Fractal Despondency

by Trent Zelazny

Was she an angel from above, or a walking time bomb of doom?

His life having crumbled, Blake Gladstone returns to his hometown of Santa Fe, and tries to settle back into the unsatisfying life he'd had before he left for Florida. When he meets Denise, a pretty young blonde with a bag full of tricks, his sad routine breaks, and the more they get to know each other, the more Blake can't figure out if he's on a road to salvation, or a road back to hell.

"Trent Zelazny is off and running. I have someone new to admire." --Joe R. Lansdale "

Trent Zelazny has already begun to carve out his own genre niche. He's got the right stuff to make fiction both engrossing and literate." --Tom Piccirilli

"A gift for storytelling is in Trent Zelazny's genes." --Charles Ardai

"Trent Zelazny will surprise you, entertain you, and take you places you've never been before." --Warren Lapine

"Obtain Trent Zelazny's Fractal Despondency. It's your only hope of escape. Break out! Read the book!" --John Shirley, author of Black Glass

"Passion. Power! Fear! Zelazny is a force of wonder . . . and darkness!" --Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.

76 pages, Paperback

First published April 2, 2011

About the author

Trent Zelazny was an American author of crime, horror, and fantastical fiction.

Reviews

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, this is NOT going to be a book for everyone. But it should be. For me it drips with power and passion and brutal honesty. Zelazny holds nothing back as he explores the shattered fragments of a man's demolished life, and in doing so he takes the reader deeper than they may actually want to go.

It's tragic as hell but there are still glimmers of hope here, as Blake Gladstone seems more and more aware of what he's doing and what is happening, as he takes more personal inventory of his own self-loathing and fear - something that exists in all of us to one or another degree.This book is entertaining and full of humanity, movingly written, and would be an excellent text for psychology courses.

I think I have read everything currently available by Zelazny, but this one is my favorite.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review from Underwords: www.underwordsblog.com

Fractal Despondency by Trent Zelazny is dark and gritty novella, filled with an honesty of experience that will leave you feeling as if you just walked a mile in Blake Gladstone’s shoes. From Blake’s first appearance on the page, the grimness of his situation is made painfully clear. Newly returned home to Sante Fe from Florida, he bears the physical and emotional wounds that have bled away every ounce of joy and love that had once lived inside of him. However, when Denise comes into his life, a beautiful blond radiating excitement and trouble, Blake finally feels something. Only he doesn’t know if that’s a good or bad thing.

Zelazny has deftly captured the desperation of emotion that a person feels when confronted with and forced to deal with the loss of a loved one. Secrets, lies, mistakes – all these things bubble to the surface as Blake’s past and present collide in the “now” that he is experiencing as a result of his encounter with Denise.

From the writing to the characters to the plot of the story, Zelazny’s prose will reel you in and make you wish that you could do something, anything to help Blake overcome the affects of the trauma he has suffered. You can’t help but to want to assist him, all the while knowing there is nothing you can do except to go along for the ride to see if Blake will be okay in the end. It is clear that he must go through this experience if he is ever going to reclaim anything of his former self, and even then he may not succeed.

Fractal Despondency is a must read novella for anyone with a taste for dark, noir literature. Trent Zelazny is someone you’ll want to follow when his next book comes out.

[Jeremy Maddux · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trent Zelazny has had a rough go at things, not the least of which because of the father he has had to measure up to, sci-fi/fantasy legend Roger Zelazny, who wrote the epic Cities of Amber series. There are other things in Trent's backstory which I can see channeled into this distant meditation on loss, and how some people just fall through the cracks. Some people are just born lost. Blake Gladstone is one of these people. His on again-off again fiancee, Sarah, took her own life, and when Blake fails in his attempt to join her, he meets a girl of bohemian appetites, an adventurous little minx named Denise Loreaux who traipses through the city, leading him on adventures which leave him little the wiser. Amidst this revelry with Denise, Blake recedes into alcoholism and drug abuse, quits his job and may even be an accomplice to murder.

If you're looking for something epic, you won't find it in this haunting, minimalist work. Trent seems right at home turning inward, surveying the scope of a damaged human being's animus, id, ego, the desires that drive him and the vices that plague him. Somewhere in this novel, there is a message of quiet desperation, of giving up, but remaining open to salvation. That's the best any of us can hope for, really, and I leave you with this quote from this very underrated scribe:

"Sometimes things are set against you. They're set against you and the sooner you give up, the better."

If you're strong enough to stare into such an abyss, then you will find much enjoyment in Fractal Despondency.

[Maggie Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

(As posted on Amazon) I've been through some personal tragedy. This novella, short as it was, spoke to me on a level of loss and despair. It is not a happy book. It's a book about rage and frustration and grief and apathy, madness and self-destruction. And in some respects, it's about the resilience of the human experience. It struck me as less fiction and more creative non-fiction, an honest commentary on the crap life can heap on a person, how many kicks a man can take, the kind of tragedy and personal horror a person can live through.

Do not buy this book simply because it's good. Buy this book because it reveals an important facet of life, a facet that you've perhaps seen before but not quite from this angle. Buy this book because it says something about relationships and personal connections, speaks the truth in that there aren't always happy endings. Sometimes, there aren't any endings at all. Sometimes, there's only life, left open and raw. Continuing on as it does with all its pain and misery and the dim, impossible spark of hope, always at risk of going out forever but not quite there yet.

[Leigh Lane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blake has returned to his hometown after surviving profound heartache and loss, only to meet the beautiful and carefree Denise. He soon realizes he’s in over his head, following a virtual angel from Hell who will leave him once again forever changed.

FRACTAL DESPONDENCY is hands down the best work I’ve read this year. With brilliant prose that weaves a painful past with an uncertain future, the story is a bittersweet account of a young man trying to find his place in an unforgiving world. It is an absolute must-read for literary fiction fans.

[Larry Donnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fractal Despondency
By Trent Zelazny

Despair.
Fractal Despondency is a study in the despair of the human spirit.
Zelazny moves you through Blake's apathy in his life as he begins to feel. He traverses the depths of this despair as Blake begins to question and well with anger.
Blake is a flawed and brilliant character and I look forward to more.
Zelazny is revving up his Dark Engine.
Come along for the ride.

[Leonard II · Rating 5 out of 5]

Suspenseful and mystifying. If you want a gritty page-turner, don't pass up the opportunity to seize this book and allow it to pull you in. Zelazny's Fractal Despondency is a must read!

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trent's honest tell me what the character is really thinking first person style give you the full critical depression experience. There should be a screenplay for this.

[Akira Watts · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a rough little novella. The aftermath of a tragedy punctuated with further tragedy, which left me, as a reader, feeling a bit worked over.

It's also an interesting piece, because there are a lot of things about it that really, technically speaking, shouldn't work. The prose is flat, even at times a little clumsy. Of the two main characters, we spend the entire story in the head of one, while the other remains a mystery. There are flashbacks, and I have a personal and probably not entirely justifiable issue with flashbacks - they tend to kill the flow of the narrative. And there is no real feeling of resolution at the end of it all, just a tentative beginning of something further.

But, but, but. All these seemingly malformed pieces, when combined with the brutal thrust of the story, come together quite nicely. The flattened prose perfectly mirrors the mental state of the single knowable character (And there is one single line, at the culmination of the flashbacks, that is beautiful and terrible and not at all flat. If there was one place in the story for a perfect line, that was it). And said character is so very crushed by the aftermath of tragedy and so very much in his own head that the story simply *has* to stay there with him. The flashbacks add a needed tension and flow to the storyline. And of course there's no resolution, in the wake of one tragedy compounded by another, the tentative step Blake takes at story's end is about the only direction things can go while remaining honest.

This is a hard piece to read. It is raw and painful and it won't leave you in a happy mood. (And, as a resident of Santa Fe who would very much like to leave, seeing the city through the lens of this piece makes me want to leave all the more). But it is honest and the narrative has a driving force. And it gets under your skin. Two days after reading it, it still sits in the back of my head, gnawing at the old brain stem.

Recommended for anyone who doesn't demand a happy ending.

[Pearce Hansen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story upset me and as a result I give it five stars, because it accomplished the mission. I'm unsure if pissing off little-old-me was actually Trent's prime objective however: the piece was more like a very personal account -- I'm unsure if I'd wish to know just how much of this was literally autobiographical.

I've sat in that same ditch homeless, holding a substance representing the last few dollars and cents I had access to (whether the drug was alcohol, or heroin, or crack is no matter -- I won't specify which was my bane of choice). Such addictive, self destructive behavior is confusing to onlookers, but just as confusing to we addicts ourselves.

You ask us "Why are you doing this?" and when we shrug, we're not blowing you off -- we're as clueless as y'all. Is it to feel something different? Feel more? Feel less? We can't tell you, and Trent captured that ambivalence perfectly, along with the sense that the addiction and the unspoken motivations behind it are an indigestible lump that will choke us if we try to swallow it, but that's too heavy for us to set down.

The writing was top notch, and kept me reading what I increasingly considered an unpleasant tale -- kudos for that seductiveness Mr. Zelazny. The characters were surprisingly sympathetic and well rounded. At it's best, the writing was redolent of James M. Cain or Jim Thompson without being at all derivative.

This story is worth your reading and I recommend it, despite me not liking it -- but then, I've slammed books to the ground when they've pissed me off too much, so take my ambivalence about this piece as a RECOMMENDATION, rather than a snipe on my part -- Trent evoked real emotions in me with this story, it wasn't a walk through for either of us.

[Peter Giglio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two broken people, Blake and Denise, meet at a bad time in Trent Zelazny's brilliant novella, Fractal Despondency. We've seen this setup before, but not like this. Not with this level of intimacy and insight. The love story here isn't between Blake and Denise. But this is, make no mistake about it, a love a story. A very dark, very haunting, very touching love story. They type of love story that leaves permanent scars on your flesh and blood stains in the carpet. It hurts. It's real. It's the type of literature we need.

I don't write reviews often. Don't really have time to. If something entertains me, great; move on to the next. But this one will stick with me for a long time. Hell, I want to read it again. I almost never feel that way. Can't remember the last time I did.

When I finished Fractal Despondency, I hugged the book. Not because I pitied Zelazny's tragic characters, as I might have if the story had been told by a lesser author; rather, because I cared about them.

This is the first time I've read Zelazny's prose. His writing is better than good. Better than great. It's downright masterful! I'll be back for more.

[Robin]

Fractals come about when the input of a specific equation is the output of the last iteration of work with the exact same equation. Fractal despondency, then, would be depression that results from doing the same damn thing over and over, hoping that the different starting point would produce a better result? That's my best guess. This is a story about a guy who destroys people near him by indulging his alcoholic tendencies. As has been established in prior reviews, I have no tolerance for drunks. I choose to believe that the protagonist's action means a departure from the pattern rather than a continuation of it, but it can go either way.

So let's talk a little bit about mechanics. They were imperfect, which is a pet peeve of mine, but the artistry of the writing did to some extent make up for them.

I'm giving no stars because I hate the subject matter of the book, which would result in a rating way lower than the quality of the writing by itself would suggest.

[Jennifer Labelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trent Zelazny does a great job luring his readers into the life of Blake Galdstone, and his on going struggle to cope with the loss of his beloved Sarah. Stuck in a dead end job and living with his mother, Blakes outlook on life is pretty grim until Denise Loreaux mysteriously enters his life. She's a mix of heaven and hell, a seductress, yet also a tempting escape of spiced rum, weed, and new adventures of good and bad.

This story is definitely a unique tale, that is far from the happily ever after norm. Yet I found myself drawn to it as I could relate to some things that went on. I was hooked right from the unbelievably beautiful, yet bitter sweet dedication to the authors very own love, gone too soon. The pain was well described, the characters quite disturbing at times, and the suspense was unpredictable and luring right until the end. This unique plot is worth the read.

[Bryce Pearson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one sticks with me. Fractal Despondency is dark. It is noir. It isn't tough guy noir, with macho guys kicking ass and heists gone wrong. There is a dame, and she fits into the "femme fatale" category, but she is an unusual one. There were times when I couldn't figure out if this was all really happening, or simply taking place inside of Blake Gladstone's head. To me it often reads like poetry. Gloomy poetry, and the story is on the depressing side, almost too much at times. But throughout the whole thing, Fractal Despondency feels true, honest, human. I rank it high up there with truly great reads (and you can read it quickly. It's a short book.) I'm still thinking about it. I recommend it for sure. To read Fractal Despondency is to take a trip through real human despair. A beautiful book.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, I can understand the title. The story was despondency in a gut-clenching, nightmarish way. But it was also extremely well written. The description brought the characters and landscape to life in my imagination.

I have to admit that I found the story depressing. That's the only reason that it's 4 stars instead of 5. But maybe the timing was just bad. If I'd read this during a less stressful period in my life, I might well have given it 5 stars. On the other hand, if I'd been sufficiently depressed to start with, I'd never have been able to finish the book.

I think, though, that it is prerequisite to have been, or at least been close to, a similar sort of bleak, dark place in the soul in order to appreciate some aspects of this book.

[Dave Versace · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author's powers of description are outstanding - the evocation of mood, the sense of place and the character's internal state are all strong and effective. That said, I just could not love the construction as a whole. I did not get a sense of rythmn from the pacing, which felt like a heavy-footed lumber to the inevitable conclusion from start to finish. Even several instances of what should have been punctuating events - hot sex, stark violence - have no sense of surprise or excitement to them. I get that it's a reflection of the protagonist's emotional detachment - and as I said a very effective one - but it makes for a grinding read rather than a provocative or compelling one.

