New Release: A Transcendental Habit – James Callan

QSFer James Callan has a new gay biopunk book out: A Transcendental Habit.

Palindrome is a sprawling, sordid, mega-metropolis populated by roborgs, shapeshifers, holographic kids, and rats the size of Labradors. Among its myriad of destitute city-dwellers is Jarred, a down-and-out nobody whose tedious existence amplifies into an ultra-bizarre escapade after meeting Bee, an alluring enigma loaded with bionic upgrades and brimming with Squidge, a coveted drug new to the black market that enhances anything it touches.

With Bee by his side and Squidge in his system, Jarred savors a newfound zest for life. But when the founder of Squidge, an unhinged zealot corporate mogul, becomes the target of Bee’s obsessive need for revenge, Jarred finds himself immersed in a violent feud between ex-lovers who have the power to save or destroy the world.

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Excerpt

Nyvyn was a real heap of shit. The place I lived. The place I was born. The place I didn’t want to be. Nyvyn, which means ‘little saint,’ or ‘nephew,’ or ‘saint worshiper,’ was a stack-upon-stack, multi-layer collection of filth and degradation. I loathed it, as did we all.

Nyvyn. No one calls it that. At least we don’t, the people who live here. Flip the letters around and you get the same thing; Nyvyn. So we who live here call it Palindrome. Or ‘the Dome.’ Or ‘Drome.’ Or ‘the Saint.’ Or ‘Shit stack.’ Or sometimes we don’t say anything, we just sigh and become wistful about places we’d rather be.

I ducked my head under some rusted grating that served as a walkway above me. A hobo or a drunk or a drunk hobo cascaded warm urine down to tinkle upon my shoulder. I sighed and moved on. I traversed the alleys, I sidestepped the vomit, the refuse, I kicked the occasional rat.

The malaise was eating me alive. And the boredom. That too.

But the boredom, in the very least, was about to subside for a time.

Author Bio

Originally from Minnesota, James Callan is a writer and fulltime father living on the Kāpiti Coast, New Zealand. His short fiction has appeared in various literary journals and several print anthologies. His first novel, Neon Dreams, was published in 2021.