In 1857, after their attempts to smuggle contraband goods land them with a heavy fine from the British Customs, Captain Illiam Quillian Kewley and his crew of Manx sailors are forced to offer their ship for charter. The vessel is quickly hired by a party of Englishmen headed by an eccentric Vicar, the Reverend Geoffrey Wilson, who believes that the Garden of Eden is located in Tasmania and wants to mount an expedition there to find it. However, unbeknownst to the clergyman, one of his fellow travellers has an entirely different reason for journeying to the island. Dr Thomas Potter is a renowned surgeon who is developing a thesis on the races of man and hopes to find some interesting specimens there. Running parallel with this story, but starting some 30 or so years earlier, are the recollections of Peevay, one of Tasmania''s natives, who describes the devastating impact the white settlers had on his people, and the aborigines'' struggle to adapt to the cultural changes which were forced on them. Many of the chapters alternate between the two different time periods, but when the Manx ship eventually docks in Tasmania, both strands of the story are brought together for the book''s conclusion.

English Passengers

Arlo, a ten-year old orphan boy, lives in Genopolis, in a university called the Inn of Court, where he is looked after by his mentor, Doctor Ignatius. One day Arlo makes a horrifying discovery. Instead of being a Citizen, he is actually one of the hated Naturals, who had been abandoned by his Natural parents when he was born and taken into the care of Doctor Ignatius, ostensibly to research emotions and pain for scientific purposes. However, Ignatius is also leader of a secret resistance circle against the Rulers of Genopolis, and plans to destroy Genopolis by bringing back pain to its Citizens. However, Ignatius’s plans – and Arlo – are now in danger because a new Ruler of Genopolis has been appointed who is opposed to any research that could bring back the past. From the moment that Arlo first sets eyes on the new Regis, he feels a powerful connection, and knows that if he falls into the hands of the Regis then his life will be forfeit. Meanwhile, Usha, an eleven-year old slave-girl, lives in drudgery, serving her ninety-nine year-old Citizen mistress who she calls Auntie. Usha is a Gemini, a member of a clone-class who have been bred in the pharms, and whose orders are only to obey her superiors. However, Usha soon becomes aware that Auntie’s intention is to use her to clone her own dying body. Waking up in panic on the operating table, Usha escapes, but with the whole of Genopolis on her tail, with nowhere that she can run to. Wandering through the sewers, the underworld of Genopolis, Usha falls in with a gang of abandoned children, who have been thrown out of society because of becoming disabled through accidents or illness. Their ringleader, Ozzie, inducts Usha into his gang, and for a time they live by pilfering from the warehouses by the port where the food is delivered from the pharms. After a botched robbery, Usha is kidnapped by smugglers and sold to the Circus, a semi-illegal underworld gladiatorial arena, where criminal Citizens, escaped Gemini and the occasional captured Natural fight against themselves, and against genetically-engineered monsters. The laboratories of the pharms have created hybrid animals along the lines of classical monsters using genetic fusion technology; the Minotaur, the Gorgon, the Cockatrice and the Sphinx.

Escape from Genopolis

Near to the Wild Heart does not have a conventional narrative plot. It instead recounts flashes from the life of Joana, between her present, as a young woman, and her early childhood. These focus, like most of Lispector''s works, on interior, emotional states. The book opens with a scene of the child Joana playing in the garden, making up poems for her father. Joana''s wildness and barely suppressed violence, along with her linguistic creativity, are her most notable features. She is frequently compared to animals: over the course of the book Lispector describes her to a bird, a snake, a wildcat, a horse, and a dog. She commits transgressive acts—as a child she throws a book at an old man''s head, for example, and as a married woman she leaves her husband, Otávio, and greets the news of his adultery—he has made another woman, his old friend Lídia, pregnant—with utter indifference. She is not so much immoral as she is amoral: “Evil is not living, and that’s it. Dying is already something else. Dying is different from good and evil.” In the book, she cites long passages from Spinoza, the longest quotes that appear anywhere in her novels; it seems that she felt an affinity with the Dutch philosopher''s amoral conception of the world.

