Eads, Sean
WORK TITLE: Seventeen Stitches
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.seaneads.net/
CITY: Denver
STATE: CO
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.westword.com/arts/jeffco-librarys-sean-eadss-latest-book-trigger-point-is-about-massage-and-murder-8939939 * https://www.lambdaliterary.org/reviews/10/14/lord-byrons-prophecy-by-sean-eads/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
| LC control no.: | n 2012017307 |
|---|---|
| LCCN Permalink: | https://lccn.loc.gov/n2012017307 |
| HEADING: | Eads, Sean, 1973- |
| 000 | 00361cz a2200133n 450 |
| 001 | 8934167 |
| 005 | 20120314103436.0 |
| 008 | 120314n| acannaabn |n aaa |
| 010 | __ |a n 2012017307 |
| 040 | __ |a DLC |b eng |c DLC |
| 053 | _0 |a PS3605.A3723 |
| 100 | 1_ |a Eads, Sean, |d 1973- |
| 670 | __ |a The survivors, 2012: |b ECIP t.p. (Sean Eads) data view (b. June 18, 1973) |
| 953 | __ |a rg17 |
PERSONAL
Born June 18, 1973, in KY.
EDUCATION:University of Kentucky, B.A., M.A.
ADDRESS
- Home - Denver, CO.
CAREER
Writer and librarian.
AVOCATIONS:Golf.
WRITINGS
- The Survivors, Lethe Press (Maple Shade, NJ), 2012
- Lord Byron's Prophecy, Lethe Press (Maple Shade, NJ), 2015
- Seventeen Stitches (short stories), Lethe Press (Maple Shade, NJ), 2017
- Trigger Point, Hex (Erie, PA), 2017
SIDELIGHTS
Born in Kentucky, Sean Eads is a writer and librarian based in Denver, CO. He earned both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from the University of Kentucky.
The Survivors
In 2012, Eads released his first novel, The Survivors. Its protagonist is Craig Mencken, a young journalist dealing with an alien invasion. Craig has been writing frivolous pieces for a magazine. However, after the aliens move into his home, he has much more to write about. The aliens have little respect for his possessions, especially his furniture. As Craig struggles to regain his old life, his boss pressures him to score an interview with an alien. Ironically, Craig’s boss does not know of the access Craig has to these actual aliens. The goal of the aliens is to annoy human, not to take over the world, and they are certainly succeeding in Craig’s case. Soon, a group of people rises up against the aliens, and the leader of that group is Craig’s ex-boyfriend, Scott. However, the aliens are prepared to take revenge if the group approaches them in violence. Meanwhile, Craig becomes close to one of the female aliens he has gotten to know.
A writer in Publishers Weekly offered a mixed assessment of The Survivors, stating: “The tone shifts jarringly from pratfalls to romance to shocking violence. The ending … is undeniably powerful.” K.C. Beaumont, critic on the Gay Book Reviews website remarked: “Mr. Eads has a distinctly vivid way with words and pulls zero punches, whether he’s laying out his characters in all their flawed glory, or describing the way they handle the ultimate us-versus-them scenario. There is violence, there is gore, there is the darkness brought to light by the fear of a desperate race, and there is absolutely zero fluff.” Beaumont added: “If you want a realistic portrayal of a regular guy trying to survive frightening circumstances where all hope appears completely lost, I absolutely recommend The Survivors to you. It is an engaging, disturbing, five-star read.” Amos Lassen, writing on the Reviews by Amos Lassen website, suggested: “This is a story propelled by characters and the writer has given us some wonderfully drawn characters that provide humor and fear at the same time.”
Lord Byron's Prophecy
Lord Byron’s Prophecy finds Eads telling a story whose narrative jumps through time. It begins in the nineteenth century. Lord Byron inspired to write his poem, “Darkness,” while on a trip with Mary and Percy Shelley. The poem depicts the world begin destroyed with fire and fury. Two centuries in the future, Adam Fane, an English professor in California, is also captivated by the idea of the world’s destruction. Gordon, his estranged son, feels compelled by a similar idea. It becomes clear that each men’s vision is a result of his respective inner turmoil. Adam longs to find his son. He also deals with his own physical problems, his waning career, and his wife’s death. Meanwhile, Gordon attends Westervelt College and is a star on the basketball team. Eads returns to Byron’s story, following him as he goes through his life, which ultimately ends in Greece in 1824.
