Four archangels discuss how a simple assignment went so terribly wrong. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are coming and so the Archangels found the perfect champions to save the world: fighters, warriors, and soldiers. These chosen champions must drink a shooter that will imbue them with divine powers to battle the Four Horsemen. A mistake is made when four random women drink the divine concoction. Alexandra Carlton, Julia Wolfe, Emily Keller and Dinah Medrano must all take up the mantles of champions. Alexandra Carlton, a waitress at a sports bar, inadvertently becomes the champion destined to take on the First Horseman of the Apocalypse by drinking a shooter given to her as a tip. Shortly thereafter, she meets the Archangel Raphael, who has been charged with preparing Alexandra for her quest. The story focuses on Alexandra''s attempts to learn “the ways of the Horseman” in order to stop him, as increasingly erotic visions of that Horseman and Raphael''s apparent reluctance to give her any useful information thwart her. A refugee lawyer, Dinah Medrano, is approached by the Archangel Michael to be a champion to defend the Earth from the Apocalypse, specifically the Horseman of War. At first, Dinah is resistant to the presented challenge because she is convinced that Michael is not sane. However, when she realizes she has been gifted with powers to manipulate water and heal people, Dinah accepts Archangel Michael’s challenge in order to save her sister, Fatima, who is suffering from cancer. The story focuses on Dinah’s attempts to cease the progress of the Horseman of War, despite the complications that arise when she discovers the Horseman of War is a former angel. After missing a day of work because of a severe hangover, Emily Keller returns to find an elderly man assigned as a trainee to the concrete truck she drives for her father’s company. Arthur Capella is the name adopted by Urial, the Archangel of Music, who is tasked with persuading Emily that she is the champion who must confront and defeat the Apocalyptic Horseman, Famine. Emily, a modern young woman, living in a world of online social networking, is not easily persuaded, until she finds out that her good friend Donald, not only is the Horseman Famine, he is also responsible for killing both her mother and her mentor, Twinkie. Famine, in this story, seeks to destroy the populations of the developed world by a devious kind of starvation caused by the dwindling nutrition in refined and convenience food. Julia Wolfe is a particle scientist involved in a secret fusion project located two miles beneath the surface. The project, dubbed Eden by the members of the scientific team, is working on achieving positive fusion, a goal that could spell the end of the world''s energy problems. As the project nears completion, Julia finds her personal life unraveling. From troubling dreams to dissatisfaction with her marriage, she begins question her place within Eden and wonders if she needs to leave. However, when the fusion reactor malfunctions throwing Eden into darkness and chaos, Julia realizes they are not alone in the deep. It is up to Julia to protect them against the horsemen Death. More than their lives hang in the balance. If she fails, Death will escape from Eden and wash over the surface world.

Women of the apocalypse

Meg, the younger of the two sisters, is the story''s narrator and primary protagonist. Their father, an English professor at a university, has decided to take a year off from teaching to write a book that he claims will shake the world of literature—only half jokingly. This means the family relocates to a small country house where his daughters are upset they will be sharing a room. Like most sisters, the two girls quarrel over silly things, and Meg is jealous of her sister''s blond curls and long eyelashes. The owner of the house the family is renting lives down the road in a smaller house on the same property. The sisters soon establish a rapport with the elderly Will Banks, who learns about photography with Meg and teaches Molly about the abundant wildflowers covering the estate. A few months after coming to the country, Molly begins having constant nosebleeds the doctor blames on the cold weather. Unfortunately, he wasn''t aware of the underlying cause, and it is not until Molly''s bed is soaked in blood that she is rushed to the hospital and diagnosed with the ultimately fatal disease acute myelogenous leukemia. She seems to recover slightly, though the pills she''s taking are causing her hair to fall out. Shortly thereafter, Ben Brady and a pregnant Maria Abbott, whom the townspeople incorrectly assume not to be married, arrive to make the third Banks house their home, and all the inhabitants of the property enjoy each others company for a while. Then the unthinkable happens, and Molly is rushed back to the hospital. She asks Meg to tell the baby to wait to be born until she comes home, and Meg obliges her, and also asks the baby to be born in the daytime since she''s been invited to take pictures of the birth. They named it Happy William Abbott-Brady. In the end, Molly dies and the family moves back to the city. Through it all, and with help from those who love her, Meg finds the jealousy she once had for her sister has changed into pure love, and eventually she must choose to accept that bad things happen to good people. In the end, she does.

A Summer to Die

The year 340 BC. A hunted, haunted Brahmin youth vows revenge for the gruesome murder of his beloved father. Cold, calculating, cruel and armed with complete absence of accepted morals, he becomes the most powerful political strategist in Bharat and succeeds in uniting a ragged country against the invasion of the army of that demigod, Alexander the great. Pitting the weak edges of both forces against each other, he pulls off a wicked and astonishing victory and succeeds in installing Chandragupta on the throne of the mighty Mauryan empire. History knows him as the brilliant strategist Chanakya. Satisfied-and a little bored-by his success as a kingmaker through the simple summoning of his gifted mind, he recedes into the shadows to write Arthashastra, the science of wealth. But history, which exults in repeating itself, revives Chanakya two and a half millennium later, in the form of Gangasagar Mishra, a Brahmin teacher in a small town of India who becomes a puppteer to a host of ambitious individuals-including a certain slum child who grows up to be a beautiful and a powerful woman. Modern India happens to be just as riven as ancient bharat by class hatred, corruption and divisive politics and this happens to be Gangasagar''s feasting ground. Can this wily pandit, who preys on greed, venality and sexual deviance-bring about another miracle of a united India. Will the Chanakya Chant work again?

Chanakya''s Chant

Thistle-chaser, the daughter of the Named clan leader, Ratha, has no recollection of her past or true name. Due to this, she lives alone on a coastline, befriending the seamares that reside there, and goes by ''Newt''. In her dreams, a creature she knows as the Dreambiter, which bites her foreleg, often makes her go into seizures and fits of panic. A clan cat, Thakur comes across Thistle-chaser while searching for water. He befriends her and starts having her swim in a lagoon which acts as therapy for her shriveled leg. When he reports of the water and seamares that live there, Ratha decides to move the clan and their livestock to the coast, going as far as to capture the seamares. Thistle-chaser is upset by this and frees them, making Ratha, who refuses to believe that Thistle-chaser is her daughter, order the clan to attack Thistle-chaser if she tries anything like it again. Thistle-chaser eventually learns that Ratha is her mother and realizes that the Dreambiter would be destroyed if Ratha was killed. Ratha bit Thistle-chaser when she was young, which was the cause of the Dreambiter. Thistle-chaser decides to attack Ratha and the two get into a fight. When Ratha gets her foot stuck between two rocks, Mishanti, an Un-named cub which Ratha was going to abandon, gets caught in the fray and tries to defend Ratha. In her fury, Thistle-chaser goes after him, only to be stopped by Ratha, who calls her names and brings her back to reality. Thakur and Fessran, another clan cat, arrive soon and together with Thistle-chaser bring Ratha and Mishanti to safety. Through these events, Ratha is able to admit that Thistle-chaser is her daughter and Thistle-chaser is able to forgive her mother. Mishanti, being an orphan and lacking any proof that he is sentient, is taken in by Thistle-chaser who will raise him and bring out his hidden sentience. The Named are a group of prehistoric sentient large cats; they call themselves a clan and are led by the female Ratha. The clan is herds creatures and uses them as livestock, and also has fire, which they call Red Tongue, which they use for heat and protection. They are recognizable by their cleanliness and their eyes, which have a distinct look of knowingness and brightness. They can love and feel for other members of the clan and have morals and their own language. The group has Herders, who keep herd the livestock and protect them, and Firekeepers, who tend to the Red Tongue. The Un-named are the opposite; non-sentient large cats who live in no distinct group, but band together sometimes for attacks. They are dirty and their eyes are distinct and unaware of what happens. They rely on instinct and have no language. A cat can be born Unnamed, but it is due to related linage with members of the Named. Unlike the Named, they do not herd animals, but hunt instead.The Unnamed are Sabre Tooth Cats. Red Tongue is fire used by The Named. Seamare is the term used for water creatures with protruding teeth, a horse-like head and neck, and a blubbery body. They have webbed feet, and live in a herd.The Seamare are Paleoparadoxia.