Near to the Wild Heart

Orry Main from South Carolina and George Hazard from Pennsylvania meet on their way to the United States Military Academy at West Point. They soon become close friends, frequently confronting their regional differences within the frame of their friendship. During their time at the academy, Orry and George are tormented by a sadistic Ohio cadet named Elkanah Bent, but in time are able to effect Bent''s expulsion from West Point. The companions graduate and become officers in the United States Army during the Mexican-American War. On the way to Mexico, George courts a young Irish woman in Texas named Constance. George and Orry end up in the Battle of Vera Cruz, where Orry''s arm is badly wounded and eventually amputated. He is sent home, but George stays. George is later released from the Army due to his father''s death, and he and Constance return to George''s home in Pennsylvania and marry. George and Orry eventually meet up again and resume their friendship as tensions strengthen between the North and South. Soon, Orry''s younger sister Brett falls in love with George''s younger brother Billy. Later, Billy is a classmate of Orry''s cousin Charles at West Point. In 1858, as Orry is planning a trip to Pennsylvania, Brett begs him to take her with him so they can continue to St. Louis, where Billy is stationed with the Army Corps of Engineers. On the train back to South Carolina, the train is stopped by raiders under the command of the radical abolitionist John Brown in Harper''s Ferry, West Virginia, then part of the state of Virginia. Brett and Orry are sent on their way to South Carolina unharmed. Two years after the Mains and Hazards rendezvous in Pennsylvania, Billy joins the U.S. Army as the American Civil War draws near. Stationed only a few miles away from the Main plantation at Major Robert Anderson''s garrison at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, Billy is given leave and marries Brett the next day. A few nights later, Confederate forces under the command of Brigadier General P.G.T. Beauregard open fire on Fort Sumter, setting off the Civil War. Orry and George say their final good-bye before the war, hoping for the best for each other.

North and South

A Caress of Twilight begins a few months after the events of A Kiss of Shadows. It is December, and Merry and the Sidhe warriors she has chosen as her lovers have returned to Los Angeles, California. Merry has resumed working for the Grey Detective Agency and several of the Sidhe have also joined the payroll. Merry is approached by Maeve Reed, previously known as Conchenn before her exile from the Seelie Court and now a famous Hollywood actress. Maeve asks Merry to perform a fertility rite that will permit her to have a child by her dying human husband. In return, she tells the princess that the reason for her exile was that she had refused to become the wife of Taranis, King of Light and Illusion, because she believed he was sterile. Galen, badly injured by the demi-fey during A Kiss of Shadows, has yet to heal, despite the usually phenomenal healing abilities of a sidhe warrior. Merry approaches the Queen of the Demi-Fey, Niceven, regarding a cure. The price of the cure and an alliance is a weekly drink of Merry''s blood by a surrogate to be chosen by Niceven. During Merry''s first night in bed with Doyle, they are interrupted by Andais who reveals that the Nameless has been freed. The worst of both courts, the Nameless was the last great spell that Seelie and Unseelie had cooperated upon. They had stripped themselves of everything too awful for them to be permitted to stay in the United States, and from it had been formed the Nameless. A strange murder brings members of the Grey Agency, including Merry, to the scene. However, their presence is challenged by others of the police force and they are thrown off site. However, this is not before they have a chance to suspect that supernatural forces are at work. It is suspected that the lives had been sucked from the murder victims by the ghosts of dead gods. Nothing is said to the police, however, as the only known person to work such a spell was a sidhe and, if it were discovered, that fact could result in all sidhe being banished from the country. Healed from his injuries by Niceven''s representative, Sage, Galen acts the part of the Green Man in the fertility ritual with Merry which results in Maeve Reed becoming pregnant. It begins to become clear that Taranis is also planning something as various social secretaries insist upon Merry attending first the Yule Ball and then a feast in her honour. This culminates in a conversation between Merry and Taranis himself. Finally, the Nameless attacks Maeve Reed''s home. It is finally defeated by Merry and her companions, Merry herself showing for the first time her second Hand of Power - the Hand of Blood. The result of the destruction of the Nameless is the release of the magics which formed it; these magics transfer themselves to the victors, who begin to exhibit unforeseen side effects.

A Caress of Twilight

The book begins with a now familiar scene of the indomitable Gauls'' village. Asterix and Obelix are setting off for a wild boar hunt when they pass a beautiful blond young lady by the name of Panacea who has been picking mushrooms. She has returned to the village after studying in Condatum. Obelix immediately falls in love. After a few scenes of Obelix embarrassing himself, Panacea receives word that her fiancé Tragicomix has been conscripted into the Roman army and shipped to North Africa. Asterix and Obelix promise Panacea that they will return Tragicomix to her, even though it breaks Obelix''s heart. Asterix and Obelix head for Condatum where they learn that Tragicomix has already left for Massilia, the Mediterranean port from which the soldiers depart. They then decide to enlist in the Roman army and end up training with Hemispheric, a Goth; Selectivemploymentax, a Briton; Gastronomix, a Belgian; Neveratalos, a Greek; and Ptenisnet, an Egyptian tourist who spends the entire book believing himself to be in a holiday camp. After completing training (which is rather relaxing for the conscripts while very stressful for the Centurions), the newly formed unit sets off as reinforcements to Caesar who is fighting a losing campaign against a rival Roman faction headed by Caecilius Metellus Scipio in alliance with Afranius and King Juba I of Numidia. Asterix and Obelix soon find out that Tragicomix has gone missing in action after a skirmish. Asterix and Obelix desert and set out to search for him, raiding Scipio''s camp and successfully rescuing the young man. However, due to their actions Caesar and Scipio each believes that the other is attacking and they both prepare for battle, with Scipio''s forces off-balance thanks to Asterix and Obelix''s initial attack while while Caesar''s forces had time to prepare as they started organising themselves after the Gauls deserted in the belief that they were spies. In the confusion that follows, Caesar achieves a great victory (the historical Battle of Thapsus, 6 February 46 BC). The Gauls are cornered by Caesar after the battle is over and they have recovered their usual clothes, but are released and sent home for the service they provided in helping him win the battle. Panacea is reunited with Tragicomix and everybody is overjoyed. In gratitude, Panacea kisses both Asterix and Obelix. Obelix faints, and Asterix spends the customary banquet sitting on a tree, hopelessly in love as well.

Asterix the Legionary

At the beginning of the novel, Portia moves in with Anna and Thomas Quayne after her mother dies. Portia is Thomas''s half sister. Mr. Quayne (Thomas''s father) had an extramarital affair with Irene (Portia''s mother) while married to Thomas''s mother. When Irene became pregnant, and Mrs. Quayne learned of it, she was adamant that he do what was the right thing: so, at his own wife''s unyielding insistence, Mr. Quayne divorced Thomas''s mother and married Irene. Mr. Quayne, Irene, and Portia then left England and traveled through Europe as exiles from society and from the Quayne family, living in the cheapest of lodgings. Irene and Portia continued to live in this fashion until, when Portia was 16, Irene died. Portia was sent to live with Thomas and Anna after Irene''s death. The plan is that she is to stay with them for one year at which time Portia will leave and move in with Irene''s sister (Portia''s aunt). Portia is a naturally awkward girl, and this aspect of her personality has been intensified by her strange childhood which was one of constant travel, change, and strangers, while at the same time being incredibly isolating. She is uniquely innocent in her observations of people, and is baffled by inconsistencies between what they say and what they do, and wonders why people say things they do not mean. She keeps a diary detailing the lives of those around her, particularly Anna, trying to understand the key to people she thinks she is missing. Anna finds and reads Portia''s diary; she is incensed by the idea of the girl observing her every move, and rages about the girl to her friend St. Quentin, a writer and frequent visitor to the Quaynes''s home. It becomes clear over the course of the novel that Anna dislikes Portia because she is strange. Anna and Thomas are generally uncomfortable with Portia in their home but try to make do. They send her to classes where she makes friends with a girl named Lilian. Portia''s love interest, if she can be said to have one, is a man named Eddie. Eddie works at Thomas''s advertising agency. He also has a flirtatious relationship with Anna prior to Portia''s arrival. Eddie does not truly love Portia. Partway through the novel, Anna and Thomas go on vacation to Italy and send Portia to live with Anna''s former governess, Mrs. Heccomb, for the duration of the trip. The climax of the novel occurs when St. Quentin, a friend of Anna''s, tells Portia that Anna has been reading her diary. As a result of this Portia runs away. She first goes to Eddie who becomes overwhelmed by her and sends her away telling her that he is Anna''s lover (which is not true). Portia then takes refuge with an acquaintance of Anna''s named Major Brutt. Portia goes to Major Brutt''s hotel and begs him to run away with her and to marry her. Major Brutt then calls Thomas and Anna to tell them where Portia is. The novel ends with Thomas and Anna sending their maid, Matchett, to Major Brutt''s hotel in order to fetch Portia.