Lord Byron’s Prophecy also received mixed reviews. A Kirkus Reviews critic asserted: “Eads is a skillful writer. … He crafts complex, convincing portraits of people struggling with sins they can’t quite perceive.” The same critic described the book as “a sometimes-engrossing, sometimes-overwrought journey to the soul’s dark side.” A contributor to the Historical Novel Society website remarked: “There’s not much optimism to be found here and very little joy, but what can be expected from a prophecy of mankind’s doom? Emphatically not recommended.” Brett Josef Grubisic, reviewer on the Lambda Literary website, commented: “A kind of precursor situated two centuries in the past and a continent away and yet somehow managing to share his apocalyptic vision with twenty-first century Americans, [Eads] detracts from the thematic seriousness while adding a metaphysical element that’s more ghost story than philosophical exploration of the relationship between then, now, and the future. Quibbling aside, though, the successes of Lord Byron’s Prophecy stem from a moving story of men and families ruined by simple matters like love and attraction that go so terribly, terribly wrong.” “Readers will be engrossed by Eads’s skillful weaving of the past and present,” predicted a contributor to Publishers Weekly. Lassen, the critic on the Reviews by Amos Lassen website, noted: “This is a dark story that unsettles at times that is based upon an old story of those who are propelled by appetite and guilt and who have suppressed secrets and extraordinary illicit desires that not only affect and ruin their lives but also the lives of those around them.”
Seventeen Stitches and Trigger Point
Seventeen Stitches is a collection of short stories by Eads that was released in 2017. A baby is possessed by a demon in “Coffin,” while Eva Braun, Hitler’s girlfriend, appears in “Riveter.” Braun uses photos to bring victims of the Holocaust back to life. In “My Father’s Friend,” a child must relive a disturbing incident over and over again. Prophecies are discussed in “The Seer.” “There is an offensive frivolity in this particular work, and its insensitivity overwhelms,” remarked a Publishers Weekly reviewer.
In an interview with Jamie Siebrase, contributor to the West Word website, Eads described the plot of Trigger Point, another novel he released in 2017. He stated: “The book opens with a massage therapist being killed by her client. The client, it turns out, is a serial killer, and the brother of the woman who is killed ends up going to my main character, Cathy, for help. Cathy is a massage therapist who runs a school for massage therapy. She reluctantly gets involved, and it’s a good thing she does.” The serial leaves symbols behind that are significant to Cathy. They are from the reiki tradition, and Cathy is a reiki practitioner. In the same interview with Siebrase, Eads explained that he was inspired to write the suspense novel after having been assigned to interview massage therapists for an article he was writing for a magazine. Another inspiration for the story was the Craigslist Killer, who killed prostitutes he solicited on the website.
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2015, review of Lord Byron’s Prophecy.
Publishers Weekly, August 20, 2012, review of The Survivors, p. 45; June 29, 2015, review of Lord Byron’s Prophecy, p. 49; May 1, 2017, review of Seventeen Stitches, p. 43.
ONLINE
Gay Book Reviews, https://gaybook.reviews/ (June 6, 2013), K.C. Beaumont, review of The Survivors.
Historical Novel Society, https://historicalnovelsociety.org/ (February 9, 2018), review of Lord Byron’s Prophecy.
Lambda Literary, https://www.lambdaliterary.org/ (October 14, 2015), Brett Josef Grubisic, review of Lord Byron’s Prophecy.
Reviews by Amos Lassen, http://reviewsbyamoslassen.com/ (October 6, 2012), Amos Lassen, review of The Survivors; (October 20, 2015), Amos Lassen, review of Lord Byron’s Prophecy.
Sean Eads Website, https://www.seaneads.net/ (February 9, 2018).
Smashwords, https://www.smashwords.com/ (February 9, 2018), author profile.
West Word, http://www.westword.com/ (April 10, 2017), Jamie Siebrase, author interview and review of Trigger Point.
- The Survivors Lethe Press (Maple Shade, NJ), 2012
- Lord Byron's Prophecy Lethe Press (Maple Shade, NJ), 2015
- Seventeen Stitches ( short stories) Lethe Press (Maple Shade, NJ), 2017
- Trigger Point - 2017 Hex Publishers, https://smile.amazon.com/Trigger-Point-Sean-Eads/dp/0996403930/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1517028886&sr=8-1
- Sean Eads - https://www.seaneads.net/blog
Sean Eads is a writer living in Denver, CO. Originally from Kentucky, he works as a reference librarian.
- Smashwords - https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/730976
Originally from Kentucky, where he received a Bachelors and Masters degree in literature from the University of Kentucky, Sean Eads is now a reference librarian in Denver, Colorado. Besides writing, his interests include golf, two cats, and tasting new beers. His science-fiction novel The Survivors was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. His latest book, Lord Byron's Prophecy, is a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel.
QUOTED: "Eads is a skillful writer. ... He crafts complex, convincing portraits of people struggling with sins they can't quite perceive."
"a sometimes-engrossing, sometimes-overwrought journey to the soul's dark side."
Eads, Sean: Lord Byron's Prophecy
Kirkus Reviews.
