The first three books in the darkly funny and unhinged A Happy Bureaucracy A Happy Bureaucracy, Fear and Loathing in the Wasteland, and Post-Apocalyptic Pirates!
Nukes Ended the world. Now all that's left is taxes.
No big deal or anything.
Arthur thinks an abacus is art. Rabia carries enough drugs with her to make Hunter S. Thompson nervous. He wants to talk about your deductibles. She is behind you with a knife... They have a wasteland to audit, slaves to be freed, and mad post-apocalyptic warlords to topple. They have the equipment, and more than enough weapons, but can they work as a team to make it happen? In the face of radiation, roving gangs, and starvation, can anyone?
Brazil by way of Mad Max, M.P. Fitzgerald’s The Happy Bureaucracy Series is a bleak and hilarious look at the wheels of a system that keep turning even when nothing else is left.
What Amazon reviewers are
★★★★★- 'This is absolutely the funniest dystopian novel I have ever read.'
★★★★★- 'A gonzo action-packed, dark-humored thrill ride that keeps you craving more madness after every page.'
★★★★★- 'One part Fallout equal parts Mad Max and a pinch of Fear and Loathing with a lot of entertaining dark humor.'
★★★★★- 'Filled with violence, lots of drinking, and crazy lines that will buzz through your head when you're in bed at 3am, this adventure is the dark comical version of Mad Max.'
★★★★★- 'I strongly feel that this book should be read for the context of this sentence if for no other "His hideous wattle blew in the wind". I was disgusted and deeply amused at the same time.'
★★★★- 'Buy it, read it. Great fun, totally original and different take on the world after the apocalypse. I can't wait to read the follow on adventures of the characters.'
Buy the box set and start a series you won’t want to put down!
This book reads like a movie. It has movie logic written all over it in the crazy pace at which it moves forward, and in the inevitable twists. The plot is overstated in how it both shows and tells and in its flat characters/world elements. The city of the slavers is named... Slaver City. Some of this probably would have been caught with better editing. But once you get past these flaws, and more and more on as the story progresses, the "movie" works surprisingly well. It is a tale of twists and craziness and fights of good and evil like an action movie should be. And throwing the IRS into there provides for both very dark humor and very existential dread.
And yet I can't help but feel a bit disappointed. I wanted to like the story just from reading about the IRS's survival, as it had just the mix of absurd and realistic (yes, these bunkers do exist and so do the IRS emergency documents) that I hoped for. But then... It seems like out of all the stories that could be told of this world, this one has already been told elsewhere. The story of the everyman getting mixed up in the big boys' operations and toppling their plans. It does deconstruct some of that concept, but surely there are cooler, more surprising and just as bleak and funny *other* things to be seen out there in the United Wastes!
I point this out because everything I had read by the author before had been crafted with a purpose. The Nihilist's Horoscope keeps a single tone for short stories with a dark sense of humour. Existential Terror and Breakfast is a genuinely unpredictable story of a man who seems *real*. Even Memos from the Wasteland (the tie-in piece to this series) work perfectly well. They are what I had hoped to see in the books proper - bits of "everyday life" in this crazy world. Despite not being a single narrative, they feel more cohesive than the books that move at a breakneck pace between points that are made, but not explored.
Ultimately, the books are worth your time (and, by extension, money), but you might have to be a filter, not a sponge, or just go in for the crazy. 3/5 as per the rating scale: https://sandsawayforever.wordpress.co...
This box set is the first 3 books in a post apocalyptic serie based in the idea that the world has gone to shit but the IRS (yes, the tax collection system) is still up and running. We follow the character of Arthur that is one of those tax collectors and really likes his work. My description can't really make justice to the way this serie is both surreal, comic, strong and thoughtful at the same time. All the characters are really great and the world building is just fantastic. For me the BEST serie of the genre, really! This serie is not over yet, so prepare yourself for the ride - a war is coming and I can't wait!
This is one of the best box set you can get. Death and Taxes are all that are left of the USA and how they collect the taxes makes all 3 books super reads. Lots of action and easy to learn the characters. This is really a fine box set.