Software designer Scott Warden is living with his family in early twenty-first century Thailand after his latest contract has ended. He and his friend Hitch Paley are among the first to find an enormous monolith which appears out of nowhere in the jungle. On closer examination, it is found to be a monument made of a mysterious, indestructible substance. It bears an inscription commemorating a military victory by someone named "Kuin", presumably an Asian warlord—twenty years in the future. Over the next twenty years, increasingly grand monuments to Kuin continue to appear—first in Asia, then in much of the rest of the world. Pro-Kuin and anti-Kuin political movements spring up, leading to the rise of economic problems, fatalistic cults, and open war. Scott has become entangled with his former teacher and mentor Sue Chopra, a scientist who has assembled a team of fellow researchers to investigate the chronoliths and learn to predict their appearances. With Sue''s team, Scott witnesses a new chronolith that appears in Jerusalem. Kaitlin, his daughter, becomes caught up in the hysteria and joins a pro-Kuin youth cult; while trying to find her, Scott meets Ashlee, a single mother whose son Adam Mills joined the same cult. This leads to Scott and his companions being on hand to witness yet another chronolith appearance in Mexico. Sue Chopra comes to believe that Kuin has made the chronoliths in order to inspire fear and defeatism, making the future victories inevitable by gaining support ahead of time. In an effort to fight Kuin''s growing influence, Scott, Sue Chopra and her team plan to destroy the first chronolith predicted to appear in the United States. The chronolith self-destructs, apparently sabotaged by a maker who exceeded the limits of the technology. A militant faction now led by Adam Mills attacks their base of operations, takes Chopra hostage, and menaces Scott''s family. Scott lives to see the collapse of the Kuinist movement and a scientific renaissance sparked by Chopra''s chronolith research.

The Chronoliths

Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Police Bureau is taking a vacation, in part because he is annoyed at his boss, the Party Secretary Li, but also because a triad-connected businessman has made him an offer he can not refuse. For what seems to be a fortune and with no apparent strings attached (like a laptop or medical care for his mother) he is asked to translate into English a business proposal for the New World, a complex of shops and restaurants to be built in Central Shanghai evoking nostalgia for the "glitter and glamour" of the ''30s. A murder is reported: Chen is reluctant to shorten his working holiday, so Sergeant Yu is forced to take charge of the investigation. A novelist has been murdered in her room. At first it seems that only a neighbor could have committed the crime, but when someone else confesses, Detective Yu cannot believe that he is really the murderer. It is only when Chen returns and starts to investigate the past that he finds answers. And Chen also discovers how the triad has played him. This is the third critically acclaimed Inspector Chen mystery set in post-Cultural Revolution China.

When Red Is Black

The unnamed narrator describes the qualities of Ligeia, a beautiful, passionate and intellectual woman, raven-haired and dark-eyed, that he thinks he remembers meeting "in some large, old decaying city near the Rhine." He is unable to recall anything about the history of Ligeia, including her family''s name, but remembers her beautiful appearance. Her beauty, however, is not conventional. He describes her as emaciated, with some "strangeness." He describes her face in detail, from her "faultless" forehead to the "divine orbs" of her eyes. They marry, and Ligeia impresses her husband with her immense knowledge of physical and mathematical science, and her proficiency in classical languages. She begins to show her husband her knowledge of metaphysical and "forbidden" wisdom. After an unspecified length of time Ligeia becomes ill, struggles internally with human mortality, and ultimately dies. The narrator, grief-stricken, buys and refurbishes an abbey in England. He soon enters into a loveless marriage with "the fair-haired and blue-eyed Lady Rowena Trevanion, of Tremaine." In the second month of the marriage, Rowena begins to suffer from worsening fever and anxiety. One night, when she is about to faint, the narrator pours her a goblet of wine. Drugged with opium, he sees (or thinks he sees) drops of "a brilliant and ruby colored fluid" fall into the goblet. Her condition rapidly worsens, and a few days later she dies and her body is wrapped for burial. As the narrator keeps vigil overnight, he notices a brief return of color to Rowena''s cheeks. She repeatedly shows signs of reviving, before relapsing into apparent death. As he attempts resuscitation, the revivals become progressively stronger, but the relapses more final. As dawn breaks, and the narrator is sitting emotionally exhausted from the night''s struggle, the shrouded body revives once more, stands and walks into the middle of the room. When he touches the figure, its head bandages fall away to reveal masses of raven hair and dark eyes: Rowena has transformed into Ligeia.

