Princess Jatta wakes on her bedroom floor after a night’s carnage she cannot remember, suffering a guilt she cannot explain. Piece by piece she uncovers two frightening truths: she is a werewolf; Dartith’s King Brackensith has claimed her as bride for his son. Any protection her father’s kingdom of Alteeda has offered Jatta crumbles when, on her fourteenth birthday, Brackensith invades. Jatta and her brother Arthmael escape to seek help from Sorcerer Redd. They leave him, taking the orb. This purple, plum-sized magical ball creates vivid illusions of sight, sound, smell and taste so convincingly that only the sense of touch can expose them. With Jatta’s own prodigious imagination she soon masters the orb. Its illusions provide almost limitless possibilities for deception, entertainment and escape. However, Jatta cannot escape the sinister werewolf episodes she now suffers. As Brackensith’s grip tightens on Alteeda, Jatta realises that only her surrender will save her kingdom. Her journey with Arthmael to Dartith’s dark isle is fraught with dangers. They are kidnapped, thrown to dragons, and trapped with lost souls inside an enchanted fire. Jatta is forced into a betrothal to the dangerously unbalanced Prince Riz. On Dartith, where night stretches for sixteen of every twenty-four hours, Jatta and Arthmael meet and befriend Princess Noriglade, Brackensith’s Undead daughter. Noriglade also despises what she is. Though the Undead rarely kill, they do kidnap their victim’s soul as they drink, a torturous experience for the victim and a corrupting one for the Undead. Noriglade and Arthmael yearn to escape to Alteeda. Jatta resigns herself to staying, fearing her wolf is invading her personality. When mad Prince Riz stages a coup, the three young Royals are caught up in the massacre. It is Jatta’ unique powers that save them, and Jatta, Arthmael and Noriglade return to Alteeda.

Jatta

June, AD 80: When Flavia Gemina''s father Marcus leaves on another sea voyage, she and her three friends – Nubia, Jonathan, and Lupus – accept an invitation from their friend Polla Pulchra to spend the rest of the month at her father''s luxurious villa in Surrentum. Behind the invitation is a plea for help: Pulchra''s mother, Polla Argentaria, seems to fall ill whenever they have houseguests, and Pulchra suspects someone is trying to poison her mother. On the pretext of a matchmaking party, Pulchra has convinced her father to invite all of Pulchra''s suspects: three young widows and three bachelors. Romance is thick in the air: Flavia still nurses a secret love for Pulchra''s father, the charismatic Publius Pollius Felix, despite the difference in their ages. She is flustered to find that the male guests include the young lawyer Gaius Valerius Flaccus, who shared a past adventure with them (in The Colossus of Rhodes). Pulchra also takes a shine to Flaccus, even while growing closer to Jonathan. Flavia also meets, for the first time, the young senator''s son she has been betrothed to: Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus. The two do not make a favorable impression on each other, but gradually she is won over by his inquisitive nature and willingness to help in their investigation. Flavia assigns each member of her new "team" to watch one of the young bachelors or widows, but no obvious suspect turns up. However, their surveillance does reveal the disquieting fact that Felix regularly cheats on his wife, with the female houseguests, the young slave girls, and several women from the nearby town of Baiae (whilst there are no explicit depictions of sexual activity in the novel, there is certain implicit material which might surprise in a children''s novel). They consider whether one of the young widows (or even Felix himself) is trying to poison Polla to make way for a new marriage. Tranquillus has the idea of consulting a poisoning expert in Baiae, Locusta (purportedly the daughter of the famous poisoner employed by Nero). Locusta says Polla''s symptoms are consistent with poisoning by hemlock, which shows that the poisoner must be an amateur: hemlock is only lethal if used in the correct dose, and when it is fresh. Locusta draws the conclusion that Polla has built up a resistance to hemlock because of this. Flavia has the idea of laying a trap: she lets the adults overhear her angrily scolding Tranquillus for bringing back a packet of incredibly lethal poison from Locusta for "research purposes," and tells him to hide it in an isolated part of the villa. They lie in wait to see who steals it, and the poisoner turns out to be Polla herself. Driven to despair by her husband''s repeated infidelities, she has been trying (somewhat half-heartedly) to commit suicide. Flavia watches her swallow a cup of wine laced with the non-existent poison, then faint from its imagined effects. Flavia then confronts Felix, telling him how much his selfish behavior has wounded his wife. Pulchra, who once idolized her father, is so distraught by her parents'' behavior that she makes her own half-hearted attempt at suicide, swimming out to sea to drown herself. Flavia convinces her to come back, telling her that her parents can mend their relationship, and to remember that Flavia and the others are still her friends. Felix calls Flavia into his study to thank her in private for helping his wife and daughter. To her surprise, he moves closer, as though wanting to kiss her. Though she has dreamed about him doing this before, now that it is about to happen, she is suddenly repulsed, and excuses herself in a hurry. She runs out, deciding to forget that she has ever loved him. Tranquillus receives a harsh letter from his father, who has heard about some of the wilder goings-on at the villa, and put a scandalous interpretation on some of his innocent exchanges with Flavia. The letter ends with his father ordering him to end the betrothal and return to Rome. Tranquillus is furious, but has no choice but to obey. Flavia is saddened, as she was honestly getting to like Tranquillus. As the four friends depart the villa, she decides that she is in no hurry to fall in love and get married. Instead, she is determined to enjoy her childhood for as long as possible, and have as many adventures with her friends as she can.

The Sirens of Surrentum

The book is set in the fictional village of King''s Abbott in England. It is narrated by Dr. James Sheppard, who becomes Poirot''s assistant (a role filled by Captain Hastings in several other Poirot novels). The story begins with the death of Mrs. Ferrars, a wealthy widow who is rumoured to have murdered her husband. Her death is initially believed to be an accident until Roger Ackroyd, a widower who had been expected to marry Mrs. Ferrars, reveals that she admitted to killing her husband and then committed suicide. Shortly after this he is found murdered. The suspects include Mrs. Cecil Ackroyd, Roger''s neurotic hypochondriac sister-in-law who has accumulated personal debts through extravagant spending; her daughter Flora; Major Blunt, a big-game hunter; Geoffrey Raymond, Ackroyd''s personal secretary; Ralph Paton, Ackroyd''s stepson and another person with heavy debts; Parker, a snooping butler; and Ursula Bourne, a parlourmaid with an uncertain history who resigned her post the afternoon of the murder. Dr Sheppard''s spinster sister Caroline is a favourite character among many and some say she could have been in another book. The initial suspect is Ralph, who is engaged to Flora and stands to inherit his stepfather''s fortune. Several critical pieces of evidence seem to point to Ralph. Poirot, who has just moved to the town, begins to investigate at Flora''s behest. The book ends with a then-unprecedented plot twist. Poirot exonerates all of the original suspects. He then lays out a completely reasoned case that the murderer is in fact Dr. Sheppard, who has not only been Poirot''s assistant, but the story''s narrator. Dr. Sheppard was Mrs. Ferrars'' blackmailer, and he murdered Ackroyd to stop him learning the truth from Mrs. Ferrars. Poirot gives the doctor two choices: either he surrenders to the police or, for the sake of his clean reputation and his proud sister, he commits suicide. In the final chapter of Sheppard''s narrative (a sort of epilogue), Sheppard admits his guilt, noting certain literary techniques he used to write the narrative truthfully without revealing his role in the crime or doing anything to suggest that he knew the truth, and reveals that he had hoped to be the one to write the account of Poirot''s great failure: not solving the murder of Roger Ackroyd. Thus, the last chapter acts as both Sheppard''s confession and suicide note. The final revelation uses meta-fictional tropes. The ending also opens up the question whether narrators can be trusted or not. Christie uses unreliable narrator again in 1967 novel Endless Night. Reader response to the ending varies from admiration of the unexpected end to a feeling of being cheated. In the novel, Christie has laid side by side two modes of gathering of information and building of hypothesis. One is Poirot''s use of ratiocination, the other is the channel of gossiping, practised by almost all inhabitants of King''s Abbott, in particular, Caroline. While even Caroline is able to interpret certain situations correctly, Christie privileges scientific mode of investigation by unveiling the murderer through Poirot.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

