Publisher's Synopsis
For fans of the Long Earth book series by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
The only way to get back home is to play ... The Game A chase through time. An elusive opponent. A suspected betrayal. Will David ever see home again? Described as Inter-dimensional hide and seek by one reader, this dark, science fiction fantasy novella is an introduction to a fast-paced, time-travel adventure, the conclusion of which can be found in the full-length novel, Pool of Players.'He might not have caught the Jester, but he'd accomplished one thing: he'd managed to be in the same time and place as him. But can he do it again?'
David Sinclair wants to get back home to his own time, but to do so he has to catch a man who calls himself The Jester - even though there's nothing funny about him.
The tentative mental connection they share enables David to track his antagonist, but catching him proves difficult when The Jester is able to step into random people and appear as them.
Rob, a friend David makes in one of the parallel times, works out a successful trap, but, once caught, The Jester isn't amused they've joined forces and makes them both play again, with devastating results for Rob.
Led through dark dystopian times, David tries to work out if his suspicions are correct: Is his girlfriend working with The Jester? Did she recruit David to play his depraved games? But finding out the truth isn't easy when you're slipping through time.
"You will not come across so well-drawn a villain as The Jester, he is creepy, unexpected, and amorally disturbing. Through him, the author creates a sense of evil that is both frightening and intriguing, like a cobra waiting to strike." - Michael Wombat, author of The Raven's Wing and Fog.
