Lay Saints [NOOK Book]

Overview

Lay Saints, by Counterfeit Kings author Adam Connell, takes readers on a sinister ride through a twisted cityscape where hidden telepaths ply their trade, reading or altering the thoughts of the "hacks" around them, for the right price.

Lay Saints opens with Calder, a man whose special abilities nearly drove him insane, until he learned how to shut out the static of other ...
See more details below
Lay Saints

Available on NOOK devices and apps  
  • Nook Devices
  • NOOK HD/HD+ Tablet
  • NOOK
  • NOOK Color
  • NOOK Tablet
  • Tablet/Phone
  • NOOK for Windows 8 Tablet
  • NOOK for iOS
  • NOOK for Android
  • NOOK Kids for iPad
  • PC/Mac
  • NOOK for Windows 8
  • NOOK Study
  • NOOK for Web

Want a NOOK? Explore Now

NOOK Book (eBook)
$0.99
BN.com price

Overview

Lay Saints, by Counterfeit Kings author Adam Connell, takes readers on a sinister ride through a twisted cityscape where hidden telepaths ply their trade, reading or altering the thoughts of the "hacks" around them, for the right price.

Lay Saints opens with Calder, a man whose special abilities nearly drove him insane, until he learned how to shut out the static of other people's thoughts and make money from reading minds.

He continues to avoid people as much as he can but eventually his nomadic existence takes him to New York, for the first time. In the city, one gang of black-market telepaths figures out who and what he is. They force him to help them pull off a big-ticket job, swaying the vote of a powerful politician. Backing out isn't an option.

There's another gang, secretly operating out of an upscale nightclub, working the other side of this job, and soon Calder is caught in a lethal game of manipulation and shifting alliances. His romance with a dancer named Tamm strengthens his resolve to leave the city and its telepaths far behind, but neither side in this war will just allow the couple to go. Everyone's got a use for Calder, and no one wants to see him cross over to the competition.

Connell's gritty and provocative tale is filled with fascinating characters, all seeking to get an edge over each other in the city that never sleeps where no good deed goes unpunished.
Read More Show Less

Editorial Reviews

Kirkus Reviews
Chosen as one of the Best Indie Books of 2012: Overall
Chosen as one of the Best Indie Books of 2012: TOP 25
Selected as one of the Best Indie Books of 2012: SF/F
Selected as one of the Best Indie Books of 2012: Mystery & Noir
Explorations: The B&N SF/F Blog - Paul Goat Allen
"Connell's mastery at character development—and not just the main characters; every single one—makes this a deeply fascinating read. And, like Counterfeit Kings, there are no stereotypical heroes or villains here: everyone is painted in varying shades of gray. It's original and unpredictable but also character-driven and deeply thought provoking." — Explorations: The B&N SF/F Blog. Explorations also chose Lay Saints as one of the Top 5 Best SF Novels of 2012.
Publishers Weekly
"Fans of the genre will find a lot to like here--particularly the snappy dialogue and solid world-building." — Publishers Weekly
BlueInk Review
"Adam Connell's Lay Saints is a sleek homage to noir with a fantasy twist. His style is in turns reminiscent of Elmore Leonard, Chuck Palahniuk, and William Gibson, but his voice is all his own. It's sleazy, it's violent, it's honest, and it's a damn good read."
— BlueInk Review (starred review)
The Midwest Book Review - D. Donovan
"Lay Saints, with its realistic and complex cast of protagonists and the added bonus of wild talents up for exploit, is a powerful read that is gritty, honest, gripping and unpredictable. Any who enjoy noir detective stories, explorations with New York City underworld settings, and a touch of science fiction injected into complex social and political interactions will find this an absorbing read, impossible to put down."
— The Midwest Book Review
Read More Show Less

Product Details

  • BN ID: 2940014751117
  • Publisher: Adam Connell
  • Publication date: 6/4/2012
  • Sold by: Barnes & Noble
  • Format: eBook
  • Sales rank: 608,180
  • File size: 5 MB

Meet the Author

Adam Connell grew up on Long Island and went to NYU to study English and American Literature. It was at NYU where he met his wife, Jeannie. They live in Westchester, NY.

Connell’s first book, the cult hit Counterfeit Kings, was published in 2004. Of it Publishers Weekly raved, "People take precedence over mechanical marvels in this intense drama. Struggle for identity and self-sacrifice are just a few of the powerful stories beneath an action-packed surface plot that provokes as it dazzles." Chosen by Explorations, B&N's genre blog, as one of the TOP TEN SF/F books of the year.

Lay Saints was his second novel.

His third novel, Total Secession, was published in September 2012. Total Secession--follow two rough ex-convicts released early from prison as they hit the highways on a tense road trip home through an America they barely recognize because America is coming apart. Secession Day, or S-Day, looms.