When a massive, artificially-created structure enters the galaxy, a society of technologically advanced humans (capable of interstellar flight and functionally immortal) are the first to intercept and investigate it. Finding it to be an indestructible ship, they decide to convert it into a cruise ship, inviting alien races to join them in its massive, uncharted interior as it makes a slow circumnavigation of the Milky Way. After thousands of years, with over 200 billion creatures living in its upper levels, a group of explorers discover a planet hidden in the core of the Great Ship. As they explore it, however, an ionic blast cuts them off from the rest of the ship and destroys much of their technology. Because this planet, Marrow, is slowly expanding, the explorers reason that a new bridge can be built in another 5,000 years. They thus begin a civilization on the surface of Marrow. The descendants of these original explorers come to believe that the large superstructure has been built to contain the Bleak, a race of nearly unstoppable insect-like creatures. Calling themselves the Wayward, they take over the ship when the bridge is completed and attempt to steer it towards a black hole to destroy the Bleak. One of the original explorers sees a vision of the Builders of the ship fighting the Bleak, containing them within the heart of Marrow and constructing the ship around it as a prison. The Bleak, it is concluded, have twisted the Wayward into destroying the ship so that they may escape. They stop the Wayward''s plan by undermining the ship''s control and command systems to divert the engines'' thrust just enough to skim past the black hole. The book ends with the suggestion that, with Marrow being a prison for the Bleak and the Great Ship an extension of that prison, the universe itself could be a further layer constructed by the Builders.

Marrow

Whensday Bluehouse is an orphan who was rescued from a life working in the Pitts by coffin maker Tick Burrowman. Burrowman is attempting to make a profit by selling Whensday to a woman from Toptown, a part of the world that is unaffected by acid rain and life on The Shelf. Whensday is unsure of the security of this exchange, and sneaks away one night. Burrowman may have actually grown fond of Whensday, and it is unclear if he is interested in giving her away after all. While Whensday is on the run, she stumbles upon a large, mentally handicapped teenager named Honeycut Greenhouse, obviously another orphan. He was separated from his brother, much as Whensday was, and it is obvious that Honeycut doesn’t have the faculties to take care of himself. Whensday decides to befriend Honeycut, and he rescues her during a vicious rape by Second Staff Brown, a minor officer in the military. Honeycut kills Brown, and a manhunt begins, ending with Honeycut’s capture. Whensday flees and hides in the only place she knows, Tick Burrowman’s home. Upon her arrival, she finds him dead, and a former friend, Joe Painter, seriously ill. They cobble together a flotilla of “body boxes” and attempt to paddle up the river, away from the Shelf and the head for Toptown. But Joe Painter dies on the trip, and the current carries Whensday back to the shelf. She is rescued by a secret clan of women, hiding from the Syndicate, and she stays with them.

The Copper Elephant

Under threat of execution after his conviction by the Time Lords at the end of The War Games, the Doctor is granted a reprieve if he agrees to undertake missions for the Celestial Intervention Agency. Accompanied and supervised by the ambitious Lady Serena, their first mission is to halt attacks upon three key figures in Earth''s past: Napoleon Bonaparte, The Duke of Wellington, and Charles Maurice de Talleyrand. The Doctor re-encounters the Player known as the Countess and struggles to end her Grand Plan to allow Napoleon to win his various European campaigns. Her plan to set the City States of Europe against each other is stopped by the Doctor, despite her setting a Raston Warrior Robot and a vampire on him and Serena. In preventing the Countess''s assassination scheme on Wellington, Serena is killed. The Countess has many back up plans, and at the Battle of Waterloo, her plan to prevent the Prussians coming to the English army''s relief is thwarted when the Doctor imitates Napoleon himself to get through the French lines and deliver new orders to the Prussian commander. After returning to Gallifrey and discovering a traitor in the CIA who had been using the time scoop to assist the Countess, the Doctor is sent on a mission to investigate the time travel experiments of Kartz and Reimer.

