Bodensee

ISBN: 1475271271

Author: Weber, Marten

Condition: New

Product Description In a street in Zurich, a man stands confused and bewildered. Theres the bank he needs to go to, and in the hotel, a man who claims to be his husband and a young boy are waiting. They travel together across the snow-capped mountains in a train which seems doomed to derail. He has no memory of his earlier life. Nightmares of monsters and crawling insects rob him of his sanity. Again and again, he doubts his senses. Repeatedly, the image of a red-haired woman enters his mind: he wants to meet her; he knows she holds the key to this mystery. Then she is there, in the flesh: beautiful, seductive and irresistible. And his troubles have only started. Literally bursting with creativity, Marten Weber takes us on a thrilling ride with this foray into the sci-fi genre. Bodensee chronicles the confounding journey of three men as they navigate one terrifying obstacle after another, trapped in a provocative dream that seems all but inescapable. Full of surprises, twists and an array of dashing young men who battle it out-a battle of minds and perceptions-is this a vision of our future? Then she is there, in Milan, beautiful, seductive and irresistible. And his troubles have only just started. Review Marten Weber has delivered a literary roller-coaster of Jamesian proportions. --ZeitgeistHenry James meets the Matrix. Simply brilliant. --LambdaReview From the Author From a magazine interview with Marten Weber during the launch of "Bodensee"What is "Bodensee" about--and why the name of lake?The lake features as a symbol, a metaphor if you want, in the book. Lakes are supposed to make you tranquil and at peace. Your mind it easier influenced--or manipulated--if you are in a tranquil state. Mind manipulation is one key element of the Bodensee story. Can you sum up the story of "Bodensee" for our readers? It's hard to give you a summary of the book because any such attempt will give away the key to this strange world. I can tell you this: The story follows one man as he grapples with apparent memory loss in a strange world, where some things are perfectly familiar, others remind him of books he's read, and some elements are perfectly frightening. It's an alien world that is also a part of him... but inhabited by creatures and people he is at once familiar with, and terribly afraid of. Even his own lover, or husband, seems unnaturally friendly, especially because our protagonist simply can't remember falling in love with him in the first place. There is an element of fear in even the most everyday things he does. In this world, mundane questions of love and attraction play out in a mixture of futuristic techno-adventure and 19th century society novel. Our hero, although ostensibly gay, is hopelessly attracted to a seductive woman who exhibits strange quirks--she talks funny, says things which sound all too familiar, I hope even to modern readers, but certainly anyone familiar with Henry James or Jane Austen, and she seduces him, all the way. But their attempts at intimacy always end in disaster... and that's where the key to the novel lies. You mentioned Henry James, Jane Austen... is this a mashup novel? Any zombies? No, not at all. No zombies? It quotes extensively from D.H. Lawrence and Henry James, but not to copy or ridicule classical English literature, but for a very specific purpose. The quotations are an integral part of this alien world, and at the heart of the novel's conception of sci-fi. Why this book now? You've never done sci-fi before. The American election! My book, although it starts rather cheery, is a bleak vision of the future. It depicts what I think will happen if America goes down one of the paths open to it. The polarization of American politics has me deeply worried. If the right-wing voices in the Republican party win, and this party grabs the next election, I fear that my novel will be more science and less fiction. The science depicted in the book all already exists, it's j