Les futurs mystères de Paris [Future Mysteries of Paris]
Book 6: Tøøns

Les futurs mystères de Paris have been written in answer to "an irrepressible need for humour and optimism" and in homage to the great popular novelists Eugène Sue, Léo Malet and Frédéric Dard

With each new publication - Babaluma, Kali Yuga and Mine de rien - volumes previously published by Fleuve Noir have been re-edited with short stories included. The book covers have been created by Caza: an obvious choice for the most prize-winning French science fiction series: the 1998 Rosny-Aîné prize, the 1998 Ozone prize, the 1999 Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire award.

The idea:

Symbols of a society split up into sects and tribes following the original mysterious Great Terror, all the characters of these adventures are initially improbable but inevitably endearing - Eileen, indifferent enough to Tem's talent to fall in love with him; Gloria, the anarchistic artificial intelligence; Ramirez, Zamal-smoking collector of inaudible techno CDs; Ludwig, Tem's godfather, a notorious crook and a guru of a crazy sect researching into thinking in binary language, etc. Add to these a myriad of demons, gods and archetypal beings, such as the formidable Red Dragon, born from the collective unconsciousness and left behind by the Great Terror!

Tøøns

This time, Tem is not on the trail of a murderer, but on that of a science-fiction novel written by his grandfather, stolen from a foundation library. He soon discovers that all the copies seem to have disappeared, perhaps stolen by a creature uncomfortably resembling a cartoon character.

Together, Tøøns, and the novella La barbe du Prophète [The beard of the prophet] constitute the real kingpin of the Futurs Mystères de Paris . Many plots developed in the previous volumes now join up to form an insight into the global threat with which the human race is now confronted, giving the go-ahead for what is perhaps a remake of Armageddon with a multitude of characters: toons, Indian gods, archetypes, a mystic orang-utan... This novel received the 2001 Ozone Prize.

La barbe du prophète takes place at the same time as Tøøns.

Et personne n'est venu [And no-one came] throws light on the Turkistan war - the latest war - and why it fell flat. We also discover that Gloria is dead.

L'esprit de la Commune [The spirit of the Commune] is « Gloria's last joke » after her « death » at the end of Tøøns (she reappears in Mine de rien [You won't believe it but...])