"Bayley
is the zen master of modern space opera." -
Bruce Sterling
The Sinners
of Erspia are the inhabitants of a bizarre world, ruled and guided by
the hands of Ormazd and Ahriman, twin gods of good and evil. Histrina,
a child of Ormazd, is taken by the evil hordes to a camp of terror where
she meets Laedo, a man stranded far from home.
Together
they start on a hallucinatory journey to understand and escape from
the surreal world that holds them prisoner.
This is
a novel about the susceptibility of the human mind and how it adapts
to the extremes of terror and delight. A novel that could only have
escaped from the astounding imagination of Barrington Bayley.
"Its
theme is the suggestibility of the human mind.
An alien being, whose own consciousness is totally solitary and unassailable,
is studying this phenomenon because he thinks humankind is a freak of
nature, only semi-intelligent and destined for early extinction. All
other intelligent species are like him.
The
storyline is a series of adventures in experimental societies the alien
has set up. Being solitary, the alien has no ethical sense, whereas
the protagonist is highly ethical and believes in the doctrine of karma."
- Barrington Bayley
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