Narbeh
Avanessian lives in Los Angeles as a freelance writer and marketing
professional. He spends
Author Links -
Narbeh Avanessian.com
Twitter.com/TheNarbs
Book Genre:
Science Fiction
Publisher: Self-published
Release Date: April 28, 2014
Buy Link(s):
Barnes
&
Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/counterfeit-youth-narbeh-avanessian/1119379259?ean=2940149175413
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:
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
