Deprivers

by Steven-Elliot Altman

Overview

In this science fiction thriller by an LA Times bestseller, an assassin with the power to temporarily paralyze others helps with a hostage rescue.

Robert Luxley has a biological problem he does not understand and cannot control: one touch from his bare skin and you’re paralyzed for fifteen minutes.

Lonely and isolated, he’s turned his “special trick” into a lucrative career as a hired killer. He thinks he’s one of a kind—until one day he’s confronted by a young girl named Cassandra, who tells him he’s not alone.

She has it too, and the two of them are not the only ones. Carriers can render anyone they touch blind, deaf, or otherwise senseless, in seconds.

Fearing discovery, Luxley follows Cassandra through a dark underground network of “Deprivers” in a desperate hunt for her missing brother Nicholas, taken hostage by a radical group of carriers with a terrifying agenda.

Luxley doesn’t know who to trust, or who is safe to touch, but he needs to learn Cassandra’s secrets fast.

Praise for Deprivers 

“A book that gets under your skin and on your nerves. The science is impressive; the fiction is haunting. It has a lot on its mind; and it will touch you.” —Mark Frost, co-creator of Twin Peaks 

“Deprivers is the ultimate paranoia thriller—emphasis on the word thriller. Fans of everything from The Hot Zone to The X-Files take note, THIS BOOK IS GOING TO BLOW YOU AWAY!” — Rockne S. O’Bannon, creator of Alien Nation, Farscape, Defiance and Cult

“Deprivers will take you to a terrifying and disturbing tomorrow and make you feel like you live there.” —David Brin, scientist and science fiction author, winner of the Hugo, Nebula, Campbell and Locus Awards

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781680573237
Publisher:	WordFire Press
Publication date:	02/03/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	369
Sales rank:	793,557
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Steven-Elliot Altman is a bestselling author, graphic novelist, ADDY Award-winning advertising executive, television writer-producer, and most recently a successful videogame developer, having served as the Games Director at Acclaim Games, and having won multiple awards for the games he has penned which include such titles as: 9Dragons, which boasts 15 million registered players; Pearl’s Peril, which boasts 90 million players; Ancient Aliens: The Game and Project Blue Book: The Game which Steve wrote, produced and narrative designed for The History Channel, based on two of their hit television series, and his latest game is Terminator: Dark Fate, based on the feature film. Steve's novels include Captain America Is Dead, Zen in the Art of Slaying Vampires, Batman: Fear Itself, The Killswitch Review, The Irregulars and Deprivers. He's also the editor of the critically-acclaimed anthology The Touch, and a contributor to Shadows Over Baker Street, a Hugo Award Winning anthology of Sherlock Holmes Stories. Steve's also a proud member of the Horror Writers Association, the Science Fiction&Fantasy Writers of America, the Canadian Writer’s Guild and the current Vice-Chairman of the steering committee of the Writers Guild of America's Videogame Division. Steve has done panels on writing books and games at the comic conventions every year since 2000; from San Diego Comic-Con, WonderCon, BayCon, Dragon Con, Westercon, and Salt Lake Comic Con on the literary front; to E3, Slush (Finland), Pocket Gamer Connects (UK), Columbia 3.0 (Columbia), Gamescom (Germany), and GDC San Francisco on the gaming front. He has served as a Finalist Judge for the WGA Videogame Awards since 2009, and more recently as a Finalist Judge for the CDC's Game On Challenge. When Steve’s not writing he is often playing social games with strange and wondrous people on and off of airplanes between Florida, New York and Berlin.

Editorial Reviews

The Barnes & Noble Review
In Steven-Eliot Altman's debut novel -- a paranoia thriller reminiscent of the 1938 radio adaptation of H. G. Wells's War of the Worlds that panicked its listeners into mass hysteria -- the world is faced with a medical epidemic that could change civilization forever. People who contract Sensory Deprivation Syndrome (they're called Deprivers) can cause sudden blindness, deafness, paralysis -- or any other number of sensory deprivations -- just by making skin-to-skin contact. Once experienced, the effect could last only a few minutes or forever, depending on the potency of the Depriver's affliction.

When SDS is made public, the world reacts much as it did in the early days of the AIDS epidemic. Fear, confusion, and misinformation drive some people to violence; and many Deprivers are senselessly killed. When secret global bureaus (the Ministry) and government agencies like the Center for Disease Control get involved, many Deprivers join forces to fight the imminent legislation that will make them virtual prisoners. While scientists race to find a cure to this epidemic that is irreparably changing society, some Deprivers will do anything to remain free.

Intelligent and thought-provoking, Deprivers is one of those rare novels that will haunt the reader's subconscious for a long time. Paul Goat Allen

bn.com

Altman, co-creator of the theme anthology The Touch, a well-received charity venture that allowed contributors to riff on the imaginary Sensory Deprivation Syndrome (communicated through skin contact with a "Depriver"), has taken SDS and built a two-part novel around it, but its effects pale beside similar comic-book antihero fare such as the popular X-Men films or The X-Files. In part one, Cassandra, Queen of the Depriver underground, recruits Robert Luxley, a Depriver assassin whose touch causes 15 minutes of paralysis, to help retrieve her brother Nicholas from the clutches of the ambiguously evil Mr. Deveraux. With the help of Sparrow, a mystically inclined Lakota Indian, Robert learns how to recognize other Deprivers by their auras. Unfortunately, the action quickly bogs down as various characters discuss ethical options instead of wholeheartedly battling the factions that would use SDS for their own nefarious ends. In part two, Alex Crowley, a normal man who loved his Depriver wife and now wants revenge for her murder, turns to Sparrow's Indian mentor for help. The better parts of the novel focus on Alex's vision quest. After he becomes a secret agent, he has to fight his conscience more than he fights the bad guys. This book succeeds neither in creating archetypal comic-book antiheroes nor in humanizing the characters enough to give them three-dimensional depths. (Dec. 2) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

In the near future, a genetic mutation affects a small but significant minority of people, transforming them into "deprivers," individuals whose touch can temporarily or permanently deprive others of one or more of their senses. As Robert Luxley, twins Cassandra and Nicholas, American Indian shaman-in-training Sparrow, and others learn to live with their condition, forces led by the ambitious and charismatic Governor Tyrsdale play on the public's fears to forge a witch hunt. Editor of The Touch: Epidemic of the Millennium, an anthology that introduced the deprivers, Altman has crafted an sf thriller that also contains incisive probings of such timely topics as how the world reacts to victims of transmissible diseases, how fear leads to regimentation and segregation, and how reason and knowledge can fight against fear and ignorance. Fans of sf suspense, superhero fiction, and The X-Files should appreciate the compelling plot and engagingly believable characters. Highly recommended for most libraries. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal