We meet first Dr Petrie who is immediately surprised by a late night visitor, “a tall, lean ... square cut ... sun baked” man who turns out to be his good friend (Commissioner Sir Denis) Nayland Smith of Burma, formerly of Scotland Yard, who has come directly from Burma. We then learn that various men associated with India are the target of assassination by the Chinese Dr Fu Manchu, who seems to have been active in Burma (as distinct from India), in places such as Rangoon, Prome, Moulmein and the “Upper Irrawaddy”, and who comes to England with dacoits and thuggees. Fu Manchu is pursued from the opium dens of Limehouse in the East End of London to various country estates. We learn that Dr Fu Manchu is a leading member not of “old China”, the Mandarin class of the Manchu dynasty, or “young China”, a new generation of “youthful and unbalanced reformers” with “western polish” - but a “Third Party”. Nayland Smith is outwitted several times by Fu Manchu, and thus he reflects more the narrow escapes of the later Bulldog Drummond rather than the “logical” superior approach of the earlier Sherlock Holmes. Fu Manchu is a master poisoner and chemist, a cunning member of the Yellow Peril, “the greatest genius which the powers of evil have put on the earth for centuries”, though his mission is not exactly clear at this stage. He appears to be trying to capture and take back to China the best engineers of Europe, for some larger criminal purpose. By the end of the book, Fu Manchu’s slave Karamaneh, a beautiful Arab woman, apparently now in love with Dr Petrie, and her brother Aziz, are freed, and Inspector Weymouth, driven mad by an injection of serum from Fu Manchu, is restored to sanity by Fu Manchu, who appears to have escaped from a fire which destroys the house he had previously entered.

The Insidious Dr Fu Manchu

The book opens with a prologue wherein a storyteller narrates the history of Katook, the book''s hero, a small adolescent male Ring-Tailed Lemur. At the time of the storyteller''s tale, Katook''s home village of Kattakuk was suffering under an extremely severe and lengthy winter, wherein most lemurs are starving. The High Priest who rules them, an Aye-Aye named Gamic, holds a ceremony and collects offerings of figs to try and appease their god, the Fossah. Katook and his best friend later find the priests and their guards eating the offerings. They are discovered and are nearly caught, but Katook is saved by a mysterious appearance of the Fossah, which makes his eyes blue. Katook is caught, and his now-blue eyes are used as an excuse to exile him from his village to a beach on the edge of the island on which it is located. On the beach, he defends hatching baby turtles from being eaten by birds. In return for this, he is taken by the turtles'' mother on her back across the sea to the port city of Acco. After an altercation with thieves, he meets up with Quigga, a vain and proud Quagga who has lost his herd. Quigga joins Katook, with whom he meets the Kolloboo. Because Katook is homesick for his own kind, the Kolloboo tell Katook to search for the scientist Nadab, who is staying with the Golden Monkeys, and who may be able to find creatures similar to him. They give him a map, a compass, and a message to give to Nadab. Travelling to find the Golden Monkeys, Quigga and Katook become lost in a desert, where they hide in some ruins to escape Bone-Crushers until the Patah save them. The Patah bring them to their tent guarded by Glyptodonts and present an elaborate demonstration. As Katook stays with the Patah, he learns of illusions and realizes that Gamic has been fooling the lemurs through trickery to give the appearance of miracles. The Chief''s son wishes to have Katook''s map and compass, but Katook refuses, saying that it his only way home. The Chief, annoyed, questions Katook''s feeling of isolation and influences him to think that he is not wholly alone. The protagonists are separated from the Patah, when the party is attacked by Phorcus. Quigga and Katook escape into a river, where they are saved by river dolphins and healed by the Boskii, who shelter them and suggest that Katook''s blue eyes may not be a curse, but may be a blessing. The Boskii then tell him to follow the Butterflies, which lead them to the city of the Golden Monkeys. In the city of the Golden Monkeys, Katook finds Nadab. Instead of offering help, Nadab merely classifies them; later, Quigga is enslaved and Katook becomes the Golden Princess''s pet. Katook explains his mission to the Princess, who helps him and Quigga escape. Their escape is narrow, but is implied to be facilitated by the Fossah and destroys many of the things whereof the Golden Monkeys are vain. Afterwards, Quigga reveals to Katook that he does not have an instinctive sense of direction and asks Katook to show him celestial navigation, which Katook has learned from the Patah. The next morning, Quigga sees his own herd in the distance and leaves Katook to join them. Katook is sad until he sees a strange shifting shape in the distance. This becomes the Fossah, who reveals that it has been accompanying and protecting Katook throughout the story. The Fossah then offers Katook the chance to live in a world known as "True Home", a paradise containing the dead and the unborn generations of life; but Katook refuses, deciding to return to save his own family. The Fossah then gives him a seed which he must plant in the ground. Katook is magically transported back to his own village, where he is brought to Gamic and his Indri, guards. Katook persuades the Indriis to let him go and when they do, he finds shelter among rocks, feeling that all hope is lost. As he sleeps, the seed which the Fossah gave him falls from his hands and into the soil. When he awakes, the sun is shining and the baobob trees are once more growing plentiful with figs. Gamic, humbled, joins him there, and the two reconcile, later to bring news of the bounty to the village. An epilogue then concludes the book.

