1633 continues where 1632 left off. Most of the novel details various political machinations of the new "United States" and the attempts of Cardinal Richelieu to nullify the threat posed by the technological advantage the up-timers have given to Gustavus Adolphus and his "Confederated Principalities of Europe". Richelieu completely changes France''s foreign policy and forms an alliance aimed squarely at the NUS and Gustavus called the League of Ostend. Mike Stearns sends emissaries looking for allies, some of whom end up behind enemy lines as they already belong to the secret League of Ostend, which announces its presence in the Battle of Four Fleets. The Dutch Republic nearly falls and Stearns'' emissary voluntarily stays behind, becoming trapped in the Siege of Amsterdam. At this point, the newly created timeline start to diverge greatly from the actual history of the 17th Century, in no small part because the news of a town from the future brought spies and emissaries, and a fair number of encyclopedias and history textbooks found their way into European courts. One theme of the series is of down-timer leaders trying to change, hasten or head off their histories while the acts of ordinary citizens going about their day to day affairs and of the leaders of Grantville effect more fundamental societal and political changes.

1633

The Persians takes place in Susa, Iran, which at the time was one of the capitals of the Persian Empire, and opens with a chorus of old men of Susa, who are soon joined by the Queen Mother, Atossa, as they await news of her son King Xerxes'' expedition against the Greeks. Expressing her anxiety and unease, Atossa narrates "what is probably the first dream sequence in European theatre." This is an unusual beginning for a tragedy by Aeschylus; normally the chorus would not appear until slightly later, after a speech by a minor character. An exhausted messenger arrives, who offers a graphic description of the Battle of Salamis and its gory outcome. He tells of the Persian defeat, the names of the Persian generals who have been killed, and that Xerxes had escaped and is returning. The climax of the messenger''s speech is his rendition of the battle cry of the Greeks as they charged: "On, sons of Greece! Set free / Your fatherland, your children, wives, / Homes of your ancestors and temples of your gods! / Save all, or all is lost!" (401-405). At the tomb of her dead husband Darius, Atossa asks the chorus to summon his ghost: "Some remedy he knows, perhaps, / Knows ruin''s cure" they say. On learning of the Persian defeat, Darius condemns the hubris behind his son’s decision to invade Greece. He particularly rebukes an impious Xerxes’ decision to build a bridge over the Hellespont to expedite the Persian army’s advance. Before departing, the ghost of Darius prophesies another Persian defeat at the Battle of Plataea (479 BCE): "Where the plain grows lush and green, / Where Asopus'' stream plumps rich Boeotia''s soil, / The mother of disasters awaits them there, / Reward for insolence, for scorning God." Xerxes finally arrives, dressed in torn robes ("grief swarms," the Queen says just before his arrival, "but worst of all it stings / to hear how my son, my prince, / wears tatters, rags" (845-849)) and reeling from his crushing defeat. The rest of the drama (908-1076) consists of the king alone with the chorus engaged in a lyrical kommós that laments the enormity of Persia’s defeat.

The Persians

Tiaan wanders the ancient, abandoned city of Tirthrax aimlessly. She still clutches the dead body of her adopted-sister, Haani, who was killed by a nervous Aachim shooter. Her previous withdrawal, that caused her to madly desire the strange crystal Amplimet, which lies unguarded near the gate she created to bring the treacherous Aachim to Santhenar from dying Aachan, has evaporated in her grief for her sister. It is not long before Tiaan realises that she is being followed. Indeed she is soon captured, by her nemesis from the manufacturory, Nish and a strange young woman by the name of Ullii. Tiaan escapes twice but is recaptured both times. However, as Nish bounds her after her second escape attempt, in which Tiaan nearly falls to her death in the Well of Echoes, he is interrupted by an old Aachim woman who states herself to be the Matah of Tirthrax. The Matah forces Nish to release Tiaan, humiliating him with a minor use of her powers. The Matah has Tiaan and Nish relate their story and becomes distressed at the knowledge of the Aachim invasion, led by Vithis. She speaks of the time of The Forbidding as if she were present. The Matah instructs Nish and Ullii to leave Tirthrax and warn their people of the Aachim invasion, though Nish had already sent word by skeet of what he had witnessed. The Matah befriends Tiaan and helps her to deliver Haani''s body to the Well of Echoes, an honour befitted to only the greatest of people. The Matah reveals that she is in fact Malien, a heroine from the time of the Mirror. Tiaan decides to go and retrieve the amplimet from the gate room, but finds it missing. She originally accuses Malien, but they eventually realise that Nish is the only possible culprit. Later, Tiaan and Malien head for the Baloon on the side of Tirthrax to retrieve the Amplimet and succeed. Nish and Ulii manage to repair and refloat the balloon and head off.

