The Luminous Depths — David Herter

In Brno, Czechoslovak Republic, 1931. Eight years before the Nazi invasions . . .At the Theater on the Ramparts, a performance of the world-famous robot play R.U.R is in rehearsal, attended grudgingly by its author, Karel Capek. A former master of science fiction, Capek not devotes himself to the here-and-now, writing small works vital to his beloved Republic. He finds little real pleasure in the proceedings, but for the contributions of his brother Josef, a renowned avant-garde artist, and Pavel Haas, a disciple of the late eccentric composer, Maestro Leos J——.Yet in the midnight streets of the city, Haas has found a luminous enigma; or rather, it has found him, floating down out of the starry sky. Once activated it carries Haas, as well as the Brothers Capek, the actors, robots and musicians, into a nghtmarish world of Occupation, of immense devastation and fecund marvels, of dire transport East, setting in motion of terrifying siege and a phantasmagorical night journey leading from the Theater on the Ramparts to the lonely and now-forgotten cottage Leos J—.The Luminous Depths is the second in Herter’s First Republic Trilogy, preceded by On the Overgrown Path and followed by One Who Disappeared, now available.