The novel begins with Jackie Duluoz, based on Kerouac himself, relating a dream in which he finds himself in Lowell, Massachusetts, his childhood home town. Prompted by this dream, he recollects the story of his childhood of warm browns and sepia tones, along with his shrouded childhood fantasies, which have become inextricable from the memories. The fantasies pertain to a castle in Lowell atop a muted green hill that Jackie calls Snake Hill. Underneath the misty grey castle, the Great World Snake sleeps. Various vampires, monsters, gnomes, werewolves, and dark magicians from all over the world gather to the mansion with the intention of awakening the Snake so that it will devour the entire world (although a small minority of them, derisively called "Dovists," believe that the Snake is merely "a husk of doves," and when it awakens it will burst open, releasing thousands of lace white doves. This myth is also present in a story told by Kerouac''s character, Sal Paradise, in On the Road). The eponymous Doctor Sax, also part of Jackie''s fantasy world, is a dark but ultimately friendly figure with a shrouded black cape, an inky black slouch hat, a haunting laugh, and a "disease of the night" called Visagus Nightsoil that causes his skin to turn mossy green at night. Sax, who also came to Lowell because of the Great World Snake, lives in the forest in the neighboring town of Dracut, where he conducts various alchemical experiments, attempting to concoct a potion to destroy the Snake when it awakens. When the Snake is finally awakened, Doctor Sax uses his potion on the Snake, but the potion fails to do any damage. Sax, defeated, discards his shadowy black costume and watches the events unfold as an ordinary man. As the Snake prepares to destroy the world, all seems lost until an enormous night colored bird, an ancient counterpart of the Snake, suddenly appears. Seizing the Snake in its beak, the bird flies upward into the heartbreakingly blue sky until it vanishes from view, leading the amazed Sax to muse, "I''ll be damned, the universe disposes of its own evil!"

Doctor Sax

The novel opens on 7 September 1914; the continuing characters Patsy Doyle, Beth De Graf, and their uncle John Merrick are reading a newspaper account of the end of the Siege of Maubeuge and the German victory. Both of the girls are intensely concerned with the war news; Beth in particular is a partisan of the French cause. The protagonists are soon re-united with "Ajo" Jones and the movie star Maud Stanton, two characters from the previous book in the series, Aunt Jane''s Nieces Out West. (Baum arrived at Maud Stanton''s name by combining his wife''s first name, Maud, with his mother''s maiden name, Stanton.) Maud Stanton takes the place of the third of the trio of cousins, Louise Merrick, who does not appear in the final book. Both Maud and Ajo have come to New York; Maud is one her way to Europe to serve as a nurse. (She trained in nursing before becoming a film actress.) Patsy and Beth are struck with admiration for her action, and are eager to follow her example. When Uncle John finds that he cannot dissuade them, he resolves to back their effort; he uses his wealth and influence to form a connection with the American Red Cross. Jones, also enthusiastic for the cause, volunteers his ocean-going yacht, the Arabella, for conversion to a hospital ship. Uncle John pays for its refitting and for two ambulances to carry the wounded. Merrrick''s money and the girls'' enthusiasm work wonders; by the end of September the Arabella, painted with large red crosses, is in Dunkirk. Among their staff is a talented surgeon, Doctor Gys. He is "an eccentric, a character...erratic and whimsical," an adventurer who has been from the Arctic to the Yucatán, and in the process has been badly disfigured by various hard-luck accidents (involving icebergs and poisoned cacti). Gys calls himself a coward, but also sees death as a release from his disfigured body; he wonders what kind of death would be preferable, and has a morbid interest in confronting the violence of the War. The Americans also acquire a Belgian chauffeur named Maurie as an ambulance driver; he provides comic relief for the book, in somewhat the same way as the chauffeur Wampus does in Aunt Jane''s Nieces and Uncle John. The protagonists cope with military bureaucracies and confront the horrors of the battlefield &mdash; though Baum, "in keeping with his Van Dyne persona...kept his descriptions mild." Beth has previously had a year of nursing training; but Patsy is a neophyte who is shocked at the conditions she encounters. Doctor Gys reacts with paralyzing fear on his first exposure to combat, but his medical discipline soon takes over and he functions effectively. In the climax of the story, Patsy is injured but recovers, but Dr. Gys is killed on the battlefield. Though Gys had repeatedly proclaimed his cowardice, his death is heroic. The Americans lose the confidence of the French authorities at Dunkirk when a German prisoner they are treating escapes their custody; fewer wounded come to their ship as a result, and it appears that their usefulness is limited. After three months of service, the girls return to the United States. Uncle John tells them that "You have unselfishly devoted your lives for three strenuous months to the injured soldiers of a foreign war, and I hope you''re satisfied that you''ve done your full duty."