Ligeia

Princess Ivy sets off with her younger brother''s co-fiancees Nada Naga and Electra to retrieve the magic mirror that had been stolen by the evil machine Com-Pewter, in preparation for her quest to find Good Magician Humfrey. After besting Com-Pewter in a battle of wits, Ivy uses the charged-up Heaven Cent to transport her to Humfrey''s location. Meanwhile in Mundania, an average college boy named Grey Murphy runs a computer program that claims that it will help him meet women. Sure enough, after installing the "Worm" program, Grey meets a series of appropriately-named girls who move into the neighboring apartment, starting with Agenda and moving on through Dyslexia and Euphoria. When Ivy arrives, disorientated to find herself in Mundania, Grey starts to fall for her despite her claims that she is a princess from a fantasy world called Xanth. When Ivy wants to go home, Grey agrees to go with her, even though he doesn''t believe that Xanth exists. Even when they''ve entered Xanth, Grey finds a scientific basis for the fantastical things he sees. His feelings for Ivy grow stronger, although Ivy knows that her regal parents won''t allow her to marry a non-magician. The two of them take a trip through the Hypnogourd, where bad dreams are manufactured. After exiting the gourd, Grey, still skeptical of Xanth''s magic, turns the Maenads'' wine spring into water, Nada realizes his talent: magic nullification - which is a magician-caliber talent. It emerges that Grey is the son of Evil Magician Murphy and Vadne, both banished from Xanth in the book Castle Roogna, although they had never revealed their origins to him.

Man from Mundania

A Barrel of Laughs, a Vale of Tears is a fantasy story about a young prince named Roger who has never seen a sad thing in the course of his life. As a result, he is always happy. He also emits a happy radiance that causes people near him to laugh. Determined to have his son sober up to prepare to rule the kingdom, Roger''s father, King Whatchimacallit, orders his wizard to train Roger. The wizard sends Roger off on a very mysterious quest (Roger doesn''t even know what to look for), leaving him with a bottomless bag of magic powder, used to turn Roger into a random object to keep him from making people helpless with laughter. Roger sets off into the Forever Forest which, true to its name, is unending. The forest is filled with people who are lost from years of wandering and Roger forgets his quest to amuse them. In this way, he befriends a peasant named Tom, who does not get along well with the book''s narrator. The wizard, in an effort to encourage Roger to leave the forest, causes the supply of magic powder to decrease. Roger, in an effort to restart his quest, tries to think of a way to escape the forest and attempts to walk out backwards which, strangely enough, works. Out of the forest, he becomes trapped in the Dastardly Divide, a barren, rock-filled land. He meets a woman called Lady Sadie who is a servant to the Princess Petulia, a woman so beautiful that all who look at her turn to stone, who has been kidnapped by a lonely giant named Philip. After weeks of starvation, Roger finally uses the last two pinches of powder on himself and Lady Sadie, turning her into a leaf and himself into an egg. He leaps off a cliff and breaks open, turning into an Eagle. Roger believes that Princess Petulia is his quest so he sets off to find her, surviving the terrible Sea of Screams along the way. When he passes through the Valley of Vengeance where, as the name suggests, every one of the inhabitants are constantly seeking revenge against each other, Roger exercises his ability to amuse people to turn the valley into the Valley of Vengeance. After a while, he sees a man attacking another. He is shocked to find that the attacker is Tom, who is angry at Roger for abandoning the people of the Forever Forest. Roger takes Tom (who refuses to accept any apologies) to the Dastardly Divide for a short time and leaves to find Princess Petulia. As he passes through a mountain range, the mountain throws rocks with messages on them at him. The messages contain various insults, such as insisting that Lady Sadie is dead, Princess Petulia was rescued by someone else, and that Tom would kill him. Roger becomes extremely depressed, however, he uses his power of flight as an eagle to rescue the people trapped in the Forever Forest. He then sets off to rescue the Princess. As he fly along, he turns back into a man over a body of water. He nearly drowns, but is rescued by none other than the Princess who explains how the giant fell sick and that in her grief for Philip''s health, she cried so much that she created a vale of tears. She tells Roger that she was reunited with Lady Sadie, but a strange man seeking revenge showed up to kidnap her. Sadie, in disguise as the Princess, was kidnapped instead. Roger sets off to rescue Sadie and finds her in the clutches of Tom. A boring fight ensues and Sadie finally ends the fight by pretending to remove her mask. Tom is so certain that he''ll turn to stone, that he freezes for months, while Roger and Sadie escape. When Tom realizes that he''s not a statue, he believes that he escaped turning into a statue by his own power and, having finally scored a goal over Roger, leaves for good. Roger, having fallen in love with Sadie, marries her, realizing that he no longer makes people laugh all of the time. Petulia, who no longer turns everyone to stone, falls in love with Philip and marries him. The wizard shows up at the wedding and tells Roger that the quest was intended to be something entirely different, however Roger ends up with a happy ending anyway.

A Barrel of Laughs, a Vale of Tears

Wyvernhail is the story of Hai - the mongrel daughter of the Falcon Darien and Zane''s older brother, Anjay - putting her in line for the Cobriana throne (though crippled and powerless). Hai is a creature out of place - not Avian, but a falcon poisoned with cobra blood . As she searches for her identity, she finds the Obsidian Guild - outcasts like herself. And when the political intrigues of Wyvern''s Court finally come to a crest, there are those who would prefer the mongrel child of a falcon and a cobra on the throne than Salem Cobriana. She must fight for her home, her place in the world, and the one being who truly understands her - another outcast and a royal falcon, if she ever hopes to find happiness. When Hai''s cousin, Oliza Shardae Cobriana, abdicates the throne of Wyvern''s Court, Hai has visions only of destruction: the serpiente king Salem, dying in her arms; the dutiful falcon guard, Nicias, unable to save a generation of children; and Wyvern''s Court engulfed in flames. The cause of this future is Keyi, the daughter of Oliza and Vere, who, after accidentally killing her mother, seems to enjoy chaos and death and brings it upon Wyvern''s Court. Now Hai will do anything to protect her new home - even if it means betraying the very people who need her most. In order to protect the people and the world she loves from the future she sees in increasingly horrific visions, Hai is forced to throw away her own happiness and ascend the serpiente throne. When Salem was poisoned, she uses her falcon magic and forces his heart to keep beating. In the meantime, she had to stop Oliza from being Diente and ascended the throne herself. Having done that, she went back to Salem, only to be refused by Nicias. She begged him to let her try to revive him again. Using all the power she had at her disposal, she split her soul and pushed into him her serpiente magic. Nicias kept hold of her to keep her from diving too deep into Ecl, and they were unconscious for a few days. Rosalind, who didn''t trust Hai, wasn''t sure what to do about her, and apologizes and admits she had been confused for a long time. Darien, Hai''s falcon mother, comes to Wyvern''s Court and says that the Empress Cjarsa felt a new falcon being born. When Hai reaches for her cobra scales, she couldn''t have it ripple across her skin, and when she tried to return to her broken falcon form, she let out a painful scream and Nicias held onto her. However, when she reached for the falcon magic of Ahnmik, she felt her magic rub upon Nicias''s magic, and found that she was now truly falcon. Nicias and Oliza (grudgingly) fixed Hai''s wings after they found out she was pure falcon. She and Nicias are together. Then she agrees to dance with Vere Obsidian.

