The Polyverse: Beneath the Pleasure Zone II

Beneath the Pleasure Zones #2

by Paul A. Green

In Beneath the Pleasure Zones 1 – The Rupture Paul Green created a dystopian world disrupted by the Qliphothic forces of chaos. Its sequel The Polyverse takes us deeper into the inscapes of a ravaged Britain, where the pagans of Leynebridge, the digerati of London and battling fundamentalist militias all struggle to control the flux of reality, under the overview of those sinister cyber-demons the Quantum Brothers.

In the midst of these upheavals, Lucas, poet and aspiring scribe of Thoth is still seeking Carla, his capricious sex-goddess, while Lombard the manic virtual reality tycoon undergoes a psycho-sexual metamorphosis that transforms his strategies of control. Ultimately things fall apart, on an apocalyptic scale, taking characters on journeys where everything they most love appears to be destroyed. Magicks work, but not as expected and signs in the sky can be deceptive. But from this maelstrom of horror, wonder and bleak farce, the possibility of Albion’s new beginning emerges.

Paul Green’s other work includes the novel The Qliphoth and the poetry collection The Gestaltbunker. His dramas, which have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, CBC Radio, RTE Ireland and Resonance FM, have been collected in Babalon and Other Plays – the title piece being his evocation of occult rocket scientist Jack Parsons. Based in Hastings, he has performed at numerous esoteric and literary events. He is not to be confused with the esteemed psychic biker of the same name, whose fascinating book is also published by Mandrake. insert link here?

‘Good storytelling always leaves you wanting to know what comes next… Plus Green has a talent for some splendidly epigrammatic and surprising phraseology. The bizarre events become satires for our fears and desires and fantasies about where magic and science and social fragmentation might take us…’ (Peter Carroll on Beneath the Pleasure Zones – The Rupture)

205 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 2, 2016

About the author

I grew up in London, and studied at Oxford and the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Poetry and short fiction has appeared in numerous magazines, ranging from New Worlds to Poetics Journal, while my novel The Qliphoth is available on Amazon, published by Libros Libertad. A digital version for Kindle is also available, published by Libros Libertad UK. My Selected Poems were published in 2012 by Shearsman Books.

Another novel Beneath the Pleasure Zones was recently published by Mandrake of Oxford and a sequel is due next year.

Plays include : The Dream Laboratory (CBC Canada) ; Ritual of the Stifling Air (BBC Radio 3); Power_Play (Capital Radio); The Voice Collection (RTE Ireland) ; The Mouthpiece (Resonance FM London); Terminal Poet (New Theatre Works Hereford) and Babalon ( Travesty Theatre London ).

Other audio work has been broadcast on CBC, WFMU-FM and the Pacifica Network. A selection can be found on the Radio QBSaul podcast and at www.culturecourt.com. founded by my long-time collaborator Lawrence Russell, which also features my essays and reviews.

Video work includes The Slow Learning, a collaboration with digital artist Jeremy Welsh as The Quantum Brothers. Recent work on-line includes our latest multi media collaboration A Beginner's Guide to Radial City. A selection of texts and images from the project is available in e-book format, while one of the Radial City stories is featured in the recent Unthank Books short fiction collection Unthology 2

Reviews

[Tim Pendry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am frustrated but probably no more than the author is (Paul is a friend so bear that in mind in the review). This is the conclusion to an earlier narrative Beneath The Pleasure Zones which, in turn, followed The Qliphoth.

The Qlipoth was reviewed by me as a five star read back in 2011 - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... - and the first part of Beyond the Pleasure Zones: The Rupture as a four star read in 2013 - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... I expressed frustration at the sudden ending then and now I express frustration at the consequent sudden start!

This second part relieves the initial frustration to a great extent but not entirely. It is still a very good read, bringing the whole story to a natural conclusion but it jumps into the story without any reminders or preparation. One book ends. The next starts. But three years have passed.

We now have short multiple narratives that require the first part to have been read. The two parts are one book and should be published as one book. If they had been published as one book, some judicious editing might also have made the whole more satisfying.

I am not complaining about the publisher here or the author because I suspect both are victims of a very tough book market. It is good to see both parts in print at all but I hope that they can be brought together one day and published with The Qlipoth as a Collector's Edition.

What, I think, is a minor masterpiece reflecting our times and its troubling uncertainties and anxieties may not easily be recognised as such because of this jarring. The reader is expected to remember detail from three years before in order to make sense of it all.

So I won't give more information about The Polyverse because anything I say is likely to be an inintended spoiler for anyone who has not read The Rupture.

But let's not do a 'Game of Thrones' either and bore us with a 100 pages of reminders in what would then be a sequel. Together, the 2-3 books as they stand give us a unique take on a world where the Last Trump may have much more specific meaning in November.

My recommendation? Make sure you read The Qlipoth if you can but don't read The Rupture until you have The Polyverse next to it. Then read the last two in sequence and don't leave too long a gap between them. And then enjoy!