Afterparty

by Daryl Gregory, Tavia Gilbert (Read by)

Overview

It begins in Toronto, in the years after the smart drug revolution. Any high school student with a chemjet and internet connection can download recipes and print drugs, or invent them. A seventeen-year-old street girl finds God through a new brain-altering drug called Numinous, used as a sacrament by a new Church that preys on the underclass. But she is arrested and put into detention, and without the drug, commits suicide.

Lyda Rose, another patient in that detention facility, has a dark secret: she was one of the original scientists who developed the drug. With the help of an ex-government agent and an imaginary, drug-induced doctor, Lyda sets out to find the other three survivors of the five who made the Numinous in a quest to set things right.

A mind-bending and violent chase across Canada and the US, Daryl Gregory's Afterparty is a last chance to save civilization, or die trying.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781491542415
Publisher:	Brilliance Audio
Publication date:	08/26/2014
Edition description:	Unabridged
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 5.50(h) x 1.12(d)

About the Author

Daryl Gregory was the 2009 winner of IAFA William L. Crawford Fantasy Award for his first novel Pandemonium. His second novel, The Devil's Alphabet, was nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award and was named one of the best books of 2009 by Publishers Weekly. His short fiction has appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, and The Year's Best SF. He has also written comics for BOOM! Studios and IDW.

Editorial Reviews

02/17/2014
In a mental hospital, world-wise Lyda meets teen Francine, who’s in withdrawal from Numinous, a drug that makes you religious. Lyda helped invent Numinous and thought it no longer existed, but Francine’s symptoms are unmistakable. With the help of an angel only Lyda sees—a result of her own Numinous overdose—and her ex-lover Ollie, a former government agent and fellow patient, Lyda heads out to stop whoever is making Numinous again. The hunt leads her to female Afghan drug lords, shady dealings in the Mohawk nation, a murderous faux-cowboy, the daughter she gave up for adoption, and maybe God. Gregory (Unpossible and Other Stories) dashes off his near-future story like a “chemjet” printing out sheets of smart drugs. Both irreverent and sympathetic to the sincere Numinous-addicted believers, the tragi-comical satire dispenses with sermons and easy morals, preferring to be entertaining and thought-provoking instead. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Wickedly clever entertainment.” —SF Gate (San Francisco Chronicle) on Pandemonium

“Part superhero fiction, part zombie horror story, and part supernatural thriller, this luminous and compelling tale deserves a wide readership beyond genre fans.” —Library Journal, starred review, on Raising Stony Mayhall

“A quietly brilliant second novel. . . . A wide variety of believable characters, a well-developed sense of place and some fascinating scientific speculation will earn this understated novel an appreciative audience among fans of literary SF.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review, on The Devil's Alphabet

From the Publisher

★ 2014-03-16
An eye-popping glimpse of a near future when designer drugs are commonplace, from the author of Raising Stony Mayhall (2011, etc.). It's a future where anybody with a chemjet printer and a recipe from the Internet can create designer drugs. In Toronto, biochemists Lyda and her genius wife, Mikala, IT whiz Gil, finance specialist Edo and lab tech Rovil start a company dedicated to developing a drug that would combat schizophrenia. They achieve success with Numinous, but the drawbacks, alas, become apparent too late: It's addictive, the effects are permanent—and those who take it gain the unshakable conviction that a personal deity accompanies them. Worse, after taking a massive overdose—how this all comes about emerges only gradually—Lyda stabs a now-estranged Mikala to death, or so it appears. Gil takes the blame; Edo goes hopelessly crazy; Rovil seems functional. Declared insane, Lyda's locked up along with her invisible companion, a guardian angel called Dr. Gloria. While incarcerated, Lyda learns that a drug very much like Numinous has hit the street in the form of a sacrament dispensed by a new church. To prevent an epidemic of psychotic zombies, she must escape, locate the other survivors of the original five and put a stop to it. She'll need the help of Ollie, a brilliant but drug-ravaged intelligence analyst. Among the obstacles they'll negotiate are a drug-dealer gang of Afghan women; Native American cigarette smugglers who take great delight in outwitting the U.S. Border Patrol; and Vincent, a psychotic assassin who farms miniature buffalo in his living room. This taut, brisk, gripping narrative, dazzlingly intercut with flashbacks and sidebars, oozes warmth and wit. A hugely entertaining, surprising and perhaps prophetic package that, without seeming to, raises profound questions about the human mind and the nature of perception.

Kirkus Reviews