Connell is hard at work on his fourth novel, due in 2013.

Connell's Web address is adamconnell.net
His facebook page is facebook.com/AdamConnellSF
His Twitter name is @adamconnellSF
Read More Show Less

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4
( 9 )
Rating Distribution

5 Star

(5)

4 Star

(2)

3 Star

(1)

2 Star

(1)

1 Star

(0)

Your Rating:

Your Name: Create a Pen Name or

Barnes & Noble.com Review Rules

Our reader reviews allow you to share your comments on titles you liked, or didn't, with others. By submitting an online review, you are representing to Barnes & Noble.com that all information contained in your review is original and accurate in all respects, and that the submission of such content by you and the posting of such content by Barnes & Noble.com does not and will not violate the rights of any third party. Please follow the rules below to help ensure that your review can be posted.

Reviews by Our Customers Under the Age of 13

We highly value and respect everyone's opinion concerning the titles we offer. However, we cannot allow persons under the age of 13 to have accounts at BN.com or to post customer reviews. Please see our Terms of Use for more details.

What to exclude from your review:

Please do not write about reviews, commentary, or information posted on the product page. If you see any errors in the information on the product page, please send us an email.

Reviews should not contain any of the following:

  • - HTML tags, profanity, obscenities, vulgarities, or comments that defame anyone
  • - Time-sensitive information such as tour dates, signings, lectures, etc.
  • - Single-word reviews. Other people will read your review to discover why you liked or didn't like the title. Be descriptive.
  • - Comments focusing on the author or that may ruin the ending for others
  • - Phone numbers, addresses, URLs
  • - Pricing and availability information or alternative ordering information
  • - Advertisements or commercial solicitation

Reminder:

  • - By submitting a review, you grant to Barnes & Noble.com and its sublicensees the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right and license to use the review in accordance with the Barnes & Noble.com Terms of Use.
  • - Barnes & Noble.com reserves the right not to post any review -- particularly those that do not follow the terms and conditions of these Rules. Barnes & Noble.com also reserves the right to remove any review at any time without notice.
  • - See Terms of Use for other conditions and disclaimers.
Search for Products You'd Like to Recommend

Recommend other products that relate to your review. Just search for them below and share!

Create a Pen Name

Your Pen Name is your unique identity on BN.com. It will appear on the reviews you write and other website activities. Your Pen Name cannot be edited, changed or deleted once submitted.

 
Your Pen Name can be any combination of alphanumeric characters (plus - and _), and must be at least two characters long.

Continue Anonymously
Sort by: Showing all of 9 Customer Reviews
  • Posted June 7, 2012

    Once again Adam Connell writes a book with such strong female ch

    Once again Adam Connell writes a book with such strong female characters. Just like he did, and admirably, in Counterfeit Kings. Connell, a male writer, creates for us bold female characters that are often seen in fantasy but too rarely in sci-fi.

    The women in Lay Saints (most notably Tamm and Emmie and Beryl) they are just so real, so fully realized on the page that they leap into your imagination. (And if you have a very strong imagination, like I do, these women stay with you long after you have finished the book.)

    It is no easy trick, what Connell has done. The women in Lay Saints are not placeholders, they are not props, they are important to the plot. He has given us women we can cheer for and cry with. Bravo, Adam. The second time in two books--Bravo.

    3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
  • Posted June 6, 2012

    Best Dialogue Writer in SF

    You gotta love a book driven by its dialogue. Elmore Leonard, George V. Higgins, Donald E. Westlake. Well Adam Connell is their science fiction equivalent. The conversations and confrontations in Lay Saints are sharp, wicked, original, fun, and dangerous.

    There is a casual but complex rhythm to the way his people speak, and speak to each other. It was like I was eavesdropping. And in a way I was. Isn't all the best fiction this way?

    3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
  • Posted June 19, 2012

    Lay Saints is an utter surprise. I’m a Sci-Fi guy usually,

    Lay Saints is an utter surprise. I’m a Sci-Fi guy usually, but this book merges that genre with a sort of crime noir sensibility- Just think of the guys in Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction with psychic powers.

    That is the sheer joy of Lay Saints- flawed, funny tough guys using their powers of psychic persuasion to complete illegal contracts for their clients.

    Of particular note are the twin psychics, Piker and Attila. They use their powers in tandem, live in a single, furnished room together and share one girlfriend between them. They are the highlight of the novel, just because they are so realistically drawn- they are childlike and malevolent, ambitious and hilarious all at the same time. They use their combined powers to give a man a stroke and then, both unsure of the breadth of crime forensics, argue about whether or not they need to hide the shovel used to bury him. Insecure about their boss’s need for them, they endlessly threaten and attack the new guy, Calder. They want to get rid of the competition. They want job security. Don’t we all?

