About the Book:
In his rollicking new novel, THE STRAW THAT BROKE, author Tom Whalen
continues his ENCYCLOPEDIA MOUSE series, a challenging and funny roller-coaster
ride through the outer margins of science-fiction, philosophy, and word play.
Readers who reveled in previous books in the series, such as THE CAMEL’S BACK (called “the Moby-Dick
of mice” by poet and critic R.H.W. Dillard) and ROITHAMER’S UNIVERSE (which science-fiction writer Rudy Rucker
termed “giddy fun”), are sure to greet the arrival of THE STRAW THAT BROKE with anticipation and joy. Lovers of such
visionary writers as Kafka, Borges, Vonnegut, Lewis Carroll, and Douglas Adams
(THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE series) also
will find a kindred spirit in Tom Whalen, as will readers of all tastes who are
looking for a thrilling literary adventure.
The
main “character” in THE STRAW THAT BROKE is
the Encyclopedia Mouse, who, according to the author, “is the one creature who
can save the multiverse.” In Whalen’s
synopsis of THE STRAW THAT BROKE,
“Bulwer Zetford’s work-in-progress, The Cosmic Messenger, is about to take a strange turn,
and the multiverse with it, when Roithamer of Relix “beads” once again and
brings swirling into Zetford’s Kaduza M-mon processor the Encyclopedia Mouse …
Tale twines tale as the mouse battles his Doppelgänger in cyberspace,
Heidegger, in his Black Forest hut, and a hyper-crazed Roithamer. Death is
everywhere, but the mouse, birling (if only barely) in his Binding Nexus Drive
Whalen
describes his style as “playful, parodic, philosophical, lyrical. I wanted THE STRAW THAT BROKE to be thick with
character and plot and at the same time alive with language.”
“The
word play is part of the novel’s texture, as well as being embedded into the
plot and character of the mouse,” Whalen also explains. “No need for the reader
to pick up all the formal play. It’s enough that this exists on a subliminal
level.”
Whalen’s
ultimate goal, he says, is to have the Encyclopedia Mouse books published in
one volume “and eventually turned into a wide-screen baroque masterwork of
cinema.”
In
the meantime, THE STRAW THAT BROKE is
available in print, ready to delight all readers.
What the critics are saying about the ENCYCLOPEDIA MOUSE series:
“Pollinates post-cyber-punk with headier
poetry than the genre has yet known.”
Andrei Codrescu
Author and NPR commentator
“Storytelling
which is subtly, wickedly funny.”
The New
Orleans
“Tom
Whalen is one of the most gifted and prolific of contemporary American
avant-garde writers … a master of this genre.”
George Garrett
Dictionary of Literary Biography
“Tom
Whalen twists our notions of what is real.”
Christine Spivey
172
pages.
Softcover,
$13.46; ISBN: 13-978-0692259436
Publication
date: August 1, 2014
Published
by Black Scat Books
Available
at amazon.com, Black Scat Books.
About the Author
Tom Whalen is a novelist, short story writer, poet
and critic who has written for Agni, Asymptote, Bookforum,
Brooklyn Rail, Chicago Review, The Iowa Review, Film
Quarterly, The Literary Review, the Washington Post and other
publications. His books include Dolls, Elongated Figures, The
Birth of Death and Other Comedies: The Novels of Russell H. Greenan, and
the novels Roithamer’s Universe and The President in Her Towers. Whalen
currently lives in Stuttgart ,
Germany
His latest book is the science fiction, The
Straw That Broke.
Visit his website at www.tomwhalen.com.
Tom is giving away one $25 Amazon Gift Card!
Terms & Conditions:
- By entering the giveaway, you are confirming you are at least 18 years old.
- One winner will be chosen via Rafflecopter.
- This giveaway begins November 3 and ends November 29.
- Winner will be contacted via email on Monday, December 1.
- Winner has 48 hours to reply.
Good luck everyone!
Thanks for the giveaway! Have a happy holiday season :)
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