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LiGa

Page 31

by Sanem Ozdural


  The fantastic nature of the game’s technology is made all the more credible by the familiarity of the contemporary setting, giving the story a definite slipstream feel. Sanem’s novel provides a fascinating insight into the motivation both of those characters who win and thus have the possibility of virtual immortality and of those who will effectively lose some of their life expectancy.

  Sanem Ozdural was born in Ankara, Turkey, educated in England, studied economics at Princeton University and graduated from Boston University School of Law. She lives in New York City where she practices law. Sanem was an avid bridge player until the tenth round of revisions to LiGa™, her debut novel. She is now thoroughly enjoying an indefinite bridge sabbatical, and imagining all sorts of stories that feature absolutely no bridge or chess.

  ISBN: 9781908168160 (epub, kindle)

  ISBN: 9781908168061 (400pp paperback) - December 2012

  For more information visit http://bit.ly/LiGaBook

  Visit the Elsewhen Press website at elsewhen.co.uk for the latest information on all of our titles, authors and events; to read our blog; to find out where to buy our books and ebooks; or to place an order.

  Elsewhen Press

  a small independent publisher specialising in Speculative Fiction

  The Lost Men

  an allegory

  David Colón

  In a world where the human population has been decimated, self-reliance is the order of the day. Of necessity, the few remaining people must adapt residual technology as far as possible, with knowledge gleaned from books that were rescued and have been treasured for generations. After a childhood of such training, each person is abandoned by their parents when they reach adulthood, to pursue an essentially solitary existence. For most, the only human contact is their counsel, a mentor who guides them to find ‘the one’, their life mate as decreed by Fate. Lack of society brings with it a lack of taboo, ensuring that the Fate envisioned by a counsel is enacted unquestioningly. The only threats to this stable, if sparse, existence are the ‘lost men’, mindless murderers who are also self-sufficient but with no regard for the well-being of others, living outside the confines of counsel and Fate.

  Is Fate a real force, or is it totally imagined, an arbitrary convention, a product of mankind’s self-destructive tendency? In this allegorical tale, David Colón uses an alternate near-future to explore the boundaries of the human condition and the extent to which we are prepared to surrender our capacity for decisions and self-determination in the face of a very personally directed and apparently benevolent, authoritarianism. Is it our responsibility to rebuke inherited ‘wisdom’ for the sake of envisioning and manifesting our own will?

  David Colón is an Assistant Professor of English at TCU in Fort Worth, Texas, USA. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, he received his Ph.D. in English from Stanford University and was a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow in English at the University of California, Berkeley. His writing has appeared in numerous journals, including Cultural Critique, Studies in American Culture, DIAGRAM, How2, and MELUS. The Lost Men is his first book.

  ISBN: 9781908168146 (epub, kindle)

  ISBN: 9781908168047 (192pp paperback)

  For more information visit lost-men.com

  Visit the Elsewhen Press website at elsewhen.co.uk for the latest information on all of our titles, authors and events; to read our blog; to find out where to buy our books and ebooks; or to place an order.

  Elsewhen Press

  a small independent publisher specialising in Speculative Fiction

  [Re]Awakenings

  an anthology of new Speculative Fiction

  • Alison Buck • Neil Faarid •

  • Gingerlily • Robin Moran •

  • PR Pope • Alexander Skye •

  • Peter Wolfe •

  compiled by PR Pope

  expect a life-changing experience

  [Re]Awakenings are the starting points for life-changing experiences; a new plane of existence, an alternate reality or cyber-reality. This genre-spanning anthology of new speculative fiction explores that theme with a spectrum of tales, from science fiction to fantasy to paranormal; in styles from clinically serious to joyfully silly. As you read through them all, and you must read all of them, you will discover along the way that stereo-typical distinctions between the genres within speculative fiction are often arbitrary and unhelpful. You will be taken on an emotional journey through a galaxy of sparkling fiction; you will laugh, you will cry; you will consider timeless truths and contemplate eternal questions.

  All of life is within these pages, from birth to death (and in some cases beyond). In all of these stories, most of them specifically written for this anthology, the short story format has been used to great effect. If you haven’t already heard of some of these authors, you soon will as they are undoubtedly destined to become future stars in the speculative fiction firmament.

  Remember, you read them here first!

  [Re]Awakenings is a collection of short stories from exciting new voices in UK speculative fiction, compiled by guest editor PR Pope. It contains the following stories: Alison Buck: Dreamers; Intervention; Mirror mirror; Podcast. Neil Faarid: The Adventures of Kit Brennan: Kidnapped! Gingerlily: The Dragon and the Rose. Robin Moran: The Merry Maiden Wails. PR Pope: Afterlife; Courtesy Bodies; On the Game. Alexander Skye: BlueWinter; Dreaming Mars; Exploring the Heavens; Worth it. Peter Wolfe: If you go into the woods today…

  ISBN: 9781908168108 (epub, kindle)

  ISBN: 9781908168009 (288pp paperback)

  For more information visit bit.ly/ReAwakenings

  Visit the Elsewhen Press website at elsewhen.co.uk for the latest information on all of our titles, authors and events; to read our blog; to find out where to buy our books and ebooks; or to place an order.

