The book is set in the fictional town of Winthrop. The protagonist of the book is an unnamed African-American "nomenclature consultant" who has had recent success in branding and selling Apex bandages, which come in multiple colors to better match a broad array of skin tones. The novel begins with the main character being contacted by his former employer, which he had left after losing a toe. He travels to the town of Winthrop after requests from the town council, which has proposed that the town be renamed. However, three key citizens disagree what the name should be: Albie Winthrop, descendant of the town''s namesake (who''d made his fortune in barbed wire); Regina Goode, the mayor (descendant of one of the town''s two founders); and Lucky Aberdeen, a software magnate who''s leading the drive to rename the town. Winthrop wants to keep the name; Goode wants the town to revert to the name it bore at its founding as a town of free blacks, Freedom; while Aberdeen wants to call it "New Prospera."

Apex Hides the Hurt

Civil war threatens the unity of the Galactic Alliance. To ensure financial stability, the Alliance wants more control in the powerful Corelian systems. This involves control over the Centerpoint Station, a powerful artifact that is capable, in the right hands, of destroying entire planets. The Corelian systems desire more independence than the Alliance is willing to let them have. Han and Leia Solo anger their families and friends by allying themselves with the Corellian insurgents. The Correlian government send the Solos on a diplomatic mission to the powerful Hapes Consortium, but Han and Leia are outraged when they discover a plan to buy Consortium support by murdering the pro-Alliance queen Tenel Ka and her daughter, long-time Solo family friends. The Solos race to solve the situation and save the intended victims. Neither the queen or her daughter are killed but the Solos are now the number one suspects in the assassination attempt. Meanwhle, Jacen Solo''s dark side powers grow stronger under the Dark Jedi Lumiya. As such, the Galactic Alliance Guard, which he commands, grows more powerful and corrupt. Lumiya is encouraging Jacen to make a sacrifice, by killing an important family member; this would "balance the Force". As Jacen goes closer to the dark side, his influence over his potential apprentice, Ben Skywalker, grows stronger. Various characters come together over the conflict. Luke, secretly betrayed by Jacen, nearly loses his life in a duel with Lumiya and the wayward Twi''lek Jedi Alema Rar. Han and Leia, on the run, literally come under fire from their own son, who is commanding the Star Destroyer Anakin Solo. They barely escape with their lives, though the Millennium Falcon is shot clean through and Leia''s friends, her two Noghri bodyguards, are killed. Regardless, the traitors in Tenel Ka''s Hapes Consortium and their Corellian allies fail their mission to overthrow the Queen Mother, and with Jacen''s fleet''s success in defending Tenel Ka, the two of them secretly embrace as lovers before he leaves her once again.