The Katurran Odyssey

Prince Rupert is taken by the Roundheads; held captive at a country house, he falls in love with his captor''s niece, Jennifer. One of his troopers, Will Fairweather, followed him to the house where he was held captive; with the help of Jennifer, Will brings him to Oberon and Titania, who offer magical aid. Rupert and Jennifer exchange magic rings that will aid them as long as they are true to each other. Rupert sets out with Will to find the books that Prospero sank, in order to aid King Charles. Rupert, fleeing Roundheads, finds refuge in a magical inn, The Old Phoenix, which proves to be a nexus between parallel worlds. Inside the tavern, he meets Valeria Matuchek, who is from an alternate history twentieth-century America. (Originally, the character had been a child in Anderson''s Operation Chaos and a teenager in its sequel, Operation Luna, but is now an adult.) Holger Carlsen is another guest, born in a world where the Matter of France is history, and later trapped in "our own" twentieth-century America (the hero of Anderson''s Three Hearts and Three Lions). Valeria explains what will happen in the English Civil War in "our" timeline, including the king''s execution, strengthening Rupert''s determination to change events here. He finds a Spanish ship that will transport him; it is carrying an ambassador and his wife. Jennifer''s Puritan uncle discovers her on her return, when she resolves to use the ring to find Rupert. She is brought, captive, to a port, where the ring enables her to steal a boat and set sail. The ambassador''s wife uses a magic potion to seduce Rupert, and the rings fail. Rupert cannot find his way to the island, and Jennifer is stranded at sea. Despairing, Rupert takes to the library at Milan to try to work out where to find the island and books. Jennifer''s plight becomes desperate from thirst, but Ariel (from The Tempest) finds her and brings her to the island. Rupert works out the location, and Jennifer and he are reconciled. They retrieve the books and magically bear them back to England. Charles I has taken up a position near Glastonbury Tor for reasons he does not understand. Rupert attempts the magic; Will Fairweather is possessed by a spirit of England and stirs up the magic of the land. The Roundheads are defeated, and Charles I wins the English Civil War. At the Old Phoenix, Valeria believes that even if "romantic reactionaries" like Charles I won the English Civil War here, there is still the prospect of technological advance in North America. However, the fairies believed differently—they supported the Cavalier cause to delay the disenchantment of this world. Rupert and Jennifer return the rings to Oberon and Titania, and retire to a peaceful married life.

A Midsummer Tempest

The action takes place several centuries after the events of Le Silence de la Cité. Large areas have been drowned by the rising sea and most of Europe is now a poisoned wasteland. Due to a genetic mutation, women now outnumber men by 70 to 1. The collapsed society described in Le Silence de la Cité has been slowly rebuilt. Post-collapse warlord states have evolved into patriarchal kingdoms - the Harems - before being overthrown by the hives, female-run city-states, every bit as warlike and tyrannical as their male-run predecessors. Those have in turn been replaced by a more peaceful female dominated society organized as a loose federation of local communities. The novel follows the life of Lisbeï, the daughter of the "mother" of the Betely community, in the province of Litale. Destined to succeed her she grows up with her sister and friend, Tula, her being barren prevents her from doing so. While exploring ruined tunnels she discovers documents which question everything her society thought it knew about its past.

Chroniques du Pays des Mères

The Bottom is a mostly black neighborhood in Ohio, situated in the hills above the mostly white, wealthier community in the town of Medallion. The Bottom first became a community when a master gave it to his former slave. This "gift" was in fact a trick: the master gave the former slave a poor stretch of hilly land, convincing the slave the land was worthwhile by claiming that because it was hilly, it was closer to heaven. The trick, though, led to the growth of a vibrant community. Now the community faces a new threat; wealthy whites have taken a liking to the land, and would like to destroy much of the town in order to build a golf course. Shadrack, a resident of the Bottom, fought in World War I. He returns a shattered man, unable to accept the complexities of the world; he lives on the outskirts of town, attempting to create order in his life. One of his methods involves compartmentalizing his fear of death in a ritual he invents and names National Suicide Day. The town is at first wary of him and his ritual, then, over time, unthinkingly accepts him. Meanwhile, the families of the children Nel and Sula are contrasted. Nel is the product of a family that believes deeply in social conventions; hers is a stable home, though some might characterize it as rigid. Nel is uncertain of the conventional life her mother, Helene, wants for her; these doubts are hammered home when she meets Rochelle, her grandmother and a former prostitute, the only unconventional woman in her family line. Sula''s family is very different: she lives with her grandmother, Eva, and her mother, Hannah, both of whom are seen by the town as eccentric and loose. Their house also serves as a home for three informally adopted boys and a steady stream of boarders. Despite their differences, Sula and Nel become fiercely attached to each other during adolescence. However, a traumatic accident changes everything. One day, Sula playfully swings a neighborhood boy, Chicken Little, around by his hands. When she loses her grip, the boy falls into a nearby river and drowns. They never tell anyone about the accident even though they did not intend to harm the boy. The two girls begin to grow apart. One day Sula''s mother''s dress catches fire and she dies of the burns. Eva, her mother, sees her from the window and jumps out into the garden. After high school, Nel chooses to marry and settles into the conventional role of wife and mother. Sula follows a wildly divergent path and lives a life of fierce independence and total disregard for social conventions. Shortly after Nel''s wedding, Sula leaves the Bottom for a period of 10 years. She has many affairs, some, it is rumored, with white men. However, she finds people following the same boring routines elsewhere, so she returns to the Bottom and to Nel. Upon her return, the town regards Sula as the very personification of evil for her blatant disregard of social conventions. Their hatred in part rests upon Sula''s interracial relationships, but is crystallized when Sula has an affair with Nel''s husband, Jude, who subsequently abandons Nel. Ironically, the community''s labeling of Sula as evil actually improves their own lives. Her presence in the community gives them the impetus to live harmoniously with one another. Nel breaks off her friendship with Sula. Just before Sula dies in 1940, they achieve a half-hearted reconciliation. With Sula''s death, the harmony that had reigned in the town quickly dissolves.

Sula

The plot of the original modules Descent Into the Depths of the Earth and Shrine of the Kuo-Toa place a party of player characters (PCs) on the trail of the drow priestess Eclavdra through the Underdark, battling various creatures on their journey. In the last module in the preceding G-series, Hall of the Fire Giant King, the PCs were supposed to have discovered that the drow had instigated the alliance between the races of giants and their attacks on neighboring humans. The drow that survived the party''s incursion have fled into tunnels leading deep into the earth. The adventurers will have arrived at the bottom of the dungeon below the cave-castle of King Snurre. In D1 Descent Into the Depths of the Earth, the PCs seek the home of the drow by traveling through an underground world of caves and passages. In the tunnels, the adventurers first fight a tough drow patrol, and the next major fight is with a raiding party of mind flayers and wererats, who have halted their patrol long enough to torture their drow prisoner. The characters also find a grand cavern containing drow soldiers, purple worms, a lich, a clutch of undead, a giant slug, sphinxes, trolls, bugbears, troglodytes, wyverns, and fungi. D2 Shrine of the Kuo-Toa picks up with the party continuing to pursue the drow. The party encounters a kuo-toan rogue monitor who helps them cross a large river for a fee. A party of Svirfneblin (or deep gnomes) approaches the player characters on the other side, and the party has a chance to convince them to help them fight against the drow. As the party travels, signs of the drow are all around; the drow are allowed to pass through these subterranean areas, even though they are hated and feared by the other local intelligent races. The party then moves through kuo-toa territory, ruled by the Priest-Prince Va-Guulgh. If the PCs appease the kuo-toa and respect their customs, the evil kuo-toa are not openly hostile to the party, but will attack if the party gives them a reason. The party learns that the drow and kuo-toa trade with each other openly, but the kuo-toa hate and fear the drow, resulting in frequent skirmishes between the two peoples. D3 Vault of the Drow is set in Erelhei-Cinlu, an underground stronghold of the drow, and the Fane of Lolth, their evil spider-goddess. After traveling for league after league into the Underdark, the adventurers come upon Erelhei-Cinlu, the vast subterranean city of the drow. The adventure is written in a very open-ended fashion, giving the Dungeon Master (DM) free rein to script any number of mini-campaigns or adventures taking place inside the drow capital. An extensive overview of the drow power structure is given for just this purpose. Eventually, the players may discover an astral gate leading to the plane of the Abyss, leading into the Q1 module.

Descent into the Depths of the Earth

Catherine Cassilis, known as Coquette, born in France and orphaned by the recent death of her father, comes to Airlie near Saltcoats in Southern Scotland, to live with her uncle, the Minister. Her Catholic upbringing brings her into immediate conflict with the sternly Presbyterian household, and she quickly seeks sympathy and friendship with the more free-spirited nobleman, Lord Earlshope. During a yachting trip around western Scotland Earlshope makes a half-hearted confession of his love to Coquette (which she reciprocates), although he is already married, but estranged from his wife. But when this wife is seen in Glasgow, and his secret is exposed, Earlshope abandons Coquette and disappears. In due course Coquette accepts the marriage proposal of her devoted cousin Tom "the Whaup", although she does not truly love him. Their wedding is to be delayed until Tom has completed his medical studies. The crisis comes suddenly. Earlshope returns unexpectedly and meets Coquette: he begs her to run off to America with him and she agrees. But on the night of the planned elopement Earlshope''s boat is run down in a storm and he is drowned. Coquette believes he has left for America without her. It is only after her marriage to Tom that Coquette finally learns the truth. She persuades her husband to drive her to Saltcoats to look at her lover''s grave—the sea. Shortly after she collapses and within a few short weeks, she too is dead.

