The Tourmaline Archipelago is a place of wonder and grotesquerie which exists on the other side of our dreams. In our sleep we sail its seas and walk the streets of its cities like phantoms.
Sometimes we bring back souls from the other side when we wake. Lost, confused, and possessed of powers which leak through from their home, these exiles are pursued by the mysterious Hegemony, which seeks to enslave them. When a woman appears who exists in both worlds simultaneously, she must run for her life from enemies who will tear apart the boundaries of existence and plunge each into chaos in order to possess her abilities.
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[... the araka is an extremely pernicious d-sentiment parasite which sustains itself on the emotional trauma it causes by compelling its host to perpetrate acts of humiliation, degradation, and beastliness]***
(@snowbooks, 1 November 2014, first published 1 September 2013, 320 pages, ebook from @AmazonKindle)
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Well, I don't quite know what to make of this intense, incredible and ground breaking book. I feel quite exhausted after reading it and need a lie down. This is a complex book that I will probably need to re-read at least once to fully understand. So Tourmaline is this realm that exists in our sleep. It's an alternative reality of a kind. When we dream we can travel there. This also includes where we are in a coma though coma patients obviously spend far longer there. There are lot of complex characters in the book. The book's nemesis kicks ass, a Victorian scientist who has a weapon that can fix and destroy nightmares that bleed into reality. How cool is that? Why is she the nemesis again? Oh yeah, she can wake and sleep in both worlds which is unheard of and may be a pretty big threat. I've read a few of Brogen's books and have become quite a fan.
