Spira Mirabilis: Fantastic Tales from the Marvelous Spiral Book PDF, ePub eBook

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Book Descriptions:

taQ’Lut Press presents "Spira Mirabilis: Fantastic Tales from the Marvelous Spiral", a lauded collection of eight thematically linked fantasy, horror, and science fiction short stories and novelettes, written by Ralph Sevush and illustrated by Susan Kaufman.

The tales in Spira Mirabilis employ a variety of storytelling techniques, styles, lengths and genres to re-invent a wide range of ancient myths and legends, including…

A golem for hire, in a battle with an agent of God -- Picasso’s tragic bargain with a satyr in post-war France -- sex, bugs, and academia on the verge of the apocalypse -- Gilgamesh retold as a tall tale of the old west -- robot love and revenge on a mining asteroid -- a Japanese wizard, the A-Bomb and time travel after WW II’s Battle of Saipan -- a phoenix and an infant escaping from a dying world in a parallel universe, and -- Arthurian lore re-conceived as Lovecraftian horror, playing out in our modern world.

Violent, funny, poignant and romantic, in varying proportions, these tales are also about the act of telling the story, and the storyteller, too.

Why "Spira Mirabilis?" Latin for "miraculous" or "marvelous" spiral, it is the name given by mathematician Jakob Bernoulli to the logarithmic curve with a uniquely "miraculous" quality: though the size of the spiral increases, its shape remains unchanged by each successive curve. As a result, the Spira Mirabilis has evolved in nature, appearing in certain forms such as the arms of spiral galaxies and hurricanes.

According to the author, “myths arise in different contexts throughout human history. They expand and evolve, yet, like the Spira Mirabilis, they remain essentially the same. And this is likely so because WE remain essentially the same, give or take a millennium. Whether in an isolated aboriginal society or in a multicultural metropolis, we spin stories throughout time that are similar, despite their differences in local tailoring. Why? We may be hard-wired for it. After all, our self-awareness is one of our defining traits as a species. Perhaps we have evolved because of an innate need to bring order out of chaos, to find meaning in random occurrence, and to understand our place in the universe.

“These astonishing stories are as funny, lyrical and literary as they are original, big-hearted and human. It’s as if some mad scientist has taken parts of Ray Bradbury, Neil Gaiman, Mickey Spillane, Ursula Le Guin and Edgar Allan Poe, and sewn them all together to create something magnificent and wholly original." -- David Lindsay-Abaire, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, librettist, lyricist and screenwriter (Rabbit Hole, Shrek the Musical)

“This remarkable collection highlights a voice that will remind you why you fell in love with science fiction in the first place. From the gritty characters to the landscapes they inhabit, Ralph Sevush is a true “world builder,” calling on well-known tropes and upending them with his own clever imagination. One of my favorite pieces of genre fiction I’ve read this year… truly marvelous!” -- Qui Nguyen, Playwright (Vietgone, She Fights Monsters), and Artistic Director of the off-Broadway theater company, Vampire Cowboys

“Masterfully careening from fantasy to horror to science fiction, this memorable collection boasts sly references from Gilgamesh to Superman, but like all great storytellers, his literary prowess is always in service to his ultimate quest: to illuminate the human heart." -- Doug Wright, Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, librettist and screenwriter (I Am My Own Wife, Grey Gardens, Little Mermaid)

Spira Mirabilis: Fantastic Tales from the Marvelous Spiral by Ralph Sevush

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