Aunt Jane''s Nieces in the Red Cross

The Perilous Gard takes place in England during the 1550s. The lead character, Kate Sutton, is a lady-in-waiting for Queen Elizabeth I of England when she is still a princess. Her sister, Alicia, inadvertently gets her exiled to a castle named Elvenwood Hall, also known as The Perilous Gard, where she finds that the daughter of Sir Geoffrey Heron, the master of the hall, vanished under mysterious circumstances that implicate his brother, Christopher Heron. She also finds that the local villagers fear the fairy folk who live under the hill and think they may be kidnapping children. Kate stumbles into the underground fairy world where she faces several challenges, which include saving herself and Christopher, who chose to offer himself as a sacrifice to the leader of the fairy folk, the Lady In Green. Kate detests the Lady In Green at first, but the two of them have much in common. Both are strong-willed, highly independent, and capable of enormous self-discipline. Kate''s refusal to be drugged or manipulated in other ways soon gains her a measure of respect among the Fairy Folk. Little by little she gains knowledge of their underground lair, while the Lady In Green gradually changes from a cruel tormentor to a mentor and almost, at times, a friend. At the end Kate saves Christopher, who takes Cecily to London to live with his sister Jenny (Jennifer). When Christopher comes back he proposes to Kate, and she accepts. Kate is granted freedom when Queen Elizabeth I ascends the throne. In this book, faeries, or "the Old Ones", are cold, heartless creatures. They serve as a representation of the old pagan religions that were gradually driven out of England by Christianity. They are ruled by the GUARDIAN OF THE WELL and the QUEEN OF THE FAERIE FOLK. The story has references to Tam Lin and weaves in ballads, paganism, and Christianity.

The Perilous Gard

Astronauts from the orbital society flew a modified scramjet, redesigned to harvest nitrogen from the Earth''s atmosphere. Government policy declares that these ships are responsible for the ice age, so the scramjet is shot down with a surface-to-air missile. The pilot and copilot, an Earth-born American named Alex MacLeod and a space-born Russo-American named Gordon Tanner, are forced to crash land in Canada atop the glaciers. Upon hearing of this, the fan underground embarks on a rescue mission - a group of fans rides north through the Dakotas to rescue them before they can be apprehended by the Government. Upon reaching the Dakotas, the fans must travel largely on foot, as their van is unable to traverse the glaciers. However, they have a major advantage over their foes in the government - their relationship with the space station provides them with superior navigational abilities; following the fall of scientific society, the United States Air Force (USAF) no longer enjoys access to satellite reconnaissance. The fans are able to reach the downed spacecraft well in advance of the USAF. Their escape is aided in a similar manner. Though the Angels are unable to walk due to their overexposure to weightlessness and must be dragged along on sleds, the microwave power transmission beam reserved for Winnipeg is diverted to warm the travellers as they return south to their van. In addition, a tribe of nomadic Inuit peoples shares supplies with them in thanks for the warmth provided by the microwave beam. Upon finally reaching their van, the rescuers flee to a small science fiction convention of some 50 fans at a mansion owned by one of their own. Once there, one of the fans takes on the role of personal trainer to teach the Angels methods to adjust to Earth''s gravity including various asanas from yoga. At the con, the fans brainstorm a daring plan - before the Greens had come to power, one of the Board of Trustees for the Metropolitan Museum of Boston by the name of Ron Cole supposedly refurbished a Titan II rocket. This rocket still exists at the Museum of Science and Industry at Chicago. The fans and the Angels leave for Chicago just moments before the mansion is raided by the Green police. The trip to Chicago gives the reader a brutal depiction of American life without basic technology. A blizzard forces the fans to take shelter in a farm town - where at least one towns-person dies in each blizzard for lack of heating oil. After hitching a ride in a consignment of cheese,the fans are captured by the feudal inhabitants of Milwaukee who are burning the excess houses in the city for heat. One of their captors has the food swapped with moonshine liquor and forces the group into slavery to pay off a series of trumped-up "fines". They are assisted by a fellow fan amongst their captors, and are able to continue on to Chicago. When the fans finally meet Ron Cole, their hopes are crushed. The rocket is a decaying wreck, and Cole is a shadow of his former self due to invasive ''reeducation'' treatments. However, Cole is able to put them on another path - a privately constructed single-stage-to-orbit spacecraft at Edwards Air Force Base, disguised by the simple and effective method of its designer, Gary Hudson, declaring it non-functional.

Fallen Angels

Squire Eudoric Damberson of Zurgau in the kingdom of Locania wishes to wed Lusina, the daughter of his former tutor, the magician Doctor Baldonius. The price is attaining the status of knight and supplying the magician with a portion of dragon hide for use in his magic. Dragons are locally scarce, so Eudoric and his trusty servant Jillo set out for Pathenia in the east to slay one. But once the two do manage to bring one down (by accident) they face legal complications for violating the local game laws. Returning, Eudoric finds his promised bride has run off with a minstrel, and his feudal lord Baron Emmerhard disinclined to knight him for his heroic exploit; he consoles himself by pursuing a scheme to establish a stagecoach line like those in Pathenia. (This material first appeared as the short story "Two Yards of Dragon.") A subsequent rescue of Emmerhard from a magic spell finally secures him the knighthood, but he remains unlucky in love, as the baron''s daughter also shuns his hand. (This material first appeared as the short story "The Coronet.") Next Eudoric pursues the daughter of Rainmar, a local robber baron who has been raiding his coach line. Rainmar tasks him with slaying the giant spider Fraka, and once again matters go awry. While Eudoric''s knightly reputation and stage line prosper, his marriage prospects remain nil. (This material first appeared as the short story "Spider Love.") The pattern is repeated when he is commissioned to capture a unicorn for his ultimate overlord Emperor Thorar IX of the New Napolitanian Empire. (This material first appeared as the short story "Eudoric''s Unicorn.") But wedded bliss does finally find Eudoric — or does it? Seeking to extend his stage line into Letitia, capital of the kingdom of Franconia that borders the empire to the west, his reputation for getting things done leads to him being deputed to rescue the king''s sister, held captive in the rude neighboring realm of Armoria. There he is forced to save her from a sea monster and then wed her, after which he flees back to Franconia with his new bride, whom he finds a less than congenial mate — she is both a control freak and an enchantress. Fighting with each other and dangers along the way, they encounter the restless ghost of a king cursed to endure eternal boredom in his tomb, an orthodox ogre who kills and eats those of the wrong faith, and the soldiers of the hostile duchy of Dorelia. Nor are Eudoric''s difficulties left behind on their return to Letitia. Mewed up as a prisoner in all but name in his princess bride''s mansion by her supernatural servants, he soon discovers she is a female Bluebeard who regularly collects husbands and petrifies them as she tires of them. By calling on the aid of a Serican sorcerer whose life he had saved during his earlier stay in Letitia Eudoric is ultimately successful in freeing his three co-husbands and escaping this lethal spouse. Safe back in Locania, where his nuptials are not recognized, he receives a message from her pleading for him to return, as he is the only one of her husbands whose loss she regrets. Eudoric prudently ignores her letter, choosing instead to resume his courtship of his first intended Lusina — she is also back, having grown disillusioned with her unreliable lover. Meanwhile he and Dr. Baldonius hatch plans to incorporate his coach line as a limited liability company after the fashion of the hongs of Serica.

The Incorporated Knight

Two years after his release from Camp Green Lake, Theodore "Armpit" Johnson is living in Austin, Texas trying to build a stable lifestyle by digging trenches and caring for his neighbor Ginny McDonald, a ten-year-old girl with cerebral palsy. While working at the mayor''s home, he is approached by Rex "X-Ray" Washburn, one of his friends from Camp Green Lake, who wants Armpit to loan him money for a ticket scalping scheme for an upcoming concert by teen pop star Kaira DeLeon. Armpit agrees, and at first the scheme seems to go as planned. Meanwhile, Armpit develops a crush on a girl at his summer school, Tatiana. He asks X-Ray to give him the last two tickets to the concert, so he can take Tatiana on a date. At first X-Ray is unwilling because he already has a buyer for the tickets, but eventually he agrees to give them to Armpit. Later, Tatiana says she unable to come to the concert, and Armpit decides to take Ginny instead. When the remaining tickets are discovered to be counterfeit, Armpit is beaten and handcuffed by the police while Ginny has a seizure. Here, the mayor - who remembers Armpit from the landscaping work Armpit did for her - intervenes; and singer Kaira DeLeon, upon discovering the situation, invites Armpit and Ginny to watch her from backstage. After the concert, they join her to share ice cream. The next day, X-Ray visits Armpit, and reveals that he had made the counterfeit tickets, selling the genuine ones to the buyer. He gives Armpit the money gained by selling the missing genuine tickets. After a few days, Armpit receives a love letter from Kaira. Some time afterward, Detective Debbie Newberg of the Austin Police Department questions Armpit about the counterfeit tickets; where upon Armpit invents a culprit to avert suspicion from himself and X-Ray. Later still, Armpit is invited to San Francisco by Kaira; but is accosted by ticket sellers Felix and Moses, who beat X-Ray and threaten to expose both boys to the police unless Armpit gives them the letter that Kaira sent earlier. Having agreed to do so, Armpit meets Kaira in San Francisco. He tries to explain the counterfeit tickets and how he has to sell her love letter. He asks her if she will write another love letter, so he can sell it. Kaira believes Armpit is after her money and does not care about her as a person. This results in an argument which ends by Kaira throwing coffee all over Armpit[this was set in China Town], then storming away. Meanwhile, her business manager Jerome "El Genius" Paisley, Kaira''s step-father and manager, plots to kill Kaira and frame Armpit for the murder; but is prevented by Armpit. Jerome is jealous and angry because Kaira plans to fire him when she turns eighteen, in two months. Jerome attacks Kaira and although she ends up seriously hurt, she survives. Armpit suffered a broken arm in the fight and Fred, Kaira''s bodyguard is severely hurt as well, and having tried to save Kaira from getting hurt, he got stabbed. Paisley goes to jail. Kaira later recovers, though is told she cannot sing again. Armpit arrives home and is visited one last time by Detective Newberg. She informs him that this case of counterfeit tickets is closing. She also informs him she knows the truth, because she put 2 and 2 together and got 4.''Later on, Armpit hears Kaira is still able to sing, albeit weakly. She sings a song accompanied only by a piano about her and Armpit''s relationship. Armpit is touched by this. He accepts his life can''t revolve around Kaira DeLeon and decides to continue with his plan of taking small steps towards making a better life for himself..

Small Steps

Father Quixote, a parish priest in the little town of El Toboso in Spain''s La Mancha region, regards himself as a descendant of Cervantes'' character of the same name, even if people point out to him that Don Quixote was a fictitious character. One day, he helps and gives food to a mysterious Italian bishop whose car has broken down. Shortly afterwards, he is given the title of monsignor by the Pope, much to the surprise of his bishop who looks upon Father Quixote''s activities rather with suspicion. He urges the priest to take a holiday, and so Quixote embarks upon a voyage through Spain with his old Seat 600 called "Rocinante" and in the company of the Communist ex-mayor of El Toboso (who, of course, is nicknamed "Sancho"). In the subsequent course of events, Quixote and his companion have all sorts of funny and moving adventures along the lines of his ancestor''s on their way through post-Franco Spain. They encounter the contemporary equivalents of the windmills, are confronted with holy and not-so-holy places and with sinners of all sorts. In their dialogues about Catholicism and Communism, the two men are brought closer, start to appreciate each other better but also to question their own beliefs. Quixote is briefly taken back to El Toboso, confronted by the bishop about his doings and suspended from service as a priest, but he escapes and sets out again with Sancho. In his last adventure, Father Quixote is struck down and wounded while attempting to save a statue of the Virgin Mary from hypocrites who are desecrating her by offering her up for money. Here may be a parallel between Dulcinea in Cervantes'' novel and Monsignor Quixote''s Lady whom he would lay down his life for. Quixote and Sancho are brought to a Trappist monastery where, sleepwalking and in delirium, Father Quixote rises from his bed at night, goes to the church, celebrates the old Tridentine Mass&mdash;all the time imagining he holds bread and wine in his hands&mdash;and then, in a last effort, administers communion to the Communist ex-mayor before sinking dead into his friend''s arms.

Monsignor Quixote

The Maasai people become aware that a global crisis is approaching. Malevolent, unearthly creatures called shetani, which inhabit another dimension the Maasai know as the “Out Of” (because all things, such as humans, animals and plants, originally came "out of" it), are finding their way into the world. They are fomenting trouble between the superpowers, intent on causing mischief up to and including war. If not prevented, the barriers between the two dimensions will be breached and uncountable hordes of shetani will overrun the world, destroying all life. Olkeloki, a Maasai elder, comes to Washington DC to warn the US President and seek help. He encounters Joshua Oak, a disenchanted FBI agent, and Merry Sharrow, a shy and unfulfilled call centre worker. He is convinced that they are the key people he has been seeking, and his persuasion, coupled with several dangerous encounters with shetani, convince them to return with him to Africa, where they join in Maasai attempts to hold back the shetani. Eventually Olkeloki takes Merry and Oak into the Out Of, where, with their help, he performs a ritual which seals the breach between dimensions, sacrificing his own supernatural powers in the process. All three return to this world, where the shetani’s tricks have ended and the diplomatic crisis is receding, and Oak and Merry realise they have found what they have been looking for in each other.

Into the Out Of

A boy by the name of Shasta is found as a baby and raised by Arsheesh, a Calormene fisherman. As the story begins, Shasta overhears Arsheesh agreeing to sell him to a powerful Calormene feudal nobleman. Shasta is relieved to discover that he is not really Arsheesh''s son, since there was little love between them. While Shasta awaits his new master in the stable, Bree, the nobleman''s stallion, astounds Shasta by speaking to him. The horse suggests that they escape a life of servitude by riding north together to Narnia. They meet another pair of escaping travellers, Aravis, a young Calormene aristocrat, and her talking horse, Hwin. Aravis is fleeing to avoid a forced marriage with the Tisroc''s grand vizier. The four must travel through Tashbaan, the bustling capital of Calormen. There they encounter a procession of visiting Narnian royalty, who mistake Shasta for Corin, a prince of Archenland, who was separated from their group earlier that day. Unsure what to do, Shasta goes with the Narnians and overhears their plans to escape from Calormen to prevent a forced marriage of Queen Susan with the Tisroc''s son, Rabadash. Shasta escapes when the real Prince Corin returns. Meanwhile, Aravis has been spotted by her friend Lasaraleen. She asks Lasaraleen not to betray her, and to help her escape from Tashbaan. Lasaraleen cannot understand why Aravis would want to abandon the life of a Calormene princess, but she helps Aravis escape through the palace. On the way, they hide when the Tisroc, Rabadash, and the Grand Vizier approach. Unfortunately, they''ve hidden in the very room where the men are about to meet. Aravis overhears the Tisroc and Rabadash as they discuss the Narnians'' escape. The Tisroc gives Rabadash permission to invade Archenland and Narnia while High King Peter is preoccupied battling giants to the north. Outside Tashbaan, Aravis rejoins Shasta and the horses. The four set out across the desert, and a lion (later revealed to be Aslan) frightens the travellers into fleeing swiftly enough to outrun Rabadash''s army. Shasta arrives in Archenland in time to warn King Lune of the approaching Calormenes, and the army of Archenland prepares to defend their kingdom. When Rabadash and his army arrive at King Lune''s castle, they are disappointed to find their prey on guard and waiting for them. A battle ensues, with no clear outcome until an army from Narnia, led by Edmund and Lucy, reinforces the defenders. The Northern alliance of Archenland and Narnia wins a complete victory over the Calormenes, and Rabadash is captured. Rabadash rebuffs King Lune''s merciful offer of conditional release. Aslan appears and warns Rabadash to accept King Lune''s mercy before his doom strikes. Rabadash rebuffs Aslan as well, so his doom strikes: he is turned into a donkey. His true form will be restored if he stands before the altar of Tash at the Autumn Feast. However, he will become a donkey again if he strays more than ten miles from the Temple of Tash, and there will be no return. For this reason Rabadash pursues peaceful policies when he becomes Tisroc as he dare not risk the ten mile limit by going to war. People call him "Rabadash the Peacemaker" but in reality they consider him "Rabadash the Ridiculous" as they never forget his donkey transformation. His name becomes a synonym for a stupid person over future generations in Calormen. The victorious King Lune recognizes Shasta as Cor, the long-lost identical twin of Prince Corin and, as barely the elder of the two, the heir to the throne. Aravis and Cor live in Archenland thereafter and eventually marry years later, and their son becomes the most famous king of Archenland.