World Game

At the end of The Necromancer, twins Sophie and Josh Newman were separated. Sophie left with the now very weak protagonist Nicholas Flamel, his wife, Perenelle Flamel and Niten, an immortal Japanese swordsman; while Josh exited with the main antagonist Dr. John Dee and his accomplice Virginia Dare. Mars Ultor, the Avenger, sees Sophie, accompanied by Niten, seeking a way to reclaim her brother. Nicholas Flamel is unable to help her in the search as he lapsed into unconsciousness after the battle against Dr. Dee, Virginia Dare and the Archon, Coatlicue. Perenelle and Prometheus escape from Hades, Prometheus''s long drawn-out punishment shadowrealm, which crumbles into nothing, because Prometheus uses most of his aura to feed the crystal skull. Meanwhile, in the Catacombs underneath Paris the previously imprisoned and very powerful Elder, Mars Ultor has a conversation with his wife, the Witch of Endor, and the Egyptian Elders: Isis and Osiris. The witch has come there to free him while Isis and Osiris are hunting down Dr. John Dee. In San Francisco, Niten leads Sophie to Tsagaglalal, She Who Watches, who is in reality Sophie''s Aunt Agnes. Perenelle, Nicholas, and Prometheus join them shortly. Nicholas is set to die within the day and Perenelle two days later, but the mysterious Hook-Handed Man told Perenelle long ago that she could give her husband one more day of life in exchange for one of her own. Through a ritual that requires Tsagaglalal and Sophie''s auras, Perenelle is able to keep Nicholas alive for another day as well as awaken him from his coma. In Danu Talis, Scathach, Saint Germain, Palamedes, Shakespeare, and Joan of Arc are captured and sent to a volcano prison. Marethyu is captured and taken to the ruler of Danu Talis, Aten. Aten is facing betrayal from his brother, Anubis and mother Bastet. He fears the destruction of Danu Talis but also reaches an epiphany that if Danu Talis is not brought down, future civilizations will never be created. He asks the Hook-Handed Man for advice. Marethyu advises that Aten become an oath breaker, or a warlock, and turn the city over to Marethyu. He agrees but Anubis arrives to arrest Aten. Aten allows himself to be captured to let Marethyu escape in a crystal vimana (flying saucer). In the present, Odin, Hel, Black Hawk, and Mars Ultor arrive at Tsagaglalal''s home to seek her wisdom. Tsagaglalal then gives everyone emerald tablets that Abraham the Mage (who was her husband) wrote personally for them. Mars, Hel, and Odin then go to Alcatraz to kill Dee. Nicholas, Perenelle, Niten, and Prometheus go to the Embarcadero to stop The Lotan, a seven-headed sea monster released by Dee with the help of the Elder, Nereus. Sophie spends time with Tsagaglalal who teaches her the Magic of Earth. To her surprise, however, Sophie is taught that all magic is one; there is no true division, it is just pure imagination. Tsagagalal takes Sophie to reunite with Josh on Alcatraz. While spending time together on Alcatraz, Machiavelli bonds with Billy the Kid and they decide to break the oaths made to their Elder masters, becoming warlocks. This angers Dee, who nearly allows the Sphinx to kill Billy, but he is stopped by Dare, who knows Billy from years past. Under the influence of Dee and the sword Clarent, Josh helps Dee release the wild and dangerous beasts being kept in the prison as a part of Dee''s newest and most desperate scheme--he not only wants to destroy the Elders and rebuild the Earth, but also claim the other shadowrealms and Danu Talis. Sophie reaches Alcatraz by leygate through her jade tablet and refuses to leave Josh.

The Warlock: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

At the conclusion of Vault of the Drow, the characters find an astral gate leading to the Abyssal realm of Lolth, Demon Queen of Spiders, goddess of the drow elves and architect of the sinister plot described in the series involving hill giants, frost giants, fire giants, kuo-toa, drow, and other creatures. Her realm, the 66th layer of the Abyss, is referred to as the Demonweb Pits. The player characters are transported to another plane and cast into the labyrinth known as the Demonweb. In order to return home, the characters must find their way out of the web and then defeat the evil demigoddess Lolth in her lair. The Q1 module was the first to offer a glimpse into the Abyss itself, home to the D&D race of Demons. It features a map of the maze-like Demonweb Pits, a series of interweaving passageways constructed in a maelstrom of lost souls in the abyssal plane. Characters who venture off the path are most likely lost. Many spells work differently or not at all. In the maze, there are a number of portals to other worlds, some where Lolth is sending minions to try and invade, such as a winter world and a world of permanent night. This makes Queen of the Demonweb Pits an unusually open-ended adventure, as each "portal" could potentially lead to a massive area, from which the dungeon master could, if he or she chose, launch an entirely new campaign. As the adventure progresses, the player characters make their way through Lolth''s webs, where they are confronted by her minions, slaves, guards, and captives. Here lies a gargantuan mechanical spider, which Lolth can manipulate. The dungeon also introduced Lolth''s handmaidens, the demonic Yochlol.

Queen of the Demonweb Pits

A force of four airships bearing Jonathan Dark (Jandar) and his allies explores the unknown far side of the Jovian moon of Callisto (or Thanator), to seek and destroy Kuur, the secret stronghold of the evil Mind Wizards. The fleet is attacked by a flock of flying creatures called Zarkoons, and Jandar and the cabin boy Tomar are captured. Flown to the Zarkoons'' lair, they meet another captive, the jungle girl Ylana, with whom they manage to escape. A flier piloted by Jandar''s allies Lukor and Koja spots and retrieves them, but damaged by the pursuing Zarkoons it subsequently crash lands. The five find themselves in the Cor Az, forest home of the Cave People, Ylana''s tribe, where all but Ylana are again imprisoned, the Cave People being under the thumb of the enemy. With Ylana''s assistance they escape once more, only to be retaken and held for the Mind Wizards. Their ultimate fate is a mystery. An airship from the fleet later finds the memoir Jandar composed in captivity and returns with it to the civilized hemisphere of Thanator, whence it is afterwards teleported to Earth to become the basis of the present volume. The other three ships continue the quest for Kuur, but nothing has been heard from them as of the time of the last notation on the manuscript. With this cliffhanger the novel ends.

Mind Wizards of Callisto

The children of Wetchik are ready to board the starship Basilica and embark on their journey from the planet Harmony back to the origin of humanity: Earth. However, the rivalry between Nafai and Elemak promises the journey will be anything but peaceful. Each faction already has hidden plans to prematurely awaken from the long hibernation, to have the upper hand when the landing occurs. The children become pawns in their parents'' power struggle - valuable potential adults that can strengthen each faction. But the Oversoul is ultimately in control, having uploaded a copy of itself into Basilica''s central computer, so that it can monitor the ship at all times. After landing on Earth, the fragile peace wrought onboard is merely a mask for the turmoils of passions that boil beneath. Not only do the colonists have to deal with the split, there are also the mysteriously symbiotic alien races that have evolved on Earth since humanity''s departure. The quest to understand the Angels (giant bats) and the Diggers (giant rats) that were foreshadowed in the dreams is not an easy one. The focus throughout the course of this novel begins to drift away from the original generation of characters in order to delineate the passage of time. The factions that developed among the original generation have now spread to their children, through no fault of the children themselves. Nafai finds himself and his "Nafari" living and working primarily amongst the angel people, whereas the "Elemaki" associate much more closely with the diggers. It is this dissociation that eventually breaks nearly all the bonds—literally, for Hushidh and Cheveya—between Nafai and his older brother, Elemak. As Elemak''s rage and hatred for Nafai grow, he ingrains such feelings into his family and the digger people, laying the foundation for war. After the death of Volemak the Nafari migrate northwards away from the landing site to found a new nation.

