An Imperial wedding is afoot, and love is in the air; Gregor and Laisa are finally to be married. Lady Alys Vorpatril, Ivan''s mother, is put in charge of all the arrangements. Miles tackles the task of wooing Ekaterin in his typically deranged fashion: he does everything he can to avoid letting her know that he might just like her, fearful that her previous experience has put her off marriage for life. To let him see her frequently, and knowing of her ambition to become a gardener, he hires her to design a garden for Vorkosigan House. His brother Mark also has relationship problems: he is in love with the warm, empathetic Kareen Koudelka, but her parents disapprove of him, and while this did not seem to bother her on Beta Colony, the sexual mores of Barrayar are much stricter, and she feels that she has to keep their relationship a secret from her family and live chastely while under their roof. A significant subplot involves Mark''s profit-inspired theft from a laboratory on Escobar of an engineered insect called the "butter bug," capable of converting waste vegetation into nutritious, edible ... bug vomit. Everything goes horribly wrong when Miles hosts a dinner party. Butter bugs and "bug butter" plague both aesthetics and digestion. A still-recovering Simon Illyan inadvertently blurts out Miles'' not-so-secret (except to the intended target) courting of Ekaterin. She walks out after he panics and asks her to marry him. Meanwhile, Kareen''s parents forbid her to have anything to do with Mark after they find out that he took her to the Orb of Unearthly Delights, a notorious Betan pleasure palace. The debacle has wider consequences. Two seats on the Council of Counts are up for grabs, one because the incumbent died, the other because the current Count Vorbretten has been found to be part Cetagandan, dating back to the days of the occupation. The seat (and Countship) of the late Pierre Vorrutyer is being contested by a distant cousin, Richars, and the previous Count''s sister, Donna, who has undergone gender reassignment surgery on Beta Colony, becoming a fully functional man, Lord Dono, in order to better qualify as a potential Count. As his father''s Deputy, Miles is courted by both sides. Richars makes an ill-advised attempt to use Tien''s suspicious death as leverage. For security reasons, Miles is unable to defend himself with regard to the Komarran incident. Lord Dono, who as Donna taught Ivan Vorpatril "everything he knew", uses Ivan to recruit his own support among the counts, gaining Miles''s vote after Richars''s blunder. When Ekaterin finds out about the rumors, she is forced to consult Miles. Miles offers to take the blame, to spare Ekaterin and her son, but she refuses to let him. Somewhat reconciled, they set out to solve their problems, defeat their enemies and ascertain her true feelings. Mark''s and Kareen''s problems are solved after Miles advises Mark to utilize a most effective weapon: their mother Cordelia. She soon has Kareen''s parents cowed and amenable. Miles''s troubles culminate in a tumultuous Council session where dirty tricks abound. This results in defeat for the enemy and the very public betrothal of Miles and Ekaterin. The Imperial wedding goes off with only a minor hitch. At the Imperial wedding reception, Miles meets an old, respected acquaintance, ghem-General Dag Benin, who subtly lets him know that the Cetagandans are aware that he and Admiral Naismith are one and the same. Like its predecessor, this novel tells its story from the viewpoints of both Miles and Ekaterin, on occasion smoothly switching from one to the other during a given scene. There are also the viewpoints of Mark, Kareen Koudelka, and even Ivan Vorpatril, whose interior life has not been described at all before this.

A Civil Campaign

Events take place in a fictional country called Laurania, located somewhere on the Mediterranean sea, which is similar to Italy or Spain, but with an overlay of Victorian England. Laurania has an African colony which can be reached via the Suez Canal. It has been a republic for many years, and has a well established constitution. Five years previously (stated to be in 1883) the country was split by a civil war, as a result of which General Antonio Molara became President and Dictator. Unrest has arisen because of Molara''s refusal to restore parliamentary rule, and the final events of his dictatorship are described in the book. The story opens with a description of the capital and fast-moving political events there. Molara has bowed to popular pressure for elections, but intends to do so on the basis of a grossly amended electoral register. Savrola is seen as the leader of the revolutionaries, deciding what they are to do, and presiding over conflicting factions with differing aims. Despite the unrest, society still proceeds on the surface in a genteel course, with state balls and society events. Molara decides to ask his young and beautiful wife, Lucile, to attempt to seduce Savrola and discover anything she can about his plans. Unfortunately for him, Lucile finds herself attracted to Savrola and her loyalties confused. Events move from political maneuvering to street fighting when a rebel army invades Laurania. While Savrola knows about the army and intended invasion, he has poor control over it, so the invasion has started without his knowledge or proper preparations. Both sides scramble for a fight, as Molara finds the country''s regular troops refuse to obey his orders. He is obliged to despatch most of the loyal Republican Guard from the capital to oppose the invaders, leaving him with a much reduced force to hold the capital. Fierce street fighting takes place in the capital between the revolutionaries of the Popular Party and the Republican Guard. The revolution culminates in the storming of the Presidential Palace and the death on the steps of his palace of General Molara. The revolutionary allies start to break apart in the face of a threat by the Lauranian navy (which remains loyal to the president), to bombard the city unless Savrola is handed over to them. The council of public safety decides the most expedient position would be to agree to this, but Savrola escapes attempts to arrest him and flees with Lucile. The city is subsequently bombarded when Savrola is not produced, and the last scene is of Savrola watching the destruction from outside the city. During 1886 and 1887 there was unrest in the African colony. This was dealt with by the small but very effective Lauranian Army, with the support of the Lauranian Navy. In 1888 a border dispute with the British increased tension in that part of Africa, and the arrival of HMS Aggressor in the area precipitated the despatch of the several Lauranian warships to ''show the flag''. This was also intended to dissuade the British from taking any military action in support of their claim on the disputed area. * ''Three hundred thousand people live there''. * ''The palace stood upon high ground commanding a wide view of the city and harbour ... The red and blue tiled roofs were relieved by frequent gardens and squares whose green and graceful palms soothed and gratified the eye. To the north the great pile of the Senate House and Parliament buildings loomed up majestic and imposing. Westward lay the harbour with its shipping and protective forts''. * Part of the harbour''s defences include a military mole, at the end of which is a ''shapeless mound of earth that marked the protecting battery of the harbour ...''. * The seaward battery is armed with ''nine-inch guns'', some of which are within embrasures and some are en barbette. * The entrance to the harbour is ''nearly a mile wide, but the navigable channel itself was dangerously narrow and extremely difficult.'' * There is a ''great square in front of the Parliament House''. The square is called Constitution Square. * There is a railway line that runs ''right to the frontier''.

Savrola

Part One: The story tells the Ancient Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche, from the perspective of Orual, Psyche''s older sister. It begins as the complaint of an old woman who is bitter at the injustice of the gods. Although disfigured herself, and covering her facial deformity with a mask throughout the book, Orual loves her beautiful half-sister Psyche; and when Psyche is sent as a human sacrifice, at the command of Ungit (Aphrodite), to her son, the unseen "God of the Mountain" (Cupid), Orual feels wounded and betrayed. Orual tries to rescue Psyche, who says she doesn''t need to be rescued, and that she lives in a beautiful castle, which Orual can''t see. She almost sees something, but then it vanishes, like a mist. Orual urges Psyche to do the one thing the God has commanded her not to: to sneak a peek when he comes to their marriage bed. Orual argues that the God must be a monster, or he would not hide his face. She brings Psyche the means to see him, and threatens, cajoles, and coerces her, until Psyche agrees reluctantly, out of pity and love for her sister. When Psyche obeys Orual, the God has no choice but to banish Psyche. Orual suffers with the knowledge that she destroyed her sister''s happiness and marriage, through misapplied love and jealousy. The Four Loves have all gone horribly wrong. Eventually, Orual becomes Queen, warrior, diplomat, architect, reformer, politician, legislator, and judge, but remains all alone. She drives herself, through work, to forget her grief and the love she has lost. Psyche is gone; her other sister has married and moved away; her father and her beloved tutor, "the Fox", have died; even her old infatuations are castrated, bloated, ridiculous; and the gods remain, as ever, silent and unseen. When she is invited to witness a new cult ritual as Queen, Orual hears a version of Psyche''s myth, which shows her as deliberately ruining her sister''s life out of envy. In response, she writes out her own story which becomes this book, to set the record straight in hopes that it will be brought to Greece, where she has heard that men are willing to question even the gods. Part Two: Orual begins the second part of the book stating that her previous argument was wrong, but she doesn''t have time to revise it before she dies. After finishing her book, she thought the gods would end her lonely, exhausted life. Instead, she writes, that through dreams and visions, she sees herself in the midst of the tasks given to her sister Psyche, in the myths, as a penitence. Orual dreams of even presenting her complaint to the gods herself. Among them, her sister Psyche comes to meet her. Orual weeps, "Long did I hate you. Long did I fear you. I might—". Finally, Psyche helps her sister to see, what was hidden from her; though she caught glimpses of it along the way, on the long, hard road to meet her again.

Till We Have Faces

"Rab and His Friends" is a simple story of how John Brown''s teacher and employer, Doctor James Syme, taught and operated. The other main characters are Rab, a ferocious dog, his owner the Howgate Carter Jamie, and the Carter''s ailing wife. The story begins with a fight between Rab and a bull-terrier and ends with the faithful sheep dog''s funeral. Ailie had a lump in her breast. “One fine October afternoon I ( the student ) was leaving the Hospital and saw the large gates open and in walked Rab with that great and easy saunter of his. After him came Jess, now white from age, with her cart and in it a woman carefully wrapped up, the Carrier leading the horse anxiously and looking back. When he saw me, James, (for his name was James Noble), he made a curt and grotesque bow, and said, Maister John, this is the mistress; she has got a trouble in her breest some kind of income we are thinking. By this time I saw the woman''s face; she was sitting on a sack filled with straw with her husband''s plaid round her and had his big coat with its large white metal buttons over her feet. Had Solomon in all his glory been handing down the Queen of Sheba at his palace gate, he would not have done it more daintily that did James the Howgate Carrier when he had lifted down Ailie, his wife. Rab led the way into the consulting room, grim and comic, willing to be happy and confidential, Ailie sat down, undid her open gown and her lawn handkerchief round her neck and without a word showed me her right breast. I looked at and examined it carefully. What could I say? There it was, hard as stone, a centre of horrid pain. Next day my master, the surgeon, examined Ailie. It could be removed; it would give her speedy relief. She curtsied. "Tomorrow” said the kind surgeon - a man of few words. The following day, at noon, the students came in, hurrying up the stair, eager to secure good places. The theatre is crowded; much talk and fun, and all the cordiality and stir of youth. The surgeon with his staff of assistants is there. In comes Ailie: one look at her quiets and abates the eager students. That beautiful old woman is too much for them; they sit down, and are dumb. These rough boys feel the power of her presence. She walks in quickly, but without haste; dressed in her mutch, her neckerchief, her white dimity short-gown, black bombazeen petticoat, showing her white worsted stockings and her carpet shoes. Ailie stepped up, and laid herself on the table, as her friend the surgeon told her; arranged herself, gave a rapid look at James, shut her eyes, rested herself on me, and took my hand. The operation was at once begun; it was necessarily slow; chloroform was then unknown. The pale face showed its pain, but was still and silent. Rab''s soul was working within him; he growled and gave now and then a sharp impatient yelp; but James had him firm. It is over; she is dressed, steps gently and decently down from the table, looks for James; then turning to the surgeons and the students, she curtsies, - and in a low, clear voice, begs their pardon if she has behaved ill. All of us wept like children; the surgeon happed her up carefully, - and, resting on James and me, Ailie went to her room. We put her to bed. James said, ''Maister John, I''ll be her nurse”, and as swift and tender as any woman, was that horny-handed, peremptory little man. As before, they spoke little. For some days Ailie did well. The wound healed ''by the first intention''; for as James said, ''Oor Ailie''s skin''s ower clean to beil''. The students came in quiet and anxious. She said she liked to see their young, honest faces. Four days after the operation, my patient had a sudden and long shivering, a ''groosin'', as she called it. Her eyes were too bright, her cheek coloured; she was restless, and ashamed of being so; mischief had begun. On looking at the wound, a blush of red told the secret; her pulse was rapid, her breathing anxious and quick, she wasn’t herself, as she said, and was vexed at her restlessness. We tried what we could, but she died in three to four days. No asepsis, a dog in theatre and no anaesthesia. Speed, trust and hope.

