The Gyre Mission:Journey to the *sshole of the World

Horror

By Edgar Swamp

Publisher : Createspace

ABOUT Edgar Swamp

Edgar Swamp
Edgar Swamp's stories have appeared in Death head Grin, Macabre Cadaver, Alienskin and Urban Reinventors. The Gyre Mission is his first published novel. He enjoys watching people squirm when they read his work, laughing aloud as they try and claw their own eyes out...

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Description

In 2018 a research ship carrying some of America's top scientists disappears at the site of the worlds largest floating landfill, and it is up to a government appointed 'B' team to investigate a potentially eradicate this problem once and for all. But things aren't quite what they seem on Garbage Island, and all too quickly our 'heroes' find that escape is virtually impossible.

Full of twists and turns, mutated animals, parasitic humans and grotesque imagery that will keep you up at night, the Gyre Mission is a sprawling, unpredictable adventure. Edgar Swamp writes with an acerbic wit coupled with a deftness for chilling brutality. Kirkus Reviews calls it 'Visually engaging, an irrefutably intoxicating adventure.' They aren't lying. Sure to be an instant classic, this contemporary disasterpiece explores humankinds moribund environmental priorities, creating a world so foul you can almost smell it waft from the pages like the fetid stench of a city sewer, populated by characters you'd swear you've met...in  police line-up!

In 2011 I read an article about a huge patch of garbage in the northern Pacific called 'The great Pacific garbage patch'. The article described a stretch of water in a gyre (a water vortex) that sucked in garbage from all over the world and was said to be twice the size of Texas. The story wrote itself from there. I wanted to have a survival story set on an island of garbage, with characters that would make bad decisions and get themselves killed in grotesque ways. Hence, this book!

Cover art for The Gyre Mission: Journey to the *sshole of the World

The Gyre Mission: Journey to the *sshole of the World

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KIRKUS REVIEW

First-time novelist Swamp weaves an epic tale of a crew sent to assess a garbage heap in the Pacific Ocean—and to learn what happened to the last crew sent to investigate it.

Debris in the North Pacific Gyre has formed a mass three times the size of Texas. After a group scientists sent to the gyre mysteriously vanishes, the president of the United States opts to assign the task to “expendable volunteers” instead of wasting more scientists. The crew includes college students, naval recruits looking to avoid jail time, and even a dominatrix privately hired by the California governor spearheading the operation. When they get to the gyre, they find more than just trash—something far more hazardous. The novel delivers the droll, satirical tone suggested by its subtitle. Its ragtag band of characters has unapologetically bizarre traits: Dante, who’s made a career out of being a drug-trial guinea pig; Kenny, a former football player hooked on painkillers and booze; and Tyler, a con man who mooches off women but believes his affection for Melissa, the dominatrix, is genuine—because he told her his real name. The long book is divided into three parts; the first two introduce most of the prospective crew and the oceanic excursion to the gyre. In the third, the ship reaches the island of garbage and the story takes a decidedly Lovecraftian turn. Characters are subjected to putrid odors and vile substances and attacked by mutated creatures. This section, which takes up half the novel, is filled with potent but often grotesque imagery—such as a pit trap outfitted with a bed of syringes—and is likely to make even the most steadfast readers squirm. Readers may not find it easy to care about many of the people in Swamp’s story; Captain Harvey and the governor, for example, seem to hate everyone, and other crewmembers remain unidentified (although one finally gets a name, immediately prior to his savage death). However, the savvy Melissa and selfless Dante are likeable and will likely provide readers with enough sympathy to go around.

A visually engaging, irrefutably intoxicating adventure.