Dr. Conway must deal with an unconscious patient, classification ELPH, who may be a cannibal or a demigod, or both. It came from the "other galaxy", and the species is well known, almost infamous, to the Ians, who are also from another galaxy. It is extremely long-lived, and regularly takes complete rejuvenation treatments, including the brain and memory, to keep itself young. By doing this, it is practically immortal. It, although unconscious, appeared to have the ability to negate the most powerful drugs and resist surgery to cure its skin condition. This later turned out to be the work of the entity''s "doctor", who is an intelligent, organized collection of microscopic, virus-type cells. Once Doctor Conway realizes this, he uses a wooden stake to make the ELPH''s doctor focus itself in one small location, at which time it is removed from the ELPH, informed regarding the physiology-problems of its patient, and put back in. The patient, whose name is Lonvellin, quickly makes a full recovery, and it leaves to do what it does best: bona fide missions that involve taking backwards planetary cultures and pulling them up "by their bootstraps". His particular mission, this time, is to cure a diseased planet called Etla, and he recruits Dr. Conway and the "Monitor Corps" to help him. When The Empire that controls the Planet of Etla misinterprets Lonvellin''s efforts as an Act of War, the Empire declares war on the Sector General space hospital. Conway helps organise the evacuation of most of the station''s staff and patients, and following the death or injury of more senior staff, becomes the most senior surviving physician. After a brutal series of attacks, and with the hospital on the brink of defeat, a group of Federation and Empire soldiers convince Conway to help in a mutiny against the Federation commander Dermod. The Empire soldiers had been told that the Federation had attacked Etla, rather than trying to help it, but seeing the way all casualties were treated equally on the station, and in particular witnessing Conway breaking down after failing to save the life of an alien Empire soldier, convinced them that they had been lied to.

Star Surgeon

Magic Seeds is a sequel to Naipaul''s 2001 novel Half a Life. Magic Seeds takes over where "Half a Life" left off – with Willie Somerset Chandran, a transplanted Indian, living with his sister Sarojini in Berlin. He was forced to come to Germany after a revolution in an unnamed African country (presumably Mozambique) forced him into exile. He had spent 18 years in Africa, and is ill at ease in the urban European setting. His sister arranges for him to return to India and become involved with communist guerrillas over there. He accepts this mission, but without any real sense of commitment to the rebels cause. He is quickly disillusioned with the guerrillas – their personal shortcomings and the ill-advised tactics of the movement – but remains involved with them partly out of inertia and partly out of fear that his former comrades might kill him. Eventually he gets captured and imprisoned, and finds life in prison preferable to a life on the run. He gets released from the prison when his English friend Roger arranges for an old collection of his short stories to be republished, which causes some embarrassment to the Indian government. Willie moves to London, and there he finds himself in an upper-middle class social set, and he slowly drifts into the life in the suburbs, with all its ironies and quiet sense of claustrophobia.

Magic Seeds

Dave Hirsh is a cynical Army veteran who winds up in his hometown of Parkman after being put on a bus in Chicago while intoxicated. Ginny Moorehead, a woman of seemingly loose morals and poor education, has taken the same bus. Hirsh had left Parkman 16 years before when his older brother Frank placed him in a charity boarding school, and is still embittered. Frank has since married well, inherited a jewelry business from the father of his wife Agnes, and made their social status his highest priority. Dave''s return threatens this, so Frank makes a fruitless stab at arranging respectability, introducing him to his friend Professor French and his daughter Gwen, a schoolteacher. Dave moves in different circles, however. He befriends Bama Dillert, a gambler who has serendipitously settled in Parkman. Two factors seem to offer Dave hope and redemption: he takes a fatherly interest in his niece, Frank''s daughter Dawn, and falls in love with Gwen. Despite his somewhat notorious reputation, Dave is basically a good, honest man, well aware of his own shortcomings. His cynicism is often a mask to hide the pain of rejection. Though Ginny is not his social or intellectual match, he eventually sees the basic good in her and responds to her unconditional love. In the end, Ginny, stalked by her former boyfriend (a Chicago hoodlum), proves unequivocally the depth of her love for Dave by taking a fatal bullet for him. In the novel, however, it is Dave who is the innocent victim.

