Book - VirulentBlurb: Virellas

You have no idea how excited we at /G-f are to get this news from our very own Kneel Downe and the guys at rEvolution SF and Spectral Press ...

“The countdown to FRACTURE DAY has begun...”

rEvolution SF, the new SF imprint from Spectral Press, are proud to present the newest production from Kneel Downe, Galactic Overlord of the VirulentBlurb Universe - VIRULENTBLURB:VIRELLAS.

A Virella is a novella or short story shot through the stained, cracked, and distorted prism of Downe’s psychotronic imagination. Each one tells a story from every reality and dimension of the ‘Blurb, and every one contains clues and explanations of what has already happened and what is yet to come.

‘BLURB.
Fifty years ago a conflict was waged so vast that it broke the sky and shattered the world. Now all that remains is a single City, a City surrounded by a few square hundred miles of wasteland. It’s a dangerous place, populated by human/animal splices, strange technology, and the wonder drug ReGen.

No sun shines in the sky here... instead, there’s just the Moon, the constellation Orion, and the Endless night from which dust constantly falls.

And yet...

And yet there IS more... for the damage done here is spreading. The wound is infecting the countless mirror realities, the timeless fluidity of the VEIL and even the Mythical poetic world of the EVERLANDS where Amelia sings her songs.

If the wound is not healed soon it will destroy the ALL.

VIRULENTBLURB: VIRELLAS will contain a number of tales:

EMILY.

England, 1974 - Glam Rock rules the airwaves. The summer is in full bloom but the girl with the mousey hair is troubled. Why is there a spaceman in her wardrobe and a wolf under her bed? Who is the mysterious STARMAN who whispers to her at night through the old radio, teaching her the songs? ALL the songs. And who is the girl in the mirror, the one with bright red hair and purple eyes? The girl who says her name is Amelia?

QUANTUM. 

Captain Sirius Quantum is in charge of the SS Shardsong, the last of the great VEILSHIPS, cast adrift for a thousand years, and maintained by a crew who cannot remember who they were before coming aboard. All they know is that they are searching for something important, something that can change all creation. But they are not alone: a darkness is chasing them. A hungry darkness. And why, when he tries to sleep, is Sirius haunted by a single phrase - the EVERLANDS?

DELIVERANCE. 

Hidden deep within the city in solitary confinement inside THE COPPER CASCADE holding facility sits the greatest of this world’s super beings. He is remembering the Purge, when they came for his kind, as well as the days before and after THE FALL. He alone knows how his kindred came to be born, how the world was broken, and just what is yet to come. A storm is coming - a great storm.

GESTALT. 

Within the timeless fluidity of the VEIL the FIVE WHO WOULD BE FLESH are searching for the reality that broke the ALL. Eradicating each timeline one by one, and rewriting history. But there is a traitor in their midst - one of them is beginning to question if mankind truly deserves to be exterminated.

LOBO. Another day, another drink and another case for DETECTIVE KURT LOBO the WOLF-SPLICED cop. Just who or what is the BONE EATER and why does the case foreshadow worse things to come? If there's one thing Kurt hates more than technology and poets it's an unsolved case.

PHOBOS. 

PHOBOS has been known by many names: THE KING OF THE RUINED CROWN, THE DARK ONE, THE MIRROR LORD, amongst many others. He has been trapped for eternity in reflective glass. But all mirrors are linked and PHOBOS has been to the very end of the ALL. He has even seen how it ends. Now he is trying to save humanity and mould history to his own ends. Tell me, can there ever be sympathy for the Devil?

VIOLET. 

For the last eighty years VIOLET SUICIDE’S MODSHOP has been the place to get your ANIMAL SPLICE, your LIVING INK TATTOO or your JACKPORTS of any size and material. However, Violet has a secret, hidden safely for decades in her basement. Now it's time for them to come back for it. Knock, knock, Violet. Someone’s at the door.

JOSHUA. 

Joshua Knight is credited as being the father of the New Age. DEADBOXES, DREAMCAGES, NEEDLEMASKS and NOONIAN SPHERES all bear his mark. The wonder drug REGEN and advanced DROID intelligence were created with his estranged wife. And of course, The VEIL... that cursed, immersive, alternate reality. On the morning of THE FALL Joshua went missing. He has remained missing for fifty years.

All these stories, and possibly more, will be featured in VIRULENTBLURB: VIRELLAS.

About the Author (like we need to tell you).

Kneel Downe has been a journalist, covering music, games and science fiction. He has run countless shops, been a chef, a traveller and a failed rock star (don't tell him that last part).

In 2012 he began to chronicle and share the events of the VirulentBlurb Universe in a style that has been described as “what happens when you put Michael Moorcock, Jeff Noon, P K Dick and Rock Music into a blender.”

He currently lives in the middle of KnoWhere with his favourite human, a dog called Billy Joe, the renegade budgies Alice and Lemmy and a stray cat called Katrina.

He shares his house with over 200 Daleks of varying size and “makes stuff up” and tells lies for money.

You can find him at @kneeldowne on Twitter and his universe at virulentblurb.com.

And yes... it is his real name.

The VirulentBlurb began as a Twitter experiment to create a whole living, breathing universe delineated by Tweets alone. Now, three years later, it has spawned six books and an audio book. These days it utilises all manner of media: Tweets, scripts and more traditional forms of writing. It has garnered much critical acclaim and has a very loyal (and growing) fanbase.

Welcome to THE BLURB... please clean your JackPort thoroughly before immersion.

Images - Spectral Press and VirulentBlurb

You can PREORDER the book from https://spectralpress.wordpress.com/2015/08/10/rsf-virulentblurbs/