The Implacable Absence by Henry E. Gorton & David J. Keffer Review

The Implacable Absence
A Non-Idiomatic Improvisational Duet
by Henry E. Gorton & David J. Keffer

Knoxville, TN - The Implacable Absence is a post-existential fantasy in which a mushroom man named Poison Pie is joined by a talking bug and a doppelgänger monk in a quest that spans Faerie, Nirvana, the World of the Dead and other planes of existence in search of a solution for removing a mysterious piece of pink marble that has become lodged in the chest of the mushroom man. They seek aid from the Deadly Galerina, an ambiguous deity from the Kingdom of Fungi. During their travels, they encounter such powers as the Mechanical Sentience who has taken over control of Nirvana from the aesthetes who formerly populated it. This classical journey provides the travelers with equal opportunity for ostensibly heroic endeavors and introspective self-discovery.

The novel is a non-idiomatic improvisational duet because two authors engaged in a genre-defying, spontaneous (improvisational) creative process, rather than a preplanned (compositional) activity. To add intrigue to the process, one author opted not to commit to paper his passages, contributing instead an imaginative silence. Just as in a musical duet in which one participant decides not to perform, the duet becomes equally defined by the notes one musician plays as by the absence of the notes that the other musician does not play. The active musician still responds to the other, albeit now only to the other's silence. To call this half a novel is a misnomer. It is rather a complete novel, written by two authors, one of whom is expressed in silence. To our knowledge, there is no other novel like it.

About the book:
The Implacable Absence by Henry Gorton and David Keffer
ISBN: 978-1502787453
Publisher: CreateSpace
Date of publish: November 2014
Pages: 212
S.R.P.: $9.99

About the authors:
Henry E. Gorton is currently a student in the public school system of Phoenix, Arizona. He was awarded a first place prize in the Glendale Union High School District poetry contest in the spring of 2014. This is his first novel.

David J. Keffer is a professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he teaches a course on non-idiomatic improvisation and where he has published over 100 technical articles in archival journals. He is largely an autodidact in the realm of world literature. He has published 15 novels and 5 illustrated stories with the Poison Pie Publishing House.

My Review:

This is a very strange book. That is in a good way. The idea of two people writing a story is not knew. However how the authors wrote this story is. They wrote on the spur of the moment and it does not show. The words flow and made a great fantasy book. I would love to read more about this world and more characters from it. I also liked that there were mushroom men and goblins! I am giving this book a 4/5. I was given a copy to review, however all opinions are my own.