Jordan

Bruna Guedes

Husain Kothari

FRNK

Uendi Prifti

Abdul Hasib

Loughlin Sullivan

Delaney Knopp

Auriel W

Blake Molmen

Dani Shahar

Luis Javier Campos nieto

Emil Sinclair is a young boy raised in a bourgeois home, amidst what is described as a Scheinwelt, a play on words that means "world of light" as well as "world of illusion". Emil's entire existence can be summarized as a struggle between two worlds: the show world of illusion (related to the Hindu concept of maya) and the real world, the world of spiritual truth. In the course of the novel, accompanied and prompted by his mysterious classmate 'Max Demian', he detaches from and revolts against the superficial ideals of the world of appearances and eventually awakens into a realization of self.

He was the brother of “the Arab” killed by the infamous Meursault, the antihero of Camus’s classic novel. Seventy years after that event, Harun, who has lived since childhood in the shadow of his sibling’s memory, refuses to let him remain anonymous: he gives his brother a story and a name—Musa—and describes the events that led to Musa’s casual murder on a dazzlingly sunny beach. In a bar in Oran, night after night, he ruminates on his solitude, on his broken heart, on his anger with men desperate for a god, and on his disarray when faced with a country that has so disappointed him. A stranger among his own people, he wants to be granted, finally, the right to die.  The Stranger is of course central to Daoud’s story, in which he both endorses and criticizes one of the most famous novels in the world. A worthy complement to its great predecessor, The Meursault Investigation is not only a profound meditation on Arab identity and the disastrous effects of colonialism in Algeria, but also a stunning work of literature in its own right, told in a unique and affecting voice.

Philosopher, cultural critic, and agent provocateur Slavoj Žižek constructs a fascinating new framework to look at the forces of violence in our world.Using history, philosophy, books, movies, Lacanian psychiatry, and jokes, Slavoj Žižek examines the ways we perceive and misperceive violence. Drawing from his unique cultural vision, Žižek brings new light to the Paris riots of 2005; he questions the permissiveness of violence in philanthropy; in daring terms, he reflects on the powerful image and determination of contemporary terrorists.Violence, Žižek states, takes three forms--subjective (crime, terror), objective (racism, hate-speech, discrimination), and systemic (the catastrophic effects of economic and political systems)--and often one form of violence blunts our ability to see the others, raising complicated questions.Does the advent of capitalism and, indeed, civilization cause more violence than it prevents? Is there violence in the simple idea of "the neighbour"? And could the appropriate form of action against violence today simply be to contemplate, to think?Beginning with these and other equally contemplative questions, Žižek discusses the inherent violence of globalization, capitalism, fundamentalism, and language, in a work that will confirm his standing as one of our most erudite and incendiary modern thinkers.

The preference for \
  a pensive luster to a shallow brilliance.\
My quiet, soothingly minimalist room seems of no consequence when juxtaposed with the unearthly beauty that Jun'ichirō Tanizaki described in this splendid essay on aesthetics.A shōji. Lightning. Electric fans. The right heating system. Architecture. Food.Every detail to avoid the disruption of harmony in a Japanese room. An almost imperceptible line between an extremely refine taste and the subtlety of irony. \
We delight in the mere sight of the delicate glow of fading rays clinging to the surface of a dusky wall, there to live out what little life remains to them. We never tire of the sight, for to us this pale glow and these dim shadows far surpass any ornament. (9)Inside this book, there is a room that seems enraptured by the sobriety of the different shades of black. So much space beholding the magnificence of a dim light on a particular spot, barely illuminating the serene twilight the walls seem to be made of.Could this book be applied to people? It shouldn't. But that is subject to one's personality. You could be the reserved, darkened room. Except when writing. And that would be fine.Nevertheless, a book on beauty has its share of ugliness; people's skin and supposed degrees of purity.Above all, this is an essay that exalts the enigmatic candlelight. The particular beauty of a candle emanating a delicate glow that embellish a silent room. A most idyllic view under its mystical light. Nothing superfluous. Nothing pretentious. Nothing loud but the silence. A universe in one's thoughts. The encounter with oneself under the tenuous radiance of a candle, evoking a somber night and the bright moon someone is gazing at.Tanizaki observes. Tanizaki fights. Tanizaki pouts! Tanizaki misses. Tanizaki regrets.The sound of the rain playing gently with the dusky light of a candle. \
  \
The mind wanders.Nov 21, 2015* Also on my blog.** Photo credit: Japanese room / via bluebu.usTatami room / via Kyoto ContemplationCandle / via Free images

Ted Chiang's first published story, "Tower of Babylon," won the Nebula Award in 1990. Subsequent stories have won the Asimov's SF Magazine reader poll, a second Nebula Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and the Sidewise Award for alternate history. He won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1992. Story for story, he is the most honored young writer in modern SF.Now, collected here for the first time are all seven of this extraordinary writer's stories so far-plus an eighth story written especially for this volume.What if men built a tower from Earth to Heaven-and broke through to Heaven's other side? What if we discovered that the fundamentals of mathematics were arbitrary and inconsistent? What if there were a science of naming things that calls life into being from inanimate matter? What if exposure to an alien language forever changed our perception of time? What if all the beliefs of fundamentalist Christianity were literally true, and the sight of sinners being swallowed into fiery pits were a routine event on city streets? These are the kinds of outrageous questions posed by the stories of Ted Chiang. Stories of your life . . . and others.

 In  Native Speaker, author Chang-rae Lee introduces readers to Henry Park. Park has spent his entire life trying to become a true American—a native speaker. But even as the essence of his adopted country continues to elude him, his Korean heritage seems to drift further and further away. Park's harsh Korean upbringing has taught him to hide his emotions, to remember everything he learns, and most of all to feel an overwhelming sense of alienation. In other words, it has shaped him as a natural spy. But the very attributes that help him to excel in his profession put a strain on his marriage to his American wife and stand in the way of his coming to terms with his young son's death. When he is assigned to spy on a rising Korean-American politician, his very identity is tested, and he must figure out who he is amid not only the conflicts within himself but also within the ethnic and political tensions of the New York City streets.Native Speaker is a story of cultural alienation. It is about fathers and sons, about the desire to connect with the world rather than stand apart from it, about loyalty and betrayal, about the alien in all of us and who we finally are.

\
  From the widely acclaimed author of \
  \
    White Tears\
  \
  , a bold new novel about searching for order in a world that frames madness as truth.\
After receiving a prestigious writing fellowship in Germany, the narrator of Red Pill arrives in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee and struggles to accomplish anything at all. Instead of working on the book he has proposed to write, he takes long walks and binge-watches "Blue Lives"--a violent cop show that becomes weirdly compelling in its bleak, Darwinian view of life--and soon begins to wonder if his writing has any value at all.Wannsee is a place full of ghosts: across the lake the narrator can see the villa where the Nazis planned the Final Solution, and in his walks he passes the grave of the Romantic writer Heinrich von Kleist, who killed himself after deciding that "no happiness was possible here on earth." When some friends drag him to a party where he meets Anton, the creator of "Blue Lives," the narrator begins to believe that the two of them are involved in a cosmic battle, and that Anton is "red-pilling" his viewers--turning them towards an ugly, alt-rightish worldview--ultimately forcing the narrator to wonder if he is losing his mind.

A classic science fiction novel by one of the greatest writers of the genre, set in a future world where one man's dreams control the fate of humanity. In a future world racked by violence and environmental catastrophes, George Orr wakes up one day to discover that his dreams have the ability to alter reality. He seeks help from Dr. William Haber, a psychiatrist who immediately grasps the power George wields. Soon George must preserve reality itself as Dr. Haber becomes adept at manipulating George's dreams for his own purposes. The Lathe of Heaven is an eerily prescient novel from award-winning author Ursula K. Le Guin that masterfully addresses the dangers of power and humanity's self-destructiveness, questioning the nature of reality itself. It is a classic of the science fiction genre.

In Osaka in the years immediately before World War II, four aristocratic women try to preserve a way of life that is vanishing. As told by Junichiro Tanizaki, the story of the Makioka sisters forms what is arguably the greatest Japanese novel of the twentieth century, a poignant yet unsparing portrait of a family–and an entire society–sliding into the abyss of modernity.Tsuruko, the eldest sister, clings obstinately to the prestige of her family name even as her husband prepares to move their household to Tokyo, where that name means nothing. Sachiko compromises valiantly to secure the future of her younger sisters. The unmarried Yukiko is a hostage to her family’s exacting standards, while the spirited Taeko rebels by flinging herself into scandalous romantic alliances. Filled with vignettes of upper-class Japanese life and capturing both the decorum and the heartache of its protagonist, The Makioka Sisters is a classic of international literature.

Austerlitz, the internationally acclaimed masterpiece by “one of the most gripping writers imaginable” (The New York Review of Books), is the story of a man’s search for the answer to his life’s central riddle. A small child when he comes to England on a Kindertransport in the summer of 1939, one Jacques Austerlitz is told nothing of his real family by the Welsh Methodist minister and his wife who raise him. When he is a much older man, the fleeting memories return to him, and obeying an instinct he only dimly understands, he follows their trail back to the world he left behind a half century before. There, faced with the void at the heart of twentieth-century Europe, he struggles to rescue his heritage from oblivion.

Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids recounts the exploits of 15 teenage reformatory boys evacuated in wartime to a remote mountain village where they are feared and detested by the local peasants. When plague breaks out, the villagers flee, blocking the boys inside the deserted town. Their brief attempt to build autonomous lives of self-respect, love, and tribal valor is doomed in the face of death and the adult nightmare of war.

Under the watchful eye of The Company, three characters — Grayson, Moss and Chen — shapeshifters, amorphous, part human, part extensions of the landscape, make their way through forces that would consume them. A blue fox, a giant fish and language stretched to the limit.A messianic blue fox who slips through warrens of time and space on a mysterious mission. A homeless woman haunted by a demon who finds the key to all things in a strange journal. A giant leviathan of a fish, centuries old, who hides a secret, remembering a past that may not be its own. Three ragtag rebels waging an endless war for the fate of the world against an all-powerful corporation. A raving madman who wanders the desert lost in the past, haunted by his own creation: an invisible monster whose name he has forgotten and whose purpose remains hidden.Jeff VanderMeer's Dead Astronauts presents a City with no name of its own where, in the shadow of the all-powerful Company, lives human and otherwise converge in terrifying and miraculous ways. At stake: the fate of the future, the fate of Earth – all the Earths.

David Mitchell follows his eerily precocious, globe-striding first novel, Ghostwritten, with a work that is in its way even more ambitious. In outward form, number9dream is a Dickensian coming-of-age journey: Young dreamer Eiji Miyake, from remote rural Japan, thrust out on his own by his sister’s death and his mother’s breakdown, comes to Tokyo in pursuit of the father who abandoned him. Stumbling around this strange, awesome city, he trips over and crosses—through a hidden destiny or just monstrously bad luck—a number of its secret power centers. Suddenly, the riddle of his father’s identity becomes just one of the increasingly urgent questions Eiji must answer. Why is the line between the world of his experiences and the world of his dreams so blurry? Why do so many horrible things keep happening to him? What is it about the number 9? To answer these questions, and ultimately to come to terms with his inheritance, Eiji must somehow acquire an insight into the workings of history and fate that would be rare in anyone, much less in a boy from out of town with a price on his head and less than the cost of a Beatles disc to his name.

A remaking of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights set in postwar Japan A True Novel begins in New York in the 1960s, where we meet Taro, a relentlessly ambitious Japanese immigrant trying to make his fortune. Flashbacks and multilayered stories reveal his life: an impoverished upbringing as an orphan, his eventual rise to wealth and success—despite racial and class prejudice—and an obsession with a girl from an affluent family that has haunted him all his life. A True Novel then widens into an examination of Japan’s westernization and the emergence of a middle class.   The winner of Japan’s prestigious Yomiuri Literature Prize, Mizumura has written a beautiful novel, with love at its core, that reveals, above all, the power of storytelling.

The unfinished manuscript of The First Man was discovered in the wreckage of a car accident in which Camus died in 1960. Although it was not published for over thirty years, it was an instant bestseller when it finally appeared in 1994. The 'first man' is Jacques Cormery, whose poverty-stricken childhood in Algiers is made bearable by his love for his silent and illiterate mother, and by the teacher who transforms his view of the world. The most autobiographical of Camus's novels, it gives profound insights into his life, and the powerful themes underlying his work.

The final installment in the long-awaited, internationally celebrated My Struggle series.The full scope and achievement of Karl Ove Knausgaard’s monumental work is evident in this final installment of his My Struggle series. Grappling directly with the consequences of Knausgaard’s transgressive blurring of public and private, Book 6 is a troubling and engrossing look into the mind of one of the most exciting artists of our time. Knausgaard includes a long essay on Hitler and Mein Kampf, particularly relevant (if not prescient) in our current global climate of ascending dictatorships.

Do lobsters feel pain? Did Franz Kafka have a funny bone? What is John Updike's deal, anyway? And what happens when adult video starlets meet their fans in person? David Foster Wallace answers these questions and more in essays that are also enthralling narrative adventures. Whether covering the three-ring circus of a vicious presidential race, plunging into the wars between dictionary writers, or confronting the World's Largest Lobster Cooker at the annual Maine Lobster Festival, Wallace projects a quality of thought that is uniquely his and a voice as powerful and distinct as any in American letters.Contains: "Big Red Son," "Certainly the End of Something or Other, One Would Sort of Have to Think," "Some Remarks on Kafka's Funniness from Which Probably Not Enough Has Been Removed," "Authority and American Usage," "The View from Mrs. Thompson's," "How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart," "Up, Simba," "Consider the Lobster," "Joseph Frank's Dostoevsky" and "Host."

