Realists — Free EBook

[theindependenteye]

Friends—

With our second novel Galahad’s Fool coming out in June, we’ve just updated the e-book price for our first, Realists. Through the end of April, it’s FREE.

We’d love you to read it. You can download Realists in any e-reader format or your computer at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/272051. And please pass the offer along to your friends.

Realists was published three years ago, with very little promo. Now it’s more timely than ever: a cliff-hanger odyssey as America splinters to bits. An elderly couple morph into Bonnie & Clyde; Chicago disappears; ghost buffalo trample a copter assault; a desert shaman evokes an erotic night of undreamt dreams; and a rickety bus crawls toward a deadly face-off on the Oakland Bay Bridge. On their journey, a motley group of losers, loners, and seekers split and bond; small children find magic; space aliens watch it all on TV; and the passengers bond into a tribe of beautiful survivors.

Yes, fantasy, but sometimes fantasy keeps us sane. We’d love to have your response. If you can’t stand digital media, the wood-pulp version is at www.DamnedFool.com, but we’d urge you to log on and download a merry band of free electrons.

Peace & joy—
Conrad Bishop & Elizabeth Fuller

— Some Reader Reviews —

Anyone who loves Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury, Phillip K. Dick, Phillip José Farmer and other masters of satirical, dystopian-yet-humanistic, hilarious and sexy sci-fi will find considerable delight in this rip-roaring, picaresque yarn from Conrad Bishop and Elizabeth Fuller. . . . a momentum that never flags . . . "Realists" reminded me of how much pure fun reading can be.

Often funny and frighteningly acute, delivered in muscular language. . . . Reading REALISTS is like staying up into the wee hours, surrounded by the spoils of a wild party, drinking booze from many tumblers and listening to some very clever, insightful, and verbally gifted people extemporize together.

Each thread of this strange dystopian tapestry is worth tugging on and following. The quirky characters are also kinda endearing, not just ornaments to hang the plot on. But it's the pungency of the social satire that really got me. Amazon's clicky-choose-one-review-boxes apparently don't believe that something can be both "Dark" and "Hopeful" — I chose "dark" — but really, it is both.

I thoroughly enjoyed this near-future dystopian romp. There are lots of sociological, political, and psychological jokes and snappy one liners. Sound guy Eddy and single mom Pepper manage a witty, hip, and satisfying courtship against a backdrop of nutty characters and an America gone insane. It's the kind of comic Armageddon I like.

The authors are correct when they say it is in the Vonnegut vein—it's smart, funny, and skewers modern culture with the same deftness that Kurt demonstrated. Worth reading for just the pithy one-liners that pepper the text, but holds together as a satisfying satiric yarn all the way through.

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[Lilith Rogers]

Thanks you two--I love your stuff!! Lilith