dystopia

LARB on Tropic of Kansas

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The Los Angeles Review of Books just posted a great long essay on Tropic of Kansas, with contributor Christopher Urban positioning the book as a rare example of a contemporary dystopia of resistance, and comparing it to both Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle and Richard Adams’s Watership Down.

Tropic of Kansas is an entertaining and engrossing read — and it shows that contemporary dystopian literature need not forgo aspects of ‘resistance’ but can, in fact, be all about it.”

LARB: “Dystopian Resistance: Christopher Brown’s ‘Tropic of Kansas'”

Upcoming appearances and “Book Trailer of the Day”

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Pic: Hometown crowd at BookPeople July 14 for the double header book launch of Tropic of Kansas and Nicky Drayden’s The Prey of Gods

Thanks to everyone who came out to our book launch at BookPeople in Austin last Friday, and to my readings and panels at Readercon last weekend. We had a standing room only crowd at the launch, and sold out of books at both events.

I will be in San Francisco this Sunday, July 23, 3pm at Borderlands Books in the Mission, reading from Tropic of Kansas and in conversation with my friend and colleague the brilliant writer and physician Michael Blumlein. Please come by if you are in the area and interested, and pass this information along to any friends you think might like to know about the event. More details here.

Tuesday, August 1, I will at Third Place Books in Seattle (Lake Forest Park), reading and in conversation my my friend and colleague Nisi Shawl, Tiptree Award-winning author of Everfair and Writing the Other.

After that I will be back in Texas for Armadillocon August 4-6 and Murder by the Book in Houston on August 24, with fellow Harper Voyager authors Marina J. Lostetter and Patrick Hemstreet. Full event calendar here.

In other news, The DIY minimalist trailer I made for Tropic of Kansas was yesterday’s Book Trailer of the Day at Shelf Awareness. Check it out:

NPR on TROPIC OF KANSAS

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NPR on ToK

A frighteningly believable portrait of an American future that is closer than you want it to be.”

Nice new review of Tropic of Kansas up at NPR this morning, for those who like “modern dystopian buffet” with their Sunday brunch (and some nominal spoilers).

NPR: ‘Tropic Of Kansas’ Rips Dystopia From The Headlines

 

Kirkus on TROPIC OF KANSAS

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Preorder Tropic of Kansas from AmazonDelighted to see Tropic of Kansas in the latest roundup of summer reading recommendations at Kirkus, written by SF Signal editor John DeNardo:

In Brown’s all-too-plausible near future, the United States as we know it is no more. Instead of being a group of states ruled by the government, Middle America is a collection of warring territories where civil unrest and revolution are the new normal. The so-called Tropic of Kansas – described as ‘the parts of the Midwest that had somehow turned third world’ – is a demilitarized zone where civilian militias impose their own brand of cowboy justice. Into this arid wasteland comes Sig, the abandoned son of political dissidents, and Tania, his foster sister, a government investigator blackmailed into helping a tyrannical government hunt down her foster brother. Brown’s story moves quickly and he packs quite a lot of ideas and world building into every sentence. My advice: hang on and enjoy the dark but satisfying ride.“

Kirkus Reviews: “Your Best Bets for Fascinating SF/F/H Reads in July”

TROPIC OF KANSAS — final copies unboxed

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Via the Instagram feed of my publisher Harper Voyager, awesome video of my amazing editor David Pomerico unboxing the first box of final copies of my novel Tropic of Kansas, which will be hitting the shelves three weeks from tomorrow.

New excerpt from TROPIC OF KANSAS at Tor.com (plus a review at Boing Boing)

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There’s a new excerpt from the opening of my forthcoming novel TROPIC OF KANSAS up at Tor.com, in which a young fugitive is deported back to a U.S.A. that has been walled off—from the other side. Over at Boing Boing, sharing the excerpt, Cory Doctorow provided a preview of his amazing and generous review, saying “Brown’s novel is just what you’d hope for from a long-awaited debut like this: a book that excites, provokes and terrifies.” 

Tor.com: Tropic of Kansas

Boing Boing: “An excerpt from Tropic of Kansas, a novel about a Trumpian, dystopian America”

Kelly Link on Tropic of Kansas

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“The great American novel about the end of America.” Pretty stoked by this wonderful quote from the amazing (and generous) Kelly Link—2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist and award-winning author of GET IN TROUBLE, PRETTY MONSTERS, and MAGIC FOR BEGINNERS—about TROPIC OF KANSAS, coming your way in just a few more weeks.

Preorder details here.