THE PURPOSE OF REALITY [SOLAR & LUNAR] BY STEVE SIMPSON
RELEASE DATE: September 6, 2022
GENRE: SOLAR: Speculative Fiction Short Stories | LUNAR: Speculative Poetry
BOOK PAGES:
SOLAR: The Purpose of Reality: Solar – Meerkat Press
LUNAR: The Purpose of Reality: Lunar – Meerkat Press
SUMMARY:
Steve Simpson’s remarkable collections of speculative short stories and poetry, both with illustrations, are dream-like, playful and wildly inventive. Here is a selection of the beings within:
The detective, who carelessly morphs into birds and insects, and cannot choose between brooding and moping, until a stylish grayscale client with retrolescent highlights appears.
Proteus, Homo Sapiens Beta, who discovered fire and put it out, who created a rudimentary encyclopedia that he pedaled across Gondwanaland on weekends.
At Claire’s school, the walls were cardboard, and her chain-smoking math teacher never allowed numbers to be mentioned. He used a drawing of a press to flatten slices of air into tissue paper for kites, and he was Claire’s favorite, because all the other teachers were ghosts. One day, with a little pasta and a little mambo, everything changed.
Aldona worked in the Damasco Auto scrapyard, and when the electromagnet on the crane burned out and dropped the blue Passat, no one saw the electric-winged shape that had been trapped by the magnet. After all, there was nothing to be concerned about: the alien space fleet had been driven away by the earth’s nuclear defenses.
BUY LINKS:
SOLAR: Meerkat Press | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository
LUNAR: Meerkat Press | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Steve Simpson lives in Sydney, and he’s never been able to work out exactly what he does, although he would probably feed the cat if he had one. His poetry and short stories have appeared in various magazines and anthologies, and in the visual arts, works created with his image evolution software have been shown at several exhibitions. In the sciences, he’s published over 200 research papers, most recently in clinical neurology, where he’s developed a unique system for visualising mental states via EEG. Awards include the Peter Doherty Innovation Prize, for technology to make vehicles safer.
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For many years, Steve Simpson has shared his intricate poetry on his WordPress blog and Instagram, giving his readers a glimpse of a frequently whimsical world grounded and yet elevated in science and a caprice unbounded. Now, he shares his poems, science fiction short stories, and artwork in THE PURPOSE OF REALITY [SOLAR & LUNAR].
SOLAR, his collection of short fiction, is an interesting mix of mostly dystopian-oriented science fiction, frequently finding the gruesome and somewhat savage. Most all of the stories are set in Brazil, integrating an almost magical realism with science fiction. My favorite story, however, was the very first one, “Lighter Than Claire,” which is sharp, unexpected, and endearing, a strange but very welcome combination. As I read, I was almost expecting a Kazuo Ishiguro-Never Let Me Go-type of story but received something more embracing, kinder, and unforgettable. In other stories, characters deal with disease, famine, vengeance, and darkness.
Please do note that I am not a reader of much science fiction so my rating is swayed by that.
LUNAR is Steve Simpson’s poetry selection. For me, LUNAR is more solar. It’s sunny, frequently humorous, with textured poems sometimes almost told tongue-in-cheek. While his short stories visit a bleak setting, his poetry elevates. At times you need to Google but you will be enlightened and all the better for it. Simpson’s command of language and whimsy is brilliant.
While I certainly can’t claim to be an expert on art, only an expert on eating German Chocolate Cake, the accompanying artwork is intricate, beautifully colorful, and detailed and seems perfect for the stories and poetry.
Both books are illuminating, unexpected, and a definite break from the usual.
I received ARCs in exchange for an honest review.
LUNAR 🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋
SOLAR 🦋🦋🦋🐞
Thank you so much, Sascha. 🧡💚 I’m embarrassed. 😳 It’s been a long time hasn’t it? I’m trying to be enigmatic these days, I want to come up with a fake Sock Media persona and I’m an emojical try-hard 🧦. I may take up smoking again. But since you’ve known me for quite a while, I’ll confess that I’ve stopped drinking (gasp!). Not very writerly, I know. I do bleed over the keyboard sometimes, like Hemingway. But only when I’ve cut myself slicing the potatoes.😸
No pinot grigio? Say it ain’t so! You’re very welcome, Steve. Your work is always a joy–except for your dark stuff. That almost had me cowering in a corner. 😉 I might suggest you do not cut potatoes over your keyboard? Just a thought.
I didn’t read that word P… G. .. Actually I have a bottle of Pinot Noir in the liquor cabinet. In case of emergency, like the universe is on fire. You can make a great summer sunset drink by floating it on orange juice with ice. Durp.
Where was I? Oh, if you are inattentive, clumsy, disorganized, and careless, the scenario is preparing potatoes in the usual place, and deciding you need to type something. Like “durp.” I know this for a reason.
I’m sorry about the virtual cowering. Moving on to my darkness, I had a secret that I never shared publicly. But the publisher organised an article about my writing, and I knew that if I didn’t share it, I never would. So I also posted about it on WP a few weeks ago: “The Snow Globe.” Creating suspense here.
Now I’m thinking I should open a bottle of wine every time I post on WP—it’s pretty rare.