Tempest

The novel revolves around the mishaps of its narrator, Fred Trumper, a floundering late-twenty-something graduate student with serious commitment and honesty issues that earn him the nickname "Bogus." The novel shows Irving beginning to develop a blend of comedy and pathos, as well as a penchant for fashioning quirky characters. It follows a non-linear narrative in the form of a sort of ''confession'' authored by Trumper, who humorously recounts his various failures in life and love, from his New England childhood through his experiences on foreign study in Vienna, Austria, and as a graduate student in Iowa, leading up to the present-action setting, early-1970s New York, where Trumper is attempting to sever himself from his adolescent past. ''I want to change,'' Trumper says at the end of Chapter one. The phrase seems to be the novel''s central theme. The title refers to a method prescribed to Trumper for the treatment of non-specific urological disorders relating to his abnormally narrow urinary tract. Trumper''s urologist, Dr. Jean Claude Vigneron, offers him three options for the treatment of his disorder: abstinence from sex and alcohol, a painful operation to widen the urinary canal, or the Water Method, which consists simply of consuming abnormal quantities of water before and after sex to flush bacteria out of the urinary tract. Trumper opts for the Water Method, suggesting both his generally comical cowardice and lack of self-discipline. Trumper''s narration meanders through flashbacks revolving around his relationships with the novel''s two primary female characters: Sue ''Biggie'' Kunft, a former championship downhill skier whom Trumper courts, impregnates, and marries in Vienna while still a student, and Tulpen, Trumper''s present day live-in girlfriend, a documentary film editor in New York, where he lands after losing Biggie. Though the two relationships function chiefly as a means of demonstrating Bogus Trumper''s tendency to repeat his mistakes, Irving is often regarded for his strong, independent female characters, and Tulpen and Biggie can be seen as markers in the development of the strong women in his more popularly successful novels, particularly The World According to Garp (1979). Other characters include Trumper''s best childhood friend Couth, a still-photographer; Merrill Overturf, an alcoholic and diabetic loon Trumper befriends in Vienna; Ralph Packer, a pretentious documentary filmmaker who employs Trumper as a sound editor; and Colm, Trumper''s young son from his first marriage to Biggie. Trumper is a graduate student at the University of Iowa in comparative literature whose dissertation is to be a translation of an ancient, ''Old Low Norse'' epic called ''Akthelt and Gunnel''. Irving employs the ''Akthelt and Gunnel'' poem as a means for allowing Trumper to poke merciless fun at himself through analogously inventing the story of the poem according to his own life''s mishaps. de:Die wilde Geschichte vom Wassertrinker fr:L''Épopée du buveur d''eau lt:Vandens metodas pl:Metoda wodna

The Water-Method Man

Morrison''s protagonist, Macon "Milkman" Dead III, derives his nickname from the fact that he was breastfed during childhood (Macon''s age can be inferred as he was wearing pants with elastic instead of a diaper, and that he later forgets the event, suggesting he was still rather young). Milkman''s father''s employee, Freddie, happens to see him through the window being breastfed by his mother. He quickly gains a reputation for being a "Momma''s boy" in direct contrast to his (future) best friend, Guitar, who is motherless and fatherless. Milkman has two sisters, "First Corinthians" and "Magdelene called Lena." The daughters of the family are named by putting a pin in the Bible, while the eldest son is named after his father. The first Macon Dead''s name was the result of an administrative error when Milkman''s grandfather had to register subsequent to the end of slavery. Milkman''s mother (Ruth Foster Dead) is the daughter of the town''s only black doctor; she makes her husband feel inadequate, and it is clear she idolized her father, Doctor Foster, to the point of obsession. After her father dies, her husband claims to have found her in bed with the dead body, sucking his fingers. Ruth later tells Milkman that she was kneeling at her father''s bedside kissing the only part of him that remained unaffected by the illness from which he died. These conflicting stories expose the problems between his parents and show Milkman that "truth" is difficult or impossible to obtain. Macon (Jr.) is often violently aggressive towards Ruth because he believes that she was involved sexually with her father and loved her father more than her own husband. On one occasion, Milkman punches his father after he strikes Milkman''s mother, exposing the growing rift between father and son. In contrast, Macon Dead Jr.''s sister, Pilate, is seen as nurturing—an Earth Mother character. Born without a navel, she is a somewhat mystical character. It is strongly implied that she is Divine—a female Christ-in spite of her name. Macon (Jr.) has not spoken to his sister for years and does not think highly of her. She, like Macon, has had to fend for herself from an early age after their father''s murder, but she has dealt with her past in a different way than Macon, who has embraced money as the way to show his love for his father. Pilate has a daughter, Reba, and a granddaughter named Hagar. Hagar falls desperately and obsessively in love with Milkman, and is unable to cope with his rejection, attempting to kill him at least six times. Hagar is not the only character who attempts to kill Milkman. Guitar, Milkman''s erstwhile best friend, tries to kill Milkman more than once after incorrectly suspecting that Milkman has cheated him out of hidden gold, a fortune he planned to use to help his Seven Days group fund their revenge killings in response to killings of blacks. Searching for the gold near the old family farm in Pennsylvania, Milkman stops at the rotting Butler Mansion, former home of the people who killed his ancestor to claim the farm. Here he meets Circe, an almost supernaturally old ex-slave of the Butlers. She tells Milkman of his family history and this leads him to the town of Shalimar. There he learns his great-grandfather Solomon was said to have escaped slavery by flying back to Africa, leaving behind twenty-one children and his wife Ryna, who goes crazy with loss. Returning home, he learns that Hagar has died of a broken heart. He accompanies Pilate back to Shalimar, where she is accidentally shot and killed by Guitar, who had intended to kill Milkman. At the end of the novel, Milkman leaps towards Guitar. This leap is ambiguous, it is not explicitly stated that either or both is killed. However it brings the novel full circle from the suicidal "flight" of Robert Smith, the insurance agent, to Milkman''s "flight" in which he learns to fly like Pilate.

