The story takes place partly in London and partly in Australia. It is set in 1950. Jennifer Morton, a young girl from Leicester but living in London, witnesses the death of her grandmother, the widow of a retired Indian civil servant. Her pension has ceased and she has literally starved to death, despite apparent prosperity. Before she dies, she leaves Jennifer a small sum of money sent by a niece in Australia, and asks that Jennifer use the money to visit Jane and Jack Dorman who own a prosperous sheep station in Merrijig Victoria. She does so. Jennifer finds herself falling in love with the new, relatively unspoiled country, though she continues to worry about her parents. She also meets Carl Zlinter, a ''New Australian''; a Czech refugee who is working at the nearby lumber camp of a timber company as a condition of his free passage to Australia. A medical doctor qualified to practise in Czechoslovakia, he is not qualified to practise in Australia and only looks after First Aid at the lumber camp. But when an accident badly injures two of the workers and no doctor, nurse or medical facilities are available, he is faced with the choice of either watching the workers die or operating on them; he chooses to operate, and Jennifer assists him. The two operations are successful, but one man later gets drunk and dies. Zlinter is initially in potentially serious trouble over the unlicensed operations and death, but he is cleared of responsibility. Jennifer helps Zlinter to trace the history of a man of the same name who lived and died in the district many years before, during a gold rush, and they find the site of his house. Back in England, Jennifer''s mother dies and she is forced to return, but she is now restless and dissatisfied. Zlinter turns up in Leicester; he has found gold dust that the earlier Zlinder earned as a bullock driver and hid beneath a stone. He has used the money from illegally selling the gold to travel to England to ask Jennifer to marry him, and to re-qualify as a medical practitioner.

The Far Country

Continuing the adventures started in Rebel Dream, Wedge Antilles continues to defend the planet Borleias from the Yuuzhan Vong. After rooting out a spy in the Vong-controlled Tam Elgrin, he begins creating a superlaser, identical to the Death Star''s except in one regard: it doesn''t work. Using both the laser and Commander Czulkang Lah''s obsession with the capture of Jaina Solo, Antilles draws the Yuuzhan Vong fleet away from Lah''s flagship. While the fleet is elsewhere, the Super Star Destroyer Lusankya is fitted with a spear and flown directly into the worldship. The worldship is destroyed, and Czulkang Lah perishes. Meanwhile, on Coruscant, Luke Skywalker, Mara Jade Skywalker, Tahiri Veila and Wraith Squadron continue their scouting mission. There, they encounter a Dark Jedi similar to the mythical Lord Nyax, but who is really the genetically modified Dark Jedi Irek Ismaren. Nyax is more powerful than Luke, but, with the combined efforts of the Jedi and the Yuuzhan Vong, Nyax is defeated. Meanwhile, Viqi Shesh''s plans to escape Coruscant are foiled by Wraith Squadron, and she commits suicide as a result. Han and Leia Organa Solo, along with their droids C-3PO and R2-D2, set off on adventures to root out and overthrow any planetary government that plans to acquiesce to the Yuuzhan Vong. One of their most dangerous missions is set on Aphran IV, though they are able to escape death with their mission a success.

