Below is a promotional release from HarperCollins. I don’t usually publish these but I love The Endless Vessel. I’ve interviewed the author Charles Soule for this podcast (available on 5 June 2023 unless HC says I can publish sooner). And, as always, when I love a book I want ALL THE SHINY FABULOUS PEOPLE to read it. I’m evangelical like that.
Combining the wonder of The Midnight Library, the inventiveness of Ready Player One, and the artistry of Cloud Atlas, THE ENDLESS VESSEL by the bestselling author of The Oracle Year and Anyone explores the way we’re all connected—and offers a true path to joy.
“Exploring the necessity of human connection with incredible depth, Soule serves up a delightful cocktail of dystopian and science fiction, with elements of historical fiction as a cherry on top.”
–Library Journal
“[A] hugely entertaining near-future dystopian thriller from comic book writer Soule (Anyone) . . .. Rich characters and a full-throttle plot, plus a solid finale, elevate this page-turner. It’s a winner.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Soule captures the despair and loneliness of people struggling to survive in a damaged world, stringing eager readers along until the very end.”
—Booklist
“The Endless Vessel is a thrilling hunt, haunting mystery, and ominous prediction all in one, but most of all, it’s a poignant reminder of what it means to be human—to despair, to love, and to refuse to give up hope, even in the final hour.”
— Peng Shepherd, bestselling author of The Cartographers
HarperCollins’s pitch
Garnering such superlatives as “thrilling” and “whip-smart” (Kirkus), “explosive” (Booklist) and “mind-bending” (Shelf Awareness), the cutting-edge speculative novels of #1 New York Times bestselling author Charles Soule take readers to a near future where technology and humanity collide.
Soule’s much-anticipated new novel, THE ENDLESS VESSEL (Harper Perennial; Hardcover; ISBN: 9780063043046; $30.00 On-sale: June 6, 2023), is a timely and muscular exploration of humankind’s relationship to joy, the lengths to which we go to obtain it, and the ways we convince ourselves we have it.
With a typically inventive narrative that travels from Hong Kong to England to post-Revolution America and across the seven seas, this visionary writer further extends the boundaries of his storytelling art. A piece of impossible technology, and the search for its creators. A centuries-long quest to defeat death. A woman whose only goal is to bring joy to humanity, no matter the cost. The greatest treasure ever found. A ship whose voyage will last forever. This is THE ENDLESS VESSEL.
The blurb
Lily Barnes, a materials engineer living in Hong Kong a few years from now, stumbles across a device full of secrets that overturn her assumptions about the world. The machine seems to be addressing Lily directly, calling out to her, asking her to follow a path to whatever lies at its end. Lily sets out to find the people who built it, leaving her life behind, traveling the world and across the seven seas. For Lily, and for the reader, the question is the same: how far would you go to be happy?
From its opening heart-stopping scene in the present day at the Louvre in Paris, to a shocking and satisfying conclusion in a truly enchanted forest, Charles Soule has channeled history, science, and drama to create a story for the ages—a story of hope, love, and possibility. This is a novel you will not soon forget.
Soule on The Endless Vessel
“THE ENDLESS VESSEL is an adventure. It is a voyage, it is a treasure hunt, and a quest,” Soule says. “This story started with a remarkably simple idea, an image I couldn’t shake—a ship that never stopped sailing, on a non-stop, centuries-long voyage. That’s the literal interpretation of the title, and we see that ship in the story. The more figurative version is that it’s about us—we are all endless vessels, constantly seeking to fill ourselves with experience, love, and the most important, elusive quality of all… happiness. Joy, even. Our souls are endless vessels. Humanity itself is an endless vessel.”
Charles Soule is “an author that readers of speculative fiction will love for years to come,” says Jennifer Wright, author of Get Well Soon: History’s Worst Plagues and the Heroes That Fought Them. THE ENDLESS VESSEL “is a thrilling hunt, haunting mystery, and ominous prediction all in one” (Peng Shepherd) and a book everyone will want to escape into this summer.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Charles Soule is a New York-based, #1 New York Times best-selling novelist, comic book writer, musician, and former attorney. He is the author of some of the most prominent comic stories of the last decade for Marvel, DC and Lucasfilm, including a groundbreaking run on Daredevil, the mega-bestsellers Death of Wolverine and Darth Vader, and a run on She-Hulk that served as inspiration for the Disney+ television show. In addition, he works as a Creative Consultant for Lucasfilm Ltd. within the Star Wars universe and is the writer of the acclaimed creator-owned comic series Eight Billion Genies, Undiscovered Country, Letter 44 and Curse Words. For more on Charles and his work, visit: https://www.charlessoule.com/
THE ENDLESS VESSEL
By Charles Soule
Harper Perennial/ HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN: 9780063043046
$30.00; Hardcover; 464 pages
On-sale: June 6, 2023