It Was a Pleasure to Read Trivia Quiz

Answer: A Column of Fire

Follett started his series about medieval England with "Pillars of the Earth" (1989), starting in 1122, when the fictive character Tom Builder decided to build a cathedral in a small town named Kingsbridge. The sequel "World Without End" (2007) was set around 1350 and told the story of some descendants of the major characters in "Pillars of the Earth". "A Column of Fire" makes another jump forward in history, this time to Elizabethan England, and features once again descendants of the major characters of the first books: the Fitzgeralds (convinced Catholics), the Cobleys (a Protestant family) and the Willards (a family wavering between Catholicism and Protestantism).

Ken Follett (born 1949) started his career with thriller/espionage novels. The "Kingsbridge" series was his first historical romance series, followed by the "Century" trilogy telling the story of a few different families (American, Russian, German, Welsh, English) during the whole of the Twentieth Century.

"The Throne of Fire", written by Rick Riordan, was the second novel in the "Kane Chronicles", about some twentieth-century youngsters who discovered themselves to be the distant relatives of Egyptian pharaohs and had to fight against major gods of Egyptian myth.
Stieg Larsson authored "The Girl Who Started Fire", the second novel in the "Millennium" trilogy. The main character is Lisbeth Salander, a private investigator and hacker.
"Of a Fire on the Moon" was Norman Mailer's documentary about the moon landing by Apollo 11.

Answer: The Last Dragon Chronicles

Chris D'Lacey authored "The Last Dragon Chronicles", of which all seven titles are mentioned in the question. The story is about David Rain, a student who discovered the existence of living dragons and got gradually involved in a fierce battle between dragons and polar bears on the one side, and aliens and darklings on the other side.

D'Lacey was born in Malta in 1954 and took a job at the University of Leicester in the science department. But he also ventured into writing fantasy for children, for instance in "The Last Dragon Chronicles".

"Here Be Dragons" is a novel written by Sharon Penman about the early kings of the Plantagenet dynasty.
Cressida Cowell authored the "How to Train Your Dragon" series which inspired a series of animated movies.
"The Dragon Riders of Pern" was a series authored by Anne McCaffrey.

Answer: Vladimir Nabokov

"Pale Fire" had very mixed reviews, as the structure lent itself for the most diverse interpretations. Is it a novel? Is it a poem? Is it both? Is it neither? Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) authored this book "Pale Fire". The poem by the fictive Shade contains reflections on death, family life, afterlife and the process of creation, while the comments by the fictive editor Kinbote introduce the story of a deposed monarch of a fictive Eastern European kingdom and of the Soviet assassin sent to kill the monarch.

Nabokov is better known for his earlier novel "Lolita", about a middle-aged professor falling in love with a twelve-year old girl.
Acevedo wrote "With the Fire on High", a novel about a teenage mother who wants to become a great chef.
Vernor Vinge left us "A Fire upon the Deep", a sci-fi novel set in various zones of the Milky Way.
Celeste Ng authored "Little Fires Everywhere", a novel about two families meeting through their children and discovering a case of transracial adoption.

Answer: Firestarter

"Firestarter" by Stephen King introduced Andy McGee, gifted with a form of telepathy that could be used to alter the train of thoughts of other characters, and his daughter Charlene - who could use pyrokinesis as a weapon. Father and daughter were hunted by a government organization until the final showdown.

Carrie White, the title character of another novel by Stephen King, had also pyrokinetic abilities.
"Hidden Talents" by David Lubar, "Twice Tempted" by Jeanine Frost and "Infected" by Maya Riley also had characters that could use pyrokinesis: Torchie, Leila and Blyss, respectively.

Answer: Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö

Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö were a couple who wrote together the detective novels starring Martin Beck, a Swedish police inspector. In the fifth novel, "The Fire Engine that Disappeared", Beck had to examine the fire which killed a drugs dealer. Was it suicide or was it murder?

Mankell's "Firewall" starred inspector Kurt Wallander.
"The Devil to Pay" was written by Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee, who chose as nom de plume the name of their investigative character Ellery Queen.
Lilian Jackson Braun portrayed Jim Qwilleran and his two talented cats as investigative journalists in "The Cat Who Dropped a Bombshell" and several other novels in the series.

Answer: The Fires of Heaven

"The Fires of Heaven" is the fifth book in the "Wheel of Time" series by Robert Jordan. Protagonists in all of the series are (among others) Rand Al'Tor, the long expected male magician who has to be present in the Last Battle, and Egwene Al'Vere, a girl from Rand's village who is remarkably good at doing magic. There are many adventures, culminating in the battle between Rand and Rahvin, one of the Forsaken (thirteen extremely powerful servants of the Dark One).

