Edgar Swamp

Edgar Swamp

About

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...

Size Zero (Visage Book 1)

Size Zero (Visage Book 1)

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Description

<p style="margin:0px 0px 14px;padding:0px;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><strong>&quot;A somber, disturbing mystery fused with a scathing look at the fashion industry. </strong><strong>Mangin writes in a confident, razor-edged style.&quot;</strong><strong> - Kirkus Reviews</strong></p><p style="margin:-4px 0px 14px;padding:0px;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><strong>Condom dresses and space helmets have debuted on fashion runways.</strong></p><p style="margin:-4px 0px 14px;padding:0px;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;">A dead body becomes the trend when a coat made of human skin saunters down fashion's biggest stage. The body is identified as Annabelle Leigh, the teenager who famously disappeared over a decade ago from her boyfriend's New York City mansion.</p><p style="margin:-4px 0px 14px;padding:0px;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;">This new evidence casts suspicion back on the former boyfriend, Cecil LeClaire. Now a monk, he is forced to return to his dark and absurd childhood home to clear his name. He teams up with Ava Germaine, a renegade ex-model. And together, they investigate the depraved and lawless modeling industry behind Cecil's family fortune.</p><p style="margin:-4px 0px 14px;padding:0px;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;">They find erotic canes, pet rats living in crystal castles, and dresses made of crushed butterfly wings. But Cecil finds more truth in the luxury goods than in the people themselves. Everyone he meets seems to be wearing a person-suit. Terrified of showing their true selves, the glitterati put on flamboyant public personas to make money and friends. Can Cecil find truth in a world built on lies?</p><p style="margin:-4px 0px 0px;padding:0px;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><strong>In high fashion modeling, selling bodies is organized crime.</strong></p>

Story Behind The Book

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!

Reviews

<div class="container"> <div class="row"> <div class="title-detail-ctr clearfix"><img alt="Cover art for The Gyre Mission: Journey to the *sshole of the World" border="0" class="book-cover" src="https://d1ldy8a769gy68.cloudfront.net/180/978/061/565/516/1/9780615655161.jpg" width="180" /><h1 class="book_detail_title">The Gyre Mission: Journey to the *sshole of the World</h1> <div class="book-author">by <a href="https://www.kirkusreviews.com/search/?q=Edgar%20Swamp;t=author"><font color="#0000ff">Edgar Swamp</font></a></div> <div class="title-detail-buy-ctr"> <div class="buy-now-header">Buy now from</div> <div class="buy-now-btn-ctr"><a class="btn btn-small buy-btn" href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Gyre-Mission-Journey-sshole/dp/0615655165%3FSubscriptionId%3DAKIAIXFKFJI6IH6DO5KQ%26tag%3Dkirkus-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0615655165"><font color="#0000ff">AMAZON.COM </font></a><br /><a class="btn btn-small buy-btn" href="http://click.linksynergy.com/deeplink?mid=36889&amp;id=Q14clCXeQUw&amp;murl=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.barnesandnoble.com%2Fbooksearch%2FISBNInquiry.asp%3FEAN%3D9780615655161"><font color="#0000ff">BARNES &amp; NOBLE </font></a><br /><a class="btn btn-small buy-btn" href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/0615655165?aff=kirkus_reviews"><font color="#0000ff">LOCAL BOOKSELLER </font></a> <div class="oliver-list-ctr"> <div class="oliver-pile-btn-ctr"> <div><span class="oliver-add-to-list-btn">Add to my list </span><span style="font-size:12px;">This book is in your list</span><br /><span class="oliver-remove-from-list-btn">Remove </span></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="clearfix" style="margin-top:8px;"> <div class="share-btn-ctr sharrre"> <div class="buttons"> <div class="button facebook"> <div> </div> <div class="fb-like fb_edge_widget_with_comment fb_iframe_widget"> </div> </div> <div class="button twitter"> </div> <div class="button googleplus"> <div style="margin:0px;padding:0px;width:450px;height:20px;line-height:normal;text-indent:0px;font-size:1px;vertical-align:baseline;float:none;"> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="share-extras-ctr"><a href="mailto:?subject=Kirkus Reviews: The%20Gyre%20Mission:%20Journey%20to%20the%20*sshole%20of%20the%20World&amp;body=You might be interested in this: %0A%0AThe%20Gyre%20Mission:%20Journey%20to%20the%20*sshole%20of%20the%20World%0Ahttps://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/edgar-swamp/the-gyre-mission-journey-to-the-sshole-of-the-worl/%0A%0AFirst-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 ..."><img alt="Email this review" border="0" height="20" src="https://d3eoifnsb8kxf0.cloudfront.net/13q1/img/email_button.png" width="59" /></a> <a href="https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/edgar-swamp/the-gyre-mission-journey-to-the-sshole-of-the-worl/print/"><img alt="print-btn-59x20.png" height="20" src="https://d1fd687oe6a92y.cloudfront.net/13q1/img/print-btn-59x20.png" width="59" /></a></div> </div> <div class="title-review-ctr"> <h2>KIRKUS REVIEW</h2> <div class="book-review-txt"> <div> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>A visually engaging, irrefutably intoxicating adventure.</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div>