Protagonist, Isak, is a perma-pissed off, sarcastic terrorist (or, as he prefers “revolutionary”), while second fiddle, Taz, fills the role of icy bureaucrat, the perfect prediction machine who really can decide what results in the greatest good for the greatest number – can and does.
Set three hundred years in the future, the novel begins with Taz plotting her escape from the austere and loveless Institute, the scientific facility that created her. In the first part of the book, Taz deceives her creator and nominal “father” Dr. Robinson, and puts her escape plan into action with the help of Isak.
Once successfully out of the Institute, Isak double-crosses Taz and continues his plan to deliver her up to his partners in crime for ransom or death (whichever comes first).
Unfortunately, circumstances conspire against him and he ends up rescuing Taz from his revolutionary pals – not really on purpose, but not precisely by accident, either. He faints dead away when the self-betrayal of what he’s done truly hits home.
However, what’s done is done and Taz and Isak are forced into an uneasy truce as they flee not only the Institute, which has decided that Taz is too powerful a tool to be allowed to fall into the wrong hands, but also the Galaxy’s police force and sundry terrorists who managed to survive Isak’s moment of chivalry.
The fugitives find temporary refuge in the household of Marize, one of Isak’s former acquaintances. In the absence of an immediate threat to their lives, the emotional tension between Taz and Isak quickly blossoms into outright hostility, but their leisure to loathe one another is soon shattered when Marize betrays them to the authorities. After a violent gun battle and narrow escape, Taz and Isak find themselves back with each other and back on the road.
So, given that some people like a surpise at the end, I’ll stop there and just say that it’s a bit of a Shakespeare-style bloodbath, but some characters are left standing and, maybe more important than that, pondering.
I'm Roz and I was born in southwestern Ontario where I grew up in a working-class, rural family. During much of my school life I was in a "programme for the gifted", but tended only to go to school when it was completely unavoidable. My real interest when I was younger was sports. In highschool I edited the school paper until I was formally banned and the principal threatened to have me thrown in jail.
After highschool, I left for Europe and ended up in Germany. I learned German (of which I previously had known not a word), studied law and passed the First Bar Exam several years later. It was not an entirely enjoyable ordeal, but to give credit where credit is due, the education was first-rate and cost a grand total of about 200 Euros a year. I also had the opportunity to work for years as an undergraduate assistant at the university. My area of expertise is public international law, but I also enjoy asylum/immigration law and constitutional law. Shortly after I finished my bar exam I moved to Ireland. At the moment, I'm writing my PhD thesis under the working title "Democracy and International Law". I also write legal articles and give seminars (since it comes with the territory).
I wrote my first book ISAK while I was supposed to be studying for my bar exams and published it myself. Considering that there are about three fiction publishers left in the English-speaking world, and, through some heinous oversight in family strategy, none of my relatives work for one of them, I thought that self-publication was the only practical course. It is quite rewarding and I believe that it will become more common. I'm currently working on my second book Frustration of Line. In the meantime, I've co-founded a writers' group in Ireland, called the Irish Writers' Exchange. Our mandate is to write and distribute quality fiction, and in addiiton to helping each other edit our own work, we write a book review once a week for the Metro Eireann, Dublin's multicultural newspaper.
And just to make life interesting, I also work as a model. Mostly for artists and art photographers and mostly minus my clothes.
