Theme of Time Dominates Speculative, Humorous Award Winning Short Story Collection
Award-winning author Alan Robbins contemplates humanity, technology and time in his new collection of short stories set in the future titled "Stories at the Edge of Time."
New York City, NY (PRWEB) March 24, 2008 -- Award-winning author Alan Robbins contemplates humanity, technology and time in his new collection of short stories set in the future titled "Stories at the Edge of Time."
Whether we like it or not, time dominates our lives. This basic reality has fascinated everyone from storytellers to scientists since… the dawn of time. Award-winning author Alan Robbins takes this familiar, yet arcane concept to fresh and entertaining new heights in the 19 short stories that compose his new science fiction collection, "Stories at the Edge of Time" (ISBN 9780595471072, iUniverse, 2007). Robbin's book recently won First Place in Reader Views Best Science Fiction competition as well as the Writers in the Sky Award for the Best Creative Writing of the Year.
"We know it intimately but it still remains a great mystery," Robbins says of his collection's theme. "I set out to tell entertaining stories about people facing the future with the usual mix of trepidation and hilarity. Stumbling and surviving. And it always seemed to come back to time."
Among those "stumbling and surviving" in "Stories at the Edge of Time" are a retired astronaut who cannot get his footing, the last librarian on earth, and a mathematician whose brilliant insight continually slips his mind. The satires of Kurt Vonnegut and the ironies of Jorge Luis Borges are clear influences on this tragic and humorous work of speculative fiction.
The tone-setting title story, "The Edge of Time," was featured on Amazon Shorts and received an enthusiastic response from readers. It is about a family that discovers the hidden power of stories as they try to outrun the end of the universe in a high-tech starship.
The future of technology and its affect on relationships is another of the fascinating themes explored in the book, along with what it means to be human, and the eternal, yet inane, nature of hope. "Stories at the Edge of Time" is a thought provoking, engaging and diverse collection of timeless stories that will delight readers and inspire them to reflect upon our ongoing, enigmatic relationship to time.
About the Author
Alan Robbins resides in New York City, N.Y. He is the author of 19 mystery, puzzle, humor and trade books and was the winner of a New York State NEA/CAPS award for fiction in 1984. His essays on technology have appeared in Newsweek and in The New York Times. He is currently working on a series of science fiction novels, of which his latest, "An Interlude in Dreamland" won a 2006 Writer's Notes Honorable Mention. He is also a graphic artist and teaches visual communications at Kean University in New Jersey where he is the Janet Estabrook Rogers Professor of Visual and Performing Arts.
"Stories at the Edge of Time" (ISBN 9780595471072, iUniverse, 2007) can be purchased through local and online bookstores. For more information, visit www.alanrobbins.com. Publicity contact: www.readerviews.com. Review copies available upon request.
###
|
