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THE PLATINUM RAVEN - novella - audiobook
Genres: LGBTQ+, Literary Fiction, Magical Realism
Age Groups: 18+
Formats: Ebook, Audio
https://www.rohanquine.com/the-platinum-raven
"The Platinum Raven" by Rohan Quine is a triple convulsion whereby our heroine Raven escalates herself into the Chocolate Raven and then the Platinum Raven, from London to Dubai to the tower in the hills in the desert—then back down again, forever changed. The daydreams of the downtrodden Raven propel her into a fantasy life as a more glamorous version of herself: a party girl living in the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. This latter’s imagination then spawns a yet more empowered and intense version of herself, as empress of a sequence of events whose fusion of extraordinary beauty, violence and sensuality is bewitching… A Distinguished Favorite in the NYC Big Book Award 2021.
In her cubicle high in the Shard in London, a sweet-natured, raven-haired receptionist named Raven is even more rudely mistreated than usual for a Monday morning. Recovering from this, her daydreams propel her into the fantasy life of a richer and more glamorous version of herself, who lives higher up in the world's tallest skyscraper—the Burj Khalifa, in Dubai. Raven thinks of this woman as the Chocolate Raven, owing to her chocolate-coloured hair, which frames a face that's just like her own; and straightaway, Raven cannot get enough of watching this glamorous creature.
The Chocolate Raven is a party girl whose lifestyle has a certain flash, albeit a certain flatness too. Standing on the vertiginous 152nd-Level terrace of the Burj Khalifa, she gazes across the desert at dusk, to the rock-slopes of the Hajar Mountains—and a mad-faced nightclub tower of shadow sprouts up, there on those slopes, from her gaze. This tower is run by a woman with a face just like the Chocolate Raven's, but with platinum-blonde instead of chocolate-coloured hair, who lives a yet more empowered and intensely-coloured life: for she is the Platinum Raven, no less. And tonight she will preside over the launch of a revolutionary new club drug called mirror mist.
Between this uber-glamorous Platinum Raven and her companions Scorpio and Amber, there unfolds a sequence of events whose fusion of extraordinary beauty and violence and sensuality so bewitches the watching Chocolate Raven, that she is miserably desolate as soon as these events finish at dawn when the rising desert sun destroys that nocturnal tower on the rock-slopes. She therefore sets out on a mission to regain the voltage of the vanished building and the allure of its exotic denizens ... whereupon a stark piece of evidence of the Platinum Raven's realm is channelled through the Chocolate Raven and is pulled right back down to earth in the original daydreamer Raven herself.
REVIEWS:
https://www.rohanquine.com/press-media/the-novellas-reviews-media
VIDEO-BOOK:
https://www.rohanquine.com/t-p-r-video-book
and
https://www.rohanquine.com/t-p-r-video-book/short-teasers-for-the-platinum-raven-video-book
BUY:
https://www.rohanquine.com/buy/the-platinum-raven-novella-audiobook
and
https://www.rohanquine.com/buy/the-platinum-raven-novella-ebook
and
https://www.rohanquine.com/buy/the-platinum-raven-and-other-novellas-paperback
Rohan Quine, The Platinum Raven, literary fiction, litfic, magical realism, horror, dark fantasy, cyberpunk, contemporary, science fiction, gay, transgender, LGBT, Dubai, Burj Khalifa, Palm Jumeirah, London, Shard, skyscraper, desert, nightclub, drug
Reviews
Iris Murdoch
I have now been reading "Hallucinations" with great pleasure [...] you are indeed a star.
[This endorsement appears in a letter from Iris Murdoch to Rohan Quine, a scan of which appears at Quine's website at the link below. ("Hallucinations", published in print in the US only, was the previous title of this publication "The Platinum Raven and other novellas"; it contained somewhat earlier versions of "Apricot Eyes", "Hallucination in Hong Kong" and a few chapters of "The Platinum Raven".)]
Dan Holloway
Rohan Quine is one of the most brilliant and original writers around. His "The Imagination Thief" blended written and spoken word and visuals to create one of the most haunting and complex explorations of the dark corners of the soul you will ever read. Never one to do something simple when something more complex can build up the layers more beautifully, he is back with a collection of 4 seamlessly interwoven novellas. [...] suffice to say he is the consummate master of sentencecraft. His prose is a warming sea on which to float and luxuriate. But that is only half of the picture. He has a remarkable insight into the human psyche, and he demonstrates it by lacquering layer on layer of subtle observation and nuance. Allow yourself to slip from the slick surface of the water and you will soon find yourself tangled in a very deep and disturbing world, but the dangers that lurk beneath the surface are so enticing, so intoxicating it is impossible to resist their call.
Suzi Rapport, Amazon
A mythic expression of what all our own personas and archetypes are driven by.
From the stasis of her daily life, Raven multiplies herself upwards into two heightened versions of herself -- first, a flatly glamorised "Chocolate" version, and then a transcendent "Platinum" version. Through this self-transcendence, Quine is illuminating the self-determinations that many of us make whenever we curate our own images for public consumption. As such, this apparently fairytale-like novella attains a mythic expression of what all our own personas and archetypes are driven by.
Awards
New York City Big Book Award -- Distinguished Favorite, Anthology category
Nov 30th, -0001