After a fallout with his father, Leon Courtney leaves home and joins the army with a little help from his uncle - General Penrod Ballantyne. Leon Courtney rises to become a second lieutenant in the King''s African Rifles regiment based in Nairobi, and early in the story narrowly avoids being court-martialled by a vindictive superior officer. Despite his acquittal Leon''s duties do nothing to improve his falling morale and he considers quitting the army. General Penrod Ballantyne then recruits Leon to spy on movements of man and machine in German East Africa, suspecting the Kaiser of preparing for war. Leon is placed as apprentice to professional hunter - Percy Phillips. Leon''s aptitude for the vocation and learning new languages makes him suitable for the job. His contacts in the local population, specially the Maasai tribe with whom he forges a strong bond, make him adept at espionage. Among Leon and Percy''s colourful clients are Theodore Roosevelt and his son Kermit, and a fifty-two year old dominatrix German princess. The first half of the story establishes Leon''s credentials as the protagonist. Like many of Wilbur Smith''s heroes, Leon is a hunter and marksman, comfortable in the wild, and respectful and adaptable to local people and customs. The antagonist Graf Otto von Meerbach appears in the second half, along with his mistress Eva von Wellbreg. Leon is forewarned by Ballantyne that Meerbach is closely linked with the German war effort and that Leon should keep an eye on his new client. Eva however complicates the matter as Leon falls in love with her at first sight. Meerbach''s prowess as a hunter is revealed, along with his true intentions. And in the end Leon is left alone to take down the larger than life enemy. The major parts of the story are set in the wild outside Nairobi, with rich descriptions of hunters'' strategies, local Maasai customs, big game hunting and lion hunting.

Assegai

Edward Baltram, a college student living in London, gives his best friend Mark a sandwich laced with a hallucinogenic drug for a joke. After Mark, still high, falls to his death from a window, Edward is wracked with guilt and depression &mdash; worsened by daily letters from Mark''s mother cursing him as a murderer. In search of his father, Jesse, Edward sets off for Seegard, the family home, away from the harsh reality of London. As Edward progresses through the novel, he revives somewhat, thanks to the love of his eccentric father and his extended family of supportive women. He eventually finds, however, that he must come to terms with Mark''s death. Meanwhile, Edward''s stepbrother Stuart Cuno decides to give up his studies and goes in search of the "pure" life of an aesthete, to his family''s bewilderment. Stuart has ''sexual feelings'' for thirteen-year-old Meredith, the son of Thomas and Midge McCaskerville. While Edward seeks redemption and Stuart salvation, Midge is having an affair with her husband''s best friend, Harry Cuno - stepfather to Edward and father to Stuart. Her passionate love affair comes to a head after two years when she is disgraced publicly and falls unexpectedly in love with Stuart. Left with a difficult decision, Midge turns to Edward for support.

The Good Apprentice

London was a very dangerous place to live during World War II and many children were evacuated to Ireland or the United States. Only child Elizabeth White is sent to live with her mother''s childhood friend and her large and bustling family, the O''Connors, in Ireland. Although the mothers were childhood friends, their relationship has become one-sided with Elizabeth''s mother, Violet, rarely corresponding and Aisling''s mother, Eileen, remembering their closeness with detailed letters. Violet believes even though Ireland is not as refined as her London, it is a safe place for her daughter. Elizabeth quickly becomes fast friends with Aisling, who is the same age. The story follows these two girls, along with the whole O''Connor family, as they grow into young ladies. Aisling is outgoing and bold, while Elizabeth is quiet with all the manners of a well-bred child. Elizabeth is shown a caring, loving family and begins to feel part of a real family, as opposed to a visitor in her own home. After the war ends, Elizabeth goes back home to London, leaving behind a loving family and returns to the quietness of her real family. The two girls have formed a bond that remains, however, for years after the war is over. They remain in close contact through letters, supporting each other through their marriages. Their lives remain intertwined, each facing her own relationships, successes, and failures.

Light a Penny Candle

Sneaking into Paisley Park to sit with her memories of Asukai Jin, Kinukawa Kotoe fell into the clutches of Spooky E, who had been hiding there since his defeat by Boogiepop. Capturing her as a new terminal, he worked on her to lead his search for Imaginator. Using her vast wealth, the manipulated Kinukawa began taking those whose friends had been changed by Imaginator to help find it. Under the suspicion of Kirima Nagi, Taniguchi Masaki headed off to meet Orihata Aya, planning to again impersonate Boogiepop for her. Kinukawa had already met up with Orihata and had instructed her that this was the end of her relationship with Taniguchi. Trying to save him, Orihata tries to make Taniguchi hate her, but he instead runs off to continue impersonating Boogiepop for her sake. Spotting one of the girls who had been with Asukai at her school, Suema followed to investigate. The girl had been looking for someone. After, at their cram school, Suema confronts Asukai. Both manage to surprise each other with their knowledge, though neither managed to identify how the other was linked. Living as ''Boogiepop'', Taniguchi stopped returning home. Finding new targets by himself, he continued to act the part of a hero, but was gradually becoming sloppier in his actions. Kinukawa and some of her hired thugs managed to find Taniguchi and tried to use him to kill ''Boogiepop'', thereby making the real Boogiepop a fake in the eyes of others. Though able to protect himself against the initial attack, Taniguchi was soon overwhelmed, however, he was rescued by Kirima, who had also been looking for him. She defeated the attackers and freed them all from Spooky E''s control. Kinukawa escaped, but was found by Asukai, who restored her to normal, as he had done with many of the other Terminals. Trying to find Orihata, Taniguchi searched her apartment, but soon realised that she had not returned since they last met. Meanwhile, Spooky E quickly discovered that he had lost all his Terminals, and was soon confronted by Asukai, who identified himself as Imaginator. Protecting himself from Spooky E''s powers with anti-magnetic sheets, Asukai grasps Spooky E''s ''flower'' and begins changing his heart, but the synthetic human chose suicide over being manipulated by Imaginator. Fearing for Orihata''s life, Taniguchi attempts to contact her by phone. She is found by Asukai, who allows her to speak with Taniguchi, but he needs her to be his sacrifice to create his perfect world. From the phone call, Taniguchi was able to deduce that they were at Paisley Park and immediately set off for it. Meanwhile, Suema also discovers that everything is at Paisley Park and makes her own way to the abandoned site. Breaking into Paisley Park, Taniguchi is confronted by those manipulated by Imaginator. Unable to effectively fight back, he is soon overwhelmed, but at the last moment is saved by a microfilament wire. Accompanied by the Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Boogiepop makes his appearance and quickly defeats the manipulated humans. Making his way to where Asukai and Orihata were, Boogiepop appeared before them. From the way she feared him, Asukai deduced that Boogiepop was a powerful opponent, but it was not until his plan to use Orihata fails that he realised that he had lost. After expelling Imaginator, Boogiepop left Orihata and Asukai alone. Suema arrived at Paisley Park to again find that everything had already finished around her. Suema saved Asukai and helped reunite Orihata and Taniguchi, who need no longer be separated.

Boogiepop Returns: VS Imaginator Part 2

Teenager Janice Crogan finds a diary belonging to a previous owner of Beast House, a local tourist attraction in the girl''s hometown of Malcasa Point, where numerous gruesome murders have allegedly taken place. The journal features lurid sex scenes between the beast and its author, the house''s prior owner. Janice sends an excerpt from the book to famed (fictitious) author Gorman Hardy, who decides to travel to Malcasa Point, along with an accomplice named Brian Blake, in order to steal the book and publish it himself. Meanwhile, Tyler and Nora, two young women on vacation together, decide to track down an old flame of Tyler''s, Dan Jenson, who is now a patrolman living in Malcasa Point. On the way there, they run into Jack and Abe, two ex-Marines who save them from a crazed driver with a serious case of road rage. Back in town, Gorman agrees to Janice''s proposal that she get half the profits from Gorman''s proposed book based on the journal, then sends her off with Blake to take photos of Beast House so that he can break into Janice''s room at the local inn (run by her parents) and steal the contract entitling her to half the money. While Gorman commits his act of attempted burglary, Blake and Janice are in the woods behind Beast House having sex, but then the beast attacks, kills Blake, and kidnaps Janice. A bit later, Janice''s parents confront Gorman and demand to know their daughter''s whereabouts. The three set out for Beast House, eventually discovering Blake''s mutilated body, and Janice''s father attacks Gorman, who murders both him and Janice''s mother, hoping their deaths will also be attributed to the beast. Meanwhile, Tyler and Nora are told by a neighbor that Dan Jenson can be found at Beast House. They encounter Gorman Hardy while on the Beast House tour, where Tyler is horrified to discover that Dan is one of the beast''s previous victims. No longer hindered, she starts a relationship with Abe. Back at the inn, Gorman offers Jack and Abe a thousand dollars to explore Beast House and get photographs. Breaking into the house, Abe and Jack eventually discover a tunnel connecting Beast House to the home of Maggie Kutch, the tourist trap''s current owner, the woman who runs the tours of Beast House. Janice awakens and realizes she''s been raped by the beast, and encounters Sandy and Donna, the mother and daughter survivors from The Cellar, who''ve been subjected to similar treatment. Jack and Abe kill one of the beasts, and another one kills Gorman, who came to the house with Tyler and Nora. Maggie Kutch is killed and Janice and Donna are rescued, but Sandy disappears. Some time later, Tyler and Abe are apparently married, with a child, and living at a hotel owned by Abe''s father. Janice Crogan has written a bestselling book about her experiences at Beast House. Sandy''s whereabouts are still unknown.

The Beast House

A poor emigrant from Central Europe sailing from Hamburg to America is shipwrecked off the coast of England. The residents of nearby villages, at first unaware of the sinking, and hence of the possibility of survivors, regard him as a dangerous tramp and madman. He speaks no English; his strange foreign language frightens them, and they offer him no assistance. Eventually "Yanko Goorall" (as rendered in English spelling) is given shelter and employment by an eccentric old local, Mr. Swaffer. Yanko learns a little English. He explains that his given name Yanko means "little John" and that he was a mountaineer (a resident of a mountain area — a Goorall), hence his surname. The story''s narrator reveals that Yanko hailed from the ‪Carpathian Mountains‬. Yanko falls in love with Amy Foster, a servant girl who has shown him some kindness. To the community''s disapproval, they marry. The couple live in a cottage given to Yanko by Swaffer for having saved his granddaughter''s life. Yanko and Amy have a son whom Amy calls Johnny (after Little John). Amy, a simple woman, is troubled by Yanko''s behavior, particularly his trying to teach their son to pray with him in his "disturbing" language. Several months later Yanko falls severely ill and, suffering from a fever, begins raving in his native language. Amy, frightened, takes their child and flees for her life. Next morning Yanko dies of heart failure. It transpires that he had simply been asking in his native language for water.

Amy Foster

The story begins with the sudden death of a wealthy Virginia landowner, Mr. Courtenay, a kindly plantation owner who has died before being given the opportunity to pay off his debts, leaving his family in debt and facing destitution. In an effort to pay off the debts, the family sell their slaves, among whom is the kindly Uncle Peter, who takes a liking to Courtenay''s daughter, Isabel, and vows to help her in any way possible in thanks for the kindness shown to him by the Courtenays. The money earned is nominal, leaving it to Isabel and her brother Horace to acquire jobs in order to pay the remaining bills and to support their ailing mother. Isabel finds a job as a schoolteacher, whilst Horace heads to an unidentified city in the north (inferred to be Philadelphia), where he becomes a "Northern slave" (i.e. a clerk) to the malevolent Mr. Sharpe, a ruthless capitalist who works Horace like as though he were a white slave. As the Courtenays continue to struggle, Isabel eventually finds comfort in a young slaveowner named Walworth, the son of an old Virginia family, who travels back and forth between north and south. When Horace dies of exhaustion in the north, Walworth comforts him in his final hours, and delivers his final requests to his sister in the south. Whilst travelling together, Walworth and Isabel are caught in the midst of an anti-Black riot, from which Walworth is able to save Isabel from harm. Isabel, eternally grateful, begins to have romantic feelings for Walworth, and they eventually marry. The marriage, by a twist of fate, allows Isabel to reclaim her wealth and property - including her slaves - and is finally reinstated at Courtenay Hall.

The Cabin and Parlor; or, Slaves and Masters

* Cerulean Sins apparently takes place some time after the events of the previous novel, Narcissus in Chains. Anita is happily living with Micah and Nathaniel and dating Micah and Jean-Claude. However, as usual, Anita is confronted by a series of simultaneous problems. ** First, she appears to be attracting the attention of a number of spies, including "Leo Harlan", a professional assassin who claims to want Anita to reanimate one of his ancestors to assist in genealogical research and two mercenaries who Anita arrests via her Federal Marshal status after noticing them following her. ** Second, Jean-Claude is unpleasantly surprised by an early visit from Musette and her entourage, all of whom are representatives of the founder of Jean-Claude''s bloodline, Belle Morte and represent an attempt by Belle Morte to test and possibly punish or capture Jean-Claude and his followers. ** Third, Anita learns of a series of shockingly brutal rapes and murders, apparently committed by a shapeshifter serial killer. However, because of her deteriorating relationship with Dolph, Anita is unable to get cooperation from the police in solving the crimes. * As usual, Anita resolves each of these conflicts with a combination of ruthlessness, magical power, and the loyalty of her friends and lovers. ** Anita ultimately learns that the mercenaries have been spying on her to consider recruiting her for a secret mission overseas. (As Agent Bradford warned Anita in Obsidian Butterfly, Anita has come to the attention of one or more secret agencies within the US government). Luckily for Anita, at her mentor Marianne''s insistence, Anita had stopped using animal sacrifices to raise zombies. Without the additional power granted by an animal sacrifice, Anita''s zombies were sufficiently "zombie-looking" to convince the mercenaries that she would not be able to perform the job, arguably validating Marianne''s belief that the animal sacrifices would result in bad karma. ** Anita confronts, outmaneuvers, or defeats Belle Morte several times. First, she and Jean-Claude take Asher to their (cerulean) bed in a menage a trois, making Asher their lover and therefore immune to most of Belle Morte''s advances. Second, Anita, with help from Richard, Jean-Claude, and her wereleopards, is able to block Belle Morte''s attempts to make Anita her human servant. Third, Anita is ultimately able to trap Musette in their game of courtly politics, proving that Belle Morte and her proxy Musette has violated the terms of her invitation and forcing Musette and her people to leave. ** More alarmingly, Anita begins to believe that Belle Morte is planning a war against the Mother of Darkness, the oldest and most powerful of the world''s vampires. Although Anita and Jean-Claude do their best to avoid that conflict, the Mother of Darkness is beginning to awaken from a millennia-long sleep, and seems interested in Anita. ** Finally, Anita helps Zerbrowski track down the shapeshifting serial killer, who turns out to be a werewolf member of the mercenary team sent to observe Anita herself. After a confrontation in which several police officers are killed, Anita tracks down the werewolf a second time and executes him. * In the epilogue, Anita explains that she is continuing to date Micah and Jean-Claude, and that she has also added Asher to her list of lovers. She and Richard are still broken up, but Richard appears to be overcoming his death wish. Two of Belle Morte''s vampires have received permission to remain in St. Louis, both to repair the damage done by their visit and to attempt to stay out of the way of any conflict between Belle Morte and the Mother of Darkness.

Cerulean Sins

The setting is the summer holidays early in the Second World War. The Templetons are English residents on the fictional island of Clerinel in the English Channel. The children are all members of the local Pony Club. Caroline rides the spirited Dinah, Mick the more placid Punch, and their little brother the chubby Bellman. Meanwhile, there are rumours that the Germans who have occupied the nearby Channel Islands may be planning to take over Clerinel too. The location and topography of the island are ideally suited as a platform for launching an invasion of the South Coast. Mr. Templeton discusses leaving with the children, prompting Caroline''s horrified response: "We couldn''t leave Dinah". The Pony Club''s chairman, Peter Beaumarchais, has surprisingly opted for a fancy-dress carnival as their Anniversary Day celebration in mid-September. Caroline decides to go as Elaine the Lily Maid of Astolat; Mick chooses to dress simply as a local fisherboy and borrows some clothes from Petit-Jean. During the celebration Caroline spots some unfamiliar riders in fancy dress. These riders turn out to be a party of German invaders taking advantage of the fancy dress to gain easy access to the Martello tower. The English residents hurriedly evacuate, but in the confusion Caroline and Mick are left behind. Their home having been requisitioned by the German general, they camp in some caves which have been fitted out as stables. With the help of Peter they manage to survive and stay hidden while planning their escape. After Mick stumbles across a hidden message and decodes it, they realize there are spies on the English side working on the island. Believing he can help discover some useful information, Mick volunteers to coach Nannerl, the German general''s granddaughter, in riding. Nannerl joins the Pony Club, and when Caroline leaves the island she feels Dinah is safe with the German girl until they can return.

We Couldn''t Leave Dinah

Moonseed is an exploration of what could possibly happen when rock returned from the Apollo 18 mission (which was actually cancelled in 1970). In the book, the rock contain a mysterious substance called "moonseed" (a form of grey goo, whether nanobots, an alien virus or something else) that starts to change all inorganic matter on Earth into more moonseed. It also gets transferred by a NASA probe to Venus, and the explosion of Venus is the first clue as to what has been happening. Stephen Baxter combines a host of disciplines (space travel, geology and disaster theory) to tell a tale where the rocks are literally swept from under the feet of humanity. During the course of the novel, in which Edinburgh is the focus for much of the action, Venus is destroyed by an unknown cosmic event that showers the Earth with radiation that somehow stirs the moonseed on Earth. When moon-dust containing the moonseed accidentally falls onto the streets of Edinburgh, Earth''s fate is sealed. The moonseed begins to disintegrate the planet from the inside-out as the core heats up exponentially, while on the surface, nuclear power stations catastrophically fail, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are abundant, and billions of people die as cities and continents vanish. Over the course of the cataclysmic erosion of Earth, a collective of scientists and engineers in space agencies from around the world desperately try to terraform the Moon for colonization, to provide a safe haven for some surviving humans before Earth eventually disintegrates into nothingness along with human civilization. This novel also presents numerous theories and ideas about the space-faring future of humanity, albeit in an alternate dimension where we are forced into space by an eroding Earth. It is also, in many stages, critical of NASA''s performance over the last thirty years, as well as the United Kingdom''s disaster programs.

Moonseed

The Sangaman-Veshnir drug company has discovered a fast-growing mold that grows on meat, covering the victim with a powdered sugar-like coating: "The Frosted Death". Growing into the skin pores and lungs, it causes death by suffocation, and cannot be killed by conventional means; a speck on the skin causes death in a short time. Kindly-seeming, thoroughly evil Veshnir murders to keep the mold secret: he has a deal with Germany to mass produce it as a weapon of war. A submarine of Nazis has infiltrated to support this effort. At his secret estate in Maine, Veshnir has set up a production facility, using dying men enslaved by blowing some mold into their brains. Benson quickly contains outbreaks of the mold, and uses detective work to identify the source. Mac works feverishly, develops an antidote. Mac and Josh are captured. Josh secretly infects Veshnir with the mold. Benson poses as one of the Nazi agents and uses the antidote to save Josh and Mac. Veshnir''s production facility is destroyed. The Nazis will return to Germany and likely death.

The Frosted Death

In it, Solzhenitsyn emphatically denies that Jews were responsible for the revolutions of 1905 and 1917. At the end of chapter nine, Solzhenitsyn denounces "the superstitious faith in the historical potency of conspiracies" that leads some to blame the Russian revolutions on the Jews and to ignore the "Russian failings that determined our sad historical decline." Solzhenitsyn criticizes the "scandalous" weakness and "unpardonable inaction" that prevented the Russian imperial state from adequately protecting the lives and property of its Jewish subjects. But he claims that the pogroms were in almost every case organized from "below" and not by the Russian state authorities. He criticizes the "vexing," "scandalous", and "distressing" restrictions on the civil liberties of Jewish subjects during the final decades of the Russian old regime. On that score, in chapter ten of the work he expresses his admiration for the efforts of Pyotr Stolypin (Prime Minister of Russia from 1906 until 1911) to eliminate all legal disabilities against Jews in Russia. In the spirit of his classic 1974 essay "Repentance and Self-Limitation in the Life of Nations", Solzhenitsyn calls for the Russians and Russian Jews alike to take responsibility for the "renegades" in both communities who supported a totalitarian and terrorist regime after 1917. At the end of chapter 15, he writes that Jews must answer for the "revolutionary cutthroats" in their ranks just as Russians must repent "for the pogroms, for...merciless arsonist peasants, for...crazed revolutionary soldiers." It is not, he adds, a matter of answering "before other peoples, but to oneself, to one''s consciousness, and before God." Solzhenitsyn also takes the anti-Communist White movement to task for condoning violence against Jews and thus undermining "what would have been the chief benefit of a White victory" in the Russian Civil War: "a reasonable evolution of the Russian state."

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Assegai

By Wilbur A. Smith

The Good Apprentice

By Iris Murdoch

Light a Penny Candle

By Maeve Binchy

Boogiepop Returns: VS Imaginator Part 2

By Kouhei Kadono

The Beast House

By Richard Laymon

Amy Foster

By Joseph Conrad

The Cabin and Parlor; or, Slaves and Masters

By Charles J Peterson

Cerulean Sins

By Laurell K. Hamilton

We Couldn't Leave Dinah

By Mary Treadgold

Moonseed

By Stephen Baxter

The Frosted Death

No Author Listed

Two Hundred Years Together

By Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn