Guest post with David Edison + GIVEAWAY

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Hey everyone, we’re happy today to welcome David Edison, the author of The Waking Engine, a new wonderful book. If you want to disocver a review, you can check ours here. Intriguing, right?

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Hello, Between Dreams and Reality!  I am David Edison, author of The Waking Engine, my firstest book ever.  I’ve been asked to write about either my characters or my setting, and I’m going to do both. I hope that’s okay!  Writing the City Unspoken was the biggest characterization challenge in the project, because the city is the biggest character in the project.  She’s a sprawling mega-city at the end of the multiverse, and so by necessity and design she needed to incorporate aspects of our greatest cities, our worst cities, our ideal cities, and our city nightmares.

I saw a city that had Rome’s millennia-old fountains, the imperialist obelisks of Paris, the buzzing sprawl of Tokyo and the flowering-weed-choked waterways of Bangkok. Also the ruined mystery of Les Baux, the horror and beauty of sailing into Santorini’s caldera at sunrise, and on and on.  The cliffs of the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania, the switchback heights of the Amalfi coast, and the architectural whimsy of Barcelona.  What’s more, I began to see a city that I could only understand through incomplete snapshots, because all the cities and vistas of Earth were only part of its character.  Would it be directly descended from us?  Yes, but also from uncountable others, written and re-written by the people of every world, who would eventually find themselves in the City Unspoken.

Now, that’s what I saw.  I’m still learning how to share what I see with readers, and I will have succeeded or failed from reader to reader.  I don’t harbor any illusions about “getting it right on the first try,” which is a kind of disingenuous maguffin anyway: “getting it right” is a figment and “on the first try” is terribly misleading for someone who’s been writing fiction since 1st grade, even if it is his first actual book.

I’m a pantser, which means I write by the seat of my pants and am terrible at plotting things out ahead of time.  This, traditionally, is not the best type of person to put in charge of real cities. Fictional cities, thankfully, demand different strengths from their creators.

The City Unspoken was the first character I wrote about, for this book.  I’m one of those artsy writers for whom characters are very much real, and they act independently from me.  I felt that kind of insistence with the city.  It wanted to be a layer cake of overlapping city-views, with more history behind it than any of its residents could hold in their heads.  I have Stephan Martiniere to thank for realizing that vision on the cover, which makes me glow whenever I look at it.

But at the beginning, before I had any clue where I was headed, all I knew was what I uncovered for myself as I wrote.  I wanted known districts branching out from a central hub, but I also wanted dead space, and also unexplored space.  That is, I wanted to explore some districts in this book, save others for later out of pure necessity.  I also knew there would be whole districts that had been lost for generations, and reclaimed territories that were repurposed from their previous lives.

I remember visiting Prague shortly after the Iron Curtain fell, and noticing how people had reclaimed the city in strange but lovely ways: a cafe in an old marble bank vault, a bar in a former art gallery.  There was this interesting mix of recognizable consumer culture, a disconnect from its own history, and a squatter’s pragmatic approach to getting through the day/week/lifetime.  Prague is there, too.

As I went on, I codified and mapped out the city and its districts – I know about 70% of the city, at this point.  (My editor didn’t feel the need for a map in the book and I agree, I don’t think it’s necessary to tell the story. But I know many readers who still want one, and I am working on it.  Hopefully we’ll get one up on my website.)  I haven’t decided how much of the city will be revealed by the end of the story, which will be four books long – but I’m more than halfway through the second book, and watching the City Unspoken become ever more alive and ever more self-evident is a wonderful feeling.  I hope you join me there.

Synopsis: Welcome to the City Unspoken, where Gods and Mortals come to die.

Contrary to popular wisdom, death is not the end, nor is it a passage to some transcendent afterlife. Those who die merely awake as themselves on one of a million worlds, where they are fated to live until they die again, and wake up somewhere new. All are born only once, but die many times . . . until they come at last to the City Unspoken, where the gateway to True Death can be found.

Wayfarers and pilgrims are drawn to the City, which is home to murderous aristocrats, disguised gods and goddesses, a sadistic faerie princess, immortal prostitutes and queens, a captive angel, gangs of feral Death Boys and Charnel Girls . . . and one very confused New Yorker.

Late of Manhattan, Cooper finds himself in a City that is not what it once was. The gateway to True Death is failing, so that the City is becoming overrun by the Dying, who clot its byzantine streets and alleys . . . and a spreading madness threatens to engulf the entire metaverse.

Thanks to the publisher, you can win one copy of The Waking Engine. The giveaway is open to US&CAN only.

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The Waking Engine by David Edison

Synopsis: Welcome to the City Unspoken, where Gods and Mortals come to die.

Contrary to popular wisdom, death is not the end, nor is it a passage to some transcendent afterlife. Those who die merely awake as themselves on one of a million worlds, where they are fated to live until they die again, and wake up somewhere new. All are born only once, but die many times . . . until they come at last to the City Unspoken, where the gateway to True Death can be found.

Wayfarers and pilgrims are drawn to the City, which is home to murderous aristocrats, disguised gods and goddesses, a sadistic faerie princess, immortal prostitutes and queens, a captive angel, gangs of feral Death Boys and Charnel Girls . . . and one very confused New Yorker.

Late of Manhattan, Cooper finds himself in a City that is not what it once was. The gateway to True Death is failing, so that the City is becoming overrun by the Dying, who clot its byzantine streets and alleys . . . and a spreading madness threatens to engulf the entire metaverse.

Review: I must say that I was completely drawn to the synopsis when I read it. The book is categorized as science fiction and it is true that it is a particular genre, so I was a little anxious not to get into the story. But with such a synopsis, I could not pass up and I must say it was a very nice discovery. But for me this novel is not really science fiction but rather a mix of several genres which allows us to have a completely original story. So, yes a little of fantasy, science fiction, and urban fantasy, but in reality it is a book with its own genre , or at least that’s what I think.

Cooper is a young man like any others who one day finds himself in a place in which he knows nothing about. On top of that, it seems that this place is not his world and his whole existence is much more than what he would have thought. Completely lost, he will be abandoned by the only person who finds him. Wandering in this incredible city, he will discover that death does not have the same connotation in this world. In fact, a person can be born only once but can die and come back to an age of his life to start again. Also, death has become a business here and even much more. But some are tired of being alive and this is why people from completely different worlds come to Unspoken City, where they hope to truly die. A large number of completely surreal characters are found here: Ancient dead queens such as Cleopatra, goddesses, angels, humans, and characters that must be discovered to understand what they are. And here, in this place he does not understand, he does not know what to do, the rules are so different from those on earth, and he will wander and try to understand what he need to do… the only man who was born but never died and that seems inappropriate in this place. A man who also seems to attract a large number of characters, but it remains to understand exactly why.

I confess that I was really intrigued by what was happening in this magnificent world. I think this book is well worth it just for that, it is fantastic to see the work that the author has managed to achieve. This city is completely unique and it’s fascinating to find out the details about it and I admit that I was really impressed. But that’s not all because even the characters are always more than they appear to be, some more twisted than others but so complex. But I loved them for many different things. Then, it’s true that everything is done in a rather peculiar way and we follow various characters all along the chapters and some appear later than others. It’s sometimes a little hard to understand what is happening but at the same time it makes us very curious about everything. I think that between everyone, I preferred to follow certain characters than others and it is true that I was eager to return to Cooper or to Asher. Because it is true that Cooper is trying to understand why he is here, to know the purpose of the person who put him there and what he could do. Moreover, he will discover a lot of things about this and will become a different person who’ll change the lives of many people.

I will not go further, but I think you understand that this book is a nice surprise. A very original mix. Many beautiful ideas.

4

mellianefini

 

The Waking Engine de David Edison (VO)

Résumé (traduction personnelle) : Bienvenue à City Unspoken, où les dieux et les mortels viennent mourir.

Contrairement à la croyance populaire, la mort n’est pas la fin, ni un passage pour certains dans un au-delà transcendant. Ceux qui meurent, à peine éveillés, se retrouvent dans l’un des milliers de mondes, où ils sont condamnés à vivre jusqu’à ce qu’ils meurent de nouveau, et se réveillent dans un nouvel endroit. Tous sont nés une seule fois, mais peuvent mourir de nombreuses fois… jusqu’à ce qu’ils arrivent enfin à City Unspoken, où la porte d’entrée de la vraie mort peut être trouvée.

