Visionary Fiction

Almost anyone who has read or written science fiction or fantasy has been inspired by the work of Michael Moorcock. His literary flair and grand sense of adventure have been evident since his controversial first novel Behold the Man, from the stories and novels featuring his most famous character, Elric of Melniboné, to his fantasy masterpiece, Gloriana, winner of both the Campbell Memorial and World Fantasy awards for best novel.

Franz Kafka is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most enigmatic geniuses of European literature. What happens when his idiosyncratic imagination meets some of the greatest literary minds writing in English across the globe today? From a future society who ask their AI servants to construct a giant tower to reach God; to a flat hunt that descends into a comically absurd bureaucratic nightmare; to a population experiencing a wave of unbearable, contagious panic attacks, these ten specially commissioned stories are by turns mind-bending, funny, unsettling and haunting.

Listening to The Satires by Juvenal is to come face to face with the corruption, the debauchery, the waste, the sloth, and the mean-spirited greed of ancient Rome...or is it more like modern times? Indeed, these masterpieces of biting social commentary could easily have been written today about any number of metropolitan areas we are all familiar with.

Sudden Death begins with a brutal tennis match that could decide the fate of the world. The bawdy Italian painter Caravaggio and the loutish Spanish poet Quevedo battle it out before a crowd that includes Galileo, Mary Magdalene, and a generation of popes who would throw Europe into the flames. In England, Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII behead Anne Boleyn, and her crafty executioner transforms her legendary locks into the most sought-after tennis balls of the time.

Aria Abbott has never had a home. Drifting through the foster system for most of her life, she finally finds herself in a situation so unbearable that she has no choice but to run away. Sleeping on the streets pushes Aria beyond any suffering she has felt before; the only thing worse than seeing no escape is the knowledge that no one in the world cares enough to try and find her. Enter Taylor, a homeless young man with a charismatic smile and a dream of fame, fortune, and the sunshine of LA. Swept up in his energy, Aria and Taylor board a greyhound bus and never look back.

Christopher Martin, the sole survivor of a torpedoed destroyer, is stranded upon a rock in the middle of the Atlantic. Pitted against him are the sea, the sun, the brutal cold and the aching terror of his isolation. To drink, there is a pool of rainwater; to eat, seaweed and anemones, preyed upon by feathered reptiles. As he descends into the abyss of his consciousness, weathering lightning strikes of memory, Martin must try to assemble the truth of his fate - piece by terrible piece.

I've known Death a long time but now Death knows me. When their idyllic childhood is shattered by the sudden death of their parents, siblings Marty, Liz and Jules are sent to a bleak state boarding school. Once there, the orphans' lives change tracks: Marty throws himself into academic life; Liz is drawn to dark forms of escapism; and Jules transforms from a vivacious child to a withdrawn teenager.

“As I remember, I had just woken up from a nap when I decided to create the universe.” So begins Alan Lightman’s playful and profound new novel, Mr. g, the story of Creation as narrated by God. Bored with living in the shimmering Void with his bickering Uncle Deva and Aunt Penelope, Mr. g creates time, space, and matter - then moves on to stars, planets, consciousness, and finally intelligent beings with moral dilemmas.

The world is changing, and humanity must change with it. Rising seas and soaring temperatures have radically transformed the face of Earth. Meanwhile, Earth is being observed from afar by other civilizations . . . and now they are ready to make contact.

With an eye for rendering the timely in a timeless way and enchanting audiences with lyrical prose and grace, Ali Smith's ambitious Seasonal Quartet—a series of four stand-alone novels, separate but interconnected—artfully guided us through #MeToo, Brexit, the refugee crisis, a global pandemic, and more. Now, Smith's highly anticipated Companion Piece looks to the future and builds upon this "time-sensitive project". This new novel stands apart from the Quartet, which remains discrete unto itself.

