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'A twenty-something student from a world not quite the same as ours, August Seebeck tumbled into a vastly larger universe, and learned that he and his turbulent siblings, and the breathtaking Lune and others still stranger, are Players in the Contest of Worlds. They are mysteriously transformed humans whose ancient task is an enigmatic battle with the dread, passionate K-Machines. Now crisis deepens. Empowered with a potent killing device of his own, August finds himself flung from world to world in a brutal and baffling game, with entire universes at stake and very little idea of the rules. Only two things are clear: his beloved Lune is not who she seemed, and August's pivotal role is no chance accident.'
(Source: Publisher's blurb.)
Notes
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Dedication: For my sister and brothers: Dalla, Tony, John, Franl, Mick and their families with love.
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Epigraph: I like a look of Agony,/ Because I know it's true. - Emily Dickinson
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Also includes epigraphs from Bertrand Russell, Stuart LaForge, Robert B. Parker and Federico Fellini.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Related Works
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y
Godplayers
New York (City)
:
Thunder's Mouth Press
,
2005
Z1289784
2005
single work
novel
science fiction
'August Seebeck is in his twenties, a man of average looks, intellect, and outlook. Then comes the claim of his great-aunt Tansy that she has been finding corpses each Saturday night in her bath which vanish by morning. August dismisses this tale as elderly fantasy until he stumbles upon a corpse being shoved into the second-floor bathroom of his aunt's house. Even that wouldn't faze him, but then someone steps out of the bathroom mirror.'
'August suddenly discovers he is a Player in the multiuniverse Contest of Worlds. He plumbs the secrets of a cosmos revealed as ultimately computational, learns of the bitter enmity between Vorpal Players and the vicious K-Machines, meets the Good Machine that killed everyone on one world, and brings himself back from the dead.'
(Source: Publisher's blurb.)
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y
Yggdrasil Station
London
:
Orion
,
2020
19458506
2020
single work
novel
science fiction
'In medical student August Seebeck's world, almost identical to ours, there are eleven months in a year. None of them is the month of August—until now, when the young orphan stumbles into the true, infinite universe, and becomes a Player in the Game of Worlds. And step by deranged step he meets his siblings: Avril, Decius, Jan, Jules, Maybelline, Septimus/Septima who is both male and female, Toby, the others. And outside his family, glorious, brilliant Lune, also a Player, is quickly his lover, with dreadful secrets of her own.
'These diverse warriors of the multiverse confront the terrible K-machines, who detest and slaughter humans ... but then are the Seebeck family really human? What are these silver symbols engraved into their flesh? What is the true nature of the unending, unfolding cosmos, a meta-reality built from ontological computation, Lune's doctoral specialty? And how can August slay the looming Jabberwock using only the Sun-blazing Vorpal implant in his hand? What final transformation awaits the multiverse at Yggdrasil Station, at the death and dawn of spacetime, where all the heroes die and live again? In this astounding helter-skelter two-part novel, the answers to such questions emerge along a twisting path that will not set you free until you sit with August at a great thirteen-sided table and learn his destiny, and perhaps your own.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Works about this Work
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The Fiction of the Future : Australian Science Fiction
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Sold by the Millions : Australia's Bestsellers 2012; (p. 128-140) 'According to Russell Blackford 'commercial science fiction is the most international of literary forms.' He observes that 'Australian SF continues to flourish, even if it trails heroic fantasy in mass-market appeal.' Australian SF writers although published internationally, with a dedicated fan followings in USA, UK and Europe, were overlooked for a very long time by Australian multinational publishers. The international editions had to be imported and were then distributed in Australia (Congreve and Marquardt 8). Blackford in his chapter throws light on the history of Australian SF and observes how Australian SF writers, with their concern for the future, achieved a powerful synthesis in form and content. The progress of Australian SF, maturity of style in the work of younger writers, and massive worldwide sales make Blackford optimistic as he asserts that 'the best Australian writers in the genre will be prominent players on the world stage.' (Editor's foreword xii-xiii) -
Fiction
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: Cosmos , August/September no. 10 2006; (p. 109)
— Review of K-Machines 2006 single work novel
-
Fiction
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: Cosmos , August/September no. 10 2006; (p. 109)
— Review of K-Machines 2006 single work novel -
The Fiction of the Future : Australian Science Fiction
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Sold by the Millions : Australia's Bestsellers 2012; (p. 128-140) 'According to Russell Blackford 'commercial science fiction is the most international of literary forms.' He observes that 'Australian SF continues to flourish, even if it trails heroic fantasy in mass-market appeal.' Australian SF writers although published internationally, with a dedicated fan followings in USA, UK and Europe, were overlooked for a very long time by Australian multinational publishers. The international editions had to be imported and were then distributed in Australia (Congreve and Marquardt 8). Blackford in his chapter throws light on the history of Australian SF and observes how Australian SF writers, with their concern for the future, achieved a powerful synthesis in form and content. The progress of Australian SF, maturity of style in the work of younger writers, and massive worldwide sales make Blackford optimistic as he asserts that 'the best Australian writers in the genre will be prominent players on the world stage.' (Editor's foreword xii-xiii)
