Metaphysical Fiction

Troubled by an inability to find any meaning in his life, the 25-year-old narrator of this deceptively simple novel quits university and eventually arrives at his brother's New York apartment. In a bid to discover what life is all about, he writes lists. He becomes obsessed by time and whether it actually matters. He faxes his meteorologist friend. He endlessly bounces a ball against the wall. He befriends a small boy who lives next door. He yearns to get to the bottom of life and how best to live it.

Save the cure. Kill the crew. That was the dying order of the captain of the starship Elixr. The ship followed the order. Then it lost its mind. Two decades later, the last chance to save billions of souls rests with the dead starship's only occupants: a pair of boys raised by a deranged robot. When Elixr crashes on a barren world, they join forces with an impoverished girl living on the edge of society to search for answers. Who are they? Why have they survived? And what could Elixr possibly do to save a world on the precipice of collapse? The more they learn, the greater the stakes become...

The Faerie Race has proven more grueling and deadly than Jacqueline thought possible. With one trial down and two to go, it seems the reality show's producers will stop at nothing to get their ratings - even murder. It will take all of Jacq's cunning to get through the next trial unscathed, but all she can think about is her discovery that her sister is alive. Too bad her search for answers has only left her with more questions, and more enemies.

Sera must return to Khardine, where new challenges await, and preprations for the march on Airtha begin. Meanwhile Tanis turns toward the Praesepe Cluster. There, a handfull of interstellar nations hold out against the encroaching Nietzschean Empire. Sera's Hand agents are certain that the Nietzscheans are backed by Orion, and Nadine is sent in ahead to connect with agents in Septhia before the I2 arrives.

Set in Rome in 2012, the story follows Sarah Adamson, a beautiful young Catholic graduate student from Boston studying at the Vatican Library for her thesis on the first Christian heretic, Marcion of Pontus. She is being courted by two utterly different men: Simon Appel, a descendent of the kabbalist Isaac Luria who covers Vatican affairs for the New York Times, and Armando Pierleoni, the scion of an ancient Italian aristocratic family with strong ties to the Vatican.

Alan Moore channels both the ecstatic visions of William Blake and the theoretical physics of Albert Einstein through the hardscrabble streets and alleys of his hometown of Northampton, UK. In the half a square mile of decay and demolition that was England's Saxon capital, eternity is loitering between the firetrap housing projects. Embedded in the grubby amber of the district's narrative, among its saints, kings, prostitutes, and derelicts, a different kind of human time is happening.

Dawn is breaking over the Guilleries, a rugged mountain range in Catalonia frequented by wolf hunters, brigands, deserters, race-car drivers, ghosts, and demons. In a remote farmhouse called Mas Clavell, an impossibly old woman lies on her deathbed. Family and caretakers drift in and out. Meanwhile, all the women who have lived and died in that house are waiting for her to join them. They are preparing to throw her a party.

Fame. Fortune. Your most extravagant wish granted. These are the prizes promised to the team that wins the Faerie Race, the first and only reality television show to venture into the dangerous realm of the fae. But that's not why Jacqueline Cunningham wants in. She's after any sign of her sister - who vanished without a trace into the faerie world two years ago. Jacq thought getting into the race would be the hard part. But she didn't count on the other competitors - who will stop at nothing to finish first.

First we live. Then we die. And then...we get another try? Ten thousand tries, to be exact. Ten thousand lives to "get it right". Answer all the big questions. Achieve wisdom. And become one with everything. Milo has had 9,995 chances so far and has just five more lives to earn a place in the cosmic soul. If he doesn't make the cut, oblivion awaits. But all Milo really wants is to fall forever into the arms of Death. Or Suzie, as he calls her.

In a post-apocalyptic world, 4,000 years from the present, Captain Senaya is the first of the Jaru forces to arrive at the far northern temple of the imposter deity, Queen Nouei. The Queen’s forces have been soundly defeated and she is now vulnerable. Senaya’s sole task is to secure a weak and defenseless queen until reinforcements arrive. But Senaya wants more. She wants to be the one who forces the queen to recant her false claims to divinity. Senaya is a seasoned warrior and this is her moment of glory. She has everything all planned, that is until she meets the queen.

