Chart / January

January 29, 2024 in diary

NEWSFLASH: I’m back.

It’s been a while since I did one of these….September, in fact. The reasons are myriad: I relocated to Athens, Pacific State needed a promotin’ (number #1 for cyberpunk in the USA last week!), and I have a few projects keeping me busy. Two days ago I wrote the last line of a neo-Western thriller I’ve been working on for a year. Perfect timing, because from mid-February I’ll be in residence at JOYA: AiR, a not-for-profit, carbon-positive arts residency supporting artistic projects “at the intersection between creativity and the environment”. My residency will last for three weeks, during which I hope to sketch out the structure for a new masculinity and climate-focused novel and write the first chapter.

Book of the month: Hyperion by Dan Simmons. I’d been aware of this book for many years, but I’d never actually paid it much attention beyond the gnarly cover art. For some reason, I’d assumed it was written in the 1960s. WRONG. It’s a mashup of Conrad, Gibson and Homer. And it’s fantastic. Not since the Three-Body Problem have I read science fiction so rich, with 10+ fully fleshed characters all with their own incredibly well-constructed stories. The world-building is flawless, the language varied and the dissection of religion compelling.

Film of the month:

In November Criterion put up a selection of ‘end of the world’ films, with some of the usual suspects including Mad Max, Threads and Escape From New York. I’m still working my way through the titles I’ve never heard of. Two I did watch were Dead End Drive-In and Night Of The Comet. Both distinctly B-movie, both rough around the edges, both with dodgy pacing, paper-thin characters and editing choices (Night has a pivotal scene where most of the world is turned into red dust by a comet passing overhead…all we see of this catastrophe is one woman closing her eyes and uttering a bored ‘oh’). The saving grace: the sets, costume design and cinematography (particular for Drive-In). Wow. Neon-soaked cities, orange horizons, bloodied skies. It more than makes up for dialogue like “Yeaaaah my name’s Crabsy, because people thought I had crabs, But I don’t”. That’s the protagonist saying it. Our hero. The guy we want to believe in.

Buena Vista Music Club:

1 The Beaches - Blame Brett

2 Phoebe Bridgers - Scott Street

3 sign crushes motorist - theres this girl

4 Pinegrove - Need 2

5 flyingfish - wonder if u care

6 Soap&Skin - Me and the Devil

My Favorite Bit with Mary Robinette Kowal + Pacific State reviews

January 18, 2024

Pacific State, my second novel in the Sundown Cycle, is up and running, and it seems to be quite the hit among reviewers both of the print persuasian and the garden variety. Foreword Magazine was effusive in its praise and rating (5/5), stating:

the book excels at worldbuilding, dropping evocative hints at the full scope of its dystopia. It’s peppered with slang references to foodstuffs, new technology, and organized crime that pique interest in its wider world. It mixes oracular pronouncements with striking descriptions in prose that is stylish and sometimes beautiful, as when a building is described as having a “dreadnought silhouette” that creates “a negative space in an overcast sky,” or with notes about “sodium-lit streets” and a “spit-shined moon hung up on display.”

Then we have reviewers such as The Dragon’s Cache (nice), who picked up on all kinds of throwaway world-building elements, which I find wonderful, ultimately declaring that “Price…decries our casual disregard for climate change, reminds us of the dangers of unrestrained commerce, and argues that risking our lives to stamp out cruelty can be a noble cause.”

Another fun one is Pagefarer, who sums up what we’re all thinking by writing, “It’s a great book. It’s tightly written, full of believable and three-dimensional characters, and the worldbuilding is excellent.”

Also, a special shoutout to….this cool guy for describing the novel as follows: “it's like Gibson and Stephenson had a brainchild and it's all chromed up in neon and existential dread.” Very nice indeed.

ELSEWHERE…

I wrote a short article for the website of Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Mary Robinette Kowal about my favourite aspect of Pacific State. This is my second appearance on the site, with my first entry waxing lyrical on the use of flashbacks in everyone’s plucky post-apoc champ, By the Feet of Men. This time around, I’m in a more linguistic mood as I discuss a shorthand, corporate-only language I conceived for the novel called Whicolla. As always, I tie it into the climate crisis, because we’re still sleepwalking to our collective doom.

Read the full article right here.

PACIFIC STATE is out today!

December 21, 2023

The day is here: PACIFIC STATE, the second novel in the Sundown Cycle, is out now from Black Rose Writing. Taking place in a near-future Berlin ravaged by the effects of the climate crisis, it’s a high-octane, cerebral technothriller that takes the many, many problems we are currently facing as individuals, local communities and a global society and blows them up to outsized and unsettling proportions – like any good science fiction should.

Here’s the scoop:

On the streets of Berlin all morals can be bought for a price, and Owen Resler sold his long ago. Once an underground dissenter, now a corporate drone, he spends his days reluctantly manipulating data for Big Pharma.

Across town, notorious gun-for-hire Mia Warsaw is putting together a team to assassinate one of the city's more unscrupulous business moguls and she needs someone to handle the ones and zeroes.

When Warsaw crosses paths with an increasingly desperate Resler, she hands the former radical an ultimatum: he can either succumb to death by a thousand bureaucratic paper cuts or take a chance with her.

Of course, there's no guarantee he'll survive that, either…

I am extremely proud of this novel, not least because I feel like it transcends the genres of cyberpunk, thriller and general sci fi to offer something unique in a crowded market. The early reviews have been extremely positive, with my favourite coming from the esteemed Midwest Book Review:

“The result is more literary than most cyberpunk creations, more psychologically astute than the typical thriller story of intrigue and dangerous connections, and more original and compelling than many. Libraries and readers seeking near-future worlds that stand out for their feel of authenticity and doom will find Pacific State a winner.”

Pacific State is available to buy from these outlets:

Alternatively, order it from your local bookshop (<3) and do your bit to chip away at the corporations.

Reality Testing the audiobook is here

October 19, 2023 in writing

A first for me: my bestselling climate fiction/cyberpunk novel REALITY TESTING has been given the narration treatment and is now available as a beautiful audiobook on Audible. Narrated by the acclaimed Libby Marshall, it clocks in at an impressive 10 hours and 45 minutes - that’s approximately 11 of your present-day commutes to and from work or four of your evenings where you sit scrolling aimlessly through streaming services, hoping that something, anything, will catch your jaded eye.

Just to remind the world of what Kirkus said about Reality Testing in their starred review:

“This is a bracing blast of neo-cyberpunk with some smart tweaks to the operating system.”

I wish there was another way to release it other than the Amazon overlords, but there isn’t. The market is cornered. In publicising the audiobook, I am not explicitly advocating the use of the company’s services. I have four free promo codes that I will give out to anyone who gets in touch.