The Sea and Summer. Francis Conway is Swill - one of the 90% in the year 2041 who must subsist on the inadequate charities of the state. A young boy growing up life, already difficult, is rapidly becoming impossible for Francis and others like him, as government corruption, official blindness and nature have conspired to turn Swill homes into watery tombs. And now the young boy must find a way to escape the approaching tide of disaster. An exploration of the effects of climate change in the not...

Ares would permit no one to change what the Fates had set in motion. In an ancient world, the Fates decree that a Champion will soon be brought forth: a being both mortal and eternal, destined to become as legendary as the Gods to whom she will be forever enslaved. Of the twelve who rule on Mount Olympus, it is Ares, God of War, son of Zeus and Hera, who recognizes both the truth of the divination, and the one who has been chosen. On the eve of the new millennium, the Champion of Olympus is...

It had all began with the theft of the Orb that had so long protected the West from the evil God Torak. Before that, Garion had been a simple farm boy. Afterward, he discovered that his aunt was really the Sorceress Polgara and his grandfather was Belgarath, the Eternal Man. Then, on the long quest to recover the Orb, Garion found to his dismay that he, too, was a sorcerer. Now, at last, the Orb was regained and the quest was nearing its end. Of course, the questors still had to escape from...

Alex doesn't know his birthday because he was found abandoned next to Cleopatra's Needle, so instead of a birthday he celebrates his finding.