Things That Never Were: Fantasies, Lunacies & Entertaining Lies

By Matthew Rossi

From Sodom and Gomorrah to the Siberian taigo, from Roanoke Island to lost cities in Africa populated by ape-men in Elizabethan garb, this book is a travelogue of mental expeditions to weird and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1932265058
• ISBN13: 9781932265057
• Release Date: August 2003
• Publisher: Monkeybrain
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.86 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.1" x 0.7" x 6.2"

Customer Reviews

Bizarre and imaginative essays

When most people write conspiracy theories, they are grounded in what most people consider "reality." Not so with Rossi. He bases his theories on pulp fiction, fantasy and sci-fi. Instead of going onto the typical areas (like JFK, Freemasons, Templars), he reimagines Greek gods through nanotechnology, the Tunguska explosion as the result of a time travel experiment, Hypatia moving the Library of Alexandria into hyperspace, and other more bizarre theories. In the hands of a lesser author, they would be dismissed as the rantings of a madman. In Rossi's hands, you feel like there is be a kernel of truth to the theories. You might not believe all (or even most) of them, but you may look at things differently after reading it.

Universal Unhistory

Ever wondered what boy scouts are really up to? Where all the dinosaurs went? How Robert Heinlein halted the Mongovian invasion of 1938? Who Genghis Khan's spies in Europe were? And what the heck is wrong with California?Matthew Rossi, who may share a psychic link with people like Avram Davidson, Jorge Luis Borges, Umberto Eco, Charles Fort and H.P. Lovecraft, endeavours to answer these and other perplexing questions in the 35+ strange short essays collected in _Things That Never Were_. It is fun and clever and disconcertingly insane; and no matter how erudite the subject matter may be, Rossi's tone remains informal and unassuming throughout this guided tour of the ten dimensions of the Sephiroth. If the 10,000 volts you've been passing through your head are no longer enough to get you off, this frantic weaving of fact and fiction may just be the ticket to deliver that extra jolt you've been craving for.

A staggering stagger through contradictory worlds

The introduction by Paul Di Filippo sums it up best - "Rossi's several incompatible mindchildren aren't fighting. they're violently screwing, and out of this brain-intercourse is going to arise an unpredictable hybrid of startling portent."I've never enjoyed a book more. I've never been more confused by one. It's not a simple book, but it is a good one. If you enjoy odd writing, this is one of the best I've come across.

Excellent work of...?

Any discussion of Matt Rossi's book invariably includes some discussion of categorization; where do we place a book which leaps from Tunguska to the hollow earth and back again via express tesseract? The essays contained herein might seem disparate to the casual observer - but if read with an eye to comprehension, one can see a common, nascent thread linking them all- something along the lines of a ley line burning brightly in the darkness. In and of themselves, the works stand alone and stand as plainly informative or as speculatively imaginative as the reader can bring to them. There is simply no end at the end of Rossi's story - only more dimensional vortices to fall through.