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Afterparty
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.
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.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published April 22, 2014
144 people are currently reading
7178 people want to read
About the author
Daryl Gregory
151 books1,447 followersAward-winning author of Revelator, The Album of Dr. Moreau, Spoonbenders, We Are All Completely Fine, and others. Some of his short fiction has been collected in Unpossible and Other Stories.
He's won the World Fantasy Award, as well as the Shirley Jackson, Crawford, Asimov Readers, and Geffen awards, and his work has been short-listed for many other awards, including the Hugo, Nebula, and Sturgeon awards . His books have been translated in over a dozen languages, and have been named to best-of-the-year lists from NPR Books, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and Library Journal.
He is also the writer of Flatline an interactive fiction game from 3 Minute Games, and comics such as Planet of the Apes.
He's a frequent teacher of writing and is a regular instructor at the Viable Paradise Writing Workshop.
He's won the World Fantasy Award, as well as the Shirley Jackson, Crawford, Asimov Readers, and Geffen awards, and his work has been short-listed for many other awards, including the Hugo, Nebula, and Sturgeon awards . His books have been translated in over a dozen languages, and have been named to best-of-the-year lists from NPR Books, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and Library Journal.
He is also the writer of Flatline an interactive fiction game from 3 Minute Games, and comics such as Planet of the Apes.
He's a frequent teacher of writing and is a regular instructor at the Viable Paradise Writing Workshop.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 520 reviews
May 24, 2019
From my blog at:
https://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2015/...
I turned the last page of Afterparty in a daze. It was dark outside; the sun had set while I was reading, and all the curtains were still open. The dogs realized I was interactive again and came over to beg for (more) dinner. With a start, I realized swim practice started in five minutes, and there was no way I was going to be on time. I had rushed the end of the book, knowing time was passing, but unwilling to stop reading. I gave the dogs an extra treat, grabbed my swim bag and keys, and headed to the car, unable to organize my thoughts enough to be sure I remembered everything, still only partly in the physical world.
It was that good.
I’ll admit it: I judged a book by its cover. I wasn’t excited to read Afterparty; I’ve been less than impressed with books revolving around drug culture (I’m talking to you, A Scanner Darkly and Less Than Zero). But a recent run at Harrison Squared encouraged me to trust Gregory. It was a leap well worth taking.
It begins with the story of a young woman that quickly segues into the story of another, older inmate at the mental hospital. Lyda is a brilliant scientist and one of the co-creators of a drug originally developed to treat schizophrenics. The issue is particularly dear to her as her mother suffered from schizophrenia. Lyda and her co-creators are celebrating its sale to a pharmaceutical company when they overdose on the drug and Lyda’s wife ends up dead. The rest of them are left with residual effects–the perception that a divine personality is appearing to each of them as a personal guide. From the young woman's story, it is clear to Lyda that the drug is back on the street. She sets out to find the drug’s co-creators and stop production.
Simultaneously a thriller and a meditation on personality, biology and the divine, Afterparty had me riveted. The balance between the two was perfect for me, lending meaning to the search, and giving philosophical musings concrete movement forward. What does it mean to have an angel on one’s shoulder guiding one’s actions?
“Behind him, Dr. G drifted along the perimeter of the room, taking in the mini-shrines. I got an impression of Aztec gods, clouds of cotton swabs, black-and-white photo collages. It was an Anti-Science Fair.”
Characterization is up to Gregory’s usual fine standard. Lyda, in particular, shines. Part of her personal arc involves trusting others with her history. She’s been pretty honest with the inmates of the ward about her crimes, but it is constructed setting, and she’ll be held more accountable in the real world. Some of the others are a bit, well, one-dimensional, but I wonder if it's also because Lyda is so limited in her perception.
“This is where Bobby lived. We’d spent three months together on the ward, and in that time I learned what he was most afraid of, and the kind of person he wanted to be, and how he felt about me. I understood, for lack of a better word, his heart. But I didn’t know what his job was now, if he had a job at all, or who his friends were, where his parents lived, or what he liked on his pizza. That was the nature of bubble relationships. Prison, army, hospital, reality show–they were all pocket universes with their own physics. Bobby and I were close friends who hardly knew each other.”
It is not exactly a romantic story, but relationships are part of the equation and the solution, much like The Bourne Identity. I like that Gregory put a twist on the sexuality without making it a Major Issue. I admit, I harbored a soft spot for Dr. G–I appreciate a clever retort no matter who it is from.
‘When the mast is high, it’s any port in a storm.’
‘I don’t think he knows how metaphors work,’ Dr. G. said.”
The emotion of the story felt very real. The action pulled me along, and the near-futuristic setting was fun, and familiar enough to not need much world-building. I appreciated the evocative descriptions. Overall, I might have some small quibbles–I think the villains could have been treated with more sophistication–but anything that pulls me in that solidly and gives me book hangover deserves five stars.
5/19 Re-read: I'll note that I had forgotten the torture scene, which was distinctly unpleasant. Lyda is not an easy character to love, flawed as she is, and perhaps one or two messages were a bit heavy handed; if I were rating it now, I'd probably give it a solid 4.5. Still, quite good, and some of the writing is as brilliant as I remember. But I think "We Are All Completely Fine" might be my favorite of his works, then this.
https://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2015/...
I turned the last page of Afterparty in a daze. It was dark outside; the sun had set while I was reading, and all the curtains were still open. The dogs realized I was interactive again and came over to beg for (more) dinner. With a start, I realized swim practice started in five minutes, and there was no way I was going to be on time. I had rushed the end of the book, knowing time was passing, but unwilling to stop reading. I gave the dogs an extra treat, grabbed my swim bag and keys, and headed to the car, unable to organize my thoughts enough to be sure I remembered everything, still only partly in the physical world.
It was that good.
I’ll admit it: I judged a book by its cover. I wasn’t excited to read Afterparty; I’ve been less than impressed with books revolving around drug culture (I’m talking to you, A Scanner Darkly and Less Than Zero). But a recent run at Harrison Squared encouraged me to trust Gregory. It was a leap well worth taking.
It begins with the story of a young woman that quickly segues into the story of another, older inmate at the mental hospital. Lyda is a brilliant scientist and one of the co-creators of a drug originally developed to treat schizophrenics. The issue is particularly dear to her as her mother suffered from schizophrenia. Lyda and her co-creators are celebrating its sale to a pharmaceutical company when they overdose on the drug and Lyda’s wife ends up dead. The rest of them are left with residual effects–the perception that a divine personality is appearing to each of them as a personal guide. From the young woman's story, it is clear to Lyda that the drug is back on the street. She sets out to find the drug’s co-creators and stop production.
Simultaneously a thriller and a meditation on personality, biology and the divine, Afterparty had me riveted. The balance between the two was perfect for me, lending meaning to the search, and giving philosophical musings concrete movement forward. What does it mean to have an angel on one’s shoulder guiding one’s actions?
“Behind him, Dr. G drifted along the perimeter of the room, taking in the mini-shrines. I got an impression of Aztec gods, clouds of cotton swabs, black-and-white photo collages. It was an Anti-Science Fair.”
Characterization is up to Gregory’s usual fine standard. Lyda, in particular, shines. Part of her personal arc involves trusting others with her history. She’s been pretty honest with the inmates of the ward about her crimes, but it is constructed setting, and she’ll be held more accountable in the real world. Some of the others are a bit, well, one-dimensional, but I wonder if it's also because Lyda is so limited in her perception.
“This is where Bobby lived. We’d spent three months together on the ward, and in that time I learned what he was most afraid of, and the kind of person he wanted to be, and how he felt about me. I understood, for lack of a better word, his heart. But I didn’t know what his job was now, if he had a job at all, or who his friends were, where his parents lived, or what he liked on his pizza. That was the nature of bubble relationships. Prison, army, hospital, reality show–they were all pocket universes with their own physics. Bobby and I were close friends who hardly knew each other.”
It is not exactly a romantic story, but relationships are part of the equation and the solution, much like The Bourne Identity. I like that Gregory put a twist on the sexuality without making it a Major Issue. I admit, I harbored a soft spot for Dr. G–I appreciate a clever retort no matter who it is from.
‘When the mast is high, it’s any port in a storm.’
‘I don’t think he knows how metaphors work,’ Dr. G. said.”
The emotion of the story felt very real. The action pulled me along, and the near-futuristic setting was fun, and familiar enough to not need much world-building. I appreciated the evocative descriptions. Overall, I might have some small quibbles–I think the villains could have been treated with more sophistication–but anything that pulls me in that solidly and gives me book hangover deserves five stars.
5/19 Re-read: I'll note that I had forgotten the torture scene, which was distinctly unpleasant. Lyda is not an easy character to love, flawed as she is, and perhaps one or two messages were a bit heavy handed; if I were rating it now, I'd probably give it a solid 4.5. Still, quite good, and some of the writing is as brilliant as I remember. But I think "We Are All Completely Fine" might be my favorite of his works, then this.
February 6, 2019
My expectations for this one did not match the depth of the thriller it became. :) What was I expecting? Biopunk social ramifications for new designer drugs a bit more designed than what we're used to. Maybe a little tragedy, more interesting developments in a thriller-ish drug-company evil mastermind kind of way.
But what I got was a good tale of redemption, working through the crazy, drug addiction, and responsibility. It's filled to the brim with great flawed characters across the board and a rather special LGBT relationship that pulled on my heartstrings.
But what really got me was the implications of this particular drug. It stimulates the emotion of the numinous. More than any other kind of drug, it threatens to replace churches for the feeling it produces.
The novel could have gone the way of PKD's Ubik for this but it didn't. It stayed a thriller and let the ramifications seep in while our MC tried to put a STOP to the manufacturer. Going off the drug is like losing your God. Existential loss. Meaninglessness. You might think you're prepared, but once you KNOW and then you get it taken away... that's when the suicides... or worse... start happening.
Honestly, I didn't realize this would be so good. :) Maybe I should just start trusting that Daryl Gregory knows what he's doing and just go ahead and read everything he's ever written in blind trust. This is my fourth and I should have learned that by now. :)
But what I got was a good tale of redemption, working through the crazy, drug addiction, and responsibility. It's filled to the brim with great flawed characters across the board and a rather special LGBT relationship that pulled on my heartstrings.
But what really got me was the implications of this particular drug. It stimulates the emotion of the numinous. More than any other kind of drug, it threatens to replace churches for the feeling it produces.
The novel could have gone the way of PKD's Ubik for this but it didn't. It stayed a thriller and let the ramifications seep in while our MC tried to put a STOP to the manufacturer. Going off the drug is like losing your God. Existential loss. Meaninglessness. You might think you're prepared, but once you KNOW and then you get it taken away... that's when the suicides... or worse... start happening.
Honestly, I didn't realize this would be so good. :) Maybe I should just start trusting that Daryl Gregory knows what he's doing and just go ahead and read everything he's ever written in blind trust. This is my fourth and I should have learned that by now. :)
January 26, 2022
I've been trying to write about this book for months now, but couldn't figure out how without giving too much away. So I went back with the intention of skimming it, but ended up plowing through half the book in one sitting. It's just as good as I remember, maybe even better this time around because I know how the story ends. It's more than just a good book. It's unlike any I've read in the genre because it's the kind of book you come to expect from Daryl Gregory if you've read him before. He's one of the few writers today who can spin a fascinating genre-blending tale that plays with tropes while challenging them, and there are so many things he gets right that any story in his hands is sure to be great.
So what is this book about? Kinda hard to sum up, but simply put: it's a parable set in the not-so-distant future about a road trip, faith, belief, and mind-altering chemicals. A wild combination which makes for a wild ride with lots of action and a great cast of memorable characters, but it's not all fun and games though. Dark subject matter, such as addiction and PTSD, are explored with some depth throughout the story, but despite the seriousness of these things, the story is a fast and easy read because the writing is in no way preachy or weighed down--it's actually a lot of fun with quite a few funny moments in between the action. What I like most about the direction Gregory took with this book is it's never too serious or takes itself too seriously, but the execution is always clear and poignant with just enough ambiguity to leave you thinking about a host of things long after the journey is over.
The story opens with a nameless teenager joining a cult and taking a drug called Numinous which lets her communicate with a higher power--God, or what she imagines as God. It's an enlightening experience unlike any she's ever had. God not only listens to her, but he also responds. It's a relationship, one that quickly becomes addicting. Then she is institutionalized. With her connection to God cut off, she commits suicide. Lyda Rose, one of the original creators of Numinous, is also institutionalized in the same facility. When she hears about Numinous, she suspects someone from her old research group has been illegally distributing the drug again. So she and her girlfriend Ollie break out of the ward to stop the production. The trip takes them from Toronto to New York and all over the US, tracking down the person or people behind Numinous' untimely resurrection.
A little background: in this not-so-distant future, 3D printers, called chemjets, can print any kind of drug or any combination of drugs you can imagine. In theory, anyone with some knowledge of pharmacology can use these chemjets to whip up a party drug, but in the hands of a group of young mad scientists, chemjets can work miracles. They can create Numinous, a neural pathway-opening dose that lets you commune with deities. It's addictive and destructive but in the most fulfilling way which is one of the many unexpected side-effects and consequences of Numinous that Lyda Rose and her team didn't anticipate.
So who is cooking up Numinous again and what are they planning to use it for? The mystery will keep you guessing until the very end as Lyda and Ollie track down members from her old research group for answers.
Another thing I love about this book is the cast of characters, not only Lyda and Ollie but the characters they meet along the way are a lot of fun too.
Everything about this book is a lot of fun, more fun than you'd expect from a story about mind-altering chemicals, religion, and sanity. The writing is especially a lot of fun, as evident here.
[...]
[...]
[...]
[...]
Originally posted at https://covers2covers.wordpress.com/2...
So what is this book about? Kinda hard to sum up, but simply put: it's a parable set in the not-so-distant future about a road trip, faith, belief, and mind-altering chemicals. A wild combination which makes for a wild ride with lots of action and a great cast of memorable characters, but it's not all fun and games though. Dark subject matter, such as addiction and PTSD, are explored with some depth throughout the story, but despite the seriousness of these things, the story is a fast and easy read because the writing is in no way preachy or weighed down--it's actually a lot of fun with quite a few funny moments in between the action. What I like most about the direction Gregory took with this book is it's never too serious or takes itself too seriously, but the execution is always clear and poignant with just enough ambiguity to leave you thinking about a host of things long after the journey is over.
The story opens with a nameless teenager joining a cult and taking a drug called Numinous which lets her communicate with a higher power--God, or what she imagines as God. It's an enlightening experience unlike any she's ever had. God not only listens to her, but he also responds. It's a relationship, one that quickly becomes addicting. Then she is institutionalized. With her connection to God cut off, she commits suicide. Lyda Rose, one of the original creators of Numinous, is also institutionalized in the same facility. When she hears about Numinous, she suspects someone from her old research group has been illegally distributing the drug again. So she and her girlfriend Ollie break out of the ward to stop the production. The trip takes them from Toronto to New York and all over the US, tracking down the person or people behind Numinous' untimely resurrection.
A little background: in this not-so-distant future, 3D printers, called chemjets, can print any kind of drug or any combination of drugs you can imagine. In theory, anyone with some knowledge of pharmacology can use these chemjets to whip up a party drug, but in the hands of a group of young mad scientists, chemjets can work miracles. They can create Numinous, a neural pathway-opening dose that lets you commune with deities. It's addictive and destructive but in the most fulfilling way which is one of the many unexpected side-effects and consequences of Numinous that Lyda Rose and her team didn't anticipate.