Wyvernhail

The legendary King Vikram, identified as Vikramāditya (c. 1st century BC), promises a vamachari (a tantric sorcerer) that he will capture a vetala (or Baital), a celestial spirit who hangs from a tree and inhabits and animates dead bodies. King Vikram faces many difficulties in bringing the vetala to the tantric. Each time Vikram tries to capture the vetala, it tells a story that ends with a riddle. If Vikram cannot answer the question correctly, the vampire consents to remain in captivity. If the king answers the question correctly, the vampire would escape and return to his tree. In some variations, the king is required to speak if he knows the answer, else his head will burst. In other versions, the king is unable to hold his tongue if he knows the answer, due to his ego. Regardless of the reason, he knows the answer to every question; therefore the cycle of catching and releasing the vampire continues twenty-four times. On the twenty-fifth attempt, the vetala tells the story of a father and a son in the after-math of a devastating war. They find the queen and the princess alive in the chaos, and decide to take them home. In due time, the son marries the queen and the father marries the princess. Eventually, the son and the queen have a son, and the father and the princess have a daughter. The vetala asks what the relation between the two newborn children is. The question stumps Vikram. Satisfied, the vetala allows himself to be taken to the tantric. The vetala reveals the tantric''s plan to sacrifice Vikram, beheading him as he bowed in front of the goddess. The tantric could then gain control over the vetala. The vetala suggests that the king asks the tantric how to perform his obeisance, then take advantage of that moment to behead the sorcerer himself. Vikramāditya does exactly as told by vetala and he is blessed by Lord Indra. The vetala offers the king a boon, whereupon Vikram requests that the tantric''s life be restored and that the vetala would come to the king''s aid when needed. A variation of this story replaces the vetal with a minor celestial who, in exchange for his own life, reveals the plot by two tradesmen (replacing the sorcerer) to assassinate Vikram and advises Vikram to trick them into positions of vulnerability as described above. Having killed them, Vikram is offered a reward by the goddess, who grants him two spirits loyal to Her as his servants.

Baital Pachisi

The plot partially revolves around the missing master copy of a film cartridge, titled Infinite Jest and referred to in the novel as "the Entertainment" or "the samizdat". The film is so entertaining to its viewers that they become lifeless, losing all interest in anything other than viewing the film. The video cartridge was the final work of film by James O. Incandenza before his microwave suicide, completed during a stint of sobriety that was requested by the lead actress, Joelle. Quebec separatists are interested in acquiring a master, redistributable copy of the work to aid in acts of terrorism against the United States. The United States Office of Unspecified Services (USOUS) is seeking to intercept the master copy of the film in order to prevent mass dissemination and the destabilization of the Organization of North American Nations. Joelle and later Hal seek treatment for substance abuse problems at The Ennet House Drug and Alcohol Recovery House, and Marathe visits the rehabilitation center to pursue a lead on the master copy of the Entertainment, tying the characters and plots together.

Infinite Jest

Richard is a murderer, starting his career as a boy killing his father in a carefully planned "accident". He is extremely clever in creating false evidence; in one example, he hurts himself deliberately with a knife after beating two foster brothers so they will get in trouble for severely hurting him. He falls in love with a woman (Jessica) but leaves her no personal space to live. She tries to escape a few times, but he eventually finds and kills her. Then he takes over the identity of another man he has watched for some time before killing him. He meets Julie by chance and is stunned by her resemblance to his first wife. He wants to "own" Julie out of obsessive love. Julie had married her first husband, Jim, as he was the one and only man she ever loved. His sudden death drove her into despair. Before Jim''s death, he made an arrangement with a friend to give Julie a Great Dane, a dog that Jim had always wanted to own. She names him Singer and he joins her life acting more and more human. After a while she starts to date men again but is still deeply unsatisfied by their behavior and character. Mike is good friends with Julie and was also friends with Jim but is like a brother who is not eligible for dating. He feels he cannot ask Julie out due to his previous relationship with their family. He dislikes and believes he cannot compete with Richard. Singer is the title character and the catalyst in the story. He pushes the relationship of Mike and Julie, sensing that Richard is not as he seems.

The Guardian

Ahasuerus, ruler of a massive Persian empire, holds a lavish party, initially for his court and dignitaries and afterwards for all inhabitants of the capital city Shushan. Ahasuerus orders the queen Vashti to display her beauty before the guests. She refuses. Worried all women will learn from this, Ahasuerus removes her as queen and has a royal decree sent across the empire that men should be the ruler of their households and should speak their own native tongue. Ahasuerus then orders all beautiful young girls to be presented to him, so he can choose a new queen to replace Vashti. One of these is the orphan Esther, whose Jewish name is Hadassah. After the death of her parents, she is being fostered by her cousin Mordecai. She finds favor in the king''s eyes, and is made his new queen. Esther does not reveal that she is Jewish. Shortly afterwards, Mordechai discovers a plot by courtiers Bigthan and Teresh to assassinate Ahasuerus. The conspirators are apprehended and hanged, and Mordechai''s service to the king is recorded. Ahasuerus appoints Haman as his prime minister. Mordechai, who sits at the palace gates, falls into Haman''s disfavor as he refuses to bow down to him. Having found out that Mordechai is Jewish, Haman plans to kill not just Mordechai but all the Jews in the empire. He obtains Ahasuerus'' permission to execute this plan, against payment of ten thousand talents of silver (which the King declines to accept and rather allows him to execute his plan on principle), and he casts lots to choose the date on which to do this—the thirteenth of the month of Adar. On that day, everyone in the empire is free to massacre the Jews and despoil their property. When Mordechai finds out about the plans he and all Jews mourn and fast. Mordechai informs Esther what has happened and tells her to intercede with the King. She is afraid to break the law and go to the King unsummoned. This action would incur the death penalty. Mordechai tells her that she must. She orders Mordechai to have all Jews fast for three days together with her, and on the third day she goes to Ahasuerus, who stretches out his sceptre to her which shows that she is not to be punished. She invites him to a feast in the company of Haman. During the feast, she asks them to attend a further feast the next evening. Meanwhile, Haman is again offended by Mordechai and consults with his friends. At his wife''s suggestion, he builds a gallows for Mordechai. That night, Ahasuerus suffers from insomnia, and when the court records are read to him to help him sleep, he learns of the services rendered by Mordechai in the previous plot against his life. Ahasuerus is told that Mordechai has not received any recognition for saving the king''s life. Just then, Haman appears, to ask the King to hang Mordechai, but before he can make this request, King Ahasuerus asks Haman what should be done for the man that the king wishes to honor. Thinking that the man that the king is referring to is himself, Haman says that the man should be dressed in the king''s royal robes and led around on the king''s royal horse, while a herald calls: "See how the king honours a man he wishes to reward!" To his horror and surprise, the king instructs Haman to do so to Mordechai. After leading Mordechai''s parade, he returns in mourning to his wife and friends, who suggest his downfall has begun. Immediately after, Ahasuerus and Haman attend Esther''s second banquet, at which she reveals that she is Jewish and that Haman is planning to exterminate her people, including her. Overcome by rage, Ahasuerus leaves the room; meanwhile Haman stays behind and begs Esther for his life, falling upon her in desperation. The king comes back in at this moment and thinks Haman is assaulting the queen; this makes him angrier than before and he orders Haman hanged on the gallows that Haman had prepared for Mordechai. The previous decree against the Jews cannot be annulled, but the king allows the Jews to defend themselves during attacks. As a result, on 13 Adar, five hundred attackers and Haman''s ten sons are killed in Shushan, followed by a Jewish slaughter of seventy-five thousand Persians, although they took no plunder. Esther sends a letter instituting an annual commemoration of the Jewish people''s redemption, in a holiday called Purim (lots). Ahasuerus remains very powerful and continues reigning, with Mordechai assuming a prominent position in his court.

