Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse
I haven't read Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse by Victor Gischler, but this description, sent to me by the publisher, makes it sound good. If you've read it, please post your review in the comments.
Mortimer Tate was an insurance salesman on the verge of a nasty divorce when he holed up in a mountain cave in Tennessee and rode out the end of the world. Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse begins nine years later, when he emerges into a bizarre landscape filled with hollow reminders of an America that no longer exists. Since “The Fall,” highways are lined with abandoned automobiles, for which there is no fuel. Houses stand empty and what little civilization remains revolves around a string of strip clubs called Joey Armageddon’s Sassy-a-Go-Go, where the beer is cold, the lap dancers are hot, the bouncers are armed with M-16s—and electricity is generated by indentured servants pedaling stationary bicycles. Accompanied by his cowboy sidekick Buffalo Bill and two gorgeous and lethal women named Sheila and Tyler, Mortimer journeys to the Lost City of Atlanta—and an explosive final showdown that just might determine the fate of humanity.Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse
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Wow, count me in, Mark!
Sounds like something Warren Ellis would write..
I reviewed "Go-Go Girls..." in the San Francisco Chronicle on July 20. It's smart and well-written and fun. I highly recommend it.
The review's archived on SFGate:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/20/RVTR11LLT0.DTL&hw=Berry&sn=004&sc=730
What do they feed the indentured servants they use to pedal to generate electricity? Wouldn't it be more efficient to use the energy in that food or the fertiliser used to grow it to generate electricity without the inefficient (though admittedly hardcore and dystopian and zarjazz) middle step?
#3 mlberry,
Just got back from the library where I prevailed on my librarian to order ''Go-Go Girls....'' Knowing my propensity for ''literary fiction,'' which she shares, she gave me a strange look and asked, ''Is there something about this book I should know?''
''Well, it's about The Lost City of Atlanta.''
Laughter ... and another book sale for Gishler, Touchstone, the SFC, BB, and you.
and electricity is generated by indentured servants pedaling stationary bicycles
... who would outlive their masters ...
I read it & it is pure fun!!!
A Boy and His Dog/Damnation Alley/Tank Girl?
And the indentured servants would be required to have cigarettes in their mouths to prevent just that.
Anyway, hot chicks, M-16's, doom; I'm in!
Sounds like a good complement to 'Six-String Samurai'
red elvises rule! anything comparing itself to moore and tarantino has gotta have gargantuan huevos. where do i sign up?
The indentured servants might outlive their masters, but they wouldn't be able to breed. All that time in the saddle? Yowch!
Indentured servants (read "slaves") pedalling is probably a fairly efficient way of converting caloric energy to electricity. In theory it may be more efficient to burn cows or rice to power steam generators, or something like that, but this would be more practical.
I recall reading somewhere that during the worst of WWII the Paris telephone service was kept powered by teams of men on stationary bicycles. Very French, somehow.
Read this cover to cover on a flight from Boston to Long Beach. Made the flight go super-quick and I love the stares I get when I have an interesting book in hand.
Who wouldn't love post-apocalyptic Atlanta, complete with a Jane Fonda-hating Ted!!
oui
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf7PsN2SwC8&feature=related
A good, fun, quick read. Make sure you have a glass of Freddy's Dishwater Lager at hand to enjoy.
Oh and #3 review: spot on, that's all you need to know.
@ #4
that's what i said about 'the matrix' brain battery thing. and yeah, you're right. thermodynamics is a bitch.
Just sounds like some more chauvinistic bullsh*t to me..
It's an okay book, but not more than that. It reads like a first book out by an author worth paying a bit of attention too.....but not too much.
Indentured servants on pushbikes is a very efficent way to power your go-go bar.
You just feed them the worn-out dancers, and any customers that pass out.
Distopia, right?.
Brush Script is the new Comic Sans.
Can anything match Earth Abides?
Hey, looks cool!
But I have a serious question/issue/suggestion:
Could BoingBoing, in the spirit of private enterprise, small business, and even net neutrality link to INDEPENDENT bookstores, rather than Amazon, when reviewing books?
I have a family member who used to work at Berkeley's Cody's Books - a LONGtime institution, and important purveyor of printed material, both bland and controversial - and Cody's is now out of business, in part because Amazon has taken so much business away from REAL booksellers who KNOW BOOKS.
So: who should be linked to? There are countless...errr...some independent booksellsers still out there, and they need our help.
Powell's, in Portland, Oregon, comes to mind. As does the Tattered Cover, in Denver, Colorado.
How about linking to a google search for the ISBN instead of Amazon directly? Or perhaps a list of independents who can provide books that appear on BB?
#19 Actually, the guy has written I think about four other books - crime novels, I believe.
Anyone else, I did an interview with him, if you're interested in reading it:
http://entertheoctopus.wordpress.com/2008/08/07/interview-with-victor-gischler-author-go-go-girls-of-the-apocalypse/
Hope the link is ok!
#18 you say that like it's a bad thing....
#25, because objectifying women is just so damn entertaining! After all, what else are they there for but to amuse men!
(Full disclosure: I'm a feminist, I enjoy Sin City and Grand Theft Auto etc., and yet the constant barrage of women as accessories or plot devices grinds me down after a while. If I couldn't enjoy a story despite that, I'd be pretty starved for entertainment, but that doesn't mean I can't criticize it even while enjoying the story.)
Spincycle @ 23 (and hey, classy pseudonym!), that's a terrific idea--whenever I include a book book link in an online forum, I always go with powells.com; they were my lifeline to books when I was living in Japan a few years back.
If you haven't already done so, you might want to email your excellent suggestion to some of the Boingers directly...
@#23
It may be that the boingers actually get a cut of every book sale that gets made through those Amazon links. Amazon has an "associate" program where one can make money by linking to books on their site. Note that Mark's link includes the string "boingboing" and Cory's amazon links have one that is part of the title of one of his books, "downandoutint".
The link that's posted is the link that comes in with the suggestion for the article. Sometimes it's a link to an article about the book (or whatever), sometimes to an independent seller, sometimes to Amazon.
I'll take the word of people who have actually read this, but from the description in the OP the book sounds fucking retarded.
But as #2 pointed out it does sound like a Warren Ellis story, and those also sound fucking retarded when you try and explain them but in a good way (I'm thinking of "Dicks").
@#30: "Dicks" is actually by Garth Ennis, not Warren Ellis. The point still stands for both men's work.
#31: Damn similar sounding names.
Transmet actually is a little easier to sell most people on than Dicks. And Planetary is (well, depending on the finish) brilliant.
I was reading Dicks (I forget which one, but they were fighting with the uncle-ghost and some mobsters) and was laughing out loud. I tried to explain why to a fried and just gave up. "See it's about these two guys who are dicks....and....well it's Ireland during the Troubles......and did I mention they were dicks?"
I've read it, and it's very good, but not on the Tom Robbins - Douglas Adams level I was hoping for based on the title and the description.
If you like "Mad Max" and "Tank Girl," you'll like it, and I do recommend it. It's a good story and a fun read, with a few interesting insights along the way.