The Horse and His Boy

Three students of an Austrian boarding school, Reiting, Beineberg and Törless, catch their classmate Basini stealing money from one of the three and decide to punish him themselves instead of turning him in to the school authorities. They start abusing him, first physically and then psychologically and sexually, while also blackmailing him by threatening to denounce him. Their abusive treatment of Basini becomes openly sexual and increasingly sadistic; nevertheless, he endures all the torture even when, after being deprived of any dignity, he is discredited by the entire class. Törless''s moral and sexual confusion leads him to join Beineberg''s and Reiting''s degradation of Basini; he is both sexually attracted to Basini and Beineberg and repelled by them. He observes and takes part in the torture and rape of Basini while telling himself that he is trying to understand the gap between his rational self and his obscure irrational self; he is a disturbed and despairing observer of his own states of consciousness. Basini, being homosexual, is somewhat complicit in the abuse, as he apparently enjoys the sexual part of Beineberg and Reiting''s "experiments". Beinberg and Reiting compensate for their own shame about their attraction to Basini by debasing him. Basini professes love for Törless and Törless comes to reciprocate somewhat, but ultimately is repelled by Basini''s unwillingness to stand up for himself. This disgust with Basini''s passivity ultimately leads him to almost off handedly stand up to Beineberg and Reiting. When the torment becomes unbearable, Törless covertly advises Basini to turn himself in to the headmaster as a way out of the situation. An investigation starts, but the only party to be found guilty is Basini. (In this respect the novel adheres to the "rules" for stories about bullying at school: the victim has to take the blame and the bullies go unpunished.) Törless makes a strange existential speech to the school authorities about the gap between the rational and irrational ("but that after all, things just happen"), which puzzles the authorities more than anything else. They decide he is of too refined an intellect for the institute, and suggest to his parents that he be privately educated, a conclusion that he comes to on his own. Other subplots include Törless''s experience with the local prostitute Božena, his encounter with his mathematics teacher, and his analysis of his parents'' attitudes toward the world.

The Confusions of Young Törless

Witness tells the story of the Klan''s attempt to recruit members in a small town in Vermont in 1924. A young black girl, Leanora Sutter, feels isolated by racial prejudice and her mother''s recent death. She is befriended by Esther Hirsh, a younger Jewish girl, whose innocence and natural optimism provides a sharp contrast to the other characters. The Klan''s hate-filled message of white supremacy is voiced by Merlin, a teenager, and Johnny Reeves, a minister in the town, who both become members. Other characters — the town constable and newspaper editor — try to walk a careful line of neutrality until they realize the importance of taking a stand. Storekeepers Viola and Harvey Pettibone represent two opposing reactions to the Klan''s methods as they discuss the issue in their own home. Iris Weaver''s character reflects a new freedom for women who had just gained the right to vote. Over the course of many months, residents are affected in many ways by pressures that build in the community, leading up to a climactic moment of violence. In the voices of eleven residents of the town, we experience this series of events from many different points of view, in the form of a poetic play in five acts. As the characters speak directly to the reader and relate the juxtaposition of acts of hate and love, violence and peace, terror and kindness, they illuminate the full range of human strengths and weaknesses in one small town.

