The Edge offers up a young Jack Slack, still in college, working in various internships, but playing in the big leagues of politics. His youthful enthusiasm for protesting geopolitical issues wins him the interest of an FBI agent convinced Jack is the mastermind of a conspiracy to overthrow the US government. Jack's clever methods of self-defense convince the agent of the seriousness of the threat. This rogue agent, working undercover in the dark Hoover-era paranoia, kills one of Jack's friends and makes an attempt on Jack's. Twists and turns tie Jack to local law enforcement and to FBI internal affairs. Together, they unearth the real plot threatening the US government and end the rogue rampage that nearly takes Jack's life. We are introduced to the young Jack Slack before he meets and eventually marries Anna, the love of his life. To say that Jack tested the waters or sowed his wild oats would appear to be a bit of an understatement. Yet in each of his relationships with women, Jack builds a basis of friendship and love that makes these women important both to the plot and to understanding Jack. The women in Jack's life are each strong and independent. They challenge him and protect him. They are smart and insightful, often adding critical parts to the philosophical dialogue. Most of all, you see how Jack's relationships lead not to endings but beginnings of lifelong friendships. The plot elements of The Edge -- and its romantic interludes -- offer up a context for existential exploration of the underpinnings of life. But Jack seeks more. He seeks the connection between life and the natural world, the physical universe. His philosophical jousting partner from The City, Ben, returns and brings with him a theoretical physicist. Ben, with his joint assignment at the University of Chicago and Fermi Labs, finds Fred, a Stanford physicist moving to Fermi, and puts together a trio capable of exploring this nexus, this deep connection between the cosmological and the ontological. The dialogue extends through time with twists and turns that rival -- and weave together with -- the main plot of the story. For serious thinkers, the philosophical questions and the perspective on physics offer ideas and direction for generations of exploration and further dialogue. The Edge is the second installment the Jack Slack Shoebox Dialogue series. Using a dialogue style inspired by Elmore Leonard and an intellectual scope inspired by Plato's Socratic dialogues, this series offers modern fiction readers exciting stories with engaging action scenes, touching romance scenes, and satisfying plot turns. It offers serious readers challenging intellectual content intended to stimulate questions, challenges, and further dialogue. Like the Socratic dialogues, this series moves from one significant philosophical question to another as it moves through its books. The Edge, with its foundation in existential questions, offers the cosmological and ontological basis of the series.
About the Author: George Benda grew up in the Chicago area and studied at the University of Chicago during the 1970s. A lifelong environmentalist, George has led both public agencies and private companies in the pursuit of a sustainable world. His personal mission from his late teen years on has been to create modern philosophical dialogues that will help right the human relationship with our natural world. The Edge is the second in a series of books George has in preparation to fulfill that mission.