A Daughter of Heth

In trying to save his father Cloud Wolf from the vortex he was trapped in during the Mother Storm, Twig learns that Sanctaphrax is about to be destroyed by the Mother Storm which will replenish the waters of the Edge by returning to Riverise, a legendary garden and waterfall from which all life came. He and the crew of the Edgedancer are then scattered across the Edge by the collapse of the vortex, with no memory of the voyage into open sky. Pieces of the destroyed Edgedancer rain down upon Undertown, killing and injuring many. Among the dead are three important Leaguesmen. A dazed Twig is rescued from the Stone Gardens by the Professor of Darkness and taken to Sanctaphrax where he is made the new Sub-Professor of Light and kept safely away from the other academics. Meanwhile, Cowlquape, a young boy studying in Sanctaphrax and the son of a wealthy, yet cruel, Leaguesman, hears rumours about the new apprentice and realizes it is the same Captain Twig who had left the city a month before. Cowlquape is at the lowest of the hierarchy in Sanctaphrax, and as such is bullied often by richer upper-class students such as Vox Verlix, an evil, scheming student. Upon learning that his father, the Leaguesman, was among those killed by the sky ship''s debris, Cowlquape is confronted by Vox, who says that unless Cowlquape''s father can pay his fees he will be kicked out of Sanctaphrax. Miserably, Cowlquape wanders the battlements and saves Twig from jumping off the balcony and killing himself. Twig regains his memory and, in gratitude to Cowlquape, appoints him as his new apprentice. Together they embark across Undertown to find Twig''s missing crew. They travel across Undertown, the Mire (in a ship), the Deepwoods and Riverrise. They find three of the crew in Undertown, one in the Deepwoods, and finally the Stone Pilot, who is the only one who retained her memory of what happened in the Weather Vortex (due to her Stone Pilot''s Hood). She tells Twig that his father became a piece of the Great Storm and that Sanctaphrax needs to be released before the Mother Storm itself reaches it so the storm can reach Riverrise so life in the Edge goes on. Twig and Cowlquape fly to the Stone Gardens, and then run to Undertown, where all the academics were evacuated from Sanctaphrax, including the Professor of Darkness, who won''t let Twig and Cowlquape release Sanctaphrax. He pushes Twig from the platform and tries everything to stop Cowlquape. He even makes Cowlquape the Supreme Rector, but Cowlquape releases Sanctaphrax, that flies away with the Professor of Darkness. The two explain everything to the academics and the Undertowners. The Mother Storm reaches Riverrise. In the meanwhile, a giant stone is growing in the Stone Gardens, the academics take the stone and it becomes the new Sanctaphrax, ruled by Cowlquape. Twig gets a new sky ship and the book ends with him leaving to venture towards Riverrise to recover his crew, saying goodbye to Cowlquape, who wishes Twig luck. This is the last book of the Twig Saga.

Midnight Over Santaphrax

It is the sequel to “Incarceron.” The setting is in two places, a place of peace and less starvation which is all fake and governed by protocol in which they call “The Realm” and the other place is a prison called “Incarceron” which is microscopic in size but once inside it is a huge world and the prison itself is alive that looks at its prisoners through millions of red glowing eyes that dot everywhere. There is no technology in the realm because of protocol and Finn who escaped the prison believes the realm is just as bad as Incarceron. The story starts off with Attia who helped Finn escape but wasn’t able to escape herself. She goes to a magic show pretending to be an average bystander because she is the magician’s helper. His name is Rix and he is known as the Dark Enchanter. She tags along with him for a while and they go to a few places then she turns on him, leaving him to die but he comes back with a vengeance later on. She steals his glove which is Sapphique’s glove (a man who was the only one to escape from the prison, Finn did too as previously mentioned). She hatches a ride with Keiro, Finn’s oath brother, and they fight a twelve headed monster together. They are then summoned by Incarceron to go to a certain location, that has its humanoid body, and along the way they go to a nursery that gets them in contact with Finn. The prison wants to escape itself to see the stars, if it does this, it will leave millions of prisoners left to die. Meanwhile, Finn is told by Claudia that he is the long lost prince Giles but he has a hard time remembering. He has visions that depict this but he has a hard time putting it all together. To make matters worse, somebody else claims that they are Giles. There are some trials and testimonies between the two and we learn later that somebody else has taught this fake Giles, all of Finn’s old unrecoverable memory. The council decides that the pretender is actually Giles so they decide that Finn is going to be executed for lying (which he didn’t lie). He has a little battle with the pretender nearly killing him but he aims for his arm. Finn and Claudia run away to the wardnery, the portal to the prison and they do all in their power to hold off the Queen’s huge advancing army. Jared is Claudia’s mentor and he meets them there nearly getting killed by a plot from the Queen. Jared knows more about the portal then them and he starts working on it. Meanwhile, Keiro reaches the humanoid statue after becoming Rix’s apprentice. Keiro said the magic line that Rix wanted to hear that tells Rix who his apprentice is. If it wasn’t for Keiro, Attia would be dead because Rix''s revenge would’ve killed her. Keiro decides to not give the prison the glove and puts it on himself. He trades places with Claudia. He is put in the place where Claudia was in the realm and she was put in his place in Incarceron. Incarceron recognizes her because Claudia was a baby when the Warden took her from the prison and wanted her to become queen. Now outside, Keiro gets the nice clothes he always wanted as well as the food but he realizes he is in the middle of a battle. They capture the Queen’s son and she holds fire. Some of the Queen’s soldiers get in by following a Steel Wolf (the warden’s protectors) and there is a little standoff but Finn’s team manages to pull through. The realm is fake, as previously mentioned, and all of its power is lost revealing its ugliness. It was all an illusion. Jared puts on the glove and we realize that he was Sapphique. He decides to keep the portal open so there is a constant connection between the Realm and Incarceron. Attia steps out of the prison for the first time and she is awed by the stars. Finn makes a pledge to put an end to protocol and to fix up both the prison and the realm. Sapphique (Jared) decides to do most of the tidying up for the prison. The story has several mini climaxes. The mini climaxes are surprising questions or conflicts that are raised and then another character’s viewpoint is seen. Finn was the main character and the bad guy was the prison. The conflict from the last book; “Incarceron” is solved when everybody gets a chance to escape.

