The holidays are all about giving, so today I give you a preview of Michael Offutt's Oculus, the sequel to the bestselling Slipstream as part of his book tour. And since it's the Blogathon (of doom) you can also win an advanced reader copy of Tales of the Scarlet Knight, Volume II: Time Enough to Say Goodbye, valued at $299.99! You're welcome.
Oculus
Michael Offutt
Genre: Sci-fi
Book Description:
Autumn has arrived in
New York, and Jordan Pendragon attends his first classes as a freshman at
Cornell. Born with a brilliant mathematical mind, he balances life as a
research assistant with that of a student athlete.
But Jordan also has a
quest. He must find the Black Tower, a monolithic edifice housing a thing that
defines the very structure of the universe. Jordan believes it is buried
somewhere in Antarctica under miles of prehistoric ice.
October finds Jordan
earning a starting position with the Cornell hockey team. But a dark cloud
gathers over his rookie season. Unexplained deaths, whispers of a cannibal
cult, a prophecy, and a stone known only as the Oculus, cast a shadow over his
athletic ambitions. It is the start of a terrifying journey down a path of
mystery, murder, and to a confrontation with an Evil more ancient than the
stars.
Free short story that's
a lead-in to this book series: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/236636
About the Author:
Michael Offutt writes
speculative fiction books that have science fiction, LGBT, and paranormal
elements. His first book, "Slipstream" has received some critical
acclaim and was published by Double Dragon in the spring. The sequel,
"Oculus" came out in November 2012. He has one brother, no pets, and
a few roots that keep his tree of life sufficiently watered. By day, he works
for the State of Utah as a Technical Specialist. By night, he watches lots of
t.v., writes, draws, and sometimes dreams of chocolate.
Michael Offutt graduated
from the University of Idaho in 1994 with a Bachelor's degree in English.
He keeps a blog and
would appreciate a visit or two even if all you want to do is say hi.
Art relating to
books: http://slckismet.blogspot.com/p/my-artwork.html
Twitter: @MichaelOffutt
And here's a preview of Chapter 1:
“I can live a normal life,”
Jordan said, and then he pulled the trigger.
Man. Husband.
Father. It didn’t matter.
It ended in a bang and the sooty
smell of gunpowder.
The bullet struck; blood
spattered across his Kevlar vest. Before
he could squeeze off another, the man grabbed his wrist and twisted his arm
violently to the left. Jordan spun
around and hit him in the side of the head with the heel of one shoe. Blood smeared red across the sole of his
sneaker.
Things became surreal; time
slowed down. The second hand on his
watch stopped.
Where
was I ten minutes earlier?
They say life can change in a
flash.
I
was talking about college? And now… I’m committing murder.
His life went into rewind while
he stood, eyes unblinking. He heard
gunfire around him, but he felt as if he watched himself from afar.
His body engaged on autopilot.
His ears rang. Bodies dropped.
Ten minutes ago, Kolin had asked
him a question in the quiet of the woods….
“You sure that going off to
college to play hockey and study physics is the best way to go about this whole
quest of yours?” His British boyfriend’s voice had hovered above a whisper;
above the music of crickets in the glade.
Chirp
Chirp
“It’s the only way,” Jordan had
replied. “Cornell’s the university
that’s got everything I need. Hockey’s
my ticket. Without it, I wouldn’t have
gotten in.”
“So you’ve said.”
Dressed in black tactical
fatigues, Kolin propped his elbows on a tree trunk almost four-feet wide that
had long ago crashed to the forest floor.
He peered through a pair of night vision binoculars. The buzz of nocturnal insects and the babble
of a brook nearby filled Jordan’s ears.
He rested his head against the moss at his back and stared at the stars.
He could no longer hear the
crickets.
But the guns got louder and
louder. The second hand on his watch
started moving again.
Dylan
can track the monsters better than anyone.
He calls them azghuls.
Jordan finally blinked, but he
didn’t see a monster. He saw a man. Blood pulsed from his neck in a thin
stream. The pistol shook in Jordan’s
hand as he realized what he’d done. With
tears clinging to his eyelashes, he came about and fired, blowing the man’s
brains out the back of his head. The
filthy corpse dropped into the mud and twitched for several minutes; the white
eyes darkened.