So who is cooking up Numinous again and what are they planning to use it for? The mystery will keep you guessing until the very end as Lyda and Ollie track down members from her old research group for answers.
Another thing I love about this book is the cast of characters, not only Lyda and Ollie but the characters they meet along the way are a lot of fun too.
Everything about this book is a lot of fun, more fun than you'd expect from a story about mind-altering chemicals, religion, and sanity. The writing is especially a lot of fun, as evident here.
There was a scientist who did not believe in gods or fairies or supernatural creatures of any sort. But she had once known an angel, and had talked to her every day.
[...]
A BS in any neuroscience without a master's or PhD was a three-legged dog of a degree: pitiable, adorable, and capable of inspiring applause when it did anything for you at all.
[...]
Fayza leaned in, squinting, as if she didn’t hear me correctly: one of the library of power moves that adults used to signal that other adults were fucking idiots.
[...]
Love at first sight is a myth, but thundering sexual attraction at first sight is hard science.
[...]
I’ve always been a sucker for the beautiful and the batshit crazy.
Originally posted at https://covers2covers.wordpress.com/2...
April 24, 2014
Wow! This really exceeded my expectations.
Previously, I've read Gregory's 'The Devil's Alphabet.' I didn't really like that book, aesthetically, and thought it had flaws - but I thought the writing was good enough that I wanted to give the author another try. I've actually got 'Pandemonium' in my TBR backlog, but 'Afterparty' came up on NetGalley, so I requested it and it went to the top of the list.
I wholeheartedly loved it. What if, instead of technology, William Gibson wrote about drugs? You might get something like 'Afterparty.' Actually, here, the drugs pretty much are technology. In this near future,'smart drugs' are all the rage, rather than cybernetic enhancements. Designer cocktails which can drastically rearrange your neurons are simple and easy to get, due to the development of chem-jet printers, which can mix up a dose for you without too much effort. Plain old tobacco cigarettes are more strictly controlled than any number of bizarre intoxicants.
However, the founders of the start-up company Little Sprout weren't interested in a party drug. They hoped that their medical research might be able to find a cure for schizophrenia. However, the events of one terrible night led to them all being affected by an overdose of their own product.
Lyda Rose, formerly a successful businesswoman, is now in a mental hospital and accompanied by an imaginary angel. But when a young woman is admitted to the hospital with religious delusions that mirror Lyda's own, Lyda fears - with cause - that the drug she developed has made it out onto the street. And she's got to do something about it.
The story that ensues is a fast-moving, easy-to-read thriller - but it also has a lot to say about atheism, religion, the nature of humanity and the meaning of sanity. It's also got a plethora of hilariously quirky characters, and sharp-witted, hip commentary on today's society.
Recommended for subscribers to 'Wired,' and fans of both Neal Stephenson's REAMde and Gibson's 'Pattern Recognition.'
Previously, I've read Gregory's 'The Devil's Alphabet.' I didn't really like that book, aesthetically, and thought it had flaws - but I thought the writing was good enough that I wanted to give the author another try. I've actually got 'Pandemonium' in my TBR backlog, but 'Afterparty' came up on NetGalley, so I requested it and it went to the top of the list.
I wholeheartedly loved it. What if, instead of technology, William Gibson wrote about drugs? You might get something like 'Afterparty.' Actually, here, the drugs pretty much are technology. In this near future,'smart drugs' are all the rage, rather than cybernetic enhancements. Designer cocktails which can drastically rearrange your neurons are simple and easy to get, due to the development of chem-jet printers, which can mix up a dose for you without too much effort. Plain old tobacco cigarettes are more strictly controlled than any number of bizarre intoxicants.
However, the founders of the start-up company Little Sprout weren't interested in a party drug. They hoped that their medical research might be able to find a cure for schizophrenia. However, the events of one terrible night led to them all being affected by an overdose of their own product.
Lyda Rose, formerly a successful businesswoman, is now in a mental hospital and accompanied by an imaginary angel. But when a young woman is admitted to the hospital with religious delusions that mirror Lyda's own, Lyda fears - with cause - that the drug she developed has made it out onto the street. And she's got to do something about it.
The story that ensues is a fast-moving, easy-to-read thriller - but it also has a lot to say about atheism, religion, the nature of humanity and the meaning of sanity. It's also got a plethora of hilariously quirky characters, and sharp-witted, hip commentary on today's society.
Recommended for subscribers to 'Wired,' and fans of both Neal Stephenson's REAMde and Gibson's 'Pattern Recognition.'
May 25, 2020
I really enjoyed this fast paced, near future chase thriller. Had a lighthearted feel with a really hefty/heady premise. Hard to do well. Gregory succeeds. Interesting and deep narrative, relatable characters and a Scalzi-like universe with a little more intelligent elan, where the characters talk and talk...snarkily. Gregory ponders what the world might be like if everyone had a profound purpose to help others, even a chemically driven one. Triggers: A great kickoff for summer reading.
4+ Stars
Read on kindle
4+ Stars
Read on kindle
February 20, 2019
4.5 stars. I loved the narration of the main character, Lyda Rose, with her loopy take on everything and her arguments with her personal deity, Dr. Gloria, thanks to her former drug use. I also loved Ollie in all her paranoid competence, and all the Canadian references in the story, and was pleased that the Mohawk nation and the Akwasasne reserve got mentions.
March 22, 2019
4.5 . . . I kinda/sorta loved this.
February 6, 2019
I enjoyed this more than Pandemonium but less than Raising Stony Mayhall.
Afterparty has all of the elements I have come to see as trademark Gregory: engaging writing, interesting character development and relationship examination, and excellent pacing. These are what make Gregory's novels so enjoyable to read, even if the overall story doesn't completely appeal to me (as was the case for me with Pandemonium).
This is a pretty solid read, especially so if you like Gregory's straightforward and conversational writing style.
Afterparty has all of the elements I have come to see as trademark Gregory: engaging writing, interesting character development and relationship examination, and excellent pacing. These are what make Gregory's novels so enjoyable to read, even if the overall story doesn't completely appeal to me (as was the case for me with Pandemonium).
This is a pretty solid read, especially so if you like Gregory's straightforward and conversational writing style.
February 7, 2019
This book has been on my TBR pile for a while. Despite good reviews from my cronies, I’d put off reading it—my mistake. This book was not a great read, but it was a fun one . It’s a deft near future mashup of pharmacology, religion, mental illness and whodunit. Looking closely you can see the noir influence. In places it’s wryly funny. Except for one little glitch in the protagonist leaping to a conclusion I couldn't foresee, the mystery was also well done. (I swallowed the red herring myself.)
Prose was good. The author is a skillful writer. It was also very hip. Dialog was better than descriptive prose. There was a good use of similes and metaphors in both. As mentioned above the story is also humorous in places, although, I did not laugh-out-loud. I still rolled-my-eyes at the Nature of God and Free Will expositions, despite the author’s good intentions. I did not notice any continuity issues. Pacing felt rushed at the end, but not horribly so. In my opinion, the author could have dispensed with the last chapter, which was a 'clean-up' of some dangling plot lines. Finally, this is a one-and-done with no attempt to setup for a sequel. Bless him!
The story contained sex, drugs and no rock ‘n roll music. The naughty-bits were tasteful, but not heteronormative. The protagonist was a multi-substance abuser, although she’s self-medicating to mute the angel on her shoulder. In addition, designer drug usage is a plot device within the story.
The near-future in the story was only a bit different from the present. It did have some nice touches. The use of Makers for pharmaceutical manufacturing as a cottage industry was well developed. The computer-tech was also very credible upgrade. The start-up Intellectual Property (IP) consideration looked to need a bit of lawyering. Information wants to be free. Locking-down the structure and the fabrication process for the God-drug molecule would have required more effort than found in the story. The story takes place in very hip places (New York City) and the American desert west occupied by rich folk. A lot of the action at the start and end takes place in Toronto, Ontario (T.O). T.O is only a hip place to Canadians, although I thought the T.O location was a refreshing change from hipper-than-thou American locations, like Cleveland?
Plot is a riff on the Nature of God trope. Suppose pharmacologically, we could all be in contact with our inner-Jesus? Naturally, you would be considered mentally ill by normal folks. Would folks want to be like Jesus, if they could be? In the story, a Pharma-startup invents The God Drug. They all experience a psychically lethal dose leaving them all mentally unstable, some institutionalized and others incarcerated. They try to stuff the genie back in the bottle, by locking-up the drug’s IP. Years later, the drug starts appearing in public. Who amongst the principals broke ranks and leaked the molecule? A conspiracy involving murder is involved. Rose sets out to find who broke ranks. The author does a better than average job of cloaking the perp. I fell hard for the Red Herring, and was incredulous over the reveal. I didn’t see how Rose figured it out from the clues I had.
Characters were well wrought. Lyda Rose, mentally unstable, lesbian, woman-of-a-certain-age, neuro-scientist was the nominal protagonist. Her POV was the main one, although there were other minor ones. She’s considered batshit crazy after being rufied by the ‘God-drug’ developed by her pharma startup. Her version of God, is a perpetual hallucination of a female, dark-winged angel advising her what’s right and wrong. (I loved it.) I liked the character, but I could tell she wasn't written by a woman. Rose's start-up colleagues also OD on the God-drug and have their own ‘gods’. Other characters in the story are folks she’s met at the sanitarium. They’re either a cooks tour of the DSM or victims of the readily available designer drug boom. The crazy made the story very lively. I liked that the great majority of the characters are Pharma or Cyber-hipsters. There were several minor characters of note, for example the: refugee, Afghan, female, gangsters in Canada; Rose’s boffin; Rose’s daughter and a chemically induced hitman. The last three contribute POVs to the story.
You'd have to be a bit of a tech nerd to 'get' this story. It’s moderately, meaty tech-wise. (I liked it.) The parts on the nature of God and religion are a bit strident. However, it’s not going to bore you out of your skull. The similes in these expositions made them barely entertaining. In general, this story reminded me of the work of a less strident Cory Doctorow, or a younger, hipper William Gibson. It held my attention enough to read this book through in two long sessions. (That's currently not common for me.) Recommended, if you have an interest in postindustrial society, late capitalism, cyber and pharma culture in a noir-ish mystery. Also, it’s a rare example of a Canadian setting for hipster, science fiction.
If you liked this, I recommend Makers . It is involved with the 3D printer technology that is a plot device of this story. If you’re really into drugs in fact or fiction, you might see the influence of Substance D from A Scanner Darkly on the author?
Prose was good. The author is a skillful writer. It was also very hip. Dialog was better than descriptive prose. There was a good use of similes and metaphors in both. As mentioned above the story is also humorous in places, although, I did not laugh-out-loud. I still rolled-my-eyes at the Nature of God and Free Will expositions, despite the author’s good intentions. I did not notice any continuity issues. Pacing felt rushed at the end, but not horribly so. In my opinion, the author could have dispensed with the last chapter, which was a 'clean-up' of some dangling plot lines. Finally, this is a one-and-done with no attempt to setup for a sequel. Bless him!
The story contained sex, drugs and no rock ‘n roll music. The naughty-bits were tasteful, but not heteronormative. The protagonist was a multi-substance abuser, although she’s self-medicating to mute the angel on her shoulder. In addition, designer drug usage is a plot device within the story.
The near-future in the story was only a bit different from the present. It did have some nice touches. The use of Makers for pharmaceutical manufacturing as a cottage industry was well developed. The computer-tech was also very credible upgrade. The start-up Intellectual Property (IP) consideration looked to need a bit of lawyering. Information wants to be free. Locking-down the structure and the fabrication process for the God-drug molecule would have required more effort than found in the story. The story takes place in very hip places (New York City) and the American desert west occupied by rich folk. A lot of the action at the start and end takes place in Toronto, Ontario (T.O). T.O is only a hip place to Canadians, although I thought the T.O location was a refreshing change from hipper-than-thou American locations, like Cleveland?
Plot is a riff on the Nature of God trope. Suppose pharmacologically, we could all be in contact with our inner-Jesus? Naturally, you would be considered mentally ill by normal folks. Would folks want to be like Jesus, if they could be? In the story, a Pharma-startup invents The God Drug. They all experience a psychically lethal dose leaving them all mentally unstable, some institutionalized and others incarcerated. They try to stuff the genie back in the bottle, by locking-up the drug’s IP. Years later, the drug starts appearing in public. Who amongst the principals broke ranks and leaked the molecule? A conspiracy involving murder is involved. Rose sets out to find who broke ranks. The author does a better than average job of cloaking the perp. I fell hard for the Red Herring, and was incredulous over the reveal. I didn’t see how Rose figured it out from the clues I had.
Characters were well wrought. Lyda Rose, mentally unstable, lesbian, woman-of-a-certain-age, neuro-scientist was the nominal protagonist. Her POV was the main one, although there were other minor ones. She’s considered batshit crazy after being rufied by the ‘God-drug’ developed by her pharma startup. Her version of God, is a perpetual hallucination of a female, dark-winged angel advising her what’s right and wrong. (I loved it.) I liked the character, but I could tell she wasn't written by a woman. Rose's start-up colleagues also OD on the God-drug and have their own ‘gods’. Other characters in the story are folks she’s met at the sanitarium. They’re either a cooks tour of the DSM or victims of the readily available designer drug boom. The crazy made the story very lively. I liked that the great majority of the characters are Pharma or Cyber-hipsters. There were several minor characters of note, for example the: refugee, Afghan, female, gangsters in Canada; Rose’s boffin; Rose’s daughter and a chemically induced hitman. The last three contribute POVs to the story.
You'd have to be a bit of a tech nerd to 'get' this story. It’s moderately, meaty tech-wise. (I liked it.) The parts on the nature of God and religion are a bit strident. However, it’s not going to bore you out of your skull. The similes in these expositions made them barely entertaining. In general, this story reminded me of the work of a less strident Cory Doctorow, or a younger, hipper William Gibson. It held my attention enough to read this book through in two long sessions. (That's currently not common for me.) Recommended, if you have an interest in postindustrial society, late capitalism, cyber and pharma culture in a noir-ish mystery. Also, it’s a rare example of a Canadian setting for hipster, science fiction.
If you liked this, I recommend Makers . It is involved with the 3D printer technology that is a plot device of this story. If you’re really into drugs in fact or fiction, you might see the influence of Substance D from A Scanner Darkly on the author?
March 17, 2015
This is the second book I've read by Daryl Gregory. He seems to like writing speculative fiction set in a near future, rather than settling into a series or a theme. Raising Stony Mayhall was one of the best zombie novels I've ever read. Afterparty, his latest, is also set a couple of decades from now, in a world where 3D printers have advanced to manufacturing pharmaceuticals, so anyone can "print" their own custom controlled substances.
Lyda Rose, the protagonist, helped create Numinous. It was supposed to be a treatment for schizophrenia; instead, it helps its users find God. Or gods. Or some god.
The effect is spiritual if not supernatural: Numinous rewires the brain and provides you with your very own guardian angel (in Lyda's case, a judgmental winged psychologist named "Dr. Gloria"). The subjects are absolutely convinced they are receiving messages from the Divine, even if they know intellectually about Numinous. Lyda's conversations with her guardian angel, who she knows is a product of her drug-induced imagination, are believable because deep down, Lyda believes in her.
How Lyda came to be hooked on her own creation, and why she has to escape from a prison-hospital and track down the other former members of her little start-up company that was going to get rich, is a mystery that unfolds in a well-paced thriller with plenty of reveals and twists. There is an Afghan grandmother who is the most powerful drug lord in Seattle, a psychopathic hit man who calls himself "The Vincent" and raises bonsai buffalo herds in his apartment, a millionaire whose adopted daughter is a little prodigy assisted by her "deck" of "IFs" (Imaginary Friends), and of course, Dr. Gloria.
Despite being science fiction, this book really should appeal to the same audience that buys Gregg Hurwitz or Michael Connelly novels. Daryl Gregory isn't quite working in Michael Crichton's technothriller territory, but he's close. I would also compare him to Thomas Mullen or even David Mitchell.
This wasn't quite a grand-slam of a book, but it was interesting and well-paced and original, with believable characters. Definitely recommended.
Lyda Rose, the protagonist, helped create Numinous. It was supposed to be a treatment for schizophrenia; instead, it helps its users find God. Or gods. Or some god.
The effect is spiritual if not supernatural: Numinous rewires the brain and provides you with your very own guardian angel (in Lyda's case, a judgmental winged psychologist named "Dr. Gloria"). The subjects are absolutely convinced they are receiving messages from the Divine, even if they know intellectually about Numinous. Lyda's conversations with her guardian angel, who she knows is a product of her drug-induced imagination, are believable because deep down, Lyda believes in her.
How Lyda came to be hooked on her own creation, and why she has to escape from a prison-hospital and track down the other former members of her little start-up company that was going to get rich, is a mystery that unfolds in a well-paced thriller with plenty of reveals and twists. There is an Afghan grandmother who is the most powerful drug lord in Seattle, a psychopathic hit man who calls himself "The Vincent" and raises bonsai buffalo herds in his apartment, a millionaire whose adopted daughter is a little prodigy assisted by her "deck" of "IFs" (Imaginary Friends), and of course, Dr. Gloria.
Despite being science fiction, this book really should appeal to the same audience that buys Gregg Hurwitz or Michael Connelly novels. Daryl Gregory isn't quite working in Michael Crichton's technothriller territory, but he's close. I would also compare him to Thomas Mullen or even David Mitchell.
This wasn't quite a grand-slam of a book, but it was interesting and well-paced and original, with believable characters. Definitely recommended.
February 7, 2019
“We are all spiritual people now.”
“Not all gods are created equal,” I said.
I came to read this semi-accidentally through my buddy reading group, otherwise I would not have picked it up. Drugs, mental illness, genres starting with neuro-something are not high on my list. Thank goodness for peer pressure! I really liked this book very much. I wouldn‘t be averse to reading something else by the author.
Great plot with a lot of twists. I was deeply immersed in the story telling. It just kept going and developing. Every time something else momentous happened, I wondered what could be next. Great stuff.
Excellent characters as well. I really did not like Lyda. And I did. Good reveals at the end. And although some things were (a little) predictable, I never suspected who was to blame for Mikala and Vincent, until it was glaringly obvious. I was sad for the miniature bison.
I liked the subtle humour and the sarcasm.
“These two guys with multiple personality disorder walk into a bar, and the fourth one says—”
That is a good example of how I felt about this book. So many things are packed into these pages. I am not being very eloquent, I know.
The last few chapters of the book were a very nice wrap-up and HFN ending.
Another review mentions book hangover. Definitely. I can‘t even be bothered to think about this review, I just want to go back to the book.
“Not all gods are created equal,” I said.
I came to read this semi-accidentally through my buddy reading group, otherwise I would not have picked it up. Drugs, mental illness, genres starting with neuro-something are not high on my list. Thank goodness for peer pressure! I really liked this book very much. I wouldn‘t be averse to reading something else by the author.
Great plot with a lot of twists. I was deeply immersed in the story telling. It just kept going and developing. Every time something else momentous happened, I wondered what could be next. Great stuff.
Excellent characters as well. I really did not like Lyda. And I did. Good reveals at the end. And although some things were (a little) predictable, I never suspected who was to blame for Mikala and Vincent, until it was glaringly obvious. I was sad for the miniature bison.
I liked the subtle humour and the sarcasm.
“These two guys with multiple personality disorder walk into a bar, and the fourth one says—”
That is a good example of how I felt about this book. So many things are packed into these pages. I am not being very eloquent, I know.
The last few chapters of the book were a very nice wrap-up and HFN ending.
Another review mentions book hangover. Definitely. I can‘t even be bothered to think about this review, I just want to go back to the book.
April 28, 2014
Daryl Gregory’s books are an argument for label-free literature. Those who claim uninterest in sci fi/fantasy do themselves a sad disservice if they pass up “Afterparty,” thinking it’s a genre book. What it is instead is literature – beautifully written, thoughtful and provocative – besides being a supremely entertaining and suspenseful mystery with both humor and heart. Rather than summarizing the book -- which the publisher has done for me -- I will mention what I considered the highlights, which include Taliban granny druglords, a fried-on-meds gun for hire who loves only the miniature bison he raises in his Santa Monica apartment, a mute (but spunky!) child whose imaginary friends are more helpful than most, and an angel so magnificent (and powerful?) she seems to come direct from the Tony Kushner playbook. The ripped-from-tomorrow’s headlines stuff about designer drugs’ being printed by everyman in the church storeroom didn’t interest me as much as it seems to interest other people. I mean, yeah, that’s gonna happen. What’s more fun to consider (and Gregory does) is the leveling potential. In the end, the most profound question posed by “Afterparty” is not really whether God is just a manifestation of brain chemistry but whether it matters.
Read
May 14, 2014One of my favorite parts of this book is the extension of the urban garden/locavore movement to bioengineering tiny farm animals for people to keep in the spare bedrooms etc. of their apartments.
This has literally nothing to do with the actual plot of this book, but: what fantastic world-building.
This has literally nothing to do with the actual plot of this book, but: what fantastic world-building.
August 12, 2021
I'm not sure what to say about this bio-tech thriller, so I'll make a list.
On the plus side:
a) action-packed near-future sci-fi with a denouement that will surprise any reader who isn't suffering from extreme paranoia. Full points there for 'hiding in plain sight'.
b) Set in Canada, not the USA. Excellent choice for the nature of the story.
c) Native Canadians (Mohawk nation) actively giving the finger to both the Mounties and the US Boarder Authority -- and getting away with it. More than full points on that count!
d) creativity with the tech and cynicism about what people do with drugs meant to save lives (make them into party drugs).
e) Dr. Gloria.
f) comes out just a smidgen on the side of the human need for spirituality and against raw science. (Will disgust the "the soul doesn't exist, we are only water, fat and chem" science nerd- Atheist crowd...who, let's face it, have already declared themselves the winners in the "is there a God?" competition.)
On the minus side:
a) the in-your-face POC cast. We've got all the Sunday school crayon "red and yellow, black and white" (+ brown in the guise of some Afghani mobsters) characters represented. I'm all for diverse characters, but even acknowledging Toronto's Multi-Cultural City status, it feels like too much of a bow-down to PC diversity in too tight of a space to feel genuine.
b) the female MC's narrative voice, while entertaining, is clearly a male voice. This seems to be explained away by making her lesbian (but not really butch, just a man-woman, maybe???) ...which utterly does not convince. Also, all of the adult female characters are in some fashion very very tough. And not tough in a good way, but total Rambo bitches for the most part.
With the representations of women, foreigners and POC characters in this novel, the author appears to be making a genuine effort to be inclusive, but missing the mark by miles. Could be done for exaggeration-comedy reasons, but it didn't feel like it.
c) for my taste, the spirituality vs science argument was very shallow. There was a lot more potential there. Maybe it's just because if you talk to a "the soul doesn't exist" person, this is exactly what you'll hear and no more. So that is what the novel gives you -- and no more.
d) the best characters (The Vincent & Sasha) only really appear in the second half of the novel. Too late to be as enjoyable as they could be. I'd have liked to have had much more of Sasha, or even her as the MC. Now THAT would have been highly entertaining!
In general, "Afterparty" is a well-written, entertaining mild sci-fi mystery-thriller about religion and belief that does far better with the tech and science than with the belief part.
On the plus side:
a) action-packed near-future sci-fi with a denouement that will surprise any reader who isn't suffering from extreme paranoia. Full points there for 'hiding in plain sight'.
b) Set in Canada, not the USA. Excellent choice for the nature of the story.
c) Native Canadians (Mohawk nation) actively giving the finger to both the Mounties and the US Boarder Authority -- and getting away with it. More than full points on that count!
d) creativity with the tech and cynicism about what people do with drugs meant to save lives (make them into party drugs).
e) Dr. Gloria.
f) comes out just a smidgen on the side of the human need for spirituality and against raw science. (Will disgust the "the soul doesn't exist, we are only water, fat and chem" science nerd- Atheist crowd...who, let's face it, have already declared themselves the winners in the "is there a God?" competition.)
On the minus side:
a) the in-your-face POC cast. We've got all the Sunday school crayon "red and yellow, black and white" (+ brown in the guise of some Afghani mobsters) characters represented. I'm all for diverse characters, but even acknowledging Toronto's Multi-Cultural City status, it feels like too much of a bow-down to PC diversity in too tight of a space to feel genuine.
b) the female MC's narrative voice, while entertaining, is clearly a male voice. This seems to be explained away by making her lesbian (but not really butch, just a man-woman, maybe???) ...which utterly does not convince. Also, all of the adult female characters are in some fashion very very tough. And not tough in a good way, but total Rambo bitches for the most part.
With the representations of women, foreigners and POC characters in this novel, the author appears to be making a genuine effort to be inclusive, but missing the mark by miles. Could be done for exaggeration-comedy reasons, but it didn't feel like it.
c) for my taste, the spirituality vs science argument was very shallow. There was a lot more potential there. Maybe it's just because if you talk to a "the soul doesn't exist" person, this is exactly what you'll hear and no more. So that is what the novel gives you -- and no more.
d) the best characters (The Vincent & Sasha) only really appear in the second half of the novel. Too late to be as enjoyable as they could be. I'd have liked to have had much more of Sasha, or even her as the MC. Now THAT would have been highly entertaining!
In general, "Afterparty" is a well-written, entertaining mild sci-fi mystery-thriller about religion and belief that does far better with the tech and science than with the belief part.
April 22, 2015
This book has been lurking in my ‘to read’ pile for a while now. Had I known what a gritty, gnarly SF thriller this is, I would have read it a long time ago. But that is the particular joy of an unexpected reading experience.
Daryl Gregory wrong-footed me in terms of Lyda’s gender from the very first page. I suppose it is my default male bias to automatically think of a protagonist in similar terms. There is a wonderful scene where Rovil the Rat Wrangler (it is a long story) questions Lyda about her sexual orientation. Lyda reacts with scathing contempt to the implied criticism. What a refreshing reaction!
Of course, this is a love story. We begin with Lyda in a mental hospital, where a fellow patient commits suicide. She is convinced this is a side-effect of a designer drug that she and her colleagues had experimented with disastrously, which had culminated in the accidental killing of Lyda’s wife.
Not only is Lyda haunted by this event, she is unsure if she had wielded the knife that had done the deed. Oh, and let us not forget Lyda’s guardian angel, replete with flaming sword, that shadows her and gives her advice (whether she wants to listen or not).
Lyda is released from the mental hospital and decides to track down the people responsible for unleashing NM110 onto an unsuspecting world again. Known as Numinous, ingestion of this drug gives a person an intense connection to a higher power (of his or her choice: while Lyda has her archangel, Rovil has elephant-headed Ganesh as his celestial chaperone).
So begins a dark and highly fraught journey into the underworld of drugs and criminality. Gregory slowly ratchets up the tension, building to a thrilling climax. He is also not afraid to ask some Big Questions along the way, and also to be ironic, if not occasionally downright rude, about some of his proposed answers.
A highlight of the spot-on characterisation is the relationship between Lyda and her erstwhile lover Ollie. Both are severely damaged individuals trying to make sense of their own psychosis and the perilous shadow world into which their respective addictions, and personal demons, have plunged them.
I suppose one could criticise Gregory for his rather perfunctory world-building. Everything we learn about Numinous and its culture is through the characters themselves. This is far more a psychological novel than it is a speculative novel about the future evolution of drug culture through technology such as 3D printing. The background here is incidental; detail is only foregrounded where it is absolutely necessary.
Perhaps Gregory is also commenting obliquely on the over-reliance on anti-depressants in our modern world. Or rather that should read as medication in general and its impact on both our identities and our social reality. There is a sly scene near the beginning where Lyda tracks down a dealer at a GFD party at a frathouse. The acronym stands for ‘Gay For a Day’; the dealer is selling a particular drug that loosens inhibitions.
The best kind of speculative fiction does not hit you over the head with a hammer labelled Absorb This. First and foremost, it has to be entertaining and well written, with believable characters. Of course, there has to be intent behind the entertainment; the art lies in threading this into the warp and weft of the tale.
Gregory is fast making a name for himself with his incredibly diverse range, from Pandemonium to The Devil’s Alphabet and We Are All Completely Fine. These books not only showcase the potential of genre fiction, but what can be achieved by a truly gifted writer. Afterparty is one of the best SF novels I have read in a long time.
Daryl Gregory wrong-footed me in terms of Lyda’s gender from the very first page. I suppose it is my default male bias to automatically think of a protagonist in similar terms. There is a wonderful scene where Rovil the Rat Wrangler (it is a long story) questions Lyda about her sexual orientation. Lyda reacts with scathing contempt to the implied criticism. What a refreshing reaction!
Of course, this is a love story. We begin with Lyda in a mental hospital, where a fellow patient commits suicide. She is convinced this is a side-effect of a designer drug that she and her colleagues had experimented with disastrously, which had culminated in the accidental killing of Lyda’s wife.
Not only is Lyda haunted by this event, she is unsure if she had wielded the knife that had done the deed. Oh, and let us not forget Lyda’s guardian angel, replete with flaming sword, that shadows her and gives her advice (whether she wants to listen or not).
Lyda is released from the mental hospital and decides to track down the people responsible for unleashing NM110 onto an unsuspecting world again. Known as Numinous, ingestion of this drug gives a person an intense connection to a higher power (of his or her choice: while Lyda has her archangel, Rovil has elephant-headed Ganesh as his celestial chaperone).
So begins a dark and highly fraught journey into the underworld of drugs and criminality. Gregory slowly ratchets up the tension, building to a thrilling climax. He is also not afraid to ask some Big Questions along the way, and also to be ironic, if not occasionally downright rude, about some of his proposed answers.
A highlight of the spot-on characterisation is the relationship between Lyda and her erstwhile lover Ollie. Both are severely damaged individuals trying to make sense of their own psychosis and the perilous shadow world into which their respective addictions, and personal demons, have plunged them.
I suppose one could criticise Gregory for his rather perfunctory world-building. Everything we learn about Numinous and its culture is through the characters themselves. This is far more a psychological novel than it is a speculative novel about the future evolution of drug culture through technology such as 3D printing. The background here is incidental; detail is only foregrounded where it is absolutely necessary.
Perhaps Gregory is also commenting obliquely on the over-reliance on anti-depressants in our modern world. Or rather that should read as medication in general and its impact on both our identities and our social reality. There is a sly scene near the beginning where Lyda tracks down a dealer at a GFD party at a frathouse. The acronym stands for ‘Gay For a Day’; the dealer is selling a particular drug that loosens inhibitions.
