Books by Matt Payne

Neo-Something Doom Puzzle is a playfully evil and sometimes violent book. It tells the tales of several young hipsters and losers struggling for stability in a carnivorous universe. Neuroses and bad luck weave together the ambitious journeys of the multiple protagonists. Hopes and dreams are taken apart and perversely re-arranged in a universe full of manipulative bosses, occult horror, awkward romance, perverse desires, morbid absurdity, living symbolism, and adventure. Fast-paced prose and abstract story-structure add layers of meaning to an experiment in narrative form. Sam is a naive and neurotic young man who is bullied by his family. He has a ghost-limb and a dream to create video games. When he gets an internship at a video game studio his bosses take advantage of his lack of experience, using him to spy on each other. He learns they are in over their heads in occult pursuits, which becomes bad news for Sam. Meanwhile Sam''s deranged family won''t let him be. Ted is a drug-damaged introvert who tries to rescue old friends from a haunted mountain during a skydiving misadventure. He discovers a world full of monsters and magic where subtle meaning manifests itself as discrete entities, time plays strange tricks on lost wanderers, and personalities are mere toys for inexplicable forces. He also explores the nature of evolving relationships. Other characters pursue their own ambitions via violent orgies, dangerous job-hunts, and team-building exercises gone-awry. Alongside the hostility of capitalist predators these sad heroes also meet creatures from the void, manifestations of the universe''s unknowableness, and puzzles of cosmic power. This book depicts hipsters and young professionals who find their struggles and desires are just a thin veil over a gaping, mysterious horror show. It symbolizes the fleeting nature of human life contrasted with the ancient force of the raw universe which generates and dissolves all people. Strengths and weaknesses take on lives of their own as the characters are forced to learn the hard way. If somebody is pulling the strings that weave these stories together, it''s hard to see who, and harder still to see why.