Metaphysical Fiction

In Vita Nostra, Sasha Samokhina, a third-year student at the Institute of Special Technologies, was in the middle of taking the final exam that would transform her into a part of the Great Speech. After defying her teachers’ expectations, Sasha emerges from the exam as Password, a unique and powerful part of speech. Accomplished and ready to embrace her new role, she soon learns her powers threaten the old world, and despite her hard work, Sasha is set to fail.

Karen Russell’s comedic genius and mesmerizing talent for creating outlandish predicaments that uncannily mirror our inner in lives is on full display in these eight exuberant, arrestingly vivid, unforgettable stories. In “Bog Girl”, a revelatory story about first love, a young man falls in love with a 2,000-year-old girl that he’s extracted from a mass of peat in a Northern European bog. In “The Prospectors”, two opportunistic young women fleeing the depression strike out for new territory, and find themselves fighting for their lives. Plus much more.

Author and philosopher Sydney Banks once again brings to life his wise and simple gardener as a voice through which Banks presents more implications of the Three Principles that create human reality, calling on us to realize that to fully understand the Principles is to liberate one's spirit. In this sequel to Sydney Banks’ book The Enlightened Gardener, two colleagues return to England to meet once again with the remarkable gardener whose simple yet profound philosophy made such a difference to their lives.

A group of travellers chance to meet, first in a castle, then a tavern. Their powers of speech are magically taken from them and instead they have only tarot cards with which to tell their stories. What follows is an exquisite interlinking of narratives, and a fantastic, surreal, and chaotic history of all human consciousness.

The Star Rover is a 1914 collection of science fiction short stories with the theme of reincarnation. It tells the story of Darrell Standing, an inmate of San Quentin’s death row. The narrator escapes the horror of prison life by withdrawing into altered states and the memory of past lives. Forming the body of the work, the accounts of these past lives are vivid but disconnected. They include a desert island survival story, one which involves a Roman perspective on Christ, a tale of medieval Korea, and one which takes place in a prehistoric era.

La vida es un sueño es una obra en español de Pedro Calderón de la Barca. Publicado por primera vez en 1635 durante el período barroco español, es una alegoría filosófica sobre la situación humana y el misterio de la vida. La obra ha sido descrita como "el ejemplo supremo del drama español de la Edad de Oro". La historia se centra en el ficticio Segismundo, príncipe de Polonia, que ha sido encarcelado en una torre por su padre, el rey Basilio, siguiendo una profecía que el príncipe traería el desastre al país y la muerte al rey.

When a once-promising young writer agrees to ghostwrite a famous physicist’s memoir, his livelihood is already in jeopardy: Plagued by debt, he’s grown distant from his wife—a successful AI designer—and is haunted by an overwhelming sense of dread he describes as “The Mist.” Then, things get worse: The physicist vanishes, leaving everything in limbo, including our narrator’s sanity.

Mr. Quark is a down-on-his-luck pot smuggler hiding out in the mountains of Columbia with his dog, High Pockets, and a small band of banditos led by the irascible José. Times are lean, and to liven up their exile, José decides to mug a family of American tourists. Among the spoils are physics texts, which launch Mr. Quark on a sidesplitting, boisterous adventure north to California, where he confronts the owner of the books with his own theories.

Fred Wursup has an enviable existence. Paid to travel around the world "harvesting the annual crop of stars and villains", he has a beautiful geophysicist girlfriend and a friendly relationship with his ex-wife Susannah, whose living room he can see into from the roof of his Lexington Avenue apartment. His latest book, a collective portrait of brilliant but flawed leaders called Down the American Drain, had the good fortune to be published at the height of the Watergate scandal, sending it to the top of the best seller lists.

On the same August day in 1969 that a crazed hippie "family" led by Charles Manson commits five savage murders in the canyons above Los Angeles, a young ex-communicated seminarian arrives with images of Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift - "the two most beautiful people in the history of the movies" - tattooed on his head. At once childlike and violent, Vikar is not a cineaste but "cineautistic," sleeping at night in the Roosevelt Hotel where he's haunted by the ghost of D. W. Griffith.

