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Narrator

Thom Rivera

Thom Rivera

  • Equal parts Z for Zachariah and Mad Max, Gilpatrick and Lang’s darkly funny debut Battery Life follows a girl from outer space and an aging junkyard scavenger who must learn to trust each other in order to survive.

    Welcome to the Junkyard, a toxic wasteland where humans, machines, and everything in between fight for survival among the ruins of a long-forgotten war. This is where Diane Three-One-Seven finds herself after the arkship Cradle—the only home she’s ever known—falls out of the sky.

    When a mysterious scavenger named Virgil stumbles upon Diane’s escape pod, the two strike a deal (if it can be called that). Virgil’s spare mechanical battle suit, nicknamed “The Grave Walker,” can help Diane survive the ruined atmosphere—but it could kill her if it runs out of power. And Diane’s untainted blood, a precious resource in this radioactive hellscape, could keep Virgil alive long enough to finish one last mission—but at what cost?

    The two will have to wait to work out their differences, however, as a new threat appears on the horizon: a masked man called the Messenger, who hopes to subdue the Junkyard with a mysterious new power. With the help of a ragtag team of misfits, Diane and Virgil may just have a chance to stop him—if they don’t kill each other first.

  • Dr. Amy Winslow tells the story: in foggy, nighttime San Francisco a jogging SFPD captain is savagely attacked by a Bengal tiger which then vanishes. In her ER, Amy labors unsuccessfully to save the captain’s life, then consoles his aggrieved closest friend, Lt. Luis Ortega. Neither suspects their lives will intertwine in a life-or-death mystery.

    The next day, checking on former patient Mrs. Hudson at her Victorian house isolated in Marin County’s forest, Amy discovers in the cellar a secret, cobweb-covered 1899 electrochemical laboratory containing a Jules Verne–esque steam-punk sarcophagus out of which springs a wild-eyed, half-mummified, crypt-keeper-like man who injects himself with something before falling dead at her feet. Amy barely revives him.

    He claims to be a real-life Victorian master chemist and detective named Holmes, who allowed Conan Doyle to write stories based on his cases, though was slightly annoyed when Doyle changed his real first name to the catchier Sherlock. Becoming uninspired by 1890s crime, Holmes devised this method to hibernate for a century to investigate future mysteries.

    Amy assumes he’s a lunatic. His Scotland Yard identity papers were stolen while he slept, so it takes her a while to realize his amazing story is true.

    Respectably handsome when cleaned up, Holmes is still the same brash, egoistic, uber-English, cocaine-addicted, non-feminist genius—but now a century out of sync—so his still-brilliant deductions are sometimes laughingly or dangerously wrong. Holmes and Amy, his reluctant new Watson, find themselves unexpectedly attracted to each other while perilously involved in reclaiming his proof of identity, aided by cybersavvy street teen Zapper. It’s all connected to the horrific death-by-tiger, only the first of several bizarre, mystifying murders being committed by an exquisitely fiendish descendant of Holmes’ Victorian archenemy, Professor Moriarty.

    The tone is classic Holmes—plus a refreshing twist of fish-out-of-water humor with a surprising spark of real romance.

  • Don Sebastian Valdivia and his secretary, Juan Carreño, attend a horse auction at the Garrison Ranch, where an outlaw stallion, Twilight, is held back until last. The only man who can ride this magnificent beast is Charles Dupont, known as the Crisco Kid, who has bonded with the horse since he was a colt.

    Because gunman Bud Carew despises the Kid, he desperately wants to possess Twilight. Those attending the auction know that no matter who wins, a gunfight is sure to follow. Just as it appears that Carew has won, Valdivia places his bid for $800. He is not bidding for a horse, but for a man.

    In a calculated move, Valdivia plays the Kid against Carew, and the Kid proves to be the better man. Valdivia offers Twilight to the Kid with two options—keep Twilight and remain in the Southwest, or accept employment with the don and accompany him back to his grand rancho in the Argentine, where Valdivia has a score to settle with the outlaw El Tigre. Even without the gift of Twilight, the Kid would be willing to make the effort. With Twilight, he does not imagine there is any way he could possibly fail.