Advance Praise for CrossTown
Reviewed by Pam LaCroix (Authors Den Reader Review)
CrossTown itself isn’t just the setting of this action-packed novel. It’s almost a character that grows, warps and folds on itself physically and temporally. One of the neighborhoods is described as designed by “the architect Escher.” I couldn’t stop mental images of hands drawing themselves and stairways appearing to ascend and descend at the same time. With its diverse population of sinister, mythical characters it seems a universe that parallels Wyoming’s Hole-in-the Wall of the late 1800’s.
Zethus, the primary character, is a powerful sorcerer whose ruthless morality continues to surprise. As he travels through this fictional world he encounters beings even more threatening and dangerous than his CrossTown neighbors. He navigates the physical and temporal pitfalls of his quest with equal parts cunning and thoughtlessness. How he evolves as he delves deeper and deeper into the mystery is every bit as important as the solution to the mystery.
Cooper proves himself a capable manipulator of possibility, probability and reality. The story is fast-moving, exciting and thought-provoking. I happily recommend CrossTown to all lovers of time travel, fantasy, science fiction and alternate reality.
A sorcerer explores the frontier of theoretical physics.
Calling himself a “spiritual thug for hire,” Zethus has the decidedly science-fictional ability to travel through alternate realities. Thanks to the mind-bending physics theory—made real in Cooper’s novel—that every decision we make creates a new universe, Zethus is able to conduct an investigation into his mentor’s murder that leads him from the Irish folkloric land of Faerie to the horror-novel NightTown, which is populated by vampires, to the science fictional TechTown, suffused with futuristic technology.
Publisher’s Weekly, article “Genre Mashups: Science Fiction and Fantasy"
“…A story of murder and revenge set in a world where anything is possible. Zethus is a sorcerer for hire in CrossTown, a place where the world's infinite possibilities are all available to those who know how to walk the branching Roads to alternate realities. With the help of his Legion of captured spirits, he takes on jobs like banishing troublesome ghosts for pay. But he should have known that a job that offered one golden hour just for meeting with a mysterious messenger was too good to be true. The job tangles him up with the world of Faerie, setting a remorseless hunter on his trail… Sorting out this whole tangle of plots and double-crosses, not to mention saving his own skin, will take Zethus on a journey through the darkest and wildest Ways in CrossTown—and require him to confront some uncomfortable truths about himself…”
Kirkus Reviews, CrossTown Advance Review
"...CrossTown is full of thrilling action, of hidden agendas, of narrow escapes. It is, in short, a lot of fun. But it's also a new version of one of the stories we need to tell ourselves again and again: The hero, wearing one of his thousand faces, seeks the elixir, in one of its thousand forms, and ends up being surprised, elevated, bereft, and consoled. And we, as readers, take that same journey through heights and depths to arrive at contemplation. This is a novel that offers its own answer to the question of what we are to do with the gift, the privilege, of our human birth..."
-Bruce Holland Rogers, from the Introduction to CrossTown
CrossTown is a fascinating mix of mystery, science fiction and mythology/folklore/magic. Loren Cooper let us travel with the flawed sorcerer Zethus as he searches for answers through layers of realities, all connected by a range of multi-level roads crossing within, above, and below the town of the title. At one point, we encounter the powerful and frightening Fae of Irish tradition; at another, a community of vampires and other creatures of the night; at still another, a future world of high-tech weaponry--and more. The result is a wonderfully woven whole thanks to the story-telling, the pace, and the character of Zethus himself. Here's hoping for more adventures in this fantastic and believable world.
--Wayne Ude, award-winning author of Maybe I will Do Something: Seven Tales of Coyote, Becoming Coyote, and Buffalo and Other Stories.
"In Crosstown, fantasy and folklore wake up in the bed of science fiction... and it works!"
--Bruce Holland Rogers, World Fantasy, Nebula, and Pushcart award winner.
CrossTown itself isn’t just the setting of this action-packed novel. It’s almost a character that grows, warps and folds on itself physically and temporally. One of the neighborhoods is described as designed by “the architect Escher.” I couldn’t stop mental images of hands drawing themselves and stairways appearing to ascend and descend at the same time. With its diverse population of sinister, mythical characters it seems a universe that parallels Wyoming’s Hole-in-the Wall of the late 1800’s.
Zethus, the primary character, is a powerful sorcerer whose ruthless morality continues to surprise. As he travels through this fictional world he encounters beings even more threatening and dangerous than his CrossTown neighbors. He navigates the physical and temporal pitfalls of his quest with equal parts cunning and thoughtlessness. How he evolves as he delves deeper and deeper into the mystery is every bit as important as the solution to the mystery.
Cooper proves himself a capable manipulator of possibility, probability and reality. The story is fast-moving, exciting and thought-provoking. I happily recommend CrossTown to all lovers of time travel, fantasy, science fiction and alternate reality.
A sorcerer explores the frontier of theoretical physics.
Calling himself a “spiritual thug for hire,” Zethus has the decidedly science-fictional ability to travel through alternate realities. Thanks to the mind-bending physics theory—made real in Cooper’s novel—that every decision we make creates a new universe, Zethus is able to conduct an investigation into his mentor’s murder that leads him from the Irish folkloric land of Faerie to the horror-novel NightTown, which is populated by vampires, to the science fictional TechTown, suffused with futuristic technology.
Publisher’s Weekly, article “Genre Mashups: Science Fiction and Fantasy"
“…A story of murder and revenge set in a world where anything is possible. Zethus is a sorcerer for hire in CrossTown, a place where the world's infinite possibilities are all available to those who know how to walk the branching Roads to alternate realities. With the help of his Legion of captured spirits, he takes on jobs like banishing troublesome ghosts for pay. But he should have known that a job that offered one golden hour just for meeting with a mysterious messenger was too good to be true. The job tangles him up with the world of Faerie, setting a remorseless hunter on his trail… Sorting out this whole tangle of plots and double-crosses, not to mention saving his own skin, will take Zethus on a journey through the darkest and wildest Ways in CrossTown—and require him to confront some uncomfortable truths about himself…”
Kirkus Reviews, CrossTown Advance Review
"...CrossTown is full of thrilling action, of hidden agendas, of narrow escapes. It is, in short, a lot of fun. But it's also a new version of one of the stories we need to tell ourselves again and again: The hero, wearing one of his thousand faces, seeks the elixir, in one of its thousand forms, and ends up being surprised, elevated, bereft, and consoled. And we, as readers, take that same journey through heights and depths to arrive at contemplation. This is a novel that offers its own answer to the question of what we are to do with the gift, the privilege, of our human birth..."
-Bruce Holland Rogers, from the Introduction to CrossTown
CrossTown is a fascinating mix of mystery, science fiction and mythology/folklore/magic. Loren Cooper let us travel with the flawed sorcerer Zethus as he searches for answers through layers of realities, all connected by a range of multi-level roads crossing within, above, and below the town of the title. At one point, we encounter the powerful and frightening Fae of Irish tradition; at another, a community of vampires and other creatures of the night; at still another, a future world of high-tech weaponry--and more. The result is a wonderfully woven whole thanks to the story-telling, the pace, and the character of Zethus himself. Here's hoping for more adventures in this fantastic and believable world.
--Wayne Ude, award-winning author of Maybe I will Do Something: Seven Tales of Coyote, Becoming Coyote, and Buffalo and Other Stories.
"In Crosstown, fantasy and folklore wake up in the bed of science fiction... and it works!"
--Bruce Holland Rogers, World Fantasy, Nebula, and Pushcart award winner.
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