Dory, a successful painter, makes a fatal decision and panics! “I was geared for survival no matter what the cost. Yet, in that worst of worst moments, my fate was sealed. I couldn’t fight my way out. And no amount of ignorance would shield me from what was going to happen to me.” When Dory is infected with a lethal, engineered virus, his brother, a doctor and researcher, tries to save him. As they bond in a battle to fight the disease, they also try to heal what’s broken in their relationship. While Dory faces a daily battle with death, he also examines a childhood filled with lies...

The fourth book in the Celestine Series, this is an adventure tale, both suspensful and contemplative, that builds on the insights introduced in Redfield's previous books. It describes a new wave of religious tolerance and integrity that is now silently arriving, in reaction to watching years of religious warfare and political corruption.

The Black Lotus is a standalone fable that serves as a 'soft' entry into The Mind of Gods—a transgressive series that questions everything you think you know about life, death, and control. If the end of the fable resonates in your mind, then the rest of the series is for you. "Forget what you’ve learned—and you’ll hear the ocean speak." Julian Brockham was about to become the richest man on Earth, on the same day he was told he had three months to live. But one strange encounter—a little girl with snow-white hair and a flower darker than the void—changes everything. Chasing a ...

Who knew that escaping reality might just be the way we destroy it? Will Robin does what no one should: pluck microchips from people’s heads. In an age where AI has been fully integrated with human life, Will clearly sees what everyone else doesn’t; that it’s a ploy for control and power. What started out as using his skill to exercise his own free will quickly became a passion and a mission to free the world around him. Even if it’s just one pluck at a time. When the government gets wind of this, they target Will, and it sets off a cascade of events that threatens to take the one ...

A British special agent is murdered for an unusual artifact. On any given day, the experts at Atlanta’s International Archaeological Agency crisscross the globe to rescue ancient relics long feared lost to time, war, or thieves. IAA agents have recovered billions’ worth of missing antiquities, have wiped out entire networks of smugglers, and have even solved a murder at the Vatican. Their successes have made headlines from Tokyo to Turin to Tulsa. But some mysteries require deeper investigation—enigmas so puzzling that they’ve defied the explanations of history, science, and faith ...

Bridget Blade abruptly awakens from forced hibernation and is crushed to find that everything's changed: she's officially dead, and her husband, Jeremy, has given the government rights to her body. To make matters worse, he's moved on with another woman who's a better fit for him. But when Bridget, a reincarnated god, stumbles on a dangerous international scheme, she realizes that Jeremy's life is at risk. Bridget must now travel into the heart of Africa with no support but her own burgeoning powers to save the man who didn't choose her.

In this exhilarating tale by New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Nnedi Okorafor, a disabled Nigerian American woman pens a wildly successful Sci-Fi novel, but as her fame rises, she loses control of the narrative—a surprisingly cutting, yet heartfelt drama about art and love, identity and connection, and, ultimately, what makes us human. This is a story unlike anything you’ve seen before.

Stalked by a masked figure through a city that is changing around her, Emmie Keyes must do unspeakable things in order to survive in the follow-up to Tethered Twins. Carrying on immediately after the shock ending of Tethered Twins, she receives a message from someone she thought was lost forever which sees her return to the broken city of London in a search for answers. With the help of the Deck, Grace, R&R and new allies, Emmie discovers secrets that have been buried beneath the city of London for centuries. But those secrets come at a cost and she must fight forces on the surface, deep ...

Groom? Check. Dress? Check. Cake? Check. More cake? Double Check. Even more cake? Triple check. (Seriously, who left Lethe alone with Grier's credit card?) Anything that can go wrong has, but all the deposits have been paid, and the menus are set. Mostly. There's always room for more cake, right? All that's left is for Grier and Linus to exchange vows and set off on their honeymoon. Their happily ever after awaits, so close they can taste it.

Using a compelling novel format, the audiobook demonstrates how to apply lean thinking in a healthcare setting. It illustrates the situations, characters, and plant politics you will most likely face as you progress through your lean healthcare journey. As the story unfolds, you will discover the way of thinking and behavioral changes required to implement proven Toyota Production System (TPS) methods, tools, and thinking in healthcare.