April 1972. Three legendary astronauts embark on mankinds boldest space voyage yeta yearlong mission to fly past our nearest planetary neighbor Venus. What follows will be a journey more harrowing than any of them can imagine. Island of Clouds the first fulllength novel in the Altered Space series is a gripping space epic based on NASA mission proposals from the late 1960s. Touching on literary influences ranging from Borges and Bukowski to the Book of Job this story of exploration also offers a literary probing of the dark reaches of human nature alcoholism capitalism authority fatherhood and the ephemeral nature of desire. The titles in the Altered Space series are wholly separate narratives but all deal with the mysteries of space and time progress and circularity. Each one is an enso of words in which orbits of spacecraft moons planets and people allow us fresh perspectives on the cycles of our own lives.