The Host in the Attic

by Rohan Quine

The Host in the Attic by Rohan Quine is a hologram of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, digitised and reframed in cinematic style, set in London’s Docklands in a few years’ time. High-flyer Jaymi discovers a secret novel online called The Imagination Thief, written by a woman named Alaia; and they meet and fall in love. In his attic he hides the prototype of a new worldwide Web-browsing hologram, for whose appearance he was the model. While this hologram deteriorates into ever more terrifying corruption, Jaymi’s appearance remains forever sweet and youthful, despite his escalating evil … until the inevitable reckoning unfolds. A Distinguished Favorite in the NYC Big Book Award 2021. Brilliant software engineer Rik and executive Jaymi work at digital agencies in London (surely unaware that their fates are destined to echo those of Basil and Dorian, respectively the painter and the subject of Wilde's novel). Rik uses Jaymi’s appearance as the model or “skin” for a cutting-edge interactive hologram that navigates the Web in enhanced ways, tailored to every user. The dissolute bigwig “Champagne” Marc makes this into a business reality, and through his cynical eloquence electrifies Jaymi with the knowledge that Jaymi will hereby become the face of the Web. Throughout the film-shoot of Jaymi for the making of the skin, these honeyed words of Marc (like those of Wilde’s Lord Henry to Dorian during the portrait’s creation) light powerful fires of vanity and hubris behind Jaymi’s eyes.As this holographic Web-guide’s hold over global information grows to a near monopoly, Jaymi is lionised, finding no door closed. But he yearns for still to see what the hologram itself can see online. So by trickery he succeeds in getting hold of a unique copy of the prototype hologram, with all regular filters removed.In private files online he thereby discovers a not-yet-published novel that will come to be called The Imagination Thief, by Alaia Danielle, with whom he has an intense romance (echoing Wilde’s actress Sibyl Vane with Dorian). But when Jaymi brutally dumps her, triggering her suicide, he is shocked to observe, on the same evening, that the face on his private prototype hologram has become crueller. Fascinated, he realises its appearance is changing in accordance with his own behaviour—and he hides it in his attic.For years he uses his unique online access for ever more megalomaniacal ends, ruining the lives of many whom he lures down into excess, addiction and suicide. While the hologram in the attic deteriorates into quite terrifying corruption, Jaymi’s appearance remains as sweet and youthful as the day he was filmed … until the inevitable reckoning unfolds.literary fiction, litfic, magical realism, horror, dark fantasy, cyberpunk, contemporary, scifi, visionary, imagination, imagery, spectacular, London, Docklands, Ontario Tower, Mayfair, wealth, hologram, software, search engine, Web, online, attic, corridor, hatch, ladder, evil, corrupt, elite, Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde, fame, The Imagination Thief

128 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Rohan Quine is an author of literary fiction with a touch of magical realism and a dusting of horror. He grew up in South London, spent a couple of years in L.A. and then a decade in New York, where he ran around excitably, saying a few well-chosen words in various feature films and TV shows, such as "Zoolander", "Election", "Oz", "Third Watch", "100 Centre Street", "The Last Days of Disco", "The Basketball Diaries", "Spin City" and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit". (See www.rohanquine.com/those-new-york-nin... and for current film acting and producing, including as Producer at Luxe Films, see www.rohanquine.com/those-new-york-nin....)

His novel "The Beasts of Electra Drive" www.rohanquine.com/the-beasts-of-elec... (Winner in the NYC Big Book Award 2021, and a Finalist in the IAN Book of the Year Awards 2018) is a prequel to his other five tales, and a good place to start. See www.rohanquine.com/press-media/the-be... for reviews by Kirkus, Bookmuse, Bending the Bookshelf and others. From Hollywood mansions to South Central motels, havoc and love are wrought across a mythic L.A., through the creations of games designer Jaymi, in a unique explosion of glamour and beauty, horror and enchantment, celebrating the magic of creativity itself.

In addition to its paperback format, his novel "The Imagination Thief" www.rohanquine.com/the-imagination-thief (a Distinguished Favorite in the NYC Big Book Award 2021) is available as an ebook that contains links to film and audio and photographic content in conjunction with the text. See www.rohanquine.com/press-media/the-im... for some nice reviews in The Guardian, Bookmuse, indieBerlin and elsewhere. It’s about a web of secrets triggered by the stealing and copying of people’s imaginations and memories, the magic that can be conjured by images of people, the split between beauty and happiness, and the allure of power.

Four novellas – "The Platinum Raven" www.rohanquine.com/the-platinum-raven, "The Host in the Attic" www.rohanquine.com/the-host-in-the-attic, "Apricot Eyes" www.rohanquine.com/apricot-eyes and "Hallucination in Hong Kong" www.rohanquine.com/hallucination-in-h... – are published as separate ebooks, and also as a single paperback "The Platinum Raven and other novellas" www.rohanquine.com/buy/the-platinum-r... (a Distinguished Favorite in the NYC Big Book Award 2021). See www.rohanquine.com/press-media/the-no... for reviews of these novellas, including by Iris Murdoch, James Purdy, Lambda Book Report and New York Press. Hunting as a pack, all four delve deep into the beauty, darkness and mirth of this predicament called life, where we seem to have been dropped without sufficient consultation ahead of time.

All titles are also available in audiobook format and video-book format, performed by the author.

www.rohanquine.com

"Rohan Quine is one of the most original voices in the literary world today – and one of the most brilliant." - Guardian Books blogger Dan Holloway, who included Quine’s "The Imagination Thief" on his list of the six "best self-published books of the decade"

"A sensual ballet of rich characterisation, alluring subtlety and originality. 'The Beasts of Electra Drive' is a novel that I didn't want to put down while I was reading it. [...] I found myself underlining things on the page, throughout it, because of the allure of Quine's language. I was fascinated with the marriage of his vocabulary and his punctuation. [...] This book creates a luscious and sensuous effect, which you can expand into." - Suzi Rapport

"The swooping eloquence of this book ['The Imagination Thief'] had me hypnotised. Quine leaps into pools of imagery, delighting in what words can do. The fact that the reader is lured into joining this kaleidoscopic, elemental ballet marks this out as someth

Reviews

[Jane Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

You know how it feels when you come out of a really good comedy night and think you're funnier than you actually are, but no one else is laughing? Then you'll understand why I am to trying to resist the temptation to be clever with words. I would also be doing the author a dis-service. Because, although Rohan Quine is a master of words, his world is also accessible, and it's a place you definately need to visit. With echoes of Jennifer Egan's Good Squad, Quine captures all that is beautiful, but he doesn't shy away from all that is ugly. What links his four novellas together is that the characters are all searching for that something beyond the everyday, beyond the ordinary, and Quine is a god, having them dole out kindness and justice. In his world, everything that is commonplace would be anialated. This is the kind of read you have to give yourself up to. It worked far better for me once I stopped trying to analyse what the author was trying to do and to second-guess where we were going next. (Are we in the future? Oh wait, Jon Snow is still reading the news...) When you emerge on the other side with a greater understanding of what it means to be 'that animal called human,' then that will be the time to stop and ask, 'What just happenned?'