Rab and his Friends

In 1994, to his homeland the Victorianas because of his father''s death. Ong intends to uncover the identities of his father''s murderers. In addition to this circumstance, Tantivo was also summoned to return to Victorianas by his old friend Jennifer "JaySy" Suarez. Suarez – a middle aged woman belonging to the 20 to 30 year-old generation - wants Tantivo to manage her presidential campaign, timed after the demise of General Azurin, the dictatorial leader of Victorianas. Suarez is a politician with Maoist inclinations. Suarez won but her political rule was brief. On one hand, Brother Mike Verano, a charismatic preacher and healer, leads the Victorianas Moral Restoration Army using violence for the cause of morality. Then, Alfonso Ong – a wealthy, shrewd and shady character – builds his alternative city of the future on an island off the coast of Victorianas. The novel ends with Tantivo leaving Victorianas – going back in exile – but with a renewed sense and sagacity after the altercations and travails he experienced in the island nation. During Tantivo''s stay in the Victoriana''s, he found out that Jennifer Suarez is his half sister, and that his real father is Alfonso Ong. Tantivo left the Victorianas with Jennifer Suarez, leaving their beloved nation in political, socio-economic, and religious turmoil.

An Embarrassment of Riches

This gothic story deals with two aging sisters, Jane and Blanche Hudson, who are living alone together in a decaying Hollywood mansion. Jane, a former child star of early vaudeville known as "Baby Jane", was spoiled, pampered, and doted upon by her father due to her success; her ignored older sister, Blanche, lived in Jane''s shadow. However, their roles were reversed after the death of their parents due to influenza, when both children moved to Los Angeles to live with an aunt. Blanche was favored for her brown hair and regal beauty, and was even encouraged to pursue a film career. Blanche became a star while Jane, whose films were failures, languished in her shadow. Blanche had a clause in her contract stipulating that her studio create a film starring Jane for every Blanche Hudson picture. Years later, Jane, a slatternly alcoholic who still dresses as if she were 10 years old, and Blanche, disabled after a mysterious car accident involving Jane, continue to live together in the same mansion in a declining neighborhood. Jane resents having to live in the shadow of her sister, who became more famous than she ever was, and who is now being remembered because of a revival of her films on television. She hates having to cook, clean, and care for Blanche, who, although stuck upstairs in her bedroom, has nevertheless managed to keep her good looks, while Jane is now aged and ugly. Blanche, whose only other contact with the outside world is cleaning woman Elvira Stitt and her telephone conversations with her doctor and attorney, realizes that Jane is becoming increasingly unstable. She calls her lawyer and tells him she is planning to sell. She hears the extension downstairs click. Jane, who eavesdrops on her sister''s calls, believes that Blanche wants to sell the house and have her committed to a mental hospital. When Blanche sees Jane''s sinister mood swings beginning, she tries to talk to her sister about her decision. Jane does not listen, however. Jane begins to get even crazier, taking Blanche''s phone and making her afraid to eat by serving, first, her dead pet bird on a salad and, later, a large rat from the cellar. In a drunken daze, Jane decides to revive her childhood singing and dancing act of Baby Jane, reasoning that Fanny Brice had success with Baby Snooks. She then hires a musical accompanist, Edwin Flagg, through a want ad. As reality topples crazily into eerie fantasy, Jane abuses her sister with monstrous cruelty while embezzling her money to buy liquor and revive her childhood act as "Baby Jane Hudson". Elvira comes to find out why Blanche can''t be reached on the phone and why Jane won''t let her go upstairs to Blanche''s room. Opening the door and finding Blanche tied to the bed with her mouth taped shut, she tries to help. Jane kills Elvira with a hammer from behind before she can help. That night, Jane dumps the body. A day or two later police officers come questioning Jane about Elvira''s disappearance, so Jane panics, grabs her barely conscious sister and heads for the location of some of her happiest childhood memories, the beach. It was there some fifty years before that crowds used to gather around and watch Baby Jane practice her songs and dances while Daddy played the banjo. While lying on the beach, Jane plays in the sand while Blanche lies there wrapped in a blanket. Realizing that she may be dying, Blanche reveals to Jane that it was actually she, and not Jane, who had driven the car on the fateful night. Jane had spent the evening teasing and mimicking Blanche at a party. As Jane unlocked the gates, Blanche tried to run her down with the car, but Jane moved out of the way. The car then slammed into the metal gate, snapping Blanche''s spine, crippling her. She managed to crawl out of the car and up to the gate and when the police arrived, they assumed Jane had been driving. Jane had been too drunk to know what had happened and could not refute the accusations. Jane says at times the truth had almost come to her, but assumed she had dreamed it. She goes to buy an ice cream and is recognized by the police. At first she is confused by the crowd of people who gather around to stare at her. She then realizes what they must want, so she begins to dance.

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

The story begins in Los Angeles, California, in a world where magical creatures are "out of the closet" and, in some cases, even legal. Princess Meredith NicEssus is working for the Grey Detective Agency under the assumed name of Meredith ''Merry'' Gentry. When two women come to the agency with a story about fey-wannabes and rituals involving fey women, Merry goes undercover to investigate. However, she and her colleagues get more than they bargained for when it is discovered that the culprit is using Branwyn''s Tears, an illegal oil that can make a human appear as a sidhe (pronounced ''shee'') lover for a night, and turn even a sidhe or a sidhe-descendant into his sexual slave. In the process of solving the case, Merry''s secret is revealed, and she is hunted by the demonic Sluagh. Brought to see their King, Sholto, he offers Meredith a deal. Himself disapproved of by Andais, Queen of Air and Darkness, because of his mixed blood, he proposes an alliance between the two of them. Jealous at the idea of Merry becoming his lover, Sholto''s harem of nighthags attack Merry. During the fight Merry''s gift, theHand of Flesh, is revealed when one of them, Nerys, becomes turned into a ball of flesh. Shocked, Merry tries to flee, but is trapped. Doyle, Captain of the Queen''s Raven Guard, appears. He announces that the Queen never sent the Sluagh, and that in fact the Queen meant her no harm. As proof of this he produces the Queen''s sword Mortal Dread, as well as the Queen''s mark, which he transfers to Merry in a kiss. Merry returns with Doyle to the Court. The Queen claims that she wants her bloodline to continue upon the throne. She is willing to take as her heir whichever of Meredith or her cousin, Cel, can first produce an heir. She lifts the geiss of celibacy upon her Ravens for Meredith alone, insisting that she choose at least three in order to increase the chance of pregnancy. While this offer would permit Merry to end her self-imposed exile and return home, it also brings dangers. Cel, previously the sole heir, makes several attempts upon her life. Merry makes alliances with others such as Kurag, the Goblin King. However, Cel was behind the Branwyn''s Tears incident in LA. In punishment, he is to be confined for six months after being coated with the oil himself, something akin to torture.

A Kiss of Shadows

Ballard''s 9th novel is set in the year 2114 AD, several generations after an ecological collapse has rendered North America virtually unlivable. Most of the population was evacuated to Europe and Asia. The bulk of the novel takes place when a European steamship, the SS Apollo, sails to America to try to discover the cause of increased radioactive fallout in England. In typical Ballardian fashion, each of the crew members has a secret agenda, and is basically a pawn of their own psychological yearnings, whether for destruction or glory. Most of the Apollo''s crew are descended from expatriate Americans - the protagonist is a young man who grew up in the American Ghetto in Dublin, for instance - and have become mostly assimilated into European society, but still feel some vague draw to the abandoned continent to the west. In the novel, the Soviet Union dammed the Bering Strait in the 1990s, thus changing global weather patterns by reversing the normally clockwise currents in the Pacific Ocean. Although the Russians were able to grow grain as far north as the Arctic Circle, a massive drought began east of the Rocky Mountains. West of the Rockies, the opposite problem was true. Further, much of coastal Asia freezes over. Though the plot is a straightforward adventure yarn - quite unusual for Ballard - the book is actually a subtle parody of American culture. For instance, the final President of the United States is the former governor Jerry Brown of California, who was a promising face in American politics at the time of the novel. His small, ironic role in the novel represents both the triumph and ultimate failure of west coast liberalism of the late Cold War era: when faced with a massive ecological crisis that threatens (and indeed ultimately destroys) the nation, Brown''s solution is to build a large youth center, a twice-life-size fiberglass replica of the Taj Mahal, and then abandons the country so he can devote himself to self-improvement. The novel states that Brown dies at age 114 in a Buddhist Monastery in a glaciated Japan. Eventually the Apollo Expedition comes across survivors from the previous expedition thirty years earlier. One of these survivors - clearly insane - has taken to calling himself "President Charles Manson," but none of the Apollo''s crew get the reference because the Manson killings occurred 120 years earlier in a completely different world. In the end, it is implied that Europe needs America, if only as a place where the darker elements of the Western mindset can be allowed to play themselves out without inconveniencing decent people. There is a kind of rebirth that re-establishes something akin to the old order, allowing insanity to be sublimated out in small doses to everyone, rather than bottled up in one person where it proves to be really really dangerous. Possibly for the first time ever, nuclear weapons are used for a constructive purpose, and the ''New World Order'' that arises from the events of the book contains both the promise of a better future, and the understated vague promise/threat of phantasmagoric horrors to come, though presumably in smaller doses.

Hello America

Junior Thibodeau is born with the exact details of the end of the world by a comet and grows up with a troubled childhood, surrounded by his quiet but powerful ex-Marine father, his secretly-alcoholic and withdrawn mother, and his drug addict and later baseball-savant brother Rodney, as well as the constant presence of the voice that has stuck with him since birth. As he grows older, he questions the importance of concepts such as love in the face of the inevitable apocalypse and battles various addictions. He falls in love with a classmate named Amy and they begin a relationship, but she leaves him after he informs her of the voices in his head. Later in life, Junior becomes an avid smoker and alcoholic while his brother becomes a major baseball star. Junior and a co-worker later conspire to destroy a social security building. Junior backs out, but the friend blows up the building after giving the occupants a chance to evacuate. Junior is arrested and sent to a Bulgarian gulag. There he meets Sawyer, a government agents who reveals that the major world governments know a massive comet is approaching Earth. Sawyer offers Junior a job, which Junior accepts in exchange for his parents'' financial future to be secured. Later Junior hears his father has terminal lung cancer. Working constantly for a week and almost dying, Junior develops a cure for his father and has it sent to him. Junior''s father recovers, but later dies after hitting a car while asleep at the wheel. After leaving her boyfriend, Amy decides to travel to Junior''s father''s funeral. Mid-flight she disables the plane''s smoke detector so she can indulge herself with a cigarette. A federal agent discovers what she did and arrests Amy. He reveals he''s not going to arrest her and they engage in conversation. It turns out to be a ruse, and the agents locks Amy in an interrogation room. He recounts how she told him she had a relationship with a student at Stanford. The agent tells her how this student later renounced his US citizenship and became a member of the Hezbollah. Believing Amy is a part of a terrorist organization, he tortures her and cuts a pinkie off. Junior arrives and has the agent killed. He and Amy reconcile, but they decide not to leave before the comet hits. Later, Amy changes her mind and goes to sign up for Emigration, but she and many others who plan to sign up are killed by a suicide bomber. At this point, the voices in Junior''s head reveal that he can pick another version of himself from another universe and take that self''s place. Junior essentially goes back in time to the point where he told Amy of the voices. Instead of telling her, he instead instigates sex. Onwards in life, Junior marries Amy and develops a revolutionary irrigation system for use in third-world countries. Junior and Amy later conceive a child named Ruby. While he is very happy, Junior decides not to try to save his father this time. His father dies a painful death from lung cancer. When the comet arrives, Junior and Amy consider killing their daughter to spare her, but decide against it. Junior and his entire family flock to his bedroom and sit there as the comet hits Earth.

