Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    GoneGodWorld - Episode 1: Paradise Lot, #1
    GoneGodWorld - Episode 1: Paradise Lot, #1
    GoneGodWorld - Episode 1: Paradise Lot, #1
    Ebook103 pages1 hour

    GoneGodWorld - Episode 1: Paradise Lot, #1

    By R.E. Vance

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Readers are saying that Paradise Lot is as original as American Gods and as exciting as The Dresden Files. 

    "It's as if Borges' Book of Imaginary Beings married a graphic novel and had an action adventure baby in Neverwhere." - Author J.L. Cragle 

    The gods are gone. All of them. 

    Their last message to humanity was: "Thank you for believing in us, but it is not enough. We're leaving. Good luck." At first no one took them seriously. Until, that is, all the denizens of all the heavens and hells started showing up on people's doorsteps. 

    Creatures that were once thought of as myth are now refugees striving to adapt to life on earth. Trouble is, after eons of living forever, they're not very good at being mortal. 

    Caught in the middle is Jean-Luc, a struggling hotelier who (reluctantly) promised to help these wayward 'Others' live in this new GoneGod world. But taking care of his guests, keeping his hotel afloat and dealing with the constant drama of the Others' lives is figuratively killing him. And now that an unusually strange Other is in town, his figurative demise might soon become more literal. 

    Paradise Lot is a new urban fantasy series by R.E. Vance that chronicles the adventures of the humans and 'Others' alike, as they struggle to navigate this strange, new post apocalyptic godless world. 

    The Cast: 
    - The human Jean-Luc; 
    - The angel Penemue; 
    - The gorgon Medusa; 
    - The fairy TinkerBelle; 
    - The archangel Michael; 
    - The succubus Astarte; 
    - The poltergeist Judith; 
    - The shade Bella... 

    and many, many more legendary characters from mythology, folklore and fairy tales. 

    PS - Sadly there are no vampires in Paradise Lot. Sorry :( 


    BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE SPECIAL BONUS BEING OFFERED IN THE FRONT OF THE BOOK! 



    Praise for Paradise Lot: 

    "Once I began reading, there was no putting it down."  

    "I'm really enjoying these stories. They remind me of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files (and that's a high compliment!)"  

    "5-stars!" -- Good Reads Reviewer 

    "I cannot get enough of this series!"  

    "R.E. Vance lured me right in."  

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherR.E. Vance
    Release dateJan 12, 2016
    ISBN9781524260187
    GoneGodWorld - Episode 1: Paradise Lot, #1

    Related to GoneGodWorld - Episode 1

    Titles in the series (9)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    General Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Last Smile In Sunder City

      Jan 29, 2020

      RELEASED 6 FEBRUARY 352 pages | Paperback/ebook/audiobook Author Luke Arnold Publisher Orbit Fans of Black Sails will likely find the name Luke Arnold familiar. He played John Silver in the pirate series, as well as being a mainstay on numerous other

      1 min read

    • Article

      The 22 Murders Of Madison May

      Jul 14, 2021

      ⏵ RELEASED OUT NOW! 336 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook ⏵ Author Max Barry ⏵ Publisher Hodder & Stoughton ➔ Why did Quantum Leap’s Dr Sam Beckett never find his way home? This multiverse-hopping sci-fi novel offers an answer: because travellers can

      1 min read

    • Article

      International zine Scene

      Aug 6, 2020

      Verily is a US web journal for women. The editorial team ‘sifts through the noise of the world to elevate what is honest, real, and beautiful for the modern woman’. Columns requiring subs are Travel with a Local about the ‘hidden gems’ in your neighb

      3 min read

    • Article

      You Exist Too Much

      Jun 5, 2020

      You Exist Too Much
      9 min read

    • Article

      Dark Blade

      Jul 17, 2019

      Dark Blade
      1 min read

    • Article

      Manifesting Magic

      Mar 3, 2022

      Manifesting Magic
      4 min read

    • Article

      Summer Beach Reads

      Jan 10, 2021

      Summer Beach Reads
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Silence of Witches