The Death of the Heart

Not long after Tarzan claims his hereditary title of Lord Greystoke and marries Jane, their infant son, Jack, is kidnapped in London by his old Russian enemies, Nikolas Rokoff and Alexis Paulvitch. Following an anonymous call about the whereabouts of Jack, Tarzan himself falls into Rokoff''s trap and is imprisoned aboard a ship carrying Jack. Jane, fearing Tarzan was entering a trap, follows him and also finds herself in Rokoff''s clutches aboard the ship. Rokoff sets sail to Africa, eventually exiling Tarzan on an island near the African coast and telling Tarzan that Jack will be left with a cannibal tribe and raised as one of their own. Using his jungle skill and primal intelligence, Tarzan wins the help of Sheeta, the vicious panther, a tribe of great apes led by the intelligent Akut, and the native warrior Mugambi. With their aid, Tarzan reaches the mainland, kills Rokoff, and tracks down his wife and son. Paulvitch, the other villain, is presumed dead, but manages to escape into the jungle.

The Beasts of Tarzan

The main setting takes place in Fulda in 1633 and follows in four interlinking stories which ties together near the end of the novel. The New United States decided to accept the return of Johann Bernhard Schenk von Schweinsberg as the Abbot of Fulda, but the Abbot will have to give up the title of prince. Moreover, he will not be allowed to collect tithes. The N.U.S. is now the secular authority in Fulda and will collect the taxes. The Abbot surprises Wes Jenkins - the administrator of Fulda - in his attempts to persuade the monks to abide by the new rules of his order. The local monks have been difficult over abiding by these rules. Even the import of Saint Gall monks hasn''t won them over to the Tridentine doctrines. Dissatisfied Catholic conspirators in Bonn decide to unsettle affairs in Fulda, in which they initially arrange to post scurrilous flyers all over the town and then hiring Irish mercenaries led by Walter Leslie into abducting the Abbot and several N.U.S. administrators. The story focus on Martin Wackernagel. As a private courier, Martin delivers correspondence and small packages on a route stretching from Grantville to Gelnhausen along the imperial road. He also makes side trips to Barracktown and other locations near his route. Martin visits his mother now and then during his travels, but he is reluctant to face her. She keeps asking when he will be married. Then he takes Liesel Bodamer to Frankfurt to see her brother and his mother learns that he is married. “MAIL STOP” and “HAPPY WANDERER” tell the story of Martin Wackernagel, a private courier with a regular route. Martin maintains three separate households complete with wife and children unknown to his mother or his other “wives”. The woman he hopes to make his fourth wife is niece to Clara Bachmeierin, who married Wes Jenkins in the first story. The story examines the actions of the Mainz Committee of Correspondence. Bernard Eberhard - Captain Duke of the Swedish Army - is sent to Fulda by General Brahe to observe the interplay between NUS administrators and Abbot von Schweinsberg. Bernhard takes his brothers and his fellow CoC members with him to Fulda. He and his brothers began working for Major Derek Utt. Later, Utt plans an operation against the Irish soldiers who had abducted the Abbot. He sends Sergeant Helmut Herke and a small band of soldiers to determine the whereabouts of the colonels.

