J Nelson Leith

The Ends of the World J Nelson Leith

Engineer John Randolph has a new job that has nothing to do with his degree, a new girlfriend who moved in but won't have sex with him, and new shoes that are eating into his feet. Then John gets smeared in a crosswalk and finds himself in a purgatorial afterlife that's stuck in the age of sail. He shows up naked, he gets pressed into service by wily plantation owners and brutal pirate lords, and he's struggling to win freedom for his newly dead friends. Newcomer cosplayers revere recently deceased rock stars, old souls fight to maintain their archaic control over newcomers, the mysterious Company Men move behind the scenes, and John discovers one weird fact: the World Facing remakes itself to the expectations of its not-quite-dead inhabitants. The tongue-in-cheek fantasy of one truly confused 21st century urbanite as he learns how to trick this odd purgatory into doing his bidding. Will John escape his pursuers or get killed again and be sent to his final reward?