The book opens on Thanksgiving evening, about 10 years after the events of A Wind in the Door. Meg is now married to Calvin and is expecting their first child. Calvin has become a scientist and is in Britain at a conference. The Murry family is joined for Thanksgiving dinner by an unusual guest—Meg''s very antisocial mother-in-law, Mrs. O''Keefe. When they receive the news of impending nuclear war caused by the dictator "Mad Dog Branzillo", Mrs. O''Keefe lays a charge on Charles Wallace &mdash; to prevent the disaster. She teaches him "Patrick''s Rune", a rhyming prayer of protection that has been passed down to her from her Irish grandmother. Charles Wallace goes for a walk to the star-watching rock, a family haunt, and begins to recite Patrick''s Rune. His recitation summons a flying unicorn from the heavens who introduces himself as Gaudior. The winged unicorn explains to Charles Wallace that he must prevent nuclear war by traveling through time and telepathically merging with people who lived in the locale of the star-watching rock at points in the past. By doing so he may change pivotal situations, "might-have-beens", in which things might have turned out better than they did. Though unsure how events in the distant past near his home can affect a South American dictator, Charles Wallace agrees. They are threatened along the way by the Echthroi, the antagonists introduced in A Wind in the Door. The Echthroi are evil beings whose goal is the total destruction of the universe. As Charles Wallace tries to make the might-have-beens turn out for good, the Echthroi are fighting to make them turn out for evil. Gaudior and Charles Wallace''s travels bring them to: Harcels, a Native American boy at least 1,000 years in the past; Madoc Gywnedd of Wales, a pre-Columbian trans-oceanic traveler; Brandon Llawcae, a Welsh settler in puritan times; Matthew Maddox, a writer during the American Civil War who wrote a novel about the legend of Madoc Gwynedd; and Mrs. O''Keefe''s brother Chuck Maddox, during their childhood. Meg connects with Charles Wallace from home through "kything", the telepathic communication she learned in A Wind in the Door. Eventually, a connection arises between the star-watching rock and Mad Dog Branzillo. In the 12th century, two Welsh princes named Madoc and Gwydyr travelled to North America to escape the in-fighting for their father''s throne. But once there, Gwydyr turned against Madoc and tried to conquer their new home. Madoc defeated Gwydyr in combat, and Gwydyr left to South America. Both men married into the local Native American populations and became part of the local folklore. Many generations later in the 1860s, a descendant of Madoc marries a descendant of Gwydyr, and Mad Dog Branzillo is their descendant. However, thanks to Charles Wallace''s changing of "might-have-beens" in the history of Branzillo''s ancestors, things turn out differently. Distant descendants of Madoc marry, reuniting Madoc''s line and resulting in a peaceful man being born instead, and the threat of nuclear war is dissolved.

A Swiftly Tilting Planet

Set 20 years after the original miniseries, The Second Generation depicts an Earth still under Visitor domination with the Resistance fighting a losing battle. They desperately try to persuade the masses that the Visitors are evil aliens bent on mankind''s destruction. However, they are largely ignored, as the many technological and social advancements brought by the Visitors to the planet have convinced the majority that the aliens have their best interests in mind. They are halfway to taking all of the planet''s water, under the guise of cleansing it of all polluting substances. Many people were also convinced to join the Visitors'' civilian militia, the Teammates (an evolution of the miniseries'' Visitor Youth), for the purposes of hunting resistance members. Just when all seems hopeless, the message that Resistance leader Juliet Parrish sent into space at the end of the original miniseries is finally heard. An alien race called the Zedti, who are long-standing enemies of the Visitors, reinforces the Resistance in their time of need and soon the war is turned in their favor. However, all is not as it seems, as the Zedti''s actions make the Resistance wonder about their newfound allies'' actual motives.

