Book Spotlight – The Great Convergence – Thomas Kast #Sci-fi #Satire

Title: The Great Convergence

Author: Thomas Kast

Genre: Science fiction, satire

Main character description (short):

The unnamed narrator lives ten million years in the future. Stuck in a dead-end academic position, he time-travels to the year 2022 to find proof validating his research, but mainly to prevail over Scott — his arch-nemesis and a researcher at a competing university. The rivalry between the scientists quickly spins out of control. The Narrator and Scott remain focused on being right, even if this means endangering the universe’s fate.
Through the narrator’s flashbacks, the reader gets a glimpse of the world ten million years from now. It’s a world in which technology is indistinguishable from magic. It is also a world ruled by stupidity, jealousy, pettiness and shortsighted spite — much like our own.

Synopsis:

10.000.002 A.D. A cantankerous scholar slipping into obscurity is out for revenge. He time-travels to the year 2022 to stop his nemesis, Scott — a successful scientist at a competing university — from thwarting his research into the origin of a mysterious phenomenon, the Great Convergence. Cunning and ruthless, Scott will stop at nothing to defend his tenure track. The feud quickly spins out of control, and the damage to reality grows unchecked.

Caught in the crosshairs are three characters responsible for triggering the Great Convergence: an art-hating professional art critic who, unbeknownst to him, spontaneously switches between universes wreaking havoc as he goes; a talentless artist whose sculptures act as trans-universal portals; and a schizophrenic astrophysicist trying to avert the invasion of alternate versions of himself from different realities. As their paths converge, the apocalyptic event takes place, and the inescapable tragedy of human existence unfolds.

Brief Excerpt 250 words:

There is an old legend which originated in the Lacerta Cantus Nebula. It explains how most universes got their shape. It goes like this:

A long time ago, there was a school for young Gods. At the beginning of each learning season, each God would get his universe to study and play with under the keen eye of the instructor. On balance, the universes were sturdy pieces of work. They could take a lot of damage, often reversible, but not always. And there was a lot of damaging going on, because not all the Gods treated their universes well.

The school programme was brief and much to the point. Gods graduated quickly and moved onto different matters with far-reaching consequences. They’d leave their universes behind, to be studied and played with by the next generation of deities. This would go on and on until the universes would become altogether unusable. What would happen to the battered, pass-me-down universe nobody wanted anymore? The legend doesn’t say.

Why should readers buy this book (50 words max)?

A subversive philosophical science fiction and social satire, the Great Convergence will take you out of your comfort zone, exposing the absurdity of many ethical and intellectual ideals. If you like the wry humour of Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas Adams or the philosophical insights of Stanislaw Lem, you’ll enjoy it too.