Sunday, June 22, 2014

Counterfeit Youth by Narbeh Avanessian




Narbeh Avanessian lives in Los Angeles as a freelance writer and marketing professional. He spends
his free time writing science fiction and studying video games.

Author Links -
Narbeh Avanessian.com

Twitter.com/TheNarbs













Book Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Self-published
Release Date: April 28, 2014
Buy Link(s):





Book Description:

What does the man who has everything want? The answer is simple: for it to never end. Jackson Riley is a young billionaire living in the year 2052 with a single obsession - to discover immortality within his lifetime. But what happens when this obsession tears him apart from reality and his one true love Nicole? And why have untraceable special agents taken an interest in his medical experiments? Counterfeit Youth is an emotionally charged sci-fi thriller that explores the concept of happiness, and what it means to live forever.


Excerpt:

February 2nd, 2053
What does the man who has everything want? It was the one question that began to haunt me in the younger years of my life. If I could just come up with the answer, I was convinced I could find the secret to the most elusive human emotion: happiness.
I remember sitting alone in a dimly lit Burbank diner at dawn, playing with my ketchup-drenched curly fries as my coffee cooled down, lost in thought. My sunken, insomniac eyes would wait for the sun to rise through the cafe's east windows. The blinding light of dawn's first rays coming in strong and low was almost pristine enough to deliver some kind of answer, but it was not to be.
The bullet train would deliver me to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco in the winter, when the crowds had left. The wind would gust with bursts of fury, and I'd smell the salt in the air. The splashes of the bay water calmed me down immensely. It was the closest I had come to finding what I was looking for, yet I still searched.
For most of my life, I would convince myself the answer would come through my art; perhaps a set of my best paintings—no, an entire exhibit—would give me solace, but it was never enough. Everywhere I looked in my Golden State, the state many simply called California, the answer to the question continued to elude me.
It was my family's move from the valley into West Los Angeles that finally aligned the stars in my favor. Against all odds, I found him—the man who had everything. The question that had driven me mad all of these years could finally be answered, if I could somehow become part of his story and pay close enough attention.
That man was Jackson Riley. He was born in the year 2017 to proud parents who would have only one child. By 2035, Jackson Riley neatly fit the criteria as the man who had everything. He was worth eight billion dollars, the sole heir to a real-estate empire, so he never worried about money. He was deeply in love with his strikingly beautiful high school sweetheart and never suffered unrequited love. At the young age of eighteen, he never ached for lost youth.
So did I learn the answer to my question through a man I thought would only exist in theoretical debates? Is my story in the pages written below any help at all? A simple answer to a once philosophical question does it no justice, but in case you were still wondering, I'll give it to you square. What does the man who has everything want? Simple—for it to never end.
Arsen









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