The Translation of Bastian Test
by Tom Arden
On a rocky Scottish coast lies Castle Drumhallurick, ruinous home of a long-lost laird. But who is the reclusive millionaire who has taken over the castle? And what is it that links him to a fantastical alien world, circling the faraway star system of Antares?
It is 1926, and a horrifying scientific experiment is about to unfold, altering forever the life of a boy called Bastian Test.
For all his life, Bastian has been kept in seclusion, shut away from the world by his eccentric artist mother. Now, after her sudden death, Bastian learns that he has a guardian he has never heard of before, and a mysterious destiny that lies in wait for him on the rocky shores of Drumhallurick.
Cast into the world, Bastian meets one peculiar character after another: cocktail-swilling flapper-girl, Magnolia Touch; pin-striped lawyer Mr Quench, who dresses after hours in the strangest of ways; Sir Farley Elphinstone, florid Shakespearean actor-manager, with his unnervingly odd twin son and daughter. There is stuttering bird-watcher Mr Bridie, and Jolly, the former cannibal from the heart of Africa. There is a woman who stares from a window with a mask-like face. There is the crazed sadistic scientist, Dr Feuer. But who is really good and who is evil? And will Bastian find out, before it is too late?
From the author of offbeat fantasy epic The Orokon comes a bizarre science fiction adventure, rich in mystery, malevolence and something close to magic. Erotic, moving, hilarious and disturbing, at once coming of age story, gothic mystery and macabre phantasmagoria, The Translation of Bastian Test is a haunting, atmospheric work of visionary imagination that will haunt the mind forever.
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Tom Arden
David Rain (1961–2015), known by his pen name Tom Arden, was a British science fiction and fantasy writer. He was born in Australia. His main work is the five volume Orokon saga, as well as the novels Shadow Black, The Translation of Bastian Test and the Doctor Who novella Nightdreamers.
Arden was born in 1961 and grew up in Mount Gambier, South Australia. He wrote his first unpublished novel, Moon Escape at the age of seven and later studied English at the University of Adelaide, graduating with First Class Honours. Arden completed his Ph.D. thesis on Clarissa, the epic tale by 18th-century novelist Samuel Richardson.
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