Ratha and Thistle-chaser

Things are going from bad to worse in the dilapidated kingdom of Ragbad; even the rag crop is failing. To top it all off (or not), King Fumbo''s head is blown away in a ferocious storm (with "ten thousand pounds of thunder"). Prince Tatters of Ragbag, and Grampa, a former soldier and the bravest man in the kingdom (population 27), set out to search for King Fumbo''s lost head, and a fortune to save the kingdom, and a princess to boot. They are joined by Bill, an iron weathercock from Chicago, who was brought to life by an electrical storm and blown to Oz. Meanwhile, in Perhaps City in the Maybe Mountains, the Princess Pretty Good has a problem: the prophet Abrog (also known as Gorba) foresees her marrying a monster if she does not marry in four days. (He suggests himself as her bridegroom.) When Pretty Good resists, Abrog kidnaps her and tries to transform her into a clod of earth; but since she is, in fact, more than just pretty good, as princesses go, Pretty Good turns into the beautiful flower fairy Urtha. Wide-ranging adventures&mdash;from Fire Island to Isa Poso to Monday Mountain &mdash; culminate in the location and restoration of King Fumbo''s head. Dorothy (with the help of Percy Vere the forgetful poet) manages to restore order. Prince Tatters ends up married to Princess Pretty Good &mdash; which is pretty good for him.

Grampa in Oz

The United States campaigns mirror Sherman''s march to the sea as U.S. armies drive through the center of the Confederacy, while a second U.S. force drives into Virginia to capture Richmond. The Confederacy (with some quiet help from Great Britain) manages to produce a fission bomb. The bomb is smuggled via truck into the de facto U.S. capital of Philadelphia, and detonated; however, the bomb explodes only on the city''s outskirts and does not damage any government buildings. In retaliation, the United States drops nuclear bombs on Newport News, Virginia, and Charleston, South Carolina. The Newport News bomb narrowly misses Confederate President Jake Featherston. Texas declares independence from the Confederacy and signs a separate peace with the United States. Jake Featherston attempts to escape to the Deep South but his plane is shot down. He survives the crash landing, only to be caught and killed by a black guerrillero, Cassius. The fourth and presumably final war between the United States and Confederate States ends officially on July 14, 1944, at 6:01 p.m after an unconditional surrender is signed between General Irving Morrell and the acting Confederate President Don Partridge. The United States commences a full occupation of the former Confederate States and Canada, though Texas apparently remains independent but still hosts American soldiers in its territory. For the first time in almost a century, the Stars and Stripes flies over the whole of the pre-1861 United States territory, and Americans express their determination never to let go of the former Confederate territories, after Featherston came so close to crushing them. The Confederates are bitter and far from being reconciled to their fate; they constantly attack the occupying US forces, despite grim retaliations including the execution of civilian hostages. Though outlawed, the Freedom Party is still very much an active underground force. Moreover, the United States itself - while dissolving the Confederate government and declaring its firm intention never to let it rise again - refrains from any formal annexation and (re)admitting Southern states to the Union, since any free elections would likely fill Congress with the United States'' most staunch enemies. Rather, the former Confederate territories are left in the same legal limbo in which Canada has been since 1917, being offered neither independence nor civil liberties and kept under an open-ended, harsh military rule. Despite the enormous victory won by the US, the war has not truly ended, but rather changed its form. To their chagrin, most of the soldiers and sailors conscripted "for the duration" are not discharged but set to occupation duty. The US is faced with the daunting task of keeping under indefinite harsh military occupation vast rebellious territories with hostile populations, with the conquered Confederate territories being added to the previously held Canadian ones, as well as the smaller Mormon Utah. And at the same time, the Nuclear Age has been launched with the destruction of three cities in America and six in Europe, and a fast scramble to obtain nuclear arms by powers not yet possessing them. The United States and Germany are determined in trying to prevent Russia and Japan from going nuclear, but these efforts are apparently doomed to failure; moreover, these erstwhile allies themselves seem likely to drift into a Cold War, glaring at each other across the Atlantic. Moreover, aside from the nuclear issue, Japan is presenting an unresolved problem to the US - having won the Battle of Midway, consolidated its hold on the Western Pacific and Eastern Asia and established a concrete threat to Australia. Having to deal with the Confederacy - either as a belligerent neighbor or as a rebellious occupied territory - the US can spare only limited resources for confronting Japan, and the idea of "an island-hopping campaign" across the Pacific is rejected out of hand by one character.

Settling Accounts: In at the Death

The unexpected death of a highly disciplined and successful army member of Camp San Marcial is officially explained as suicide. Major Olmedo had always followed the letter of the law and never questioned orders through the army hierarchy. He only broke the law in one respect and that was to carry an unauthorized pistol, since his name had appeared on a terrorist organization''s hit-list. Major Olmedo had recently completed a report which was commissioned by the Ministry of Defence in Madrid. In it, he recommended the closure of Camp San Marcial as an efficiency measure. This highlighted the growing cleavage between his own generation and style of troop which were dedicated to peace-keeping and winning wars with technology; vis-a-vis the older, Francoists, who still believed in numbers and yearned for a reinstatement of the recently abolished compulsory military service. When he gets shot there is an internal inquiry which results in a verdict of suicide. Marina, the Major''s daughter, is not satisfied with this outcome and hires a private detective, Ricardo Cupido. Cupido sets about investigating the "crime" scene with rigour and a professional manner. The scene itself simply is the pistol and a note in hurried handwriting saying two words, Forgive me scrawled on one of the Major''s business cards. Cupido questions each of the suspects and mulls over this problem even where Marina gives up on learning the truth because of the strain it is putting on her and dismisses him. Cupido does get to the bottom of the mystery.

At Close Quarters

Twenty-seventh century Earth is united by a worldwide democratic government presided over by a constitutional monarch, though the former is veering toward totalitarianism and the latter is a megalomaniac. To neutralize the World Emperor the power-hungry prime minister has ceded to him control of Greece for use in a mysterious secret project. Now Greece is surrounded by a force field cutting it off from the rest of the world, and people of Greek descent everywhere have vanished, presumably spirited away to the isolated region by the Emperor''s agents. One such kidnapped citizen is Thalia, wife of classical scholar Wiyem Flin. Anxious to get her back, he recruits his friend, magazine editor Knut Bulnes, into a desperate attempt to penetrate the force barrier. Bulnes, hoping to obtain an exclusive story on the Emperor''s mysterious project, agrees. The two succeed, sailing a boat through the barrier when it is temporarily disrupted by a storm. Inside the force field, Flin and Bulnes are astounded to find themselves not in 27th century Greece at all, but to all appearances the Classical Greece of Pericles and the Peloponnesian War. Pretending to be foreign philosophers, they establish themselves in Athens as they attempt to unravel the mystery, and begin to discover that all is not as it seems; the wife of the playwright Euripides, for instance, is a dead ringer for Thalia, though if she is Thalia she has no memory of her life with Flin, nor does she recognize him. But the true shock is when Pericles, the leading citizen of Athens, turns out to be the Emperor! Somehow, the two outsiders must uncover what he has done to Greece and how, thwart his insane scheme, and unmask the conspiracy that threatens to turn Greece back three thousand years and the rest of the world into a police state. Not to mention their original object of recovering Thalia!

The Glory That Was

When Lindsay Boxer gets a lead on a recent murder of a teenager, she responds to the call and joins Warren Jacobi on a stakeout of a Mercedes. When the car takes off, a high speed chase ends in a crash. The officers discover two teenagers in their father’s car, who are scared and have been hurt. They help them out, but the teens pull guns and both officers are shot. After being hit in the shoulder and thigh, and seeing Jacobi shot twice, Boxer returns fire. The girl is killed, and the boy is paralyzed for life. As Boxer and Jacobi are recovering in the hospital, they are told that everything is legally good, that is was a case of self-defense. Then, Boxer receives a notice she is being sued by the teenagers'' father for wrongful death. Taking a vacation before the trial starts, Boxer housesits for her sister in Half Moon Bay. While there she reads about recent murders in which the victims’ throats were cut and they were whipped. This resembles an unsolved case from before, so Boxer begins to investigate informally. After a few days, the Half Moon Bay police chief tells her to mind her own business, but reconsiders when the next bodies are found. Boxer meets with her friends to try to determine a link between victims as her trial date approaches. Boxer is found not guilty, and instead of returning to work right away, goes back to Half Moon Bay, determined to solve the recent murders. She is only there a day when the killers leave her a message by shooting up the house. She gets out and follows more clues, then finally catches up with a guy who has been following her. He is arrested and confesses to the killings. It is not until Alison Brown, her friend’s daughter, shows up at her house that Boxer catches the other two killers. They are part of a vigilante group of former victims who take the law into their own hands, playing the role of The Seeker, The Watcher, and The Truth. After they are all arrested, Boxer returns to San Francisco a double hero, for winning the trial and solving the murders.

4th of July

Dr. John Berry, the protagonist, is a pathologist working in Boston during the 1960s, a time when abortion was illegal in the United States. The story opens with an introduction of the various requirements and challenges of the medical profession during the era. Subsequently, Dr. Berry is notified that his friend, an obstetrician named Arthur Lee, has been accused of performing an illegal abortion that led to the death of Karen Randall, a prominent member of an established medical dynasty. The situation is further complicated by the fact that Lee is already well known amongst the medical community as an abortion provider and that Berry has in the past helped Lee disguise medical samples to hide the fact that Lee''s dilation and curettage patients were pregnant. After visiting his friend in a jail cell, Berry sets out to prove Lee''s innocence. Subsequently he investigates the personal life of the dead woman, creating an accurate portrait of her past, psychology, and character. During his search, which lasts several days vandals attack Lee''s home. The protagonist''s knowledge of medicine and law are helpful in overcoming various barriers in his search including a hostile police captain and bribes from the scion of the Randall family itself: Karen''s father, a well-established (though mediocre) doctor. Eventually, with the aid of an unscrupulous African-American lawyer, Wilson, Berry is able to obtain solid evidence showing Karen Randall''s uncle (who had already performed three previous abortions for her) to be the culprit. Nonetheless, Berry is troubled by this conclusion and is persuaded to continue his investigation despite Wilson''s displeasure. Eventually, he discovers that Karen''s drug dealing friends had performed the botched abortion, but Berry is attacked and sent to the hospital before he can reveal his discovery. Subsequently, Berry''s attacker, Karen''s African American boyfriend is also brought in an ambulance, dead after a fatal fall. The actual abortionist attempts to commit suicide. She is forced to confess in the hospital after being threatened with what she believes is an excruciatingly painful dose of Nalorphine (but is actually water). Berry continues to be suspicious about Karen''s boyfriend''s death, and ultimately forces one of his old friends and colleagues (the uncle of the woman who did Karen''s abortion) to admit to his involvement before turning him in to the police. However, despite being proven innocent, Lee''s reputation has been ruined, and he decides to move to California. Crichton then ends the novel with a postscript discussing the problems in the medical profession, including abortion. fr:Extrême Urgence it:In caso di necessità nl:A Case of Need ja:緊急の場合は ru:Экстренный случай tr:A Case of Need

A Case of Need

The story is divided into three parts. The first part "Zeleno" (eng. Green) is allotted 23 chapters, the second "Zuto" (Yellow) 18 chapters, and "Crveno" (Red) 16 chapters in the 57-chapter work. Names of these parts refer to three colors of the traffic light. The story follows a 15-year-old girl Marija from the moment of her moving to Belgrade from a small town where she previously lived with her parents. The young, pretty and quite immodest girl dreams about glory and wealth during the difficult years of political and economy crisis. She starts a relation with recently enriched young man Luka, who is involved in new kind of dangerous, but also profitable, street game called "Serbian Roulette" – suicidal street races against all traffic rules. Everything goes well between Marija and Luka, until he proposes to include his best friend Viktor, beautiful green-eyed playboy, into their sexual relation. She becomes confused and unsure about her feelings for Viktor, and also very jealous on Luka’s and Viktor’s friendship. Things get even worse after sudden return of Marija’s old friend Jovana, who appears to know the secret of Marija’s early sins. Her intentions to have revenge and reveal everything to Luka and Viktor threatens to ruin not only Marija’s love relation, but also her financial interests. Throughout Surf na crvenom talsu, Aleksandar Đuričić explores the influence of transition on the young people in Serbia, at the end of twentieth and the beginning of twenty-first century. The emotional story about love and friendship is told in the shadow of some political historical events, such as 1999 NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the fall of Slobodan Milošević in 2000, the Zoran Đinđić assassination in 2003. * Marija - a pretty blond girl determined to achieve success, glory and wellness in the big city of Belgrade using her charms and beauty. * Luka - a young political dissident. After the fall of Milošević''s regime his father unexpectedly becomes very rich, and the young Luka gets to be the perfect target for Marija. * Viktor - an attractive playboy who enjoys many vices, sharing them with his best friend Luka. * Jovana - an unattractive and plain girl, Marija''s best friend, who used to be her roommate until she moved to London. * Daca Faca - Victor''s faithful girlfriend who owns a beauty salon. * Željko - Marija''s gay friend who used to be her first boyfriend. * Džezer - a musician who introduces "Serbian Roulette" to Luka. * Tina - Džezer''s girlfriend, eccentric directress. * Bisa - Marija''s mother, neurotic woman with an exaggerated affection for her daughter.

Surf na crvenom talasu

On Isabella "Bella" Swan''s 18th birthday, Edward Cullen, the vampire she loves, and his family throw her a birthday party. While unwrapping a gift, she gets a paper cut, which causes Edward''s adopted brother, Jasper, to be overwhelmed by her blood''s scent and attempt to kill Bella. To protect her, Edward tells Bella that he does not love her and the Cullens move away from Forks. This leaves Bella heartbroken and depressed. In the months that follow, Bella learns that thrill-seeking activities, such as motorcycle riding, allow her to "hear" Edward''s voice in her head. She also seeks comfort in her deepening friendship with Jacob Black, a cheerful companion who eases her pain over losing Edward. Bella later discovers that Jacob and other tribe members are werewolves. Jacob and his pack protect Bella from the vampire Laurent and also Victoria, who seeks revenge for her dead mate, James, whom the Cullens killed in Twilight. Meanwhile, a series of miscommunications leads Edward to believe that Bella has killed herself. Distraught over her supposed suicide, Edward flees to Volterra, Italy to provoke the Volturi, vampire royalty who are capable of killing him. Alice and Bella rush to Italy to save Edward, arriving just in time to stop him. Before leaving Italy, the Volturi tell Edward that Bella, a human who knows that vampires exist, must either be killed or transformed into a vampire. When they return to Forks, Edward tells Bella that he has always loved her and only left Forks to protect her. She forgives him, and the Cullens vote in favor of Bella being transformed into a vampire, to Edward''s dismay. However, Jacob reminds Edward about an important piece in the treaty: if the Cullens bite a human, the treaty is over.

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Women of the apocalypse

No Author Listed

A Summer to Die

No Author Listed

Chanakya's Chant

By Ashwin Sanghi

Ratha and Thistle-chaser

By Clare Bell

Grampa in Oz

By Ruth Plumly Thompson

Settling Accounts: In at the Death

By Harry Turtledove

At Close Quarters

By Eugenio Fuentes

The Glory That Was

By L. Sprague de Camp

4th of July

By Maxine Paetro

A Case of Need

By Michael Crichton

Surf na crvenom talasu

By Aleksandar Đuričić

New Moon

By Stephenie Meyer