The best kind of speculative fiction does not hit you over the head with a hammer labelled Absorb This. First and foremost, it has to be entertaining and well written, with believable characters. Of course, there has to be intent behind the entertainment; the art lies in threading this into the warp and weft of the tale.
Gregory is fast making a name for himself with his incredibly diverse range, from Pandemonium to The Devil’s Alphabet and We Are All Completely Fine. These books not only showcase the potential of genre fiction, but what can be achieved by a truly gifted writer. Afterparty is one of the best SF novels I have read in a long time.
March 1, 2016
Science fiction thriller about a woman who has been in psychiatric hospital for many years after overdosing on a drug that causes her to hallucinate. The hallucination is one that is manifested as a new spirituality, a faith in a higher power, or god, or whatever belief system the person has. Lyda Rose has been hospitalized for several years when another young woman is brought to the hospital with the same hallucinations as Lyda has experienced. When the young woman commits suicide, Lyda realizes that the drug that caused her own issues is now out in the mainstream. Lyda decides to follow the trail to the drug maker, since he is likely one of the people who created this drug, one of Lyda's partners in the start-up pharma company that she and her wife Mikala started, and which ultimately ended in a horrific tragedy.
This was very interesting, and the new spate of "smart" drugs that have been appearing on the market in recent years makes this entirely plausible, and frightening.
This was very interesting, and the new spate of "smart" drugs that have been appearing on the market in recent years makes this entirely plausible, and frightening.
June 1, 2019
This was a lot of fun. Daryl Gregory has an amazingly inventive imagination and a wonderful talent for depicting his protagonists, typically deeply cynical and neurotic, yet always with a sense of edgy sarcasm that keeps things from getting too dark. He's got a style that's easy to digest, that's fast paced and dialogue heavy.
This story gives us a glimpse of a pretty scary near future, where chemical printers have proliferated and your average Joe can now "print" or design just about any kind of drug, easily and cheaply from home. Makes you think of the day that's rapidly approaching where people will have easy, cheap access to 3D printers and can print a gun as easily as a boarding pass. The story reads like a thriller, with a deeply flawed middle aged woman as protagonist. She's fighting not only her own personal demons, but also persistent divinely inspired hallucinations resulting from an overdose of a "god" drug. Cool!
This story gives us a glimpse of a pretty scary near future, where chemical printers have proliferated and your average Joe can now "print" or design just about any kind of drug, easily and cheaply from home. Makes you think of the day that's rapidly approaching where people will have easy, cheap access to 3D printers and can print a gun as easily as a boarding pass. The story reads like a thriller, with a deeply flawed middle aged woman as protagonist. She's fighting not only her own personal demons, but also persistent divinely inspired hallucinations resulting from an overdose of a "god" drug. Cool!
June 24, 2015
I just could not get in to this book. I think I was expecting more drug type stuff, maybe some crazy exotic drugs kids were making but there was not too much of that. The premise for the story was good but I ended up dropping it at 50%.
I did like the writing style though and I would pick up another book by Gregory in the future.
I did like the writing style though and I would pick up another book by Gregory in the future.
December 26, 2018
I’m now three for three with Daryl Gregory. He may have to go on my list of favorite authors. He writes what would usually be a regular fiction story but there is always some quirk that keeps them a genre apart. I like quirks.
In this case, it’s set slightly in the future when you can use a printer to spit out drugs (as long as you have the recipe and ingredients). One recipe being worked on is called NME 110 but has become known as Numinous. When used, it makes you feel connected to the universe. When overdosed, it rewrites your brain so that you live always being able to see and speak with your God.
When this happens to the creators of Numinous, they shut the project down. Not so much the overdose and getting a God but the murder, the jail time, etc really made clear what had to be done.
Years later, one of the creators discovers that Numinous is being made and distributed. She makes it her mission to find and destroy it. This leads to all kinds of revelations and the truth of what really happened the night of the overdose.
So good! Quirks just make a good story better IMO. Read it and see for yourself.
In this case, it’s set slightly in the future when you can use a printer to spit out drugs (as long as you have the recipe and ingredients). One recipe being worked on is called NME 110 but has become known as Numinous. When used, it makes you feel connected to the universe. When overdosed, it rewrites your brain so that you live always being able to see and speak with your God.
When this happens to the creators of Numinous, they shut the project down. Not so much the overdose and getting a God but the murder, the jail time, etc really made clear what had to be done.
Years later, one of the creators discovers that Numinous is being made and distributed. She makes it her mission to find and destroy it. This leads to all kinds of revelations and the truth of what really happened the night of the overdose.
So good! Quirks just make a good story better IMO. Read it and see for yourself.
September 4, 2018
God sometimes you just don't come through. Do you need a woman to look after you?
--Tori Amos
Friends, long had Daryl Gregory languished on my TBR until I read the short story collection The Starlit Wood and unexpectedly found that his contribution was my favorite. That story was set in the same universe as this book....
....A universe in the very near future where the race is on to create smart drugs from newly engineered molecules and recreational drugs are minted on laser printers. A world where our protagonist, disgraced chemist Lyla Rose, has been in a mental institution for years after someone fed her and her colleagues at a pharmaceutical startup an overdose of their experimental schizophrenia drug. Which has the side effect of making the user see God. Or, a god. Or, what their now deep-fried temporal lobe is telling them is a god.
Now someone on the street is manufacturing the drug. When a young user is checked into the same facility as Lyla and kills herself in deity withdrawal, Lyla is on a mission (from God, like the Blues Brothers) to bust out of the loony bin to find and stop whoever is making and distributing Numinous. And distributing it, apparently, free of charge. What follows is a road trip, a (gloriously unconventional) love story of more than one type, and a mystery. And it's all beautifully written, witty when not outright snort-inducing, effortlessly inclusive (the main characters include two gay women, one a POC), and smart.
"What happens if this spreads? The planet's already too full of fanatics. Numinous could convert millions of people into true believers--each of 'em one hundred percent certain they've been personally handed the fucking stone tablets."
An addict off the wagon is a fundamentally boring creature, an animal with one dietary requirement, one habitat, and one schedule. It's a fucking koala bear, minus all cuteness. For the next four days I clung to my barstool as it if were a eucalyptus tree.
The human egg is a Mrs. Bennet, desperate to marry off her daughters. She starts life with as many chromosomes as any other cell in the body, but when hormones sound the alert she divides herself, making poor little daughter cells, impoverished things with only one set of chromosomes, each in great need of a long-tailed prince to make her whole....It is a truth universally acknowledged that a sperm must be in want of a matching strand of DNA.
The rest of the plot is a glorious surprise that deserves to be unwrapped in the reading. I finished this book and had a stupid grin on my face for the next 24 hours. I would say it's heartwarming, but maybe a book with so much (non-graphic and brief) torture and murder shouldn't really be labelled "heartwarming." The story evolves in its witty, idiosyncratic way until the last sentence. Maybe 4 stars is more reasonable, but I just loved this too much to stop there.
New life mission: get more people to read Daryl Gregory.
--Tori Amos
Friends, long had Daryl Gregory languished on my TBR until I read the short story collection The Starlit Wood and unexpectedly found that his contribution was my favorite. That story was set in the same universe as this book....
....A universe in the very near future where the race is on to create smart drugs from newly engineered molecules and recreational drugs are minted on laser printers. A world where our protagonist, disgraced chemist Lyla Rose, has been in a mental institution for years after someone fed her and her colleagues at a pharmaceutical startup an overdose of their experimental schizophrenia drug. Which has the side effect of making the user see God. Or, a god. Or, what their now deep-fried temporal lobe is telling them is a god.
