Blue shift

by Tim Chapman

Young astronomer Will Bonneman is drifting through his doctoral studies in the university city of Porteris. He’s investigating the large-scale movements of the universe, when he’s not losing himself in the city’s nocturnal delights of drink, drugs and dancing. He’s even more distracted when he falls for Eve, an anarchist protesting an increasingly authoritarian government and an escalating war on a distant island. Eve’s gang of suburban art terrorists are talking about a revolution, but Will comes to realise that it’s his own work that could overthrow the old orthodoxies. His research hints at something disturbingly wrong with the universe – something that could demolish the foundations of cosmology, if only Will can prove it. A constellation of dropouts and misfits orbit the pubs, clubs and tenements of Porteris, searching for meaning in sex, drugs, politics and fringe science – until a brutal act of repression brings their world crashing down. And from the wreckage, something new could emerge. Blue Shift is a grimly comic tale about the ways we try and make sense of an indifferent universe, and the often painful ways we realise our limits.

248 pages, Paperback

Published September 30, 2017