MONOPOLE

“Yes?” Teddy says like it’s a question, rising from the levitating sofa to go investigate the sound, which in all likelihood indicates that his escort from Crystal’s has arrived. “Your guest has arrived, Mr. Doe,” the room confirms. “Yes, of course,” Teddy says. “Wonderful. Please send her in—no, wait a moment.” Teddy rushes to the bathroom to inspect his appearance. The lights come on automatically as he enters. Looking in the mirror, he pats his newly trimmed hair and strai

Monopole is a time-travel mystery novel about a world-famous physicist and engineer from the 1950s who, after creating what is arguably the most revolutionary technology history, wakes from a coma completely crippled and with severe amnesia. In short order, the hero regains his capacities and realizes that the future world in which he now finds himself is the result of that technology, which he invented 100 years ago, when he was the Elon Musk of his time. It’s a classic fish

From the novel Monopole. The magnificent glow of the M Corp lab casts an eerie blue light in through the window of the nuke as they approach the grandiose but irregular edifice. Its radiant walls carve curvilinear shapes in the dark night surrounding it, multitudinous outer structures rolling into sinewy waves crawling along the building’s exterior, almost as though it’s pulsating with some sort of alien or demonic life force. It is like nothing Teddy has ever seen. He’s cert

From the novel Monopole. When she left, I knew it was for good. I didn’t have any illusions about her coming back after everything I’d put her through—all the years of keeping busy as I sought the higher purposes required of me, her always seated second fiddle, so rarely at the forefront of my attention, especially once the technology began developing as quickly as it did in those later years just before everything erupted—nor could I seem to help myself from having any predi

From the novel Monopole [formerly Theodorus in Excelsis] Felix enters the coordinates, engages the automated clutch, and sits silently as the vehicle operates itself through the somewhat desolate streets of Old Town. A green glow hangs between the fading sky and the silhouette horizon. The cragged skyline of the city rises and falls. For the first time in as long as he can remember, Teddy doesn’t quell his thoughts. They flow like molecules of hydrogen and oxygen over the edg

From the novel Monopole [formerly Theodorus in Excelsis] The elevator door slides closed. Teddy looks down to admire his new tuxedo as the elevator begins its ascent. He turns to look out its enormous floor-to-ceiling window. He watches the dark, crowded city disappear beneath him and the cityscape horizon emerge, its tall buildings, endless roadways, and circulatory system of M Trans rails illuminated beneath the night sky. The city’s foggy haze dims the lights in the distan

From the novel Monopole [formerly Theodorus in Excelsis] “Goodbye, John,” says the voice of an electric lady, which seems to come from everywhere. Teddy looks about his accommodation for the source of the sound. His visual search reveals a small space, walled on three sides by bare metallic panels; walled on the fourth by a floor-to-ceiling window that looks out dimly onto a gray city, a skyline of both tall and squat buildings, complicated networks of crowded roadways and bu

From the novel Monopole [formerly Theodorus in Excelsis] The rumble slows and then recedes, seemingly back into the belly of the earth. The people around Teddy pick themselves up and continue on their way, as though the sudden tectonic-plate shift had been an everyday occurrence. A few people remain lying in the walkway, either tending to their injuries or otherwise incapacitated by the pain. No one around the fallen pays them any mind. Teddy crawls back to his feet against t

From the novel Monopole [formerly Theodorus in Excelsis] “Another remarkable characteristic of the material,” the ALLpod says, “is that its mono-magnetic force is strong enough to sustain gravities much greater than its own and still retain levitation. Theodore Irving Monroe famously held an event on the runway of a large international airport, to which he rode in on a circus elephant named Chloe and walked her onto a sample of the mono-magnetic material large enough to hold

A sneak peak at the next draft of Monopole [formerly Theodorus in Excelsis] The mid-morning city passes by. Teddy stares out the van’s small, chalky window at the thin shadow trees—the alternating light-then-dark sidewalk beside the road—and the countless electric-combustion cars and the greenish air they create that obstruct his view. Through the sea of cars and the dirty city, Teddy watches the mono-magnetic M Trans glide through traffic. It is like a metallic dream. #monop