Enemy Lines: Rebel Stand

David Mingolla is an artillery specialist in the United States Army serving in a near-future Central American war (references are made to then-future "Afghanistan in ''89" and a nuclear weapon that destroyed Tel Aviv). As his unit serves in "Free Occupied Guatemala", Mingolla goes on leave and meets a woman named Debora in a cantina. They gradually become lovers; however, as they get close to each other, Mingolla feels intense mental pain later identified as a psychic probing his mind. Soon after this, Mingolla is recruited into the Psicorps, an elite group of psychics the United States has assembled to counter the Soviet Union''s own. Debora, a veteran of the revolt that led to American intervention in the first place, is designated his target. On his way through Psicorps training to refine his mental abilities, Mingolla learns that this front of the Cold War (published before 1991, before USSR''s fall) as well as the war itself is a manipulation by two Panamanian families, the Madradonas and the Sotomayors, over three centuries to increase psychic potential in humanity as well as their own genetic diversity. Mingolla and Debora meet and part several times before their meeting with the Madradonas and Sotomayors in Darién, Panama and become embroiled with the members of Mingolla''s former squad in a firefight which culminates in the nuclear destruction of Panama City. David and Debora leave the city and their former friends and antagonists behind them, deciding that ultimately what matters is their love for one another, the only item that has not been blatantly manipulated. The fictional work excerpted several times in the novel, Juan Pastorín''s short story collection The Fictive Boarding House, gives clues to the nature of the novel and Mingolla''s experiences himself in a type of foreshadowing. The lyrics of Prowler heard or sung or thought among members of Mingolla''s unit which bookend Life during Wartime serve this function as well. As a nod to science fiction author Philip K. Dick''s work, the text itself does not present a clear or objective account of what truly happened to Mingolla or what was hallucination on his part. (At one point on Mingolla''s journey, an AI combining a downed Sikorsky helicopter and a long-range guided missile imparts "revelation" to him.) PsiCorps'' intensive drug therapy to hone Mingolla''s potential as well as the presence and use of "Sammy" (short for Samurai, an intense stimulant) and Frost, a super-addictive version of cocaine, make the third person point of view essential for this novel. es:Vida durante la guerra (novela)

Life During Wartime

Beautiful young Pauline Hannum, daughter of the late Major Hannum and a performer with his circus, enters The Magic Shop run by The Great Merlini and is suspiciously willing to pay much more than the going price for immediate delivery of a "Headless Lady" illusion. Merlini and his writer friend Ross Harte decide to investigate, drawn by Merlini''s love of circuses. They soon learn that Major Hannum''s death was probably a murder, and that the killer seems to have unfinished, and deadly, business that involves a real headless lady whose head has disappeared. Merlini, Harte and a new associate, detective writer Stuart Towne, soon learn a number of interesting background facts about goings-on at the circus—including why it''s bad luck for the circus orchestra to play Suppé''s Light Cavalry March, what the mummified body of John Wilkes Booth is composed of, and how to create fingerprints that have no loops or whorls. Merlini must use his magic skills to escape from an "escape-proof" jail, assemble the suspects, and identify the murderer in a surprising final scene.

The Headless Lady

The story follows him, and the dog he finds after the battle, into the border country with Wales to the ruins of Viroconium (Wroxeter). There he meets a street urchin named Regina, the only person left in the city. They learn to trust each other and form a bond. When they leave the city and are later separated, Owain becomes a thrall to a Saxon lord in the swamps near the Isle of Wight, where he spends a number of years. In the end, Owain and Regina are finally reunited and return to the Celtic lands beyond the Welsh border. The story takes place at a turning point in the evolution of relations among the Saxons, invaders from the European mainland, and the indigenous Celts. As Owain lives and fights with the Saxons, he sees them beginning to reach accommodation and common cause with the Celts. The Dawn Wind of the title is a reference to the arrival of St Augustine, who brought Christianity to the Saxons. This change also later brought the Saxons and the already-Christian Celts closer together.

Dawn Wind

George Pyke is overjoyed at hearing he is shortly to be made a lord, but disappointed with his wimpy son Roderick''s handling of Society Spice, one of his leading publications. He hopes pressuring the timid chap to marry Flick Sheridan will be the making of him. In New York, Bill West''s love for beautiful Alice Coker has stirred him to become a go-getting type, leaving behind his wild youth, and none too soon, as his uncle Cooley, under the malign influence of white-bearded Professor Appleby, has adopted a youth named Horace and disowned his scrounging family. Bill heads to London, ostensibly to find out why his uncle''s business there is doing badly, and takes Judson with him, promising the wild lad''s father (and sister) that he''ll keep the dissolute fellow out of trouble. One day, thanks to one of Judson''s schemes to raise money for a binge, he meets up with Flick Sheridan, friend of his youth, who has long adored him. Judson, annoyed to find his plans frustrated, roams the streets, and on reading a slanderous piece in Society Spice claiming one of his henchmen had created the Fifth Avenue Silks, heads to Tilbury House to confront the editor, Roderick Pyke. Roderick, terrified of enraged bookies, flees the scene, leaving his date Flick in the lurch; she decides to break off the engagement forthwith. Judson, now with Bill in tow, trails Pyke to the Hammond''s house, where Pyke hits Bill with a stick, enraging him. Bill gets trapped in the garden, where he runs into Flick, who, having locked herself in her room in protest at her family''s plans, is now fleeing her home. Bill takes her in, and they become ever closer. She helps him out by investigating Slingsby, Cooley Paradene''s man in London, in the course of which she is seen by Percy Pilbeam, tasked with finding her by her uncle. She escapes, but Pilbeam recognises Judson when he comes to complain once more about the slur in Society Spice. Pilbeam takes Judson to the famous Cheshire Cheese for lunch, and after plying him with drink after his long abstinence, finds out his address. He reports this back to Sir George Pyke, and soon Bill and Flick are being chased across country by Pyke; they evade him by stealing his car, but realise that England is too hot for Flick. Bill writes her an introduction to Alice Coker, urging her to stay with the girl, but she is jealous of Bill''s affection for her and resolves to go it alone. At Cooley Paradene''s house, Horace has been causing trouble, but plans to rob the library have made little headway; his boss Appleby hears Paradene''s plans to head to England, putting Horace into a school while he visits his old friend, Flick''s uncle Sinclair Hammond, and also learns that during the trip the books will be unguarded. Flick arrives, somewhat bedraggled, having been robbed of her bags and run out of money, and Paradene agrees to take her with him to England. Bill hears, via Judson, that Alice is engaged to someone else, a chap in the steel business, but is surprised to find he doesn''t care. He heads off to dispose of her photographs, but finds them hard to shake, until he runs into a young couple, the male half of which seems to recognise Bill. After leaving the man holding the photos, Bill realises it is Roderick Pyke, which in turn leads to the revelation that he loves Flick. Resolving to head back to America to seek her, he is amazed to find her arriving in London with his uncle; they proclaim their mutual love, but Aunt Francie takes Flick away to await her awful fate, of marriage to Roderick. Judson meets his old friend Prudence Stryker, a chorus-girl from the New York stage, who tells him she knows Slingsby''s secret. Judson arranges for her to meet up with Bill at a nightclub, but they are seen there by Flick, being taken out by her uncle to cheer her up; she assumes he has fallen for this other girl, and writes to say she will be marrying Pyke on Wednesday. Bill gets the letter, after confronting Slingsby about his fraud and learning that the other cannot be stopped from fleeing to South America with his ill-gotten loot. Distraught, he goes to Flick''s house, but finds everyone out; everyone, that is, except Horace, who he observes passing a heavy bag out of the window to his confederate. Bill tackles the man, who escapes after a scrap, leaving Bill with the swag. Bill goes to the church for the wedding, but Roderick doesn''t turn up; Judson has visited him, and persuaded him to run away to Italy with the girl he really loves, his stenographer from Society Spice. Bill explains all to Flick, and they head off with Hammond to a registry office. Bill tells his uncle all about Horace and Slingsby, and with Cooley''s grateful support he heads off to happiness with his bride.

Bill the Conqueror

Most of the story is centred around McMurdo Station, the largest settlement in Antarctica, which is run as a scientific research station by the United States. Robinson''s characteristic multiple-protagonist style is employed here to show many aspects of polar life; among the viewpoints presented are those of X, an idealistic young man working as a General Field Assistant at McMurdo; Val, an increasingly embittered trek guide; and Wade Norton, who works for the Californian Senator Phil Chase (Wade and Phil also appear in the "Science in the Capital" trilogy). As well as McMurdo, the story involves the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, the Shackleton Glacier, the McMurdo Dry Valleys and a South American drilling platform near Roberts Massif. Antarctica involves many of the ideas Robinson uses elsewhere; as in the Mars trilogy, much emphasis is placed on the importance of living sustainably and the issues of existing in a hostile environment. The significance of Antarctica as a "continent for science" is contrasted with the need to provide a decent environment also for the support staff essential in a place so marginal. Other recurring themes include rock-climbing, physical athleticism, the process and ideology of science, exploitation of natural resources, and the formation of cooperative and anarchic social systems. The novel was heavily influenced by Robinson''s 1995 stay in Antarctica as part of the National Science Foundation''s Antarctic Artists and Writers Program, and was nominated for a Locus Award in 1998.

Antarctica

The book begins with Asterix and Obelix hunting wild boar. One boar is worried, but the other tells him they will escape the Gauls. The Gauls start chasing the boars, but one boar, however, is crafty and leads them straight into a Roman patrol. As the boar predicted, the Gauls forget both the boars and beat the daylights out of the patrol instead. In the midst of the battle, the boars escape with their lives. Later in the story Asterix ponders on their constantly finding Roman patrols whenever they go boar-hunting. Back in Rome, Julius Caesar hears of this, thinks the Gauls are training wild boars to find Roman patrols, and is humiliated. He orders M. Devius Surreptitius, the head of the Roman Secret Service, to send an agent to infiltrate the Gauls. This agent is a Gaulish-Roman druid known as Dubbelosix, who travels in a folding chariot full of secret devices. Dubbelosix and Surreptitius communicate via a carrier fly. However it is revealed Surreptitius is plotting to overthrow Caesar and sends a self-destructing letter to Dubbelosix telling him they will rule together, though Dubbelosix says he will rule Rome himself. In the Gaulish village, Getafix is extremely frustrated and depressed, because he has run out of rock oil. Without rock oil, he can''t make any more magic potion and the village will soon fall against the Romans. The next day, Ekonomikrisis the Phoenician merchant arrives in Gaul. This cheers Getafix up, but he soon finds out that Ekonomikrisis forgot to bring any rock oil. This causes him to have a stroke, and chief Vitalstatistix tells Asterix and Obelix to fetch another druid to treat him. This druid turns out to be Dubbelosix who successfully revives Getafix with an alcoholic tonic. Asterix decides that the best thing to do would be for himself, Obelix and Dogmatix to go to Mesopotamia and bring back the rock oil. Dubbelosix insists on coming with them and they set off on Ekonomikrisis'' ship. Along the way, they fight pirates and Roman warships, obviously winning each battle. But there''s one thing that they don''t know: Dubbelosix is sending covert messages to the Romans so they can prevent the Gauls from completing their quest. The Phoenician ship is finally able to land at Judea, where Asterix, Obelix, Dogmatix and Dubbelosix disembark and head for the city of Jerusalem. The Romans form a heavy presence in the city but some sympathising merchants help the Gauls to get in secretly in spite of an attempt by Dubbelosix to alert the city guards. Leaving the treacherous druid behind, Asterix and Obelix make contact with Ekonomikrisis'' friend, Samson Alius who advises them to go to Babylon since all the rock oil in Jerusalem has been seized and destroyed by the Romans. The way to Babylon is across a huge desert, but in the middle of the desert, Asterix, Obelix and Dogmatix find a source of rock oil in the ground so they fill a waterskin with it and head back home. Since Caesar has all ports sealed off to prevent their escape, the two Gauls simply capture Caesar''s personal galley &mdash; along with Surreptitius and Dubbelosix who have been awaiting the developments on board. However a message is sent to the Romans that makes them decide to attack the village, thinking they cannot make magic potion. Unfortunately, just before landing back in Gaul, Dubbelosix grabs hold of the waterskin of rock oil and, as he tries to force it open, Obelix, despite the objections of Asterix, leaps upon him, causing the waterskin to break open and send the oil into the sea; the first oil spill in recorded history. Asterix has lost all hope, but when they come back to the village, they find the Gauls fighting Romans as merrily as ever. It turns out that Getafix has been able to substitute beetroot juice for rock oil and thus produce more magic potion, it also tastes nicer. Asterix has a stroke when he realises that the journey has been for nothing. All ends well for the Gauls; at their usual celebratory feast the crafty boars comment that the holidays are over. The Gauls send the bound and gagged Dubbelosix and Surreptitius back to Caesar in a gift-wrapped box. Caesar sends them to the Circus Maximus as punishment for failure &mdash; with a new show added for a twist: they are covered in honey and chased by bees.

Asterix and the Black Gold

Four years have gone by since World War II has ended; and Tatiana and her lover, her husband, her Shura, her Alexander - are married and living a life together with their son, Anthony. Yet they are strangers to each other. Having been separated from each other for years, they do not know each other anymore. They live a satisfactory life, with Alexander working as a lobster-man - coming home each day smelling of fish. Tatiana is now known to outsiders as ''Tania''. They move from place to place. After Alexander confesses to why he was so cold to her, they reconcile and move houses. Finally living in a place that they''ve dreamed of, Tatiana''s friend Vikki phones her to say that the USA government is looking for Alexander. Fearing for her husband''s safety, she does not tell him. Finding out himself somehow, he goes to Washington to make everything right - also finding out that his supposedly executed mother "is still alive" in a concentration camp. Realising though, that he has been tricked by an enemy, he does not go to search for her. He meets Tom Richter - a lieutenant colonel - and earns himself a job in Yuma as a captain of the Military Intelligence arm of the U.S. Army. Time passes by, and the family moves to Phoenix. Alexander gets a job as a builder/architect in Balkman''s company and Tatiana (after persuading Alexander) gets a job as a nurse in the ER terminal care ward in the Phoenix Memorial Hospital. Making friends with Balkman''s son, Steve, Alexander has finally found the peace that he has always wanted. Here Phoenix, they can forget who they once were, and nobody would know about them. Steve, when they first meet, talks about a girl that he has met at the hospital when he broke his hand; saying that he''s "never met anyone like her". Tatiana when she comes home, is tight-lipped when she hears about Steve. She is initially cold to Steve and never warms up to him. Alexander later figures that his wife was the "not like anyone else" girl that Steve was talking about. After a time, Steve introduces a man named Dudley to Alexander. But Dudley sees the tattoos - the SchutzStaffel Eagle, the blue numbers, the hammer and sickle, the swastika. To make matters worse, he storms into Alexander''s house: threatening to rape Tatiana and then kill both of them. With no choice, Alexander shoots Dudley in the head. After revealing what had happened to the police, the doctor, the coroner and the media; Alexander starts his own company and Balkman and Steve were ruined (Dudley had turned out to be an escaped murderer - it was illegal to hire escaped convicts). After years of trying for a second baby (with Anthony once accidentally seeing them trying without knowing about sex - he thinks his mother is getting hurt in the process: "Dad, I don''t think Mom wants to have anymore children. Didn''t you hear her?"), things have cooled off. Caught cheating on his wife, it is then revealed that Tatiana is pregnant. Tearfully forgiving him, they have a son - Charles Gordon Pasha Barrington. Following Charles are two more children, Harry, about two years later, and Janie. Almost eight years have past and Anthony has made his job choice: he is going to Vietnam to fight. With his parents initially protesting, he goes. Sunday evening, July 20, 1969 - while the family (Tatiana, Alexander, their children - Pasha, Harry and Janie) are watching the man on the moon, a call comes from Richter. Anthony has been reported missing for three days. Weeks go by, and Vikki visits. Tatiana and Alexander find out that Vikki and Anthony have had a romantic relationship since he was eighteen. She shows them a letter Anthony sent her - he is married to a Vietnamese girl called Moon Lai and she is pregnant. Alexander travels all the way to Vietnam to find his son. Using their heads, Anthony''s comrades, his father and Richter realise that Moon Lai is a North Vietnam communist who is just a bait for Anthony. Alexander and a group of six (twelve?) people go to rescue him. They first capture Moon Lai who tells them everything. Despite being a trap, she actually loves Anthony. She then tries and sort of fails to stab Alexander and Ha Si (a member of the group), aiming for Alexander''s thigh and Ha Si''s face. In self defense, they slit her throat. Alexander rescues Anthony (who has had his right arm amputated by the North Vietnamese) losing Richter, Ha Si and others on the way. The novel then skips ahead thirty years to Thanksgiving 1999, Alexander and Tatiana''s children are all grown and have children of their own. A very large family. Alexander and Tatiana seem content with their lot. The novel ends one hot day in near their home in Scottsdale, Arizona, Tatiana sitting on the bench eating ice cream, Alexander stands across the street, returning from buying a drink, staring at her, a bus passes and he comes around it, reminiscent of the first time they met all those years ago on 22 June 1941 in Leningrad.

The Summer Garden

Paul Osborn sees the man who has murdered his father years before while walking through Paris. When he sees the murderer again his memories take over. After a detective found out about Henri Kanarack, Osborn plans to kill him. McVey comes to Paris in order to meet some experts on the case of a couple decapitations, where the bodies and heads were found deep-frozen. A few days later Osborn tries to kill Kanarack, but when he''s nearly dead a third person enters the scene. He shoots Kanarack and the last information Osborn could get from Kanarack was that he was murdering Osborn''s father for hire of Erwin Scholl. Osborn tells McVey about Scholl. Out of McVey''s researches arises that Osborn''s father invented a scalpel that can be used at degrees of absolute zero and that in the same year he was killed a few other inventors were killed, whose inventions were all about surgery at extremely high or low temperatures and all vanished. Because of that McVey and his investigation team have a suspicion that Scholl and his people might belong to an organization that''s working on surgery making it possible to combine deep-frozen body parts and to thaw it so the person is alive. Time passes, and McVey finds out about Elton Lybarger and a ceremony that should be held in Berlin. During this in the main hall of the building Elton Lybarger is giving the speech. Suddenly all doors close and all people inside the main hall are gassed with cyanide gas. Right after the cyanide attack the building is set to fire and Osborn nearly perishes. After Osborn followed Von Holden, the only remaining organization member, to Switzerland and is nearly killed McVey gives Osborn a VCR tape, on which Osborn finds a whole confession of Elton Lybarger''s physician. He confesses having experienced the surgery on Lybarger, because they were searching for a person, whose attributes and fingerprints were as much as the same as Adolf Hitler''s, and having helped the organization, who was trying to build a new third Reich, to raise Lybarger''s two “nephews”, the perfect Aryans, who were raised with him since they were young. According to Salettl one of them should be the new leader after having undergone an operation. Osborn can''t remember exactly what happened in Switzerland, but then the scene replays in his mind. He sees how Van holden falls into a crevasse and how he opens the package Von Holden had been carrying with him all the time, and it''s the deep-frozen head of Adolf Hitler.

The Day After Tomorrow

As the play begins, Valentine is preparing to leave Verona for Milan so as to broaden his horizons. He begs his best friend, Proteus, to come with him, but Proteus is in love with Julia, and refuses to leave. Disappointed, Valentine bids Proteus farewell and goes on alone. Meanwhile, Julia is discussing Proteus with her maid, Lucetta, who tells Julia that she thinks Proteus is fond of her. Julia, however, acts coyly, embarrassed to admit that she likes him. Lucetta then produces a letter; she will not say who gave it to her, but teases Julia that it was Valentine''s servant, Speed, who brought it from Proteus. Julia, still unwilling to reveal her love in front of Lucetta, angrily tears up the letter. She sends Lucetta away, but then, realising her own rashness, she picks up the fragments of letter and kisses them, trying to piece them back together. Meanwhile, Proteus'' father has decided that Proteus should travel to Milan and join Valentine. He orders that Proteus must leave the next day, prompting a tearful farewell with Julia, to whom Proteus swears eternal love. The two exchange rings and vows and Proteus promises to return as soon as he can. In Milan, Proteus finds Valentine in love with the Duke''s daughter Silvia. Despite Julia''s love, Proteus falls instantly in love with Silvia and vows to win her. Unaware of Proteus'' feelings, Valentine tells him that the Duke wants Silvia to marry the foppish but wealthy Thurio, against her wishes. Because the Duke suspects that his daughter and Valentine are in love, he locks her nightly in a tower, to which he keeps the only key. However, Valentine tells Proteus that he plans to free her by means of a corded ladder, and together, they will elope. Proteus immediately informs the Duke, who subsequently captures and banishes Valentine. While wandering outside Milan, Valentine runs afoul of a band of outlaws, who claim they are also exiled gentlemen. Valentine lies, saying he was banished for killing a man in a fair fight, and the outlaws elect him their leader. Meanwhile, in Verona, Julia decides to join her lover in Milan. She convinces Lucetta to dress her in boy''s clothes and help her fix her hair so she will not be harmed on the journey. Once in Milan, Julia quickly discovers Proteus'' love for Silvia, watching him attempt to serenade her. She contrives to become his page – a youth named Sebastian – until she can decide upon a course of action. Proteus sends Sebastian to Silvia with a gift of the same ring that Julia gave to him before he left Verona, but Julia discovers that Silvia scorns Proteus'' affections and is disgusted that he would forget about his love back home, i.e. Julia herself. Silvia deeply mourns the loss of Valentine, whom Proteus has told her is rumoured dead. Not persuaded of Valentine''s death, Silvia determines to flee the city with the help of Eglamour, a former suitor to Julia. They escape into the forest but when they are confronted by the outlaws, Eglamour flees and Silvia is taken captive. The outlaws head to their leader (Valentine), but on the way, they encounter Proteus and Julia (still disguised as Sebastian). Proteus rescues Silvia, and then pursues her deeper into the forest. Secretly observed by Valentine, Proteus attempts to persuade Silvia that he loves her, but she rejects his advances. Furious and mad with desire, Proteus insinuates that he will rape her ("I''ll force thee yield to my desire"). At this point, Valentine intervenes and denounces Proteus. Horrified at what has happened, Proteus vows that the hate Valentine feels for him is nothing compared to the hate he feels for himself. Convinced that Proteus'' repentance is genuine, Valentine forgives him and seems to offer Silvia to him. At this point, overwhelmed, Julia faints, revealing her true identity. Upon seeing her, Proteus suddenly remembers his love for her and vows fidelity to her once again. The Duke and Thurio arrive, and Thurio claims Silvia as his. Valentine then warns Thurio that if he makes one move toward her, he will kill him. Terrified, Thurio renounces Silvia. The Duke, impressed by Valentine''s actions, approves his and Silvia''s love, and consents to their marriage. The two couples are happily united, and the Duke pardons the outlaws, telling them they may return to Milan.

The Two Gentlemen of Verona

Maude Tiller, one of the few female agents in Sir Gerald Tarrant''s secret service, is miserable. Her last assignment involved her having to submit to degrading treatment by Paxero, the man she had been sent to spy on. And she hadn''t even learned anything about the rich and enigmatic Paxero to justify the disgusting things she had let herself be subjected to. Modesty Blaise and Willie Garvin discover how their good friend Maude has been mistreated, and they decide to teach Paxero a lesson. But when they break into his villa on the outskirts of Geneva they find a Breguet watch that was a gift from Modesty to Danny Chavasse, a very close friend of Modesty''s. Everyone thought Danny had died when a cruise ship sank two years ago, but finding his watch indicates that Danny''s fate was not as simple as that. This is the start of the journey that leads to Limbo, Paxero''s secret and hidden plantation in the jungles of Guatemala. Limbo is farmed by slaves, very special slaves, rich and famous men and women who have been kidnapped and will now spend the rest of their lives at hard labor, watched over by armed guards. The "last day in Limbo" occurs when Paxero decides to shut the plantation down, and orders the guards to kill all of the slaves - which now includes Modesty, who has let herself be captured in order to infiltrate Limbo. Modesty leads a slave uprising, and Willie and Maude arrive just in time after having hacked their way through the jungle. A final battle ensues, with Paxero and his heavily armed guards holed up in the big house, waiting for reinforcements to arrive by airplane.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

The Far Country

By Nevil Shute

Enemy Lines: Rebel Stand

By Aaron Allston

Life During Wartime

By Lucius Shepard

The Headless Lady

By Clayton Rawson

Dawn Wind

By Rosemary Sutcliff

Bill the Conqueror

By P. G. Wodehouse

Antarctica

By Kim Stanley Robinson

Asterix and the Black Gold

No Author Listed

The Summer Garden

By Paullina Simons

The Day After Tomorrow

No Author Listed

The Two Gentlemen of Verona

By William Shakespeare

Last Day in Limbo

By Peter O''Donnell