In a Suspect Universe - Softcover

Wendland, Albert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1947879057 ISBN 13: 9781947879058

Publisher: Dog Star Books, 2018

Synopsis

In this prequel to The Man Who Loved Alien Landscapes we learn the story that Mykol Ranglen has kept buried in his past--a mystery of ancient galactic secrets, an adventure on colonized alien worlds, a romance in distant star systems, and a dark and sinister planetary noir that disturbs all he's known about his universe. He must decide just how far he'll go to keep the planet of his dreams and the future he desires, but what he learns about his world, and what he has to do to save it--and to save himself--will haunt him forever.

About this title

About the Author

Albert Wendland has made a career out of his life-long interests in science fiction--and photography, art, film, and travel.  He teaches popular fiction, literature, and writing at Seton Hill University, where he has been director of its MFA in Writing Popular Fiction (the program famous for its exclusive attention to genre writing). His SF novel, The Man Who Loved Alien Landscapes, was a starred pick-of-the-week by Publisher's Weekly, and the prequel, In a Suspect Universe, was published in 2018, describing a story from the protagonist's past.  He's now writing a book of poetry supposedly written by the protagonist of both works.  He's also written and published a book-length study of science fiction, a chapter in Many Genres, One Craft, a poem in Drawn to Marvel: Poems from the Comic Books, and several articles on SF and writing. He enjoys landscape photography, astronomy, graphic novels, and the"sublime."

Review

Wendland's follow-up to The Man Who Loved Alien Landscapes (2014) fills in some of the backstory of lonely explorer, scholar, and poet Mykol Ranglen, famous for his discovery of one of the mysterious Clips, alien artifacts left behind by the now-vanished Airafane that provide precious technological information. His story begins as he unceremoniously plummets onto the hood of a desert vehicle owned by Riley, an amateur Airafanologist. As Ranglen's story is revealed to both Riley and the reader, the narrative plunges into an exploration not only of more mysterious potential powers of the Clips but also into a world haunted by a seemingly endless cycle of creation and rebirth. Wendland channels some of his admitted influences such as Andre Norton, Adam Strange comics, and various other kinds of scientific romance-style sf into an engrossing and ever-expanding world full of both breathtaking beauty and cosmic horror. In A Suspect Universe is sure to please not only fans of his earlier work but any general sf reader looking to indulge in their sense of wonder.  --Booklist.

Inner and outer space collide in this emotionally driven prequel to 2014's The Man Who Loved Alien Landscapes. Mykol Ranglen, unhappy with the artificial world Annulus, built with alien knowledge that he uncovered, runs away right into another discovery of the alien Airafane: a teleportation network between the stars. Falling onto a hidden human colony, Alchera, he is startled to find that its landscape, a crater called the Blight, reacts to his imagination . . . Working with the psychological implications of identity, transformation, and perception, Wendland tangles up the characters and worlds in loops of time and space that make it unclear whether Mykol is a hero sacrificing himself or a villain out to destroy what he cannot control. The resolution of his emotional and intellectual dilemmas of dealing with Alchera and the Airafane gives a solid sense of closure that new and returning readers appreciate.  --Publisher's Weekly (Aug.)

About this edition

• Publisher: Dog Star Books
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1947879057
• ISBN 13: 9781947879058
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 222