From first-time author Jessica Reisman comes The Z Radiant, a novel about a far-future culture where illusion and reality can both be tailored to individual tastes, and a city where each inhabitant must make their own decisions about their lives and futures. The planet Nentesh is located in an isolated, wormhole-accessed pocket of space known as the Deeps. Once each generation, the wormhole opens and the rest of the civilized universe come to visit. As it opens, the outsystem descends to the Nenteshi's tech-poor world in a celebration known as Ingress. The Ingress Festival is a time of change, bringing new technology, visits from family and friends who left during the last opening of the wormhole, and the departure of others. As Nentesh awaits the latest opening of the wormhole, four Nenteshi must confront and come to grips with revelations and events that challenge everything they know about themselves and their relationships - and threaten their very lives. Amid the color and spectacle of Festival, as secrets and betrayals are disclosed, all of their lives will be transformed. Born near Philadelphia in the summer of 1963, Jessica Reisman now lives in Austin, Texas.
Author
I have always loved any fiction or art that opens doors—or windows or cracks in the air—to possibility, that lets wonder into the room. The first things I wrote, at nine years old, were fantastic literature, and that's where my heart has always been—whether you call it science fiction, fantasy, horror, dark fantasy, magic realism, or fabulism. My writing is about two things: exploring and expanding limits and notions of the possible, and feeding the body and spirit through language and story. Having lived and gone to school in Philadelphia, parts of Florida, California, and Maine, I make my home these days in Austin. Well-groomed cats, family, and good friends grace my life with their company. I've been employed as a house painter, a blueberry raker, an art house film projectionist, a glass artist's assistant, an English tutor, teaching assistant, and an editor, among other things. I dropped out of high school and now have a master's degree. I was a Michener Fellow in grad school, graduated from the Clarion West workshop, and have a large collection of Hong Kong movies. A narrative junkie from a young age, I have always found inspiration and solace in books, movies, and television. Also in animal life, nature, good food with friends, artful cocktails, and rain. Some of these facts are only tangentially related.
