Doralice, Countess of Köhne-Jasky, has walked out on her much older husband and run off with Hans Grill, a young artist who had been commissioned by the Count to paint his wife''s picture. Now, a year later, Hans and Doralice have come to the Baltic coast to spend a solitary summer''s holiday in a fisherman''s hut. They are said to have got married in London so their relationship is outwardly considered "correct" although their marriage is generally seen as a misalliance, especially by the society Doralice has left behind. While she herself is rather unsure about her future, Hans Grill is an optimistic free spirit, though not quite a libertine, who is full of plans in which Doralice figures prominently. He dreams of setting himself up as a successful painter in Munich &mdash; thus being eventually able to stop living off his wife''s money &mdash; and of living with her in a small suburban house. Rather than shunning the unlikely couple, the other tourists at the small fishing village feel morally obliged to associate with them, at least perfunctorily. They are the extended Buttlär family: Baron von Buttlär; his wife Bella; their three children Lolo, Nini, und Wedig; and Baron von Buttlär''s mother-in-law, the Generalin von Palikow. They are soon to be joined by Hilmar Baron von dem Hamm, Lolo''s dashing fiancé, who is an officer in the German army. Also present is the Geheimrat von Knospelius, a high-ranking civil servant. Burdened with a physical handicap, and never having married, Knospelius is used to leading a vicarious life through the people he surrounds himself with, and as soon as they have arrived he introduces himself to both the Buttlärs and the Grills. The presence of a scandalous couple does not go unnoticed by the Buttlär children. Rather, it is one of their games to sneak out of the house at night together with Ernestine, one of the young servants, to catch a glimpse of Doralice through the open window of the Grimms'' rented hut. One day, while swimming in the sea, Lolo meets Doralice on a sandbank and is deeply impressed by her cheerful manner, her wit, and her beauty, so much so that she decides to send her a huge bunch of red roses, while instinctively choosing her as her role model. Others who are also impressed by Doralice''s beauty include Baron von Buttlär, a known womaniser, who is now jealously guarded by his wife, and Hilmar von dem Hamm, who openly starts courting Doralice despite her husband''s and his own fiancée''s presence. His endeavours to win Doralice''s heart culminate in a boating trip that he undertakes with her while the others stay behind. Doralice feels flattered by the attentions of a member of the very social class that has ostracised her. At the same time, she realizes her indebtedness to, and possibly love for, Hans and stops all further advances on Hilmar''s part. Lolo on the other hand, aware of her fiancé''s infatuation, but due to an over-protective upbringing unprepared for life''s harsh realities, decides to sacrifice herself by committing suicide. At night she secretly leaves the house wearing only her bathing costume under her coat, walks down to the beach and starts swimming out into the ocean, far beyond the sandbank where she met Doralice. She is rescued by local fishermen who drag her half-conscious body into their boat and return her to her family. Although Lolo makes a quick and full recovery, etiquette demands of the Buttlärs that they depart immediately. Those who stay behind into the autumn are Hans and Doralice Grimm and Geheimrat Knospelius &mdash; the latter because, unbeknown to everyone, he has handed in his resignation and now has all the time in the world, and the Grimms because they actually have no other place to go. In the course of the summer, Hans has become more and more monosyllabic, and Doralice longs for some serious talk concerning their future together: She realizes that she desperately needs Hans''s reassurance of his love for her. Hans, however, keeps postponing that talk to the following day and indulges in his growing fascination with the sea. Not only does he paint it; he now accompanies the fishermen on their nightly routine on a more or less regular basis and then sleeps during most of the day. One night he goes out fishing with Steege, a notorious drunkard whose vice has prevented him from buying a new fishing boat. The old dilapidated one cannot defy the thunderstorm of which they have been warned, and the sea claims two more lives: After long days of waiting, Doralice and Mrs Steege finally accept the fact that their husbands are not coming back. At this point Knospelius makes Doralice the unexpected offer to be his companion for the foreseeable future and to spend the winter with him touring the Greek islands.