Song of Solomon

Rachel''s father asks her to move with him to another state. After some reconnaissance work, Marco and Tobias find an entrance to the underground Yeerk Pool, in one of the changing rooms at The Gap. The Animorphs decide to infiltrate the pool and to try to find the location of the Earth-based Kandrona by going in as cockroaches. Once inside the complex, however, they get caught on the tongue of a Taxxon. As they are about to be devoured, time freezes and they feel themselves being forcibly brought out of morph. They are then introduced to an all-powerful being called an Ellimist. The Ellimist tells the kids that he cannot interfere with other species, but when species are in danger of becoming extinct, he can step in and save a sample. He informs them that he wants to preserve part of Earth''s beauty, along with some humans, because the Yeerks are going to win the war in the future. The Animorphs ask how much time they have to consider the offer, but the Ellimist tells them that they must decide now. If they choose yes, they and their families would be transported to another planet, but if they choose no, everything would be returned to the way it was before the Ellimist''s arrival. The group puts the decision up to a vote, and during the deliberation, Jake and Rachel notice a drop shaft and a human frozen in the act of moving up in it. The Animorphs choose not to accept the Ellimist''s offer and are immediately back in cockroach morph on a Taxxon''s tongue. They are able to demorph and fight their way to the drop shaft to escape the Yeerk pool. Later, The Ellimist appears to the group again to give them the choice one more time. To aid their decision, he transports them to a grim future in which the Yeerks have enslaved Earth. Rachel notices, with some confusion, that most of the skyscrapers and buildings in the city have been leveled except for the tallest one: the EGS Tower. This tower stood at the base of a large, open Yeerk pool and was covered with a shiny dome. After they return to their own time, the Animorphs reverse their earlier decision and accept the Ellimist''s offer. They expect to be immediately whisked away, however, nothing happens. Rachel is disconcerted by this and concludes that the Ellimist did not transport them because he wanted a different answer. While thinking on it, she realizes that only because of the Ellimist''s first appearance were they able to see the drop shaft and know that there was a chance to escape the Taxxon''s grip. She then determines that during the trip to the future, the Ellimist was once again simply trying to show them something that he could not overtly tell them without interfering. She remembers the EGS Tower, deduces that the Kandrona must be located there, and gathers the rest of the Animorphs for a raid. After a vicious battle just before dawn, the Animorphs manage to take the top floor of the tower and destroy the Kandrona by shoving it out of the window. The Ellimist appears to them again, and confirms Rachel''s suspicion that even he cannot tell the future, and humans might win the war yet. Rachel tells her father she can''t move with him. *The Ellimist is introduced. *The Earth-based Kandrona of the Animorphs'' city area is destroyed, but it is replaced three weeks and a few books later.

