The Gods of the mythology are angry! America is more interested in worshiping icons of the modern world like the media, Internet or television and those "real" Gods are all but forgotten. So what can they do about it? They can go to war! New Gods versus Old Gods, for the soul of America, a clash of titans.

And in their quest to regain power and recognition, they enlist the help of Shadow, and ex-con just out of prison who is down on his luck now that his only reason to live, his wife Laura, has died in a car crash in the middle of an affair with Shadow's boss. What better time for Mr Wednesday, an enigmatic figure who seems to know way too much about Shadow's past, to come into his life and force him to join him in a quest to rally the Gods and rage war on all those modern icons.

Peopled with strange creatures coming from the mythology of countries ranging from Norse to Hindu, from Irish to Egyptian, dark, humorous, sad and extremely sobering at times, American Gods is an interesting study of what the modern world has become and what needs to be done about it. Oscillating between reality and a fantasy-like dream world in which Shadow jumps at will, the novel will entice readers from all walks of life.

And it won the 2002 Hugo Award!! What better reason to give it a try :)

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The day is going as usual, nothing particular has changed but in the sky, there are two moons side by side, one big and yellow, one smaller and green. This shows that you have entered 1Q84, a universe slightly off. You are not in the year 1984 anymore; you have veered into a different universe with Q as “question mark”. Once in this world, there is no going back.

This is what happened to Aomame and to Tengo, two people whose fate is more intertwined than they could ever imagine. In order for Aomame and Tengo to meet and fulfill their purpose, 1Q84 will put in the two main characters’ path the young Fukaeri, author of the Air Chrysalis, a novel whose sole existence will unleash the fury of the Little People. In 1Q84, they also encounter Leader, the head of a powerful yet extremely secret sect whose relation with those mysterious Little People seems to be more than a mere acquaintance.

As the two separate stories of Aomame and of Tengo slowly come together, the reader’s conception of reality gets more and more tempered with. Deeply philosophical and metaphysical, dealing with predetermination and the illusion of reality among other themes, 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami is one of those novels that leave its audience pondering about life and the universe. It will even appeal to those in dire need of a beautiful love story. An interesting mix between Kafka’s Metamorphosis, Lewis Carroll’s Through the looking glass and George Orwell’s 1984 to name just a few, this novel cannot leave the reader unmoved.

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In this 5 parts very large novel, everything and everyone converges in Santa Teresa, a small town south of the Mexican border.

May it be four international literary critics and university professors studying the works of German author Archimboldi, a Mexican scholar and his daughter, a journalist from New York sent to write an article on a local boxing fight, they all gather in Santa Teresa where numerous young girls have been found raped and killed by a mysterious person or persons for no particular reason.

Rich in its emotion-free descriptions, 2666 portrays with gusto life and death in a small Mexican town. Dark yet funny at times, poignant and well put together, 2666 the last novel by Chilean author Roberto Bolano is a work to be reckoned with. With its 5 different stories, 5 different styles in the 5 different parts that compose to text, everyone can find something of interest, may it be the descriptions of the murders in part 4, how a normal unassuming person can become a great and famous author on the verge of getting the Nobel prize in part 5, or how can a literary critic develop and sustain a life-long passion about a work of fiction in part 1, to name just a few.

To discover what humanity and life in a small town are really all about with their joy and darkness, 2666 is the novel to read.

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In this three novels series, Isaac Asimov studies the fate of civilizations in a galaxy far far away…

When the Empire is on the brink of decline and fall, Hari Seldon, the father of psychohistory, the science of mass evolution over milenia, decides to tinker with the fate of humanity by gathering a small groups of scientists on a remote planet called Terminus. He hopes to reduce the Chaos that is to follow the fall of the Empire from 30 000 years to a mere 1 000. Their task is to create the Encyclopedia Galactica. As the years and centuries go by, Seldon remains revered as a God and the fate of humanity remains unchanged, faithful to the outcome Seldon had predicted. Until the Mule! Mutant, born a “freak of nature” with incomparable powers of mind control coming out of nowhere, the Mule decides to take on the universe and keep it for himself.

But there are rumors that Seldon created a Second Foundation somewhere else in the universe. Did he think the first one could fail? Was he covering his tracks or simply setting the Second Foundation for a totally different purpose? The Second Foundationers seem to have developed a rather interesting set of powers of their own..

Yet, the main question remains throughout the three novels: Did Seldon put humanity on the path is it on right now by changing its fate? Or would humanity have reached the exact same point had Seldon not intervened?

Set as setting (Foundation), conflict (Foundation and Empire) and resolution (Second Foundation), the Foundation Series can be read from various points of view, from the political to the religious, from anthropology to philosophy, from pure science-fiction to an allegory on free-will vs predetermination.

Isaac Asimov is not one the pillars of science-fiction for nothing! The Foundation series will entice young and old! After all, who wouldn’t be intrigued by a character called the Mule…

For those who have never read this phenomenal science-fiction novel, and for all you worm lovers out there, we bring you Dune! Written in 1965 but still extremely modern in its themes and writing style, Dune is the perfect novel for anyone in dire need of chill, excitement, wonder, awareness and Spice!

Set on planet Arrakis better known as Dune, the story follows the House of Atreides with its Duke, his Bene Gesserit concubine Jessica, Paul the wonder child and Alia, not yet born, as they come to the desert planet in order to take over the spice mining and fall into a trap set for them by the House of Harkonnen and its Baron, backed up in their evil endeavor by  the Padishah Emperor. All is done in the name of the Spice, the supreme element that extends life, that opens consciousness and allows space travel. "Who controls the spice, controls the universe." And right now, the Spice monopoly is in the hands of the Guild. Yet the Guild is worried. They are afraid of Paul of the House of Atreides, the boy who should have been a girl.  Could Paul of Atreides, with his phenomenal powers, son of the Duke and of Jessica of the Bene Gesserit sisterhood be Muad'dib, the Kwisatz Haderach, the supreme being that the Fremen, the people of Arrakis have been waiting for, the savior, the one who will break once and for all the Spice monopoly and restore order?

Filled with action, adventure, but also metaphysical elements, philosophy, ecology, politics, this rich novel has something for everyone. Man, woman or child, aged 20, 52 or 95, every age will find pleasure in reading or, more likely, re-reading this masterpiece of science-fiction.  Just a quick word of advice: watch out for the worms! :)

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When your child starts rambling in the middle of the night in a language you do not understand, maybe it is time to take matters into your own hands! This is what Mark Hunter decided to do. Ex military man, his fate changed when he came face to crooked nose a decade ago with a powerful witch, who put on a bad curse on his 10 year old Adam. Since then, Adam has been plagued with dreams and insights no child should even be allowed to read about. Puzzled, panicked yet firmly set on ending the curse, Mark enlists the help of Elizabeth Bancroft, the good doctor. But it is without counting on Elizabeth’s own past and her own family ancestry of witches.

Set in Scotland in the present time, The Magdalena Curse by Francis Cottam is filled with many different elements of the Gothic novel.

Will Mark and Elizabeth finally find a way to rid the world of the cruel Mrs Mallory and free Adam from endless nightmares? Will Elizabeth find out what her mother has tried so hard to hide from her about her own past? And who on earth is that wolf-like evil creature that keeps reappearing? Check out Episode 47, and you may just find out

Just in time for Halloween, a great weird novel about schizophrenia, voodoo, family curse, river devils and unexplained suicides!

The story follows simultaneously the life of Dr Madeleine LeBlanc, psychologist on the faculty at Tulane University in New Orleans in 2009-2010, and that of her great grand-mother Chloe, a century ago. Both women are plagued with strange characters that they are the only ones to see and interact with…

Is Maddie mentally sick like her father and her brother? Or is she gifted with a strange ability that allows her mind to wander to a place filled with bramble and creatures from another world? Who is Chloe and how come she knows so much? And who is Zenon, this seemingly evil man who follows Maddie with a secret purpose? How is he able to make her body stop dead in its tracks? Does he too possess an ability? Of what sort and where did he get it from? Could Chloe have anything to do with Zenon? And who is killing all those girls in the bayou? Maybe Severin, the strange child that only Maddie can see holds the key to the family secret, dating back to Chloe’s husband Remi in the 1910′s, and his first encounter with the “river devil” Ulysses.

Check out “A twisted ladder,” a psychological thriller by Rhodi Hawk. Once you are done with the book, in light of what you know, you will want to start it all over again. A must read!

In this episode, we discuss how grand it is to be a spy!

Gabriel Allon, fine member of the Israeli Intelligence Services, has a rather impressive resume of assassinations and other related missions. He thought it would finally be nice to retire from the world of espionage and terrorism, and spend his time enjoying art restoration in the company of his beautiful wife.

But no! That can’t happen! The world has seen too many suicide bombings all around Europe and it is time something happens.  With the help of a team of highly trained intelligence agents and field operatives ranging from CIA to MI5, Gabriel endeavors to recruit Nadia, heiress of one of the largest and most prevalent financial empires of Saudi Arabia, and use her to infiltrate known terrorist groups. Ensues a series of adventures that will lead the group all around the world in the hope to stop those that threaten the peace. Will they succeed? Well, how about you listen to the episode to find out

Modern Piracy, Secret Agents, & Assassination Attempts abound in The Jefferson Key by Steve Barry.

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Michael Crichton goes Caribbean with his posthumously published pirate adventure, Pirate Latitudes.

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