It was a strange and bitter Earth over which the Chancellor ruled--a strange and deformed world. There were times when the Chancellor suspected that he really was a humanistic old fool, but this seemed to be his destiny and it was difficult to be anything else. Human, like all other organic life on Earth, was dying. Where it spawned, it spawned monsters. What was to be the answer?
A five-year-old boy can communicate with his dog via think-talk. The little boy finds another friend, a panda, to make their trio dependent only on themselves, not to include his parents. His mother goes nuts, thinking they can read her mind, his father isn't so sure at first. How independent the little boy, dog, and panda become is the shocking and creepy ending you won't forget.
Richard Arnold, a young man in England at the beginning of the 20th century who devotes his life to creating the world's first fully functional airship. After years of effort, he finally succeeds, but at the expense of everything else in his life, to the point that he finds himself broke and about to be thrown out of his home.