It was a hard sell, but Cameron had convinced Heather to return to the exoplanet Sang-Morang - where he had hoped they could experience the wonder of this majestic corner of the universe, together. The spacecraft Primion was flight-ready and the immense creature - the Minal Loth - seemed content to follow him wherever he went. And he still had the old Ford pickup truck, gassed up, and ready to explore more of that alien landscape. But Cameron’s well-intentioned plan turns out to be one of his very worst.

"All good heroes are insane." Was that really a joke? Jonathon Hunter hasn't the time to ponder the labels people try to put on him. The war shifts from defensive to offensive. The stakes get higher, as the means to fight the aggressors finally become available. But has he risen too high? Or are the consequences of his own actions interfering with his judgement? As fast as you move, the past is faster and always catches up with you when you least expect it. This is not a game, and being a hero has its own price tag.

After uncovering a mystical link to the ancient civilization of Galderkhaan, child psychologist Caitlin O'Hara is left with strange new powers. Suddenly she can heal her young patients with her mind and see things from other places and other times. But as she learns more about her powers, she also realizes that someone is watching her, perhaps hunting her - and using her son to do it.

A fast-paced adventure and mystery to satisfy children, parents, teachers, and librarians all over the world. Jake’s Quest for the Five Stones empowers and teaches children the value of self-worth, hope, trust, and how important it is to know one’s own character and feelings. When Jake’s community turns its back on him, he goes on a secret quest to find a rare flower that can help him solve his challenges. Along this journey, Jake learns how to connect with crystals and use their unique properties and extraordinary abilities to help teach him some of life’s lessons.

Broken bodies and bloody messages are appearing in the darkest corners of New York City. Infected werewolves are roaming the streets attacking innocents. The Dark Council demands answers. They summon Simon and Tristan to investigate. The evidence points to the work of a powerful mage, unfortunately, there is only one mage in the city powerful enough to cause this kind of infection - Tristan Montague. Now, Simon and Tristan must locate the source of the magical infection before the Dark Council declares Tristan a dark mage, destroys the werewolves, and shatters the fragile peace.

She saved her daughter's life. Now she must save her soul. Although Elizabeth died giving birth to her daughter, her death wasn't the end. She awakens to find her sacrifice has transformed her into a special kind of angel - a protector - and if she is able to help her charge through the Pearly Gates, she too will be welcomed into Heaven. Elizabeth is both heartbroken and overjoyed when she finds she'll be watching over Daisy, the daughter she never got to meet.

Inspired by his own childhood experience as a patient at Primary Children’s Hospital, the late Roy Bates leaves us a tale of courage, forgiveness, and love. Katherine Wilson struggles to believe that God’s love is within her reach, until her daughter is diagnosed with leukemia. Distraught and desperate, Katherine finds understanding and peace from the most unexpected places.

A traveling prospector wandering around California looking for gold spends a few peaceful days with a man hiding a sad story.

In this spare novelette, acclaimed flash-fiction writers James Claffey and Tara Lynn Masih collaboratively create an original tale of loss and love, as The Bitter Kind deftly alternates between Stela, the daughter of a ship’s captain, burdened by her family secrets, and Brandy, a Chippewa orphan, haunted by ghost wolves and spirits. The authors cross genres and borders between historical and contemporary, speculative and realistic, presenting two unforgettable characters on a journey toward their inevitable, fateful destination.

Presented as a fictionalized autobiography, The Master of the Prado begins in Madrid in 1990, when Sierra encounters a mysterious stranger named Luis Fovel within the halls of the Prado. Fovel takes him on a whirlwind tour and promises to uncover startling secrets hidden in the museum's masterpieces - secrets that open up a whole new world to Sierra. The enigmatic Fovel reveals how a variety of visions, prophesies, conspiracies, and even heresies inspired masters such as Raphael, Titian, and Hieronymus Bosch....