A story of reincarnation, as a soul enters a battle of wits with Satan.
"I must admit, I enjoy living but if this is death, it's not so bad."
"No. This is not death," Satan told me. "You will remember that too, soon." I could see him more clearly now. He wore a long, red coat, made of a thick material, like crushed velvet. His hair, black as night, had been pulled back around his large skull, as if pulled back by a pony-tail. I didn't trust him and yet his words seemed to hold untold depths of truth.
"You must choose one of the tablets, if you want life," he told me.
"Will I know which tablet I have taken; the bad one or good one?"
"No. And I will not tell you. That's the deal."
If you like David Lynch's Lost Highway, Edgar Allan Poe or perhaps the Mahabharata, you will love this paranormal, mystery thriller which spans time from the future to the high Medieval.
"This may be [Ferran's] most enjoyable work to date that only blossoms further on the second and third read."
Categories: Fiction, Nobility, menage, psychic, amnesia, demon, werewolf, spirit, erotic, paranormal, occult, science fiction private investigator.
Industry Reviews
"Man's impotence against the grandmaster puppeteer is but the first layer of a story with ever-deepening multiple meanings. Many of the adversarial characters or events in the lives symbolize Satan himself. When the protagonist bests them, Satan repeats the torturous cycle as a petulant impulsive child would. Man is therefore stuck on an Escher-like staircase where he is revealed a possible infinite possibility of lives and revelations that would make Heisenberg go mad.
In his typical style, the author encourages the reader to step away from often linear and dogmatic beliefs and ideas. He challenges yet reverently touches on some of the cornerstone beliefs of Hindu, Christian, Jewish religions, as well as Scholarly Theology, Philosophy, Agnosticism and even Greek Mythology. The goal is to show their unified quest for the Ultimate Truth and a final blissful resting state. He even touches on pop culture with a mention of 'Rosebud' at a time of death. This is one of many examples of hidden deep interconnected metaphors in the story, as what may appear as a brief tongue-in-cheek reference is a possible intended meaning in the book that Man is in a perpetual wistful search for his lost innocence and seeks a re-birth for a second chance, or unbeknownst to him, a millionth one. Ironically, the hoped-for new start in life is all part of Lucifer's trickery which instead of joy brings loneliness and despair. Only if Man can maintain faith in God AND himself, is he able to outwit Lucifer and escape Life on Earth. Again, contradictory meanings abound in that the apparently positive idea of living on our blue marble might be the oft-spoken idea of actually existing in an allegory to Dante's Inferno where man is thrown into Hell or Purgatory as a trial to be endured and passed in order to reach Heaven.
On top of exploring life's biggest questions, as is also typical for Mr. Ferran, he treats us to two of the lives which are extensions of his Iron and Ordo Lupus series, reminding me of his ability to excel in completely different genres in literature.
This may be his most enjoyable work to date that only blossoms further on the second and third read." -- Pedro Diaz on Amazon