(Oct. 15, 2015): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2015 Kirkus Media LLC http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Eads, Sean LORD BYRON'S PROPHECY Lethe Press (Indie Fiction) $None 10, 1 ISBN: 978-1-59021-553-1
The notorious Romantic poet spiritually presides over a modern-day fable of forbidden desire, apocalyptic foreboding, and campus melodrama. Eads' novel hopscotches between settings and centuries as it elaborates its transhistorical saga of psychosexual hysteria. It picks up with Byron's storied 1816 Lake Geneva sojourn with poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and Shelley's future wife, Mary, full of melancholy musings and ghost stories. Out swimming one day, Byron starts to flounder and, before you can say, "For the love of God, I cannot stand to see this!...End my life but show me no more!" he sees the world engulfed in a burning hellscape--prophetic visions he will immortalize in his poem "Darkness." Fast-forward to present-day Westervelt University and an array of entanglements: professor Adam Fane, a man staggering under several guilty secrets; his son Gordon, a student and basketball star; English professor Amber Oxley, who is carrying on a hidden affair with Gordon; and Gordon's bluff but troubled roommate John-Mark. The entwined storylines fester with emotional turmoil: Byron has to be restrained by Count Guiccioli's men from hurling his young daughter from a window; Adam's mind wanders compulsively to his boyhood homoerotic friendship with a handsome all-American schoolmate. As years pass, unacknowledged perversions propagate between generations. Linking them are contrived resonances--Adam has a clubfoot like Byron; Gordon has a dog he calls Shiloh, Byron's nickname for Shelley; a latter-day tween actually reads Byron--and, above all, the main characters' constant, mentally crippling subjection to Byronic visions of ravaged faces and fire. This last motif means the novel frequently bogs down in turgid dream imagery that's often more tiresome than evocative. Eads is a skillful writer, though, and when he sticks to describing the real world his characters inhabit--the sphere of aristocratic aesthetes and, even better, the brash but awkward jock-ish culture of Gordon and his buds--rather than the netherworlds of their imagining, he crafts complex, convincing portraits of people struggling with sins they can't quite perceive. A sometimes-engrossing, sometimes-overwrought journey to the soul's dark side.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
1 of 5 1/26/18, 10:50 PM
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MA...
"Eads, Sean: Lord Byron's Prophecy." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Oct. 2015. PowerSearch, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A431379004/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=4ff65f91. Accessed 26 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A431379004
QUOTED: "There is an offensive frivolity in this particular work, and its insensitivity overwhelms."
2 of 5 1/26/18, 10:50 PM
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MA...
Seventeen Stitches
Publishers Weekly.
264.18 (May 1, 2017): p43. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Seventeen Stitches
Sean Eads. Lethe, $20 trade paper (292p) ISBN 978-1-59021-656-9
Veteran short story author Eads brings together some inventive elements in his latest collection of tales, some of which fall painfully flat. "My Father's Friend" follows a child stuck in a depressing time loop. "Coffin" tells of demonic possession by an otherworldly baby. In "The Seer," Eads's characters question the truth in prophecies. All of these works captivate, but some of the others are questionable: "Riveter" takes as its subject Eva Braun, who resurrects victims of the Holocaust through photographic technology. Even fans of alternate history and morally gray heroes will question this exoneration of a member of Hitler's inner circle, especially one who pledged unwavering loyalty to him. There is an offensive frivolity in this particular work, and its insensitivity overwhelms and tarnishes the rest of the collection. (June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Seventeen Stitches." Publishers Weekly, 1 May 2017, p. 43. PowerSearch,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A491575302/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=89e38ed3. Accessed 26 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A491575302
QUOTED: "Readers will be engrossed by Eads's skillful weaving of the past and present."
3 of 5 1/26/18, 10:50 PM
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MA...
Lord Byron's Prophecy
Publishers Weekly.
262.26 (June 29, 2015): p49+. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2015 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Lord Byron's Prophecy
Sean Eads. Lethe (lethepressbooks.com), $20 trade paper (300p) ISBN 978-1-59021-553-1
Apocalyptic visions unite three characters across two centuries in this mysteryladen fantasy about the disorienting power of repressed desire. In 1816, while traveling in the company of Mary and Percy Shelley, Lord Byron is seized by the imagery of a doomed world that he will pour into his poem "Darkness." In the 21st century, English professor Adam Fane and his estranged son, Gordon Evans, both on the same campus in California, are themselves smitten by Byronic visions of a world on fire and loved ones imperiled. Eads (The Survivors) insinuates a thread of erotic tension into the experiences of all three characters, implying that their catastrophic visions are not views of the future but glimpses of the unexpressed turmoil within themselves. Events come together a little too quickly at the novel's end, but readers will be engrossed by Eads's skillful weaving of the past and present through the troubled psychology of sympathetic, fully human characters. (Oct.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Lord Byron's Prophecy." Publishers Weekly, 29 June 2015, p. 49+. PowerSearch,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A420928900/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=d449d46c. Accessed 26 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A420928900
QUOTED: "The tone shifts jarringly from pratfalls to romance to shocking violence. The ending ... is undeniably powerful."
4 of 5 1/26/18, 10:50 PM
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MA...
The Survivors
Publishers Weekly.