      Dec 10, 2019

      The Silence of Witches
      6 min read

    • Article

      Haunted

      Sep 27, 2023

      Haunted
      6 min read

    • Article

      Me & Davey Waters

      Jan 15, 2023

      Me & Davey Waters
      4 min read

    • Article

      On Death Row, There's No Such Thing As Closure

      Aug 2, 2019

      It is August of the year 2000, and I am cold. I know the sun is shining outside, but there are no windows in the courtroom. The lighting is subdued, darker in the back where spectators sit and lighter in the front where tragedies play out—like a the

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Machine Stops

      Dec 28, 2018

      The Machine Stops
      6 min read

    • Article

      Sweet Fantasy

      Nov 20, 2021

      Sweet Fantasy
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Family Plot

      May 7, 2020

      The Family Plot
      10 min read

    • Article

      On Nighttime

      May 15, 2019

      On Nighttime
      7 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Feb 28, 2023

      (layer 20, direction one) All of it begins. I’m soaked to the skin by a sudden downpour. My gray silkblouse won’t come free from the skin of my chest, my arms. I abandon themeanings of silk and skin to a moth-wing thinness, fluttering skyward. Sun re

      5 min read

    • Article

      After “The End”

      Oct 10, 2022

      I walked down the road with a hunched back and a wet cigarette in my mouth—the fire had died a while back. My hands were tucked into the pockets of my jacket, and my hair fell over my face, limiting my sight. But I wasn’t really seeing where I was go

      10 min read

    • Article

      Ongoingness

      Apr 21, 2022

      Ongoingness
      8 min read

    • Article

      Red Kite Grey Shadow

      Nov 3, 2022

      Red Kite Grey Shadow
      6 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Jan 1, 2024

      Looking back at photographsour clothes were enormous drapedacross our shoulders hanginglow off our hips like they weresomeone else’s and they wereusually someone’s old flannelit is clear we didn’t careor that we had different goalsfor our clothes I r

      5 min read

    • Article

      Performance

      Nov 10, 2022

      “Wait here,” the guard said as he shut the door behind him, leaving me by myself. The floor inside the lab was polished, and the air smelled of disinfectant, and yet the room felt unclean. Leaves shook on a tree outside the window, making shadows on

      18 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems by Phillip B. Williams

      Dec 15, 2017

      The masters are yet dead. Wanting to be human,I tried to rewrite The Waste Land. The canon’s reachcasts ruinous light. The masters’ pens breachthis page where, above, my own hand spectates. Babylonrisen, exorcism in reverse, whose nature upended now?

      6 min read

    • Article

      Rising Sign

      Feb 4, 2021

      Rising Sign
      10 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for GoneGodWorld - Episode 1

    4/5

    2 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Part of a book. The opening part. Great concept, not sure about the execution. Too early to tell. Just wish there’s an explanation why the lead keeps saying hallelujah.

    Book preview

    GoneGodWorld - Episode 1 - R.E. Vance

    Prologue

    The gods are gone. All of them.

    I’ve had the same dream every night since they left. I’m running from a devouring darkness that rushes over the world like a tidal wave of emptiness. I run on charred earth, unsure if the darkness or fear will get me first. In the distance, I can just see a pinprick of light ahead. If I can get to it, I will be safe. My legs burn and my lungs heave. I run and run toward the light, but before I reach it, the world stops. Not like a ledge or a shore; the world just stops. Null and void. And I know, in that way you do in dreams, that I’m standing at the end of everything.

    I turn around. If I’m going to die, I want to see it coming. The darkness slows down as the rushing wave breaks into a creeping black fog. It knows I’m trapped. It’s savoring my terror. 

    Just before the darkness envelops me, a burning light grows from the Void.

    Like the darkness, it blinds.

    I am surrounded by light and dark until a hand reaches from the burning halo and pulls me somewhere else.

    That’s when the dreams differ, because every night she takes me somewhere new.

    ↔

    Tonight, we walk on a sandy beach that reminds me of where I proposed to her. This is more secluded though—there’s no other sign of life. An imperfect memory of a place made perfect by time and imagination.

    I’m in linen shorts and little else. Bella is in the same sleeveless sundress that she wears on all our nightly rendezvous. It’s the dress she wore the night we got engaged; the one she wore when we drove up to PopPop’s cabin for what would pass as our honeymoon.

    The dress she was wearing the day the Others killed her.

    The hem is dry despite her being ankle-deep in the ocean. She’s standing next to me, so close that we could hold hands. But we never do. Even though I want it more than anything, we never touch. I don’t know why.

    Hi, Bella, I say. She doesn’t look at me, her eyes fixed on the blue, cloudless sky. I thought you hated salt water. What was it you used to say? ‘Salt’s a preservative and I don’t like the thought of anything preserving me.’

    Dust to dust, she says, still staring at the same spot in the sky. A single cumulus cloud has crept in from beyond the horizon.

    Yeah, yeah—‘dust to dust.’ Mummify me, I say. I want to be this beautiful forever. 

    I stand by my words, she chuckles, looking at me for the first time that night. I wanted life to use me up, and when it was done with me, I wanted to fade away into whatever came next.

    And did you?

    Nothing comes next. You know that.

    Yeah, I do. Everyone knows that Heaven is closed and Hell doesn’t exist.

    So what are you? A ghost, haunting my dreams? I ask. The words come out bitter and angry.

    Her mood darkens and in a distant voice she says, Ghosts aren’t real. Not anymore.

    Well, they kind of are, I say. Have you spoken to your mother recently?

    A smile creeps across her face as she shoots me her You better behave look.

    Be nice. You promised. Her smile fades and she is looking at the horizon again. The lone cloud has been replaced with a gray, ominous skyline. She points. There’s somewhere you need to be.

    I hear the distant roll of thunder as the wind picks up.

    There is nowhere I want to be, I say, raising my voice so she can hear me over the wind. 

    A fork of lightning strikes the sand beside us as a gale force wind blows in from the sea, far too fast to be natural. The once blue sky is now blanketed in grays.

    I didn’t say it was somewhere you wanted to be. There is somewhere you need to be, she says, flattening the wrinkles of her impossibly dry dress.

    I don’t want this to end. Not yet.

    Oh Jean-Luc, I don’t want you to go either. She captures me with her intense cerulean blue eyes and, in a serious tone I’ve seldom heard her use, says, Jean, there’s a storm coming. The thing about storms is that they always end. Remember that, and remember your promise.

    I nod. My promise. A promise I made to the dream of my dead wife one lonely night in the middle of nowhere. A promise that I would go to Paradise Lot and help Others. A promise I plan to keep.

    The storm is getting stronger. I need to wake up. Will you be back? I ask her this every time I have to leave.

    Whenever you sleep, she always replies, smiling. Someone has to save you from your dreams.

    I know she will. She always does.

    In this life and the next, I say, just before my body jolts as the real world comes into focus.

    ↔↔↔

    My mobile phone was ringing. I glanced at the clock. Three in the morning. Only one person would call me at this time: Penemue.

    Chapter 1

    Of Angels & Men

    I PARKED IN FRONT OF the Paradise Lot Police Station, to where I had been summoned—if such a lofty term could be used for being roused from a perfect dream at such a GoneGodless hour—to bail out a certain guest of mine. My head throbbed from lack of sleep. I hated being woken up; I hated being taken away from Bella.

    From outside, the station looked like any other: red brick building; a boring backlit sign with the name in big blue letters; a flex-face shield above the door. Typical—until you went inside.

    The first indication that the Paradise Lot Police Station, and by extension the world, was different was that the entrance had been unceremoniously enlarged. Whereas the doors were previously wide enough to accommodate three humans standing shoulder to shoulder, now they were big enough for an elephant.

    The next indication that it wasn’t your typical cops’ HQ was who manned the front desk: Medusa. As in turn-you-to-stone lady-of-legend and friggin’ Queen-of-the-Gorgons Medusa. As I walked in, at least seven of her thirty or so snake dreadlocks looked up. Jean, she said, not taking her own eyes off the computer screen, what brings you here at ... One of the snakes looked at the clock on the wall. Three in the morning?

    Same old, same old, I said. She giggled and pulled out a form for me. I avoided eye contact as I took it from her. I wasn’t afraid she’d turn me to stone—she could, if she was willing to burn through a couple years

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1