1635: The Tangled Web

In 1976, Timothy Conigrave fell in love with the captain of the football team, John Caleo. So began a relationship that was to last for 15 years, a love affair that weathered disapproval, separation and, ultimately death. With honesty and insight, ''Holding the Man'' explores the highs and lows of their life partnership: the intimacy, constraints, temptations, and the strength of heart both men had to find when they tested positive to HIV. The story opens at Kostka, Xavier''s junior [preparatory] school in Melbourne. Here, the author begins to sexually experiment with other boys, and comes to the realisation that he is gay. Several years later, on his first day at Xavier College (the Jesuit senior school), Conigrave sees John Caleo for the first time. On the far side of the crush I noticed a boy. I saw the body of a man with an open, gentle face: such softness within that masculinity. He was beautiful, calm. I was transfixed. He wasn''t talking, just listening to his friends with his hands in his pockets, smiling. What was it about his face? He became aware that I was looking at him and greeted me with a lift of his eyebrows. I returned the gesture and then looked away, pretending something had caught my attention. But I kept sneaking looks. It''s his eyelashes. They''re unbelievable. [31] The two form a friendship, and at the suggestion of Pepe, one of Tim&#39;s female friends, John is invited to a dinner party at Tim&#39;s house. The girls know Tim is in love with John, and &#39;pass a kiss&#39; around the table for his benefit. Juliet kissed Pepe. Their kiss lingered. Pepe came up for air. ''Tim''. As I kissed her she opened her mouth. Her tongue was exploring mine. I felt trapped. I was afraid to stop kissing her because I knew what was coming. I don''t want John to think I''m enjoying this. Before I knew it my hand was on his knee, as if to let him know it was him I wanted. His hand settled on mine as Pepe continued kissing me. I couldn''t shake the feeling that I was a virgin being led to the volcano to be sacrificed. I turned to face him. He shut his eyes and pursed his lips. Everything went slow motion as I pressed my mouth against his. His gentle warm lips filled my head. My body dissolved and I was only lips pressed against the flesh of his. I would have stayed there for the rest of my life, but I was suddenly worried about freaking him out and I pulled away. I caught sight of his face - fresh, with chocolate-brown eyes, and a small, almost undetectable smile. [74] A few weeks later, Tim rings John at home, and asks &#34;John Caleo, will you go round with me?&#34; The reply is an unambiguous &#34;Yep&#34;. The two graduate from High School in 1977, Tim attending Monash University and John studying to be a chiropractor at College. Despite parental opposition, Conigrave&#39;s eventual move to Sydney and NIDA, and youthful experimentation and infidelities, the relationship continues. Tragically, when Tim and John finally move in together in Sydney and are genuinely happy, they are diagnosed with HIV. The year is 1985. Until 1990, the men have relatively mild symptoms. Sadly, in the Autumn of 1991, John begins to rapidly deteriorate, suffering from lymphoma. Tim cares for his partner, whilst nursing symptoms of his own. The misery of HIV/AIDS is laid bare before the reader, with Conigrave sparing nothing in detailing the cruel progression of the disease. He watches as his lover&#39;s once-strong body is ravaged. The reader helplessly looks on as the story moves to its devastating conclusion. At Christmas, in 1991, John is admitted to the Fairfield Hospital in Melbourne. A month later, on Australia Day 1992, he dies of an AIDS-related illness, with his lover by his side, gently stroking his hair. Nearly three years later, shortly after finishing &#39;Holding the Man&#39;, Tim Conigrave passes away in Sydney. The final passages of the book are some of its most poignant: I guess the hardest thing is having so much love for you and it somehow not being returned. I develop crushes all the time, but that is just misdirected need for you. You are a hole in my life, a black hole. Anything I place there cannot be returned. I miss you terribly. Ci vedremo lassu, angelo. [286].