Sapphique

The book reveals that Amanda Kirby (Eric''s mother) and her new boyfriend Ben Hildebrand, had planned to travel to Costa Rica and take Eric to Isla Sorna, the legendary site B of Jurassic Park. Unfortunately, Ben and Eric have a parasailing accident and end up stranded on the island. Ben dies after being injured in the crash, and Eric is forced to leave when dinosaurs start roaming the area. From that moment on he has to survive by himself, matching wits with the fearsome predators (and some aggressive herbivores) in the island. After being injured by an Ankylosaurus and driven off by a pack of compys, Eric finds InGen''s old buildings, when he decides to hide. Unfortunately, this place is also being used by raptors as headquarters, and he is almost killed. Later, he decides to find a communications bunker to ask for help. However, he ends up trapped in the middle of a furious battle between a large pack of raptors and a herd of Iguanodons, and eventually he sacrifices his last chance to get help, instead saving a young Iguanodon he had befriended before. After that, he returns to the jungle knowing that perhaps he will spend the rest of his life there. The book reveals some interesting things about InGen, Jurassic Park and its dinosaurs, and also about the main character, for example: * It is revealed that original wildlife on the island has survived despite the introduction of dinosaurs, including sloths, quetzals and snakes. * It seems that the dinosaur population is not as balanced as previously thought, and raptors are actually keeping herds of herbivores prisoners in a valley, so that they can hunt them more easily. * It is revealed how Eric got the Tyrannosaurus pee and also the raptor claw he shows to Alan Grant in the movie. * Iguanodons are introduced in this book; Eric befriends one of them, and names him "Iggy". * A Pteranodon is described as flying around the island, although in the movie, all Pteranodons were captive. The Pteranodon is eventually caught by a T-Rex. * It is revealed that Ben most likely died due to internal injury, not eaten. * The dinosaurs that appear in Survivor are Triceratops, Ankylosaurus, Velociraptor, Compsognathus, Tyrannosaurus, Diplodocus, Pteranodon and Iguanodon. The Spinosaurus, although present in the Jurassic Park III movie, did not appear in the book, even though Eric stated in the film that the Tyrannosaurus pee had attracted "a huge dinosaur with a sail on its back". * Scott Ciencin suggests that the reason for the Deinonychus-like appearance on Velociraptors, and the teeth on Pteranodon are most likely the result of InGen''s scientists messing up with dinosaur DNA during the creation of Jurassic Park.

