Sophos, Magus''s once studious protégé, finds himself much out of his element as he and his family are ambushed in his villa. Surprising both his attackers and himself, Sophos at first succeeds in evading his attackers and hiding his mother and sisters, but is soon betrayed by his servants. Mistakenly sold into slavery, he finds himself content with manual labor and forms an unlikely camaraderie with the other slaves and workhands. However, eventually, when faced with a choice between a life of contentment or one of influence, capable of making changes much needed by Sounis, he chooses the latter, all the while wondering "if people always choose what will make them unhappy." Soon after a harrowing escape from the Baron who enslaved him, Sophos unexpectedly finds himself the King of Sounis. The state he has inherited is far from ideal. Not only is Sounis deadlocked in war with Attolia, it is also being torn from the inside by internal discontent and a civil war. With neither the monetary resources nor the man power to properly secure his throne, he is faced with several options, each with heavy consequences. Aided by the Magus, Sophos decides to turn to his old friend: Eugenides, the Thief of Eddis, with whom Sophos traveled years before and who is now the King of Attolia.

A Conspiracy of Kings

Set in 1955, the novel focuses on the hopes and aspirations of Frank and April Wheeler, self-assured Connecticut suburbanites who see themselves as very different from their neighbors in the Revolutionary Hill Estates. In the opening scene, April stars in an embarrassingly bad amateur dramatic production of The Petrified Forest: She was working alone, and visibly weakening with every line. Before the end of the first act the audience could tell as well as the Players that she’d lost her grip, and soon they were all embarrassed for her. She had begun to alternate between false theatrical gestures and a white-knuckled immobility; she was carrying her shoulders high and square, and despite her heavy make-up you could see the warmth of humiliation rising in her face and neck. After the performance, Frank and April have a fight on the side of the highway, with Frank later beginning an affair with his office colleague Maureen. Seeking to break out of their suburban rut (and consequently blaming herself for all of Frank&#39;s &#34;problems&#34;), April convinces Frank they should move to Paris, where she will work and support him while he realizes his vague ambition to be something other than an office worker. The promise of France brings the two together in love and excitement again, and Frank seemingly ends his relationship with Maureen. While April sees the emigration as an opportunity to escape their dull environment, Frank&#39;s plans are more driven by vanity of his own intelligence, which April panders to. When the dull and prim neighbor Mrs Givings begins bringing her &#34;insane&#34; son John around to the Wheeler&#39;s house for regular lunches, John&#39;s honest and erratic condemnation of his mother&#39;s suburban lifestyle strikes a chord with the Wheelers, particularly Frank. Their plans to leave the United States begin to crumble when April conceives their third child, and Frank begins to identify with his mundane job when the prospect of a promotion arises. After arguing over the possibility of aborting the child, Frank tries to manipulate April into seeking psychiatric help for her troubled childhood. April, overwhelmed by the outcome of the situation, suffers something of an identity crisis and sleeps with her neighbor Shep Campbell, while Frank resurrects his relationship with Maureen. April attempts to self-abort her child, and in doing so is rushed to hospital and dies from blood loss. Frank, scarred by the ordeal and feeling deep guilt over the outcome, is left a hollow shell of a man.