259.34 (Aug. 20, 2012): p45. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2012 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The Survivors
Sean Eads. Lethe (www.lethepressbooks.com), $15 trade paper (236p) ISBN 978-1-59021-299-8
Eads (Trigger Point) offers up a short novel reminiscent of 1970s "big idea" science fiction. Starting with slapstick but descending into nihilism, the narrative revolves around would-be journalist Craig Mencken's increasingly frantic attempts to come to terms with an invasion of obnoxious aliens. Craig becomes one of the few humans to make contact with the seemingly insensate aliens, even as his former lover Scott gets entangled with a brutal anti-alien militia. But as Craig's bond with a mysterious alien female deepens, he learns the darker truth behind the aliens' approach. Inexorably, both humans and aliens are forced to face the costs of further survival on a world that is being transformed. The story largely hand-waves the science aspect of science fiction--the aliens arrive on "rockets"--and the tone shifts jarringly from pratfalls to romance to shocking violence. The ending, however, is undeniably powerful, and points to the possibility of greater success in Eads's future. (Oct.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The Survivors." Publishers Weekly, 20 Aug. 2012, p. 45. PowerSearch,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A300721557/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=674cf070. Accessed 26 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A300721557
5 of 5 1/26/18, 10:50 PM
- West World
http://www.westword.com/arts/model-and-marketer-marcus-correa-wants-to-make-north-denver-proud-9911388
Word count: 785QUOTED: "The book opens with a massage therapist being killed by her client. The client, it turns out, is a serial killer, and the brother of the woman who is killed ends up going to my main character, Cathy, for help. Cathy is a massage therapist who runs a school for massage therapy. She reluctantly gets involved, and it’s a good thing she does."
Weird Events Inspired Librarian Sean Eads's Latest Book, Trigger Point
Jamie Siebrase | April 10, 2017 | 7:59am
AALocal author Sean Eads writes genre novels and short stories. His latest, Trigger Point, is the tale of a massage therapist who tries to find a murderer. In advance of Eads's reading of Trigger Point on April 18 at the Tattered Cover on Colfax, we asked him to share some insight into his new book and the inspiration behind it.
Westword: Is Trigger Point your first novel?
Related StoriesHex's Josh Viola on the Comics, Movies and Mini-Alligator That Inspire Him
And Now a Few Words from Josh Viola of Hex PublishersSean Eads: Trigger Point is the first book I’ve published through Hex Publishers, but it isn’t my first one. I’ve published two others: The Survivors and Lord Byron’s Prophecy, which was a finalist for both the Shirley Jackson Awards and the Colorado Book Awards. I also have a short story collection coming out in June called Seventeen Stitches.
Without giving too much away, tell us a little more about Trigger Point.
The book opens with a massage therapist being killed by her client. The client, it turns out, is a serial killer, and the brother of the woman who is killed ends up going to my main character, Cathy, for help. Cathy is a massage therapist who runs a school for massage therapy. She reluctantly gets involved, and it’s a good thing she does: Cathy practices reiki, and the killer is leaving behind reiki symbols printed on the walls in blood.
Sounds pretty intriguing. Are all of your books this suspenseful?
Actually, Trigger Point is my first mystery/suspense novel. The Survivors was a dark comedy with science-fiction elements, and I’d describe Lord Byron’s Prophecy as literary fantasy. My short stories are all over the place: horror, weird Western, straight up non-genre literary. About the only thing you won’t find from me is romance.
So how did you end up writing a mystery?
I wanted to write a suspense novel aimed to the tastes of the people I serve. In my professional life, I’m a reference librarian with the Jefferson County Public Library. I'm an author who happens to be tied into the reading community in a unique way through librarianship. As I was doing reader's advisory – helping people to discover their next cherished book – I felt I was hearing frustration from people who couldn't find a book with just the right elements of humor, suspense, and romance. So I wrote Trigger Point with those requirements in mind.
We’re always interested in how writers find their inspiration. How’d you land on a massage therapist for your protagonist?
If you like this story, consider signing up for our email newsletters.
SHOW ME HOWAs I was developing the idea for a mystery, I was also doing freelance work for Massage & Bodywork magazine. That job had me interviewing a lot of massage therapists. Around this same time, in Boston, the saga of the Craigslist Killer was unfolding. Remember that? The killer was soliciting prostitutes on Craigslist, and those prostitutes were using massage therapy as a cover for what they were doing. Everything came together, and I had the idea for Trigger Point.
How long have you been writing?
A long time. I’m from Kentucky originally. I got my bachelor's and master's degrees in English lit, and I’ve never taken a creative-writing class of any sort. I’m 43 now, and I’ve been writing since I was thirteen. I got into writing by keeping at it for thirty years. About ten years ago I got involved in a writers' group led by Ed Bryant, who recently passed away. Feedback from other writers and camaraderie — that has really helped me a lot.
