Pishtaco: Lord of the Lost Inca Gold

by Mark Patton

Overview

SHIPPING August 1, 2023

Penelope Augusta Gertrude Farquhar, a woman struggling with schizophrenia, finds herself lost in the Amazon rainforest after a fateful airplane crash. But she's not alone: her voices, now personified as historical figures such as René Descartes, Ada Lovelace, and Ernest Shackleton, accompany her on a quest to find the fabled city of Paititi and destroy the evil shaman Pishtaco, who has amassed the lost Inca gold of Atahualpa.

"Pishtaco: Lord of the Lost Inca Gold" is a thrilling historical fantasy that takes you on a journey through the mystical and mysterious world of the Inca people. Along the way, you'll encounter the pantheon of Inca gods and goddesses, as well as the tribal people of the Amazon rainforest, and learn about their cultures and beliefs. This offbeat adventure is filled with humor, twists and turns, and a unique blend of history and mythology.

Mark Patton's well-researched and engaging writing transports you to another world, while delving into themes of mental health and the nature of reality. "Pishtaco: Lord of the Lost Inca Gold" is a must-read for fans of adventure, history, and mythology.

(ING:20230526)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781770532250
Publisher:	EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, Inc.
Publication date:	05/15/2023
Pages:	212
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.48(d)

About the Author

At nineteen Mark Patton was a helmsman for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. By his mid-twenties he was flying out of Otis Air Force Base for the National Marine Fisheries Service. After graduating from Northeastern University, he became a roughneck for Delta Drilling. He left Texas to become a police officer and later a head of Natural Resources on Cape Cod. Retired, he is now pursuing his longtime passion for writing.

Editorial Reviews

07/10/2023

Set among the dense undergrowth and lost secrets of the Amazon rainforest but also the restless landscapes of an unsteady mind, this genre-bending adventure from Patton (The Haunting of Westminster Abbey) blends historical fiction, Inca mythology, dark fantasy, and a surprising exploration of mental health as it reveals its story of gods, gold, and a long-dead shaman whose magic once ruled the North Andes. Standing against the evil undead shaman Pishtaco is Penelope Farquhar, a young woman on a quest to defeat him and find his hoard of gold. She’s aided by a most unexpected team: the historical figures whose voices she hears in her head.

Penelope’s schizophrenia puts her in colloquy with the imagined voices of the likes of Cécile Fatiman, a Haitian voodoo priestess known for her involvement in the Haitian Revolution; René Descartes, the philosopher; Ada Lovelace, the writer and mathematician who shares, as Penelope treks through the jungle, the story of writing the world’s first computer algorithm. Patton deftly blurs reality and Penelope's perceptions. As she loses "friends" along the way, readers will wonder if her mind is healing, or if she’s falling apart. This question haunts the story as she preps for a face off with the long-dead Pishtaco, whose mummified flesh claws back to life for the first time since “the Spanish had been marauding the Empire.”

Or does it? Just what’s real and what’s imagined remains an effective mystery throughout. What matters is that the dangers feel urgent, the jungle and its challenges concrete, even as the hero comes to wield magic herself and behold jaw-dropping visions and dreamscapes, like thousands of weeping spirits in a temple that cause Penelope to feel “grief, theirs, hers, and the whole planet’s.” Readers comfortable with a playful, literary take on schizophrenia will find much humorous banter, weird magic, and wholly original situations, like Penelope trying to bargain with Pishtaco over the fate of the voices in her head.

Takeaway: Daring rain forest thriller of gods, magic, and an unsettled mind.

Comparable Titles: Lucius Shepard, Ned Beauman’s Madness Is Better Than Defeat.

Production grades Cover: B Design and typography: A Illustrations: N/A Editing: A Marketing copy: A

BookLife Reviews

"Pischtaco is a very imaginative story and creative melding of the many and various characters, themes, time periods, and other elements. The characters are well-drawn, the action is interesting, and the resolution is very satisfying. It would probably make a great movie." -- Marilyn Rowland, ArtsCapeCod

"Miss Penelope Gertrude Augusta Farquhar is undergoing treatment for her schizophrenia. Having spent much time in and out of the local psychiatric unit, her doctor experiments with mediative therapy in order to alter Penelope's brain. Hopefully the treatment will block the intrusive hallucinations Penelope experiences. One day whilst in the bedroom of her old family home a spider spins its intricate web between two posts of the four-poster bed. Penelope starts a monologue with the spider as her audience and tells all about her condition and the treatment she is undergoing. Now considered a friend, Penelope scoops the spider up into a mason jar and sets it free in her beautiful garden, placing it on a hibiscus flower. Enter the characters that invade Penelope's mind. To these add a life-giving hummingbird, a hair-raising flight deep into the Amazon jungle and to the empire of the Incas. Hold on tight to your seat!" -- Sandra, Lincolnshire, UK

"Absolutely love this book. Miss Penelope embarks on an improbable journey with a crew of improbable historical characters on an improbable quest. The characterizations of this improbable troupe, as they travel through a jungle wilderness with the evil Pishtaco threatening them, is brilliant and so much fun to read." -- Linda Harding Newroe

"Many people have an invisible friend when they are young; Miss Penelope Farquhar has managed to reach adulthood while retaining half a dozen of them: they simply refuse to go away. In 'Pishtaco', Mark Patton's second novel, they follow Penelope down a rabbit-hole into a world of myth, legend, magic and megalomania set in the foothills of the Peruvian Andes. On a deadly adventure, shot with dark humour, they contend with a powerful revenant whose name is still whispered with dread by forest tribes, five hundred years after his death. Deeply-researched, and with more twists than a slithering anaconda, this story is guaranteed to delight readers who relish the extraordinary." -- C.A. Smith, Author of 'Icelandic Magic' and 'Vegvísir'

"A lavishly imagined flight into a humid and psychedelic Mesoamerica, where modern clairaudients meet auspicious animals, ghosts of the famous dead, and awakening Inca gods. Part Plumed Serpent, part Once and Future King, part gonzo-ethnography, Pishtaco gleams with jewels of description" -- Derek Turner

From the Publisher