Outrageous Fortune, Tim Scott
Outrageous Fortune, Tim Scott
List: $19.98 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Outrageous Fortune

Author: Tim Scott

Narrator: Kirby Heyborne

Unabridged: 10 hr 51 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/29/2007


Synopsis

In this outrageously funny, outrageously inventive debut, one of the most outrageously talented new writers to break onto the sci-fi scene in decades asks the most loaded question of all . . . 

“Don’t you hate it when this happens?”

. . . that’s what the business card asks Jonny X67, dream architect to the rich and jaded. It’s all the thieves who stole his house left behind. And if that weren’t bad enough, a saleswoman named Caroline E61 drops from the sky to sell him a set of encyclopedias and won’t take no for an answer. Can his luck get any worse?

In this rip-roaring roller-coaster ride through a brilliantly imagined future of paranoid absurdity, Jonny X will learn the answer soon enough when he falls afoul of a lunatic motorcycle gang nicknamed the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, a relentless Belgian assassin, and his own irate girlfriend. Traversing a cityscape whose neighborhoods are organized by musical genres, running into joke-telling elevators and holographic computer viruses, Jonny is about to learn what a nightmare it’s going to be to get his old life back in a reality warping faster than the speed of the imagination. Outrageous Fortune heralds a marvelous new talent sure to be delightfully altering the minds of readers for years to come.

About The Author

Tim Scott graduated from Cambridge University, England, and went on to write and appear on BBC Radio 4 in around 50 comedy half hours before being given his own late night comedy television series on the ITV network. The author of a number of children's books, he also wrote for children's television, and in 2003 won a BAFTA for cowriting and directing a children's series, Ripley and Scuff, for the BBC.Kirby Heyborne is an American musician and actor. After graduating from the University of Utah with a degree in economics, he received critical acclaim for his starring role in the award-winning World War II drama Saints and Soldiers. He has starred in many feature films and national commercials, and has appeared on Everwood and Free Ride. He is well known for his narration and voice work on several audiobooks. In addition, he can frequently be found touring the country with his singing and songwriting act.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Janet on July 30, 2018

I bought this used paperback book so I could literally read while floating on a raft in a pool (really!, book lover heaven; give it a try), and it was perfect for that. It takes place in the future where dreams are manufactured, and people live in sections divided by the music they love. The main ch......more

Goodreads review by Chris on July 22, 2009

There's a sad thing that happens to books like this--they get labeled as being like Pratchett, or Douglas Adams. Then fans of those books show up and read them, and get mad b/c "This guy's no Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett!" It's kind of unfair to describe a book by comparing it to another writer......more

Goodreads review by Jonathan on February 01, 2018

Tim Scott takes readers on a fantastical journey into a bizarre and fantastic realm full of comedy and absurdity. Cities divided into zones based on music taste and policed by the ever mysterious Zone Security. The main characters find themselves thrust into conspiracy of absurd proportions involvin......more

Goodreads review by Torimac on June 09, 2019

I struggled to keep thinking of this as humorous. The details were fast and furious -my energy went to imagining the story, leaving me a little too tired to enjoy LOL-ing. I think as a film it would have been a great comedy. I did like the epilogue. Another reviewer felt it was rhetorical but I foun......more

Goodreads review by Allison on December 05, 2023

Definitely a fun read. Wasn't sure where we were going. Undoubtedly, there is no virus more outrageous than, Spoiler Alert, The one you write yourself!!! --going the whole way, all or nothing, and too much curiosity for my own good. :)......more


Quotes

“The most bizarre, profound and beautiful novel I've read in a long, long time.”—Michael Marshall (Smith), author of Blood of Angels

Outrageous Fortune is captivating, absorbing, infuriating and disturbingly funny; it takes you hostage on the very first page and refuses to let you go until all its demands have been met.”—Tom Holt, author of In Your Dreams

“Diverting..a zany tale of a slippery future shaped by bogus reality and prefab memories...Delightfully droll.”—Publishers Weekly

“Rarely does a first sf novel have as much energy and creativity as Scott’s madcap, mischievously irreverent depiction of a definitely post-postmodern future. Consider this the opening salvo of one of the genre’s most promising and original new voices in years.”—Booklist

“Diverting... [A] delightfully droll sense of humor.”—Publishers Weekly

“[A] lunatic jaunt through a cartoon future.”—Kirkus Reviews