    This is why everyone in this novel is so realistic. They make mistakes, sometimes stupid, but always ones that a real working person might make. Under stress, we all make questionable decisions and just like Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment, the most obvious errors are committed in the heat of the moment, even though in hindsight everyone knew better.

    Briggs and Lundin are a team working for the other side (there are two crews working out of NYC, both competing for lucrative contracts). Lundin is a powerful psychic and Briggs is his non-powered, ex-priest, hitman partner. They banter as they work jobs, worry about whether their boss likes them and philosophize endlessly about Lundin’s sexual proclivities and Briggs’s lapsed faith as they sit in a car during stakeouts.

    Just like the best vintage Stephen King, Connell sets up all his characters like the most realistic army men on a huge playset and then expertly knocks them off in fantastic, heartbreaking and always surprising ways. The second half of the novel rushes forward like a freight train and I found myself muttering aloud at certain deaths, “I can’t believe he killed him.”

    Recommended. At $5- it's a steal.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
  • Anonymous

    Posted June 9, 2012

    Darkly Humorous

    If you love black humor, you'll love Lay Saints, no doubt. I 'm not talking about SF where you laugh out loud when you shouldn't because the writings so bad.

    No, Lay Saints is the opposite. You laugh out loud in certain spots because you should, you were meant to, there's black humor interspersed throughout. You might feel guilt laughing at these parts but they are very funny AND WERE MEANT TO BE. How many SF books can you say that about. The Kreenie

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
  • Posted June 9, 2012

    The Best Novel Of Telepaths Ever Written, Seriously Sure there


    The Best Novel Of Telepaths Ever Written, Seriously

    Sure there is Slan, The Chrysalids, The Demolished Man, Dying Inside. Adam Connell's Lay Saints beats these dated classics into the ground.

    Now I like books about telepaths. I get really excited with books about TP, but most let me down. Lay Saints did not let me down, it blew me away. Connell cleverly executes the sensation, the feeling of following two crews of TPs around NYC, and he executes it brilliantly. You really feel like you're there, listening in while they listen in. It's a remarkable feat, what Connell has pulled off here.

    Anyone who's a fan of psionics simply must read Lay Saints because it was written for them. Period.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
  • Posted June 8, 2012

    Frankly, I don't read a lot of SciFi. I find it to be a genre t

    Frankly, I don't read a lot of SciFi. I find it to be a genre that produces books that are unnecessarily complex that they become boring, or so poorly written that they bore me from the start.
    A close friend, who knows my tastes, seriously recommended that I read Lay Saints. Since then, I have thanked him, and if you read Lay Saints in part because of this review, you should thank me. You're welcome.
    I am even less interested in telepaths (what I would call "mind readers"). But Connell had me hooked from page one, doling out marvelously conflicted acharacters, an ingenious plot involving NYC politics and tension alongside thrills.
    I stop reading a lot of books because I have a low threshold for garbage. Lay Saints is a gem.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
  • Anonymous

    Posted June 8, 2012

    Unreliable Narrator? What I loved the most about Lay Saints - a


    Unreliable Narrator?
    What I loved the most about Lay Saints - and there is a lot to love - was its narrator. He is only know as "Big Sir." Listen to this, he's a telepath AND a remote viewer and Connell making him so was genius. Big Sir tells the story but he steps in and out of the narrative thread, offering interjecrtions that are by turns snide, poignant, or hilariously droll. Lay Saints is told in Big Sir's biased voice, and what a potent voice it is. He is part of the story and also apart from the story. Again, genius on Connell's part. Why hasn't he published more books? MORE BOOKS, I want MORE BOOKS from this writer, Adam Connell.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
  • Posted March 11, 2013

    I got this through LibraryThing Member Giveaways. It was a good

    I got this through LibraryThing Member Giveaways. It was a good read and a good story, though a little longer than it needed to be. This is a tale of criminal telepaths working in levels of a mob-like organization peddling their skills to the highest or most influential bidder. 
    Into this world is drawn Calder, a telepath who normally uses his talents to help grieving families in hospitals albeit for a profit. He is recruited into one of two 'families' of these mind readers and used to influence a vote. 
    It took some time to get into this as it is written in it own New York boroughs flavored language which seems to come and go. The narrator is not always reliable nor can we always tell from the writing it is him narrating. The story moves along well enough with some interesting unsavory characters and a decent moral dilemna but doesn't resolve itself satisfactorily in my opinion. 
    An unusual take on a telepath story.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  No   Report this review
  • Anonymous

    Posted June 9, 2012

    No text was provided for this review.

Sort by: Showing all of 9 Customer Reviews

If you find inappropriate content, please report it to Barnes & Noble
Why is this product inappropriate?
Comments (optional)