Witness

In a near-future, a British neuroscientist named Professor Burgess Phelan has discovered a portion of the brain, the VMN, that is typically twice the size in men as it is in women. In certain men, however (approximately 1 in 100,000), it is the same size as a woman''s, and that abnormality is an exceptionally accurate indicator of violent sociopathy. Professor Phelan developed an imaging device called L.O.M.B.R.O.S.O. (Localisation of Modullar Brain Resonations Obliging Social Orthopraxy) used to help diagnose men with the VMN deficiency. In the interests of public safety, the Lombroso institute is set up to test all the men in Britain. Males are enticed with ad campaigns to submit for testing; those who are VMN-negative are given confidential treatment, including counselling and drugs, and assigned a code name out of the Penguin book of Great Thinkers (e.g., Shakespeare, Plato, etc.). The police aren''t given the names of the VMN-negative, but they are allowed to confirm whether or not a particular person is in the Lombroso Institutes system as VMN-negative. "Wittgenstein" is the code name of a VMN-negative who, until he was made aware of his status, was living a well-adjusted, if solitary, life, venting his sociopathic tendencies harmlessly through virtual reality entertainment systems. Upon discovering his pathology, though, he undertakes a public service of his own: after hacking into the Lombroso Institute''s systems and obtaining a list of all VMN-negative men in Britain, he undertakes to kill them all. The narrative unfolds from a dual perspective: Wittgenstein''s, and the female police lieutenant, Isadora "Jake" Jakowicz, assigned to catch him. Wittgenstein''s portion is told from the first person as a diary of his assassinations and subsequent downfall; the detective''s portion is told in a more traditional third-person perspective. In the novel''s setting, the national government was elected partly on a platform of "retributive justice", rather than rehabilitative, and punitive coma has replaced the death penalty (and, to a lesser extent, incarceration) as punishment for extreme crimes. In its favour, punitive coma is safely reversed, should someone later prove innocent; as well, prison costs have plunged since the inmates are sentenced to years of sleep rather than restraint, and require much less guarding and care. Opponents of punitive coma (of whom Jake is one) argue that the state is now stealing years from people''s lives, and giving the guilty no opportunity to rehabilitate themselves; thus, punitive coma is inhumane. This position is defeated, however, by proponents who observe that any long-term space travel will necessarily involve long-term medically-induced comas of the same kind, so the process itself is not inhumane; furthermore, criminals are not subject to the dangerous criminal environment of prison, so punitive coma may be considered a more, rather than less, humane punishment. An interesting portion of the narrative involves the use of a Cambridge philosophy professor to engage Wittgenstein in a debate on the morality of his actions. Since the killer comes to see his whole act through the lens of the real Wittgenstein''s philosophy (including his mid-career reversal following Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus), it''s hoped that he will be amenable to philosophical persuasion. However, as Wittgenstein''s killings continue, the government presses the Cambridge don to talk Wittgenstein into committing suicide, a position with which the philosopher agrees, much to Jake''s dismay. gl:A Philosophical Investigation

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Doctor Sax

By Jack Kerouac

Aunt Jane's Nieces in the Red Cross

By L. Frank Baum

The Perilous Gard

By Elizabeth Marie Pope

Fallen Angels

By Larry Niven

The Incorporated Knight

By Catherine Crook de Camp

Small Steps

By Louis Sachar

Monsignor Quixote

By Graham Greene

Into the Out Of

By Alan Dean Foster

The Horse and His Boy

By C. S. Lewis

The Confusions of Young Törless

By Robert Musil

Witness

By Karen Hesse

A Philosophical Investigation

By Philip Kerr