Jurassic Adventures: Survivor

The book documents Smith''s memory of events recovered during therapy, documenting the many satanic rituals she believed that she was forced to attend (Pazder stated that Smith was abused by "the Church of Satan," which he states is a worldwide organization predating the Christian church). The first alleged ritual attended by Smith took place in 1954 when she was five years old, and the final one documented in the book was an 81-day ritual in 1955 that summoned the devil himself and involved the intervention of Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Michael the Archangel, who removed the scars received by Smith throughout the year of abuse and removed memories of the events "until the time was right". During the rites, Smith was allegedly tortured, locked in cages, sexually assaulted, forced to take part in various rituals, witnessed several murders and was rubbed with the blood and body parts of various murdered babies and adults. After Smith had seemingly recovered her memories, she and Pazder consulted with various church authorities, eventually traveling to the Vatican. An appendix reprints the article Witchcraft in City'' Claim by Paul Jeune; the article was referenced by Smith in the book in reference to the alleged black magic practised in Victoria. An evangelist named Len Olsen claimed on televangelist David Mainse''s talk show 100 Huntley Street that he and his wife were nearly sacrificed in a satanic ritual by Mark Fedoruk, also known as Lion Serpent Sun. Sun sued for defamation, and in court it was revealed that Olsen had been delusional, apparently due to drug use and guilt; Sun was awarded $10,000 and an appeal was denied. The lawsuit and result were not reported in Michelle Remembers, only the original false allegations.

Michelle Remembers

Roger and Bethany The primary plot of this novel involves two characters, Roger and Bethany, employees of a Staples in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The two characters come from very different walks of life. Roger, a middle-aged alcoholic, is coping with an ugly divorce from his wife and the loss of access to his child. Bethany, a goth girl, is dealing with coming of age and working in what Coupland referred to in his 1991 novel Generation X as a McJob. What brings the characters together is a journal that Roger has decided to keep. In the journal, Roger begins to discuss his issues and his pressing thoughts, including a novel he would like to write called “Glove Pond." Bethany finds this journal, and writes a letter to Roger. In the letter, Bethany says they should continue to write to each other, but to pretend that they know nothing about each other outside of the letters themselves at work. After writing letters back and forth, Roger and Bethany strike up a friendship in the letters. Soon, more letters are included in the book from other characters, for instance, from Bethany’s mother, DeeDee, who went out on a date with Roger, and also went to high school with him. Other letters include a letter from Roger’s wife, emails from employees within the store, and more. Interspersed within the main text is the novel within the novel: Glove Pond. As Roger begins to write Glove Pond, different characters in the novel respond to his writing in their letters. The Glove Pond sections are interspersed within the other letters. Glove Pond Excerpts of Glove Pond are scattered throughout the book, presumably appearing as Roger writes them. Glove Pond is a corruption of Edward Albee’s 1962 play, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? It concerns the two main characters, a couple named Steve and Gloria, and their dinner guests, Steve''s younger colleague, Kyle Falconcrest, and his wife Brittany, a surgeon. Roger writes in his diary that Glove Pond was supposed to contain characters such as Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton—drunk movie stars who engage in witty repartee. This is a fairly accurate description of Steve and Gloria, who are, in fact, a pair of broke alcoholics living in a dusty, neglected home. The plot of Glove Pond follows the dinner interactions between these characters. A reference to Glove Pond is seen in a short scene in the final episode of the TV adaptation of Coupland''s jPod. The character of Jim Jarlewski (Alan Thicke) is seen reading a hardcover copy of Glove Pond by Roger Thorpe.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

The Insidious Dr Fu Manchu

By Sax Rohmer

The Katurran Odyssey

No Author Listed

A Midsummer Tempest

By Poul Anderson

Chroniques du Pays des Mères

By Élisabeth Vonarburg

Sula

By Toni Morrison

Descent into the Depths of the Earth

By Gary Gygax

A Daughter of Heth

By William Black

Midnight Over Santaphrax

By Chris Riddell

Sapphique

By Catherine Fisher

Jurassic Adventures: Survivor

By Scott Ciencin

Michelle Remembers

No Author Listed

The Gum Thief

By Douglas Coupland