The Stranger

A man is waiting in a seemingly endless line, but for what? The Queue begins with a cacophony of voices and the protagonist, Vadim, encountering a lady named Lena. As the day progresses the queue-goers realize that they have no choice but to come back the next day to finally receive their items. A woman comes along handing out numbers so that the next day there will be limited chaos. Vadim and Lena end up spending the night in the park on benches along with other members of the queue. And again the same process begins all over again; people sharing their speculations of what’s being sold, others trying to figure out the rate that the line is moving, and the occasional break from waiting in the queue to get food or drink—essentially waiting in other queues. After this ensues yet another roll-call emphasizing just how many people are waiting for unknown objects. Finally after two days of waiting it appears that the end of the line is in site, but suddenly it begins pouring and Vadim seeks shelter. He is taken into an apartment owned by a lady named Lyuda. After a simple meal and an intelligent discussion, the two of them make love and fall asleep. The next morning Lyuda reveals that she works at the store everyone is queued up for, and that his days of waiting were in vain.

The Queue

Firestar''s Quest takes place between The Darkest Hour and Midnight. The novel follows Firestar, leader of ThunderClan on a journey to find a fifth lost Clan of the forest called SkyClan. Firestar and his mate Sandstorm journey upriver in order to rebuild the long-lost Clan. When they arrive at the Clan''s former home, they meet Skywatcher, (the remaining survivor of SkyClan), who tells them about SkyClan''s story, and shows them the Whispering Cave, they also find SkyClan''s old home deserted, the caves strangely marked with tiny claw marks resembling those of rats. Firestar gathers together Leafdapple, Sparrowpelt, Sharpclaw, Echosong, Rainfur, Petalnose, Clovertail, Patchfoot, Shortwhisker, Cherrytail, Sagekit, Mintkit, Tinypaw, Rockpaw, and Bouncepaw. Eventually, Firestar re-establishes the Clan and helps the Clan fight the force that destroyed the ancient SkyClan: rats. Though SkyClan emerges victorious, the warrior Rainfur is murdered and Firestar loses his second life. As Firestar and Sandstorm prepare to return home, Leafdapple is made the leader and renamed Leafstar in the Whispering Cave, which is used to connect to the SkyClan ancestors. Sharpclaw is made deputy of the Clan, and Echosong becomes the medicine cat. In the epilogue, Sandstorm and Firestar''s new kits are born. They decide to name one Squirrelkit (after her bushy tail), and the other Leafkit (in honor of SkyClan''s new leader, Leafstar, and after Spottedleaf). SkyClan blood runs through ThunderClan in cats such as Spottedleaf from Spottedpelt and Tigerclaw from Gorseclaw. Before Firestar left the forest, a whole series of events happened that weren''t shown in the The New Prophecy. Such events included the warrior Longtail losing his sight because a rabbit clawed his eyes, Willowpelt being killed by a badger, and Bramblepaw receiving his warrior name Brambleclaw. warrior ceremony. Also, Sootpaw got a new mentor, Thornclaw. This book is also the origin of the prophecy "There will be three, kin of your kin who holds the power of the stars in their paws." The prophecy was passed on to Firestar by Skywatcher.

