Grand Funk Central

Michael Lourekas knew nothing of the world. He was just a kid. He'd never even seen a naked woman before. And now he was dropped into a place where anything was possible, where every sexual and violent fantasy could be indulged - if you could handle the trip.

NEW YORK JUST BECAME A LANDSCAPE OF THE MIND

'So you didn't ingest it the normal way, ' Connor said. 'So you didn't feel that punch in the brain - like the surge of your animal self shooting up from the coccyx to the pineal gland, a rush like the big one. But you slipped under, Michael. You were under by the time we hit Mendiola's place.

'And you, the virgin boy from Montana, shooting a man in the face? No, Michael, you were under, and you're still under. And I hate to tell you this, my beautiful boy, but the moment you realize that you are under you're going to be dragged deeper than you could possibly imagine.

'This is your dilemma, Michael. You're either going to believe nothing happened, and that you're unaffected, and that everything here is normal - as normal as it gets in this freak show anyway - or you're going to have a freight train slam through your brain any moment now, when you dare to countenance the possibility that I'm right.'

THE FISHERFOLK ARE IN THE SKY

The alien structures arrived without warning, enclosing many of the world's cities under impenetrable seashell-like canopies. The rush, as it was known, killed millions and rendered millions more incurably insane.

Inside the canopies, the survivors faced a new world of intense psychological disturbances, where time was slowed down, where madness lingered constantly at the back of the mind, and where the streets were filled with nightmare visions. They subsisted on parachute drops of food, medicines, and consciousness-deadening drugs. Anyone who tried to enter or leave one of the canopies died instantly.

Nobody knew what the rush was for. But when new lights were seen in space, and a massive vessel began to decelerate toward Earth, it became clear that the canopies were fishing nets - and the fisherfolk were in the sky.

Michael Lourekas was just seventeen when the structures appeared, though his mind was much older thanks to an accident with the experimental drug HS1511, which accelerates the human mind to five times its normal speed. This made Michael uniquely qualified to enter the Manhattan Bubble and attempt a rescue in the last hours before the aliens arrived.

Grand Funk Central is terrifying thriller about a world in which all morality is suspended, all desire can be sated, and all your darkest nightmares are made real.