Appearing Live at The Final Test
APPEARING LIVE AT THE FINAL TEST is an intense hybrid of contemporary real-world drama and mythic science fiction about four neighbors in a Brooklyn-like neighborhood whose lives together take a cosmic punch from a nuclear bomb threat.
Msongo, a black, middle-aged newsstand operator, and his friends Lyon MacAuliffe, a marine radio specialist living on his converted crab boat, and Nopali Arendal, a beautiful airline attendant and club singer, struggle to ride out the whiplashing, interlocking gyrations of the world and the mind of their young friend Arielle Topaz, a talented but insecure firebrand with a case of near-twenty identity shakes.
The sparks flying between Lyon and Nopali build amidst haunting threats of mass weapon strikes which launch them on an eerie and spellbinding journey to unravel a growing mystery that holds their lives and life itself at stake. The novel is intricately related to the author’s 2006 novel UPSURGE.
APPEARING LIVE AT THE FINAL TEST deals in part with cosmic evolution theory. A primary resource for information on this aspect of cosmology is astrophysicist Eric Chaisson’s book Cosmic Evolution.
What Readers Are Saying
APPEARING LIVE AT THE FINAL TEST is an extremely well-written novel-a pleasure to read, a wild ride of depression at some points, exhilaration at others. John Teton has raised some serious concerns regarding the fate of civilizations, and our consciousness is raised with this thought-provoking work.
Eric Chaisson
Author, COSMIC EVOLUTION
Astrophysicist
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Mr. Teton gives fictionalized treatment to ‘cosmic evolution,’ a complex and controversial theory which holds that evolution affects not just life on Earth, but extends back to the birth of the universe and continues to include changes in human civilization, culture, technology, and beyond. The story benefits from a grounding in everyday human fears and troubles, along with mind-blowing scenes which venture into questions about creation and the role of human beings in it. The novel is chock-full of information about stars and the planets, and yet he clearly knows a thing or two about teenagers, old folks, sailing, marine biology, marriage, love, pop culture, terrorism, religious extremists, and the media… A theme running through both novels is wonder at the universe and the potential for human beings to influence the world for good.
Rhonda Parks Manville
Santa Barbara News-Press
APPEARING LIVE AT THE FINAL TEST is a genre-breaking story unlike any other. Its scenes range from a scarily realistic depiction of an urban nuclear event to mind-stretching intergalactic travel-all related in the author’s savvy, wisecracking, original and sometimes hilarious hyperbolic voice.
Craig A. Lambert, Ph.D.
Former Deputy Editor, Harvard Magazine
Cover Artwork
The cover of Appearing Live at the Final Test was designed by author/filmmaker John Teton with graphic and layout work by digital artist Michael Ray Allison. The image incorporates two Hubble photographs from NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute. Allison created the cosmic eye frame from a small portion of the the “edge-on” photo of spiral galaxy NGC 4013, roughly 55 million light-years beyond the constellation Ursa Major, of which the Big Dipper is a part.
The three “towers of star creation” on the left, used by Allison also as models for the transitional intermediate towers, are evaporating gaseous globules located in the Eagle nebula in the constellation Serpens, much closer to home at a distance of only 7000 light years.
A special enlarged photo art edition of the original full wraparound image of the cover, without the quotes and publishing and price data added on the back, is now available to the public on glossy C-grade photographic paper or as Chromira poster-sized prints.
THE COVER PHOTO
The photo art edition of the cover to Appearing Live at the Final Test can be purchased in either of the following formats:
11″ x 15″ $15.00
16″ x 22″ $28.00
There is a $6 handling charge for each shipment. For further information, click HERE.