Reading 'Gnomon' is like assembling a jigsaw puzzle where the pieces keep changing shape. Set in a dystopian UK where citizens are constantly monitored, it follows Inspector Mielikki Neith as she probes the death of Diana Hunter, a dissident whose consciousness contains fragmented narratives. One moment you’re in ancient Carthage, the next inside a rogue AI’s manifesto. The book interrogates (pun intended) how stories define us—whether they’re personal memories or state-sanctioned propaganda. Harkaway’s wit shines through, especially in dialogues that crackle with sarcasm and existential dread. I adored how the novel refuses easy answers, leaving you to gnaw on its ambiguities like a bone.
Imagine peeling an onion, but each layer is a different universe. That’s 'Gnomon.' The plot orbits around Neith, an investigator in a world where privacy is extinct. When Diana Hunter dies during a routine mind scan, Neith finds herself sifting through the woman’s implanted narratives—each a vivid, self-contained tale that might hold clues or red herrings. There’s a surrealist painter, a shark-obsessed gambler, even a hive-mind banker. The brilliance lies in how these threads tangle into a meditation on free will versus control. Harkaway’s prose is dense but rewarding; I dog-eared so many pages for their sheer cleverness. By the finale, you’re not sure who’s narrating your own life.
'Gnomon' feels like diving into a kaleidoscope—each twist reveals a new pattern. At its core, it’s about Diana Hunter, a woman who dies under mysterious circumstances during a government interrogation. Her mind becomes a maze of stories: there’s Kyriakos, an artist in ancient Rome; Regno Lönnrot, a genius chasing immortality through math; and Neith, the detective unraveling it all. The Surveillance State is practically a character itself, omnipresent and chilling. Harkaway doesn’t just tell a story; he dissects the act of storytelling. The way he juggles genres—historical fiction, thriller, speculative tech—left me equal parts dazzled and disoriented. It’s the kind of book that lingers, making you side-eye your own reality.
If Borges wrote a cyberpunk thriller, it might resemble 'Gnomon.' The plot kicks off with a bureaucratic nightmare: a woman dies during a mandatory mental audit, and her brain reveals nested realities. Neith, the investigator, navigates these stories—a Greek forger, a fugitive mathematician—while wrestling with her own role in the system. The book’s genius is its refusal to settle; even the 'real' world feels suspect. Harkaway’s descriptions of the surveillance apparatus are eerily plausible, down to the casual dehumanization of 'transparent citizens.' I devoured it in three days, then immediately reread sections to catch what I’d missed. It’s that kind of book.
Nick Harkaway's 'Gnomon' is a labyrinthine masterpiece that blends sci-fi, noir, and philosophical musings into one wild ride. The story unfolds in a near-future Britain under total surveillance, where every thought can be monitored. A detective investigates the death of a woman during an interrogation, only to uncover layers of reality—each nested like a Russian doll. The victim’s mind holds multiple identities: a Byzantine scholar, a financial alchemist, even a shark-hunter. The deeper the detective digs, the more the boundaries between observer and observed blur. It’s a cerebral puzzle that questions memory, identity, and the nature of truth itself.
What hooked me was how Harkaway plays with narrative structure. Just when you think you’ve grasped a thread, it morphs into something else—like trying to catch smoke. The book’s title refers to the part of a sundial that casts shadows, which feels apt; this story is all about the interplay of light and darkness, perception and reality. I finished it with my brain buzzing, half-convinced my own memories might be constructs.
2025-12-14 21:32:23
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Demon's Evolution
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A new world with nearly unlimited possibilities. A system, classes, magic, skills and monsters. Sounds exciting? But for Jin it didn't go quite as he expected nor was there a princess or a Goddess to welcome him to this new world, his only hope was the system he received.
Left alone in the darkness, How will he survive when he wasn't human in the first place?
Family is everything. Blood is everything. You only live, die and kill for your family."
Born and raised in secret, like a ghost who never existed, Lilliana Moretti was brought up to be used as a secret weapon against one of the most ruthless crime families-the Romanos.
