NK3, Michael Tolkin
NK3, Michael Tolkin
1 Rating(s)
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NK3

Author: Michael Tolkin

Narrator: MacLeod Andrews

Unabridged: 10 hr 4 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/07/2017


Synopsis

In post-NK3 Los Angeles, a sixty-foot-tall fence surrounds the hills where the rich used to live, but the mansions have been taken over by those with the only power that matters: the power of memory. Life for the community inside the Fence, ruled over by the new aristocracy, the Verified, is a perpetual party. Outside the Fence, in downtown Los Angeles, the Verified use an invented mythology to control the mindless and nameless Drifters, Shamblers, and Bottle Bangers who serve the gift economy until no longer needed.The ruler, Chief, takes his guidance from gigantic effigies of a man and a woman in the heart of the Fence. They warn him of trouble to come, but who is the person to watch? Is it the elusive Eckmann, holed up with the last functioning plane at LAX; Shannon Squier, the chisel-wielding pop superstar from the pre-NK3 world, pulled from the shambling masses; a treacherous member of Chief’s inner circle; or Hopper, the uncommon Drifter compelled by an inner voice to search for a wife whose name and face he doesn’t know? Each threatens to upset the delicate power balance in this fragile world.In deliciously dark prose, Tolkin winds a noose-like plot around this melee of despots, prophets, and rebels as they struggle for command and survival in a town that still manages to exert a magnetic force, even as a ruined husk.

About Michael Tolkin

Michael Tolkin is an award-winning writer, director, and producer. His novels include The Player, The Return of the Player, Among the Dead, and Under Radar. For the film adaptation of The Player, he won the Writers Guild Award, the British Academy Award, the PEN Center USA West Literary Award, the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best crime screenplay, and was nominated for three Academy Awards. Most recently, he has been a consulting producer and writer for the Showtime series Ray Donovan.

About MacLeod Andrews

MacLeod Andrews is an actor, voice actor, and Earphones Award–winning audiobook narrator who earned the prestigious Audie Award for best narration in 2018. He has starred in a number of independent short and feature films and is a member of the Rising Phoenix Repertory Company in New York City.


Reviews

Tolkin has always been something of an existential doom laureate of the Greater Los Angeles sprawl, with its myth-generating factories and insidious personal narratives. As I have long claimed that Los Angeles movies tend to be end-times movies (KISS ME DEADLY perhaps being the preeminent urtext), i......more

I gave up on this and DNF because I found it confusing and disjointed. Tolkin has an interesting premise that he didn't really follow through on. I couldn't find a character I cared about. That said, this isn't really my genre so try it if you like dystopian tales or sci-fi. Thanks to Netgalley for......more

Goodreads review by Annette

I really enjoyed reading this dystopian fiction and kept on going anticipating some sort of dramatic ending. As I read I struggled trying to fathom how all the loose threads would bind together. I read on faithfully to the end where my expectations were promptly deflated. This book could have been t......more

Goodreads review by Rob

I think this could've used another draft or two. Some really interesting ideas are nearly swamped by choppy storytelling and plot threads that are abruptly dropped without any reason. There are still some darkly funny and insightful bits though.......more


Quotes

“Readers looking for something reminiscent of World War Z and Cory Doctorow’s work should give this one a try.” Booklist

“An inspired speculative satire, wickedly stimulating but soulful, too. It got to me, this novel. I just can’t shake it.” Walter Kirn, author of Up in The Air

“Brave, brilliant, and barely speculative.” Chris Kraus, author of Summer of Hate

“Michael Tolkin’s map of Los Angeles gains more and more detail with each novel, because there is no more modern, chaotic, and beautiful place in which to lose yourself and your history to winds, fires, and opulent decay.” Jon Robin Baitz, the writer of Other Desert Cities


Awards

  • Library Journal Audio Spotlight Pick