Garth Nix, in his informative Introduction, tells the origin story of Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz. Nix, like many of us, is a fan of Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series of stories of adventurers. Some of that Leiber magic shows up in these stories.

The second story, “Beyond the Sea Gate of the Scholar-Pirates of Sarskoe
–my favorite–features a female pirate and some brutal warfare. Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz travel as mercenaries in a feudal world. But their real secret mission is to protect the Earth from malicious godlets who threaten it. Mister Fitz is a puppet with sorcerous powers.

I reviewed the earlier Subterranean Press collection of Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz stories (you can read my review here. The new edition adds seven more stories to the three in the previous collection. Great stories for Summer Reading! GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction — ix

Map: The world of Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz — xii

Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz go to war again — 1

Beyond the sea gate of the scholar-pirates of Sarsköe — 39

A suitable present for a sorcerous puppet — 81

Losing her divinity –97

A cargo of ivories — 119

Home Is the haunter — 140

A long, cold trail — 195

Cut me another quill, Mister Fitz — 231

The field of fallen foe — 261

Acknowledgements — 283

Credits — 285

Disney+ dropped the first two episodes (of eight) last week. Ahsoka is an American television miniseries created and written by Dave Filoni for Disney+. It is part of the Star Wars franchise and a spin-off from the series The Mandalorian, taking place in the same timeframe as that series and its other interconnected spin-offs after the events of Return of the Jedi (1983), while also serving as a continuation to the animated series Star Wars Rebels. The series follows Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) as she investigates an emerging threat to the galaxy following the fall of the Empire.

Ahsoka trained with Anakin Skywalker before Anakin turned to the Dark Side. After evil Emperor Palpatine initiates Order 66 (commanding the execution of all Jedi) toward the Revenge of the Sith, Ahsoka flees to the Outer Rim and goes into hiding. Later, she joins the Rebel Alliance.

Elements of the defeated Empire hope to regenerate their cause by obtaining a star map to the location of Grand Admiral Thrawn and potentially reigning the Empire. Ahsoka and her Palawan (young Jedi in training) Natasha Liu Bordizzo as Sabine Wren move to stop the conspiracy.

I also like Mary Elizabeth Winstead as General Hera Syndulla who assists Ahsoka and Wren. If you’re a Star War fan, you’ll enjoy this series. Are you a Star Wars fan? GRADE: Incomplete but trending towards a B+

If you love poetry as much as I do, you’ll delight in Brad Leithauser’s Rhyme’s Rooms: The Architecture of Poetry (2022). Leithauser takes a deep dive into what poetry is and how it works. I learned something new on practically every page.

Leithauser discusses over 100 poets and quotes lines from about 50 poets from Gwendolyn Brooks to Shakespeare. On top of that, Leithauser quotes lyrics from Cole Porter to Lennon & McCartney. Within his analysis of the parts of poetry, Leithauser makes some unique connections; here’s an example of enjambments:

“One of the choicest enjambments I know belongs to under appreciated comic novelist Peter de Vries (1910-1993). His target is Byron’s ‘She Walks in Beauty,’ which begins

She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudlesss climes and starry skies;

And all that’s best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes…

Here is de Vries:

She walks in beauty like the night

Watchman on appointed rounds,

In the nursery, checking children’s

Winter respiratory sounds.

Oh, the modern housewife! What a fall from grace from a supernal goddess to a shuffling, overburdened mom surrounded by wheezing children, and the whole comical cascade taking place in the which space between night and Watchman.” (p. 65)

While Leithauser sometimes deals with a dozen poets per page–both known and unknown (at least to me)–his examples always clarify the point he’s trying to make. For example, Leithauser stresses the difference between prose and poetry. “I adore Anthony Trollope’s portly novels (I’ve read more books by him, I suppose, than any other author), but I enter them with some effort. After two or three chapters, I’m typically not wholly engaged, and I proceed partly out of the justified confidence that an enchanter’s spell is indeed being woven, albeit gradually. By contrast, after devoting fifteen minutes to reading Tennyson closely, I’ve undergone a speedy immersion into nineteenth-century cadences, a nineteenth-century sensibility. Recall Marilyn Monroe: Poetry saves time. Or put it another way: Poetry asks us to slow down so we may speed up. Of all literary genres, poetry is the most successful time traveler.” (p. 327)

Rhyme’s Rooms is one of the best books on poetry that I’ve ever read. GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Author’s Note ix

Foreword: A First Step, A First Stop xi

Chapter 1 Meeting the Funesians 3

Chapter 2 The Prosodic Contract 16

Chapter 3 Poetic Architecture 29

Chapter 4 Stanzas 42

Chapter 5 Enjambment 54

Chapter 6 Defining and Refining 67

Chapter 7 The Marriage of Meter and Rhyme (I) 81

Chapter 8 Iambic Pentameter 95

Chapter 9 Iambic Tetrameter 110

Chapter 10 Rhyme and Rhyme Decay 125

Chapter 11 Spelling and the Unexpected Rhyme 139

Chapter 12 Rhyme Poverty, Rhyme Richness 154

Chapter 13 Rhymes, and How We Really Talk 166

Chapter 14 Off Rhyme: When Good Rhymes Go Bad 178

Chapter 15 Rim Rhyme 192

Chapter 16 The Marriage of Meter and Rhyme (II) 203

Chapter 17 Wordplay and Concision 217

Chapter 18 The Look of Poetry 229

Chapter 19 Song Lyrics 244

Chapter 20 Poetry and Folly 261

Chapter 21 Dining with the Funesians 277

Chapter 22 Drinking with the Funesians 294

Chapter 23 The Essential Conservatism of Poetry 308

Chapter 24 The Essential Radicalism of Poetry 324

Glossary 343

Permissions Credits 347

Acknowledgments 349

I’ve reviewed novels by Daniel Boyd (aka, Dan Stumpf) and you can check out those posts here and here. This new novel, Aesop’s Travels, is narrated by Beefy Beaumont, proprietor of the Queen of Egypt saloon in Greenfield, located in Traill County in the State of North Dakota near the end of the 19th Century.

Beefy’s best friend, gambler Charlie Greenfield, a fixture in the saloon, finds himself charged with the murder of his brother Younger Harrow.

While Beefy works on trying to clear his friend before he’s hung from the gallows being built down the street, Beefy also has to deal with the challenges of running a business. When Beefy took over the Queen of Egypt salloon, he found an abused young boy living in a crate in the back. Beefy renames the boy Little Aesop and reads to the lad every night from Aesop’s Fables to educate him.

The resolution of Charlie’s fate is messy and leads to Beefy, Little Aesop, a gunfighter named Johnny Pesos, a guide named Dawg, and Charlie to take a dangerous journey. The wild card in the mix is Maudie Hubbard, a woman who loves Charlie while Beefy pines for her affection.

Little Aesop surprises everyone with an unexpected talent. Beefy and the group travel while killers lurk in their path. If you’re looking for a well told story with a classic Western setting and compelling characters, don’t miss Aesop’s Travels. I consider Aesop’s Travels Dan Stumpf’s best book! GRADE: A

I heard a Nation Public Radio interview with Claire-Louise Bennett. Bennett talked about Checkout 19 as a book about books. That motivated me to take Checkout 19 from my local public Library and read it. This is a sample of Bennett’s approach:

“I read Henry Miller for the first time in France, one evening while my friend was out with her boyfriend, and I hated it. I found its bombastically vulgar language unbearable, which made me feel disappointed in myself and I wondered if perhaps I’d happened upon on of his duds and if I tried another I would very likely enjoy it more and understand right away why people consider him to be such a brilliant writer. I still haven’t tried another so as far as I’m concerned Anais Ain is a much better writer than he is, not that they need to be compared of course, it just gets on my nerves that for expressing a comparable eschewal of sexual and artistic convention she is thought so little of and he so much.” (p. 116-117).

Sometimes, Bennett just lists titles without much analysis. Sometimes Bennett rambles on with her imagination and dreams as random titles tickle her consciousness. I was underwhelmed by Bennett’s performance. GRADE: C

Thanks to Todd Mason alerting me to the publishing of this book by the North East Science Fiction Association (NESFA) Press. I ordered Living in the Future immediately and read it as soon as it arrived.

I’m a huge fan of Robert Silverberg’s work and have read most of his fiction. However, this new volume collects much of Silverberg’s non-fiction: essays, interviews, book reviews, and book Introductions. Just check out the Table of Contents to see all the topics Silverberg covers!

I enjoyed Silverberg’s writings on his colleagues. And who knew Silverberg had thoughts about Tarzan at the Earth’s Core? If you’re a Robert Silverberg fan, Living in the Future is a must-buy! If you’re interested in Science Fiction, here are some wonderful writings by one of the genre’s best writers. Highly recommended! Are you a fan of Robert Silverberg? GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Foreward — 11

ONE: BEGINNINGS

fanmag (1953) — 23

Twin Prophets of Doom (1953) — 31

Cosmic Configuration (1954) — 35

Some Book Reviews (1958-1964) — 43

SF and Escape Literature (1962) — 52

Diversity in Science Fiction (1969) — 59

TWO: WHAT IS SCIENCE FICTION?

Heidelberg Convention Gaues of Honor Speech (1970) — 65

Science Fiction 101: Two Selections (1987) — 81

Complications, with Elegance (1987) — 82

Flowing from Right to Ring (1987) — 89

“Reflections” (House Names) (1992) — 103

The Best is Yet To Be…Right? (1999) — 107

The War of the Worlds (2005) — 112

The Way it Was (2006) — 125

Rereading Stapledon I (2008) — 135

Rereading Stapledon II (2008) — 140

Rereading Van Vogt (2009) — 145

In the Bush of Ghosts (2009) — 150

Science Fiction as Prophecy (2010) — 155

Rereading Kornbluth (2010) — 163

A Relic of Antiquity (2011) — 168

The Ruin (2011) — T173

Anthologies (2012) — 177

Decline and Fall (2012) — 182

Translations (2013) — 187

Translations II (2013) — 192

The Year’s Best Science Fiction (2013) — 192

Was Jules Vern a Science-Fiction Writer? (2014) — 203

Robert A. Heinlein, Author of The Martian Chronicles (2014) — 208

One-Hit Wonders (2015) — 213

Star (Psi Cassiopeia ) (2015) — 217

Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft (2016) — 222

The Software of Magic (2016) — 227

THREE: INTERVIEWS

The Alien Quack, May 1976, Interviewer Sara Marks — 235

Vector, Feb. 1976. Interviewer: Malcolm Edwards — 239

Vector, Aug. 1975. Interviewer. Chris Fowler — 246

SF & F, Winter 1978. Interviewer: Nancy Mangini — 259

Future Life, Aug. 1979. Interviewer: Jeffrey Elliot — 275

Dream Makers, 1980. Interviewer: Charles Platt — 282

Fantasy Newsletter, Jun-Jul 1983. Interviewer: Melissa Mia Hall — 289

Strange Horizons, Dec. 2000. Interviewer: David Horwich — 297

Locus, Mar. 2004. Interviewer: Charles N. Brown — 303

FOUR: SCIENCE AND SOCIETY

The Cleve Cartmill Affair (2003) — 319

The Cleve Cartmill Affair II (2003) — 324

The Kraken (2006) — 329

The Thumb on the Dinosaur’s Nose (2006) — 334

The Thumb on the Dinosaur’s Nose II (2006) — 339

Calling Dr. Asimov! (2010) — 344

The Search for Other Earths (2010) — 349

The Strange Case of the Patagonian Giants (2011) — 354

Looking for Atlantis (2013) — 359

Not Even Wrong (2013) — 364

The Plurality of Worlds (2014) — 369

The Plurality of Worlds: A Contrarian View (2014) — 374

Borges, Leinster, Google (2014) — 379

Reunite Gondwanaland (2015) — 384

Non-Asimovian Robots (2015) — 389

World to End Last Month (2015) — 394

Dead as a Dodo (2016) — 399

The Richard Hakluyt of Space (2016) — 404

Two Cheers for Piltdown Man (2017) — 409

FIVE: THE WORLD WE LIVE IN

The Future of Urban Living (1980) — 417

…And Then There Were Six (1995) — 423

Tarzan at the Earth’s Core (1997) — 428

Theme-Parking the Past (2003) — 433

Doomsday (2009) — 438

Nothing New Under the Sun (2011) — 443

Earth is the Strangest Planet (2011) — 448

My Voyage to Atlantis (2012) — 453

John Frum, He Come (2013) — 458

Fimbulwinter (2016) — 463

SIX: BEING A WRITER

The Radish of All Evil (2001) — 471

The Plot Genie (2011) — 475

More About the Plot Genie (2011) — 480

The Raft of the Medusa (2013) — 485

Praising or Banning (2014) — 490

The Sixth Palace (2015) — 495

Writing Under the Influence (2016) — 500

Person from Porlock (2016) — 505

“‘Darn,’ he smiled.” (2016) — 510

SEVEN: COLLEAGUES

About Robert Sheckley (1980) — 517

Six Degrees of Robert Silverberg (2000) — 519

Prodigies (2003) — 523

Jack Williamson (2010) — 528

Fred (2011) — 535

Clifford D. Simak (2013) — 539

Rog Phillips (2014) — 544

Philip Jose Farmer (2016) — 553

EIGHT: INTRODUCTIONS

The Shadow Out of Time, H. P. Lovecraft (1995) — 559

Killdeer! (Volume Three, Collected Short Stories), Theodore Sturgeon (1996) — 563

Antarctica, Kim Stanley Robinson (1997) — 569

Nightwings, Robert Silverberg (2001) — 575

Shardik, Richard Adams (2001) — 581

The Disappearance, Philip Wylie (2004) — 585

Emphyrio, Jack Vance (2007) — 591

When the Great Days Come, Gardner Dozois (2011) — 597

Clarges, Jack Vance (2016) — 603

NINE: A FEW PERSONAL ITEMS

The Dinosaur in the Living Room (1996) — 611

The Realm of Prester John (1996) — 615

The Ablative Absolute (1996) — 620

Memories of a Curious Childhood (1997) — 625

Voyage to the Far Side of the Moon I (1998) — 629

Voyage to the Far Side of the Moon II (1998) — 633

Crimes of My Youth (1998) — 638

Fragments Out of Time I (2004) — 643

Fragments Out of Time II (2004) — 648

Aladdin’s Cave (2008) — 652

It Wasn’t All That Easy (2009) — 657

Libraries (2012) — 662

My Desk (2013) — 667

Flashing Before My Eyes (2014) — 672

My Trip to the Future (2016) — 677

I was familiar with all the songs on Barry Williams Presents One-Hit Wonders of the 70s except for “Life is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled On) by Reunion from 1974–until I listened to it. It’s a patter song like Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” Here’s how the first verse goes:

B.B. Bumble and the Stingers, Mott the Hoople, Ray Charles Singers
Lonnie Mack and twangin’ Eddie, here’s my ring, we’re goin’ steady
Take it easy, take me higher, liar liar, house on fire
Loco-motion, Poco, Passion, Deeper Purple, Satisfaction
Baby baby, gotta gotta, gimme gimme, gettin’ hotter
Sammy’s cookin’, Lesley Gore, Ritchie Valens, end of story
Mahavishnu, Fujiyama, Kama Sutra, Rama Lama
Richard Perry, Spector, Barry, Righteous, Archies, Nilsson Harry
Shimmy Shimmy Ko-Ko Bop it, Fats is back and Finger Poppin’

And it goes on from there. I literally have NOT heard “Life is a Rock” since 1974! Even though these are One-Hit wonders, some of these songs live on in more successful cover versions. Brooks & Dunn had a hit with B. W. Stevenson’s “My Maria” in 1996 that made it to Number One on the Country & Western charts.  Laura Branigan covered Vicki Sue Robinson’s “Turn the Beat Around” in 1990 and Gloria Estefan released her version in 1994.

Many of these songs are One-Hit Wonders for a reason. Do you remember them? Any favorites here? GRADE: B-

TRACK LIST:

1	Wild Cherry–	Play That Funky Music
2	B. W. Stevenson*–	My Maria
3	Brewer & Shipley*–	One Toke Over The Line
4	Starland Vocal Band–	Afternoon Delight
5	Reunion (3)–	Life Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me)
6	Billy Swan–	I Can Help
7	Mungo Jerry–	In The Summertime
8	Terry Jacks–	Seasons In The Sun
9	Paper Lace–	The Night Chicago Died
10	Climax (6)–	Precious And Few
11	Stories–	Brother Louie
12	Dave Loggins–	Please Come To Boston
13	First Class (3)–	Beach Baby
14	The 5 Stairsteps*–	O-o-h Child
15	Vicki Sue Robinson–	Turn The Beat Around
16	Dan Hill–	Sometimes When We Touch
17	Lynn Anderson–	Rose Garden
18	Edison Lighthouse–	Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)
19	Wadsworth Mansion–	Sweet Mary
20	Vicki Lawrence–	The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia

Cascor, Matthew Hughes new collection of short stories, weighs in at over 500 pages. Stories like “Stones and Glass” and “Prisoner of Pandarius” feature Raffalon, a thief whose brilliant heists both succeed and fail because of magical elements. Cascor (he’s the spooky looking dude on the cover), a former policeman turned detective with a flare for magic, partners up with Raffalon.

My favorite story in Cascor is “The Vindicator” where Raffalon discovers someone is trying to kill him. He turns to Cascor to find out who and why. Cascor’s investigation discovers tampering with the past.

Hughes also includes two stories about sorceress Margolyam one of which highlights an “origin tale” of Margolyam’s years as an orphan and her discovery of her magical powers.

Suspense, mystery, mayhem, and magic animate the stories in Cascor. Matthew Hughes is at the top of his game in these thrilling adventures! GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Foreward — vii

1. Stones and Glass — 1
2. Prisoner of Pandarius — 56
3. Curse of the Myrmelon — 96
4. The Vindicator –119
5. The Forlorn — 179
6. The Mule — 234
7. Armadi Dizzerant’s Avarice — 282
8. The Dir Delusion –319
9. Tome-Tickler — 385
10. The Touch — 420

About Me — 501

Gal Gadot (aka, Wonder Woman) stars in Heart of Stone, a spy thriller where Gadot’s character infiltrates MI6 in order to gain access to an evil arms dealer. Gadot really works for a shadowy organization called The Charter which has a quantum computer (aka, Artificial Intelligence) that gives accurate projections of the future.

Of course, other evil people want to gain control of the quantum computer so a series of fights, skirmishes, ambushes, and treachery result.

Heart of Stone was released by Netflix on August 11, 2023.  Within its first two days, the film was number one on the Netflix English-language list with 33.1 million views. If you’re in the mood for a thriller with plenty of action (and a thin plot) you might want to give Heart of Stone a try. GRADE: B+

Weighing in at 1304 pages, THE WORLD: A FAMILY HISTORY OF HUMANITY by Simon Sebag Montefiore certainly qualifies as a Big Fat Book. Montefiore takes on an impossible mission to tell the history of humanity through mostly tales of families. If you glance at the Table of Contents you’ll get an idea of the chronological and geographical approach Montefiore takes in tackling thousands of years of History. Here are some samples of the types of stories and facts Montefiore presents:

“Fatso (Physcon)–as Ptolemy VIII by the Alexandrians–was effete, obsessed and sadistic, thriving in a period of mob violence and factional intrigue. Marrying his sister Cleopatra II and fathering a son Memphites, Fatso then fell in love with her daughter, child of his sister-wife and late brother–his niece and stepdaughter Cleopatra III–and married her too… Fatso and his younger wife fled to Cyprus, while Cleopatra II ruled Egypt as sole queen. But Fatso had not given up. Realizing that their son Memphis might replace him, he kidnapped the fourteen-year-old, who trusted his father. Then Fatso had him strangled in from of him before cutting off his head, legs and hands, which he then sent to the boy’s mother the night before her birthday.” (p. 117)

“An American invertor Richard Gatling created this first machine gun to save lives during the Civil War: ‘If I could invent a machine–a gun–which could, by its rapidity of fire, enable one man to do as much battle duty as a hundred, it would supersede the necessity of large armies, and consequently, exposure to battle and disease.’ It did not work like that.” (p. 903)

“LBJ, whose style of leadership was ‘If you can’t fuck a man in the ass, then just peckerslap him–better to let him know who’s in charge than to let him get the keys to the car…” (p. 1127)

I was impressed with the vast knowledge of History Montefiore displays in this book. Although The World is over 1000 pages long, I never found it dragging. Montefiore is a master tale-teller who keeps the reader’s attention by presenting historical stories that are new and different (and often cruel). If you love History, you’ll love The World despite its length. GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Preface and Acknowledgments — xxvii

Note — xxxi

Introduction — xxxiii

Act one. Houses of Sargon and Ahmose: ziggurats and pyramids ; Houses of Hattusa and Rameses ; The Nubian pharaohs and great kings of Ashur: House Alara versus House Tiglath-Pileser — 1-40

Act two. Haxamanis and Alcmaeon: Houses of Persia and Athens ; The Alexandrians and the Haxamanishiya: Eurasian duel ; The Mauryans and the Qin ; The Barcas and the Scipios: the Houses of Carthage and Rome — 53-114

Act three. The Han and the Caesars ; Trajans and first step sharks: Romans and the Maya ; Severans and Zenobians: Arab dynasties — 117-175

Act four. Houses of Constantine, Sasan and Spearthrower Owl — 177-197

Act five. The Muhammad Dynasty ; Tang and Sasan — 199-220

Act six. Houses of Muhammad and Charlemagne ; Rurikovichi and the House of Basil ; The Ghanas and the Fatimiyya — 223-280

Act seven. Song, Fujiwara and Chola ; Seljuks, Komnenoi and Hautevilles — 283-313

Act eight. Genghis: a conquering family ; Khmers, Hohenstaufen and Polos ; The Keitas of Mali and the Habsburgs of Austria — 315-370

Act nine. The Tamerlanians, the Ming and the Obas of Benin — 373-397

Act ten. Medici and Mexica, Ottomans and Aviz ; Incas, Trastamaras and Rurikovichi ; Manikongos, Borgias and Columbuses ; Habsburgs and Ottomans — 399-453

Act eleven. Tamerlanians and Mexica, Ottomans and Safavis ; Incas, Pizarros, Habsburgs and Medici ; Tamerlanians and Rurikovichi, Ottomans and the House of Mendes ; Valois and Saadis, Habsburgs and Rurikovichi — 455-540

Act twelve. Dahomeans, Stuarts and Villiers, Tamerlanians and Ottomans ; Zumbas and Oranges, Cromwells and Villiers ; Manchus and Shivajis, Bourbons, Stuarts and Villiers ; Afsharis and Manchus, Hohenzollerns and Habsburgs ; Durranis and Saids, Hemingses and Toussaints ; Romanovs and Durranis, Pitts, Comanche and Kamehamehas — 541-698

Act thirteen. Arkwrights and Krupps, Habsburgs, Bourbons and Sansons — 699-725

Act fourteen. Bonapartes and Albanians, Wellesleys and Rothschilds ; Zulus and Saudis, Christophes, Kamehamehas and Astors — 727-784

Act fifteen. Braganzas and Zulus, Albanians, Dahomeans and Vanderbilts — 785-825

Act sixteen. Bonapartes and Manchus, Habsburgs and Comanche — 829-870

Act seventeen. Hohenzollerns and Krupps, Albanians and Lakotas — 873-894

Act eighteen. The Houses of Solomon and Asante, Habsburg and Saxe-Coburg ; The Houses of Hohenzollern and Roosevelt, Solomon and Manchu — 895-923

Act nineteen. Hohenzollerns, Krupps, Ottomans, Tennos and Songs ; Hohenzollerns, Habsburgs and Hashemites ; Pahlavis and Songs, Roosevelts, Mafiosi and Kennedys — 957-1023

Act twenty. Roosevelts, Suns, Krupps, Pahlavis and Saudis — 1025-1067

Act twenty-one. Nehrus, Maos and Suns, Mafiosi, Hashemites and Albanians ; Norodoms and Kennedys, Castros, Kenyattas and Obamas ; Hashemites and Kennedys, Maos, Nehruvians and Assads ; Houses of Solomon and Bush, Bourbon, Pahlavi and Castro — 1069=1148

Act twenty-two. Yeltsins and Xis, Nehruvians and Assads, Bin Ladens, Kims and Obamas — 1150-1195

Act twenty-three. Trumps and Xis, Sauds, Assads and Kims — 1243-1255

Conclusion — 1257

Select Bibliography — 1265

INDEX — 1267