black, which would make the assassination quite easy. However Morrolan holds fast to the Dragonlord traditions of hospitality, and will permit no harm to come to his guests for any reason. The last time a Jhereg assassinated a Dragonlord''s houseguest, it resulted in a war between the two Houses that decimated both. Morrolan has invited Mellar to stay for seventeen days, but the Jhereg need the hit performed before that time. Vlad is forced to find a compromise between the interests of his House and his friend. Vlad''s other friends, Aliera e''Kieron and Sethra Lavode, are more lax on the rules of hospitality and offer their help. Aliera wants to kill Mellar herself, as it is obvious to everyone, even Morrolan himself, that Mellar manipulated Morrolan and used the Dragonlord''s honor as a shield against the Jhereg. This is a grave insult to the House of the Dragon. Sethra, the oldest and wisest of the group, agrees with Aliera''s position, but feels that they must still respect Morrolan''s wishes and find a way that will not violate his honor. While Vlad looks for a solution, the Jhereg come up with their own plan. The Demon first interviews Vlad to see if he would go along with it, and when it is clear to him that Vlad would not, he tries to have Vlad assassinated. Vlad manages to escape and guesses the Demon''s intentions, but he is too late. He arrives at Castle Black to find Morrolan already assassinated. With Morrolan dead, Mellar would no longer be under his protection, and thus his death would not start a second Dragon-Jhereg war. Vlad foils this solution by breaking the enchantment preventing Morrolan''s resurrection and has his friend brought back to life. The Jhereg, however, are undeterred. They would rather risk another Dragon-Jhereg War than allow Mellar''s humiliating theft to become publicly known. An assassin descends on Mellar, but Vlad and his friends thwart him as well. On reflection, Vlad realizes that Mellar''s bodyguards, who are always hovering nearby, were mysteriously absent during the attempt on his life. Vlad manages to deduce, with the help of some other information gathered by his second-in-command, Kragar, that it is Mellar''s intention to be assassinated. Mellar is a half-breed—a mix of Dragon, Jhereg and Dzur—and intends, through his death, to get his revenge on all his parent Houses by causing two to erupt into war and leaking information that would forever shame the third. Having solved the mystery of Mellar''s crime, Vlad finally realizes how to solve his own dilemma. With the help of nearly all of his friends, Vlad tricks Mellar into thinking he has killed Aliera, which would nullify his guest-rights with Morrolan. Mellar, believing his plan is ruined, flees Castle Black to avoid a purposeless death at the hands of the Jhereg. This actually takes him out of Morrolan''s protection. Vlad follows him and engages the master swordsman in a duel. While near defeat, Vlad uses witchcraft to contact a nearby wild jhereg. With this second jhereg''s help, Vlad kills Mellar, earning a vast bounty and saving two Houses in the same stroke. Rocza, the name given by Vlad to his second familiar, mates Loiosh.

Jhereg

The story begins in Druss''s village in the Drenai Empire. He is a misfit and socially awkward. While he is away from the village chopping wood, a party of slavers, led by Harib Ka and the master swordsman Collan, comes to the village and kills or enslaves everyone they find. With his dying breath, Druss'' father tells him to fetch the family battle-axe (Snaga), which was stolen by his grandfather Bardan. Druss meets the hunter Shadak, who is hunting the slavers to avenge the death of his son, and they join forces to pursue them. Shadak succeeds in interrogating Harib Ka before Druss kills him, and learns that Rowena (who Harib Ka has realised has mystic powers) has been taken to the port of Mashrapur. Druss travels to Mashrapur and meets Shadak''s friend Sieben. Together they find out that Rowena will be transported to the distant land of Ventria. Druss attempts to break onto the ship to rescue her, but is ambushed by Collan''s men on the dock. Druss is badly wounded but survives, and Shadak reappears to kill Collan. However, they fail to stop the ship from setting sail without them. When Druss recovers, he and Sieben (who is fleeing a jealous lover''s husband) join a group of mercenaries recruited by the Ventrian soldier Bodasen, who is going to support the emperor Gorben in a war in Ventria against the neighbouring Naashanites and rebels. En route, they are attacked by pirates; and during this fight Sieben sees a demon materialise to defend Druss and comes to the conclusion that Druss is possessed. The soldiers arrive in Ventria and succeed in rescuing Gorben from a siege. Gorben is impressed with Druss and promotes him to serve in his elite bodyguard- "The Immortals". Sieben learns from a priest that Snaga is harbouring an evil spirit, but fails to persuade Druss to abandon the weapon. Meanwhile, Rowena has married Michanek, the leading general of the Naashanites. He is an honourable man and becomes concerned when she falls ill. He is told that she is suffering as a result of her mystical powers, and has these removed, along with her memory, in order to save her life. During a break in the war, Druss goes travelling and loses Snaga in a river. Initially thinking he is free of it, he learns from the a wandering Source priest that it has been found by a brutal warlord, Cajivak. He and the mercenary Varsava set out to recover the axe and kill Cajivak, but Druss is captured and imprisoned in Cajivak''s dungeon. At first he wastes away, but with the help of a former prisoner succeeds in regaining his strength and escaping, only to find that Sieben, Varsava and the archer Eskodas have mounted a rescue attempt. Druss kills Cajivak and recovers Snaga, then returns to the army. By this point in the war the Naashanites are desperate and attempt to use a demon to assassinate Gorben, but he is saved by Druss thanks to Snaga- the only weapon that seems to hurt the demon. Druss also learns that Rowena has married Michanek and that her memory has been erased. He vows to kill Michanek and reclaim Rowena as his own as the army moves to besiege the last Naashanite stronghold, where Michanek has his home. Michanek has learned of Rowena''s past and attempts to reconcile her to the idea of going back to Druss, but she will not have it. During the siege, Michanek is killed and Rowena takes poison since she cannot face life alone. Druss is forced to venture into the netherworld to bring her back. Druss eventually succeeds in finding Rowena, and despite a trick of Snaga''s, rescues her. In the process he banishes the demon from the axe. Then he and his companions return to Drenai. The epilogue deals with the events of Skeln Pass, a famous battle late in Druss''s career (by this time he is presumed to be in his mid-forties). Gorben has gone mad and invades Drenai, and Druss and Sieben go to Skeln Pass to meet the troops and raise morale. The Ventrians launch a surprise attack, catching the Drenai unprepared, and Druss and Sieben are caught up in the fighting. Under the leadership of Earl Delnar, and with Druss''s inspirational presence, the Drenai manage to hold up the Ventrian advance. In a night raid, Druss accidentally kills his old friend Bodasen. The next day, a furious Gorben, commits the Immortals, who have never been defeated, to battle. In the fierce fighting the ensues, Sieben is mortally wounded, but Druss and the Drenai manage to hold the Immortals long enough for reinforcements to arrive and win the war. In the rout, Gorben is killed by his own officers. During the battle, Rowena, who has stayed at home with Sieben''s wife Niobe, dies. She tells Niobe that she knew she was dying but sent Druss to Skeln Pass so that he would not have to witness it, as it would break his heart.

