News from Tom Arden
January 2005 – New Tom Arden Novel released
Tom’s latest novel, the weird science fiction adventure The Translation of Bastian Test, is available now from fantasy author Storm Constantine’s exciting new publishing house, Immanion Press.
Tom has worked on The Translation of Bastian Test for twelve years. “I put it aside many times to write other things, but the characters kept drawing me back. I loved the mystery and the weird comedy, and I had to discover how it would end. It was a book that seemed to be written already, waiting for me to uncover it. I had to be patient, but I think it’s been worth it. I think it’s one of my best books.”
Tom adds: “Mind you, I’ve had a hell of a time getting this book out. Publisher after publisher turned it down, saying it was ‘just too weird’ or ‘too difficult to categorise’. So far as I’m concerned, both those comments are high praise. I’m thrilled that the book is finally appearing from Immanion Press.”
So what is the book about? Here’s what is says on the cover:
“On a rocky Scottish coast lies Castle Drumhallurick, ruinous home of a long-lost laird. But who is the reclusive millionaire who has taken over the castle? And what is it that links him to a fantastical alien world, circling the faraway star system of Antares?
“It is 1926, and a horrifying scientific experiment is about to unfold, altering forever the life of a boy called Bastian Test.
“For all his life, Bastian has been kept in seclusion, shut away from the world by his eccentric artist mother. Now, after her sudden death, Bastian learns that he has a guardian he has never heard of before, and a mysterious destiny that lies in wait for him on the rocky shores of Drumhallurick.
“Cast into the world, Bastian meets one peculiar character after another: cocktail-swilling flapper-girl, Magnolia Touch; pin-striped lawyer Mr Quench, who dresses after hours in the strangest of ways; Sir Farley Elphinstone, florid Shakespearean actor-manager, with his unnervingly odd twin son and daughter. There is stuttering bird-watcher Mr Bridie, and Jolly, the former cannibal from the heart of Africa. There is a woman who stares from a window with a mask-like face. There is the crazed sadistic scientist, Dr Feuer. But who is really good and who is evil? And will Bastian find out, before it is too late?
“From the author of offbeat fantasy epic The Orokon comes a bizarre science fiction adventure, rich in mystery, malevolence and something close to magic. Erotic, moving, hilarious and disturbing, at once coming of age story, gothic mystery and macabre phantasmagoria, The Translation of Bastian Test is a haunting, atmospheric work of visionary imagination that will haunt the mind forever.”
Tom adds: “Well, it’s certainly haunted my mind for long enough! If you like my previous work, I think you’ll like this. If you like science fiction with a gothic twist, I think you’ll like this. This is the weirdest thing I’ve ever done. It actually disturbs me.”Read the first chapter online, and order now from Immanion Press
November 2002
The entire OROKON series is now available in paperback with the publication this month of EMPRESS OF THE ENDLESS DREAM, the final OROKON book, in Gollancz paperback at £6.99.
Meanwhile the first volume, THE HARLEQUIN’S DANCE, is now available in large-format Gollancz paperback in the US (a special US trade paperback edition), priced at $14.95, and Canada, priced at $22.95.
OROKON translations are so far available in German, Russian and Czech.
October 2002
Tom’s novel SHADOW BLACK, a bizarre gothic comedy-drama about a famous ex-movie star and the crippled media baron who holds her prisoner in his remote mansion, is now available for £8.99+p&p; from independent publisher Big Engine.
Tom says: “SHADOW BLACK isn’t really a new novel. It was my first-completed novel, written in 1992, but I was never able to publish it at the time. Publisher after publisher said the same thing — it was good, but ‘too difficult to categorise’. Well, perhaps — but I thought that was a good thing. I think it’s one of the best things I’ve ever written and I’m really glad that it’s finally available.”
Is it SF? Fantasy? Horror? “Yes, yes, and yes. And no, no and no. Ultimately, I suppose, it’s a satire, filled with grotesque characters and weird situations. I often get people telling me that the wicked Aunt Umbecca, from the OROKON books, is their favourite of my characters. In that case, I think they should read SHADOW BLACK, because I’m pretty sure they’ll love the double act of Sunset Boulevard-style Hollywood goddess Yardley Urban and her outrageous pantomime-dame of a best friend, Mrs Van Voyd …”