There is a blueprint for mind control, and this audiobook exposes it in 47 powerful silhouettes. We have been programmed for centuries by the spell-craft of our controllers. Our world is reverberating in echoes of trauma that can only be solved with awareness. This audiobook reveals the true anatomy of evil as a careless machine, and the controlling effects of the psychology behind false flags and educational propaganda. We are living in a world of human slavery and sacrifice. It is time to unlock your magic and liberate your psychology. All you have to do is ask a single question.

Der Klassiker erstmals als ungekürzte Lesung. Josef Knecht hat es im altehrwürdigen Orden Kastalien bis zum angesehenen Magister Ludi, zum Meister des Glasperlenspiels, gebracht. Dieses Spiel vereint in sich das Wissen und die Künste der ganzen Welt. Wir begleiten den jungen, hochbegabten Waisenknaben Josef Knecht auf seiner Laufbahn durch alle Stufen der Ordenshierarchie bis zu dem Punkt, an dem in ihm eine weitreichende Erkenntnis reift.

John William Barry has inherited the pedigree - and wealth - of two of Seattle's elite families; Neil Countryman is blue-collar Irish. Nevertheless, when the two boys meet in 1972 at age 16, they're brought together by what they have in common: a fierce intensity and a love of the outdoors that takes them together into Washington's remote backcountry.

Oliver Dalrymple, nicknamed Boo because of his pale complexion and staticky hair, is an outcast at his Illinois middle school - more interested in biology and chemistry than the friendship of other kids. But after a tragic accident, Boo wakes up to find himself in a very strange sort of heaven: a town populated by only 13-year-old Americans.

Story is told by a narrator who is a psychologist in Indian country. What appears to be a consultation with a patient ends up being a meeting with his teacher, Tarrence. Tarrence proceeds to take the narrator into a dreamtime journey that melts the worldview held by the storyteller. The dream leads the narrator to a place in which the energy generated by ancient dreamers must be balanced. The lack of balance brought on by the power dreamers and their ceremony resulted in the atomic bomb.

Disenchanted with her personal life and faced with mounting career pressures, 39-year-old Michelle Black dreams of escape. But the high-octane finance professional and mother of two is ashamed to admit the depth of her struggles. Michelle’s frustration intensifies when her fumbling attempts to ask for help go unheeded. Then, work goes from bad to worse. Desperate to relieve the bleakness inside, Michelle turns to unspoken addictions and dangerous behaviors for a balm to her wounded soul. When the band-aids fail, what can she do next? 

After one death-defying adventure after another, he's ready for some well-deserved downtime. So he's gone to a hot beach in Mareta, a sleepy fishing village in southern Portugal. The year is 1964. He hopes only to flirt with bikinied tourists and drink cold Sagres beers. But two things seem to follow Matt wherever and whenever he goes. A chance to help someone in need, and trouble-trouble-trouble.

Mrs Death has had enough. She is exhausted from spending eternity doing her job, and now she seeks someone to unburden her conscience to. Wolf Willeford, a troubled young writer, is well acquainted with death but until now hadn't met Death in person - a Black, working-class woman who shape-shifts and does her work unseen. Enthralled by her stories, Wolf becomes Mrs Death's scribe and begins to write her memoirs. Using their desk as a conduit, Wolf travels across time and place with Mrs Death to witness deaths of past and present and discuss what the future holds for humanity.

When the General invites Molly and her crew to the ArchAngel, it's not long before news also arrives of a serious threat to the Federation. It falls to Molly and her team to deal with the threat, which winds up in an intense hostage situation. Meanwhile, back on Sark, Molly’s team helps Chaakwa along with her unconventional help to bring her father's killers to justice. Can Molly handle everything thrown at her?

Molly is back from the dead. And now even more capable. But the transformation is not without more serious issues. Problems that not even ADAM can help with. Feeling cursed, she undergoes a vision quest. The rest of the team prepare for the General's clandestine assignment back at the base.