Ochlazení - Špionážní thriller z blízké budoucnosti – Žantovský Michael (2016)

The title Cooling, a sci-fi thriller set in the near future, is not meant only in a metaphorical sense – in this case, the relationships between Russia, the European Union, and NATO are cooling – but also literally. Russia is stopping its oil and gas supplies to Europe. The story of the narrator K., who begins his journey in Belarus in a chapter introduced by the word Transformation, continues in a loop through the Czech Republic (Castle), America, and Israel (America), and ends in Russia (Process). The reference to Franz Kafka's work is justified. The world of Kafka's heroes is not entirely different: uncertainty is part of not only their surroundings but also their internal structure. In the environment of contemporary intelligence agents, former operatives of the Ministry of the Interior, and collaborators of the KGB from the normalization period or even KGB agents themselves, the narrator cannot be sure of anything; he is constantly in danger of his life. He must act decisively, accurately assess the situation, and carefully consider each subsequent step. At the same time, he lives in a ghostly world of mirrors, where no one trusts anyone, not even themselves, as the principle of intelligence work dictates. At the beginning of the novel, Russian tanks suppress democracy in Belarus, fighting for both human rights and 'counter-revolution.' This event, which has many…