Revolutionary Road

;Scene 1 – June 1919 The Gibbons family has just moved into 17 Sycamore Road in Clapham in South London. Ethel expresses her relief that her husband Frank has survived army service in World War I and her pleasure at moving into their new home. Their new next-door neighbour, Bob Mitchell, introduces himself. He turns out to be an old army colleague of Frank''s, and the two reminisce. ;Scene 2 – December 1925 After Christmas dinner, the grown-ups, Frank and Ethel, Ethel''s mother Mrs Flint and Frank''s sister Sylvia, have retired to another room to leave the young people alone. These are Frank and Ethel''s children, Vi, "a pleasant nondescript-looking girl of twenty", Queenie, "a year younger... prettier and a trifle flashy", Reg, aged eighteen, "a nice-looking intelligent boy", Reg''s friend Sam and Queenie''s friend Phyllis. Sam indulges in a spot of socialist preaching against capitalism and injustice. The young women fail to accord him the respect he thinks he deserves, and he and Reg leave. Bob Mitchell''s son Billy visits the house. He is left alone with Queenie, and there is a short love scene between them. Queenie baffles him by saying that she so hates suburban life that she would not make him a good wife. She rushes out. Frank enters and encourages Billy. After Billy leaves, Ethel and Frank chat together, partly to avoid Sylvia''s singing in the room next door and partly for the pleasure of each other''s company. ;Scene 3 – May 1926 It is the time of the General Strike of 1926. The women of the household bicker. Frank and Bob are strike-breaking as volunteer driver and conductor of a London bus. Reg, encouraged by Sam, is backing the strikers and has not been seen for some days. Frank and Bob enter, singing "Rule, Britannia!" at the top of their voices, having had a few drinks to celebrate their successful strike-breaking. Sam and Reg enter, the latter slightly injured from a fracas connected with the strike. Vi confronts Sam for leading Reg astray and throws him out. Left alone together, Frank and Reg exchange views, Frank''s being traditionalist and Reg''s idealistic. They bid each other good night on good terms. ;Scene 1 – October 1931 On Reg''s wedding day, Frank gives him paternal advice. The women of the household bicker. Queenie again complains of the tedium of suburban life. The family all leave for Reg and Phyl''s wedding ceremony. ;Scene 2 – November 1931, midnight Queenie tip-toes downstairs in street clothes, carrying a suitcase. She puts a letter on the mantelpiece and leaves. Frank and Bob arrive after a convivial evening at a regimental dinner and amiably discuss the world in general. Ethel, woken by their noise, tells them off. Bob leaves. Frank and Ethel see Queenie''s letter and open it. She has been having an affair with a married man and has run off with him. Ethel disowns Queenie as a member of the family. Frank is shocked at Ethel''s intransigence. They retire to bed unhappily. ;Scene 3 – May 1932 The older members of the family discuss a letter they have received from Queenie in France. They are interrupted by the news that Reg and his wife have been killed in a road accident. ;Scene 1 – December 1936 The family have been listening to ex-king Edward VIII''s abdication broadcast. Mrs Flint is no longer alive, Vi and Sam, now married, have become comfortably middle-aged. Billy enters with the news that he has run into Queenie in Menton. Her lover had left her and returned to his wife, leaving Queenie stranded. After some prevarication Billy says that Queenie is with him and indeed is now his wife. Queenie enters, and there is an awkward but loving reconciliation between her and Ethel. ;Scene 2 – September 1938 It is the time of Neville Chamberlain''s return from Munich and the false hopes of averting war. Sylvia is as delighted by the Munich agreement as Frank is bitterly opposed to it. Bob comes in to say goodbye. He is moving to the country. He and Frank reminisce and look forward to the future anxiously. ;Scene 3 – June 1939 Frank and Ethel are about to move to the country. The house is now almost empty of furniture as they prepare to leave. Frank is left alone with his youngest grandchild, also called Frank. He talks to the baby philosophically, in a long monologue about what it means to be British. Ethel calls him to supper.

