Description
Dreams become nightmares, and nightmares become reality, in this surreal pair of novellas by author Jesse S. Smith.
From the paranoid conspiracy fueled techno-realism of The Reality Game to the introspective psychological wonderland of The Little Black Box, this nice pair of unpredictable stories takes the reader on an unforgettable journey through the unquiet mind.
The Reality Game
Tim works at a travel agency, reads a lot of books, and writes a blog in his free time. In other words, he’s just a regular guy: until the day when Destiny calls him on the telephone, and they arrange to meet for lunch at a nearby Thai food restaurant. Before the meal is over, Destiny persuades him to take part in the Reality Game.
After that, things get much stranger. Soon Tim finds himself swept up in events far beyond his comprehension.
But what are the Game Masters really up to? Is the Reality Game merely what it seems, a series of strange anonymous pranks played by people in masks who sometimes hand off mysterious packages in the dark? Is all of this just a bizarre form of extravagant flash-mob entertainment for bored trendy hipster types? Or is the Reality Game itself really a sort of convoluted cover for an unnamed and potentially sinister conspiracy? And even if Tim can finally learn Destiny’s true identity, will his questions still go unanswered?
It’s a bit like The Matrix meets John Fowles in the surreal adventure of The Reality Game. Brought to you by the author of The Battle of Hillsboro, this book is a great read for anyone who enjoys immersive disorienting psychological espionage techno thrillers. Yeah, you know you do! Get your copy today!
The Little Black Box
(Warning: This Plot Summary Contains Spoilers!)
Jeff is hanging out at Roger’s place one sunny summer morning when his friend, who happens to be a crazy chemist, accidentally hands him the wrong coffee mug, which happens to contain a highly concentrated dose of a very newly synthesized experimental psychedelic substance. Whoops! Soon Jeff finds himself wandering through an impressionistic otherworld, a sort of nightmare Wonderland where he is followed by a fearsome shadow which eventually introduces itself as Toby, the Keeper of the Little Black Box. After listening to a reading of lilting poetry and an at times slightly titillating ballad by a May Queen and an outlandish rustic, Jeff plunges through the tangled wilderness, scrambles in panic on a sheer cliff face, and encounters the dire Little Black Box, which turns out to be not so little after all: because the box itself, as it turns out, is a psychological projection that contains all of Jeff’s fears and doubts and worries, all of his self-criticism and his self-loathing: and there’s a lot of that! Will Jeff find himself trapped forever within the dark confines of the Little Black Box? Or will the wisdom of the Dragon of Reason be able to talk him down from his bad trip, and help him to return to the peaceful sunny day of delights?
The Story of the Book
First published in 2022 as a pair of novellas in a single volume, the core of The Reality Game and The Little Black Box was originally written from 1999 to 2002 or so, with additional incidents and details added piecemeal over the course of the next decade or more. As Smith notes in his Preface: “I wrapped up The Little Black Box in October of 2009; and finally brought The Reality Game to its present conclusion in late 2019… some twenty years” after he first began writing the project.
About the Author
Jesse S. Smith is a Nature-loving Pacific Northwesterner; a writer, musician, and multimedia creator.
