The Race Glass - three stories by Remy Dean

questing beast books is proud to announce The Race Glass by Remy Dean.

Special Launch Party Promotion - details below...

To help celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Scraps - the first book published by questing beast - we asked the author to suggest titles for a retrospective of his work published over the last two decades. Of course, being Remy Dean, he bent the rules and dug up an unpublished piece from before the allotted period, making this a collection of three short(ish) stories spanning the past three decades... From the 1980s we present Snail Racing - published here for the first time, from the 1990s we have Guitar Hero, and from the 2000s, the slipstream story, Homunculus... 

The Race Glass by Remy Dean

Paul, Mark and Nancy have finished school and are facing a British summer of uncertainty while they consider how to move on… three ‘average’ teenagers who learn the meaning of growing up and letting go. Snail Racing tells the story of three friends attempting to take control of their futures, dealing with the subtle and complex issues of gender, belonging, connection, and alienation - a short story that is both poignant and told with an underlying wry wit… and, yes, they do race snails.

College student Mac, lonely though surrounded by friends, is obsessed with his guitar – the only thing he can really relate to and express himself through. Guitar Hero picks up on the themes of Snail Racing and ups the anti in a world of free sex, cheap drink and expensive amplifiers – the second short story presented in this retrospective is delineated with a gentle humanity and reminds those who may have forgotten, that the 'folly of youth' is often a brave front.

In a future world of virtual warfare, those with the fastest synaptic responses become heroes. In Homunculus, we meet Gurt, a ‘Top Tester’ for a bio-tech conglomerate that develops new kinds of weapons – but he is being changed by his experiences just as any real soldier is. Has he been contaminated? Is he losing part of himself or discovering himself anew? What secret is Gabby hinting at? Something strange is happening… and soldiers must have their orders. Mixing elements from SF, zombie horror and romance, the third short story in this collection remains highly relevant in a time when we are gradually losing-and-finding ourselves in the digital world…

Remy Dean holds the actual race glass prop used in the 1986

short film he made of  the story, Snail Racing... and now uses 

to race garden snails with his daughter.

"Re-reading these stories brought back memories," Remy commented , "I realised I have some affection for them and so I'm delighted to see them preserved in this way. As for Scraps being twenty-years old! It represents some sort of achievement that the novel is still 'alive' - in paper and pixels formats - and so am I!"

The Race Glass is a retrospective, novelette-length, collection of short stories from the author of Scraps and Final Bough - presented with an insightful introduction by Remy Dean. 

Available from Friday 21 March, exclusively via Amazon.co.uk. 

SPECIAL LAUNCH PARTY PROMOTION: 
The Race Glass by Remy Dean will be available to download FREE on day of release!
Follow this link during 21 March to download - sorry this promotion has expired (now available at £1.85). Thanks to all who joined in and grabbed the freebie, all we ask in return is that you post a brief amazon review, just let us know which story was your favourite from the collection!

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