Green Thumb
SKU:
9781590213674
$12.00
$12.00
per item
by Tom Cardamone
Mutability blooms in the Florida Keys after the Red War and the genie boxes. King Pelicans with the brains of scientists and a single human hand in place of one webbed foot rule the ruins of half-drowned Miami. Slavers roam the deep waters offshore, taking captives to feed the voracious Kudzu Army and the human aqueduct bearing fresh water from Lake Okeechobee. On the last stretch of the Overseas Highway still standing, an albino seeress slowly becomes her name: White Flamingo. "You," she says. "You will reach for the sun while staying rooted to the ground. But I fear your shadow will be much too long." Transformed by his father's genie box in the late days of the Red War, Leaf has lived for decades or centuries alone in a collapsing Victorian house on a desolate sandy key, misunderstanding time, feeding on sunlight and dew. When at last he meets a boy like-but so unlike!-himself, Leaf understands he has met destiny and sets out on a long, strange journey. A post-apocalyptic, psychoactive, polymorphous-perverse pastorale, Green Thumb will startle you with its utter strangeness and break your heart with its fragile beauty.
Winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Best LGBT Fantasy/Horror/Science Fiction!
Paperback, 142 pages
Mutability blooms in the Florida Keys after the Red War and the genie boxes. King Pelicans with the brains of scientists and a single human hand in place of one webbed foot rule the ruins of half-drowned Miami. Slavers roam the deep waters offshore, taking captives to feed the voracious Kudzu Army and the human aqueduct bearing fresh water from Lake Okeechobee. On the last stretch of the Overseas Highway still standing, an albino seeress slowly becomes her name: White Flamingo. "You," she says. "You will reach for the sun while staying rooted to the ground. But I fear your shadow will be much too long." Transformed by his father's genie box in the late days of the Red War, Leaf has lived for decades or centuries alone in a collapsing Victorian house on a desolate sandy key, misunderstanding time, feeding on sunlight and dew. When at last he meets a boy like-but so unlike!-himself, Leaf understands he has met destiny and sets out on a long, strange journey. A post-apocalyptic, psychoactive, polymorphous-perverse pastorale, Green Thumb will startle you with its utter strangeness and break your heart with its fragile beauty.
Winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Best LGBT Fantasy/Horror/Science Fiction!
Paperback, 142 pages
"This work of speculative fiction proves how powerfully this genre can comment on our society. It pulls you into a dream world and then offers lessons about love, trust, and betrayal." - Damian Serbu for Lambda Literary
"Cardamone's imagination and talent for the unusual are in full display as he combines incredibly tender moments, raw desperation, and violence with a delicate touch that at times become breathtaking. With an excellent story, memorable characters, and an ending that lingered with me for a quite while, this creative novella is most definitely highly recommended." - Impressions of a Reader
"...this imaginative postapocalyptic novella with New Weird sensibilities contains a tense undercurrent that continually evokes a sense of unease, and gradually unfolds to an unexpected, thoroughly unsettling ending." - Publishers Weekly
"Hope, magic, and breathtaking writing combine to give us a book I will keep always. Bravo." - Out Smart Magazine
"Cardamone's imagination and talent for the unusual are in full display as he combines incredibly tender moments, raw desperation, and violence with a delicate touch that at times become breathtaking. With an excellent story, memorable characters, and an ending that lingered with me for a quite while, this creative novella is most definitely highly recommended." - Impressions of a Reader
"...this imaginative postapocalyptic novella with New Weird sensibilities contains a tense undercurrent that continually evokes a sense of unease, and gradually unfolds to an unexpected, thoroughly unsettling ending." - Publishers Weekly
"Hope, magic, and breathtaking writing combine to give us a book I will keep always. Bravo." - Out Smart Magazine