Metaphysical Fiction

In this compendium of delightful short stories, David Michie draws us into the extraordinary experiences of everyday people as they encounter those tell-tale cracks exposing reality as not quite what it seems. Through intriguing story-lines and revelations, Michie offers life-enhancing insights. How better to gently unwind at the end of the day - and to prepare for the infinite possibilities we may encounter in the realms of our dreams?

In einer stürmischen Dezembernacht werden zwei ungewöhnliche Männer vom Schicksal zusammengeführt. In einer einsamen Holzhütte in den Wäldern von Norwegen trifft ein spiritueller Krieger auf einen jungen Ausreißer. Zwei Männer, die auf der Suche sind. Auf der Suche nach dem Sinn des Lebens. Auf der Suche nach der Wahrhaftigkeit des Augenblicks. Und, nicht zuletzt, auf der Suche nach sich selbst. In ihrem ungewöhnlichen Aufeinandertreffen lernen die beiden voneinander, was die Reise, die wir unser Leben nennen, wirklich ausmacht.

The prophecy brought them together. But the Wolf has risen, and now their greatest battle begins. The four members of Warriors Riding have learned to wage war in the supernatural, to send their spirits inside people’s souls, to battle demonic forces, and to bring deep healing to those around them. But their leader Reece is struggling with the loss of his sight.

Lucy is a lapsed Catholic whose adolescent pretentions to sainthood are unexpectedly revived. It all starts when her cousin Zoltan, in hospital following a bizarre incident at a party, offers her a disturbing deathbed confession. Lucy's grief takes an unusual turn: Zoltan's death appears to have turned her into a magnet for the unshriven. Lucy is transformed into a self-described "flesh-and-blood Wailing Wall" as strangers unburden themselves to her. She becomes addicted to the dark stories and finds herself jonesing for hit after hit.

"It is fitting that I'm beginning a new notebook up here. New surroundings and new ideas, a new beginning. Fresh air." This passage is from the first entry of a journal kept by the narrator of Daniel Kehlmann's spellbinding new novel. It is the record of the seven days that he, his wife, and his four-year-old daughter spend in a house they have rented in the mountains of Germany - a house that thwarts the expectations of the narrator's recollection and seems to defy the very laws of physics.

Although humankind today can peer far deeper into the universe than ever before, we still find ourselves surrounded by the unknown and perhaps the unknowable. All great science fiction has used the human imagination to explore that realm beyond the known, just as theistic religions have done since long before the genre existed. As Hugo Award-winning author Robert Charles Wilson argues, the genre’s freewheeling speculation and systematic world-building make it a unique lens for understanding, examining, and assessing the truth claims of religions in general and Christianity in particular.

Uno dei capolavori della letteratura italiana, Sillabari raccoglie una serie di racconti brevi sui sentimenti nella loro essenzialità

The artificial intelligence, Maitreya, first came into being 150,000 years ago. Over the millennia, it has spread Terran-based life, humanity, and its avatars throughout an empty galaxy, creating the New Integral Society. Now, a supernova threatens one of Maitreya's experimental worlds, Solandaria - the only such world that harbors the Sonoran desert toad and its powerful 5-MeO-DMT containing venom, the most profound entheogen ever discovered. Things are not what they seem, however, for someone is interfering with Maitreya's experiment, violating the rules of the NIS.

In the year 1960, private eye John Nyquist arrives in Delirium, a city of a million borders, to pursue his strangest case yet: tracking down Oberon, the stolen, sentient image of faded film star Vince Craven. As Nyquist tracks Oberon through a series of ever-stranger and more surreal borders, he hears tantalising stories of the Yeald, a First Wall hidden at Delirium's heart. But to get the help he needs to find it, he'll have to journey into the fractured minds of the city's residents, and even into his own.

The situation is dire. The Alliance is crumbling. Thine, Pleidian, and Human civilizations are each at a crossroads for their very survival. Captain Galvin Quintos has a plan to defeat the Grish and the far more dangerous Varapin. But to pull this off, he’ll have to go it alone, cut ties with the US Space-Navy, and become a true outlaw - a full-fledged pirate. That and say goodbye to his loyal friend Derrota, Admiral Block, and Captain Gail Pristy. Feeling he may have just jumped from the frying pan into the fire, Quintos is forced to build new strategic alliances with the Pylors.

