Recommendations based on "Doctor Mirabilis"

Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller from the author of The Poppy War“Absolutely phenomenal. One of the most brilliant, razor-sharp books I've had the pleasure of reading that isn't just an alternative fantastical history, but an interrogative one; one that grabs colonial history and the Industrial Revolution, turns it over, and shakes it out.” -- Shannon Chakraborty, bestselling author of The City of BrassFrom award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a thematic response to The Secret History and a tonal retort to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British empire.Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel.Babel is the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire’s quest for colonization.For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide…Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?

In Children of God, Mary Doria Russell further establishes herself as one of the most innovative, entertaining and philosophically provocative novelists writing today.The only member of the original mission to the planet Rakhat to return to Earth, Father Emilio Sandoz has barely begun to recover from his ordeal when the So-ciety of Jesus calls upon him for help in preparing for another mission to Alpha Centauri. Despite his objections and fear, he cannot escape his past or the future.Old friends, new discoveries and difficult questions await Emilio as he struggles for inner peace and understanding in a moral universe whose boundaries now extend beyond the solar system and whose future lies with children born in a faraway place.Strikingly original, richly plotted, replete with memorable characters and filled with humanity and humor, Children of God is an unforgettable and uplifting novel that is a potent successor to The Sparrow and a startlingly imaginative adventure for newcomers to Mary Doria Russell’s special literary magic.

In The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage Sydney Padua transforms one of the most compelling scientific collaborations into a hilarious set of adventuresMeet two of Victorian London's greatest geniuses... Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron: mathematician, gambler, and proto-programmer, whose writings contained the first ever appearance of general computing theory, a hundred years before an actual computer was built. And Charles Babbage, eccentric inventor of the Difference Engine, an enormous clockwork calculating machine that would have been the first computer, if he had ever finished it.But what if things had been different? The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage presents a delightful alternate reality in which Lovelace and Babbage do build the Difference Engine and use it to create runaway economic models, battle the scourge of spelling errors, explore the wider realms of mathematics and, of course, fight crime - for the sake of both London and science. Extremely funny and utterly unusual, The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage comes complete with historical curiosities, extensive footnotes and never-before-seen diagrams of Babbage's mechanical, steam-powered computer. And ray guns.

Charles Mason (1728-1786) and Jeremiah Dixon (1733-1779) were the British surveyors best remembered for running the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland that we know today as the Mason-Dixon Line. Here is their story as re-imagined by Thomas Pynchon, featuring Native Americans and frontier folk, ripped bodices, naval warfare, conspiracies erotic and political, and major caffeine abuse. We follow the mismatched pair--one rollicking, the other depressive; one Gothic, the other pre-Romantic--from their first journey together to the Cape of Good Hope, to pre-Revolutionary America and back, through the strange yet redemptive turns of fortune in their later lives, on a grand tour of the Enlightenment's dark hemisphere, as they observe and participate in the many opportunities for insanity presented them by the Age of Reason.

The seemingly endless war was at last coming to a conclusion. But for the country and for the Adams family, there were still many tribulations to be overcome. Flying bombs - the deadly V1 buzzbombs - appeared over London, causing dreadful destruction, and the struggle continued to overcome the most powerful war machine the world had ever known.But amongst the Cockney community there were lighter moments, too. For Felicity, Eloise and Lizzy Somers there was the happiness of knowing that their menfolk were safe and well. Daniel Adams and his American girlfriend even had a brief meeting with Winston Churchill himself. And as the Third Reich began to show signs of collapse, the scent of victory was in the air.

In his extraordinary new novel, master storyteller Ken Follett weaves a breath-taking tale set amid the wealth and decadence of Victorian England. In 1866, tragedy strikes at the exclusive Windfield School. A young student drowns in a mysterious accident involving a small circle of boys. Among them are scrappy Hugh Pilaster; his older cousin Edward, the weak, dissolute heir to the Pilaster banking fortune; and Micky Miranda, the darkly handsome son of a brutal South American landowner. The drowning and its aftermath initiate a spiraling circle of treachery that will span three decades and entwine many lives... Caught in the maelstrom are Augusta Pilaster, the raven-haired matriarch, strong-willed and sly, ever plotting to advance herself or her spoiled son, Edward, and gain control of Pilasters, the mighty bank that bears their name...Solly Greenbourne, the rich Jewish heir to Greenbournes - the only bank to rival Pilasters in power and prestige - who must battle the dirty stain of anti-Semitism in a still-intolerant nation...Maise Robinson, the beautiful and daring slum girl determined to be rich...Micky Miranda, the sinister hanger-on orchestrating an alliance of blackmail and murder to finance his family's takeover of a nation's government - a move that could rock the very foundation of Britain's economy. Over them all hands the shadow of the old tragedy, which threatens to shatter lives with the disclosure of a long-buried secret. From the exclusive men's clubs and brothels that cater to every dark desire of London's upper classes to the dazzling ballrooms and mahogany-paneled suites of the manipulators of the world's wealth, Ken Follett conjures up a stunning array of contrasts.Spanning the years when the British Empire tightened its grip on faraway worlds and revolution begot a tide of violent change, A Dangerous Fortune portrays a family splintered by lust yet bound inexorably by a shared legacy; and brings us men and women swept toward a perilous climax where greed, fed by the shocking truth of a boy's death, must be stopped - or not just one man's dreams, but those of a nation, will die.

An action-packed historical adventure from Bernard Cornwell’s enthralling series on the Napoleonic Wars.A daring, impossible mission might just be their last hope.A year after the victory at Talavera, things are looking bleak. With Wellington outnumbered, the bankrupt army’s only hope of avoiding collapse is a hidden cache of Portuguese gold. Only Captain Richard Sharpe is capable of stealing it—and it means turning against his own men.

Detective-Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte, travels to the remote Australian town of Chifley, to search for a woman who mysteriously disappeared from a passenger train crossing the Nullarbor Plain, a desolate desert

The new historical crime thriller, a Sunday Times bestseller, perfect for fans of C. J. Sansom and Hilary Mantel Prague, 1588. A COURT IN TURMOIL The court of the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II, is a haven for scientists, astrologers and alchemists. The dream – to discover the philosopher’s stone and attain immortality. But now there are rumours of heresy. A MURDERED ALCHEMIST Giordano Bruno is sent to Prague as a spy for Elizabeth I. He arrives to find the palace in uproar – an alchemist has been murdered. AN UNFORGIVING ENEMY Ordered by the emperor to uncover the killer, Bruno must negotiate the jostling factions at court, as well as the religious tensions brewing in the city. And his hunt to track down a murderer soon proves as elusive as the elixir of life itself... Praise for Alchemy ‘The clever twists and turns of Alchemy are assuredly plotted and Prague, a city in religious and political turmoil, makes for a powerful setting’ The Times ‘Over the past dozen years, S. J. Parris’s novels... have been among the most enjoyable of all historical thrillers’ Sunday Times ‘Breathless pace and acutely observed detail make for a story that confounds and surprises’ Observer S. J. Parris's book Alchemy was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 03-07-2023