Living in ancient Egypt, Mara is a slave under the rule of Queen Hatshepsut, living(or surviving) in Menfe. Mara is not like other slaves; she can read and write, as well as speak the language of Babylonian. She also, oddly enough, has bright blue eyes. Struggling daily to find a way out of her wretched life as a slave Mara takes secret visits to the marketplace, behind her cruel master''s back. On one such trip, Mara is observed by two men, Nahereh and Sheftu, who both note her intelligence. The first man, Nahereh, appears shortly afterwards to buy her from her master and offers Mara an escape from her life: if she will serve him and the Queen as a spy and accomplish her mission, he promises her riches and freedom, but death, if she is found out. Mara accepts the task and she spies for the queen. The second man, Sheftu, appears on a boat as she makes her way to the golden palace of pharaoh in Thebes to spy. He thinks that Mara is only a runaway slave, nothing else. He tells her that he will not turn her in as long as she will deliver a message to Thutmose and work for him as a messenger to carry plans for coming rebellion. Mara enjoys her life at court so much that she decides to play both sides. She carries messages for Sheftu and throws small bits of information to her new master, Lord Nahereh. But unwillingly she finds herself tangled more and more in her own web, as she discovers that she is falling in love with Sheftu (as he falls in love with her). When Sahure, a juggler at the Falcon Inn where the rebels meet, turns spy for the Queen''s men, Mara is found out by both sides. Despite Sheftu''s attempt to kill her, she returns to warn him and his followers of the raid that will go down at their meeting place. While waiting for her warning to be heeded, the soldiers of pharoh come. Mara waits in the shadows to make certain everyone escaped and to find her own chance at escaping, but is captured by the soldiers. She is taken to the palace for interrogation, but continues to claim not to know the leader, despite the harsh beating and the offers of freedom and riches. Sheftu has in the meantime heard of what has been going on, he tries to rescue her, but is identified as the leader of the rebellion by Sahure. But he has been working well the last years and by now most of the priests, the nobles and the entire army are on his side and storm the palace. The rebellion is successful, Hatshepsut is allowed to die by her own hand by ingesting poison provided by Thutmose, and Mara and Sheftu end happily coupled.

Mara, Daughter of the Nile

It is September 1942, four months after the Transition. A cease-fire has been signed between Hitler and Stalin, and the dictators have re-established their June 1941 borders. Both nations are ''cooperating'' in various areas of research (particularly rocketry) at the newly-built Demidenko research facility in Ukraine. Thanks to the foreknowledge granted by the Transition, Hitler and Stalin have purged their military and party ranks of traitors (real and imagined) that have been revealed from our history. Though not without problems: the arrest of Field Marshal Rommel sparks off a mutiny amongst the Afrika Korps that throws the entire North African front into chaos. Most of the German war machine shifts to "Operation Sea Dragon": the invasion of Britain. Meanwhile in the Pacific, the Japanese have conquered New Guinea and the nearby island chains, and are battling Allied forces (reinforced with troops from the Multinational Force) along the Brisbane Line in Australia. In the United States a "Special Administrative Zone" has been carved out within the San Fernando Valley of California. Within "the Zone", the laws of the United States as of 15 January 2021 apply and it becomes an enclave for the 21st Century personnel. Many of the Multinational Force''s members work in various technological areas and thousands of contemporary females and non-whites are clamoring to join their ranks. Over the next month the Japanese position in northern Australia unravels after a massive blitzkrieg of 21st Century armor is unleashed. Japanese soldiers massacre entire towns, prompting both outrage and a reluctance to divert 21st forces anywhere else. Under interrogation, General Homma reveals that Australia was nothing more than a diversion to make the Multinational Forces expend as much of their limited weaponry as possible. Japanese survivors are executed under Multinational Force Sanction Four. The French stealth ship Dessaix, presumed lost, was found by the Germans off the Canary Islands a few weeks after the initial Transition, and it now spearheads the assault on Yamamoto''s real target: Hawaii. The ship''s cruise missiles lay waste to the islands'' defenses (and one nearly obliterates the city of Honolulu), although a French crew member manages to sabotage several of them before being killed. With the American defense crippled, the Japanese easily take Oahu and send a message to Washington stating that that any attempt to retake the islands will result in the wholesale slaughter of the population. In Britain, preparations are underway for a commando raid on Norway against the heavy water plant there (a la Heroes of Telemark). But, information from Wehrmacht Colonel Paul Brasch (whose physically disabled son is eligible for ''disposal'' under the T4 program) reveals that Germany''s true nuclear effort lies elsewhere, and the mission is placed on hold. Operation Sea Dragon commences the next day with an attempt to invade across the English Channel. Hundreds of aircraft and warships, upgraded with new technology, duel in the waters and skies south of England; the 21st century ship HMS Trident, more valuable as a command and control center than as a weapon, ensures that key German formations identified by Brasch are destroyed. Three missiles taken off the Dessaix are launched at British targets, but suspected sabotage causes two to crash harmlessly into the North Sea. The third does hit Biggin Hill airfield, but its primary warhead does not detonate. Despite heavy losses sustained by the RAF and the damage to Biggin Hill, the Germans lose most of their navy. Any airborne units that reach England are quickly isolated and crushed by the Allies. In the U.S., a series of German-instigated bombings and race riots take place, targeting civilians for maximum effect. Wahabi and Baathist insurgents foment revolt across the Middle East and the Soviet Union, with enough time to train and equip its armies, has begun seizing the Afghan passes leading to India. Unbeknownst to either the Allies or Axis, the HMS Vanguard materialized on the Siberian ice pack (one day before the other ships) and is now providing the Soviets with invaluable resources and information. Stalin has also impounded the ships of Convoy PQ-17 and has his own atomic bomb program in place; it may take a decade of fighting, but Stalin will see nothing but global triumph for Communism. As the German forces retreat from the Channel, a group of SS commandos led by Otto Skorzeny attempt to assassinate Prime Minister Churchill. They are thwarted by SAS Major Windsor, but Skorzeny escapes in the melee. Drone coverage over Oahu reveals that the Japanese are slaughtering military prisoners in droves. With the supercarrier Hillary Clinton all but useless in a fight, the 21st century Japanese cruiser Siranui (crewed by survivors of the Leyte Gulf) prepares to lead the Allied forces in what will be a very bloody retaking of the Hawaiian Islands.

Designated Targets

Raised by Woodtroll families all his life, Twig believes at heart he is a woodtroll, yet he strongly suspects there is something different about him, as he does not fit in with the rest of the woodtroll villagers. Twig has been raised in the Deepwoods, far from human civilization, yet he sets off to find his true kind when he learns from his adoptive mother that he is not a woodtroll. His adoptive woodtroll mother tells him to travel to their cousin''s house to mull things over, but during Twig''s journey through the Deepwoods, he is seduced by the beauty of the woods themselves and ends up straying from the path. This is an act no woodtroll ever commits, for the woodtrolls'' greatest fear is getting lost, and this fear is not without reason. The forest is populated with both fierce natural predators and evil demons, the most dangerous demon being the Gloamglozer. The Gloamglozer can shapeshift in order to attract victims, and it can also mimick the voices of any animal in distress. Twig does indeed hear such a voice, and follows it, but stumbles upon a Slaughterer, who is being attacked by a Hoverworm. Twig kills the Hoverworm and the grateful Slaughterer invites him to spend the night in his village. However, the Slaughterer has been poisoned by the Hoverworm and is swelling up. Nonetheless, Twig gets to the Slaughterer village and the Slaughterers find an antidote for their ill brother. The next morning, Twig is awoken by a Slaughterer who tells him that he has outstayed his welcome, and is expected to leave immediately. Outraged and disappointed, Twig leaves, with the Slaughterer telling him to "watch out for the Gloamglozer" in a mocking tone. Twig has a run-in with a Skullpelt which attempts to kill him, but Twig is saved by a Caterbird which has just hatched from his cocoon. As all Caterbirds share telepathic dreams whilst in the womb, this Caterbird knows all about Twig and his destiny. The Caterbird tells Twig his destiny lies "beyond the Deepwoods" and flies off, telling Twig he will always protect him. That night, Twig is almost eaten by a Bloodoak, but falls into a Gyle-Goblin colony, where he is almost caught by their colony mother, an obese Grossmother. Then Twig finds himself almost at the edge of the Deepwoods and at the Mire, a vast, dangerous bog which stretches for thousands of miles outside the Deepwoods. At the edge of the Deepwoods, Twig meets an injured Banderbear, one of the forest''s dominant predators. The Banderbear is sick because of a rotten tooth, which Twig heals by wrenching it out. Soon, Twig and the Banderbear become great friends, but one day the Banderbear is killed by a swarm of Wig-Wigs, ferocious predators which act like piranhas. Twig then follows a young girl, and he discovers she is a Termagant Trog who has not yet matured. Twig spends a few months with the Trog girl, who grows to become fond of him as a "pet" and eventually the girl''s maturing ceremony takes place. Twig watches as the girl he has come to love grows enormously gigantic by drinking Bloodoak sap. Now fully formed as a Trog female, the girl attempts to have Twig killed, as she sees all other species as vermin. However, a lone Trog male saves Twig, much to his surprise, and directs him to the exit. Outside, Twig almost drowns in the Mire, but is rescued by a goblin at the edge, who mysteriously vanishes just as Twig is about to thank him. Soon, Twig meets some sky pirates, whose ship has crashed due to the flight-rock which powers the ship falling out of the sky when it was struck by lightning. Twig finds out that the sky pirate captain, Quintinius Verginix, is his true father, and learns at long last who he, Twig, really is. To Twig''s horror, though, the next morning he awakes in a deserted forest clearing. The sky pirates have jumped ship and abandoned him... again. Momentarily distraught, Twig sees the pirate''s fire float upwards and catch onto a tree, which sets half the forest alight. Twig runs for it, right down to the Edgelands, where he meets the Gloamglozer face to face. In a cruel twist, the Gloamglozer reveals that the entire set of misadventures was a cruel game devised by himself. He tells Twig that he, the Gloamglozer, was all the various creatures which had saved him throughout the journey. The Slaughterer who had mocked Twig was the Gloamglozer in disguise, as was the Trog male, and the goblin at the edge of the Mire was also the Gloamglozer in goblin form. The demon tells Twig that he only wanted to lure Twig to him so he could throw him over the Edge. The Gloamglozer does just this, although the Caterbird rescues Twig from oblivion and throws him onto the deck of Quintinius Verginix''s ship. Finally reunited with his true father, who apologizes for leaving him and promises to always protect his son, Twig, the sky pirates set sail for Undertown, the central city of the Edge.

Beyond the Deepwoods

In 1801 the British have risen to power in Egypt and suppress the worship of the old Egyptian gods. A cabal of magicians plan to drive the British out of Egypt by bringing the gods forward in time from an age when they were still powerful and unleashing them on London, thereby destroying the British Empire. In 1802, a failed attempt by the magicians to summon Anubis opens magical gates in a predictable pattern across time and space. In 1983, ailing millionaire J. Cochran Darrow has discovered the gates and found that they make time travel possible. Darrow organizes a trip to the past for fellow millionaires to attend a lecture by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1810. He hires Professor Brendan Doyle to attend and give expert commentary. One of the magicians, Doctor Romany, happens to spy the time travelers and kidnaps Doyle before he can return. Doyle manages to escape torture and flees back to London, now trapped in the 19th century. Doyle joins a beggars guild and meets a beggar named Jacky. He plans to meet and befriend William Ashbless, a wealthy poet that Doyle has studied profusely, in order to gain a benefactor. Doctor Romany scours the city for Doyle with his legion of murderous beggars, led by the clown-magician Horrabin. At the same time, Doyle discovers that Darrow has remained in the 19th century to search for Dog-Face Joe, a body-swapping werewolf, in hopes of bribing Joe into granting him a healthy new body. Doyle himself becomes targeted by Joe, receiving the poisoned body of Darrow''s former bodyguard, but manages to cure himself of the poison. In his new body, Doyle realizes that he himself is the historical Ashbless. He copies down Ashbless'' poetry from memory and deduces his own future from his study of Ashbless'' life. Using this knowledge, he continues to thwart the magicians'' plans. After Romany discovers a gate to the 17th century, Doyle follows him through and stops his attempt to change the past. Meanwhile Darrow successfully contacts Dog-Face Joe and organizes a deal in which Joe will provide Darrow with healthy bodies and allow him to live forever. Doyle is kidnapped and brought to Muhammad Ali''s Egypt, where the magicians'' Master tempts him with resurrecting his dead wife if he will tell them the secrets of the time-gates. Doyle resists and kills the Master. Meanwhile, Jacky discovers Darrow''s secret and kills him along with Dog-Face Joe. Doyle returns to London, where the last magician, Romanelli, kidnaps him, Jacky, and Coleridge. In a drugged stupor, Coleridge frees Horrabin''s twisted menagerie of monsters, allowing him and Jacky to escape. Romanelli escapes with Doyle to the underworld, but is eaten by Apep while Doyle is rejuvenated on board the sunboat of the god Ra. Doyle meets back up with Jacky and discovers that not only is Jacky secretly a woman, she is his future wife. Decades later, after living out Ashbless'' entire life and becoming a widower, Doyle goes out to meet his historic date with death. Doyle discovers that his intended murderer is a duplicate of himself that the Master had made in Egypt decades before. Doyle kills the duplicate, thereby supplying the corpse for his death, and boats away into an unknown future.

The Anubis Gates

A year after the Californian mountain village of Drago was destroyed by fire, sinister murders begin to occur in the neighboring town of Pinyon. A teenage boy named Malcolm is found living in the woods, and is one of the survivors of the Drago fire. Also surviving the fire is Derak, the former leader of the Drago community and a werewolf, responsible for the recent deaths. Derak wants to bring Malcolm back to his people, the other survivors of Drago, so that he can learn about his true heritage; Malcolm is also a werewolf. Malcolm is hospitalized and placed under the care of resident psychiatric specialist Dr Holly Lang, who becomes Malcolm''s friend. However, an ambitious and unscrupulous doctor, Wayne Pastory, abducts Malcolm so that he can experiment on him and learn more about werewolves. At a secret clinic, Malcolm is tortured as Pastory conducts cruel experiments on him, but as he is so young, Malcolm is only partially able to transform into a werewolf. Holly discovers the whereabouts of the clinic and tries to rescue Malcolm but she is attacked by Pastory''s henchman. Just as he is about to rape her, Derak - in werewolf form - bursts in and kills the henchman. Malcolm is freed by Holly, who is subsequently rescued herself by the Pinyon sheriff, Gavin Ramsay. However, Malcolm runs away before they (or Derak) can take him back to Pinyon. Over the course of the next year, Malcolm lives as a drifter, wandering throughout California. He eventually meets a man named Bateman Styles who works for a travelling carnival. Seeing that Malcolm has certain abilities (he continues to partially transform into a werewolf), Styles offers him a job working in the carnival freak show as "Grolo - The Animal Boy". Malcolm, without money or a place to live, accepts and the show becomes a minor success. However, publicity leads to Malcolm''s picture being published in the press, which is seen by Holly and she travels to see him. She offers Malcolm the choice of returning to Pinyon with her, which Malcolm accepts. However, the publicity has also attracted the attention of Dr Wayne Pastory, who has been dismissed from the Pinyon Hospital over his dubious activities, but is still keen to resume his experiments. He travels to the carnival and tries to make a deal with Styles, who refuses. Pastory tries to strangle Styles, who then has a heart attack and dies. Malcolm, who is hiding nearby, transforms partially into a werewolf and kills Pastory. However, he is surprised to find that Derak has also tracked him down and still wants him to join their people. In order to persuade him, Derak has kidnapped Holly. This prompts Sheriff Ramsay from Pinyon to travel to the carnival to find her. He learns from a female Drago survivor named Lupe that Derak is holding Holly hostage in the mountains until Malcolm joins them. Ramsay makes Lupe take him to where they are hiding, though she begins to transform into a werewolf on the way and Ramsay shoots her with a silver bullet. In the mountain lair, Malcolm arrives and fights with Derak (who reveals himself to be Malcolm''s father) for Holly. The two change into werewolves, but end up killing each other just as Ramsay arrives and rescues Holly and the other members of Derak''s group from Drago head off into the forest, now without their leader.

The Howling III: Echoes

The story joins the main character of Odd Girl Out, Laura Landon, a year after she has left college. Exhausted by living with her harsh, judging father for his perception that she failed out of school, Laura leaves home in the middle of the night and goes to New York City. She gets a job as a secretary in a medical office and lands an apartment with a roommate&nbsp;— Marcie. Marcie is young and very impulsive, but vivacious and she puts Laura at ease. Laura moves in to the apartment in Greenwich Village with a vague gnawing excitement in her. Laura and Marcie develop a routine and Laura learns her new job. Marcie is constantly fighting with her ex-husband Burr, who comes around frequently to date Marcie, and in between fights, they sleep together. Finding that Laura tempers Marcie a bit, she insists that she will only date Burr if Laura is with her&nbsp;— which confounds Laura as she recognizes that she is attracted to Marcie and intensely dislikes Burr. Burr brings along a friend, Jack Mann, and they double date one evening. As a joke, he explains, Jack takes them to a gay bar in Greenwich Village and watches their reactions. Jack is clearly an alcoholic and gets drunk frequently, but is good-natured and has a self-deprecating sense of humor. Laura is intrigued by him, and his friends laugh at him. Jack returns the intrigue when he hears Laura argue with Burr''s statement that he can make any of the women in the bar straight if he wanted to. Jack asks her out again and shocks her when he tells Laura he knows she''s in love with Marcie. Jack admits he''s also gay and helps Laura deal with the realization about herself. She also confides to him that her father hates her because her mother and brother drowned and her father could not save them. After going out a couple times, Jack introduces Laura to a mutual friend, Beebo Brinker (born as Betty Jean) - a tall, swaggering, dark-haired butch. They meet later in the gay bar after Laura runs away from Marcie, unable to contain her attraction. After a few drinks, Laura is afraid to return home, so Beebo allows her to sleep on the sofa. From a desperate longing and loneliness, Laura sobers up enough to seduce Beebo and they begin a torrid affair. Laura tells Beebo about Marcie and Beebo warns Laura that Marcie knows Laura is in love with her and is playing with her. Laura refuses to believe it. Laura''s father travels to town for a journalists'' convention and she attempts to contact him, only to be rebuked. Marcie finally stops speaking to Burr and Burr, frustrated, calls Laura at work and accuses her of being in love with Marcie and keeping her from seeing him. Laura begins to spy on her father and unravel under the strain of her relationship with Marcie. She depends on Jack, who is in a new relationship with a young man, but who expresses his sincere doubt that it will last. After getting drunk and humiliating Beebo in a bar, she''s left alone. Exhausted, Laura finally tells Marcie she''s in love with her. Marcie, deeply moved by Laura''s sincerity and intensity admits that it was a game for her after all, but will try to return Laura''s love. Heartbroken and ashamed, Laura leaves the apartment to confront her father at his hotel. They have a violent fight and Laura hits him over the head with an ashtray and runs. After wandering the night in the rain, Laura shows up at Jack''s house fearing she killed her father. Jack and his new boyfriend take care of her. Laura shows up to apologize to Beebo and tells her she loves her. In an ending that was completely different from any previous work of lesbian fiction, they walk together to Beebo''s apartment arm in arm.

I Am A Woman

Second Glance follows several characters throughout the book, in Jodi Picoult''s typical fashion, flashing back and forth many decades to piece together the story. It is set in Comtosook, VT. The main plot is that an Abenaki land space is planned to be turned into a shopping mall. However, if the Abenaki can prove that an ancestor was buried on the land, it cannot be built on. Ross Wakeman comes to town to stay with his sister. He is the survivor of many varied suicide attempts, which began after his fiancee Aimee was killed in a car accident years ago. He became a ghost hunter hoping to someday encounter her spirit. Comtosook begins to experience many strange phenomena as the result of the threat of development on the sacred land, including water that refuses to boil. With the help of a local detective, Ross uncovers a decades-old murder mystery that helps to prove that the land in question truly is a Native American-burial ground, and in turn is able to save the land from development. But the Native American that was buried there surprises everyone and makes Ross think with parts of his brain that he has not paid attention to in years.

Second Glance

In 1349, Eifelheim, a small town in the Black Forest of Germany, vanished: it ceased to appear on any maps or in any documents, having apparently been abandoned and never resettled by its community. The disappearance is no mystery&nbsp;— the Black Death devastated Europe. But why was the area never resettled, unlike most other depopulated areas? The mystery intrigues cliometric historian Tom Schwoerin, who sets out to solve the puzzle with the help of his partner, theoretical physicist Sharon Nagy. They gradually uncover evidence of an alien crash-landing in the area. The village was originally called Oberhochwald, and then afterwards renamed Teufelheim (Devil home in German), which was eventually distorted to Eifelheim. They also learn of the town''s priest, Father Dietrich, an educated man who served the town in 1348, as the Black Death was beginning to strengthen its grip on medieval Europe. Dietrich, it appears, acted as humanity''s first ambassador, and was the primary liaison between Eifelheim and the aliens who happened to wreck their starship in the woods outside the village. The novel concentrates primarily on the alien encounter in the 14th century, paying special attention to the interplay between Dietrich, a Christian scholar who is fond of Aristotle and metaphor, and technologically advanced, post-Einsteinian band of otherworldly travelers. The interplay includes two theological questions. The first, "can aliens become Christians?" is answered in the affirmative, as some of them become converts. The second, "where is God when things go wrong?" is more difficult to answer, for both the Germans and the alien Krenken. The Germans are stricken by the Black Death, and the Krenken, who are immune to the disease, but cannot return to their home, require an amino acid not found in earthly organisms. The answer is two-fold: there is always hope, and God''s love is expressed to us in the unselfish love of fellow creatures. Dietrich''s attempts to understand the science of the Krenken (their view of the solar system, and gravity, is quite different from his) and their attempts to explain it to him, are also an important theme. William of Ockham appears as a minor character. Nagy''s search for a new physics, which will lead to a new means of space travel, is helped by Schwoerin''s research. He discovers a Krenken circuit diagram, drawn in a manuscript by monks.

Eifelheim

Writing his thesis (''The Book of Daniel'') Daniel investigates the background to his parents'' conviction and execution with his adoptive parents (the Lewins). The final dénouement is the revisiting, in flashback, of the death of his parents, and in due course the death from nervous disorder (and attempted suicide) of Daniel''s sister. The novel closes with the library in which Daniel is working being closed by student unrest, and Daniel closing his work with a parody of lines from Chapter 12 of the Biblical Book of Daniel. The book is written in four parts, and in each Daniel is the principal narrator; the narrative moves fluidly and rapidly between 1967 (''the present'') and flashback (to the late 40s/early 50s), and between first and third person:- :1. Memorial Day - Opens, in 1967, with Daniel, his young wife, Phyllis and baby Paul, walking to the sanatorium to see Susan; closes with the dropping of atom bomb in Japan :2. Halloween - closes with the lawyer, Ascher, telling Daniel and Susan of the forthcoming start of the Isaacsons'' trial :3. Starfish - closes with Daniel''s bruising involvement in an anti-draft march, whilst his sister (the starfish of the title) is lying dying from complications following her suicide attempt. : Daniel says with irony to Phyllis through broken teeth ''...It looks worse than it is. There was nothing to it. It is a lot easier to be a revolutionary nowadays than it used to be.'' :4 Christmas - recalls the closing moments of the trial, including the key evidence from their co-accused, Selig Mindish; Daniel''s later search for, and discovery of Mindish, now senile, in Disneyland; and the funerals of Daniel''s parents and his sister Susan.

The Book of Daniel

Against the will of her boyfriend, Alistair, Mary Jago volunteers to donate bone marrow. He beats her after finding out, so she breaks up with him and goes house-sitting for a rich couple in London. Leslie Bean, an old dog-walker, comes there twice a day to take the shih tzu Gushi out along with five other dogs. Mary makes an appointment with Leo Nash, the leukemia patient whose life she prolonged. Although he''s secretive about his private life and doesn''t want her to see his brother she starts an affair with him, much to the dislike of Alistair. Homeless people live in and around Regent''s Park, including Roman Ashton, who''s actually rich but prefers the street life since his wife and children died in a traffic accident. When Effie, a homeless woman, finds a corpse over the spikes of the park gate, he makes an anonymous phone call to the police. The victim is John Dominic Cahill, a homeless Irishman known as Decker. The newspaper nickname the killer ''The Impaler''. A second victim follows: James "Pharaoh" Clancy, a homeless man who was always wearing keys around his neck. DI William Marnock starts suspecting Bean, because he has accused the victim of beating him up and had plans to pay Hob, a drug addict, to beat up Pharaoh. In the meantime Mary starts asking questions about Leo and his mysterious brother.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

A Swiftly Tilting Planet

By Madeleine L''Engle

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No Author Listed

Mara, Daughter of the Nile

By Eloise McGraw

Designated Targets

By John Birmingham

Beyond the Deepwoods

By Chris Riddell

The Anubis Gates

By Tim Powers

The Howling III: Echoes

By Gary Brandner

I Am A Woman

By Ann Weldy

Second Glance

By Jodi Picoult

Eifelheim

By Michael Flynn

The Book of Daniel

By E. L. Doctorow

The Keys to the Street

By Ruth Rendell