MELODIA CRUMP AND A TALE OF TWO CITIES
MELODIA CRUMP AND A TALE OF TWO CITIES
AN admittedly thinly veiled reference to, well, you-know-who, about you-know-what, I’ll give you that. Still, there is so much meaning rolled into that imaginary name and character, who, much more than any conspiracy theories anyone has been able to come up with, no matter how outlandish, proved the greatest disappointment for me. There was a time when I thought — imagined, I’m forced to admit — wearing what seemed like a cry-for-help shirt, I imagined a female hero standing up against lies, deceit and, what has come to appear more and more like plain old organized crime. Sad to discover more recently that it was all a wishful misunderstanding. Another chapter in a tale of two cities, two realities as different from one another as night and day.
In THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor, a plausible future study of the result of a TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) by Raymond Gaynor and William Maltese, affords a peek at a “second city,” a day to the night of a Dark Age introduced in the novel and not surprisingly in our contemporary world. “Recovery,” whatever it is to be, won’t be, in my personal opinion as well as author’s story a simple “return to normal.” The present flows like a river to which one can return to a favored shore but never retouch the same water. It’s always a “brave new world” that greets us, every day, every hour, every moment, and, taking up where TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) by Raymond Gaynor and William Maltese left off, NewAmerica, a shadow of its former United States of America, provides a challenging and dangerous future place for three young firebrands to live.
Set in a near future that, in many ways, closely mirrors our contemporary time and world, THE EDGE OF MADNESS explores the evolving relationships between three friends, all of whom know little to nothing about their past and even less about their futures. What they do know is that each is individually unusually gifted: Rob, an uber-conscious male with an enhanced sense of smell; Frann, an ostentatious gay male with Olympian physique; and Andry, a brilliant moon-child and professional acronymeur with a taste for magic, Wicca…and her two male friends.
THE EDGE OF MADNESS is an exploration of a possible future, where every hedonistic pleasure is available — if one can afford it. People work in order to purchase the newest technologies promising ultimate pleasure. But as in Aldous Huxley’s BRAVE NEW WORLD and George Orwell’s 1984, citizens are watched carefully by emotionless “Enforcers” who show up anytime unusual events occur.
Like Huxley and Orwell’s works, THE EDGE OF MADNESS has something to say about almost everything present and future. But it’s also a romance, bromance, love triangle and a coming-of-age story of three youths in a future where anything and everything goes. The ultimate question for them and, I suggest for us today, is: Can true love or sanity be found in such a world?
This story will make some excited about what the future may hold while others may recoil at a world of such extremes. Either way, it’s an engaging ride in a world where, for example, teachers and students appear holographically together in instructional classrooms while remaining safely at home, begging the question of what, if anything, in this future world is “real.” Put on your CandyShades, breathe in a little ContraSpray and settle back for a T-rip like never before.
The Edge of Madness
Total Meltdown: A Tripler and Clarke Adventure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je6CC...
AN admittedly thinly veiled reference to, well, you-know-who, about you-know-what, I’ll give you that. Still, there is so much meaning rolled into that imaginary name and character, who, much more than any conspiracy theories anyone has been able to come up with, no matter how outlandish, proved the greatest disappointment for me. There was a time when I thought — imagined, I’m forced to admit — wearing what seemed like a cry-for-help shirt, I imagined a female hero standing up against lies, deceit and, what has come to appear more and more like plain old organized crime. Sad to discover more recently that it was all a wishful misunderstanding. Another chapter in a tale of two cities, two realities as different from one another as night and day.
In THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor, a plausible future study of the result of a TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) by Raymond Gaynor and William Maltese, affords a peek at a “second city,” a day to the night of a Dark Age introduced in the novel and not surprisingly in our contemporary world. “Recovery,” whatever it is to be, won’t be, in my personal opinion as well as author’s story a simple “return to normal.” The present flows like a river to which one can return to a favored shore but never retouch the same water. It’s always a “brave new world” that greets us, every day, every hour, every moment, and, taking up where TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) by Raymond Gaynor and William Maltese left off, NewAmerica, a shadow of its former United States of America, provides a challenging and dangerous future place for three young firebrands to live.
Set in a near future that, in many ways, closely mirrors our contemporary time and world, THE EDGE OF MADNESS explores the evolving relationships between three friends, all of whom know little to nothing about their past and even less about their futures. What they do know is that each is individually unusually gifted: Rob, an uber-conscious male with an enhanced sense of smell; Frann, an ostentatious gay male with Olympian physique; and Andry, a brilliant moon-child and professional acronymeur with a taste for magic, Wicca…and her two male friends.
THE EDGE OF MADNESS is an exploration of a possible future, where every hedonistic pleasure is available — if one can afford it. People work in order to purchase the newest technologies promising ultimate pleasure. But as in Aldous Huxley’s BRAVE NEW WORLD and George Orwell’s 1984, citizens are watched carefully by emotionless “Enforcers” who show up anytime unusual events occur.
Like Huxley and Orwell’s works, THE EDGE OF MADNESS has something to say about almost everything present and future. But it’s also a romance, bromance, love triangle and a coming-of-age story of three youths in a future where anything and everything goes. The ultimate question for them and, I suggest for us today, is: Can true love or sanity be found in such a world?
This story will make some excited about what the future may hold while others may recoil at a world of such extremes. Either way, it’s an engaging ride in a world where, for example, teachers and students appear holographically together in instructional classrooms while remaining safely at home, begging the question of what, if anything, in this future world is “real.” Put on your CandyShades, breathe in a little ContraSpray and settle back for a T-rip like never before.
The Edge of Madness
Total Meltdown: A Tripler and Clarke Adventure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je6CC...
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