Some Came Running

It starts as a normal day on a subway, but the normality is interrupted by the hijacking of a subway train, on the number 6 train. Four men armed with submachine guns detach the lead car of the train and take it and 17 hostages into a tunnel. The hijackers are lead by Ryder, a former mercenary; Longman, a disgruntled former motorman; Welcome, a violent former Mafia thug; and Steever, a powerful, laconic brute. They threaten to execute the hostages unless the city pays one million dollars in ransom. While the city rushes to comply, transit police try to puzzle out the hijackers'' plan. They don''t realize that Longman has figured out how to bypass the "dead-man''s switch", allowing the car to speed along the track by itself (with the police chasing it while driving on surface streets) while the hijackers escape through an emergency exit. As they prepare to leave, however, Ryder and Welcome begin to argue, ending with Ryder fatally shooting Welcome. The delay allows one of the passengers, an undercover police officer who jumped off the train as it started to speed away, to shoot Steever. Longman escapes while Ryder shoots the passenger. As Ryder is about to administer a fatal head shot, he is himself shot dead by DCI Daniels of Special Operations Division. The novel ends with Longman''s arrest.

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three

Enderby is a dyspeptic British poet, 56 years old, and The Clockwork Testament is an account of his last day alive. The day in question is a cold one in February. He spends it in New York City, where for the past several months he''s been working as a visiting professor of English literature and composing a long poem about St. Augustine and Pelagius. Enderby''s present situation arose from a chance encounter with an American film producer in Tangiers, where he owns a bar. Publican Enderby served the man a Scotch and pitched him an idea for a new film&mdash;an adaptation of Gerard Manley Hopkins''s famously obscure poem "The Wreck of the Deutschland". The producer, intrigued, asked for a script, which Enderby duly composed. The eventual film bears little resemblance to this script or to Hopkins''s poem; however, his name is prominently credited, and the film, and Enderby, are now famous. This unwanted public recognition has led to an invitation to teach English at the University of Manhattan for a year. Also, since the film has controversial elements&mdash;including, for some reason, a lurid rape scene with Nazis and nuns&mdash;the reclusive, little-read poet has been receiving a barrage of ranting phone calls from angry citizens who are eager to denounce "his" film. Invariably, these callers (and other critics) have never read the original poem; indeed, they don''t even know it exists. Enderby suffers three heart attacks over the course of the day, and succumbs to a fourth some time after midnight. Between attacks, he goes about his business: he happily works on his Pelagian poem; eats dyspeptic American food and smokes White Owl cigars; refuses an offer of sex from a female poetry student who wants him to give her an A; struggles through two lectures; appears on a smarmy talk show; and draws a sword he carries hidden in his cane to defend a middle-aged housewife from a gang of thugs on the subway. Everywhere&mdash;even on the subway&mdash;he encounters incomprehension and, usually, disapproval. When he finally gets home, however, a woman he''s never seen before drops by and pulls a gun on him; she has come to tell him she''s read and re-read all his poetry, and is now going to murder him for writing it. First, however, she orders him to strip naked and urinate all over his collected works. Enderby strips, but since he has an erection he cannot obey the rest of her command. The scene ends, apparently, in a sexual encounter. Enderby dies later that night.

The Clockwork Testament, or Enderby''s End

The novel takes place in the French 19th century countryside. The parents of Landry and Sylvinet, identical twins, who are respectable and relatively rich farmers, do not follow the advice that was given at their birth to keep separating and differentiating them while they are still young. Consequently, they grow up always together and loving each other more than anything else. They are actually quite different, Landry being stronger both physically and mentally. But when they are 14 years old, one has to leave to work in a neighbouring farm. While the separation is also very hard for Landry, his pride makes him try to hide it, contrary to Sylvinet who cries and is very demonstrative. Sylvinet does not understand and therefore is hurt by Landry''s cold attitude and regularly sulks. When looking for his brother, Landry must deal with Fadette. Fadette lives with her disabled and mentally slow brother and her grandmother who is very hard on them. They are despised by the other villagers because they are considered as witches and are always very dirty. This day, Fadette helps Landry to find his brother but he had to promise her that if she has to help him a second time, she could ask him to do anything she wants. And it happens that Landry needs her advice again to cross a river. Consequently, Fadette asks him to dance with her and only with her at the next village celebration. Landry is very annoyed since she has a bad reputation and besides, he wanted to dance with Madelon, a popular girl he is interested in. However, he reluctantly keeps his promise and even defends Fadette against boys who were bothering her. Touched and ashamed, she tells Landry to dance with whomever he wants and leaves the party. However, Landry goes after her and hears her crying. They then have a deep discussion for a long time in the dark and Landry realises that she is a very kind, sensible, intelligent and respectable person. He even wants to kiss her but she refuses, telling him that he will regret it the next day. And she was right. The day after, Landry, remembering her dirty face, does not understand how he could have felt such an attraction for her. But soon after, he overhears a conversation between Fadette and Madelon that shows how the first one is kind and humble and the other girl is vain and proud, which revives his feelings for her. Fadette and Landry later are engaged in a secret relationship. Sylvinet is aware that something is different with his brother and suffers a lot. He discovers their secret but keeps it to himself. But when Madelon finds out, she spreads the news in the village. Everyone including Landry''s parents are shocked and urges him to end the relationship. Landry refuses but Fadette decides to leave to stop the scandal. Some time after, Landry also has to leave since he thinks that being separated would do his brother good. When Fadette comes back, she has become a respectable, clean and good-looking person. Thanks to her grandmother''s death, she inherits a large amount of money and is able to look after herself and her brother properly. Everyone in the village finally acknowledges her merits and Landry''s parents approve of their engagement. But jealousy again makes Sylvinet ill. Although he initially refuses to see Fadette, she actually manages to cure him and he finally accepts her... and even more since he decides at the end of the book to enlist, after his brother marries Fadette. Although Landry is unaware of it, their mother and probably Fadette realised that Sylvinet had fallen in love with her and did not want to obscure Landry''s happiness.

