I’m a Canadian writer with a degree in Mediaeval Studies. Even as a child, I wrote stories about characters who weren’t entirely human; they were also always people lurking on the edges of things—families, cultures, places, ways of being, even people existing only on the edges of becoming themselves. Those have always been where I found my stories and as an adult I haven’t lost this fascination and the need to tell such tales. Gods, assassins, devils, demons, shapeshifters, immortal wanderers, and ordinary people caught up in their history, vast, deep worlds, and complex characters—that’s what I do.
The Gates of Heaven is book three of Seven Brothers, a four-book series, in which the presence and role of the gods become more and more apparent as the overarching story unfolds. Llesho’s story starts off as what you might expect of a young prince in exile, sold into slavery as a pearl-diver, who escapes and sets out to find his scattered brothers. It doesn’t end up where you think, and this book is the point in the series where the story of gods and goddesses and dragons involved in human affairs really takes over as the main plotline, though the threads of it have been there from start. Mountains, grasslands, ancient cities, and their trade routes—this is an excellent silk road fantasy as well.
The evil sorcerer Markko has sworn to capture the last of Prince Llesho's brothers. If Markko succeeds, Llesho will not be able to save Thebin, or reopen the Gates of Heaven. As murder and dark magic threaten Llesho's alliances, he realizes his only chance lies in finding his brothers first. So begins a desperate hunt that will lead the prince from the slave market to a sea voyage fraught with perils, and an incredible discovery about the sorcerer who seems bent on his destruction.
When I drafted the pieces which eventually comprised Melancholic Parables, I had no plan. Only upon arranging them into a collection did I discover that, surprisingly, they shared emotional moods and thematic elements. In other words, I had stumbled into a linked collection. Writing a single big story is no small feat, as is writing small stories which each intrigue and delight in their own right—but to create and arrange multiple small stories so that they aggregate into a big story, one greater than the sum of its parts (in ways sometimes counterintuitive, sometimes virtuosic) is a special storytelling skill which I think these five authors’ work exemplifies.
On my list, this is the only book of poetry, but the emotional journey its linked poems chart makes it perfect for inclusion.
Gilgamesh finds his wild friend Enkidu, loves him, loses him—and is racked by grief. The poems bear us through myriad forms of yearning for a bosom companion who will never come home—a plot of emotions, not events.
A finalist in the Grayson Books Poetry Contest in 2020, the inventively structured book features each poem in English and Spanish on facing pages.
In this bilingual collection of poems, inspired by the Epic of Gilgamesh, the king grieves the disappearance of his wild friend Enkidu. Each poem appears in English and Spanish, translated by the author. When you are not talking to me, I conjure you. When I lose my way between campfires, you are with me. When my body wastes away, you are in me. When I want to be somewhere else, you stalk me. A finalist in the 2020 Grayson Books Poetry Contest.
En esta colección bilingüe de poemas, inspirada en la Epopeya de Gilgamesh, el rey llora la partida de…
I loved this book
because I had it as a child, and it was never read at
the time.
I only just saw the film version and wanted to read the book. I had no
trouble finding it, and got down to read it.
It is about a detective who, upon hearing
about a murder, gets called out to investigate.
He becomes the next victim and dies. He goes to heaven and, in order to solve his own murder, he returns to
Earth as a dog.
It is refreshing to go
back and read stuff one vaguely remembers, but the details are unclear. I had
remembered something about this as a child, now more clear after seeing the
book and film source
Having practically grown up at the hospital where my dad worked as a medical photographer, I wanted to be a nurse from the age of ten. I worked in ICU for five years and then retired to become a stay-at-home mom and later a homeschool mother. But once a nurse, always a nurse. I continued to care for friends and family, including my one-hundred-year-old mother-in-law, through health crises and long-term illnesses. My book and the others listed here tell stories of God’s healing—physically, mentally, and spiritually—a theme I’m passionate about and hope you are, too!
This book spent five years on the New York Times bestseller list. Despite what some see as controversial claims that the author spent ninety minutes in heaven and then came back to life, only five of the eighteen chapters dwell on Piper’s “near-death experience.” The majority of the book chronicles his horrifically painful struggle to survive and then recover the use of his legs which were mangled in an accident. He often begged God to let him die. Instead, God brought people into his life to help him move past self-pity and find a renewed purpose.
