Strike The Lilac Scent

Kidnaped by space pirates, a troubled student is seduced into helping them release an outlawed AI from its hiding place in the past.

In the 23rd century, Earth Nations United harshly governs the world, its great weapon AI. But when the AI starts helping the populace regain their freedom, ENU electronically contains it. To save itself, the AI manages to send its container back in time where it is mistaken for a genie's bottle.

Former ENU employees Lilith, Varvara, and Connie band together to release AI's positive power. They are aided by followers of AI who wield enormous resources, providing the women with a starship normally used for diplomacy.

The women are not scientists, but sorceresses, and AI has proven that magic is the ultimate technology. Lilith is a medium, Connie is fat from being a sin-eater, and Varvara is a concealer. Before it is locked away, the AI informs the women that a fourth magician is required: a finder.

Nineteen-year-old Melody has found a great deal of trouble in school. After an exuberant display of history where she is almost lynched, Melody is kidnaped by the three magicians in their starship. She resists, but not really.

Melody proves herself by finding a secret compartment in the ship containing an ancient treasure chest. Inside is a map the crew must follow, gathering the pieces of a pirate drawn on the parchment: the man who found the "genie's bottle." After stealing a king's figurine, a petrified arm from a galactic crypt, a head of alien cabbage, a girl-eating bug, the leg of a stellar slot machine, and Melody's own arm amputated by aliens who considered her a demon, the women assemble the map, which enables the pirate to open the genie's bottle, resulting in the swap of his crew for the four space women.

In the end, Melody must find a way to reverse the swap, employing all of her emotion and magic, perhaps all of her life.

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Strike The Lilac Scent is the latest novel from the author of the cult classic, Black Body. Here are excerpts from reviews:

•Edward Stewart (author of Privileged Lives, & Ariana): "Black Body is hypnotic, eerie, erotic. An exploration into the very bedrock of sense and sexual instinct, of human good and evil, it compels the reader's admiration and fascination. H. C. Turk possesses the touch of a poet and the skill of a shaman. He has Barbara Tuchman's ability to bring the historical past leaping to life, and H. G. Wells' to articulate the mysterious realms of possibility that exist enfolded in the familiar. He has taken a theme that in its beauty will recall Hans Andersen's Little Mermaid and in its terror Carl Dreyer's Day Of Wrath, and has ingeniously, masterfully rooted it in the smell and buzz of the world we know. The book is not only a virtuoso, utterly satisfying achievement, but a blood-thumping good story."

•The Orlando Sentinel: "A wonderfully intricate and fascinating tale of sorcery...beautiful, probing, and deliciously descriptive."

•The Atlanta Journal & Constitution: "A literate book with humor and charm. The reader falls under the spell of the narrative. Mr. Turk's language and tone make Black Body a highly original tale."

•Selected by Science Fiction Chronicle as a "Book Of The Year."