The final novel of Hermann Hesse, for which he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946, 'The Glass Bead Game' is a fascinating tale of the complexity of modern life as well as a classic of modern literature.Set in the 23rd century, 'The Glass Bead Game' is the story of Joseph Knecht, who has been raised in Castalia, the remote place his society has provided for the intellectual elite to grow and flourish. Since his childhood, Knecht has been consumed with mastering the Glass Bead Game, which requires a synthesis of aesthetics and scientific arts, such as mathematics, music, logic, and philosophy, which he achieves in adulthood, becoming a Magister Ludi (Master of the Game).

In Dhalgren, perhaps one of the most profound and bestselling science fiction novels of all time, Samuel R. Delany has produced a novel "to stand with the best American fiction of the 1970s" (Jonathan Lethem).Bellona is a city at the dead center of the United States. Something has happened there…. The population has fled. Madmen and criminals wander the streets. Strange portents appear in the cloud-covered sky. And into this disaster zone comes a young man–poet, lover, and adventurer–known only as the Kid. Tackling questions of race, gender, and sexuality, Dhalgren is a literary marvel and groundbreaking work of American magical realism.

"You've long set your heart against it, Axl, I know. But it's time now to think on it anew. There's a journey we must go on, and no more delay..."The Buried Giant begins as a couple set off across a troubled land of mist and rain in the hope of finding a son they have not seen in years.Sometimes savage, often intensely moving, Kazuo Ishiguro's first novel in nearly a decade is about lost memories, love, revenge, and war.

Two awaken on Earth with no recollection of their past and embark on a devastating crime spree but are sent to an infamous lunar penitentiary named Dead Leaves.

A homicide detective hunts a killer who is literally taking girls hearts. When his own fiancée falls victim to the killer, the detective discovers the otherworldly intentions of the killer and is helped from beyond the grave by his fiancée.

Adapted from the successful play, the film takes place in the 19th Japan where a war between demons and their slayers is fought. Izumo, an Kabuki actor with a demon-slaying past, meets and falls in love with Tsubaki. However, something is not right as mysterious marks appear on her body as time progresses. At the same time, it is announced that Ashura, the queen of all demons, will be resurrected and bring destruction to the universe.

Ancient Japan. Fleeing from enemies, two wounded samurai arrive at a strange old temple in a remote location in the mountains. The doors to the place are opened by a beautiful and exotic woman, who beckons them inside. Unable to walk any further, they collapse from exhaustion. One of the samurai awakens to find himself miraculously healed. He meets his savior, a mysterious man who tells him that his friend died from his wounds. The samurai is persuaded to stay the night. His host tells him the legend of the "Tengu", a goblin which is said to reside in the mountains dining on the flesh of men. He goes on to reveal the true name of the Tengu : Aragami. When the samurai asks if Aragami poses a threat to the temple, his host answers : "I am Aragami". The only way for the Samurai to leave the temple is to destroy Aragami.

In a world with an alternate history, a great war finally comes to an end leaving the earth diseased and polluted. The geneticist Dr. Azuma vies for support from the government for his neo-cell treatment that he claims can rejuvenate the body and regenerate humankind. The government leaders, guarding their own deeply entrenched powers, turn down the professor. Driven to complete his work, Dr. Azuma accepts a secret offer from a sinister faction of the powerful military. After an incident occurs in Dr. Azuma's lab, a race of mutant humans known as the Shinzo Ningen are unleashed upon the world. Now only the warrior known as Casshern, reincarnated with an invincible body, stands between the Shinzo Ningen and a world on the brink of annihilation.

Twelve extremely talented men and women have been chosen to be part of the Phaeton mission, a 10-year trek to explore a distant planetary system. In order to endure the stress of being confined to their high-tech vessel, the crew passes the time using advanced virtual reality modules that allow them to take on various identities. But as the ship approaches a critical phase of their journey, a deadly flaw is discovered in the virtual system, forcing them to question if someone onboard might be a killer.

Deep space, at the edge of the galaxy. The future. A new prisoner arrives on top security prison ship and psychiatric research unit Dante 01. Sole survivor of an encounter with an alien force beyond imagining, Saint Georges is a man possessed by inner demons, caught up in the battle to control the monstrous power within him. It's a power that will infect the other highly dangerous occupants of Dante 01, gaolors and prisoners alike, unleashing a violent rebellion that turns this terrifying, labyrinthine world upside down. In the otherworldly hell of the ship's depths, through danger and redemption, each must journey to his very limits... each must confront his own Dragon.

In New York City, in late 21 century, genetically altered humans live side by side with unaltered men and women, and Central Park has been mysteriously encased in an "intrusion zone" where people who attempt to enter are instantly killed. A strange pyramid has appeared over the city; inside, the gods of ancient Egypt have judged Horus, one of their fellow gods, to cease his immortality. In the city below, Jill, a young woman with blue hair, is arrested. She is not completely human; her tissues appear to be no more than a few months old according to an examining physician, although her physical form is already that of an adult. She also possesses a number of secret powers, including one that enables her to procreate with gods, though she knows nothing of this. Horus is given a limited time to interact with the humans of New York and procreate. During his search for a host body, Horus encounters Nikopol, a rebel condemned to thirty years of hibernation who, due to a mechanical accident, escapes his prison one year early. Horus has been unsuccessful in attempting to take over the bodies of other humans; due to an incompatibility with the genetic alterations humans have undergone, the host bodies self-destruct while attempting to accommodate a god. Nikopol's body is acceptable as it has been frozen in prison/storage and not undergone the genetic changes causing the rejections. Horus takes partial control of Nikopol's body and starts looking for a woman he can mate with to provide him a son before his death sentence is carried out. When Horus/Nikopol discovers Jill, they become entangled in a web of murder and intrigue.

An American teenager who is obsessed with Hong Kong cinema and kung-fu classics makes an extraordinary discovery in a Chinatown pawnshop: the legendary stick weapon of the Chinese sage and warrior, the Monkey King. With the lost relic in hand, the teenager unexpectedly finds himself traveling back to ancient China to join a crew of warriors from martial arts lore on a dangerous quest to free the imprisoned Monkey King.

Alice, an unpretentious and individual 19-year-old, is betrothed to a dunce of an English nobleman. At her engagement party, she escapes the crowd to consider whether to go through with the marriage and falls down a hole in the garden after spotting an unusual rabbit. Arriving in a strange and surreal place called "Underland," she finds herself in a world that resembles the nightmares she had as a child, filled with talking animals, villainous queens and knights, and frumious bandersnatches. Alice realizes that she is there for a reason--to conquer the horrific Jabberwocky and restore the rightful queen to her throne.

Set against the coming of Christianity, this is the story of the last hero: in 507, a monstrous troll wreaks havoc in the mead hall of Danish King Hrothgar (Sir Anthony Hopkins). He offers rewards for the death of Grendel (Crispin Glover), so Beowulf (Ray Winstone), a great and boastful Geat warrior, arrives with his thanes. Beowulf sets aside his armor and awaits the monster. A fierce battle ensues that leads to Beowolf's entering the watery lair of Grendel's Mother (Angelina Jolie), where a devil's bargain awaits. Beowulf returns to Herot, the castle, and becomes King. Jump ahead many years, and the sins of the father are visited upon Beowulf and his kingdom. The hero must face his weakness and be heroic once again. Is the age of demons over?

There is a train station on the other side of death, yet not all who arrive on the platform will be judged ready for passage onwards. For one unready soul, there will be both a test and a second chance. Rather than be reborn, this soul will awake in the body of 14-year-old suicide Makoto Kobayashi where it must not only find a way to fit into Makoto's existence, but also unravel two mysteries. What is the secret of the great sin it committed in its own previous life and what were the reasons that led to Makoto's suicide? While some may believe the truth to be as plain to see as black and white, "Makoto" soon finds that the real world is overlaid with so many shades of grey and rainbows of colors that even the most obvious of "facts" are not what they seem. With the soul's time in Makoto's body quickly running out, the answers to all life's mysteries await discovery.

In the heart of the industrial, steampunk world of Gothia, amid smokey cityscapes and technological marvels of iron, the guilt-ridden aerial navigator, Jasper Morello, yearns for redemption. Now, with an inexplicable but equally dreadful plague ravaging the city, Jasper, accompanied by the esteemed biologist, Dr Claude Belgon, embarks on a peril-laden expedition to a mysterious, far-off land in pursuit of a cure for the fatal epidemic sweeping the country. However, the unexpected discovery of an abandoned vessel will pave the way for shocking revelations, troubling moral dilemmas, and death. Is there a cure for the world of Jasper Morello?

In Treasure Town, life can be both peaceful and violent. This is never truer than for our heroes, Black and White - two street kids who claim to traverse the urban city as if it were their own. But in this town, an undercurrent of evil exists and has its sights set on the pair of brothers, forcing them to engage in battle with an array of old-world Yakuza as well as dangerous assassins vying to rule the decaying metropolis, Treasure Town.

The film follows Nishi, a loser who has a crush on his childhood girlfriend. After an encounter with the Japanese mafia, the film follows Nishi as he journeys to heaven and back, and ends up trapped in an even more unlikely place. Nishi (and some friends) attempt to break out of their trap, and discover what it truly means to be alive along the way. This is a mind-bending trip that uses some of the most innovative animation ever created.

A young girl, desperate to save her village, sets out in search of a legendary swordsman who accepts only rare books of a particular genre as payment.

Takaki and Akari are two classmates in elementary school. During their time together they have become close friends. Their relationship is tested when Akari moves to another city because of her parents' jobs. Both of them struggle to keep their friendship alive, as time and distance slowly pulls them apart. When Takaki finds out that he is moving further away, he decides to visit Akari one last time.

2007 Japanese animated film directed by Makoto Shinkai

Seven years after the Raccoon City incident, a man heartbroken from losing loved ones in the destroyed city unleashes a remnant T-Virus in an airport, forcing special agent Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield, close allies and hardened survivors of the Raccoon City incident, to quell the outbreak and discover the truth behind it all.

2008 animated film directed by Makoto Kamiya

Rescued from the deadly assault on their headquarters, Rune Balot finds temporary shelter in paradise a high-tech laboratory where the scramble 09 protocol originated

Taking place in a futuristic city called Kamina City, Rune Ballot is a young prostitute who was taken in by the notorious gambler Shell Septinous. One night, Shell abandons Rune and attempts to murder her in an explosion. However, she is rescued and transformed into a cyborg by Dr. Easter. An Artificial intelligence in the form of a Mouse accompanies her to adapt to her new life. Rune is trained to use the advanced technology fitted on her to defend herself against Shell's attempts to have her killed to stop her from testifying against him.

American speculative fiction writer (1918-1985)

American novelist, writer, journalist, political activist

Austrian neurologist known as the founding father of psychoanalysis

British novelist, poet, playwright and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate

German author, novelist, and short story writer

English modernist writer known for use of stream of consciousness

Based on the novel written in 1719, this is said to be an action-packed period drama set in the 18th century, but with a contemporary take on race relations -- and a hero who will bear a resemblance to Angus MacGyver. NBC has committed to 13 episodes.

It was the age of Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo, of enlightened creativity and unparalleled intellectual achievement. But it was also the age of Machiavelli, of rampant lawlessness, incessant war, and unspeakable depravity. At the heart of the world order was the Vatican, the arbiter of conflicts between kingdoms and empires. And at the center of the Vatican was a man whose quest for power would propel him to seek the ultimate prize: the Holy See of Rome. He was a man whose name would become synonymous with ruthlessness, and whose reign as Pope would be remembered as the most infamous chapter of the history of the Catholic church: Rodrigo Borgia. His four children--Juan, the oldest, a prideful, lazy, unscrupulous sexual predator; Cesare, a young man torn between a faith that was not his calling and his dark violent nature; Lucretia, a young girl discovering the secret power that a woman's sexuality holds; and Goffredo, an innocent child who would come of age in a family riven by conflict--would provide Rodrigo with a challenge as great as the political maneuvering of his political and religious rivals. This show was a one-hour dramatic series that chronicled the rise to power of this Spanish Cardinal and his clan, who sought to establish a dynasty that held sway over the entire world. Though a man of faith, Rodrigo was also in thrall to the pleasures of the flesh. Not only did he deal with the plotting and conspiracies of his fellow cardinals and the representatives of the great powers, but he was locked in a struggle to contain the bitter sibling rivalries that threatened to tear his family apart. This show was a cauldron of intrigue, violence, murder, lust, politics, faith, incest, betrayal, and redemption--a story as compelling and enlightening as the age in which it took place.

French-German-Czech-Italian historical drama television series

A group of young students are chosen for the Kizuna System, an experimental bond which connects people together and enables them to feel each others' wounds and pain. All those who are connected to this system are called Kiznaivers; when one Kiznaiver is wounded, the system divides and transmits the wound among the other Kiznaivers. For one summer, these lives will be tied together. Can the Kizuna system work out for these young lives and for the world?