Firestar''s Quest

Eight years after the Change, Clan Mackenzie and the Bearkillers, led by Juniper Mackenzie and Mike Havel, respectively, have carved sections out in the Willamette Valley for their groups. They have become bitter rivals with the Portland Protective Association (PPA), led by the Armingers. The Barons of the PPA constantly violate ceasefires between the three warring factions. During one of their raids, Eddie Liu, Baron and Marchwarden of the PPA, is confronted by a small group of Mackenzies, led by Eilir Mackenzie and Astrid Larsson. After a short skirmish, Liu leaves, again swearing revenge against the Clan. In the meantime, a small group of British soldiers, led by Sir Nigel Loring, Alleyne Loring and John Hordle, formerly of the Special Air Service, are on their way to Portland, having left England by sailing ship after being imprisoned by King Charles III. Upon arrival, Lord Arminger isolates them, and has them to help him find and obtain nerve gas. They trick him into taking a test canister of nerve gas and multiple canisters that have been neutralized. The British then defeat their guards and escape to the south. Mike Havel, the Bear Lord and Signe Larsson Havel, his wife, go on a scouting mission to find and destroy Crusher Bailey, a PPA Associate who has been raiding and taking slaves. Crusher Bailey attempts to ambush the couple, who have been masquerading as travelers with a horse herd and a wagon of valuables. Mike and Signe retreat to the ruins of what was once a porn video store. The two prepare to fight off the bandits while they are waiting for the backup force, led by Will Hutton, to arrive. During the fight, the British refugees see the fight and attack the bandits. The bandits flee, losing most of their forces, and the British help the Bearkillers find and annihilate the enemy camp. Sir Nigel and his son meet the Mackenzies during the fight, and come across their old friend Sam Aylward. Aylward was formerly a sergeant under Sir Nigel, and the British troops choose to join the Mackenzies. At this point, the MacKenzies tell the story of their raid into PPA territory where after ambushing a horse-drawn train, they captured Norman Arminger''s daughter and heir, Mathilda. Soon after, Eddie Liu and his massive bodyguard Mack arrive on a diplomatic mission. After negotiating with Lady Juniper, they leave. Astrid Larsson and Eilir Mackenzie with their small band of Rangers discover an enemy camp of PPA knights. Liu returns as they attempt to warn the Mackenzies. Liu shoots nerve gas at the guards, killing all of them, and frees Mathilda. Liu searches Rudi Mackenzie''s tent for a book that Mathilda gave Rudi that contains the key to PPA codes. A fight breaks out, with Liu and his troops fighting the Mackenzies and Rangers. Mack seriously wounds Rudi before he is killed by Hordle, and Liu is killed by Eilir Mackenzie. The Bearkillers arrive soon after and mop up the remaining PPA knights. Rudi is saved by Signe, who overcomes her distaste for him and saves him with a blood transfusion. The book ends with Rudi''s initiation into Wicca.

The Protector''s War

On a local moon of Talin IV a Federation first contact observation post is monitoring the events on the planet below with growing confusion and concern. Talin IV, a world inhabited by a reptilian society with a culture equivalent to late-20th century Earth, and possible first contact prospect for the Federation in the near future, is now a world divided. The two principal nation states of the planet have become increasingly paranoid and in danger of instigating a nuclear war. Provocations seem to be coming from each side, although both sides deny any intrusions into enemy space. Each nation''s heightened security has made the first contact office work much harder, as detection has become more likely. Further complicating matters, Talin scientists have been researching naturally occurring dilithium crystals that may be capable of sensing the advanced subspace signals used by the galactic community. While the discovery of an interplanetary culture would allow for contact with the Federation, it is also possible the Talin will destroy themselves before they make that historic leap. To avoid accidentally revealing their presence and possibly affecting the delicate political situation, the Talin system is locked down by the first contact office so no use of subspace or warp drive are permitted near the planet. While preparing for their mission, James T. Kirk, Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy discuss the similar situation that faced Earth. To determine whether or not the first contact office has been discovered, Kirk and a joint Enterprise/first contact office team beam down to the planet at one point, narrowly escaping detection. Soon after, Kirk prevents an accidental nuclear detonation from erupting into full-scale nuclear war. Afterward, Kirk convenes a board of inquiry on his own actions, and it is determined that he acted to prevent what was most likely a computer error from destroying a world. However, shortly after the inquiry, all the planet''s nuclear arsenals are fired at their targets at once. The Enterprise is crippled when an intercontinental ballistic missile warhead explodes nearby. The fact that the missile targets the Enterprise is seemingly conclusive proof that Kirk''s actions have not only revealed the existence of his ship, but that his prior intervention has also prevented the Talin culture from learning the lessons needed to prevent nuclear self-destruction. Kirk and the other senior officers (with the exception of Scotty, who was not on the bridge at the time) are blamed for the destruction of Talin civilization, attributed to their supposed violation of Starfleet''s Prime Directive (hence the title of the book), and either resign from Starfleet, are demoted to ensign, or in Uhura''s case, court-martialed and dishonorably discharged. Although they are separated, Kirk''s crew do not give up individual efforts to return and establish what went wrong at Talin. Kirk, under assumed aliases, works his way across space as laborer and cargo chief. Sulu and Chekov join up with an Orion smuggler and slave trader in order to steal his ship. Uhura and McCoy join forces and purchase a space craft and create a fictitious identity for McCoy, the dread pirate "Black Ire". On Earth, Spock joins forces with a radical student group that advocates the elimination of the Prime Directive. Through manipulation of the student group, the Vulcan embassy and the by-laws of the Federation, Spock arranges for two Talin astronauts (one from each of the two Talin superpowers) who escaped before the planet''s destruction, to speak before the Federation Council as ambassadors for their planet and request the Federation''s help. Through various means, Spock, Kirk and the other senior Enterprise officers rendezvous with Scotty (who has been working feverishly to refurbish the nearly-destroyed Enterprise) at the now-closed observation post on Talin''s moon. It is revealed that the nations of Talin IV were manipulated into attacking each other by insect-like drones of a planet-sized creature called the "One" slowly approaching Talin IV. The drones (called the "Many") were sent to prepare Talin IV for consumption by the One. The drones inadvertently fomented the nuclear exchange by their efforts to create conditions on the planets'' surface conducive to the growth of the algae that is the One''s food. Ultimately, a gas giant planet in the Talin system is substituted for Talin IV as the One''s new food source, sparing Talin IV without destroying the One. Restored to command of the Enterprise, Kirk lands on the surface of the planet with an away team which begins reviving billions of Talin who have survived by going into hibernation.