This Happy Breed

The story takes place in ancient India around the time of Gotama Buddha (likely between the fourth and seventh centuries BCE). Siddhartha, the son of a Brahmin, decides to leave behind his home in the hopes of gaining spiritual illumination by becoming an ascetic wandering beggar of the Samanas. Joined by his best friend Govinda, Siddhartha fasts, becomes homeless, renounces all personal possessions, and intensely meditates, eventually seeking and personally speaking with Gotama, the famous Buddha, or Enlightened One. Afterward, both Siddhartha and Govinda acknowledge the elegance of the Buddha''s teachings. Although Govinda hastily joins the Buddha''s order, Siddhartha does not follow, claiming that the Buddha''s philosophy, however supremely wise, does not account for the necessarily distinct experiences of each person. He argues that the individual seeks an absolutely unique and personal meaning that cannot be presented to him by a teacher; he thus resolves to carry on his quest alone. Siddhartha crosses a river and the generous ferryman, who Siddhartha is unable to pay, merrily predicts that Siddhartha will return to the river later to compensate him in some way. Venturing onward toward city life, Siddhartha discovers Kamala, the most beautiful woman he has yet seen. Kamala, a courtesan of affluent men, notes Siddhartha''s handsome appearance and fast wit, telling him that he must become wealthy to win her affections so that she may teach him the art of love. Although Siddhartha despised materialistic pursuits as a Samana, he agrees now to Kamala''s suggestions. She directs him to the employ of Kamaswami, a local businessman, and insists that he have Kamaswami treat him as an equal rather than an underling. Siddhartha easily succeeds, providing a voice of patience and tranquility against Kamaswami''s fits of passion, which Siddhartha learned from his days as an ascetic. Thus, Siddhartha becomes a rich man and Kamala''s lover, though in his middle years realizes that the luxurious lifestyle he has chosen is merely a game, empty of spiritual fulfillment. Leaving the fast-paced bustle of the city, Siddhartha returns to the river and thinks of killing himself. He is saved only by an internal experience of the holy word, Om. The very next morning Siddhartha briefly reconnects with Govinda, who is passing through the area and remains a wandering Buddhist. In light of his mid-life crisis, Siddhartha decides to live out the rest of his life in the presence of the spiritually inspirational river. Siddhartha thus reunites with the ferryman, named Vasudeva, with whom he begins a humbler way of life. Although Vasudeva is a simple man, he understands and relates that the river has many voices and significant messages to divulge to any who might listen. Some years later, Kamala, now a Buddhist convert, is travelling to see the Buddha at his deathbed, escorted reluctantly by her young son, when she is bitten by a venomous snake near Siddhartha''s river. Siddhartha recognizes her and realizes that the boy is his own child. After Kamala''s death, Siddhartha attempts to console and raise the furiously resistant boy, until one day the child flees altogether. Although Siddhartha is desperate to find his runaway son, Vasudeva urges him to let the boy find his own path, much like Siddhartha did himself in his youth. Listening to the river with Vasudeva, Siddhartha realizes that time is an illusion and that all of his feelings and experiences, even those of suffering, are part of a great and ultimately jubilant fellowship of all things connected in the cyclical unity of nature. With Siddhartha''s moment of illumination, Vasudeva claims that his work is done and he must depart into the woods, leaving Siddhartha peacefully fulfilled and alone once more. Toward the end of his life, Govinda hears about an enlightened ferryman and travels to Siddhartha, not initially recognizing him as his old childhood friend. Govinda asks the now-elderly Siddhartha to relate his wisdom and Siddhartha replies that for every true statement there is an opposite one that is also true; that language and the confines of time lead people to adhere to one fixed belief that does not account for the fullness of the truth. Because nature works in a self-sustaining cycle, every entity carries in it the potential for its opposite and so the world must always be considered complete. Siddhartha simply urges people to identify and love the world in its completeness. Siddhartha then oddly requests that Govinda kiss his forehead and, when he does, Govinda experiences the visions of timelessness that Siddhartha himself saw with Vasudeva by the river. Govinda bows to his wise friend and Siddhartha smiles radiantly, having found enlightenment.

Siddhartha

The book takes place on the planet of Worlorn, a world which is dying. It is a rogue planet whose erratic course is taking it irreversibly far from its neighboring stars into a region of cold and dark where no life will survive. Worlorn''s 14 cities, built during a brief window when the world passed close enough to a red giant star to permit life to thrive, are dying too. Built to celebrate the diverse cultures of 14 planetary systems they have largely been abandoned allowing their systems and maintenance to fail. The cast is a group of characters who are also flirting with death. Dirk t''Larien, the protagonist, finds life empty and of little attraction after his girlfriend Gwen Delvano leaves him. Most poignant of all, the Kavalar race, into which she has "married," is dying culturally. Their home planet has survived numerous attacks in a planetary war, and in response they have evolved social institutions and human relationship patterns to cope with the depredation of the war. Yet now that the war is long past, they find themselves trapped between those who would recognise that the old ways need to be reviewed for the current day and those who believe that any dilution of the old ways spells the end of Kavalar culture. The battles, then, of all these varying actors are played out beneath the dying light falling on Worlorn. At the end many of the characters have died, though the author leaves some endings deliberately ambiguous. However they have all faced their fears of death and of life.

