Voicing the Infiniverse: A Cornish Poet Becomes the Spider Genius

Out on the Science Fiction & Fantasy Factor floor is Cornish poet and performer Bert Biscoe, who voices two sections from Jonnie Fazoolie and the Transfinite Reality Engine audiobook as a teaser reel.  

The first reading shares the infinitale of Kreo Bonsai, a sardonic, alien spider scientist who has built the Jar—the ultimate simulation machine that instantiates every possible universe, one Planck-second at a time. As Kreo marvels over how his Jar works, we hear how he also endures abuse by bureaucrats, scientists, and rich fools, and how he uses cynicism and laziness to avoid both responsibility and love. His monologue is interrupted when the Jar is hacked by Alice Void, the avatar of a transcendent being who proves its power by deleting entire universes mid-sentence while looping a taunting message: solve her riddles, or watch all of Reality vanish.

The second reading jumps to later in the novel, when Agency executives arrive with military escorts, multidimensional admirals argue with bureaucrats and scientists over control, and an inter-universal civil war ignites around them  Two-dimensional warships fold into three-dimensional weapons, universes blink out of existence, and various alien species wrangle for control of the Jar, as the fate of the Infiniverse rests with an anthropomorphic alien spider who just wants everyone to go away and leave him alone. 

Throughout both sections, Biscoe’s Cornish cadence—wry, grounded, irreverent, and unmistakably human—adds grit and humor to the cosmic scale, turning dense ideas about infinity, power, and annihilation into something immediate, sharp, and enticingly intimate. These excerpts aren’t just a sample of the story, they’re a lively and lovely demonstration of how voice and text lock together in the entertaining audiobook to come...

The Voice

Bert Biscoe is a Cornish poet, songwriter, local historian, playwright, and former Mayor of Truro, best known for his work rooted in Cornish identity, language, politics, and cultural activism. A bard of the Cornish Gorsedh with the bardic name Viajor Gans Geryow, he has published several books of verse and prose — including Maudlin’ Pilgrimage, Rebecca (1996), The Dance of the Cornish Air (1996), At a Wedding with Yeats in Turin (2003), Trurra (winner of a Waterstones award at the Holyer an Gof Publishers’ Awards 2012), Words of Granite, On Yer Trolley: Poems Made During Complete Bed Rest! (2008), and White Crusted Eyes: Tales of Par (2009) — and performs widely across Cornwall. A long-time independent councillor on Cornwall Council and later Truro City Council, he’s also chaired local heritage groups, written on Cornish history, and regularly performs poetry and songs that blend local political commentary with folk tradition. 

The Novel

Jonnie Fazoolie & the Transfinite Reality Engine was published this June, with the audiobook featuring Bert Biscoe and other voices, available soon.