Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard

About this book

The Sixth Sense meets Planet of the Apes in a moving science fiction novel set so far in the future humanity is gone and forgotten in Lawrence M. Schoens Barsk: The Elephants Graveyard An historian who speaks with the dead is ensnared by the past. A child who feels no pain and who should not exist sees the future. Between them are truths that will shake worlds. In a distant future no remnants of human beings remain but their successors thrive throughout the galaxy. These are the offspring of humanitys genius-animals uplifted into walking talking sentient beings. The Fant are one such species: anthropomorphic elephants ostracized by other races and long ago exiled to the rainy ghetto world of Barsk. There they develop medicines upon which all species now depend. The most coveted of these drugs is koph which allows a small number of users to interact with the recently deceased and learn their secrets. To break the Fants control of koph an offworld shadow group attempts to force the Fant to surrender their knowledge. Jorl a Fant Speaker with the dead is compelled to question his deceased best friend who years ago mysteriously committed suicide. In so doing Jorl unearths a secret the powers that be would prefer to keep buried forever. Meanwhile his dead friends son a physically challenged young Fant named Pizlo is driven by disturbing visions to take his first unsteady steps toward an uncertain future.