Bøger af Stephen Bush

In 1973 James's seventeen-year-old sister, Maria, disappeared while on her way home from school. Over thirty years later her remains are uncovered outside Broken Hill, 1,200 kilometers from her home. Maria's disappearance shattered her family and had strange repercussions for her ten-year-old brother, who was left to cope alone while his parents struggled to deal with his sister's disappearance. With her discovery after so long, Maria becomes real for James, a sudden violent death in the family, and he sets out to try to discover what his sister was really like and what happened to her. As he seeks answers, James meets his sister's old school friends, Jennifer and Pat, and discovers their different memories of that time long ago and of a young woman standing on the edge of adulthood, who may have been quiet and shy or who may have been spoiled and living dangerously. During his search he is reconnected with his ex-wife, Allison, and begins to learn to live without Maria's presence in his life.

Orlando, Count of Madelaine, Consort of the Emperor, and cokeeper of the keys to the Gates of Time, begins his story on a day when he lived as a count in a French chateau on Earth. A future Earth, much of which is a living museum, as is his region of Madelaine. His life is perfect, he is naturally promiscuous, and so are most residents of Madelaine. Then, in this perfect society, a young woman is found dead-murdered. And it's Count Orlando's job to determine how she died and who was responsible. The decisions Orlando makes when he finally discovers the truth will force him to leave Madelaine. He moves into the present real world for a while but shortly is able to live out a childhood dream and become one of those in the first group to meet with the race of intelligent aliens who have just been discovered. What Orlando, a lonely man now searching for purpose in his life, does as part of that first contact group takes him into the heart of an alien civilization and changes the fate of not only humanity, but one day will also change the future for all the inhabitants of the galaxy. In this memoir Orlando talks about only the private parts of his own life since the day the woman was murdered. As he says, he does not talk of battle fleets and the fall of powerful families, he talks about what has become of him because of decisions he made, and can never regret making-and of love and duty.