“Being that the book is set in Australia, the dialogue has a lot of Australian slang and terms to it and this is why it stands out. It doesn’t try to emulate any other sci-fi story but rather takes concepts that have been done and adds its own voice to them. This makes an otherwise tired story really interesting. Add to that plenty of plot twists, conspiracies and some pretty decent gun fights and you’ve got one hell of a great story.

“I would easily say that this is one of the best new books that I’ve read in 2012 so far. It has a great hero, a well thought out, structured world and plenty of nods to the classics of the past. In conclusion, I give this book 5/5 stars.”

READ MORE HERE

We’ve got (at least) three new releases coming down the pipelines, and we’d love to tell you about them.
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When it’s not done right, cyberpunk ranges from laughably bad to horrendously awful. So when I received Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat, I wasn’t sure how a cyberpunk novel with such a bizarre title would turn out. Early in the novel, though, I did figure out one thing. This would be different from any cyberpunk novel I’ve read.

For starters, this isn’t in your usual cyberpunk setting such as Japan, Los Angeles, or even Britain. Rather, it takes place in Melbourne, Australia. And not just any kind of cyberpunk future, but an apocalyptic future as well. Making it not just a cyberpunk novel, but a cyberpunk, Mad Max, and Philip K. Dick kind of novel.

But the differences go far beyond the setting and aesthetics. The main thing here, is that TSMG doesn’t take itself seriously. Quite the opposite. Floyd Maquina has a more humorous (whether knowingly or unknowingly) approach to his narration. Even his actions are humorous. He’s very skilled and yet incompetent much of the time.

On a whole, Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat is a fun and refreshing read. It’s a novel that’s both an homage and one of a kind… All in an offbeat way.

READ THE REVIEW HERE.

“Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat is a retro pop culturalist’s dream come true – and entertaining to boot.

“If you’re a fan of the series Department S (and why wouldn’t you be?), the chapter entitled ‘jack your kitsch up’ will delight you no end. Our hero, Floyd and his partner Hank, are preparing to go into Richmond area – which is now a no-go zone – to track down five heavily armed Devs. Along for the ride are a television crew, to film the incursion. The television network covering this incursion is ITC. The reporter on the scene is a man named Montgomery Berman, the camera operator is Stew Sullivan and their assistant is a young girl called Anabelle. For those who don’t remember, Monty Berman was one of the creators of Department S (he was also a co-producer of The Saint, with Roger Moore). And in the series Department S, Stewart Sullivan was the name of the character played by Joel Fabiani, and Anabelle Hurst was played by Rosemary Nicols. You’re forgiven for not remembering Sullivan or Rosemary, as they were overshadowed by Peter Wyngarde as the flamboyant Jason King.”

READ MORE @ PERMISSION TO KILL

“Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat is sci-fi-lite, at least according to one of my mates — which surprised me since I believed it safely slotted into the sci-fi genre and I didn’t know there was a style called sci-fi-lite. Probably he was making it up.

“Most people are now telling that TSMG is far more oriented toward noir than science fiction, which I guess is attributable to the heavy influences of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett as much as other writers like Philip K. Dick and Graham Greene. Does that actually tell you anything about the book? I hope it does. I’m terrible at snap-synopses.”

READ MORE @ JULIE’S WEBSITE.

“I’m chuffed you like that angle, since it came later on in the development of the story. Floyd, for me, always was a bit of a cynical last-hero-standing, a kind of Charlton Heston type circa Planet of the Apes or The Omega Man.

“But at some point I began to wonder what I would do or act like if I were cast into the same situation as Floyd. At around the same time, from about 2005, I was heavily back into rediscovering noir cinema from the ’40s, and watching a lot of Akira Kurosawa’s post-WWII domestic dramas like Stray Dog and Drunken Angel. Throwing all these things together as part and parcel of Floyd’s character seemed like a good idea at the time, and I still like the depth and layers it brings. It also added to a sense of “otherness” for Floyd, since half his dialogue and his way of thinking is out-of-whack with everyone else—old fashioned and nostalgic, I guess.”

