TITLE: “The Platform”
RELEASE DATE: June 30, 2017
AUTHOR: J. Noah Summerfield
KEYWORDS: Science Fiction, Post-Apocalyptic,
Oil Platform, Oil Rig, Detective, Cannibalism, Ocean
CATEGORIES: Science Fiction/
Horror
SYNOPSIS: The continents are plagued by
poison and fire. And so, on the deep-water oil platform,
the Alpine, one of the last remnants of mankind must find a way to
survive. Beatrice Plantain, an experienced security official, intends to
go about her day and monitor the food rations, but other people on the platform
- a grizzled roughneck, a spiritual leader, a feared administrator, a
washed up elder, a young hunter and a simple chum-maker - have other plans, as
does an explosion that spoils the platform’s food supplies. Facing
starvation, the Alpine’s occupants turn against each other. Violent
skirmishes lead to the death of a young boy. Who killed the child? And
what became of the boy's missing twin? With the Alpine tearing itself apart,
Beatrice must uncover who killed the boy. Her investigation will force her to
confront the Alpine's terrible past, and what that means for the Alpine's
future.
ONE LINER: Isolated on an oil
platform in a post-apocalyptic future, fear and hunger will push the limits of
what it means to be human.
PAGE COUNT: 256
ISBN: 978-1543017311
IMPRINT: Dark Serpent
Guest Post
While I went for one big
horror trope in The Platform, that trope doesn’t occupy the narrative. The book
is, at its core, a murder mystery. The underlying mystery pans out across the
perspectives of different characters. I found it exciting to work with this device
during the writing process. This allowed me to play with when information
unfolds to the reader and, simultaneously, when that information is revealed to
each character. Each character doesn’t necessarily know what the others
experienced, which is, of course, a core element of any mystery.
That interplay also made
Beatrice an exciting protagonist because, like everyone else on the Alpine, she is so obviously in over her
head, tasked with solving a problem that no one is capable of working through. She
is at the center of this scenario where all of the important information is not
reaching her when it should. She is capable of solving the problems that are in
front of her, but the world that she lives in is determined to make it as
difficult and convoluted as possible.
On a normal day, she manages
security on the platform. That is her day job. Usually, that just means handling
the food rations. It makes sense that, in a post-apocalyptic world, there isn’t
an organized police force with a designated homicide office. That capability is
preoccupied with feeding what is left of the human population.
When the people on the Alpine discover the murder, the
platform’s Administrator decides that Beatrice is best equipped to solve the
case, even though she is lacks that specific training. No one on the platform
does. So she follows in the footsteps of the great line of literary detectives
– Sam Spade, Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Harry Dresden, and so on.
What sets her apart is that
she has to struggle with a world that suffers from a severe loss of information
and skills. It is the brain drain. We see this again when Beatrice asks the
Good Doctor, obviously a capable and intelligent woman, to perform an autopsy. It
doesn’t even occur to Beatrice that, after the apocalypse, the Good Doctor may
have never performed an autopsy before. What part of the Doctor’s experience
and training would equip her to perform such a task? How can we, as a society,
take these types of skills for granted? That is a common enough trend in
post-apocalyptic literature. The
Platform brings my two cents to the subject.
AUTHOR BIO: The Platform is J. Noah Summerfield’s first novel. His
non-fiction writing has appeared through various scholarly journals, including
Quinnipiac Probate Law Journal, New York Law School Law Review, Creighton Law
Review, Rocky Mountain Communication Review, Transnational Dispute Management and
the NYSBA Entertainment Art and Sports Law Journal. He is a recipient of
the Ernst C. Stiefel award from New York Law School and the Phil Cowan BMI
award from the Entertainment Art and Sports Law Section of the New York State
Bar Association. He lives in Florida with Kelvin, the dog. Now, on to the next
novel… perhaps something involving pirates…
EMAIL: j.noah.summerfield@gmail.com
AUTHOR LINKS:
AMAZON US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074912PXZ
AMAZON UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B074912PXZ
AMAZON CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B074912PXZ
BARNES & NOBLE: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-platform-jason-n-summerfield/1126885230?ean=9781543017311
CREATESPACE: https://www.createspace.com/6921880
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