Holding the Man

Soon they get separated and the wife is found wandering in the forest. In order to safeguard herself, she dresses up as a man and roams through the jungle. Meanwhile, a nearby kingdom loses its heir to the throne and as per custom, requires that a new king be chosen at random by the royal elephant. The elephant wanders into the forest and decides to put the flower garland on the unsuspecting young lady. Soon, she is proclaimed the chief of the region and carried to the royal palace. The hero, meanwhile, is despondent after losing his wife and goes in search of her. En route to a city, the hero''s sandals get torn, and he decides to repair them using the services of a cobbler. He promises the cobbler that if he stitches the footwear properly and the hero is satisfied, he will reward him with happiness. In a few minutes Prathapa''s sandals are mended to his satisfaction and he in turn gives the cobbler one rupee (a princely amount in the era in which the novel is set). The cobbler, however, says he is not satisfied with the rupee and demands his "happiness", since that was the promise of Prathap. Perplexed at this sudden turn of events, a crowd soon gathers and no one is able to resolve the issue. Soon, the matter reaches the court of the new "King," who recognizes her husband despite his dishevelled and bewildered face. Prathap, however is unable to recognize the disguise of his wife and addresses her as the King. She decides to settle this dispute by asking the cobbler if he was happy to see the kingdom''s new king. He responds positively, to which she replies that since this quarrel with the young man resulted in his visit to the new king, which ultimately made the cobbler happy, he should go back to his duties, since "happiness" was provided. The cobbler, finding that he has no other way of needlessly harassing the young hero, returns. The "King" soon reveals herself to her husband in private quarters and, after entrusting the kingdom to a young apprentice in the court, leaves the kingdom. Both return to their house and live happily ever after.

Prathapa Mudaliar Charithram

While walking down the street in Chicago, Joseph Schwartz, a retired tailor, is the unwitting victim of a nearby nuclear laboratory accident, by means of which he is instantaneously transported tens of thousands of years into the future (50,000 years, by one character''s estimate, a figure later retconned by future Asimov works as a "mistake"). He finds himself in a place he does not recognize, and due to apparent changes in the spoken language that far into the future, he is unable to communicate with anyone. He wanders into a farm, and is taken in by the couple that lives there. They mistake him for a mentally deficient person, and they secretly offer him as a subject for an experimental procedure to increase his mental abilities. The procedure, which has killed several subjects, works in his case, and he finds that he can quickly learn to speak the current lingua franca. He also slowly realizes that the procedure has given him strong telepathic abilities, including the ability to project his thoughts to the point of killing or injuring a person. The Earth, at this time, is seen by the rest of the Galactic Empire as a rebellious planet &mdash; it has, in fact, rebelled three times in the past &mdash; and the inhabitants are widely frowned upon and discriminated against. Earth also has several large radioactive areas, although the cause is never really described. With large uninhabitable areas, it is a very poor planet, and anyone who is unable to work is legally required to be euthanized. The people of the Earth must also be executed when they reach the age of sixty, a procedure known as "The Sixty," with very few exceptions; mainly for people who have made significant contributions to society. That is a problem for Schwartz, who is now sixty-two years old. The Earth is part of the Trantorian Galactic Empire, with a resident Procurator, who lives in a domed town in the high Himalayas and a Galactic military garrison, but in practice it is ruled by a group of Earth-centered "religious fanatics" who believe in the ultimate superiority of Earthlings. They have created a new, deadly supervirus that they plan to use to kill or subjugate the rest of the Empire, and to avenge themselves for the way their planet has been treated by the galaxy at large. Among other things, this virus has the ability to kill by radiation poisoning. Joseph Schwartz, along with Affret Shekt, the scientist who developed the new device that boosted Schwartz''s mental powers, his daughter Pola Shekt, and a visiting archaeologist Bel Arvardan, are captured by the rebels, but they escape with the help of Schwartz''s new mental abilities, and they are narrowly able to stop the plan to release the virus. Schwartz uses his mental abilities to provoke a pilot from the Imperial garrison into bombing the site where the arsenal of the super-virus exists. The book ends on a hopeful note &mdash; perhaps the Empire can be persuaded to restore the Earth, and to bring in huge amounts of uncontaminated soil.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

English Passengers

By Matthew Kneale

Escape from Genopolis

No Author Listed

Near to the Wild Heart

By Clarice Lispector

North and South

By John Jakes

A Caress of Twilight

By Laurell K. Hamilton

Asterix the Legionary

No Author Listed

The Death of the Heart

By Elizabeth Bowen

The Beasts of Tarzan

By Edgar Rice Burroughs

1635: The Tangled Web

By Virginia DeMarce

Holding the Man

By Timothy Conigrave

Prathapa Mudaliar Charithram

No Author Listed

Pebble in the Sky

By Isaac Asimov