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

A Civil Campaign

Queen of Angels describes our world just prior to the binary millennium (2048 AD) through several parallel (and to some degree interlocking) tales. Nanotechnology has transformed almost every aspect of American society, and its application to psychology, psychiatry, and neuroscience has resulted in new techniques for mental "therapy" that have created new forms of social stratification. Increasingly, individuals are "therapied" - that is, well-integrated personalities capable of productive work and constructive social interaction which does not threaten the social order. Therapied individuals have access to the best jobs. There are two other classes: the "high naturals", who possess such a positive mental makeup without the need for therapy, and the "untherapied", who find themselves increasingly marginalized. The central unifying element involves a famous writer, Emmanuel Goldsmith, who has committed a gruesome series of murders, a crime almost unheard of in the age of therapy. One storyline involves Mary Choy, a high natural police detective assigned to the case to track down and arrest the murderer. Mary is a transform - she has chosen to have her body extensively altered by nanotechnology, both to enhance her abilities as a policewoman and for aesthetic reasons. A second storyline involves Richard Fettle, a good friend of the murderer, also an untherapied writer, who must come to terms with what happened to his friend and how his life—and that of artists, and all of the untherapied—must change. The third plot line concerns Martin Burke, a pioneer in psychotherapy who uses a technique which allows him to directly enter and interact with a patient''s psychology - the "Country of the Mind" - through a sort of virtual reality. Although in a position of disgrace at the story''s opening, Dr. Burke is given the opportunity to use his technique to explore Goldsmith''s mind, which turns out to be one of the most fascinating and dangerous minds imaginable. Finally, the fourth plotline considers the nature of artificial intelligence, as an AI robot space probe discovers life on a planet in the Alpha Centauri system, and simultaneously achieves its own independent self-awareness, as does its twin back on Earth. The novel deals with issues of technology, identity, the nature of justice, and the existence of consciousness and the soul. Queen of Angels, set in 2047, was written just before the creation of the first website in 1991 and describes a global network based on the exchange of text (a sort of super USENET), whereas the sequel, Slant, set in 2055 and written in 1997 after the coming of the World Wide Web, describes a global network which has inexplicably changed to resemble a vast shared virtual reality.

Queen of Angels

On Mars, Jim Marlowe and Frank Sutton travel to the Lowell Academy boarding school for the start of the academic year. Jim takes along his native, volleyball-sized pet, Willis the Bouncer, who is about as intelligent as a human child and has a photographic memory for sounds, which he can also reproduce perfectly. At a rest stop, Willis wanders off and encounters one of the adult sentient Martians. The three-legged alien takes the two boys and Willis to join a ritual called "growing together" with a group of its fellows. They also share water, making Jim and Frank "water friends" with the Martian, who is named Gekko. At school, Jim gets into trouble with the authoritarian headmaster, Mr. Howe, who confiscates Willis, claiming that it is against the new rules to have pets. When Jim and Frank sneak into Howe''s office and rescue Willis, the bouncer repeats two overheard conversations between Howe and Beecher, the unscrupulous colonial administrator of Mars, detailing Beecher''s plans for Willis and the colony. When Beecher learns Howe has a bouncer, he is ecstatic, since the London Zoo is willing to pay a hefty price for a specimen. Worse, Beecher is secretly planning to prevent the annual migration of the colonists (necessary to avoid 12 months of life threatening winter weather) in order to save money. The boys run away from school to warn their parents and the colony. The boys set out to skate the thousands of miles to their homes on the frozen Martian canals. During the trip, Frank gets sick. On the third night, they are forced to take shelter inside a giant Martian cabbage plant (nearly suffocating when it folds up at night). The next day, they meet some native Martians, who accept Jim because of his relationship to Willis and water-friendship with Gekko. The Martians treat Frank''s illness and send the two boys home by a swift "subway". Once warned, Jim''s father quickly organizes the migration, hoping to catch Beecher off guard. The colonists take over the boarding school, and they turn it into a temporary shelter. Howe locks himself in his office, while Beecher sets up automatic, photosensor-controlled weapons outside to stop the malcontents (as he calls them) from leaving. After two colonists are killed trying to surrender, and the power to the building is cut, the colonists decide they have no choice but to fight back. The colonists organize a raiding party, with the boys taking part, capture Beecher''s office and proclaim the colony''s independence from the Earth. Several Martians enter the school area, and one of them shows up in the door leading to Howe''s office, hiding him from sight. When the Martian turns away, Howe is nowhere to be found. The Martians then go to Beecher''s building, and when they leave, he has also vanished. The Martians had been content to allow humans to share their planet, but Beecher''s threat to Willis has made them reconsider. They present the colonists with an ultimatum: leave the planet or else. Dr. MacRae negotiates with the Martians, and is able to persuade them to let the colonists stay, mainly because of Jim''s strong friendship with Willis. Doctor MacRae theorizes that Martians start life as bouncers, metamorphose into adults, then continue to exist after their deaths as the "old ones." In the end, Jim resigns himself to giving Willis up so he can undergo the transformation to adulthood. As with Podkayne of Mars, there are two versions of the ending. As originally written (and published much later) it is made clear that Willis will not emerge as an adult for forty years. This was edited and changed by Heinlein''s publishers, as was a discussion early in the novel in which MacRae expresses strong support for adults and older children being free to carry handguns, and opposition to any government which would restrict that.

Red Planet

The long, bitterly fought Company War between Earth and Union had ended – for everyone, except Conrad Mazian, commander of the Earth Company Fleet. By refusing to accept the peace, he and his loyal Mazianni became outlaws, hunted by all sides. Elizabeth ''Bet'' Yeager had been one of Mazian''s marines, a twenty year veteran. Stranded on Pell Station when the Fleet was forced to pull out abruptly (as told in Downbelow Station), she managed to blend in with the many displaced war refugees. Since then, she survived by taking whatever starship berths she could find. Her luck begins to run out when her latest ship, the freighter Ernestine, is forced to return to Pell for major repairs, a destination too fraught with danger for her. She stays behind on the decrepit, dying Thule Station. Day after day, she goes to the employment office, but there is little work. Few starships call and the ones that do, do not need her. Late one night, while trying to sleep in a dockside washroom, she is attacked by a man and barely manages to kill him. In desperation, weak from hunger, she moves in with a lowlife bartender. When he tries to control her, with threats to go to the authorities about his suspicions about her, she dispatches him too. With time running out before his body is discovered, she signs up with the ship Loki, a barely legitimate ''spook'' that survives by gathering intelligence and selling it. Loki is not a typical merchanter ship; instead of a close-knit family, the crew consists of unrelated hire-ons. As a result, various competing cliques have formed aboard and Bet has to navigate her way among them. She becomes friends with Musa, a universally respected crewman who claims to have served on one of the ancient sublighters, the original nine vessels that predated faster-than-light ships. She is also strongly attracted to Ramey, an ex-merchanter and surly outcast with a nickname of NG (no good). She gradually makes a place for herself and even manages to get the reluctant NG tentatively readmitted back into shipboard society. Things get complicated when she is forced to reveal her past, especially since Loki is currently hunting a Mazianni ship. Long overdue for a major overhaul, Loki limps into Thule, hooks up to the sole starship fuel pump and takes on all the available fuel. While there, the ship they were searching for (Keu''s India) shows up. The Mazianni ship had been harried and hunted by Alliance and Union forces to the point that it was blocked from its regular supply bases and is desperately low on fuel. Keu needs to take the precious pump and fuel intact, so he can not just blow Loki up. Instead, he sends boarding parties of armored marines, but Bet and NG between them manage to hold them off. Then the Alliance warship Norway arrives to close the trap and administer the coup de grâce. Bet''s actions during the battle prove to her crewmates that she can be trusted; she has found a (relatively) safe haven.

Rimrunners

The novel, set largely in 1962 is narrated by Reuben Land, the asthmatic eleven-year-old protagonist, and includes his older brother Davy and younger sister Swede. His father, Jeremiah, a school janitor, is a deeply-spiritual Protestant but occasionally performs miracles, of whom Reuben is the sole witness. The Lands'' lifestyle is disrupted when troublemakers Israel Finch and Tommy Basca attempt to molest Davy''s girlfriend and are prevented by Jeremiah; whereafter they attempt revenge by kidnapping Swede before returning her unharmed. Having provoked them to enter his own house, Davy kills them and is tried for murder. At the trial, Reuben is the only eyewitness of the killing; and though determined not to betray his brother, he gives a compromising testimony, ensuring the probability of a conviction. Before the conclusion of the trial, Davy escapes the jail and flees. Search for him is personified by a federal agent, Martin Andreeson, who vainly asks the family for information on Davy''s whereabouts (of which they know no more than he). Jeremiah becomes ill with pneumonia, leaving Reuben and Swede to operate the household until his recovery. After Jeremiah is recovered, they learn that traveling salesman Tin Lurvy has died and left them his Airstream trailer, which they take in search of Davy; at first to their friend August Schultz''s farm, having received suggestion that Davy might be there. When they arrive, they find Davy has come and gone, and pursue him, seeking continually to avoid Martin Andreeson. Later in the journey, the family visit a service station and remain at length as guests of its widowed owner Roxanna, who assumes a maternal role toward the children and (toward the end of the novel) later marries Jeremiah. Reuben discovers Davy by accident, and finds him accompanied by the eccentric Jape Waltzer and his ward Sara. Thereafter Reuben visits them several times, being forbidden by Davy to tell the family. Waltzer claims to have "bought" Sara from her father in Utah and raises her with the intention of later marrying her. Eventually, Andreeson reaches the family again, having suspected that Davy is nearby; and Jeremiah, after much prayer, co-operates with him. Having suspected that Waltzer will kill Andreeson if discovered, Reuben leads a search party to the hideout; but deliberately misleads the searchers, causing one to be injured. Despite this, the posse discover the hideout, but find it abandoned. They find Andreeson''s discarded fedora, leading them to believe he has been killed. (He was actually bludgeoned to death by Jape Waltzer and dumped into a vein of burning lignite). The family returns to their home in Minnesota, where Jeremiah marries Roxanna. Three months thereafter Davy appears at their home with Sara, claiming that Jape had decided to marry Sara and, the latter objecting, that Davy fled with her. Having pursued them, Waltzer fires on Jeremiah and Reuben. In the next chapter, Reuben undergoes a near-death experience displaying himself in an afterlife wherein his breathing is normal and he can run freely. There, he and his father approach a city, apparently of the dead, to which Jeremiah is admitted and Reuben forbidden. Reuben then awakes to find his father dead and himself still breathing, and his asthma cured. In the epilogue, Swede becomes a novelist, whereas Reuben sometimes visits Davy (who lives in a small Canadian town on the plains); but concludes his narrative by reference to his sight of his father''s miracles and the afterlife glimpsed by himself. Reuben also marries Sara. Jape escapes crime and his whereabouts remain unknown.

Peace Like a River

The novel centres around Timoleon Vieta, a little mongrel dog with black and white patches of fur and eyes as pretty as a girl''s. Timoleon lives with Cockcroft, a retired, gay composer, who lives in a run-down farmhouse in Umbria financed by the occasional royalties he receives from the theme tunes he wrote. He reminisces on his failed career and former lovers, but is surprised when a man claiming to be a Bosnian shows up at his door with a business card he says Cockcroft gave him in a bar in Florence; Cockcroft often has such drunken weekends when he attempts to pick up men. In return for the occasional odd job and weekly fellatio Cockcroft puts him up, but Timoleon Vieta, who is a good judge of character, takes against the Bosnian, and the dislike is reciprocated. Cockcroft is forced to choose between them and agrees to abandon the dog in Rome. The remainder of the novel is about Timoleon Vieta''s journey back home, and the people he briefly comes into contact with, as he tries to make his way back to his beloved Cockcroft.

Timoleon Vieta Come Home

Ranofer is an orphaned 12-year-old porter at a goldsmith''s shop who has learned much about gold working. Gebu, his evil half brother, beats Ranofer. When the tallies of gold sweepings do not add up, Ranofer tries to figure out why. He determines that Ibni is smuggling gold to Gebu through wineskins that Ranofer unknowingly carries home. Ranofer tries to stop this, but Gebu forces him to continue, threatening to beat again and sell him into slavery. Ranofer makes two new friends, the Ancient and Heqet, but things take a turn for the worse when Gebu moves him to his stone cutting shop to be an apprentice after Ibni is caught. With the help of his new friends, Ranofer discovers that someone else is stealing gold at night after getting suspicious again. After Heqet suggests they work together to spy on Gebu and his evil helpers, they meet in a thicket near the river, share food, and talk about what they have heard during midday when Ranofer gets a break from his awful job at the stonecutters. Ranofer breaks into Gebu''s room and discovers a golden goblet which could not come from the area. Ranofer realizes that Gebu has been tomb robbing by the markings at the bottom which say the name of a pharaoh. Also with that evidence he realizes that no one can get as rich as Gebu was getting in one day which supports his theory. He asks the Ancient how tomb robbers are caught, and the Ancient replies, "They may be followed". Ranofer knows from Heqet''s eavesdropping that Gebu will be going on another tomb robbing session during the upcoming feast, but keeps his findings to himself. Ranofer follows Gebu to the burial chamber. Meanwhile, Heqet and the Ancient have also gone to the Valley of the Kings looking for Ranofer, putting puzzle pieces together where he has gone and why. Ranofer runs out of the tomb after extinguishing the robbers'' torch and one of the giant steps crumbles, trapping Gebu and his companion Wenamon. Ranofer puts a boulder on top of the entrance, and then finds Heqet and the Ancient, who seal the tomb and sit on the boulder while Ranofer returns to town. He manages to get into the palace, and tries to get an audience with the queen but is delayed by Qa-nefer, the queen’s assistant, who doesn''t believe his story and thinks he is crazy. After lots of persistence Ranofer finally gets an audience with the queen, and by telling her about the golden goblet with the pharaoh''s name on it, she decides to test him by asking him, "What the object is leaning against the tomb''s north wall of the tomb?" Ranofer answers, "Your father''s oaken staff," and the queen immediately sent out soldiers, who catch Gebu. Finally, the queen asks what Ranofer wants most in the world. "A donkey," Ranofer said, "so that I may earn a living for myself like the Ancient." At the end, it shows him riding on his donkey with the goods earned from the queen with praise ringing from his ears to Heqet and the Ancient. While he is riding he is thinking about how the next day he will go see Zau, the master goldsmith, and become his apprentice.

The Golden Goblet

Daniel H. Wilson’s third book is obviously fiction, but contains a lot of useful information nonetheless. How to Build a Robot Army: Tips on Defending Planet Earth Against Alien Invaders, Ninjas, and Zombies not only deals with how to reprogram household robots to defend against aliens but literally every imaginable monster. From vampires to Godzilla Wilson has you covered. With section titles such as “How to Slay a Vampire Clan” and “How to Repel Godzilla” Even though there is a section in the book that deals specifically with that scenario, “How to Thwart an Alien Invasion”. Despite its apocalyptic aura the book is an easy read. The sections are all short and to the point with little to no flowery language but a lot of humor mixed in. Each section goes into describing what sort of attack you are facing and the monsters involved. Then looks at a typical personal robot that is available for reprogramming. The reprogramming goes in depth but again is easy to follow and stays on point to the hostile situation.

How to Build a Robot Army

One day, the Popper family tunes in to a radio broadcast by an Admiral traveling to many countries. Mr. Popper had previously sent the Admiral fan mail, and the Admiral promises Mr. Popper a surprise. The surprise turns out to be a penguin, which comes in a large box. Mr. Popper names the penguin "Captain Cook" after the famous James Cook. Mr. Popper cleans out the icebox so that the penguin can sleep inside. As time goes by, the Poppers find that Captain Cook is growing large, but his health is failing. Mr. Popper writes to the curator of a large aquarium, asking for help. The curator replies that the aquarium has a female penguin, Greta, who unfortunately is also experiencing the same symptoms, and he suggests that perhaps the penguins are simply lonely. Soon after, the Poppers receive their second penguin in the mail. The pair of penguins are revitalized by each other''s presence. As both birds cannot fit into the icebox together, Mr. Popper opens the window to let in the cold winter air, creating a snow-covered habitat. As this solution will not work in springtime, Mr. Popper has the main things moved upstairs and a freezing plant installed in the basement for the birds. As time passes, Greta lays an egg. She continues laying a new egg every three days until the total reaches ten. As penguins do not normally lay so many eggs, Mr. Popper attributes this to the change in climate the birds have experienced. When the eggs hatch, the Popper family now has twelve penguins to feed, and the contractor is looking for payment on the household changes. Mr. Popper decides to raise money by training the twelve penguins and turning them into a circus act. The act debuts at the local theater, and soon the "Popper''s Performing Penguins" are featured throughout the country. But in the theater in New York, the penguins cause trouble; what''s worse, they''ve accidentally shown up at the wrong theater. The manager of the wrong theater is extremely angry and has Mr. Popper arrested, along with the penguins. Admiral Drake, having arrived to see Popper''s Performing Penguins for himself, posts bail for Mr. Popper. After speaking with the Admiral, Mr. Popper decides that show business is no life for a penguin. Drake lets all of the twelve penguins go with him on his expedition to the North Pole, where they will be released experimentally into the Arctic. The Poppers are sad to see the penguins go, especially Mr. Popper himself — that is, until Admiral Drake invites Mr. Popper to accompany him on the trip. The Poppers wave goodbye as Mr. Popper and his penguins sail away towards the North Pole and Mr. Popper promises to be back in a year or two.

Mr. Popper''s Penguins

When Israel Potter leaves his plough to fight in the American Revolution, he''s immediately thrown into the Battle of Bunker Hill, where he receives multiple wounds. However, this does not deter him, and after hearing a rousing speech by General George Washington, he volunteers for further duty, this time at sea, where more ill fortune awaits him. Israel is captured by the British Navy and taken to England. Yet, he makes his escape, and this triggers a series of extraordinary events and meetings with remarkable people. Along the way, Israel encounters King George III, who takes a liking to the Yankee rebel and shelters him in Kew Gardens; Benjamin Franklin, who presses Israel into service as a spy; John Paul Jones, who invites Israel to join his crew aboard The Ranger; and Ethan Allen, whom Israel attempts to free from a British prison. Throughout these adventures, Israel Potter acquits himself bravely, but his patriotic valor does not bring him any closer to his dream of returning to America. After the war, Israel finds himself in London, where he descends into poverty. Finally, fifty years after he left his plough, he makes his way back to his beloved Berkshires. However, few things remain the same. Soon, Israel fades out of being, his name out of memory, and he dies on the same day the oldest oak on his native lands is blown down.

Israel Potter

Them explores the complex struggles of American life through three down-on-their-luck characters—Loretta, Maureen and Jules—who are attempting to reach normality and the American dream through marriage and money. The story begins with Loretta Botsford and her brother Brock as teenagers, living in a "fair-sized city on a midwestern canal", in the 1930s. Loretta falls in love with Bernie Malin, and sleeps with him. Later in the night, Brock shoots Bernie in the head, and Bernie dies suddenly. Loretta runs away, and meets Howard Wendall, an older cop to whom she confesses the death of Bernie Malin. They later marry, and she bears her son Jules (who was hinted to be Bernie Malin''s son). Loretta and Howard live close to Mama and Papa Wendall''s house, on the south side of town. Soon after the birth of Jules, Howard is busted for taking money from prostitutes. The Wendalls move into the country house with Howard''s family where Loretta bore her daughters Maureen, and Betty. When World War II breaks out, Howard leaves his family to fight in Europe. Meanwhile, Jules grows up to be a fast, energetic child who hangs around older children, and is never still. Maureen is a quiet, shy, delicate girl, while Betty is a smart aleck. Jules as a child is fascinated by fire; when he burns down a deserted barn and when a plane crashes in Detroit. Loretta decides to move to Detroit with Jules, Maureen and Betty while Howard is still at war. Jules takes on the role of the "bad boy" who hangs out with kids who steal from stores and smoke at school. Many conclude that Jules will not live past twenty. Soon Jules is expelled from the Catholic school and sent to a public school away from his sisters. As time progresses, Jules becomes more involved in petty theft but always has hopes for a better life. He falls passionately in love with a rich girl, Nadine, from the suburbs whom he helps to run away from home to Texas. She abandons him in a hotel, however, when he becomes ill, stealing his car and money. After Howard dies in a work accident, Loretta remarries and relies more and more on Maureen to run the household. Feeling the desire to escape, Maureen turns to prostitution to build an escape fund. When her step-father discovers her secret, he savagely beats her, resulting in his jail sentence, Loretta''s divorce, and Maureen suffers a nervous breakdown for over a year. She gradually recovers with the care of Loretta''s brother Brock, who has unexpectedly returned and the letters of Jules, who slowly drifts back North. Some time later, Jules is doing better in business working for his uncle when he reconnects with Nadine. She has married, but they initiate an affair. However, she has mental problems and shoots him. Jules survives, but has lost all his drive. Maureen has moved out and is working as a typist and taking night classes. She sets her sights on her professor, a married man, and they begin an affair. When Maureen cooly tells her mother of her plans to become a housewife, Loretta is incensed. After his recovery, Jules is a defeated man, maintaining several affairs. He rapes a girl and later pimps her out, and he becomes involved with a group of intellectual radicals. He is present at the 1967 Detroit riots, where Loretta''s apartment is among the buildings burned. In the chaos, Jules sinks to a new low when he finally commits murder. Later, Jules visits Maureen, who has isolated herself from the rest of her family in Dearborn with her husband and is expecting a child. Loretta is surviving while Jules plans to try his fortunes in California.

Them

Jilly is struck by a car and becomes paralyzed on her right side. She discovers she can dream herself to the spirit world like her friend Sophie has long known how to do. Her physical body remains in the hospital bed while a dream version of herself, young and not paralyzed, traverses the spirit world. There she meets her friend Joe Crazy Dog, who can travel to the spirit world while awake. He tells her he has sent for a pair of "crow" girls who might be able to cure her condition, but only after she deals with emotional wounds from her past. Somebody breaks into Jilly''s studio and destroys many of her paintings. Her friends keep seeing on the streets a woman who looks just like Jilly. They wonder if a shadow twin might be behind both Jilly''s "accident" and the vandalism. Jilly meets in the dreamlands a young man named Toby. He is an Eadar--a fictional character who acquires a physical presence in the spirit world, but whose existence depends on there being people who believe in him. Together they spend several nights climbing a big tree to get some magical twigs that may help both of them. In flashbacks, the book gradually reveals details of Jilly''s past. As a child, she was repeatedly raped by her brother Del. She finally ran away from home and by her teens was a junkie and prostitute living on the streets, until a kind cop named Lou rescued and rehabilitated her. Back at Jilly''s former home, Del turned his attention to her younger sister Raylene, who never forgave Jilly for abandoning her. Raylene finally stabbed Del and ran away with her best friend Pinky. To make money, they performed badger games and ended up killing a dirty cop. Pinky eventually became a pornstar, while Raylene started working in a print shop. There she fell in love with one of her coworkers, who taught her how to use computers, but finally died in a shootout. Pinky served several years in prison for assault, and during that time she and Raylene began having shared dreams in which they were wolves hunting unicorns. Raylene found out her sister''s whereabouts from an article. On the day of Pinky''s release, Raylene bought a pink Cadillac and the two of them rode off in search of Jilly. That''s when Raylene destroyed Jilly''s paintings, and continued to stalk her. In the hospital, Jilly and Sophie discover that they can share their dreams as well, and when they find themselves in a forest, they encounter a pack of wolves, one of whom Jilly recognizes as her sister. She realizes that Raylene must be the lookalike who destroyed her paintings. Raylene is upset that Jilly has now invaded her dreams. She wants to find a way into the dreamlands while awake, so that she can avenge Jilly there. She sees Joe on the street and recognizes him from his Don''t! Buy! Thai! T-shirt as he slips into the spirit world. By watching him, she figures out how to enter the spirit world herself. She and Pinky kidnap the sleeping Jilly and carry her body into the spirit world. The dreaming version of Jilly has reached the top of the tree and found the twigs, which have made Toby no longer an Eadar, but which have no effect on Jilly''s condition. But because Jilly''s physical body has entered the dreamlands, she feels pulled toward it, and she must climb down the tree to reach it. When she reaches Raylene, they begin talking. Raylene realizes how silly it is to hold a grudge against her sister for something she did when she was a kid just trying to survive. Unfettered, Pinky points her gun at Jilly and fires--but Raylene places herself in the line of fire and dies. Joe arrives at that moment with a pitbull, which kills Pinky. Toby reaches the clearing with a wreath of the twigs, now powerful enough to cure Jilly''s paralysis. Jilly instead uses it to bring Raylene back to life. Because Raylene killed all those unicorns, she must never return to the dreamlands, or else Joe''s friends will hunt her down. The crow girls visit Jilly and tell her that they cannot cure her condition, but they give her feathers so that she can call them anytime she wants.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

A Civil Campaign

By Lois McMaster Bujold

Queen of Angels

By Greg Bear

Red Planet

By Robert A. Heinlein

Rimrunners

By C. J. Cherryh

Peace Like a River

By Leif Enger

Timoleon Vieta Come Home

By Dan Rhodes

The Golden Goblet

By Eloise McGraw

How to Build a Robot Army

By Daniel H. Wilson

Mr. Popper's Penguins

By Florence Atwater

Israel Potter

By Herman Melville

Them

By Joyce Carol Oates

The Onion Girl

By Charles de Lint