And when she walked into the devil's lair willingly-pretending to be in love with the second-in-command of the Romano Empire, Dominic Romano-too many buried secrets were unearthed, leaving her shattered.
An uphill battle between two crime families unleashed chaos like never before.
While two people were out for each other's blood with bleeding hearts, little did they realize their love was more lethal than their hatred for each other.
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E X C E R P T -
My fingers tangled in her hair as I forced her downward.
“I’m not going to kneel before you like you’re some kind of god,” she snarled.
The corner of my mouth curved into a slow, dark smile.
“No,” I agreed, voice low and steady. “You’re not going to kneel for me.”
I leaned in closer, eyes locked on hers.
“You’re going to spread your legs for me, Lilliana—because I’m the monster, baby. The real one.”
Being the only child to the Queen of Castle Grey, lost within the confines of mount Trenon, Kilvic is made to learn a number of things best suited to the heir to the Elzcrid bloodline at the hands of tutors handpicked by his mother. However, his fifteenth birthday sends him beyond the reaches of his mother’s domain.
She has tasked him with the duty of learning more. Understanding greater things than she can teach him, greater things with which to cope with the curse upon his bloodline as she had been taught by her father and mother.
Finding himself in a new kingdom, in an academy designed for only the most elite of mages, Kilvic is tasked to survive the new things he will come to learn, while struggling with the chaos of human association, as he comes to understand that while he may know a great deal about the world from the castle archives, it is a different thing to experience them. The association between people isn’t as easily deciphered as the books made them seem.
As he struggles with the task of becoming a mage and a student along with surviving new friendships, failure threatens him at every turn and people prove pettier than the books would have him believe. Yet, despite all these, somewhere hidden in the shadows of the kingdom, a creature stirs, taking from the academy the one thing it values most.
Kilvic must survive the trials of the academy, keep his friends, best his first enemy, and ensure that what stirs must not cause more damage than the kingdom can bear, lest the supremacy of Castle Grey be called into question in realms beyond that which most know. And all in time to attend the Winter Hall Fest.
No one has seen him,
No one can tell what he looks like,
No one can tell if he's human, wolf, dragon, elf or vampire.
We've only heard his very deep, hoarse voice that doesn't sound so humanly.
We only know he's a ruthless beast,
And that beast is the king of all supernatural creatures -he is King Wymond.
He is an abomination -a mistake made by the moon goddess.
There are rumors that he is immortal -are there still any immortals in this age?
He walks the lands every night and kills any soul that crosses path with him or it,
He never lets anyone see him and doesn't attend public meetings.
He's always inside his palace, with those two big gates locking him away and isolating him from the world.
Weird!
How did he ended up becoming the king then?
Every five years, girls who have come of age (18years to 25years), from different species (werewolves, vampires, witches, elves and dragons) are taken to his palace.
We don't know why they are taken there,
And we dare not ask why, because asking why is death penalty.
And strangely, all the girls taken to the palace always come back alive, but they end up losing their memories of what had happened in there.
No one has enough courage to investigate and find out what's going on -investigating is like walking into the valley of death.
These are stories my grandma always told me when I was a kid, I don't know if they are real or if she was saying those things just to scare me.
But I still couldn't help but wonder if it's true,
Why does those girls end up losing their memories?
Could there be a deep secret behind those closed, big gates?
A Supreme Lord with a dangerous thirst for power...
A woman with no success in love...
A man who is more than he seems...
Gwendolyn lived a very simple life. As a songwriter, she was comfortable in her monotonous and somewhat sad existence. But that took a huge turn when she encountered Tyron...
Tyron, the outcast prince of his realm, has been sent on a journey to find THE ABOMINATION; the one prophesied to cause the downfall of his supreme Lord. It was a task that might either get him his father's throne, or cause him to lose his head. But his encounter with the sad song writer pushes him to take steps he never thought of taking...
In order to protect the four realms from the greedy eyes of Tyron's father, these two have to go on a journey that will test their trust and budding love...
But what if things don't go as planned?