Prime Directive

Marcus Brutus is Caesar''s close friend and a Roman praetor. Brutus allows himself to be cajoled into joining a group of conspiring senators because of a growing suspicion—implanted by Caius Cassius—that Caesar intends to turn republican Rome into a monarchy under his own rule. The early scenes deal mainly with Brutus''s arguments with Cassius and his struggle with his own conscience. The growing tide of public support soon turns Brutus against Caesar (this public support was actually faked; Cassius wrote letters to Brutus in different handwritings over the next month in order to get Brutus to join the conspiracy). A soothsayer warns Caesar to "beware the Ides of March," which he ignores, culminating in his assassination at the Capitol by the conspirators that day, despite being warned by the soothsayer and Artemidrous, one of Caesar''s supporters at the entrance of the Capitol. Caesar''s assassination is one of the most famous scenes of the play, occurring in Act 3 (the other is Mark Antony''s oration "Friends, Romans, countrymen".) After ignoring the soothsayer as well as his wife''s own premonitions, Caesar comes to the Senate. The conspirators create a superficial motive for the assassination by means of a petition brought by Metellus Cimber, pleading on behalf of his banished brother. As Caesar, predictably, rejects the petition, Casca grazes Caesar in the back of his neck, and the others follow in stabbing him; Brutus is last. At this point, Caesar utters the famous line "Et tu, Brute?" ("And you, Brutus?", i.e. "You too, Brutus?"). Shakespeare has him add, "Then fall, Caesar," suggesting that Caesar did not want to survive such treachery. The conspirators make clear that they committed this act for Rome, not for their own purposes and do not attempt to flee the scene. After Caesar''s death, Brutus delivers an oration defending his actions, and for the moment, the crowd is on his side. However, Mark Antony, with a subtle and eloquent speech over Caesar''s corpse—beginning with the much-quoted "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears"—deftly turns public opinion against the assassins by manipulating the emotions of the common people, in contrast to the rational tone of Brutus''s speech. Antony rouses the mob to drive the conspirators from Rome. Amid the violence, the innocent poet, Cinna, is confused with the conspirator Lucius Cinna and is murdered by the mob. The beginning of Act Four is marked by the quarrel scene, where Brutus attacks Cassius for soiling the noble act of regicide by accepting bribes ("Did not great Julius bleed for justice'' sake? / What villain touch''d his body, that did stab, / And not for justice?") The two are reconciled; they prepare for war with Mark Antony and Caesar''s adopted son, Octavian (Shakespeare''s spelling: Octavius). That night, Caesar''s ghost appears to Brutus with a warning of defeat ("thou shalt see me at Philippi"). At the battle, Cassius and Brutus knowing they will probably both die, smile their last smiles to each other and hold hands. During the battle, Cassius commits suicide after hearing of the capture of his best friend, Titinius. After Titinius, who wasn''t really captured, sees Cassius''s corpse, he commits suicide. However, Brutus wins that stage of the battle - but his victory is not conclusive. With a heavy heart, Brutus battles again the next day. He loses and commits suicide. The play ends with a tribute to Brutus by Antony, who proclaims that Brutus has remained "the noblest Roman of them all" because he was the only conspirator who acted for the good of Rome. There is then a small hint at the friction between Mark Antony and Octavius which will characterise another of Shakespeare''s Roman plays, Antony and Cleopatra.

Julius Caesar

:"I am going to write down some of the history of Harry Penrose, because I do not think full justice has been done to him..." The novel follows the career of a young officer, Harry Penrose, written from the viewpoint of a close friend who acts as narrator. A sensitive, educated young man, Penrose had enlisted in the ranks in 1914, immediately after completing his second year at Oxford. After six months in training he had been prevailed upon by his relatives - like most educated volunteers - to take a commission as an officer. Penrose slowly asserts himself; the war takes a toll on his personality, but he begins to live up to his early dreams of heroism. However, his creeping self-doubt grows by degrees; he is reassigned from his post as scouting officer once on the Somme, knowing he cannot face another night patrol, and earns the wrath of his commanding officer - an irascible Regular colonel - over a trivial incident. The colonel piles difficult, risky work on him - remarking to the narrator that "Master Penrose can go on with [leading ration parties] until he learns to do them properly" - and Penrose submits, working doggedly to try and keep from cracking. After a long period of this treatment, by the winter of 1916, Penrose''s spirit is worn down; when the narrator is invalided home with an injury in February 1917, his last support is gone. He is wounded in May at Arras - a friend remarking in a letter that "you''d have said he wanted to be killed" - and they meet again in London in November. Penrose has been offered a safe job in military intelligence; he comes within a moment of taking it, but at the last minute resolves to return to France. Returning to his battalion, he is detailed for a party to the front line by the colonel within an hour; when the narrator arrives six weeks later, he discovers Penrose is under arrest for cowardice in the face of the enemy. It transpired that each time the party advanced, it had to break for the ditches to avoid shellfire, then regroup and move further; after some time, Penrose decided to fall back and wait under cover for the shelling to halt. Seeing a dugout down the road, they make a run for it under shellfire - to find it occupied by a senior officer, himself sheltering from the shelling, who promptly reports that "he had seen the officer in charge and some of the party running down the road — demoralized" and is ordered to arrest him and return. Penrose is court-martialled on these charges, and convicted; the court''s recommendation for mercy is ignored, and he is shot one morning, a week later, by a party of men from his own company. Penrose is presented in a glowing light throughout - "never anything but modest and dutiful; he always tries his best to do his bit" - but, ultimately, is failed by the system. He faces his trial honestly, without pleading circumstances ("The real charge was that I''d lost my nerve — and I had. And I didn''t want to wangle out of it like that") but it is clear that whilst he is strictly guilty of the charge ("on the only facts they had succeeded in discovering it could hardly have been anything else") justice, by any sense of the word, had not been done to him. :"...[and] that is all I have tried to do. This book is not an attack on any person, on the death penalty, or on anything else, though if it makes people think about these things, so much the better. I think I believe in the death penalty — I do not know. But I did not believe in Harry being shot. :That is the gist of it; that my friend Harry was shot for cowardice — and he was one of the bravest men I ever knew."

The Secret Battle

The book is in four sections: * "The Shadow of Mount Elgon" delves into the history of filoviruses, as well as speculation about the origins of AIDS. Preston accounts the story of "Charles Monet" (a pseudonym), who might have caught MARV from visiting Kitum Cave on Mount Elgon in Kenya. The author describes in great detail the progression of the disease, from the initial headache and backache, to the final stage in which Monet''s internal organs fail and he "bleeds out" (i.e., hemorrhages extensively) in a waiting room in a Nairobi hospital. This part also introduces a young promising physician who becomes infected with MARV while treating Monet. Nancy Jaax''s story is told. Viruses, and biosafety levels and procedures are described. The EVD outbreaks caused by EBOV and its cousin, Sudan virus (SUDV) are mentioned. Preston talks to the man who named Ebola virus. * "The Monkey House" chronicles the discovery of Reston virus virus among imported monkeys in Reston, Virginia, and the following actions taken by the U.S. Army and Centers for Disease Control. * "Smashdown" is more on the Reston epizootic, which involved a strain of the virus that does not affect humans but which easily spreads by air, and is very similar to its cousin the Ebola virus. * "Kitum Cave" tells of the author''s visiting the cave that is the suspected home of the natural host animal that Ebola lives inside of. The book starts with "Charles Monet" visiting Kitum Cave during a camping trip to Mount Elgon in Central Africa. Not long after, he begins to suffer from a number of symptoms, including vomiting, diarrhea and red eye. He is soon taken to Nairobi Hospital for treatment, but his condition deteriorates further and he goes into a coma while in the waiting room. He dies, but not before a Doctor named Shem Musoke, attempting to insert a laryngoscope, is infected by exposure to Charles'' blood and vomit. Musoke is one of the few to become symptomatic from a filovirus and survive. This particular filovirus is called Marburg virus. Dr. Nancy Jaax had been promoted to work in the Level 4 Biosafety containment area at USAMRIID, and is assigned to research Ebola virus. While preparing food for her family at home, she cuts her right hand. Later, while working on a dead, EBOV-infected monkey, one of the gloves on the hand with the open wound tears, and she is almost exposed to contaminated blood, but does not get infected. Meanwhile, Peter Cardinal, a ten-year-old, visits Kitum Cave, gets infected with a MARV relative, Ravn virus (RAVV), and does not survive this infection. Nurse Mayinga is also infected by a nun and elects to visit Nairobi Hospital for treatment, where she succumbs to the disease. A CDC team arrives to collect samples of the virus for study. In Reston, Virginia, less than fifteen miles (24&nbsp;km) away from Washington, DC, a company called Hazelton Research once operated a quarantine center for monkeys that were destined for laboratories. In October 1989, when an unusually high number of their monkeys began to die, their veterinarian decided to send some samples to Fort Detrick (USAMRIID) for study. At the time, it was believed that the virus was Simian hemorrhagic fever virus, a viral hemorrhagic fever harmless to humans but almost always fatal to other primates (see zoonosis). Early during the testing process in biosafety level 3, when one of the flasks appeared to be contaminated with harmless pseudomonas bacterium, two USAMRIID scientists exposed themselves to the virus by wafting the flask. When they eventually tested the samples with known Level 4 agents, only EBOV reacted with the unknown samples. They decided not to tell anyone about their exposure, but they did secretly test their blood every day. After one of the monkey house staff members becomes ill with nausea and violent vomiting, USAMRIID is given permission to send in a team to euthanize all the monkeys at the facility and collect tissue samples. They later determine that, while the virus is terrifyingly lethal to monkeys, humans can be infected with it without any health effects at all. This virus is now known as Reston virus (RESTV). Finally, the author himself goes into Africa to explore Kitum Cave. On the way, he discusses the role of AIDS in the present, as the highway they were on, sometimes called the "AIDS Highway," or the "Kinshasa Highway" was where it first appeared. Equipped with a Hazmat suit, he enters the cave and finds a large number of animals, one of which might be the virus carrier. At the conclusion of the book, he travels to the quarantine facility in Reston. The building there was abandoned and deteriorating. He concludes the book by saying EBOV will be back.

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