The First Chronicles of Druss the Legend

As Trioculus lay dying he made Grand Moff Hissa promise that he would make Luke Skywalker and the rest of the Rebels pay for killing him. Meanwhile, at the Rebel base, they realize that Triclops, while sleepwalking, goes through files at the base and transmits them, through an implant on his tooth, to Imperial probe droids which are evading defenses. Leia proposes that a defense probe be built from plans found at the Lost City of the Jedi. These plans happen to be from Ken''s homework assignments, prompting him and Luke to return to the city. While there, Ken''s caretaker Dee-Jay and the other droids tell them about a decoy transport to the city that now leads to an underground sea of lava and also warn them of a prophecy by Supreme Prophet Kadann which says When the Jedi Knight Becomes a captive of Scardia Then shall the Jedi Prince Betray the Lost City. While they return to the Rebel base on Yavin, Zorba the Hutt has a meeting with the Prophets of the Dark Side in their space station Scardia. He tells of the grand moffs betrayals and plans of making Trioculus leader once again. When the Moffship is captured, they are put to trial, and surprised to see Zorba as the main witness. All of the moffs are sentenced to certain death, with Hissa&#39;s being the cruelest, as the loyalest supporter of Trioculus. Back on Yavin 4, Luke decides to give Triclops false information about the decoy transporter. In order to stop the information leak altogether, Luke, Ken, and Chewbacca went to the planet Arzid to find a mushroom to deactivate the implant. While there they are captured by Imperial stormtroopers and brought to the Prophets. Kadann, using the false information from Triclops, sends Hissa to his death in the decoy transport and threatens that he will send Luke if Ken doesn&#39;t betray the location of the real transport. He also promises Ken that he will reveal who his father was. With that motivation, Ken betrays the city and is brought with the Prophets to it. There Kadann reveals that Ken&#39;s father is Triclops meaning his grandfather was the Emperor. Not wanting to believe them and crying, Ken is told that he will be bred to be the new Emperor and will know the Dark Side of the Force. Meanwhile, Luke, finally able to get free of his guards and rescued by Han and the others, is able to sneak into the city through a steam vent. He rescues Ken, but not before the city is shut down by the Imperials and an earthquake destroys the main computer. Although Luke and Ken are able to reach the surface, Kadann and the other prophets are trapped in the city. Ken is able to come to terms with his parentage, but is unable to speak to his father about it, as Triclops manages to escape and evade capture in the forests of Yavin. The story ends with Leia, preparing for her wedding and seeing a vision of Han with their two children, wondering if they are twins.

Prophets of the Dark Side

The Lay of the Land takes place in the fall of 2000, and Ford''s character Frank Bascome is preparing for Thanksgiving at his home in Sea Clift, New Jersey. His son Paul, who is now a greeting card designer in Kansas City, Paul''s girlfriend, who has only one hand, and Frank''s daughter, Clarissa, who is an on-and-off lesbian, are all expected to attend. Frank has ordered a ready-made organic meal to be delivered on the holiday. Frank''s second wife, Sally, has reunited with her formerly AWOL and presumed-dead husband Wally, and they now live in the British Isles. Frank is in the last throes of a fight against prostate cancer, and Frank''s first wife, Ann, has moved back to Haddam, New Jersey, after the death of her second husband. Frank has started RealtyWise, his own company, and employs Mike Mahoney, a Tibetan who has adopted an American Republican lifestyle, except inasmuch as he believes in Buddhist philosophy. Over the course of three days, Frank has a range of painful experiences with everyone he meets, including potential home buyers, the father of an old flame, his former wife, his son, and an old acquaintance whom Frank assaults in a bar. Frank''s most redeeming moments as a character are in a lesbian bar where he waits for repair work on his Chevrolet Suburban, and when he gets shot in the chest by teenagers who have murdered his unlikable neighbors. In the end, Frank and Sally are flying to the Mayo Clinic to get the final word on his prostate.

The Lay of the Land

The story begins where The Hostile Hospital left off, with the three Baudelaires still hiding in the trunk of Count Olaf''s car, listening to Count Olaf and his troupe discuss their plans. They talk about a woman named Madame Lulu. Madame Lulu has told Count Olaf where the Baudelaires are hidden each time they move. Count Olaf and his troupe depart the car and the Baudelaires then make it out of the trunk of Count Olaf''s car through some clever lockpicking on the part of Violet Baudelaire. The orphans spy on Madame Lulu''s caravan in Caligari Carnival and hear her explaining to Olaf that her carnival needs more customers otherwise they may close. They also recognize Lulu''s accent as that used by Olaf when he was disguised as Gunther. They disguise themselves for the carnival''s House of Freaks, using Count Olaf''s disguises stored in the trunk of his car. Sunny Baudelaire wraps herself in a beard to disguise herself as Chabo the Wolf Baby. Violet and Klaus Baudelaire squeeze into one large shirt as a two headed person with highly differing voices, ''Beverly'' and ''Elliot''. Madame Lulu hires the children after they do an act for her. She leads them to a caravan with three people inside. Hugo who is a hunchback, Colette, who is a contortionist, and Kevin, who is ambidextrous (and very pessimistic). The next morning they discover that when Olaf asked Madame Lulu Is one Baudelaire parent still alive?, she consulted the crystal ball and answered Yes, one is up in the Mortmain Mountains. The children then perform in the freak show. Afterwards, Olaf arrives with a pack of lions and announces that a lion pit shall be made in which one of the freaks shall be thrown tomorrow. This is intended to draw a large audience. The orphans go back to Lulu''s tent to search for clues. They first discover the V.F.D. symbol on the outside, and inside find a secret archival library under the table hidden by a tablecloth. The mysterious effects behind her fortune telling turn out to be no more than ropes and pulleys. They break Lulu''s crystal ball, and they are discovered when Lulu comes in. Lulu breaks down and throws off her disguise, revealing herself as a woman named Olivia who just wants to give people what they want. She is a member of V.F.D. and tells them about the V.F.D. disguise kit and a schism which happened in the organization. Beverly notes that the crystal ball special effects involve a fan belt that could be used to power the cars from the nearby roller coaster, which the orphans and Olivia could use to escape to the Mortmain Mountains. That night Esmé Squalor comes to the caravan of the freaks in an I Love Freaks outfit. She tells them that whoever is picked to be thrown into the pit of ravenous lions the next day, should throw Madame Lulu in instead. If they do that, they will be made part of Count Olaf''s theater troupe. The next morning the orphans go and get the coaster carts ready. A large and rude audience shows up to see the lions devour someone. Among the audience is the female reporter who broke the story that the Baudelaires murdered ''Count Omar'' (Olaf). Olaf dramatically unfolds a paper that will show who is to be devoured by lions, and Beverly and Elliot are picked. They manage to stall and eventually create a chaotic scene in which Madame Lulu and one of Olaf''s henchmen (the bald-headed man) fall into the pit and get devoured,the Daily Punctilio isn''t sure who got thrown in first. They will never know because the Daily Punctilio always gets their facts wrong. Escaping to Madame Lulu''s tent, the orphans find a map of the mountains with a coffee stain on it. Olaf appears, apparently still not recognizing the Baudelaires in their disguises, and states the stain indicates V.F.D.''s secret base in the Mortmain Mountains. The orphans are recruited into Olaf''s troupe as are the other freaks. The carnival is burned to destroy the evidence, and the lions, trapped in the pit and unable to escape, are burned to death and are later found as blackened bones. Together Olaf, his employees, and the children depart for the mountains. Beverly and Elliot are in the travel trailer caravan behind Olaf''s car, while Chabo is in the automobile car. Olaf then reveals that Lulu told him that they are the Baudelaires, and the newly recruited freaks cut the caravan off the car while on a steep slope leaving the book on a cliffhanger.

