Print Length: 338 pages
Publisher: Mirror World Publishing; 1 edition (http://www.mirrorworldpublishing.com)
Publication Date: July 17, 2019
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B07SNGW2Z7
Genre(s): Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Literary Mashup, Parallel Worlds, Comedy
About the Book:
Young bookseller Cathy Finn is having a bad day. First, there's the assassin's bullet. Then comes the realisation that she's been living in a work of fiction. Worse, she wasn't even the main character.
Cathy's quiet, bit-part life may be over, but her troubles are only beginning. Her last day on Earth is also her first as a citizen of New Tybet. For over four hundred years, its people have been rescuing those destined to die in other narratives, but now the system is faltering. A saboteur is at work and Cathy will have to stop him if she’s ever going to find a way home. Failure could maroon her forever and spark a revolution that sets all the worlds of literature ablaze.
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Excerpt:
Knock, knock.
A gloved knuckle struck the café window. It was the merest
tap, but coming so unexpectedly and so close to her ear, it might as well have
been an air horn. Finn's wrist responded with a jolt that sent a hot slop of
cappuccino leaping for the sanctuary of her lap.
"Dah!" Snatching up a napkin, she pressed it to
her jeans, glancing aside as it began its transformation from a pristine white
to a sad and soggy beige.
Outside, a tall figure in a smart winter coat waved a
greeting. It was directed at Chrissie, her sister. The attentions of sane,
attractive, eligible men always were.
"Is that Tony?" Across the table, her mum gave
Chrissie a nudge.
"Yup. That's him." A grin lit her face, though
whether it was prompted by the new arrival or the spectacle of Finn's quietly
steaming trousers, it was impossible to say. Perhaps a little of both. She
turned her smile upon her friend. "You coming in?" Her question was
partly spoken, partly mimed; her lips made comically exaggerated movements.
Tony shook his head, pointed along the street, and mouthed
something that was lost to the noise of the café. The place wasn't busy, but
the baristas were showing off their determinedly buoyant personalities to two
punters at the till. By way of accompaniment, a Miles Davis album contended
with the mechanical snarl of an ice blender.
"He's nice, Tony, don't you think?" Her mum
watched the young man leave, seeing him off with a coquettish wave of her own.
Chrissie shrugged. "He's alright." She'd always
had her pick of admirers. That they went out of their way to grin at her
through coffee shop windows was something she took entirely for granted - like
oxygen or perfect cheekbones.
Her mum adopted an expression of casual innocence.
"He's from your office, isn't he?" She took a keen and constant
interest in their respective romances, despite Finn's continuing failure to
deliver anything worthy of discussion. Keeping her bookshop afloat was
demanding all her focus right now and it left scant time for men. A brief
smooch at a midsummer barbecue was about the sum of her contributions to that
particular topic, and now it was approaching Christmas.
"He worked at the last place." Chrissie took a sip
of her coolly unspilled espresso.
"Oh, I see." Her mum gave a rueful nod.
"Mm. He got a bit funny after I got the
promotion."
Finn leaned back and dabbed at the damp, chocolate-stained
patch on her leg. Here sat her two dearest people in the world, but the
discussion was taking a predictable turn. They'd do their best to include her,
but this was very much Chrissie's story.
Since leaving university, Finn had grown used to performing
this minor supporting role. Her sister was only a year older, but she led by
far the more interesting life - all centred on a bright and
breathless fast-track career in financial journalism. While Finn could only
regale her family with tales of imaginative window displays and the rising damp
along the back wall, Chrissie's anecdotes were of foreign capitals, famous
moguls, and hastily-arranged interviews in airport departure lounges. Different
lives for different temperaments.
Once, long enough ago for its title to have faded from
memory, Finn had read a book about a man who seemed forever fated to live an
unremarkable life. Some unspecified, epoch-making change was evidently unfolding
right across his city but, at every turn, the most trivial events would always
conspire to lead him the other way. She saw a lot of herself in that: an
ill-fitting extra; a bit-part player in someone else's tale.
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Meet the Author:Rob Gregson spent much of his youth reading fantasy novels, immersing himself in role playing games and generally doing everything possible to avoid the real world. In his defence, we're talking about the late 1980s - a time when ridiculous hair, hateful pop music and soaring unemployment were all very popular - so it wasn't altogether a bad decision. However, had he abandoned the realms of wizardry at an earlier age, he might have developed one or two useful life skills and he would almost certainly have found it easier to get a girlfriend. Rob lives in Lancashire and has two children, although he has absolutely no idea why anyone should find that interesting.
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