Grey
This book is getting some serious buzz on the net, and we’re excited to release the title right here on Podiobooks.com. It’s Grey, by Jon Armstrong:
High fashion, corporate malfeasance, celebrity culture, and an obsessed media collide with exuberant violence and volatile intensity in Grey, the explosive debut novel by Jon Armstrong.
For Michael Rivers, life is perfect. Michael has everything; tall, handsome, and famous, he is worshipped by billions of fans around the globe. He is wealthy beyond measure, the heir apparent to RiverGroup, one of the handful of high-tech corporations that controls the world. He is fashionable, setting trends with his wardrobe of immaculate designer suits, each a unique and celebrated work of art. And Michael is in love, perfect love, sharing a private language based entirely on quotes from the latest fashion magazine advertisements, with Nora, his beautiful, witty, and equally perfect fiance, the only woman with whom he can see surgically-altered monochromatic eye to eye.
When an assassin’s bullets pierce Michael’s body before the unblinking eyes of cameras, reporters, and viewers at a press junket, everything changes, forcing Michael to question everything about his previously perfect world. Illusions shattered and forcibly separated from Nora, Michael seeks to uncover the reasons behind the attempted assassination, embarking on a quest that leads him to question his relationships with his loud, profane, and narcissistically Ultra father; his estranged mother; and the perilous, contaminated, neo-feudalistic world that lies beyond the safe and protected bubble of corporate family life.
Michael must delve deep into his past, finding that all paths he uncovers seem to lead to the now-closed PartyHaus, and to a time when he was the golden boy, dancing furiously to the beat of notorious all-night Rage parties thrown by his father.
Grey was published by NightShade Books in February 2007.
“Grey is a legendary book waiting to happen. It’s a mad, stylish, trippy, endlessly inventive romp through the biohazardous wastes of post-genre literature. Jon Armstrong is a genius, with an umlaut, to the fifth power.”
– Michael Chabon, author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and The Wonder Boys.“A dazzling trip through a world alternately glamorous and grimy, set in a crumbling but media-saturated future, with eyeball-kicks galore.” –Locus Magazine
“If you enjoy or, better yet, prefer a more literary than commercial read and you can appreciate a satirical stab at not only the fashionable elite of entertainment but a subtle yet obvious social comment on the general public and its destructive nature, then give Grey a read; it will not disappoint you.” — Book Opinions
August 3rd, 2007 at 7:08 am
[...] And now Grey is on Podiobooks with lots of help from Evo Terra. If you’re a subscriber of Podiobooks, check it out. Or if you’re having any trouble with the files I’m posting here, Podiobooks has different requirements for their files, and they might work better for some mp3 players. Also see their blog entry. [...]
August 20th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
Starting to grow on me after hearing chapter 6.
September 7th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
This book caught me off gaurd from the very first paragraph! It is, i think, the most original and imaginative thing I have read (well, listened to) in a very long time. It is completely over the top, yet sadly beleivable. A brilliant, razor sharp commentary on today’s bigger, louder, and brighter is better outlook, and the counter cultures that it drives. Thank you Jon for a beautiful work! I can’t wait for the next chapter.
September 19th, 2007 at 6:48 pm
The narration is great. The author has a unique reading style the meshes with the style of the book to make a fascinating listen.
The story itself is great, I feel enveloped in their world, and it’s a very unique world to be in.
September 25th, 2007 at 11:51 am
I love this book. Imaginative, scary, funny, and read with wonderful feeling by Jon Armstrong. Listen to it, and then go buy a copy.
September 28th, 2007 at 11:02 am
I am captured. Caught off guard and disoriented but very happy with it all. I wonder if I’m the only one who sees a similarity with the feel of Aeon Flux? Mind you this seems to have more depth and be more thought out, but still they both juxtapose extreme violence, breath taking and strange beauty, erotic and repulsive with a nice commentary on society and where it might be headed. Either way, I am enjoying myself immensely, thank you Jon.
September 28th, 2007 at 11:04 am
I am captured. Caught off guard and disoriented but very happy with it all. I wonder if I’m the only one who sees any simularity between the feel of Grey and the feel of Aeon Flux? Mind you Grey seems to have more depth and be more thought out, but still they both juxtapose extreme violence, breath taking and strange beauty, erotic and repulsive with a commentary on society and where it might be headed. Either way, I am enjoying myself immensely, thank you Jon.