Wellen

Taking place during World War II, Fireshadow follows two seventeen-year-old boys. Erich Pieters joins the German Wehrmacht to fight for Chancellor Adolf Hitler in 1941, and winds up in an Australian Prisoner of War camp after fighting in North Africa. Half a century later, Vinnie Santiani flees into the remote Australian Bush in an effort to cope with the death of his sister. Despite the fact that they live in different times, the boys'' lives intertwine in the novel with haunting results. A reviewer for Magpies commented that the award-winning book''s "language is exceptional throughout ... while the author''s insights into the emotional lives of the young people are sensitively conveyed." The main character is Erich Pieters who is only 17 years of age. The novel doesn’t provide much of a physical description of him but is does provide a good description of his personality. Erich grew up in a small family of a mother, father and younger sister. His father wasn’t around much when he was younger as he was an army officer who worked for Hitler. When the war started (Erich was only 17 at the time) Erich signed up for the army to the disapproval of his mother and sister but not his father. His father was a very proud man and Erich took after him. Soon after Erich went to war, he was captured and sent to Australia to a prisoner of war camp. As he developed into a man, he became less proud and his personality developed as he tried to overcome his adversity of adapting to such different surroundings and treatment. As Erich aged he became wiser and more caring for those around him. As shown at the end of the novel, Erich is a gentle caring man who as he says “I may be sick, but my eyesight, hearing and memories are as strong as ever!”

Fireshadow

Long ago, the isolated planet Maske was settled by a religious group. They seized a section of the planet from earlier colonists (the Djan), and named it Thaery. The ship carrying a dissident faction was attacked and crashed across the Long Ocean which encircles the planet. The survivors eventually reemerged as the Waels of Wellas. The members of another faction were exiled to the stony peninsula of Glentlin, where they became the Glints. The Glints became notorious bandits, but were eventually subjugated. However, they are still looked down upon as coarse and belligerent. Some Glints took to sailing, and as "Sea Nationals", claimed sovereignty over the ocean. The orthodox settlers divided Thaery into twelve prosperous cantons. Seeking to maintain their religious purity, the Thariots prohibited all travel to other worlds. Jubal Droad, a young Glint man, goes on Yallow, a rite of passage into adulthood, traditionally spent wandering the land and tending the countryside. He recruits three Djan and spends several weeks repairing a trail. One day, an arrogant Thariot ignores Jubal''s urgent warning; he and his Djan escort use the path, causing it to collapse and seriously injure Jubal. When he recovers, his uncle Vaidro gives him a letter of introduction to Nai the Hever, one of the most powerful men of Thaery. He arrives in the city of Wysrod and encounters Nai''s daughter Mieltrude and her friend Sune Mircea. He accompanies them to the examination of Ramus Ymph for a vacancy for the high office of Servant. Jubal recognizes his nemesis. During a recess, he informs Nai the Hever, the senior Servant, of certain facts that result in Ramus being rejected. Ramus, as Jubal has deduced, has been off-world, breaking the laws of Thaery. On the strength of Vaidro''s letter, Nai the Hever offers Jubal a seemingly lowly position as Sanitary Inspector. Jubal reluctantly accepts and learns, during his training, that he has unwittingly become a secret agent. Nai the Hever is in fact the head of Thaery''s intelligence service, and Jubal''s uncle Vaidro worked with him before he retired. Ramus Ymph seeks revenge by inducing Mieltrude, his fiancée, into signing a warrant to subject Jubal to severe physical punishment. Jubal escapes from the punishers with the assistance of Shrack, a Sea National acquaintance, and procures a warrant against Mieltrude. After a confrontation with Nai the Hever, Mieltrude''s warrant is canceled. Jubal''s first assignment is to discover what Ramus is plotting. He follows Ramus to the tourist world Eiselbar and learns that he is trying to raise enough money to purchase a space yacht. Back on Maske, Jubal is called away by a family crisis. Cadmus off-Droad, Jubal''s illegitimate brother, has murdered Trewe, their brother and head of the clan, asserting that he had been robbed of his rightful place. The clan gathers and brings Cadmus down in fierce fighting. However, Cadmus''s masked chief accomplice escapes, and Jubal is certain that it is Ramus. Without proof though, Nai the Hever is unwilling to antagonize the powerful Ymphs. In fact, Jubal infers that he has become an embarrassment to his superior. Nonetheless, Jubal investigates on his own and finds that Ramus is sailing across the ocean to meet with the Waels. Nai is uninterested, so Jubal is forced to use his own initiative. He pursues Ramus in Shrack''s ship. Jubal takes Mieltrude into custody, using his warrant, and brings her along. As the voyage progresses, their mutual disdain for each other begins to weaken. Mieltrude informs Jubal that her engagement to Ramus was purely in order to aid her father''s investigation of Ramus. Ramus''s mistress, Sune, had forged Mieltrude''s signature to the warrant against Jubal. Jubal finds Ramus negotiating with the tree-worshipping Waels for the use of their land in exchange for much-needed food. The Minie, leader of the Waels, allows a disguised Jubal to question Ramus. Jubal gets his evasive enemy to finally admit that he wants to construct large tourist resorts, run by his Eiselbar associates. (Ramus had also wanted to lease Droad land for the same purpose, hence his support for Cadmus.) The Waels are greatly disturbed by the revelation and reject his proposal. They do something to Ramus which leaves him mute and strangely subdued, and insist that Shrack and Jubal take him back with them. During the return voyage, Ramus sprouts bark and leaves, to the awestruck horror of the others. When they reach Wysrod, Ramus runs off the ship, plants his feet in the soil, raises his arms, and to all intents and purposes, becomes a tree. Afterwards, Nai the Hever asks his daughter her opinion of Jubal. She admits that he is not unpleasant, for a Glint.

Maske: Thaery

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

Coningsby

Valérian and Laureline''s astroship has crashed in the middle of a graveyard of spaceships on an unknown asteroid. Swept over a waterfall, they are rescued by a motley group of various aliens gathering seaweed. Suddenly, overhead, a flock of birds gathers over the ship. The crew fly into a panic upon sight of these “Birds-Of-Madness” and Valérian and Laureline are ordered to work with the others in gathering the seaweed. One of the crew is a human but he refuses to talk to Valérian. The hold fully loaded, the boat begins the journey back to its port. On the way, they get into a conversation with a young alien called Sül who tells them that all the others are mad – they think only of gathering as much food as possible for their Master. Arriving at the village, they join a flotilla of boats that travels across the viscous marshes and along a series of fjords until they reach a cove – from here they must continue on foot. Laden with the produce, they reach the Village of the Fruits where they join a caravan carrying exotic fruits. When Valérian asks Sül who the Master is, Sül laughs – nobody has ever seen him but he calls all those he wants into his service. Some are brought here, others are born here. Many have been here so long they have no memory of their past lives. The caravan continues across a vast distance, joined by more and more caravans all bringing their produce to the Master and watched by the birds-of-madness, until they reach his city at the head of an immense valley. The bottom of the valley, the domain of the Master, lies shrouded in mist. They are brought to the great kitchens where they are put to work preparing klaar to feed the master. When the klaar is ready, they are brought to a huge, beautifully decorated basin. The klaar is poured into the basin where it will flow to the Master. The others will be allowed to dine on the leftovers. Suddenly, a man, starving, detaches himself from the crowd and tries to take some of the klaar for himself. The birds-of-madness attack biting him. Sül tries to intervene but is bitten himself. The man now thinks he is a bird while Sül''s hatred for the Master now manifests itself as fully fledged rage. Having sated themselves on the remnants of the klaar, the rest of the crowd turn on Sül and the man and, despite Valérian and Laureline''s attempts to stop them, carry the two of them away. Valérian and Laureline follow but are too late and Sül and the man are thrown into a pit where all those driven insane by the birds are cast. Valérian tries to talk to the crowd, to make them see what they are doing is wrong but to no avail – the crowd hurl stones at them and Laureline is knocked unconscious. Valérian drags her away to safety. That night, Valérian and Laureline return to the pit once the crowds have moved on. They rescue Sül and the rest of the madmen. As they try to make their escape on a chariot, the alarm is raised and they are pursued. The follow the Pathway of the Klaar towards the Master''s lair. Eventually they pass into the forbidden lands and their pursuers give up the chase. Continuing to follow the Pathway of the Klaar, they are attacked by the birds-of-madness. Valérian and Laureline take shelter in a cave while the others form a shield around the entrance. This is not enough and Valérian and Laureline are bitten also. The attack passes and they find that they are almost at the bottom of the valley. A strange glow emanates from the mists. Reaching the source of the glow, they find the Master – a large amorphous grey blob. Laureline hits upon a plan – if they destroy the Pathways of Klaar, the Master will starve. Valérian begins firing but suddenly he breaks down on the ground – his mind has been attacked by the Master, presenting him with terrible images of war and destruction. Laureline takes up the gun but is also struck down, terrified by images of her body being torn to pieces by machinery. Similarly, Sül and the rest of the madmen are taken down one by one by the Master''s superior mental powers. Laureline realises that problem is that they attacked one at a time. Gathering the others together, they hold hands and use their combined strength to overcome the Master''s influence. Suddenly, the Master rips himself free and flees into the sky followed by the birds-of-madness and the mist. Realising they are free, the others consider settling in the Master''s domain and living off the klaar. Valérian points out to them that it is not right to replace one dictator with another and they agree to return to the villages to free the others. Later, a large group of people work to free Valérian''s astroship from the marsh in the graveyard of spaceships. The astroship blasts off with just one passenger, Sül, the rest having decided to stay on the asteroid. They wonder where the Master has gone to, blissfully unaware that he has attached himself to hull of their ship...

Birds of the Master

Gemma and Alice have known each other all their lives, but when Gemma reads Alice''s diary at a sleepover, it eventually leads her to discover Alice is moving. Because of their distance, Gemma and Alice struggle to stay friends, with the possibility of each other making new friends. The story''s theme throughout the whole story is that true friends will be together until the end. Gemma and Alice have been best friends since birth. They were born on the same day, in the same hospital and have been inseparable ever since. Complete opposites (Gemma is athletic and messy, while Alice is graceful and tidy), they have a bond that is unbreakable and every year on their birthday they share the same wish: “We wish we stay friends forever and ever and ever.” Everything seems ruined when Alice''s father gets a new job hundreds of miles away and the whole family has to move. Now Alice and Gemma have to navigate the rough waters of adjusting to life without each other. Alice has another friend Flora. Flora is really posh. Only Gemma hates Flora. Once Gemma visits Alice at the same time as Flora does. Gemma brings a cake and when she there she''s there she throws it in Floras face. The book ends with a birthday card from Alice.

Best Friends

Back in Black finds the A-List crew in Las Vegas! They have decided to forgo the school sponsored trip to Washington D.C. in favor of a far more exciting adventure. The trip starts with a "tacky outfit" contest, suggested by who else than Cammie that ends in its own interesting way. During this whole adventure Anna is pining for Ben who is away at school, and trying to convince him to join them in Vegas. Anna''s best friend Cyn turns up with her boyfriend Scott Spencer. The crew decides to visit a hypnotist, this book is also and secrets and surprises are revealed, that no one expected that leads to cat fights, and revelations that were much more appropriate kept inside. Dee of course has decided that instead of partaking in all the sinful action of the city that she is going to reform the sinners of the sin city, which leads to an ending and a breakdown that makes everyone forget what was said at the hypnotist. At the end, before they go back to Beverly Hills, Ben shows up and Anna stays behind with him. They have a chance to talk about what happened between them. Ben confesses that he''s seeing someone at school, Blythe, but its not serious. In the end Anna and Ben decide to get back together.

Back in Black

Kyle Kingsbury has good looks. He truly has it all. He is very arrogant and rude. One day in class, a witch, Kendra, who has ugly features, appears and challenges his royal status. At the dance, Kyle uses a chance to humiliate Kendra in front of schoolmates. Kendra reveals herself to be a witch and punishes him for his cruelty by condemning him to live as a beast. However, because of his one act of kindness (he gave a rose to the girl who was working the ticket booth) she gives him two years to find somebody who he loves and who loves him back, and when he does, the girl must prove her love with a kiss. She gives to him a mirror with which he can see whomever he''d like, then vanishes. Kyle''s shallow father, a famous news reporter, is ashamed of his son''s new appearance (He is said to look like a dog and a bear, with fur all over). He purchases Kyle his own apartment where he proceeds to live with their housekeeper, Magda. His father also sends Kyle a blind tutor, Will. The two later become friends. Will and Magda suggest that he takes up gardening, and Kyle builds a greenhouse where he plants many roses that become dear to him. After one year has gone by, he decides to change his name from ''Kyle'', which means handsome, to ''Adrian'', which means ''the dark one''. When he is about to lose all hope of ever returning to his human form, a drug addict stumbles upon his green house rose garden. Angered, Adrian hollowly threatens to drop him out the window. Desperate for his life, the cruel man offers his daughter - Lindy - to take his place. They make a deal and Adrian prepares Lindy a room filled with books and new clothing. Despite his efforts, Lindy (who is the girl that had been working the ticket booth at the dance) is still very upset that she is to be forced to live in the house, calling Adrian ''Kidnapper'' and ''Jailer''. Hearing her call him this Adrian gets upset. After several days of solitude, Lindy finally comes out of her bedroom in the middle of the night and bumps into Adrian. Adrian explains how he is her age, and that he was just lonely and offers to let Will tutor her. One night there is a thunderstorm, which she is terrified of, and they stay up and watch The Princess Bride and eat popcorn. In doing so, he showed his tenderness and things begin to change between them. They begin studying together under Will''s supervision, and spending more time with each other. Adrian makes a deal with Kendra that if he is able to get Lindy to kiss him before the last year is up, she will also return Will''s sight to him and allow Magda to go home to her family (Her family does not live in the U.S due to not having green cards). Adrian then invites Lindy up to a cabin he has during Christmas break, with Will and Magda along. They have enormous fun with snowball fights and sledding. But Lindy misses her father and realizes he is in trouble when she sees him through the magic mirror. Understanding her feelings, Adrian allows her to go, because of his love he can''t have her captive. Lindy leaves. Adrian is heartbroken when she doesn''t return to him and misses her incredibly. He soon realizes that Lindy was again sold for drugs and soon would be raped. Adrian rushes to her aid, even revealing his beastly looks on a subway train. He breaks down the door and is injured by the-would-be rapist, who is terrified by his appearance. He scatters away and Lindy rushes to Adrian''s side. Adrian professes his love for her as she does in return. He is mortally wounded and asks for a kiss from Lindy. Lindy does so. Adrian then transforms back to his original self. Confused, Lindy tries to find Adrian for she didn''t see his transformation. Kyle then tells her of their memories together to assure her he is Adrian. Lindy is overjoyed and hugs and kisses him. Will gets his vision back and gets a job as an English teacher at Kyle''s and Lindy''s school. He also goes back to college in order to become a university English professor. As for Magda, she is revealed to actually be Kendra in disguise and that because of the spells she cast when she was younger, she was told she must stay and care for Kyle for the rest of her life. It was Kyle''s wish for her to be reunited with her family that frees her from her obligation. Kyle returns to school with Lindy and they date. People are confused by his new personality and his dating Lindy, who has red hair and crooked teeth. But Kyle reassures Lindy that he loves her despite what everyone says. Lindy and Kyle go to prom together, and they live happily ever after.

Beastly

Ray Smith''s story is driven by Japhy, whose penchant for the simple life and Zen Buddhism greatly influenced Kerouac on the eve of the sudden and unpredicted success of On the Road. The action shifts between the events of Smith and Ryder''s "city life," such as three-day parties and enactments of the Buddhist "Yab-Yum" rituals, to the sublime and peaceful imagery where Kerouac seeks a type of transcendence. The novel concludes with a change in narrative style, with Kerouac working alone as a fire lookout on Desolation Peak (adjacent to Hozomeen Mountain), in what would soon be declared North Cascades National Park (see also Desolation Angels). These elements place The Dharma Bums at a critical junction foreshadowing the consciousness-probing works of several authors in the 1960s such as Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey. One episode in the book features Smith, Ryder and Henry Morley (based on real-life friend John Montgomery) climbing Matterhorn Peak in California. It tells the story of Kerouac''s first introduction to this type of mountaineering and would serve as inspiration for him to spend the following summer as a fire lookout for the United States Forest Service on Desolation Peak in Washington. The novel also gives an account of the legendary 1955 Six Gallery reading, where Allen Ginsberg gave a debut presentation of his poem "Howl" (changed to "Wail" in the book), and other authors such as Snyder, Kenneth Rexroth, Michael McClure, and Philip Whalen performed.

The Dharma Bums

A secret summit of superpowers is to be held in Baghdad, but it is no longer secret, and a shadowy fascist group is plotting to sabotage the event. Things get complicated when enthusiastic young tourist Victoria Jones discovers a dying secret British agent Henry "Fakir" Carmichael in her hotel room, his last words - "Lucifer...Basrah...Lefarge" - propel her into investigation. "Lucifer" refers to the mastermind, Victoria''s false lover Edward, who is behind the plot. "Basrah" refers to the city where certain documents were handed to certain people. "Lefarge" turns out to actually be "Defarge" and is a reference to a Charles Dickens character; it is a clue to where the aforementioned documents can be found. An interesting comparison can be made between the romance themes of this novel and The Man in the Brown Suit, which is also primarily an adventure novel, rather than a straight whodunnit. In that book, the exciting, mysterious young man that falls into the heroine''s room ends up as the romantic hero. In Baghdad, an exciting, mysterious young man also falls into the heroine''s room, but he is disposed of, as is the other exciting, mysterious young man that the heroine has followed to Baghdad. A more conventional and staid archaeologist ends up as the romantic hero; Christie herself was married to archaeologist Max Mallowan by this date.

They Came to Baghdad

Antilian School is a renowned London college, which hosts only young European people born in the Caribbean. Nine of its students are to be awarded travel grants offered by the school''s sponsor, a wealthy Barbados woman. Harry Markel, a former captain turned pirate, has been captured and transferred to England, but he escapes along with his right-hand man John Carpenter and the rest of his accomplices — known collectively as the "Pirates of the Halifax" — and seizes the Alert, a three-masted ship leaving, after having massacred the captain and crew. It is precisely the ship that''s just embarking the winners, accompanied by their mentor Horatio Patterson, the bursar of the school. The long voyage across the Atlantic starts and Markel and his crew, who have assumed the identity of the murdered officers and sailors, prepare to kill the passengers. But Markel learns that they will receive a large sum of money from the hands of their benefactor upon their arrival in Barbados. By greed, he resigns himself to temporarily leave the students alive a little more. On stops in stops, they visit the islands where they were born, receiving a warm welcome from their parents and their friends. The trip in the archipelago is a delight, but it may end tragically. Indeed, when Markel confirms that the youngsters are in possession of the prize offered by Mrs. Seymour, he is preparing to commit his crime. However, to Markel''s bad fortune, a sailor named Will Mitz takes place on board the Alert on the recommendation of Mrs. Seymour. Mitz surprises the criminal plan of the false captain, over-hearing one of the pirates'' conversations. Taking advantage of the night, he attempts an escape with the students and Patterson, but fails, then after a brief confrontation, takes command of the ship after locking up Markel and Carpenter on the captain''s quarters and the other pirates in the ship''s cellar, where they discover rum and get drunk. After a while, Markel and Carpenter finally manage to get out and go free their fellow criminals, but it is too late. The pirates experience a horrible end, having accidentally caused a fire that sinks the vessel. Meanwhile, Mitz and his protégés succeed in escaping in the ship''s demise aboard a boat, and live through difficult times before being rescued by a steamer and repatriated to Britain where, having received notice of their adventure, they are received by the press and a large crowd. At the end, after their exciting and eventful trip, the students gather at their school for another busy year. cs:Cestovní stipendia de:Reisestipendien es:Los piratas del Halifax fr:Bourses de voyage pl:Sakiewki podróżne ro:Burse de călătorie

Traveling Scholarships

The beginning of the novel, set in 1999 (2019 in the second edition), finds Nigel Walmsley, a British scientist and astronaut for NASA, sent to attach a thermonuclear bomb to an asteroid or comet named Icarus which is on a direct collision course for India - only if it is a rocky asteroid and not a slush ice core style comet. Icarus turns out to be large, solid, and made of a nickel-iron composite. Nigel is instructed to plant the 50 megaton weapon and leave (so it can be detonated). He persuades Mission Control to let him put it in a large fissure he discovered, so it would be even more effective. They let him. In the fissure, Nigel discovers strips of metal worked in obviously artificial patterns. Awestruck at this evidence of extraterrestrial intelligent life, Nigel begins exploring. Icarus is made up of a number of hollow shells, making the asteroid''s mass far less than predicted. Presumably this makes Icarus less dangerous, allowing Nigel to spend time exploring this historic artifact. However, NASA claims that the demolition has to go forward, that Icarus would somehow skip off the atmosphere and land in the Indian Ocean and cause even more damage through the resultant tsunami. This of course is an obvious lie, and Nigel convinces his partner of that. They hide the nuke and spend the next week retrieving artifacts and materials before they finally set the nuclear bomb off and turn Icarus into rubble. 15 years after their discovery the Icarus artifacts have yielded little, and Nigel''s delayed detonation of Icarus has distanced him from NASA and other people. Nigel''s partner, Alexandria, has developed systemic lupus erythematosus, an oft-fatal disease caused by pollution. An anomaly over by Jupiter distracts Nigel: something, nicknamed ''the Snark'', is repeating radio broadcasts. Alexandria is distracted by the mechanics of selling American Airlines to some Brazilians. The anomaly fires its fusion engines and reveals itself to the satellites around Jupiter. As a probe vessel, the directing computer could not afford to ignore the satellites'' radio emissions before it moved on to Earth. Eventually the JPL team locates it around Venus. Nigel arranges to hijack the communications, transmitting his own signal (a binary sequence of prime numbers relating the Snark''s trajectory). The Snark receives the signal as a sign of non-hostile intentions and transmits back. It also reaches out through Nigel''s medical implants to his dead partner''s more elaborate ones, and commandeers her body to explore and learn about Earth. Thus the initial tentative transmissions blossom into a largely one-way torrent of information for the Snark. One day, it asks to visit Earth. A compromise is worked out: the Snark will orbit the Moon until trust is built up. As Nigel is already fully informed, and everything about the Snark is being kept a state secret, he is assigned to pilot the space ship meeting the Snark - which will be armed with another nuclear weapon. Nigel meets the Snark; he is under orders to attack it. The Snark disables the chemical weapons and begins talking to Nigel. It says that organic civilizations and species are inherently unstable; they flash brilliantly and commit suicide sooner or later. The autonomous machines they craft live on long after them, going on and evolving. But they cannot truly compete with the organics, who live "in the universe of essences". That is the reason for the Great Silence. Nigel''s superiors order him to use the nuclear weapon. He refuses. They override him and fire it anyway, knowing that its detonation will inevitably kill Nigel. If it hit the Snark, it would be badly disabled, so it flees the Solar System faster than the missile can follow. The decision to fire is covered up, and the version of the Snark''s visit fed to the public is markedly different from what Nigel actually experienced. Nigel blackmails NASA into letting him go to the projects on the Moon; the Snark had directed a transmission at Mare Marginis for unknown parties, and Nigel wanted to find those parties. Four years later, in 2018 (2038), Nigel is now based on the Moon. A fellow astronaut, Nikka, is involved in a crash that accidentally discovers a still active alien spacecraft wreck in the Moon''s Mare Marginis - a spacecraft suspiciously armed with a once-powerful anti-spacecraft weapon. Nigel and Nikka become lovers during the course of exploring the wreck, which proves to have a functioning computer with a direct neural interface. Nigel, and several others, experiment with the computer''s neural hook-up, and leave fundamentally changed by it - the computer becomes inert and unable to reveal any more about its creators. Meanwhile, on Earth, some surprising experiments in human genetics conducted by the aliens are discovered alive in North America.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Wellen

No Author Listed

Fireshadow

No Author Listed

Maske: Thaery

By Jack Vance

Coningsby

By Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield

Birds of the Master

By Pierre Christin

Best Friends

By Jacqueline Wilson

Back in Black

By Zoey Dean

Beastly

By Alex Flinn

The Dharma Bums

By Jack Kerouac

They Came to Baghdad

By Agatha Christie

Traveling Scholarships

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