Everything Matters!

The story opens up in early March as Anil arrives in Sri Lanka after a 15 year absence abroad. Her visit comes as a result of the increasing number of deaths in Sri Lanka from all the warring sides in the 1980s'' civil war. While on an expedition with archeologist Sarath, Anil notices that the bones of a certain skeleton do not seem to be 6th century like the rest which leads her to conclude that the skeleton must be a recent death. Unsure where Sarath’s political allegiance lies, Anil is skeptical of his help, but agrees to it anyway. Along their journey to identify the skeleton, nicknamed Sailor, Anil becomes increasingly suspicious of Sarath. She begins to question his motives and sees his comments as a hint for her to censor herself since their discovery would implicate the Sri Lankan government in the death of Sailor. Later, Anil and Sarath visit his former teacher, Palipana, hoping to have him confirm their suspicions. Palipana then suggests having a reconstruction of the face done so that others might identify him. They agree to do so and head on to a small village named Galapitigama. There Anil meets Sarath''s brother, Gamini, an emergency doctor. She discovers that he is intricately involved in the country''s affairs and daily struggles to save the lives of numerous victims. Gamini helps them with a fellow Sri Lankan whose hands have been nailed to a road, and tells them about the various atrocities citizens face as a result of the civil war. Later Anil and Sarath meet with Ananda, on the advice of Palipana, hoping that he will be able to reconstruct the face of Sailor for them. Ananda does so after some days, despite Anil''s impatience and skepticism, and then almost immediately attempts suicide, only to be rescued by an intuitive and quick-thinking Anil. Anil and Sarath eventually are able to identify Sailor in a small village. As Anil prepares a report to present to the authorities, claiming the skeleton as a recent death, and therefore evidence of state or state-sponsored terrorism, the skeleton of Sailor disappears. Frustrated, she goes on with her presentation, using another skeleton, but is upset when Sarath arrives after a lengthy and mysterious absence to ridicule her efforts and claim that she cannot back up her claims with the skeleton she has. Angry and betrayed, on her way out Anil is frequently stopped and inspected, and her belongings and research seized, such that by the time she leaves the building she is left with nothing. Outside, she meets Sarath, who surprises her with the body of Sailor that he has placed in a van. Sarath instructs Anil to prepare a fake report for the government and then leave the country the next morning on a plane that he arranged. Relieved, Anil does so in the hope that the evidence will be sufficient. Sarath''s actions, however, have severe consequences, leading ultimately to his death. The novel ends with Ananda sculpting the eyes of a Buddha statue.

Anil''s Ghost

While studying the archaeological records of the now-destroyed planet Sarpeidon, a scholar aboard the USS Enterprise finds pictures of an ice-age cave painting that depicts a Vulcan face. Spock realizes that his involvement with Zarabeth in the episode "All Our Yesterdays" resulted in the birth of a child. Along with Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy, he uses the Guardian of Forever (featured in the episode "The City on the Edge of Forever") to journey back into Sarpeidon''s past and rescue his son. Due to a miscalculation, they find a young man of twenty-eight instead of a child, who tells them that his name is Zar and that his mother Zarabeth died in an accident many years before. Spock introduces himself but refuses to allow Zar to call him "Father." Zar returns to the Enterprise and passes as a distant relative of Spock, who oversees his education and attempts to train him in Vulcan telepathic techniques. They discover that Zar is an unusually strong telepath for a Vulcan; he can establish contact without touching the other person. Zar becomes conflicted and hurt by his father''s apparent refusal to acknowledge him. The Enterprise is called back to the planet Gateway to protect the Guardian of Forever from a Romulan intelligence raid. It is imperative to the security of the United Federation of Planets that the Romulans not discover the Guardian''s powers; if they cannot be driven away, Gateway must be destroyed. The Romulans place a force field around the Guardian and hide themselves behind a ground-based cloaking device. Zar volunteers to help Spock counteract the force field because he can sense whether Romulans are present even if he cannot see them. Their first try is unsuccessful, but when they rendezvous with Kirk the three men discover they are trapped on the planet while the Enterprise with Scotty in command battles the Romulans. They decide to try again, but Spock disables Zar with the Vulcan nerve pinch, wishing to spare him from danger. Kirk and Spock are captured and tortured by the Romulans. When Zar wakes up, he is able to telepathically sense their danger. He also realizes that his father cares about him, since he chose to protect Zar instead of Kirk, his closest friend. The Enterprise defeats the Romulan ships and a rescue party beams down. Zar creates a diversion by causing an explosion, allowing the others to rescue Kirk and Spock. Once the Romulan threat is over, Zar decides to use the Guardian to return to Sarpeidon''s past, but to a more settled location than the one he originally inhabited. He has discovered evidence that he is crucial to the planet''s unusually rapid cultural evolution.

Yesterday''s Son

The ''Wasp Factory'' of the title is a huge clock face encased in a glass box and salvaged from the local dump. Behind each of the 12 numerals is a trap which leads to a different ritual death (for example burning, crushing, or drowning in Frank''s urine) for the wasp that Frank puts into the hole at the center within tubes. Frank believes the death ''chosen'' by the wasp predicts something about the future. There are also Sacrifice Poles, upon which hang the bodies and heads of larger animals, such as seagulls, that Frank has killed and other sacred items. They define and ''protect'' the borders of Frank''s territory - the island upon which he lives with his father. Frank occupies himself with his rituals and maintaining an array of weapons (from his catapult, to pipe bombs and a crude flame thrower) to control the island. Frank is haunted by an accident which resulted in the loss of his genitalia, and resents others for his impotence, particularly women. He goes for long walks and runs patrolling the island, and occasionally gets drunk with his dwarf friend Jamie in the local pub. Other than that, Frank has almost no contact with the outside world and admits that he is afraid of it due to what it did to his brother, Eric. Frank''s older brother Eric is in an insane asylum after being arrested for brutalizing the town''s dogs. He escapes at the start of the novel and throughout the book rings Frank from phone boxes to inform Frank of his progress back to the island. Their conversations invariably end badly, with Eric exploding in fits of rage. Frank is confused as to whether or not he is looking forward to seeing Eric, but it is clear Frank loves his brother dearly. Frank remembers his older brother as being extremely sensitive before "the incident" that drove him mad: a tragic case of neglect in a hospital where Eric was a volunteer. While attempting to feed a smiling brain-damaged child with acalvaria, Eric realizes that the patient is unresponsive and only smiling off into space. He checks the usually-alert patient''s head dressings to find the child''s exposed brain tissue infested with day-old maggots. At the end of the novel, Eric''s imminent return precipitates a series of events that result in Frank discovering male hormone drugs in his father''s study. After confronting his father, Frank finds out that he is in fact female, and that when he thought he was castrated by a dog mauling at an early age, Frank''s father had simply pumped her full of male hormones to see if she would transition from female to male. The father said it was simply "an experiment" and there are hints it was in order to distance himself from the women he felt had ruined his life.

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