When you are governed by a Lord Ruler who has turned the world into a cult of the person and a complete dictatorship, you crave some change! This is what Kelsier felt when he gathered a group of thieves to overthrow the present government. If they succeed, this will mean a new world order, a new life, especially for the oppressed skaa, the workers.…

This is the story of two brothers, Nestor and Cesar, fresh out of Cuba, trying to make it as musicians in 1950’s New York. Vibrant, exciting, full of life, the novel relates the brothers’ trials and tribulations on the music scene, night life in the various clubs that hire them to play, love, sex, alcohol, fun and partying. But it also deals with i…

Bruno is a PhD student from New York. When he hears about Julio Martel, a tango singer with a marvelous voice, he gets on a plane and heads to Buenos Aires. There he will meet people who will help him reconstruct Martel’s life and his passion for old tangos. As Bruno gets closer to meeting Martel, he comes closer and closer to understanding why Mar…

In this complete and complex biography of Nikola Tesla, the reader discovers the man, the inventor and the inventions. Very detailed and quite thorough, this work is for everyone interested in Tesla but want to know more than the bare necessity. Very well written and easy to follow (albeit heavy on the science but still understandable to non-specia…

In this extensively researched text, the author takes us inside the life and works of Galileo, his family, his friends, his masters and patrons, every detail to get a better picture who Galileo was and what was happening at the time. A thorough description of a very full life.

Genius 12 year-old evil mastermind Artemis Fowl goes from adventure to adventure accompanied by his faithful bodyguard Butler, Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon, Foaly the smart-aleck high-tech centaur and Mulch Diggums, a criminal dwarf suffering from flatulence. Together they can pretty much do it all! Each novel takes the characters into anoth…

After the death of his father, James leaves Yorkshire and his beloved sister Charlotte to move to London and study at Oxford. Once his studies are over, he takes lodging with an exciting young man who goes out every night. Slowly yet surely, James is drawn to this life of party, money and easy pleasures. Until one night when he and his friend get a…

A young man simply referred to as “A” inherits a very large mansion. That happens everyday! He and his mute (not deaf) companion Niamh come to the US from Europe to take possession of said mansion with all its contents. OK! The mansion once belonged to Ambrose Wells, his second cousin twice removed, who jumped off the window. Hmmm…! The cousin comm…

When the law (Pat Garrett) meets the outlaw (Billy the Kid), gunfire happens! In this 2010 extremely well researched text, author Mark Lee Gardner traces the clash between Billy and Pat, and the infamous years of 1880 and 1881 leading to Billy’s (still somewhat strange) death. A fascinating tale of the Wild West, guns, horses, gambling and cattle. …

Everybody knows about the Pinkerton Agency. Yet, probably less people know about the man behind it all: Allan Pinkerton. Allan and his wife Joan came to the USA in the 1840’s. Allan was to be a cooper, as was his trade in Scotland. Little did he know he was to be the father of one of the most notorious law enforcement agencies on the continent. Stu…

John Charming has a lot of issues. Yes, he is a Charming, kissing princesses, fighting dragons and all. But this was a long time ago. Now, he is a bartender in a small town in Virginia. Yet, his peaceful days behind the counter are almost over. When Sig, a tall gorgeous blonde walks into his bar, John soon realizes his life is about to change, not …

John Taylor really does not want to go back to the Nightside, that shady weird underside of London, where all types of mythical creatures dwell, good and bad. But when a rich lady comes begging to help her find her missing teenager, John cannot say no. Plus she is offering a lot of money! And just like that John is back in the Nightside! His reputa…

New York, 1845. The Irish population is increasing with new immigrants coming by the dozens every day. The “copper stars” are born. A few children are found dead. Three events that look like they have nothing in common; yet, they are deeply intertwined. This is what Timothy Wilde, ex-bartender turned “copper” is going to find out. In this mystery n…

New York, 1896. The city is devastated and shocked! Young boys have been found dead, utterly mutilated. The police does not even know where to begin. New York City police commissioner, Theodore Roosevelt, reaches out to two of his college buddies: one John Moore, our narrator and New York Times journalist, and one Laszlo Kreizler, an alienist. With…

New father, new boarding school, new “friends” (if you can call the girls in school “friends”), a twin sister gone and an insane mother. Oh, and of course that father you have never seen before takes you away from Wales to England, so now, you also have to deal with culture shock. Great! This is Mori’s life in a nutshell. And to add insult to injur…

Welcome to the Intrepid! Congratulations, you are a brand new ensign on a famous spaceship. You have your life of adventures ahead of you. Yet you notice that as soon as a senior officer comes along asking for volunteers for an “away mission”, most of your team mates suddenly disappear, following an irresistible craving for coffee or disappearing i…

A very difficult language to follow but a tremendous story of love and honor. Christopher Tietjens is torn between a wife he hates but cannot divorce, and a young lady he loves but cannot be with. All this in the middle of World War One! More than a mere love story, this is the story of a changing society and what its people need to do (or give up)…