Shortly after Clare arrives in Havana, Cuba, to attend the annual Festival of New Latin American Cinema, she finds her husband, Richard, standing outside a museum. He’s wearing a white linen suit she’s never seen before, and he’s supposed to be dead. Grief-stricken and baffled, Clare tails Richard, a horror film scholar, through the newly tourist-filled streets of Havana, clocking his every move. As the distinction between reality and fantasy blurs, Clare finds grounding in memories of her childhood in Florida and of her marriage to Richard.

Magister Coelus, the College’s young and brilliant theorist, finally has a student capable of learning theoretical magery at the level at which he can teach it. He invites her to help him with his current research project, which promises to funnel through the hands of one mage more power than any mage has ever had. Ellen, who knows more about both the theory and practice of magic than a first year student should know, refuses, arguing that the Cascade will do more harm than good.

Nathaniel Moon is the reluctant messiah. He has powers that define the word miraculous. But when he used those powers to help others, he brought about a world of trouble. Now Nathaniel lives a life of quiet obscurity, performing anonymous miracles. But, his anonymity has to end, because evil is coming to Middle Falls, Oregon, and threatens the people Nathaniel loves most. It's going to take a reluctant messiah to put things right.

Conceived jointly as an opera, The Age of Anxiety deals with mythic and operatic themes. Hallucinations and soundscapes haunt this novel, which on one level is an extended meditation on manic genius and the dark art of creativity.

Ordinary realities and yearnings to transcend them lead to miraculous other worlds in this dazzling collection of stories. A woman's deceased father appears in her dreams with clues about the afterlife; a Russian professor in a small American town constructs elaborate fantasies during her cigarette break; a man falls in love with a marble statue as his marriage falls apart. With the emotional insight of Chekhov, the surreal satire of Gogol, and a unique blend of humor and poetry all her own, Tolstaya transmutes the quotidian into aetherial alternatives.

Ein Musiker ist für drei Jahre ans Bett gefesselt bis er eines Tages ein Telefongespräch mit einem Fremden führt. Geschrieben mit außerordentlicher Energie, Aufrichtigkeit und Demut, ist dies die fesselnde Erzählung über das Erwachen eines Mannes. Der Seher, das erste Buch aus Lars Muhls Trilogie "The O Manuscript", ist der Beginn einer persönlichen und philosophischen Suche, die die Seele für eine neue Wahrheit öffnet. Es ist die mitreißende Geschichte einer fundamentalen Verwandlung.

Antoine, la quarantaine, est expert en assurances. Depuis longtemps, trop longtemps, il estime, indemnise la vie des autres. Une nuit, il s'intéresse à la valeur de la sienne et nous entraîne au cœur de notre humanité. Du nord de la France à la côte ouest du Mexique, "On ne voyait que le bonheur" offre aussi une plongée dans le monde de l'adolescence, pays de tous les dangers et de toutes les promesses.

Durante buena parte de esta novela Gonzalo es un poetastro que quiere ser poeta y un padrastro que se comporta como si fuera el padre biológico de Vicente, un niño adicto a la comida para gatos que años más tarde se niega a estudiar en la universidad porque su sueño principal es convertirse -también- en poeta, a pesar de los consejos de Carla, su orgullosamente solitaria madre, y de León, un padre mediocre dedicado a coleccionar autitos de juguete.

The conclusion of the Amazon and Audible best-selling Halfhero series. When The Deterrent comes out of hiding and kidnaps the titans, it triggers the biggest manhunt in history. On one side, the military might of the United States and Air Commodore Fiona Bardock, Britain’s most talented investigator. On the other, three halfheroes, one human and a puddle of slime. Daniel Harbin hopes to get through this alive and track down the children he never knew existed. What no one realises is they’re about to confront the greatest danger of all.

Rescued from unscrupulous breeders who plan to destroy him because of his floppy ear, when the Queen’s littlest corgi arrives at Windsor Castle, he finds himself in a world of red carpets, gilded chambers - and not a pile of dirty laundry to be seen. Charming his way into the affections of the royal household, Nelson offers a dog’s-eye view of life with the Queen. He eavesdrops on her encounters with celebrities, philanthropists and advisers, catching rare insights into the secrets of a purposeful life.