Kingdom book tour. Biopunk defined.

I'm delighted to be part of First Rule Publicity's Kingdom Virtual Book Tour today. I've even just finished reading the book, described in the author blurb as a biopunk, dystopian noir-esque thriller... an intriguing concept... Whatever else it is, Kingdom's a genuinely thought-provoking science fiction novel, very dark, hard-hitting, and threaded with mystery and possibility. Here's my review:

A post-apocalyptic novel with no apocalypse, Anderson O'Donnell's Kingdom is set in the near future of a world not so different from ours, where America’s Cold War has spawned an evil that’s just now coming of age. The world definitely ends with a whimper rather than a bang in this tale where drink, drugs and prostitution ruin lives in a land ruined by man.
Dark evocative descriptions are filled with premonition. “[T]he moon hugged the horizon, too tired to finish its ascent…” And the whimper of the world’s long ending resounds over the city. “[H]uman flesh and blood were the gasoline” of the social machine and “Benzedrine-fueled Bedouins” roam border deserts where secret laboratories hide the madness of science.

A powerfully plausible future history postulates “the new iron curtain of Sharia law” and the decadence of Tiber City, while memory and self fall victim to a blurred and unreal reality. This place and this people are “the kingdom,” while the man who would stand behind the throne manipulates his subjects, science and hope.

The world is haunting, horrible and hurt. The writing is evocative and blunt with all the melodramatic confusion of drug-addiction blending into genuine curiosity with just a few tinges of hope as that moon skips the horizon. I want to watch the movie. I want to know if I can read the sequel. And the story, like 1984, leaves me wondering… Future, future history, possible future? This soulless world of fiction leaves me looking at the newspaper and hoping the real world still has a soul to save.

My Disclosure: I received a free ecopy of this novel from the publicist in exchange for my honest review.

 

Disclosure of Material Connection:

I received this book for review from First Rule Publicity from the author as part of a virtual book tour. I was not compensated nor was I required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

So, have I caught your interest? If so, please read on and learn more about the author and his book.

Synopsis:

In a secret laboratory hidden under the desert, a covert bioengineering project--codename "Exodus"--has discovered the gene responsible for the human soul.

Somewhere in the neon sprawl outside the nation's collapsing economic core, a group of renegade monks are on the verge of uncovering a secret that has eluded mankind for centuries.

In a glittering tower high above the urban decay, an ascendant U.S. Senator is found dead--an apparent, yet inexplicable, suicide.

And in the streets below, a young man races through an ultra modern metropolis on the verge of a violent revolution....closing in on the terrible truth behind Exodus--and one man's dark vision for the future of mankind.

Welcome to Tiber City.

FROM THE BACK COVER:

Kingdom is a thrill-a-minute, bio-punk myth that manages to wrestle with the most pressing issues of the new millennium. O'Donnell has crafted a kickass novel of tomorrow night, when the big party gets raided by the monsters we've been building for the last half-century. Hip and hellish, wild and weird, Tiber City is the dystopian megalopolis into which we will all soon move--whether we know it or not.

REVIEW BLURBS -

"A taut, brilliantly conceived thriller with impeccable pacing bursting with ideas...For fans of noir-laden science fiction in the vein of Philip K. Dick that is in equal measures suspenseful, gripping, darkly funny and philosophically challenging." (starred review)

-Kirkus Reviews

"Toss William Gibson, Andrew Vachss and David Fincher into the Petri dish, irradiate them, then infuse the result with Transylvanian meth, and you'll have some sense of what O'Donnell has concocted."

-Jack O'Connell, author of Box Nine and The Resurrectionist.

"There simply aren't enough stars to communicate the impressiveness of O'Donnell's work here. He has taken religion, science, politics, theory and philosophy and blended them all together to create what is easily one of the most important books to come out this year."

- Pavarti K. Tyler, Fighting Monkey Press & author of Shadow on the Wall

Paperback link - http://bit.ly/AmazonLinkPB, kindle link - http://bit.ly/KingdomEB

About the Author

Anderson O’Donnell presents a biopunk, dystopian noir-esque thriller in this amazing read, KINGDOM. Most people are familiar with the term “cyberpunk,” but “biopunk” is harder to nail down. In many ways, biopunk is similar to the cyberpunk genre, and shares many of the same themes and archetypes: the dystopian future; the overreliance on technology; mega-corporations; a constant and overwhelming flow of data; the anti-hero—these elements are integral parts of both genres.

Both genres are fueled, to some extent, by the sense of rebellion and desire for individual freedom expressed by the original punk rock revolution. But the main difference—the most important difference—is that while cyberpunk focuses on invasive technological modification of the human body, biopunk explores the dehumanizing consequences of biological modification, of re-arranging our DNA in the pursuit of perfection.

Anderson lives in Connecticut with his wife and 2 sons. Anderson himself deems Kingdom as “a thrill-a-minute, bio-punk myth that manages to wrestle with the most pressing issues of the new millennium. O’Donnell has crafted a kickass novel of tomorrow night, when the big party gets raided by the monsters we’ve been building for the last half-century.”

His debut novel, Kingdom, a dystopian, biopunk thriller, is now available in paperback and ebook format. Kingdom is the first part of the Tiber City Trilogy. Look for part two, Exile, in the summer of 2013.