La Petite Fadette

Set in the distant future of the year 4512, wherein humans have achieved spaceflight faster than the speed of light, along with nanotechnology, Gravity Dreams centers itself around its main character, Tyndel. He was raised in Dorcha, whose culture uses the philosophy of Dzin as a means of social control. Dzin preaches that what you see is, and not to ask questions that a scientist normally would—a rock is therefore it exists, the clouds are therefore they exist. Tyndel is a master of Dzin. One day he is attacked and infected with nanites. This brands him as a ''Demon'' because Dorcha has rejected technology, seeing it as the cause of a major ecological collapse centuries before. After escaping the prison that he is placed in, Tyndel returns to his wife, and sees her killed by the people who he thought were meant to protect her. After effecting his revenge by killing the man who infected him with the nanites, Tyndel flees north to the "Demon Nation" of Rykasha, which still retains high technology and uses nanites. He is taken to a medical facility after experiencing weird lights across his vision. Here he is told that he was infected with a very ancient strain of nanites that would have killed him. They are replaced with more balanced nanites adjusted to his system. He is introduced to his handler Cerrelle who explains to him that it is her duty to help him adjust to their society and become a productive citizen so that he can repay the debt he now owes for their help. Tyndel, however, is riddled with guilt over his wife''s death and sees many of her attributes in Cerrelle. He also believes the system should care for him, even though he knows that on a social level that is not possible. He rejects and pushes everything being offered to him away, even as he slowly learns more about the world that he has found himself in—one that clashes with the views that have been sowed into him by his training. At the same time Cerrelle forces him to question how Dzin is used to prevent development, and why its teachings oppose nanite technology. Tyndel is meant to start training as a web jockey—one of those who are able to pilot ships through the "web" which allows faster-than-light travel. He rejects this position, much like a spoiled child, and is instead shipped off to Omega Eridiani, where he spends three years as a low level tech. This places him extremely low in the social ladder of Rykasha. Cerrelle attempts to entice him back and the two have a small fight over what he truly wants. He also gets involved with a fellow tech and after she dies in an accident, Tyndel begins to question much of what he has been doing. He requests to go back to web-jockey training and is accepted. Tyndel undergoes extreme physical training to condition his body to peak levels. He also repairs the relationship with Cerrelle. At this time he again begins to see the distorted vision that he saw when first infected. Eventually he is further enhanced by nanites, so that he may link with the Web Needles, the name given to the faster than light capable ships that the "Demons" use. After a further year of training in space he is made a web jockey. Tyndel hears a voice asking him questions while he is in the web, one that points out some answers to his questions. It is an entity called Engee, which tells him that it requires his consciousness to act as an observation platform for it in a reverse-energy universe. Tyndel accepts and is sent through, learning that Engee is a group of nanites created by the ''Ancients'' of Earth before the devastation, and that Engee is attempting to prevent the universe from completing its purpose by replacing the amount of information lost by the expansion of the universe with matter from another universe. After doing as asked, Tyndel returns to Earth and explains what has happened. The Demons act as though it is the end of their society, however Tyndel states that they should just trade with the station of ''followers'' because they have some technology that the Demons do not, such as gravity control. He returns to Cerrelle and explains that he and his children will no longer require the nanite treatments as Engee has made them part of his genetics. The Book ends with Tyndel returning to Dorcha to reflect on the past before returning once more to what he now knows as his home in the north.

Gravity Dreams

A young woman named Helen Stoner consults the detective Sherlock Holmes about the suspicious death of her sister, Julia. One night, after conversing with her twin sister about her upcoming wedding day, Julia screamed and came to the hallway where Helen came out to see her, in Julia''s dying words she said "it was the band, the speckled band!" Julia had been engaged to be married and, had she lived, would have received an annual GBP250 annuity from her late mother''s income. Now Helen is engaged to be married. Holmes'' investigation of the mother''s estate reveals that its value has decreased significantly, and if both daughters had married, Dr. Roylott, Helen''s ill-tempered and violent stepfather, would be left with very little, while the marriage of even one would be crippling. Therefore, the main suspicion falls on him. Dr. Roylott has required Helen to move into Julia''s old room of his heavily mortgaged ancestral home, Stoke Moran. A number of details about the place are mysterious and disturbing. A low whistling sound is heard late at night, as well as a metallic clang. There is a strange bell cord over the bed, and it does not seem to work any bell. The rope goes to a ventilator to the step father''s room. The bed is also unusually clamped to the floor so that it can never be moved from its position. Stoner surmises that Julia might have been murdered by the gypsies, whom Dr. Roylott permits to live on the grounds&mdash;they wear speckled handkerchiefs around their necks. A cheetah and a baboon also have the run of the property, for Dr. Roylott keeps exotic pets from India. Helen feels reluctant to sleep in the room. After Helen leaves, Dr. Roylott comes to visit Holmes, having traced his stepdaughter. He demands to know what Helen has said to Holmes, but Holmes refuses to say. Dr. Roylott bends an iron poker into a curve in an attempt to intimidate Holmes, but Holmes is unaffected as he maintains a rather jovial demeanor during the encounter. After Roylott leaves, Holmes straightens the poker out again, thus showing that he is just as strong as the doctor. Having arranged for Helen to spend the night in her original bedroom, Holmes and Watson sneak into her bedroom without Dr. Roylott''s knowledge. Holmes says that he has already deduced the solution to the mystery, and this test of his theory turns out to be successful. They hear the whistle, and Holmes also sees what the bell cord is really for, although Watson does not. Julia''s last words about a "speckled band" were in fact describing "a swamp adder, the deadliest snake in India". The venomous snake had been sent to Julia''s room by Dr. Roylott through the ventilator to murder her. The fake bell cord is to act as a bridge for the snake to land on the bed. After the swamp adder bit Julia, he called off the snake with the whistling, which made the snake climb up through the bell cord, disappearing from the scene. Now the swamp adder is sent again through the ventilator by Dr. Roylott to kill Julia''s sister Helen. Holmes attacks the snake, sending it back through an air ventilator connected to the next room. The aggravated snake bites Dr. Roylott instead, and, within seconds, he is dead. Holmes grimly notes that he is indirectly responsible for Dr. Roylott''s death, but that he is unlikely to feel much guilt over the death.

