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Phil Grimm's Progress
In a foreign land, the Traveler awakes from dreadful injury and embarks on a quest he doesn't understand. Magical guides instruct and deceive him as he seeks to answer the greatest question: "Who am I?" His journey to Mountain City enthralls the ten thousand. Can he possibly be what they believe he is?
Based in current-day Pittsburgh, Phil Grimm is a spy, an energy consortium's secret weapon to crack environmental activist networks. As the nation polarizes and extremism festers, he works undercover, but an older secret defines and divides him.
Lila could be the genuine article, or she could be just another protester Phil uses to help his clients stay a step ahead. She creates alternate realities for a living and wants to invite humanity to play, but her impish nature conceals rare wisdom. Can she look beyond Phil's deceit? What can her game teach us?
We peer into alternative worlds, inspired by great sages – ancient and modern, scientific and spiritual, from Lao Tzu to Einstein. How do these realms relate to Phil's life, to the Traveler's, to the dystopian future we glimpse?
The bottom falls from Phil's world. When he loses himself, is there any way back – for him or for them? The Traveler and Lila may hold the keys.
As corporations wage biological warfare, civilization teeters. New leaders step forward to learn, but how do these pioneers serve a crumbling society? When cataclysm rocks the Earth, fragile islands of sanity form. Can anyone arrest the fall or prepare for what follows it?
In a story about stories, Phil Grimm's Progress shows us how to see the plots we inhabit and to explore others. Ultimately, it invites and inspires us to create our own.
Based in current-day Pittsburgh, Phil Grimm is a spy, an energy consortium's secret weapon to crack environmental activist networks. As the nation polarizes and extremism festers, he works undercover, but an older secret defines and divides him.
Lila could be the genuine article, or she could be just another protester Phil uses to help his clients stay a step ahead. She creates alternate realities for a living and wants to invite humanity to play, but her impish nature conceals rare wisdom. Can she look beyond Phil's deceit? What can her game teach us?
We peer into alternative worlds, inspired by great sages – ancient and modern, scientific and spiritual, from Lao Tzu to Einstein. How do these realms relate to Phil's life, to the Traveler's, to the dystopian future we glimpse?
The bottom falls from Phil's world. When he loses himself, is there any way back – for him or for them? The Traveler and Lila may hold the keys.
As corporations wage biological warfare, civilization teeters. New leaders step forward to learn, but how do these pioneers serve a crumbling society? When cataclysm rocks the Earth, fragile islands of sanity form. Can anyone arrest the fall or prepare for what follows it?
In a story about stories, Phil Grimm's Progress shows us how to see the plots we inhabit and to explore others. Ultimately, it invites and inspires us to create our own.
426 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 3, 2018
7 people are currently reading
142 people want to read
About the author
D.E. Fraley
2 books3 followersI live in the UK, in a bit of London called Richmond. I moved to this fair country in 1998 after growing up in Ohio and living in different parts of the U.S. and Europe.
Three wonderful teenage boys call me Dad, not without justification. Their lovely mother and I split a few years ago, after 19 years of marriage. They all live a mile down the road. My amazing partner, J, lives just around the corner from my one-bedroom flat, with her dog, Jack.
Aside from these super people, my interests include music, cycling and travel. On the music front, I sing and play piano - mainly to myself. With cycling, my days of competitive sportives and gritty urban commuting have largely given way to short, bracing rides in Richmond Park, occasionally punctuated by longer ones in the Surrey Hills. The cycling overlaps with the travel as well. J has a VW camper van, and we travel around Europe with the bikes (and kayaks) on the back. Wherever we stay, we look to take in the scenery at human-powered pace.
But all of these interests, and my whole life, take place within a fundamental curiosity I have. I guess you could say that it's a curiosity I live. Some would call it philosophical, others spiritual, some even religious. Fewer would call it scientific, but it is certainly empirical, based in my own experience.
Three wonderful teenage boys call me Dad, not without justification. Their lovely mother and I split a few years ago, after 19 years of marriage. They all live a mile down the road. My amazing partner, J, lives just around the corner from my one-bedroom flat, with her dog, Jack.
Aside from these super people, my interests include music, cycling and travel. On the music front, I sing and play piano - mainly to myself. With cycling, my days of competitive sportives and gritty urban commuting have largely given way to short, bracing rides in Richmond Park, occasionally punctuated by longer ones in the Surrey Hills. The cycling overlaps with the travel as well. J has a VW camper van, and we travel around Europe with the bikes (and kayaks) on the back. Wherever we stay, we look to take in the scenery at human-powered pace.
But all of these interests, and my whole life, take place within a fundamental curiosity I have. I guess you could say that it's a curiosity I live. Some would call it philosophical, others spiritual, some even religious. Fewer would call it scientific, but it is certainly empirical, based in my own experience.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 10, 2019
What a mind-blowing journey. I've got to be honest, the first third of the book took a lot of concentration, but once I understood how everything was coming together this turned into an illuminating book that really did provide a myth for modern times.
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May 26, 2018This is my book, so of course I love it.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews