Phoenix Without Ashes

Synopsis

"My name is Harlan Ellison. I'm a storyteller. That's who I am. Now let me tell you who You are. Your name is Devon. Don't worry about your last name: there aren't enough people in this awfully nice world for you to worry about having a last name. Or to worry about why the sky seems unreachable, and made of metal. Maybe it's metal. So don't worry about not having a last name. And as long as you believe God lives close by, only 185 miles from your (that's what Elder Micah says" or sometimes it's 135 miles, and once it was 216, and as long as Cypress Corners, an awfully nice world maybe 300, 400, something like that, miles from one end to the other, is as nice a world as it is, you've got nothing to worry about. Except why they, the Elders, won't let you wed Rachel. They want her to marry Garth. He's an okay guy, Garth is, but you love Rachel and she loves you. So why does everybody get so nuts when you defy the Elders. What the hell is going on here? I'll tell you what's going on here! It's more complex than any 18th century agrarian community ought to be. It's got a root so deep you can never figure out you're in a damned prison, even if it's awfully nice. In short, Devon, have you ever asked why the world is only 300 miles wide and why the steady awfully nice breezes always come from the south? Ask now, my boy; ask now." -- Back cover