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Phantom Engineer
A young man’s search for universal truth through the power of song.
Dimly aware of some strange, superhero-like gift, one obscure young man attempts to navigate his way through the routine of local government on his way to become a very unusual broadcast star.
Delivering post from one department to another, our hero encounters others who unknowingly share his gift, one ex-musician and one mysterious, and non-committal, benefactor. The others include a campaigning journalist, a TV presenter, an infamous local businessman, and the muse to his ill-formed message, the strange and beautiful Annie.
It is Annie that provides full access to the Fischy Files, an information resource that provides shape and colour to the humdrum drift of his day-job. But all is not what it seems. What, if anything, do the ex-musician, Daisy Devon, and the ‘benefactor’, Keith Orr, understand about his gift and his quest?
In a world waiting for the Internet, the young man’s haphazard quest finds time to examine the power of the press, the lure of television, the enhancement of psychoactive drugs and…the curious ubiquity of trains.
In this parody of speculative fiction, Phantom Engineer plays what if? in a UK free of an (abdicated) monarchy yet governed by elected law firms, and where familiar technological advances have occurred in new and odd ways, or not at all, since the Second World War. The UK capital has moved 100 miles north and a deterrent was quickly found for the spread of nuclear radiation.
With a title inspired by an unused Bob Dylan song title, the environment of Phantom Engineer encompasses the urban sprawl of gay bars, strip clubs, art galleries, sink estates, retail banks, office blocks and ultimately, showpiece architecture. And, time and again, railway tracks.
Despite the satire, Phantom Engineer promises no happy ending and could be interpreted as a cautionary tale for a fool and his tummy.
Dimly aware of some strange, superhero-like gift, one obscure young man attempts to navigate his way through the routine of local government on his way to become a very unusual broadcast star.
Delivering post from one department to another, our hero encounters others who unknowingly share his gift, one ex-musician and one mysterious, and non-committal, benefactor. The others include a campaigning journalist, a TV presenter, an infamous local businessman, and the muse to his ill-formed message, the strange and beautiful Annie.
It is Annie that provides full access to the Fischy Files, an information resource that provides shape and colour to the humdrum drift of his day-job. But all is not what it seems. What, if anything, do the ex-musician, Daisy Devon, and the ‘benefactor’, Keith Orr, understand about his gift and his quest?
In a world waiting for the Internet, the young man’s haphazard quest finds time to examine the power of the press, the lure of television, the enhancement of psychoactive drugs and…the curious ubiquity of trains.
In this parody of speculative fiction, Phantom Engineer plays what if? in a UK free of an (abdicated) monarchy yet governed by elected law firms, and where familiar technological advances have occurred in new and odd ways, or not at all, since the Second World War. The UK capital has moved 100 miles north and a deterrent was quickly found for the spread of nuclear radiation.
With a title inspired by an unused Bob Dylan song title, the environment of Phantom Engineer encompasses the urban sprawl of gay bars, strip clubs, art galleries, sink estates, retail banks, office blocks and ultimately, showpiece architecture. And, time and again, railway tracks.
Despite the satire, Phantom Engineer promises no happy ending and could be interpreted as a cautionary tale for a fool and his tummy.
338 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 31, 2019
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