The Carnivorous Carnival

The story is set in motion by a family hiking trip, during which Trisha''s brother, Pete, and mother constantly squabble about the mother''s divorce with her father, as well as other topics. Trisha falls back to avoid listening and is therefore unable to find her family again after she wanders off the trail to take a bathroom break. Trying to catch up by attempting a shortcut, she slips and falls down a steep embankment and ends up hopelessly lost, heading deeper into the heart of the forest. She is left with a bottle of water, two Twinkies, a boiled egg, a tuna sandwich, a bottle of Surge, a poncho, a Game Boy, and a Walkman. Now and then she listens to her Walkman to keep her mood up, either to learn of news of the search for her, or to listen to the baseball game featuring her favorite player, and "heartthrob," Tom Gordon. As she starts to take steps to survive by conserving what little food she has with her and consuming edible flora, her mother and brother return to their car without her and call the police and start a search. The rescuers search in the area around the path, but not as far away as Trisha has gone. The girl decides to follow a creek because of what she read in Little House on the Prairie (though it soon turns into a swamp-like river), rationalizing that all bodies of water lead eventually to civilization. As the cops stop searching for the night, she huddles up underneath a tree to rest. Eventually, a combination of fear, hunger, and thirst causes Trisha to hallucinate. She imagines several people from her life, as well as her hero, Tom Gordon, appearing to her. It is left unclear whether increasingly obvious signs of supernatural events in the woods are also hallucinations. Hours and soon days begin to pass, with Trisha wandering further into the woods. Eventually she begins to believe that she is headed for a confrontation with the God of the Lost, a wasp-faced, evil entity who is hunting her down. Her trial becomes a test of a 9 year old girl''s ability to maintain sanity in the face of seemingly certain death. Racked with pneumonia and near death, she comes upon a road, but just as she discovers signs of civilization, she is confronted by a bear, which she interprets as the God of the Lost in disguise. Facing down her fear, she realizes it is the bottom of the ninth, and she must close the game. In imitation of Tom Gordon, she takes a pitcher''s stance and throws her Walkman like a baseball, hitting the bear in the face, and startling it enough to make it back away. A hunter who has come upon the confrontation between girl and beast frightens the bear away and takes Trisha to safety, but Trisha knows that she earned her rescue. Trisha wakes up in a hospital to find her divorced parents and older brother waiting near her bedside. A nurse tells the girl''s family that they must leave because "Her numbers are up and we don''t want that." Her father is the last to leave. Before he does Trisha asks him to hand her her Red Sox hat (autographed by Tom Gordon) and she points towards the sky, just as Tom Gordon does when he closes a game.

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon: A Novel

Aria Montgomery tries to keep her father Byron''s affair a secret from her mother and brother, while Hanna deals with her social downturn by resuming her bulimia. Emily Fields is in a secret romantic relationship with Maya. Spencer Hastings remembers pushing Ali back on a stone path after a heated argument, and fears that she is the one who killed her. After Aria ignores "A''s" threats, "A" tells her father Byron''s affair to Ella, who kicks Aria out of the house. "A" also reveals Emily and Maya''s relationship publicly, and Emily''s parents force her into a program to "cure" her apparent homosexuality. Aria is also cheating on her boyfriend, Sean, with her AP English teacher, Ezra; "A" sends pictures of them kissing to Aria''s boyfriend, who calls the police. Hanna is humiliated at Mona''s 17th birthday party, and later receives a text from "A". This time, the number is not a jumbled mess, and Hanna recognizes it: she knows who "A" is. She calls Spencer, Emily, and Aria to meet her at their special spot, the Rosewood school playground; before she can tell them what she knows, Hanna is hit by a SUV. The story ends with Spencer, Emily, and Aria receiving a text saying, "She knew too much -A".