In the ten years since 90 Minutes in Heaven was published, millions of people worldwide have read the incredible true story of Don Piper's experience with death and life--and in reading they have found their own lives changed.
After a semi-truck collided with Don Piper's car, he was pronounced dead at the scene. For the next ninety minutes, he experienced the glories of heaven. Back on earth, a passing minister felt led to stop and pray for the accident victim even though he was told Piper was dead. Miraculously, Piper came back to life, and the pleasure of heaven was…
I’m KrazeKode; I’m a college student turned author who spent his teenage years reading a lot of web novels, and eventually, I ended up writing some. People liked them enough that I decided I wanted to do it as my job instead of writing boring code for some company, so now I do that instead. I’ve read a lot, and a good chunk of them were cultivation books. I really love this genre and find that it has a lot of potential to explore. It is generally a super fun setting and world and has a very different style and feel compared to most other Western English works, making it quite refreshing.
If Cradle is a refreshing take on cultivation done faithfully and to its pinnacle while bringing a new aesthetic to it, then this book does the opposite and dives right into the heart of the xianxia aesthetic, but it does so in a phenomenal way.
It’s nothing new, per se, but that’s okay because what is there is done really well. Honestly, I don’t have too much to say about this book besides just that you should go read it—it’s great.
He never intended to be a cultivator. The heavens have another plan…
Sen never dreamed of ascension. Such were the aspirations of the rich young nobles, not orphans like him, scraping together a meager living on the streets of Orchard’s Reach.
However, when destiny takes an unexpected turn, Sen finds himself thrust into the role of a cultivator’s disciple. Chosen over the nobles who once looked down on him, he is adopted into a makeshift family of three ancient cultivators, each with a lifetime of knowledge and insights. These old monsters will teach Sen everything they can, from the art…
I love God stories! Sharing what God has done in my life and hearing others’ stories is a passion of mine. I’ve had a lot of opportunities to grow in my faith; however, nothing matures someone faster than going through a hard season. Mine came when I was a mom of four young children and endured cancer treatments during the Covid lockdowns. I went from feeling anxious and alone to remembering God’s love. Reading others’ stories encouraged me when the weight of life brought me down, and I want to pay it forward by giving the world my story too.
Thinking about the hope of heaven kept my mental health positive while going through cancer treatments.
This book includes several near-death experiences of people all over the world who literally died for a moment and saw the afterlife. As a witness to the spiritual realm, they give us vivid descriptions of heaven and what they saw while their physical bodies were dead.
These amazing stories from people of different ages and religions point to the reality of a beautiful place that I can’t wait to experience after I die.
It's obvious from the bookshelves and the big screen that heaven is on everyone's mind. All of us long to know what life after death will be like. Bestselling author John Burke is no exception. For decades, he has been studying accounts of people who have had near-death experiences (NDEs). While not every detail of individual NDEs correlate with Scripture, Burke shows how the common experiences shared by thousands of survivors clearly point to the God of the Bible and the exhilarating picture of heaven he promises.
Imagine Heaven is an inspirational journey through the Bible's picture of heaven, colored…
Years ago, I returned to school at Mount Holyoke College to complete my bachelor’s degree in American Studies. I took a course on Emily Dickinson at the poet’s home in Amherst, Massachusetts—what a thrill! On the first day of class I learned that for sixteen years Emily’s constant companion was Carlo, a Newfoundland dog. Having experienced a hairy, slobbery encounter with a Newf when I was twenty while wearing a white dress, I knew the myth of Emily, pristinely dressed, untouched by the more earthy emotions was wrong. A new story needed to be told. That was the beginning of Emily and Carlo.
I’ve had friends tell me that they don’t want to love another dog because they can’t bear it when the dog dies. It’s hard to lose a pet, no matter whether you are old or young. Dog Heavenallows us to imagine our old friends in an afterlife that’s fashioned just for them. God knows what dogs like—a place to run, dog treats in funny shapes, fluffy clouds as dog beds, and special homes where they are petted and reminded how good they are all day long. This hopeful picture book offers comfort as our Angel dogs “will be there when old friends show up. They will be there at the door.”
A comforting and playful exploration of a beloved dog's journey after a happy life on Earth.
