By Ogan Gurel The story, a 21st century version of the Faust legend, recounts the adventures of Tomas, a doctor turned businessman. Having invented a new technology with both medical and military applications, Tomas turns to a college friend of his, Maximilian Iblis, a leading hedge fund manager, for help. Seeing this as his last and only chance, he demonstrates the device at Max's Monaco estate by using it to kill one of his bodyguards. With this, a deal is made, the relationship sealed. Adventures (and subplots) ensue that span the globe, including Munich, Paris, Bogotá, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Maui, Vienna and Camp David. Max turns out to be quite human – even humane – and the true Mephistopheles lies elsewhere. It is left to the reader to contemplate this. In one of the subplots, Tomas treats Max’s mother who suffers from severe Alzheimer’s disease. Her memory nearly completely failed, she is stuck back in the 1940s as a raving Nazi. How she changes, as she is cured, serves as a backdrop to the good and evil that lies in all. The story ends with a car chase in the Northern Alps and a limited nuclear strike. This epic novel encompasses three, interleaved books. The first is the Melody which unfolds in the future as a fast-paced techno thriller. Second is the Harmony, traveling backwards in time and exploring characters and their fateful decisions. The third is the Rhythm, fashioned as a scientific dialogue where the secret of the technology is revealed as the reader discovers that all this may not necessarily be fantasy. The novel evokes Mikhail Bulgakov's Master & Margarita, Goethe's Faust, Milan Kundera's Unbearable Lightness of Being, Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage and Galileo's Starry Messenger. (less)