news - August 1, 2025 - cover reveal and new title for my debut novel for grown ups - the Last Book (which was formerly known during its writing as The Goblins Are Coming!)

the Last Book

a novel by Zsolt Kerekes

What can I tell you about the Old School? It's the bedrock of society, impervious to outside interference and mysterious in its inner working.

For 700 years it has pioneered the teaching of integrated classes and written the books whose influence, all acknowledge, has been to avert a new war.

The new head, traditional to the core, never before doubted that while in his custody, the school's momentum of stability would bumplessly endure.

Words of defiant Olden freshly found hidden, the return of a famed artifact long thought missing, and suspicions about the loyalty of a teacher newly arrived, conjoin and conspire to raise doubts about the Old School's hallowed origin myths and the surety of its future.

***

Set in a dystopian future the Last Book tells of the kindness of strangers, the wickedness of those who prey upon those seeking peace and the forging of new history.

(in both meanings of that word)

***

the Last Book will be published in Q4 2025, bookmark this page for updates

August 1, 2025 - update on this work in progress

I began writing this story in 2001. I've had a long time to think about it. I shared a short story version of it on email with sample readers in 3 continents in 2005. They all said the same. Make it longer. We'd love to know more, the before and after.

In November 2023 I began rewriting it and since then it's been my main writing preoccupation.

sample chapters will be published here on goblinsearch.com when the manuscript is finished with pre-orders on Amazon in Q4 2025

length of the book (based on the current state of writing and edits) is projected to be 140K to 150K words (500 print pages)

over 141K words have already been imported, linked and edited into the Reedsy book assembly and layout editor

alpha reader feedback of novel slices began in April 2024. There have been 4 sliced releases to date. The most recent was in mid April 2025, and hereafter every 2 months in the lead up to publication.

Feedback I can share with you from my long suffering alpha reader is - Finish the book! I want to know what happens.

the placeholder cover may change

I'm on X and Linkedin neither of which existed when I began publishing online in 1996. So, although you'll see some snippets of my writing thoughts in those other places, the first reveals of significant new book content will be here on GoblinSearch.com

thanks for your interest
Zsolt Kerekes

the Goblins are Coming! was the working title of this novel for most of time I was writing it. They were the first 4 words I wrote of the draft story in 2001. That remained an adequate title for the short story version in 2005 (which was16K words) but based on beta reader feedback of the 90% complete novel in early 20025 it was clear that the book (in which many books feature as plot anchors) didn't match the epic scale of the novel it has become (closer to 150K words). I have left the contemporaneous mentions to the old title in the test of the page below - but have no doubt that the book - when it's published - will have the title - the Last Book.

update on this work in progress
by the author Zsolt Kerekes - November 13, 2023

In 2005 I emailed the first complete draft of a novella called the Goblins are Coming! (which I had started writing 4 years before) to selected beta readers in the UK, US and Australia.

They all said the same - make it longer - we'd like to know what happens before, and what happens next.

I was busy in those days earning my living as the editor of the leading publication in the solid state drive market - where my readers were at the forefront of a new revolution in computer architecture. And in my spare time I had made personal commitments to write some books for children.

In the past 22 years I've picked up and set aside this novel (as it has now become) on several occasions - at major milestones in my writing life - expanding scenes in the original novella and adding never before shared new chapters.

When I embarked on my project to publish 7 books at the beginning of 2023 - the Goblins are Coming! was #6 on my list. I've lived with this story for a long time. I look forward to sharing it soon.

### tentative notes from the book cover ###

Great deeds done for love of family do not list in scrolls of wars. Yet how best stop the tides of war return and live at ease together? Memories fade. Can be remade. Victors write true histories whose meanings time wipes slippery. For those who can read them - words of Olden cast new warnings. The goblins are coming, 1, 2, 3. Hide in the cellar. Hide in the tree. A novel of books past and future - by Zsolt Kerekes - coming in 2025

A serious book with "goblins" in the title? How the heck can that be? - an explanation and a preview by the author