Entropic Quest

Epic Fail #1

by Tom Lichtenberg, John Lichtenberg

In this dystopian fantasy, certain people are stuck at binary ages (8, 16, 32 ...) due to an unknown cause. They cannot age, or change, or become sick or even injured. By turns experimented on, abused, tortured and scorned, they are eventually exiled into a strange prison, an infinite forest world from which there is no escape. There they seek a cure, an antidote, a solution to their problem.Four people are selected, seemingly at random, by an invisible being who communicates to them through wild animals. They are told they must go somewhere, find something, take it somewhere and do something with it. This is all they know. The thing, whatever it is, could be anything, and it could be anywhere. As for the chosen ones, they have other problems. Two are bitter rivals in an endless and seemingly pointless game, another is a novice, newly torn from her everyday life, while the fourth has been an old man for much too long, for all of them are immortal, exiled with nothing into an infinite forest by a world that cannot tolerate their existence. As they struggle to work together to achieve a goal that none can even imagine, failure might just be their only option.

106 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 22, 2011

About the author

I've written a lot of stories, and one thing I've learned is that stories have a life. They want to be read, and they're brought to life by readers. Readers give them meaning, give them substance and fulfill their destinies. Stories aren't picky about who reads them. They welcome everyone. Money means nothing to them - they don't care how much the reader paid and they equally don't care how much the author made. Stories want to live and they want to be a part of your life. I often think of them as like paper boats you place upon a stream. You never know where they'll end up!

I tend to go for speculative fiction, sci-fi, satire, magical realism, post-modernism, eclectic lit, and generally stay away from horror, romance and paranormal unless there's some good humor in it. I like a light touch, with real ideas.

While a few of my stories are on Wattpad, lots more can be found (and all for free) at Smashwords.com, Feedbooks.com, Barnes and Noble, and the Apple iBookstore. If you really want to, you can also buy them cheaply on Amazon Kindle.

Reviews

[Galadriel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I know it was supposed to be an anti-fantasy, but it struck me as so... empty! Everything that happens seems so pointless, the world itself seems so pointless that in the end of the day, the book is actually boring. There are very few moments where something (almost) meaningful happens, one of them being the epilogue (which was going to be the reason for the two stars... but to be honest - if I have to force myself read any book that is not a textbook, it is not "okay". I simply did not like it.)

[Kayla · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was a rather interesting story, but I felt it could have been better. It all happened rather quickly.

[Dave Selby · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting story, it did sum up rather fast. But, overall I liked it.