Now someone on the street is manufacturing the drug. When a young user is checked into the same facility as Lyla and kills herself in deity withdrawal, Lyla is on a mission (from God, like the Blues Brothers) to bust out of the loony bin to find and stop whoever is making and distributing Numinous. And distributing it, apparently, free of charge. What follows is a road trip, a (gloriously unconventional) love story of more than one type, and a mystery. And it's all beautifully written, witty when not outright snort-inducing, effortlessly inclusive (the main characters include two gay women, one a POC), and smart.
"What happens if this spreads? The planet's already too full of fanatics. Numinous could convert millions of people into true believers--each of 'em one hundred percent certain they've been personally handed the fucking stone tablets."
An addict off the wagon is a fundamentally boring creature, an animal with one dietary requirement, one habitat, and one schedule. It's a fucking koala bear, minus all cuteness. For the next four days I clung to my barstool as it if were a eucalyptus tree.
The human egg is a Mrs. Bennet, desperate to marry off her daughters. She starts life with as many chromosomes as any other cell in the body, but when hormones sound the alert she divides herself, making poor little daughter cells, impoverished things with only one set of chromosomes, each in great need of a long-tailed prince to make her whole....It is a truth universally acknowledged that a sperm must be in want of a matching strand of DNA.
The rest of the plot is a glorious surprise that deserves to be unwrapped in the reading. I finished this book and had a stupid grin on my face for the next 24 hours. I would say it's heartwarming, but maybe a book with so much (non-graphic and brief) torture and murder shouldn't really be labelled "heartwarming." The story evolves in its witty, idiosyncratic way until the last sentence. Maybe 4 stars is more reasonable, but I just loved this too much to stop there.
New life mission: get more people to read Daryl Gregory.
May 24, 2019
Mr. Gregory's books are usually classified as science fiction but should more accurately be classified as speculative fiction. Mr. Gregory takes thought provoking ideas and extends them a small step beyond the world we know to create fascinating highly plausible narratives that feel like they really could happen, if only....
Afterparty can be read on one level as questioning the role of in pharmaceuticals the modern world. The real theme of the book however is a new take on a idea Mr. Gregory first addressed in the wonderful Damascus, a short story from his collection Unpossible. What if God resides in all of us and it only takes a nudge for Him to be constantly present as someone we can see, converse with, and touch? In Damascus, Mr. Gregory used a blood disease (a riff on the Blood of Christ) to release the divine. In Afterparty the trigger is a narcotic designed to address schizophrenia. Take a little and you feel calm and loved. To much and God, however you see Him, a kindly old man, a ball of light, an angel, Christian, Hindu or Muslim, becomes visually and physically present, with you always as confidant and conscience. How would you react? Embrace Him or assume He's an hallucination? Would you seek to destroy the drug to prevent others from being afflicted or encourage its distribution to share the Divine with others? Afterparty poses these questions in a thrilling adventure story that is neither preachy, atheistic nor maudlin. Each character brings his own interpretation to the dilemma. The reader is left to decide whose course of action is correct.
Afterparty is a really intelligent, good read. If you like the book you should definitely check out Mr. Gregory's other works, especially The Devil's Alphabet which explores racial fear, prejudice and segregation in a very unique way. Max Barry's speculative fiction is similar to Mr. Gregory's and equally thought provoking. Mr. Barry's Lexicon is especially good.
Afterparty can be read on one level as questioning the role of in pharmaceuticals the modern world. The real theme of the book however is a new take on a idea Mr. Gregory first addressed in the wonderful Damascus, a short story from his collection Unpossible. What if God resides in all of us and it only takes a nudge for Him to be constantly present as someone we can see, converse with, and touch? In Damascus, Mr. Gregory used a blood disease (a riff on the Blood of Christ) to release the divine. In Afterparty the trigger is a narcotic designed to address schizophrenia. Take a little and you feel calm and loved. To much and God, however you see Him, a kindly old man, a ball of light, an angel, Christian, Hindu or Muslim, becomes visually and physically present, with you always as confidant and conscience. How would you react? Embrace Him or assume He's an hallucination? Would you seek to destroy the drug to prevent others from being afflicted or encourage its distribution to share the Divine with others? Afterparty poses these questions in a thrilling adventure story that is neither preachy, atheistic nor maudlin. Each character brings his own interpretation to the dilemma. The reader is left to decide whose course of action is correct.
Afterparty is a really intelligent, good read. If you like the book you should definitely check out Mr. Gregory's other works, especially The Devil's Alphabet which explores racial fear, prejudice and segregation in a very unique way. Max Barry's speculative fiction is similar to Mr. Gregory's and equally thought provoking. Mr. Barry's Lexicon is especially good.
May 22, 2014
Very enjoyable book. Lyda is a great character and I would love to read more about her. I was a tiny bit underwhelmed by but this could not take away from the strengths of the story.
One I would definitely recommend.
One I would definitely recommend.
September 22, 2021
Agradable novela que, con chispa y una cierta gracia, construye una historia de intriga con dos temas que han caído en desuso en la cf: la atracción por las drogas y la divinidad. Entre el relato de carretera y la historia de colegas, la protagonista y sus compañeras, reales e imaginarias, viajan desde Canadá hasta EE.UU. para resolver una serie de misterios que funcionan siempre que no le pidas peras al olmo. Hay algún tramo en que la narración pierde fuelle, pero no tarda en recuperarlo y el desenlace resulta satisfactorio. Ideal para quienes echan de menos los libros de fondo de colección de cf, perdidos en la batalla por publicar la mejor novela de la historia de la semana.
February 7, 2019
This is my fourth Daryl Gregory book and like the previous three it gets a four star rating. All of his books are enjoyable and thrilling reads, infused with just the right amount of humor and wackiness.
This one started just a little slow for me, but the second half ramped up quickly and there were some twists and turns that I didn’t see coming. Overall a very satisfying read.
Tavia Gilbert did a great job as narrator of the audiobook.
This one started just a little slow for me, but the second half ramped up quickly and there were some twists and turns that I didn’t see coming. Overall a very satisfying read.
Tavia Gilbert did a great job as narrator of the audiobook.
August 2, 2014
Eh? It wasn't horrible, but I just never got INTO it. The hook is great, and this was a bit of a Strossian read for me in that the ideas were super interesting, but not the story itself. I can't even write a particularly good review for it, because I didn't dislike it, I just ... didn't care.
May 16, 2024
-REVIEW: Uneven, some humor--and better than anticipated. I'm still thinking about it months later.
-VERDICT: 3.95 stars.
-RECOMMENDED? Yep.
-VERDICT: 3.95 stars.
-RECOMMENDED? Yep.
February 9, 2019
I really liked elements of this but overall was a bit disappointed with how it all wrapped up, or rather, didn’t.
April 29, 2022
Es entretenido y presenta algunos temas interesantes y originales, pero no me ha convencido el ritmo y creo que está un pelín alargado. No es su mejor novela.
September 6, 2019
Nehezen értékelem. Ritkán olvasok sci-fit, nem is igazán tűnt annak, riasztóan valóságos volt. Felkeltette az érdeklődésem a fülszövegben szereplő „okosdrog-forradalom” és a pszichiátriai vonal is, de nem egészen azt kaptam, amit vártam. A sok okos kérdésfelvetés mellett nagyon kevés volt a válasz, persze lehet, hogy válaszok nincsenek is. Ami tetszett: az alapötlet, a filmszerűség, Doktor Glória, Sasha és a paklija, a nők közötti szerelem ábrázolása, a pszichiátriai kórképek megjelenítése. Ami nem fogott meg: a road movie jelleg, az üldözés egy idő után túlpörgetetté és érdektelenné vált számomra, majdnem félbehagytam. Hullámzónak éreztem a színvonalat, néhol túlírtnak, máshol vázlatosnak tűnt, bár a szerző agya és a tolla/billentyűzete is jól működik. Gondolatébresztő és érdekes, de alapvetően nem szerettem.
September 25, 2019
... verstörend ...
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