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Bad City
In the violent world of post-apocalyptic South Town, Eli Baxter is king, ruling from the thirteenth floor of his building while henchman do his bidding. Simon Gray, a talented young thief, now disillusioned with South Town, is desperate to escape with the woman he loves. As he plots their journey north, glimpses of his childhood in South India and Northern Ontario reveal the world as it once was, fueling his desire to break away. But when he’s handed a new job, one that will make Eli untouchable, Simon realizes that escape - and transcendence to love and a peaceful way of life - might be harder than he thought. Dark, atmospheric, and gritty, Bad City is the debut novel by Matt Mayr and was a quarter finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest. "Edgy, violent, wildly imaginative, surprisingly touching. There are ideas and scenes in Matt Mayr's Bad City that even the most jaded post-apocalyptic fan will find fresh, inventive, and utterly breathtaking." -- Craig Davidson, author "In Bad City, Matt Mayr captures with raw vividness what happens when the surfaces of civilization are peeled away, revealing a sheer will to survive that reduces humans to their ugliest essences. Brutal and grimy as Bad City’s post-apocalyptic, dystopian world is, though, there remain hints and tendrils of human longings and even tenderness -– slight sprigs of possibility. A remarkable portrait of a world gone very wrong, as chilling as prophecy." -- Joan Barfoot, award-winning author
- GenresAmazon
290 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 17, 2015
14 people are currently reading
102 people want to read
About the author
Matt Mayr
4 books9 followersMatt Mayr grew up in Manitouwadge, a small Northern Ontario mining town. He studied English Literature at York University and Creative Writing at the Humber School for Writers. His first novel, Bad City (2015), was a quarter finalist for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. Things Worth Burying (April 2020), is an Ontario Arts Council Grant recipient and is Longlisted for The Miramichi Reader's "The Very Best!" Book award. He lives in Toronto with his wife and daughter.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 26, 2015
Novels set in the aftermath of the collapse of civilization due to war, environmental catastrophe or even alien invasions have an honored place in science and speculative fiction.
The Road, The Day of the Triffids, On the Beach and Hunger Games have been made into movies. The Canticle of Leibowitz, Earth Abides and Oryx and Crake are on a long list of stories that have attracted many readers to their disquieting visions of how humanity would deal with or fall apart after the breakdown of the social order.
Toronto author Matt Mayr has joined the post-apocalyptic novel community with Bad City. He paints a grim but plausible picture of grinding poverty, endless violence and revenge. However Simon Gray discovers a reason to find a way out of the chaos and to attempt to return to the small farm of his parents.
Northtown and Southtown have been inundated with massive flooding, an event known simply as the Fall. No one knows much about what exists beyond this little world. The law of the jungle has taken over. The residents are kept in a constant state of fear and dependence on their masters. Survivors grow food to sell in the market or provide other services without incurring the wrath of the thugs that run the communities.
Northtown is the grips of the dictatorial Eli Burton, whose underlings kill anyone who stands in his way except for the priests, who are plotting to overthrow him. Southtown is under the grip of the equally vicious Fisher gang. Both sides have spies and informants in the other camp.
Simon has to walk a fine line between the two sides. His talent as a thief brings him to Baxter’s attention. A courier is carrying a mysterious computer hard drive that Baxter wants. Grey delivers it but Baxter can’t make it work so Simon has to track down the courier and retrieve a code. In the process he meets Anton, whose older brother was murdered by Baxter. Simon is dragged into his plot for revenge.
Meanwhile the mysterious Eva has caught his attention and she shares Simon’s desire to escape the madness. First he has to team up with Anton to settle old scores with Burton and his thugs.
Mayr has a small-town, outdoors background, which he puts to good use in the story. In his depiction of Northtown, the reader can see an urban area decaying under the control of a local tyrant. Thin indeed was the veneer of law and order in Northtown and its rival.
Mad City is published by Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, a division of Hades Publications of Calgary. It has been published on Amazon exclusive and will be released in other e-book platforms in November, and in print next year.
The Road, The Day of the Triffids, On the Beach and Hunger Games have been made into movies. The Canticle of Leibowitz, Earth Abides and Oryx and Crake are on a long list of stories that have attracted many readers to their disquieting visions of how humanity would deal with or fall apart after the breakdown of the social order.
Toronto author Matt Mayr has joined the post-apocalyptic novel community with Bad City. He paints a grim but plausible picture of grinding poverty, endless violence and revenge. However Simon Gray discovers a reason to find a way out of the chaos and to attempt to return to the small farm of his parents.
Northtown and Southtown have been inundated with massive flooding, an event known simply as the Fall. No one knows much about what exists beyond this little world. The law of the jungle has taken over. The residents are kept in a constant state of fear and dependence on their masters. Survivors grow food to sell in the market or provide other services without incurring the wrath of the thugs that run the communities.
Northtown is the grips of the dictatorial Eli Burton, whose underlings kill anyone who stands in his way except for the priests, who are plotting to overthrow him. Southtown is under the grip of the equally vicious Fisher gang. Both sides have spies and informants in the other camp.
Simon has to walk a fine line between the two sides. His talent as a thief brings him to Baxter’s attention. A courier is carrying a mysterious computer hard drive that Baxter wants. Grey delivers it but Baxter can’t make it work so Simon has to track down the courier and retrieve a code. In the process he meets Anton, whose older brother was murdered by Baxter. Simon is dragged into his plot for revenge.
Meanwhile the mysterious Eva has caught his attention and she shares Simon’s desire to escape the madness. First he has to team up with Anton to settle old scores with Burton and his thugs.
Mayr has a small-town, outdoors background, which he puts to good use in the story. In his depiction of Northtown, the reader can see an urban area decaying under the control of a local tyrant. Thin indeed was the veneer of law and order in Northtown and its rival.
Mad City is published by Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, a division of Hades Publications of Calgary. It has been published on Amazon exclusive and will be released in other e-book platforms in November, and in print next year.
January 12, 2016
Thanks to Librarything and the publisher for a free copy of this ebook.
I find that post-apocalyptic novels can be a hit or a miss. Bad City, Matt Mayr's debut novel was a definite hit with me. I was engaged from the start and had a hard time putting it down, right through to the ending which did not disappoint.
Set in North Town and South Town, societies created after catastrophic flooding, the reader is introduced to a violent world where people are ruled by fear and desperation.
There are many interesting, well-developed characters, my favourite being Simon Gray, a young thief, disillusioned by society. He prepares to escape into the unknown, beyond the city limits with his love interest, Eva. They gather seeds and other survival essentials to start a new life in the wilds of Northern Ontario at his parents' old cabin.
Flashbacks of Simon's life growing up in Northern Ontario and India are seamlessly interspersed with the present day story. I found them particularly fascinating as they helped me to understand and become invested in Simon's character.
All in all, Bad City is a very well written, engaging read.
I find that post-apocalyptic novels can be a hit or a miss. Bad City, Matt Mayr's debut novel was a definite hit with me. I was engaged from the start and had a hard time putting it down, right through to the ending which did not disappoint.
Set in North Town and South Town, societies created after catastrophic flooding, the reader is introduced to a violent world where people are ruled by fear and desperation.
There are many interesting, well-developed characters, my favourite being Simon Gray, a young thief, disillusioned by society. He prepares to escape into the unknown, beyond the city limits with his love interest, Eva. They gather seeds and other survival essentials to start a new life in the wilds of Northern Ontario at his parents' old cabin.
Flashbacks of Simon's life growing up in Northern Ontario and India are seamlessly interspersed with the present day story. I found them particularly fascinating as they helped me to understand and become invested in Simon's character.
All in all, Bad City is a very well written, engaging read.
March 11, 2016
Not a whole lot happens in this one. After an apocalypse the author wisely doesn't get too deep into, society has mostly stabilized into perpetually warring tribes. Inside of one, a bunch of people are angry at each other for some reason. The characters are thinly drawn and the conflicts are perfunctory, so it's difficult to care who comes out on top. Don't read this one if you actually like female characters, either. They get maybe a line or two before being unceremoniously raped and killed.
December 2, 2015
I received this book in exchange for an honest review. What great characters. The writer introduces us to a variety of characters whose lives are intertwined in this post apocalyptic novel. The good guys trying to make something out of a bad situation to the bad guys who make them step up. Great story! Great characters! great read!
April 16, 2020
I really liked reading this book and would not hesitate to recommend it!
Keep up the good work Matt!!!
Keep up the good work Matt!!!
October 19, 2018
The book follows Simon, a highly skilled thief, recruited by Eli Baxter to steal an object from his rival Fisher. The object in question will make his rule of South Town undeniable. Simon has an unusual childhood background in that his parents left the City to become independent. As a child, Simon hated this, but surrounded by the violence and corruption of the city following the Flood, it becomes his dream to escape and live in the cabin owned by his parents.
My initial thoughts when I read this book was that if South Town was truly that awful, there should be more atrocities going on. It almost seemed to me that whilst there was a certain degree of violence and depravity going on in the background, the focus was only on those caused by the main characters of the book. Given that these cities and the population are ruled using fear of what lies beyond these “safe” havens, I think this could have been played up more… almost made to be a little bit casual in a way, so it seems like a regular occurrence. The casual attitude should not play it down – the reader will be shocked regardless because this behaviour is not what they are used to.
Simon as our main character is well developed. Not only does the narration of the current events tell us about Simon’s personality… we also get flashbacks to his life as a child, how he came to be a thief and his influences in growing up. I think his aims are common in that he wishes to escape but for the most part, he doesn’t have the means to live a self sustainable life. When he meets and falls in love with Eva, who has access to seeds for crops, they stand a real chance of getting away.
In my opinion, Eva is the most underdeveloped character of the book. Admittedly, she doesn’t feature too much or do anything really important in terms of moving the plot along, but I would like to know her a little better. What makes her unafraid to wander the streets alone when every other woman has a male chaperone? Would she have not had trouble at the market in being charged extra by an uncooperative seller before Simon comes along? I wish there was a bit more background to her.
I actually quite like Anton. Whilst he is a man hell-bent on revenge, I can relate to him a lot. He strikes me as the type that takes a lot to make him angry, but once he snaps, that’s it. I can kind of relate to that as I am much the same way; I might bite someone’s head off, don’t murder people, I promise!!
Every character’s motives and ideas are justified by their history and current position. I imagine that it must be difficult to establish characters and make them believable when putting them in a situation unlike a more familiar setting we know today, but Mayr achieves this reasonably well.
Without giving anything away, I think the plot flowed very well and the transitions between present day and the “flashbacks” were not difficult to follow. As well as it flowed, it didn’t necessarily pan out the way I first expected, but it was all the better for it. If anybody else out there loves this genre of book, I absolutely recommend it to read. There’s death, there’s violence and there’s corruption, but let us not forget, in the darkest of times there is always hope of something better.
My initial thoughts when I read this book was that if South Town was truly that awful, there should be more atrocities going on. It almost seemed to me that whilst there was a certain degree of violence and depravity going on in the background, the focus was only on those caused by the main characters of the book. Given that these cities and the population are ruled using fear of what lies beyond these “safe” havens, I think this could have been played up more… almost made to be a little bit casual in a way, so it seems like a regular occurrence. The casual attitude should not play it down – the reader will be shocked regardless because this behaviour is not what they are used to.
Simon as our main character is well developed. Not only does the narration of the current events tell us about Simon’s personality… we also get flashbacks to his life as a child, how he came to be a thief and his influences in growing up. I think his aims are common in that he wishes to escape but for the most part, he doesn’t have the means to live a self sustainable life. When he meets and falls in love with Eva, who has access to seeds for crops, they stand a real chance of getting away.
In my opinion, Eva is the most underdeveloped character of the book. Admittedly, she doesn’t feature too much or do anything really important in terms of moving the plot along, but I would like to know her a little better. What makes her unafraid to wander the streets alone when every other woman has a male chaperone? Would she have not had trouble at the market in being charged extra by an uncooperative seller before Simon comes along? I wish there was a bit more background to her.
I actually quite like Anton. Whilst he is a man hell-bent on revenge, I can relate to him a lot. He strikes me as the type that takes a lot to make him angry, but once he snaps, that’s it. I can kind of relate to that as I am much the same way; I might bite someone’s head off, don’t murder people, I promise!!
Every character’s motives and ideas are justified by their history and current position. I imagine that it must be difficult to establish characters and make them believable when putting them in a situation unlike a more familiar setting we know today, but Mayr achieves this reasonably well.
Without giving anything away, I think the plot flowed very well and the transitions between present day and the “flashbacks” were not difficult to follow. As well as it flowed, it didn’t necessarily pan out the way I first expected, but it was all the better for it. If anybody else out there loves this genre of book, I absolutely recommend it to read. There’s death, there’s violence and there’s corruption, but let us not forget, in the darkest of times there is always hope of something better.
September 9, 2015
Bad City is a post-apocalyptic tale that hits all the right notes. In this genre, it is essential that the setting and characters be engaging and true. The reader needs to feel the hardships of life in a time when modern conveniences have been removed but the reader needs to understand why the characters have hope; why they continue on in a hardscrabble existence where every day is a challenge. Matt Mayr achieves this with a style that draws the reader in and compels them to see what happens next. Finally, post-apocalyptic fiction works well as a metaphor and in this tale we see the things that trap us in our modern lives and what freedom from them can mean, if we would only take the risk. Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews