Two young draftees survive the vicious war in Vietnam, only to return home where one drifts into a life of crime and murder, and the other meets personal tragedy.

Veintitres de agosto de 1859, a la region oriental de la Isla de Cuba, a las proximidades del poblado de San Gregorio de Mayari Abajo, a la prospera hacienda Maranon, propiedad de los hermanos Anglada, llega una esclava que cambiara los destinos de los habitantes de la zona, quien fuera apodada Mamadona. Incendios, matanzas, infortunios, una maldicion que pende sobre la familia Anglada, varias tragedias que se ciernen sobre el pueblo, ocasionadas por insurrectos y espanoles en el marco de las guerras de 1868 y 1895; y una negra esclava que se gana el respeto y la admiracion de sus vecinos, forman parte de esta historia novelada. Mamadona. Historia de una esclava, una obra enmarcada en escenarios reales, que narra sucesos relegados por la historia oficial acerca de las luchas independentistas de Cuba en el siglo XIX; en donde estuvieron proceres como los hermanos Antonio y Jose Maceo, Julio Grave de Peralta, Guillermo Moncada, entre otros. Mamadona, un libro revelador que enfurecera a unos y pondra a pensar a otros. Mamadona, una novela que rompe con el estereotipo de belleza de la mulata cubana. Mamadona, una morena de quien te enamoraras. Sucesos oscuros, como la piel de la protagonista, salen a la luz gracias a Jaime Saiz, su autor, quien nos traslada en el tiempo hasta la region oriental de la Isla, a escenarios desconocidos de las guerras emancipadoras, en el efervescente siglo XIX cubano. Alain L. de Leon. (Poeta y narrador)

An historical novel set in 997AD about a young Norwegian Viking, Magnus Haraldsson, who takes a blood oath to revenge the death of his father and the ravishing of his mother and sister at the hands of marauding Vikings. In tense and direct language the reader follows Magnus and his brave serf through one exploit after another as he gets the martial arts experience and training he needs to combat his sworn enemy, 'Hjartan the Terrible' Viking style The story is believable and mirrors the conditions of the times. It gives exact locations and historical details. knowledge of Icelandic, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, German and Russian. His effort gives an unprecedented view of details of everyday life in long forgotten locations. The problems confronting the Vikings of the late tenth century are brought to life for readers young and old. knowledge of men at sea and at war, but manages to weave women into the story, too, in a chivalrous way. Everyone will want to read to find out if Magnus will complete his blood oath.

The reconquest of the Soudan will ever be mentioned as one of the most difficult, and at the same time the most successful, enterprises ever undertaken. The task of carrying an army hundreds of miles across a waterless desert; conveying it up a great river, bristling with obstacles; defeating an enormously superior force, unsurpassed in the world for courage; and, finally, killing the leader of the enemy and crushing out the last spark of opposition; was a stupendous one.

After the death of Gordon, and the retirement of the British troops, there was no force in existence that could have barred the advance of the fanatical hordes of the Mahdi, had they poured down into Egypt. The native Egyptian army was, as yet, in the earliest stage of organization; and could not be relied upon to stand firm against the wild rush of the Dervishes. Fortunately, time was given for that organization to be completed; and when, at last, the Dervish forces marched north, they were repulsed. Assouan was saved, and Wady Halfa became the Egyptian outpost.

Gradually, preparations were made for taking the offensive. A railway was constructed along the banks of the Nile, and a mixed force of British and Egyptians drove the enemy beyond Dongola; then, by splendidly organized labour, a railroad was made from Wady Halfa, across the desert, towards the elbow of the great bend from Dongola to Abu Hamed. The latter place was captured, by an Egyptian brigade moving up from the former place; and from that moment, the movement was carried on with irresistible energy.

The railway was pushed forward to Abu Hamed; and then southward, past Berber, up to the Atbara river. An army of twenty thousand men, under one of the Khalifa's sons, was attacked in a strong position and defeated with immense loss. Fresh British troops were then brought up; and, escorted by gunboats and steamers carrying provisions, the army marched up the Nile, crushed the Khalifa's great host before Omdurman, and recovered possession of Khartoum.

Then, the moving spirit of this enterprise, the man whose marvellous power of organization had secured its success, was called to other work. Fortunately, he had a worthy successor in Colonel Wingate; who, with a native force, encountered that which the Khalifa had again gathered, near El Obeid, the scene of the total destruction of the army under Hicks Pasha; routed it with ease, killing the Khalifa and all his principal emirs. Thus a land that had been turned into a desert, by the terrible tyranny of the Mahdi and his successor, was wrested from barbarism and restored to civilization; and the stain upon British honour, caused by the desertion of Gordon by the British ministry of the day, was wiped out.

It was a marvellous campaign--marvellous in the perfection of its organization, marvellous in the completeness of its success.

On a dismally foggy night in Hampstead, London, a curious party has gathered in an artist's studio to weather the wartime blackout. A civil servant and a government scientist are matching wits in a game of chess, while an artist paints the portrait of his characterful sitter, bedecked in Cardinal's robes at the other end of the room. In the kitchen, the artist's sister is hosting the charlady of the miser next door. When the brutal murder of said miser is discovered by his Canadian infantryman nephew, it's not long before Inspector Macdonald of Scotland Yard is at the scene, faced with perplexing alibis and with the fate of the young soldier in his hands.