Bradley Walker

Kurt and his friends, Jo and George, have just finished university and are ready to begin their lives as 'real adults’. For Kurt, this brings with it anxiety in the form of having to take responsibility for the difficult things in life such as tax, paying rent, dealing with estate agents and worst of them all: holding conversations.

 

So, when he wakes up from a twelve hour (what he would call) nap, he is horrified to discover he has somehow developed telekinesis. He soon finds that he is not the only person who has changed - in fact, almost everyone else in the world has gained incredible and terrible abilities.

 

Kurt soon finds himself thrust in to a drastically changed world. Society collapses almost instantly, the government - without the ability to control the masses - has disbanded and authority is now in the hands of those who literally have the power to command it.

 

During the chaos of this change, there is one woman who seems to understand what has happened. She calls herself M and discloses she is an evolutionary scientist. She rescues Kurt, his friends - and many others who are desperate and willing to go with her - from the initial destruction, taking them to a remote location where they reside for a while under her safety whilst the status quo continues to deteriorate.

 

Here, she conducts tests on them in hopes of not only understanding their new potential, but increasing their potency. She is strict, blunt, determined and if completely honest, not entirely likeable, but in a world in which she insists “The sheep of yesterday are the wolves of today” making friends falls dangerously low on her list of priorities.

 

M, it turns out, has a plan. She wants to regain a level of order in this new world and she will stop at nothing to achieve it.

 

Though scared, away from home and cut off from their families, Kurt, Jo and George meet new friends and together, they slowly learn about what has happened to the world outside and how M plans to fix it.

 

Unfortunately, there are people who revel in - and will fight for - the very thing M yearns to fix: disorder. Worse still, her ex-partner, who knows just as much about these powers is one of those very people, only, she holds The Catalyst - the most powerful thing in this new world.

 

It’s safe to say, Kurt finds estate agents the least of his problems.

 

Holding conversations on the other hand…

 

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The Catalyst is Bradley Walker’s debut novel in which he brings the genre of superheroes in to a gritty and realistic setting. It’s clear Bradley’s perspective on the human condition is rife with cynicism, but he feels the story being told through the eyes of quirky and awkward Kurt will balance out the dread. After all, having abilities will not always give you the bravery to run straight toward the damsel or damoiseau in distress; it helps you flee from them quicker, too!

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The Catalyst Cover Art created by Sean Hynes. Sean.Hynes@hotmail.co.uk