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28th out of 93 books
—
125 voters
Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat
by
Andrez Bergen (Goodreads Author)
Cut to Melbourne, Australia—the most glamourous city in the world. It also happens to be the only one left standing, but nevermind that, we're there now and I'd like you to meet your narrator, a certain Floyd Maquina, a likeable chap with one hell of a story to share.
See, the powers that be are knuckling down on the Deviant menace that plagues the city, and our boy Floyd'...more
See, the powers that be are knuckling down on the Deviant menace that plagues the city, and our boy Floyd'...more
Paperback, 234 pages
Published
April 1st 2011
by Another Sky Press
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Barring unforseen events, I'll be writing my review tomorrow; it should be available at http://reviews.futurefire.net sometime thereafter.
Update 12-1-11: Sometimes after a book has had time to stew in my brain, I adjust how many stars I've given it according to how well it's stuck with me. I've just bumped this one up from three to four stars.
Update 12-1-11: Sometimes after a book has had time to stew in my brain, I adjust how many stars I've given it according to how well it's stuck with me. I've just bumped this one up from three to four stars.
Half way through this amazing book. Loving it wildy.
Ok. finish this fun ride. What a joy of a read, it combines hard boiled and future dread into a wonderful stew. Chandler, Bladerunner, and completely original. It is a story of of loss and courage in the face of total despair. Andrez Bergen - Keep writing, I can't wait to see where you want to take us next.
Ok. finish this fun ride. What a joy of a read, it combines hard boiled and future dread into a wonderful stew. Chandler, Bladerunner, and completely original. It is a story of of loss and courage in the face of total despair. Andrez Bergen - Keep writing, I can't wait to see where you want to take us next.
5 likes
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This is a big meaty hunk of book with a lot going for it, and a number of endearing characters, as well as a fun backdrop that's both familiar and foreign. The book stumbles from time to time, mostly during longer sections where characters we've come to like are dragged off-camera and their replacements are newcomers we haven't yet come to care much about. Some characters are explored more than others, some potentially not to satisfaction, and Floyd, as lovable and interesting as he is, is at hi...more
1 like
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I do not know anything about science fiction noir – beyond Riddley Scott’s Blade Runner. Of course I am talking about the original release which had the voice-over narration by Harrison Ford, not the plethora of director’s cuts and re-releases since 1982. I remember at the time, I actually tried to read Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep – which was the basis for the film Blade Runner. The thing is, science fiction isn’t really my bag, and I didn’t know what the hell was goin...more
Tobacco Stained Mountain Goat by Andrez Bergen for me, is the most unique story I have read for some time. Not because of the post-apocalyptic theme, but because of the style of writing.
For me, I’m a fan of movies like Tank Girl (classic) and Sin City. To enjoy this novel, you need to not only have a sense of humour, but you need to appreciate movies in order to get many of the references used. This is not a bad thing as it is what keeps the story unique. (If you don’t get all the references, th...more
For me, I’m a fan of movies like Tank Girl (classic) and Sin City. To enjoy this novel, you need to not only have a sense of humour, but you need to appreciate movies in order to get many of the references used. This is not a bad thing as it is what keeps the story unique. (If you don’t get all the references, th...more
2 likes
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I'm not a movie buff or a literary aficionado, but I appreciate a good story and I love a good premise. In Tobacco Stained Mountain Goat, the government has created drug-induced virtual reality games that are so powerful, a subject could die during a virtual fight. The government uses the simulations to train its soldiers, but these soldiers aren't Air Force pilots or Navy commanders, they are everyday men and women who have been coerced into service. And they aren't out to protect the citizens,...more
So this title has been floating around on my Kindle for some time and I've been in a crime/noir mood lately and this seemed to fit in, but I must say this is a difficult book to categorize. Part noir, part Blade Runner with some humor thrown in for good measure.
So right away there is a list of appendices:
The Encyclopedia Tobacciana- Complete personage and media reference guide
The Tobacco-Stained Glossary- Slang, jargon and foreign word definitions
Post-Floydian Adventures- Hardboiled recommendati...more
So right away there is a list of appendices:
The Encyclopedia Tobacciana- Complete personage and media reference guide
The Tobacco-Stained Glossary- Slang, jargon and foreign word definitions
Post-Floydian Adventures- Hardboiled recommendati...more
Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goatby Andrez Bergen is a post-apocalypse, noir novel set in a dystopian future Melbourne, Australia. Some kind of environmental disaster has rendered most of the world uninhabitable and somehow Melbourne is the only remaining city on Earth. Why Melbourne has been spared is never fully documented, but as a result there are nearly 20,000,000 people living in a world of acid rain, food shortages and general misery (except for those lucky (read rich) few that live in "The D...more
Brilliant read.