Tetrarch

In this novel, the weres and shifters make their presence known, following the example of the vampires. At the same time, the King of Nevada, who now leads Louisiana as well, begins consolidating his power, which has a number of repercussions. The revelation of the existence of weres and shifters causes some problems. Sookie''s boss, Sam Merlotte, reveals to the community that he is a shifter, and Tray Dawson reveals he is a Were, with both men changing into their animal forms at Merlotte''s Bar on the evening of the announcement. Most residents of Bon Temps take the new revelation fairly well; Merlotte''s initially sees some business slowdown, but then it returns to normal. However, Merlotte''s waitress Arlene, who has been dating a member of the anti-vampire Fellowship of the Sun (FoS), takes the revelation badly and quits her job in a fury. Sam''s mother, who is also a shifter, is shot by Sam''s step-father, and Sam''s non-shifter siblings, who did not know their parents and brother were shifters, have some troubles related to the announcement. Sam leaves Bon Temps to help his mother and leaves Sookie in temporary charge of the bar. Meanwhile, the King of Nevada, Felipe de Castro, consolidates his power in Louisiana. Eric, as the only Louisiana Sheriff to survive the defeat of Queen Sophie-Anne''s reign, is in a tenuous position and struggles with Victor Madden, the king''s representative. Eric fears the king will try to acquire Sookie to use in his Nevada business dealings, so Eric tricks Sookie, who is unfamiliar with vampire marriage protocols, into marrying him. She is not happy about it, but there is little she can do. However, the marriage is only recognized by vampires. The FBI comes to speak with her about her role in finding people during the collapse of the Pyramid of Gizeh. Then, the mutilated and crucified body of Jason''s pregnant werepanther wife is found in the parking lot of Merlotte''s, leading Sookie to think it is a hate crime against the recently revealed Weres. When Arlene invites Sookie to her home, Sookie arrives only to discover, through observation and her mind-reading abilities, that Arlene''s Fellowship of the Sun friends intend to crucify Sookie, with Arlene leading Sookie into the trap. Sookie calls the authorities and confronts Arlene. In the shoot-out that follows, one of the FoS men is killed and an FBI agent is wounded, and Arlene is arrested along with the surviving would-be murderer. However, Sookie realizes that despite their attempt to use her as an example, they did not crucify Crystal Stackhouse. They intended to commit a copycat crime. Sookie learns that her fairy great-grandfather, Niall, is engaged in a deadly fairy war, with Sookie stuck in the middle. Two psychotic fairies, Lochlan and Neave, are killing all humans with partial Fairy blood because they believe mixing with humans is the reason for the declining prominence of full-bloodied fae. Those same fairies killed Sookie''s parents, since her father was a quarter fae. It is later revealed that the bloodthirsty duo crucified Jason Stackhouse''s wife just for fun. Later, they kidnap Sookie and torture her in order to get her great-grandfather to surrender. Sookie is rescued by Bill and Niall, but not before being greatly traumatized and possibly mortally wounded. Eric gives her more of his blood, but can''t spare enough for her to heal completely since she has very serious injuries and Eric himself needs his stength in the forthcoming battle. In a final battle at the supernatural hospital Sookie''s fairy godmother, Claudine (who is pregnant), is killed, as is Tray Dawson, Sookie''s were bodyguard and boyfriend of Sookie''s witch roommate Amelia Broadway. Sookie is saved by Eric and Bill, who kill Breandan. Niall then decides to seal off Faery, and bids Sookie farewell.

