The year 1829. Nikolay Gogol, a young Third Section clerk, is desperate: his own books seem shallow and mediocre, so he keeps buying entire print runs just to burn them all. He is suffering from violent epileptic seizures and struggles to keep on working. Investigator Yakov Guro accidentally witnesses one such fit and realizes that Gogol's visions contain clues that could help solve actual crimes. Together, Gogol and Guro take on a particularly weird and baffling case that brings them to a small village of Dikanka, where everyone has a huge secret to hide.
Chinese archeology professor Jack teams up with beautiful Indian professor Ashmita and assistant Kyra to locate lost Magadha treasure. In a Tibetan ice cave, they find the remains of the royal army that had vanished together with the treasure, only to be ambushed by Randall, the descendent of a rebel army leader. When they free themselves, their next stop is Dubai where a diamond from the ice cave is to be auctioned. After a series of double-crosses and revelations about their past, Jack and his team travel to a mountain temple in India, using the diamond as a key to unlock the real treasure.
In 1941, the world is radically different from the one we know from history books. Geopolitics has developed strangely: Napoleon V rules France and, for the last 70 years, scholars have been mysteriously disappearing, depriving mankind of their inventions. Without radio, television, electricity, aviation, and the combustion engine, the world is mired in outdated technology, dozing in the previous century's knowhow dominated by coal and steam. In this bizarre universe, Avril, a teenage girl, Darwin, her talking cat, Pops, her grandfather, and Julius, a young scoundrel and police informer, go off in search of Avril's parents, two of the missing scientists. The quartet will face many dangers and mysteries in this strange new Rigged World.
Once upon a time, there was God. And that's the end of the story. Goodbye, Our Father. Farewell forever, heavenly beings. If we don't see you, we don't believe in you. We've chosen to live as if you didn't exist. However... millions of people keep speaking with Jesus Christ, whom they call "Brother." And with the Virgin Mary, whom they call "Mother." They believe we are all God's children and thus call him "Father." The Devil's Advocate receives a new mission: to fearlessly investigate those who still trust Heaven's formulas. Are they swindlers? Swindled? If he discovers that their beliefs are bogus, our lives will remain the same. But... what if they're not a fairy tale.