Andrez Bergen’s Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat (TSMG) is set in a post-apocalyptic Melbourne, Australia at an unspecified point in the future where the fortunate ones live an opulent life secure under the high tech Dome which encases the city. The less fortunate live a harsh existence in rundown areas on the outskirts of the Dome in a world where the sun seldom shines and acid rain seems to fall endlessly.
Our narrator, Floyd Maquina, is a Seeker. Employed by the government to hunt down so-called...more
Our narrator, Floyd Maquina, is a Seeker. Employed by the government to hunt down so-called...more
3 likes
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This is a really entertaining noir tale set in a near-future Melbourne: our only city left, post-apocalypse. Blade Runner meets The Third Man is an apt description.
Floyd, our hero, is a "seeker" who hunts down deviants and loves referencing old films (which receive their own appendix) — this is a very clever thing, setting a nostalgic character in the future, making his references more relatable to the reader. He's burnt out on the job, alcoholic, and feels trapped because of his wife's "medical...more
Floyd, our hero, is a "seeker" who hunts down deviants and loves referencing old films (which receive their own appendix) — this is a very clever thing, setting a nostalgic character in the future, making his references more relatable to the reader. He's burnt out on the job, alcoholic, and feels trapped because of his wife's "medical...more
Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat is a weird book. It's also a good book. And it can be a confusing book if you don't know all the film references (there's a glossary of sorts in you get too lost, but even for someone who doesn't watch movies, the important references are clear enough unless you've been living too far off the grid.
The setting is futuristic, but like the best dystopian visions, it's grounded enough in current human behaviors, obsessions, and weaknesses to seem familiar.
The narrator,...more
The setting is futuristic, but like the best dystopian visions, it's grounded enough in current human behaviors, obsessions, and weaknesses to seem familiar.
The narrator,...more
2 likes
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I’ve seen The Future and and it’s … Noir. Tobacco- stained
noir at that.
Andrez Bergen’s brilliant Tobacco-StainedMountain Goat is set in a Dystopian version of Melbourne, in a not too
distant future, after some sort of catastrophe has wiped out the rest of the
world.
The city itself is split into different parts. The uptown
area is known as The Dome, a squeaky clean and shining consumerist paradise where the plastic
surgery enhanced and empty headed rich live.
Outside the Dome, though, it’s a little d...more
noir at that.
Andrez Bergen’s brilliant Tobacco-StainedMountain Goat is set in a Dystopian version of Melbourne, in a not too
distant future, after some sort of catastrophe has wiped out the rest of the
world.
The city itself is split into different parts. The uptown
area is known as The Dome, a squeaky clean and shining consumerist paradise where the plastic
surgery enhanced and empty headed rich live.
Outside the Dome, though, it’s a little d...more
3 likes
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Something very strange happened to me recently. I loved a book, thoroughly enjoyed reading it, couldn't put it down at points, and still have absolutely no idea what the hell was going on. None whatsoever.
Post-apocalyptic Melbourne again. Not my favourite place at all, although in TOBACCO-STAINED MOUNTAIN GOAT we don't seem to be too far in the future, and we don't seem to be that far from current day Melbourne, particularly in the way the city is divided into the have's and the have nots. The d...more
Post-apocalyptic Melbourne again. Not my favourite place at all, although in TOBACCO-STAINED MOUNTAIN GOAT we don't seem to be too far in the future, and we don't seem to be that far from current day Melbourne, particularly in the way the city is divided into the have's and the have nots. The d...more
This was a fun read. I liked it a lot. BUT They're not lying when they say this book is filled to the brim with movie references. It really is. So much so, that as a reader, I felt a bit isolated in the beginning. However, the reference dropping does slow down a lot after the first couple of pages and no longer distracting. There's also, as someone mentioned before, a handy glossary at the end of the book that explains all the references. It's quite impressive. I look forward to reading more fro...more
This bad boy got my read spinning and I'm still unsure what to think about it. It's filled with new ideas about storytelling and narrative arts. It pays the price of its author's conviction at times when I was seriously asking myself where the hell was it going at times, but Andrez Bergen always finds the highway.In fact, it's impressive that he could embed all these little storytelling pieces into one longer, cohesive narrative. Hats off!