October 6th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
This is turning into one of my best yet subscriptions at PodioBooks, the narration is spot-on, and the storyline is evolving into what seems to be a classic of its genre.
October 8th, 2007 at 1:28 am
iPodSlaaf, i agree. doubt anyone could have lifted these characters off the page like armstrong has with his reading. wasn’t a fan at the start, but now that i’ve gone back to listen to the earlier chapters (some parts many times), it was only because i was too skeptical. this… this is a good one. just bought the print version at barnes and noble yesterday. the cover art’s genius to match the book. Grey and Beautiful Red are two podiobooks i’d love to see made into films.
was funny in the bookstore listening to my iPod and reading along. saw quickly that armstrong made many minor edits for the podiobook.
November 3rd, 2007 at 12:02 pm
I agree this book starts slow, but it is like a train wreck. You know what is coming, but you just keep watching to see what happens next.
March 30th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
I’m on chapter 5 and really enjoying the book thoroughly. Just my kind of dystopian satire.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
Amazing writing! Mr. Armstrong sure does know how to turn a phrase. The plotline is increasingly addictive too. A delicious read. It’s stimulating both my sense of writing aesthetics (if you will) and my desire for a good fun story. Whee!
May 3rd, 2008 at 3:12 am
Holy crap! Armstrong is a Hemingway on LSD! Writes well, but he probably would write well regardless of the subject. In this case he wrote about a bad acid trip, or while on one.
That kind of story is usually not my cup of tea, but it was interesting enough to finish the book.
Now if Armstrong would only have used his powers for good…….
May 23rd, 2008 at 3:45 pm
I’ve just finished Chapter 9. Typically I wait until I’ve finished an entire book before I post a comment, but I just couldn’t this time. I wanted to tell you that every time Michael’s world is described, the endless details regarding fashion, the snippets from Pure H; I’m in heaven. I can almost touch and feel all the various fabrics and can see all of the lovely details and embellishments. Charcoal is just so beautiful. I find myself smiling each time you describe Michael and Nora’s world. And then you go and ruin it with Michael’s father. Every time Michael’s father opens his mouth, I feel like retching. His world is completely grotesque in my eyes. I’m visually and aurally assaulted each time he pops up in the story. Yes, he is a delightfully horrid character for which I have cursed death upon so many times. But you don’t stop there. Oh no. You have that frightfully hideous scene with that other girl. You know the one I’m talking about. Good gods, I got chills. I about died when she turned around and there was a tail…as if the pink fur and hairdo wasn’t enough to kill me. Good gods, could it be any worse? I look forward to seeing where this story takes me next.
July 17th, 2008 at 7:22 am
I just finished. What an ending. What a book. Sequel please? Pretty please?
I may have to start the podiobook over. There is so much room to fantasize about the back-story of the world created here, and where the characters go after the story ends. I’m really going to miss not being part of the “Grey” world.
[btw, Mr. Armstrong must do a dead-on Kevin Spacey impersonation]
August 4th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
A marvelous voice reading a marvelous story. The bizarrely surreal contrasted with the warmly human.
October 20th, 2008 at 6:53 am
A wonderful book! I love the easiness with which this very surreal but also possible future world is depicted. To me, it’s a weird futuristic Romeo and Juliet-like love story, tumbeling down and taking all kinds of directions when you least expect it.
Also, the narration was great! Jon’s voice drew me into the story and didn’t let go. I was sucked right in and finished the book in a few very entertaining evenings.
January 23rd, 2009 at 9:48 pm
This book is a great piece of work…loved it….
May 8th, 2009 at 7:37 am
Absolutly great book. There are so many twists and turns, just when you think you know what’ll happen, you’re thrown another curveball. I couldn’t stop listening!
March 2nd, 2010 at 11:05 am
Set in a surreal and disturbing world – an intriguing listen.
December 21st, 2011 at 1:51 pm
Just saw this book is no longer available on the site. I really enjoyed listening to it, why was it taken down?