Thought-provoking fantastical fiction
J.E. Tolbert is an author of surrealist, fantastical, and philosophical fiction. He lives and works in the Washington D.C. area.
Arsalan the Magnificent
Arsalan the Magnificent is a lighthearted but poignant novel of historical fantasy fiction. In Europe and the Ottoman Empire of the early 19th century, a profession of wizards known as magical architects have achieved wealth and fame as builders of fantastical structures. Facing disgrace after his newest and greatest work collapses, Arsalan Ozdikmen, a renowned Ottoman magical architect in the prime of his career, is exiled to the Balkans. There, he undergoes a journey of reckoning and recovery, and finally redemption, when he is called to the aid of a young Bavarian princess.
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The Sport
Alphonse Mox, a newly appointed clerk in the Ministry of Culture, is handed the unwanted task of researching the byzantine rules of an arcane sport played in the country’s remote, southernmost province. Frustrated at every turn but grimly persistent, he is drawn into a weird, darkly comic, and increasingly paranoid journey that calls into question the nature of society, free will, and reality itself.
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Elephantus
A suburban family settles in for the weekend. It rains, and everyone is beset with the urge to sleep. Reality slips into a dreamlike state. Time becomes disjointed and repeats itself in odd ways, and the rainy weekend seems never to end. A flower garden grows to impossible proportions. A grandmother visits, one who has been dead for years, along with other relatives long deceased. Thus begins a haunting and phantasmagoric journey through dreams and memory that echoes with the reader long after the story’s end.
Available for order on the Lulu.com bookstore