Dying of the Light

One day in the Cretaceous Period as a Tyrannosaurus is about to devour a smaller dino he captured, a flying saucer piloted by an alien named Vorb arrives. He recruits him and several other dinos he''s found for a trial of a special "vitamin" he''s developed, which, upon feeding it to the dinos, causes them to become sapient. Vorb takes them aboard his saucer and they travel to the present, dropping them off in New York City, which at that moment is celebrating the Macy''s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The dinos pretend to be inflatable balloons to sneak along with the parade, but Rex mistakes one of the real dino balloons to be his friend Allosaurus. The ruse is broken as a result of him accidentally popping "Allosaurus" and the dinos flee as the crowd panics in sight of them. The police come to capture the dinos soon after, but the helpful curator of the American Museum of Natural History, Dr. Bleeb, takes the dinos in, and hides them from the cops by having them pretend to be life-size model dinosaurs. This satisfies the police, who leave to search for the dinosaurs elsewhere, and the curator lets them stay for the night. She reads them a bedtime story about a trilobite who wanted to walk on land, while the dinos watch out the window, unsure about their future. ru:Мы вернулись! История динозавра

We''re Back! A Dinosaur''s Story

Cullen "Cubby" Greenwich has just released his sixth novel, One O''Clock Jump which is generally well received in the literary community. However, Shearman Waxx, considered to be a preeminent literary critic, writes a scathing, albeit somewhat inaccurate review of Cubby''s latest work. Against the advice of his wife, a children''s book author in her own right, Cubby attempts to gather some information about his new nemesis. Cubby learns that he and the critic share a favorite dining locale. Accompanying Cubby to the restaurant is his six year old prodigy son, Milo. A chance encounter in the men''s room foretells the ensuing chaos when Shearman Waxx simply utters "Doom." Receiving a fortuitous call from a fellow writer who had previously endured a similar slandering at the hands of Waxx, Cubby is told of the horrific manner in which the writer''s family was murdered. The writer encourages Greenwich to abandon his home and flee. Set into motion are a series of violent events, beginning with the destruction of the Greenwich home. All members of the family, rescued pup Lassie included, flee to the presumed safety of a friend''s real estate investment project. When their moves are quickly countered by the escalating psychopathy of their pursuer, it becomes evident they need to seek armament and information. The family seeks refuge with Penny Greenwich''s apocalypse-fearing family who conveniently have fortified an underground bunker and stocked it with a cache of weapons. Not content being forced into the role of reclusive prey, the family embarks on a journey of discovery to determine who it is they''re dealing with and what can be done to stop him. Their journey takes them to the hometown of two former artists in an attempt to digest the brutality with which they and their families were dispatched. Along the way, the family counters the rising tension and ever-present shadow of death with bits of sarcastic humor and Milo, by engrossing himself in his scientific projects. The story continues to follow the Greenwiches through a series of tense and suspenseful events as they search for clues into the past of their tormentor and seek to discover his hidden motives. After an encounter in which a former victim named Henry. Former Sheriff Truman is shot and killed by Waxx''s associates, Waxx himself is captured by the family. They take him to his own house, and encounter his mother, Zazu, who reveals herself as the mastermind of an organization that seeks to control society by destroying those who create positive symbols of hope and happiness through their artwork. Zazu orders her grandson to make sure that Waxx is in the car. He stabs Waxx, killing him, and Zazu is enraged. She pulls out her gun which was hidden and kills her grandson, and then shoots Cubby. Cubby falls to the floor and dies. Then, suddenly, salt shakers which Milo had given them both previously activate. Time goes backwards and Cubby is saved, but Zazu dies. The novel ends with the family traveling back to the bunker, seeing it as an oasis of protection from Zazu''s organization and the world they intend to create.