The Adventure of the Speckled Band

A man is waiting in a seemingly endless line, but for what? The Queue begins with a cacophony of voices and the protagonist, Vadim, encountering a lady named Lena. As the day progresses the queue-goers realize that they have no choice but to come back the next day to finally receive their items. A woman comes along handing out numbers so that the next day there will be limited chaos. Vadim and Lena end up spending the night in the park on benches along with other members of the queue. And again the same process begins all over again; people sharing their speculations of what’s being sold, others trying to figure out the rate that the line is moving, and the occasional break from waiting in the queue to get food or drink—essentially waiting in other queues. After this ensues yet another roll-call emphasizing just how many people are waiting for unknown objects. Finally after two days of waiting it appears that the end of the line is in site, but suddenly it begins pouring and Vadim seeks shelter. He is taken into an apartment owned by a lady named Lyuda. After a simple meal and an intelligent discussion, the two of them make love and fall asleep. The next morning Lyuda reveals that she works at the store everyone is queued up for, and that his days of waiting were in vain.

The Queue

In the introductory chapter, "Three Lost Travelers", the kits Mosskit, Adderkit and Blossomkit have somehow walked from StarClan to Rock''s home under the earth. Rock tells the three that they did not live long enough to learn about their Clanmates. He says he will answer their questions "about the cats you left behind." Rock describes himself as "the keeper of the world beneath the one your former Clanmates walk." The remainder of the book consists of Rock''s stories about each Clan, and various cats (or a group of cats) within the Clan. Rock describes major events in the cat''s life, and often comments on why the cat is special or acted as he/she did. There are also stories about a few cats from the Tribe of Rushing Water, SkyClan, and BloodClan in addition to some loners and kittypets. Although Rock, as the narrator, claims neutrality, the book does not treat each Clan equally, devoting more space to ThunderClan cats and being highly critical of one of the other Clans. This is to be expected since readers get to know more of the ThunderClan cats from series than those from the other Clans.