Thomas Fowler, British reporter in his 50s, has been in Saigon for a few years, happily living with Phuong, his young Vietnamese mistress. Despite the conflict between the French and the Viet Minhs, life is not so bad. Until the arrival of Pyle. Alden Pyle is an American, very well mannered, quiet, and in love with Phuong. Will this love destroy hi…

What happens when you steal a cat from the past? Does the whole course of history changes? What can you do to make sure what is supposed to happen actually does happen? Do you bring the cat back? And where on earth is the bird stump? Those are a few of the questions Ned will have to answer. In doing so, this time traveler from the 2050?s will have …

Matthew is an unassuming research assistant at MIT. Somewhat mediocre, nothing special about him really. Except that one fine day, the time machine he is working on disappears and reappears almost instantaneously. Matt decides to investigate, and, why not, see where it is willing to take him. He thus embarks on a journey from one future to the next…

No good deed goes unpunished! Richard Mayhew decides in a split second to rescue a wounded girl bleeding on the pavement instead of accompanying his girl-friend to an important dinner, and his life is turned upside down. And by upside down, I do mean upside down! He is drawn into a world underground that bears little resemblance (and yet it does!) …

Welcome to the world of the strange, the creepy, darkness and dread. Saul has been accused of killing his father and sent to jail. Comes to visit him a weird character who calls himself King Rat and who helps Saul escape. Did King Rat help Saul out of the kindness of his heart? Probably not! The enemy is back and Saul is the only one who cannot be …

Young Locke is an orphan, picked up in the street by the Thiefmaker who teaches him and dozens of other children the fine art of picking pockets. But when he goes too far, brings too much attention to himself and ends up having another boy killed, Locke is sold to the Eyeless Priest. There a new life begins for Locke. The Eyeless Priest will teach …

When you are a band of mercenaries to hire, you don’t really care what the job is. When it turns out that you are going to have to go into battles with big bad evil dark sorcerers recently out of their grave, well, so be it! To battle we go! Told from the perspective of Croaker, the doctor and the historian, The Black Company is a fascinating tale …

Written from three different perspectives and in three different time periods, “The Feast of the Goat” retells the Dominican Republic years of dictatorship under General Rafael Trujillo. First and foremost, Urania in the present. Daughter of Trujillo’s secretary of state Agustin Cabral, Urania comes back to Cuidad Trujillo (now Santo Domingo) to vi…

In this masterpiece of Iranian literature by Sadegh Hedayat, the nameless narrator is slowly falling into madness. The images he sees are troublesome to say the least. Is he dreaming? Is he losing touch with reality? Are we dealing with the hallucinations of an opium user? The text does not provide any answer and the reader is left to decide on his…

In her latest trilogy, Margaret Atwood describes an eerie post-apocalyptic world in which most of the human race has been destroyed by a “waterless flood” aka an engineer plague. All that is left are a few Gardeners (a cult-like group who refuse to eat meat and live according to nature), the Crakers (an engineered race created by Crake to be a perf…

If you think you are embarking in a simple detective story, think again! The New York trilogy will take you deeper and further than any other “noir” novel you have read thus far. Composed of three stand alone novellas, the reader soon realizes they all share common threads, if not common characters. Touching on broad themes like identity, narrative…

One day out of the blue, a dome comes down, creating a perfect circle around your town. Where does it come from? No idea! Who put it there? Dunno! And why? Well wouldn’t you like to know? The people of Chester’s Mill will have to learn to live with each other and the daunting thought that maybe the dome will never lift. As the townspeople spend mor…

Who has not wondered what happened to Danny, the cute little boy locked in a battle of wits with a haunted hotel in the middle of the winter? Who has not pondered whether the negative energy trapped in the Overlook was still present, despite the boiler’s explosion and the hotel being burned to the ground? Doctor Sleep revisits the character of Dann…

What do we remember of Mata Hari? A dancer? Yes. A spy? Yes, that too. But what else? In this fast-pace biography, Pat Shipman provides a fascinating account of how Margaretha Zelle MacLeod, Dutch citizen, became Mata Hari, and how this led her to be executed at the end of World War One. Was Mata Hari a likable character, a gorgeous woman victim of…

In this great depiction of the lives and conquests of the Mongols throughout history, Jack Weatherford sheds light on an historical character that has been given a lot of bad press, Ranging from before Genghis Khan’s birth to the end of the Mongol empire long after his death, the author portrays the culture and ideals of a people united under one r…

In this futuristic series of 10 volumes set in “The City,” Spider Jerusalem, rogue journalist and truth seeker is out to get the politicians, and to expose them for who they are. In the decadent world they live in, Spider and his “filthy assistants” will stop at nothing, sex, drugs or videos to dig up the truth and expose the lies. Very cyber punk,…

