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Paul Jessup

Close Your Eyes Paperback – June 20, 2018

by Paul Jessup (Author)

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Paperback, June 12, 2018

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Language is a virus. Open this book. Read the words. Feel them infect you. Identity is a disease. Flip the pages. Stay up all night. Watch it transform you. You cannot deny it. You cannot close your eyes and shut out the changes. You know you want to. You really want to. But it’s too late. You can’t.

Critically acclaimed author of weird fiction Paul Jessup sends puppets to speak and fight for their masters. Welcome to a far future universe that stretches the imagination to breaking, where a ragtag crew of post-human scavengers rage and love on a small ship in the outer reaches of space, and moon-sized asylums trap the unwary in a labyrinth of experimentation in both identity and sanity.

Welcome to Close Your Eyes, a mind expanding surrealistic space opera that not only includes the out-of-print classic Open Your Eyes, but takes it to whole new level in a much awaited sequel.

Go ahead. Pick it up. Read it. Let it infect you.

“A beautiful, fractured story of beautiful, fractured people in prose powerful enough that it feels fired from a shotgun.”
– Jon Hollins, author of the Dragon Lords trilogy

Print length

226 pages
Language

English
Publication date

June 20, 2018
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.57 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

1937009696
ISBN-13

978-1937009694
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John Langan
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Samantha Kolesnik
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Apex Book Company (June 20, 2018)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 226 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1937009696
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1937009694
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.57 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #5,021,897 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #31,032 in Space Operas

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6 ratings

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Paul Jessup

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Paul Jessup is a critically acclaimed/award winning author of strange and slippery fiction. With a career spanning over ten years in the field, he’s had works published in so many magazines he’s lost count and three or four books published in the small press. You can attempt to email him at: paul.jessup@gmail.com

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

6 global ratings

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TA

Mesmerizing tale!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 24, 2019

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Mesmerizing tale!

One person found this helpful

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AlanBes

Creative SF

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 2, 2018

I received a copy to review. More art than novel. Creative SF writing set in the far distant future in which language is an invading virus, and dolls are avatars. It was a difficult book to review, as on the one hand the writing is very good and creative (5 stars), but in terms of personal reading preferences, this was a difficult book (3 stars), especially the second half (which is a sequel novel to the first half of the book). I would guess that readers of SF anime graphic novels, such as Blame, would identify with the distant future universe created in this novel, but the world of the novel was far too distant for me to fully appreciate - but that's a reflection of me, not a creative author. A final comment - For me, what seemed out of place was the use of contemporary expletives. The constant use of swear words seemed out of place in the futuristic feel of the book, and in my opinion, unnecessary.

3 people found this helpful

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cricketd666

Interesting yet confusing science fiction novel

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 22, 2019

*NOTE* I was given a free copy of this ebook by the publisher for an honest review

This was not an easy book for me to read. In part, that could be because I do not usually read in the weird fiction genre. The first half, 'Open your Eyes' started off a bit unusual ("Her lover was a supernova..." actually meaning a real supernova), but I fell into the story and was interested in what was happening.
A brief synopsis - a woman is found by a diverse group of humanoid-ish space explorers as they are travelling in search of something. Each crew member has a different purpose for being there, and the ship itself is alive and has its own purpose. You eventually find out what everyone wants, and you find out (kind of) what happened to Ekhi, the woman they found. There is also a dead language that is actually a infectious virus that comes into play. The language of this novel is quite dense and flowery - except for the dialog, which seemed to me a bit simplistic.
The second half, 'Close your Mouth' takes place a long time after the events of the first half, and it was even more confusing to me, as some of the same characters appear, but seem to have different personalities and/or motivations.
Again, the language was a bit dense and flowery - almost random seeming poetry at times. I struggled to understand what was going on, and that pulled me out of the story somewhat and made me not care that much.
Overall, it was interesting and I do not regret reading the story.

One person found this helpful

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Eric Lahti

Clever, punchy sci-fi

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 16, 2018

I received this as an ARC

Jessup has his own style of writing that is unique in all the books I’ve read. At times it’s punchy, direct, and almost Spartan in its usage, at other times it flows with the symmetry of poetry. As if his concept of linguistic viruses wasn’t enough, he uses language to great effect to heighten the more surreal aspects of his world.

Think of Close Your Eyes as sci-fi with a purpose. It would be easy to say the ship’s AI is reminiscent of HAL from 2001 or the linguistic virus as similar to Stephenson’s Snow Crash, but Close Your Eyes goes in different directions. Even if the idea that there is nothing new under the sun is true, that doesn’t mean existing things can’t be rearranged into new and exciting things.

All in all, a good read.

2 people found this helpful

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Close Your Eyes Paperback – June 20, 2018

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