[Jonathan Woodrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's one thing that's clear from all the other reviews, so I don't need to point it out, but this is a pretty bleak piece of fiction.
Without giving anything away, Blake Gladstone is a broken man who returns to his home town after a personal tragedy, finding only apathy, senseless violence, empty sex, and disappointment.
Trent has a knack for taking the depressing and magnifying it to the point of absurdity. The mundane, repetitive relentlessness of life is exposed for what it is: meaningless.
I read somewhere that Trent prefers the novella length, as it suits his storytelling style the best. Fractal Despondency is a perfect example of this.

[Lee Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gimping through his grief over a lost love, lost in a way that can only damage, Blake Gladstone has much to recover from: choices she made, choices he made. As he struggles to go on with life in Santa Fe, he meets Denise, who introduces him to 24/7 spiced rum. And danger.

Has Denise come to rescue him, or finish him off? Blake must deal with more choices: choices she made, choices he made. She disappears and reappears, and when she does, Zelazny portrays it with an electrifying sense of doom. The characters are disturbing, their pain is palpable, the suspense is taut. Recommended.

[Laurel Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fractal Despondency is not an easy book to read, but it is beautifully written, powerful, insightful, and well worth it. Trent Zelazny has a rare talent, he makes the reader feel everything Blake Gladstone feels. For the duration of the book we fully enter his world and feel his pain, his loss, and his hope. We anxiously hope that he will make it, that he will survive this part of his life. It is hard to read only because the emotions are so potent that they can be almost overwhelming at times, but as hard as it is to read, it is even harder to put down. I cannot recommend this book enough.

[Murkky · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the first page it is well known just how pathetic Blake Gladstone's life really is.  Standing across the street of his dead-end job at a diner, a sexy blond approaches him for a light.  She seduces him with her alcohol, drugs and sexy-self. I found it difficult to finish this read.

This is a pretty gritty book, if thats your cup of tea. Not really for anyone below 16-18 years old. I was surprised by the content and would prefer something a bit lighter.

* Goodreads contest winner *

[Johanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story follows Blake as scraps along at rock bottom either to end up digging deeper or climbing out. Trent Zelazny writes in a way that you feel, see, taste and smell the experiences that the main character is in.

If you liked this book, check out Butterfly Potion by Zelazny as well.Butterfly Potion

[Steven · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't like this one at all. The basic storyline and the few action sequences were well done but there was also a lot of nothing happening except the lighting and smoking of cigarettes. The whole novella could have been compressed down to a short story. The main reason for the one star is Zelazny's over-reliance on the indefinite prononun "it." One of my editorial pet peeves and he just goes overboard with the "it" and "it was" constructions in this novella in a way I didn't see in others.

[D. Lemme · Rating 5 out of 5]

A hauntingly dark and broken story about Blake, the main character, and his dark and broken life. Zelazny's immediate and descriptive writing draws you into this fractal landscape against your will. You feel Blake's pain as he relives it over and over again. The sexy and dangerous Denise lures and entices until you are close enough to feel the slap on your cheek. Fractal Despondency is as alluring as it is alarming, but it will keep you guessing until the last page.

[Jennifer Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've seen the word "gritty" used to describe books but have never before read a work that I would have used that word... until this one. It is a haunting tale that took me very little time to read (once I had the book in my hands). Mr. Zelazny has a way with words that is effortless for the reader but conveys real and clear emotion. Do yourself a favor and check this one out!

[Anastasia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deeply moving, thought provoking, and the kind of read that will make you feel uncomfortable, but will drive you to continue and read the whole thing. It's a novella that is partly auto-biographical. It really moved me and I've read this multiple times, along with the sequel - A Crack in Melancholy Time.

If you're going to read only one Zelazny, read this one. It will make you hunger for more.

[Jesse · Rating 5 out of 5]

The more Trent Zelazny writes, the better he gets, the more serious his work gets. I was more than pleased with this one. Dark and uncomfortable, sad, but with an odd and touching beauty. A story of mistakes and self-loathing, but also one of hope. Quite a moving story. Definitely recommend it.

[Stacy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. This is short, but very haunting and disturbing. It feels a little like it may need a sequel. If one comes out, yes, I'd read it.

*Not light-hearted
*Has graphic moments
so be warned.

Oh- full disclosure, I won this in a GoodReads Giveaway.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in 1 sitting. Its got few pages in the book. When I started, it actually draw me in the story but when it ends.. it didn't feel like it was finish. I do hope this author contiunes. Thank you for writing a really good book.

[Pete · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whoa. Unsettling. Now I have to read all of his books, like I did his father's.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was well written but very depressing.