Book excerpt: THE SYMPHONY BEGINS Midway through the dull, grey journey of college, Victor Roland, a high-functioning autistic, is dragged into his own world of sword and steam. Here, the year is 1884, by Imperial reckoning. In the shadows of its cathedrals, a series of grisly murders sweep the metropolis of Holy Gothica. Soon after his descent, Victor learns of portals in televisions, where daemons lurk in an abyss shrouded in fog, and emerge when blackouts wrack the city. But when he discovers that his friends from “reality” — Charles Garner, a middle-aged “connoisseur of cannabis,” and, Beatrice Morrison, a biker with a goth streak — are trapped in here, Victor resolves to find them, lest they wind up kidnapped by, “the Dollmaker,” and slaughtered behind the screens. Fortunately, Victor awakens to the power of Geist — to summon a living facet of his own psyche, to battle the evil born of everyone’s souls. A power that earns him a chance to find his dear friends, and perhaps even a way home … Whimsical, humorous yet terrifying, Geist: Prelude will hold readers long into the night and pave the road for a series of dark fantasy and gothic dystopia.