Dead and Gone

Colonel Anthony Russell, an officer in the Australian army, is captured on a mission in China along with his squad of seven men. As the Chinese are excitied of the possibilities of Russell defecting and broadcasting Communist propaganda, they assign Major Lim, a Chinese propaganda officer with a bitterness towards westerners - it is revealed later on that his parents were killed by a British Soldier. Lim forces Russell to write his life story, in order to find out information that he will use in his efforts to brainwash him. In order to convince Russell he is serious, Lim drugs him into a sedated state which makes Russell believe that he is witnessing the execution of his men. After it becomes clear that Russell will not broadcast, and prompting by the Australian Government, Russell is sent back to Australia. As he leaves he plane he is intercepted by Government officials and placed under arrest on suspicion of being a Communist spy. It is revealed that while he was a prisoner in China, he was subconsciously taught Russian; as a result of this, further suspicion falls on him. The book ends with the officials telling Russell to write his life story.

When the Enemy Is Tired

Stopmouth is a member of the Human tribe, which is on the verge of extinction. There is a vast variety of different species of sentient creatures, all of whom either have made alliances with the humans, or hunt them as a source of food. In return, in order to survive in this barbaric world, the humans hunt other species and "trade flesh", a tradition that has the humans trade the weakest and most useless members of their tribe to other species as a source of food. In the book, this is known as "volunteering", and it is considered shameful to attempt to resist being volunteered for the good of your tribe. Stopmouth himself (who is said to be around 5,000 days old, around 13 years old) is constantly overlooked and overshadowed because of both his stuttering speech impediment and his more popular brother, Wallbreaker. One day Stopmouth meets a woman named Indrani. Indrani fell from the sky when one of the mysterious globes that fly across the ''Roof'' (the Human tribe''s name for the sky, basically) explodes, and she is expelled from it. Indrani seems to be more civilzed than Stopmouth''s tribe, and is disdainful of them. The Human tribe believes her to be ''slow'', or stupid, because she cannot speak their language, and their experience has been that there is only one Human tribe. She was going to be volunteered, but Wallbreaker took her as a wife (partly because of her beauty, and partly because one''s status is raised when one has more than one wife), protecting her from being traded. Eventually, a great war ensues over a piece of technology known to the barbarians as ''the talker''. It allows different species to communicate with each other, thus making them easier to coordinate alliances with. It eventually gets to the point where most of the species opposing the Humans are destroyed, and Wallbreaker (having been elected chief by this point) takes possession of the talker, which becomes a coveted artifact. Stopmouth, who has come to love Indrani and resent Wallbreaker for taking her before he did, steals Indrani from him and, at her request, the talker. He is pursued across the land by his tribe until they eventually lose their pursuers. Stopmouth (having travelled to a distant part of the land) eventually becomes the surrogate chief of a tribe of religious humans who are on the verge of being wiped out by a strange race of creatures. With his help, they learn to fend for themselves. Indrani reveals toward the end of the book that she comes from a tribe of Humans who live in the Roof, and actually watch the Humans below fight for their lives as a form of entertainment. Stopmouth is devastated by this, but eventually they reconcile, as Indrani has come to a different view of his people, and now holds a degree of respect for them where there had only been disdain before. The book ends when Varaha—a member of Stopmouth''s new tribe of humans and a secret member of Indrani''s old Roof tribe—confronts Stopmouth while Indrani is being reclaimed by her ''civilized'' people. Stopmouth manages to kill Varaha, but Indrani is returned to the Roof.

The Inferior

David Innes and his captive, a member of the reptilian Mahar master race of the interior world of Pellucidar, return from the surface world in the Iron Mole invented by his friend and companion in adventure Abner Perry. Emerging in Pellucidar at an unknown location, David frees his captive. He names the place Greenwich and uses the technology he has brought to begin the systematic exploration and mapping of the unknown land while searching for his lost companions, Abner, Ghak, and Dian the Beautiful. He soon encounters and befriends a new ally, Ja the Mezop of the island country of Anoroc; later he finds Abner, from whom he learns that in his absence the human revolt against the Mahars has not been going well. In a parlay with the Mahars David bargains for information of his love Dian and his enemy Hooja the Sly One, which his foes agree to supply in return for the book containing the Great Secret of Mahar reproduction that David stole and hid in the previous novel. David undertakes to recover it, only to find that Hooja has been there before him and claimed Dian as his own reward of the Mahars! Now he has to track down and defeat the sly one before resuming the human war of independence. Ultimately this is accomplished, and with the aid of the resources David has brought from the surface world he and Abner succeed in building a confederacy of human tribes into an "Empire of Pellucidar" that wipes out the Mahar cities and establishes a new human civilization in their place.

