Thought-provoking fantastical fiction

J.E. Tolbert is an author of surrealist, fantastical, and philosophical fiction. He lives and works in the Washington D.C. area.

Arsalan the Magnificent

Arsalan the Magnificent is a lighthearted but poignant novel of historical fantasy fiction. In Europe and the Ottoman Empire of the early 19th century, a profession of wizards known as magical architects have achieved wealth and fame as builders of fantastical structures. Facing disgrace after his newest and greatest work collapses, Arsalan Ozdikmen, a renowned Ottoman magical architect in the prime of his career, is exiled to the Balkans. There, he undergoes a journey of reckoning and recovery, and finally redemption, when he is called to the aid of a young Bavarian princess.

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The Sport

Alphonse Mox, a newly appointed clerk in the Ministry of Culture, is handed the unwanted task of researching the byzantine rules of an arcane sport played in the country’s remote, southernmost province. Frustrated at every turn but grimly persistent, he is drawn into a weird, darkly comic, and increasingly paranoid journey that calls into question the nature of society, free will, and reality itself.

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