  Elsewhen Press

  a small independent publisher specialising in Speculative Fiction

  Queens of Antares

  Bloodline returned

  Volume 1 of the Bloodline Trilogy

  PR Pope

  What would you do if you found out your dotty old Gran wasn’t from Surrey after all, but from a planet six hundred light years away across the galaxy? Not only that, but she’s really an exiled Princess from a Royal family that has been virtually wiped out by a tyrannical usurper. Would you believe it?

  That’s the question being asked by Caroline, Alex and Emily Wright, after moving in with Gran when their Father loses his job.

  But you might find it easier to believe, if you were actually standing on that self-same planet looking into a sky with two suns.

  That’s the situation in which Caroline, Alex and Emily find themselves when they accidentally get transported across the galaxy.

  Would you join the fight for freedom against the tyrant, if that was the only way to get back home to Earth?

  You now understand the dilemma facing Caroline, Alex and Emily.

  What would you do?

  Queens of Antares: Bloodline is a new trilogy for readers of all ages from 10 to 100. Already compared to CS Lewis and CJ Cherryh, PR Pope weaves an enchanting tale around three young people who are accidentally transported from their mundane lives to a new world, where they must find the strength to lead a revolution in order to make their way home. On the way they discover who they really are, where they belong and the enduring power of a bloodline.

  ISBN: 9781908168115 (epub, kindle)

  ISBN: 9781908168016 (224pp paperback)

  For more information visit www.queensofantares.co.uk

  Visit the Elsewhen Press website at elsewhen.co.uk for the latest information on all of our titles, authors and events; to read our blog; to find out where to buy our books and ebooks; or to place an order.

  Elsewhen Press

  a small independent publisher specialising in Speculative Fiction

  Entanglement

  Douglas Thompson

  Best described as philosophical science fiction, Entanglement explores our assum
ptions about such constants as death, birth, sex and conflict, as the characters in the story explore distant worlds and the intelligent life that lives there.

  Entanglement starts in 2180 when travel to neighbouring star systems has been mastered by the use of quantum teleportation, ‘entanglement’ of sub-atomic matter. In the course of the novel, 24 worlds are explored; what humanity discovers is both surprising and disturbing, enlightening and shocking. Each alternative to mankind that they find, sheds light on human shortcomings and potential and offers fresh perspectives on life on Earth. Meanwhile personal human dramas play out at home for the astronauts and those in charge of the missions.

  Entanglement is simultaneously a novel and a series of short stories: 24 worlds, 24 chapters, 24 stories; each one another step on mankind’s journey outwards to the stars and inwards to man’s own psyche. Yet the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts; the synergy of the episodes results in an overarching story arc that tells us more about ourselves than about the rest of the universe.

  Douglas Thompson’s short stories have appeared in a wide range of magazines and anthologies, most recently Albedo One, Ambit, Postscripts, and New Writing Scotland. He won the Grolsch/Herald Question of Style Award in 1989 and second prize in the Neil Gunn Writing Competition in 2007. His first book, Ultrameta, was published in August 2009, nominated for the Edge Hill Prize, and shortlisted for the BFS Best Newcomer Award. His critically acclaimed second novel, Sylvow, was published in autumn 2010. A third novel Apoidea was released in early 2012 and his fourth Mechagnosis in June 2012.

  ISBN: 9781908168153 (epub, kindle) - August 2012

  ISBN: 9781908168054 (288pp paperback) - November 2012

  Visit the Elsewhen Press website at elsewhen.co.uk for the latest information on all of our titles, authors and events; to read our blog; to find out where to buy our books and ebooks; or to place an order.

  The author

  Sanem Ozdural was born in Ankara, Turkey in the 70s, and spent her childhood from age seven onwards in England. Happy days at a quintessentially British boarding school in Surrey helped forge her character and tastes, not to mention lasting friendships. Making her way to the U.S. she studied economics at Princeton University. After graduating from Boston University School of Law, she moved to New Orleans where she practiced as a prosecutor and civil litigator, and spent seven wonderful years living in the French Quarter.

  In 2004 she migrated from New Orleans via Washington, D.C., reaching New York City in 2006, where she still lives and practices law. Sanem was an avid bridge player until the tenth round of revisions to her debut novel. She is now thoroughly enjoying an indefinite bridge sabbatical, and imagining all sorts of stories that feature absolutely no bridge or chess.

 

 

 


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