READ MORE HERE: THE VELVET (thanks to Gordon Highland)

“We’re back from Bizarro-land, and to demonstrate that, we’re bringing you a review of a post-apocalyptic Melbourne Australia that’s chock-full of plastic surgery, social deviancy, detective movie references, and a few goats to boot. Check out Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat, it’s pretty great.

“Recommended to us by many people, including Gordon Highland, this book delivers. It’s a great little post-apocalyptic tale about a man who finds himself the pawn in a dangerous game, and what he does to stay alive, get the girl, and steal the goat.”

LISTEN IN TO THE 28-MINUTE REVIEW & ANALYSIS HERE.

“The hard-drinking, hard-boiled and witty hero, Floyd, would usually be the detective in a [Raymond] Chandler story but here in the “new” Melbourne, post-event, he’s placed in a bubble-like world as a “Seeker”, with more authority than a Chander detective, to seek, locate, apprehend, contain and terminate Deviants.

“Chandler’s heroes have to fight the system to get some resolution and Bergen’s hero is no different. He’s only doing the job to pay his sick wife’s hospital bills, and he never gets to see her. He lives with the nagging fear of being “relocated” but somehow can’t keep his acerbic mouth shout. He’s constantly in trouble with authority, despite being in authority himself. And just as in Chandler’s novels, the hero’s instincts usually turn out to be correct.

“Ultimately however what makes this book a good read is not plot nor form, but observation, wit and dialogue.

“In the background of a wasteland, Bergen makes as many allusions to film as T.S. Eliot made to literature. There’s a useful “Encylopedia Tobacciana” at the end of the novel which you can check out if you’re not sure what a reference is to, and similarly a glossary for the slang contained in the novel. These add to the sense of the quirky, as does the calligraphy in the book itself and the typeset. Chandler could perhaps be scratching his head about some of this, safe up in heaven-dead, but his own writing always struck me as kind of idiosyncratic, and we’re living in different times now, brother. In a modern age of conspiracies and corporate agglomerates, I think he’d be pleased as to where Bergen has taken his legacy…

Read More: http://zouchmagazine.com/tobacco-stained-mountain-goat-a-novel-by-andrez-bergen-and-a-conversation-with-the-writer/

“Yes, it is littered with references to so many aspects of 20th century culture that if you were to pile them all up and take them to the recycling depot you would need an articulated lorry, but as the story starts to kick in and you begin to get a handle on what’s going on in this post-apocalypse world inside some huge plastic dome in Melbourne (trust me, it works) you will get totally hooked on this Orwellian Brave New World where the rich are protected from every hardship and the rest struggle to get by amid acid rain and polluted food supplies.

“Floyd, it has to be said, is a very reluctant hero and would rather nurse a bottle of cheap vodka and prescription meds lying on his sofa than avenging his wife’s death. But this damaged man who seemingly has had his freedom of choice and liberty taken away somehow manages to make you believe that he can make a difference in this horrible, deluded and damaged world.

“I love how multi-layered Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat is, not like a huge sandwich filled with peperami, cheese, tomato, lettuce, chicken and bacon but more like a huge bowl of broth full of every kind of vegetable, bean, rice and barley that you’ve every known in your life. Every spoonful brings a different flavour and texture and the aroma is just divine.”

READ MORE @ I Meant to Read That…

“I really felt for Floyd in spite of his drunken existence. I hurt for him, I was angry for him, I was right along with him as he started to reach out for loved ones as they started slipping away, family and friends alike.

“Floyd is admirably tough and lovable, which takes some strength in a world where people get snatched away for no good reasons thanks to corporate greed and politics. He manages to pull himself from a helpless position in his world to a position of power to try and save people he cares about as well as society in general… at least, whatever’s left of it, soggy with acid rain and scarred by struggling to grow in a dying world. What’s scary, though, is that aside from just a little bit of futuristic cosmetic surgery and a few other things, you could look around at the current global climate and see this mess be a real possibility.

That gives me just enough of a spine-chill to hope certain company executives never read this tale, and that humanity hasn’t been consumerized into (near) extinction just yet.”

READ MORE @ The Kindle Book Review