Enter the Haliverse: Dark Side of the Halibut
The Pitch
When the Great Halibut's underside starts leaking reality, Hyperion, a grease-stained mechanic who hears machines, and Calliope, a girl whose metaphysical notebook makes things happen, must race from an absurd fish-world back to Homer to reactivate a hidden Spongiform Oracle before the Confluence collapses both worlds.
Discworld meets The Phantom Tollbooth, set on a planet-sized halibut.
Early Reader Reactions
Before publication, Dark Side of the Halibut went out to several alpha readers. Their notes are quoted below.
"This story dazzles with imagination. Planetary fish, philosophical crabs, cosmic bureaucracies."
"Reminiscent of Terry Pratchett's best works, with humor, layered worldbuilding, and metaphysical playfulness."
"I was genuinely reluctant to put this down. The layered absurdist humor, cosmic wonder, and pacing made it engrossing." Alpha Reader #1
"The mix of philosophical reflection with absurdist comedy fits very well. The presuppositional grounding is clear." Alpha Reader #2
Inside the Book
A few notes from the workshop.
On a sulking snowmobile. One alpha reader's favorite line was about Hyperion's machine, the Snowjet: "The Snowjet was sulking again. This was not, technically speaking, possible. Snowmobiles do not have emotions or the capacity for passive-aggressive silence. They are machines constructed of metal, plastic, wires and the frozen tears of accountants who calculated their profit margins. They do not sulk." I wrote Hyperion as a mechanic who talks to machines because the book needed a protagonist whose ordinary skill turns out to be the skill that matters when reality starts to fray. The Snowjet had to have a personality of its own before any of that could land.
On the rules of an absurd world. The Great Halibut is a planet-sized flatfish carrying cities, parliaments, and a guild of philosophizing sea creatures on its back. The setting is absurd. The rules are not. Scale rain falls a certain way. The membrane between worlds thins under measurable conditions. Hyperion's vibration-speaking has costs. I held the line on internal logic because absurdity without rules is just noise, and the reader can feel the difference.
On what the book is really about. Underneath the cosmic crabs and the bureaucratic walruses, Dark Side of the Halibut is a book about family legacy and the duty of stewardship. The Tropedox children inherit responsibilities they did not ask for and would not have chosen. The presuppositional groundwork is there for readers who want it, and the story still works for readers who do not. That seemed worth doing carefully.
One more line. The book's opening sets out its terms: "The universe, for its part, had never specifically requested to have a colossal halibut swimming through it. But universes, like in-laws and unexpected dinner guests, tend to accept what they're given with stoic resignation." If that line sounds like a book you want to read, the book is ready for you.
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