See Sean Eads at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 18, Tattered Cover, 2526 East Colfax Avenue, 303-322-7727.
Jamie Siebrase is a Denver-based freelance journalist who who writes about art, culture and parenting for a number of local publications.
Contact: Jamie Siebrase
- Lamda Literary
https://www.lambdaliterary.org/reviews/10/14/lord-byrons-prophecy-by-sean-eads/
Word count: 1131QUOTED: "A kind of precursor situated two centuries in the past and a continent away and yet somehow managing to share his apocalyptic vision with twenty-first century Americans, [Eads] detracts from the thematic seriousness while adding a metaphysical element that’s more ghost story than philosophical exploration of the relationship between then, now, and the future. Quibbling aside, though, the successes of Lord Byron’s Prophecy stem from a moving story of men and families ruined by simple matters like love and attraction that go so terribly, terribly wrong."
‘Lord Byron’s Prophecy’ by Sean Eads
Review by Brett Josef Grubisic
October 14, 2015A darkly hallucinatory and unsettling fever-dream of a novel, Lord Byron’s Prophecy offers doppelgängers, apocalyptic visions, ominous portents, and eerie hauntings as it recounts a centuries-spanning tale of guilt–and appetite–driven men whose suppressed secrets and illicit desires poison their own lives and those around them. With a kaleidoscopic, continent-crossing narrating technique that leap-frogs between 1816, 1960, 2010, and 2027; Sean Eads (The Survivors) makes a case—a gothic-veined and sporadically operatic one—for what Freud called the return of the repressed.
Set in various American and European locales, the prismatic story opens with Adam Fane, a deeply miserable, raving, and semi-delirious English professor hobbling across campus. Tormented, he’s desperate to locate his son, Gordon, a handsome basketball god at Westervelt, the California liberal art college where Fane taught. In that 2010 time frame, the professor’s troubled less by the death of his wife in 2004, the considerable disconnect between him and Gordon, the life-long affliction of his withered leg, and his career’s sunset years than by hazy but worrisome memories of his youth at a boarding school in Pennsylvania and by “75-130-b.1,” a part of the college’s code of conduct pertaining to the dire professional consequences of sexual relationships between student and faculty. As he limps, Fane imagines everyone hurling “75-130-b.1” at him as an accusation. In his confused state of mind, he mixes up the names George (his sole friend in boarding school) and Gordon. It’s clear, though, that he’s struggling over misdeeds with both young men.
Initially an unlikable small town jock-hero who routinely says “Buddy” and “Bro” when not comparing conquests with his equally vain, privileged, and self-serving team- and roommate, John-Mark; Gordon is nevertheless upset by dreams, wildly oscillating moods, and disturbing as well as unexplainable episodes of intense physical discomfort. Outside of training for basketball and scoring at parties, Gordon’s also dating Amber Oxley, a youngish English professor who happens to be his father’s protege. A vicious fistfight with John-Mark soon alters his golden course.
In 1816, meanwhile, club-footed and sexually voracious Lord Byron is trading witticisms and insults with a fellow Romantic poet Shelley, of “Ozymandias” fame, and an entourage of hangers on at a Swiss lake shore. Despite the banter, the men are on edge, as strange and ominous storms have Europeans wondering about looming end times and godly wrath. (What they don’t know is that they’re in the midst of what will come to be called The Year Without a Summer, a weather phenomenon caused by a volcanic eruption in what was then the Dutch East Indies.)
Impulsively plunging into frigid lake water one day, Byron is overwhelmed by a hellish apocalyptic vision that includes his friends undertaking monstrous acts. Turned into a real-life poem, “Darkness,” Byron conjures a merciless portrait of the end of days:
The world was void,
The populous and the powerful was a lump,
Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless
A lump of death—a chaos of hard clayAs the novel progresses, Eads ably manages the jumps between time, place, and character while pushing the story toward Byron’s death in Greece in 1824 and depicting another, an echo, in 2027.
Now suffering from dementia, residing at the nearby Memory and Aging Center, and undergoing experimental drug therapy to restore memory, Fane’s awakening after a long steady decline exposes the nature of his crimes circa 1960 and 2004. Naturally, he’s affected Gordon (who’s as miserable as his father was in 2010). Sexually harassed at work, unhappily married, and profoundly conflicted about his interactions with Lucas, his bookish son; Gordon’s life of quiet desperation changes radically once again with his father’s revelations.
As an exploration of sexual abuse and its cyclicality, Lord Byron’s Prophecy offers a vision that’s harrowing and deeply saddening, especially because the men appear so helpless before their compulsions.
The inclusion of Byron resounds less successfully. Part of this might be a matter of taste. Eads’ version of Byron highlights the man’s propensity for poetic speechifying. The antiqueness and pomposity quickly become off-putting. Speaking to a Greek youth, Loukas, for instance, Byron declares,
Perhaps I came here to worship. I worship you among the other gods collecting dust in the ruined temples on the hillside. You will forgive me for not being a monotheist. In my ripe old age of thirty-six, I find polytheism and pantheons afford more comfort. Surely it is better not to put the Eggs of Faith in one basket, even one as fine a yours.