1 like
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Mr. Bergen’s first novel is a rambling story that, in the end, delivers a satisfying and surreal tale of redemption. Set in the distant future in a post-apocalyptic Melbourne, Australia, we meet Floyd Maquina, a drunk and down-trodden Seeker who manages to save the future from an even more dismal future despite spending more time passed-out that sober.
If you like first-person narratives, and film noir and hardboiled literature of the early to mid-twentieth century, then you’ll like Mr. Bergen’s...more
If you like first-person narratives, and film noir and hardboiled literature of the early to mid-twentieth century, then you’ll like Mr. Bergen’s...more
Different. Kind of Blade Runner meets the Maltese Falcon (film versions - as the main character and thus the book is deeply rooted in noir cinema).
Until the very end I had no idea where this rating was going to go; this is one of those books where you know from the beginning that the decidedly suspect narrator is keeping important information from you and your whole view of events is going to keep shifting all the way to the final reveal.
Fortunately Andrez doesn't disappoint. Although you do hav...more
Until the very end I had no idea where this rating was going to go; this is one of those books where you know from the beginning that the decidedly suspect narrator is keeping important information from you and your whole view of events is going to keep shifting all the way to the final reveal.
Fortunately Andrez doesn't disappoint. Although you do hav...more
Like the vocabulary but the story was plataued through the majority of the story. End was good
Really loved it. Great sci fi detective noir. The comparisons with the movie Blade Runner are inevitable but it is still a really good book. I enjoyed all of the pop culture references sprinkled throughout and I do not think it detracts from the story in any way. In fact, I think it adds to the story. The core of this dystopian futuristic detective story is the police-type seekers who are tasked with hunting down the deviants or devs in the future/modern world. Nice glossary too...for those who...more
A really fun post-apocalyptic noir novel set in Melbourne.
Well, I dig it. But then again I'm a wee bit biased! ;)
3 likes
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Awesome title. So-so apocalypic noir.
there’s some remarkable genre cross-over going on here, a sort of noir-ish flair rubbing up against a dystopian, Philip K. Dick bleakness. I was worried that Bergen, as a writer entirely new to me, wouldn’t be able to sustain the charm and solid writing in TSMG’s earliest pages, but I needn’t have worried. The man’s imagination is vivid and consistent, and his love of old films (woven so nicely throughout the story) will appeal to anyone who grew up watching Bogart flicks.
3 likes
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Review can be found here: http://www.memyshelfandi.com/2011/05/...
2 likes
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I loved the cinematic references the author made throughout the book.
Great title aside, this is a unique little debut novel in the Australian crime/sci-fi mould. The futuristic Melbourne setting was creative, but the narrative never really grabbed me. That having been said, the book is so chock full of film and pop culture references that I almost want to read it again to highlight all those that I missed. Definitely worth the look.
Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat is a near-future, dystopian, homage to 1940s(ish) film noir, and reads with the smooth confidence of those very detectives. And, I've got One Hundred Years of Vicissitude queued up to read soon.
5 likes
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I just couldn't get into this one. Too many classic film references. I have always been a book guy, not a movie buff. I tried a couple times, but this wasn't happening. The writing style was unique, but the story never did grab me.
Listen to our full review: http://www.bookedpodcast.com/2012/02/...
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pulp Fiction: Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat | 17 | 41 | Feb 28, 2013 12:38am |
Andrez Bergen is an expatriate Australian journalist, musician, DJ, writer, photographer and ad hoc beer & sake connoisseur who's been ensconced in Tokyo, Japan, for the past decade.
Under the alias of Industrial Form he dabbled with graf and filmmaking in the early 1990s, then set up indie electronic record label IF? in 1995, since which time Bergen's also made music under silly aliases like L...more
More about Andrez Bergen...
Under the alias of Industrial Form he dabbled with graf and filmmaking in the early 1990s, then set up indie electronic record label IF? in 1995, since which time Bergen's also made music under silly aliases like L...more
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Jun 17, 2011 01:50pm
Jun 17, 2011 08:44pm