Relentless

The book is the story of Felix Rayman, a down-and-out mathematics teacher at SUCAS (a state college in New York) with a troubled family life and dead-in-the-water career. He begins experimenting with lucid dreaming—aided by "fuzz weed" (marijuana)—hoping to gain insight into Cantor''s continuum hypothesis. During an out-of-body experience, Felix loses his physical body and nearly falls victim to the Devil, who hunts the Earth for souls like his to take to Hell; Felix calls upon Jesus, who saves him. Jesus asks Felix to do him a favor: to take a restless ghost named Kathy to a place called "Cimön", and bring her to God/Absolute Infinite, which can be found there. Cimön is permeated with the notion of infinity in its various guises: just getting there involves grappling with infinity, as Cimön is an infinite distance away from Earth. Felix and Kathy get there in their astral bodies by doubling their speed in half the time so that they asymptotically approach infinite speed at four hours. Eventually, at the speed of light, they turn into the eponymous "white light" and merge with Cimön. In this new world, Felix encounters famous scientists and mathematicians such as Albert Einstein and Georg Cantor, who all reside in a hotel that is based on Hilbert''s paradox of the Grand Hotel. Felix stays there after Kathy leaves him; the hotel is full, but Felix has the desk clerk move everybody one room up, leaving an empty room for him. He falls in with a loquacious beetle named "Franx", reminiscent of Franz Kafka''s The Metamorphosis, which is mentioned in Rucker''s Afterword. The two decide to climb "Mount On", which itself is infinite (not aleph-null infinite, but perhaps instead cardinality of the continuum or greater). After many adventures, Franx and Felix find Kathy. They leave off climbing Mount On, and instead try the other side of Cimön, the Deserts, littered with portholes to Hell. Felix merges with the Absolute Infinite, but Kathy is scared and refuses. Eventually, Felix wakes back up on Earth in his body; everybody attributes his dreams to a spectacular binge-drinking and marijuana-smoking episode, until Felix remembers an insight he had regarding the continuum hypothesis: if there were three basic kinds of existence, that of solid matter, aether, and things he calls bloogs which are not aleph-null or c infinitely divisible, but a higher infinity, then the hypothesis will have been disproven. With the aid of a physicist friend, he uses his astral travelling abilities to create a ball of this bloog-matter. The ball has unusual properties such as ignoring gravity or being indivisible, or to be more precise, being a physical instantiation of the Banach–Tarski paradox, which means it can be broken apart into multiple pieces, each of which is exactly like the original. It is implied the US government suppresses their research.

White Light

The dashing Simon Templar is hired by a friend in the book publishing trade to protect one of his stars, a secretive recluse named Amos Klein who writes a popular (and lucrative) series of adventure novels about a manly and suave spy. When he arrives at Klein''s house in the country, he hears a woman''s screams and several gunshots. Rushing to the rescue, he finds a woman tied up and gripping a revolver behind her back. After untying her, he finds out that she is "Amos Klein", a woman who adopted a male nom de plume to increase sales of her novels. She explains that she has to be able to do everything her character in the novels does and that she was just doing some research. The pair are soon kidnapped by a group of people who claim to be members of S.W.O.R.D., the evil organization from Amos Klein''s novels. Their leader, "Warlock", the mastermind of the group, believes that Simon Templar must be the Amos Klein he is looking for and that the woman must be his secretary. They then find out what the group of madmen want: for Amos Klein to write the plot of their next grandiose heist.

The Saint and the Fiction Makers

The book explores the aftermath of the crucifixion of Jesus through the experiences of the Roman tribune Marcellus Gallio and his Greek slave Demetrius. Prince Gaius, in an effort to rid Rome of Marcellus, banishes Marcellus to the command of the Roman garrison at Minoa, a port city in southern Palestine. In Jerusalem during Passover, Marcellus ends up carrying out the crucifixion of Jesus, but is troubled since he believes Jesus to be innocent of any crime. Marcellus and some other soldiers throw dice to see who will take Jesus'' seamless robe. Marcellus wins and asks Demetrius to take care of the robe. Following the crucifixion, Marcellus takes part in a banquet attended by Pontius Pilate. During the banquet, a drunken centurion insists that Marcellus wear Jesus'' robe; reluctantly wearing the garment, Marcellus apparently suffers a nervous breakdown and returns to Rome. Sent to Athens to recuperate, Marcellus finally gives in to Demetrius'' urging and touches the robe; his mind is subsequently restored. Marcellus, now believing the robe has some sort of innate power, returns to Judea and follows the path Jesus took and meets many people whose lives Jesus had affected. Based upon their experiences first Demetrius and then Marcellus become followers of Jesus. Marcellus then returns to Rome where he must report his experiences to the emperor, Tiberius. Marcellus frees Demetrius who escapes, but later on because of his uncompromising stance regarding his Christian faith both Marcellus and his new wife Diana are executed by the new emperor, Caligula. Marcellus arranges that the robe be given to "The Big Fisherman."

The Robe

Joe Bonham, a young soldier serving in World War I, awakens in a hospital bed after being caught in the blast of an exploding artillery shell. He gradually realizes that he has lost his arms, legs, and all of his face (including his eyes, ears, teeth, and tongue), but that his mind functions perfectly, leaving him a prisoner in his own body. Joe attempts suicide by suffocation, but finds that he had been given a tracheotomy which he can neither remove nor control. At first Joe wishes to die, but later decides that he desires to be placed in a glass box and toured around the country in order to show others the true horrors of war. After he successfully communicates with his doctors by banging his head on his pillow in Morse code, however, he realizes that neither desire will be granted; it is implied that he will live the rest of his natural life in his condition. As Joe drifts between reality and fantasy, he remembers his old life with his family and girlfriend, and reflects upon the myths and realities of war. He also forms a bond, of sorts, with a young nurse who senses his plight.

Johnny Got His Gun

Hill began his life of crime at age 12 in 1955 by working as a go-fer for Paul Vario, the local boss of Hill''s working class Irish/Italian neighborhood. Eventually Hill was "promoted" to selling stolen cigarettes for Vario, which he was later caught and arrested for in 1959. Hill refused to cooperate with the police, earning the respect of Vario and Vario''s associate Jimmy Burke. In 1960, when Hill was 17, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, to everyone''s surprise. When questioned about his decision by Vario, Hill explained that he wanted to please his father, who disapproved of his son''s association with the Mafia. While stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, however, Hill continued his criminal activities, which led to his discharge in 1963. He returned to the streets of New York, where he was happily welcomed back by Vario and Burke. In 1964, Hill met Tommy DeSimone, a young aspiring gangster with psychopathic tendencies, and both worked as stick-up men for Vario, hijacking trucks and selling the stolen goods on the street. In 1965 Hill reluctantly joined Lenny Vario, Paul Vario''s son, on a double date, where he met Karen Friedman, a young Jewish girl from the Five Towns section of New York. The two continued to date and eloped only four months after meeting. They had their first child, Gregg, in 1966, and a second, Gina, in 1968. In 1967, Jimmy Burke masterminded a robbery of the Air France cargo terminal at JFK International Airport. The heist was carried out by Hill, DeSimone, Robert "Frenchy" McMahon, and Montague Montemurro in April of that year. In 1969, Hill began an affair with Linda Coppociano behind Karen''s back, and bought a restaurant/lounge called The Suite. It was here that on June 11, 1970, Burke and DeSimone murdered William "Billy Batts" Devino, a made man with the Gambino family and a close friend of fellow mobster John Gotti. de:Wiseguy it:Il delitto paga bene

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

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A Conspiracy of Kings

By Megan Whalen Turner

Revolutionary Road

By Richard Yates

This Happy Breed

By Noël Coward

Siddhartha

By Hermann Hesse

Dying of the Light

By George R. R. Martin

We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story

By Hudson Talbott

Relentless

By Dean Koontz

White Light

By William Barton

The Saint and the Fiction Makers

By Leslie Charteris

The Robe

By Andrew Greeley

Johnny Got His Gun

By Dalton Trumbo

Wiseguy

By Nicholas Pileggi