In Newbery Medalist Cynthia Rylant's classic bestseller, the author comforts readers young and old who have lost a dog. Recommended highly by pet lovers around the world, Dog Heaven not only comforts but also brings a tear to anyone who is devoted to a pet. From expansive fields where dogs can run and run to delicious biscuits no dog can resist, Rylant paints a warm and affectionate picture of the ideal place God would, of course, create for man's best friend. The first picture…
I’ve always been intrigued by concepts of what happens after death, ignited by my religious schooling and fueled by afterlife stories from The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, Tales from the Crypt, and similar works of fiction. In college I began studying interpretations of Heaven and Hell from literature, art, myth, music, and pop culture, and continued to pursue the topic in my early career. This fascination led to my first books, Encyclopedia of Hell and Encyclopedia of Heaven, and has inspired many of my other works. I continue to do research in the field of comparative afterlife theory, and never miss a chance to interview those with expertise in supernatural matters.
Hideaway explores the question: what would happen if people who’ve had near-death experiences bring something back with them from the other side? Koontz offers two characters resuscitated after being clinically dead for more than half an hour, one who tastes Heaven while the other sees Hell. Is the carnage that follows the result of their angel/demon hitchhikers wreaking havoc among the living, or is something else at play? The novel offers unique perspective on the desire to return to the land of the dead, and how closely the forces of Heaven and Hell are linked to the realm of the living.
Strange visions plague a man after he survives a near-death experience in this chilling thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz.
Surviving a car accident on a snowy mountain road is miraculous for Lindsey Harrison, but even more so for her husband, Hatch, who was clinically dead for eighty minutes.
After experimental procedures bring Hatch back to life, he awakens with the terrifying feeling that something is it out there. But it soon becomes apparent that the evil stalking Hatch is within him-a dark force of murderous rage that hides within us all...
I’ve always been intrigued by concepts of what happens after death, ignited by my religious schooling and fueled by afterlife stories from The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, Tales from the Crypt, and similar works of fiction. In college I began studying interpretations of Heaven and Hell from literature, art, myth, music, and pop culture, and continued to pursue the topic in my early career. This fascination led to my first books, Encyclopedia of Hell and Encyclopedia of Heaven, and has inspired many of my other works. I continue to do research in the field of comparative afterlife theory, and never miss a chance to interview those with expertise in supernatural matters.
The Great Divorce is part allegory, part fantasy, part self-help, part cautionary tale as readers tag along on a bus ride from Hell to Heaven. Through the course of the journey, Lewis uses a fascinating variety of unique characters and strange situations to illustrate how individual perspective and personal choices determine how happy (or miserable) we humans are in this life, as well as what we can expect in the next.
C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce is a classic Christian allegorical tale about a bus ride from hell to heaven. An extraordinary meditation upon good and evil, grace and judgment, Lewis’s revolutionary idea in the The Great Divorce is that the gates of Hell are locked from the inside. Using his extraordinary descriptive powers, Lewis’ The Great Divorce will change the way we think about good and evil.
I’m going to date myself horribly here, but…I’m an old-school fan of the guy in the grey hat. Think Kerr Avon ofBlake’s 7.The guy you could never quite predict. Or Han Solo until about halfway throughThe Empire Strikes Back. Are they going to do the right thing? Are they going to follow their heart? And it’s so satisfying when they do! Of course, it’s equally satisfying when they go right ahead and sucker punch the bad guy, ‘cuz hey—only the good guys give warnings, right?
Personally, I find perfect characters perfectly boring.
Give me a protagonist with a past, whose actions you can’t predict and I’m in heaven. Prosecution’s Protection features a rich cast of characters with dark secrets in their pasts which have marked them in different ways.
Desmond Graves and Remi Archer have both chosen to channel their past darkness into protecting others—they just go about it very differently.
Oh, yeah—and they can’t stand each other at first.
If you enjoy tales of badass heroines protecting their men, this is for you.
After prosecuting attorney Desmond Graves is targeted by an aggressive, violent stalker, Remi Archer is hired to keep him alive, whether he wants it or not. As tempers clash and danger escalates, Desmond and Remi start to grow closer-and so does the stalker. Falling in love among a backdrop of threats, courtroom theatrics and gunfights wasn't part of Remi's plan but Desmond is the exception to her ideas of love. Drawing each other out of their self-imposed isolation and into the eye of danger, they must work together to survive, even if it means putting the other at risk.