"Things You Save in a Fire" by Katherine Center starred Cassie Hanwell, a female firefighter from Texas.
"Fire on the Mountain" by Anita Desai starred Nanda Kaul, the wife of the vice-chancellor.
Susannah Cahalan wrote the autobiography "Brain on Fire" about the period when she suffered from encephalitis, an infection of the brain.

Answer: Erin Hunter was the collective name for at least four people.

When the book publishing firm Harper Collins had plans for a series of young adult fantasy books about feral cats, they contacted at first Victoria Holmes (born 1975). She developed ideas for a series of six novels, but she felt the need to have another author involved. Thus Kate Cary (born 1967) and later Cherith Baldry (born 1947) joined the club. And when Tui Sutherland (born 1978) wrote a summary field guide, she was offered a fourth spot on the team. The four authors felt the need to group the books in the library, so they opted for one single pseudonym: Erin Hunter.

The first series ("The Prophecy Begins") consists of six books, with as protagonist an eloped domestic cat - first named Rusty, later Firepaw or Firestar. A second series of six books ("The New Prophecy") followed the lives of the offspring of the protagonists in the first series. Likewise the third series ("Power of Three") was about the third generation. When I wrote this question, there were already 40 books in the "Warrior" series, besides a dozen books in the "Seeker" series and a dozen in the "Survivor" series.

Answer: Nora Roberts

"Born in Fire" introduced Maggie (Margaret Mary) Concannon, a glass artist - shy until she met the gallery owner Rogan Sweeney who set her heart on fire. The second volume, "Born in Ice", told the story of Bri (Brianna), owner of a B&B that lost many customers due to a harsh winter. But then came an American mystery writer named Grayson Thane. Although Bri and Grayson desired to be alone, they loved to spend time together. "Born in Shame" was the story of Shannon Bodine, who found out she was the third daughter of Thomas Concannon. When she travelled to Ireland to meet her half-sisters, she bumped into Murphy Muldoon.

Nora Roberts (born 1950) started publishing her stories in 1980. But she did so at an amazing pace: forty years later at least 225 romances and more than 50 detective stories (under the pseudonym J.D. Robb) were published.

Ngan's third novel was "Girls of Paper and Fire", the first instalment in a sci-fi trilogy about concubines to a demon king.
Rae Carson debuted with "The Girl of Fire and Thorns", a fantasy novel about princess Lucero-Elisa, "the chosen one" to fulfil a divine prophecy.
Sara Raasch is another author of young adult fantasy. Her second novel "Ice Like Fire" would also fit in this quiz.

Answer: Jules Verne

Verne (1828-1905) was known for his adventure novels, mostly set abroad. 54 of these novels were published as a series "Les voyages extraordinaires" (translated into English as "Fantastic Voyages"). "L'archipel en feu" ("The Archipelago on Fire") was set in Greece during the struggle for independence from the Ottoman Empire. Main characters were the French officer Henry d'Albaret, his Greek fiancée Hadjine and the Greek pirate and slave trader Nicolas Starkos.

Maupassant (1850-1893) is known for his short stories. The only one of his many titles that refers (albeit indirectly) to fire, was "Le diable" - which could be translated as "The Devil".
Balzac (1799-1850) was earlier. Among his many titles, only the short story "La comédie du diable" (1831) could fit in this quiz.
The poet Baudelaire (1821-1867) was also a bit earlier. His collection "Fusées", published posthumously in 1897, could be translated as "Rockets" and thus refers very indirectly to fire.

Answer: H G Wells

In "The Time Machine", the Time Traveller went to the year 802 701, where he met the friendly Eloi people and the underground dwelling, evil Morlocks.
HG Wells, the author of "The Time Machine" and of "War of the Worlds", has also written "The Undying Fire", a modern update of the biblical book of Job. In "The Undying Fire", Job Huss was a schoolteacher confronted with various unlucky incidents both in his professional and in his family life. Three members of the schoolboard (Eliphaz Burrows, William "Bill" Dad and Joseph "Zo" Farr) visited him to try and get his resignation, but after a brilliant philosophical dissertation Job stayed on. After all, "the task of the teacher . . . is to ensure that Man, Man the Divine, grows in the souls of men."

Colin Forbes authored several espionage books. His "Cross of Fire" could well fit into this quiz' theme.
Elizabeth Wein wrote several books. Her "Rose under Fire" starred a female pilot imprisoned in Ravensbrück during the Second World War.
James Baldwin discussed the racial inequities in the USA in the non-fiction book "The Fire Next Time" and thus earned a place in this quiz.