Earthfall

The novel''s first chapter begins in London, with Karl Glogauer travelling through Kensington on his way to the Derry and Tom''s Roof Gardens. There, on a bench in the Spanish Gardens, he fantasises about the past, trying to put "his mother, his childhood as it actually was, [and] the failure of his ambitions" out of his head with ideals of Regency-era London politics, gambling, women and duelling. His imaginations are interrupted by a "deep, slightly hesitant, husky" voice, a greeting of "Good afternoon", a dark-skinned man who spends the entirety of the novel unnamed. He first asks if he may join Glogauer on the bench, and then goes on to explain that he''s merely visiting London, and that he hadn''t expected to find such a place in the middle of the city. Glogauer wrongly assumes him to be a rich American tourist, annoyed to have been disturbed from his reverie. The man then asks Glogauer if he may photograph him; Glogauer, now flattered, assents. While he''s being photographed, the man explains that he''s from Nigeria, attempting to convince the government of England to buy copper at a higher price. Glogauer says that he''s an illustrator. The man then invites Glogauer to have tea with him, and Glogauer, feeling guilty, and, despite recalling his mother''s words to not have anything to do with people who make you feel guilty, agrees. After journeying through the Tudor and Woodland gardens, they dine at the restaurant. During the meal, Glogauer attempts to introduce himself. The man, however, does not respond, merely offering Glogauer the sugar bowl. He then asks Glogauer to "come back with me", to which Glogauer says "Yes". The second chapter, introducing a format that is followed by most subsequent chapters, excluding the last, begins, in italics, with a short scene in the man''s hotel suite. Glogauer has taken his clothes off, and lies naked on the bed. The man touches first his head, and then his shoulders. Glogauer closes his eyes, blocking reality out, and begins a fantasy, similar to that which was interrupted by the man in the first chapter. The ending of the chapter is also another scene, in italics, that is set in the present.

Breakfast in the Ruins

The novel takes place seven hundred years after Nazism achieved power, by which time Adolf Hitler is worshipped as a god. Though no major character is a woman, the story concentrates on the oppression of women, portraying the Nazis as homosexual misogynists. Christians are marginalized, Jews eliminated, and women disenfranchised — deprived of all rights. Germany and Japan won the "Twenty Years War" (analogous to World War II), the time it took the Nazis to subdue the Soviet Union. The protagonist is an Englishman named Alfred on a German pilgrimage. In Europe, the English are loathed because they were the last opponents of Nazi Germany in the war. The story correctly postulates the air power''s importance in war. One of the religious sites Alfred was to visit was the "Sacred Airplane", which, according to long-established dogma, Hitler piloted on a mission to Moscow, thus achieving victory. The drastic rewriting of history, after living memory of Hitler, or the time when meaningful resistance to Germany existed, is the logical extension of Burdekin''s contemporary view of Nazi Germany. Per official history, Hitler is a tall, blond god who personally won the war. Alfred is astounded when shown a secret, historic photograph depicting Hitler and a girl before a crowd. First, he is shocked that Hitler is a small man with dark hair and a paunch. The crowd seem more interested in the girl; this does not fit the worldview of Hitler as god. The photograph''s most shocking betrayal of myth is the girl''s appearance. Alfred believed her to be a boy — the attractive figure has a proud posture and long, blond hair — and is appreciated by the crowd. Women have developed self-loathing, becoming pathetic beings who have difficulty performing their sole, utilitarian function: reproduction. Elsewhere, the Japanese rule the Americas, Australia, and Asia, to the borders of European Russia and Persia. Though Japan is the only rival superpower to the Nazi West, their inevitable wars always end in stalemate. The fascist Germans and Japanese suffer much difficulty in maintaining their populations, because of the physical degeneration of their women. In the event, the SS murder Alfred, yet he passes the truth about Nazi history to his surviving son.

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Jatta

No Author Listed

The Sirens of Surrentum

By Caroline Lawrence

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

By Agatha Christie

Marrow

By Robert Reed

The Copper Elephant

By Adam Rapp

World Game

By Terrance Dicks

The Warlock: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

By Michael Scott

Queen of the Demonweb Pits

No Author Listed

Mind Wizards of Callisto

By Lin Carter

Earthfall

By Orson Scott Card

Breakfast in the Ruins

By Michael Moorcock

Swastika Night

By Katharine Burdekin