The Guardener's Tale -- Bruce Boston

Praise for The Guardener's Tale

"A gripping dystopia wickedly extrapolated from our present. Boston brings to bear his narrative genius on this noir tale of a love triangle in a society gone mad, probing the way technology and science alter our reality. Transcending genre, The Guardener's Tale combines suspense and breathtaking plot twists with macabre humor. Involving, compelling, a masterwork."

author of An Old-Fashioned Martian Girl

"Those who enjoyed Harlan Ellison's famed short story, "'Repent Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman,"

will love The Guardener's Tale. Both are stories of alienation, an individual struggling to affirm his identity against a repressive city state. But Boston's book is even more compelling in its story arc and complexity, its parallels to our society revealing and striking, the prose exceptionally vivid and muscular. This is Boston at his best."

author of Collected Tales of the Baja Express

"Brave New World. Fahrenheit 451. THX 1138. A Scanner Darkly. Bruce Boston's new novel, The Guardener's Tale, assumes its rightful place in this noble lineage of anti-authoritarian fables. His twisted love story between Rick Thorne and Josie Jimson is the perfect suspenseful armature on which to display some eternally perplexing ethical quandaries. As inexorable as fate and twice as surprising, Boston's novel will resonate long after its final sentence carries the reader down the memory hole."

author of Shuteye for the Timebroker

"Bruce Boston’s The Guardener’s Tale is an enchanting read. It has the mind-bending twists and turns of cutting-edge speculative fiction fitted nicely into a lyrical character-driven cautionary novel that always goes where you can’t predict. Boston opens gateways in the imagination."

author of Ghost Road Blues

"Not since Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 have I read such a beautifully wrought and realistic cautionary tale of what society might become without our constant vigilance of those who govern us....This disturbing novel is a glimpse into a possible future where shiny objects and a false sense of freedom become mankind's ultimate prison. Already recommended for a Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel, this is visionary work from a writer of fierce conviction and a mighty talent."

--J. L. Comeau, Creature Feature Reviews,

Top Ten Books of 2007

"...a heavyweight mixture of plot and action that will keep you hooked until the end....an engrossing and solid piece of work. Like any good dystopian story, it’s the subtleties of The Guardener’s Tale that gives it its strength and depth. Boston has taken a good look at Western society, and used what he has seen to great effect."

--Edward Cox, Aoife's Kiss

"...this stimulating, dark, creative and intense read is much more than an exploration of socio-political issues...it is an engaging and inventive journey with satisfying action set in an all too believable future world. A world populated by intriguing characters who change and surprise, again and again....raises crucial questions for our times about the incredible and creative complexity of being human." --Patricia Kelly, Roswila's Dream and Poetry Realm

"The Guardener’s Tale is one of the most absorbing reads I’ve had in a long time. The novel is beautifully crafted and the story haunting, charged with images and conflicts that linger strongly in the mind. Boston’s prose is so rich, with a wonderful, elegiac undertone. Outstanding!" --Mary E. Choo, author of Dream Tribes

"...Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Ayn Rand’s Anthem, Ira Levin’s This Perfect Day, or Yevgeny Zamiatin’s We. These novels are among the pre-eminent classics of dystopian fiction....The Guardener’s Tale stands firmly in the same company as the classics mentioned above....Boston addresses the issues of individuality in a seemingly perfect world, a world that in actuality is rife with problems....this book certainly belongs as a great anti-authoritarian novel for the ages." --Anders Monsen, Prometheus

"The retro feel to the setting, with its sanitized suburbia and sterility, contrasts with the act of shocking brutality with which Boston emotionally climaxes the novel: the darkness at the Guardener’s heart....at a time when many SF novels are becoming increasingly similar in setting and style...one of the most memorable books of the year." --Colin Harvey, Suite 101

"Boston writes with a concise style here, making for easy reading and vivid clarity. He mixes in only enough lavishness to bring shape and color to his vision. The Guardener's Tale is a smartly crafted, thought-provoking yarn, laced with wry humor and rife with sinister mind-control tech." --Anthony Bernstein, Helium

"An entertaining, thought-provoking novel. Although Boston is very much his own writer with his own style, there are elements here that remind me of P. K. Dick. The story works on several levels for readers who wish to probe its deeper meanings. I also very much enjoyed the ironic double-edged sentences planted along the way." --Kendall Evans, author of Poetry Red-Shifted in the Eyes of a Dragon

"The Guardener’s Tale is the sort of story that becomes more significant and powerful in retrospect, as its various ideas seep into the reader. It is a tale of violation and redemption, truth and falsehood. For those who enjoy tales of dystopia, The Guardener’s Tale is a must-read." --Jennifer Crow, Flashquake

ISBN 1-933556-78-1 and 978-1-933556-78-9

274 pages, Sam's Dot Publishing, $19.95

Publication Date: May 1, 2007

or order through your favorite bookstore

"The buildings, monuments, streets and homes of his City come to vivid life: slums and glittering towers alike are drawn with subtlety and intensity. Through a lattice of interwoven scenes, the complex nature of the outward world is reflected in a dance of psychology among the book's characters. As a reader I was drawn into this dance with a strength that soon felt like obsession; I could not stop reading, as I became more and more deeply enmeshed in the lives unfolding from page to page."

--Malcolm Deeley, Gromagon Reviews

from Amazon.com Reviews

"This tale is a real page turner, and I was quite taken by the ending, which absolutely soars. Boston is a masterful storyteller on all levels--clean and compelling prose, genuine characters, meaningful themes, and creating a satisfying and believable science fiction setting." --Gwen Veazey (North Carolina USA)

"All the elements are here for a thought provoking read, with enough action to keep one turning the pages. The Guardener's Tale is character driven, poetic at times, and stylistically friendly, and, a very satisfying way to spend a few evenings." --Gary O. Clark (Davis, CA)

"Boston takes us on a compelling ride into a frightening yet utterly believable city-state of the future, with multifaceted characters, plot twists galore, and thought-provoking social, philosophical and psychological reflections upon our lives now as well as upon future possibilities." --Dennis H. Healy (San Francisco)

"Boston's prose in TGT is an extension of his poetry; painting rich visuals for one's mind with an economy, though not a sparseness of words that can still be read at speed....pays great, interesting detail to building a believable world for his engrossing story. It's an exhilarating ride." --Jon Poley (Miami)

"I enjoyed this read. Marvelous world/character building and verbal brushstrokes. I love the way Boston wove this tale together with its parallels and reversals. And the places where I broke into a grin." --Elissa Malcohn, author of Covenant

"...an inventive and insightful storyteller...a detailed narrative of a dystopian future populated by believable and nuanced characters...carefully and cleverly plotted...." --A. Baruch (Tokyo, Japan)

"...a fantastically fun quick read that I guarantee will interest you from the first few pages to the very nice payoff of the ending. What it will leave you is thinking about the deeper significance of what you just read."

--D. Bailey (Seattle)