Pellucidar

The six Find-Outers are having a chance tea at a local gymkhana with Inspector Jenks and his goddaughter Hilary when a robbery occurs in a nearby large house. The mysterious robber disappears from the scene of the crime without a trace - as if he were invisible and cannot be found. The robbed house turns out to be that of Hilary, so the children have the perfect excuse to investigate as they take the upset girl home. The mysterious thief leaves only a few clues behind - enormous footprints, enormous glove prints, a strange criss-cross mark on the ground, and two torn pieces of paper. The clues do not seem to make any sense. Of all the Peterswood villagers, only policeman Mr Goon and Colonel Cross have feet big enough to fit the footprints, and the thief cannot be either of them. The Five Find-Outers and dog decide that they will find the culprit before Mr. Goon does. Fatty uses his disguises to gather important information, and in doing so outwits Mr Goon, especially when both go at the same time to see Colonel Cross to ask him about his large shoes. Mr Goon disguises himself three times but on each occasion the Find-Outers see through the disguise straight away. The thief strikes again several times, once in Fatty''s own shed,and on each occasion the same clues are found - but apparently nobody sees the thief. Finally, Fatty discovers the identity of the thief, and the reason for the enormous footprints. The thief is actually the baker, a small man, who used the boots to give the impression that he was larger than he was, thus planting a false trail and allowing him to use escape options such as climbing out a window and down a drainpipe that would have been impossible for a man of the apparent size of the thief.

The Mystery of the Invisible Thief

An intelligent young misfit, Kevin Senecal, leaves Earth to escape various troubles, including a teen gang vendetta which the authorities will not act to stop, and bureaucratic interference in his studies for an engineering degree, in a culture where environmentalists and zero-growth advocates hold sway. He enlists with the Hansen Corporation, a huge conglomerate which has re-located to the Moon, and is now involved in asteroid mining. He is to go to the asteroid Ceres. The journey involves laser launch from Earth to orbit, and a long voyage on a ship using the NERVA nuclear rocket technology. During the journey, all the passengers have to be involved in maintaining the shipboard environment, which includes algae to generate oxygen from photosynthesis. Kevin falls in love with a mystery woman called Ellen MacMillan. Between them they deal with the consequences of sabotage of the ship by persons unknown, and find a way to effect the rendezvous at Ceres after the ship''s computer is sabotaged. They use the expertise of Jacob Norsedal, a prototypical computer hacker who is also a top-notch mathematician and physicist. At Ceres Ellen reveals herself to be an agent for Hansen investigating the mining work, which is plagued with irregularities. In particular, a new element called Arthurium is being mined on Ceres. This is a stable transuranic element of the kind predicted during the 1970s based on the theory of an Island of stability for elements of atomic number 114, 120 and 126. Being super-heavy, these elements sink into the cores of planets and are not accessible, but may be found in asteroids. In the story, the arthurium is a possible catalyst for hydrogen fusion and is vital to both the economy of Earth and the future of spaceflight. Rival corporations and mineral interests on Earth want to steal the arthurium or stop its production. Anti-technology politicians would like to shut down all space industry and dedicate the money to the Welfare State. Ellen is actually Glenda Hansen-Mackenzie, daughter of Aeneas Mackenzie and Laurie Jo Hansen, owner of the Hansen Corporation. She can foil the plots if she can access the Ceres computer system. However, she, Kevin and Jacob are marooned on one of Ceres'' small satellites by the enemy agents. They improvise a steam-jet rocket which lets them land back on Ceres and bring an end to the intrigue.

Exiles to Glory

A very powerful and armed interstellar space ship called Invincible lands on the planet Regis III which seems uninhabited and bleak, to investigate the loss of its sister ship, Condor. During the investigation, the crew finds evidence of a form of quasi-life, born through evolution of autonomous, self-replicating machines, apparently left behind by an alien civilization that visited the planet a very long time ago. The evolution was controlled by "robot wars", and the only form that survived were swarms of minuscule, insect-like micromachines. Individually, or in small groups, they are quite harmless to humans and capable of only very simple behavior. However, when bothered, they can assemble into huge swarms displaying complex behavior arising from self-organization, and are able to defeat an intruder by a powerful surge of EMI. The members of the Condor''s crew suffered a complete memory erasure as a consequence. Big clouds of "insects" are also able to travel at a high speed and even to climb to the top of troposphere. The angered crew attempts to fight the perceived enemy, but eventually recognizes the futility of their efforts in the most direct sense of the word. The robotic "fauna" has become part of the planet''s ecology, and would require a disruption on planetary scale (such as a nuclear winter) to be destroyed. The novel turns into an analysis of the relationship between different life domains, and their place in the universe. In particular, it is an imaginary experiment to demonstrate that evolution may not necessarily lead to dominance by intellectually superior life forms. The plot also involves a philosophical dilemma, juxtaposing the values of humanity and the efficiency of mechanical insects. In the face of defeat and imminent withdrawal of the Invincible, Rohan, the spaceship''s navigator, undertakes a trip into the ''enemy area'' in search of 4 crew members who went missing in action — an attempt which he and captain Horpach see as certainly futile, but necessary for moral reasons. Rohan betakes himself into canyons covered by metallic "shrubs" and "insects" and finds the crewmen dead. He gathers some evidence and returns to the ship unharmed thanks to a simple anti-detection device and his calm and peaceful behaviour.

The Invincible

Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen are two sisters living in the Midlands of England in the 1910s. Ursula is a teacher, Gudrun an artist. They meet two men who live nearby, school inspector Rupert Birkin and coal-mine heir Gerald Crich. The four become friends. Ursula and Birkin become involved, and Gudrun eventually begins a love affair with Gerald. All four are deeply concerned with questions of society, politics, and the relationship between men and women. At a party at Gerald''s estate, Gerald''s sister Diana drowns. Gudrun becomes the teacher and mentor of his youngest sister. Soon Gerald''s coal-mine-owning father dies as well, after a long illness. After the funeral, Gerald goes to Gudrun''s house and spends the night with her, while her parents are asleep in another room. Birkin asks Ursula to marry him, and she agrees. Gerald and Gudrun''s relationship, however, becomes stormy. The four vacation in the Alps. Gudrun begins an intense friendship with Loerke, a physically puny but emotionally commanding artist from Dresden. Gerald, enraged by Loerke and most of all by Gudrun''s verbal abuse and rejection of his manhood, and driven by the internal violence of his own self, tries to strangle Gudrun. Before he has killed her, however, he realizes that this is not what he wants--he leaves Gudrun and Loerke and on his skis climbs ever upward on the mountains, eventually slipping into a snow valley where he falls asleep, a frozen sleep from which he never awakens. The impact on Birkin of Gerald''s death is profound; the novel ends a few weeks after Gerald''s death, with Birkin trying to explain to Ursula that he needs Gerald as he needs her--her for the perfect relationship with a woman, and Gerald for the perfect relationship with a man.

Women in Love

The setting of the novel was during the final years of Spanish colonialism. The main characters of the novel are Modesto Magsikap and Elisea Liwayway. Magsikap is a vigilante who kills two suitors of Liwayway, his girlfriend. Magsikap’s first crime was the killing of Sergeant Cruz, the first suitor of Liwayway. Magsikap was imprisoned for the homicide. A group of bandits invaded the town where Magsikap was imprisoned, including the jail where Magsikap was confined. Magsikap returned to his own hometown after learning about the death of his father. There Magsikap murders Lt. Rosca, the second suitor of Liwayway. Magsikap’s two brothers were put in jail. To escape his pursuers and the Spanish authorities, Magsikap flees to the United States. From the United States, Magsikap continued communicating with Liwayway through letters. After five years, Magsikap returns to the Philippines. After his trip, Modesto became convinced of the "benevolent presence" of the United States in the Philippines.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

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1633

By Eric Flint

The Persians

By Aeschylus

Tetrarch

By Ian Irvine

Dead and Gone

By Charlaine Harris

When the Enemy Is Tired

No Author Listed

The Inferior

By Peadar Ó Guilín

Pellucidar

By Edgar Rice Burroughs

The Mystery of the Invisible Thief

No Author Listed

Exiles to Glory

No Author Listed

The Invincible

By Stanisław Lem

Women in Love

By D. H. Lawrence

Anino ng Kahapon

No Author Listed