JUNE, 1966. OXFORD, ENGLAND: Robert Fitch and Toby Chalmers are two obscure professors defending an unorthodox theory...Both men believe that, thousands of years before what we have been told was the start of human history, there were other cultures - powerful, strange cultures -- that traded and communicated around the globe. When peers bother to acknowledge the two men, their views are met with scorn and derision, their names mentioned to the accompaniment of chuckles and jabs... But that is about to change. The academics have come into possession of a relic that predates Dynastic China by thousands of years. This ancient, strangely marked brick could be the only surviving piece of a giant barrier dubbed "The Wall Before the Wall", and it very well could vindicate them both... But as they try to cross the border into the totalitarian nation to prove their theory, Fitch and Chalmers might wish they had stayed in Oxford... Because it's possible the Wall was built to keep out something very, very malevolent... Something that has been waiting... for them. "Wall" is a supernatural adventure story based on some of the most controversial, cutting-edge archaeological ideas of our time. In it, Gardner Goldsmith takes us to an era when customs and idioms of the British Empire were still extant, when crossing from West to East could mean your life, and when the appearance of a new archaeological discovery could upend the academic world. Accompanied by "Assassin", the prequel short story about that ancient structure, the pair of tales represent a significant link to the larger schema of Goldsmith's cosmic psychological fiction. Critical praise from the world of literature... "Gard Goldsmith's prose is like the edge of a knife Definitely a writer to watch." - Stoker Award Winner Brian Keene, Author of "The Rising". "Gardner Goldsmith is a force of nature, no less so his writing." - British Fantasy Award Winner Guy Adams, Author of "The World House". See why Goldsmith's writing was selected by Ginger Nuts of Horror to be placed in their category of "Best Novellas for 2013"... "WALL" is the second piece of his grand Brotherhood of Other Cycle.
