From the notes of a trading card player

A novel by Sebastian Golla

ISBN (Hardcover): 978-3-9825435-0-5
ISBN (eBook): 978-3-9825435-1-2

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“For each of us, combat was a most personal matter. We fought for the triumph, for our lost youth, for the sheer beauty of the game. I simply wanted to be good at it. Even if no one cared, save for the followers of a strange cult of clandestine fighters who convened in game stores and assembly halls all over the country to stage elaborate battles with cards on neoprene mats.“

Rufus Klipsch likes to spend time with the washing machines in the utility room of his crumbling apartment building. Occasionally, he dreams himself back to a world where there was no Internet. At the State Police Office, his job is to track money laundering files. He is fine with his life, until one day he is tasked to head a special unit dealing with hate speech on social media. He encounters a shady software company that promises to revolutionize policing with the help of artificial intelligence.

That's when Klipsch stumbles upon an old passion. He learns about the trading card game Lebende Legenden.

Dear readers,

You probably know someone who has a strange passion for colorful printed cardboard. Someone who collects cards from games like Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon, or Yu-Gi-Oh.

Maybe you even have a box of old cards in your basement. Maybe you once dreamed of winning a big tournament. Or of finding the ultimate combo and building the perfect deck.

Trading card games are fascinating. They made me want to write a novel. Lebende Legenden is a book that documents the rituals of a subculture that's about more than punched-out cardboard.

It tells stories of people searching for meaning in our complex world — between childlike passion and commercialization, between play and work, between virtual distraction and real encounters.

I hope that this book will bring joy to many people. I dedicate it to all those who put a lot of time and passion into these games.

Writing a novel takes time. Professional editing, design, printing and marketing cost money. If you want to support this project, buy the book, recommend it to your friends or write a review on Amazon.

So far, Lebende Legenden is only available in German. My next big goal is to translate the book into English; after all, the subject is of international concern. If you'd like to keep up with this grand undertaking or even support it (I'm thinking about crowdfunding), feel free to email me.

Lebende Legenden, by the way, is inspired by the New Zealand trading card game Flesh and Blood. I wonder if Dostoevsky and Camus would have enjoyed playing Flesh and Blood. I don't know. But I could well imagine it.

Yours sincerely

Sebastian Golla

For all inquiries:

legenden@mailbox.org