Have you been wondering what happened to Snow White and if she is still happily married to her Prince Charming? And what about that Big Bad Wolf that ate poor Red Riding Hood’s grandmother, where did he disappear? Cinderella? The three blind mice? King Cole? Rest assured, they are all alive and well… in Fabletown, a hidden area of New York City. Bu…

This is Paris through the eyes of five families: the aristocrats, the “low-life”, the Jews, the workers and the merchants. Five different perspectives from the Middle-Ages to 1968, five ways to look at Paris, to be in Paris, to make Paris what it is today. The novel shows the relationship between people and the city; how a city has an effect on its…

This is not your typical book about New York. This one is all about impressions, about slices of life, about what a city does to you and how you can influence a city. Manhattan Transfer is a wonder of literary mastery. Its shadowy characters evolve in a New York that evolves with them. A tremendous novel that takes you deep in the heart of a large …

When you are the first 100 people on Mars, there are a few things that need to happen. First, you need to get along. That’s a given (but not as easy as it looks..). You also have to have an infrastructure that allows you to breath, travel, explore, and, maybe just live. Also not that easy.. Especially when you have factions on Earth trying to dicta…

A Classic of science-fiction, The Martian Chronicles are a gathering of little stories told from many perspectives, from the Martians witnessing the coming of large rockets from the sky, to the Earth people (scientists, families, or individuals) settling on a new planet with all the changes and adaptation (or lack thereof) that the move implies. Ea…

In this first person narration, the main character, whose name the reader never gets to discover, struggles with hunger. As his stomach remains empty, his head fills with delusions, inner monologues and streams of consciousness that lead the reader to wonder whether or not the narrator is sane. The question remains as to whether the hunger is the c…

The whole town is suddenly blind! No reason, no cause, but it is contagious. And it is spreading…fast! The military takes matters into its own hands and in order to confine the epidemic, sends the affected into a secluded ward. Lost, only able to rely on themselves and each other, this is the story of a struggle. Will they be able to retain their d…

All her life, Diana has stuck her fingers way deep into her ears, refusing to accept that she is a witch, and a powerful one of those. But the situation has changed. The discovery of a thought to be lost book is raising interest. On the one hand, there is Peter Knox, a powerful wizard that belongs to one of the oldest group of “peace-keepers” acros…

In her first novel, Erin Morgenstern takes her reader to a magical place; a circus only opened at night. There the spectator encounters tents after tents of unimaginable goodies, spectacles of light, mirror effects, illusionists, kitten shows and everything that makes a circus what a circus is. However, the circus is there for a darker purpose; Cel…

In this episode we discuss Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman series. The WHOLE series. That’s right, the 10 episodes! Set against the background of Dream’s abduction from the Dream World of which he is the King, the story of the Sandman mixes folklore with fantasy, reverie with reality, dilemmas with decisions. A very ambitious work that touches on a lot o…

This is the story of how the man became the legend. The author follows the various circumstances, good and bad, that have allowed Walt Disney to become the icon we all know him to have become. From his early years in Kansas to the triumph of Snow White to the war all the way to the creation of the first entertainment park of that magnitude, the aut…

You are an author, minding your own business. One fine day you decide to write a book about the birth of a religion and you pick the one you know the most: Islam. From one day to the next the whole Muslim world is after you, willing and ready to kill you. This is what happened to Salman Rushdie after the publication of his famous Satanic Verses in …

Do we really need to introduce JRR Tolkien? With the arrival on the movie scene this December 2012 of The Hobbit movie, let’s re-immerse ourselves in this epic story of self-discovery. In the episode we will discuss both the movie and the book, and how they compare to each other. And for those out there who do not yet know Bilbo Baggins, welcome to…

Lovers of cracked.com, this book is for you. Funny, gory, silly, completely off the wall, and of course… full of spiders! This sequel to “John dies at the end” is as funny as the first one but with a different plot all together. Yes, we are dealing here with… zombie apocalypse, spider style! Two overgrown teenagers, John and Dave, have been transfo…

This sequel to “A twisted ladder” is just as good as the first novel. The reader gets reacquainted with Madeleine LeBlanc, with Zenon, with Chloe and the Briar. This time, the novel does not play between psychological abilities and madness, letting the reader wonder how the main characters can do what they shouldn’t be able to do. Rather, it focuse…

This is one of the most intelligent books out there. Creepy but amazing! If you are looking for a story with a clear beginning and end, don’t bother! This book is more question than answer, more quest than resolution. It’s an exercise in deconstruction, in reader-response, it’s a labyrinth, an essay on space and time, an exercise in narratology wit…

What a strange book! Often compared to The Arabian Nights or The Decameron, this novel touches on every genre (with a large portion dedicated to the Gothic), every theme, every concept of the era from romance, to marriage, to chivalry, religion, politics, succubi, ghosts, skeletons, you name it, The Manuscript has it! Written at the turn of the 19t…