It’s been 10 years since the world officially ended. In the last city on Earth, Jon Salt is addicted to Sadness, a drug that invokes its name, and obsessed with his lover, Michelle; both of which threaten to drive him insane. Strange creatures and new technologies appeared in the last days of humanity and the widespread adoption of teleportation technology sundered the fabric of time and space, leaving a smattering of looping ghosts. It is a sad, monotone world, but the remaining populace is happy, thanks to the anti-depressants in the water supply. The last government on Earth has taken a special interest in a gift that Jon possesses: the ability to make his thoughts real. Jon must rely on that gift and the help of a few unlikely friends to stay one step ahead of those who desperately want to use him for something far more sinister than even he could dream… "Definitely a unique book and one to read a couple of times over, even if you have read this before." —the  AfterImage "This book made me doubt my own sanity and the very existence of the universe as I know it. But raging madness is a small price to pay for this quick, enjoyable little read." — Forever Young Adult "Intentional Dissonance brings about an emotional complexity to the genre that no other sci-fi story has ever brought to the table. There's almost a poetic ache while you read about scientists and technology through Jon's suffering and his inability to control his gifts." — Critiques 4 Geeks Iain S. Thomas is a new media artist and author. As an author, his most famous work is I Wrote This For You , which he writes under the pseudonym pleasefindthis - a blog then book that’s been on poetry bestseller lists since its launch in 2011. His other books include I Am Incomplete Without You, 300 Things I Hope, Intentional Dissonance, How To Be Happy: Not A Self-Help Book and more. He regularly writes for The Huffington Post on poetry, creativity and life and currently lives in Cape Town, South Africa. Intentional Dissonance A Book About Falling By Iain S. Thomas Central Avenue Marketing Ltd. Copyright © 2012 Iain S. Thomas All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-926760-86-5 CHAPTER 1 Now Something incredibly sad. What follows is what happens each time I fall. I do not know if these things really happen but this is what I believe happens. As your eyes move across these words, some sacred engine is coming back to life and I am beginning to fall again. Sometimes, it feels like floating. If you do not mind, I will refer to myself as Jon, in the third person, as these things happen. I understand that talking about Jon as "I" instead of "Jon" would perhaps make more sense, as I am the one telling you what's happening, not some omniscient voice somewhere up in the clouds. But one of my earliest memories is of my father, narrating the things I did as I ran around the house or played outside. Like a commentator for a football match, he would yell, "Jon goes up the swing and down the swing, look at him go! He's a champion!" or "Jon's eating his spaghetti like a master, ladies and gentlemen, let's see if he can finish in time or if we'll have another disaster like we did with the vegetables the other night!" So talking about himself in the third person in his mind, where no one but you gets to go, gives Jon (still me) a certain degree of confidence. Or maybe it's just that old habits die hard. Anyway, this is now and in this now, this is what's happening to the remaining humans in the last city on Earth. "A space station has recovered Eliot Philips, an astronaut who was spun out into space in a refueling accident and now, his body has returned after completing an orbit around the earth which has lasted more than thirty years." The screen on the side of the giant black floating news zeppelin shows a picture of an old woman, presumably Philips' widow, identifying a young frozen corpse as she weeps tears she has been holding on to for far too long. The zeppelin hovers like a bumblebee over the city. Below the floating news screen, the white marble spires of the United Government building, the last great monument man has built, reach for the heavens, each one raised as if in a challenge to some unseen and unknown adversary. Jon turns to look at them, breaking the audio feed into his head from the news zeppelin and the sudden silence brings to an end his wandering day dream. He can make out the building's spires all the way on the other side of NewLand, past the mostly empty and unused ornate buildings, lecture rooms, theaters and gymnasiums that blossom strictly from each side of the intricate streets, even through the grimy windows of Emily's hodgepodge, trinket-filled apartment. Low-hanging old lights cast a strange glow over the room and are complemented by the flickering lights from one of the first teleporters ever made. The teleporter hums for a second, like it might spring back to life, but it doesn't. It's broken forever. The gove