Kirjahaku

Eight interconnected stories about the future of consciousness, from its use in machines to the quest to understand its role in the universe. Humanity tackles one singularity only to discover that there are still many challenges to address. Conscious machines are only the beginning.

Into every family a little insanity must fall, or so it would seem for the members of the Friend family; though it's the fear of insanity that divides them and only the most deadly of confrontations that might bring them together again. UMBRA details the strained relationship between two brothers, Sam and Jacob Friend, and the havoc which ensues from their failure to come to terms. Told from the standpoint of five characters, UMBRA, examines not only failed family relationships but the nature of sanity itself. And just as unresolved feelings spill over from one generation to the next, perhaps insanity becomes the unwelcome and unavoidable inheritance of the past. With the second generation of the Friend family poised to repeat the same tragedies of the former generation, is there any hope that the future will one day free itself from the past?

When an enigmatic stranger asks private investigator and self-proclaimed realist Birk Dillinger for help protecting a woman's life, the woman's disappearance impels Dillinger on what at first seems like a straight-forward murder case of a prostitute called Maria but devolves into a search for a woman who might not have been a prostitute at all. Facts are scant and not only does the identity of the victim remain a mystery, so does what happened to her since there is neither a corpse nor anyone willing to confirm the victim's whereabouts. Despite Birk's efforts, a man who calls himself D faults Birk for doing nothing to save Maria, while also leaving him packages containing body parts. Suspecting that the man who hired him was also the murderer, Birk struggles in vain to prove it, but facts are fleeting; and the more Birk involves himself in the case the more the answers elude him. Confusion snowballs until it feels like no one is what they claim to be and everyone is lying.

In a twist on the Faust legend, an embittered creative writing teacher by the name of Olwen Sheridan meets a charismatic young student who appears to have everything: looks, money and the confidence that comes with having both. His own life series of disappointments, Olwen believes himself accursed; but the young man, who calls himself Silvanus, assures him he isn't, intimating that Olwen could have anything he wanted if he so chose, including a dazzling writing career. Palpable Obscure is a tour of a man's life, in all its passion and shame, and a story of how meaning seems to elude us the more we come to expect it. But if, as Olwen discovers, perspective is everything, is there much point in looking for truth?

In the Skid Row area of downtown Los Angeles, Malachi has become the stuff of legend, his influence, for good or ill, felt by not only the men and women who sleep on the streets but by the lawyers, police officers and shopkeepers who spend their days there. No one knows who Malachi is, though some people think he may be responsible for the murder of an unidentified man. But who is Malachi and what is it about him that could have left such an indelible impression on eight people who attempt to answer these questions; and, in so doing, tell the story of a city, a city imploding under the weight of its neuroses, the neuroses of people with too many questions and not enough answers. It's a nightmare world where all enemies are invisible and all friends suspect; a world where death lurks around the corner and comes only when it's least expected. But is it death that Malachi has in store for these people? Or do their fates depend on each other?

In a twist on the Faust legend, an embittered creative writing teacher by the name of Olwen Sheridan meets a charismatic young student who appears to have everything: looks, money and the confidence that comes with having both. His own life series of disappointments, Olwen believes himself accursed; but the young man, who calls himself Silvanus, assures him he isn't, intimating that Olwen could have anything he wanted if he so chose, including a dazzling writing career. Palpable Obscure is a tour of a man's life, in all its passion and shame, and a story of how meaning seems to elude us the more we come to expect it. But if, as Olwen discovers, perspective is everything, is there much point in looking for truth?

In the Skid Row area of downtown Los Angeles, Malachi has become the stuff of legend, his influence, for good or ill, felt by not only the men and women who sleep on the streets but by the lawyers, police officers and shopkeepers who spend their days there. No one knows who Malachi is, though some people think he may be responsible for the murder of an unidentified man. But who is Malachi and what is it about him that could have left such an indelible impression on eight people who attempt to answer these questions; and, in so doing, tell the story of a city, a city imploding under the weight of its neuroses, the neuroses of people with too many questions and not enough answers. It's a nightmare world where all enemies are invisible and all friends suspect; a world where death lurks around the corner and comes only when it's least expected. But is it death that Malachi has in store for these people? Or do their fates depend on each other?