In & Oz

IN & OZ is a novel of art, love, auto mechanics, and two places: the actualities of the here and now and the desire for somewhere better. Five men and women – an auto designer, photographer, musical composer, poet/sculptor and mechanic – find themselves drawn together when they begin to suspect that the thing lacking in their lives might be discovered in the other place. Against the tension between idiosyncratic art and mass-marketed taste, each works to bridge the gulf between IN & OZ by using the medium of their trades: light and darkness; sound and silence.IN & OZ is a story as old as the Tower of Babel and as new as global markets: the story of people trying to reach beyond the limits of language and remake the world, or at least their selves.It begins with the reunion of Imaro and his kidnapped lover Tanisha, who has been taken to the ruined City of Madness. With the help of their new found friend Pomphis, a Pygmay from the eastern forests of Nyumbani, they learn of the sorcerous forces that may have been behind the dark wizard that destroyed Imaro's youth. The trio goes to Mavindi, the port capital of the Eastern Coastal kingdom of Azania, in search of the legendary Kingdom of Cush, where Imaro hopes to find answers to the questions that have plagued his life. Who is he? Who was his father, and why was he seemingly cursed, and hounded from birth by forces beyond his control.Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.

From Booklist

Not very far in the future, things are a lot like now, only more so, in a big American city that is bifurcated into IN, where hand workers like Mechanic and artists like Poet/Sculptor, Composer, and Photographer, who sympathize with hand workers, live; and OZ, where concept workers like Designer, as well as, presumably, executives, politicians, administrators, and other higher-ups reside (Composer and Photographer hail from OZ and, of course, can always go back there). And those higher-ups are so literally, for the outstanding structure in OZ is an immense office tower that corresponds exactly to a great hole in IN, which is, however, residential. The plot stems from Mechanic's sudden deviation from auto engineering into artwork, in which, for instance, he mounts wheels on a car's roof, replacing them with the doors, which are employed as runners. Photographer knows art when he sees it, and so do Mechanic's other new friends. The walls of class do not fall, though, in this eccentric but worthy descendant of Huxley's fatally bittersweet Brave New World. Ray OlsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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