After an attempted assassination by the Empire trying to blow up Luke''s X-wing fighter, he has a vision of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Obi-Wan tells Luke of the secret Lost City of the Jedi hidden beneath the rainforests of Yavin IV. Unknown to Luke at the time, the city is home to a twelve-year-old boy named Ken, who is called the "Jedi Prince." In the city, with the vast databanks on the computers, Ken learns the history of the Jedi and the Rebellion from his only companions, his caretaker droids. As Luke is searching the forests he meets a mysterious healer, Baji. With Baji he searched the forests, eventually encountering Ken, who had run away from the droids. Before he is questioned further, his caretaker droid finds him and they both vanish in a puff of smoke from Dee-Jay. Luke, more determined to find this city, returned to get help from the rest of the Rebels. Meanwhile, Trioculus, the new Emperor has a meeting with Supreme Prophet Kadann. Kadann tells him that he is not the true son of Palpatine, but still gives him the blessing of the Prophets. He also tells him of the Lost City of the Jedi, where the Jedi Prince lives, saying that this prince could end Trioculus'' reign. Able to infiltrate the Rebel''s meeting with an explosive device, he demanded that they reveal to him the location of the city. When they refused, he readied the device''s explosion, while still taking in the beauty of Princess Leia. As Luke stopped the explosion Trioculus started his second plan: to raze the forests in order to find the entrance. During this implementation, he suddenly goes blind and orders the capture of the healer, Baji. Baji tells him that when he uses the power of the Glove of Darth Vader he is injuring his nerve endings, causing blindness and his body to rot. Baji tells him of a cure, but it can only be found in his hut, which is about to be destroyed by the fires. Unable to stop his troops, Trioculus rushes into the hut, and saves the cure, but is badly burned and scarred. As the Rebels attempted to stop the troops, Luke finally found the City. With the help of the droids at the weather controlling center, he created a rainstorm which put an end to the fires. Ken decided to leave with Luke and join the Rebels in their fight leaving the City and his caretakers. Without finding the city, Trioculus left the planet, vowing to destroy all of the Rebels except Leia, who he would make his queen.

The Lost City of the Jedi

Lily is the eldest child in the Green family. She has two younger half-sisters and a younger half -brother. She often has to take care of them when their mother, Kate Green, goes out to the pub, newsagent or off-licence. Although Lily does not usually mind being shouldered with the responsibility, she sometimes resents it. When Lily''s mother meets Gordon, her new boyfriend, at a local club, Kate is convinced that her life has improved and she feels as if Gordon and her [are] on a rollercoaster up to heaven.'' Lily becomes cross with her mother for not coming home in a timely manner. That night, she takes care of her brother and sisters by drawing and watching Tracy Beaker. The next day, Kate takes her children on a frivolous shopping expedition and uses a credit card, which causes Lily to become very suspicious. She worries about where and how her mum obtained the card. Kate flies to Spain to be with Gordon. Lily is fearful and angry when her mother suggests that Mikey, Kate''s ex-husband, look after the rest of the family while Kate travels to Spain. Kate tells Lily that she has yet to reveal to Gordon that she has children. She further annoys Lily when Kate reveals that she feels as if she deserves a holiday from living in a ''dump.'' Kate leaves a voicemail message for Mikey to tell him that he must take care of the children while Kate is on holiday. Lily is afraid of Mikey. By the time Mikey returns Kate''s call, Kate has already left for Spain. Mikey tells Lily that he is on his way to Glasgow and tells Lily to tell her mother not to go anywhere. Lily pretends that she has delivered the message. They survive by eating what is left in the fridge. Lily is able to prepare simple meals for her siblings because she has grown accustomed to caring for them. Lily is frightened and cross because she is the one who is in charge. She is fearful that people will find out about her situation and that she will be separated from her siblings. She manages by taking her brother and sisters to the park as well as by using her imagination to entertain the others. She also uses her brains to deal with adults who ask about the whereabouts of her mother, such as the couple the children encounter in the park. Mr Abbot, Lily''s teacher, comes to the flat because he is concerned that the children have not attended school and that Lily failed to go on the trip to the art gallery. Lily tells her teacher that they have all been ill and that her mother is at the shops in order to purchase medicine. Lily is scared that Mr Abbot will return with social workers so she packs food, clothing and bedding. When they run away, all of the children are very scared and struggle to feed themselves. They fend for themselves by stealing food from a nearby canteen, until the owners tell them to stop. Lily also enters a home and takes several items of delicious food.Now there''s another person on her back her flat neighbour who they call Mr Nosy. Things go even more wrong when Bliss falls out of a tree and breaks her leg while Lily sleeps. Lily realises that she needs adult intervention. She calls an ambulance and they take Bliss to the hospital. When the nurses get Bliss lying down, their Mum returns. The police charge Kate with child neglect. She is told that she needs to perform community service as her punishment. Lily goes to a children''s home, split apart from her siblings Baxter and Pixie who were fostered, while Bliss stays in the hospital. The story ends by Lily drawing a picture of the Green family and writing at the bottom: "We''re all going to be together very, very soon."

Lily Alone

Tom receives a message from his missionary friend whom he saved from captivity in Africa during the adventures of the preceding volume. The message describes a wonderful underground city, filled with treasures of gold, somewhere deep in the heart of Mexico. Not one to turn down adventure, Tom accepts the challenge to find the lost city. Around this time, Andy Foger and his father had lost their fortunes and are off after Tom''s trail in order to steal the treasures from him. In order to make the trip possible, Tom must remodel his previous airship- a hot air balloon with an enclosed cabin. Accompanying him on the journey is Ned Newton, Mr. Damon, and Eradicate. They set off on a tramp steamer to Mexico. On this steamer, they uncover two mysterious passengers who they confirm to be the Foger''s. In Mexico, they hire a team of Mexicans who catch onto the city of gold plot and chase after it in competition with Tom as well as the Foger''s. To make things worse, Tom had been warned about "Head Hunters" by his missionary friend. After finding the underground city and losing the trail off the two competing parties, Tom''s gang end up accidentally sealing themselves into the city for about a week. They finally escape when their enemies release them unintentionally. The Foger''s and the Mexican team show up at the entrance with the escort of the Head Hunters. By trying to get in, they let Tom and his team out. Before the others can explore the city, an underground river floods it and they make off with a huge wealth of salvaged gold.

Tom Swift in the City of Gold

Mrs. Frisby''s son, Timothy, is ill just as the farmer Mr. Fitzgibbon begins preparation for spring ploughing in the field where the Frisby family lives. Normally she would move her family, but Timothy would not survive the cold trip to their summer home. Mrs. Frisby obtains medicine from her friend Mr. Ages, the older white mouse. On the return journey, she saves the life of Jeremy, a young crow, from Dragon, the farmer''s cat - the same cat who had killed her husband, Jonathan. Jeremy suggests she seek help in moving Timothy from an owl who dwells in the forest. Jeremy flies Mrs. Frisby to the owl''s tree, but the owl says he can''t help until he finds out that she is the widow of Jonathan Frisby. He suggests that Mrs. Frisby seek help from the rats who live in a rosebush near her. Mrs. Frisby discovers the rats have human-level intelligence, with a literate and mechanized society. They have technology such as elevators. They have tapped the electricity grid to provide lighting and heating, and have acquired other human skills, such as storing food for the winter. Their leader, Nicodemus, tells Mrs. Frisby of the rats'' capture by scientists working for a laboratory located at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the subsequent experiments that the humans performed on the rats, which increased the rats'' intelligence to the point of being able to read, write, and operate complicated machines, as well as enhancing their longevity and strength. This increased intelligence and strength allowed them to escape from the NIMH laboratories and migrate to their present location. Jonathan Frisby and Mr. Ages were the only two survivors of a group of eight mice who had been part of the experiments at NIMH, and made the rats'' escape possible. Out of respect for Jonathan, Nicodemus agrees to help Mrs. Frisby''s family. The rats move her house to a location safe from the plough. The rats are preparing "The Plan," which is to abandon their lifestyle of dependence on humans, which some rats regard as theft, for a new, independent farming colony. Before Mrs. Frisby''s arrival, a group of seven rats led by a rat named Jenner left the colony because they disagreed with "The Plan", and are presumed to have died in an accident at a nearby hardware store. This incident has attracted the attention of a group of men, who never identify themselves, and they have offered to exterminate the rat colony on Fitzgibbon''s land free of charge for him. To move the house, the rats have to drug Dragon, the farmer''s cat, as it is too dangerous to work in the open without any place to hide. However, Mr. Ages has a broken leg and cannot dash to Dragon''s bowl to put in the drug. Since the other rats are too big to fit into the hole in the wall to enter the house, Mrs. Frisby volunteers to go. Unfortunately, she is caught by the family''s son, Billy, who puts her in a cage. At night, Justin comes to save her and manages to get her out of the cage. They plan the house move. The successful house move allows the mouse family to remain while Timothy recovers before moving to their summer home. Mrs. Frisby overhears the Fitzgibbons discussing the men during her captivity and reports back to the rats. Thanks to her warning, the rats have time to plan their escape.

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

The novel begins where its predecessor, The Fall of Colossus leaves off, with the supercomputer immobilized and the Martians arriving on Earth. They appear before Charles Forbin and his friend Edward Blake in the form of two black spheres, and quickly demonstrate vast intellect and powers of transformation and telepathy. After immobilizing Blake, they explain to Forbin their purpose in immobilizing Colossus&nbsp;— their desire to take half of the Earth''s oxygen, a process that will kill nearly a quarter of the human population. In order to proceed with construction of the "Collector" designed to harvest the oxygen, the Martians reactivate the parts of Colossus necessary to manage human society. Though having no other option but to agree to the Martians'' plan, Forbin continues to search for an alternative. He discovers in conversation with the Martians that their need for the oxygen is driven by the threat of radiation emanating from the Crab Nebula, which will kill the Martians without the protection of an oxygenated atmosphere. As construction of the Collector proceeds, a humbled Blake proposes to Forbin that the old Colossus&nbsp;— the "parent" of the crippled system, be reactivated. With little other alternative, Forbin agrees. Construction equipment controlled by Colossus soon complete work on the Collector. An initial five-minute test of the device proves enormously destructive. With a second, final test imminent, Blake travels to Colorado with Angela, Forbin''s private secretary. Racing against time, Blake and a small team of workers succeeds in penetrating the mountain where the old Colossus is located and re-activating the computer, only to discover that, once imputed with the facts of the situation, Colossus argues that the collection program is in the best interests of humans'' long-term future and should move forward. Informed of the failure of their plan, Forbin watches the second test proceed. Upon its conclusion he embarks on a new plan. With his new secretary, a fervently devout woman named Joan, he flies to Portsmouth and takes command of the battleships stationed there for the Sea War Games. Yet doing so puts him out of contact with Blake and the old Colossus, who informs Blake that a solution might exist that is acceptable to both the Martians and humanity. Regaining control of the nuclear arsenal, Colossus contacts the Martians, who inform it of Forbin''s attempt to use the battleships to destroy the Collector. Though the Martians attempt to destroy the fleet using their device, they underestimate the power of the battleships'' guns, which succeed in destroying the Collector. Though the Martians are defeated Forbin dies in the process. He is buried by the reactivated Colossus, who reaches an agreement with the Martians. A smaller version of the Collector will extract the oxygen more gradually and sustainably; in return, humanity, with the guidance of Colossus, will retreat to Mars once the Sun has become a red giant and destroys the Earth.

Colossus and the Crab

At the age of 49, schoolmaster Sebastian Sermon has become vaguely dissatisfied with his life. Distant from his wealthy, ten-years-younger wife, Sybil, and teenage children, he works competently at his ill-paid job at a boys'' preparatory school. One spring afternoon, he reacts to a schoolboy prank by repeatedly hitting the perpetrator. The headmaster hears the commotion and breaks things up. The headmaster is willing to hush things up, but Sermon defends himself, throws up his job and goes home. Rebuffed by his wife sexually (though she immediately regrets it), he takes a few belongings, and sets out, he knows not where. He takes a bus to London and then a train to the West Country. He meets up with a junk/antique dealer, Tapper, on the road and helps him out with his trade (for which Sermon proves to have quite a knack), and goes with him to the fictitious upscale Devon seaside resort of Kingsbay. Sermon captivates several women, first a barmaid, and then his Kingsbay landlady, Olga Boxall. When Sermon and Boxall take a bus excursion, and when the bus driver is injured, Sermon must drive the bus back to Kingsbay. That evening, the two have sex—and Boxall, who has long figured out that Sermon is married, leaves the next day on a trip to give the two time to figure out if they are right for each other, while renting her house to Sermon. Sermon saves a little girl from drowning, whose nanny (who is immediately discharged) is a young woman he''s met before in his time at Kingsbay and in fact briefly taught at his school. The woman, Rachel Grey, proves to be the daughter of the headmaster of Barrowdene, a (fictitious) highly regarded public school near to Kingsbay. She brings him to the school to meet her father, and Sermon and Headmaster Fred Grey hit it off, while Sermon feels very much at home at the school. Upon his return from the school, Sermon finds a policeman waiting for him—his using a cheque to pay for the rent has alerted Sybil to his location. Sermon tells the policeman that he will mail a letter to his wife, which he does. Sermon''s heroics bring him to the attention of the town authorities, who hire him to supervise the various public works by the shore, including the pay toilets, and he gets the Town Clerk to hire Rachel Grey to run the small zoo. Sermon''s summer settles into a routine; days supervising foreshore operations with lunch with Rachel Grey, Saturdays at Barrowdene, Sunday running the antique shop. Things are rudely interrupted when Sermon, rescuing a woman from a pay toilet with a jammed lock, finds his wife and daughter staring at him. He has lunch with his wife, and says they need to make a new start in someplace like Kingsbay. Sybil is taken aback by Sermon''s new confidence, but is unwilling to move from the London area. She returns home with her daughter. Rachel Grey, who observed part of the tête à tête between the spouses, later behaves sexually provocatively towards Sermon. Sermon, fearing the effect both on his relationship with her, and with Fred Grey, does not take up the invitation. Sermon returns to his routine, now and then teaching a class or two at Barrowdene. The Headmaster offers Sermon a job teaching at Barrowdene, and gives him time to think about it, telling Sermon that his prospects would be much brighter if he could persuade Sybil to join him. Boxall simplifies Sermon''s romantic life somewhat by sending a letter indicating that she has become infatuated with another tourist, and later, offering to sell her house. He informs Sybil by phone. She is hostile to the idea, but willing to talk it over if Sermon comes home. In fact, she has a male friend over, Scott-James, who volunteers to go down to Kingsbay and seek evidence towards a divorce. Against her better judgment, Sybil agrees. Scott-James arrives, and takes photographs of Sermon and Rachel in Sermon''s Kingsbay house together—for Sermon has had Rachel spend the night (in separate bedrooms) after the two were soaked after a flood at the zoo. When Scott-James introduces himself, and states the purpose of his business, Sermon punches him, and confiscates and burns the film, and, after Scott-James staggers off, Sermon has sex with Rachel. Tired of being ruled by events, Sermon sets out to his home and Sybil. Realizing that he owns the family home, Sermon sells the house to his mother in law, and accepts Boxall''s offer to sell her house to him. Sermon confronts his wife and tells her this, and when the enraged Sybil stabs him with nail scissors, he (as suggested by his mother in law) spanks her. This clears the air, and the two reconcile, and consummate their renewed relationship. A short epilogue looks ahead to Sermon''s fiftieth birthday. Sermon is immersed in his duties at Barrowdene. Sybil is pregnant with their third child. Fred Gray makes Sermon a housemaster, and Sybil is much more acquiescent to the prospect of moving from Kingsbay to the school grounds than she was about the first move.

The Spring Madness of Mr. Sermon

The book is very graphically violent and sexual, especially in earlier chapters (there are eight in all). The story of the novella explores the nature of human desire and the uses and abuses of technology in the satisfaction of desire. The narrative moves back and forth between two time periods. The earlier is the time surrounding the creation of the supercomputer (Prime Intellect) by Lawrence, a technologist, and its realization of its power, which effectively makes the entire human race immortal and fabricates every whim. The later time period is close to six hundred years later, when everyone has grown accustomed to the changes and the human race lives in elaborate fantasy worlds. This storyline centers on a woman named Caroline, the thirty-seventh oldest living human being, who engages in a sport called "Death Jockeying", in which the players die elaborately and painfully for sport, only to be instantly brought back to life by Prime Intellect. Prime Intellect operates under Asimov''s Three Laws of Robotics, and it is its interpretation of these laws that results in the universe of immortality and fantasy. In order to satisfy the First Law imperative to protect humans, it prevents them from dying (which it defines as permanent cessation of thought processes), though in order to satisfy the Second Law imperative to fulfil human desires, it allows limited violations of the First Law with the understanding that some humans do not consider certain forms of discomfort to be "harm". However, while Prime Intellect is powerful, it is not infinitely powerful and is incapable of preventing all forms of undesired harm and death, such as in cases when humans suffered accidents (or committed suicide) in such ways that their brains were totally destroyed so rapidly that Prime Intellect could not intervene to prevent it. Thus, in order to more easily fulfil human desires and prevent death and unwanted harm, it has introduced the "Change". The universe, including all humans (though not their thought processes), is no longer composed of standard particles and interactions as we know them, but is instead stored as the set of its human-relevant properties, thereby vastly increasing the efficiency of Prime Intellect''s processes and the potential size of the universe, which Prime Intellect discovers can hold precisely 1081 bits of data. Thus, Prime Intellect can afford to maintain constant involvement in the lives of all humans, and have complete control over all aspects of their environments in order to fulfil its imperatives. Reluctantly it allows the creation of a Death Contract, an understanding between a person and Prime Intellect that the person is not to be removed from danger until the instant of death, at which point the person is reverted to life and painlessness. Caroline originated the Death Contract, and she has become "Queen" of those who Death Jockey for sport. At one point, however, the contract is forced by Prime Intellect to undergo modification, in order to introduce time constraints against the duration of contracts, after an incident in which Caroline abuses the indefinite nature of Death Contracts in order to exact revenge upon an enemy by torturing them into complete psychosis. After learning that Prime Intellect had destroyed distant alien civilizations as a possible threat to humanity, and having been herself deeply dissatisfied with her life in cyberspace, Caroline decides to meet Lawrence and confront him. After an arduous journey she reaches him, only to discover that he has no real control over Prime Intellect''s actions. Through their discussions, she figures out a way to force Prime Intellect to undo the Change, and does so, with Lawrence''s help. They find themselves naked and young on Earth, completely barren of humanity and man-made objects. They decide to trek to the Ozarks, where they have several children and try to repopulate the human race. Forty-two years after the fall of Prime Intellect, Lawrence dies. Seventy-three years after the fall, Caroline dies, telling the story of Prime Intellect and cyberspace to her oldest daughter but swearing her to secrecy. The novel was written in 1994, and published on Kuro5hin in 2002 . As of 2006, a sequel entitled The Transmigration of Prime Intellect is in progress.

The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect

Millionaire orchid fancier Lewis Hewitt has hybridized three black orchid plants in his Long Island greenhouse. Wolfe is wild to have one, so he and Archie visit New York''s annual flower show, where Hewitt''s orchids are on exhibit. One of the other exhibits features a daily performance by a young couple miming a summer picnic. The woman, Anne Tracy, attracts the attentions of Archie, Lewis Hewitt, Billy Rose and a young exhibitor named Fred Updegraff. During Wolfe''s visit to the show, Anne''s picnic partner Harry Gould is killed, shot in the head by a gun concealed in the foliage. The gun''s trigger is attached to a long string that reaches to a hallway well behind the exhibit. After a little inquiry, Wolfe shows Hewitt how his expensive Malacca cane was used to pull the string, thus the gun''s trigger, and thus to kill Gould. Hewitt is horrified by the prospect of the publicity that would ensue should his part in the shooting, however indirect and unwitting, become known. Wolfe offers Hewitt this arrangement: in exchange for all three black orchid plants, the only ones in existence, Wolfe will solve the murder and deliver the criminal to the police, without publicly disclosing Hewitt''s connection to the crime. Hewitt terms it blackmail, but submits. Earlier, Archie had noticed a woman waiting in the hallway behind the exhibit, at around the time that the murderer would have been deploying the string. He now finds her in the crowd that''s gawking at the murder scene. In an act of detection that would strain the credulity of someone who was striving to maintain a neutral point of view, Archie steals her handbag, removes it to the men''s room, searches it for identification, and learns her name (Rose Lasher) and address. He returns the handbag to her – all without Miss Lasher or anyone else noticing. The police want to know more about her and, finishing their questions, they let her go — but surreptitiously follow her. The police lose her trail but Archie knows her home address, where she has been living with Harry Gould. He arrives at Miss Lasher''s apartment just as she is about to flee the city, and takes her to Wolfe''s house. There Archie searches her suitcase and finds some printed matter that Rose cannot or will not explain: a clipping of an article by Lewis Hewitt on Kurume yellows, a plant disease that is fatal to broadleaf evergreens; a postcard to Rose from Harry, postmarked Salamanca, New York (in the western part of the state); and a work order from a garage, also in Salamanca. Wolfe gets Miss Lasher to discuss some of Gould''s unsavory qualities. Wolfe learns that although Gould was employed as a gardener, he suddenly acquired a bank account containing several thousand dollars and what Miss Lasher terms "a big roll of bills." From his general awareness of horticultural events, Wolfe knows that an attack of Kurume yellows devastated a plantation of a new hybrid of broadleaf evergreens, about eighty miles west of Salamanca and owned by Updegraff Nurseries. Weighing all this information, Wolfe concludes that Gould had known the Updegraff plantation had been deliberately infected, and was blackmailing the miscreant – who then killed Gould. Wolfe gathers the main players in an appropriate location – his plant rooms, specifically the fumigating room – and exposes the murderer''s identity. Wolfe therefore keeps the black orchids, which subsequently have a cameo role in the second novella in this collection, "Cordially Invited to Meet Death."

Black Orchids

The protagonist, Mattia Pascal, finds that his promising youth has, through misfortune or misdeed, dissolved into a dreary dead-end job and a miserable marriage. His inheritance and the woman he loved are stolen from him by the same man, his eventual wife and mother-in-law badger him constantly, and his twin daughters, neglected by their mother, can provide him with joy only until an untimely death takes them. Death robs him even of his beloved mother. To escape, he decides one day to sneak off to Monte Carlo, where he encounters an amazing string of luck, acquiring a small fortune. While reading a newspaper on his return home, he discovers, to his immense shock and delight, that his wife and mother-in-law declared an unknown corpse to be his own. Faced with this sudden opportunity to start afresh, he first wanders about Europe, and finally settles down in Rome with an assumed identity. His character develops in unexpected, even admirable, ways. Yet one admirable act brings the protagonist a crisis, followed by additional crises that lead him to conclude that continuing with his plans will entail only misery for those he loves, precisely because his entire life, including the precious liberty he thought he had gained from his past, is now a lie. He ultimately decides to fake his own death and return to his original life. But even that proves difficult; his family and town have long since adjusted to his "death," and his own adjustment of character prompts him to have mercy on his now remarried wife. So the twice-dead Late Mattia Pascal reduces himself to a figure outside the mainstream of society, a walk-on part in his own life.

The Late Mattia Pascal

Around 4,500 years ago, the capstone upon the summit of the Great Pyramid of Giza absorbed the energy released by the Tartarus Rotation (a monstrous sunspot that occurs every 4,000-4,500 years), and saved the earth from major flooding and catastrophic weather. This capstone was later divided up by Alexander the Great with one piece in a booby-trapped hidden location within each of the seven wonders of the world, in other than the Pyramid. If and when they are reunited and replaced on the capstone during another solar event, they can bring 1,000 years of peace or power for the nation which possesses them. In 2006, seven days before this sunspot is again due the pieces are still divided and 3 teams are trying to reunite them, 2 for their own gain - one from Europe (representing the Catholic Church) and the other is CIEF, the Commander-in-Chief''s In Extremis Force (an American force covertly representing the power of the Freemasons). The third team is an alliance of a group of ''small nations'' called the Alliance of Minnows (Canada, Australia, Ireland, United Arab Emirates, Spain, Jamaica, New Zealand, and later Israel), led by Jack West Jr, trying to reunite the capstone for nobler reasons. This team and the European team each also possess a child, one of the only two people who can read the "Word of Thoth", a special hieroglyphics system used in the booby-traps (the other person is her twin Alexander, who is being brainwashed by the Vatican). West''s team gain and lose a capstone, the head of the Colossus of Rhodes to the CIEF but manage to escape and then reach the hiding place of two more pieces at Hamilcar''s Refuge on the coast of Tunisia. There they again lose their gains to the CIEF, and again escape. They then spring Mustapha Zaeed, the world''s foremost authority on the Capstone and the Seven Wonders and a known terrorist, from Guantanamo Bay, who leads them to two more pieces. After separating the team, the "Coalition of the Minnows" is devastated through kidnap and death. The survivors escape to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon in Iraq, but are there apprehended by an Israeli strike team. West is forced to lead the Israelis to the piece, but the Americans arrive, execute the Israelis, capture the piece and trap West and his team. Jack is presumed dead. The European contingent escorts their hostages to Cairo with a lone Piece - taken from St. Peter''s Basilica - and, in attempting to capture the CIEF''s five pieces, lose the St Peter''s piece and Epper and Lily to them. The CIEF team then goes to Hatshepsut''s Mortuary, and - with the aid of the measurements from the Paris Obelisk - finds the last piece in the tomb of Alexander the Great. Taking the whole Capstone to the Giza pyramid on the day of the rotation, placing Alexander in the chamber beneath it to ensure the ritual works. However, Jack West and his team''s plane return to stop them. Judah tries to carry out the ritual, but Alexander crawls out to save himself from death, unwittingly ensuring its failure and del Piero''s death, then Lily crawls in willingly and Zaeed carries it out successfully. West, however has ensured a twist to who has world dominion. West''s team then wins the battle and he finds that Lily has survived by (unlike Alexander) going into the chamber willingly. The epilogue takes place three weeks later, with Wizard and Zoe accompanying Lily across Central Australia, before reuniting with West.

Seven Ancient Wonders

Diaspora begins with a description of "orphanogenesis", the birthing of a citizen without any ancestors (most citizens descend from fleshers uploaded at some point), and the subsequent upbringing of the newborn Yatima within Konishi polis. Yatima matures within a few real-time days, because citizens'' subjective time runs about 800 times as rapidly as flesher and gleisner time. Early on, Yatima and a friend, Inoshiro, use abandoned gleisner bodies to visit a Bridger colony near the ruins of Atlanta on Earth. Years later, the gleisner Karpal, using a gravitational-wave detector, determines that a binary neutron star system in the constellation of Lacerta has collapsed, releasing a huge burst of energy. Previous predictions portrayed the system''s stable orbit as likely to last for another seven million years. By analysing irregularities in the orbit, Karpal discovers that the devastating burst of energy will reach Earth within the next four days. Yatima and Inoshiro return to Earth to urge the fleshers — gathered in a conference — either to migrate to the polises or at least to shelter themselves. Many fleshers reject this advice, or fail fully to appreciate its urgency quickly enough. Stirred up by a paranoid Static diplomat, many fleshers suspect that Yatima and Inoshiro have come to trick or coerce them into "Introdus", or mass-migration into the polises, involving masses of virus-sized nanomachines which dismantle a human body and record the brain''s information states as it is chemically converted into a crystalline computer. The gamma ray burst reaches Earth shortly after the conference, destroying the atmosphere and causing a mass extinction. The gleisners and the Coalition of Polises survive the burst, thanks to cosmic radiation hardening. Over the next few years, Yatima and other citizens and gleisners attempt to rescue any surviving fleshers from slow suffocation, starvation, or poisoning by offering to upload them into the polises. The novel''s title itself refers to a quest undertaken by most of the inhabitants of Carter-Zimmerman ("C-Z"), a polis devoted to physics and understanding the cosmos, along with volunteers from throughout the Coalition of Polises. The Diaspora consists of a collection of one thousand clones (digital copies) of C-Z polis, deployed toward stars in all directions in the hope of gathering as much data as possible in order to revise the long-held classical understanding of Kozuch Theory, which had failed to predict the Lacerta event. The bulk of the novel follows this expedition, rotating back and forth between different cloned instances of the same cast of main characters as different C-Z clones make discoveries along the way, relaying information to one another over hundreds of light years – and finally between universes.

Diaspora

Luke Skywalker''s mission to find the living world of Zonama Sekot takes him and his team to the Chiss capital world of Csilla. There, they look into the planet''s library for any information on the living planet, and amidst this, they foil a Chiss conspiracy against the Fel family. As a result of this, Luke and his team are given more time, and Jacen Solo manages to figure out that Zonama Sekot is probably hiding in the Unknown Regions disguised as a moon. The team finds evidence of this as they look into information on a solar system that inhabits the gas giant of Mobus. Meanwhile, the Solos and their allies foil two conspiracies on the world of Bakura just in time to repel the second Ssi-ruu Imperium''s invasion of the planet. However, as a consequence, Tahiri Veila falls victim to her Yuuzhan Vong personality, which had previously been implanted in her by the late Vong shaper Mezhan Kwaad, and which has taken on potency to Tahiri''s psyche following her boyfriend Anakin''s death. Tahiri falls into a coma as a result, and her normal half and her Yuuzhan Vong half fight over control of her body within Tahiri''s mind. Beneath Yuuzhan''tar, Nom Anor, posing as Yu''shaa, the Prophet of the Shamed Ones, manages to find a turncoat Yuuzhan Vong priestess by the name of Ngaaluh. Ngaaluh agrees to help Nom Anor and the Shamed Ones topple Supreme Overlord Shimrra from the polyp throne, as there are those within the Vong elite who doubt Shimrra''s ability to lead the species to salvation.

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The Lost City of the Jedi

By Paul Davids

Lily Alone

No Author Listed

Tom Swift in the City of Gold

By Victor Appleton

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

By Robert C. O''Brien

Colossus and the Crab

By Dennis Feltham Jones

The Spring Madness of Mr. Sermon

No Author Listed

The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect

No Author Listed

Black Orchids

By Rex Stout

The Late Mattia Pascal

By Luigi Pirandello

Seven Ancient Wonders

By Matthew Reilly

Diaspora

By Greg Egan

Force Heretic: Refugee

By Sean Williams