A synthesis of what we know as true,
a book of art, philosophy and science
'This artwork is a playground for your genius - a gift for the gifted.'
The Last Testament
(The Game or The Overcomplicated Life of Dean)
Beginning as an epic novel of bikers, prophets, shootouts, and philosophical dialogue, this art book shifts effortlessly into theatre and poetry, each scene sharpened by intimate illustrations. What starts as a structure of logical assumptions expands toward critical mass — and ultimately detonates into an intellectual climax.
What you see in the world today is not a generalised depression, but a collapse of meaning.
This is the path to finding your own.
Or, if you choose, simply a game.
Either way, this is the book you need to read.
Synoptic Astrolabe
Optimism set in logic and asserted by science.
Beyond our epic story…
The Last Testament is a contemporary New Zealand reenactment of a gospel, lived through the eyes of an atheist — with outlaw bikers, prison scenes, philosophical dialogues, and a broken heart.
The Game is an intellectual provocation, a challenge to readers to take part in a paradigm-shifting experiment — one that remains a joyride even at its most serious.
The Overcomplicated Life of Dean is exactly that: the tangled story of a Māori urban warrior who, one day, recognises himself as a divine messenger.
How these three stories converge is left for you to discover — in a dance of ideas and adventures ranging from philosophical conversations to motorcycle rides and shootouts, from mundane shopping scenes to miracles. The pages pulse with outlaws and spiritual guides, with dialogues testing the boundaries of science and madness, with storytelling, humour, lyricism, philosophy, theatre, and poetry… and yes, intimate pencil illustrations revealing humanity in its lows and highs.
The poetry of science
Playing on the ultimate dialectical tension — between Ronin’s hard pragmatism as an impeccably informed atheist and Dean’s blazing idealism as a self-appointed Messiah — this novel moves between adventure and introspection, happiness and despair, love and violence, between me and the other me, who is you. This is the novel you are looking for.
Ronin, losing in rapid succession his job, his friends, his family life, and finally his freedom, finds himself fulfilling his deepest archetype. His evolution becomes the axis of a far more complex character, one whose journey sharpens some of our greatest philosophical questions.
The epic storyline culminates in a philosophical essay that tests the limits of human understanding, confronting the most persistent questions troubling the human mind: What is reality? Does God exist? Who are we? What is the meaning of our existence?
Even the most unbelievable adventures and dialogues are grounded in the cascade of events the author was fortunate enough to witness — or, at least, to hear first-hand. This is a fiction closer to reality than any written history.
The rest synthesises more than fifteen years of research. Enjoy.
TAKE ME HOME.
a Theory of Intelligence
Who are we, where are we coming from and why... find the answers and then go deeper.
About the Author
Who I am is of no importance, because all I have done was to weave a logical construct from what others, with great effort and passion, discovered.
I am nothing but a painter with other people's ideas.
My name is Mihai Balais, and I bid you hello from Auckland, New Zealand.
As a reading experience...
Far easier and more permeable to read than a regular philosophical piece, SAPIENCE is a lecture for the wise and aspiring. Do not treat it lightly, for this is a cultural statement that will keep your intellect engaged.
the Artwork
Away from the world of mainstream production series, of goods and products,
this labour of love and sacrifice is a cultural statement, using talent, language, and artistic grit to convey in a physical form the ideas brewing after a life of adventure, artistic creation and cultural expansion.
These are not solely books. These are pieces of my artwork.
the perfect gift.
A gift to your intelligence and for the people you love and appreciate.
FOR YOU TO READ
TAKE ME HOME
