NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Sunbury Press has released The Heatstroke Line, Edward ‘s L Rubin’s first novel, a Cli-Fi thriller set in the near future.
‘Edward Rubin has temporarily exchanged his academic cap for a novelist’s hat and has written a powerful cli-fi novel set in the near future.
”He knows that “Mad Max,” “The Hunger Games,” “Waterworld,” “The Walking Dead,” and innumerable other books, movies and TV series attract large audiences by portraying a future where society has been devastated by war, disease, environmental calamity or supernatural disaster. Such post-apocalyptic tales constitute an important and widely-popular genre.
”As a novelist, Rubin wants to place his own cli-fi footprint in the sands of time and hopes that his book will serve as a kind of warning flare for readers now and in the future.” — Dan Bloom, The Cli-Fi Report
EXCERPT:
Daniel Danten didn’t really want to have a family. What he wanted was to be a scientist, to teach at a university and produce original research. But this seemed so unlikely, given the state of things in Mountain America, that he decided to hedge his bets or he’d have nothing to show for his life. So he married a woman he convinced himself he was in love with and had three children. As it turned out, somewhat to his own surprise, he achieved his original goal, probably because he switched fields from astronomy to entomology, a subject of enormous practical concern these days. And now, with a secure position at one of Mountain America’s leading universities, his own lab, and a substantial list of publications to his credit, he spent most of his time worrying about his family. His wife, Garenika, was depressed, his ten year old son Michael was suffering from one of the many mysterious ailments that were appearing without warning or explanation, and his fourteen year old daughter Senly was hooked on Phantasie and running wild. Worst of all, his sixteen year old, Joshua, who had always been such a reliable, level-headed and generally gratifying son, had become an American Patriot.
On a blazing, early September afternoon, with the outdoor temperature spiking at 130 degrees Fahrenheit, he was sitting with Garenika in the waiting room at Denver Diagnostic Clinic while Michael was being examined by still one more doctor. Garenika thought they would get some sort of answer this time, but Dan was convinced that the doctor would come out of the examining room and say that she really couldn’t tell them what the problem is. Senly was spending a rare evening at home and Joshua was just returning from his field trip to the Enamel, an expedition that, Dan felt sure, was designed to make the participants angry, rather than providing them with information. The doctor appeared and Garenika jumped to her feet.
“Well,” the doctor said, “I really can’t tell you what the problem is.”
“Why not?” Garenika asked, her voice tinged with its increasingly frequent sense of panic. “Why can’t you find an answer for us? Look at him—he’s losing weight, his skin keeps getting blotchier, and he’s exhausted all the time.”
“I’m sorry. As you probably know, we’re pretty sure that we’re seeing all these new diseases because the climate change has wiped out a lot of the beneficial bacteria that we used to have in our bodies. Commensals, they’re called. But we’ve never really figured out how they work, so it’s hard to compensate for their disappearance.”
“Okay,” said Dan. “So what can we do for Michael?”
“Keep him comfortable and give it time. Put cold compresses on any area where there’s a rash. Try to get him to eat, lots of small meals if he can’t tolerate a large one. We’re expecting some new medicines from Canada that may relieve the symptoms. Michael’s getting dressed; he’ll be out a few minutes.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Edward Rubin is Professor of Law and Political Science at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. He is the author of an academic book titled “Soul, Self, and Society: The New Morality and the Modern State.”
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”The Heatstroke Line” is his first novel. For more information, see his website at www.edwardrubin.com.
The Heatstroke Line: A Cli-Fi Novel
Authored by Edward L Rubin
List Price: $14.95
6″ x 9″ (15.24 x 22.86 cm)
Black & White on Cream paper
228 pages
Sunbury Press, Inc.
ISBN-13: 978-1620066263
ISBN-10: 1620066262
BISAC: Fiction / Science Fiction / Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic
For more information, please see:
http://www.sunburypressstore.com/The-Heatstroke-Line-9781…
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