Six feet behind him, Robbie cried
out. The teen fell onto his back with a
loud plop. However, Rob still managed to
get off a couple of shots. Two bright
flashes and his attacker fell down, kneecaps blown and bloody.
Why
am I here?
Jordan thought, loosely holding his gun.
The stars…I was looking at the
stars.
Jordan turned his face to the
sky.
Where
are the crickets? Why is this happening?
Chirp
Chirp....
He was back at the tree.
Kolin interrupted his thoughts by
waving four fingers in front of his face.
He understood that Kolin had counted four men. No—correction. He had counted four things that used to be men. It seemed easy now to say that, more so since
he had killed one.
Kolin lowered his head to talk
with him. “Their meat’s still alive on a
chain, but that could change at any time.”
Jordan felt sick. “She’s not meat.”
Kolin gnashed his teeth. “Sorry. That was a bit parky, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“This is all new to me,” Kolin
continued. “I’ve killed two of these
things now. If you need to think of them
as beasts to bring yourself to kill them, then do it. I need you to understand that whatever bug
that’s wormed its way into their gray matter has changed them. The last one that we came across in Colorado
went specifically after you, even though Kat was closer. I’ve been thinking about that for a while
now. I think they absorb a bloke’s
memories, and your face has been on the NBC Nightly News as well as that other
show…” He put finger to chin trying to think of the name.
“Ellen?” Jordan clarified. “That’s
the name of the other show.”
Kolin stared at him in
silence. “Yes, that one…she dresses like a man.
But my point is that there’s plenty of people that know who you are.”
“There’s nothing wrong with
wearing pants,” Jordan whispered. “Lots
of women do.”
“Listen,” Kolin said, and then
paused to make certain he had Jordan’s full attention, “the last one of these
things that I killed three days ago even knew your first name. How do you explain that? You know what else he said?”
Jordan shook his head.
“‘Give us the boy who can hear
the cry of heaven.’—the fuck that
means. At first, I dismissed their
language as incoherent babble. But now I
think it’s Czech. That suggests this
isn’t random if they’re speaking the same tongue, right? The azghuls originate from a specific group
of supporters. That means the Horcus has
help. But answer me this: where are they
coming from?”
“I don’t know.”
“Exactly. And I think that’s something that we should know.” Kolin swung the binoculars from in front of
his eyes. They depended from a hinge
attached to a head harness. He placed a
gloved hand upon Jordan’s right shoulder.
“You have a gentle heart, but these
aren’t men. Do you understand?”
Jordan trembled. But he remained silent.
These
aren’t men….
It bore repeating.
Jordan opened his eyes. In one blink, the present had murdered the
past.
He swung the barrel of his gun
and shot, emptying what remained in his clip from almost point blank range into
Robbie’s attacker. He blew off an ear
and a nose. Chunks of flesh sprayed
outward mixed with a few pieces of bone.
The azghul dropped with a howl, shuddered once, and died. He wore a Brooks Brothers suit.
If all that's not enough convincing, you can read my review here!
There's a lot of winning going on! Well it is supposed to be the end of the world today, right?
And Monday the blog gets back to normal with a Phony Photos that gives you a glimpse of the future...
13 comments:
Muchos Gracias senor bulldog.
Too awesome for words! Thanks for sharing that excerpt! :)
It's like Stephen King's Dark Tower meets Arthur C. Clarke's 2001 meets David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. Pretty much.
See, you're giving stuff away, too!
I started reading the preview but stopped. I still need to read Slipstream.
You guys work so hard to market your books. I hope you are both rewarded with thousands of sales.
That's an interesting comparison.
Thank you, Stephen. May you have a very Merry Christmas.
Just don't review it! I misuse commas. You'd give me one star and write ten pages about how evil it is.
Nah, Briane misuses commas all the time, and I don't give him bad reviews for it.
Wow. Awesome beginning. Thank you for sharing!
This is definitely a slam-bang, get-the-reader-by-the-throat great way to begin a book. Excellent, Michael!
great book!!! congras michael!
I need to read Slipstream. I loved the cover for it, and here's another super-cool cover. Of course, the story is fascinating too. What the heck have I been waiting for! Oh yes, time. I don't care what Stephen King says - there's only so much time in a day. :)
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