Book of Esther

Fitz has succeeded in rescuing Prince Dutiful from the clutches of the Piebald rebels. But once again the cost of protecting the Farseer line has been dear: Nighteyes is dead. Fitz, though bitter and grieving after the death of his beloved wit-partner, the wolf Nighteyes, reluctantly takes the post of Skillmaster to teach prince Dutiful the Skill. He feels he must since he is almost Dutiful''s father. Dutiful, the heir to the throne, was conceived by Verity using Fitz''s body fifteen years earlier with the use of the skill, and because of this is both Skilled and Witted. Fitz is not a great teacher and barely has control of his own Skill, but he is the only one left that has been actually taught how to use it. He knows that Dutiful must be protected from the addictive qualities of the Skill, as well as the dangerous temptations of the Wit and the political machinations surrounding both as the Piebalds threaten to throw the Six Duchies into civil war. At the urging of his old mentor the Master Assassin Chade, now Queen Kettricken''s Lord Councillor, he also attempts to seek new Skill users as companions for Dutiful. Maintaining a pose as the servant Tom Badgerlock to the Fool''s own pose as the decadent noble Lord Golden, he stays in the castle and teaches his new Skill coterie, including the overeager Chade. His search leads him to a most unlikely candidate; a mentally-challenged young man named Thick, suspicious after years of mistreatment but stronger in the Skill than anyone Fitz has ever encountered. At the same time, the Six Duchies also faces what may be its salvation in a long-term peace, or a new threat to the fragile peace that has existed since the end of the Red Ship War. Queen Kettricken plans to betrothe Dutiful to the Outislander Narcheska (Princess) Elliania, to forge a lasting alliance between the two lands as her marriage to Verity once did. The task is less simple than it appears, and Fitz becomes aware of wheels within wheels, as different interests war with each other with the stakes higher than anyone has imagined. These finally come to a head as Elliania declares she will not wed Dutiful without his undertaking a quest to slay Icefyre, one of the last true dragons.

Golden Fool

Leodan Akaran, ruler of the Known World, has inherited generations of apparent peace and prosperity, won ages ago by his ancestors. A widower of high intelligence, he presides over an empire called Acacia, after the idyllic island from which he rules. He dotes on his four children and hides from them the dark realities of traffic in drugs and human lives on which their prosperity depends. He hopes that he might change this, but powerful forces stand in his way. A deadly assassin sent from a race called the Mein, exiled long ago to an ice-locked stronghold in the frozen north, strikes at Leodan in the heart of Acacia while other enemies unleash surprise attacks across the empire. On his deathbed, Leodan puts into play a plan to allow his children to escape, each to their separate destiny. His children begin a quest to avenge their father''s death and restore the Acacian empire–this time on the basis of universal freedom. The novel is notable for the complexity of Durham''s imagined world, one in which political, economic, mythological and morally ambiguous forces all influence the fates of the ethnically and culturally diverse population. In some ways the novel uses familiar fantasy frameworks, but over the course of the novel many fantasy tropes are overturned or skewed in surprising ways. It is a fairly self-contained tale, but the author is at work on more volumes set in this world.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

The Chronoliths

By Robert Charles Wilson

When Red Is Black

By Qiu Xiaolong

Ligeia

By Edgar Allan Poe

Man from Mundania

By Piers Anthony

A Barrel of Laughs, a Vale of Tears

By Jules Feiffer

Wyvernhail

By Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Baital Pachisi

No Author Listed

Infinite Jest

By David Foster Wallace

The Guardian

By Nicholas Sparks

Book of Esther

No Author Listed

Golden Fool

By Robin Hobb

Acacia: The War With The Mein

By David Anthony Durham