Perfect

At the beginning of the novel, Jacen Solo is being tortured via the Embrace of Pain as he is overlooked by his captors, the Yuuzhan Vong and the mysterious figure known as Vergere. Vergere increases this pain by somehow robbing Jacen of the Force, but at the same time, she helps him through his agony by telling him to embrace, just like the Yuuzhan Vong do. Jacen does just as Vergere suggested, which pleases the Vong, represented by Nom Anor throughout the novel, who believe that in no time, Jacen will become just like them. Soon, nearly a year following the Fall of Coruscant, Jacen is transported to a Yuuzhan Vong seedship, where he is enslaved to a creature called a dhuryam. As this happens, he gains Vongsense, similar to how his late brother, Anakin, had sensed them with his lambent-imbedded lightsaber back in Edge of Victory I: Conquest. The dhuryam is competing against other dhuryams to become the World Brain of the captured Coruscant, which has been renamed Yuuzhan''tar in honor of the Yuuzhan Vong''s dead homeworld. As World Brain, the dhuryam that Jacen is enslaved to will have the responsibility and authority of everything technical on Yuuzhan''tar. Through more help from Vergere, who turns out to be a Force-user herself, Jacen forces the dhuryam to stop enslaving him and think of him as a partner; this way, the dhuryam would be more successful to be in consideration of being the World Brain of Yuuzhan''tar. As a result of this, Jacen''s dhuryam indeed becomes more successful throughout various operations aboard the seedship. Eventually, the day comes when a dhuryam aboard the seedship will become selected to govern Yuuzhan''tar. Jacen uses this day to start a riot where Yuuzhan Vong and slave alike are killed, and he takes advantage of the chaos to kill off his dhuryam''s opponents. When he decides to kill his own dhuryam, he sees the spirit of Anakin telling him to stop. Unknowing of whether or not this was the real Anakin or a fabrication created by Vergere, Jacen''s hesitation in killing the surviving dhuryam results in him getting knocked out. Jacen''s dhuryam becomes the World Brain of Yuuzhan''tar by default, and Jacen wakes up on the captured Coruscant, realizing in horror what this newly transformed planet once was. Vergere leads him on a journey throughout the transformed world, and gradually, she shows him evidence that the Jedi''s ideals of the Force are flawed; there is no light or dark side, but an overall power of the Force whose raw power is only considered to be of the dark side. Jacen refuses to believe this until Vergere leads him into a Yuuzhan Vong trap where he nearly kills all of them, including Vergere herself. Jacen is shocked at just how right Vergere is, even after she revealed previously that she was once a member of the previous Jedi Order. But eventually, Jacen comes to accept the Yuuzhan Vong''s ways as they give him the late Anakin Solo''s lightsaber, which is considered a holy relic to the Vong due to its imbedded lambent crystal. Jedi Knight Ganner Rhysode has spent much time searching the galaxy trying to find Jacen, being one of the few who believe that he is still alive. He comes into contact with Jacen and an entourage of Yuuzhan Vong infiltrators aboard a New Republic refugee ship, and Ganner is captured due to his Jedi nature. He is taken to Yuuzhan''tar in order to be converted to their ways like Jacen. But as it turns out, Jacen had feigned loyalty to the Vong so that he could get close to the World Brain. The plan works as both he and Ganner are allowed admittance into the Well of the World Brain, although Nom Anor knows that they were faking their obedience to the Yuuzhan Vong. Knowing that Jacen won''t have time to do whatever he wants to the World Brain, Ganner takes Jacen''s lightsaber and decides to take on every Yuuzhan Vong warrior at the Well of the World Brain, vowing that not one of them will ever pass. Ganner fights every Vong warrior to the death, but in the end, he is so mortally wounded that he brings down the hall of the Well of the World Brain on top of himself and every surviving Vong with him. Meanwhile, as the battle commenced, Nom Anor looked to Vergere to escape the disaster, and Vergere tricks him into revealing his escape craft. Vergere then coerces the Vong plant life around them to tie up Nom Anor so that she and Jacen could escape Yuuzhan''tar. Meanwhile, Jacen concludes his business with the World Brain, and he and Vergere leave. As they travel back to the New Republic, Jacen reveals to Vergere that he convinced the World Brain to teach the Yuuzhan Vong the concept of compromise; the brain will cause problems throughout the Vong''s occupation of the world so that for once, the invaders will know that not everything will ever be perfect for them. Vergere applauds Jacen for applying what she taught him throughout the novel to the World Brain.

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