Bus Stop on a Strange Loop
Title: Bus Stop on A Strange Loop
Author: Shaune Lafferty Webb
Publisher: Winterbourne Publishing
ISBN (print): 978-0-9807497-9-3
ISBN (digital): 978-0-9871548-0-4
Category: Science Fiction
Tags: science fiction, time travel, dystopia
Would you want to know?
‘I never blamed you.’
He swung around, startled. Ethan was standing in the opening just beyond the alcove. His hair was a tousled mess. Dirt and grime coated his clothes, face, and hands. He was rubbing at some of the grime as he spoke, redistributing it from his hands to the seat of his pants.
Nicky threw an already grimy rag across the room at him. ‘For what?’
‘For what happened — to me,’ Ethan said. His eyes were downcast while he scrubbed at the muck on his palms.
‘That’s a great comfort, since I never stopped blaming myself.’
Looking up, Ethan leaned a shoulder against the doorjamb. ‘Can’t see how you could have done any differently.’
‘It was my fault we were separated. I could have at least tried to stop you from running off all the time.’
‘How?’ Ethan asked with a smile. ‘Besides, all things considered, I’d rather have been in my camp than yours. I’m kind of grateful I got picked up by a different transport.’
‘Maybe you’re right,’ Nicky agreed reluctantly.
Ethan pushed away from the doorjamb. ‘As for Izzy — well, I never blamed you for that either.’
Nicky was taken aback; they rarely ever spoke about their sister. She’d been cut from their lives long ago and to talk of her seemed almost irreverent.
‘You couldn’t exactly drag a little kid around the streets every day. It made sense to leave the little ones with Pocket, but not even she could predict when a transport was coming. You gave Izzy five years she would never have had otherwise. And it was never your job to save us in the first place.’
‘I know that. Just like it’s not your job to save me now.’
Ethan shrugged. ‘It seems we’re all we’ve got.’ Reaching the battered table, he pulled out a chair and sat down. ‘I thought I’d found Izzy once. Can’t remember if I told you or not. Doesn’t matter, I suppose, since it wasn’t her.’
‘I think she’s dead,’ Nicky said as he took the opposite chair.
‘Most likely,’ Ethan agreed. ‘Pocket was a tough bird, but I can’t see how she could have survived transportation. Without her, Izzy didn’t stand a chance. If hard labour in the camps didn’t kill her, the selections would have.’
His attention drifted toward his lap, to scrub at the grime on his hands again. ‘Anyway,’ he said after a moment, ‘she’s probably better off.’
The bluntness of Ethan’s comment surprised Nicky. He studied his brother’s face, looking for a suggestion of doubt but not finding it.
‘Do you really think that?’ he asked, unsure if he’d been surprised by the words themselves or by a suppressed inclination to agree with them.
‘I try not to think.’ Ethan raised himself out of the chair. ‘Not about that, anyway.’
He started toward the front door, leaving Nicky alone at the table.
When brothers Nicky and Ethan escape the degraded, dangerous world of the future, they are seeking only sanctuary and peace. All they want is to leave their past behind them, but Ethan’s unique talent, the instrument of their escape, means the past can never be forgotten — Nicky and Ethan have been followed…
Schoolteacher Olivia lives a lonely but safe life in the home of her late foster parents, a home she is about to lose. After an unsettling encounter with her new neighbours and a series of puzzling break-ins, Olivia is inadvertently drawn into the brothers’ lives, and her own past is brought into sharp relief by her discovery of a cache of her foster mother’s diaries, which raise questions about her birth parents. The deeper she delves into the diaries, the closer she draws to unravelling an old mystery that will taint her relationship with Nicky and Ethan and challenge her perception of reality.
As Olivia and the brothers are about to discover, sometimes paths intersect more than once.
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Reviews
The mood is intense. As you’re reading, you always have the feeling that something huge is going to happen … I’ve given it 4 stars, but for me, it’s borderline 5 stars … I highly recommend this book.
… you are in for an absorbing, thoughtful and enjoyable piece of speculative fiction … Lafferty Webb is a master of withholding information. She keeps the reader intrigued … Bus Stop on a Strange Loop‘s emphasis on narrative and character should mean it will appeal to a general readership as well as speculative fiction fans.
A workout for your brain. At only 163 pages you could be forgiven for thinking that Bus Stop on a Strange Loop would be a quick easy read, devoured in an afternoon. You would be mistaken. What we have is an evocative, intense and dense book, whose prose demands constant attention. This is no 45 minute jaunt in a blue box, but a book that demands that the reader work to unpack the story, the connections and implications … Those that enjoy their science fiction “harder’ will enjoy it despite the time travel trope. It’s also a book that I think you could hang a “literature” tag on.
Where to buy
You can buy this book at a discount in our own bookstore (Australian dollars) in print or digital (ePub & Mobi) formats.
Otherwise…
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Amazon | |
Amazon Kindle | Kindle (mobi) | |
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Amazon UK |  |
Apple iBookstore | “fair use” DRM | |
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Angus and Robertson AU |  |
B&N Nook | DRM ePub | |
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Barnes and Noble |  |
Books on Board | DRM ePub | |
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Borders AU |  |
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Indiebound |  |
Kobo | DRM-free ePub | |
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The Nile AU |  |
Powell’s | DRM ePub | |
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Powell’s |  |
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