David Wong

Nightmarish villains with superhuman enhancements.

An all-seeing social network that tracks your every move.

Mysterious, smooth-talking power players who lurk behind the scenes.

A young woman from the trailer park.

And her very smelly cat.

Together, they will decide the future of mankind.

Get ready for a world in which anyone can have the powers of a god or the fame of a pop star, in which human achievement soars to new heights while its depravity plunges to the blackest depths. A world in which at least one cat smells like a seafood shop's dumpster on a hot summer day.

This is the world in which Zoey Ashe finds herself, navigating a futuristic city in which one can find elements of the fantastic, nightmarish and ridiculous on any street corner. Her only trusted advisor is the aforementioned cat, but even in the future, cats cannot give advice. At least not any that you'd want to follow.

Will Zoey figure it all out in time? Or maybe the better question is, will you? After all, the future is coming sooner than you think.

A Novel

Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits

Meagan Fischer 

I really, really liked this book at the beginning. The initial world building hooked me and I had high hopes. Unfortunately, the story started dragging before even the mid-point, despite a bunch of ostensibly wild stuff happening. The ending was also kind of formulaic, even if done with its own twist in the unique world Wong built. 

It's kind of funny though - even though I don't have great things to say about Wong's work, I was still intrigued to see that his other series has new sequels out. I sometimes have compared certain books to "junk food" (see: Power Couple) in the sense that they catch my attention but leave me feeling empty and regretful for having wasted my time.

I would actually NOT apply the same metaphor to Wong's work. It's more like a healthy meal full of ingredients that I have liked in the past, say at some bespoke hippie restaurant. I get excited to eat there, but ultimately am unimpressed with the cooking. It seems like it should be really delicious, but somehow comes off as bland. Which again, is an odd thing to say, because his premises very proudly proclaim themselves as utterly batshit. How can such bonkers ideas come out bland? I do not know. Maybe I'm just ruined from having read some of the classic authors in the genre of mad cap fantasy/sci fi, like Tom Robbins.

Gillian Rose

Silly and ridiculous. I enjoyed it though. The characters were really fun. Could definitely see this as a movie or TV show.

Frederik De Bosschere

Admittedly, Jason Pargin’s writing is among the most hilarious I’ve encountered. However, and despite it being intended as over-the-top satire, I found the story to be a bit too silly. Still, very entertaining.

A Winner of the 2016 Alex Awards Nightmarish villains with superhuman enhancements. An all-seeing social network that tracks your every move. Mysterious, smooth-talking power players who lurk behind the scenes. A young woman from the trailer park. And her very smelly cat. Together, they will decide the future of mankind. Get ready for a world in which anyone can have the powers of a god or the fame of a pop star, in which human achievement soars to new heights while its depravity plunges to the blackest depths. A world in which at least one cat smells like a seafood shop's dumpster on a hot summer day. This is the world in which Zoey Ashe finds herself, navigating a futuristic city in which one can find elements of the fantastic, nightmarish and ridiculous on any street corner. Her only trusted advisor is the aforementioned cat, but even in the future, cats cannot give advice. At least not any that you'd want to follow. Will Zoey figure it all out in time? Or maybe the better question is, will you? After all, the future is coming sooner than you think.

Taylor

As a fan of John dies at the end I was looking forward to another story set in a David Wong universe. There were similarities to JDATE, but the characters weren't really compelling enough for me to be invested in the story. For that reason, the climax seems to slog on for quite a while with about 50 extra pages describing the titular futuristic violence and fancy suits. Maybe I'm biased because I need another JDATE in my life? Either way, it's a solid 3/5 for the story and classic David Wong quips.

Ewan

4.5 Stars, Expect me to come back in a week and edit this.

The JDATE books are two of my favourite books of the last few years. This is not quite up there.

However, it is fun, exciting, unputdownable (sure that's a word) . Great dialogue, good story and a few well detailed characters. And some two dimensional ones.

One feeling I got from this book is that David Wong wasn't even trying. This seemed like an effortless book. That it came really easily to him (I am sure he would shake his head at that) I don't mean this as an insult, if anything the contrary.

 Essentially, the JDATE books seemed so much more...erm.... (INSERT PROFOUND DESCRIPTION HERE).

Matilda grace

I lovingly call my cat stench machine now.
Great book, ive frequently returned to it when im in a slump. Im already a big fan of Jason Pargin's books and this just adds to the list of great books i will return to time and time again. Originally bought as a quick summer read years ago (admittedly i was probably too young to be reading something with this level of violence albeit with a lighthearted tone -most the time-) ive loved it and and will continue to. Just overall a good laugh 
And i may have a small crush on will blackwater.

Courtney Wise

The story is fast-paced and kept me hooked until the end. I laughed several times while reading about Zoey Ashe and her crazy adventure.

Adam Goehrig-Bawany

Jordan

Jon Eckert

Gloria Barrientos

In a prosperous yet gruesomely violent near-future, superhero vigilantes battle thugs whose heads are full of supervillain fantasies. The peace is kept by a team of smooth, well-dressed negotiators called The Men in Fancy Suits. College grad Zoey discovers her scumbag dad was one of the founding members of the Fancy Suits, and quickly becomes entangled in the city's surreal mob war when she is taken hostage by a particularly crazy villain.

Aubrey Hicks

Sang Park

Jeff James

Theodore Kaplan

David Ruppel

Jason Hill

Kali Olson

Carina Marshall

Colin O'Brien

Greg Park

Lindsay

Pam Sartain

In a prosperous yet gruesomely violent near-future, superhero vigilantes battle thugs whose heads are full of supervillain fantasies. The peace is kept by a team of smooth, well-dressed negotiators called The Men in Fancy Suits. College graduate Zoey discovers her scumbag dad was one of the founding members of the Fancy Suits, and quickly becomes entangled in the city's surreal mob war when she is taken hostage by a particularly crazy villain.

Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits A Novel

Reviews