He has a soft spot for fantasy and magic.
That was already apparent in Jörg Maurer's alpine thrillers.
Now the Garmisch-Partenkirchner is presenting his first science fiction novel, “Shorty”.
Garmisch-Partenkirchen
– Shorty actually wants to be left alone.
He is in his early 40s and leads an inconspicuous, unexcited life.
And that's good.
He needs commitments just as little as a sense of achievement.
His bad luck: He is chosen to save the world, actually the universe.
He's working as an electrician when the voice of a highly intelligent alien contacts him: He's supposed to do a small repair - and thereby save the earth from destruction.
At first he can't believe it, then he's flattered.
Shorty carries out the order and makes a huge mess.
Suddenly, he's being hunted by the police, community services, and unknown species.
With "Shorty" Jörg Maurer ventures into new literary paths.
His penchant for fantasy and magic was already evident in his alpine crime novels, in which the author from Garmisch-Partenkirchen sends inspector Hubertus Jennerwein on a hunt for criminals in an idyllic Bavarian spa town.
Now he has opened up to this genre and created a hilarious world-saving story.
You have to commit to it.
Be aware that you are dealing with a whole new Mason.
And you have to be ready for extraterrestrial life.
If these conditions are met, "Shorty" becomes a pleasure to read.
Enjoy the trip to fantastic worlds
It was also a pleasure for Maurer, who has long toyed with venturing into new, unfamiliar territory.
A vampire story was already in the room, also something for young people or just science fiction.
"It was a lot of fun," says the author.
So much so that he is already announcing: "There will definitely be more excursions into fantastic worlds to come."
That doesn't mean that he's saying goodbye to Jennerwein and Co.
"I'm keeping an open mind about how things will go with him," he says.
"I wrap myself in mysterious silence." For his crime novels, however, he also used the realms of fantasy and magic, just think of the body change that Jennerwein had to endure in his last case "Because of Föhn buzzing even the death of the skull". .
Nevertheless, Maurer needed a break.
A break from crimes that always end well in the end - i.e. with the arrest of the perpetrator.
"The world isn't like that, you can't really defeat evil there," says Maurer.
That's why he's now writing a book "that leaves all the rules of suspense behind".
In his inimitable, satirical way, he addressed topics such as media hysteria,
Mankind cannot be saved, only improved
And he deals with the question of whether the world or mankind can still be saved.
His clear answer: "No.
You can only improve it and thus delay the end of the world as long as possible.” Then it might take up to four billion years – “that’s the hard limit” – until everything finally disappears and our planet is history.
In view of the Ukraine war and other catastrophes, much of what Maurer wrote is alarmingly topical.
Pure coincidence, says the author.
Albeit a macabre one.
But what his readers will experience in "Shorty" "I planned long in advance." The native of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, who still has a whole drawer full of ideas for new books and projects, is trying "at a humorous approach to the end of the world". .
Of course, he does not offer a solution
that is too difficult.
He hopes, however, that his readers will gain a little distance from the aforementioned catastrophes by reading it.
The new novel
"Shorty" by Jörg Maurer has been published by Fischer-Verlag (ISBN 978-3-949465-07-9).
The bound book has 464 pages and costs 22 euros.