There is an urban legend that tells of a shinigami that can release people from the pain they are suffering. This "Angel of Death" has a name: Boogiepop. And the legends are true. Boogiepop is real. When a rash of disappearances involving female students breaks out at Shinyo Academy, the police and faculty assume they just have a bunch of runaways on their hands. Yet some students know better. Something mysterious and foul is afoot. Is it Boogiepop or something even more sinister?

A shady bus tour of young men and women are headed to an elusive village called Nanakimura. A destination where people can partake in a Utopian existence, free of the world's obstacles, or so goes the rumor. Heading deep into the mountains, the bus is carrying 30 different individuals, each harboring their own expectations and troubled hearts. What they had arrived to was an uninhabited village with lingering, faint scents of life and it was falling apart. Just what is the secret of Nanakimura?

This "paranormal science" story follows nine idiosyncratic individuals, linked by the "Choujou Kagaku Kirikiri Basara" occult summary blog run by 17-year-old second-year high school student Yuuta Gamon. Little incongruities that occur around these nine eventually lead to a larger, unimaginable event that may alter what is considered common sense in this world.

15 years ago, an unknown portal opened over the Pacific, leading to an alternative world, called Reto Semaani, to the world, where fairies and demons live. Because of that, San Teresa City is now flooded with immigrants from the parallel world. Of course, neither of the worlds is perfect, so crime starts to thrive with the new types of fraud, drugs, and weapons able to destroy a whole country that are so small that no security service will ever notice. San Teresa City is the place where you can get everything, or lose everything; this is the city of big dreams. The story of Cop Craft focuses on a rather unusual detectives' duo, trying to keep peace in the city: the detective Kei Matoba and the alternate-world knight Tirana. The two are so different that reaching an understanding is problematic sometimes. Nevertheless, they both have their own pride-- to eradicate the crime in the city of San Teresa.

Kenshin and Kaoru are married. Kenshin leaves Kaoru with their son, Kenji, to lead a revolution in China. But both of them suffer from a seemingly incurable disease. 15 years later, Kenshin tries to return home to his wife before she dies of grief. Flashbacks of Kenshin's previous encounters with friends and foes occur while Kenshin struggles to make it back home.

Taking place in the year 1937 on the eve of World War II, the story involves a mysterious spy training organization known as the "D Agency." The organization is established by Lieutenant Colonel Yuuki from the Imperial Japanese Army. His ideals lead him to recruit people beyond military academy graduates and personnel, while training them to become skilled agents in arts of manipulation. These agents would become a specialized team to conduct operations. One such antihero agent, under the name Jirou Gamou, goes on a harrowing mission to uncover secret documents titled "Black Notes," while battling forces from within and without his own ranks.

Shoutarou Tatewaki, a high schooler living in Asahikawa City, Hokkaido, meets Sakurako Kujou, a bone-loving ojou-san who has an ability to analyze specimen. Because of meeting her, he has to accompany her to various cases.

Kuro, a 12th-century man, flees into the mountains after losing to his brother, where he meets a strange, beautiful woman named Kuromitsu. Kuro falls in love with Kuromitsu but realizes she conceals a dark secret. She is unable to die and continues to live for thousands of years as Japan evolves into a future society.

The series starts off at a tournament where a one armed samurai faces a blind one and quickly flashes back to reveal the history between the two fighters.

Mononoke follows a wandering, nameless character known only as the "Medicine Seller". The series is composed out of 5 story arcs, each featuring the medicine seller as he tries to solve the mystery behind the existence of various Mononoke, evil spirits that still linger in the human world. He combats them using his vast knowledge of the supernatural, but a Mononoke can only be slain after he uncovers its form (Katachi), the truth behind its appearance (Makoto) and the reason for its unusual behavior (Kotowari).

Makoto Niwa moves in with his eccentric aunt and cousin. As it so happens, his cousin believes herself to be an alien. Makoto takes it upon himself to reintroduce her to society.

In order to help a friend possessed by a spirit, Ozawa Haruka knocks on the door of her university's movie research association. There she meets Saitou Yakumo, a rude, unkempt young man with a red left eye, who is said to have spiritual powers. At first Haruka is skeptical, but she comes to believe him when he conveys messages from her older sister, who died when she was a child. Together, they work to shed light on the terrifying events happening at their university. But this is only the prologue of what's to come...

Mysterious novel series and media franchise

Tokaku Azuma is a heartless teenage assassin on a mission of death. She's been sent to a prestigious, all-girls boarding school to compete in an assassination game against eleven other beautiful killers. There heinous mission: send the innocent and cheerful Haru Ichinose to an early grave.

When her father has disappeared, Chizuru Yukimura goes searching for him in Kyoto. She is attacked by strange men, and then rescued by the Shinsengumi.

A Persian prisoner sets out to find his dead brother with help from his misfit group.

Delangiz

In a totalitarian society in a near future, the undercover detective Bob Arctor is working with a small time group of drug users trying to reach the big distributors of a brain-damaging drug called Substance D. His assignment is promoted by the recovery center New Path Corporation, and when Bob begins to lose his own identity and have schizophrenic behavior, he is submitted to tests to check his mental conditions.

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500 Nations is an eight part documentary which explores the history of the indigenous peoples of North and Central America, from pre-Colombian times, through the period of European contact and colonization, to the end of the 19th century and the subjugation of the Plains Indians of North America. 500 Nations relies on historical texts, eyewitnesses accounts, pictorial sources and computer graphic reconstructions to explore the magnificent civilizations which flourished prior to contact with Western civilization, and to tell the dramatic and tragic story of the Native American nations' desperate attempts to retain their way of life against overwhelming odds.

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In the wake of the Fronde in 1667, the French nobility have begun to defy and disobey the monarchy. Young King Louis XIV decides to move the court from the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye near Paris to his father's former hunting lodge near the hamlet of Versailles as a means to force their submission. As Louis renovates and expands his new Palace of Versailles, the nobles-displaced from their usual surroundings but compelled to surround the king-become embroiled in increasingly dangerous intrigues.

2010s historical fiction television series

After being recruited to a secretive academy, a group of students discover that the magic they read about as children is very real, and more dangerous than they ever imagined. But, will getting hooked on the thrill of magic distract them from honing their powers when they need them most?

tiring other series to watch

Ned possesses the unique talent of being able to bring the dead to life merely by touching them. However, the person may remain alive only for one minute, or else someone else dies for them. A second touch will render the person dead again, unable to be revived. Through his connections with PI Emerson Cod, Ned revives his childhood sweetheart, Chuck. The trio, aided occasionally by Olive Snook, helps solve the mysteries of various murders, whose murderer is often surprising.

American fantasy comedy-drama television series

The second war against the Cylons is over, and The Twelve Colonies have been destroyed. Now Commander Adama of the Battlestar Galatica and President Laura Roslin lead a ragtag fleet of refugees in a supposed search for the fabled lost thirteenth colony, Earth. However, the dangers they face are many, which compound an already difficult situation. In addition to the Cylons hunting and attacking the fleet in space and their infiltrator units carrying out sabotage--even as their former unwitting pawn, Gaius Baltar, helps in the hunt for them while hiding both his own guilt and the strange presence that haunts his every thought--the fleet also faces internal political conflict in which the rabble-rousing figure Tom Zarek is merely the loudest dissenting voice, not to mention recurring shortages of food, water, and even oxygen. In the midst of these trials, however, clues begin to appear to suggest that Adama's bluff about finding Earth might hold more truth than anyone could have guessed.

2004–2009 American science fiction television series, reimagining of a 1970s series

The vampire Angelus, now known as Angel, has a human soul, but committed terrible crimes in the past. Seeking forgiveness and trying to redeem himself, he moves from Sunnydale (and a relationship with Buffy Summers, of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") to Los Angeles, where he helps the downtrodden by thwarting the supernatural creatures that prey on them.

The past, present, and future lives of surviving Oceanic Flight 815 passengers are dramatically intertwined as a fight for survival ensues in a quest for answers after crashlanding on a mysterious island. Each discovery prompts yet more secrets, as the hastily-formed colony search for a way off the island, or is this their home?

tv series

Using hidden cameras and never-before-seen footage, Earthlings chronicles the day-to-day practices of the largest industries in the world, all of which rely entirely on animals for profit.

A young girl zealously wants to go to school and learn to read and write. Almost everywhere she is met with hostility or indifference. The only young boy who takes her to his school is thrown out by the teacher, because helping her prevented him from coming in time. - It must not go unnoticed that the schoolgirls and the female teacher are likewise hostile toward this girl. None of them want her in the classroom. On her way home she and other girls are taken as prisoners by boys playing talibans. They tear her school book to pieces (or rather what was left of it after the schoolgirls had done the same thing.) The "taliban boys" threaten to stone their girl prisoners (although in this movie there is little real physical violence against girls). The girl's attempts end in complete failure. (Whatever moods of the scenes throughout the entire movie, the acting by the central girl is really impressive.)

In late 19th century's Netherlands, an albino woman and a blind man develop an indiscriminate love for one another. Will love be blind?

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