Les voyageurs et les pèlerins sont attirés par la ville, qui abrite aristocrates meurtriers, dieux et déesses déguisés, une princesse fée sadique, des prostituées et des reines immortelles, un ange en captivité, les gangs sauvages des Garçons de la Mort et des Filles Charnelles . . . et un New Yorker très confus.

Venu de Manhattan, Cooper se trouve dans une ville qui n’est pas ce qu’elle était autrefois. Le portail de la vraie mort est en train de tomber, de sorte que la ville est de plus envahie par les mourants, qui errent dans les rues et ruelles byzantines… et une folie menace de se propager et d’engloutir l’ensemble de cet univers.

Avis : Je dois dire que j’ai été complètement attirée par le résumé quand je l’ai lu. Le livre est catégorisé en tant que science-fiction et c’est vrai que c’est un genre particulier, aussi j’étais un peu anxieuse de ne pas arriver à accrocher. Mais avec un résumé pareil, je ne pouvais pas le laisser passer et je dois dire que ça a été une très jolie découverte. Mais pour moi ce roman n’est pas vraiment de la science-fiction mais plutôt un mélange de plusieurs genres qui nous permet d’avoir une histoire complètement originale. Un mix de fantasy, science-fiction, urban fantasy mais c’est en réalité un livre qui a un genre propre ou en tout cas c’est ce que je pense.

Cooper est un jeune homme comme les autres  qui se retrouve un jour dans un endroit dont il ne connait rien. Mas en plus de cela, il semble que cet endroit ne soit pas son monde et que son existence toute entière est bien plus que ce qu’il aurait pu penser. Complètement perdu, il va être abandonné par la seule personne qui le retrouve. Errant dans cette ville hors du commun, il va découvrir que la mort n’a pas la même connotation que dans son monde. En effet, une personne ne peut naître qu’une seule fois mais peut mourir et revenir à un âge de sa vie pour recommencer une autre existence. Aussi, la mort est devenue un commerce et bien plus encore. Mais certains sont las de tout ça et c’est la raison pour laquelle des gens de mondes complètement différents viennent à City Unspoken, où ils espèrent mourir véritablement. Un grand nombre de personnages complètement surréalistes coexistent : D’anciennes reines mortes telles que Cléopâtre, des déesses, des anges, des humains, et des personnages qu’il faut découvrir pour comprendre ce qu’ils sont. Et là dans cet endroit qu’il ne comprend pas, qu’il ne connait pas, dont les règles sont si différentes de celles sur terre, il va errer et essayer de comprendre ce qu’il fait là… le seul homme qui est né mais jamais encore mort et qui semble déplacé dans cet endroit. Un homme qui semble d’ailleurs intéresser un grand nombre de protagonistes, mais il reste à en comprendre exactement la raison.

J’avoue que j’ai été vraiment intriguée par tout ce qu’il se passait mais tout d’abord par ce magnifique monde. Je crois que ce livre vaut largement le coup uniquement pour ça, c’est vraiment fantastique de voir le travail que l’auteur a réussi à réaliser. Cette ville est complètement unique et c’est fascinant d’en découvrir les détails et j’avoue que pour ça j’ai été vraiment conquise. Mais ce n’est pas tout car même les personnages sont toujours plus que ce qu’ils semblent être, certains plus tordus que d’autres mais si complexes. Mais je les ai tous adoré pour différentes manières. Après c’est vrai que tout est fait d’une façon assez particulière et on suit à la suite différents personnages et certains apparaissent plus tard que d’autres et même s’ils se rencontrent à un moment ou un autre parfois c’est un peu compliqué de comprendre ce qu’il se passe mais en même temps ça nous rend très curieux je trouve. Après je pense que comme tout le monde j’ai tout de suite préféré suivre certains personnages plutôt que d’autres et c’est vrai que j’étais toujours impatiente de revenir vers Cooper ou vers Asher. Parce que c’est vrai que pour Cooper, on essaie de comprendre ce qu’il vient faire là, ce qu’est réellement le but de la personne qui l’a planté là et ce qu’il pourrait y faire. Il découvrira d’ailleurs énormément de choses par rapport à tout cela et deviendra une personne vraiment différente et il changera la vie de nombreuses personnes.

Je ne vais pas aller plus loin, mais je pense que vous avez compris que ce livre est une jolie surprise. Un mélange très original qu’il est agréable de lire. De très belles idées sont réunies ici.

4

mellianefini