Ed King is a retelling of the Oedipal myth and an examination of the narcissism manifesting, these days, in tech titans. The title figure is the founder of a company called Pythia who has ambitions on a par with Bezos and Musk--that is, to rule not only the world but the universe.
Of course, as in the myth of Oedipus, there is a price to pay for ambition and blindness wedded to narcissism.
I wrote this book in a state of high chagrin about where we're headed as a species. If it's propulsive--and I think it is--that's because I felt propelled while writing it. Like the Greek tragedy on which it's based, Ed King is relentless, a kind of pressure cooker.
Human beings are, at least for me, fundamentally unfathomable. I've found that, with each novel, I'm granted a fresh opportunity to walk in the labyrinthine hallways of self, and that, with the writing, doors open onto heretofore unexplored passageways. Ed King largely felt that way to me as I moved forward in it. It's urban, contemporary, dark, comic, and a narrative exploration of the perils--for all of us--in hubris.