Whole pages of such queer verbiage makes the reading more of a chore (or a homework assignment) than a pleasure; and Byron himself remains elusive behind the performance.
Further, the Peter Ackroyd-esque entwining between past and present introduces a seance-like or literal haunted house element that seems at odds with the engaging and realistic account of the impacts of sexual dysfunction. Bullied, Whitman-loving teenage Fane’s madness (“Something inside his mind breaks with the cleanness of bone”), which results from his traumatic experiences at school and with his friend George, infects his son, and threatens the same to his grandson. That poignant but regrettable human drama doesn’t need to be mystically linked to Byron’s vision of “mad disquietude on the dull sky” to give it weight. It’s weighty enough.
A kind of precursor situated two centuries in the past and a continent away and yet somehow managing to share his apocalyptic vision with twenty-first century Americans, Byron detracts from the thematic seriousness while adding a metaphysical element that’s more ghost story than philosophical exploration of the relationship between then, now, and the future. Quibbling aside, though, the successes of Lord Byron’s Prophecy stem from a moving story of men and families ruined by simple matters like love and attraction that go so terribly, terribly wrong.
Lord Byron’s Prophecy
by Sean Eads
Lethe Press
Paperback, 9781590215531, 300 pp.
October 2015 - Reviews by Amos Lassen
http://reviewsbyamoslassen.com/?p=18717
Word count: 430QUOTED: "This is a story propelled by characters and the writer has given us some wonderfully drawn characters that provide humor and fear at the same time."
“The Survivors” by Sean Eads— The Aliens Have Landed
Leave a replyEads, Sean. “The Survivors”, Lethe Press, 2012.
The Aliens Have Landed
Amos Lassen
Craig Mencken is an amateur journalist who writes really silly copy for a man who owns a magazine. When two aliens invade his home, he is outdone by their rudeness—they have ruined his furniture and are responsible for turning his life upside down and inside out. Craig’s boss wants the story and he wants Craig to interview an alien which would of course be fiction but the fact that Craig has two aliens in his home changes the entire perspective. What appears to be a humorous story about an alien invasion soon becomes a look at humanity and we learn a lot about who we are and how we live.
The aliens here have no overall plan to take over the earth but rather to make it uncomfortable for those who live there. Hey go where they want and they block entrances and mess up people’s homes. Before very long, there is a resistance movement led by Scott who just happens to be Craig’s ex-boyfriend. Scott wants to get rid of the aliens by using violence but the aliens have a back-up plan which includes the use of machines which are able to destroy the infrastructure of America and it certainly appears that the earth has serious problems.
Because the book begins in a humorous vein, we are not quite ready when it becomes serious. Eads is able to turn his humor into a dark story in which the mood suddenly becomes almost horrifying. We soon begin to wonder if indeed it is the alien’s wish to take over this planet.
This is a story propelled by characters and the writer has given us some wonderfully drawn characters that provide humor and fear at the same time. I must admit that Sean Eads really surprises us with his first novel which is very well written and shows his ability to switch gears several times. To write any more about the plot would mean I would have to provide spoilers and I will not do that. What I will do is tell you to find a copy of this wonderful book and sit back and enjoy.
- Gay Book Reviews
https://gaybook.reviews/2013/06/06/the-survivors/
Word count: 1266QUOTED: "Mr. Eads has a distinctly vivid way with words and pulls zero punches, whether he’s laying out his characters in all their flawed glory, or describing the way they handle the ultimate us-versus-them scenario. There is violence, there is gore, there is the darkness brought to light by the fear of a desperate race, and there is absolutely zero fluff."
"If you want a realistic portrayal of a regular guy trying to survive frightening circumstances where all hope appears completely lost, I absolutely recommend The Survivors to you. It is an engaging, disturbing, five-star read."The Survivors
By Sean EadsRelease Date : 2012-10-16
Genre : Homosexualité
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DescriptionThe Survivors "The invasion of the earth by a race of socially oblivious couch potatoes. The Survivors by Sean Eads begins as a romp, then turns much darker—nicely done!"
—Richard Bowes, Lambda Literary Award-winning author"Eads (Trigger Point) offers up a short novel reminiscent of 1970s 'big idea' science fiction. Starting with slapstick but descending into nihilism, the narrative revolves around would-be journalist Craig Mencken's increasingly frantic attempts to come to terms with an invasion of obnoxious aliens." --Publishers Weekly
"The Survivors is a great tale that starts out as a lighthearted look at an unlikely alien invasion, only to rapidly descend into a grim study of humanity. Imaginative, funny, and ultimately frightening, the novel delivers. Sean Eads knows his stuff." --Lee Thomas, Bram Stoker Award and Lambda Literary Award-winning author of The German
The aliens have landed, and this time they're not hostile. They're just incredibly rude. Coming in waves of rocket ships, the aliens not only refuse to acknowledge the existence of Earth's cultures—they refuse to acknowledge the existence of humanity itself. The aliens by means of their bulk block entry into cars, grocery stores, even elevators…without malice or even purpose.
The Survivors
Recommended Read, Review June 6, 2013 6 COMMENTS K.C. Beaumont
5 stars, Lethe Press, Science Fiction, Sean Eadseads-the-survivors_200x300Title: The Survivors
Author: Sean Eads
Cover Artist: Niki Smith
Publisher: Lethe Press
Amazon: Buy Link The Survivors
Genre: Science Fiction
Length: 75,000 words
Rating: 5 stars out of 5five_star_read_icon
A Guest Review by K.C. Beaumont
Review Summary: A story about an alien invasion that starts out comical, but grows into a terrfiying tale, playing on many of our worst fears.
THE BLURB
The aliens have landed, and this time they’re not hostile. They’re just rude. Coming in
waves of rocket ships, the aliens not only refuse to acknowledge the existence of Earth’s
cultures—they refuse to acknowledge the existence of humanity itself. The aliens by means of
their bulk block entry into cars, grocery stores, even elevators…without malice or even
purpose.No one knows what it’s like to be ignored by the aliens more than Craig Mencken, an amateur
journalist who writes inane copy for a magazine tycoon. A pair of aliens have invaded his
home, abused his furniture, and disrupted his life. Who thought first contact could be such
a nuisance? But when Mencken’s employer demands the story of the century, a fictional
interview with an alien, the sinister truth about the invasion is accidentally revealed.
Soon Mencken’s ex-boyfriend is dropping hints about a mysterious cabal that promises to rid
the aliens from neighborhoods as exterminators do with vermin. Then a narcissistic federal
agent wants Mencken to spy on the cabal for the sake of his country. As if life weren’t
already hard enough, the dozers—cubic machines capable of demolishing skyscrapers in
minutes—start landing across the globe, and it does not seem likely the aliens will ignore
mankind for much longer.THE REVIEW
Ho-ly sh… Okay. Wow. I need to first say that The Survivors is absolutely not for the faint
of heart. This is primarily a science-fiction book, but can easily fit right in with horror.
Mr. Eads has a distinctly vivid way with words and pulls zero punches, whether he’s laying
out his characters in all their flawed glory, or describing the way they handle the ultimate
us-versus-them scenario. There is violence, there is gore, there is the darkness brought to
light by the fear of a desperate race, and there is absolutely zero fluff.The storylines for such films as War of the Worlds, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and
Cloverfield might come across as cheesy to some. I, however, find them ridiculously
intriguing because I automatically put myself in the character’s place, wondering how I
would behave in such a situation. How would I handle the enemy? How would I protect my
family? How would I survive? I’m not entirely sure I would have done things differently than
the way Craig Mencken did.This isn’t your typical alien invasion. The aliens don’t wish to make contact with humans,
they don’t come out of their ships with guns blazing, and they don’t appear hostile at all. They
ignore the human race on a grand scale—they don’t seem to even know humans exist even when direct, physical contact is made. Having no apparent sense of propriety, they move right into people’s homes, eat their food, and occupy any space where they can fit—they’re basically a bunch of huge, ugly cats that refuse to use a litter box. The aliens cannot be controlled or forced to move or leave, and many American citizens don’t appreciate the seemingly lax approach the government has taken with its new citizens, which is to live and let live, and good luck getting them to stop making a God-awful coital mess in your bedroom… that means exactly what you think it means.The planet’s visitors have been coming to Earth in waves with ships landing in random
places. It’s so commonplace that new arrivals don’t make the news anymore. They’re just
relegated to a news ticker at the bottom of the television screen. Everything changes when
bigger ships start to arrive with dozers and wrecking balls. That’s when people start to
truly panic, and that’s where this story takes a turn from awkwardly humorous to downright
scary. When militia groups start forming, Craig finds himself torn between an allegiance to
the man he loves, an allegiance to his country, and an allegiance to himself, and he’s sickened
and terrified of what he’s become. In a situation that is anything but black and white, when
one has to choose between morality and mortality, it doesn’t really seem like much of a
choice.If you’re looking for Mac and Me meets M/M romance, you won’t find that here. If you want a
realistic portrayal of a regular guy trying to survive frightening circumstances where all
hope appears completely lost, I absolutely recommend The Survivors to you. It is an
engaging, disturbing, five-star read.
https://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/lord-byrons-prophecy/
Word count: 315QUOTED: "There’s not much optimism to be found here and very little joy, but what can be expected from a prophecy of mankind’s doom? Emphatically not recommended."
Lord Byron’s Prophecy
By Sean Eads
Find & buy onOne part of this strangely structured novel involves Lord Byron and Percy Shelley between 1816 and 1824. A larger portion concerns an American university professor named Adam Fane in the year 2011, with sections taking us back to the Kennedy era and forward for a glimpse of the year 2027. Fane was found guilty of sex with a student in violation of 75 130 b.1, a code number with which he is taunted as he walks through the campus. His son, a star basketball player, is conspicuously involved with his female professor, another violation.
Much of the narrative consists of visions, hallucinations, dreams, appearances by the dead, dialogues with ghosts, fantasies under anesthesia, ravings in old age dementia and remembered snatches of Byron, mostly from “Darkness.” This poem was inspired by the volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora that blocked the sun over much of the earth. The prophecy seems to be that mankind will not do well after the sun disappears.
The connection between the eras seems to be sexuality. In the modern section, heterosexual males are viciously exploitive and contemptuous of women. Homosexual incidents are shy and furtive, such as caressing the underwear of the object of desire. Byron’s legendary collection of women serves to mask his gay impulses. Fane’s repressed sexuality leads to a fatal disaster in his teens, and later sets off a chain of events leading to family tragedies. There’s not much optimism to be found here and very little joy, but what can be expected from a prophecy of mankind’s doom? Emphatically not recommended.
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Next review »- Reviews by Amos Lassen
http://reviewsbyamoslassen.com/?p=42268
Word count: 868QUOTED: "This is a dark story that unsettles at times that is based upon an old story of those who are propelled by appetite and guilt and who have suppressed secrets and extraordinary illicit desires that not only affect and ruin their lives but also the lives of those around them."
“Lord Byron’s Prophecy” by Sean Eads— Visions
Leave a replylord byron
Eads, Sean. “Lord Byron’s Prophecy”, Lethe Press, 2015.
Visions
Amos Lassen
Things are not going well for George Gordon, Lord Byron. His new poem has him worried, as he is not sure whether it is “a catharsis of self-loathing at being attracted to other men or an incantation that turns him into an incubus that seeks such sins?” It might even be an apocalyptic prophecy.
Professor Adam Fane suffers from what he believes is dementia, and this brings on the same visions as Byron supposedly did. As a closeted gay man, Fane interprets these visions to be products of guilt. His life has been consumed with guilt over the fate of his childhood friend, George, with whom he was in love.
Gordon, his only son looks just like his father. He does not know anything about his father’s past. Gordon is in love with a young English professor named Amber, who is a colleague of his father’s. As Gordon tries to begin a relationship with her, he begins experiencing visions similar to those of Byron. He also has a strange sensation that makes him feel fear when he is touched.
We have three characters leading parallel lives and it is this that the book is about. This is a dark story that unsettles at time that is based upon an old story of those who are propelled by appetite and guilt and who have suppressed secrets and extraordinary illicit desires that not only affect and ruin their lives but also the lives of those around them.
The story moves back and forth between 1816, 1960, 2010, and 2027 and it is set in various American and European locations. We begin with meeting Adam Fane who is a miserable and tortured college professor who wants to find his son who is now the basketball player at a liberal arts college in California that incidentally is the place where Adam used to teach.
Adam’s wife died in 2004 and as much as he misses her, he is upset by the estrangement between father and son. He is even more tortured by his memories of his years at a boarding school in Pennsylvania and by part of the college’s code of conduct pertaining to the professional consequences of sexual relationships between student and faculty. Fane has a withered leg that affects the way he walks and as he wanders he thinks of how he was accused of breaking that aspect of the code of conduct. In confusion he mixes up his son’s name Gordon with the name of George who has been his best friend at school. We sense that he is struggling with the way he behaved with and toward both men.
Gordon had been having dreams and mood swings as well as general physical problems. For him what was important in life was winning basketball games and making it with the girls. He also is dating a girl who has been the protégé of his father. When he gets into a physical fight with John-Mark, his roommate, his life changes.
We then go back to 1816 and Lord Byron is facing trouble with his clubfoot. We meet him as he having a witty chat with fellow Romantic poet Percy Shelley, at a Swiss lakeshore as others listen on. A storm is forming and the men are worried whether this is the wrath of good or something else. They have no idea that weather caused by a volcanic eruption is taking place.
Some time later, Byron goes for a swim and has an apocalyptic vision in which friends do horrible things. He later turns this into a dark poem.
Moving forward to the year2027, Adam in now at a memory and aging center and taking an experimental drug that is said to help restore memory. He remembers his crimes in 1960 and 2004 and is unhappy. Gordon is now as unhappy as his father. He is in an unhappy marriage and is sexually harassed at work but what really bothers him is his son Lucas. When he hears his father’s surprise revelations, he suffers great conflicts.
Now we realize that this book is about sexual abuse and how it is always on the minds of those involved.
I do not want to say any more about the plot except that it is a study of three men who share the same kind of insanity. All three have visions of dread and are unable to deal with their own impulses. As we read we want our characters to find a sense of sanity but we feel that this will not happen.