"Four people are stuck on a spaceship and everything wants to eat them."

March 31, 2020 7:38 AM

Max Barry, author of Jennifer Government, Machine Man, and Lexicon among other novels, and creator of the Web politics game NationStates (previously in 2011 and 2003), has a new book called Providence out today, and has created an online "battle simulator" to accompany the new book.
posted by nicwolff (11 comments total)

His book tour is, of course, cancelled. How To Promote a Book During a Global Pandemic.
posted by nicwolff at 7:41 AM on March 31, 2020 [2 favorites]

Max Barry is my jam. Thanks for the heads up.
posted by signal at 8:32 AM on March 31, 2020 [2 favorites]

Lexicon was so, so good. Very excited for the new one.
posted by blahblahblah at 9:30 AM on March 31, 2020 [1 favorite]

Earlier today I got an email about the new book from "Max Barry" on my Goodreads account and was surprised because for some reason I didn't think he was around any more. I'll look forward to reading Providence.

Has anyone tried the battle simulator game? I still have my account on NationStates and it was fun though I didn't do very well on it.
posted by fuse theorem at 9:47 AM on March 31, 2020

for some reason I didn't think he was around any more

I thought the same thing when i read the first line of this FPP...
posted by biffa at 9:50 AM on March 31, 2020

Interesting note from Paul di Filippo:
"The mediacentric fakeness attendant upon the reality of the war effort and the neurotic tics of the crew are pure Barry Malzberg riffs. One might be reading a successor to Malzberg’s Galaxies or perhaps Moorcock’s The Black Corridor. It’s amazing how potent this trope of the demented, deracinated space voyager from the New Wave remains, and Max Barry gives it a robust airing-out."
posted by doctornemo at 11:32 AM on March 31, 2020 [1 favorite]

I played the battle simulator. It was interesting. The battle didn't go well and got meta, introducing characters and ideas from the book.
posted by doctornemo at 11:43 AM on March 31, 2020

Replayed it and experienced most of the same story. I was able to make a few small loops along the way, but nothing really changed until the end. Two branches there, I think.
posted by doctornemo at 2:15 PM on March 31, 2020

Yes please! Thanks nicwolff.
posted by colin.jaquiery at 4:28 AM on April 1, 2020

For a few minutes I was wondering what a "mediacentric fakeness attendant" was.
posted by 43rdAnd9th at 8:56 AM on April 1, 2020

Finished last night. Good book. Sad. Surprisingly realistic, especially the whole corporate-war-machine thing and how the characters react.
posted by signal at 7:27 PM on April 9, 2020