infinity plus
- infinity plus books
- books by author
- Keith Brooke
- Stephen Baxter
- Tony Ballantyne
- Eric Brown
- James Everington
- John Grant
- Guy Hasson
- Robert Holdstock
- Shahrukh Husain
- Garry Kilworth
- Claude Lalumière
- David D Levine
- Jason Erik Lundberg
- Stephen Palmer
- Kaitlin Queen
- Kit Reed
- Iain Rowan
- Anna Tambour
- Lisa Tuttle
- Robert Freeman Wexler
- Neil Williamson
- Nir Yaniv
- guest authors:
- Linda Nagata
- Scott Nicholson
- Kristine Kathryn Rusch
- Steven Savile
- books by genre
- bestselling titles
- ebooks
- books in print
- cover gallery
- infinity plus singles
- infinite press
- social media
- buy our books
- infinity plus blog
- contact
- for booksellers
- infinity plus archive
- NEWSLETTER
The Alchemy of Happiness by Jason Erik Lundberg
The Alchemy of Happiness: a triptych of stories rooted in Southeast Asian myth and legend, literary fantasy at its very best.
In the beginning were the four: Water, Fire, Air, and Earth. Arriving simultaneously with the creation of the world, these archetypal elementals shaped humanity from the very start; two of the four continue to do so.
BLUE - The first trickster, fluid and fickle, holder of all the answers, and, therefore, of all the power.
DANE - The loyal lieutenant and enforcer, dispatching fiery judgment without question.
In various guises and forms, through the interstices of our reality and multiple afterlives, these two ancient but flawed siblings seek to find the one metaphysical formula that will lead them out of the never-ending cycle of suffering. Like all of us, human and demigod alike, they yearn for the pure land of endless bliss.
This volume also features "Embracing the Strange," a 14,000-word hybrid essay on the transformative power of speculative fiction, as well as "Represented Spaces," a wide-ranging interview with Jason Erik Lundberg by author and editor Wei Fen Lee.
[As a special bonus, anyone who purchases a copy of The Alchemy of Happiness gets a link to a free copy of Jason's collection Red Dot Irreal.]
Cover by Keith Brooke
"The writing is smooth and crisply visual, and the dialog sparkles … Go with the flow, and you’ll meet an interesting character who ultimately is given a thought-provoking choice, one which comes with a unique sacrifice."
—Douglas Hoffman, Tangent, on “Reality, Interrupted” (the first story in The Alchemy of Happiness)
"A fantasy tale of the highest calibre, at times I thought I was reading the last chapter of a great novel and it has certainly made me want to hear more from this author. A world of magic suddenly springs from a fairly ordinary beginning as Goran soon realises that things are not what they seem, and he quickly plunges into a new and disturbing world that is set to change his life forever."
—Tracy Sherrin-Miller, Whispers of Wickedness, on “Reality, Interrupted”
"Lundberg’s writing is that of an Old Soul who views the world through Young Eyes; his work is jamais vu of the highest order."
—James A Owen, author and illustrator of Here, There Be Dragons
Jason Erik Lundberg
Jason Erik Lundberg is the author of several books of the fantastic–including Strange Mammals (2013), The Alchemy of Happiness (2012), Red Dot Irreal (2011), and The Time Traveler's Son (2008)–as well as the Bo Bo and Cha Cha children's picture book series and more than a hundred short stories, articles, and book reviews. He is also the founding editor of LONTAR: The Journal of Southeast Asian Speculative Fiction, series editor for Best New Singaporean Short Stories, editor of Fish Eats Lion (2012), and co-editor of A Field Guide to Surreal Botany (2008) and Scattered, Covered, Smothered (2004). A graduate of the prestigious Clarion Writers Workshop, Lundberg holds a degree in creative writing from North Carolina State University and currently lives in Singapore.
more infinity plus books by Jason Erik Lundberg:
