Elysium - Softcover

Brissett, Jennifer Marie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1619760533 ISBN 13: 9781619760530

Publisher: Aqueduct Press, 2014

Synopsis

Received the 2014 Philip K. Dick Award Special Citation 
A Finalist for the 2015 Locus Award for Best First Novel
A computer program etched into the atmosphere has a story to tell, the story of two people, of a city lost to chaos, of survival and love. The program's data, however, has been corrupted. As the novel's characters struggle to survive apocalypse, they are sustained and challenged by the demands of love in a shattered world both haunted and dangerous.

Elizabeth Hand, acclaimed author and critic, writes: ''It's really quite difficult for me to believe it's a first novel, it's so good: incredibly ambitious, beautifully written, moving, and with an extremely poignant ending, not to mention that remarkable, intricate balancing act with all your various hall-of-mirrors characters.''

"Wow! Jenn Brissett's new novel Elysium from Aqueduct Press is a knockout. The writing and structure of the book are so accomplished, I'm amazed this is a first novel. The style flows and draws you into the fiction and keeps you there -- poetic in its imagery but simultaneously economical. It's a science fiction, post-apocalyptic, tale, a love story, but not your dumb old man's love story. A love story for a new age. The structure of the novel was the most startling thing to me -- a complex construction that never comes across as complicated. The effect is like a magic trick. Great characters that make the adventure worth the journey. I hope reviewers don't miss this one.''
--Jeffery Ford, author of Crackpot Palace and The Shadow Year

''Jennifer Marie Brissett has written an audacious first novel that pushes against the limits of the form. With a spiral narrative and a dance of identity and incident, she limns an array of characters and their worlds in deft strokes. Be warned that you will puzzle about the story behind the stories as you read this novel, only to discover a profound and moving answer at its conclusion. With its bold interrogation of gender, Elysium is a book like no other."
--James Patrick Kelly, author of Wildlife and Think Like a Dinosaur

About this title

About the Author:

A Jamaican-British American (born in London, England), Jennifer Marie Brissett came to the US when she was four and grew up in Cambridge, MA. She was a software engineer and web developer for many years before she moved to Brooklyn, NY, to build the indie bookstore Indigo Café & Books, which she ran for three and a half years.

Jenn has a Master’s in Creative Writing from the Stonecoast MFA Program at the University of Southern Maine, concentrating in Speculative Fiction, and a Bachelor’s in Interdisciplinary Engineering (Electrical Engineering with a concentration in Visual Art) from Boston University. She is a writer and sometimes artist who has had a few shows in cafes in the Boston area.

Her stories can be found in Morpheus Tales, Warrior Wisewoman 2, The Future Fire, Thaumatrope, and Halfway Down the Stairs, where her work was nominated for the Dzanc Best of the Web series, included in The Best of Halfway Down the Stairs, 2005-2010, and a finalist for the 2013 storySouth Million Writers Award.

She lives in New York City with her husband, where they both fully accept that their cat rules the house. Her website can be found at www.jennbrissett.com.

Review:

"Brissett's punch of a debut is bewildering at first, but never so confusing as to frustrate the reader, and repeating elements and symbols help tie everything together--not neatly, for so much of the world is broken, but enough. Brissett deftly handles the challenge of a multitude of characters all being the same people in a multitude of places that are the same place, while exploring complicated questions about identity."
--Publishers Weekly

About this edition

• Publisher: Aqueduct Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1619760533
• ISBN 13: 9781619760530
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208