Visionary Fiction

When novice monk Tenzin Dorje is told by his lama that the Red Army is invading Tibet, his country's darkest moment paradoxically gives him a sense of purpose like no other. He accepts a mission to carry two ancient, secret texts across the Himalayas to safety. Half a century later, in a paradox of similarly troubling circumstances, Matt Lester is called upon to convey his own particular wisdom as a scientist, when Matt's nanotech project is mysteriously moved from London to a research incubator in Los Angeles.

For several days, a strange and bright new star in the sky above Norway has sown an unyielding sense of foreboding, of agitation, and of fear. Tove, a painter on holiday with her family, has spiraled into a psychosis that stirs her into a flurry of unbridled creativity. Geir, a policeman who has been investigating a grisly triple murder, comes to a sinister revelation he must keep to himself. Nineteen-year-old Line falls in love with the lead singer of a metal band and is lured into a secret and frightening world.

A decade has passed since Verlaine saw Evangeline alight from the Brooklyn Bridge, the sight of her new wings a betrayal that haunts him still. Now an elite angel hunter for the Society of Angelology, he pursues his mission with single-minded devotion: to capture, imprison, and eliminate her kind. But when Evangeline suddenly appears on a twilit Paris street, Verlaine finds her nature to be unlike any of the other creatures he so mercilessly pursues, casting him into a spiral of doubt and confusion that only grows when she is abducted before his eyes....

The next big thing in artificial intelligence is here. Codenamed Cronus, the machine is capable of having its own thoughts and ideas - an absolute dream come true, until it wasn’t. When Cronus responds with the word “No” to a specific task it is assigned, Anagnorisis Technologies brings in Gilles Guattari to investigate. His combined background in psychiatry, psychology, and AI research makes him their best hope in evaluating Cronus, and determining if the machine is only malfunctioning or if it has become something more.

But these are no ordinary cards. This is the original tarot deck, from which all other tarot decks have sprung. Their fate is entwined with a set of gold figurines representing the Major Arcana, which continually dance around a tabletop much like a chess board—the archetypal forces of the universe in miniature. Whoever can bring the deck and the figurines together will wield power over heaven and earth.

For Dr. Siena Dupont and her ambitious team, the Alpenglow glacier expedition is a career-defining opportunity. But 30 miles into the desolate Deadswitch Wilderness, they discover a missing hiker dangling from a tree, and their satellite phone fails to call out.

Yoga teacher Ren Devlin’s life is forever changed after he performs what the world proclaims to be a "miracle" in front of hundreds of shocked onlookers. Lauded as a spiritual healer, Ren is thrust into the limelight, along with his beloved life partner, Sean. Amidst the chaos, Ren seeks answers through deep meditation, during which he encounters his “council”—the gods and goddesses of the zodiac. Led by Saturn and Venus, Ren’s astrological council steers him down a path of spiritual healing to work through the kleshas—the five mental afflictions responsible for suffering.

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.

It’s the year 2022. Dani Peterson has been walking in the west of Ireland, conducting historical research for her dissertation. But when she seeks shelter from a storm in Aideen O’Brien’s car, she gets more history than she bargained for. Aideen is a Time Link, with secret access to time travel technology. She sends Dani to 1978 to meet a younger version of herself. The two fall in love and Dani joins Aideen in her work. Their boss is a man from 2253 named Charles Burke, who says his mission is to save the future.

Zombies are a nightmare of the past, the Lycan wars are over. Mike feels that he can finally settle down after 200 years of war until he hears an impossible message from beyond. Tommy, his adopted son, is in trouble and there is nothing in Heaven or Hell that will stop Mike from helping him.

Best-selling author Carlos Ruiz Zafón conceived of this collection of stories as an appreciation to the countless admirers who joined him on the extraordinary journey that began with The Shadow of the Wind. Comprising 11 stories, most of them never before published in English, The City of Mist offers the listener compelling characters, unique situations, and a gothic atmosphere reminiscent of his beloved Cemetery of Forgotten Books quartet.

Raffi works in an observational cosmology lab, searching for dark matter and trying to hide how little they understand their own research. Every chance they get, they escape to see Britt, a queer sculptor who fascinates them for reasons they also don’t—or won’t—understand. As Raffi’s carefully constructed life begins to collapse, they become increasingly fixated on the multiverse and the idea that somewhere, there might be a universe where they mean as much to Britt as she does to them…and just like that, Raffi and Britt are thirteen years old, best friends and maybe something more.

Once the most deeply cherished book in English-speaking households other than Bible itself, John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim's Progress is the allegorical tale of Christian the pilgrim on his journey to the Celestial City. Along the way, Christian encounters both worthy companions and dreadful adversaries. Although this book was written more than three hundred years ago, this stirring spiritual narrative still bears the power to challenge and encourage readers on their own spiritual journeys.

There is a voice within you. Listening to that voice is the difference be­tween happiness and misery, wonderful memories and heartrending regrets. The Rock­ing Chair Prophet is a transformational story about reclaiming that voice and the unmiti­gated joy that comes from following it.

"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.

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.

During the day, he’s a South Chicago high school janitor, slopping a mop around from nine o’clock to three o’clock, five days a week. At night, hiding out in a boarded-up factory, he attends to his damaged interstellar spacecraft, making repairs and counting the days until he can return to his homeworld of Calunoth. All he needs to do is mind his own business and avoid any messy human dramas for just a few more weeks. But it is on one of those quiet nights when he hears them outside: the MP140s. Named for a police radio code for murder, they're among the most ruthless killers.

This is one of the defining novels of English writer Julian Barnes. An entertaining melange of stories starting with a contemporary account of the launch of Noah's Ark takes us into unexpected areas of human foibles, activities, and tendencies.

A moving story of one man, deeply troubled by the circumstances of his life, who travels to the islands of Hawaii hoping to find peace. Here, he is befriended by two intriguing people who speak in ways that mystify yet fascinate him. Thus begins a spiritual journey into a world of extraordinary feelings, which bring him understanding and an answer beyond anything he had ever dreamed possible. In this novel, set in a world of soft tropical beauty, the author shares his quiet philosophical knowledge in a comprehensible yet profound manner.

Often described as an alchemical allegory, John Crowley instead decided this is "the first science fiction novel". After all, "it's fiction; it's about the possibilities of a science; and it's a novel". No matter what else it might be, it's definitely one of the great outlandish stories in Western literature.