Tropic of Kansas, Christopher Brown
Tropic of Kansas, Christopher Brown
2 Rating(s)
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Tropic of Kansas

Author: Christopher Brown

Narrator: Josh Bloomberg, Bahni Turpin

Unabridged: 12 hr 14 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/11/2017

Synopsis

Acclaimed short-story writer and editor of the World Fantasy Award nominee Three Messages and a Warning eerily envisions an American society unraveling and our borders closed off—from the other side—in this haunting and provocative novel that combines Max Barry’s Jennifer Government, Philip K. Dick’s classic Man in the High Castle, and China Miéville’s The City & the City.The United States of America is no more. Broken into warring territories, its center has become a wasteland DMZ known as “the Tropic of Kansas.” Though this gaping geographic hole has no clear boundaries, everyone knows it’s out there—that once-bountiful part of the heartland, broken by greed and exploitation, where neglect now breeds unrest. Two travelers appear in this arid American wilderness: Sig, the fugitive orphan of political dissidents, and his foster sister Tania, a government investigator whose search for Sig leads her into her own past—and towards an unexpected future.Sig promised those he loves that he would make it to the revolutionary redoubt of occupied New Orleans. But first he must survive the wild edgelands of a barren mid-America policed by citizen militias and autonomous drones, where one wrong move can mean capture … or death. One step behind, undercover in the underground, is Tania. Her infiltration of clandestine networks made of old technology and new politics soon transforms her into the hunted one and gives her a shot at being the agent of real change—if she is willing to give up the explosive government secrets she has sworn to protect. As brother and sister traverse these vast and dangerous badlands, their paths will eventually intersect on the front lines of a revolution whose fuse they are about to light.

About Christopher Brown

Christopher Brown was nominated for a World Fantasy Award for the anthology Three Messages and a Warning: Contemporary Mexican Short Stories of the Fantastic. His short fiction has appeared in a variety of magazines and anthologies, including MIT Technology Review’s “Twelve Tomorrows,” The Baffler, and Stories for Chip.

About Josh Bloomberg

Josh Bloomberg, an Earphones Award–winning narrator, is a trained professional actor with extensive audiobook experience as a director and narrator. Having worked with some of the biggest publishers in the audiobook industry, he is used to performing at high standards. He speaks English, French, and Hebrew fluently and is a member of the Audio Publishers Association. He also records his voice for commercial spots and other types of voice-over. In his spare time, he loves making homemade almond milk.

About Bahni Turpin

Bahni Turpin has guest starred in many television series, including NYPD Blue, Law & Order, Six Feet Under, and Cold Case. Her film credits include Brokedown Palace and Crossroads. She has won numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards and three prestigious Audie Awards.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jason

As I've been regularly discussing here at Goodreads this year, I'm going through a bit of an existential crisis as a reader in 2018; namely, now that I'm no longer professionally reviewing 200 contemporary novels a year for the CCLaP website, for the first time in a decade, I've found my tolerance f......more

Goodreads review by Paul

Actual rating: 3.5 stars. Most dystopias exist in a near future, extrapolated from current events. Christopher Brown's takes place in the present, the extrapolation point the assassination of President Reagan in the 1980s. In the assassination's wake, Alexander Haig takes over, awarding himself a six......more

Goodreads review by Steve

War-porn that will appeal mainly (possibly exclusively) to dedicated progressives. Imaginative and well-researched, with an interesting alt-historical twist. But the plot is diffuse to the point of anarchy, and the main protagonist's utter indestructibility robs the action of any meaningful weight;......more

Quotes

“The dual narration of Josh Bloomberg and Bahni Turpin adds to this sci-fi story. Both have distinct voices that help each part they narrate stand out…Bloomberg and Turpin’s narration develops the setting that is the focus of the novel, a war-torn dystopian wasteland. They also give verisimilitude to the dual sides of the story and the revolution that Sig and Tania are about to cause.” AudioFile

“Timely, dark, and ultimately hopeful: it might not ‘make America great again,’ but then again, it just might.” Cory Doctorow, New York Times bestselling author

“Futurist as provocateur!…A truly hallucinatorily envisioned environment.” William Gibson, New York Times bestselling author

“Like a modern dystopian buffet. It plays out in a world where all of our terrors have become manifest…A frighteningly believable portrait of an American future that is closer than you want it to be.” NPR

“A powerful vision of an America that might be, an America that some nights seems as though it is all too likely to be, filled with powerful characters and a chilling presentiment of how far our country could fall…A novel well worth reading.” San Francisco Book Review

“A great novel. Brown’s writing is tightly composed and flows nicely…Definitely recommended.” Civilian Reader

“Eerily prescient…The author does a stellar job subtly weaving the world’s rules into the plot, leaving the reader feeling appropriately embroiled yet disoriented by the politics.” RT Book Reviews

“Brown brings a mordant sensibility to his depiction of a ‘flyover country’ that is no longer willing to have its patriotism exploited and its land degraded for other people’s profits.” Publishers Weekly

“A unique blend of Philip K. Dick, Kafka (just a smidgen), and a whole lot of Christopher Brown. Adventure novel meets political satire and the finest elements of realistic sci-fi, and it’s so well written it goes down like a greased eel. It’s hopeful dystopia. What a book.” Joe R. Lansdale, author of Cold Cotton

“The great American novel about the end of America. This book is marvelously propulsive, big-hearted, and whip smart.” Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble

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