" Gardner skillfully combines a tight narrative with lush prose to create a difficult but rewarding tale." Publishers Weekly
Daniel Cole wants the world to end.
Returned home from the Great War, Daniel walks a ghost world. When players in a theatre show trap Daniel and his friends, fellow soldiers, on an apocalyptic path, they must battle the Four Horsewomen of the Apocalypse, fate and their own demons.
Already broken by war, these men are now the world's only hope in the greatest battle of all.
Published by Hadley Rille Books, December 2011
Cover Art: Simone Held
Cover Art: Simone Held
Available in hardback, paperback and eBook.
eBook: Amazon US Amazon UK Amazon France Amazon Germany
Kindly chosen by Damien Walters for the Guardian's top indie books.
Kindly chosen by Damien Walters for the Guardian's top indie books.
Reviews...
"Gardner (Strange Men in Pinstripe Suits), a rising purveyor of high literary strangeness, offers a fresh slice of phantasmagoria densely packed with striking images..."
Publishers Weekly
"This book is amazing, Cate's writing is intelligent, lyrical, emotional. evocative and totally engaging..."
Jim McLeod, Ginger Nuts of Horror (Jim also listed the book in his top fifteen reads of the year)
"From the battlefields of Europe, to the end of the world, this novel is a seamless blend of physical and psychological horror that will leave a distinct impression..."
Pablo Cheesecake, The Eloquent Page (Pablo also listed it as his book of the month for December)
"Darkly imaginative and utterly unique, Cate Gardner's Gaimanesque new book THEATRE OF CURIOUS ACTS had me the first second I fingered the moonlit beauty of it's ghostly cover."
Carole Lanham (author of The Whisper Jar)
"This is a simply deceiving story, complicated and intricate beneath the humor and darkness. She weaves a strong web and populates the story with quirky and likeable characters"
Lee Thompson at The Crow's Caw.
"The first page of every Cate Gardner story is a rabbit hole, through which you find yourself falling into a wonderland of her design, and Theatre of Curious Acts offers a deeper plunge into the abyss of Cate's imagination than anything of hers I've read yet."
Gef Fox at Wag the Fox, (Gef also listed it in his top five novellas of the year)
"The aesthetic of this 40,000 word novella evokes theater and circuses and other strange, false places that tell true stories. It’s a cross between Gaiman’s Neverwear, Maguire’s Wicked and Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, and if you enjoy any of those, you will enjoy the “Theatre of Curious Acts." -
Caroline E Willis at Tangent Online.
Publishers Weekly
"This is an End of Days not quite like any other, one filled with miracle and wonder certainly, but also with human drama, a story underpinned with compassion and, as with Gardner's other works, a focus on what is truly of value..."
Peter Tennant, Black Static
"This book is amazing, Cate's writing is intelligent, lyrical, emotional. evocative and totally engaging..."
Jim McLeod, Ginger Nuts of Horror (Jim also listed the book in his top fifteen reads of the year)
"From the battlefields of Europe, to the end of the world, this novel is a seamless blend of physical and psychological horror that will leave a distinct impression..."
Pablo Cheesecake, The Eloquent Page (Pablo also listed it as his book of the month for December)
"Darkly imaginative and utterly unique, Cate Gardner's Gaimanesque new book THEATRE OF CURIOUS ACTS had me the first second I fingered the moonlit beauty of it's ghostly cover."
Carole Lanham (author of The Whisper Jar)
"This is a simply deceiving story, complicated and intricate beneath the humor and darkness. She weaves a strong web and populates the story with quirky and likeable characters"
Lee Thompson at The Crow's Caw.
"The first page of every Cate Gardner story is a rabbit hole, through which you find yourself falling into a wonderland of her design, and Theatre of Curious Acts offers a deeper plunge into the abyss of Cate's imagination than anything of hers I've read yet."
Gef Fox at Wag the Fox, (Gef also listed it in his top five novellas of the year)
"The aesthetic of this 40,000 word novella evokes theater and circuses and other strange, false places that tell true stories. It’s a cross between Gaiman’s Neverwear, Maguire’s Wicked and Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, and if you enjoy any of those, you will enjoy the “Theatre of Curious Acts." -
Caroline E Willis at Tangent Online.
