100 Years

Click on the orange link below to read the story Chicken Little by Cory Doctorow, excerpted from the anthology Gateways.

http://josephsreviews.wordpress.com/2011/08/25/100-years/

Radar Love

Click on the orange link below to read a review of the science fiction anthology Gateways, now available in trade paper form.

http://josephsreviews.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/radar-love/

Twelve is not enough...

Click on the orange link below to read a review of the novel The Twelve by William Gladstone.

http://josephsreviews.wordpress.com/2009/12/23/the-twelve/

Nobody Move: A look at a new novel from a National Book Award winner

Here's what several well-placed sources have said about author Denis Johnson's new novel Nobody Move.

The Washington Post by Sarah Weinman
A Leading Literary Light Goes on a Crime Spree

It may seem odd that Denis Johnson has followed up on his National Book Award-winning Tree of Smoke, a sprawling novel about the Vietnam War, with its diametric opposite, a slim, blackly comic crime tale reminiscent of those published by Fawcett Gold Medal half a century ago. But John Banville made a similar move when he adopted the name Benjamin Black for his crime novels after he won the Booker Prize; Kate Atkinson refashioned her voice within the detective fiction template; and for each the change fits like a sleek leather glove. The same can't be said of Johnson, but, like his literary colleagues in crime, he displays a wicked sense of fun.

Johnson originally wrote Nobody Move for serialization in Playboy last year, which explains the narrative four-part arc of cons, scams, grifts and guns. Jimmy Luntz, an occasional barbershop quintent singer, is a small-time hood with "a Santa Anita sheet folded up in the pocket of his blinding white tux," still feeling the itch to bet despite constant disappointment. Anita Desilvera is the embodiment of the femme fatale, ready to play her trump card -- an embezzled stash of $2.3 million -- after becoming "a vagrant, a felon and a future divorcee" in a single morning. Among those zigzagging through Bakersfield looking for the money are Anita's soon-to-be-ex, a crooked judge and Jimmy, whose collision course with her sets up for a cascading-domino sequence of violence.

The brevity of this novel limits Johnson's scope, but he still has room for zinger (like a character who gets "thirty percent drunk"); observations of human nature (Anita: "Do you always talk about people like they're invisible?" Jimmy: "Usually just women"); and an extended gunfire sequence that plays like an outtake from Tree of Smoke. Nobody Move does not rank as a major work, but enjoy it for what it is: an idiosyncratic journey through familiar terrain.

Publishers Weekly

With its crackling dialogue and mercilessly bleak worldview, this stark and darkly funny chronicle of a four-way race to the bottom is a testament to Johnson's sublime sympathy for lowlifes.

Booklist by Keir Graff

Readers won't know who will win -- Will it be the ballsy gambler or the psycho...? Indeed, they may not even know who they're rooting for. But getting there is all the fun, with dry dialogue and surprising turns of phrase all adding up to something that seems both fresh and inevitable.

USA Today by Bob Minzesheimer

And now for something completely different... Nobody Move is a hard-boiled, modern shoot-em-up in which nobody's hands are clean but everyone gets great lines. Set in grittiest California, it involves a complicated embezzlement scheme. The real attractions are the dialogue and the writing. One character "wasn't wearing a Hawaiian shirt at the moment but undoubtedly possessed several."

Driving the New Defender...

(The year is 2430 in the Great Central Government Territory.)

Nancy Sundusky was excited about taking delivery of her new 16-speed transport vehicle known as a Great Central Government (GCG) Defender. Of course, before she could travel anywhere, she would have to take the vehicle into the nearest GCG office to activate its multiple programs. Each Defender came equipped with 18 video screens, the largest of which enabled drivers to keep track of their speed, and estimated time of arrival at the selected destination. Each small screen had an intended purpose...

When activated, Nancy would be able to literally see anything happening in the GCG Territory. No activity was too small or large to escape broadcast: she could look in on the local School Control Board meeting or observe the GCG armies invading the properties formerly known as The Asian Lands. At this time the islands labeled as Japan in the unavailable-to-citizens reference books were being shelled.

The Defender's screens and programs in return enabled the GCG to observe every action, every activity, and each and every movement of citizens such as Nancy. As soon as she entered data into the auto transport drive, the officials would know from where she departed, to where she was moving and what path points would take her there. The officials could even, in cases of suspected activity disloyal to the GCG, make the Defender inoperable, or set the time of its self-destruction feature.

Nancy often thought about using a Defender to take her to one of the underground hotels where she could dream freely without medications and controls, and read information smuggled in from outside of the GCG Territory. But she knew this was far too dangerous... As soon as she was seen docking the Defender within a kilometer of a suspected underground facility, she'd be stopped and questioned. Or perhaps, she'd have a single night of unmanaged sleep and be arrested once she returned to street level.

One could never know which persons were true agents of the rebel underground and which were GCG officials; the latter were richly rewarded for their success in apprehending those disloyal to the GCG. Capture five rebels and a GCG official was awarded a 90-day period of unmonitored activity. Capture ten, and the GCG official would be free to travel unmonitored for a quarter of a year, and to visit the restricted libraries of information from the past (this reward was known as a history pass).

Nancy knew she had to put this dangerous thought out of her mind. At that moment, the text message arrived on the slender communicator device strapped to her wrist...

(To be continued...)

Photo: flickr (Mr Wabu)

The Tyranny of Now...

(The year is 2430 in the Great Central Government Territory.)

Nancy Sandusky opened her medicine cabinet and sighed. There were the eight colored containers of pills supplied by the GCG.

A number of years back, the GCG's chemists had discovered the links between the ingestion of specific chemicals and dreams. The GCG-supplied pills enabled each citizen to select among permitted categories of dreams. Vacation dreams were one such approved category and usually involved trips to the GCG parks in the southern regions.

One could choose to dream about the arts, which was a benefit as live music and dramatic performances were currently banned. And loyal citizens were always encouraged to dream about the bountiful services provided by the GCG.

Nancy thought about the GCG agents who came out each month to determine which dream pills had been used, and to verify that one had been used each evening. The pills, of course, also prevented citizens from having the types of dreams that were not approved (the special chemicals both opened dream doors and closed them).

Nancy's head almost hurt with the desire to dream either about the future - a category whose details had not yet been charted by the GCG - or about the past. The past was quite sensitive, as citizens were not permitted to discuss or read about the Relocation of the Enemies era. Nor was it advisable for citizens to consider what life was like prior to the commencement of the GCG's command.

Nancy had, of course, heard about the underground hotels - places where one could dream without the GCG's pills. But the consequences of being caught at one of these facilities were far, far, too great... (To be continued...?)

Note: This content has not been approved by the GCG.


Photo: flickr (hiatus)