Cats of the Clans

On a beautiful and cloudless day, a middle-aged couple celebrate their union with a picnic. Joe Rose and his long-term partner Clarissa Mellon are about to open a bottle of wine when a cry interrupts them. A hot air balloon, with a 10-year-old boy in the basket and his grandfather being dragged behind it, has been ripped from its moorings. Joe immediately joins several other men in an effort to bring the balloon to safety. In the rescue attempt, one man, John Logan, dies. Another of the would-be-rescuers is Jed Parry. Joe and Jed exchange a passing glance, a glance that has devastating consequences and that indelibly burns an obsession into Jed''s soul, for Jed suffers from de Clerambault''s syndrome, a disorder that causes the sufferer to believe that someone else is in love with him or her. Delusional and dangerous, Jed gradually wreaks havoc in Joe''s life, testing the limits of his beloved rationalism, threatening Clarissa''s love for him, and driving him to the brink of murder and madness. During a lunch with Clarissa and her godfather, Joe witnesses the attempted murder of another man, resulting in the man being shot in the shoulder. However, he realises that the bullet was meant for him and that the similar character of the people at the other table had misled the killers into thinking the other man was their target. Before the hitman can deliver the fatal shot, Jed, orchestrator of the event, intervenes to save the innocent man''s life before fleeing from the scene. In the subsequent interrogation, Joe insists that it was Jed who was behind this, but the detective does not believe him, possibly because he appears to get many of the facts of the incident incorrect. Joe leaves dissatisfied, knowing that Jed is still out there and looking for him. Like the detective, however, Clarissa becomes skeptical that Jed is stalking Joe and that Joe is in any danger. This, plus the stress Joe suffers at Jed''s hands, strains their relationship. Fearing for his safety, Joe purchases a gun through an acquaintance. On the journey home, he receives a call from Jed, who is at Joe''s home with Clarissa. Upon arriving at his apartment, Joe sees Jed sitting on the sofa with Clarissa. Jed then asks for Joe''s forgiveness, before taking out a knife and pointing it at his own neck. To prevent Jed from killing himself, Joe shoots him in the arm. He escapes without charges. In the first of the novel''s appendices (a medical report on Jed''s condition) we learn that Joe and Clarissa are eventually reconciled and that they adopt a child. In the second (a letter from Jed to Joe), we learn that after three years, Jed remains uncured, and is now living in a psychiatric hospital.

Enduring Love

The play opens with the introduction of Beatrice, a woman who has traveled to Venice disguised as her dead brother in search of the man who killed him: her lover, Florindo. Her brother forbade her to marry Florindo, and died defending his sister''s honor. Beatrice disguises herself as Federigo, (her dead brother), so that he can collect dowry money from Pantalone, the father of Clarice, her brother''s betrothed. She wants to use this money to help her lover escape, and to allow them to finally wed. But thinking that Beatrice''s brother was dead, Clarice has fallen in love with another man, Silvio, and the two have become engaged. Interested in keeping up appearances, Pantalone tries to conceal the existence of each from the other. Beatrice''s servant, the exceptionally quirky and comical Truffaldino, is the central figure of this play. He is always complaining of an empty stomach, and always trying to satisfy his hunger by eating everything and anything in sight. In one famous scene, it is implied that he eats Beatrice''s beloved cat. When the opportunity presents itself to be servant to another master (Florindo, as it happens) he sees the opportunity for an extra dinner. As Truffaldino runs around Venice trying to fill the orders of two masters, he is almost uncovered several times, especially because other characters repeatedly hand him letters, money, etc. and say simply "this is for your master" without specifying which one. To make matters worse, the stress causes him to develop a temporary stutter, which only arouses more problems and suspicion among his masters. To further complicate matters, Beatrice and Florindo are staying in the same hotel, and are searching for each other. In the end, with the help of Clarice and Smeraldina (Pantalone''s feisty servant, who is smitten with Truffaldino) Beatrice and Florindo finally find each other, and with Beatrice exposed as a woman, Clarice is allowed to marry Silvio. The last matter up for discussion is whether Truffaldino and Smeraldina can get married, which at last exposes Truffaldino''s having played both sides all along. However, as everyone has just decided to get married, Truffaldino is forgiven. Truffaldino asks Smeraldina to marry him. The most famous set-piece of the play is the scene in which the starving Truffaldino tries to serve a banquet to the entourages of both his masters without either group becoming aware of the other, while desperately trying to satisfy his own hunger at the same time.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Star Surgeon

By James White

Magic Seeds

By V.S. Naipaul

Some Came Running

By James Jones

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three

By John Godey

The Clockwork Testament, or Enderby's End

By Anthony Burgess

La Petite Fadette

By George Sand

Gravity Dreams

No Author Listed

The Adventure of the Speckled Band

By Arthur Conan Doyle

The Queue

By Vladimir Sorokin

Cats of the Clans

By Erin Hunter

Enduring Love

By Ian McEwan

Servant of Two Masters

By Carlo Goldoni