John T. Cullen has authored over 20 books, including The Generals of October (Simon & Schuster, 2004)—pulse-pounding political-military suspense fiction set in a near-future U.S. Constitutional crisis.
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John T. Cullen also writes screenplays, including one for Nebula Express (adapted from his SF novel) and the violent, darkly glistening, utterly strange tale of a serial killer in Scorpion.
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Robinson Crusoe 1,000,000 A.D.
a novel
by John T. Cullen
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28.
Alex’s memory was filled with images and sensations that half drove him mad: cities and roads, skylines and jet airplanes, the touch of other humans, especially Maryan... He could not find a shred of evidence that any of it had ever existed.
In his dreams he floated down rainy neon streets at night, and sometimes he could smell, almost taste, the way rainbow gasoline slicked the curbs, the way rubber and discarded fast food buns stank in gutters, but had any of it ever been real? He floated among glowing computer screens. A white-faced geisha’s oval face wore a veiled expression as she stared down with wondering eyes at her miso soup and seaweed while koto music swirled in a mix of breathy jazz. He rode in elevated silver trains among dots of light made hazy with fog and smoke, high up, to that one dot of light that was Maryan’s window, behind which she waited while applying after-bath perfume in slow motions with pale hands and steam roiled over her naked form. Later he lay among tangled bed sheets with Maryan, while nearby a mute television screen flickered unwatched; its bluish light danced in empty glasses and in a wine bottle and amid the abandoned China plates of a finished dinner. He could almost feel her silky skin and hear the passion in her rapid breaths as he and she touched each other.
No matter how deeply he managed to sink into these cinematic and evocative dreams, he always awakened to the monotonous cawing of sea gulls and the thunder of distant surf. He was utterly alone on this earth.
Sometimes he awoke in the middle of the night to the crash of thunder and slashes of lightning amid a downpour. He would lie awake inhaling the rot of the jungle and think how the stalking rippers were probably at that moment scheming about ways to eat him, and then he’d drift back into a cheerless sleep that was entirely of this place rather than that long-gone place.
Sometimes on a sunless day, when there was no hunting or fishing and all he could do was sit in his doorway chewing dried fish and stoking a smoky little fire, certain shreds of that extinct world might float by—a whiff of cold beer, a laugh on a street corner, the rumble of a passing truck, two shop girls teasing each other. In a blink of the eye, all that remained was the distant crash of surf invisible in a blinding fog that kept even the sea birds on their black wet slippery jags.
He did not fully understand who he was or how he’d gotten here, but he did understand how utterly alone he was. He was a castaway marooned beyond the end of time, the last human being, a final Robinson Crusoe.
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If you like what you're reading, please send at least two other avid readers to this website.
—Thank you! …Your grateful author, John T. Cullen.
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Other gripping books by the author:
Copyright © 2005 by John T. Cullen. All Rights Reserved.
John T. Cullen has been a pioneer in digital publishing since 1996. He is listed by digital publishing historian Karen Wiesner as the sixth digital publisher in history, and the second person to publish serialized chapters on line (starting 1996). His web magazine Deep Outside SFFH was the first to be listed along with the professional pulps in Writer's Market (1999) and was at one time the oldest professional SFFH magazine in the world. John T. Cullen continues to explore new ways to adapt the primordial power of storytelling to emerging new digital opportunities as the Third Millennium springs to light.
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A Walk in Ancient Rome John T. Cullen (Simon&Schuster May 2005) innovative, acclaimed walking & teaching tour—explore every corner of the Imperial capital at its zenith almost 2000 years ago; learn its history—smell and taste the very air of Classical Rome.
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= Summer 2008 =
A Walk in Ancient Rome, Second Edition John T. Cullen (Clocktower Books 2008)—New! Many new maps; images from the unique scale model of AndréCaron of Quebec. Read this innovative book, with its acclaimed walking & teaching tour. Explore every corner of the Imperial capital at its zenith almost 2000 years ago; learn its history. Smell and taste the very air of Classical Rome. The new edition is bigger, like an atlas. Some people have carried the 1st edition with them to Rome, and found it greatly enhanced their experience.
Dead Move: Kate Morgan and the Haunting Mystery of Coronado, 2nd Ed. John T. Cullen (Clocktower Books, San Diego, Summer 2008). John T. Cullen has tackled the mystery of the ghost at the Hotel del Coronado. He has assembled a dramatic new theory about how and why she violently died on the back steps of the hotel in 1892. A first-class ghost story and whodunit wrapped in one.
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