Peter Howell’s new novel, the sci-fi fantasy…
AI has stolen mystery
Only Art can bring it back
Available Summer 2026
Art is on the run. He’s caused an unfortunate explosion in the chemistry labs, and security is after him. So when Majesty offers him a way out, he doesn’t hesitate. The slip tonic tastes of nothing in particular, but the effect is immediate, and he finds himself spatially close by, but in a different universe entirely. This is a world split from top to bottom, the left hemisphere housing the scientists and the right, the artists. But, thanks to a rogue AI, there is an astronaut-shaped hole hanging over the Divide, leaking material from the universe next door and Art has been chosen to repair it.
So how many people does it take to conquer the tyranny of numbers?
-
![]()
Art
Art is a man who has spent his whole life being the wrong thing in the wrong place, too artistic for science, too scientific for art, too imaginative for his family, not bold enough to commit to his own talent.
His "big farewell" has gone disastrously wrong, every escape route is closed, and the only door left open leads to a different universe entirely.
-
![]()
Eva
She'd first seen him in the library, sitting alone at a desk, a sketchbook open alongside a book on game theory. She introduced herself. He was surprised anyone had noticed him.
And now he was on the run. If he were to leave the college, something irreplaceable would go with him. If only there were somewhere else where they could meet.
-
![]()
Jack
Jack is everything Art is not: the physicist, the NASA astronaut, the apple of their father’s eye. It’s hard for Art to ignore his brother’s success; even the college science block has been named after him.
But, thanks to Side Carr’s ineptitude with the stick, a cosmic event causes Jack to step out of the airlock on the Space Station and disappear, experiencing three universes in the blink of an eye, and leaving a man-sized hole over each one he passes through.
-
![]()
Side Carr
In another universe entirely but unexpectedly close by, Side Carr, a six-legged mutant who used to be a butler, was trying to leaf through a very large book, named ‘Detail of All that Abounds’, that acted as a sort of user manual for the whole universe, when he was surprised by a very large dog dragging a nightwatchman on a long chain. Desperate to make his escape, he grabbed the first thing he could lay his hands on.
-
![]()
Lucias Skim
The flying machine landed neatly between the river and the lower barn, and a tall, smart gent climbed out of the fuselage. “Hello there, I’m Lucias Skim. Pleased to meet you.” He walked towards them with an outstretched hand, and Dick and Dirk had to put down their weapons to shake it.
“I wonder if your lord and master might be available?” Skim had the good looks of a gentleman thief and that unlimited confidence that only money can buy. “I have a proposition I’d like to put to Mr… Mantra, is it?” -
![]()
Kydd
Kydd was not an imposing figure; had you seen him in a crowd, you might have thought he was on the lookout for watches to steal. Yet he was a dark horse, a creator of worlds. To him, digital code was like a train set spread out for his amusement.
“I’m afraid I will have to decline, sir,” said Side Carr, bending over. “Instead, I will relieve you of that weapon you so despise and take it to the mountains.” He wrapped a tentacle around the Stick and projected a piercing whisper into Zig’s ear. “And if you ever do drag yourself back to Wayland Manor, that place so dear to my heart, I very much hope you drown in a lake full of sherry.” He pulled out the Stick, moved out of the glare of the headlights and disappeared down the road.
Zig was completely alone. Perhaps Dick and Dirk might come by and find him laid out between “Only Animals Eat Salad” and “Eat Carrots and Die”, but it was unlikely.
